Date: 1657

"Alas! alas! my flesh is too too weak, / And may be conquer'd; thou maist eas'ly break / This brittle Casket: but my inward minde / A jewel is which thou shalt never finde."

— Billingsley, Nicholas (bap. 1633, d. 1709)

Date: 1681

"Some livelier spark of heaven, and more refined / From earthly dross, fills the great poet's mind."

— Duke, Richard (1658-1711)

Date: 1697

"Our Senses to the Mind while lodg'd in Clay, / Do all their various Images convey. / Things that we tast, and feel, and see, afford / The Seeds of Thought with which our Minds are stor'd."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1697

"Lord, strike this Marble Heart, thy powerful Stroke / Will make a Flood gush from the cleaving Rock. / O draw all Nature's Sluces up, and drain / Her Magazines, which liquid Stores contain."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1703

"The true, substantial Wealth is lodg'd within; / 'Tis there the brightest Gems are found: / Such as wou'd great and glorious Treasures win, Treasures which theirs for ever will remain, / Must Piety and Wisdom strive to gain."

— Chudleigh [née Lee], Mary, Lady Chudleigh (bap. 1656, d. 1710)

Date: 1729, 1731

"Thus after long Experience oft has prov'd / His steady Virtue is not to be moved, / Of his known Faithfulness so well assur'd, / From Fears of Fraud his Master rests secur'd: / And, should Occasion happen, in his Breast, / His Gold, his Secrets, or his Life might rest."

— Dodsley, Robert (1703-1764)

Date: 1733

"But if Calista's perfect Soul they knew, / They'd own their Error, and her Praise pursue. / Centred in her the brightest Graces meet, / Treasures of Knowledge and rich Mines of Wit

— Masters, Mary (1694-1771)

Date: 1735

"Her lovely Mind shines chearful thro' her Face, / A sacred Lamp in a fair Crystal Case."

— Hughes, John (1678?-1720)

Date: 1786, 1787, 1788; 1789

"So poignant a mind in a vulgariz'd shell,/ Resembles a bucket of gold in a well; / 'Tis like Ceylon's best spice in a rude-fashion'd jar, / Or Comedy coop'd in a Dutch man of war."

— Williams, John [pseud. Anthony Pasquin] (1754-1818)