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Date: 1651

"And as the Grindstone to unpolish'd Steel / Gives Edge, and Lustre: so my Mind, I feel / VVhetted, and glaz'd by Fortunes turning VVheel"

— Sherburne, Sir Edward (bap. 1616, d. 1702)

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Date: 1656

"Thales argued, that the Load-stone, and Amber had soules; the first because it drawes Iron, the second Straw."

— Stanley, Thomas (1625-1678)

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Date: 1657

"But like true steel my heart doth pant, / To touch the long'd for Adamant."

— Bold, Henry (1627-1683)

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Date: 1662

The "active soul doth not consume with rust"

— Watkyns, Rowland (c. 1614-1664)

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Date: 1664

"Their Hearts are as hard, as Iron too, / As tough, but not so cold."

— Bold, Henry (1627-1683)

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Date: 1673

"[Y]our whole frame [is] as innocent, and holy, as if your being were all soul and spirit, without the gross allay of flesh and bloud"

— Dryden, John (1631-1700)

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Date: 1681

"In Pow'r unpleas'd, impatient of Disgrace. / A fiery Soul, which working out its way, / Fretted the Pigmy-Body to decay; / And o'r inform'd the Tenement of Clay."

— Dryden, John (1631-1700)

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Date: 1685

A "heaven-born mind" may have "no dross to purge from [its] rich ore"

— Dryden, John (1631-1700)

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Date: 1687

"Souls that can scarce ferment their mass of clay; / So drossy, so divisible are they, / As would but serve pure bodies for allay."

— Dryden, John (1631-1700)

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Date: 1689

And yet there is, there is one prize / Lock'd in an adamantine Breast; / Storm that then, Love, if thou be'st wise, / A Conquest above all the rest, / Her Heart, who binds all Hearts in chains, / Castanna's Heart untouch'd remains."

— Cotton, Charles (1630-1687)

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The Mind is a Metaphor is authored by Brad Pasanek, Assistant Professor of English, University of Virginia.