Date: 1687

"But, when arrived at last to human race, / The Godhead took a deep considering space; / And, to distinguish man from all the rest, / Unlocked the sacred treasures of his breast; / And mercy mixt with reason did impart, / One to his head, the other to his heart; / Reason to rule, but mercy to f...

— Dryden, John (1631-1700)

Date: 1687

"Such Beings Philosophick heads relate / Of heavenly stamp"

— Heyrick, Thomas (bap. 1649. d. 1694)

Date: 1687

"Our Souls are in one mutual Knot combin'd, / Not Common Passion, Dull and Unrefin'd"

— Ayres, Philip (1638-1712)

Date: 1688

"[C]urst Suspitions" may haunt the "tortur'd Mind"

— Ames, Richard (bap. 1664?, d. 1692)

Date: 1688

"The meager Monster doth neither harm nor good, / But like the wain, or wax, or ebb, or flood, / She shuns as what her age doth most detaste, / Where Heaven-bred Honour in the noble Mind, / From out the Cavern of the Breast proceeds"

— Scot, Walter (b. 1613, d. in or after 1688)

Date: 1688

"From out the Cavern of the Breast proceeds [...] Hell-born Envy shews her hellish kind, / And Vulture-like upon the Actions feed"

— Scot, Walter (b. 1613, d. in or after 1688)

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)

Date: 1689

A noble Presence can give "a better stamp to all their Minds" than would an eloquent tongue

— Cotton, Charles (1630-1687)

Date: 1689

" But on his Heart the stamp of Death he wore"

— Cotton, Charles (1630-1687)

Date: 1689, 1716

Honor is "The richest Treasure of a generous Breast, / 'That gives the Stamp and Standard to the rest."

— Montagu, Charles, 1st Earl of Halifax (1661-1715)