Date: December 10, 1774; 1775

"The fire of the artist's own genius operating upon these materials which have been thus diligently collected, will enable him to make new combinations, perhaps, superior to what had ever before been in the possession of the Art. / / As in the mixture of the variety of metals, which are said to h...

— Reynolds, Joshua (1723-1792)

Date: December 10, 1774; 1775

"He will pick up from dunghills what by a nice chymistry, passing through his own mind, shall be converted into pure gold; and, under the rudeness of Gothic essays, he will find original, rational, and even sublime inventions."

— Reynolds, Joshua (1723-1792)

Date: 1775

"Need we the influence of the northern star / To string our nerves and steel our hearts to war? "

— Gray, Thomas (1716-1771)

Date: 1775

"But, O, my brother! if thou hast a heart / That is not steel'd with stoic apathy / Against the magic of all-conqu'ring love, / Beware of beauty's pow'r; for she has charms / Wou'd melt the frozen breast of hoary age, / Or draw the lonely hermit from his cell / To gaze upon her."

— Francklin, Thomas (1721-1784)

Date: 1777

"Pale-eyed Affright, his heart of silver hue, / In vain essayed her bosom to acale."

— Chatterton, Thomas (1752-1770)

Date: 1777

"Courage, the warrior's bosom steel'd."

— Polwhele, Richard (1760-1838)

Date: 1779, 1781

"Truth indeed is always truth, and reason is always reason; they have an intrinsick and unalterable value, and constitute that intellectual gold which defies destruction: but gold may be so concealed in baser matter that only a chymist can recover it; sense may be so hidden in unrefined and plebe...

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: January 1, 1779

"There [to Heaven's Regions] when the soul, in search of purer day, / Loos'd from mortality's impris'ning clay / Shall swifter than the forked lightning dart."

— Anstey, Christopher (1724-1805)

Date: June 5, 1780

"Some, though they wish it, are not steel'd enough, / Nor is each would-be villain conscience-proof."

— Crabbe, George (1754-1832)

Date: 1780

Locke expelled innate ideas by asserting that "disquisition and proof were the test of truth; and that whatever would not stand their touch, must be considered as base metal."

— Burges, Sir James Bland (1752-1824)