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Date: 1675

"And tears run trickling down her face, / Would e'en have mov'd a heart of brass."

— Cotton, Charles (1630-1687); Lucian (c.120- d. after 180)

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Date: 1693

"(Yet what smooth Sycophant by thee can gain? / When Lust it self strikes thy Flint-Heart in vain?)"

— Dryden, John (1631-1700) [Poem ascribed to]

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Date: 1693

"Yet, thy moist Clay is pliant to Command; / Unwrought, and easie to the Potter's hand: / Now take the Mold; now bend thy Mind to feel / The first sharp Motions of the Forming Wheel."

— Dryden, John (1631-1700)

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Date: 1694, 1708

"At length, with more prevailing rage possest, / Her jealous honour steels her daring breast / The thoughts of injur'd fame new courage gave, / And nicer virtue now confirms her brave."

— Yalden, Thomas (1670-1736)

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Date: 1697, 1700

"Nor think thy force too small, too weak thy Mind / Because to Clay unequally confined; / Its Power is wondrous Great; how small a Mass / Of Gold or Gems, exceeds vast Heaps of Brass?"

— Manilius, Marcus (fl. 1st Century AD), Creech, Thomas (1659-1700)

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Date: 1700

"As softest metals are not slow to melt, / And pity soonest runs in gentle minds:"

— Dryden, John (1631-1700)

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Date: 1704, 1715

"His fearless Heart immur'd with tripple Brass. / The daring Mortal surely wore"

— Brown, Thomas (bap. 1663, d. 1704)

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Date: 1707, 1710

"But now I come to cure my fond Disease; / This Steel thy flinty Breast will surely please."

— Cobb, Samuel (bap. 1675, d. 1713)

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Date: 1710 [1719, 1729]

"[N]o alloy / Of Flesh" can destroy the "sprightly Beauties" of the soul "Nor Death nor Fate can snatch the lasting Joy. / Through ev'ry Limb the active Spirit flows;
Diffusing Life and Vigour as it goes, / But is it self unmixt, and free from Dross"

— Oldisworth, William (1680-1734)

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Date: 1710 [1719, 1729]

"Black Night comes on, and interrupts the Day, / E'er it can chase the Mists and Fogs away; / The Dregs of Flesh and Drossy Lees, o'errun / The Soul, and weigh the strugling Spirit down:"

— Oldisworth, William (1680-1734)

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