“Without offence to your modesty be it spoken, I have a burning desire to see your Soul stark naked, for I am confident ’tis the prettiest kind of white Soul, in the universe . . . . But if I must be content with seeing your body only, God send it to come quickly: I honor it more than the Diamond-Casket that held Homer’s Illiads. For in the very twinkle of one eye of it, there is more Wit; and in the very dimple of one cheek of it, there is more Meaning, than in all the Souls that ever were casually put into Women.”

—Alexander Pope, from On the Knowledge and Characters of Men.