Date: 1651
"Many erroneous opinions are about the essence and original of [the rational soul]; whether it be fire, as Zeno held; harmony, as Aristoxenus; number, as Xenocrates; whether it be organical, or inorganical; seated in the brain, heart or blood; mortal or immortal; how it comes into the body."
preview | full record— Burton, Robert (1577-1640)
Date: 1659
"The minde is sometimes a Bull, sometimes a Serpent, and sometimes a flame of fire; and then the musick of the soule is quite out of tune; the Bells ring backward as in some general conflagration."
preview | full record— Tubbe, Henry (1618-1655)
Date: 1659
"Nothing puts a man so much out of tune as discontent."
preview | full record— Tubbe, Henry (1618-1655)
Date: 1664
"You can think of our machine's heart and arteries, which push the animal spirits into the cavities of its brain, as being like the bellows of an organ, which push air into the wind-chests; and you can think of external objects, which stimulate certain nerves and cause spirits contained in the ca...
preview | full record— Descartes, René (1596-1650)
Date: 1704
"Nay, wise Men and great Philosophers, have accounted it as the Archet or Musical Bow of the Mind. And certainly it is most true, and as it were a Secret of Nature, that the Minds of Men are more patent to Affections, and Impressions Congregate than Solitary."
preview | full record— Dennis, John (1658-1734)
Date: 1709, 1714
"For this is the Effect, and this the Beauty of their Art; 'in vocal Measures of Syllables, and Sounds, to express the Harmony and Numbers of an inward kind; and represent the Beautys of a human Soul, by proper Foils, and Contrarietys, which serve as Graces in this Limning, and render this Musick...
preview | full record— Cooper, Anthony Ashley, third earl of Shaftesbury (1671-1713)
Date: From Tuesd. Aug. 9. to Thursday Aug. 11. 1709
"We must take our Minds a Note or two lower, or we shall be tortur'd by Jealousy or Anger."
preview | full record— Addison, Joseph (1672-1719)
Date: From Tuesd. Sept. 13. to Thursd. Sept. 15. 1709
"The Strings of the Heart, which are to be touched to give us Compassion, are not so played on but by the finest Hand."
preview | full record— Steele, Sir Richard (1672-1729)
Date: 1710, 1714
"For the understanding here must have its mark, its characteristic note, by which it may be distinguished."
preview | full record— Cooper, Anthony Ashley, third earl of Shaftesbury (1671-1713)
Date: 1710, 1734
There are ideas in the mind of God, "which are so many marks or notes that direct him how to produce sensations in our minds" just as a musician uses notes to produce a tune.
preview | full record— Berkeley, George (1685-1753)