Date: 1700, 1705
"Wit, like the jangling Chimes, rings all in one, / Till Sense, the Artist, sets them into Tune."
preview | full record— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)
Date: 1707, 1709
"So fell Great Britains Orpheus in his Rage, / When Furies in his Breast began to howl, / And Cares that wait on Life's uncertain Stage, / Had quite untun'd his Soul."
preview | full record— Ward, Edward (1667-1731)
Date: 1724
"The Soul resides eminently in the Brain, where all the Nervous Fibres terminate inwardly, like a Musician by a well-tuned Instrument, which has Keys within, on which it may play, and without, on which other Persons and Bodies may also play."
preview | full record— Cheyne, George (1671-1743)
Date: 1724
"One Law of the Action of the Soul on the Body, & vice versa, seems to be, That upon such and such Motions produced in the Musical Instrument of the Body, such and such Sensations should arise in the Mind; and on such and such Actions of the Soul, such and such Motions in the Body should ensue; m...
preview | full record— Cheyne, George (1671-1743)
Date: 1724
"Since the Mind resides, as has been said, in the common Sensory, like a skilful Musician. by a well-tuned Instrument; if the Organ be found, duly tempered, and exactly adjusted, answering and corresponding with the Actions of the Musician, the Musick will be distinct, agreeable and harmonious."
preview | full record— Cheyne, George (1671-1743)
Date: 1731
"Feeling is nothing but the Impulse, Motion, or Action of Bodies, gently or violently impressing the Extremities or Sides of the Nerves, of the Skin of other parts of the Body, which by their Structure and Mechanism, convey this Motion to the Sentient Principle in the Brain, or the Musician."
preview | full record— Cheyne, George (1671-1743)
Date: 1733
"I have formerly suggested, that the best Similitude I can form of the Nature and Actions of this Principle upon the Organs of its Machin, is that of a skillful Musician playing on a well-tun'd Instrument."
preview | full record— Cheyne, George (1671-1743)
Date: 1766
"Mute is each Syren Passion's faithless song / Check'd and suspended by the solemn scene: / Mute the wild clamours of the giddy throng, / And only heard the "still small voice" within."
preview | full record— Carter, Elizabeth (1717-1806)
Date: 1785
Silence is the "Refuge of tender hearts must fear mixing "With the mad multitude, where passions fell, / And strangers to their bosom, enter wild, / Like Sin and Death in Paradise, to jar / On the soft music of according souls!"
preview | full record— Pratt, Samuel Jackson [pseud. Courtney Melmoth] (1749-1814)