Date: 1728
"'Tis not the courser Tie of human Laws, / Unnatural oft, and foreign to the Mind, / Which binds their Peace, but Harmony itself, / Attuning all their Passions into Love."
preview | full record— Thomson, James (1700-1748)
Date: 1729
"E'en not all these, in one rich lot combined, / Can make the happy man, without the mind; / Where judgment sits clear-sighted, and surveys / The chain of reason with unerring gaze; / Where fancy lives, and to the brightening eyes, / His fairer scenes, and bolder figures rise; / Where social lov...
preview | full record— Thomson, James (1700-1748)
Date: 1729
"[W]hat the Women excel us in then, is the Goodness of the Instrument, either in the Harmony, or Pliableness of the Organs, which must be very material in the Art of Thinking, and is the only thing that deserves the Name of Natural Parts"
preview | full record— Mandeville, Bernard (bap. 1670, d. 1733)
Date: April 30, 1730
"I have often been concerned at the ill success of my worthy friend the CANTABRIGIAN PHILOSOPHER; who happening to jar the string in the harmony of human understanding, among those, who were below his own height; they, instead of subscribing to his doctrine, were for tying him fast, and sending h...
preview | full record— Richard Russel and John Martyn
Date: 1730
"Nor absent are those tuneful shades, I ween, / Taught by the Graces, whose inchanting touch / Shakes every passion from the various string; / Not those, who solemnize the moral scene."
preview | full record— Thomson, James (1700-1748)
Date: 1731
"That the Intelligent Principle, or Soul, resides in the brain, where all the Nerves, or Instruments of Sensation, terminate, like a Musician in a finely fram'd and well-tun'd Organ Case; that these Nerves are like Keys, which, being struck on or touch'd, convey the Sound and Harmon...
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: 1732
"The Force of Modulated Sound, .... tunes the Heart at ev'ry Turn"
preview | full record— Mitchell, Joseph (c. 1684-1738)
Date: 1733
"OR, in a more gross Similitude, the Intelligent Principle is like a Bell in a Steeple, to which there are an infinite Number of Hammers all around it, with Ropes of all Lengths, terminating or touching at every Point of the Surface of the Trunk or Case, one of whose Extremities being pull'd or t...
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)