Date: 1691

"This however I care not if I tell you--that the very hopes of Rambling, the Prospect of seeing a new Part of the World, or indeed a New World to me, striking upon the strings of my Soul, before wound to the same pitch, made most charming Musick, and had you seen then the young Evander--who now h...

— Dunton, John (1659–1732)

Date: 1697

"Thence thro' his Skull it passage did obtain, / And pierc'd the inmost Marrow of the Brain; / Where the melodious Strings of Sense are found / Up to a due and just extension wound; / All tun'd for Life, and fitted to receive / Th'harmonious strokes which outward Objects give."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1711

"Such noble Vital Instruments are fit / For Reason's Works, and beauteous Turns of Wit. / With finer Strokes they move the tender Strings / Tun'd in the Brain, whence clear Perception springs."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1712

"How is the Image to the Sense convey'd? / On the tun'd Organ how the Impulse made? / How, and by which more noble Part the Brain / Perceives th'Idea, can their Schools explain? / 'Tis clear, in that Superior Seat alone / The Judge of Objects has her secret Throne."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1768

"Why does my pulse beat languid as I write this? and what made La Fleur, whose heart seem'd only to be tuned to joy, to pass the back of his hand twice across his eyes, as the woman stood and told it?"

— Sterne, Laurence (1713-1768)