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Date: 1700, 1705

"Wit, like the jangling Chimes, rings all in one, / Till Sense, the Artist, sets them into Tune."

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)

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Date: 1701

"Which are but tantalizing Amusements that debauch our Genius when they are once over, and Fatigue allows us a serious interval; with what regret do we reflect upon our Folly, in letting our Appetites govern our Reason, and like the Sirens Song charm us into Ruine."

— Baker, Thomas (b. 1680-1)

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Date: 1702 [but see also earlier editions 1648, 1651]

"My Soul untun'd, unstrung, doth wait on Thee / To teach her how to sing thy MYSTERY."

— Beaumont, Joseph (1616-1699)

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Date: 1702

"Nay, yet more, / My Soul seems pleas'd to take acquaintance with thee, / As if ally'd to thine: Perhaps 'tis Sympathy / Of honest Minds; Like Strings wound up in Musick, / Where by one touch, both utter the same Harmony."

— Rowe, Nicholas (1674-1718)

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Date: 1700, 1702

"Forget that thought, / That jarring grates your Soul, and turns the Harmony / Of blessed Peace to curst infernal Discord."

— Rowe, Nicholas (1674-1718)

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Date: May 10, 1704

"And I think the reason is easy to be assigned: for there is a peculiar string in the harmony of human understanding which, in several individuals, is exactly of the same tuning. Thus, if you can dexterously screw up to its right key and then strike gently upon it, whenever you have the good fort...

— Swift, Jonathan (1667-1745)

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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."

— Dennis, John (1658-1734)

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Date: 1705

"Nature is a kind of Harmony, which by a strange Collection of Things, makes an Impression on our Senses and our Reason."

— Manley, Delarivier (c. 1670-1724)

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Date: 1706

"Our Souls are out of Tune, we languish all, / Nor does the sweet Returning of the Dawn / Chear with its usual Mirth our drowzy Spirits, / That droop'd beneath the lazy leaden Night."

— Rowe, Nicholas (1674-1718)

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Date: 1706

"Let ev'ry jarring Sound of Discord cease, / Tune all your Thoughts and Words to Beauty's Praise, / To Beauty, that with sweet and pleasant Influence / Breaks Life the Day-star from the chearful East."

— Rowe, Nicholas (1674-1718)

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The Mind is a Metaphor is authored by Brad Pasanek, Assistant Professor of English, University of Virginia.