With melting airs, or martial, brisk, or grave;
  Some chord in unison with what we hear
  Is touched within us, and the heart replies.
The Task, Bk.  VI.:  Winter Walk at Noon.  W. COWPER.

  A velvet flute-note fell down pleasantly,
  Upon the bosom of that harmony,
  And sailed and sailed incessantly,
  As if a petal from a wild-rose blown
  Had fluttered down upon that pool of tone,
  And boatwise dropped o’ the convex side
  And floated down the glassy tide
  And clarified and glorified
  The solemn spaces where the shadows bide.
The Symphony.  S. LANTER.

  Can any mortal mixture of earth’s mould
  Breathe such divine enchanting ravishment? 
  Sure something holy lodges in that breast,
  And with these raptures moves the vocal air
  To testify his hidden residence. 
  How sweetly did they float upon the wings
  Of silence, through the empty-vaulted night,
  At every fall smoothing the raven down
  Of darkness till it smiled.
Comus.  MILTON.

    Though music oft hath such a charm
  To make bad good, and good provoke to harm.
Measure for Measure, Act iv.  Sc. 1.  SHAKESPEARE.

If music be the food of love, play on;
Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting,
The appetite may sicken, and so die.—­
That strain again—­it had a dying fall: 
O, it came o’er my ear like the sweet south,
That breathes upon a bank of violets,
Stealing and giving odor.
Twelfth Night, Act i.  Sc. 1.  SHAKESPEARE.

                      Where music dwells
  Lingering and wandering on, as loath to die,
  Like thoughts whose very sweetness yieldeth proof
  That they were born for immortality.
Ecclesiastical Sonnets, Pt.  III. xliii.  W. WORDSWORTH.

Music hath charms to soothe a savage breast,
To soften rooks, or bend a knotted oak. 
I’ve read that things inanimate have moved,
And, as with living souls, have been informed
By magic numbers and persuasive sound.
The Mourning Bride, Act i.  Sc. 1.  W. CONGREVE.

  There is a charm, a power, that sways the breast;
  Bids every passion revel or be still;
  Inspires with rage, or all our cares dissolves: 
  Can soothe distraction, and almost despair.
Art of Preserving Health.  J. ARMSTRONG.

  The soul of music slumbers in the shell,
  Till waked and kindled by the Master’s spell;
  And feeling hearts—­touch them but lightly—­pour
  A thousand melodies unheard before!
Human Life.  S. ROGERS.

  Give me some music; music, moody food
  Of us that trade in love.
Antony and Cleopatra, Act ii.  Sc. 5.  SHAKESPEARE.