Necessity holds on her knees the spindle around which the circles of the world turn: a siren is seated on each of these circles; each sings a note and these notes form the most perfect harmonies. This is the music of the world heard by souls before they descend into bodies . . . Musical instruments and voices are only a distant echo of the sublime music of creation.

-- Plato

(in Divine Sparks: Collected Wisdom of the Heart,

edited by Karen Speerstra)