The time, however, at which his musical powers are of most use, is now and then of an evening, when he plays for the children to dance in the hall, and he passes among them and the servants for a perfect orpheus.
"Bracebridge Hall, or The Humorists"
Washington Irving
orpheus would probably only have provoked Cerberus-certainly wouldn't have put him to sleep-if he had practised, and counted, and gone back six bars and done it again.
"Somehow Good"
William de Morgan
Granted that all, whether fusion or diffusion, whether of ideas or things, is, if we dwell upon it and take it seriously, an outrage upon our understandings which common sense alone enables us to brook; granted that it carries with it a distinctly miraculous element which should vitiate the whole process ab initio, still, if we have faith we can so work these miracles as orpheus-like to charm denizens of the unseen world into the seen again-provided we do not look back, and provided also we do not try to charm half a dozen Eurydices at a time.
"Luck or Cunning?"
Samuel Butler