and sculpture produce the means of enjoyment to the eye, so music supplies entertainment to the ear. of all compositions none are more truly affecting than those which were anciently adapted to the popular ballads of particular countries, such as Switzerland and Scotland.

They come o'er the ear, like the sweet south
That breathes upon a bank of violets,
Stealing and giving odour-

They show in the greatest degree the power of the association of ideas. They can awaken the lively emotions of tenderness and melancholy pleasure in every susceptible mind: but their effect is felt in the highest degree by the natives of those countries, when far distant from home. The instant the sounds of the Rans de Vaches strike the delighted ears of the Swiss in a foreign country, his memory and fancy are busied in recalling the charms of the fair nymph who was the object of his early affection; and they revive the images of the lofty Alps, the rapid torrents, the wild woods, the paternal cottage, and all the scenes and occupations of his youth. His soul is melted with tenderness inexpressible, and his passion to return home produces a deep despondency, which nothing but the enjoyment of these beloved objects can effectually remove.*

Nor is the mind less pleasingly affected by the power of sacred music when the various excellence

* The bands belonging to the Swiss regiments in the French service were prohibited from playing this tune to the Swiss, as it had caused many of them to desert,

of melody and harmony is united in its subjects. How grateful to a good ear are the anthems of Kent, Boyce, and Hayes, when sung by some of the best choristers; whom St. James's Chapel; Magdalen College, Oxford; and Trinity, Cambridge, can boast ;-and how divine are the airs of Handel when warbled from the lips of a Mara, a Billington, and a Harrison! They disengage our minds from the vulgar objects of life, lull our passions and our cares to repose, and remind us of the pleasure enjoyed by our first parents when listening to the music of the angels in the garden of Eden.

How often from the steep
Of echoing hill or thicket have we heard
Celestial voices to the midnight air,
Sole, or responsive each to others note,
Singing their great Creator? Oft in bands
While they keep watch, or nightly rounding walk,
With heavenly touch of instrumental sounds
In full harmonic number joined, their songs
Divide the night, and lift our thoughts to heaven.
Paradise Lost, book 4.

In perfect and full harmony, the different parts of a musical composition are so combined and justly adapted, that no discord results from their number. The various notes are so ingeniously blended, there is such an happy union of the loud and the soft tones, of stringed and of wind instruments, of vocal and instrumental power, that the ear is filled, not overwhelmed ; transported, not distracted. The efficacy of the principles upon which harmony depends is so great, that they are able even of themselves, without calling in the aid of the passions, to produce considerable plea

sure. To be sensible of this pleasure, however, depends as much upon skill as a practitioner, as upon taste as a connoisseur.

The prevailing fashion of the present times is by no means favourable to the union of the best efforts of poetry with the noblest productions of music. Handel indeed gave new charms to the lyric muse of Dryden, and Arne composed the opera of Artaxerxes in the most delightful style. But the sound and the sense, far from possessing uniform spirit, are in more recent productions, especially in several Italian operas, a heavy burthen upon the exertions of each other. The most insipid airs are not "married to immortal verse," but united to unmeaning words, and their alliance is forced and unnatural. Nothing indeed can be more tiresome or absurd than recitative in general. It has neither the charm of singing, nor the intelligible expression of plain speech, as it consists of an unmeaning quantity of notes brought together to the confusion of all sense. "What can be more contrary to nature than the singing a whole piece from beginning to end, as if the persons represented were ridiculously matched, and had agreed to settle in music both the most common and most important affairs of life. Is it to be imagined that a master calls his servant, or sends him on an errand singing; that one friend imparts a secret to another singing; that men deliberate in council, and that orders in the field of battle are given singing; and that men are melodiously killed with swords and darts? This is the downright way to lose the life of representation, which without doubt is preferable to that of harmony; for harmony ought to be no more than a bare attendant, and the great masters of the stage have introduced

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it as pleasing, not as necessary, after they have performed all that relates to the subject and discourse. Nevertheless, our thoughts run more upon the performers than the hero in the opera, and Viganoni and Morelli are seldom out of our minds. The mind not being able to conceive a hero that sings, runs to the actor or the actress; and there is no question but that in our most fashionable operas, Banti, or Bolla are a hundred times more thought of than Zenobia, or Dido."

In our most fashionable concerts, instrumental performance is, in many instances, carried to such a degree of vicious refinement, that one sense is gratified at the expense of another; since it is converted into an amusement for the eye, rather than a delight to the ear, or a solace to the mind. The brilliant execution of an eminent performer, displayed in some hasty and trifling symphony, quartetto, or quintetto of his own is regarded as an excellence of the first value. Salomon, Pinto, and Raimondi are recommended for habitual skill, and mechanical dexterity, and the rapidity with which they can run through passages in the smallest space of time. The audience judge of such music by the difficulty of its execution; they lavish their praise upon the principal performer, but are unmoved by the music, and their applause operates as an en

* « These remarks of St. Evremond relate to the musical tragedy of the Italians. With respect to the musical comedy or burletta, it affords an additional proof how little music, as such, is able to support itself. In the tragic opera it borrows aid from the tumidity of the poetry; in the comic from the powers of ridicule, to which music has not the least relation." Hawkins on Music, p. 74. Preface.

couragement to new extravagance of the same kind. But amid this prevailing taste which leads to what is capricious and desultory, a judicious hearer seeks for delight in the compositions of Purcell, Jomelli, Handel, and Haydn. He prefers the steady and spirited performance of their works to the modish refinements in practice, and what are deemed the improvements in the power of execution; because he feels that the productions of these great composers are original and spirited, truly grand and affecting, and exert the sweetest influence of harmony over his mind.

II. PAINTING.

The art of painting gives the most direct and expressive representation of objects; so that probably for this reason it was originally employed by many nations, before the introduction of letters, to communicate their thoughts and to convey intelligence to distant places. The Egyptians pourtrayed their ideas by tracing the resemblance of plants and animals; and the Mexicans conveyed to their emperor Montezuma the information of the arrival of the Spaniards upon their coasts, by sending him a picture representative of the event. The pencil may be said to write a universal language; for every one can instantly understand the meaning of a painter, provided he be faithful to the rules of his art. His skill enables him to open the various scenes of nature at one view; and by his delineation of the striking effects of passion,