1831.] Monlhltj Review of Lilerature. 449 



possessing as little taste as knowledge — studious of nothing but effect, and care- 

 jess of every thing but clap-traps. Dr. Crotch sets himself seriously to the task 

 of defining standards and styles, and divides them into the sublime, beautiful, 

 and ornamental, following the analogies of painting, architecture, &c., till, like 

 a will o' the wisp, they lead him apparently whither they will. Reynolds 

 turned the morals of Johnson to account in his lectures on painting ; and in 

 his turn Dr. Crotch finds Reynolds equally convertible for musical purposes. 

 To the sublime the doctor consigns all church-music, and though he does not 

 precisely declare there can be no more good church-music, he is positive the 

 style can never be changed with advantage, and any attempt at a change he 

 obviously regards as so much profanation. To us, however, the most attractive 

 portion of his lectures is the one relative to musical expression, in which the 

 sobriety, as well as the soundness of the writer's judgment, is very conspicuous. 

 As an imitative art he acknowledges frankly its general impotency. In nothing 

 have composers shewn more extravagance in their pretensions. The union of 

 music with poetry it is, that has been the fruitful source of these exaggerations. 

 The merits of the poetry have been assigned to the music. " But take away the 

 poetry," says Dr. C, " or let it be in an unknown tongue, and then see whether 

 music can build the walls of a city, or civilize a savage race." It may represent 

 certain qualities in objects, or rather excite feelings similar to what those objects 

 themselves excite ; but it cannot delineate the objects themselves, nor indeed 

 distinguish them from scores of others. It can convey no imagery, and cannot 

 discriminate, with any nicety, tile very affections it seems at times to command. 

 It may speak of something serene, or troubled, or joyous, or wild, or tender ; 

 but what that something is poetry alone can tell us. " Let the piece be unaccom- 

 panied by words, and the glidii.g, tossing, bellowing, and confusion, will repre- 

 sent either water, a storm, or a battle." "Handel," adds Dr. Crotch, "has 

 but one and the same favourite soothing melody to express the murmurings, or 

 perhaps the undulations of a flowing stream, the repose of the dead, the beauty 

 of the green, and the softness of the spring." Again, where waves were to be 

 depicted, and the roaring of a giant, Handel uses but one passage. " Jove's 

 own thunders follow Mars's drums," says Pope of Handel, and says well ; but 

 the drums are obliged to represent sometimes one, and sometimes the other. 



Dr. C. commemorates, with abundant knowledge of what he is talking about, 

 the chief composers of the last three centuries, in their several styles, and finally 

 expresses very distinctly his sense of the present state of the public taste — which 

 is, in spite of all he has said or insinuated, that it is in a gradual state of improve- 

 ment ; and notwithstanding the decline of the art itself, which he still insists 

 upon, has attained a higher stage of advancement than it has known for half a 

 ■century. Laudari laudato, &c. 



A Ket to Reading, &c., by John Smith ; Lecturer on early Educa- 

 tion, &c. Liverpool. 



The title does not convey specifically, or with sufficient precision, the object 

 of the book. Its purpose is to furnish a specimen or two of the way in which 

 he proposes to make reading useful — or rather, the way in which the teacher is 

 to ascertain whether his pupils understand what they read ; and that is, by 

 questioning them minutely and closely on every word of any passage that has 

 been read, together with collateral matters connected with the subject, words, 

 phrases, allusions, &c. The book is, of course, intended for the assistance and 

 guidance of teachers and parents ; and the plan, admirable in itself, has only 

 one little difl^culty involved in it — that of finding teachers and parents with 

 intelligence enough, and self-possession enough, to make a tolerable use of it. 

 We can conceive the bungling of many who will make the attempt. 



The grammatical picture, attached to the key, is a most ingenious contrivance 

 for conveying to children the distinctions of what are called Parts of Speech. 

 With a lot of children assembled, the teacher proposes to them to make an 

 imaginary picture, the materials or objects of which they are themselves to sup- 

 ply. One names u cottage, another a rock, a third a brook, a fourth church- 



