REES’S CYCLOP@DIA. 
natives of this country and foreigners, 
not the least notice of either is taken in 
this article; and for such silence, or 
strange want of information in a writer, 
evidently not deficient in talent, it is dif- 
ficult to account. We trust that when 
we come to the article Bridge, the defect 
will be compensated by due notice of the 
labours and merits of Mr. Atwood. 
The biographical articles being select- 
ed with judgment from the best dic- 
tionaries, are, of course, respectably exe- 
cuted ; but they do not appear to contain 
much original information, or original 
remark: occasional instances, however, 
occur, which exhibit the hand of a mas- 
ter, of which the articles Arnold and Arne 
are pleasing examples; from the latter 
of which we shall select a specimen. 
*«The general melody of our countryman, if 
analized, would perhaps appear to be neither 
Italian nor English, but an agreeable mixture 
of Italian, English, and Scots. Many of his 
ballads, indeed, were professed imitations of 
the Scots style; but in his other songs he 
frequently dropped into it, perhaps without 
design. 
** Arne neverwas a close imitator of Handel; 
and was almost the only English composer of 
the last century, who did not build his fame 
on imitations of his works, and who was not 
proud to hear his admirers say of his compo- 
sitions—*‘ "Tis all Handel!» On which ac- 
count Arne was never thought, by the vota- 
ries of their great model, to be asound contra- 
puntist. However, he had an inward and 
secret reyerence for his abilities, and for those 
of Geminiani, as well as for the science of 
Pepusch ; but except when he attempted ora- 
torios, theirs was not the merit requisite for 
him, a popular composer, who had different 
rformers and different hearers to write for. 
* the science of harmony, though he was 
chiefly self-taught, yet being a man of ge- 
nius, quick parts, and great penetration in 
his art, he betrayed no ignorance or want of 
study in his scores. 
«« The oratorios he produced were so un- 
fortunate, that he was always a loser when- 
ever they were performed. And yet it would 
be unjust to say that they did not merit a bet- 
ter fate; for though the chorusses were 
much inferior in force to those of Han- 
del, yet the airs were frequently admirable. 
But besides the great reputation of Handel 
with whom he had to contend, Arne never 
was able to have his music so well perform- 
ed, as his competitor had always a more nu- 
merous and lect band, a better organ, which 
he played himself, and better singers. 
* None of this ingenious and pleasing 
composer's capital productions had full and 
unequivocal success but Comus and Artax- 
erxes, at the distance of twenty-four years 
from each other. Rosamond, his first musi- 
911 
cal drama, had a few songs in it that were 
long in favour, and the Judgment of Paris 
many; but except when his sister, Miss 
Are, afterwards Mrs. Cibber, sung in them, 
he never gained any thing by ‘either. Tho- 
mas and Sally, siideeeds as a farce, with very 
little musical merit, was often acted; and 
previous to that, Eliza was a little while in 
favour; but the number of his unfortunate 
pieces for the stage was prodigious. Yet 
none of them were condemned or neglected 
for want of merit in the music, but words, 
of which the Doctor was too frequently 
guilty of being the author. Upon the whole, 
though this composer, who died March 5th, 
1778, had formed a mew style of his own, 
there did not appear that fertility of ideas, 
original grandeur of thought, or those re- 
sources uponall occasions, which are disco- 
verable in the works of his predecessor Pur- 
cell, both for the church and stage; yet, in 
secular music, he must be allowed to have 
surpassed him in ease, grace, and variety ; 
which is no inconsiderable praise, when itis 
remembered, that from the death of Purcell 
to that of Arne, a period of more than 
fourscore years, no candidate for musical 
fame among our countrymen had appeared, | 
who was equally admired by the nation at 
large. 
The bistorical and geographical arti- 
cles are, for the most part, satisfactory 
We find a long and interesting accoun 
of Amazons; in which the discordant 
opinions of the ancient and modern writ- 
ers, from Herodotus to Mr. Bryant, re- 
lative to the existence of savage tribes 
consisting wholly of females, are well 
detailed. The general account of Aie- 
rica contains several errors ; is diffuse on 
points of small importance; and most 
mortifyingly defective respecting the 
only people of any consequence, the Mexi- 
cans, Peruvians, and Hunter races be- 
tween the Mississippi and Atlantic : these 
deficiencies may, however, be supplied 
hereafter. All that is known with cers 
tainty relative to the Andes is to be found 
in the travels of Don Ulloa, in Helms’s 
Journal, and the Letters of Humboldt, 
in the Journal de Physique. Recourse 
has been had to all these authorities, and 
a very excellent article is the result. 
Arabia and Arabs, if we except a little 
diffuseness, are two articles of consider- 
able merit. The rgonautic expedition 
furnished an opportunity of discussing 
some very curious, though obscure, points 
of ancient geography, of which, however, 
the writer of the article has not availed 
himself. 
In the Natural History, we still ob. 
serve the inconsistency which we men- 
