216 BIRMINGHAM MUSICAL FKSTIVAL. 



We are told that " God dvvelleth not in temples made with hands," 

 and that times and seasons are alike to him. On what ground, 

 then, shall weak and erring man arrive at the conclusion that the 

 intense and varied emotions which agitate the bosoms of assembled 

 multitudes as the mighty wave of sound bursts over their awe-struck 

 souls, are polluted in themselves and unpleasing to the Deity ? 



We have already mentioned Tune, Time, Construciiveness, and 

 Ideality as essential to the production and enjoyment of music ; we 

 have dilated on Veneration and Wonder as giving rise to the high- 

 est walk of the art, to that which is alone worthy to be employed 

 in the praise of the Creator, as forming the broad line which sepa- 

 rates sacred from secular music; we may now add Adhesiveness, 

 Cautiousness, Comhativeness, and Destrnctiveness to the list of fa- 

 culties which find exercise and gratification in music. On these we 

 shall not now enlarge, since in sacred and secular music they are 

 at best only of secondary importance.* We think, however, we 

 have satisfactorily demonstrated either that the Creator has endow- 

 ed matter with several superfluous properties, and man with nume- 

 rous unnecessary faculties (a supposition too much at variance with 

 reason and experience to be for a moment entertained) ; or that it 

 is incumbent upon man to take advantage of those properties, and 

 employ those faculties for his own improvement and happiness. 

 And, to revert to the principle from which we started (that an art 

 is worthy of cultivation in proportion to the faculties it employs), 

 we have also proved that JMusic is entitled to rank among the no- 

 blest pursuits which can engage the refined and the intellectual. 

 It only remains, then, to consider the means best calculated to dif- 

 fuse musical knowledge among the people. 



The late celebrated phrenologist. Dr. Macnish, was of opinion 

 that England would never produce composers equal to those of 

 other countries — never acquire that enthusiastic admiration for 

 works of genius which distinguishes the inhabitants of Germany 

 and Italy. We think that he, in common with many other phre- 

 nologists, underrates the influence of cultivation on the fine arts. 

 Whatever natural talent for Music or for Painting an individual 

 may possess, he can neither excel in those arts himself, nor duiy 

 appreciate the works of others, without long-continued study of 

 their principles and familiarity with their practice. No one is born 



• It is proper to mention, however, that Cautiousness is thought, by some 

 phrenologists, to have part in producing the feeling of the sublime : with 

 wliat justness we are not at present prepared to decide. 



