MUSICAL EAR. 201 



musicians have not necessarily the most delicate sense ; and, for the 

 reasons already assigned, it will be manifest, why the idiot, whose hear- 

 ing may be acute, is incapable of singing, as well as of speaking. 

 Again, we do not see the least ratio in animals between the extent and 

 character of their music and the condition of their auditory sense. 

 We are compelled, then, to admit, that the faculties of music and 

 speech are dependent upon organization of the brain; that they 

 require the ear as an instrument ; but that their degree of perfection 

 is by no means in proportion to the delicacy of the sense of hear- 

 ing. In these opinions, MM. Gall, 1 Broussais, 2 Adelon, 3 and other 

 distinguished physiologists concur. " Speech," says M. Broussais, 

 " is heard and repeated by all men, who are not deprived of the audi- 

 tory sense ; because they are all endowed with cerebral organization 

 fit to procure for them distinct ideas on the subject. Music, when 

 viewed as a mere noise, is also heard by every one ; but it furnishes 

 ideas, sufficiently clear to be reproduced, to those individuals only 

 whose frames are organized in a manner adapted to this kind of sensa- 

 tion." 



Yet, although we must regard the musical faculty to be intellectual, 

 and consequently elevated in the scale, it is hardly necessary to say, 

 that the want of it is no evidence of that mental and moral degrada- 

 tion, which has been depicted by poets and others. 



"The man that hath no music in himself, 

 Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds, 

 Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils ; 

 The motions of his spirit are dull as night, 

 And his affections dark as Erebus : 

 Let no such man be trusted." 



SHAKSPEAUE, u Merchant of Venice" v. i. 



" Is there a heart that music cannot melt? 

 Alas ! how is that rugged heart forlorn ! 

 Is there, who ne'er those mystic transports felt 

 Of solitude and melancholy born ! 

 He needs not woo the muse ; he is her scorn. 

 The sophist's rope of cobweb he shall twine ; 

 Mope o'er the schoolman's peevish page ; or mourn, 

 And delve for life in mammon's dirty mine; 

 Sneak with the scoundrel fox, or grunt with glutton swine." 



BEATTIE, " Minstrel." 



In the classification of the objects of human knowledge, music has 

 been ranked with poetry; but we meet with striking evidences of their 

 wide separation. Whilst the professed musician is frequently devoid 

 of all poetical talent, many excellent poets have no musical ear. Nei- 

 ther does the power of discriminating musical tones indicate, that the 

 possessor is favoured with the finer sensibilities of the mind ; nor the 

 want of it prove their deficiency. It has been a common remark, that 

 amongst professed musicians, the intellectual manifestations have been 

 singularly and generally feeble; a result partly occasioned by their 

 attention having been almost entirely engrossed from childhood by their 



1 Sur les Fonctions du Cerveau, v. 96. Paris, 1825. 



a Traite de Physiologic, translated by Drs. Bell and La Roche, p. 84, 3d Amer. edit., 

 Philad., 1832. a Op. citat., i. 383. 



