566 



X.'S ESSAT ON MUSIC. 



tiical motions, that it is inconceivable how 

 men, who have no appearance of superior 

 briiliancj^inanyoUieraccompiisiimentjShould 

 •be able to attain a conception and execution 

 ■in music, which seem almost to require the 

 faculties of a superior order of beings. An 

 intemperate and dissipated attachment to 

 music may indeed often be productive of 

 evils; but probably the same individuals, 

 who have been its victims, would have been 

 equally idle and irregular if they had been 

 destitute of this accomplishment. A consider- 

 able share of the pleasure of practical music 

 arises from causes perfectly distinct from the 

 sensual perceptions : the consciousness of 

 hav.iii"' overcome difficulties, tl>e laudable 

 satisfaction of entertaining others, and the 

 interest and emulation produced by a con- 

 currence of others in the same pursuits; 

 all these entirely outweigh the temporary 

 Amusement of the ear, and wholly remove 

 the objection, which might be made, to the 

 enervating effect of a continued devotion to 

 pleasurable sensations. Tiie ancient [ihilo- 

 sophers, with all the manliness and dignity 

 of character to which they aspired, were not 

 ashamed to consider music as an indispensa- 

 ble part of a liberal education ; and Plato 

 devotes three of the earlier years of his young 

 citizens entirely to the study of the lyre: nor 

 are we without examples in modern times, of 

 philosophers, and princes, and heroes, who 

 have excelled as much in musical perform- 

 ances, as in literature and in arms. 



U. 01- THE ORIGIN OF THE SCALE. 



The first lyre, with three strings is said to 

 have been invented in Egypt by Hermes, 

 xmder Osiris, between the years 1800 and 

 1.500 before Christ. The second and third 

 string were, perhaps, the octave and fifth of 



the first, or more probably its fifth and fourth' 

 as it would be easy to sing the octave with 

 the accompaniment of the primitive note 

 only. The melody might be either always in 

 unison with one of the strings, resembling a 

 very simple modem bass part; or the inter- 

 vals might be occasionally filled up by the 

 voice, without accompaniment. We have, in 

 modern music, a specimen of a pleasing air, 

 by liousseau, formed on three notes alone, 

 the key note with its second and third ; bnt 

 there can be little doubt that the earliest me- 

 lodies must have had a greater compass than 

 this; although some suppose the three strings 

 of the oldest lyre to have been successive notes 

 of the scale. The trumpet is said to have 

 been invented about the same time : a little 

 experience might have taught the Egyptians 

 to produce from it the octaves, the 12th, 

 17th, 23d, and other harmonics of the primi- 

 tive sonnd, which are related to it in the ra- 

 tio of the integers from 1 to 9, and the same 

 sounds might have been observed by a deli- 

 cate ear among the secondary notes of a 

 long chord ; and then, by descending three 

 octaves from the 23d, and two from the 17th, 

 they miglit have added to their lyre the se- 

 cond and major third of the principal note. 

 But it does not appear that this method ever 

 occurred to the ancients : they seem rather 

 to have attended to the intervals of the notes 

 within the octave, than to the union of simi- 

 lar notes in the natural harmonics; and, be- 

 sides, the series of natural harmonics would 

 never have furnished a true fourth or sixth, 

 ll is uncertain when, or by whom, the fourth 

 strimr was added : but the merit of increas- 

 ing the number to seven is attributed to 

 Tcrpander, about the year 700 befoi'e Christ, 

 two centuries after Ff omer : although some 

 persons Ixave asserted that he only brought the 



