166 



A HISTORY OF 



known ; and what is remarkable, Scholteus 

 assures us," that he saw a similar instance of 

 fishes being allured by music. They tell us 

 of diseases that have been cured, unchastity 

 corrected, seditions quelled, passions re- 

 moved, and sometimes excited even to mad- 

 ness. Dr. Wallis has endeavoured to account 

 for these surprising effects, by ascribing them 

 to the novelty of the art. For my own part, 

 J can scarcely hesitate to impute them to the 

 exaggeration of the writers. They are as hy- 

 perbolical in the effects of their oratory ; and 

 yet, we well know, there is nothing in the ora- 

 tions which they have left us, capable of ex- 

 citing madness, or of raising the mind to that 

 ungovernable degree of fury which they de- 

 scribe. As they have exaggerated, therefore, 

 in one instance, we may naturally suppose 

 that they have done the same in the other; 

 and, indeed, from the few remains we have of 

 their music, collected by Meibornius, one 

 might be apt to suppose there was nothing 

 very powerful in what is lost. Nor does any 

 one of the ancient instruments, such as we 

 see them represented in statues, appear com- 

 parable to our fiddle. 



" However this be, we have many odd ac- 

 counts, not only among them, but the mo- 

 derns, of the power of music ; and it must not 

 be denied, but that, on some particular oc- 

 casions, musical sounds may have a very pow- 

 erful effect. I have seen all the horses and 

 cows in a field, where there were above a 

 hundred, gathered round a person that was 

 blowing a French horn, and seeming to tes- 

 tify an awkward kind of satisfaction. Dogs 

 are well known to be very sensible of dif- 

 ferent tones in music ; and I have sometimes 

 heard them sustain a very ridiculous part in 

 a concert, where their assistance was neither 

 expected nor desired. 



" We are told of Henry IV. of Denmark, 11 

 that being one day desirous of trying in 

 person whether a musician, who boasted that 

 he could excite men to madness, was not 

 an impostor, he submitted to the operation 

 of his skill : but the consequence was much 

 more terrible than he expected ; for, becom- 

 ing actually mad, he killed four of his atten- 



a Quod oculis meis spectavi. Schotti Magic, univer- 

 aalis, pars. ii. lib. 1. p. 26. 



dants in the midst of his transports. A con- 

 trary effect of music we have, c in the cure of 

 a madman of Alais, in France, by music. 

 This man, who was a dancing-master, after a 

 fever of five days, grew furious, and so un- 

 governable that his hands were obliged to be 

 tied to his sides : what at first was rage, in a 

 short time was converted into silent melan- 

 choly, which no arts could exhilarate, nor no 

 medicines remove. In this sullen and de- 

 jected state, an old acquaintance accidentally 

 came to inquire after his health ; he found 

 him sitting up in bed, tied, and totally regard- 

 less of every external object around him. 

 Happening, however, to take up a fiddle that 

 lay in the room, and touching a favourite air, 

 the poor madman instantly seemed to brighten 

 up at the sound ; from a recumbent posture, 

 he began to sit up ; and, as the musician con- 

 tinued playing, the patient seemed desirous 

 of dancing to the sound : but he was tied, 

 and incapable of leaving his bed, so that he 

 could only humour the tune with his head, 

 and those parts of his arms which were at 

 liberty. Thus the other continued playing, 

 and the dancing-master practised his own art, 

 as far as he^as able, for about a quarter of 

 an hour, when suddenly falling into a deep 

 sleep, in which his disorder came to a crisis, 

 he awaked perfectly recovered. 



""A. thousand other instances might be add- 

 ed, equally true : let it suffice to add one more, 

 which is not true ; I mean that of the taran- 

 tula. Every person who has been in Italy 

 now well knows, that the bite of this animal, 

 and its being cured by music, is all a decep- 

 tion. When strangers come into that part 

 of the country, the country people are ready 

 enough to take money for dancing to the 

 tarantula. A friend of mine had a servant 

 who suffered himself to be bit ; the wound, 

 which was little larger than the puncture of a 

 pin, was uneasy for a few hours, and then be- 

 came well without any farther assistance. 

 Some of the country people however, still 

 make tolerable livelihood of the credulity of 

 strangers, as the musician finds his account 

 in it not less than the dancer." 



Sounds, like light, are not only extensively 



b Olai Magni, 1. 15. hist. c. 28. c Hist, de 1'Acad. 

 1708. p. 22. 



