I^AINTING. 



26'}' 



ttiere articulations of sound which constitute the varieties of 

 language, nor the articulations only, but the differences also 

 of the mere tones of affection or displeasure, grief or gayety, 

 which are so strikingly analogous to the varied expression 

 of musical feeling ;— and their power of discrimination in 

 every other case in which the judgment can be exercised, 

 is not less perfect. 



That the ear may be improved by cultivation, or in other 

 words, by nice attention to the differences of musical sound, 

 every one knows ; and if this attention can enable us, even 

 in mature life, to distinguish sounds as different in them- 

 selves, which, but for the habitual attention, we should have 

 regarded as the same, it may well be supposed that continued 

 inattention, from earliest infancy, may render us insensible 

 of musical relations still more obvious and precise, than 

 those which we have thus only learned to distinguish ; — or, 

 which is the same thing, that continued attention from in- 

 fancy to slight musical differences of sound may render us 

 capable of distinguishing tones as very dissimilar, the dif- 

 ferences of which, however obvious at present, we should 

 scarcely, but for such original attentive discrimination, have 

 been able to detect. 



Questions. — 1. What is music ? 2. What renders the plienomena 

 of music worthy of astonishment ? 3. What may be supposed to result 

 from inattention to the differences of musical sounds ? 4. Attention ? 



LESSON 122. 



Painting. 



Pen'cil, an instrument used by painters for laying on colours ; the 

 finer sorts are made of camels' hair, or sometimes of the down 

 of swans. 



The art of distributing lights and shades is called clair obscure, 

 or chiaro-scuro. 



The art of painting gives the most direct and expressive 

 representation of objects ; and it was, doubtless, for this 

 reason employed by many nations, before the art of writing 

 was invented, to communicate their thoughts, and to convey 

 intelligence to distant places. The pencil may be said to 

 write a universal language ; for every one can instantly un- 

 derstand the meaning of a painter, provided he be faithful to 



