DAY AND MGHT MUSIC. 113 



with their " hoarse pipe and broken tabor," is wonder- 

 fully musical ; while if it were heard during the day, it 

 would not come up even to Dr. Johnson's definition of 

 music, and be " of all noises the most tolerable ;" the 

 sound of a bag-pipe, the lowing of oxen, nay, even the 

 cackling of geese and the braying of asses, have some- 

 thing of melody in them when heard at a distance at 

 night. The whole earth is then, for reasons analagous 

 to those that act when the wind sings, a musical instru- 

 ment, and wonderfully fills and mellows every sound 

 that passes over it. Labour is suspended, too, and 

 people have begun to enjoy themselves by the time 

 that the nightingale sings ; the evening, also, is pecu- 

 liarly delightful at that season, as the drought and heat 

 of the day to which it succeeds are often oppressive. 

 The poetry of the evening too, with its soft shades, its 

 sighing leaves, and all the fables about the nightingale 

 itself, as if the song were the lamentation of a hapless 

 female, instead of amerry-making by the other sex, - 

 these have conspired with the natural advantages above 

 mentioned, to unsettle this part of natural history. 



By these observations it is not intended in the least 

 to disparage the nightingale, (which has been singing 

 while they were made) ; but it has too often been the 

 custom to seek the elevation of one part of nature by 

 depreciating other parts, just as some people imagine 

 that, if they can take away the merit or character of 

 others, they will have the more to themselves, instead 

 of following the wise course of enjoying the whole. 

 The conduct, as to man, is wicked ; and, as to nature, 

 it is not wise : whether its time be the night or the 

 day, and whether it come in silence or in song, there 

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