36'2 HlSlORY OF 



orations wuich they have left us, capable of exciting madness, cr 

 of raising the mind to that ungovernable degree of fury which 

 they describe. As they have exaggerated, therefore, in one in- 

 Btance, we may naturally suppose that they Luve done tlie same 

 in the other ; and, indeed, from the few remains we have of their 

 music, collected by Meibomius, 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 comparable to our fiddle. 



" However this be, we have many odd accounts, not only 

 among them, but the moderns, of the power of music; and it 

 must not be denied^ but that on some particular occasions, musi- 

 cal sounds may have a very powerful 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 testify an awkward kind of satisfaction. Dogs are 

 well known to be very sensible of different 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,' 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, becoming actually 

 mad, he killed four of his attendants in the midst of his trans- 

 ports. A contrary effect of music we have,^ 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 

 ungovernable that his hands were obliged to be tied to his sides -. 

 what at first was rage, in a short time was converted into silent 

 melancholy, which no arts could exhilarate, nor no medicines re- 

 move. In this sullen and dejected state, an old acquaintance 

 accidentally came to inquire after his health ; he found him sit- 

 ting up in bed, tied, and totally regardless of every external ob- 

 ject round 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 continued 



I Olai M-iffni, 1. 15. tiist. c. 28. 2 Hist, de Acad. 1708. p. 22. 



