258 EFFECT OF MUSIC. 



strangely affect some men, as it were by recollection, for days 

 after a concert is over. What I mean, the following passage 

 will most readily explain : 



" Prsehabebat porro vocibus humanis, instrumentisque har- 

 monicis, musicam illam avium . non quod alia quoque non 

 dclectaretur ; sed quod ex musica humana relinqueretur in 

 animo continens quaedam, attentionemque et somnum contur- 

 bans agitatio : dum ascensus, exscensus, tenores, ac mutationes 

 illae sonorum et consonantiarum, euntque, redeuntque per 

 phantasiam : cum nihil tale relinqui possit ex modulationibus 

 avium, quae, quod non sunt perinde a nobis imitabiles, non pos- 

 sunt perinde internam facultatem commovere." GASSENDUS, 

 in Vita Peireskii.* 



This curious quotation strikes me much by so well repre- 

 senting my own case, and by describing what I have so often 

 felt, but never could so well express. When I hear fine 

 music, I aia haunted with passages therefrom night and day, 

 and especially at first waking; which, by their importunity, 

 give me more uneasiness than pleasure : elegant lessons still 

 tease my imagination, and recur Irresistibly to my recollection 

 at seasons, and even when 1 am desirous of thinking of more 

 serious matters, f 



* As this striking passage can be only understood by the classical scholar, 

 we offer a translation for the use of those who are not so: " He 

 preferred, besides, the music of birds to the human voice, and to musical 

 instruments ; not because he derived no pleasure from the last, but because 

 after music from the human voice there was left in the mind a certain 

 continual agitation, disturbing attention and sleep, while the risings and 

 fallings, the tones and changes, of sound and concords, pass and repass 

 through the fancy ; whereas nothing of this kind can remain after the 

 warblmgs of birds, which, as they cannot be imitated by us, cannot 

 therefore affect the faculty of imagination within us." En. 



f A similar impulse was felt by Alfieri, who, in his life, written by 

 nimself, describes his sensations on hearing music, as of a very powerful 

 kind. He thus speaks of the first opera he witnessed when he was only 

 twelve years of age, " This varied and enchanting music sank deep 

 into my soul, and made the most astonishing impression on my imagi- 

 nation : it agitated the imnost recesses of my heart to such a degree, 

 that for several weeks I experienced the most profound melancholy, 

 which was not, however, wnolly unattended with pleasure. I became 

 tired and disgusted with my studies, while, at the same time, the most 

 wild and whimsical ideas took such possession of my mind as would 

 have led me to portray them in the most impassioned verses, had I not 

 been wholly unacquainted with my own feelings. It was the first time 

 music had produced such a powerful effect on my mind. 1 had never 

 experienced any thing similar, and it long remained engraven on my 

 memory. When I recollect the feelings excited by the representation of 



