MUSIC. 145 



period at which great musicians piped on straws or reeds or 

 struck three chords stretched over the shell of a tortoise. ' 



" Ille ego qui guondam gracili modulatus avenj." 



" Orpheus viduos aonorg, solabatur testudine amores." 



Music then was able to appease the fury of wild beasts, to 

 persuade stones to collect themselves into a wall, and cleave 

 solidly to one another, and, when breathed through a flute, to 

 lull Argus himself to sleep. 



Now-a-days, when so many instruments have been invented 

 and perfected, — now-a-days, when not only the musicians of 

 past ages are despised, but even, and particularly, those of 

 yesterday, — ^now-a-days, so far from building cities, appeasing 

 lions, or saddling dolphins, men are with great difficulty 

 brought together to listen to music at all. At the opera now, 

 to induce people to be present, whilst some instruments are 

 blown through, and others beaten upon, it is found necessary 

 to exhibit to them objects of every description to attract the 

 eye, because they know that many men come rather to see 

 dancers than to hear music. All sorts of means must be 

 had recourse to, all kinds of falsehoods invented, to persuade 

 people that all the world goes there : without that delusion, 

 no one would go at all. 



Are you aware how many degradations the poor fellows 

 who give concerts are reduced to, in order to persuade people 

 to give them a few shillings, under the pretence of hearing 

 pieces whiiAi they hear sixty times over every winter ? Do 

 you know what sad baits they must lay, what humiliations 

 they must endure, what follies they must submit to 1 



Midas preferred the flute of Marsyas to the lyre of Apollo. 

 The flute of Marsyas was composed of seven oaten straws, or 

 reeds; the lyre of Apollo was a tortoise-shell, over which 

 three strings were stretched. Apollo was angry, and he was 

 less in the wrong than angry people generally are. In fact, 

 the two instruments must have been equally tiresome to 

 listen to — perfectly insupportable; there was no choice to 

 make, and the sentence of superiority of the oaten straws 

 over the tortoise-shell, pronounced by King Midas, must have 

 arisen from malice. 



