R O U 



R O U 



language remains, he mud be regarded as one of its great 

 authors. The belt edition of his works collectively is in 

 27 vols. 4to. The principal authorities for the life of 

 Roufleau, independently ot his own Confeflions, are Senne- 

 bier Hilt. Lit. de Geneve, and Nouv. Diet. Hilt. 



In 1768, Rouffeau's animated and inftructive Mufical Dic- 

 tionary was publifhed, collected chiefly from his mufical ar- 

 ticles in the Encyclopedic ; and as he gave no quarter in it 

 to French mufic, the admirers and defenders of that mufic 

 have treated his opinions with equal feventv. It is, how- 

 ever, the bufinels of true critics not only to point out the 

 errors of a work, but, if it has any, the merit. There 

 may be miitakes in RoufTeau's Dictionary, but are there no 

 good articles, no marks of refined taite and nice obfervation 

 in fpcaking of dramatic mufic ? No fhort, clear, and 

 happy definitions of mufical technica ? And is every thing 

 he has faid of French muiic thought fo abfurd and para- 

 doxical at prefent, even in France, as it was thirty years 

 ago? The abbe Roufiier, and his difciple M. de la Borde, 

 who treat as ahfurd and (tupid whatever fecms unfavourable 

 to their doctrines, were awed perhaps bv the thunder of 

 RoulTeau's eloquence, while alive ; but no fooner were they 

 fure that the lion was dead, than they plucked up a courage, 

 and boldly attacked him at all points. 



We mult add, in juitice to Jean Jacques, that more good 

 talte, intelligence, and extenfive views are to be found in his 

 original articles, not only than in any former mufical dic- 

 tionary, but in all the books on the fubject of mulic which 

 the literature of France can boall. And his " Lettre fur 

 la Mufique Francois," may be fafely pronounced the belt 

 piece of mufical criticifm that has ever been produced in any 

 modern language. 



It mull, however, be confeffed, that his treatment of 

 French mufic is very farcaltic, not to fay contemptuous ; 

 but the mufic, the national character avantageux, and ex- 

 clufive admiration of their own mufic, required itrong 

 language. It had been proved long fince, that they were 

 not to be laughed out of their bad talte in any one of the 

 fine arts : the national architecture, painting, and Iculpture, 

 were, in general, bad, and not what a traveller returning 

 from Italy could bear to look at : though there have been 

 now and then individual French artiils of every kind, who 

 have travelled and Itudied antiquity as well as the great maf- 

 ters of the Italian fchool ; and it is now faid, that at the In- 

 ftitute they are trying ferioufiy to correct: their errors, and 

 to eftablifh aclaffical taite throughout the empire. 



Yet, after all our Qncere encomiums on RoulTeau as a 

 mufical critic, particularly in the melodrama, and though 

 lubferibe to mo't of his mafical opinions, and defend 

 them, yet we muft leave him in the hands of his enemies with 

 refpect to Blainvillc's new mode, in recommending which 

 he is totally indelenfible. Bui in the year 1 75 1 he was 

 young in inufical theory, and the laws of compolition ; he 

 had read little, and not Itudicd much; but in 1768, alter 

 working fo long .or the Encyclopedic, in which labour to 

 teach others he mull have educated lumlelf, nothing but the 

 Hate of war b him and thi intolerant adherents to 



Rameau and the old fchool) could have blinded him fo far 

 as not to fee the abfurdity of Blainville's pretentions to the 

 merit of having invented a new mode, or third key in mulic, 

 different from the major and minor modes in common ufe. 



It may perhaps be alleged, even by the friends and ad- 

 mirers of his mufical writings, that he was more unwilling, 

 than fo acute and pcrfpicacious a logician ought to have 

 been, to rclinquifh his new fyftem of mufical notation, which 

 he publilhed under the title 6f " Dillertation fur la Muliquc 

 modcrne,'' in 1*43, whin very young, and his knowledge 

 Vol. XXX.' 



of mufic fuperficial. Forty years had not weaned him from 

 his partiality for this juvenile production ; for he not only 

 republished it in 1768, in his Mufical Dictionary, but near 

 the end of his life, in 1778, he Hill perfiited in explaining 

 and recommending its adoption : as Fontenelle, at near 100, 

 wrote and publifhed a tract in favour of the Cartelian, and 

 Troubillons againft Newton's fyftem of gravitation. 



Lord Stanhope, and Mr. Baldwyn of Chefhire, are now 

 (1804) at work on a new method of notation, expreffing 

 by letters of the alphabet what Rouffeau did by numerical 

 figures, with great confidence of fuccefs. But neither 

 Rouffeau, nor fubfequent ingenious framers of a new mufical 

 notation, could or would fee the inconvenience and even mif- 

 cliief it would occafion to the art, if ever it was generally 

 adopted, by rendering all former mufic unintelligible, unlefs 

 every muflcian and mufical Itudent were at the pains of learn- 

 ing two gamuts, or iyftems of mufical notation, inllead of 

 one. 



Mufic is at prefent an univerfal language throughout Eu- 

 rope. All nations v>fe the lame characters, and write and 

 read them with equal facility. Suppofe a tyrant in any one 

 kingdom only, were to infilt upon the inhabitants relinquifh- 

 ing at once their native language, and adopting another of 

 which they were utterly ignorant, it is hardly pofiible to 

 imagine that his mandate would or could be obeyed ; but if 

 the defpot's will were attempted to be complied with in his 

 particular dominions, would all the reft of Europe burn 

 their books, and fet about learning a new alphabet, a new 

 fpelling-book, a new grammar, and the art of writing this 

 new language ? nothing but its general and univerfal adop- 

 tion could render it ufetul to any one nation upon earth. 



ROUSSEL, William, a learned French Benedictine 

 monk of the congregation of St. Maur, was born at 

 Conches, a Imall town within the diocefe of Evreux, in 

 Normandy in the year 1658. He became a member of the 

 congregation in the year 1680, and directed his attention 

 principally to thofe ftudies which would qualify him for the 

 office of a preacher. Having fine talents, he became very 

 popular, and the general theme of commendation at Paris, 

 but preferring retirement, he withdrew to Rheims, and 

 afterwards to Argenteuil, where he fpent the remainder of 

 his life in devotion and ftudy. He died in the year 1 7 17. 

 He publifhed an excellent tranflation of the Letters of St. 

 Jerome, in 3 vols. 8vo. the firfl two of which appeared in 

 1704; and the third, containing the critical letters of that 

 father on the Holy Scriptures, in 1707. They are ac- 

 companied with a preface and learned notes. He was au- 

 thor of an eloge on father Mabillon. He had employed 

 many years of Ins life in making preparations for computing 

 " A Literary Hillory of France," but death put an end to 

 his labours, and his papers were placed in the hands of 

 father Rivet, a member of the lame congregation, who 

 made life of them without acknowledging his obligation. 



ROUSSELAER, in Geography, a town of France, in 

 the department of the Lys, fituatcd on the river Mandel ; 

 10 miles S. of Bruges. 



ROUSSIER, the aibe, in Biography, a profound writer 

 on the theory of mufici was born at nlarfeilles in 171^. He 

 is author of aconfiderable number of mufical tracts, of which 



the following are the titlei 



1. A Treatife on Chords and their Succeffion, 1764. 



2. Obfervations on different Points ol Harmony, 1765. 



3. Memoir on the Mulic ol the Ancients, 1770. 



4. A Letter, in two parts, to the author of the Journal 

 of the Arts and Sciences, concerning the divilion of the 

 zodiac, 1770. The fecond part 10 the fame concerning 

 tin [nftitution af the Planetary Week, 177 1 . 



4 M c. Prac- 



