OF SER PENTS. 165 



If a deliberate pathetick Reading of a well-penn'd Romance, 

 will ftrike the Paffions, and produce Mirth, Tears, Joy, Grief, 

 Pity, Wrath, Indignation, fuitable to the refpedbive Intents of it; 

 much more would it (o do, if accompanied with all thofe At- 

 tendants.' 



If it be afk'd, ^/oy may not all this be done now? I anfwer. 

 No doubt but it may, if the Addrefs be made in proper Words, 

 emphatically fpoken, with agreeable Voice, attended with a de- 

 cent Gefture ; and all thefe adjufled to the Faflion and Temper of 

 the Mind, particularly defign'd to be produced, (be it Joy, Grief, 

 Pity, Courage, Indignation) will certainly now, as well as then, 

 produce great EfFeds upon the Mind, efpecially upon a Surprize, 

 and where Perfons are not otherwife pre-engaged. Ibid. 



The Antients had the Art of exciting this or that particular 

 Paffion of the Mind, the Tunes being fuitably adapted to fuch 

 Defigns ; whereas thofe now are almoft quite negleded in our mo- 

 dern Mufick. 



The Chromatick Genus *, with its greater and leffer Semi- 

 Tones, either afcending or defcending, is very proper for the Pa- 

 thetick in Muiick ; as is alfo an artful Management of Difcords, 

 with a Variety of Motions ; now brifk, now languifliing ; now 

 fwift, now flow. The Venetian Mufician before-mentioned, 

 excell'd in the Pathetick to that degree, that he was able to play 

 any of his Auditors into DiJiraSiion . . . The great Means he made 

 ufe of, was the Variety of Motions. ■ 



Even little Children, when crying, are cllarm'd and quieted 

 by a jingling Sound, a Shadow of Mufick. In fhort, Mufick at- 

 tends the Man to his Grave, where Elegies were formerly fung in 

 Honour of the Deceafed: Thus the Fhcenicians added Flutes to 

 their Mournings, and the Romans had their Siticines, that is, thofe 

 who fung to a Pipe, or blow'd the Trumpet at their Funerals, 

 a Cuftom not yet entirely aboliflVd among the antient Brito7is and 

 fome Parts of England, who, when they take up the Corps, iing 

 Pfalms before it all the way to Church 3 a common Pradice 

 about feventy Years ago : So far I can charge my Memory. 



W E are not without modern Inftances of Perfons extraordi- 

 narily affcdled by the Powers of Mufick, as appears from our O- 

 pera's, and the very particular Devotion paid to the Farinello' s of 



the 



* chroma in Mufick, is the graceful v/ay of Singing. 



