OP THE PASSIONS.. 59^ 



Strong, ardent, and abrupt ; or broken into short sentences or versicles ; 

 full of figure and imagination, and consequently possessing all the radical 

 characters of poetry : and, secondly, that we may expect to meet with the 

 boldest and most frequent use of this kind of language in those periods of 

 every nation in which the passions have been most unrestrained and lui^- 

 riant, and therefore in their earliest and least cultivated state ; for we have 

 already seen, that in this state the most vehement and energetic passions 

 are in perpetual play and activity. 



Now the whole history of the world will confirm us in these two general 

 corollaries ; and it has hence been said, and in a restricted sense said truly, 

 that the language of poetry is older than that of prose. Its principles are 

 founded in nature, and in nature in her simplest and most unsophisticated 

 state ; and it is to these principles mankind uniformly recur, whenever hur- 

 ried by a violent shock of feeHng from the polished tameness and monotony 

 of colloquial speech. It is then we return to exclamations, interroga- 

 tions, broken sentences, bold and daring comparisons ; and, whether we 

 be indiflTerent lo the \^orld or not, succeed in interesting it in our fate and 

 condition. 



Where, among uncultivated tribes, the passions chiefly called into exer- 

 cise have been of the pleasurable and sprightly kind, such as we have 

 already seen are the natural result of warmth and beneficence of climate, 

 of tranquil scenery, and an atmosphere perfumed by the rival odours of 

 spontaneous blossoms and balsams, the rude burst of delight has assumed 

 a more regular or measured character, and been uttered in the form of 

 chant or brisk melody, with such corresponding attitudes or movements 

 of the body as might best co-operate in proving the exuberant gayety of the 

 heart. And hence music and dancing are nearly of as early origin as 

 poetry : they were prompted by the same impulse, and had a direct ten- 

 dency to heighten each other's power ; while ingenuity soon taught the 

 more dexterous of the tribes to imitate musical sounds by the invention of 

 the simple instrument of pipes and rebecks. The Greek philosophers in- 

 geniously and perhaps correctly ascribed the first carols of the human voice 

 to an imitation of the wild notes of the birds ; and the first idea of musical 

 instruments to the occasional whispers of the breeze among beds of hollow 

 reeds. Lucretius has expressed himself upon this subject with so much 

 sweetness, that I lament the constraint I feel under of quoting him before 

 V a popular audience rather in a translation than in his native beauty and ele- 

 gance ; yet the following verses will, I presume, give a faint idea of the 

 high merit of the original. 



And from the liquid warblings of the birds 

 Learn'd they their first rude notes, ere music yet 

 To the rapt ear had tuned the measured verse ; 

 Aud Zephyr, whispering through the hollow reeds, 

 Taught the first swains the hollow reeds to sound ; 

 Whence woke they soon those tender trembling-tones 

 Which the sweet pipe, when by the fingers press'd, 

 Pours o'er the hills, the vales, the woodlands wild, 

 Haunts of lone shepherds and the rural gods. 



Thus soothed they every care, with music thus 

 Closed every meal, ff»r rests the bosom then. 

 And oft they threw them on the velvet grass, 

 Near gliding streams, by shadowy trees o'er-arch'd, 

 And, though no gold was theirs, found still the means 

 To gladden life. But chief when genial Spring 

 Led forth her laughing train, and the young year 

 Painted the meads with roseate flowers profuse,—- 

 Then mirth, and wit, and wiles, and frolic, chief 



