[ 732 ] 
will lead us to the origin of the doCtrines they con- 
tained. 
The objeCt of melopoeia was propriety in the ufe 
of the harmonic elements, as appears from the de- 
finition juft cited. In what this propriety confifted, it 
is difficult to know, as no collection of the rules of 
this fcience is come down to us : it is not to be learnt 
from the harmonic writers, who treat very fiightly 
of this branch; and thofe of them, who are the 
fulleft upon it, as Ariftides Quintilianus and Manuel 
Briennius, wrote in later times, when the faffiion of 
mufic was changed, and a new kind of melopoeia 
prevailed, with the rules of which the earlier mu* 
licians could hardly have been acquainted; as, on 
the other hand, many of the earlier rules muft have 
been forgot, or, in a great meafure, difufed. There 
is more light to be procured from the dialogue of 
Plutarch, and fome others, who fpeak occafionally 
of the practice of mufic. I do not propofe to colleCt 
any thing here upon this fubjeCt, as, indeed, there 
does not feem to be fufficient materials left us for a 
thorough explanation of it, which would require no 
lefs than a complete hiftory of the fcience of its 
mufic, and its improvements : it is fufficient for my 
purpofe to fay, that, in the earlier times, when the 
beft mufic is fuppofed to have prevailed, the genera, 
modes, rhythmi, metres, &c. were not employed 
indifcriminately, nor even left to the difcretion of the 
mufician, but were under particular reftriCtions, which 
confined them to the arguments, to which they were 
held refpeCtively the beft adapted; and that it was 
from the mixture of thefe ingredients, that arofe the 
ethic character of the compofition. Hence the fevers! 
no mi 
