28(5 M U S 
of morals, and Infpirmg the love of virtue. Perhaps, 
however, this was not the refult of a premeditated plan ; 
but infpired by fublime fentiments and elevation of 
thought, which, in accents that were fuited and propor¬ 
tioned to their celeftial nature, endeavoured to find a lan¬ 
guage worthy of themfelves, and expreflive of their gran¬ 
deur. 
It merits attention, that the ancients were duly fenfi- 
ble of the value and importance of this divine art, not 
only as a fymbol of that univerfal order and fymmetry 
which prevails through the whole frame of material and 
intelligent nature, but as productive of the moil momen¬ 
tous effeCts both in moral and political life. “ Pythagoras, 
Archytas, Plato, and all ancient philofophers, held as in¬ 
dubitable, that the liars, and the revolutions of the hea¬ 
vens, could not have been made and fubfift without ac¬ 
cord and harmony.” Plutarch de Mufica, cap. 68. 
And thus our old Englilh poet Heywood : 
The fpheres chime mufic to their Maker’s praifa 
In the world’s firft creation it begun, 
From the word, jFiat, fpoke, and it was done. 
Was found and fvveetnefs, voice and fymphony^ 
Concord, content, and heavenly harmony. 
The three great orders of the hierarchy, 
Servants unto the eternal majelly, 
In their degree of tendons hourly ling, 
Loud hallelujahs to the Almighty King. 
The feraphims, the cherubims, and thrones. 
Potentates, virtues, dominations, 
The principates, archangels, angels, all 
Relound his praife in accents mufical. 
Hierarchy of the Blejfed Angels. 
Plato and Ariftotle, who difagreed almolt in every other 
maxim of politics, are unanimous in their approbation 
of mufic, as an efficacious inftrument in the formation of 
the public charafter and in conducting the ftate; and it 
was the general opinion, that, whillt the gymnaltic exer- 
cifes rendered the conftitution robuft and hardy, mufic 
humanifed the character, and foftened thofe habits of 
roughnefs and ferocity by which men might otherwife 
have degenerated into lavages. 
Since it cannot be denied that, with all its apparent 
anomalies and dilfonances, the whole of the creation is 
founded upon the ffmplelt and yet moll admirable fyllem 
of harmony; and that man, according to our prelent 
knowledge of things, is moll favourably gifted by Pro¬ 
vidence, with regard to the acumen of lenfes, becaufe 
t’nei'e fenfes bring feverally their refults to real’oh, which 
is not the cafe with brutes, although they may boall 
more exquisite organs in themfelves and feparately; we 
ought to conclude that Music mull be congenial to him, 
and that the enjoyment of it, in its natural or artificial 
Hate, is one of the finell endowments he has received 
from the Almighty in the curious and hardly-explicable 
conltruftion of the organ of hearing. Centre of all 
founds, either pleafing or difagreeable, flirill or deep, 
quick or liow, fimple or harmonized with others, from 
the loud peals of thunder down to the flight note of the 
palling gnat; from the harlli gratings of the law to the 
mellow vibrations of the Eolian lyre; from the modu¬ 
lated accent and heart-felt melody of the human voice, 
to the rou'ghelt roarings of the brute; the ear proves a 
miracle of compofttion to the keenelt obferver, the ablell 
anatomifl, and the moll impartial philofopher ; and con- 
llitutes the firfl link in the ever-blefled chain of focial 
enjoyments. It was under the vermeil canopy of the ear, 
in her difcrete and tremulous cells, that the firll warblings 
of infant love, the half-expreffed murmurs of affection, 
the timid fighs of awakening paffion, created the firll and 
bed harmony in the world. It was to the ear that the 
firll words uttered between man and woman conveyed 
the firft mufical as well as rapturoufly-intellebtual founds. 
They vibrated upon the new-born fibres of the ambient 
air, whilll the inltinctive choirs of birds in the woods, 
I c. 
harmonizing with the foft gurglings of the neighbouring 
brook and the rultlings of the foreft-leaves, fang the epi- 
thalamium, the connubial hymn- of our firll parents ; and 
then, O then, Mufic was born! 
Mufic! O thou fweet foother of all woes! 
The tongue of pleafure too—the figh of love. 
When, infant ftill, he whifpers in the grove; 
Or, bolder, walks as his bright taper glows 
On beauty’s form—and eloquent befpeaks 
The time, the place, where, though relublant, yet 
She yields, forgives, nor wilhes to forget.— 
Daughter of heaven ! whence with thy filler, Mirth, 
1 o blefs mankind thou vifited’ll the earth ! 
Thy pow’r unknown ; that deeply felt controul 
Of fiend’rell tunes upon the ftrongeft foul 
Of heroes—when they drown the groans, the fhrieks. 
Of falling nations, rend the doleful air 
With bold triumphant pagans—or fo blithe 
Call to the tripping dance the village fair,. 
Unmindful then of Time’s all-mowing l'cythe.— 
Mufic ! oh ! what art thou ?— 
As long as Innocence continued her abode among the 
inhabitants of the earth, Mufic was their delight, and 
brought raptures to the heart from whofe tranquil re¬ 
cedes it had lprung. No contentions dillurbed the peace¬ 
ful harmony of fociety, and friendlhip with love united 
to perpetuate happinefs. Under this point of view', we 
mull imagine that the golden age of mythology, if it 
ever exilled, mult have been the age of melody and fon°\ 
But, even when corruption had degraded man below the 
level of the brute, it was Hill the province of mufic to 
recal him to his original ftate and priltine dignity. Then, 
under the pleafing garb of allegory, we are told that 
Orpheus bade the moll ferocious beafts of the earth to 
crouch at his feet, and confefs themfelves fubdued by 
the power of mufic in the influence of the vocal lyre. 
The air law with aftoniffiment huge llones and mafly pil¬ 
lars obey the harmonious voice of Amphion at the foun¬ 
dation of Thebes. Lillening with rapture to the lovely 
drains of Arion’s lute, the dumb inhabitants of the 
waters danced around him, and faved his life ; whilll the 
myllery of fire, in the beams of the riling fun, blazed upon 
the brazen llatue of the Egyptian Memnon all the charms 
of harmony. Thus Mythology, in her inllruCtive fables 3 . 
has reprefented mufic-pervading nature through the in- 
comprehenfible miniftry of the elements, and animating 
the whole of the univerfe. The fubterraneous regions 
themfelves, and the grim inhabitants of Tartarus, were 
not infenfible to the delights of melody; and, touched 
by the defolate hulband of Eurydice, the lyre fufpended 
for a few inllants the torments of hell, and Pluto’s im¬ 
placable heart was foftened to mercy. Thus benefited by 
the afiiltance of that daughter of heaven, for Harmony was. 
fupooled one of the firft offsprings qf Ccelus, (Heliod’s 
Theog.) man liftened to more diftant confonances, to 
higher melodies; and fancied he had caught, with Scipio 
in his dream, the founds of celeftial mufic in the fpheres. 
(Cicero’s Somnium Scipionis.) 
Though imaginary, thefe powerful allegories plainly 
demonilrate what an idea the ancients mull have en¬ 
tertained of mufic. We find it praifed every-where in 
their works. Wonders are mentioned; and, were we to 
believe what they traditionally received, and have related, 
not as fables, but fafts, the mind and heart of man were 
but toys tolled up and down at pleafure by the almighty 
pow’er of this heavenly art. Mirth or melancholy', cow¬ 
ardice or courage, love or hatred, jealoufy or fear, hope 
or defpair, fluttered about the tremulous wires of the 
lyre, ifl'ued from the harmonical apertures of the flute, 
ready to fly, to blefs or dillrefs, to wound or comfort, to 
wake or lull to deep, the designated objects; and, ac¬ 
cording to the various modulations of the inftrument, 
liniles or tears appeared inliantaneoufly on the refponfiv.e 
features of the human face. 
Whal. 
