MUSI C. 
4 
'288 
It has been ingenioufly fabled, that Apollo was the 
god of mulic, becaufe he had invented it: this allegory 
alighted pleafantly upon the mind of thofe who firft dis¬ 
covered a lingular, but yet inexplicable, fimilarity between 
the heptachord lyre and the feven planets fuppofed to 
“ keep their choral duties around the fun.” The dis¬ 
tances between the notes in the diapafon and the lituation 
of the planets refpedlively to the fun were eagerly calcu¬ 
lated, and celeftial harmony was placed upon the fame 
level with terreftrial melody. In more modern times, the 
three principal colours of the fun-beam with their four 
accidental and prifmatic intermediate tints, were alfo 
•found to bear analogy to the heptachord ; and again the 
melody of founds was thought connefted with the har¬ 
mony of the univerfal creation. But, as the. fun is 
equally the author of colours, fince no colours exill 
without light, and as the fun was fuppofed to be the 
key-note of aftronomical harmony, we mult draw this 
natural concluiion, that it was not without fome allow¬ 
able ground that Apollo laid claim to the authorfhip of 
harmony. 
Another god alfo prelents himfelf as a candidate for 
the honour of having invented the vocal lhell. Whether 
the iounding body of his inftrument was the Ikull of a 
bull, or the convex fhelter of the land-tortoile, we leave 
to antiquaries to decide,; but ancient monuments repre¬ 
sent him with a lyre compofed of either. The queition 
with us at prefent might be, why the cunning youth, who, 
by the charms of his performance upon the eloquent 
wires, lulled afleep the hundred-eyed keeper of the be¬ 
loved of Jove, the Egyptian Io, is pronounced the firft 
mufical inftrument maker in mythological lore. The 
reafon being obvious, the anfwer is eafy: Ought not the 
melfenger of the gods to have been fupernaturally en¬ 
dowed with the molt perfuafive eloquence ? and was 
not mufic fuppofed to have been the molt powerful 
engine to foften the mind, and captivate the heart? Mon¬ 
taigne, in his far-renowned but leldom-read Eflays, men¬ 
tions, that his father, anxious to harmonize his mind, and 
calm the natural irritability of infancy, ordered that he 
never fhould be awakened from his morning ftumbers 
but by the lofteft melody of mulical inftruments. An¬ 
cient and even modern fabts, unfupported by the beau¬ 
tiful imagery of Greek and Roman fancy, coincide to 
prove the great credit in which mufic was at all times 
held. And to conclude with a tranfcendent proof: 
whenever man, in a grateful fenfe towards the Divinity, 
or under the itnprellion of fear, wanted to addrefs his 
Creator, he had recourfe to mufic. Elence the hymns of 
Orpheus, of Homer, and of thoufands of poets before 
them; hence the conftant attendance of lki 1 fu 1 muficians 
at the altars of Delphi, of Ephefus, and of the Capitol ; 
hence the introdublion of mufic in Chriftian churches 
from the earlieft period to this very day ; fo that our 
prayers to the Deity feem as it were to obtain a palfport to 
heaven from the infinuating melody of this celeftial art. 
PROGRESSIVE HISTORY OF MUSIC. 
The antiquity of mufic as a Icience, is fo well known, 
that it difdains the aid of formal proof. Among the 
ancients, the prieft, the prophet, the poet, and the muii- 
cian, were frequently united in the fame perfon, and 
from the earlieft ages mufic had adifaifiion in the religious 
ceremonies, public feftivals, military eftablifhments, fune¬ 
ral rites, and private amulements, of mankind. 
It appears both by facred and profane, hiftory, that 
mufic was one of the firft arts known to mankind. Mufi- 
cal inftruments were in ule before the flood; for Jubal is 
laid to be the father of all Jack as handle the harp and 
organ. Gen. iv. ai. We have the authority of Mofes, 
and the teftimony of the moll ancient and refpe&able 
hiftorians, to prove that Egypt was one of the firft coun¬ 
tries in the known world which cultivated the arts and 
fciences. The wonderful remains of the pyramids of 
Egypt lliow, that architecture was known to the Egyp¬ 
tians, and brought by them to the higheft degree of mag¬ 
nificence. They recorded all new inventions upon co¬ 
lumns or pillars; and upon lome of their moft ancient 
obelilks mufical inftruments are reprefen ted- In the Cam¬ 
pus Martius at Rome, there is at" this time an obeiifk, 
fuppofed to have been erebted at ancient Thebes, by Se- 
foftris, near four hundred years before the Trojan war; 
among other hieroglyphics, is reprefen ted a mufical in¬ 
ftrument conftrubted to take two firings, with a neck 
to it. Of this curious inftrument we fliall give a figure, 
with a more particular defeription, under the head Musi¬ 
cal Instruments. 
To endeavour to trace the fcience of mufic to a more 
remote fource than the hiftory of Egypt, would be with¬ 
out effect. The Greeks unanirnouily acknowledge, that 
moft of the ancient mufical inftruments were of their 
inventing. Mufic was in fuch great eftimation among 
the people of this country, that through this medium 
their children were taught letters; the longs were fet¬ 
tled by law, and a certain fpecies of mulic was eftablilhed 
by government, exclulive of all others. They divided 
the inhabitants of their country into calls or tribes, con¬ 
fining each profefllon to one family; and, as mufic was 
for many ages confined to the priefthood, the Hebrews, 
who adopted many of their cuftoms, made the offices of 
priefts, levites, and mulicians, hereditary in the tribe of 
Levi. The-Lacedemonians likewile agreed with the 
Egyptians, and confined the profeffion of mufic to one 
family; and their priefts, like thole of Egypt, were 
taught medicine and mufic, and initiated into religious 
mylteries. After the Egyptians became lubjebl to the 
Perlians, the arts and fciences lay dormant for a long 
time; but under the Ptolomies, particulary the feventh 
king of that name, mufic, together with the other arts of 
Greece, was'received in Egypt, and greatly encouraged 
at the court of Alexandria, and continued to be culti¬ 
vated till the final dilfolution of the empire. 
As to vocal mufic, it being the voice of nature, there 
is no doubt but it is coeval with mankind. Who gave 
the birds that power of long, with which the woods re- 
found ? Who taught the nightingale the various notes 
of long? Nature ! that miltrefs of mufic, who taught 
from the beginning all who have the power of melo¬ 
dious founds. 
If we perufe the Holy Bible, we fliall be convinced 
from the higheft authority, that mulic from the earlieft 
ages was in general ule. But, though Jubal is mentioned 
fo foon in the Pentateuch, yet he could have- lived but a 
lhort time, before the deluge, A. M. 1656 ; confequently 
the world mult have been peopled many centuries before 
the invention took place. And with refpedt to the in¬ 
ftrument called an organ in the Englith verfion of this 
paffage, it mull not be imagined that fuch a noble and 
complicated machine is there implied aS~ the prefent 
inftrument of that name. In the Hebrew it is called 
huggah, which, fay the commentators, was a kind of 
fyrinx, or fiftula. The Septuagint, inltead of harp and 
organ, has plaltery and cithara. Hence it appears that the 
tranflators, ancient anti modern, of all parts of the world, 
not knowing what were the real form's and properties of 
the Hebrew inftruments, have given to them -the names of 
fuch as were of the molt common ufe in their own coun¬ 
tries. 
No mention, however, is made in the fcriptures of the 
practice'of mufic, till more than fix hundrecT years after 
the deluge. But in Genefis xxxi. the 26th and 27th 
verfes, about 1739 years before Chrift, according to the 
Hebrew chronology, both vocal and inftrumental mufic 
are fpoken of as things in common ufe. “ And Laban 
laid to Jacob, What haft thou done, that thou haft ftolen 
away unawares to me, and carried away my daughters, as 
captives taken with the fword ? Wherefore didft thou 
flee away lecretly, and Ileal away from me ? and didft not 
tell me, that I might have fent thee away with mirth and 
with Jongs , with tab ret cud with harp l" Laban was a 
Syrian, 
