p II I 
100 
only denies its miraculous powers, but its utility on any 
cccafion. We are much of the fame opinion with Philo- 
demus, as to a love for mufic being the attribute of a 
good heart; particularly when we reflect on the paffions 
which Ptolemy Auletes, Nero, and our Henry VIII. had 
for the art; we are then very ready to relinquifh the opi¬ 
nion of Shakefpeare and other poets on the fubjeft. The 
round affertions by Philodemus againft mufic, are the fol¬ 
lowing. 
“It does not produce fuch effe&s on the mind as can 
give rife to nobler manners, or excite diligence. Neither 
is mufic an imitative art, more than cookery. To the 
perception of the ear, enharmonic and chromatic are the 
fame, and their mixtures are the fame, their differences 
being only known to profefl’ors. 
“ The gods do not demand the honour which we be- 
(low : nature impels our mind to beftow it on them : lienee 
the different ceremonies indifferent countries arofe. Mu¬ 
fic, however, was never ordered by them : it is not mufic 
which is ferviceable in worfliip,but rather public prayers: 
it is not known by tradition that mufic was much em¬ 
ployed by the ancients, and never but by particular Greeks 
on particular occafions. In modern times it has become 
a trade, and is admitted as an effential part of religious 
ceremonies, and at the games, which was not the cafe in 
old times. Even if we allow that the gods inflituted 
fpeifacles and fliows in honour of themfelves; yet it does 
not follow that they ordained the addition of mufic. 
“ Mufic gives no additional power to encomiaftic poems: 
and at marriages is introduced merely as cooks add fauce, 
without increafing the real and genuine good of nuptials. 
The effeCt on thefe occafions is produced by the poems, 
not by the mufic : the pafifion of love is not alfifted by the 
union of the two; nor can they really procure any alle¬ 
viation to affliction when epicedia are performed. 
“In the games, the fkill and art may pleafe ; but we 
fhould not mifs it if the dance were removed from the 
drama, as it tends not to honefty or honour; and, as to 
the female dancers, no greater incitement to intemperance 
and licentioufnefs can be imagined.” Opera-dancers, 
then, were the fame 2000 years ago as at prefent. 
“ It is faid, that as fire has in it a burning quality, fo 
mufic has in it fomething that excites to adlion. Hence, 
obferves the abfurd definer, the rowers in veffels, and the 
reapers and the vine-dreffers, worked to the found of 
mufic. While the fong is finging, however, the work¬ 
men reft. 
“ Mufic was never reckoned univerfally neceflary as a 
ftudy or purfuit; nor was Themiftocles acquainted with it. 
“Mufic after entertainments, when the voice and the 
mind are difordered by wine, cannot ftir up the hearers 
to enter into regular converfation. The words of fongs, 
and not the mufic, may animate and purify the minds of 
guefts. 
“ What has been written about mufic, as contributing 
to divine worfliip, may be applied to various arts : the 
cook, the chaplet-weaver, the perfumer, the baker, the 
farmer, the painter, the architeft, and ftatuary, may be 
fuppofed to ferve the fame caufe with equal propriety. 
“ It is ridiculous to fuppofe, that any inarticulate 
founds can difpofe the mind to a fpeculative difpofition, 
with refpedt to ufeful fubjects. No man ever ftudied mu¬ 
fic in order to facilitate his road to tire acquifition of vir¬ 
tue. When the poet and the mufician unite in the fame 
perfon, the hearer’s mind derives advantage from the_/m- 
timents, not from the rhythm of the verfes, or the mufic 
to which they are fung. 
“They are deceived who have aflerted, that the art is 
of real utility to mankind in general. Thofe arts w'hich 
benefit life, fuch as agriculture, weaving, architecture, are 
truiy ufeful; w-hich cannot be faid of what merely de¬ 
lights. It does not appear that mufic corrects the fail¬ 
ings of her own fons ; nor would Damon have made fuch 
an aflertion before the true court of the Areopagites, as he 
did before a fictitious one. The power of giving plea- 
P H I 
fare muft not be confounded with utility ; or elfe philo- 
fophy would perchance be regarded as inferior to mufic 
and many other arts. 
“ The gods did not invent mufic ; but man, by his rea- 
foning powers, taught himfelf finging. The powers of 
reafoningmay invent and teach what is bad, as well as 
what is good. At any rate, mufic did not proceed from 
the gods more than any other art, nor does their worfliip 
demand its aid. 
“ The profeftors of mufic have exalted this art, in or¬ 
der to augment their own confequence; though they are 
generally of low birth, and poor.” 
We take the opportunity of an article upon the efteCts 
of mufic to notice fome very recent enquiries of Sir Eve- 
rard Home (Aug. 1823.) upon the influence of particu¬ 
lar founds upon animals. The refult of his refearches 
feems to prove, that Ill rill tones, or the upper notes of an 
inftrument, have comparatively little effeCt in exciting 
the attention of animals, ivhilft the full lower tones fti- 
mulate them almoftto fury. Sir Everard obferves, “that 
the effeCt of the high notes of the piano-forte upon the 
great lion in Exeter Change, only called his attention, 
which was confiderable, though lie remained filent and 
motionlefs. But no fooner were the lower notes founded, 
than lie fprang up, ladled his tail, and yelled violently, 
and endeavoured to break loofe; and became altogether 
fo furious, as to alarm the fpeCtators prefent. This vio¬ 
lent excitement ceafed with the difcontinuance of the 
mufic. The deep tones of the French horn alfo produced 
a fimilar effect with the lower tones of the piano-forte, on. 
the elephant, and other animals on which the experiment 
was made. 
PHILODES'POT, f. [from the Gr. (piAsw, to love, and 
ht7 r rroTn<;, a mafter.] One who loves his mafter. Cole. 
PHILO'E,-or Phi'le, an enchanting ifland of Egypt, 
on the Nile, in the vicinity of Aflouan or Syene, of which, 
and alfo of its monuments, and of the cataraCts in its 
neighbourhood, we have beautiful drawings in the fecond 
volume of Denon’s Travels. This ifland is about half a 
league round, and was formerly inhabited in common by 
the Ethiopians and Egyptians. Philoe was the entrepot 
of a commerce of barter between Ethiopia and Egypt; 
and, wifliing to give the Ethiopians a high idea of their 
refources and magnificence, the Egyptians (fays Denon) 
had raifed fo many fumptuous edifices on the confines 
and natural frontier of their empire, Syene and the cata¬ 
raCts. The ruins in this ifland, and the miferable fate of 
its inhabitants in confequence of the vifit of the French, 
have been deferibed (from Denon) under the article 
Egypt, vol. vi. p. 343 and 354. 
Mr. Belzoni afterwards vifited this ifland, and formed 
a model of the porticoes of the temple, which he exhibited, 
with other extraordinary curiofities from the fame 
country, in London, in the year 1821. The paintings in 
this portion of thefe extenfive ruins are in greater prefer- 
vation than all the reft, perhaps owing to its being lefs 
expofed to the fun. At the time when Chriftianity-was 
perfecuted in that country by the caliphs, the Chriftians 
retired to perform their worfliip in the molt diftant and 
remote recedes, to efcape the fury of their perfecutors. 
This place, being far from the feat of their rulers, and 
fituated in an ifland of the Nile, among the rocks of gra¬ 
nite which form the firft cataract, was fitted up for a 
Chriftian church ; the four front columns were originally 
joined together by a wall, according to the Egyptian ftyle 
of architecture, which has been thrown down by the 
above-mentioned Chriftians. Some of the crofles are to 
be feen on the columns and near the door, where there is 
a Greek infeription which mentions the circumftance of 
its having been confecrated to that purpofe by a bifhop 
Theodore, at the above epoch. The walls were.covered 
with a cruft of mud, fo as to hide the Egyptian gods from 
the fight of the Chriftians. The heft part of the front wall 
and the door was ftill covered in that manner when Mr. 
Belzoni vifited this place, which he caufed to be feraped 
