of their commanders had failed.. Yet, to the ears of an Englishman, a more unmeaning combination of confused tones than the Pibrach, can hardly be conceived; and certainly none lefs likely to "make the warrior's fpirit come." Even the fimpleft melodies of the Scotch highlanders are deftitute of expreffion, to thofe not accuftomed to them. The prefent writer has confeffed himself to be no judge of mufic; but, in the fummer of 1792, he paft many weeks in the highlands of Scotland, where, in company with persons of the moft delicate ears, he had occafion to hear all the varieties of highland mufic; and every one of the party-low-country Scotchmen as well as natives of England-declared that it had no expreffion*. To the natives, however, it certainly had; obviously awakening very different fympathies, according to the quicknefs or flownefs of its measures, and the fweetnefs or harfhnefs of its tones, exemplifying, in a ftriking manner, the truth of the following obfervation.

"The primitive mufic of all nations is, I believe, of this fentimental kind; mufic, as well as painting and poetry, being in its principle an imitative art; and though fcience may delight in that various and complicated harmony, which difplays the skill of the compofer, and the dexterity of the performer, without either pleafing the fenfe, or touching the heart; yet, the mafs of mankind, I believe, never find any gratification in mufic, but fuch as arifes either from sweet tones, pleafing combinations, or fuch modulations, as either through instinctive feeling, or habitual affociation, awaken pleasing fympathies. The first of these is a senfual, and the fecond a fentimental pleafure; while that, which is peculiarly felt by the learned, may be properly called an intellectual pleafure." P. 48.

The author proceeds to point out the difference between the melody of mufic and that of poetry; but he does not

We must requeft the reader to obferve, that nothing is here. faid of the national mufic of the low-country Scotch, which is, we believe, almoft univerfally admired for its fentimental expreffion; and we beg leave to remind the highlander, that we are far from cenfuring his favourite mufic, though we are of opinion that it owes its effects in a great meafure to early affociations. This we believe to be the cafe with refpect to all ancient mufic; and if the low-country mufic of Scotland be more generally relished by foreigners than the mufic of the highlands, it does not therefore follow that it is in itfelf more exquifite, but that in its tones it more refembles that mufic which, in the minds of foreigners, is affociated with pleafing fentiments.

feem

seem to be master of this part of his fubject. It is, we believe, true that articulation is almost always partially fuppreff ed in finging English verfes; but we do not believe that this was the cafe in finging the verfes of ancient Greece and Rome. English verfe is, indeed, compofed of feet as well as the verfe of the Greeks and Romans; but the former depends upon the ictus of the voice in pronouncing particular fyllables, and the latter on quantity, or the lengthening and fhortening of fyllables when uttering them. To an English ear, Greek or Latin verfe, read as it was undoubtedly read by those to whom the language was vernacular, would appear to be, and in fact would be, a kind of recitative or musical chant it is fo, as read by Italians, and fuch old Scotchmen*, as pay any attention to quantity; and read, as it is read by us, it would appear to an old Greek or Roman, a kind of meafured profe rather than verfe. Our way of reading verse, compared with that of the ancients, refembles the regulated movements of a well beaten drum, when compared with the melody of a flute or any other musical inftrument, on which the notes are prolonged as well as the measure obferved; but, though it would be improper to call the beating of a drum melodious, it seems not to be adverse to melodious founds in other inftruments. The beating of a drum alone affords a very confiderable gratification to the ears even of children; and, therefore, we are furprised that the author fhould fay;

"It appears to me, that the most melodious verfification af fords very little, if any at all, of mere fenfual gratification;

We fay old Scotchmen, because our countrymen on the other fide of the Tweed, who have laudably endeavoured to acquire the English pronunciation of the language which both nations speak, unavoidably employ English accents, as we do, in reading Greek or Latin poetry. Thus we take it for granted, that a Scotchman of the prefent age, would pronounce the firft line of Virgil's Eclogue, as we do, thus;

Tityre tú pátulæ récubans fúb tégmine fági ; but the prefent writer, in the year to which he has already referred, met with a very learned Scotchman of great age, who, with an attention to quantity not generally paid by his countrymen, read the lines thus ;

Tityre tu pătulãe recubāns füb tegmine fagi; dwelling on every one of the vowels that are marked long, and ftrongly accenting them; while he paffed over the others with the utmost rapidity.

the

the regularity of metre or rhyme being rather calculated to affift memory and facilitate utterance, than to please the ear.” P. 43.

This is furely a mistake. We have read to a boy of a delicate ear, paffages of Virgil's Eneid and of Cicero's Orations. As he underflood not one word of either, it cannet be fuppofed that he reaped much gratification either from the poet or the orator; but he declared, without hesitation, that he was better pleased to hear the former than the latter; and it is needlefs to add, that his pleasure, however great or however fmall, muft have have been wholly fenfual.

The prefent author contends, however, that this pleasure cannot be the pleasure of organic fenfe, though communicated through the organs of hearing, because

"The fame metre, regulated by the fame accentuation, and conftituted, in every refpect, upon the fame principle, is in one. language appropriated to ferious and tragic, and, in another, to ludicrous and frivolous fubjects; and the propriety of its ufe in each is equally felt by those who are equally familiar with both.

And,

"Thus faid to my lády the knight full of care"

Je chante le heros qui regna fur la France,"

flow exactly in the fame time and tune, and are equally fupported by correfponding rhymes in the lines, that refpectively follow; and yet, to the fame ears, and independent of the fenfe, there is fomething in the flow of the one, light and ludicrous, and in that of the other, grave and folemn.” P. 52.

That it is not independent of the fenfe, that the flow of the former of thefe verfes is light and ludicrous, will, perhaps, be apparent from a comparifon of it with the following line:

"See wild as the winds, o'er the défert he flies;"

which flows exactly in the fame time and tune, and yet fuggefts to the mind, ideas far removed from levity. But were the two lines repeated to a perfon who knows nothing either of Hamilton's Bawn, or of Pope's Ode to Mufic, the former would not appear to him peculiarly ludicrous, nor the latter defcriptive of defpair; whilft the regulated movements of both would furely give him fome degree of that pleasure, which Mr. Knight calls fenfual. Pope, who paid more attention to his own maxim, that "the found fhould be an echo to the fenfe," than perhaps any other English, poet ap

plies however on many occafions, the very fame flow of numbers to folemn as to trifling fubjects. Thus, the oath which Achilles fwears by his fceptre, as tranflated by him, runs in the fame measure, with the oath, which, in the Rape of the Lock, the peer fwears by the ravifhed hair of Belinda; and the verfes in both oaths are undoubtedly pleafing to a delicate ear. The former, however, fuggests terrible, and the latter, the moft ludicrous images. There are, indeed, numberlefs paffages in the Rape of the Lock of the utmost levity, which have the very fame flow with the most awful and fublime paffages of the tranflation of the Iliad *; fo that it is indifputably from the fenfe, and not from the found, that the former are ludicrous, and the other folemn.

When the author returns from mufic to the philofophy of found, he is at home; and the following obfervations are incontrovertible.

"The mere fenfe of hearing can afford us no information concerning the diftance or direction of a fonorous object, which can only be perceived by a faculty acquired entirely by habit; though by being habitual, the exercise of it has become as fpontaneous and inftantaneous, as that of any natural or organic faculty belonging to our conftitutions. If this needed any proof, and was not clearly demonftrated by the formation of the organs, the common trick of a ventriloquift, who can make the found of his voice appear to come in any direction, or from any distance within the reach of its being heard, would be fully fufficient: for this effect is produced merely by modifying it, as it would be modified to the ear, if it had really come in that direction, or in that distance." P. 54.

The concluding paragraph of this chapter is partly just, and partly erroneous. There is certainly no grandeur or fublimity in the mere loudnefs of found, but much of what follows cannot be admitted.

"No one ever imagined the beating of a child's drum, or the rattling of a carriage over ftones, to be grand or fublime. But artillery and lightning are powerful engines of deftruction; and with their power we fympathife, whenever the found of them excites any fentiments of fublimity; which is only when we apprehend no danger from them; or at leaft no degree of danger fufficient to imprefs fear: for fo far is terror from being a fource of the

In those inftances, however, where parody is intended, this fimilarity of found in itfelf augments the ludicrous effect, and was intended to do so.

fublime,

fublime, that the finallest degree of fear inftantly annihilates it, as far as relates to the perfon frightened; and to that perfon only is the object terrible." P. 55.

In thefe obfervations on the effects of terror, the author feems to contra lict himfelf. If the fmalleft degree of fear be fufficient to annihilate the fublime, it is not caly to be conceived how any thunder-ftorm can excite fentiments of sublimity. Thunder growling at an immenfe distance, hardly excites fach feniments; and thunder, which inftantly follows the flash of lightning cannot be heard without the apprehenfion of fome danger, nor can danger be apprehended without exciting fome degree of fear. A raging fea viewed from the shore is a fublime object; but it is much more fublime to a man of firm nerves who is failing on it in a stout veffel well manned. If, indeed, terror be impreffed to fuch a degree as to withdraw the attention from every thing but felf-prefervation, or to excite fentiments of defpair, fublimity will be inftantly annihilated; but fuch a degree of fear as, though diftin&tly felt, leaves a man perfectly mafter of himfelf, undoubtedly increafes the fablime.

This author's philofophy of vifion is, on the whole, correct, though his language is fometimes inaccurate. It is not true that the fenfation, felt upon opening the eyes for the first time, must neceffarily be that of the objects feen touching them; for, to a man born blind, and fuddenly made to fee, the new fenfations which he would experience, could fuggeft the idea of no objects, unless as much of the nature of vifion as a blind man can be made to understand, were previoufly explained to him. A man born blind, and unexpectedly made to fee without undergoing any operation, would, indeed, feel fenfations, which he had never felt before; but it is not conceivable that he could trace them to any external object as their caufe; and we doubt, if at firft he would even conírder the eye as their organ. They would feem to him (as in truth they are) no other than a new set of thoughts or fenfations, each whereof is as new to him, as the perceptions of pain or pleasure, or the moft inward paffions of his foul *." This, we have no doubt, is what the author meant to say,*

*See Berkeley's Efay towards a New Theory of Vision, a work, in which the metaphyfics of vifion, if we may fo fay, are more ably and perfpicuously treated than in any other work with which we are acquainted; Dr. Reid's valuable Inquiry into the Human Mind, c. not excepted.

though