other vowel may be annexed to the The evolutions of the organs of The mufical horn-book I recommend fhould be on one sheet of paper, and on one fide of the fheet, to have a full view of that fcience which will affift the memory, and that it may be pofted as the one leaf almanacks to be an invitation to learn. The compofer of a work of fuch univerfal benefit, will, I hope, be gratified with a premium, although it should not be bid before-hand, after the manner of the Chinese, by whose policy new inventions are rewarded in proportion to their utility, though no previous ordonnance were made for that purpofe, whereby useful difcoveries are not dormant and unminded, nor ungenerously concealed, fo as to die fometimes with the inventor. only requifite to write one letter: for each note, half notes to be di-, ftinguished by a dot on the right fide of the letter, for example (d.). More music may be learnt by this regular method in a year, than in two years by the irregular. Remarks on our cathedral and parochial mufic: From Dr. Brown's differtation on Poetry and Mufic.· OUR facred poetry, fung in the cathedrals, is tranfcribed strictly from the holy fcriptures, and most commonly from the book of Pfalms; except only the Te Deum, which is one of the most ancient and approved hymns of the church. This reftriction, by which no hymns of new invention are admitted as a part of divine fervice, we owe to the grand reformation. This opened to us the fountain of the facred writings, which had be fore been locked up, as in Italy. From the fame caufe, our anthems are likewife given in our own tongue; which, though not so vay rious as the Latin, is yet generally round and fonorous, clearly ac cented and capable of being adapted to a variety of musical expreffions. But while we juftly admire the facred poetry of our cathedral fervice, muft we not lament the ftate of it in our parochial churches, where the cold, the meagre, the difgufting dulnefs of Sternhold and his companions, hath quenched all the poetic fire, and devout majesty of the royal pfalmift yo ba, ya, ja, fa,The character of our cathedral music is of a middle kind: not of the firft rank, in the great quality of expreffion; not yet to improper or abfurd, as to deferve a general A mufical alphabet. Double treble. A, e, is Oy Us J Tenor. Ra, la, fa, za, wa, va... E Bafs.how ka, ga, da, ta, Den nd ba, pasta a N. B. In compofition, it will be na, mas reprobation. reprobation. Too ftudious a re gard to Fugues, and an artificial counterpoint appears in the old, and too airy and light a turn, to the neglect of a grand fimplicity, in the new: two extremes, which tend equally, though from oppofite caufes, to destroy musical expreffion. Yet, there are paffages in Purcell's anthems, which may fairly ftand in competition with thofe of any compofer, of whatever country. There are others, who may justly claim a confiderable fhare of praise. Handel ftands eminent in his greatness and fublimity of ftile. Our parochial mu fic, in general, is folemn and devout, much better calculated for the performance of a whole convention of improprieties. A pa gregation, than if it were more broken and elaborate. In country churches, wherever a more artificial kind hath been imprudently attempted, confufion and diffo nance are the general confequence. The performance of our cathe dral mufic is defective: we have no grand established choirs of priefs, as in France, whofe dignity of character might, in a proper degree, maintain that of the divine fervice. This duty is chiefly left to a band of lay-fingers, whofe rank and education are not of weight to preserve their profeffion from contempt. The performance of our parochial pfalms, though in the villages it be often as mean and meagre as the words that are fung, yet in great towns, where a good organ is fkilfully and devoutly em→ ployed, by a fenfible organift, the union of this inftrument with the voices of a well-inftructed congres gation, forms one of the grandeft fcenes of unaffected piety that hus man nature can afford. The res verse of this appears, when a company of illiterate people form them? felves into a choir, diftinct from the congregation. Here devotion is loft between the impotent vanity of thofe who fing, and the ignorant wonder of thofe who liften. The anthem, with refpect to its fubject, neither needs nor add mits of improvement; being drawn from the facred fcriptures. A pro-1 per felection of words for mufic is, indeed, a work of importance here: and though in many inftances this will be well made, yet it were to be wifhed, that fome fu perior judgment would overfee, and fometimes (negatively at least) direct the compofer, for the pre rallel remark will extend itself almoft to the whole book of Pfalms, as they are verfified by Sternhold, for the fervice of parochial churches. There are few ftanzas which do not prefent expreffions to excite the ridicule of fome part of every congregation. This verfion might well be abolished, as it expofeth fome of the nobleft parts of divine fervice to contempt; efpecially as there is another verfion already privileged, which though not excellent, is however, not intolerable. The parochial mufic feems to need no reform: its fimplicity and folemnity fuit well its general deftination; and it is of power, when properly performed, to raile affections of the noblest nature. It were to be wifhed, that the cathedral mufic were always compofed with a proportioned fobriety / and referve. Here, as we have obferved, the whole is apt to degenerate too much into an affair of art. A great and pathetic fimplicity of ad họzi motmoqmco at sa file, 4 mazingly numerous and compli cated nor does the Greek fanguage itfelf exhibit words that are compounded with more fpirit and ingenuity, than are fome of thefe characters. Thefe are the repofitories and vehicles of all the eloquence, learning and knowledge of the Chinefe: which are fo interwoven with thefe characters, that to lay them now afide and to adopt an alphabet only expreffive of their oral language, would be at once to diveft themfelves of their learning, eloquence and knowledge, and to reduce themselves to their primitive ignorance. This may ferve as an anfwer to fuch writers + as inconfiderately object to the Chinefe, their chufing to retain their own arbitrary characters, rather than to adopt an elementary alphabet like other nations. Could they indeed, when they parted with their characters, receive a new language, copious as the Greek, or precife and accurate as fome of the modern ones, they would be gainers by the exchange. But the Chinese oral language, in its prefent uncultivated flate, is (as was faid) unfit for literature, and hence all their proceffes, pleadings and judicial examinations, are wholly tranfact ed by petition and memorial: a method of proceeding beft fuited to the taciturnity of this phlegmatic people. I faid above, the Chinese would be gainers by fuch an exchange; for after all that can be urged in favour of their characters, to them is probably owing the flow progrefs the fciences have made in China, notwithstanding they have been cultivated fo many thoufand years. The finest and moft vi gorous part of human life is spent by the Chinese in learning to read and write. And though in learning to read and write, they learn at the fame time all the arts and fciences, yet before they are masters of the learning already known, the time is pait for making new difcoveries, and they have no longer leifure nor ability to aim at great improvements. After men are paffed a certain time of life the fpirit of enquiry is dulled and blunted; and they are rather tempted to go on in the beaten round their predeceffors have used before them, than to venture on untrodden paths of literature. The Chinese way of writing then, is in this refpect inferior to ours, that it does not fo foon furnish them with the knowledge and learning already provided to their hands. It requires fo much more time andpains for them to climb to the top of the edifice, that when once they have arrived there, they have lefs time or ability to raise it higher. The literature of the Chinese is, we fee, more likely to remain what it is, than to be improved by new acquifitions: and fo peculiarly circumstanced are these people, that it does not seem to be in their power to remedy the inconvenience. What man, or body of men is equal to the talk of newforming a language? And until the Chinese are provided with a new vehicle for their literature, how is it poffible for them to lay afide that in which it is conveyed at prefent? Such an alteration in the language must be made at once, for fo long as the Chinese cultivate their written characters, they have no inducement to im&c. See Lord Anfon's Voyage by Walter, rogues, and the other half to be blockheads; the latter half may be divided into two claffes, the goodnatured blockhead and the fenfible; the one, through an eafiness of temper, is always liable to be ill-ufed; the other, through an excefs of vanity, is frequently expofed to be wretched. Mutual confidence and real friendship are very pretty words, but feldom carry any meaning; no man will entertain an opinion of another, which is oppofite to his own intereft; and a nod from a great man, or a smile from a ftrumpet, will fet a couple of blockheads by the ears, who a moment before would have ventured their lives for each other's reputation." Lord Peterborough dined with me yesterday. I have a highi dea of the goodness of this nobleman's heart, though it may be brought as a proof against my favourite fyftem; but he is of a turn fo exceffively romantic, that I cannot be equally prejudiced in favour of his understanding. I have no notion of a man's perpetually expofing himself to unneceffary dangers for the mere fake of being talked of; or, through a ridiculous thirft for military glory, venturing a life which should be preferved for the fervice of his prince, and the intereft of his country. My motive for faying this you know is neither founded upon pique, nor directed by ill-nature. My lord is a man for whom I have the most perfect regard, and my efteem alone is the reafon why I may be fo extremely fenfible of his errors. I faw Addison this morningSomehow or other, Pope, I can by no means think that man an excellent poet; his profe is very well-but there is a heavinefs about his verfification, which is totally inconfiftent with elegance and fpirit, and which, though it may in the thoughts of fome people carry much judgmeut, is in my opinion a proof of very little genius. I am far, you know, from being fond of eternal epithets in poetry, or endlefs endeavours at fublimity of expreffion; but I would have it exalted a little above profe in the moft humble fpecies, and carry an air of fome dignity and importance. Trivial as the remark may appear, it was very well for a boy of fourteen, who was reading Cato, and coming to that tag which is fo highly celebrated by fome of the author's friends ;' "So the pure limpid ftream when foul with ftains ;" the lad burst into a fit of laughing, and cried, Here is a bull! who ever thought that a tream could be pure and limpid, yet at the fame time foul with ftains? I could not help joining the laugh at the archnefs of the boy's obfervation, tho' the criticifm might feem too low for judgments of more experience and maturity. But why do I entertain a fellow of your abilities in this manner, who are fo greatly a fuperior mafter of the fubject. -I am fomehow fond of fcribling, and become trifling for the fake of fpinning out a letter.If poffible, I fhall take an airing down your way on Saturday, and pray let me have a little leg of lamb, with fome fpinnage and plain butter, to regale on. Where I dine in town they ftarve me with luxury; and I have fat at many a table where I had not a bit of any thing to eat, because I had too 03 Wong much uruch of every thing. You and I The feaft of reafon, and the flow Farewel, dear Pope, And believe me to be your own, BOLINGBROKE. A dissertation on the language and be characters of the Chincfe. IN acountry fo extenfive as China, which is nearly equal to all Europe, it may well be fuppofed there are fpoken more languages than one*. But that which is moft generally used throughout the empire, is what is called (but improperly) the Mandarine language, as if it were peculiar to the magiftrates and the court. The Chinese cail it quâne, that is common, caufe this is the language moft commonly spoken in China. In the northern provinces it is the mother tongue, the very peasants fpeak no other; and it is ufed by all the better kind of people every where else. Although corrupt dialects of this are current in fome of the provinces, and though a language radically different is ufed by the vulgar in others, yet the quane, or Mandarine language, is chiefly to be underflood whenever mention is made of the Chinese tongue m This language, is fo very contracted as to contain buthabout 350 words t, all of one fyllable: but then each of these words is pronounced with fuch various modulations, and hath so many different meanings, that it becomes more copious than one could imagine, and enables them to expreis themselves on the common occafions of life tolerably well. The Chinese never apply this, nor any of their oral languages, to the purposes of literature, for which they are all of them utterly unfit. This is wholly managed by their written characters without any intervention of words or founds at all. Their written characters are to the Chinese what words or founds are to other nations, immediate reprefentatives of ideas. For an alphabet of letters, expreffing the timple founds into which all words may be refolved, has never been adopted by the Chinese nation. ot Whether this happy art of writ ing by an alphabet was the invertion of unaflisted reafon, or the refult of divine inftruction, as fome learned men have not unreasonably conjectured; it feems too refined and artificial to have been the first If expedient of untutored man. we reflect a moment, we shall be convinced, that men must have acquired a habit of reafoning, as well as a deep insight into the nature of fpeech, before they could think of refolving words into all the fimple founds of which they are compofed, and of inventing a particular mark for each diftinct found. A favage would have no idea that the word STRONG, for inftance, which he pronounces at once, fhould confift of fix fimple founds, S.T.R.O.N.G: and that a particular mark is to be invented for each of thefe; from alcombination of which the word is to be expreffed in writing. He would be more apt to fubiitute fome one fimple mark that thould exprefs the whole word at once. And if the Hist. de Acad. Infcript 450. tom. 5. 1729. p. 393. ↑ Bajeri Gram. Sinic. p. 5. (According to P. Du Halde, 339 words.) t a word |