ftile of most of these pieces. In truth they have no character or meaning at all. The authors of them are little concerned. what fubject they choose, their fingle view being to excite the furprise and admiration of their hearers. This they do by the moft unnatural and wild excurfions, that have not the remoteft tendency to charm the ear or affect the heart. In many passages they are grating to the ear when performed by the best hands, but in others they are perfectly intolerable.

A new ftile of compofition has lately been cultivated in Italy, and greatly promoted in Britain, particularly by one perfon of rank. The prefent fashion is to admire this, and to defpife Corelli as wanting fpirit and variety. The truth is, Corelli's excellence confifts in the chastity of his compofition, in the richnefs and sweetness of his harmonies; the other pleafes by its fpirit and a wild luxuriancy, which makes an agreeable variety in a concert but poffeffes too little of the elegance and pathetic expreffion of mufic, to remain long the public taste.

Though mufic, confidered in its ufeful application, to delight the ear and touch the paffions of the bulk of mankind, requires the utmost fimplicity, yet confidered as an art capable of giving a lafting and varied enjoyment to the few, who from a ftronger natural tafle devote part of their time and a tention to its cultivation, it both admits, and requires variety, and even fome degree of complication. Not only the ear becomes more delicate by cultivation, but the mufical taste.

When the ear becomes acquainted with a variety of melodies, it begins by degrees to relifh others, befides thofe which are national. A national melody may have expreffions for only a few affections. A cultivated and enlarged tafte easily adopts a greater variety of expreffions for thefe and other affections, and learns from the deepeft receffes of harmony, to exprefs fome, unknown to every national mufic.

When one practifes mufic much, the fimplicity of melody tires the ear. When he begins to hear an air he was formerly acquainted with, he immediately recollects the whole, and this anticipation prevents his enjoying it. He requires therefore the affiftance of harmony, which, without hurting the melody,. gives a variety to the mufic, and fometimes renders the melody more expreffive. Practice enables one to trace the subject of a complex concerto, as it is carried through the feveral parts, which to a common ear is an unmeaning jumble of founds. Diftinct from the pleasure which the ear receives here from the mufic, there is another which arifes from the perception of the contrivance and ingenuity of the compofer. The enjoyment, it muft be owned, is not of that heart-felt kind which fimple mufic can only give, but of a more fober and fedate kind, which proves more lafting and it must be confidered that whatever

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touches

touches the heart or the paffions very fenfibly, must be applied with a very judicious and very fparing hand. The sweetest and fulleft chords must be feldom repeated, otherwife the certain effect is fatiety and difguft. They who are beft acquainted with the human heart, need not be told that this obfervation is not confined to mufic.

• On the whole we may obferve, that mufical genius confifts in the invention of melody fuited to produce a defired effect on the mind. Musical tafte confifts in conducting the melody with fpirit and elegance, in fuch a manner as to produce this fingle effect in its full force.

Judgment in mufic is fhewn by adapting fuch harmonious accompanyments to the melody as may give it a variety without deftroying its fimplicity; in the preparation and refolution of difcords, and the artful tranfitions from one key to another. -Tafte in a performer confifts in a knowledge of the compofer's defign, and expreffing it in at fpirited and pathetic manner, without any view of fhewing the dexterity of his own execution. But though all thefe circumftances of composition and performance fhould concur in a piece of mufic, yet it must always fail in affecting the paffions, unless its meaning and direction be ascertained by adapting it to fentiment and pathetic compofition. It exerts its greateft powers when ufed as an affiftant to poetry: hence the great fuperiority of vocal to inftrumental mufic: the human voice is capable of more juftness, and a more delicate mufical expreffion, than any inftrument whatever; the perfection of an inftrument depending on its neareft approach to it.-Vocal mufic is much confined by the language it is performed in. The harmony and sweetness of the Greek and Italian languages gives them great advantages over the English and French, which are harsh, unmusical, and full of confonants; and this among other inconveniences occafions perpetual facrifices of the quantity to the modulation. This is one great caufe of the flightnefs and want of variety of the French mufic, which they in vain endeavour to cover and fupply by laboured and complex accompanyments.-As vocal mufic is the firft and most natural mufic of every country, it is reafonable to expect fome analogy between it and the poetry of the country, to which it is always adapted.-The great fuperiority of the Scotch fongs to the English may in a great meafure be accounted for from this principle. The Scotch fongs are fimple and tender, full of strokes of nature and paffion :So is their mufic.-Moft of the English fongs abound in quaint and childish conceits. They all aim at wit, and fometimes attain it; but mufic has no expreffion for wit, and the mufic of their fongs is therefore flat and infipid, and fo little esteemed by the English themselves, that it is in a perpetual fluctuation, and

has

has never had any characteristic ftile. On the other hand, England has produced many admirable compofers of church mufic. Their great attachment to counterpoint has often led them into a wrong track; in other refpects, they have shewn both genius and tafte. Religion indeed opens the ampleft field for mufical, as well as poetical genius, it produces almost all the variety of fubjects, which mufic can exprefs, the fublime, the joyous, the chearful, the ferene, the devout, the plaintive, the forrowful. It likewife warms the heart with that enthusiasm fo peculiarly neceffary in all works of genius. Accordingly the fineft compofitions in mufic we have, are in the church ftile. Handel far advanced in life, when his conftitution and fpirits feemed nearly exhaufted, was fo roufed by this fubject, that he exhibited proofs of extent and fublimity of genius in his Meffiah, fuperior to any he had fhewed in his moft vigorous and happy period of life. We have another inftance of the fame kind in Marcello, a noble Venetian, who fet the first fifty pfalms to mufic. In this work he has united the fimplicity and pathos of the ancient mufic with the grace and variety of the modern. In compliance with the taste of the times he was fometimes forced to leave that fimplicity of ftile which he loved and admired, but by doing fo he has enriched the art with a variety of the most expreffive and unufual harmonies. The great object in vocal mufic is to make the mufic expreffive of the fentiment. How little this is ufually regarded appears by the practice of finging all the parts of a fong to the fame mufic, though the fentiments. and paffions to be expreffed be ever fo different. If the mufic has any character at all, this is a manifest violation of taste and common fenfe, as it is obvious every different fentiment and paffion fhould be expreffed in a ftile peculiarly fuited to itself. But the most common blunder in compofers, who aim at expreffion, is their mistaking imitation for it.-'

Our Author's defign in what he has advanced on this fubject is to fhew, that the principles of tafte in mufic, like thofe of the other fine arts, have their foundation in nature and common fenfe; that these principles have been grofsly violated by those unworthy hands to whofe direction alone this delightful art is entrusted; and that men of sense and genius fhould not imagine they want an ear or a musical taste, because they do not relish much of the modern mufic, as in many cafes this is rather a proof of the goodness both of the one and the other.

Having made fome obfervations on the real objects produced by a cultivated tafte in fome of the fine arts, he proceeds to confider its influence on the pleasure arifing from fuch works of genius as are in a particular manner addreffed to the imagination and the heart. After this he goes on to confider that principle of human nature which feems in a particular manner the characteristic

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racteristic of the fpecies, viz. the fenfe of religion. And here he does not enquire into the evidence of religion, as founded in truth; he only examines it as a principle founded in human nature, and the influence it has, or may have, on the happiness e mankind. His obfervations on this fubject appear to be very pertinent and inftructive; and it is with difficulty we can refift the temptation to enrich our collection with fome of them: but we have already extended the article to a length proportionate to fo fmall a volume, though, perhaps, not to the importance of the matter which it contains. With regard to the language of this performance, though it comes from a northern pen, we perceive in it few Scotticifms; prefently poffeft,' p. 4, for poffed at prefent, being the moft material defect of this kind that hath occurred to our notice.

R.

Dialogues of the Dead*. The Fourth Edition, corrected. To which are added, Four new Dialogues. 8vo. 5s. Sandby..

WE

WE have had occafion, in our account of former Dialogues, to take notice of the difficulty of excelling in the colloquial way of writing, which, for reafons there fpecified, has been fo little cultivated in our language; and we expreffed our doubt whether the method of dialogue is well adapted to fuch fubjects as require deep inveftigation, and a connectivechain of reafoning.

The additional dialogues now before us do not remove our doubts in this respect but rather tend to convince us that this mode of compofition is not fuited to the difcuffion of grave and; weighty points of argument; for, the frequent interruptions neceffary to keep up the fpirit of dialogue, too often withdraw. our thoughts, and do not produce conviction fo readily, in minds endued with a habit of attention, as a more clofe and connected method of writing. In fhort, the way of colloquy: feems better calculated to ridicule error, than to illuftrate truth.

With respect to the four additional dialogues under present confideration, they are in no degree inferior to those which precede them. The first contains many juft and entertaining reflections. Cæfar being hard preffed by Scipio, who concludes from Cæfar's own relation, that the aim of all his actions was tyranny, makes the following answer:

Let us not deceive ourfelves with feund's and names-That' great minds should afpire to fovereign power is a fixed law of

The author, Lord LYTTELTON.

See Review, Vol. XXI. p. 35, and Vol. XXII. p. 409..

nature,

nature. It is an injury to mankind, if the highest abilities are not placed in the highest ftations. Had you, Scipio, been kept down by the Republican jealousy of Cato the Cenfor, Hannibal would have never been recalled out of Italy, nor defeated in Africk. And if I had not been treacherously murdered by the daggers of Brutus and Caffius, my fword would have avenged the defeat of Craffus, and added the empire of Parthia to that of Rome. Nor was my government tyrannical. It was mild, humane, and bounteous. The world would have been happy under it, and wished its continuance: but my death broke the pillars of the public tranquillity, and brought upon the whole empire a direful scene of calamity and confufion.

Scipio. You fay that great minds will naturally aspire to fovereign power. But, if they are good, as well as great, they will regulate their ambition by the laws of their country. The laws of Rome permitted me to afpire to the conduct of the war against Carthage; but they did not permit you to turn her arms against herself, and fubject her to your will. The breach of one law of liberty is a greater evil to a nation than the lofs of a province; and, in my opinion, the conqueft of the whole world would not be enough to compenfate for the total lofs of their freedom.'

Cæfar not knowing how to evade the force of thefe arguments, recriminates on Scipio:

You talk finely, Africanus-but ask yourself, whether the height and dignity of your mind, that noble pride which accompanies the magnanimity of a hero, could always ftoop to a nice conformity with the laws of your country? Is there a law of liberty more effential, more facred than that, which obliges every member of a free community to fubmit himfelf to a trial, upon a legal charge brought against him for a public mifdemeanour? In what manner did you anfwer a regular accufation from a tribune of the people, who charged you with embezzling the money of the ftate? You told your judges, that on that day you had vanquished Hannibal and Carthage, and bade them follow you to the temples to give thanks to the Gods. Nor could you ever be brought to ftand a legal trial, or justify thofe accounts, which you had torn in the fenate, when they were queftioned there by two magiftrates in the name of the Roman people. Was this acting like the subject of a free state? Had your victory procured you an exemption from juftice? Had it given into your hands the money of the republic without account? If it had, you were king of Rome. Pharfalia, Thapfus, and Munda, could do no more for me.'

After fome altercation, Scipio is brought to the following confeffion :

I acknowledge, my conduct in that bufinefs was not absoBb 4 lutely