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being, and is as sure in its operation, and not less universally binding than that of gravitation.

Each mood or feeling has its own peculiar tone which is universally understood: for example, there is the voice of joy, sadness, fear, anger or hate. The effect of these tones being heightened by prolongation, we have the fierce war-cry, the exultant shout of victory, the wail of desolation, or the infant's soothing lullaby. These feelings may be suggested on occasion, by repetition of the sounds, and herein lies the germ of song:

"For terror, joy, or pity,

Vast is the compass and the swell of notes
From the first babe's cry, to voice of regal city,
Rolling a solemn sea-like bass, that floats
Far as the woodlands, with the trill to blend
Of that shy songstress, whose love-tale
Might tempt an angel to descend

While hovering o'er the moonlight vale.”

The same law which necessitates and renders agreeable certain mathematical ratios of vibration in the production of a single chord, manifests itself even more legibly in rhythm. In every age and country-the savage tribe, refined nation, or the merest child-all classes alike have been sensible to its influence; nor, from the serpentcharming of the east, and the numerous observations made in every part of the world-more particularly those interesting experiments in the Jardin des Plantes at Paris, on elephants, dogs, serpents, &c.—can the lower animals be exempted from this sensibility.

Simple divisions soon give rise to others more complex and artificial. When time is measured by strokes, or motions, we have the origin of dancing, ever inti

mately connected in early times with poetry and music, as it still is among those tribes which are in a state of infancy. By degrees, as civilization advances, the capabilities of each art come to be separately studied; extremes meet, and most things move in circles, so in the modern opera we find them again associated together. The rhythm and prosody of language and music are somewhat similar, and, when associated, mutually aid and illustrate each other. Milton thus writes of their power in union :

"Blest pair of Syrens, pledges of Heaven's joy,
Sphere-born harmonious sisters, Voice and Verse,
Wed your divine sounds, and mix'd power employ→
Dead things with inbreathed sense able to pierce."

“The word, μovoizǹ (the music art), was applied by the Greeks indifferently to melody, measure, poetry, dancing, gesticulation, &c,"1 these being all indebted to mathematics the science, or rather instrument, which treats of the relations of numbers and magnitudes. Of these deep similitudes, or rather this unity in diversity, Bacon writes in the "Advancement of Learning: "Is not the precept of a musician to fall from a discord or harsh accord upon a concord or sweet accord, alike true in affection? Is not the trope of music, to avoid or slide from the close or cadence, common with the trope of rhetoric of deceiving expectation? Is not the delight of the quavering upon a stop in music the same with the playing of light upon the water?

'Splendet tremulo sub lumine pontus.'2

1 See Potter's "Grecian Antiquities."

2 "The sea resplendent with the trembling light."

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Are not the organs of the senses of one kind with the organs of reflection, the eye with a glass, the ear with a cave or strait determined and bounded? Neither are these only similitudes, as men of narrow observation may conceive them to be, but the same footsteps of nature, treading or printing upon several subjects or matters. More fully he writes in the following beautiful and philosophical passage from the "Sylva Sylvarum:"-"There be in music certain figures or tropes, almost agreeing with the figures of rhetoric; and with the affections of the mind and other senses. First, the division and quavering, which please so much in music, have an agreement with the glittering of light; as the moonbeams playing upon a wave. Again, the falling from a discord to a concord, which maketh great sweetness in music, hath an agreement with the affections, which are reintegrated to the better after some dislikes. It agreeth, also, with the taste, which is soon glutted with that which is sweet alone. The sliding from the close or cadence, hath an agreement with the figure of rhetoric, which they call 'Præter expectatum;' for there is a pleasure even in being deceived. The Repeats and Fugues have an agreement with the figures, in rhetoric, of repetition and traduction. The Triplas, and changing of times, have an agreement with the changing of motions; as when Galliard time, and Measure time are in the medley of one dance. It has been anciently held, and observed, that the sense of hearing, and the kinds of music, have most operation upon manners; as to encourage men, and make them warlike; to make them soft and effeminate; to make them grave; to make them light; to make them gentle and inclined to pity, &c. The cause is this: for

that the sense of Hearing striketh the spirits more immediately than the other senses, and more incorporeally than smelling; for the Sight, Taste, and Feeling, have their organs not of so present and immediate access to the spirits, as the Hearing hath. And as for the Smelling, (which, indeed, worketh also immediately upon the spirits, and is forcible while the object remaineth), it is with a communication with the breath or vapour of the object odorate; but harmony entering easily, and mingling not at all, and coming with a manifest motion, doth, by custom of often affecting the spirits, and putting them into one kind of posture, alter not a little the nature of the spirits, even when the object is removed. And, therefore, we see that tunes and airs, even in their own nature, have in themselves some affinity with the affections; as there be merry tunes, doleful tunes, solemn tunes, tunes inclining men's minds to pity, warlike tunes, &c. So it is no marvel if they alter the spirits, considering that tunes have a predisposition to the motion of the spirits themselves. But yet it hath been noted that though this variety of tunes doth dispose the spirits to variety of passions, conform unto them; yet, generally, music feedeth that disposition of the spirits which it findeth. We see, also, that several airs and tunes do please several nations and persons, according to the sympathy they have with their spirits."

This deep, mysterious sympathy would seem to be the bond or condition of union, harmony, perfection, or beauty throughout the whole universe, revealing, as Wordsworth so finely expresses it,

"Pure modulations flowing from the heart

Of Divine love, where wisdom, beauty, truth,
With order dwell in endless youth."

Hence, too, Shakspere saith

"Let rich music's tongue unfold the imagined happiness." And Milton

"Such harmony alone

Can hold all heaven and earth in happier union."

With hearts thus perfectly attuned to such "fair music," our first parents would sing their morning and evening hymns, making Paradise resound with the articulate voice of gladness and praise. "The human voice divine," while revealing the source of song, at the same time gives to music the highest expression of which it is capable. The voice being thus primarily felt and acknowledged as a basis, man, beginning at home, would be led to observe and note those natural sounds which produced similar effects; imitation and accidental discoveries improved upon would continue to receive additions from time to time, till we had the instrumental accompaniment, and, at length, the varied grandeur of the self-sustaining symphony.

Thus, the broken reed whistling in the wind probably first suggested to the shepherd his pandean pipe, syrinx, or mouth-organ; then would follow wind-instruments of every kind, up to the stately organ, with its silver litanies and deep thunder-rolling bass; its simple-flowing modulations, gorgeous symphonies, and intricate fugues of "dark inwoven harmonies" evolved by the masterly touch of a Bach or Mendelssohn. Listening, the spirit is alternately soothed by simple strains of calm angelic loveliness, and overwhelmed with a sense of unutterable grandeur, faintly whispering of a past and of a heavenly future, till the oppressed and almost breaking heart is

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