from the former, and that by this means it received a stimulation; but that whenever this occurred, it acted independently of the other; from which, in his opinion, it results, that if the rational doctrine does not accord with the sense, the fault is not to be ascribed to reason, but to the sense itself, which is mistaken; for reasoning by its essence will always find out truth, whilst the sense is often subject to error. By Aristoxenes of Tarentum, who flourished a long time after Pythagoras, the obscure metaphysics of the senses taught by his celebrated predecessor, was rejected. He placed all his theory in the observation and experience of the ear, in order to determine by acoustics alone the mutual relation of sounds, and the exact proportion of the intervals. He reduced many among these to equal proportions, modified others, and regulated the progression of all. Differing materially from Pythagoras, he regarded the sense as principle and moderator of the intellect; so that, according to his doctrine, the exclusion of the one prevents the perfection of the other. This system was adopted by the Greeks, and taught in the Alexandrian schools, which they re-established; and in contradistinction to the system of the Samiot sage, which was called immutable and perfect, it received the denomination of equal. Many years after, Didymus appeared, who, perceiving that his two renowned predecessors had fallen each into the opposite extreme, by not reflecting, that if the sense and reason are not in a mutual and perfect state of harmony, there can be none in the works of man,-introduced many modifications into the established system,-modifications which were so valuable as to meet with universal approbation. He discovered a sensible discord in the gamut of the Greeks, which proved the correctness of his criticism. This system was next rectified by Ptolemeus, and assumed the title of reformed. Many succeeding philosophers discovered what they denominated harmonical combinations, by mixing, but without confounding them, the three principal kinds of music-the diatonic, chromatic, and enharmonic.

Our author next treats of the fondness of the Greeks for simplicity in music,-not forgetting the story of Terpander and Timotheus, who were banished from Lacedæmon for having added one or two strings to their lyres; and concludes the chapter with some remarks on the often agitated question whether or not the Greeks were acquainted with music in parts-in other words, with counterpoint. He cites, in favour of the affirmative, Vossius, Artusi, Stilling fleet, Sacchi; and against the opinion, Medoni, Perault, Bontempi, Levo, and many others of equal note; and finally decides in favour of the latter. We are not disposed to revive in this place the long contested question, and yet do not think it right to indicate the subject without a few remarks, inasmuch as our author seems to us to have dismissed it

too hastily. It appears conclusively shown, then, that the ancients, although unacquainted with what we call harmony, (a word by which they constantly meant melody,) or music in different parts, made use of the octave and double octave-which practice was called by them magadizing, from a treble instrument of the name of magadis. They had a knowledge of some concords and discords, admitting only the octave fourth and fifth and their replicates, and rejecting as discords the third and sixth. This, we think we may safely say, in opposition to MM. Perault and Baretti, who, although denying to the ancients a knowledge of harmony, thought they had a method of playing or singing by thirds. This assertion, however, has not been substantiated; besides, we could with much difficulty be made to believe, that a practice could have been very agreeable to Grecian ears, which to our modern ones would be intolerable. But it may still be asked, if counterpoint or simultaneous harmony was unknown to the Greeks, of what use to them were the great calculations and the experiments attributed to Pythagoras, and the admission of the concords we have just seen they understood? We believe that a satisfactory answer to this has been given by Dr. Burney, who remarks, that the chief use which the ancients made of concords in music, seems only to have been to ascertain intervals and distances (in melody) as in our first lessons of solmisation it has been customary to spell intervals, as it were, by naming the intermediate sounds; as, do, re, mi,—do, mi; do, re, mi, fa,-do, fa; do re mi fa sol,-do sol, &c.

From the brief sketch which we have given of the rise and progress of the musical system of the Greeks, it would follow, that if the invention of it is referred to Pythagoras, it must be regarded as of Italian origin; since Pythagoras, although by birth a Greek, had, on his return from his travels, established his residence in Calabria, where he is said to have discovered and founded the system in question; and since, before it was rectified and perfected by the Alexandrian Didymus, and carried to and established under the Ptolemies at Alexandria, whence it was spread all over the Grecian states, it had been learnedly modified by Aristoxenes of Tarentum. We shall, however, show, on some future occasion, not only that this celebrated system cannot have been invented by Pythagoras, but that its origin can easily be traced to the Hindoos, or more likely to an earlier and now forgotten people. We shall now proceed to offer a few observations on the ancient music of the Italians, and particularly of the Etruscans and Romans.

Of all the arts, Music being the most natural to man, it is fair to infer that each nation, even at an early period of its history, must have possessed one in some sort peculiar to it, and differing in its character from that of other nations, according to climate

and other circumstances. Aware of this fact, it is not difficult to understand, that the early nations of Italy, living as they did under a serene sky, in a fertile country, and enjoying the advantages of a harmonious language, should have cultivated this art at a very early epoch, and even long before other nations less conspicuously favoured by nature. To assign, however, the precise period at which music originated or was introduced among the aborigines of the Peninsula, before the time of the Etruscans, would be attended with much difficulty,-their great antiquity offering an insurmountable obstacle to all research of the kind; and even as regards the state of the art at a period less remote from our own, deprived as we are of the historical documents by which alone we could be directed in the investigation, we meet with nothing but confusion and obscurity. From the terrible example of Carthage we derive the certainty that the Romans destroyed all that could survive their conquered enemies, of whom they wished to annihilate the least traces. Hence the impossibility of knowing any thing respecting the music of the Italian nations, who, originating from the aborigines, were destroyed in their struggle with Rome. Our knowledge on the subject is limited to this-that all that portion of Italy which received the denomination of Græcia Magna, possessed the musical system of the Greeks, since Pythagoras resided at Croton and at Metaponte, and Aristoxenes at Tarentum; but the three Samiot nations, which occupied a great part of the coast of the Adriatic, nearly as far as that of the Tyrrhenian sea, held by the Etruscans, spoke a different language, and although living near Græcia Magna, were probably in possession of a national music calculated to excite their ardour in the hour of combat. As regards the Etruscans, a lasting monument of the existence of music among them, and of their claims to the invention of the trumpet, is found in the following line of the Eneid

"Tyrrhenusque tuba mugire per æquora clangor."

The Fescennian verses, written in the language of the Osci, and which were sung to the accompaniment of musical instruments, serve as an additional proof, that music was cultivated, before the foundation, or at least, before the victories of Rome, among the neighbouring nations. Hence we cannot doubt of the existence of music in Italy antecedently to the time of the Romans, although no treatise has been handed down to us on the subject of this art, written in the Oscan or Etruscan language. When we bear in mind the number and splendour of the cities possessed by the latter of these nations, the luxury of their inhabitants, the skill of the artists, particularly in the plastic art, and in the fabrication of those vases denominated Etruscan, which equal in point of beauty the famous Murrhine vases,—when we

cast our eyes on Capua, which was called Caput Urbium from the circumstance of its being the first of the Etruscan colonies; on Pozzuoli, whose immense amphitheatre has survived the ravages of time, and served as the model of the famous Coliseum of Flavianus,-on Naples and Cumæ, the most ancient of all their cities; can we for a moment believe, that in such a country, in other words, in all the southern districts of Italy, the musical art alone should not have been carried to the highest degree of perfection?

But we derive an additional proof of the antiquity of music in Italy from mythology, which Lord Bacon has denominated the wisdom of antiquity; for what can we understand, Count Orloff asks, by those beings, as dangerous as they were amiable, half women and half fish, who exercised, under the melodious name of Syrens, an influence equal on the water and the land, and who were at the same time the terror of the sage, and the object of the wishes of the imprudent? What could have been meant by these supernatural beings, if not the females of Ausonia, who were regarded as dangerous in consequence of their inspiring effeminacy by their songs, and adding to the charms of their beauty the power of this enchanting art? The fable of the Syrens, then, deprived of its allegorical veil, becomes a historical monument, well calculated to prove the splendour and perhaps the abuse of music in Italy, even in the remotest antiquity.

Rome, however austere might have been her laws, discovered very early the power of music, and dedicated her first institutions in this art to the god Mars. Numa Pompilius ordered that the priests of that god should sing, whilst carrying in procession the sacred shield that had fallen from heaven to serve as an ægis for the eternal city. At a later period, the Neapolitan Andronicus, as we learn from Sallust, composed, with a view of appeasing the gods irritated against the Romans, a hymn, which was sung by a choir of young virgins. In private and public sacrifices, music constituted an important ingredient; and, as in Greece, the flute was the instrument made use of to accompany the voices of the priests. Livy tells us, that scenic games were finally instituted at Rome, in imitation of those of the Greeks, under the consulate of Sulpitius Peticus and Lucinius Stolon. They originated in a desire on the part of the Romans, to appease by means of prayers, sacrifices, and ceremonies of a more imposing nature than those heretofore resorted to, the anger of the gods, and in this way to obtain their deliverance from a pestilential disease, by which they were sorely afflicted; and history informs us, that by all classes of society they were viewed and heard with much delight and admiration. Towards the 553d year of Rome, Lucinius composed, under the consulate of Publius Sulpicius, another hymn to obtain the protection of the gods for

the city of Mars. These sacred verses were sung by twentyseven virgins.

But, as might naturally be inferred from the warlike disposition of the Romans, of all species of music, that denominated martial was held by them in the highest estimation. In their public and triumphant entries, the soldiers sung with enthusiasm the praises of their leaders; and in the hour of battle, the legions were animated by the sound of the trumpet and of other musical instruments.

Seven years after the ceremony to which we have alluded above, music was as it were naturalized in Rome, and employed to celebrate the birth and marriage of its inhabitants, who, in imitation of the Greeks, used it also in their funeral ceremonies. But the vocal choirs of the Greeks, were only known and established at Rome, under the consulate of Claudius Nero, and Marcus Livius; and there is no doubt, that notwithstanding the austere manners of the Romans, music would have advanced with rapid strides towards perfection, a long time before the destruction of the republic, had it not been for the institution of the combats of gladiators, by which the attention of the people was almost exclusively engrossed, and diverted from objects of a more delicate and refined nature. But at length the reign of Augustus, so favourable to the progress of the arts, yet so fatal to liberty, commenced. It was at this period, that Rome ordered that the poem which Horace had composed in honour of Diana, should be sung by two choirs, one of young females and the other of young boys, all of patrician families. The exquisite verses of the Roman Pindar, were also embellished with a music, the authors of which are unknown; but this circumstance shows, as Count Orloff observes, that this art, extending its empire over the Roman people, and following the progress of luxury in Rome, was about to enjoy greater honours under the emperors, than it had done during the republic.

At this period, the voice was accompanied with instruments; and, indeed, from what we have already said, and from many passages in Cicero and Horace, we may conclude that this custom had already been prevalent a long time. Thus the former cites one of the laws of the twelve tables, which ran thus: Popularem lætitiam in cantu et fidibus et tibiis moderanto eamque divum honore jungunto. And the poet, in his Ode to Mecenas, says,

"Sonante mistum tibiis carmen lyra
Hac Dorium, illis barbarum."

From Valerius Maximus we learn, that there existed a musical college, or school, at Rome: and passages might be cited from Seneca, tending to show, according to some, that so early