CHAP. IV. PART I. of modulation-by swells, cadences, &c.; which render music one of the most delightful of graOf Hearing, tifications, even when considered merely as a gratification of sense, independent of character and expression; which belong not to the sensations, which it causes; but to the mental sympathies and associated ideas, which those sensations excite and renew. 6. For there are certain modulations of tone, which instinctively express certain mental sympathies; and, without the intervention of any determinate notions or ideas, convey the sentiments of one mind, and awaken those of another with more unerring precision and emphatical energy, than the artificial medium of articulation can ever attain. Such are the various modulations of tone, by which birds and quadrupeds express their parental and sexual affections; and their sentiments of anger, resentment, or defiance: expressions, whose meaning is always clear and unequivocal'; and which are understood as perfectly by those who have existed but a day, as by them, who have lived years; no young animal of any kind ever mistaking the murmur of affection for the growl of anger, or the cry of joy for the whine of distress. 7. Similar modulations of tone also serve, as a natural medium of communication of corre sponding sentiments, in the human race, before PART I. the artificial one of articulation is required or CHAP. IV. understood; very young children always per- Of Hearing. ceiving, by the tone of voice, in which they are spoken to, whether they are applauded or reprimanded, long before they have learned to affix any determinate ideas to the particular words uttered. 8. To this natural and instinctive effect of the different modulations of tone is owing, in a great measure, the effect of what we call expression in music: at least of that which may properly be called sentimental expression; since it excites sentiments merely; whereas another kind of expression excites ideas also: but this depends upon the principle of association, which will be considered apart. The primitive music of all nations is, I believe, of this sentimental kind; music, as well as painting and poetry, being in its principle an imitative art *; and, though science may delight in that various. and complicated harmony, which displays the skill of the composer, and the dexterity of the performer, without either pleasing the sense, or touching the heart; yet the mass of mankind, I believe, never find any gratification in music, * Aristot. Poet. s. iii. CHAP. IV. PART I. but such as arises either from sweet tones, pleasing combinations, or such modulations, as either Of Hearing, through instinctive feeling, or habitual association, awaken pleasing sympathies. The first of these is a sensual, and the second a sentimental pleasure; while that, which is peculiarly felt by the learned, may be properly called an intellectual pleasure: for this likewise is really a pleasure, and one that may be as reasonably and properly cultivated as either of the others; as I shall show in treating of the pleasures of the understanding. It is one, indeed, which I am utterly incapable of enjoying: but that is no reason why I should treat it with contempt, according to a too common practice; which, however, always indicates a narrow, or an uncultivated mind; and generally both. 9. As music consists in the melody of inarticulate sounds, so does poetry, as far as it can be considered as a gratification of sense, in that of articulate sounds: but as articulation consists in the division and interruption of tones, and harmony in their undulating flow into each other, it must be owned that articulate and melodious. sounds seem to be of very adverse dispositions; and accordingly we find that articulation is almost always partially suppressed in singing, even by those, who pronounce most distinctly; the pure or mute consonants, which alone mark dis- PART I tinct articulation, being softened down into liquids or aspirates. 10. Indeed, it appears to me, that the most melodious versification affords very little, if any at all, of mere sensual gratification; the regularity of metre or rhyme being rather calculated to assist memory and facilitate utterance, than to please the ear; which, in music, is always most delighted with irregular combinations: for, though the same closes to particular periods are sometimes repeated at stated intervals, it is generally in lighter compositions, where the music is not principal, but adapted to the verse. 11. Music, too, is still music, upon whatsoever instrument it be performed; nor does that, which was composed for the harp, cease to be melody when performed on the violin. But the metre of one language, when applied to the words of another, ceases to have any effect at all; as has been abundantly proved by the hexameters, sapphics, alcaiics, &c. which have at different times, and from different authors, appeared in English :-verses less like poetry could scarcely have been produced by the machine of Logado. Nevertheless the metres are exactly the same, as those which are felt to be so musi CHAP. IV. Of Hearing. PART I. cal in the Greek and Latin; and as the tones CHAP. IV. in both are limited by us to our own habitual Of Hearing. pronunciation of the five vowels, there cannot be any great difference in them, as modified to our utterance. 12. The relations of measure and quantity are fixed and determinate, and liable to no variation from the difference of the materials to which they are applied. They must, therefore, be the same in Greek, as in English; as they are the same in marble, as in brick; and, as far as the impressions made upon the organs of hearing depend upon measure and quantity, they must be the same likewise in both: but still we know that our feelings are very differently affected by the same metrical quantities employed in different languages; wherefore, either the pleasures arising from poetry do not arise from metrical quantity, or metrical quantity makes itself felt by something beyond the mere organs of sense. 13. Indeed, from the manner, in which the verses of the Greek and Latin poets are pronounced in our public schools and universities, it might be reasonably inferred that metrical quantity was of no importance, and not to be considered as a requisite of poetry: for though great pains are taken to teach the mechanism of |
