branch of a birch-tree, which grew ave him on the brink. The Mac Donell looking behind in his flight to see the success of his pursuer, beheld him hanging to the tree, and struggling to gain the edge of the bank: he turned, and drawing his dirk, at one stroke severed the branch which supported the Mac Kenzie; "I have left much behind me with you to-day," said he, "take that also." The wretched man, rolling from rock to rock, fell headlong into the stream below, where, shattered and mangled by the fall, he expired in the water. Angus Mac Raonuill continued his flight, and the Mac Kenzies, though bereft of their leader, held on the pursuit. Checked, however, by the stream, which none of them dared to leap, Angus was gaining fast upon them, when a musket discharged at him by one of the pursuers, wounded him severely, and greatly retarded his speed. After passing the river, the Mac Kenzies again drew hard after him, and as they came in sight of Loch Ness, Angus perceiving his strength to fail with his wound, and his enemies pressing upon him, determined to attempt swimming the Lock: he rushed into the water, and for some time refreshed by its coolness, swam with much vigour and confidence. His limbs would, however, in all probability, have failed him before he had crossed the half of the distance to the opposite bank; but Fraser of Fyars, a particular friend of the Glengarrie family, seeing a single man pursued by a party out of the Mac Kenzies' country, and knowing that the Mac Donells had gone upon an expedition in that country, got a boat, and hastening to the aid of Angus, took him on board, and conveyed him in safety to the east side of the Loch. The Mac Kenzies seeing their foe-man had escaped, discontinued their pursuit, and Angus returned at his leisure to Glengarrie.

Varieties.

Method of playing Two Instruments. -This is the invention of James Watson, a blind musician, of Dundee.-- The stops by which he shortens the strings of his violoncello, have been fitted with more elegance and precision; additional springs have been added, to assist and

relieve his leg in the operation of bowing; and the bow has been fastened to his foot by new machinery, which insures more powerful and steady execution, Indeed the whole of this machinery is now so constructed, that he can play both instruments for a great length of time, without more fatigue than if he played only upon one -Nor is this all; for, by the very wise and accurate application of mechanism, wholly invented by himself, he can perform upon two violoncellos at the same time; and the one upon which he plays the principal strain, is so contrived as to have the power and tone of two played by different performers; so that he may be said to play three violoncellos-the principal strain upon two, and the bass upon the third. Nor is this compass limited; for the instrument upon which he plays the principle, has a range of 64 semitones; and more could be added if necessary. The account of this mechanism we extract from the Calidonian Quarterly Journal, and will be found highly interesting to the ingenious.

Brussels.-The workmen digging under the Grand Place at Tournay, to make a new drain, about three or four feet deep, discovered a tomb-stone, three feet one inch and a half long, and one foot nine inches and a half high, and about two feet thick. The inscription, which is very well preserved, is as follows:

-

D. M. MONIMENTVM INSTITVIT SI BIVIVS VLP IVISIVAR

CHI GALLUS.

At some distance were bones, supposed to have been part of the remains buried in the tomb, which was covered with this stone. This discovery, owing to chance, has renewed the regret of antiquarians at the discontinuation of the excavations made at the time when the last drains were constructed, and the result of which promised so much success. They are more than ever persuaded that if the collections of medals, vases and fragments already dug up, were augmented by means of new researches, numerous remains would be obtained; by which, great light might be thrown on the history and geography of a country once inhabited by the Romans.

Anecdote.-John Opie, A. R. A. was first patronized by Dr. Walcot, who directed him in his studies. He attempted a portrait of the Doctor, in the character of a Druid. It was esteemed a very good likeness. The Doctor was very proud of it, and was in the habit of taking children to view it-that he might judge more faithfully of the correctness of the portrait. In this instance the Doctor raised the laugh against himself; for one of the youthful cognos centi, in answer to a question of the Doctor respecting the likeness of the portrait, and who it was, replied,

Why a Bear in a blanket, to be sure." Moorish Superstition-A traveller entering the public baths at Fez, observed that in the corners of every room and cabinet, were placed pails filled with hot water. He enquired the reason of this, "Do not touch them Sir," was the answer, "do not touch them!"_ Why not?"These pails are for the people below." Who are they?" The demons; who come here to bathe themselves at night."

Honourable Guest.-A noble lord having given a grand gala, his tailor made one among the company, whom his lordship walked up, to, and accosted him in the following manner: "My dear Sir, I recollect your face, but cannot remem ber your name;" to which address the tailor whispered in answer, "I made your breeches:" his lordship, taking him by the hand, said aloud, "Major Bridges, I am very glad to see you."

Female acquirements-"I should be glad to know," said a learned lady angrily, "how knowledge is incompatible with a woman's situation in life. I should like to be told why chemistry. geography, algebra, languages, and the whole circle of arts and sciences, are not as becoming in her as in a man." "-"I do not say," replied Mr. Dubois, the ingenious author of OLD NICK, "that they are entirely unbecoming; but I think, a very little of them will answer the purpose. In my opinion, now, a woman's knowledge of chemistry should extend

no farther than to the melting of butter, her geography to a thorough acquaintance with every hole and corner in the house; her algebra to keeping a correct account of the expenses of the family; and as for tongues, Heaven knows, that one is enough in all conscience, and the less use she makes of that the better."

Haydn. The city of Saltzburgh, the native place of Haydn, has lately paid a just tribute of respect to the ashes of that celebrated composer. The mortal

remains of the author of the Creation had reposed almost forgotten for fifteen years in the cemetry of St. Peter. The Rector, Werigaud, his friend and the composer, Hacker, his scholar, opened a subscription to raise him a monument. On the 9th of August, the anniversary of his death, this monument which had been placed in the church of St. Peter, was consecrated by a solemn requiem, the music of which was the last unfinished work of the the illustrious dead, in whose honour it was now played. A multitude of his fellow-citizens and friends attended this ceremony, which acquired additional interest by the presence of his widow.

To Correspondents.

A correspondent who assumes the name of ORION, wishes F. J.--n "to inform him in what sense any part of Shakespeare's works (or the whole of them) can be said to have withstood the Test of Ages."

We should wish to see the whole of IANTHE'S LINES before we can decide on their merit.

A MANCHESTER FRIEND'S HINT is under consideration.

The LINES of a Literary Friend are too crude for insertion.

Price 3d.]

[No. 7. Vol. I.

MUSIC USIC certainly stands next in character to poetry: indeed, in the latter there is to be considered so much the effect of harmony, that we cannot well speak of it without introducing the other as bearing a connection. Versification

has for its object to produce an effect at once symphonious and exalted, and to give a charm to the thought expressed, which inditing in prose would fail to excite. Euphony is considered, and consequently music. A poet aims to gartify the ear, by the pleasing flow of his verse, as well as by the language and descriptions which fall from his pen; and rhyme has been frequently known to delight by its uniformity, when the sense and purport of the words have not been comprehended.

Music has become a fashionable accomplishment, and unless a lady, in particular, has acquired the command of some instrument, she is not classed in the roll of the polished, not esteemed as being fully educated. She must be able to play a waltz on the piano, and capable of strumming on the guitar, or she will be laughed at by those who can do either; and she may as well quit their society altogether, as to think of ever being cherished by them as a fit object for their company.

Whoever exhibits in their conduct an apathy to music, is immediately set down to be a fool, or a cold immoveable stoop, whose sensitive powers, I verily believe, display this coldness only where they hear a certain species of music; and I think that every one may be gratified by some sounds. A man may live in the world twenty, thirty, or forty years, and never hear that kind of music which is truly delightful to him; and yet, before he die, he may by chance meet with that instrument with which

Shakespeare.

he feels enraptured. In such a case I cannot suppose that time or cultivation has wrought in him a change, so as to awaken him to a true delight in any kind of music; but I would rather think, that from the dislike which he exhibited, when his ear was first assailed, he was induced to shun the strains of music afterwards, and thus he might imagine, that as he was displeased with one sort of sound he could not have delighted in any other. I think that all men have an inherent disposition towards harmony and melody, and though they may not be capable of the science which has been established, yet they may feel a pleasure or displeasure in some instances, and still are not to be censured as being heteroge neous. Habit has a supreme sway over our passions and feelings in every thing; and so it is with respect to them and music. The highland man is enraptured with his bagpipes, and yet the fop of London would turn up his nose at it with disgust, and declare it to be quite barbarous. The shepherd is pleased with his flute more perhaps than any other instrument. But what do such prejudices arise from? no doubt but in some degree, they spring from being accustomed, since their infancy, to pay esteem to whatever their fathers cherished.

Custom has brought us to acknowledge a sanctity in the sound of an organ, more than in other instruments; and whenever we hear it our thoughts immediately depict to us the idea of a church. Military music, on the other hand, awakens our fancy to picture to itself scenes of warfare, of slow or hurried marches, attacks, and the whole routine of a soldiers course. Had our forefathers, however, worshipped the pibroch as a fit instrument, to whose sounds we

should laud God, we should have felt the same sensation on hearing it, as we now do when the organ is in play. In like manner with all other particular sorts of music.

Music should be practised in sweetness, mellowness, fulness, and a proper diversity in the tone; and keenness and shrillnes of sound should be avoided as they are harsh and unpleasant to the ear. The human voice is more capacitated to please than any instrument. It is empowered to produce sounds which no art can fully imitate: besides an advantage that we possess in the one over the other;-when we hear a man or woman sing, we generally have the words which give occasion to their songs, and as we can, therefore, more easily reciprocate with the tones than if it were left for the imagination to describe to itself the situation of things, such as would coincide with the sentiments of each varied strain. We can, in consequence, form a better judgment of the music and the performer; and can say with more certainty whether or not nature and reality have been imitated in a masterly manner. There must be an expression in the strain that is in unison with reality and then the affections become engaged: thus, instead of the song being merely supercilious and fickle in its hold upon the passions; instead of its being merely pleasing for a moment, it becomes impressed upon the heart, and even when the strain has ceased, the mind has gratification in the remembrance of it. Such is poetry and music that they go hand in hand; and when to the sound of a human voice, is added the verses of the poet, a sweeter and more perfect lay is effected, than when either is heard separated from the other.

There are some who have a more accute feeling for music than others; but unless their feelings be nurtured and cultivated by art, they will decline in their strength. Music has become a science, and is brought to such perfection, as to produce rules whereby we can tell if they are rightly digested, the whole weight of a sound, and what two, when brought to unite, will produce harmony or discord. It is to these rules that application must be made, if the theory desired as an acquirement, and they are essential to give a polish to those powers which nature has yielded in a rough state. We cannot account for our sensations on hearing sounds; besides they have such an effect upon our minds sometimes as to be truly astonishing. The whistling of the wind will produce a lowness in our spirits; and the Æolian harp has been known to work some into a perfect frenzy. The roll of water, and rustling of trees, have their various effects. When walking amidst groves and vallies, and to hear the peasant's lute, becomes enchanting, and strikes the mind with a strong relish for rural scenery. It finds fresh beauties, when thus enlivened, in all the haunts around; and it is brought into a greater love with nature, than it perhaps previously felt. The whistling of the blackbird, in the thick foliaged wood, makes the solitude of evening a melancholy, yet soothing and delightful time; and the contemplative wanderer is cheered in his solemn walk over fields and plains, by the diversified tones of the morning lark. At such periods, and when the songsters of the sky or bush are out, it is surprising how the soul expands at their warbling, and will trace a sweetness in the simple beauties of nature, and a disrelish to the bustle of the town, which it never before experienced.

Rural scenery is far before the garnish artifices of the town, and he who has a love for aught that is consonant to his real nature will cherish the plain, the mountain, the stream, and the grove, and the music of the shepherd and the songs of the birds, for all the haunts of the sordid and avaricious world.

P

There is no country, of which we are acquainted but can boast of some species of music and with which its inhabitants sustain delight. Martial strains were always cultivated to inspire the soldier with a requisite enthusiasm ; and it is truly astonishing how successful a military band is, even to those who profess not arms, in awakening the feelings to an energetic impulse that would almost induce him to court the field of danger-the plain of glory. Kings and princes had their buffoons and jesters, and they had also their musicians, who travelled with the court when journeying, and were kept for its amusement when at home. Italian music and Italian masters of the art have been much cherished in this country, and David Rizzio, who was in the service of Mary, Queen of

Scots, when his murder took place, is generally supposed to be the first person who introduced the peculiarities of his country's music into our land.

As society becomes more and more perfect, it attains, I think, a stronger feeling for music. The customs and life of our predecessors were rude and barbarous, and every thing on which they fixed their affections was uncouth also; but now that men have received the polish of education, and their manners are more delicate and refined, their minds are more alive to the richer and acute parts of the art, and from the superior manner in which several of our professional countrymen can play upon the various instruments, we may still further look for improvements in this chaste and beautiful pursuit.

Of the origin of music and the lyre; a spirited publication of the day has remarked:" The Hermes, or Mercury of the Egyptians,surnamed Trismegistus, or thrice illustrious, who was, according to Newton, the secretary to Orsinis, is reported to have been the inventor of music, according te Appolodorus, under the following circumstances. The Nile having overflowed its banks, and inun.. dated the whole country of Egypt, on its return to its customary bounds left on the shores various dead animals, and amongst the rest a tortoise, the flesh of which, being dried and wasted by the sun, nothing remained within the shell but nerves and cartilages, and these being tightened and constructed by the drying heat, became sonorons. eury, walking along the banks of the river, happened to strike his foot against this shell, and was so pleased with the sound produced, that the idea of the lyre suggested itself to his imagination. The first instrument he constructed was in the form of a tortoise, and was strung with dried sinews of dead animals. This fanciful mode of accounting for the origin of music is thus curiously alluded to in Brewer's Lingua:

Mer

MILES COLVINE, THE CUMBERLAND MARINER.

William Glen was our captain's name,
He was a brisk and a bold young man,
As brave a sailor as e'er went to sea,
And he was bound for New Barbarie.
The first of April we spread our sail
To a low, a sweet, and a pleasant gale;
But we had not sail'd more leagues than two,
Till the sky grew dark and the tempest blew,
The lightning flash'd, and loud roar'd the sea,
As we were bound for New Barbarie.

Old Ballad

66

On the English side of the sea of Solway lies a long line of flat and unelevated coast, where the sea-fowl finds refuge from the gun of the fowler, and which, save the headland and the deep sea, presents but one object of attraction, namely, the cottage of Miles Colvine, the Cumberland mariner. The owner of this rude dwelling, once a seaman, a soldier, a scholar, and a gentleman, was shipwrecked on the coast about thirty years ago, and was the only living soul that escaped from the fatal storm. The vessel was from a foreign land, and something mysterious always hung over her fate and the destiny of her crew. The conduct of Miles Colvine was less likely to remove than confirm suspicion. He heard all enquiries concerning the ship and the crew in perfect tranquillity and silence, and once only he deigned to answer, when a shepherd asked, was it the blood of beasts I saw upon the deck?"-"No, it was the blood of men." From this time forward, no farther intercourse was courted by the peasantry, and he was allowed to construct a small hut, fence it round with a wall of loose stone, and occupy it, without any molestation. He seemed anxious to shun all intercourse with human beings, and sought and found his subsistence in the sea; for it was the common remark of the Allan bay fishermen that no man dipped a hook, or wetted a net, between Skinverness and Saint Bees, with greater skill and success. In this solitude, exposed to every storm that swept the beach from sea or land, amid much seem. ing wretchedness and privation, he resided during a summer and autumn: winter, a season of great severity on an unsheltered coast, was expected either to destroy or drive him from his abode,