part fmoother and more unmeaning faces : their thoughts are more miscellaneous, and therefore their features are lefs fixed in one uniform configuration. A keen penetrating look indicates thoughtfulness and fpirit: a dull torpid countenance is not often accom→ panied with great fagacity. This, though there may be many an exception, is in general true of the vifible figns of our paffions; and it is no lefs true of the audible. A man habitually peevish, or paffionate, or querulous, or imperious, may be known by the found of his voice, as well as by his phyfiognomy. May we not go a step farther, and fay, that if a man under the influence of any paffion were to compofe a discourse, or a poem, or a tune, his work would in fome meafure exhibit an image of his mind? I could not eafily be perfuaded, that Swift and Juvenal were men of sweet tempers; or that Thomson, Arbuthnot, and Prior were ill-natured. The airs of Felton are fo uniformly mournful, that I cannot fuppofe him to have been a merry, or even a chearful man. If a musician, in deep affliction, were to attempt to compofe a lively air, I believe he would not fucceed: though I confefs I do not well understand the nature of the connection that may take place between a mournful mind and a melancholy tune. It is eafy to conceive, how a poet or an orator should transfufe his paffions into his work for every paffion fuggefts ideas congenial Z2 congenial to its own nature; and the compofition of the poet, or of the orator, muft neceffarily confift of those ideas that occur at the time he is compofing. But mufical founds are not the figns of ideas; rarely are they even the imitations of natural founds: fo that I am at a lofs to conceive how it fhould happen, that a mufician, overwhelmed with forrow, for example, fhould put together a feries of notes, whofe expreffion is contrary to that of another feries which he had put together when elevated with joy. But of the fact I am not doubtful; though I have not fagacity, or knowledge of mufic, enough to be able to explain it. And my opinion in this matter is warranted by that of a more competent judge; who fays, fpeaking of church-voluntaries, that if the Organist "do not feel in himself the divine energy of devotion, he will labour in vain to raise it "in others. Nor can he hope to throw out thofe happy inftantaneous thoughts, "which fometimes far exceed the best con"certed compofitions, and which the enraptured performer would gladly fecure to his future ufe and pleasure, did they not as fleetly efcape as they arife *." man who has made mufic the study of his life, and is well acquainted with all the best examples of style and expreffion that are to be found in the works of former mafters, * Avifon on Mufical Expreffion, pag. 88. 89. A may, may, by memory and much practice, attain a fort of mechanical dexterity in contriving mufic fuitable to any given paffion; but fuch mufic would, I prefume, be vulgar and fpiritlefs, compared to what an artist of genius throws out, when under the power of any ardent emotion. It is recorded of Lulli, that, once when his imagination was all on fire with some verfes defcriptive of terrible ideas, which he had been reading in a French tragedy, he ran to his harpfichord, and struck off fuch a combination of founds, that the company felt their hair ftand on end with horror. Let us therefore fuppofe it proved, or, if youpleafe, take it for granted, that different fentiments in the mind of the mufician will give different and peculiar expreffions to his mufic;-and upon this principle, it will not perhaps be impoffible to account for fome of the phenomena of a national ear. The highlands of Scotland are a picturefque, but in general a melancholy country. Long tracts of mountainous defert, covered with dark heath, and often obfcured by misty weather; narrow vallies, thinly inhabited, and bounded by precipices refounding with the fall of torrents; a foil fo rugged, and a climate fo dreary, as in many parts to admit neither the amufements of pafturage, nor the labours of agriculture; the mournful dafhing of waves along the friths and lakes that interfect the country; the por tentous tentous noises which every change of the wind, and every increase and diminution of the waters, is apt to raise, in a lonely region, full of echoes, and rocks, and caverns; the grotefque and ghaftly appearance of such a landscape by the light of the moon : - objects like these diffuse a gloom over the fancy, which may be compatible enough with occafional and focial merriment, but cannot fail to tincture the thoughts of a native in the hour of filence and folitude. If these people, notwithstanding their reformation in religion, and more frequent intercourse with strangers, do still retain many of their old fuperftitions, we need not doubt but in former times they must have been much more enslaved to the horrors of imagination, when befet with the bugbears of Popery, and the darkness of Paganifm. Most of their superftitions are of a melancholy caft. That Second Sight, wherewith some of them are still supposed to be haunted, is confidered by themselves as a misfortune, on account of the many dreadful images it is faid to obtrude upon the fancy. I have been told, that the inhabitants of fome of the Alpine regions do likewife lay claim to a fort of fecond fight. Nor is it wonderful, that perfons of lively imagination, immured in deep folitude, and furrounded with the ftupendous fcenery of clouds, precipices, and torrents, fhould dream, even when they think themselves awake, of those few striking ideas with which their lonely lives are diverfified; of corpfes, funeral proceffions, and other objects of terror; or of marriages, and the arrival of strangers, and fuch like matters of more agreeable curiofity *. Let it be obferved * I do not find fufficient evidence for the reality of Second fight, or at least of what is commonly understood by that term. A treatife on the fubject was published in the year 1762, in which many tales were told of perfons, whom the author believed to have been favoured, or haunted, with these illuminations; but most of the tales were trifling and ridiculous: and the whole work betrayed on the part of the compiler fuch extreme credulity, as could not fail to prejudice many readers against his fyftem.-That any of thefe vifionaries are liable to be fwayed in their declarations by finifter views, I will not fay; though a gentleman of character affured me, that one of them offered to fell him this unaccountable talent for half a crown. But this I think may be faid with confidence, that none but ignorant people pretend to be gifted in this way. And in them it may be nothing more, perhaps, than fhort fits of fudden fleep or drowfinefs attended with lively dreams, and arifing from fome bodily diforder, the effect of idlenefs, low fpirits, or a gloomy imagination. For it is admitted, even by the most credulous highlanders, that, as knowledge and industry are propagated in their country, the fecond fight difappears in proportion: and nobody ever laid claim to this faculty, who was much employed in the intercourfe of focial life. Nor is it at all extraordinary, that one fhould have the appearance of being awake, and should even think one's felf fo, during these fits of dozing; or that they fhould come on fuddenly, and while one is engaged in fome bufinefs. The fame thing happens to perfons much fatigued, or long kept awake, who frequently fall asleep for a moment, or for a longer space, while they are ftanding, or walking, or riding on horseback. Add but lively dream to this flumber, |