43 perufed the book of Pfalms, let him read a literal tranflation of Horace or Pindar. He will find in these two laft fuch an abfurdity and confufion of ftyle, with fuch a comparative poverty of imagination, as will make him very fenfible of what I have been here advancing. 1 Since we have therefore fuch a treatury of words, fo beautiful in themselves, and fo proper for the airs of mufic, I cannot but wonder that perfons of diftinction fhould give fo little attention and encouragement to that kind of mufic, which would have its foundation in reafon, and which would improve our virtue in proportion as it raised our delight. The paffions that are excited by ordinary compofitions generally flow from fuch filly and abfurd occafions, that a man is afhanied to reflect upon them seriously; but the fear, the love, the forrow, the indignation that are awakened in the mind by hymns and anthems, make the heart better, and proceed from fuch caufes as are altogether reasonable and praife-worthy. Pleasure and duty go hand in hand, and the greater our fatisfaction is, the greater is our religion. Mufic among those who were styled the chofen people was a religious art. The fongs of Sion, which we have reafon to believe were in high repute among the courts of the eastern monarchs, were nothing elfe but pfalms and pieces of poetry that adored or celebrated the Supreme Being. The greateft conqueror in this holy nation, after the manner of the old Grecian lyrics, did not only compofe the words of his divine odes, but generally fet them to mufic himself: after which, his works, though they were confecrated to the tabernacle, became the national entertainment, as well as the devotion of his people. The first original of the drama was a religious worship confifting only of a chorus, which was nothing elfe but a hymn to a deity. As luxury and voluptuoufnefs prevailed over innocence and religion, this form of worship de generated into tragedies; in which however the chorus fo far remembered its firft office, as to brand every thing that was vicious, and recommend every thing that was laudable, to intercede with heaven for the innocent, and to implore its vengeance on the criminal. No 406. Homer and Hefiod intimate to us how this art should be applied, when they reprefent the Mufes as furrounding Jupiter, and warbling their hymns about his throne. I might fhew from innumerable paffages in ancient writers,, not only that vocal and inftrumental mufic were made ufe of in their religious worship, but that their moft favourite diverfions were filled with fongs and hymns to their refpective deities. Had we frequent entertainments of this nature among us, they would not a little purify and exalt our paflions, give our thoughts a proper turn, and cherish thofe divine impulfes in the foul, which every one feels that has not ftifled them by fenfual and immoderate pleafures. Mufic, when thus applied, raifes noble hints in the mind of the hearer, and fills it with great conceptions. It ftrengthens devotion, and advances praife into rapture. It lengthens out every act of worship, and produces more lafting and permanent impreffions in the mind, than those which accompany any tranfient form of words that are uttered in the ordinary method of religious worship. O. N° 406. Monday, June 16. Hæc ftudia adolefcentiam alunt, fenectutem oble&ant, fecundas res ornant, adverfis folatium & perfugium præbent; delectant domi, non impediunt foris; pernoctant nobifcum, peregrinantur, rufticantur. TULL. Thefe ftudies improve youth; delight old age; are the ornament of profperity and refuge of adverfity; please at home; are no incumbrance abroad; lodge with us; travel with us, and retire into the country with us. THE following letters bear a pleafing image of the joys and fatisfactions of a private life. The firft is from a gentleman to a friend, for whom he has a very great refpect, and to whom he communicates the fatisfaction he takes in retirement; the other is a letter 45 to me, occafioned by an ode written by my Lapland lover; this correfpondent is fo kind as to translate another of Scheffer's fongs in a very agreeable manner. I publish them together, that the young and old may find fomething in the fame paper which may be fuitable to their refpective taftes in folitude; for I know no fault in the defcription of ardent defires, provided they are honourable. 'Dear Sir, YOU have obliged me with a very kind letter; by 'which I find you shift the scene of your life from the town to the country, and enjoy that mixt ftate which ⚫ wife men both delight in, and are qualified for. Me⚫ thinks most of the philofophers and moralists have run 'too much into extremes, in praifing entirely either foli⚫tude or public life; in the former men generally grow, useless by too much reft, and in the latter, are deftroyed by too much precipitation as waters, lying ftill, putrify and are good for nothing; and running violently on, do but the more mifchief in their paifage to others, and are swallowed up and loft the fooner themselves. Those who, like you, can make themselves useful to all states, fhould be like gentle 'ftreams that not only glide through lonely vales and forefts amidst the flocks and fhepherds, but vifit populous towns in their courfe, and are at once of ornament, ' and fervice to them. But there is another fort of people who feem defigned for folitude, thofe I mean who have more to hide than to fhew: as for my own part, I am one of those of whom Seneca fays, Tam umbra'tiles funt, ut pulent in turbido esse quicquid in luce eft. Some men, like pictures, are fitter for a corner than a full light; and I believe such as have a natural bent to folitude, are like waters which may be forced into fountains, and exalted to a great height, inay make a much nobler figure, and a much louder noife, but after all run more fimoothly, equally and plentifully, in their own natural courfe upon the ground. The confideration of this would make me very well contented with the poffeflion only of that quiet which Cowley calls the companion of obfcurity; but whoever has the · Mufes too for his companions, can never be idle enough to be uneafy. Thus, fir, you fee I would flatter myself into a good opinion of my own way of living: Plutarch just now told me, that it is in human life as in a game at tables, one may wish he had the highest caft, but if his chance be otherwife he is even to play it as well as he can, and make the best of it. • I am, Sir, • Your most obliged, Mr. SPECTATOR, and most humble fervant.' THE town being fo well pleafed with the fine picture of artlefs love, which nature infpired the Laplander to paint in the ode you lately printed; we were in hopes that the ingenious tranflator would have obliged it with the other alfo which Scheffer has given us; but fince he has not, a much inferior hard has ventured to fend you this. པ It is a custom with the northern lovers to divert themselves with a fong, whilft they journey through the fenny moors to pay a vifit to their mistreffes. This is addreffed by the lover to his rain-deer, which is the creature that in that country fupplies the want of horfes. The circumftances which fucceffively prefent themfelves to him in his way, are, I believe you will think, naturally interwoven. The anxiety of abfence, the gloominefs of the roads, and his refolution of frequenting only thofe, fince thofe only can carry him to the object of his defires; the diffatisfaction he expreffes even at the greatest swiftness with which he is carried, and his joyful furprife at an unexpected fight of his mistress as the is bathing, feen beautifully de• scribed in the original. If all thofe pretty images of rural nature are left in the imitation, yet poffibly you may think fit to let this fupply the place of a long letter, when want of leifure or irdifpofition for writing will rot permit our being entertained by your own hand. I propofe fuch a time, because though it is natural to have a fordnefs for what one does one's felf, yet I affure you I would not have any thing of mine difplace a fingle line of yours,' I. "Hafte, my rain-deer, and let us nimbly go Around us far the rushy moors are spread: “Soon will the fun withdraw his chearful ray : "Darkling and tir'd we fhall the marshes tread, No lay unfung to cheat the tedious way. ་་ "The wat'ry length of these unjoyous moors ་་ "Each moment from the charmer I'm confin'd. My breaft is tortur'd with impatient fires Fly, my rain-deer, fly fwifter than the wind, "Thy tardy feet wing with V. my fierce defires. "Our pleafing toil will then be foon o'erpaid, "Her artlefs charms, her bloom, her fprightly air. VI. "But lo! with graceful motion there fhe fwims, 46 Gently removing each ambitious wave; "The crouding waves tranfported clafp her limbs: "When, when, oh when fhall I fuch freedom have! 'VIL. "In vain, ye envious ftreams, fo faft ye flow, To hide her from a lover's ardent gaze: "From every touch you more tranfparent grow, "And all reveal'd the beauteous wanton plays." T. |