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as for that generous approbation he lately gave to an opera of our own country, in which the compofer endeavoured to do juftice to the beauty of the words, by following that noble example, which has been fet him by the greatest foreign mafters in that art.

I could heartily wish there was the fame application and endeavours to cultivate and improve our churchmufic, as have been lately beftowed on that of the ftage. Our compofers have one very great incitement to it: They are fure to meet with excellent words, and at the fame time, a wonderful variety of them. There is no paffion that is not finely expreffed in thofe parts of the infpired writings, which are proper for divine fongs and anthems.

There is a certain coldnefs and indifference in the phrafes of our European languages, when they are compared with the oriental forms of fpeech; and it happens very luckily, that the Hebrew idioms run into the English tongue with a particular grace and beauty. Our language has received innumerable elegancies and improvements, from that infufion of Hebraifms, which are derived to it out of the poetical paffages in Holy Writ. They give a force and energy to our expreffion, warm and animate our language, and convey our thoughts in more ardent and intenfe phrafes, than any that are to be met with in our own tongue. There is fomething fo pathetic in this kind of diction, that it often fets the mind in a flame, and makes our hearts burn within us, How cold and dead does a prayer appear, that is compofed in the most elegant and polite forms of speech, which are natural to our tongue, when it is not heighten'd by that folemnity of phrafe, which may be drawn from the Sacred Writings. It has been faid by fome of the ancients, that if the Gods were to talk with men, they would certainly speak in Plato's ftile; but I think we may fay, with justice, that when mortals converfe with their Creator, they cannot do it in so proper a stile as in that of the Holy Scriptures.

If any one would judge of the beauties of poetry that are to be met with in the divine writings, and examine how kindly the Hebrew manners of speech mix and incorporate with the English language; after having

per

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 ftile, with fuch a comparative poverty of imagination, as will make him very fenfible of what I have been here advancing.

Since we have therefore fuch a treafury 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 reason, and which would improve our virtue in proportion as it raised our delight. The paflions that are excited by ordinary compofitions generally flow from fuch filly and abfurd occafions, that a man is afhamed to reflect upon them ferioufly; but the fear, the love, the forrow, the indignation that are awakened in the minds by hymns and anthems, make the heart better, and proceed from fuch caufes as are altogether reafonable and praise-worthy. Pleasure and duty go hand in hand, and the greater our fatisfaction is, the greater is our religion.

Mufic among thofe who were filed 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 conquerer 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, tho' 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 degenerated 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..

Homer

Homer and Hefiod intimate to us how this art fhould be applied, when they reprefent the mufes as forrounding Jupiter, and warbling their hymns about his throne. 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 mott favourite diverfions were filled with fongs and hymns to their respective deities. Had we frequent entertainments of this nature among us, they would not a little purify and exalt our paffions, 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 pleasure.

Mufic, when thus applied, raises noble hints in the mind of the hearer, and fills it with great conceptions. It ftrengthens devotion, and advances praife into rapture, 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, fene&utem oble&ant, fecundas res ornant, adverfis folatium & perfugium præbent; dele&tant 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.

HE following letters bear a pleafing image of the

Tjoys 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 to me, occafioned by an ode written by my Lapland lover; this correfpondent is fo kind as to tranf late 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.

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Dear Sir,

Yo

OU have obliged me with a very kind letter; by which I find you fhift the fcene of your life from the town to the country, aud enjoy that mixt ftate which wife men both delight in, and are qualified • for. Methinks most of the philofophers and moralifts ⚫ have run too much into extremes, in praifing intirely ⚫ either folitude or public life; in the former men generally grow useless by too much reft, and in the latter are destroyed 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 paffage to others, and are fwallowed up and loft the fooner themselves. Those who, like you, can make themselves ufeful to all ftates, fhould be like gentle ftreams, that not only glide through lonely vales and forests amidst the flocks and fhepherds, but vifit populous towns in their course, 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 thofe of whom Seneca fays, Tam um• bratiles funt, ut putent in turbido effe quicquid in luce ft. • Some men, like pictures, are fitter for a corner than a full light; and I believe fuch as have a natural bent to folitude, are like waters which may be forced into ⚫ fountains, and exalted to a great height, may make a • much nobler figure, and a much louder noife, but after all run more fmoothly, equally and plentifully, in their own natural courfe upon the ground. The con• fideration of this would make me very well contented with the poffeffion only of that quiet which Corley calls the companion of obfcurity; but whoever has

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the mufes too for his companions, can never be idle enough to be uneafy. Thus, Sir, you fee I would flatter myself into a good opinion of my own way of living: Plutarch just now told me, that 'tis in human • life as in a game at tables, one may with he had the higheft caft, but if his chance be otherwife, he is even < to play it as well as he can, and make the best of it.

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Mr. SPECTATOR,

T

and most humble fervant's

HE town being fo well pleafed with the fine picture of artless love, which Nature inspired 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 hand has ventur'd to fend you this.

It is a cuftom with the northern lovers to divert ⚫ themfelves 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 horses. The circumftances which fucceffively prefent themselves 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 fwiftnefs with which he is carried, and his joyful furprife at an unexpected fight of his miftrefs as the is bathing, feem beautifully defcribed in the original.

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If all thofe pretty images of rural nature are loft in the imitation, yet poffibly you may think fit to let this fupply the place of a long letter, when want of leifure or indifpofition for writing will not permit our being entertained by your own hand. I propose fuch a time, because tho' it is natural to have a fondnefs for what one does one's felf, yet I affure you Ι

I

would

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