134 her voice; but the effect is too evanescent It has served our purpose to speak of harmony as a chemical combination of sound; but we shall now take notice of a grand effect which the new music possesses, from the judicious appointinent and combination of the various instru. ments in a full orchestra. In the time of Handel, it is true that the same assemblage of instruments oc curred, but it was simply a congress of The author never musical machines. consulted the power or genius of the instruments; the bassoon was called upon to move in the graceful inflexions of the violoncello, and the trumpet to wrestle with the violin; often whole pas. sages were out of the verge of possibility, many so uncongenial as to be played with difficulty, and all were so ill digested as to encumber an effect they were in tended to improve. The powers of instruments vary in It was a prime consideration with the "The soft-complaining flute To exemphfy what has been stated, we have hitherto felt or conceived. The The volume of sound that is wanted. In mingled confusion the clarinet struggles with more success, and the position verging to order is seen and etherial flutes escape into air. A disfelt, and every resolution would intimate shape and adjustment, but not a concord the clarini and trombones, some arrange ensues! After the volcanic eruptions of ment is promised; a precipitation fol a misty effect that happily expresses the lows of the discordant sounds, and leaves "Spirit of God moving upon the fuce of light!" the instruments are unmuted, the waters." At the fiat, "Let there be and the audience is lost in the refulgence of harmony. On the Many who have heard these sublime effects with surprise, think there is nothing left for genius to do, and that Haydn has lived long enough to perfect the art in which he excelled. contrary, these emanations of genius and it is fortunate for science, that have opened to us new fields of discovery, he is succeeded in this elevated walk of composition by his pupil Beethoven. school This author, who is now the first master living, is bred up purely in the neve school, and possesses great and original powers. Though less perfect than Haydn, he disdains to imitate him; his genius loves to rove in the darkest recesses of modulation, which impart to his compositions a peculiar strength and rudeness; and the science which has been nursed in the lap of Italy, is now masculizing in the regions of the North. I cannot conclude these observations upon the new music, without paying a tribute to the memory of Mozart. For feeling and expression, this favourite of the Muses may be denominated the Dominichino of our art; and during the short time that he flourished, exhibited the most exquisite flights of fancy. The attire of his melodies are unrivalled for grace and simplicity; and since his death it is said, that Haydn has affirmed his compositions to be the models of the most refined elegance, and that in his old age he was studying the works of his pupil. His imagination has in fused a sublimity into the opera, that now renders it the highest of all intellectual pleasures; and it is to be lament ed that a great nation like England has not talent or ability sufficient to represent and perform any of the works of this great master. We are still doomed to listen to the effeminate strains of Italy, and the nursury-songs of Pucito, while the gorgeous and terrific Don Juan, and the beautiful Clemenza di Tito, lie unopened and unknown to thousands. But the same apathy that I have censured in the students of the old school, with a mixture of puerility is found to prevail within the walls of the first theatre in the world; and it is matter of curious moment that we are now in possession of the very works that are to form the acme of theatrical representation in a succeeding age. Leicester, Feb. 14. W. G. For the Monthly Magazine. AXIOMS in favour of RELIGIOUS LIBERTY and TOLERATION. I. RELIGIOUS tesis keep out of office only the conscientious and sincere, and they are never any bar to the admission of unconscientious and unprin. cipled persons. II. If men perform their social duties faithfully, and in obedience to the laws, they do all that the state can with pro priety demand of expect of them. For the Monthly Magazine. The HISTORY of LITERATURE, from the earliest PERIOD till the DESTRUCTION of the ROMAN EMPIRE, O trace the various gradations of Texcellence, to behold one period adding its own discoveries to the experience of another, and to observe the progress of each successive age in wis. dom and science, is a disquisition in the highest degree useful and entertaining to a liberal mind. Even a partial investigation into the progress of im provement, is, to a man of business, an agreeable relaxation; to him who is not confined for subsistence to any parti cular profession, it is a pleasant, if not a necessary, source of employment; to the philosopher it affords matter of wonder and admiration, and lays a foundation for the most interesting discoveries. An enquiry into the rise and progress of literature, with which the arts and sciences are intimately connected, is, perhaps, the most interesting that can be offered to our notice. We can cou template man at first rude and unre strained; afterwards obliged by necessity to submit to laws, and cultivate the arts of social life; while his advancement in science and the liberal arts, kept pace with his proficiency in virtue and cultivation. This, we know, has ever been the case in the original for mation of states and empires. It is also gratifying to observe, from what small beginnings, and by what slow gradations, the most polished nations have arisen from the greatest depths of ignorance and barbarity, to the utmost heights of learning and politeness. There are re. volutions in the literary as well as in the political world, an enquiry into which would afford equal pleasure to the curious or inquisitive observer. The decay of learning and knowledge is generally rapid in proportion to its advancement: hence nations succeed each other in literaryeminence, as well as in political superiority. However necessary, useful, and entertaining, the disquisition may be into which I am about to enter, it has been very little touched upon, for a very obvious reason. The nature of the undertaking appears to present innumerable obstacles to its success. The difficulty of obtaining materials for a work of this kind, and of arranging them when obtained, deters the more wealthy writers; while poor ones bave the additional dis advantages to combat-of want of time, and want of money. "It is a painful consideration, consideration," says sir William Jones, that the profession of literature, by far the most laborious of any, leads to no real benefit or true glory whatsoever. Poetry, science, letters, when they are not made the sole business of life, may become its ornaments in prosperity, and its most pleasing consolation in a change of fortune; but if a man addicts himself entirely to learning, and hopes by that either to raise a family, or to acquire what so many wish for and so few ever obtain an honourable retirement in his declining age, he will find, when it is too late, that he has mistaken his path; that other labours, other studies, are necessary; and that unless he can assert his own independence in active life, it will avail him little to be favoured by the learned, esteemed by the eminent, or recommended even by kings." A dis quisition of this kind resembles an extensive territory, in which are scattered in profusion all the beauties of nature, whose extent deters the dull and indo. lent from entering it; while the pleasant objects which it presents to view, fully repay the active and persevering for their labour. The delights and advantages resulting from literary acquisitions are universally acknowledged. There are few su ignorant as to be unable to extol them, and few so uncultivated as not to wish for their enjoyment. They are the general topics of discourse, the general subjects of declamation. This general confession of the utility of literature, renders education more general; education promotes the diffusion of knowledge and learning; which contributes to general happiness, by affording a source of useful occupation. and rational entertainment. It is delightful to observe, in the ocaan of time, some few who have been able to elevate themselves above the undistinguished mass with which it is covered, without possessing any previous advantages superior to those of their fellow. combatants; and when they sank, have left a mark which not even succeeding storms could eradicate. Those were the men who have soared above the common race of mortals, and to whose elevation we look up with awe and admiration. I shall now endeavour to give an account of the progress of literature from the earliest periods to the annihilation of the Roman empire, which, together with the destruction of the Alexandrian li brary, occasioned the suspension of literatur, arts, and sciences. The task which I now undertake is of MONTHLY MAO, No. 210. such a nature, as to require that I should expatiate a little on the history of the periods which have been most celebrated for producing examples of literary eminence. Indeed, without an acquaintance with the historical events of the age in which any great writer flourished, and without a knowledge of what peculiar advantages he enjoyed, or of what pe culiar disadvantages he laboured under, we are destitute of a great additional source of pleasure. For instance, there are few so totally devoid of taste, as to be unable to relish the great and natural beauties of Homer, although they be ignorant of his life, and of the circumstances of the times in which he lived. But how greatly must their surprise, pleasure, and admiration, increase, when they are informed that the author of poems, which evince a most luxuriant imagination combined with the greatest knowledge of nature, and most extensive acquaintance with the manners of mankind, lived at a barbarous period, when his native country, Greece, was torn by internal commotions; and that he was a wanderer, and blind during a great part of his life. This undertaking requires neither any peculiar effusions of fancy, nor any re markable felicity of diction. It however requires a considerable degree of diligence, in order to collect sufficient li terary facts and biographical anecdotes; some judgment will also be necessary to select and arrange the materials, when obtained. If, therefore, my readers will allow me the credit of possessing these two qualifications, I shall consider the time and trouble fully repaid. In the execution of this plan, I shall probably introduce critiques on the works of different authors, and compa risons of the respective merits of many, who have excelled in the branches of literature which they made the subject of their contemplation, and who are sup posed to resemble one another in many respects. Neither shall I confine myself wholly to an account of the state of literature; but I shall take frequent opportunities of mentioning the prevails ing habits and customs, together with the progress of laws, arts, and sciences, in the countries of which I may happen to treat, particularly in Greece and Rome, many of whose laws, &c. we have adopted. An account of the Greek and Roman writers must necessarily engage the greatest part of my attention, since to them alone we are indebted for our knowledge knowledge, however little, concerning the preceding ages; with the exception of the Jewish writers, who have related no more concerning the history of other countries than was absolutely necessary from its connection with that of their own. Hence, I shall enlarge upon the two great literary ages among the an cients; the former of which, named the Grecian Age, commenced about the time of the Peloponnesian war (a period no less celebrated for its warriors, than for its writers and artists,) and terminated in the time of Alexander the Great: and the latter of which included the reigns of Julius and Augustus Cæsars; and, like the former age, was distinguished also by its generals and conquerors. In each of these periods, the poet and historian concurred in rendering immortal the victorious general, or the object of popular approbation. The historian exerted all his faculties, and employed all the arts of eloquence and high-colouring, in order to magnify the prowess, or exaggerate the achievements, of him whose actions he admired, or whose favour he wished to conciliate; while the poet, actuated by the same motives, rendered harmony of numbers and poetical license, subservient to the same design. The greatness of their subjects, their desire of superiority over each other, and perhaps the peculiar advantages of the periods at which they flourished, were most probably the chief cause of the animation which those writers in general possessed who flourished together at the above-mentioned ages; and which renders their perusal such an infinite source of pleasure to every one who possesses a refined taste and cultivated imagina. tion. On this account, all who have any pretensions to the characters of lovers of literature, are supposed to have at least a competent knowledge of the productions of the best orators, poets, historians, philosophers, &c. For instance, it is necessary not to be totally ignorant of the works, beauties, or at least subjects, of Herodotus, Thucydides, and Zenophon, among the historians; Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, among the philosophers; Demosthenes, Aschines, and Isocrates, among the orators; Pindar, Eschilus, Euripides, Sophocles, Aristophanes, Menander, Anacreon, and Theocritus, among the poets; all of whom lived during the Grecian Age. I have here omitted many others, of whom we ought to know something, such as Homer and Hesiod, because they did not flourish at the same period with those whose names I have mentioned. A knowledge, however lit tle, of the following writers, who flou-. rished in the Roman Augustan age, is also necessary to those who would be esteemed men of learning: viz. Catullus, Lucretius, Terence, Virgil, Horace, Tibullus, Propertius, Ovid, Phaedrus, Cæsar, Cicero, Livy, Sallust, Varro, and Vitruvius. Such being the importance of an ace quaintance with these two literary pe riods, I shall expatiate to a consider able length on the principal writers in them, and afterwards proceed to state the chief causes of the decline of literature among the ancients. I shall conclude with the devastation of the Ro man empire, by barbarians, and the des struction of the Alexandrian library, by Omar. (To be continued.) For the Monthly Magazine. JOURNAL of a recent VOYAGE to CADIZ. OU have seen how we have hi Ytherto been deceived on the state of affairs with the enemy; if the Spanish cause do not end in the pre tended deliverance of the country, Í dø not think it will be the fault of the people, but of their leaders; for there must be a radical defect somewhere; and if the old system of keeping the people in ignorance be pursued by the Junta and the priests, what benefit will the country obtain should they even succeed in re pelling the French? Ferdinand IV. is now idolized; he is the watch-word for the priests, and it is those who frighten the peasants into the belief, that without supporting his cause they shall all be slaves. The latter have done their duty in the field wherever they could meet the enemy with advantage; but they have too often been led by traitors; or, if they are unsuccessful, the failure is im puted to treachery; and it is much questioned, whether the Junta is not composed of as many members as defective in patriotism, as it is of those who really may maintain the cause they espouse. They are without energy in their mea sures, for they are superannuated old men; they are without firmness in their decisions, for they are too weak as a body to enforce them; and they are di vided in their councils, because one half of them dreads the effects if they should at last be unsuccessful in their pretended, (I repeat this word) endeavours to save the country. It is but a few weeks since Castanos was sent towards Madrid with twenty |