PRUSSIA, King of, his Campaigns,

PARS, fex, Stone's Doc- PSALMODY, fee Perfuafive.

PATRIOTISM, a Mock-heroic, 439 RANGER's Vifit to the Ideal

THE

MONTHLY REVIEW,

For

JULY, 1763.

A Differtation on the Rife, Union, and Power, the Progreffion, Separations, and Corruptions of Poetry and Mufic: To which is prefixed the Cure of Saul, a facred Ode. Written by Dr. Brown, 4to. 8s. 6d. in boards. Davis and Reymers.

HE mind of man is led by an irrefiftible defire to investi⇒ Tgate the origin and firft principles of things. His eye,

epelled by thofe impenetrable barriers which fhut up futurity, looks towards the past for entertainment, and travels, under the guidance of hiftoric information, to the remoteft æra's that man has recorded of his own existence. When history and tradition drop the directing line, conjecture takes it up; and, calling ana logy and probability to her aid, leads the credulous traveller through ideal ages and worlds of her own creation. These imaginary times the pride of modern refinement has denominated the favage ftate of man; and here the philofopher, with a felfapproving pity, contemplates the fuppofed ignorance and barbarity of his ancestors. To thefe times, however, he is generous enough to afcribe the origin of those arts which are deemed the peculiar ornaments of civilized life, and which are, therefore called polite. But when he attempts to exhibit the progrefs of those arts, and to enquire into the immediate circumftances of their rife, he is frequently bewildered in the search; and, in the end, more than half his fyftem is founded on conjecture. Thefe are inconveniences, which are neither to be avoided nor to be wondered at. Moft of the arts of man have advanced to excellence by flow degrees, and through long progreffion. The principles on which they were firft founded have, in many cafes, been too trifling or too imperfect to be recorded in their progrefs; and the inventor's name has been frequently, and not unjustly, fuperfeded by the name of the improver-frequently, because the art, under the imperfections of its infant ftate, would not confer celebrity on the inventor; and not unVOL. XXIX.

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justly,

juftly, because the hints that have given birth to many human inventions have been derived from accidental circumstances, altogether independent on human fagacity.

Through all thefe difties, and a thoufand more connected with them, our laborious Critic walks undifmayed, and, in defpite of the ravages of time and oblivion, undertakes to exhibit the rife, union, and power, the progreffions, feparations, and corruptions of Pottry and Mufic. For this purpofe a number of fcraps and fragments are collected from various writers, ancient, and modern-from LEGISLATIVE bards, orators, historians, and commentators: all which, being firft well fhaken together are, by the aid of a little conjecture, and logical leger-demain, made to prove the doctrine contained in the following fections.

Sections the first and fecond are taken up with the defign and the proposed method of enquiry.

Sect. III. Of mufic, dance, and poem, in the favage ftate. Sect. IV. Of the natural confequences of a fuppofed civili

zation.

Sect. V. An application of thefe principles to the melody, dance, and fong of ancient Greece.

Sect. VI. Of the progreffions of mufic in ancient Greece. Sect. VII. Of the origin and progreffions of comedy in ancient Greece.

Sect. VIII. Of the natural union, and progreffions of melody and fong in other European countries.

Sect. IX. Of the natural union, and progreffions of melody and fong in China, Peru, and India.

Sect. X. Of the natural union, and progreffions of melody and fong among the ancient Hebrews.

Sect. XI. Of the state and feparation of mufic and poetry in ancient Rome.

Sect. XII. Of the ftate and feparation of mufic and poetry among the polished nations of Europe through the fucceeding ages.

Sect. XIII. Of the poffible re-union of poetry and mufic,
Sect. XIV. Conclufion.

Sect. III. Of mufic, dance, and poem, in the favage ftate.

< By examining favage life, where untaught nature rules, we find that the agreeable paffions of love, pity, hope, joy, and exultation, no less than their contraries of hate, revenge, fear, forrow, and despair, oppreffing the human heart by their mighty

force,

force, are thrown out by the three powers of action, voice, and articulate founds. The brute creatures exprefs their paffions by the two first of thefe; fome by action, fome by voice, and fome by both united beyond thefe man has the added power of articulate fpeech: the fame force of affociation and fancy, which gives him higher degrees, and a wider variety of paffion, gives rife to this additional power of expreffing thofe paffions which he feels.

Among the favages, who are of the loweft fcale of the human kind, these feveral modes of expreffing their paffions are found altogether fuited to their wretched ftate: their geftures are uncouth and horrid: their voice is thrown out in howls and roarings their language is like the gabbling of geefe,

But if we afcend a step or two higher in the fcale of favage life, we fhall find this chaos of gefture, voice, and fpeech rifing into an agreeable order and proportion. The natural love of a measured melody which time and experience produce, throws the voice into fong, the gefture into dance, the speech into verse or numbers. The addition of mufical inftruments comes of courfe they are but imitations of the human voice, or of other natural founds, produced gradually by frequent trial and experiment.

Such is the generation and natural alliance of thefe three fifter-graces, mufic, dance, and poem, which we find moving hand in hand among the favage tribes of every climate.'

This is, indeed, an eafy way of accounting for the origin and union of these fifter arts, and it might do very well, were not the arguments made ufe of inconfiftent and inconclufive.

But they are inconfiftent; for the Author tells us, that the geftures of the favages, who are in the loweft fcale of the human kind, are uncouth and horrid; that their voice is thrown out in howls and roarings, and their language is like the gabbling of geefe.-There is no mufic, therefore, confeffedly, among thefe; no dance, no poem. And yet, immediately afterwards we are told that mufic, dance, and poem are found moving hand in hand among the SAVAGE TRIBES OF EVERY CLIMATE. If the Author is not here inconfiftent with himself, we fhould be glad to know what part of the world he has affigned to thofe favages who are in the loweft fcale of the human kind, fince he has evidently excluded them from every climate.

His arguments are likewife inconclufive. The natural love of a meatured melody, fays he, which time and experience produces, throws the voice into fong, the gefture into dance, the Speech into verfe or numbers. Now, if all thefe effects are ow

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ing