"immerge it in the ocean, and it will ftand!" Can the mind, fays the inquirer into the fine arts, have directly a view of the proportion that the time of a femibreve has to that of a demifemiquaver? No, She may as well have a view of eternity!'

Mr. Robertfon next proceeds to the Theory of anci ent mufic:' a fubject of much difquifition and controverfy amongst the learned and philofophical muficians, and which, after all their labours, ftill remains in a ftate of darkness and uncertainty. To enter into a minute detail of this part of the volume, would be difagreeable to the generality of our readers, we fha I therefore only flightly trace the route of our author, referring the few amateurs to the work itself for more particular information. The ancients, we are told, expreffed the fcience of tune by the term harmonica, that word referring entirely to the scale of mufic, and to melody, and not to the modern fenfe of the word harmony. What had a reference to the fcale was in general denominated mufica harmonica; what referred to melody obtained the appellation of melopoeia. Time in ancient mufic was called. rythmus, and included metrum: and hence fprung the doctrines of the musica rythmica and mufica metrica. The feveral fcales of tune were known among the ancients by the name of genera, of which there were properly three, the diatonum, the chroma, and the harmonia or enharmonium. The various arrangement of the notes in the three genera, produced twelve modes or fpecies; feven perfect, viz. the Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Hypolydian, Hypophrygian, and Hypodorian; and five artificial, or femitone modes, viz. the Ionian, Eolian, Hyperionian, Hypoæolian, and Hypoionian.

In the explanation of this abftrufe fubject the author has differed, as was to be expected, in many things from those who have gone over the fame ground before him; there is however a striking coincidence, which he has acknowledged, between his opinions and thofe of Sir Francis Hawkins Eyles Styles, as appears by a paper published many years ago in the transactions of the Royal Society.+

The melopoeia, or compofition of the ancients, is involved in the fame obfcurity with their mufica harmonica. A few fcraps of poetry with the mufiçal characters annexed, have efcaped from the wreck of ages; but fo inconfiderable, that from them no certain opinion can be eftablished. Our

author however repeats what has beeen already fail upon this fubject. In this part of the volume, Mr. Robertfon difcuffes the much agitated question, whether the ancients were acquainted with harmony, or mufic in parts? Having given feveral reafons for believing, that they were only acquainted with melody, he maintains, that no one who knows the object of ancient mufic can fuppofe that the Greeks and Romans would have practifed harmony, even had they been in poffeffion of the theory. • The object was παιδεύειν, to teach, to train the mind; to give it knowledge; to infpire temperate and falutary feelings; to roufe, to correct, and to reclaim. The ancients,' therefore, fays he, ' would not have chufed to be acquainted with mufic in parts,' Mr. Keeble, on the contrary, from a laborious investigation of the Grecian harmonica, lately published, draws an oppofite conclufion: "It is almoft impoffible," fays he," to enu

merate all the advantages with refpect to mufical information and a profound knowledge of harmony, contained in the Grecian harmonica." p. 204. "Who can decide, when doctors difagree?".

Our readers muft themfelves examine what is faid of time in ancient mufic, or the mufica rythmica and mufica metrica; as the fubject does not admit of any abstract that could come within the bounds which we must not exceed. We cannot, however, help faying, that the effects of rythmus seem to bę exaggerated, and muft agree with the ingenious Dr. Burney, that Ariftides Quintilianus is, at leaft on this fubject, an enthusiast and our author's perfonification of rythmus may perhaps lead others to accufe him of fomething fimilar. Rythmus,' we are told, was not in their eyes a dry abstract piece of artithmetic; but a human being, walking in the theatre. They faw his body and his limbs; marked his various gait; now ftalking in pomp; now tripping in play; now moving heavily along, in grief, and pain, and melancholy. He hummed, in the mean while, a fong, the fecondary part. Such an accufation may not be difagreeable to Mr. Robertfon as he has faid, that without enthufiafm there can be no fine art. This maxim, well understood, we are willing to allow; but he must remember, there are certain boundaries, beyond which enthufiafm cannot go without entering the precincts of madnefs, or of folly.

On the theory of ancient mufic, our author has bestowed much labour and ingenuity; but, from the nature of the fubject, from the want of a ftable foundation whereon to build, and from the wide field allowed to conjecture, the fyftem is vulnerable in many parts. In concluding this

chapter,

chapter, Mr. Robertfon has given to the philofopher he has introduced, the most unphilofophical of all wishes. We mutt premife, that not to understand a fubject is called by Mr. Robertfon being, with regard to that fubject, in a fate of darkness. He then fays, The philofopher often wading in this darkness, wishes for the light of error, whep he cannot arrive at the light of truth.' What philofopher, who deferves the name, ever expreffed fuch a with Metaphorical darkness has ever been confidered as fynonimous with error: itwas referved for philofophers in the eighteenth century to discover the illuminations of error: the hardness of fofthefs, or the whitenefs of blackpefs could not be a more astonishing discovery.

"

Chapter III. is entitled, Speculations in Mufic.' Here the author maintains, that the octave of every note is a modification of that note, and in no cafe the fame with it,' and ridicules maficians for limiting the degrees to the number feven, on the falfe fuppofition that all octaves are the fame. He alfo laughs at the fanciful coincidence that has been difcovered between the mufical number feven, and the feven prifmatic colours; and concludes with faying, What, after all, if it be found, were this the place, that there are more than feven colours in a fun-ray?' He then enquires into the principle of mufical fentiment, and concludes, that it is founded partly upon numbers, and partly upon the ear. The fyftems of Rameau and Tartini next pafs in review, and they are difcovered to be the illuftration of a rule, inftead of the demonftration of a principle.' He himself attempts to go a little farther, but is loft in the immensity of the fubject, and leaves it the more willingly, that (as, or because) little advantage is to be derived from it; for bodies are only imperfectly elaftic, and the ear is only an imperfect organ of hearing.' The chapter concludes with an account of Mr. Maxwell's Effay on Tune; the great object of which is to fupercede temperament, by attaining to perfect tune. This effay he mentions with approbation, though he has little hope that the principle will be followed by the mufical world.

(To be continued.)

1

ART.

IT

ART. II. An Inquiry into the Nature and Caufes of the Wealth of Nations, By Adam Smith, LL. D. and F. R. S. of London and Edinburgh; one of the Commiffioners of his Majesty's Cuftoms in Scotland; and formerly Profeffor of moral Philofophy in the Univerfity of Glagow. In three volumes. 8vo. 11. is. Third Edition, with Additions. London, Strahan and Cadell. 1784. T is not confiftent with the defign of our literary journal to enter into the detail of a work which has, fo long fince, received the approbation of the public; and which muft infallibly fecure to its ingenious author an increafing reputation, among all competent judges of the true interefts and policy of nations. It is rather incumbent upon us to confine our obfervations itrictly to the improvements in this Etavo edition, which, under the name of additions and corrections, have been published separately, for the accommo❤ dation of the purchafers of the two former editions in quarto.

This attention in Dr. Smith, is highly commendable; and we haften to the grateful office of laying before our readers a fpecimen of thofe valuable additions, with which this octavo edition of The Inquiry into the Nature and Caufes of the Wealth of Nations, is enriched.

Our author having justly arraigned the system of restraint and monopoly, which, to the digrace of modern policy, has fo long predominated in the commercial arrangement of the European nations, illuftrates, with great ability, the advantages of oppofite maxims, and thus traces the confequences which would arife from the obfervance of fuch maxims, in the commerce between France and England

If thofe two countries,' fays Dr. Smith, 'were to confider their real intereft, without either mercantile jealoufy or national animofity, the 'commerce of France might be more advantageous to Great Britain than that of any other country, and for the fame reason that of Great Britain to France. France is the nearest neighbour to Great Britain. In the trade between the fouthern coaft of England, and the northern and N. W. coafts of France, the returns might be expected, in the fame manner as in the inland trade, four, five, or fix times in the year. The capital, therefore, employed in this trade, could in each of the two countries, keep in motion four, five, or fix times the quantity of industry, and afford employment and fubfiftence to four, five, or fix times the number of people, which an equal capital could do in the greater part of the other branches of foreign trade. Between the parts of France and Great Britain most remote from one another, the returns might be expected, at least, once in the year, and even this trade would fo far be at leaft equally advantageous as the greater part of the other branches of our foreign European trade. It would be, at leaft, three times more advantageous than the boafted trade with our North American colonies, in which the returns were feldom made in less than three years, frequently not in lefs than fouror five years. France, befides, is fuppofed to contain twenty-four millions

of

of inhabitants. Our North American colonies were never fuppofed to contain more than three millions: and France is a much richer country than North America; though, on account of the more unequal diftribution of riches, there is much more poverty and beggary in the one country than in the other. France, therefore, could afford a market at least eight times more extenfive, and, on account of the fuperior frequency of the returns, four and twenty times more advantageous, than that which our North-American colonies ever afforded. The trade of Great Britain would be just as advans tageous to France, and, in proportion to the wealth, population, and proximity of the refpective countries, would have the fame furiority over that which France carries on with her own colonies.--Such is the very great difference between that trade which the wifdom of both nations has thought proper to difcourage, and that which it has favoured the moft.

"But the very cirmuftances which would have rendered an open and free commerce between the two countries fo advantageous to both, have occafioned the principal obftructions to that commerce. Being neighbours, they are neceffarily enemies, and the wealth and power of each becomes, upon that account, more formidable to the other; and what would increafe the advantage of national friendfhip, ferves only to inflame the violence of national animofity. They are both rich and industrious nations; and the merchants and manufacturers of each, dread the competition of the kill and activity of thofe of the other. Mercantile jealoufy is excited, and both inflames, and is itfelf inflamed, by the violence of national animofity: and the traders of both countries have announced, with all the paffionate confidence of interested falfhood, the certain ruin of each, in confequence of that unfavourable balance of trade, which, they pretend, would be the infallible effect of an unrestrained commerce with the other."

At a time when peace is happily re-established in both hemifpheres, and mankind have leifure to contemplate their relative fituations in the calm lights of philofophy, there is, perhaps, reason to expect that fuch cultivated nations as France and England will be the first to inftruct the world at large by their example, in the advantages of a more enlightened Fo.icy; that they will measure their interefts on a lefs contracted fcale, and rife fuperior, in all commercial ftipulations, to those national prejudices which, to the detriment of both countries, have been cherished for ages. It is greatly to be wished, that the treaty of commerce, which is now negociating at Paris, by Mr. Craufurd, may be digefted and matured on Dr. Smith's principles, in the cabinets of London and Verfailles. But if national antipathies must prove an eternal bar to fuch regulations between nations, who, by a folecifm in language, have been denominated natural enemies, it is furely not romantic to expect that the happier arrangements of trade will fpeedily commence, where no fuch antipathies fubfift; and especially between nations, who till of late, have regarded

each