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modern Saul, and the medicinal voice of Farinelli effected what no other medicine could.

The following facts our readers may consider as a trial of their credulity; their authorities, however, are by no means contemptible. Naturalists assert, that animals and birds, as well as "knotted oaks," as Congreve informs us, are sensible of the charms of music. The following may serve as an instance:-An officer was confined in the Bastile. He begged the governor. to permit him the use of the lute, to soften, by the harmonies of his instrument, the rigour of his prison. At the end of a few days, this modern Orpheus, playing on his lute, was greatly astonished to see frisking out of their holes great numbers of mice, and descending from their woven habitations, crowds of spiders, who formed a circle about him, while he continued breathing his soul-subduing instrument. His surprise at first was so great, that he was petrified with astonishment; when, having ceased to play, the assembly, who did not come to see his person, but to hear his instrument, immediately broke up. As he had a great dislike to spiders, it was two days before he ventured again to touch his lute. At length, having conquered, for the novelty of his company, his dislike of them, he re-commenced his concert, when the assembly was by far more numerous than at first; and in the course of farther time, he found himself surrounded by a thousand musical amateurs. Having thus succeeded in attracting his company, he treacherously contrived to

get rid of them at his will. For this purpose, he begged the keeper to give him a cat, which he put in a cage, and let loose at the very instant when the little hairy people were most entranced by the Orphean skill he displayed.

We have the following curious anecdote on this subject by Marville. He says, that doubting the truth of those who say it is natural for us to love music, especially the sound of instruments, and that beasts themselves are touched with it, being one day in the country, I inquired into the truth; and while a man was playing on the trump marine, made my observations on a cat, a dog, a horse, an ass, a hind, cows, small birds, and a cock and a hen, who were in the yard, under a window on which I was leaning. I did not perceive that the cat was the least affected, and I even judged by her air, that she would have given all the instruments in the world for a mouse, sleeping in the sun all the time; the horse stopped short from time to time before the window, raising up his head now and then, as he was feeding on the grass; the dog conti nued for above an hour seated on his hind legs, looking stedfastly at the player; the ass, eating his thistles, did not discover the least indication of his being moved; the hind lifted up her large wide ears, and seemed very attentive; the cows stopped a little, and after gazing as though they had been acquainted with us, went forward; some little birds who were in an aviary, and others on the trees and bushes, almost split their little throats with singing; but the cock, who

minded only his hens, and the hens who were solely occupied in scraping a neighbouring dung-hill, did not shew in any manner that they took the least pleasure in hearing the trump marine.

The charming of snakes and other venomous reptiles by the power of music, among the Indians, is notorious to all travellers. These anecdotes, which may startle some, seem to be fully confirmed by Sir William Jones, in his curious Dissertation on the Musical Modes of the Hindoos.

"After food," says he, "when the operation of digestion and absorption give so much employment to the vessels, that a temporary state of mental repose, especially in hot climates, must be found essential to health, it seems reasonable to believe that a few agreeable airs, either heard or played without effort, must have all the good effects of sleep, and none of its disadvantages; putting, as Milton says, the soul in tune,' for any subsequent exertion; an experiment often successfully made by myself. I have been assured by a credible witness, that two wild antelopes used often to come from their woods to the place where a more savage beast, Serajuddaulah, entertained himself with concerts, and that they listened to the strains with the appearance of pleasure, till the monster, in whose soul there was no music, shot one of them to display his archery. A learned native told me he had frequently seen the most venomous and learned snakes leave their holes upon hearing tunes on a flute, which, as he supposed, gave them peculiar delight."

Mr. Gibbon, in the last volume of his History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, observes, that experience has proved that the mechanical operation of sounds, by quickening the circulation of the blood and spirits, will act on the human machine more forcibly than the eloquence of reason and honour. Of this remark, the following anecdote, from a late Tour in England and Scotland, is a remarkable illustration:

"Beyond all memory or tradition, the favourite instrument of the Scotch musicians has been the bagpipe, introduced into Scotland at a very early period, by the Norwegians.

"The large bag-pipe is the instrument of the Highlanders for war, for marriage, for funeral processions, and other great occasions. They have also a smaller kind, on which dancing tunes are played. A certain species of this wind music, called Pibrochs, rouses the native Highlanders in the same way that the sound of the trumpet does the war-horse; and even produces effects little less marvellous than those recorded of the ancient music. At the battle of Quebec, while the British troops were retreating in great confusion, the general complained to a field-officer of Frazer's regiment, of the bad behaviour of his corps. Sir,' answered he, with some warmth, you did very wrong in forbidding the pipes to play this morning, nothing encourages Highlanders so much in a day of action; nay, even now they would be of use.''Let them blow like the devil,' replied the general,

if it will bring back the men.' The pipes were ordered to play a favourite martial air. The Highlanders, the moment they heard the music, returned and formed with alacrity in the rear. In the late war in India, Sir Eyre Coote, after the battle of Porto Nuova, being aware of the strong attachment of the Highlanders to their ancient music, expressed his approbation of their behaviour on that day, by giving them fifty pounds to buy a pair of bagpipes."

Jackson, of Exeter, in reply to the question of Dryden, “What passion cannot music rise or quell ?” sarcastically returns, "What passion can music rise or quell ?" Would not a savage, who had never listened to a musical instrument, feel certain emotions at listening to one for the first time? But civilized man is, no doubt, particularly affected by association of ideas, as all pieces of natural music evidently prove.

The Rans des Vaches (the cow-song), mentioned by Rousseau, in his Musical Dictionary, though without any thing striking in the composition, has such a powerful influence over the Swiss, and impresses them with so violent a desire to return to their own country, that it was forbidden to be played in the Swiss regiments, in the French service, under pain of death. There is also a Scotch tune, which has the same effect on some of our North Britons. In one of our battles in Calabria, a bagpiper, of the seventy-eighth Highland regiment, when the light infantry charged the French, posted himself on their right, and remained in his solitary situation during the whole of the battle, encouraging

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