ftrumen to its aid, which feem to give it ease, by lending founds a variety, extent, and continuance, which the human voice was incapable of. This gave birth to mufic, made it fo affecting and estimable, and thews, at the fame time, that, properly fpeaking, its true ufe is folely in religion; to which alone it belongs to impart to the foul the lively fentiments which transport and ravish it, which exalt its gratitude and love, which are fuited to its admiration and extafies, and which make it experience that it is happy. Such was the firft ufe men made of mufic, fimple, natural, and without art or refinement, in those times of innocence, and in the infancy of the world; and, doubtlefs, the family of Seth, with whom the true worship was deposited, preferved it in all its purity. But fecuiar perfons, more inflaved to fenfe and paflion, and more intent upon foftning the pains of this life, upon rendering their exile agreeable, and alleviating their diftreffes, abandoned themselves more readily to the charms of mufic, and were more induftrious to improve it, to reduce it into an art, to eftablish their obfervations upon certain rules, and to fupport, ftrengthen, and diverfify it by the help of inftruments. Accordingly, Mofes places this kind of mufic in the family of Cain, which was that of the outcafts, and makes Jubal, one of his defcendants, the father of it. And we fee, in effect, that music is generally devoted to the objects of the paffions. It ferves to adorn, augment, and render them more affecting; to make them penetrate the very foul by additional charms; to render it the captive of the fenfes; to make it dwell wholly in the ears; to infpire it with a new propenfity to feek its confolation from without, and to impart to it a new averlion for useful reflections. The abufe of mufic, almoft as ancient as its invention, has occafioned Jubal to have more imitators than David. But this ought not to caft any reproach upon mufic itfelf. For, as Plutarch very justly obferves, few or no perfons of reafon will impute to the fciences themfelves the abufe fome people make of them, which is folely to be afcribed to the vicious difpofition of thofe who profane them. This exercife has at all times been the delight of all nations, of the most barbarous as well as of those who valued themfelves most upon their civility. And it must be confeffed, that the Author of Nature has implanted in man a taste and fecret tendency for fong and harmony, which ferve to nourish his joy in times of profperity, to difpel his anguish in affliction, and to comfort him in fupporting the pains and fatigues of his labours. There is no artificer that has not recourse to this innocent invention: and the flightest air makes him almoft forget his fatigues. The harmonious cadence, with which the workmen ftrike the glowing mafs upon the anvil, feems to leffen the weight of their heavy hammers. The very rowers experience a kind of relief in the fort of concert formed by the harmonious and uniform motion of their oars. The ancients fuccefsfully employed mufical inftruments, as is ftill the custom, to excite martial ardor in the breafts of the foldiery; and Quintilian, partly, afcribes the reputation of the Roman troops to the impreffions made by the warlike founds of fifes and trumpets upon the legions. I have already obferved, that mufic was in ufe among all nations; but it was the Greeks who rendered it honourable, and, by the value they fet upon it, raifed it to a very high degree of perfection. It was a merit, with their greatest men, to excel in it, and a kind of fhame to be obliged to confefs their ignorance of it. No Hero ever made Greece more illuftrious, than Epaminondas; his dancing gracefully, and touching mufical inftruments with fkill wer ere ckoned ckoned among his fine qualities. Some years before his time, the refufal of Themistocles, at a feaft, to play an air upon the lyre, was looked upon as difhonourable. To be ignorant in mufic was looked upon, in these times, as a great defect in education. It was for this reafon, that the moft celebrated philofophers, who have left us treatifes upon policy, as Plato and Ariftotle, particularly recommended the teaching of mufic to young perfons. Among the Greeks, it was an effential part of education. Belides which, it has a neceffary connection with that part of grammar called profody, which confiders the length or fhortnefs of fyllables in pronunciation, the measures of verfes, their rhymes and cadence, and, particularly, the manner of accenting words. The ancients were fully perfuaded, that, by giving their youth an early tincture of mufic and harmony, their manners would be more eafily formed, and their minds made fufceptible of receiving whatever was laudable and polite; nothing, according to Plutarch; being better adapted, than mufic, to excite perfons at all times to virtuous actions, and efpecial ly to confront the dangers of war. Mufic, however, was not in very high esteem, during the happy times of the Roman republic. It was then looked upon as a thing of little confequence, as Cornelius Nepos very justly obferves. And Salluft's reproach of a Roman Lady, That the knew better how to fing and dance, than was confiftent with a woman of character, fufficiently fhews what the Romans thought of mufic, in his time. Such was the Roman feverity till their commerce with the Greeks, and, ftill more, their riches and opulence, made them run into thofe exceffes, with which the Greeks cannot fo much as be reproached. The ancients attributed wonderful effects to mufic, either to excite or fupprefs the paffions, or to foften the manners, and humanife nations naturally favage and barbarous. But, among all the inftances they have given us of this kind, perhaps a more remarkable one is not to be found, than the following, related by Polybius, with regard to the Arcadians : The ftudy of mafic, fays that hiftorian, has its utility in all nations, but is abfolutely neceffary to the Arcadians. This people, in eftablishing their republic, tho' otherwife very auftere in their manner of life, had fo high an opinion of mufic, that they not only taught that art to their children, but obliged all their youths to apply themfelves to it till the age of thirty. It is not fhameful, among them, to profefs themselves ignorant of other arts; but it is highly dishonourable not to have learned tong, and not to be able to give proofs of it on occafion. Their first Legislators, by making fuch inftitutions, do not feem to have defigned to introduce luxury and effe minacy, but to foften the natural fe rocity of the Arcadians, and to divert, by the practice of mufic, their gloomy and melancholy difpofition, undoubt edly occafioned by coldness of the air which the Arcadians breath most throughout the whole country. al Such is the account given us by Polybius, who afcribes the pleafing manners and virtuous inclinations of the Arcadians wholly to theit applying themfelves to mufic; and, on the contrary, the favage ferocity and barbarous actions of the Cynethians to their neglect of that science. But it is neceffary to obferve what kind of mufic the ancients, and par ticularly Plato and Ariftotle, fo greatly recommended. And this, Quintilian tells us, is not that with which the theatres then refounded; which, by its wanton effeminate airs, had not a little, contributed to extinguish what remained of their ancient manly vir tue; but that which men, filled with honour and, valour, made ufe of in finging the praifes of others like them felves. elves. It is far from my intention adds Quintilian, to recommend thofe dangerous inftruments, whofe languishing founds convey foftness and impurity into the foul, and which ought to be held in horror by all perfons of fense and virtue: I mean that agreeable art of affecting the foul by the powers of harmony, in order either to excite or affwage the paffions, as occation and reafon require.' This is the fort of mufic that was fo highly esteemed by the greatest philofophers and wifeft Legiflators among the Greeks, because it civilizes favage minds, foftens the roughness and forocity of difpofitions, renders people more capable of difcipline, makes fociety more pleafing and delightful, and fhews, in their genuine horrible colours, thofe vices which incline men to inhumanity, cruelty, and violence. Every one knows the canticles of the ancient Hebrews, on what occafions they were written, and the uses they were applied to. Among the other nations, even the most fuperftitious and moft barbarous, melody was, from a mere effect of the primitive inftitution, still made use of to invoke the Almighty, to perpetuate the tenor of an alliance or law, or mutually to infpire one another with irtue, by the recital of the actions of great men. But, in procefs of time, mufic deviated from its original intention; and Plutarch himself, in feveral places of his works, complains, that, to the manly, noble, and divine mufic of the ancients, in which every thing was fublime and majestic, the moderns had fubftituted that of the theatre, which infpires nothing but vice and licentioufnefs. Sometimes he alledges Plato's authority to prove, that mufic, the mother of harmony, decency, and delight, was not given to man by the gods only to tickle his ear, but to reinitate order and harmony in the foul, too often difcompofed by error and pleature. Sometimes he admo nifhes us, that we cannot be too much upon our guard against the dangerous charms of a depraved licentious mufic, and points out the means of avoiding fuch a corruption. He declares, that wanton mufic, diffolute and debauched fongs, corrupt the manners; and that the musicians and poets ought to borrow from wife and virtous perfons the fubjects of their compofitions. It is no wonder that Plutarch complains of the depravity of music in his time, when we find that Plato and Ariftotle made the fame complaint long before. But it will, perhaps, be afked, How mufic, a fcience they were fo remarkably fond of, fhould fo greatly decline from its original grandeur, at a time when eloquence, poetry, painting, and sculpture were cultivated with fuch fuccefs? To this it may be answered: That its intimate union with poetry was the principal caufe of its decline. At first, each of these fifter arts being confined to the exact imitation of what was most beautiful in nature, and having no other view, than to instruct while they delighted, and to excite emotions in the foul tending equally to inspire a reverence for the gods, and a desire of procuring the happiness of fociety, they employed for this end the most fuitable expreflions and lofty thoughts, which they delivered in the most inchanting numbers and cadences. Mufic, particularly, always fimple decent, and fublime, continued within the bounds prefcribed her by the Philofophers and Legislators, who were mott of them poets and muficians. But the theatrical exhibitions, and the worship of certain divinities, especially Bacchus, in time, deftroyed thefe wife regulations. They gave birth to dithyrambic poetry, the most licentious of all in its expreffion, measure, and fentiments. This fpe cies of poetry required a mufic of the fame kind, and, confequently, very remote from the noble fimplicity of the ancient. All the vicious redun danc dance of found, and levity of ornament, were introduced to an excefs, and gave fufficient reafon for the juft complaints of all thofe who excelled and had the best taste in this inchanting science. . In fhort, to adapt mufic to wanton, diffolute, or debauched pieces is to degrade it from its original in tention, and proftitute that science, fo capable of raifing virtuous emotions in the foul, to the fervice of vice. But the nobleft ufe, mufic can be applied to, is the praise and adoration of the beneficent Being, who fpake the univerfe out of nothing, endued man with a rational and immortal foul, giving him the dominion over all the creatures on this terraqueous globe, together with the glorious promife of everlafting happiness, when this fhort and tranfitory life is ended, in the blifaful manfions of eternity. A very curious 'Account of a Sepulchre lately discovered in France, wherein was depofited an buman Body embal med, and fwathed up like an Egyptian Mummy. EAR a place called the Field of N Martyrs, about two leagues and a half from the town of Riom in Auvergne, on the fourth of laft February, was discovered half a foot under the furface of the ground, an ancient fepulchre with a leaden coffin, in which was contained a corpfe curiously embalmed, and exceedingly well preserved. This fepulchre pointed caft and weft, was 7 feet long, 2 feet 8 inches broad, and 5 feet 3 inches high: It was of a light fort of afh colour'd ftone, from what quarry unknown, the lower part hollow'd into a trough, the cover ridged up, with a flat band running along the middle, and fomewhat hollow'd with in; without any ornament, infcription, or figure about it. The coffin is 4 feet and a half long, and one foot and a half broad. It confifts likewife of two pieces, a coffer of equal extent throughout, and a lid with a rim like a fnuffbox. The lid has two chinks pierced through it, each about two inches long, one juft over the mouth of the corpfe, and the other about the ftomach, for what purpose is uncertain; they were top'd up with a fort of wad or felt. The coffin, like the fepulchre, is without any figure or character, excepting at one end a few fcratches fomewhat refembling a ftar, and at the other a triangle: The infide of the coffin was lined with the embalming fubftance mixed with clay. The corps is a young lad 10 or 12 years of age. The manner of the embalming is not unlike the most curious fort ufed by the Egyptians. The whole body was thick fpread with balsam, and covered with cloths dipp'd in the fame matter, which was wrapped in very fine linnen, and over all paffed fwathes in the manner of a mummy. The trunk, and each end of the extremities were fwathed separately: The hands and feet were put naked into little cafes filled with the balfam, and the head into a cap of prepared skin. The head lay eastward. The corps difcovered not any alteration, faving in the colour of the fkin, which looks as if it were tanned, from the penetration of the balfam. The head is large, and the fkin on its top had been separated from the cranium in order to introduce the balfam which was there found mixed with clay. 'Tis uncertain if any of it were injected into its cavity, and what the prefent ftate of the brain is. There is no hair to be feen any where but on the back of the head, which is of a chefnut brown, and about two inches long. The face, ears and tongue, were preferved in good condition; the eyes are ftill remaining in their orbits. The nofe, though a little bruised, " bruifed, retains its fhape, nor was there one tooth mithing when it was found. The breait does not appear to have been opened any more than the cranium, and as it was not thought proper to mutilate the body, it has been impoffible to be informed of the condition, of the vifcera. It is certain however that all the ribbs do ftill retain the freedom of their motion. By introducing a finger through an opening which a furgeon made out of too much curionty, the whole thorax, may be made to play like a pair of bellows, the diaphragm being fouple, and all the entrails of the lower belly entire,cas in a recent carcafs; upon blowing into the intestines, they are diftended, and become tranfparent: they seem to be fecured by a lefs folid balfam than what is on the outfide the body: No aperture can be difcerned about the belly except, that now mentioned, which inakes it doubtful, if it were in any part evifcerated, if the gutts were feparate ly cleanfed and aromatis'd, or if that operation was performed only by injection at the fundament, as the want of any opening inclines one to believe; yet the great tranfparency of the guts, their being burft in feveral places, and the balfam on their outfide, favour the former method. The fex is very manifeftly characterifed, and it may eafily be perceived that this lad had never beea circumfifed. The arms and thighs have, if poffible, been better preferved than the trunk. The hands elpecially, and the feet are worthy of admiration; the nails adhere fait, and all the lines of the palms of the hands are as diftinct as thofe of a living perfon. All the joints of the trunk and extremities, excepting thofe of the legs and feet, are moveable, and the mufcular parts yield to the motion that is impreffed upon them; the fingers have a fpringingnels fufficient to reftore themselves after being bent: But, what is ftill more furprifing, the bones of the arms and legs are foft and pliant: Thofe of the fore arms may be eafily bent; whilft thofe of the skull retain their perfect folidity. Can this be the effect of the balfam? Would not fuch fpirituous particles rather oppofe the foftening of the bones? How fhould any oleous or unctuous particles pervade the integuments and the mufcles, and even infinuate themfelves into the very texture of the bones, whilft immediately applied to the cranium, they have produced no fuch effect ? Whence arifes the rigidness of the joints of the feet? May not the ftiffness of the one and the foftnefs of the other be owing to the difeafe the perfon died of? This difcovery has opened a large field for reflecti on. The balfam certainly is excellent and most fragrant. The fepulchre, and the ftone exhale a great deal of it ftill, tho' it has been expofed to the open air above a month, and the hands of thofe who have touched the corps, preferve it feveral hours, though washed in hot water, brandy, or vinegar. It is dif ficult to find out the true nature of this balfam; 'tis conjectured to be a mixture of oils, odoriferous gums, or relins, and aromatic powders, forming a combination of fcents, of which it is hard to diftinguish any one in particular; it difcovers nothing bitter or acrid to the tafte. The corps received fome damage by being expofed on fundays to the infpection of the populace, who cut away part of the fkin of the forehead, drew all the fore-teeth, and endeavoured to tear out the tongue. They carried away all the linnen it was wrapped in, and the cap which covered the head; for they fancied it no lefs than the body of fome faint. As foon as the officers of the fenefchal jurifdiction of Auvergne, wherein it was found, had notice of it, they gave orders for removing it into the capital town of |