LI. Keen sentences, wit, airy pleasantry, and lively conceits, are the precise ornaments of poetry; but they should not be introduced into a poem, as if they had been studiously sought after; on the contrary, they should seem as if they were always in waiting, and ready either for the poet to lay his hand on them, or to obey his command; who should pursue the rout he has chalked out for himself, and as he proceeds on, gather such flowers as he meets on his way, and which grow naturally in the road through which he travels. This was the practice of Virgil, Ovid, Horace, and all the illustrious poets of antiquity. To make couplets, which are no more than an unformed mass of little conceits, is a thing very easy, and at the same time very useless; because there is not in them, nor are they capable of containing, any of the sublime excellences of poetry. Why do I say sublime excellences? Not even the lowest requisites which are of its essence.
LII. But I have not even yet mentioned the worst part belonging to the divine canticles; which is, that if not all, a great many of them are composed in a burlesque stile. This is certainly done with great discretion; because by this practice, the things appertaining to God, are converted to things of interlude. What idea can a thousand extravagances, put in the mouths of Gill and Pasquil, give of the ineffable mystery of the incarnation? I shall leave it here, for the thoughts of such an absurdity put me out of all patience; and he to whom such an indignant abuse, does not of itself appear disgusting, I shall never be able to persuade or convince, by any arguments whatever.
The following, which is extracted from the learned Letters of Feyjoo, is an Answer of the Author’s to a Letter from a Friend on the Subject of Music. The Title he gives to the Letter, is,
THE
WONDERFUL EFFECTS OF MUSIC,
AND A COMPARISON OF THE
ANTIENT WITH THE MODERN.
Dear Sir,
I. Before I ceased to be a young man, or indeed before I became one, the difficulty you now propound occurred to me, and is, in my humble opinion, a very grave one. It seems beyond a doubt, that the music of these times, does not produce the admirable effects which are related of the music of antiquity, and it seems also as if this argued a greater degree of perfection in the antient than the modern. On the other hand, it appears difficult to explain, in what this superior degree of perfection in the antient consisted; not so much for the reason you mention, as for another, which I shall point out in the sequel.
II. We at present know of no musician whatever, who, by the use of his art, can excite, or appease a violent passion; but if various authors do not deceive us, the music of antiquity, produced both the one and the other of these effects. It is related of the two musicians, Timotheus and Antigenides, that they could, whenever they pleased, enrage Alexander to such a pitch, as to make him seize on his arms, and fall into such excesses of fury, as terrified the by-standers, and filled them with apprehensions that their lives were in danger. They tell us also of a trumpeter of Megara, named Herodotus, who perceiving the strength and endeavours of the soldiers of Demetrius, insufficient to move a warlike machine of enormous weight towards the walls of Argos, which they were then besieging, he, by blowing two trumpets at a time, so inspired them, that they found their vigour in a manner doubled, and themselves enabled to conduct the machine to the place they wished. They tell us likewise, of a remarkable flute-player, who was a Milesian, that by touching in the Phrygian mode enraged certain men, and by changing to the Doric from the Phrygian, immediately calmed them again. Of the famous musician Terpandro, they relate, that with his lyre, he stifled the flame of a sedition among the Lacedæmonians; and of Empedocles, that he also with his lyre, disarmed a youth of his choler, who was on the point of committing a parricide. I shall omit many other cases of this kind.
III. If it appears wonderful, that the antient music should have inflamed, and calmed violent passions, it seems more so, that it should have been made use of to cure various diseases; and sometimes, not only in here and there an individual, but even in a whole kingdom; for Plutarch says, that Thaletas, a native of Crete, with the energetic sweetness of the lyre, freed the Lacedæmonians from a plague; and it may be gathered from various authors, that antiently, they used music for the cure of fevers, the falling-sickness, the epilepsy, deafness, the sciatica, and the bite of a viper.
IV. But to tell you the truth, I think these facts should not pass current without some critical examination. And first of all, none of the authors who testify these extraordinary instances of the power of music over the passions, speak of them, as transactions they had been eye-witnesses of, or as things that they knew from their own experience. All the facts cited, are much anterior to the author by whom they are handed down to us; so that it seems very probable, the information came to them by tradition, or proceeded from some popular rumour unworthy of all credit. In matters that favour of the marvellous, both with respect to natural, and præter-natural things, nobody is ignorant how many fables have been delivered down to us in the writings of the ancients.
V. Secondly, in some of the cases, there seems no occasion to have recourse to miracles for their explanation; I mean there is no occasion for attributing the events they tell of, to the wonderful powers of music. It required but little impulse, to rouze the warlike ardour of Alexander; a spark only will cause a vast conflagration, if it falls on a large quantity of gun-powder. Athenæus, who relates the story of Herodotus, says, he was a man of gigantic size, and extraordinary robustness. He gives him near eight feet of stature, and says further, that he ate twenty pounds of meat a day, and drank wine in proportion. A man of such robustness, could make use of much larger trumpets than those of the common size, and might blow his breath through them with such an impetus, as might strikingly agitate the mind, and might also add some temporary degrees of vigour to the body; and for accomplishing this, it is not necessary to suppose any special dexterity in the management of the instruments, for strength was more requisite to produce such an effect than address; and whoever at this time, should be equally robust with Herodotus, might be capable of doing the same thing. Neither perhaps in the other instances, I mean those of irritating and mitigating rage, is there so much to be admired; for the influence of the music, might be applied to subjects, who are very easily moved; some such as we frequently see, that like light weather-cocks, are wafted and turned round with the slightest breeze; and perhaps some modern musician, might be able to work equal changes in the passions, on subjects who are equally susceptible.