he contends, against the musicians of his time, that the diatessaron, or fourth, is a concordant interval; the diatone and semidiatone he ranks among the consonances. The author then proceeds to explain how the lesser intervals are produced. In the nineteenth chapter of the second book, is contained the description of an instrument, invented by Salinas, for demonstrating the ratios of the consonances, and also of the lesser intervals. In the third book, he treats of the genera of the ancients, with so much learning and sagacity, that Dr. Pepusch has declared that the true enharmonic, which for many ages had been supposed lost, was in this work accurately determined. Salinas, in another part of his work, shews the method of constructing what he calls, "the type of the diatonic." He next treats of the temperament of the organ and other instruments, and makes some interesting observations on the powers of the human voice; he then speaks of the lute and the viol, and of the temperaments best adapted to each. In the tenth chapter of the fourth book there is a diagram, representing, in a collateral view, the tetrachords of the ancients conjoined with the hexachords of Guido, shewing how the latter spring out of the former; the ancient division of the genera into the species is afterwards noticed. In a subsequent chapter, he exposes the errors of Aristoxenus, in a manner very different both from Ptolemy and Boetius. The last subject treated of by him, is, the Rhythmus of the ancients; and he enters into a copious dissertation on the various kinds of metre used by the Greek, the Roman, and the Spanish poets.

Of this work it may be sufficient to say, that a greater degree of credit is due to it, than to almost any other production of modern writers, of the same kind. The author was a practical, as well as a theoretical, musician; and, throughout the whole of his book, he manifests a disposition, the farthest removed that can possibly be imagined, from that credulity which betrayed Glareanus and others into error. This disposition led him to enquire accurately and minutely into the doctrines of the Greek writers; and, from the confidence with which he sometimes blames them, we are led into the persuasion that the truth was on his side.

AUTHORITIES:

SIR JOHN HAWKINS'S History of Music, vol. 4.-Dr. BurNEY'S History of Music, vol. 3.-Musical Biography.

THE LIFE

OF

THOMAS WILSON,
HOMAS

THE BLIND BELL RINGER OF DUMFRIES.

"Then, while on Britain's thousand plains,

One unpolluted Church remains,

Whose peaceful bells ne'er sent around

The bloody tocsin's maddening sound,

But still upon the ballowed day,

Convoke the swains to praise and pray."

It is humiliating to the pride of man to trace the helplessness of his nature, but at the same time gratifying to consider the goodness of providence, in the provision made for his wants and infirmities. In no situation, perhaps, is this better exemplified, than in the case of those who, like the subject of this memoir, condemned to perpetual darkness, are left to grapple with the difficulties of life, and to make their way through its mazy windings, under a privation which, of all others, is the most appalling.

Thomas Wilson was born on the 6th of May, 1750, and lost his eye sight by the small pox, at so

early an age, as to have no subsequent recollection of ever having gazed on the external world. When a child, like other boys, he was very fond of visiting the venerable mid-steeple of Dumfries; and, at the age of twelve, was promoted to the office of chief ringer. Being of industrious habits, he also, after much labour and perseverance, succeeded in gaining a pretty correct notion of the trade of a wood turner, which enabled him to support himself, without becoming a burden to any one, and honest Thomas's Beetles and Spurtles are still held in high repute, by the good wives of both town and country. Although this business requires a considerable number of tools, he had them so arranged, that he could, without the least difficulty, take from his shelf the particular one he might be in want of, and was even able to sharpen them himself when necessary. He moreover excelled in the culinary art, cooking his victuals with the greatest nicety; and priding himself on the architectural skill he displayed in erecting a good ingle or fire. In his domestic economy, he neither had, nor required an assistant. He fetched his own water, made his own bed, cooked his own victuals, planted and raised his own potatoes; and, what is more strange still, cut his own peats, and was allowed by all to keep as clean a house, as the most particular spinster in the town. Among a hundred rows of potatoes, he easily found the way to his own; and, when turning peats, walked as carefully among the hags of lochar moss, as those who are in possession of all their faculties. At raising potatoes, or any other odd job, he was ever ready to bear a hand; and when a neigh

bour became groggy on a Saturday night, it was by no means an uncommon spectacle to see Tom conducting hin home to his wife and children.

As a mechanic, he was more than ordinarily ingenious, and with his own hands made a lathe, with which he was long in the habit of turning various articles, both of ornament and general utility. In making cocks and pails for brewing vessels, potatoe beetles, tin smith's mallets, and huckster's stands, for all the country round, blind Tom was quite unrivalled. Many a time he has been seen purchasing a plank on the sands, raising it on his shoulders, even if ten feet long, and carrying it to his house, without coming in contact with obstruction on the way. He also constructed a portable break for scutching lint, which he mounted on a nice little carriage, by the means of which he readily transported himself to any farm house where his services were required. His sense of touch was exceedingly acute, and he took great pleasure in visiting the work-shops of ingenious tradesmen, and handling any curious article they had formed. At the time the Scotch Regalia were recovered, the good old man seemed quite beside himself with joy; and never, to the last, did he cease to regret, that circumstances prevented him from visiting Edinburgh, and feeling the ancient crown of Scotland.

After his appointment as chief ringer in the midsteeple of Dumfries, blind Tom's first visit every morning was to the bell-house; and he tripped up stairs with as much agility and confidence as if he had possessed the clearest vision, generally inserting the key into its proper place at the first trial. Never was a