cepted. That mufic is not an imitative art was, we believe, first afferted by Mr. Jackfon, in a preface to one of his early publications. Mr. Robertfon obferves that we, after Ariftotle, continue to fay, that the fine arts imitate, and are ever and anon contradicted by examples, in which there is no imitation.' He afferts that the fine arts, poetry excepted, have never flourished in our island fo much as upon the continent; that, not having fine artifts, we are in danger of not knowing what are fine arts, for in architecture, painting, fculpture, and chiefly mufic, we not only do not execute ourselves, but fcarely know what is executed by others.' If this be true, it is fo of painting only; architecture, and of the pureft ftyle, is more practifed in England than in any other country; and mufic, the immediate fubject of our author's Enquiry, undoubtedly flourishes more in this kingdom than in any other. London is the great centre to which all muficians of eminence tend; and there are, at this time, more capital performers affembled in it than in all Europe befides.

In the chapter on Modern Mufic, our author begins with enquiring into the nature of founds, and examines their fympathifing effects in inanimate and animated bodies. The medical effects of mufic may, he thinks, be owing to this fympathy, fince the bones and nerves may be the strings of the human machine.' But this doctrine is now exploded; and we need not infift on its abfurdity. All thefe, and more fupernatural effects, have been attributed to ancient mufic: the modern art pretends to nothing more than charming the fenfe.

Mr. Robertfon divides the qualities of mufical found into force, polish, and time. Polish is a term of his own invention, and not a very happy one; we alfo think that the term low, is improperly contrafted to loud;' because in musical difcuffions, it is always oppofed to high.' What he means by faying that tune is nothing elfe but time,' exceeds our comprehenfion. Tune is a found of a given pitch, and time the duration of it: in this way it has ever been confidered by every writer on the fubject. Our author is exceedingly prolix on the first elements of mufic; and, from thence, takes occafion to speak of modern performances, which it is pretty clear that he is unacquainted with.

All human guide fails, when the masterly is to be executed. Muficians fpeak of certain occafions, when the ordinary rules both of time and of tune may be fet afide; and thefe are the occafions of eloquence and of fire. Here fome poor fidler is left to himself. He murders Corelli; directions fhould furely be given to ordinary artifts: fome few rules fhould be handed down, guiding them, where they are molt apt to err, to the

fpirit of the compofer who may be long ago dead; and whofe works, imperfectly committed to writing, they are presenting, with many innovations of their own, to the public. It is to be doubted, if Corelli could at this day recognize his own compofitions in a concert of mufic: befides other alterations, fo many graces, as they are called, being added; and fo muchfimple majefty, taken away.'

This justly characterifes the mufic of feventy or eighty years ago; but the moderns play precifely the notes fet before, them. The account of the different intervals and modes is most unreasonably protracted, because there is nothing new in it. We think the fame of his fpeculations in the third chapter.

In the Hiftory of Mufic, Mr. Bruce is frequently mentioned. As this gentleman has not yet communicated his discoveries: to the public, we cannot judge of their importance. The harp of inexpreffible beauty,' as published by Dr. Burney, cannot be like any mufical inftrument, because there is nothing. to refift the tension of the ftrings. That fame learned Theban' who painted it must, for an ancient, be miferably igno rant of the make of mufical inftruments,

It is impoffible to follow our author regularly. Where we agree with him, it is when he takes up the opinions of others; for he advances very little from himself but what is liable to exception. The best part of this volume is, in our opinion, the account of the progrefs of mufic in England, and the character of fome of our compofers. The author has read a great deal on this fubject; but does not feem to poffefs fufficient genius to distinguish what is proper to retain, and what to reject. We shall felect, as a fpecimen, part of this work, where Mr. Robertfon a must have been rather an obferver than a copyift; and confequently where his account is more valu able and original.

The two moft general claffes into which the Highland' mufic feems to divide itself, are derived from the two different' inftruments which that mufic has chiefly employed: the harp, and voice on the one hand, and the bagpipe on the other. String and vocal music being fo compatible with one another, and, of confequence, having been fo generally conjoined in practice, have taken the fame fubjects, and have had the fame character. The bagpipe, from its nature, has ftood alone, and its mufe has been peculiar to itself.

Harp and vocal mafic, the former of thofe two claffes ap pears to have been fubdivided among the Highlanders into two others fongs adapted to times of relaxation and cafe; and fongs that always accompanied labour.

• The

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The former of those fubdivifions, which may be called reftfongs, and probably the more ancient, feem to have been chiefly employed upon fubjects of an historical, heroic, and tragic kind: the air grave and melancholy, without a chorus; and fung by one or more voices throughout. And fuch chiefly are what have been called the ancient lament-fongs of the Highlanders. Some of the more primitive of these airs appear to be only a short imperfect chaunt, or kind of recitative; having little regularity in the measure; and to which, perhaps, they owe their charm; of a grave, flow, and deeply melancholy caft. The most tender and mournful airs, it is faid, belong to this fpecies.

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The latter fubdivifion, the labour fongs, for the purpose of which they are faid admirably to be conftructed, a purpose now fo fingular in Europe, have had in general a lefs deep and ferious fubject, though till plaintive for the greateft part, in their nature. Being fuited to the exertions of labour, to which they have been applied, they have at all times admitted of a chorus; a chorus, which feems to belong peculiarly to an active mufic. The airs here, which have been fung at land, have been called luinig, and those which have been fung at fea, iarram; the luinig the more quick and chearful of the two. The iarrams or rowingfongs feem, from the unitable and tragical element over which they were performed, to have acquired the character which has been given to them, of gravenefs and forrow. They are commonly in a flow meafure; the ear performing the rythmus, or beating of time.

The modulation both of the luinig and iarram is faid to be very fimple; there being fcarcely any tranfition from one key to another, unless from the original key to that of the fixth, or correfponding minor mode, and the reverfe of that, although fome ftrains conclude upon the fifth, yet that key is never regularly introduced and established.

agpipe mufic wears a very different afpect from that of the voice and harp, fuitable unto the nature of the inftrument, and unto the occafions upon which it is employed. It has gone under various names; but thefe rather arifing from the variety of occafions, than implying different fpecies of mufic: fuch as the pibrach, a march or battle-tune; the cruinichadh, gathering or beat to arms; the failte, a falutation, or complimentary piece of martial mufic to the chief. Befides thefe is mentioned the lament, played ftill at funerals in the Highlands. The pibrach and cruinichadh, a proper martial mufic, confift of an air with variations, but in a fingular movement. A flow air begins the piece; the variations become quicker and quicker to a degree of violence, rifing, if we may fay fo, to the boiling point; and the flow air, at last returning again, forms the conclufion. The melody of the variations is often ftrange and uncommon.

What feems to characterize pibrach mufic, is the great contraft both in modulations and in measures. The air is fimple

in its ftructure, and admits but of few notes; the fifth and the key being the prevailing ones; and which are now and then alternated by the fourth and note below the key. The inftrument can only properly play upon one key, the fundamental note to which the drones are tuned this forms the key-note of every bagpipe piece; and from which there hardly can be any depar ture. The inftrument, however, being provided with an additional note a full tone below the drones, that note is fometimes founded in connection with the fecond and fourth, which are refpectively the third and fifth above the additional note itfelf; and hence the mufic may be faid to pafs into a new key; although the tranfition be incomplete; the paffages being but fhopt, and the drones all the while continuing to found the principal key-note, giving hence birth, for a fhort time, to a moft horrible difcord. From this ftate the mufic is relieved by rifing up again to the principal key; and the effect has been compared to a gleam of bright fun-fhine, fuddenly bursting from a dark cloud. The key note and the note below being made to fucceed one another, is a paffage in common with a great many reels, and particularly offensive to the Italians: a paffage which almost never occurs in the vocal mufic, except in fome airs of the minor mode, and where it is admissible, in a certain degree, even in regular mufic. The measure, especially of the flow parts, is often irregular, the performer frequently lengthening notes for the fake of effect, and alfo sometimes fufpending the measure, to introduce certain flourishes and graces peculiar to the inftrument, which it is very difficult, if at all poffible, to reduce to notes; and in the performance of which, the Highland pipers can vie in execution with the most corrupted of the Italian fiddlers. The contraft in measures, it is only to be farther remarked, which would difguft a regular mufician, gives rapture to a Highlander: a notable fact, and which countenances what we read of concerning the effects of ancient mufic.

Bagpipe mufic fhould feem thus to be the mufic rather of real nature, and of rude paffion, than the mufic of a fine art. It is the voice of uproar and of mifrule. The mournful may appear, but it is the mournful of wrath and terror. The effect of fuch mufic feems to be much owing to the inftrument itself, for it is lott upon fofter ones, as the violin and flute. The boiter. oufness of the performance, the peculiar tone of the pipe and drone, the rapidity of the variations, we are able to conceive, may excite all that rage of ardour and impetuofity which have been afcribed to them.

Probably the bagpipe, or at leaft pipe and pulfatile inftruments, prevailed in the very firft times in the Highlands of Scotland, as appears from Áriftides Quintilianus, who fpeaks of the Celtic mufic as fit only for fiercenefs and fury, the mufie of war. Yet it is to be conjectured, notwithstanding his authority, that fuch kind of mufic as he defcribes, and no other only,

only, for the most part, would be known to ftrangers, who would fee thofe people chiefly in times of diforder and arms; and hence this is no fufficient proof that a pacific, gay, or tender mufic, befitting the times of tranquillity, was a wanting. At the fame time, however, moft probably the Highland mufic was at first, as in all rude nations, chiefly of a warlike kind ; and the harp may have only been introduced in the course of a barbarous civilization.'

In the fucceeding volumes, we may probably meet with more entertainment and greater information; but we would recommend to the author a more exact difcrimination of what is really important, in the works from which he must neceffarily collect.

Philofophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Vol. LXXIV. For the Year 1784. Part 11. (Concluded, from wol. lix. p. 4176)

ART. XXVIII. On the Summation of Series whofe gene

ral Term is a determinate Function of the Distance from the firft. Term of the Series. By Edward Waring, M., D. &c.-Dr. Waring, in this paper, extends and elucidates fome parts of the Meditationes Analyticæ; of course the principles of many of the rules are to be found in that work. Papers of this kind are incapable of abridgement, and we shall only add, that, in the conclufion, our author endeavours to establish his own claim to algebraical inventions, in the work just mentioned. While his arguments on this fubject are fatisfactory, his obfervations deserve applaufe, for their extreme candour and liberality. We are glad to find, that the author, has carried his improvements into geometry,' and difcover ed many new properties of conic fections. It were to be defired, that he would not confine them to the narrow sphere of his particular acquaintance.

Art. XXIX. Account of a remarkable Froft on the 23d of June, 1783. By the Rev. Sir John Cullum, Bart. F. R. S. S. A.

We have feen fevere frofts in this month; but the feverity of that, which happened in 1783, was indeed remarkable. Even the hardy Scotch fir fuffered from its attack; but it is more remarkable, that the dry haze, fo general in that year, difappeared on the 22d of June, and immediately the thermometer funk to 50°: on the 23d, it must have been far below 32. On the 24th the haze returned; and, the following day, the leaves of many vegetables were covered with a clammy fweetness.' Thefe remarks may contribute to illuftrate this hitherto inexplicable phenomenon.

Art.