universally allowed to want part of the equipage, as they had no spirits. From hence I travelled to Slaughter's, where one of the company was haranguing the rest, and assuring them that he believed not one syllable of the matter. "Do you think," said he, "that the French are such fools as to let us deprive them of one of their greatest and most useful possessions? Ridiculous! I'll hold any one twenty pounds"-" Done, sir," says one of the company, "I'll take it up.”—“I mean, sir,” replied the orator, “I'll hold twenty pounds that by next post they sing Te Deum, or contradict our Gazette." To this the other had nothing to reply, and our orator remained master of the field. The Smyrna was the last place I visited on this occasion. The company here were prescribing terms of peace to the enemy, whom they looked upon as utterly undone; they first insisted upon our keeping all North America; they were next for circumscribing the number of the French fleet; for getting back Minorca; for insisting on a carte blanche. With them, our victory seemed only gained to defer the happiness of peace; they would have every thing settled in such a manner, as that we could annoy our enemies at pleasure, without their having any power to hurt us. In short, with an exaggerated, yet perhaps pardonable triumph, they were for dictating terms of peace, that none but a conquered nation could submit to. As f perceived now that I spoke to men who could hearken to and understand reason, I addressed one of them as follows: "The only use of victory is peace. Proposals for a reconciliation are never made with so good a grace as from a victorious army. It is very possible for a country to be very victorious and very wretched. The victories of Sweden have oppressed [A coffee-house opposite Northumberland-house in the Strand.] that people so much, as to render them quite insignificant in the political scale of Europe ever since. It is but prolonging the wished-for peace, to prescribe such terms as is consistent neither with the interest nor the honor of our enemies to accept. It is but rendering us ridiculous, to expect such terms as we can never compel them to. "A country at war resembles a flambeaux, the brighter it burns, the sooner it is often wasted. The exercise of war for a short time may be useful to society, which grows putrid by a long stagnation. Vices spring up in a long-continued peace, from too great an admiration of commerce and too great a contempt for arms; war corrects these abuses, if of but a short continuance. But when prolonged beyond that useful period, it is apt to involve society in every distress. The property of a country, by its continuance, is transferred from the enterprising; from men of abilities, to men who have no other qualification than bravery; every man who is enriched by the trade of war, is only rewarded from the spoils of some unhappy member of society, who could no longer live by the trade of peace. Now; now, then, is the time to offer terms of accommodation: and, as we conquer our enemies in war, so let us excel them in generosity. Let us sheath the sword that has already reeked with too much blood. Let victory be attended by peace; for peace is the only triumph of victory." ESSAY III.* ON THE DIFFERENT SCHOOLS OF MUSIC. A school in the polite arts properly signifies that succession of artists, which has learned the principles of the art from some eminent master, either by hearing his lessons or studying his works, and consequently who imitate his manner either through design or from habit. Musicians seem agreed in making only three principal schools in music: namely, the school of Pergolesi in Italy, of Lulli in France, and of Handel in England; though some are for making Rameau the founder of a new school, different from those of the former, as he is the inventor of beauties peculiarly his own. Without all doubt Pergolesi'st music deserves the first rank; though excelling neither in variety of movements, number of parts, nor unexpected flights, yet he is universally allowed to be the musical Raphael of Italy. This great master's principal art con sisted in knowing how to excite our passions by sounds, which seem frequently opposite to the passion they would express: by slow solemn sounds he is sometimes known to throw us into all the rage of battle; and, even by faster movements, he excites melancholy in every heart that sounds are capable of affecting. This is a talent, which seems born with the artist. We are unable to tell why such sounds affect us: they seem no way imitative of the passion they would express, but operate upon us by an *[The Essays, No. III. to XXIII. inclusive, first appeared in 'The British Magazine,' commenced in January 1760, by Dr. Smollett. Of the twenty-one papers only three were reprinted by Goldsmith, in the collection of 1765] [Pergolesi was born at Casano, near Naples, in 1704, and died in 1737, at the age of thirty-three. Horace Walpole is of opinion that Gray, who regarded his vocal compositions as models of perfection, first brought them into Er gland.] inexpressible sympathy; the original of which is as inscrutable as the secret springs of life itself. To this excellence he adds another, in which he is superior to every other artist of the profession, the happy transition from one passion to another. No dramatic poet better knows to prepare his incidents than he: the audience are pleased in those intervals of passion, with the delicate, the simple harmony, if I may so express it, in which the parts are all thrown into figures, or often are barely unison. His melodies also, where no passion is expressed, give equal pleasure from this delicate simplicity and I need only instance that song in the Serva Padrona, which begins Lo conosco à quegl' occelli, as one of the finest instances of excellence in the duo. The Italian artists in general have followed his manner, yet seem fond of embellishing the delicate simplicity of the original Their style in music seems somewhat to resemble that of Seneca in writing, where there are some beautiful starts of thought; but the whole is filled with studied elegance and unaffecting affec tation. Lulli, in France, first attempted the improvement of their music, which in general resembled that of our old solemn chants in churches. It is worthy of remark in general, that the music of every country is solemn in proportion as the inhabitants are merry; or, in other words, the merriest, sprightliest nations are remarked for having the slowest music; and those whose character it is to be melancholy, are pleased with the most brisk and airy movements. Thus in France, Poland, Ireland, and Switzerland, the national music is slow, melancholy, and solemn; in Italy, England, Spain, and Germany, it is faster, proportionably as the people * [This fortunate musician, the son of a peasant, was born in the neighborhood of Florence in 1633. He was in such favor with Louis XIV., that he could listen to the music of no other composer. He died in 1678, in his fiftyfourth year. See Hogarth's Musical History, ch. iv. p. 69.] * are grave. Lulli only changed a bad manner, which he found, for a bad one of his own. His drowsy pieces are played still to the most sprightly audience that can be conceived; and even though Rameau, who is at once a musician and a philosopher, has shown, both by precept and example, what improvements French music may still admit of, yet his countrymen seem little convinced by his reasonings; and the Pont-neuf taste, as it is called, still prevails in their best performances. He at The English school was first planned by Purcell. tempted to unite the Italian manner, that prevailed in his time, with the ancient Celtic carol and the Scotch ballad, which probably had also its origin in Italy; for some of the best Scotch ballads "The Broom of Cowdenknows," for instance-are still ascribed to David Rizzio. But be that as it will, his manner was something peculiar to the English; and he might have continued as head of the English school, had not his merits been entirely eclipsed by Handel. Handel, though originally a German, yet adopted the English manner; he had long labored to please by Italian composition, but without success; and though his English Oratorios are accounted inimitable, yet his Italian Operas are fallen into oblivion. Pergolesi excelled in passionate simplicity; Lulli was remarkable for creating a new species of music, where all is elegant, but nothing passionate or sublime: Handel's true characteristic is sublimity; he has employed all the * [Rameau, styled by his countrymen 'the Newton of Harmony,' was born at Dijon in 1683, and died at Paris in 1767, in his 84th year.] + [Henry Purcell was born in 1658, and died in 1695.] [It was of course only the music that was ever ascribed to Rizzio-not the words: "O the broom, and the bonny bonny broom, And the broom of the Cowdenknows! And aye sae sweet as the lassie sang I' the bought, milking the ewes," &c. [He was borr at Halle, in Saxony, in 1684, and died in 1759.] |