THE HARMONY OF MUSIC, POETRY, AND THE
IMITATIVE ARTS.

OF Harmony, and her celestial pow'r
O'er the responsive soul, and whence arise
Those sweet sensations, whether from the lays
Of melting music, and impassion'd verse,
From mimic scenes of emulative art,
Or nature's beauteous objects, which affect
The moral pow'rs with sympathetic charms,
The Muse congenial sings.-Descend, ye Nine,
Who guard th' Aonian mount, whilst I unfold
The deep recesses of your tuneful haunts,
And from your inmost bow'rs select a bay
To deck the fav'rite theme. Do thou attend,
Thou, whom Lucretius to his great design
Invok'd; and with thee bring thy darling son,
Who tun'd Anacreon's lyre, to guide my hand,
Advent'rous rais'd to sweep harmonious chords.
Come all ye sons of liberty, who wake
From dreams of superstition, where the soul
Thro' mists of forc'd belief, but dimly views
Its own great Maker; come, and I will guide,
Uninterrupted by the jargon shrill

Of peevish priests, your footsteps to the throne
Where pleasure reigns with reason, to behold
His majesty celestial, and adore
Him thro' each object of proportion fair,
The source of virtue, harmony, and bliss!

Ere this delightful face of things adorn'd
The great expanse of day, dark Chaos reign'd,
And elemental Discord; in the womb
Of ancient Night, the war of atoms rag'd
Incessant; Anarchy, Confusion wild,
Harsh Dissonance, and Uproar fill'd the whole;
Till that Eternal One, who from the first
Existed, sent his plastic word abroad
Throughout the vast abyss: created worlds
Felt the sweet impulse, and obedient fled
To stations ascertain'd; there to perform
Their various motions, corresponding all
To one harmonious plan, which fablers feign
The mystic music of the distant spheres.

All this the Samian sage' had seen at large,

It is very evident that Pythagoras, who is justly esteemed in one respect the inventor of music, had a clear notion of the present astronomical system, though the honour of the discovery was

Thus all the pow'r of music from the spheres
Descends to wake the tardy soul of man
From dreams terrestrial; ever to its charms
Obsequious, ever by its dulcet strains
Smooth'd from the passions of tempestuous life,
And taught to pre-enjoy its native Heav'n.
Whilst thro' this vale of errour we pursue
Ideal joys, where Fancy leads us on
Thro' scenes of paradise in fairy forms
Of ease, of pleasure, or extensive pow'r;
And when we think full fairly we possess
The promis'd Heav'n, Disease, or wrinkled Care,
Fill with their loath'd embrace our eager grasp,
And leave us in a wilderness of woe

To weep at large; where shall we seek relief,
Where ease th' oppressive anguish of the mind,
When Retrospection glows with conscious shame
By grey Experience in the wholesome school
Of Sorrow tutor'd? Whither shall we fly?
To wilds and woods, and leave the busy world
For solitude? Ah! thither still pursue
Th' intruding fiends, attend our evening walk,
Breathe in each breeze, and murmur in each rill;
Where Peace, protected by the turtle wing
Of Innocence, expands the lovely bloom
Of gay Content, no more to be enjoy'd,
But lost for ever! Yet benignant Heav'n,
Correcting with parental pity, sent
This friendly siren from the groves of Joy,
To temper with mellifluent strains the voice
Of mental Anguish, and attune the groans
Of young Impatience, to the softer sound
Of grateful Pæans to its Maker's praise.

Alike, if ills external, made our own,
Mix in the cup of life the bitter drop
Of sorrow; when the childless father sighs
From the remembrance of his dying son;
When Death has sever'd, with a long farewel,
The lover from the object of desire,

In the full bloom of youth, and leaves the wretch,
To sooth affliction in the well-known scenes
Of blameless rapture once; uncouth Advice
In vain intrudes with sacerdotal frown,
And Superstition's jargon, to expel
The sweet distress; the gen'rous soul disdains,
Deaf to such monkish precepts, all constraint,
And gives a loose to grief; but straight apply
The lenient force of numbers, they'll assuage
By calm degrees the sympathetic pain,
Till lull'd at length, the intellectual pow'rs

reserved for Copernicus so many ages after. Nor
was this sentiment of his unknown to the rest of
the philosophers: for the Stagyrite, in the 15th
chapter of the 2d book wip. Oupare, speaks of it in
these terms. "Those philosophers, who are called
Pythagoreans, affirm, that the Sun is in the mid-
dle;
and that the Earth, like the rest of the planets,
rolls round it upon its own axis, and so forms the
day and night.'

2 The number of the planets.
Παντες δ' επίαπονοιο λύρης φθογΓοίσι συνωδόν
Αρμονίην προσεχωσι διαςας άλλος απ' αλλά.

Alex. Ephes. apud Heracl. de Hom.

The source of rapture. Hence the tablet glows
With charms exotic; hence the sculptur'd bust,
As o'er the rock the plastic chissel moves,
Breathes by degrees, till straight returns afresh
The lov'd idea to the ravish'd eye,
And calls up every passion from its source.

Is love the object of thy glowing thoughts?
Or dream'st thou of a bliss exceeding far
Elysian pleasures? Would'st thou taste again
The heart-enfeebling transports, when the soul,
Big with celestial triumph, thro' the vales
Of am'rous Fancy led the sportive Hours
To soft Idalian airs, whilst wanton Loves
Strew'd round thee roses of eternal bloom,
And fann'd the sultry breeze with golden plumes?
See! where, beneath a myrtle bow'r reclin'd,
Which on the canvas casts its cooling shade,
Encircled in each other's arms, yon beauteous pair
In dulcet dalliance lie; the rigid frown
Of Çare ne'er low'rs, but ever cheerful smiles
Effuse, like vernal suns, their genial beams
Towarm their mutual hearts; whilst rapt'rous sighs,
Sweeter than aromatic winds which blow
O'er spicy groves in intermingled gales,
Are wafted to th' impending queen of love.

But burns thy heart with more refin'd delight? And would'st thou thro' the faithful colours view Calm Chastity and Justice blend their charms Like gleams of opening Heav'n? You radiant throne Presents great Cyrus, as the Magi feign'd The snowy-vested Mithres, from the cast Descending in effulgent rays of light, To guide the virtuous to th' etherial plains, Where joy for ever dwells. Before him stands A trembling captive, with dejected looks, As conscious of her form: upon her cheeks The rose of beauty fades, with paler hue The lily sickens, and each flow'r declines Its drooping head. But see! how he revives With unexpected hopes her tortur'd breast, And joy's soft blush appears! So the bless'd wings Of western zephyrs, o'er Arabian coasts Sprinkle their heav'nly dew; the wither'd plants Incline their sun-parch'd bosoms to imbibe The renovating moisture, till anon The pristine bloom thro' vegetative pores Returning, smiles in ev'ry flow'ry vale, And decks the neighb'ring hills with verdant pride. Such groups as these instruct th' unbiass'd mind With real wisdom, when with Beauty's garb Virtue invested, and ne'er fading charms, Fills with desire the soul; here Art employs To worthy ends her pencil as of old, And calls the hero to receive the wreath Of public honour, whilst his sacred bust Is still preserv'd for nations yet unborn To view with adoration; every breast Feels emulative spirits burn within, And longs to join the honour'd list of fame. Yet still her influence is not less confess'd In other forms, to raise abhorrence fierce, To paint in hideous shapes the crew of Vice, And all her train of sure-attending woes. These objects have their diff'rent graces too, And glow, if faithful, thro' the mimic scenes With charms peculiar. For perfection sits,

6 See the reason in Aristotle assigned, why the mind is as much delighted with aptness of description to excite the image, as with the image in de

As the known imitation shall succeed,
With equal lustre on a tyrant's frown,
As on the dimple of Pancaste's cheek,
Or Delia's iv'ry neck. The melting tear
Drops from th'afflicted parent's joyless eye,
Not less delightful to th'attentive gaze
Of fixt examination, than the smiles
Of infant Cupids sporting thro' the groves,
Where Venus sleeping lies. From nature form'd,
The just resemblance from consenting thought
Applause demands; and Fancy's ravish'd eye
Sports o'er the painted surge, whose billows roll
Tempestuous to the sky, with equal bliss,
As o'er the marble surface of the deep,
When mild Favonius from the western isles,
With youthful Spring flies gladsome o'er the main,
To seek his gentle May; while Proteus rests
Deep in his ouzy bed, and halcyons call,
Secure of peace, their new-fledg'd young abroad.,
External matter thus by art is wrought,
Or with the pencil or the chissel's touch,
To give us back the image of the mind,
Which smiles to find its own conceptions there.
But-can she draw the tenderness of thought?
Can she depict the beauty of the soul,
And all th' internal train of sweet distress,
When friendship o'er the recent grave declines
Its sick'ning head, as ev'ry action dear,
And ev'ry circumstance of mutual love
Returus afresh; while from the streaming eyes
Bursts forth a flood of unavailing tears,
Of parting tears, ere yet they close the tomb?
Or, can she from the colours that adorn
The wat'ry bow; from all the splendid store
That Flora lavishes in vernal hours

On wanton Zephyr; from the blazing mine
Where Plutus reigns, can she select a bloom
To emulate the patriot's bosom, when the wealth
Of nations, all imperial pomp is scorn'd,
And tyrants frown in vain, yet to the last
He breathes the social sigh, and even in death
With blessing on his native country calls!-
That only to the Muse belongs, to show
How charms each moral beauty, how the scene
of goodness pleases the responsive soul,
And sooths within the intellectual pow'rs
With sympathetic order. For at first,
This emanation of the source of life
Unsullied glows, till o'er th' etherial rays
Opinion casts a tincture, and infects
The mental optics with a jaundice hue;
Then, like the domes beneath a wizard's wand,
Each object, as the hellish artist wills,

A shape fallacious wears.-O throng, ye youth,
Around the poet's song, whose sacred lays
Breathe no infectious vapours from the coasts,
Where Indolence supinely nods at ease,
And offers to the passing crowd her couch
Of down, whilst infant vices lull the mind
To fatal slumbers; other themes invite
My faithful hand to strike the votive lyre.
Lo! Virtue comes in more effulgent pomp,
Than what the great impostor promis'd oft
To cheated crowds of Mussulmen, beside
The winey rivers and refreshing shades
Of Paradise; and lo! the dastard train
Of pleasure disappears. So fleet the shades,

scription. Arist. de Poet. cap. 4. So Plutarch de Aud. Poet. See his Symp. lib. 5.

Which in the floating mirror view their charms
With conscious glory; from the neigh'bring urns
Th' inferior rivers swell his regal pomp
With tributary off'rings. Some afar
Thro' silent osiers, and the sullen green
Of mournful willows, melancholy flow:
Some o'er the rattling pebbles, to the Sun
Obvious, with colour'd rays refracted, shine
Like gems which sparkle on th' exalted crowns
Of kings barbaric: others headlong fall
From a high precipice, whose awful brow,
Fring'd with a sable wood, nods dreadful o'er
The deep below, which spreads its wat❜ry lap
To catch the gushing homage, then proceeds
With richer waves than those Pactolus erst
Pour'd o'er his golden sands; or yellow Po,
Ting'd with the tears of aromatic trees.
Then at a distance, thro' the parted cliffs
In unconfin'd perspective send thy gaze,
Disdaining limit, o'er the green expanse
Of ocean, swelling his cerulean tide,
Whilst on th' unruffled bosom of the deep

A halcyon stillness reigns; the boist'rous winds,
Husht in Æolian caves, are lull'd to rest,
And leave the placid main without a wave.
E'en western Zephyrs, like unfrighted doves,
Skim gently o'er with reverential awe,
Nor move their silent plumes. At such a time
Sweet Amphitrite, with her azure train
Of marine nymphs, emerging from the flood,
Whilst ev'ry Triton tun'd his vocal shell
To hymeneal sounds, from Nereus' court
Came to espouse the monarch of the main,
In nuptial pomp attir'd... Now change the scene,
Nor less admire those things, which view'd apart
Uncouth appear, or horrid; ridges black
Of shagged rocks, which hang tremendous o'er
Some barren heath; the congregated clouds
Which spread their sable skirts, and wait the wind
To burst th' embosom'd storm; a leafless wood,
A mould'ring ruin, lightning-blasted fields,
Nay, e'en the seat where Desolation reigus
In brownest horror, by familiar thought
Connected to this universal franie,
With equal beauty charms the tasteful soul,
As the gold landscapes of the happy isles
Crown'd with Hesperian fruit: for Nature form'd
One plan entire, and made each sep'rate scene
Co-op'rate with the gen'ral force of all

In that harmonious contrast. Hence the fair,
The wonderful, the great, from diff'rent forms
Owe their superior excellence. The light,
Not intermingled with opposing shades,
Had shone unworship'd by the Persian priest
With undistinguish'd rays.-Yet still the hue
Of separated objects tinge the sight
With their own likeness; the responsive soul,
Cameleon like, a just resemblance bears,
And faithful, as the silent mirror, shows
In its true bosom, whether from without
A blooming Paradise smiles round the land,
Or Stygian darkness blots the realms of day.
Say, when the siniling face of youthful May
Invites soft Zephyr to her fragrant lap,
And Phoebus wantons on the glitt'ring streams,
Glows not thy blood with unaccustom'd joy,
And love unfelt before? Methinks the train
Of fair Euphrosyné, heart-easing Smiles,
Hope, and her brother Love, and young Delight,
Come to invite me to ambrosial feasts,

Where Youth administers the sprightly bowl
Of care-beguiling Mirth; and hark! the sound
Of sportive Laughter, to the native home
Of silent Night, with all her meagre crew
Chaces abhorred Grief. Prepare the songs
Of mental triumph; let the jocund harp
In correspondent notes deceive the hours,
And Merriment with Love shall sport around.

But what perceive we in those dusky groves,
Where cypress with funereal horrour shades
Some ruin'd tomb; where deadly hemloc chills
Th' unfruitful glebe, and sweating yews distil
Immedicable poison? In those plains,
Black Melancholy dwells with silent Fear,
And Superstition fierce, the foulest fiend
That ever sullied light. Here frantic Woe9
Tears her dishevell'd hair; here pale Disease
Hangs down her sickly head; and Death, behind,
With sable curtains of eternal night,

Closes the ghastly prospect.- -From the good
Far be this horrid group! the foot of Peace
And Innocence should tread the bless'd retreat
Of pleasant Tempe, or the flow'ry field
Of Enna, glowing with unfading bloom,
Responsive to the moral charms within.
Those horrid realms let guilty villains haunt,
Who rob the orphan, or the sacred trust
Of friendship break; the wretch who never felt
Stream from his eye the comfortable balm,
Which social Sorrow mixes with her tears;
Such suit their minds. There let the tyrant howl,
And Hierarchy, ministress abhorr'd

Of Pow'r illicit, bound with iron chains
She made for Liberty and Justice, gnash
Her foaming teeth, and bite the scourge in vain.

Or when the stillness of the grey-ey'd Eve,
Brok'n only by the beetle's drowsy hum,
luvites us forth to solitary vales,
Where awful ruins on their mossy roofs
Denote the flight of Time; the pausing eye
Slow round the gloomy regions casts its glance,
Whilst from within the intellectual pow'rs,
With melancholy pleasure on the brow
Of thoughtful admiration fix the sign

Of guiltless transport; not with frantic noise,
Nor the rude laughter of an idiot's joy;
But with the smiles that Wisdom, temp'ring oft
With sweet Content, effuses. Here the mind,
Lull'd by the sacred silence of the place,
Dreams with enchanted rapture of the groves
Of Academus, and the solemn walks,
As erst frequented by the god-like band
Of Grecian sages; to the list'ning ear
Socratic sounds are heard, and Plato's self

9 The ancients, who had always this analogy between natural and moral objects in view, imagined every gloomy place like this to be inhabited by such personages. Creon, in the Edipus of Seneca, after he has described-procul ab urbe lucus ilicibus niger, goes on to relate what he saw there by the power of necromancy.

cæcus furor

Horrorque, & una quidquid æternæ oreant Celantque tenebræ; luctus evellens comam, Ægreque lassum sustinens morbus caput, Gravis senectus sibimet, & pendens metus. And to objects of a different nature, we give the moral epithets of gay, lively, cheerful, &c. because the mind is so affected,