LECTURE ON MUSIC AND POETRY. "For eloquence the soul, song charms the sense." Par. Lost, II., 556. "Give me some music-music, moody food Antony and Cleopatra, Act II., S. 5. "Music, Ho! music, such as charmeth sleep." Preposterous ass! that never read so far To know the cause why music was ordained. Taming the Shrew, Act III., S. 1. "Vacuæ carmina mentis opus." Ovid, Sappho to Phaon. LADIES AND GENTLEMEN-Some time since I had the honour of addressing, to an audience assembled in this Hall, a Lecture on that department of the "Fine Arts" which embraces Architecture, Sculpture, and Painting. I now propose to offer for your consideration some remarks upon Music and Poetry, which will complete the introduction of the subject. This distribution and separate examination may be considered not inappropriate, inasmuch as the ideas respecting the different branches presented for investigation are conveyed to the mind through distinct organs; and as the impressions forced upon us on beholding a stately edifice, an agreeable picture, or a life-like statue, are originally produced by the reflections on the retina of the eye, so the effects generated by the performance of a thrilling strain of enlivening music, or the luxurious melody of harmonious sounds, as well as by the recitation of sonorous numbers, or of affecting verses, owe their origin to the pulsations on the tympanum of the ear. In this I may be, perhaps, restricting too narrowly the channel of communication between the mind and this external sense, for though the accurate may insist that the impulses caused by hearing pleasing music and excellent poetry pass solely through the medium of the ear, we are all conscious of having experienced on such occasions a dilatation of the frame, a sympathetic vibration of the system, as if the body were an instrument drinking in the sounds at every pore, and we may be induced on reflection to admit that the poet uses no hyperbole when he exclaims "I was all ear, And took in strains that might create a soul Under the ribs of death." As sight and hearing are produced by operations of the eye and ear less perceptible to feeling and less obvious than those which employ the other senses, and, as it were, without any palpable resistance by or pressure on those organs, and as they minister more extensively and effectually to the intellectual portion of man than the other external senses, they are well deserving of the poetic epithets and attributes by which they have been distinguished. One has been appropriately designated "the window of the soul;"* and who can remain insensible to the lamentations of the illustrious Milton for his loss of sight, and his pathetic and eloquent mourning over a privation to him so severe ? or who is unaffected by the earnest pleading of Prince Arthur, to which the ruthless Hubert yields at last ? + The other has been styled by Sophocles "the fountain of * Animi fenestræ oculi et omnis improba cupiditas per oculos tanquam canales introit.-Salvianus, de Providentia, Lib. 3. Burt. Mel., Part 3, S. 2., M. 3, Subd. 3. † Paradise Lost, Bk. III. Samson Agonistes. Shakspeare, King John, Act IV., Sc. 1. hearing."* Shakspeare, indeed, employs a somewhat homely expression when he causes Imogen to say to Pisanio, using a like figure of speech "Love's counsellor should fill the bores of hearing To the smothering of the sense." Cymbeline, Act III., S. 2. Yet who is there who is not touched by the purely poetical delicacy of the description of deafness, one of the most distressing afflictions of old age, when it is said by the Preacher "The daughters of music are brought low." Eccles. xii. 4.† Distinct senses being appealed to by the different branches of the Fine Arts, it is worthy of the subject to consider in what manner these respective arts affect the mind. It must be remembered that language, the vehicle for the communication of ideas, is twofold—natural and artificial. Every animal, in common with man, is endowed with the former, to enable it to express, in an intelligible manner to its own species, such wants, sensations, or desires as are necessary for its preservation or the continuance of its kind. It is both voluntary and involuntary, and not merely vocal, but consists also in assumed or spontaneous postures or gestures, as well as certain uncontrollable indications. Thus Pity, while it sheds an air of benevolence on the countenance, fills the eye with a sympathetic humidity; * Edip., Tyr., 1387. + † For a still more remote allegorical expression see Hosea xiv. 2—" Take with you words and turn to the Lord; say unto him, Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously. So will we render the calves of our lips," i.e., sacrifice of thanksgiving. There is also a beautiful image of the same nature in Isaiah lvii. 19-"I create the fruit of the lips," i.e., speech. "Les Larmes sont le langage muet de la douleur." VOLTAIRE, Phil. Dic., in Voc. "Larmes." "Speak, then, for speech is morning to the mind, DRYDEN'S Duke of Guise, Act II., Sc. 1. Mollissima corda Humano generi dare se Natura fatetur, [Quæ |