BIRTHS.

May 1. At Brighton, the lady of Gen. Sir David Baird, Bart. G. C. B. a still-born child.-2. Lady Harriet Paget, a daughter. 3. At Walton Park, Mrs Major Campbell, a son.-In Grosvenor Place, London, Viscountess Milton, a son.-5. Lady Elizabeth Pack, a son and heir.The lady of Capt. Charles Graham of the Hon. Company's ship William Pitt, a son.-12. At Cambray, in France, the Right Hon. Lady James Hay, a daughter.-17. The lady of Charles Robertson, Esq. younger of Kindeace, Captain, 78th Highland Regt. a son. -At Condé in France, the lady of Colonel Hugh Halket, C. B. a daughter.-19. At Roehampton, Surrey, the lady of Andrew H. Thomson, Esq. a son.-In Arlington Street, London, the lady of J. Leslie Foster, Esq. a daughter.-24. At Paris, the Right Hon. Lady Fitzroy Somerset, a son.-27. In Lower Seymour Street, London, the Rt Hon. Lady Catharine Stewart, a daughter. -28. In Cavendish Square, London, the lady of Admiral Sir George Cockburn, a daughter.-29. The lady of the Rev. Charles Lane, a daughter.-30. At Evington, the lady of Sir John C. Honywood, Bart. a daughter.-Lady Campbell of Aberuchill, a daughter.

MARRIAGES.

March 18. At Twickenham Park, Jamaica, Michael Benignus Clarey, Esq. M. D. Physician-General of that island, to Margaret, eldest daughter of Lieut.-Colonel Graham, Deputy-Governor of St Mawes.At Vienna, General Macdonald, to Madame Murat, Ex-Queen of Naples.-Rev. John Paterson of St Petersburgh, to Miss Greig, sister to Admiral Greig of the Russian service.

April 24. At Stutgard, the Hereditary Prince of Saxe Heildburghausen, to the Princess Amelia, second daughter of the Duke Louis of Wirtemberg, uncle to the king.-26. At Wigton, George Ross, Esq. of the Inner Temple, barrister-at-law, to Jane Charlotte, daughter of W. M'Connell, Esq. of Culbae. Lately, at London, John Innes, Esq. Bedford Square, to Mary, second daughter of Andrew Reid, Esq. of Russell Square.-28. At London, John Carmalt, Esq. formerly of the island of St Vincent, now of London, to Miss Potts, eldest daughter of Potts, Esq. of the island of Jamaica.-30. At Giese, Caithness-shire, Lieut.-Colonel John Sutherland Williamson, C. B. of the royal artillery, to Miss Maclean of Giese.

May 1. At Plymouth, Captain George Jackson, R. N. to Elizabeth, youngest daughter of Thomas Miller, Esq. agentvictualler at that port.-H. T. Oakes, Esq. eldest son of Lieut.-General Oakes, to Fran

ces Jane, fifth daughter of W. Douglas, Esq. of Sloane Street, Chelsea. William Kerrie Amherst, Esq. to Maria Louisa, second daughter of Francis Fortescue Turville, Esq. of Bosworth Hall.-Mr Donavan to Miss Vanneck, eldest daughter, and Mr Lovelace to the youngest daughter, of the late Lord Huntingfield. At Gibraltar, Major Robert Henry Birch, of the royal artillery, to Georgiana, second daughter of Major Skyring of the same corps.-5. At Sunninghill, Berks, Capt. Charles P. Ellis, of the grenadier guards, to Juliana Maria, daughter to the late Admiral C. Parker. At Brighton, William Scott, Esq. to Annabella, second daughter of E. L. Hodgson, Esq. Portman Square, London.-6. At London, the Rev. Spencer Rodney Drummond, rector of Swarraton, Hants, to Caroline, only daughter of the late Montagu Montagu, Esq. of Little Bookham, and niece to the late Earl of Buckinghamshire. -10. At Dublin, Major Clayton, eldest son of Sir Wm Clayton, Bart. to AliceHugh-Massey O'Donel, daughter and heiress of the late Colonel O'Donel, eldest son of the late Sir Neal O'Donel, Bart. of Newport-house, Mayo.-At London, Paul Bielby Lawley, Esq. youngest brother of Sir Robert Lawley, Bart. to the Hon. Caroline Neville, youngest daughter of Lord Braybroke.-13. At London, Thomas Ryder, Esq. to Isabella Maxwell, eldest daughter of the late Thomas Nasmyth, Esq. of Jamaica.-18. At London, the Hon. C. Lowther, major of the 10th Royal Hussars, second son of the Earl of Lonsdale, to the Right Hon. Lady Eleanor Sherard, sister to the Earl of Harborough.-20. At London, David Francis Jones, Esq. of Lincoln's Inn, recorder of Chester, to Anne Margaret, second daughter of James Topping of Wharcroft Hall, Cheshire.-21. At Westbury, near Clifton, the Hon. Wm Middleton Noel of Ketton, to Anne, only child of Joseph Yates, Esq. of Sneedpark.-24. At London, Sir Robert Wilmot, Bart. of Chaddesden, Derbyshire, to Mrs Crauford, widow of Daniel Crauford, Esq. son of the late Sir Alex. Crauford, Bart.-27. At Ulverston, Lancashire, North Dalrymple, Esq. captain of the 25th light dragoons, second son of the late Sir John Dalrymple, Bart. to Margaret, youngest daughter of the late James Penny, Esq.-29. At London, Augustus James Champion de Chepigny, Esq. to Caroline, daughter of Sir William Smyth, Bart. of Hillhall.-30. At Mavisbank, Robert Lockhart, Esq. of Castlehill, to Miss Charlotte Mercer.

DEATHS.

October 27, 1816. At Prince of Wales's Island, aged 68, the Hon. William Petrie, governor of that island.

5

March 24, 1817. At Edinburgh, John Prentice, only son of Richard Prentice, Esq. solicitor-at-law.

April 3. At Madeira, Miss Elizabeth Esther, eldest surviving daughter of the late Sir Alexander Macdonald Lockhart, Bart.-25. On board the Europe Indiaman, on his passage from India, Major William Hedderwick, of the 24th regiment of foot. -28. At Rozelie, Lady Hamilton Cathcart of Bourtreehill and Rozelie, aged 77 years, relict of the late Sir John Cathcart of Cathcart.

May 1. At Croxton Park, the lady of Sir George Leeds, Bart.-At Clifton, Right Hon. Lady Edward O'Brien, daughter of the late Paul Cobb Methuen, Esq. of Corsham House. At Aston Hall, Lady Mary Foljambe, sister to the Earl of Scarborough, and relict of the late Francis Ferrand Foljambe, Esq. of Osberton Hall, Wilts.-2. A. Campbell, Esq. of Hallyards, merchant, Glasgow. At London, D. Caddel, Esq. of Salisbury Square.At Paris, M. de Urquijo, prime minister of Spain under Charles IV. and during the government of Joseph.-At London, George Drummond, Esq. only son of Mrs Drummond of Upper Gower Street, London.-3. At Bath, William Thomson, Esq. of Jamaica, in his 70th year.John Macgill, Esq. of Kemback.-Drowned, while angling in Pishiobury Park, Rev. John Lane, vicar of Sawbridgeworth, Herts. The body, after some hours search, was found with the fishing-rod in his hand. 4. At Dunfermline, James Douglas, Esq. -At London, aged 79, James Butler, Esq. late of the province of Georgia, North America, an American loyalist.-At Poulton House, near Marlborough, in his 86th year, Lieut.-Col. Baskerville; who, after serving with distinguished reputation in the 30th regiment, under the Marquis of Granby in Germany, and afterwards in Ireland and the West Indies, retired to Wiltshire, where for upwards of thirty years he fulfilled the duty of an upright and most impartial magistrate. Lieut.-Colonel Baskerville was descended from one of the most ancient families in Wiltshire, who have been resi dent there ever since the time of William the Conqueror.-5. In Grosvenor Row, Chelsea, Philip Dixon, Esq. of Strombollo Cottage.. 6. At Killenure House, near Athlone, the lady of Major Alex. Murray, Cringletie. At the Deanery House, Dublin, Rev. J. W. Keating, Dean of St Patrick's. -7. At Dunglass, Helen, eldest daughter of Sir James Hall of Dunglass, Bart.-At Cowhill, Mrs Margaret Johnston, wife of George Johnston, Esq. of Cowhill.-8. At London, of a consumption, in the 25th year of her age, Susan Boone, only daughter of John Deas Thomson, Esq. one of the Commissioners of his Majesty's navy.-At Stirling, James Duthie, Esq. some time of the island of Jamaica.-At Clarence Cottage, Ruthwell, Joseph Richardson, Esq. in the 82d year of his age.-At London, in his 85th year, Major A. H. Brice, brother

to the late Admiral Sir R. Kingsmill, Bart. -9. At Longtown, James Walker. Esq. principal clerk of session.-10. At Gargrave, near Skipton, aged 67, Mrs Parker, relict of John Parker, Esq. of Browsholme Hall, and sister of Lord Ribblesdale.-11. At Bristol, Jarvis Holland, Esq. son of Peter Holland, Esq. of that city, merchant.-13. In Duke Street, St James's, London, aged 74, Mr James Daubigny, wine merchant in ordinary to the Prince Regent.-14. At Edinburgh, Mr Henry Biggar, advocate.At Turin, where she had gone for the recovery of her health, Mrs Allan, wife of Thomas Allan, Esq. banker in Edinburgh. -At Glasgow, Mrs Balfour, wife of the Rev. Robert Balfour, D.D. one of the ministers of Glasgow.-16. At Buckland, near Gosport, aged 106 years. Charles F. Gordon, Esq. late surgeon of the royal hospital, Haslar.-17. At Kendal, Barbara, relict of Thomas Lake, Esq. of Liverpool, and youngest daughter of the late Fletcher Fleming, Esq. of Ragrigg, Westmoreland.19. At Ostend, Mrs Macdonald, wife of Col. Macdonald, commandant of that fortress.-21. At Glasgow, James Dunlop, jun. Esq.-24. At Acrehill, Margaret Bannatyne, wife of Daniel M'Kenzie, Esq. merchant, Glasgow.-25. At Edinburgh, Miss Watson of Tower.-27. At his seat, at Great Melton, Norfolk, Sir John Lombe, Bart. aged 86.-28. At Bath, the Rev. Philip Yorke, youngest son of the Hon. and Right Rev. Dr Yorke, late bishop of Ely.

-29. At Edinburgh, Lawrence Craigie, Esq. advocate.-30. At Enfield, William Saunders, M.D. late of Russell Square, London, aged 84.-Lately, at Inverness, after a short illness, at an advanced age, R. Macdonald, Esq. This gentleman, who was a cadet of the Keppoch family, was a subaltern in Keppoch's regiment in the year 1745, and was present at the battles of Preston, Falkirk, and Culloden. At Culloden he was made prisoner; but, owing to his youth, he was allowed to transport himself to Jamaica, where he commenced planter. Having by his industry acquired an independent fortune, he returned to his native country, where he settled. Mr Macdonald was one of the young gentlemen who, with drawn swords, attended Andrew Cochrane, provost of Glasgow, in proclaiming the Pretender by the name of King James VIII. and III.-Lately, at Exeter, Mrs Penrose Cumming, widow of Alex. Penrose Cumming, Esq. and mother of the late Sir A. P. Cumming Gordon, Bart. of Altyre and Gordonstoune. Lately, at Cassel, three old men, who for a series of years had passed their evenings together in playing at cards, died on the same day. They were, General de Gohr, aged 86; the Counsellor of Legation d'Engelbronner, aged 89; and the Count Gartener, Schwar-eskupt, aged 83. A fourth friend, M. Voelkel, died within a year; and a fifth, the Privy Counsellor Schminke, aged 86, had preced. ed them by some months.

THE pleasures which are interwo ven with the constitution of our nature, and which, under proper regulation, become important sources of our happiness, may be divided into three classes-1stly, Those which arise from the gratification of the bodily senses; 2dly, Those of which the exercise of the imagination is the chief, if not the only quality;-and lastly, Those of a mixed nature, in which the intellectual faculties are excited into agreeable action by impressions made on the animal senses. The first class cannot require, and indeed do not admit of, illustration. All that can be affirmed respecting them is, that certain objects in the surrounding world are adapted to excite pleasurable sensations with sufficient universality to entitle them to be called naturally agreeable. We are gratified by certain tastes and smells, and can give no explanation of the cause of our enjoyment. It is of a kind which lasts no longer than the impression itself, and terminates with the removal of its object. But the higher classes of our pleasures, being renewable by voluntary efforts of the mind, and depending on the exercise of its various faculties (of perception, of association, of judgment, of imagination), become fit objects of that branch of science, the dignity and im

*Read to a Literary and Philosophical Society in the country.

with those of our intellectual and moral powers and habits.

The inquiry, respecting which I have no higher purpose than that of offering a few hints to serve as the basis of an evening's conversation, regards a class of pleasures which all civilized nations, in all ages, have thought worthy of cultivation. In those records of remotest history, the sacred writings, we find repeated mention of the cornet, the trumpet, the psalter, the cymbal, and the harp, and always in connexion with their power of exciting pleasant trains of feeling, or of contributing to some moral effect. Among the Greeks, music was practised by those who had attained the highest distinction as warriors or philosophers, and was thought not unworthy the countenance and encour agement of one of the wisest and least voluptuous of ancient legislators.* The Hindûs, also, the high antiquity of whose records appears to be established by sufficient evidence, have possessed, from the earliest period to which their history extends, a music, confined indeed to thirty-six melodies. In modern times, none, I believe, but absolutely barbarous nations, are entirely destitute of music. Among the North American Indians, we are informed by Mr Weld, that nothing resembling poetry or music is to be found; but among the more gentle and civilized inhabitants of some of the Society islands, a sort of music (rude, it must be confessed, and little calculated to please an European ear) was

Lycurgus.

ascertained by Captain Cook to be the accompaniment of dancing, which, for the grace of its movements, would not have discredited an Italian opera.

Pleasures so universally felt as those of music, may be inferred to have their foundation in some quality common to human nature, and independent of local or temporary circumstances. It may be inquired, whether this pleasure is to be referred merely to the gratification of the ear as an organ of sense, or whether it is not entitled to the higher rank of an intellectual enjoyment?

In the discussion of this question, it must be acknowledged at the outset, that a structure of the ear, distinct from that which adapts it to the quick perception of ordinary sounds, probably exists in those individuals who are distinguished by an aptitude to derive pleasure from music. The observation of children, in early infancy, affords sufficient evidence of the partial endowment of what has been called a musical ear. Among children of the same family it is common to meet with the most striking differences in the power of catching and repeating tunes-differences which bear no proportion to the degree of sensibility, as indicated by other circumstances. Nothing is more usual, also, than to find persons who, in the course of a long life, have never been able to acquire a relish for music, though frequently thrown into situations where to hear it became matter of necessity. And this defect is observed, not in the dull and insensible only, but in persons alive to all that is excellent in poetry, in painting, and in other polite arts. Pope, who has perhaps never been surpassed in the melody of versification, is recorded by Dr Johnson to have been incapable of receiving pleasure from music. And it is still more remarkable, that the exquisite art of modulating the voice, which enables it to express all those delicate shades of emotion and passion, that so powerfully affect us in the eloquence of the stage, the bar, and the senate, has been practised by individuals insensible even to the charms of a simple melody. Garrick was a striking instance of wonderful command over the tones of the voice in speaking, united, we are told, with the total deficiency of a musical ear.

These defects of the ear can no

more be explained than we can account for, the inability to discriminate p particular colours, which has been ascertained to exist in certain individuals, or the insensibility to some odours, which has been observed in other persons. 3. Admitting them to exist, they do not warrant the conclusion, that the pleasure derived from music consists solely in the gratification of the organ of hearing. A certain perfection of the physical structure of the eye is necessary to render it an inlet to those impressions from the surrounding world, which, when afterwards recalled by the mind, and variously combined, constitute the pleasures of imagination. But no one would contend, that the enjoyment derived from a contemplation of the charms of external nature is a sensual pleasure, of which the eye alone is the seat and the instrument.

It appears, moreover, to be consistent with observation, that, even in the same individual, the capacity of being affected by musical sounds admits of considerable variety; and that it is modified, especially by the state of the nervous system, independently of the influence of those moral causes which will be afterwards pointed out.* Dr Doddridge has related a remarkable instance of a lady, who had naturally neither ear nor voice for music, but who became capable of singing, when in a state of delirium, several fine tunes, to the admiration of all about her.t And I remember a young gentleman, addicted to somnambulism, and rather insensible than otherwise to pleasure from music, who has repeatedly found himself leaning from an open window during the night, and listening (as he imagined till awakened) to delightful music in the street.

Another fact, which may safely be assumed as the basis of our reasoning on this subject, is, that there are certain sounds which are naturally agreeable to all ears, and others which are naturally unpleasant, independently of all casual associations. The soft tones of a flute, the notes of certain

*A friend, to whom this essay was shewn, pointed out to the author a gentleman disloses, without any degree of deafness, whentinguished by a fine musical ear, which he ever he is affected with a severe cold in the

head.

Phil. Transac. for 1747.

*

birds, the swelling sounds of the Eolian harp, and the melody of the human voice, have some quality inherent in them, which would render them, even if heard for the first time, universally delightful. But the creaking of a door, or the jar produced by the filing of a saw, can convey pleasure to no one, and must excite, on the contrary, universal antipathy and disgust. All the sounds, says Cowper in one of his letters, "that nature utters are agreeable, at least in this country. I should not, perhaps, find the roaring of lions in Africa, or of bears in Russia, very pleasing; but I know no beast in England, whose voice I do not account musical, save, and except always, the braying of an ass. The notes of all our birds and fowls please me, without one exception ; and as to insects, if the black beetle, and beetles indeed of all hues, will keep out of my way, I have no objection to any of the rest; on the contrary, in whatever key they sing, from the gnat's fine treble to the bass of the humble-bee, I admire them all. Seriously, however (he continues), it strikes me as a very observable instance of providential kindness to man, that such an exact accord has been contrived between his ear, and the sounds with which, at least in a rural situation, it is almost every moment visited.”ተ

pre

The source of the pleasure derived from music must be investigated, not by an examination of that which vails in polished society, complicated, as it is, with various refinements that are not essential to it; but as it exists, in its simplest form, in those melodies which delight an untutored ear, and which powerfully affect the heart, even when they do not recall to the fancy scenes in which they have been heard, or events with which they have been associated.

That music has the capacity of exciting lively emotions, must be decided by an appeal to the experience of those who are sensible to its pleasures. From minds thus constituted, it can often banish one train of feelings, and replace them with another of opposite complexion and character, especially when the transition is made with skill and delicacy. It can sooth the anguish of sorrow and disappointment,

*See Knight on Taste. + Letter cxvii.

It is to be observed, however, of the emotions occasioned by music, that they are referable only to a class; and that they have never that distinct appropriation which belongs to the creations of the sister arts of poetry and painting. When we listen for the first time to a simple melody, it is its general character only that we are able to perceive. We are conscious that it kindles cheerful or melancholy feelings, without being able to refer them to any individual object. Now, I believe, there is no way in which our sensibility can be thus affected, except by the association of certain ideas with sounds, or successions of sound, which we have formerly heard, not perhaps precisely the same in kind, but belonging to the same class. And if we seek for the original prototypes of those tones, which, by their rhythm and cadences, become capable of exciting emotions, they will be found, I apprehend, in natural sounds, as well as in natural expressions of feeling, that were antecedent to all oral language, and are universal to human nature. Cheerfulness naturally disposes to quick and sudden changes of tone and gesture; and melancholy has the effect of weakening the voice, and of producing low and slowly measured accents. The gentle and tender feelings of pastoral life find a natural expression, in tones corresponding with them in delicacy and softness. And the idea of sublimity is almost necessarily annexed to sounds, of which loudness is one, but not the only element, and which, though they may have no strict analogy with the