lished for the benefit of the common people. Much, however, has been accomplished by charity and Sunday schools; the former of which were commenced in 1698, and the latter in 1812. Besides these there are numerous charitable foundations on which many persons of limited means have been educated at the higher institutions. 34. In Scotland, more liberal provisions have been made for general education. The system was commenced in the reign of William and Mary, when, by an act of Parliament, every parish was required to maintain a school. The people have so far improved their privileges, that nearly all of the inhabitants of that part of Great Britain can read and write. every state where the influence of the people from that section of country is predominant, public schools have been organized by legal provisions, and a fund has been provided, by which at least a part of the expense of supporting them is paid. 38. In all the states in which these primary institutions are established by legislative enactments, they are kept in operation, in country places, between six and nine months of the year. A master is employed in the winter, and a mistress in the summer: the former receives for his services from ten to fifteen dollars per month, and the latter, from seventy-five cents to two dollars per week, together with boarding. The teachers, however, 35. The government of Russia, during during their engagement are compelled to the last and present century, has directed reside in the different families of the dissome attention to the promotion of educa- trict, their stay at each place being detertion. According to the decrees of the em- || mined, with scrupulous exactness, by the peror Alexander, schools of different grades number of children sent to the school. were to be established throughout the empire; but these decrees have been yet only partially executed. 36. In no part of the world has the education of all classes of people been so much attended to as in the United States. This has arisen chiefly from the circumstance, that a remarkable proportion of the colonists were persons of education. This was particularly the case with those of New England, where the instruction of youth, from the very beginning of the settlements, was made a matter of public con cern. | 39. From the low salaries received for these important services, and the short periods for which engagements are made, it is evident, that teaching a district school cannot be pursued as a regular employment. These schools are therefore supplied by persons who, during the rest of the year, follow some other business; or by students, who rely, in part or entirely, on their own exertions to defray the expenses of their academical, collegiate, or professional education. 40. These schools are, no doubt, institutions of great value; but in the states 37. The principle of making public pro- where they have been established, they vision for this purpose, thus early adopted, are evidently much overrated. They fail has never been deserted; on the contrary, in fully accomplishing the ends for which it has become so deeply interwoven with they have been instituted, through the exthe social condition of the people of New treme tenacity with which the people adEngland, that there are few families in here to ancient and defective methods of that part of the Union, which are not instruction, the frequent change of teachwithin reach of a public school: and, iners, and the small compensation allowed for the services of competent instruct- by the funds of the state in which they ors. 41. In the cities and populous towns or villages, the public schools are kept up during the whole of the year, and the system of instruction is generally better than that pursued in the country. In NewYork, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and in some other cities, the Lancasterian plan of mutual instruction, with some modifications, is preferred, principally on account of its cheapness. 42. Select-schools and private academies are, also, very numerous. These are located chiefly in the cities and populous towns, and are supported entirely by fees for tuition received from the parents or guardians of the pupils. These institutions do not differ essentially from those of a private nature in similar situations in other parts of the United States, where common schools are not established by law. 43. In the Southern states, wealthy families often employ private tutors. Sometimes two, three, or more families, and even a whole neighbourhood, unite for the purpose of forming a school; and to induce a teacher to commence or continue his labours among them, an adequate amount is made up beforehand by subscription. South of Pennsylvania, Delaware, and the Ohio river, such engagements are commonly made for a year, as, in that section of the Union, the opinion prevails that a teacher can do but little towards improving his pupils in a much shorter time. 44. The literary institutions which are next above the common schools, and which are established by legislative authority, are the academies, of which there are be- || tween five and six hundred in the United States. Some of these have been founded are located, some by the union of a few spirited individuals, or by private bequests. 45. The course of instruction pursued in these seminaries of learning varies considerably from each other. In some of them it is confined chiefly to the common branches of education; in others, the course is pretty extensive, embracing natural and moral philosophy, chemistry, belles lettres, and a sound course of mathematics, together with Latin, Greek, and some of the modern languages. One great object in these institutions is to prepare students for college. The teacher who has charge of an academy is called the principal, while the teacher who may aid him in his labours is denominated the assistant or usher. 46. The highest institutions of learning among us are the colleges and universities. Between these, however, there seems to be but little difference, since the course of studies is nearly or quite the same in both, and since the charters obtained from the legislatures grant to both similar powers of conferring honorary degrees. The whole number of these establishments in the United States is about sixty. 47. The principal teachers in the colleges are denominated professors, who confine their labours to communicating instructions in particular branches of literature or science. These are aided by assistants called tutors. The latter are generally young men who devote two or three years to this employment, before entering upon the practice of a profession. The number of professors and tutors in the several colleges varies according to their amount of funds and number of students. THE MUSICIAN. 1. THE Word Music, in its modern application, has reference to the science which treats of the combination of sounds. It is founded upon the law of our nature,-that every leading passion has its peculiar tone or note of expression understood by all human beings. Music, therefore, may be supposed to have been practised in the earliest ages; although it must have been a long time before it arose to the importance of a science. 2. According to the Mosaic records, Jubal, one of the descendants of Cain, played upon musical instruments, many hundred years before the flood. In the early period of the nations of antiquity, and in fact among all semi-barbarous people of later periods, the character of poet and singer were united in the same individual, and the voice was frequently accompanied by musical instruments. The oldest song which has descended to our times, and which is stated to have been exhibited in this manner, was that sung by Miriam, the sister of Moses, on the occasion of the passage of the Red Sea by the children of Israel. 3. The Hebrews employed music in their celebration of religious worship, which consisted, in part, in chanting solemn psalms with instrumental accompaniments. It was also used by them on the occasion of entertainments, as well as in the family circle. It reached its greatest perfection amongst the Jews, in the days of David and Solomon. It is supposed that the priests of Egypt were versed in music, before the settlement of the family || used in war and on the stage from the of Jacob in that country; but how far the Israelites were indebted to them for a knowledge of this pleasing art, is altogether uncertain. Greeks. At an early period of their history, it was a great impediment to the progress of the art, that it was practised only by slaves. Romans had been preceded by the Greeks. 4. Music was held in very high estima- 8. The Roman orators pitched their tion among the Greeks, who attributed to voice, and regulated the different intonait incredible effects. They even assure ||tions through their speech, by the sound of us that it is the chief amusement of the instruments; and on the stage, the song, gods, and the principal employment of the as well as part of the play itself, was acblessed in heaven. Many of their laws, companied with flutes. Wind-instruments and the information relative to the gods of various kinds, comprised under the genand heroes, as well as exhortations to vir- eral name of tibiæ, and sometimes the tue, were written in verse, and sung pub-cythera and harp, accompanied the chorus. licly in chorus to the sound of instruments. In all these applications of music, the 5. It was the opinion of the philosophers of Greece, that music was necessary to mould the character of a nation to virtue; and Plato asserts, that the music of his countrymen could not be altered, without || affecting the constitution of the state itself. But in his time and afterwards, complaints were made of the degeneracy in this art, and a deterioration of national manners through its influence. The degeneracy probably consisted in its application to the expression of the tender passions; it having been previously applied, in most cases, to awaken patriotic and religious feeling. 9. The Hebrews employed accents to express musical tones, but most other nations of antiquity used letters of the alphabet for this purpose; and as they had not yet conceived the idea of the octave or parallel lines, to express a variety of tones in a similar manner by the aid of a key, they required a number of notes that must have been exceedingly perplexing. 10. The Greeks are said to have had about one thousand notes, half of which were for vocal, and the other half for instrumental music. All these were expressed by placing the letters of their alphabet, or parts of them, in different positions. Accents were also used, partly by themselves, and in connexion with the letters. 11. The lines of a poem, set to music, were placed under the letters expressing the tones. The letters for the instrument 6. The invention of music and of musical instruments, as in the cases of most of the arts and sciences among the Greeks, was attributed by the poets to some of the gods, or else to individuals of their own nation. It appears, however, from their traditions, that they received this art, oral part were placed first, and under them at least great improvements in its execution, from Phoenicia or Asia Minor. It began to be cultivated scientifically in Greece about 600 years before the advent of Christ. 7. The Romans seem to have derived the music which they employed in religious services from the Etruscans, but that those for the voice. The notes of the Greeks and Romans were not required to indicate the time in which they were to be pronounced, since in general the syllables of their language had a natural and distinct quantity. In the cases in which there was a liability to mistake, the sylla bles were marked with A, if long, and with B, if short. 12. The Romans expressed the fifteen chief tones of the Greeks with the fifteen first letters of the Latin alphabet; and these were reduced to seven, by Pope Gregory I., towards the end of the sixth century; so that the first seven capital letters were used for the first octave, the small letters for the higher octave, and the same letters doubled, for the highest octave. Parallel lines were soon after invented, on which the letters were written. 13. Musical sounds were expressed in this manner until the year 1024, when, according to some authors, Guido Aretine, a monk of Arezzo, invented points and rhombuses. He also introduced the use of five parallel lines, upon and between which his notes were written. The seven letters which had formerly been used as notes, now became clifs. 14. Still, however, the means of determining the duration of sound belonging to each note, without consulting the quantity of the syllables in the verses to be sung, were yet to be provided. This desideratum was supplied by one Franco, a German of Cologne, who lived towards the end of the eleventh century. Some, however, attribute this improvement to John de Murs. The division of one note into others of less value was invented, in the sixteenth century, by Jean Mouton, chapel-master to King Francis I. of France. 15. The knowledge of music, as a science, was preserved in Europe, after the overthrow of the western empire, through the influence of the church. The apostles, and Hebrew converts generally, had been accustomed to the sacred music of the Jews; and, on this account, it was easy to continue the use of the same psalms and hymus in the Christian church. 16. Many of the Grecian and Roman melodies were also set to words adapted to Christian worship. In regard to the manner of singing, in the early days of the church, it was sometimes in solo, sometimes in alternate strains, and at other times in chorus; in which the whole assembly joined, repeating what had been before sung or read. In the fourth century, with the view of securing the proper execution of this part of divine worship, precentors were instituted, who were considered regular officers of the church. 17. Pope Gregory I., surnamed the Great, distinguished himself by establishing a new singing-school, which became a model for many others, in the western division of the church. In consequence of these schools, the singing became more artificial; and this, together with the circumstance that the hymns were in Latin, which had become obsolete, at length excluded the people from any participation in this part of the public worship. 18. Gregory also made a selection of the existing songs of the church, and introduced a chant, which, through his influence, and that of his successors, was at length extended throughout Europe. It received the appellation of the Gregorian chant from his name. It was also called the choral song, because it was sung by a choir. This chant is said to be the foundation of our present church-music. 19. Music, in distinct parts, was not known until after the introduction of the improved method of writing music, invented, as before stated, by Guido Aretine and Franco. The development of harmony, in four parts, was assisted by the choral; but it was more particularly advanced by musical instruments, and especially by the organ. In the fifteenth century, music began again to be treated scientifically.. |