learn that academies of Music have been established in some other cities, and that in at least one town in this Commonwealth, music is beginning to be a branch of elementary education. When any great public improvement is begun, we cannot help thinking it of some importance to observe from what quarter the impulse comes, and under whose guidance it is likely to go forward. And it is a happy omen for the good results to be derived from this change in the musical taste and habits of the people, that one of the strong motives of those who originated the plan of the Academy, was the improvement of church music; and that their well established character is a sufficient guaranty, that whatever receives their sanction will be of a pure and elevated class of compositions.

There is only one evil of which we are apprehensive, and that is disunion. The efforts of all ought to be combined, as far as possible. Great effects can be produced by combination alone, especially in music, where, as we have remarked, there is a place for every one, and there ought to be one for every place. But Yankees are too apt to be of the same mind with Satan, and think it "better to reign in hell, than serve in heaven." They will even fall into the pandemonium of contention, jealousy, and separation, in musical associations, provided each little coterie may fill its own little world, and not be subject to any higher power. In the multitude of societies there will not be half the progress, though there will be, perhaps, double the motion, that there would be in one well organized association. The constitution of the Academy seems to us the best we know of, where the financial and prudential concerns of the society are in one set of hands, and the musical department in another. This gives a separation of duties, and a union of interests, which is far better for the public, and for individuals, than where the desire of attainment in art, and the wish to gain temporary popularity and pecuniary advantages may come in conflict, and embarrass the course of those who have the control of all departments.

We were much pleased to see, in one of the late numbers of Mr. Hach's Magazine, a project for interesting an association of literary men in the practice of music. Literature is intimately connected with it, and none but cultivated minds can appreciate and properly enjoy the highest musical effects. But a society of merely literary men is not apt to be a very efficient means of producing any result; while the combination of literary, educated, and practical men is the very best that

has ever yet been devised. Above all, the hearty, cordial cooperation of numbers is desirable; and mutual jealousy, and the desire to shine at each other's expense, is especially lamentable in the culture of this divine art. Union is strength in music as well as in politics.

We have mentioned what we deem the most important events which have led to the state of things now existing at the place where we write. Other circumstances have, however, contributed to the same end, more or less directly. Particularly have great numbers of persons been enlightened on the subject of the power of the art, and the effects that may be produced by it, by the visits of some very accomplished musicians, both vocal and instrumental. The little corps of Italian singers, Montresor and others, who were here five or six years ago, the brothers Hermann, Mrs. Wood, Caradori, and Braham have given specimens of exquisite skill in the vocal department, while Seitz, and Rakeman, and Kossowsky have given us an idea of what is meant by brilliant, finished, and expressive performance on various instruments. The Prague band and the Rainer family have shown how much can be effected by mere precision in the performance of music of either kind, without any remarkable degree of refinement or expression. The popular favor which attended the dramatic performances of Mrs. Wood, in particular, gave many persons an interest in the art which she practised with such great effect. The result of all these visits is, that people understand better than before how far we are behind other countries in musical attainments, how great is the charm of the art, and how important are study and practice before we begin to boast of our proficiency.*

Another circumstance which we regard as having been at once an indication and a means of progress, is the establishment of several musical periodicals. All have contributed, or are likely, we think, to contribute, their share towards directing

It is scarcely probable that any one would now repeat the avowal made to us five or six years ago by a very worthy citizen, at one of the performances of the Handel and Haydn Society, that "he did not believe there was a place in the world where music of equal excellence could be given by the same class of persons." It is pretty generally understood now, that throughout Germany and Italy at least, to say nothing of other countries, there is not a town of half the size of Boston, where a far more difficult style of music than any practised here is not familiar to a much greater proportion of the population; and that there is scarcely an obscure village of the Tyrol, that cannot send us a little band of singers that put all our own to shame, by the accuracy and precision with which they sing their simple songs.

the public interest to the subject, and forming the public taste. We cannot but esteem Mr. Hach's "Musical Magazine," however, as the most important, as it has been longest established, and is edited by a gentleman of rare and thorough acquaintance with the theory and practice of music, and conducted with an independence as honorable to him as it is important to the cause. The criticisms are doubtless somewhat stern; and sometimes we think too little allowance is made for peculiar difficulties, and too little encouragement given for attainments actually made. But it is far better to err on this side than on that of complaisance to individuals or societies, who will be ready enough, we may be sure, to flatter themselves, without help from the critic.

The following extract from Mr. Davis's report expresses, with much force, views and wishes in which we cordially sympathize with him.

"What is the great object of our system of popular instruction? Are our schools mere houses of Correction, in which animal nature is to be kept in subjection by the law of brute force and the stated drudgery of distasteful tasks? Not so. They have a nobler office. They are valuable mainly as a preparation and a training of the young spirit for usefulness and happiness in coming life. Now the defect of our present system, admirable as that system is, is this, that it aims to develope the intellectual part of man's nature solely, when, for all the true purposes of life, it is of more importance, a hundred fold, to feel rightly, than to think profoundly. Besides, human life must and ought to have its amusements. We cannot bring up a race upon Lyceum Lectures solely, wholesome though that food may be. Man must have agreeable excitement. There will be recreation when the toils of the day are ended. What shall that recreation be? So far then as human life is concerned, properly to direct the feelings and amusements, belongs to every system which aspires to the name and character of a wise system of Public Education. An initiation in the elements of vocal music at school, in the opinion of your Committee, seems best fitted to supply that direction. Music,' says a modern German writer, is the gymnastics of the affections.' Music and the love of it have been and may be perverted, who knows it not? Guard it therefore, guide it, lead it into the right channels. But be not guilty of the illogical deduction of arguing from the occasional abuse of one of God's best gifts to its disuse. No. Let all parents understand that every pure and refined pleasure for which a child acquires a relish, is, to that extent, a safeguard

and preservative against a low and debasing one. Music, when kept to its legitimate uses, calls forth none but the better feelings of our nature. In the language of an illustrious writer of the 17th century, Music is a thing that delighteth all ages and beseemeth all states, a thing as seasonable in grief as joy, as decent being added to actions of greatest solemnity, as being used when men sequester themselves from actions.' If such be the natural effects of music, if it enliven prosperity or soothe sorrow, if it quicken the pulses of social happiness, if it can fill the vacancy of an hour that would otherwise be listlessly or unprofitably spent, if it gild with a mild light the checkered scenes of daily existence, why then limit its benign and blessed influence? Let it, with healing on its wings, enter through ten thousand avenues the paternal dwelling. Let it mingle with religion, with labor, with the homebred amusements and innocent enjoyments of life. Let longer be regarded merely as the ornament of the rich. Still let it continue to adorn the abodes of wealth, but let it also light up with gladness the honest hearth of poverty. Once introduce vocal music into the common schools, and you make it what it should be made, the property of the whole people. And so as time passes away, and one race succeeds to another, the true object of our system of Public Education may be realized, and we may, year after year, raise up good citizens to the Commonwealth, by sending forth from our schools, happy, useful, well instructed, contented members of society.

no

"The subject, in this connexion, swells into one of national universality and importance. There are said to be, at this time, not far from eighty thousand common schools in this country, in which are to be found the people who in coming years will mould the character of this democracy. If vocal music were generally adopted as a branch of instruction in these schools, it might be reasonably expected that in at least two generations we should be changed into a musical people. The great point to be considered in reference to the introduction of vocal music into popular elementary instruction is, that thereby you set in motion a mighty power which silently, but surely in the end, will humanize, refine, and elevate a whole community. Music is one of the fine arts. It therefore deals with abstract beauty, and so lifts man to the source of all beauty, from finite to infinite, and from the world of matter, to the world of spirits and to God. Music is the great handmaid of civilization. Whence come these traditions of a reverend antiquity, seditions quelled, cures wrought, fleets and armies governed by the force of song, whence that responding of rocks, woods, and trees to the harp of Orpheus,

whence

a city's walls uprising beneath the wonder-working touches of Apollo's lyre? These, it is true, are fables, yet they shadow forth, beneath the veil of allegory, a profound truth. They beautifully proclaim the mysterious union between music, as an instrument of man's civilization, and the soul of man. Prophets and wise men, large-minded lawgivers of an olden time, understood and acted on this truth. The ancient oracles were uttered in song. The laws of the twelve tables were put to music, and got by heart at school. Minstrel and sage, are in some languages, convertible terms. Music is allied to the highest sentiments of man's moral nature, love of God, love of country, love of friends. Woe to the nation in which these sentiments are allowed to go to decay! What tongue can tell the unutterable energies that reside in these three engines, Church Music, National Airs, and Fireside Melodies, as means of informing and enlarging the mighty heart of a free people! "

ART. IV. The History of Harvard University, by JoSIAH QUINCY, LL. D., President of the University. Cambridge: John Owen. 1840. Royal Svo. Vol. I. and II. pp. 612, 728.

On the 8th day of September, 1836, came off one of the most interesting public celebrations that have occurred in this commemorative time. Fourteen or fifteen hundred graduates of the oldest of the higher schools of instruction in this country, the University at Cambridge,* in Massachusetts, met within its walls, to notice, with suitable solemnities and festivity, the completion of the second century since its foundation.

* The President calls his work a History of “ Harvard University." The designation is partly matter of taste, and as this, we confess, does not suit ours, we hope it will not pass into established use. The corporation whose legal style is The President and Fellows of Harvard College are the legal Trustees and Governors of the University at Cambridge, now constituted of that College, and of the recently established colleges of Medicine, Divinity, and Law. But it strikes us that there is a propriety in restricting the name of Harvard to the ancient academical school, while the Law College bears the name of Dane, the Medical, that of Massachusetts, and the Divinity College awaits its designation from some future patron. The title and text of chapter V. of the Constitution of Massachusetts (the highest form of legal authority, both recite the name of the University at Cambridge. They speak of Harvard College as identical with it, as, in a certain sense, it then was; but of Harvard University they do not speak.