I am about to relate, are unquestionably attributable to the music. We know what magical effects it produced among the ancients— Orpheus and old Amphion play'd Strange tunes to entertain our sires, But then we know they had their Lyres. I firmly believe that the walls of Thebes built themselves to the tune of "The Freemason's March," and that tigers and kids, lambs and lions, raised themselves upon their hind legs and waltzed lovingly together, when Orpheus sang to Chiron; for I have witnessed enchantments in my own house not a whit less miraculous. A small antique Apollo, that stood upon a bracket in my drawing-room, although he had but one leg, has hopped clean away, probably imagining, from the concord of sweet sounds, that he was regaining his favourite Parnassus. By what arrangement of muscles Mercury could ply the wings attached to his cap, I could never comprehend, but it is obvious that he possesses the power, for a little bronze image of that god has flown away from my chimney-piece. This, however, may be the pious abduction of some one who recognised his appropriate deity, and so bore him off in triumph. A beautiful nymph skipping has jumped from my writing-table, and eloped from the paternal roof. If the gentleman with whom she has taken refuge will return her to her disconsolate owner, he may retain the rope for his own use. Philip the Fifth of Spain fell once into such a fit of low spirits, that for several months he refused to be shaved, until the soothing sweetness of Farinelli's strains induced him to submit his chin to the razor with great cheerfulness and resolution. Well, I had a large medal of this monarch in his bearded state, which must have recognised, in some of my Italian warblers, such approximation to Farinelli's notes, that it has rolled itself away for the purpose, probably, of undergoing another capillary excision. Enquiries have been made at the barbers' and perfumers' shops in the neighbourhood, which, from their number of blocks and heads without brains, ought to know something of musical matters; but I can gain no tidings of the fugitive. An Egyptian Scarabæus in blue onyx, animated by some lively tune, not only crept from under a glass case, but crawled fairly out of my hall door at the last concert. Should any of my musical visitants have been mounted on its back, like Arion on his dolphin, and an accident have occurred from their crossing the street amid the rush of carriages, I sincerely hope the poor beetle has escaped unhurt. That a Parisian shepherdess in bisquit should take French leave of my mantelpiece, is perhaps natural, and may be attributed to love of home. rather than of music; nor is it wonderful that a gold box with Thieves vinegar should abscond, for the present possessor establishes his claim to the perfume by keeping its case-but I cannot comprehend how a verd-antique pitcher with one ear, and that one hermetically sealed, should be so fascinated as to run off with one of my melodists, and thus deprive me at once of "my friend and pitcher;" nor why so apparently phlegmatic and discreet an inmate as a silver candlestick, should become a "Fanatico per la Musica," and walk off to encounter more melting strains than those to which it was nightly subjected in the performance of its duty. My wife remarks with great originality and shrewdness, that things cannot go without hands.-Not even harpsichords, I replied; and yet they are constantly going. However, I am a recognised amateur, and of course bound to like music, whatever effects it produces; though I confess I should be better pleased if every visitant were compelled to give a concert in return, by which arrangement our moveables might justify their name, and after performing the tour of our circle, return to their original quarters. At all events I am an inveterate amateur, and therefore I exclaim con amore, and with infinite bitterness-Hail to that bewitching art, which lightens our bosoms as well as our brackets, eases us of our cares and candlesticks, imperceptibly steals away our vexations and valuables, and clears at the same moment our minds and our mantelpieces! H. AN INVOCATION. O THOU undying Spirit of poetry! Spirit, or nymph, or muse,-laurell'd,-bright-eyed ;— O by what name holy and chaste, yet warm Now, as I speak unto thee, the bleak winds And from the inner heaven the clouded moon By streaming torrents and the driving hail, A tremulous glance which dyed the vapour's edge Great Dian! if on some orb nigh to thee, Bid her arise and quit her radiant home. A sound,-no more; or haplier some fine power And shadow'd out in human shape by man, . . PETER PINDARICS. The Poet and the Alchymist. AUTHORS of modern date are wealthy fellows;— The rhymes and novels which cajole us, Not from the Heliconian rill, But from the waters of Pactolus. Before this golden age of writers, Of odes and poems to be twisted For patrons who have heavy purses.- All ticketed from A to Izzard; And living by his wits, I need not add, Like a ropemaker's were his ways, He spun, and like his hempen brother, Hard by his attic lived a Chymist, And though unflatter'd by the dimmest To find the art of changing metals, Our starving Poet took occasion Or laudatory dedication, For twenty pounds, the secret art, Which should procure, without the pain What he so long had sought in vain, The money paid, our bard was hurried Who, somewhat sublimized and flurried, Crow'd, caper'd, giggled, seem'd to spurn his And carefully put to the shutter, "Now, now, the secret I implore; For God's sake, speak, discover, utter! With grave and solemn look, the poet Let this plain truth those ingrates strike, The Astronomical Alderman. Or Mr. Miller's, commonly call'd Joe. Said he was more PH. than N. Meaning thereby, more phool than nave, Though they who knew our cunning Thraso, Pronounced it flattery to say so.— His civic brethren to express His "double double toil and trouble," And bustling noisy emptiness, Had christen'd him Sir Hubble Bubble. This wight ventripotent was dining Once at the Grocers' Hall, and lining That tomb omnivorous-his paunch, Inflicting many a horrid gash, Of such supreme beatitude And he began with mighty bonhommie Sir," he exclaim'd between his bumpers, And all those chaps have had their day, They 've written monstrous lies, Sir,-thumpers !— 66 But," quoth his neighbour, "when the sun So much his triumph seem'd to please him, H. PROJECTS AND PROJECTORS. "Nil admirari." THERE are few persons who are more obnoxious to general ridicule than Projectors. The world seems ever well disposed to enjoy a broad grin at the schemes, and a hearty laugh at the failures of those who, having the sphere of their vision extended a few yards farther from their nasal organ than their prosing, plodding consociates, are enterprising enough to venture beyond the pale of tangibilities, and seek honour and renown in the boundless field of unachieved discovery.— "That is impossible," is a favourite phrase of the vulgar. Such folks have a microcosm of their own, which they people with realities, collected from the narrow circle of individual observation; and whether its limits are confined to a yard, or extend to a mile, they hold all without its circle to be fiction; like the islanders of whom we read, who deem their petty spot of earth to comprise the universe, and all beyond it to be sky and ocean. And yet, let me ask these sappers and miners of aërial castles,-Whose hobby-horses have done so much service to mankind? Where would have been our gas-lights and steamengines; our navigable canals and iron railways; our machines and inventions, the magic potency of which gives wings to the winds and impetus to the waves,-binds the elements in subjection, and places the powers of nature at the disposal of man ;—had that glecious spirit of research, which animates the bosoms of the speculative, been quenched by the sarcasms of ignorance?...... The comforts, the nveniences, the elegancies of life, all that gives zest to enjoyment, a charms to existence are attributable to that spirit, which, in despite of the clamours of prejudice, and the sneers of the knowing, marches onwards with unconquerable perseverance, in full conviction of triumphant success. But for such minds, the world would have remained in its primitive barbarism: science would never have exceeded its nonage; knowledge, confined by the leaden gravity of ignorance, would never have emerged from its prison-house; the arts of civilized life would have yet been undiscovered; and that "god-like spring of action," the human intellect, would for aye have grovelled beneath the iron sway of bigotry and superstition. Out upon the heartless merriment that would crush by its ridicule the longings after hidden knowledge, which lead to such glorious results! Had man ever been content with "things as they are," plodding the same dull road with incurious satisfaction, Time would have grown grey in ignorance: deaf, blind, and stupid, he would never have raised his eyes to Heaven, to discover the glorious phenomena of the stars, nor directed them to Earth, to develope the latent treasures concealed in her bosom; the caves of ocean would have yet been unfathomed, the mysteries of the deep unexplored, and each petty aborigine, in quiescent barbarism, would have formed no wish for intercourse beyond his own paltry community. Man would have felt no care for aught but "meat, clothes, and fire :" thus remaining a fit companion for the brutes by which he was surrounded; and holding all in common with them but the profitless prerogative of speech. Every attempter at a new discovery, however apparently or really absurd, is, in a degree, the benefactor of his species. Had the an |