Ossian Collection > Galic antiquities

io6 A DISSERTATION ON THE
the other, univerfally allowed to be exceeding great. It muft there-
fore have been early laid hold of, as a proper handle for forming
the morals of men. Accordingly, the poets, who always couch
truth under their fables, have afcribed to the lyres of Orpheus, A-
rion, and Amphion, the miraculous power, not only of taming the
wildeft of men, but of charming even wild beaft and fifhes. Nay,
they tell us, that even the inanimate creation was wrought upon by
fuch founds. Ravifhed by their magic force, trees defcended from
their mountains ; ftones rofe from their quarry ; cities lifted their
fpiry heads into the clouds ; rivers flopt, or changed their courfe,
to liften ; and fields, before difmal and dark, affumed a fmile of
joy. Even the inexorable Pluto himfelf relented with the irrefift-
ible charms of the lyre of Orpheus, and, grimly fmiling, refigned
to him his loved Eurydice. — Whatever allowance we make here for
poetical liberty, we fhall (till have this much left, that mufie has a
vail influence over the paffions, and had a principal hand in the
firft civilization of mankind. This much modern, as well as an.r
cient, poets hint to us, when they tell us that
" Mufic has charms to foothe the favage breafl,.
" To foften rocks, and bend the knotted oak."
But, fhould any one think, that truth cannot be had from
poets, we may add, that on this fubjecl, divines, philofophers, and
lawgivers, have fpoken, though in a different language, the fame
meaning. So fenfible were the ancients of the connexion between
mufic and morals, that their religion and laws had generally the
fuperintendency of the one as well as of the other. In Egypt, in
Crete, and in Sparta, the laws regulated die number of firings in
the lyre ; and the laft-mentioned flate banifhed Timotheus for the
crime