Inglis Collection of printed music > Printed text > Introduction to the skill of musick

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Of MUSICK in General,
And of its Divine and Civil Ufes.
MVSICK is an Art unfearchahle, Divine
and Excellent^ by which a true Concordance
of Sounds or Harmony is produced \ that
rejoiceth and cheareth the Hearts of Men -
and hath in all Ages and in all Countries been highly re-
verenced and efteemed% by the jews for Religion and
Divine Worjlrip in the Service of God y m appears by
Scripture \ by the Grecians ^^Romans to induce Virtue
and Gravity, and to incite to Courage and Valour, Great
Dilutes were among Ethnick.Authors about the fir ft In-
ventory fome for Orpheus , fome Lynus, both famous
Poets and Muficians \ others for Amphion, whofe Mu-
fck^ drew Stones to the Building of the Walls of Thebes ;
^Orpheus had by the harmonious Touch of his Harp y
moved the wild Beafts and Trees to Dance : But the
( true meaning thereof is , that by Virtue of their Muftck^
and their wife andpleajing Mufical Poems jhe one brought
the Savage and Beafi-like Thracians to Humanity and
Gentlenefs ; the other perfwaded the rude and carelefs
Thebans to the fortifying of their City, and to a civil
Converfation : The Egyptians to Apollo, attributing
the fir ft Invention of the Harp to him y and certainly they
had an high efieem of the Excellency of Mufick^ to make
Apollo (who was the God of Wifdom) to be the God of
Mufickj But the People of God do truly acknowledge a
far more ancient Inventor of this Divine Art, Jubal the
A 4 fixth