tomy, and architecture; and of triennial discourses, delivered by the president; all of which lectures, discourses, &c. contain an ample and impressive theory of his profession. Besides all this, the student has free access, at stated periods, to a vast and luminous library, containing every thing that has been written on the art, of which he is at full liberty to avail himself; besides an extensive range of port-folios, filled with the choicest prints, after the most celebrated masters. Independent of all this, the student who is so fortunate as to receive the gold medal (which is given every three years) for the best historical composition, is sent to Rome for three years, at the expense of the Academy, with an allowance of a hundred pounds per annum. When it is considered that the student of the Royal Academy has all the above advantages, free of expense, and that except in such an academy he could not possibly have those advantages, we vibrate between astonishment and confempt at Hogarth's presumption, in predicting, that the "establishment of the Royal Academy would be ruinous to the arts." (To be continued.) To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. SIR, INCLOSE to you anextract from the Travels of Peter della Valle, into the East Indies, by which it will appear that the method of instruction introduced by Dr. Bell, from Madras, and some times attributed as an invention to Mr. Lancaster, was in common practice two centuries ago, upon the coast of MaJabar. In a letter from Ikkerie, dated November 22, 1623, he says: "In the mean time, while the burthens were getting in order, 1 entertained my self in the porch of the temple, (at Gavarada Naghar, not far from Onor,) beholding little boys learning arithmetic, after a strange manner, which I will here relate. They were four, and having all taken the same lesson from the master, to get that same by heart, and repeat likewise their former lessons, and not for get them, one of them singing musically with a certain continued tone, (which hath the force of making a deep impression in the memory,) recited part of the lesson, as for example, one by itself makes one; and whilst he was thus speaking he writ down the same number, not with any kind of pen, nor on paper, but, (not 3 to spend paper in vain,) with his finger On D. R. For the Monthly Magazine. PERFECTING the SCALE of KEYED MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS. LLOW me to request of your corA respondent, Capel Lofft, a complete development of his plan for im proving the tune of keyed instruments, such as the piano-forte, organ, &c. From the incomplete account of it which he has given, in Number 191 of your valuable Magazine, it appears to consist, principally, in a new arrange ment and division of the keys, or touches; for, by "semi-tones, a quarter of an inch shorter than at present," I suppose he means the keys of those instruments. To the young student in harmony, it may be a useful caution, never to call a single sound a semi-tone: it would be as correct to call a mile a mile-stone: for a semi-tone is a certain small interval, or distance, between two sounds that differ in pitch. Grassineau, in his Dictionary of Musick, (1740,) mentions, that a Mr. Baljouski had invented a new sort of keys, which could furnish "all the sounds in musick, and, by consequence, all the Imaginary 128 On a Criticism of the Columbiad, in the Edinburgh Review. [March 1, imaginary intervals and chords; whereas the common keys do but furnish some of them." In Rousseau's Dict. de Musique, plate I. fig. 3. exhibits an arrangement of the keys different from that in common use at present, and too widely different ever to be generally adopted. Under the head Clavier, he remarks, that, "formerly, the twelve keys in every septave answered to fourteen sounds; and that the two additional sounds were played by means of two divided keys, (touches brisées ;) but that these two have been retrenched, because our rules of modulation would require additional sounds to be put every where. Many years ago, instrument-makers divided all the short keys, and by that means seventeen sounds could be played in every septave; but this method of supplying in struments with more sounds, was laid aside on account of the difficulty of playing upon so many keys." However, it is not entirely laid aside, for the Temple organ has at present two additional sounds in every septave of the choir and full organs, except the lowest. The organ in the Foundling Hospital has four additional sounds, but they are managed by stops, or slides, and not by divided keys. G. B. Doni (Trattato sopra gl'instrumenti di tasti) mentions that the long keys of some instruments have been divided as well as the short ones; and, to render some particular keys conspicuous, he recommends their being made round at the end, longer or shorter, and placed higher or lower than the others; or else to be of different colours. A curious arrangement of keys, for the use of the genera and tones, is represented on page 53, tom. 2. fol. Perhaps Mr. Lofft is unacquainted with the recent attempts to improve piano-fortes. Claggett's piano-forte bad pedals to alter the tension of the wires, when different sounds were wanted to the same finger-keys: as might have been easily foreseen, this instrument would never stand in tune. In Mr. Hawkes's organ, by means of one pedal, five sounds in every septave are changed at once for five others; so that the short keys are all sharps, or all flats: consequently, a sharp and a flat cannot be played together. Mr. Loeschman's grand harmonic piano-forte" is furnished with twenty-four sounds in every septare. It has six pedals to introduce the aditional sounds, when required, by 46 shifting the hammers under different wires. The finger-keys are exactly the same as those in general use. I have heard it, and have played on it myself, with great pleasure; and Mr. Loesch man boasts that it has received the approbation of Dr. Burney, Dr. Crotch, Mr. Salomon, Mr. C. Wesley, and other eminent musicians. Mr. Maxwell, (Essay on Tune, 1781,) proposes that every finger-key should have the command of "never less than three, but oftener four degrees of tune;" p. 184. According to his calculations, instead of twelve degrees of tune in the common computation of the octave, there must be no less than forty-four furnished, to complete a system of twentyfour keys, tuned by the true intervals of the diatonic scale; or if both extremes of the octave be included, instead of thir teen, there must be no less than fortyfive." After all, whatever may be Mr. Lofft's improvement, I think the generality of performers will rest satisfied with the common imperfect scale. Cirencester, January, 1810. Your's, &c. To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. SIR, HE observations in the last Edin THE burgh Review, intended as a cri tique. upon the admirable, though not absolutely faultless, poem, "The Columbiad," are conceived in a style at once so superstitiously illiberal, and unworthy the character of genuine criticism, that a candid and impartial survey of its claims to the approbation of the public, will, I trust, tend to obliterate those false impressions, which the animadversions of our northern literati are calculated, by their general diffusion, and the homage paid to their opinion, to produce on the minds of their readers. And here, Sir, it may not be esteemed irrelevant to give some idea of the phra seology adopted by those gentlemen in their quarterly lucubrations. The following elegancies of expression, "this goodly firstling;" "they have all a little Latin whipped into them in their youth;" "before we proceed to lay before our readers," &c. are peculiarly felicitous: but I am fearful their beauty, however exquisitely it may be felt in their native regions, will not be acknowledged by the generality of their English friends. It is indeed, Sir, difficult to conceive that the square and oblate cast of mind, inherent They may be erudite; they may become arithmeticians, mathematicians; they may be learned in the principles of mechanics, and amaze the world with their acquisitions in the slow and painful march of abstract science; but they must not in vade the sacred regions of imagination -of poetry, for the blight and the mildew are the inevitable attendants of their progress: they display an instinctive jealousy of the rich and brilliant career of fancy (the wren and the buzzard cannot cope with the sunward flight and majestic ascension of the eagle;) dazzled, blinded by the magic hues and orient splendours of poesy, they are callous to the Graces, the Elysian bloom, "And all the dread sublimities of song:" and the name of criticism is prostituted to the detection of a word not strictly concordant with grammatical precision, or the dull censure of some novel or picturesque form of expression -sufficient for thein that it is novel or picturesque. But enough of these gentlemen-I shall proceed to the consideration of the merits of this beautiful production of "the infant Muse of America." verential regard for the purest principles of morality; that in these a mind of native strength, allied to a rich and inventive imagination, will discover materials wherewith to erect a poetical structure of imperishable duration, and transmit to posterity a name, encircled with wreaths of brightest verdure, and glowing with the light and lustre of immortality. The invocation to Freedom, in which the poet, disdaining the customary form of imploring the assistance of the muse, places the whole of his reliance on the majesty and interesting nature of his theme, the establishment of universal concord and liberty, is delivered in a just and highly-animated strain of confidence in the equality of his powers to the management of his subject: Almighty Freedom! give my venturous How rulers may be just and nations wise Invoke no miracle, no muse but thee. The surrounding gloom is suddenly irradiated by the presence of Hesper, the guardian genius of the New World, who soothes his agitated spirits with a pro mised view of the important consequences resulting from his discoveries: the most prominent parts of his speech [ shall select, for the gratification of the reader: In the Columbiad are united an unusual breadth and loftiness of language, with an immensity of conception, concordant with the vastness and originality of the subject; a continued splendour of genius, a justness and novelty of simile, and a general harmony and mellifluous arrangement of verse. It cannot, per haps, completely establish a claim to the title of Epic; but the superior talents of its author have proved that a poem, not strictly in unison with the rules of the epopee, may yet possess distinctions of a superlative nature; and that in the richly-varied and vigorous description of such a continent as America, united to the truths of history, the records of tradition, and blended with the noblest precepts of universal philanthropy, the Far other wreaths thy virtuous temple judicious application of philosophical re Awed into slaves, while groveling millions groan, And blood-stained steps lead upward to a throne; twine, search, and the whole maintaining a re- Far nobler triumphs crown a life like thine; MONTHLY MAG. No. 196. R Thine 130 Observations on a malignant Criticism on the Columbiad. [March 1, fold; In nobler pomp another Pisgah rise, Beneath whose foot thy new-found Canaan lies, There, rapt in vision, hail my favourite clime, And taste the blessings of remotest time." He ascends with Columbus to an eminence above the loftiest of the Pyrennees; and the Mount of Vision is pour trayed with the most expansive and magnificent efforts of poetical description: "Led by the Power, the hero gained the height, New strength and brilliance Aush'd his mortal sight, When calm before them flowed the western main, Far stretched, immense, a sky-encircled plain : No sail, no isle, no cloud, invests the bound, Nor billowy surge disturbs the vast pro found; Till, deep in distant heavens, the sun's blue And rose and brighten'd to the expanding view; Fair sweep the waves, the lessening ocean smiles to misty radiance loom a thousand isles a Near and more near, the long-drawn coaste arise, Bays stretch their arms, and mountains lift the skies; The lakes high-mounded point the streams their way, Slopes, ridges, plains, their spreading skirts display, The vales branch forth, high walk the approaching groves, And all the majesty of Nature moves." Hesper, by the exertion of his supernal power, presents to the eyes of Columbus the whole of the vast and diver.. sified extent of the northern and southern In regions of America, which are depicted through the inedium of her guardian deity, with an incomparable felicity and gran deur of poetic expression. I would se lect the descriptions of the Lakes Erie and Superior, the rivers Maragnon, Laurence, and Missisippi, as the most resplendent instances of the facility and gigantic energies of Mr. Barlow's muse. his delineation of those noble streams, there is a bold and surging tide of verse, strongly imitative of the swelling waves and resistless current of the ocean, like riyers of the New World, and which will not suffer in competition with the sublimest efforts of any poet with whom we are acquainted (not excepting Milton,) from the remotest ages of antiquity to the present period: its length will not admit of insertion; but in the ensuing pashall indulge myself in the transcription pers upon this beautiful production, I of such passages as appear to form conspicuous features in the general plan of the poem. In the mean time, the apostrophe from the illustrious Drake, and the rapturous address of Columbus to Hesper, in which, prompted by a burst of enthusiasm on the view of the straits of Magellan, and recalling to memory his long and fondly-cherished idea of the existence of a western passage to the shores of India, he beseeches Hesper to restore the vigour of his youth, and shelter him from the rage of tyranny, in some of the delightful and yet undiscovered countries of the new continent, are too interesting not to claim the immediate attention of your readers. "Where the cold circles gird the southern sky, Brave Magellan's wild channel caught his eye; The long cleft-ridges walled the spreading way, That gleams far westward to an unknown sca: Soon ! Soon as the distant swell was seen to roll, Warm ancient wishes reabsorb'd his soul; Warm from his heaving heart a sudden sigh Burst through his lips; he turned his moistened eye, And thus besought his angel: Speak, my guide, Where leads yon pass? and what yon purple tide? How the dim waves in blending ether stray ! No lands behind them r.se, no pinions on them, play. There spreads, belike, that other unsail'd main I sought so long, and sought, alas! in vain, To gird this wat'ry globe, and bring to light Old India's coast, and regions wrapt in night. Restore, celestial friend, my youthful morn, Call back my years, and let my fame return; Grant me to trace beyond that pathless sea, Some happier shore from lust of empire free; To find in that fair world a peaceful bower, From envy safe, and curst Ovando's power; Earth's happiest realms let not their distance hide, Nor seas for ever roll their useless tide; For nations yet unborn, that wait thy time, Demand their seats in that secluded clime; Ah! grant me still, their passage to prepare, One venturous bark, and be my life thy care. So prayed the hero-Hesper mild re- Divine compassion softening in his eyes: state, Nor wish to pass the eternal bounds of fate. see, That half mankind shall owe their seats to In these rich rounds of sea-encircled earth. Speed in his pinions, ardour in his eyes, sails: Widen, ye passes; and awake, ye gales: sun, Wind his long course, and teach him where to run; Earth's distant shores, in cirding bands unite; Lands, learn your fame, and oceans, roil in light; Round all the watery globe his flag be hurl'd, A new Columbus to the astonkh'd world." To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. SIR, HERE are few instruments of greater THER practical utility than the common sliding rules, for calculations of all kinds, and particularly such as daily occur to almost every individual, engaged either in business or study. This induces me to offer to the readers of your Magazine, a mode of expressing the universal formula for using this instrument, which for several years I have practised, and found impossible to be misunderstood by any person who is in the least degree acquainted with the first rules of arithmetic. Considering the accuracy and great expedition of these calculations, I am much surprised that they are not more frequently employed, and can only account for it from the supposed difficulty in learn. ing the method of using the rule. It cannot be denied, by those who have tried to calculate by the directions commonly given, that a good degree of perseverance is requisite to follow them; whereas nothing is more easy when shown upon the rule itself. The method then which I practise is, to represent in a simple manner, a picture of those lines upon the rule (or their re- ̧ lative position) which are immediately concerned in the operation, with the respective figures and quantities belonging to the question: and this is a tolerably good substitute for the actual rule. The only difficulty remaining to a person not at present acquainted with the use of the slide-rule is, learning to read the divisions upon the different lines of the rule; and which may be very soon surmounted by any person that will take the trouble to look at a common slide-rule. In general there are four divided lines upon the common rules, two upon the stock and two upon the slide; and for distinguishing them they are marked at the end with the letters A, B, C, D. I shall presume that the learner is able to read the divisions; for if not, they may be learnt by almost all the common trea tises on that instrument. It remains only to exhibit a few formulæ, with examples, to make the sub. ject plain. Multiplication |