d in the unwash'd earth with Jubal,
Before that dirty blacksmith, Tubal,
By stroke on anvil, or by summ'at,
Found out, to his great surprise, the gamut."

Witty essayist, your "Free Thoughts," like many other of your clever
writings, are erroneous. In all ages, and even by the least enlightened
of mankind, the efficacy of music has been acknowledged, and considered
as a genuine and natural source of delight. Now it awakens the latent
courage in the breast of the soldier, and now administers to the pensive
sorrow of the weeping mother. At one moment it inspires the soul with
sublime and hallowed awe, and at the next gives life to unbounded mirth.
It is suited to stimulate the feeling of devotion, and to increase the
boisterous pleasures of a village harvest-home. Wearied with the
oppression of the noon-day sun, and exhausted with labour, the
husbandman sits beneath the shade of his native oak, and sings the songs
he heard in infancy. The man of business, the man of letters, and the
statesman, wearied with the exertion of mind and burden of care, seek
relief round the family hearth, and forget awhile ambition and fears
under the influence of music. And the dejected emigrant sings the songs
of fatherland, whilst recollections, sad but sweet, arise and disappear.

"In far-distant climes, when the tear gushes o'er
For home, love, and friendship, that charm us no more,
Oh! what on the exiles' dark sorrows can shine
Like the rapture that flows at the songs of Lang-syne!

"The music of Britain is sweet 'midst the scene;
But, ah! could you hear it, when seas roll between!
'Tis then, and then only, the soul can divine
The music that dwells in the songs of Lang-syne.

"The spirit, when torn from earth's objects of love,
Loses all its regrets in the chorus above:
So in exile we cannot but cease to repine,
When it hallows with ecstacy songs of Lang-syne."

But I must allow music herself to prove her influence and assert her
sway.

(CAPRICE HONGROIS.)

"Cease gentle sounds, nor kill me quite
With such excess of sweet delight.
Each trembling note invades my heart,
And thrills through every vital part:
A soft--a pleasing pain
Pursues my heated blood through every vein.
What--what does the enchantment mean?
Now, wild with fierce d