est years. Of a steady-going, rather
practical life, the Teutonic race yet seeks relief from care, and
finds delightful rest and recreation, in united song, or in some other
form of pleasing harmony; thus wisely uniting the practical with the
poetical in life. How in keeping is a musical love so warm, and a
musical proficiency so general, with a nation which has given to the
world a Mozart, a Haydn, and a Beethoven!

Most persons have remarked the superior affability, the polish of
manners, that distinguishes the people of France. It is also
observable that this nation is much devoted to music; that which is
produced by their own composers, and most in use by the people, being
usually of the graceful, brilliant style. An eminent French writer
states, that, for the possession of these pleasing characteristics,
this nation is indebted to that ancient order of musicians, the
troubadours, whose musical qualities, politeness, and other winning
graces, laid the foundation of the same.

It is said that the ancient Egyptians held music in such high esteem
that they employed it as a remedial agent, believing it a sure cure
for certain kinds of disease. While such a belief--that is, in its
entirety--may not be held in modern times, yet this notion of the
curative qualities of music does not seem so very fanciful or
mysterious after a little reflection. We know that nothing so
generally conduces to recovery from sickness as those influences that
inspire feelings of cheerfulness, and that serve to divert the mind of
the patient from a contemplation of his bodily sufferings,--it being
almost a proverb, that "a pain forgot is a pain cured,"--and that one
of the chief of such agencies is the soothing, inspiriting charm of
music. It is not meant by this, of course, that music is of itself and
specifically a cure, but that it may be often employed as a powerful
aid in effecting the same. We know, moreover, that this
delight-affording art may be profitably used to "minister to a mind
diseased," and that its aid is often invoked by those physicians who
are most skilful, if not in curing, at least in ameliorating the
condition of, persons afflicted with that terrible malady, insanity.
Perhaps Saul of olden times, who is said to have been once possessed
with an "evil spirit," was then simply insane; and, taking this view
of his condition,--which is, after all, the one that seems the more
correct,--the statement in the Bible, that David dr