aying, He is an _Ancient_.

Sec. 31. Tell me, I beseech you, who, without us, could have brought Musick
to the Height of Happiness, with no greater Difficulty than taking from
the _Airs_ that tiresome Emulation of the first and second Violin, and
of the Tenor? Is there any that ever durst usurp the Glory of it? We, we
are those, who by our Ingenuity have raised her to this Degree of
Sublimity, in taking also from her that noisy murmuring of the
fundamental Basses, in such Manner,----(mark me well, and learn) that
if in an _Orchestre_ there were an hundred Violins, we are capable of
composing in such a Manner, that all and every one shall play the very
_Air_ which the Voice sings. What say you to that? Can you have the Face
to find Fault with us?

Sec. 32. Our most lovely Method, that obliges none of us to the painful
Study of the Rules; which does not disquiet the Mind with the Anxiety of
Speculation, nor delude us with the Study of reducing them into
Practice; that does not prejudice the Health; that enchants the Ear _a
la Mode_; that finds those who love it, who prize it, and who pay for it
the Weight in Gold; and dare you to criticise upon it?

Sec. 33. What shall we say of the obscure and tedious Compositions of those
whom you celebrate as the Top of the Universe, tho' your Opinion goes
for nothing? Don't you perceive that those old-fashioned Crabbednesses
are disgustful? We should be great Fools to grow pale, and become
paralytick in studying and finding out in the Scores, the Harmony, the
_Fugues_, their _Reverses_, the _Double Counterpoint_, the
Multiplication of Subjects, to contract them closer, to make _Canons_,
and such other dry Stuff, that are no more in _Mode_, and (what is
worse) are of little Esteem, and less Profit. What say you now to this,
_Master Critick_? Have you comprehended me?----Yes, Sir. Well, what
Answer do you make me?----None.

Sec. 34. Really, I am astonished, O beloved Singers, at the profound
Lethargy in which you remain, and which is so much to your Disadvantage.
'Tis You that ought to awaken, for now is the Time, and tell the
Composers of this Stamp, that your Desire is to Sing, and not to Dance.

CHAP. VIII.

_Of_ Cadences.[78]

The _Cadences_, that terminate the _Airs_, are of two Sorts. The
Composers call the one _Superior_, and the other _Inferior_. To make
myself better understood by a Scholar, I mean, if a _Cadence_ were in
_C_ natural, the Notes of the first woul