izes, and stealing the Time exactly on the true _Motion_ of the
Bass. These are the principal and indispensible Qualities which are most
essential to the singing well, and which no musical Ear can find in your
capricious _Cadences_. I must still add, that very _anciently_ the Stile
of the Singers was insupportable, (as I have been informed by the
Master who taught me to _Sol-fa_) by reason of the Number of _Passages_
and _Divisions_ in their _Cadences_, that never were at an end, as they
are now; and that they were always the same, just as they are now. They
became at last so odious, that, as a Nusance to the Sense of Hearing,
they were banished without so much as attempting their Correction. Thus
will it also happen to These, at the first Example given by a Singer
whose Credit is established, and who will not be seduced by a vain
popular Applause. This Reformation the succeeding Professors of Eminence
prescribed to themselves as a Law, which perhaps would not have been
abolished, were they in a Condition to be heard; but the Opulency of
some, Loss of the Voice, Age and Death of others, has deprived the
Living from hearing what was truly worthy our Admiration in Singing. Now
the Singers laugh at the Reformers, and their Reformation of the
_Passages_ in the _Cadences_; and on the contrary, having recalled them
from their Banishment, and brought them on the Stage, with some little
_Caricatura_ to boot, they impose them on the Ignorant for rare
Inventions, and gain themselves immense Sums; it giving them no Concern
that they have been abhorr'd and detested for fifty or sixty Years, or
for an hundred Ages. But who can blame them? However, if Reason should
make this Demand of them, with what unjust Pretence can you usurp the
Name of _Moderns_, if you sing in a most _Ancient_ Stile? Perhaps, you
think that these overflowings of your Throat are what procure you Riches
and Praises? Undeceive yourselves, and thank the great Number of
Theatres, the Scarcity of excellent Performers, and the Stupidity of
your Auditors. What could they answer? I know not. But let us call them
to a stricter Account.

Sec. 6. _Gentlemen Moderns_, can you possibly deny, but that you laugh
among yourselves, when you have Recourse to your long-strung _Passages_
in the _Cadences_, to go a begging for Applause from the blind Ignorant?
You call this Trick by the Name of an _Alms_, begging for Charity as it
were for those _E Viva's_, which, you very well know