us but too plainly the great
Injury they are apt to do, and that it well deserves Reproof; for
Mimickry has ruin'd more than one Singer.

Sec. 17. I cannot sufficiently recommend to a Student the exact keeping of
Time; and if I repeat the same in more than one place, there is more
than one Occasion that moves me to it; because, even among the
Professors of the first Rank there are few, but what are almost
insensibly deceived into an Irregularity, or hastening of Time, and
often of both; which though in the Beginning is hardly perceptible, yet
in the Progress of the _Air_ becomes more and more so, and at the last
the Variation, and the Error is discovered.

Sec. 18. If I do not advise a Student to imitate several of the _Moderns_
in their Manner of singing _Airs_, it is from their Neglect of keeping
Time, which ought to be inviolable, and not sacrificed to their beloved
Passages and Divisions.

Sec. 19. The Presumption of some Singers is not to be borne with, who
expect that an whole _Orchestre_ should stop in the midst of a
well-regulated Movement, to wait for their ill-grounded Caprices,
learned by Heart, carried from one Theatre to another, and perhaps
stolen from some applauded female Singer, who had better Luck than
Skill, and whose Errors were excused in regard to her Sex.----Softly,
softly with your Criticism, says one; this, if you do not know it, is
called Singing after the _Mode_----Singing after the _Mode_?----I say,
you are mistaken. The stopping in the _Airs_ at every second and fourth,
and on all the sevenths and sixths of the Bass, was a bad Practice of
the ancient Masters, disapproved fifty Years ago by _Rivani_, called
_Ciecolino_,[61] who with invincible Reasons shewed the proper Places
for Embellishments, without begging Pauses. This Percept was approved by
several eminent Persons, among whom was Signer _Pistochi_,[62] the most
famous of our, and all preceding Times, who has made himself immortal,
by shewing the way of introducing Graces without transgressing against
Time. This Example alone, which is worth a Thousand (O my rever'd
_Moderns_!) should be sufficient to undeceive you. But if this does not
satisfy you, I will add, that _Sifacio_[63] with his mellifluous Voice
embrac'd this Rule; that _Buzzolini_[64] of incomparable Judgment highly
esteemed it: After them _Luigino_[65] with his soft and amorous Stile
followed their Steps; likewise _Signora Boschi_[66] who, to the Glory of
her Sex, has ma