de it appear, that Women, who study, may instruct even
Men of some Note. That _Signora Lotti_,[67] strictly keeping to the
same Rules, with a penetrating Sweetness of Voice, gained the Hearts of
all her Hearers. If Persons of this Rank, and others at present
celebrated all over _Europe_, whom I forbear to name; if all these have
not Authority enough to convince you, that you have no Right to alter
the Time by making Pauses, consider at least, that by this Error in
respect of Time, you often fall into a greater, which is, that the Voice
remains unaccompanied, and deprived of Harmony; and thereby becomes flat
and tiresome to the best Judges. You will perhaps say in Excuse, that
few Auditors have this Discernment, and that there are Numbers of the
others, who blindly applaud every thing that has an Appearance of
Novelty. But whose fault is this? An Audience that applauds what is
blameable, cannot justify your Faults by their Ignorance; it is your
Part to set them right, and, laying aside your ill-grounded Practice,
you should own, that the Liberties you take are against Reason, and an
insult upon all those instrumental Performers that are waiting for you,
who are upon a Level with you, and ought to be subservient only to the
Time. In short, I would have you reflect, that the abovementioned
Precept will always be of Advantage to you; for though under the
neglecting of it, you have a Chance to gain Applause of the Ignorant
only; by observing it, you will justly merit that of the Judicious, and
the Applause will become universal.

Sec. 20. Besides the Errors in keeping Time, there are other Reasons, why a
Student should not imitate the _modern_ Gentlemen in singing _Airs_,
since it plainly appears that all their Application now is to divide
and subdivide in such a Manner, that it is impossible to understand
either Words, Thoughts, or Modulation, or to distinguish one _Air_ from
another, they singing them all so much alike, that, in hearing of one,
you hear a Thousand.----And must the _Mode_ triumph? It was thought, not
many Years since, that in an Opera, one rumbling _Air_, full of
Divisions was sufficient for the most gurgling Singer to spend his
Fire[68]; but the Singers of the present Time are not of that Mind, but
rather, as if they were not satisfied with transforming them all with a
horrible Metamorphosis into so many Divisions, they, like Racers, run
full Speed, with redoubled Violence to their final Cadences, to make