On Music. 125] the [126 cy in it did credit to the greatest men; nor was it ranked amongst the least honours of Epaminondas, that he played well upon the flute. The cultivation, however, of this science, was by no means peculiar to the Greeks. The Romans had their Odeum, or Theatre of Music, as well as the Athenians; and no people ever made more use of it, either at their feasts, or in the hour of battle. At funerals, also, they had their musicians, to increase the solemnity; which customs, indeed, seem to have been practised in most parts of the world from the most distant periods. But taking our leave of antient times, let us consider the modern; and have And first, with the Athenians, we find that it was considered as an indispensable part of education; and they believed it could not only calm the passions, and soften the manners, but even humanize the savage; and Polybius, a discerning and impartial historian, attributes the extreme difference that existed between the people of Arcadia, the one remarkable for the elegance of their manners, benevolence of their inclinations, their humanity to strangers, and their piety to the gods; the other, on the contrary, notorious for their malignity, their brutality, and irreligion; Polybius attributes this to the study of music, industriously cultivated by the one, and absolutely neglected by the other. It is not surprising, then, that the Greeks should consider it as an essential part of education. it not still the case? It was applied by them to almost all found its admirers among men of the first purposes. To raise the spirits of the virtues, amongst our philosophers and rowers when weary with labour; at their our heroes? Is this a proof, then, of its feasts, and at their funerals; in the most tendency to effeminate the mind, or banWhen it has august ceremonies of religion, and in the ish the manly virtues? field; where they, as well as the Lacebeen patronized and cultivated not only demonians, are stated to have marched by the first monarchs of England and of to battle to its sound: a plain proof that, Great, who, so far from thinking it a Europe, but even by Frederick the by these at least, it was neither thought to banish the manly virtues, or effeminate recreation beneath his notice, is said to have prosecuted it not only with application, but with zeal, and performed not only successfully, but even scientifically. the mind. we not ever found the nations in which have we not ever found them, at the this science has been most cultivated, same time the most enlightened? and is Have we not also And it was at the same time encouraged by the approval and example of men of From what, then, has been said, it will the highest virtue and the deepest wis- appear, those who have objected to the dom: it was the great Pythagoras who, study of this science, and amongst the bestowing his attention on this subject, rest a lady of distinguished talents, and ascertained the proportion between mu- one whose name cannot be mentioned in sical sounds. Even Plato, the most the cause of virtue without admiration,* grave philosopher of antiquity, considered must have argued from the abuse. If it as the most refined and rational recrea- cultivated to the exclusion or neglect of tion. Socrates, too, the wise Socrates, more important qualifications, it ought, in a very advanced age, was not ashamed most assuredly, to be condemned; but, of intructing himself in this art; and resorted to merely as a recreation, it canThemistocles, however otherwise esteem- not be too much approved and encoured, was thought to be wanting in point aged; many an hour being thus employof merit, because at an entertainment heed which might otherwise be spent in could not play upon a lyre like the rest idle or pernicious habits, at the gamingof the company. An ignorance in this table or the bottle. respect was even deemed a defect in edu cation, and, on the contrary, a proficien Hannah More. 127] Ali Bey's Travels. TRAVELS OF ALI BEY. [128 IN From La Belle Assemblee. N these voyages we find nothing more in Auvergne; there, are a range of houses curious than the traveller himself. which recal to his mind the villages of We wish to know who is this mysterious Beauce. Wherever he goes he makes personage who, in the empire of Moroc- presents; one of these presents consists co, styles himself the subject of the of twenty English muskets, twenty pair Grand Seignior! and, when in the do- of pistols, a whole hunting equipage, a minions of the Grand Seignior, passes barrel of the best powder, different for an officer belonging to the Emperor pieces of costly muslin, specimens of of Morocco. It is requisite to say some- jewelry, confectionary, essences, &c. thing of him, before we enter into a detail relative to his travels. In order to give an idea of the retinue with which he travels, it suffices to say An incognito arrives at the port of that, in going from Cairo to Suez, he Tangier, and says he is a native of Alep- had only fourteen camels and two horses, po, and that he has come from London because he had left almost all his possesby the way of Cadiz. He meets every sions in Egypt. Thus under the minwhere with the most flattering reception, gled cover of opulence, and the desire of is presented to the Emperor, who tells instruction, Sidi Ali Bey el Abassi, son him he is delighted to see him; while of Othman Bey, becomes such a travelevery body felicitates him, and says, ler as is seldom to be met with, and we "You are brother to the Sultan, and the may venture. to say, never was such ever Sultan calls you brother." This Ali known who was a Turk. Bey prognosticates an eclipse, and the When he arrives near the city of Fez, eclipse takes place at the time specified, he sends forward two soldiers to request consequently his reputation and fame that the gates may not be closed until he increase. He travels with a splendid has made his entry. He is obeyed imretinue, and carries with him various in- mediately, and every person of distinction struments, destined to make every curi- pays the most assiduous court to him. In ous observation. This Mussulman from the mean time he awakens their suspiAleppo, is a walking encyclopædia, a cions, and the people belonging to his philosopher, though one of the faithful, suite undergo many interrogatories cona naturalist, a geometrician, an astrono- cerning him; but he so well and so skilmer, a chemist, a physician, a geographer, fully draws himself out of these perils, and a botanist; giving up also much of that they kiss his beard one hundred his time and talents to genealogical un- times, and regard it as the highest favour dertakings and conjectures. Neither if he will honour them so far as to rank does he stop at the discovery of the lon- them amongst his friends. gitude, and has a perfect knowledge of Here, again, he foretels two more barometrical science. He is master of eclipses, but, however, he will not take all the dead languages, and speaks French, upon himself to say the precise day on Spanish, Italian, and Arabic fluently. which they will happen. A courtier of Morocco lays a diabolical plan to ruin him, but Ali Bey triumphs over him, and then his favour and credit become unbounded. At length the Emperor sends him the inestimable present of two wives, one white and the other black; which the traveller thinks proper to refuse, although this refusal is considered by the courtiers as an insult to the Emperor de What renders his voyage peculiarly interesting to an European, is its being originally written in French, and all his quotations are taken from the learned works of the French, and even from striking passages of French plays; indeed, all his most interesting comparisons have France for their object: here he sees a village which exactly resembles Limagne, 120] Ali Bey's Travels. [130 serving the punishment of death. He before St. Michael, lighted one also before departs for Tripoli during a violent storm. the devil, "it is best to have friend every In this city he receives a thousand civili- where." ties from the Pacha, who makes him sit Ali Bey speaks of his intention to visit on a chair, although the letters from the Medina; he is informed that it is forEmperor of Morocco had given notice to bidden for any one to approach that the barbarous despot to be on his guard city, and that the undertaking such a against Ali Bey. voyage will be attended with manifest At Modon, in the Morea, he is respec- danger. Ali Bey pays no regard to this ted, and even cherished, by a kind of injunction; he commences his journey, chief belonging to a banditti, named but this once he is prevented, and can Mustapha Schaoux, who is a terror to get no farther than Djidécada. The the whole world. Near the port of Whehabis stop him, and threaten to Alexandria he experiences a second tem- massacre him. The intrepid traveller pest which drives our traveller into the beholds the glitter of their drawn scimeisland of Cyprus. At Limasol, at Nico- tars without one emotion of fear. He sia, on the ruins of Cytherea, of Idalia, speaks to them in a manner at once calm Paphos, and Amathanta, the Turks and and dignified, and he receives no other the Greeks vie with each other in testi- punishment for his temerity than the loss fying their politeness towards the fortu- of his watch and of a few piastres. At nate Ali Bey. The Greek Archbishop, his return he experienced a fourth_temwho in this island is a rich and powerful pest, followed by a shipwreck, but during nobleman, happens to be too much indis- which Ali Bey makes his geological obposed to go himself in person to pay his servations. In order to escape a fifth respects to our hero, but he compliments tempest he travels by land from Gadiyaha him by a Bishop in partibus, which must to Suez. In this town he learns the new greatly edify a good Mussulman, who is troubles sustained in Egypt by the revolt preparing to perform his devotions at of the Arnanto, which prevents his Mecca! In Egypt, he shines with ad- joining a caravan that is taking its course ded splendour; he is there invested with towards Cairo. As he crosses the desert the title Bey Scheriff, son of the Sultan, he experiences a heat of thirty-seven and he is received and held in considera- degrees above the thermometer of Reaution as a great officer from the court of mur, even at sunset, and he is not the Morocco. least incommoded by it. In a narrow At Cairo he meets with many friends pass his ears are assailed by the cry of and receives the visits of Sheid Omar, a "The brigands! the brigands!" he Sheich and Emir, of the Sheich Solomon- rushes forward, sword in hand, and Trayoumi, of the Sheich Sadak, and of immediately puts the brigands to other great men belonging to the city. flight. On the Red Sea he experienced a third At a short distance from Cairo he betempest. At Djedda he has a quarrel holds a number of friends coming to meet with a villainous negro Governor, but it him, with all the great men and Doctors was written in heaven, that Ali Bey of the city at their head, an escort of should always come off conqueror. At Mamalukes on horseback, twenty foot Mecca an insurrection breaks out amongst soldiers, and a troop of domestics and hirty thousand Whehabis ; every body Arabs well armed. With this splendid is put to the rout; but Ali Bey remains retinue he makes a truly triumphant alone, and looks tranquilly on the defiles entry, by the gate El Fatah, and which of that army which speaks to him not a entry he has found worthy of ornamentsingle word. ing his work by in a fine print. In this holy city he gains a very Gaza, Jerusalem, and Damas, he again powerful protector, for it is no less than receives a thousand civilities from the him who administers poisons, in virtue Turkish Governor. When near Carof his office, under the Scheriff of Mecca; menia he meets a troop of Bedouins, and, according to the saying of the old who seem very desirous of robbing him; woman, who, when. she lighted a taper but he calls out to them with a loud At 131] Craniology. [132 voice "Away with ye," and the rob- him, and what is almost incredible, the bers only salute him, with the greatest politeness. Kaïmacan smiles on him! In Moldavia he receives unnumbered acts of politeness from the Officers of Russia and their Generals, and this politeness brings us to the conclusion of these travels, which are to be followed, it is said, by several important works by the same author. This learned traveller, who has done his readers the honour of describing, in a particular manner, every little miserable village, does not say a single word of Aleppo, which he pretends to be the place of his nativity: he rapidly passes This hasty sketch is surely sufficient to over it, and knows not one of the natives, prove that Ali Bey is a traveller of no though he finds friends in every country common stamp. His work is no romance, that he passes through, and amongst the voyages are real, the observations of cities which, for the first time in his life, Ali Bey are curious, and often interhe visits. All these circumstances add spersed with several witty allusions. much to the mystery which envelopes Whether really the work of a Mussulman this extraordinary personage. At Con- remains yet to be proved: it is certainly stantinople we have a renewal of these that of a well informed and learned man, politenesses and marks of friendship who has amused himself in multiplying received by Ali Bey; and he is over- prodigies, dangers, and catastrophes, in whelmed by the civilities of the Spanish order to see how far he could play on Ambassador. The Sultan embraces the credulity of the European reader. CRANIOLOGY! ................................. and vainly hope DINI INING with a friend a few days ago, the conversation turned upon Craniology. The majority of the company were decidedly of opinion, that the pretended discoveries on this subject had no foundation whatever in nature but were merely the production of a luxuriant fancy. of a sentient and rational being, a distinct and circumscribed locality. But, absurd as this map-like division of the brain must appear to persons of much reflection, there are numbers who, captivated by novelty, eagerly embrace a a system, which, it must be confessed, possesses some ingenuity, and is at least amusing, if it be not true. I have been informed of a gentleman who is so well convinced of the validity of this new craniological system, that be Perception, judgment, memory, and is preparing for parliamentary consideraevery other faculty (or, as the craniolo- tion, a plan for eradicating by chirurgi gists are pleased to term it, power) of the cal treatment all that is morally vicious in brain, result, as the company believed, the structure of the human brain; thus from the general structure and functions rendering the punishment of death in the of that organ; belonging to it as a case of convicts totally unnecessary. whole, and by no means being exclu- Knowing, to the exactness of a pin's sively restricted to particular parts; just point, the particular spot of the brain in as the regular notation of time by a clock which each faculty and passion resides, is produced not by any separate wheel, he proposes to amend the heads of cribut by the combined action of the whole minals, by cutting out that portion of the mechanism. Accordingly, they thought brain in which the vicious propensity it absurd to assign to one spot of the is seated, and thereby annulling and exbrain the intellectual faculties-to anoth- tinguishing for ever the power of doing er, the sensual appetites; to place judg- evil-Thus forming out of the quondam ment in one corner of the head, and love robber or murderer, a harmless, and perin another; thus giving to each attribute haps amiable member of society !!! 133] Fall of the Rhine. [184 Nor is this all-the ingenious gentle- will yield an intellectual and moral proman to whom I allude flatters himself he duce, far beyond what it is possible for shall be able so to mould and alter the us at present to form any idea of. heads of infants, without having recourse For such transcendant improvements to chirurgical operation employed in the what reward can be too great? How case of adults, as to produce the most astonishingly perfect must be that porastonishing effects in regard to their future tion of the brain in which the faculty of intellectual and moral character. For invention is said to reside in the ininstance :—if a child only a month old stance of such discoverers! be brought to this gentleman, he will be P.S. Might not the ingenious gentleable,according to the craniological system, man before mentioned establish a Crato tell, by examining the shape and ap- niological Institution, where parents pearance of the head, what is defective might bring their sons and daughters to in those parts of the brain in which the have their heads examined? when the faculties of perception and judgment re- subjects are sufficiently young, to have side; and what is excessive in those their heads moulded and ameliorated portions of this organ where the passions according to the new method. On the of love, avarice, or revenge, are seated; other hand, if the skulls are completely and, having ascertained this, will be able, formed, and will not yield to the process by mechanically compressing the cranium of compression, such an institution in that place where the vicious portion, might, even in these cases, be of great in regard to moral propensity, of the use, by giving an opinion as to the brain is excessive; and, on the other degree of talent and peculiar turn of hand, by favouring the developement and mind, so as to point out the profession expansion of that part in which the intellectual power is seated, to cause the child to become a very different man from what he would otherwise have been -making, in one instance, the naturally dull individual quick and clever, and, in another instance, the naturally vicious individual, good and virtuous! or line of business to which they appear especially suited; in this manner preparing the way for excellence in every department of art and science. To this institution might also apply ladies and gentlemen about to enter into the marriagestate, in order to be informed whether the objects of their choice possess a What amazing ingenuity! Thus, sufficiency of the amorous and benevolent either by means of trepanning and exci- qualities-so that, according to the insion in the adult-subject, or by means formation received, the engagements of compression in the infant-subject, we might either proceed or be broken off; shall bring our species to a most won- and thus all that disappointment and derful degree of perfection-the vice- misery which we so often see in married possessing portion of the brain will be life be, for the future, prevented-There crushed or annihilated-the virtue-pos- will then be an end to scolding and sessing portion will be allowed to thrive jealous wives, drunken and intriguing and expand; and man, like a plant un- husbands; which, of itself, will be an der the gardener's hand, trained and inestimable blessing, and cannot be too cultured according to this new system, highly appreciated.—Euro. Mag. FALL OF THE RHINE. BUT From the Gentleman's Magazine. PUT to return to the Rhine: the nu- up as if it had been from so many boilmerous waters of this river have ing springs: these announce the cascade been ever since rushing after, and ever to your eyes-as its din long before does resounding over the steep above mention to your ears, like a hundred forges all ed. While we were yet at some dis- blowing at once. We hurried to the tance, we could distinguish a mist rising bank, and stood by the mill behind the |