Edwardsville spectator. [volume] (Edwardsville, Ill.) 1819-1826, 1826-06-02

such delicious "reminiscences OF wisdom
and beauty. Despite, then, OF all con-
troversy and metaphysics, it may be said,
as the senses are the gates OF the mind,
that genius sits as warder at that which is
best constructed 10 give entrance, or,
perhaps, that which the circumstances OF
fortune have made the most frequented--
quickness of sense, OF habit OF obser.
walton.
But whether that melancholy fore
knowledge, with which was SO often de-
pressed, came of endowment or custom,
i, would be thriltless to investigate for,
as an old musician once told me, such
things are too shrewd and subtle ever to
be tested by philosophy.
ole was German by birth and
came to teach the flute. was one of
bis pupils; but soon discovering that he
was curiously versed in peculiar expo
riencc, took lessons from him in stu
dy more congenial to my disposition than
even music. He had been bred OPP from
his childhood in the band OF regiment,
and yet, such was the dominion which
his genius had over him, such his fasci-
nation to harmonious sounds, that he re-
NAMED as simple in his morals and ina
gina!ions as the shepherd boy when he
tries his first oaten-pipe, alone on the
hills, in the calm OF sunny May morn
ing,
"' Is not the sense have of the speech
which is in melody | have often heard
him say, a gift from Heaven? Think
you it was given to delight but idle ears
That would be to say Providence makes
fiddle strings.--No: there is much pro-
phecy in all the sounds nature, speak
ing to our instinct; but the use of in
slinct we have lost, and therefore do no;
understand them. Yes; by the virtue
of the oracle in mine ear, have disco
vered many things that are among the
laws and Irregularities of nature. Those
persons, for example, who particularly
delight in the delicacies of chroma,ic
melodies, modulated on fat key, whe-
Their they be composers, performers, or
listeners, are seldom long-liyed. For
the most part they die before their forty
second year, though few, by reason Of
more strength, do sometimes reach to
forty nine. Such truths cannot be put
into the crucibles of philosophy
Sand then he would reckon on his
fingers innumerable instances of must
clans of that delicate order, who died in
their youth: adding, 'And have no,
the witness | most believe in mine own
self?- can tell by the key to which the
rising corn rusles in the winds Of spring,
whether the harvest will be plentcous or
niggardly; for the world is but band OF
instruments that were all once tuned to
the same pitch, the celestial key to which
tile innocent angels tune their harps.- -
Whenever, therefore, there is any lack
oil concord with that which was The uni
verssl key, expectation will be disap-
pointed, and the harmony OF nature vext
with some deficiency. In this lieth the
mystery of fortune. Those who, by their
vigor and intelligence, should be pros
porous in health and in worldly circum-
stances, and yet are always otherwise,
are ever sensible of some discord in the
diapason Of themselves, which mars the
effect of their best endeavors in perfor-
nance
"One night as l was returning home,
l met this curious hypothe,ist in the
street, and bantered him on his being
abroad, at so late an hour.
Ws Speak not so,' said he, very serious
ly, 'for am going to die; | have had
my warning. AS stood on the bridge,
listening to the clapping tongues which
the winds gave to the leaves ofthe trees
in the neighboring gardens, making them
all to sing like the little cherubim, |
heard requiem for one that is doomed
on the morrow to die
81 attempted 10 speak lightly Of his
superstition, though his accent curdled
my veins; but he added:
"sAnd when their hymn was sung,
heard the soft low voice of willow tree,
singing an old dity, one with which my
mother long, long ago, often lulled me
TO sleep. BY the music Of the requiem,
and the pity which was in that melody,
know when l next shall fall asleep, l am
never to awaken again
"Wiih these words he left me, and in
the morning he was found dead Of apo
plexy. Who, therefore, shall venture
to say, that what the German enthusiast
called his gift, his instinct, or his genius,
was not some incommunicable faculty
which made his spirit as different from
that of any other mans, as he was in his
person distinguishable from every indi-