Cooper's Clarksburg register. [volume] (Clarksburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1851-1861, 1852-07-28

ulations eaeh,-the Compound, into tex
i movements only, each of three articula'
tions. EL .k.
} The sHarmonia Saera" is divided into
two parts. The First Part comprises a
great variety of sacred melodies for public
) worship, exemplifying all the diversities
ofmodes, measures and keys and besides
reference to the most popular hym-books
, from which the lines of each melody are
taken, it affords, believe, the only sys-
tematic example of the classification OF
metres in the English language. To the
student of polite and elegant literature;
whatever be his department, this will be
regarded as a most invaluable feature OF
the work When we consider the me-
thodical and progressive arrangement of
these metres, amounting to no less than
fifty-three in the First Part, we may form
some conception of the labor to which the
author subjected himself. The Second
Part, continues the classification of metres
up to the number of sixty-eight, exempli-
fed by choice selection OF longer and
more elegant pieces of music, and inter-
spersed with a sufficient variety of our
noblest anthems. One is forcibly struck
on reviewing the work, with the great fer
tility of our language in its poeLical COM
binations. With only four elementary
feet,-the Iambus, the Trochee, the Dac-
tyl, and the Anapaest,-though restricted
to line apparently so limited as not to
admit more than six Iambics or four Dac-
tyls, we have here actually exemplihed
sixty eight varieties of verse while, cal
| IL, 10 If mt
we find the real number of varieties to be
almost beyond our comprehension.
1t is impossible not to perceive the inn
mense advantages which must be realized
from this arrangement, provided as it is
with metrical and alphabetical indices ;
the great facility of reference, and the
unfailing aid afforded to the memory by
this unbroken association of ideas. AT Il
time when cultivation of a taste for
music seems to be extending through ev-
cry order of society, it is presumed that
these advantages must receive their due
appreciation, and that the valuable labors
of Mr.. FUNK will secure their merited re-
ward. Indeed we cannot imagine how
the best results of this elegant accomplish
ment, could have been more efectually
promoted, than by the principles which
characterize the work before us and we
believe most people will admit the benefits
connected with this divine exercise, to be
almost innumerable. Besides the posi-
tive delight which ever attends the eXer
else itself, the evident improvement of
the heart, and even of Intellectual vigor,
seems to be consequence as necessary
as it is natural. Under that sweet inter
change of tender emotions, SO frequently
renewed and repeated by the habit OF
singing together in choirs, the domestic
and social affections arc purified and sof-
tened in to harmonious sympathy. The
spirit of accordant feelings, invisible but
not unfelt, winds its indissoluble webs
from bosom to bosom, and each member
! always retires from the exercise a purer
Christian and warmer friend. And
then how wonderfully do these continued
habits OF attention, improve and correct
: the powers of perceptiOn-enabllng the
mind to appreciate the most minute and
delicate distictions? The mere infant, il
is true, can readily distinguish the harst
tones of displeasure, from the soE: cadence
of affection and tenderness, but the musi
clan only, after long habits of attention
can perceive those deeper and more init
mate relations of sound,
: "Untwisting all the chords that tie
The hidden soul Of harmony"
And even should there be some whom
the exercise can never bring into deeper
comprehension Of the Unseen, it must al
least bring them into closer sympathy
. with the Permanent and the Pure. Ne
!, yer, perhaps, shall we be able TO compre-
I, hend the true nature of sound. We may
, talk about vibrations and vibratory nerves
y but these are only the vehicles, the tele.
I graphs of sound. 1t will never do to mis-
4 take the instrument for the agent-th'
Y cOntGiner for the atirg contained. Wh'
:. knows but what it is the lore Of unIver
f sal soul, ever swelling and surging up
wards from the great sea of the Unknown
i -voiceing the silence with the cadence o
a waterfalls, the wild roar of wintry storms
and the softer music Of small cascades
that it is an inspiration yielding up The
q poetic Interpretation of Nature, myste
, rious reality nUsquam naGjis guam an mini
!. nais,-the medium which unites the eter
q nal verities of the universe, with the wOrlC
4 Of semblance in which We move in Ou
/, superficial being.
c Without adverting to the wonderful ac
# counts which have been handed dow
o from past ages.-the unearthly sweetnes
II of the Lydian, the subduing tenderness O
i the Sub-Phrygian modes,-the achieve
IS ments of orpheus, of Amphion, or of Tim
: otheus, the tanning of wild natures, tn
l. soothing of insanity, we have abundan
n examples In modern times of powe
If which is almost superhuman. There ar
e many yet living who have seen the effect
# ofthe Rams des Yaehes, the rational,
I. quaint ,,o.,.;r-o Nnn,,rLn tIn thr;ll;n