to the harmonium, then into the
organ-harmonium, and finally into the cabinet organ. The virginals of
1600 became the spinet of 1700,--so called because the pieces of quill
employed in twanging the strings resembled thorns, and _spina_, in
Latin, means thorn. Any lady who will take the trouble to mount to the
fourth story of the Messrs. Chickering's piano store in the city of New
York, may see such a spinet as Mrs. Washington, Mrs. Adams, and Mrs.
Hamilton played upon when they were little girls. It is a small,
harp-shaped instrument on legs, exceedingly coarse and clumsy in its
construction,--the case rough and unpolished, the legs like those of a
kitchen table, with wooden castors such as were formerly used in the
construction of cheap bedsteads of the "trundle" variety. The keys,
however, are much like those now in use, though they are fewer in
number, and the ivory is yellow with age. If the reader would know the
tone of this ancient instrument, he has but to stretch a brass wire
across a box between two nails, and twang them with a short pointed
piece of quill. And if the reader would know how much better the year
1867 is than the year 1700, he may first hear this spinet played upon in
Messrs. Chickering's dusty garret, and then descend to one of the floors
below, and listen to the round, full, brilliant singing of a Chickering
grand, of the present illustrious year. By as much as that grand piano
is better than that poor little spinet, by so much is the present time
better than the days when Louis XIV. was king. If any intelligent
person doubts it, it is either because he does not know that age, or
because he does not know this age.

The spinet expanded into the harpsichord, the leading instrument from
1700 to 1800. A harpsichord was nothing but a very large and powerful
spinet. Some of them had two strings for each note; some had three; some
had three kinds of strings,--catgut, brass, and steel; and some were
painted and decorated in the most gorgeous style. Frederick the Great
had one made for him in London, with silver hinges, silver pedals,
inlaid case, and tortoise-shell front, at a cost of two hundred guineas.
Every part of the construction of the spinet was improved, and many new
minor devices were added; but the harpsichord, in its best estate, was
nothing but a spinet, because its strings were always twanged by a piece
of quill. How astonished would an audience be to hear a harpsichord of
1750, and to be