ends, or split the ears of their neighbours,
with something which courtesy calls music. Europeans, as they walk our
streets, are often surprised with the flute rudely warbling "Hail
Columbia," from an oyster cellar, or the _piano forte_ thumped to a
female voice screaming "O Lady Fair!" from behind a heap of cheese, a
basket of eggs, a flour barrel, or a puncheon of apple whiskey; and on
these grounds we take it for granted that we are a very musical people.

When Boswell asked Dr. Johnson if he did not think there was a great
deal of learning in Scotland, "Learning," replied the philosopher, "is
in Scotland as food in a town besieged; every one has a mouthfull, but
no one a belly-full." The same may be said of music in America. The
summit of attainment in that delightful science seldom reaching higher
than the accompanying of a song so as to set off a tolerable voice, or
aid a weak one, and the attracting a circle of beaus round a young lady,
while she exhibits the nimbleness of her fingers in the execution of a
darling waltz, or touches the hearts of the fond youths with a plaintive
melody accompanied with false notes. Thus far, or but little further,
does music extend, save in a few scattered instances. Like a
plover-call, it is used to allure the fluttering tribe into the meshes;
but when it has done its office in that kind, is laid aside for ever.
POPE SEXTUS QUINTUS, when he was a cardinal, hung up a net in his room,
to demonstrate his humility, his father having been a fisherman; but as
soon as he was made pope, he pulled it down again, shrewdly saying, "I
have caught the fish." Miss Hannah More remarks that few ladies attend
to music after marriage, however skilful they may have been before it.
Indeed nothing is more common than to hear a lady acknowledge it. "Mrs.
Racket will you do us the favour," &c. says a dapper young gentleman
offering his hand to lead a lady to the piano. "Do excuse me, sir, I beg
of you," she replies, "I have not touched an instrument of music half a
dozen times since I was married--one, you know, has so much to do." Thus
music as a science lags in the rear, while musical instruments in
myriads twang away in the van: and thus the window cobweb having caught
its flies for the season is swept away by the housemaid.

This is, in fact, an evil. It is assuming the frivolity, the waste of
time, the coxcombry, and all the disadvantages of music, without any of
its substantial benefits. That whi