It has been remark’d in the Course of my Notes, that Musick in our Author’s time had a very different Use from what it has now.  At this Time, it is only employ’d to raise and inflame the Passions; it, then, was apply’d to calm and allay all kinds of Perturbations.  And, agreeable to this Observation, throughout all Shakespeare’s Plays, where Musick is either actually used, or its Powers describ’d, it is chiefly said to be for these Ends.  His Twelfth-Night, particularly, begins with a fine Reflexion that admirably marks its soothing Properties.

  That Strain again;—­It had a dying Fall. 
  Oh, it came o’er my Ear like the sweet South,
  That breathes upon a Bank of Violets,
  Stealing and giving Odour!

    [Sidenote*:  Milton an Imitator of him.]

This Similitude is remarkable not only for the Beauty of the Image that it presents, but likewise for the Exactness to the Thing compared.  This is a way of Teaching peculiar to the Poets; that, when they would describe the Nature of any thing, they do it not by a direct Enumeration of its Attributes or Qualities, but by bringing something into Comparison, and describing those Qualities of it that are of the Kind with those in the Thing compared.  So, here for instance, the Poet willing to instruct in the Properties of Musick, in which the same Strains have a Power to excite Pleasure, or Pain, according to that State of Mind the Hearer is then in, does it by presenting the Image of a sweet South Wind blowing o’er a Violet-bank; which wafts away the Odour of the Violets, and at the same time communicates to it its own Sweetness:  by This insinuating, that affecting Musick, tho’ it takes away the natural sweet Tranquillity of the Mind, yet, at the same time, communicates a Pleasure the Mind felt not before.  This Knowledge, of the same Objects being capable of raising two contrary Affections, is a Proof of no ordinary Progress in the Study of human Nature. The general Beauties of those two Poems of MILTON, intitled, _L’Allegro_ and _Il Pensoroso_, are obvious to all Readers, because the Descriptions are the most poetical in the World; yet there is a peculiar Beauty in those two excellent Pieces, that will much enhance the Value of them to the more capable Readers; which has never, I think, been observ’d.  The Images, in each Poem, which he raises to excite Mirth and Melancholy, are exactly the same, only shewn in different Attitudes.  Had a Writer, less acquainted with Nature, given us two Poems on these Subjects, he would have been sure to have sought out the most contrary Images to raise these contrary Passions.  And, particularly, as _Shakespeare_, in the Passage I am now commenting, speaks of these different Effects in Musick; so _Milton_ has brought it into each Poem as the Exciter of each Affection:  and lest we should mistake him, as meaning that different Airs had this different Power, (which every Fidler is proud to have you understand,) He gives the Image of those self-same Strains that _Orpheus_ used to regain _Eurydice_, as proper both to excite Mirth and Melancholy.  But _Milton_ most industriously copied the Conduct of our _Shakespeare_, in Passages that shew’d an intimate Acquaintance with Nature and Science.