race itself was quite a failure, unless the ludicrous was the feeling desired to be excited. This first day was devoted to the long-tailed horses of the neighbouring farmers, and both the riders and the ridden were sufficiently awkward. The former with cart whips, loose trowsers, and caps, which, as the race proceeded, became strewed over the course, without stirrups, jostling and whipping each other's horses, formed altogether a ludicrous contrast to the dapper little featherweight jockies of England. The following day was to be devoted to the horses of the king and the aristocracy; but those we had not, unfortunately, the opportunity to see run. There was nothing in the race which could create excitement, but the people seemed prepared to have felt interested had it been at all possible. One of the princes of Russia, with his princess, being on a visit at Stuttgard, perhaps more than the usual splendour was got up on this occasion. On surveying the gay royal party assembled on the course, surrounded by a hundred ministers, judges, generals, colonels, and high functionaries, the idea occurred as to what a democratic son of America would think of this, as well as the palaces, the army, the stud, and the equipages, as being necessary for the government of less than a million and a half of people. A more extreme contrast to their simple utilitarian system could scarcely be conceived. This comparison having been awakened, I give it a place, still, however, believing that a court is the best school of national refinement, and that the court of Stuttgard in particular stands deservedly high in the affections of the people. To be the sovereign of a compact little kingdom such as Wirtemberg, with all the splendour, and enjoying all the respect of royalty, really appears more desirable than to govern a mighty empire with all its distracting cares and responsibilities. Any error in judgment in one of these smaller rulers produces little evil, but a frown or a wrong conclusion by one of the mighty sovereigns might scourge the world with war and misery. It is perhaps the dream of a visionary to suppose that the world is soon to reach such a state of dispassionate enlightenment that reason and justice may be called to decide all national questions instead of the sword. We certainly have not yet reached this point; but that such would be the case under a well-regulated universal constitutional system can scarcely be doubted, and the diffusion of intelligence is every where tending towards this end. It is fervently to be hoped that the object may be attained by the steady progress of opinion, rather than by violence; for though some of the youthful enthusiasm of Germany may desire more rapid changes, there is little reason to doubt that the sober intelligence of the country is in favour of the gradual amelioration of existing institutions. The individual mind of a king may, from ambition, temper, or the desire of excitement, frequently incline to war; but it is scarcely possible to conceive that under a well-balanced constitution sober and peaceful reason should not prevail. (To be continued.) ON THE HARMONY OF THE SPHERES. BY E. H. BARKER, ESQ. 'APMONI'A.-Dio Cassius, i. 124, Reim. Ei yap Tis Thν àpμoγάρ τις τὴν ἁρμονίαν τὴν διὰ τεσσάρων καλουμένην, ἤπερ που καὶ τὸ κῦρος τῆς μουσικῆς συνέχειν πεπίστευται, καὶ ἐπὶ τοὺς ἀστέρας τούτους, ὑφ ̓ ὧν ὁ πᾶς τοῦ οὐρανοῦ κόσμος διείληπται, κατὰ τὴν τάξιν, καθ ̓ ἣν ἕκαστος αὐτῶν περιπορεύεται, ἐπαγάγοι, καὶ ἀρξάμενος ἀπὸ τῆς ἔξω περιφορᾶς τῆς τῷ Κρόνῳ διδομένης, ἔπειτα διαλιπών δύο τὰς ἐχομένας, τὸν τῆς τετάρτης δεσπότην ὀνομάσειε· καὶ μετ' αὐτὸν δύο αὖ ἑτέρας ὑπερβὰς ἐπὶ τὴν ἑβδόμην ἀφίκοιτο, κἀν τῷ αὐτῷ τούτῳ τρόπῳ αὐτάς τ ̓ ἔπαινον ἐπιὼν, καὶ τοὺς ἐφόρους σφῶν θεοὺς ἀνακυκλῶν ἐπιλέγοι ταῖς ἡμέραις, εὑρήσει πάσας αὐτὰς μουσικῶς πως τῇ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ διακοσμήσει προσηκούσας. "Si quis harmoniam quam diatesseron vocant, hanc siquidem principem locum in musica obtinere creditum est, atque ad isthæc astra, a quibus omnis cœlestis elegantia regitur, secundum ordinem, quo unumquodque ipsorum convertitur, transferat incipiens ab supremo orbe, quem Saturno tribuunt, postea duos proxime sequentes præteriens quarti circuli planetam dominum signaverit; post hunc rursus duobus aliis præteritis, ad septimum orbem descendat; atque hoc codem pacto ipsos deinceps repetens, et in gyrum rediens gubernatores deos seligat diebus, inveniet omnes dies, musica quadam ratione, cœlesti eleganti ordini congruere." Even a tyro will perceive that the word naivov has no business here; therefore Xylander has flung away the useless weed, and Reimar agrees with him in the rejection of it, like those who mangle the members when they have failed to cure the wound; but, by a very slight change, we should read érávo, deinceps, as in the version above, especially since Leunclavius reads navíov, which is a near approximation to έnávw: the error arose from the accent over alpha, which occupied a place lower than usual; and of this negligence in printing we often complain. We will now proceed to explain what so many very learned astronomers of more recent times have thought about this harmonia, dià TEσσáρwy, which, as Dio says, is of the first importance in music: for about this matter the expectation of aid from the philosophers will be vain. We confess that when, above the rest, we had consulted Wolf, he, equally with others, offered no sound explanation, and this harmony was involved in the same obscurity as before; nay, we have wondered that Wolf has by no means reached the meaning of Dio, saying, in his Elem. Chron. C. 2, Def. 16, Schol. 1: "Dio Cassius gives a second reason, fetched from the celestial harmony ; the harmony dia Teoσápwr was observed to be of great moment in music, consisting in the ratio of 4 to 3. Thus, for example, the progress is from Saturn to the Sun, because there are three planets from Saturn to the Sun, four from the Sun to the Moon." But this is an arbitrary reason, feigned by the very learned mathematician Some himself, and founded on the present system of music. But the Sun, which is in the midst of the seven planets, is equidistant from the extreme planets, Saturn and the Moon; and so much does Wolf deviate from the truth, that Scott found in the harmony of Wolf the proportion διὰ τεσσάρων, and διὰ πέντε. You may easily find the reasoning of both Wolf and Scott in the septenary number; therefore both of them, on this subject, rather delude than teach. And if you consult the other philosophers, the same difficulties arise. assign reasons so absurd, that they excite our bile. Hear what monstrosities a great man, Keil, pours forth: "Hebdomas est septem dierum systema; variis appellationibus hebdomadis dies distinguuntur. Ecclesia Christiana primum diem dominicum vocat, vulgus diem Solis nominat, et soli nostri temporis phanatici sabbatum nuncupant; secundum hebdomadis diem, feriam secundam; tertium, feriam tertiam, et ita deinceps; septimum autem diem sabbatum nominat Ecclesia; vulgus autem nomina dierum a Romanis usitata, et a planetis denominata indita retinet." To be sure, he has hit the right nail on the head, and has abundantly grappled with the question; but pray spare these sons of mathematicians; for while they traverse the firmament of heaven, they leave to men of small genius the interpretation of passages in the Greek historians ! But there can be no doubt that neither Scott nor Wolf has reached the meaning of Dio; for Dio himself informs us, that there is the same ratio between Saturn and the Sun as between the Sun itself and the Moon. Therefore we must reject both the ratios of 3 to 5, and of 4 to 3. The words of Dio are most express: 'Αρξάμενος ἀπὸ τῆς ἔξω περιφορᾶς τῷ Κρόνῳ διδομένης, ἔπειτα διαλιπὼν δύο τὰς ἐχομένας, τὸν τῆς τετάρτης δεσπότην (Solem) ὀνομάσειε· καὶ μετ' αὐτὸν δύο αὖ ἑτέρας ὑπερβὰς ἐπὶ τὴν ἑβδόμην (Lunam) ἀφίκοιτο. You see that there is one and the same analogy between Saturn and the Sun as between the Sun and the Moon, dúo Xiv, dúo vπeрßás. Men of this kind, then, do not easily impose on us, if in what they meditate, they depend on the testimonies of Greek and ancient writers, and appeal to them. We will now perform our promise, and try whether there is room for divination as to the ἁρμονία διὰ τεσσάρων, which τὸ κῦρος τῆς MOVEIKIS EXEL. We willingly confess the darkness of the subject, μουσικῆς which Dio himself could not dissipate, as he seriously adds "what they call” τὴν διὰ τεσσάρων καλουμένην. We supposed that Salmasius, in his stupendous work, de Annis Climactericis, in which he has with infinite labour collected all the graver theories, and the wilder dreams of ancient astrology, had explained this question of planetary harmony; but we found, after a diligent search, that he has observed a profound silence about the hebdomadal system, or the passage in Dio Cassius. Selden, who has attempted so much about the planets, is mute about this celestial harmony. Jo. Moebius, Diss. de Planetaria Dierum Denominatione, Lipsia, 1687, undertook the discussion, but we have learnt nothing new from it. We will make no mention of those excellent men, who have written longer commentaries on Dio. Now we ourselves think that the appovia dia reorάpwv in the hebdomadal system is very different from the συμφωνία μουσική, which astronomers of former and later times have laboured to discover in the words of Dio, but that it has reference to the famous Pythagorean TETρAKTUS, (it does not concern us to consider whether he is really the author of this quaternary), of which the disciples of this philosopher were ignorant, supposing that there was a mystery in that number, resolving every thing into it, and swearing by it as a divinity. Therefore, in their zeal to find it, even in the order of the planets, by inverting the series as they are exhibited in the heavens, they made them the masters of days, by reason of, or by the appovia with the quaternal number; and thus we perceive that did reσoapwv is the same as TerpaкTUS, which the ancients established in the seven planets, and which Dio, as the term was unknown to him, called appovía, and considered to be povouk, while the mathematicians, unmindful of the Pythagorean quaternary principle, in vain endeavoured to trace it in the art alone of musical symphony. But let us search into the matter more deeply, and have recourse to the primitive notion of the word ápμovía. In the first place, we must despair to ascertain, by any degree of diligence, from the interpreters of modern times, what Pythagoras really meant by TETPAKTUS, about which the opinions of ancient and modern writers are so discordant, or their reveries so wild, that you could sooner mingle day with night than reconcile them to each other. Indignation will hardly be repressed if we refer to the Bibliotheca Graca of Jo. Alberti Fabricius, i. 466, and particularly to the History of Philosophy by Brucker, i. 1053, who has collected the sentiments of all the principal writers; but still we are left in the same ignorance, and cannot help our grief, that so many eminent men have consumed their leisure in endeavouring to solve this Pythagorean riddle without any success. We have even consulted a late work by Jo. Christopher Heilbronner, Historia Matheseos Universa, Lipsia, 1752, p. 106, where he speaks of Pythagoras, and is content to use these words: "Nota est Pythagoræ Tetractys, maximorum semper ingeniorum carnificina." But he has added in p. 754, a few remarks, already made by others, about this mysterious number. Mazochius (Kalend. Adnott. p. 154) has scarcely, we lament to say, considering his learning and talents, touched the question. But you may, on the other hand, rest assured that the appovía, which the Samian sage commends in nature, Ty pure, and in the order of the stars, has no reference to sound and music, but is allied to symmetry, rò σúμμerpov, and was what he meant by another term, kóaμos, and that the writers who lived after the time of Pythagoras, wrested it into the meaning of concert and uppovía. Hence you may read in them to satiety, and in the Somnium of Cicero himself, "In mundo inesse sonum acuta cum gravibus temperantem, atque eo usque incitatum, ut eum aures hominum capere non possint," and nuga canora of that kind. Sextus Empiricus, (adv. Musicos, p. 362, Fabr.) agrees with Cicero, To Karà ápμovíar dionκεῖσθαι τὸν κόσμον, where see in the Notes almost every passage cited in which the Greek and Latin writers have referred to the celestial harmony. But in the time of Pythagoras, dopovía and appów were simply "junction" and "to join." Diogenes Laertius has preserved the beginning of the Pythagorean books, IIepì voews, in which you will clearly perceive the ancient notion and force of the word in question: Φύσις ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ ἀρμόχθη ἐξ ἀπείρων τε καὶ πεparávτwv. Cicero (de Senect. 20) seems to have appositely translated the words puric and apμów, "Opus ipsa suum eadem, quæ coagmentavit, natura dissolvit." Had Menage not forgotten the passage from Cicero, we doubt whether he would have translated the Greek words, "Natura apte coacta est." Again, in Diogenes Laertius, p. 543, Δοκεῖ δὲ αὐτῷ (Φιλολάῳ) πάντα ἀνάγκῃ καὶ ἁρμονίᾳ γενέσθαι, where Menage translates, "Opinatur autem omnia necessitate ac harmonia fieri," without any intelligible meaning; but we should more truly translate, " Opinatur rerum universitatem constanti ordine ac necessario regi ac moderari." But no one has better than Nonnus, though an author of a not very polished age, taught us the genuine force of this word, and we are surprised that what he says has not been noticed by philosophers Καὶ ταμίη κόσμοιο παλιγγενέος φύσις ύλης ̓Αρμονίης ἀλύτοιο πάλιν σφηγίσσατο δεσμῷ. "Et dispensatrix mundi regenerati natura materiæ Harmoniæ insolubilis rursus constringebatur vinculo." And, xii. 32, he calls the eternal laws of fate, by the force and immutable order of which all things happen to men, κύρβίας "Αρμονίης ἐπεδείκνυε « κούρη Κύρβιας 'Αρμονίης ἑτερίζυγας, αἷς ἔνι κεῖται Εἰν ἑνὶ θέσφατα πάντα, τά περ πεπρωμένα κόσμῳ. Sol ostendit puellæ Leges (vulgo tabulas) Harmoniæ disjunctas, in queis prostant If any wrote before the Samian philosopher, such as Homer and Hesiod, you will find the word appovia used in the same sense among them, and never used for concert and ovμowvia. Homer, so far as we know, uses it thrice, and twice indeed in the notion of joining and uniting, and in both instances about the timbers of ships, (Od. E. 361)— Οφρ' ἂν μέν κεν δούρατ' ἐν ἁρμονίησιν ἀρήρη, "Donec quidem ligna compagibus inhæserint;" and, (verse 247,) about the ship which Ulysses caused to be built for him Τέτρηνεν δ' ἄρα πάντα, καὶ ἥρμοσεν ἀλλήλοισι, Γόμφοισιν δ' ἄρα τήν γε, καὶ ἁρμονίησιν ἄρηρεν. "Terebravit vero omnia, et coaptavit inter se, Clavis autem eam (ratem) et compagibus coagmentavit." Behold the original force of the words ἁρμόζω and ἁρμονία, which are never in Homer applied to the musical art: nay, in Il. E. 60, tha' he may denote an excellent shipbuilder, he feigns the name 'Apμoνίδης : hence the scholiast appositely says, Οἰκεῖον ὄνομα τέκτονος παρὰ τοῦ συναρμόζειν. This mechanic is mentioned by Themistius (Or. 26, p. 316, Harduin), as the first who constructed a ship. We remember too that we read formerly in Euripides, and perhaps in the Helena, that word used as in Homer in reference to shipbuilding |