suspend all its functions! How infinite is its melody! How
instantly it subdues the hearer to pity or to love! How does the
listener hang upon every note praying that it may last for ever,

----that even silence
Was took ere she was ware, and wished she might
Deny her nature, and be never more,
Still to be so displaced.

It is here especially that we are presented with the triumphs of
civilisation. How immeasurable is the distance between the voice
of the clown, who never thought of the power that dwells in this
faculty, who delivers himself in a rude, discordant and
unmodulated accent, and is accustomed to confer with his fellow
at the distance of two fields, and the man who understands his
instrument as Handel understood the organ, and who, whether he
thinks of it or no, sways those that hear him as implicitly as
Orpheus is said to have subdued the brute creation!

From the countenance of man let us proceed to his figure. Every
limb is capable of speaking, and telling its own tale. What can
equal the magnificence of the neck, the column upon which the
head reposes! The ample chest may denote an almost infinite
strength and power. Let us call to mind the Apollo Belvidere,
and the Venus de Medicis, whose very "bends are adornings." What
loftiness and awe have I seen expressed in the step of an
actress, not yet deceased, when first she advanced, and came down
towards the audience! I was ravished, and with difficulty kept
my seat! Pass we to the mazes of the dance, the inimitable
charms and picturesque beauty that may be given to the figure