V. The church chants of these times, with respect to their form and manner, sound like the songs of a jovial company sitting round a table. They are all composed of minuets, recitatives, light airs, and allegros; at the end of which, they substitute something which is called grave; but this is done very sparingly, lest it should seem tiresome and disgusting. What can this mean? Should not all the music in a church be grave? Ought not the whole composition to be calculated to impress gravity, devotion, and decency? The instrumental music is the same; but what effect can these Canary-birds airs, so predominant in the taste of the moderns, produce in the soul? This music, so replete with jigs, that you can scarce find a piece without one, can raise no other emotions in the imagination, than those of frolic and levity. He who hears on the organ, the same minuet which he heard at the ball, what effect will it have on him? No other, than reminding him of the lady with whom he danced the preceding night. Thus the music, which ought to translate the spirit of him who listens to it, from the terrestrial to the celestial temple, conveys it from the church to the banquet; and the ideas raised in the imagination of the person who hears this, if either from constitution, or vicious habits, he is ill disposed, will not forsake him at the church door. VI. O good God! is this the sort of music, which expressed from the breast of the great Austin, while he was still wavering between God and the world, sighs of compunction, and tears of piety? _Oh how I wept_, said the saint, addressing himself to God in his confessions, _moved and excited, by the salutary hymns and canticles of thy church! Those words and sounds, made a lively impression on my ears, and through them, thy truths penetrated my mind. My heart burned with affection, and my eyes melted in tears._ This was the effect of the church music of those times; which, like the lyre of David, expelled the evil spirit, that had not quite forsaken the possession of St. Austin, and invoked the good one; the music of these times expels the good one, if such resides, and invites the evil one. The ecclesiastical chant of those days, was like the sound of the trumpets of Joshua, which threw down the walls of Jericho, that is, the passions which fortify the strong town of Vice. The chant of the present times, resembles the songs of the Syrens, which lead navigators on rocks and shoals. SECT. III.