St. Cecilia, the Christian Polyhymnia and patron saint of sacred music, is said to have suffered martyrdom about the year 230. In Chaucer's "Seconde Nonnes Tale"--which is an almost literal translation of the "Legenda Aurea," written in the thirteenth century--it is related that, on account of Cecilia's spotless purity, an angel came down from heaven to be her guardian. Her husband, Valerian, was also the recipient of angelic favors, for "This angel had of roses and lilie Corones two, the which he bare in honde, And first to Cecile, as I understonde, He yaf that on, and after gan he take That other to Valerian hire make." How and when Cecilia was first recognized as the patron saint of music does not appear. The legend only says, that "While the organs maden melodie, To God alone thus in hire hert song she; 'O Lord, my soule and eke my body gie Unwemmed, lest that I confounded be.'" There is also a tradition in the church that St. Cecilia was the inventor of the organ. Dryden calls her "inventress of the vocal frame" (see page 164). The origin of this musical instrument is not known, but the first organs used in Italy are said to have been brought thither from Greece. Some of the Roman churches are known to have had them in use in the seventh century, but they were not common until several hundred years later. The festival of St. Cecilia occurs on the 22d of November. 1. =ye Nine.= The nine Muses: (1) Calliope, the Muse of epic poetry; (2) Clio, the Muse of history; (3) Euterpe, the Muse of lyric poetry; (4) Melpomene, the Muse of tragedy; (5) Terpsichore, the Muse of choral dance and song; (6) Erato, the Muse of erotic poetry; (7) Polyhymnia, the Muse of the sublime hymn; (8) Urania, the Muse of astronomy; (9) Thalia, the Muse of comedy and idyllic poetry. The custom of invoking the Muses, at the beginning of poems, is derived from Homer: "Of Peleus' son, Achilles, sing, O Muse." --_Iliad_, I, 1. "Tell me, O Muse, of that sagacious man Who, having overthrown the sacred town Of Ilium, wandered far," etc. --_Odyssey_, I, 1. Milton invokes the "heavenly Muse that on the secret top Of Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspire That shepherd," etc. --_Paradise Lost_, I, 1. 2. Observe how, in the sixteen lines following, the sound is made in some measure to be "an echo to the sense." 3. =equal temper know.= Evenness of disposition acquire. The music of Timotheus had an opposite effect on Alexander. See "Alexander's Feast." 4. =assuasive.= Moderating.