Signior _Baptist Lully_ [4] acted like a Man of Sense in this Particular. He found the _French_ Musick extreamly defective, and very often barbarous: However, knowing the Genius of the People, the Humour of their Language, and the prejudiced Ears [he [5]] had to deal with he did not pretend to extirpate the _French_ Musick, and plant the _Italian_ in its stead; but only to Cultivate and Civilize it with innumerable Graces and Modulations which he borrow'd from the _Italian_. By this means the _French_ Musick is now perfect in its kind; and when you say it is not so good as the _Italian_, you only mean that it does not please you so well; for there is [scarce [6]] a _Frenchman_ who would not wonder to hear you give the _Italian_ such a Preference. The Musick of the _French_ is indeed very properly adapted to their Pronunciation and Accent, as their whole Opera wonderfully favours the Genius of such a gay airy People. The Chorus in which that Opera abounds, gives the Parterre frequent Opportunities of joining in Consort with the Stage. This Inclination of the Audience to Sing along with the Actors, so prevails with them, that I have sometimes known the Performer on the Stage do no more in a Celebrated Song, than the Clerk of a Parish Church, who serves only to raise the Psalm, and is afterwards drown'd in the Musick of the Congregation. Every Actor that comes on the Stage is a Beau. The Queens and Heroines are so Painted, that they appear as Ruddy and Cherry-cheek'd as Milk-maids. The Shepherds are all Embroider'd, and acquit themselves in a Ball better than our _English_ Dancing Masters. I have seen a couple of Rivers appear in red Stockings; and _Alpheus_, instead of having his Head covered with Sedge and Bull-Rushes, making Love in a fair full-bottomed Perriwig, and a Plume of Feathers; but with a Voice so full of Shakes and Quavers that I should have thought the Murmurs of a Country Brook the much more agreeable Musick. I remember the last Opera I saw in that merry Nation was the Rape of _Proserpine_, where _Pluto_, to make the more tempting Figure, puts himself in a _French_ Equipage, and brings _Ascalaphus_ along with him as his _Valet de Chambre_. This is what we call Folly and Impertinence; but what the _French_ look upon as Gay and Polite. I shall add no more to what I have here offer'd, than that Musick, Architecture, and Painting, as well as Poetry, and Oratory, are to deduce their Laws and Rules from the general Sense and Taste of Mankind, and not from the Principles of those Arts themselves; or, in other Words, the Taste is not to conform to the Art, but the Art to the Taste. Music is not design'd to please only Chromatick Ears, but all that are capable ef distinguishing harsh from disagreeable Notes. A Man of an ordinary Ear is a Judge whether a Passion is express'd in proper Sounds, and whether the Melody of those Sounds be more or less pleasing. [7] C. [Footnote 1: that] [Footnote 2: only asking]