relates, from ecclesiastical history, that two bishops, having quarrelled in a most intemperate manner, one of them sent to the other the following message:"Brother, the sun is going down." Upon receiving this message, the offended bishop forgot his anger, ran to the house of his episcopal brother, fell upon his neck, and kissed him. V. Milton compares the joy, succeeding the melancholy of the fallen spirits at the council of their chief, to the pleasure elicited, when the sun shines suddenly over a darkened landscape. Lord Kaims and Mr. Burke present also two very fine similies. "We see," says the former,1" in the history of mankind, frequent instances of the progress of nations from small to great; but we also see instances, no less frequent, of extensive monarchies being split into many small states. Such is the course of human affairs; states are seldom stationary: but, like the sun, are either advancing to their meridian, or falling down gradually till they sink into obscurity." The simile of Mr. Burke,2 referring to the morning star, not less just in its application, is even more beautiful; since it touches one of the finest chords of the heart,-"It is now sixteen years," said he, "since I saw the Queen of France, then the Dauphiness, at Versailles: and surely never lighted on this orb, which it hardly seemed to touch, Sketches, vol. ii. p. 270. 2 Reflections, p. 112. a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere, she just began to move in: glittering like the morning star, full of life and splendour and joy. Oh! what a revolution! and what an heart must I have to contemplate without emotion that elevation and that fall." VI. Among the ruins of the ancient city of Thebes still remains a fragment of that basaltic' statue of Memnon, which, many writers attest, sent forth harmonious sounds, when first touched by the rays of the sun; as the fountain of Chindara is said to have elicted music at the rising, mounting, and setting of the moon. The fact being supported by Strabo, Pliny, Juvenal,2 Pausanias, Tacitus, and Philostratus, it is assuredly not to be doubted3:-Though the art, by which the mysterious symphony was produced, still remains an enigma, notwithstanding many ingenious attempts at solution.—The first injury, this Philostratus says it was of black marble. In Vit. Apol. vi. c. 4. • Dimidis magicæ resonant ubi Memnone Chordæ. 3 There are many inscriptions on this statue, commemorative of the persons who had heard the sounds :-Among which are those of the Tribune Mithridates; Sabina, the wife of Adrian; and Publius Balbinus. As the colossal head of Memnon, now in the British Museum, bears no resemblance to that of the musical Memnon, it is only suffi cient to observe, that it is a noble monument of Egyptian, or, perhaps, of Grecian art. VOL. IV. statue received, was from Cambyses; who caused it to be sawed in two,' in order to get at the secret. It was afterwards thrown down by an earthquake. Memnon who was fabled to have been the son of Aurora, the younger sister of the Sun and Moon, was represented on Roman gems, as being drawn by white horses in a rose-coloured chariot, opening the gates of heaven; pouring dews upon the earth, and quickening the growth of herbs and plants. Of Memnon little certain is known. That he was a king of Ethiopia is probable; and that he was not at the siege of Troy, as many writers assert, is certain. Of his virtues nothing remain :-but his ability is amply attested by his almost miraculous invention of the alphabet. Some have supposed, that the sounds, alluded to, were produced by the mechanical impulse of the Sun's light. Others that, being hollow, the air was driven out by the rarefaction of the morning, which occasioned the elision of a murmuring sound. Some even affect to assert, that it saluted the morning and evening sun differently: the former with animating sounds; the latter with melancholy ones.-Darwin, in the true spirit of poetry, describes this statue as sending forth murmurs of indignation, at the ravages of Cambyses. Prophetic whispers breathed from Sphinx's tongue; 1 Pausanias. 2 Plin. Nat. Hist. vii. c. 56. In another passage, equally poetical, he makes it view with delight the waters of the Nile, rushing from the cataracts of Ethiopia: Gigantic Sphinx the circling waves admire; And Memnon bending o'er his broken lyre. VII. In many parts of the east the custom still remains of proclaiming the sun by the sounding of instruments. That similar signals were given in Egypt is not to be doubted, since the custom is almost as old as solar adoration itself. That the Sun was worshipped in that country is equally established: both being rendered the more certain by the ceremony of sounding harps at sunrise having been introduced into Italy by Pythagoras, who had long sojourned with the Egyptian magi. The sounding of Memnon's statue, then, might have been an artifice of the priesthood; to effect which many methods might have been adopted.' Either the head of Memnon contained wires, like the strings of an Eolian harp; or the sounds might have been pro Extract from a London Journal, Dec. 17, 1820.-" The British ambassador at the court of Rome has received a letter from Sir A. Smith, an English traveller, who is at present at the Egyptian Thebes. He statės, that he has himself examined the celebrated statue of Memnon, accompanied by a numerous escort. At six in the morning, he heard, very distinctly, the sound so much spoken of in former times; and which has been generally esteemed fabulous. "One may," he says, "assign to this phenomenon a thousand different causes, before it could be supposed to be simply the result of a certain arrangement of the stones. The sound proceeded from the Pedestal." This account wants coufirmation. duced by the touching of a stone.'-The observance of the effects of air upon strings is of high antiquity. Horace alludes to it; and the Babylonian Talmud assures us, that the harp of David, being every night touched by the North-wind, warbled of itself. Plutarch and Lucian record, that when the Thracian bacchanals murdered Orpheus, his harp was thrown into the Hebrus, with his bleeding head resting upon it. The harp, breathed upon by the wind, elicited a solemn melody. Borne by the current of the river, it arrived at Lesbos; where the inhabitants, taking it up, buried the head of the poet in the temple of Bacchus; and suspended the lyre in that of Apollo. To this circumstance Spenser alludes in his ruins of time. Descending to a later period, we find Ossian and Cassimir observing the same enchanting effect."The blast came rustling through the hall," says the former in Darthula, "and gently touched my harp; the sound was mournful and low, like the song of the tomb."--"My harp hangs on a blasted bough ;” (in Berrathon) "the sound of its strings is mournful. Does the wind touch thee, O harp; or is it some passing ghost"?"-In supposing that the head of Memnon 1 Part of these observations I sent, some years since, to a periodical publication, and they were afterwards inserted in a small essay, written by the Poet Bloomfield, on the Eolian Harp; entitled "Nature's Music.” 2 Sonora buxi filia sutilis, Pendebis alta, barbite, populo, Dum ridit aer, et supinas Sollicitat levis aura frondes :-&c. Cassimir, lib. II. Od. III. 3 Also in Temora :-" Thrice from the winding vale arose the voice of death. The harps of the bards, untouched, sound mournful over the hill. |