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 states, 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. elicited sounds, because strings might have been placed in the throat, or in the mouth of the image, an objection might be raised, that if such were the cause, the image would send forth sounds at other times, as well as in the morning. Authorities are not wanting to prove that it did so. One string would act as well as five, in this instance; for modern experience assures us, that a single string will sound all the harmonic notes besides the unison. But if the wind were not permitted to perform this office, the hand of a priest, who might regularly conceal himself every morning for that purpose in the statue, most certainly might; and this is, doubtless, the more likely of the two for Pausanias says, that the sound was similar to that of a bow-string; breaking with too much tension. It is no argument to say, that it is not probable, such an artifice should be practised from the time of Strabo to that of Philostratus (two hundred years); since the hereditary practices of priests have descended from Lama to Lama, in Tartary, China, and Japan, for thousands of years. VIII. But it is more probable, that the sounds proceeded from gently knocking à stone, enclosed at the base, or in the bosom of the statue:-some stones naturally emitting sound upon being struck by any other body. In the labyrinth of Alcathous was a stone, that elicited sound, upon being struck ever so lightly; Grosier relates, that some streams abound in stones, which sound on being touched'; and that they were frequently strung into beads, in order to form a kind of musical instrument. Pausanias also relates, that he saw at Megara a stone, which, when struck, produced a note like the vibration of the string of an instrument. And in one of the pyramids there is still a sarcophagus resembling an altar, which emits a peculiar sound when struck with any hard substance. I have myself seen an instance of this kind, near the chapel of St. Gowen, situated in an amphitheatre of marine rocks, in the county of Pembroke. This idea is rendered more probable by an assertion of Strabo, assuring us, that the sound issued from the pedestal, and that it resembled that produced by striking something on a hard body. From these accounts it would appear, that the actors in this pontifical drama did not always strike with the same force, nor with the same material. CHAPTER III. WHEN the sun has quitted the world with reluctance, and the glow of heaven sits, as it were, upon the mountains; and the whole concave is robed in purple majesty and splendour :-and when .. in some sequestered vale The weary woodman spreads his sparing meal, 2 Humboldt having heard of stones, which the missionaries of the Oroonoko call Laxas de Musica, gives rather too fanciful a probability for the music of Memnon's statue. Vide Personal Narrative, vol. iv. p. how soft, how lulling and serene, are all the objects of the vast creation!-Then, while the eye and the imagination are indulging in the contemplation of progressive twilight, the heart vibrates with many a gentle impulse; the passions modulate to divine repose; and the soul, partaking of the general hush of Nature, and awed by its solemn imagery, exalts its meditation far beyond the orbit of the visible creation and appearing susceptible of an earthly immortality, anticipates the sacred character of that golden age, to which the virtuous will be called. For then the serene faculties of the soul are awake, and feed on thoughts worthy of paradise. Time seems to be our own; we meditate with satisfaction on the evening of life, of which the scene is an emblem; and we feel even capable of exclaiming, "The portals of eternity are opening; my life seems closing; my heart swells with transport; and my soul feels, as if it were already starting into a new existence !"-As to men of the world!-Let them slumber in the midst of these hallowed associations : And be their rest unmov'd By the white moonlight's dazzling power :- Should be awake at this sweet hour. Moore. An evening calculated to elicit emotions and reflections, commensurate with these, is described by Homer (or rather by his translator), in a passage, which, for its solemnity, pathos, and picturesque imagery, can never be sufficiently admired!— |