Page:The battle of the books - Guthkelch - 1908.djvu/133

 too, whether they are true or no; for though reason may seem to favour them more than the contrary opinions, yet sense can very hardly allow them; and to satisfy mankind, both these must concur. But if they are true, yet these two great discoveries have made no change in the conclusions of astronomy, nor in the practice of physic; and so have been of little use to the world, though perhaps of much honour to the authors.

What are become of the charms of music, by which men and beasts, fishes, fowls, and serpents were so frequently enchanted and their very natures changed; by which the passions of men were raised to the greatest height and violence, and then as suddenly appeased, so as they might be justly said to be turned into lions or lambs, into wolves or into harts, by the powers and charms of this admirable art? It is agreed by the learned, that the science of music, so admired of the ancients, is wholly lost in the world; and that what we have now, is made up out of certain notes that fell into the fancy or observation of a poor friar, in chanting his matins. So as those two divine excellencies of music and poetry are grown, in a manner, to be little