firm, ferene and happy, to a degree which he was unable to exprefs."

"His diforder took various turns, and once or twice flattered his friends, even his medical friends, with fome flight hope of a recovery."

"On the first of December he recovered fo much, as to furprife every body, and converfed again with his friends in the most eafy and cheerful manner imaginable. But this ray of hope was foon extinguifhed! For the next day he had a third attack of his diforder, not only on his extremities, like the former, but over his whole body; fuch, that it was thought impoffible he could come out of it. He did, however, recover in an hour or two; and though he spoke nothing that evening, but yes or no, when a queftion was put to him; he feemed eafy, or free from pain; his countenance refumed its wonted fenfibility and placid ferenity."

«Thus he continued till very early in the morning, December 3, when he fell asleep, and this in lo eafy a manner, that nobody about him knew the exact time when it happened.

Such was the life, and fuch the death, of this good man. They afford a pleafing and ftriking proof, that Chriftianity has not grown old by length of time, but continues to exert even at this day, its primitive happy influence on fome of the most liberal and beft cultivated minds. Of this caft was Dr. Leechman's. His increafing knowledge did not weaken, but ftrengthen his faith. He had with him a fund of everlasting confolation and good hope through grace; which became more and more lively the nearer he approached to the confummation of his hope, and rendered the laft fcene, amidst the most humiliating bodily weaknefs, by far the higheft and happieft fcene of his life.”

HE reputation of Mr. Harmer, as a fcholar and a divine, is, I believe, fully and univerfally established. If, as a writer, he may fometimes be thought inelegant in his ftyle, and too minute in the investigation of facts, yet thefe defects are amply compenfated by the general choice of his materials, and the clearness of method with which he digefted and arranged them. Some books come into the world, fet off with all the ornaments of language; and with their authors are foon forgotten; they

refemble those meteors, which by their luminous appearance attract our notice; and almoft in the fame moment vanifh from our fight. The credit of Mr. Harmer's writings refts upon a foundation strong and durable. He hath profeffedly treated a fubject of the first importance, which had before been touched upon only incidentally; and, by fhewing at large the wonderful conformity

between the ancient and modern cuftoms in the Eaft, hath not only thrown a confiderable light upon numberlefs paffages in the Bible, but

hath

hath opened new and fruitful fources of information for the use of future expofitors.

But it would be doing great injuftice to Mr. Harmer, to confine our attention to the fruits of his learning alone. As the whole purpofe of his ftudies was to illuftrate the fcriptures, fo it was his conftant endeavour to practise those duties, which are therein declared to be effential to the forming of a true Chriftian. He was a man of unaffected piety equally kind as a mafter, parent, and husband: meek and modeft in his deportment: and invariably averfe from every degree of intemperance and excefs. Superior to all thofe narrow and illiberal prejudices, which we are apt to imbibe from education or habit, he was governed by a general principle of benevolence; and though he was commonly called the Father of the Diffenters, yet his good offices were fo far from being confined to thofe of his own communion, that he acknowledged and encouraged

merit wherefoever he found it. "I will apply to Harmer" was the usual language of every injured perfon in his neighbourhood; and it feldom happened, that the aggreffor was not foon induced by his perfuafion to repair the injury which had been done; and I do not exaggerate, when I affirm, that there is not probably a single inftance of an individual to be found, who, by a mild and feasonable interference, prevented more law-fuits than Mr. Harmer. When we reflect that ali thefe virtues, which he fo eminently poffeffed, were ftill heightened by the character of a peacemaker; a character, to which an evangelical bleffing is annexed, we cannot but look upon his death as a public lofs: much lefs can we be furprized, that it fhould deeply affect all those who perfonally knew him and enjoyed his friendship; but by none is it more fincerely lamented, than by him, who offers this flender tribute of regard to his memory."

tion, his fame having reached the court of Naples, and excited a defire in the king to hear him perform, he was invited, by order of his majefty to that capital. Corelli, with fome reluctance, was at length prevailed on to accept the invitation; but, left he fhould not be well accompanied, he took with him his own fecond violin and violoncello. At Naples he found Alef fandro Scarlatti, and feveral other mafters, who entreated him to play fome of his concertos before the

not being with him, and there was no time, he said, for a rehearsal. At length, however, he confented; and in great fear performed the first of his concertos. His aftonishment was very great to find that the Neapolitan band executed his concertos almoft as accurately at fight, as his own band, after repeated rehearsals, when they had almoft got them by heart. Si fuona, (fays he to Matteo, his fecond violin) a Napoli'

"After this, being again admit ted into his Majefty's prefence, and

defired

defired to perform one of his fona. tas, the king found one of the adagios fo long and dry, that being tired, he quitted the room, to the great mortification of Corelli. Afterwards, he was defired to lead in the performance of a mafque compofed by Scarlatti, which was to be executed before the king; this he undertook, but from Scarlatti's little knowledge of the violin, the part was fomewhat aukward and difficult in one place it went up to F; and when they came to that pallage, Corelli failed, and was unable to execute it; but he was aftonifhed beyond measure to hear Petrillo, the Neapolitan leader, and the other violins, perform that which had baffled his fkill. A fong fucceeded this, in C minor, which Corelli led off in C major; ric comminciamo, faid Scarlatti, goodnaturedly. Still Corelli perfifted in the major key, till Scarlatti was obliged to call out to him, and fet him right. So mortified was poor Corelli with this difgrace, and the

general bad figure he imagined he had made at Naples, that he stole back to Rome in filence.

"It was foon after this, that a hautbois player, whofe name Geminiani could not recollect, acquired fuch applaufe at Rome, that Ĉorelli, difgufted, would never play again in public. All these mortifi cations, joined to the fuccefs of Valentini, whofe concertos and performance, though infinitely inferior to thofe of Corelli, were become fashionable, threw him into such a state of melancholy and chagrin, as was thought, faid Geminiani, to have haftened his death.

"This account of Corelli's jour ney to Naples is not a mere perfonal anecdote, as it throws a light up on the comparative state of mulic at Naples and at Rome in Corel li's time, and exhibits a curious con traft between the fiery genius of the Neapolitans, and the meek, timid, and gentle character of Corelli, for analogous to the ftyle of his mufic.

tention very much, which was fencing, an art that was not likely to become neceflary to the falety or honour of a man of fo pious and pacific a difpofition, in a civil employment; and yet he is faid to have equalled in this art even the mafter from whom he received inftructions. In 1710, he was fent to the univerfity of Padua to purfue his ftudies as a civilian; but before he was twenty, having married without the confent of his parents, they

wholly

wholly abandoned him, and obliged him to wander about in search of an afylum; which, after many hardfhips, he found in a convent at Af fifi, where he was received by a monk, his relation, who commiferating his misfortunes, let him remain there till fomething better could be done for him. Here he practifed the violin to keep off melancholy reflections; but being difcovered on a great feftival in the orcheftra of the church of the convent by the accident of a remarkable high wind, which, forcing open the doors of the church, blew afide the curtain of the orchestra and expofed all the performers to the fight of the congregation; when being recognized by a Paduan acquaint ance, differences were accommodated, and he fettled with his wife at Venice for fome time. This lady, indeed, was of the Xantippe kind, and being himself very Socratic in wifdom, virtue, and patience, her reign was unmolefted by any domeftic war, or oppofition to her fupre

macy.

"While he was at Venice, the ce. lebrated Veracini arrived in that city, whofe performance awakened an extraordinary emulation in Tartini, who, though he had been thought to have a powerful hand, had never heard a great player before, or conceived it poffible for the bow to have fuch varied powers of energy and expreffion. He therefore quitted Venice the next day, and went to Ancona, in order to study the use of the bow in more tranquillity, and with more convenience that at Venice, as he had a place affigned him in the opera orcheftra of that city.

"This happened in the year 1714, the year in which he difcovered the phenomenon of the third found. It was here too, and in the carnival

of the fame year, that he heard and perceived the extraordinary effects of a piece of fimple recitative, which he mentions in his Trattato di Mufica. It was during his refidence at Ancona, that, by diligent study and practice, he acquired fufficient abili ties and reputation to be invited, in 1721, to the place of first violin, and master of the band in the celebrated church of St. Anthony of Padua.

"By this time, his fame was fo extended that he had repeated invitations from Paris and London to vifit thofe capitals; but by a fingular devotion and attachment to his patron faint, to whom he confecrated himself and his inftrument, he declined entering into any other fervice.

66

By the year 1728, he had made many excellent fcholars, and formed a fchool, or method of practice, for the ftudents on the violin, that was celebrated all over Europe, and which increased in fame to the end of his life.

"The author of the compendium of his life informs us that his first book of folos was engraved at Amfterdam 1734; the fecond at Rome 1745, and that he produced above two hundred of these compofitions, which were handed about în manufcript by the curious; but does not feem to know that nine or ten books of Tartini's folos were printed at Paris, of which I am in poffeffion of opera third, fixth, seventh, and ninth, befides the two books printed in England, amounting to upwards of fifty folos, exclufive of manufcripts.

"Of his concertos, which likewise amount to two hundred, this author

gives a very unfatisfactory account; he fays that a furreptitious copy of two fets having first appeared in Holland, he would never own them.

The first fix feem to have been compofed in his firft manner before he changed his ftyle; and I find them mentioned in Dutch catalogues before the year 174. The fecond fix are more modern, and were manifeftly compofed in his fecond and beft manner, after the year 1 44, when he is faid to have changed his ftyle. They were collected, as Le Cene confeffes, from different people who had obtained copies from the author, and there feems not the leaft doubt of their being genuine.

"Though Tartini's compofitions always afforded me great pleafure, and were never obliterated from my memory, yet as they are now as much laid afide as thofe of Baffani or Locatelli, I thought it right to give them a revifion before I ventured my fentiments concerning

their merit.

"Tartini, on a recent examination of his works, feems, to my feelings and conceptions, to have had a larger portion of merit, as a mere inftrumental compofer, than any other author who flourished during the first fifty or fixty years of the prefent century. Though he made Corelli his model in the purity of his harmony, and fimplicity of his modulation, he greatly furpaffed that compofer in the fertility and originality of his invention; not only in the fubjects of his melodies, but in the truly cantabile manner of treating them. Many of his adagios want nothing but words to be excellent pathetic opera fongs. His allegios are fometimes difficult; but the paffages fairly belong to the inftrument for which they were compofed, and were fuggefted by his confummate knowledge of the finger-board, and powers of the bow. He certainly repeats his paffages, and adheres to his original motive, or theme, too 1789.

His

"Indeed, as a harmonift, he was perhaps more truly fcientific than any other compofer of his time in the clearness, character, and precision of his bafes; which were never cafual, or the effect of habit or auricular prejudice and expectation, but learned, judicious, and certain. And yet, with all my partiality for his ftyle, talents, and abilities, as well as veneration for his principles and character, I muft, in juftice to others, own, that, though the adagio and folo playing, in general, of his fcholars are exquifitely polifhed and expreffive, yet it feems as if that energy, fire, and freedom of bow, which modern fymphonies and orcheftra-playing require, were wanting. It is now (1) eighteen years fince I vifited Italy, and gave my opinions of what then fubfifted, with all the fairness and freedom poffible; but fince that time, the productions of Boccherini, Haydn, Pleyel, Vanhal, and others, have occafioned fuch a revolution in violin-mufic, and playing, by the fertility and boldnefs of their invention, that compofitions which were then generally thought full of fpirit and fire, appear now totally tame and infipid.

This admirable musician and worthy man died the 26th of February, 1770, to the great regret of the inhabitants of the city of Padua, where he had refided near fifty years, and where he was not only regarded as its chief and most attractive ornament, but philofopher, faint, and fage.

"As Tartini, befides his practical C excellence,