The Virginia Gazette

The Subject of Musick has been so often pointed out by every little Genius, that any Man who will condescend to write or speak against it, without saying a Thousand pretty Things, must take a deal of Pains to miss them.

To consider the Italian Opera, as a meer Dramatical Entertainment, is requiring of it what it does not profess. But so many fine Things have been so often repeated upon the Opposition between Sound and Sense, that at last they consider it as real and solid Truth: As to the Precepts concerning Dictions, Sentiments, and Unities, I would have my Friend Zachary keep them for the Stage, whose Business it is to observe them: A good Ear has infinitely more Right to form a Judgment on the Matter in Hand, at an Entertainment of Musick, than a Man who has spent a Life in Rapin, Aristotle, or Bossu without it. A queamish Critic with no Ear for Musick, when present at an Elegant Entertainment, Vocal and Instrumental, is out of his Element, and makes the drollest of Figures; he is dying at the Impropriety of an Incident, while the rest of the Audience are charm'd with an Air: And, while everyone is listening with Attention to a beautiful Symphony, he is inconsolable for the Want of a Sentiment.

I have known it urg'd against Musick, as a Proof of its Irrationality, that it is only an Amusement. I should be very sorry to be Rational; if to maintain that Character, I were to renounce the Enjoyment of innocent Amusements. Recreations and Diversions, are as essential to the Preservation of Health and Vigour in the Mind, as Exercise is to the Body; the one wou'd be no more fit for Thinking, than the other for Motion, without the due Refreshments of the Spirits.

Allow Musick therefore to be nothing but a meer Amusement, that very Qualification (especially when at the same Time innocent,) ought to render it acceptable to a reasonable Man; the nobler Passions and Affections of the Mind, are capable of being express'd by it with equal Force and Delicacy, as by either of its Sister Arts, Painting, or Poetry. Nor is its being only conversant in Sound, any Objection to its Furnishing a proper Employment to the Understanding. But it has this further to say for itself, that no One can enjoy this Pleasure completely without the Habit of Attention, and Clearness of Head, which is universally useful in every Thing a Man has Occasion to apply to.