gradations, by never-ceasing imitation, and we may almost assert, by imitation alone. What then will be the objects presented to this faculty in such a concert of noises? Mr. Logier may laugh at general reasoning as much as he pleases-but he must have removed nature from her known and constant laws if he produces a finished scholar by such a mode of instruction. Indeed the practical good he professes to accomplish by teaching in classes, viz. steadiness in time, is to be atchieved in much better ways. With regard to the moral, the fortitude upon which he insists, we can but think the courage thus acquired will be of the spurious kind which is the companion of hardened ignorance. But the fact is, that no one could rely upon the effects of such lessons for any considerable improvement of the pupil, when it is considered that two hours only in a week are so employed. And we would especially point out, that our observation leads to an important truth, not only in regard to Mr. Logier, but in regard to general science. The benefit which a pupil derives from the instructions of a master are no more than very short directions to industry. The progress made is principally in proportion to private practice and attention. The superiority of one master over another lies much in his knowledge, but more in the power which he possesses of imparting such knowledge with perspicuity and precision. Teaching in classes, amidst the ceaseless din of twenty-four (more or less) imperfect players, must abridge (we should say annihilate) this power. Let our young friends then be made sensible, that to their own ardour and industry they are to owe the main portion of their advancement; and let their parents consider well how much of whatever their children may have attained from this new course of instruction, is to be attributed to the degree of attention which has been excited by the novelty and by making their children emulous of supporting their part in the controversy. Be it recollected, that the duration of the experiment has been yet insufficient to produce a scholar of any considerable attainments in the higher branches of the art-the polish is yet to be given the last reward of the labourer is yet to come. Of course the only fair comparison is between pupils of the same standing ; but though there may be a superiority of mechanical dexterity in the lower purposes of the art, it is still a question to be decided, whether, as an approach to the higher ornaments of execution is made, there will not be much in the pupils of the new system to undo, and much that never can be undone. For ourselves we have no hesitation in affirming with the Edinburgh Critic, that "they who wish to become elegant and finished performers will never attain their object under such a mode of instruction as Mr. Logier employs." We come at last to Mr. Logier's lessons in harmony, and here we must observe that we can only judge from the examples quoted by himself and his opponents, and from the exhibition of his pupils; for of the means by which he imparts the degree of knowledge he justly considers to be so vastly beyond the common acquirements of youth, we know nothing. Nor indeed is it important that we should; if he produces the effect described, that is proof sufficient; and that his scholars of eight years old, if they did harmonize the airs he sets down for them in his Refutation, have attained a very uncommon practical advancement, we think no candid man will dispute. We are far from wishing to under-value any of Mr. Logier's discoveries, or any new or more clear arrangement in the mode of conveying instruction he may have instituted, when we say that we believe few masters, if any, have ever thought of instructing pupils so early in the principles of composition. In doubting the utility of the application of his plan, we repeat that we do not mean to depreciate Mr. L.'s system of instruction in this point. But the surprize excited by such examples must be suspended until we can have ascertained what belongs to the task of conveying similar knowledge. We were led into this train of thinking by the observation of a professor who roundly averred his disbelief of Mr. L.'s statement with regard to the performance of the child eight years old. Such a mode of replication was not to our taste. We remembered the anecdote in Miss Edgeworth's Practical Education, of a child's invention as to the steam engine, which no one now will venture to doubt; and her illustration of a better course of conveying information is certainly far more astonishing than Mr. Logier's. We were therefore perfectly willing to give him full and complete credit for his assertion in this particular. But the denial induced us to try an experiment. We laid before a girl, thirteen years old, (who knew literally nothing of the construction of harmonies) the rules for the accompaniment of the notes of the octave. We wrote down a bass, and in less than ten minutes she produced the harmony without error. We then gave her the rules of accompaniment for a figured bass; T we copied one line of the bass of one of the chorusses of Judas Maccabæus, every note of which was figured, and in the same time she put in every chord. We do not say that our experiment goes the length of placing our child of thirteen upon a footing with Mr. L.'s pupil of eight, either in point of progress or of the difficulty which attends the communication of ideas to one so young. But it removes most of the wonder attached to these juvenile harmonists. The Committee, we find, also express in a more extended manner the same sentiments. 66 Allowing Mr. Logier's account of the whole process to be quite correct, we can assure him that there was nothing in it which surprised us when we at last discovered, that beyond the limits of their slate his pupils could do nothing. "Till Mr. Logier confessed this, we were in some doubt how far his system might be beneficial for the purpose of communicating harmonical knowledge; but that avowal on his part dispelled all our doubts, and the inefficacy of the whole contrivance burst upon us at once. Then indeed, instead of wondering at the progress those young ladies had made, our wonder was that they had really made so little. "Is it astonishing that pupils who have been taught for two years and a half, should perform all those exercises which Mr. Logier has described, on a slate? Every real harmonist will acknowledge, that much more than half the difficulty attending such exercises must arise from their application to a practical use; aud of that application Mr. Logier has avowed his scholars incapable. At the conclusion of his exhibition, it was intimated to him, that we had brought figured basses with us for a trial of the young ladies' skill. Ilis answer was, that we had seen how far they had gone, and that they could not play from figured basses.'-To this he added, that if we did not like it he did not care.' 66 Availing ourselves of Mr. Logier's indifference to our opinion, we must declare, in the same simplicity of language, that we really did not like it,' aud we must also venture to tell him, that we should be quite ashamed as teachers, if, at the end of one year, any of our scholars in harmony were, like his, to shrink from the performance of all figured basses whatever."-Exposition, p. 55. We have long more than suspected, that "the tremendous barriers" are not tremendous at all; that the mechanical elements of harmony might be easily and rapidly conveyed; and we do not know that there is much novelty in the opinion nor much inculpation of musical teachers; for the fact is, that the art of reading and analyzing a score is not coveted by the million of piano-forte players, whose aim is amusement of a different kind, and falls very far short of that degree of devotion to musical learning, which a desire to compose or even to understand the rules of composition - implies. When such an intention has been signified, masters have generally thought it safest and best to postpone the higher branch of study, until the pupil is made familiar with the first steps in the practical part of music. Mr. L. therefore certainly stands alone in the endeavour to initiate pupils so soon into the mysteries of science, and we shall not seem very sceptical if we doubt the propriety of inverting the old order of instruction, upon the plain ground that the time of a student can be no more than employed, and that time will be most usefully employed upon those parts of a subject which are most within the grasp of the intellect of the party. Such a disposition of study is exactly analogous in importance to a choice of pursuits, and the propriety of loading the mind of an infant with the rules of composition and with abtruse musical learning, must entirely depend upon the objects the parent has in view. As a general mode of instruction, we can but consider that it must rather impede than promote the intention of judiciously employing the time given to musical education. We put the question upon its plain and proper basis of utility; and after the example we have stated of one experiment, which we pledge ourselves is faithfully related, we are neither inclined to attribute much of invention and discovery to Mr. Logier's method, nor much of real and ultimate practical benefit. We shall now leave it to all who may be inclined to examine more deeply into the matter, whether Mr. L. be as ignorant as his adversaries had a fair right to suppose from the numerous errors they quote in his publications and his practice, or whether he be as wonderful in his discoveries, and possessed of as "infinite musical knowledge" as injudicious friends have given out. From the mass of most respectable evidence adduced, and the premises we have stated, we ourselves are irresistibly brought to this conclusion. Mr. Logier is an ingenious man, and he has certainly added some facilities to musical tuition, but his system, taken in all its bearings, is likely to be far more prejudicial than useful, while the arrogance and evasion displayed in the mode of introducing his method of teaching, and the total want of good taste and gentlemanly feeling evinced in his controversial publications, will cast a dark shadow over all the parts of his design, even should they for a time weigh with the vulgar and the credulous, amuse the speculative, or supply his partisans with the wordy fuel that raises and supports the flame and the smother in which this worker of musical magic appears to thrive. |