A new, entertaining, and instructive Game of Musical Characters; by which a ready and correct knowledge of time, the names of the notes in the Bass and Treble clefs, the intervals and formation of the signatures in the Major and Minor keys, with the use and meaning of the other marks and characters, commonly used in the Science of Music, may be obtained. By T. Goodban. London. Goulding D'Almaine, Potter and Co.

Most persons who have given any attention to the important pro gress of education, are aware, that very many contrivances, and some of them very ingenious, have been put forth with a view to forward the task of tuition by converting the period and the common means of amusement among children, into intervals and instruments of instruction. TEACHING IN SPORT, if it had not its absolute rise in the fertile intellect and benevolent heart of the excellent LADY FENN, the relict of SIR JOHN FENN, of NORFOLK, who devoted a very principal portion of her long life to the protecting care of the rising generation, was at least mainly indebted to her efforts and her inge nuity for the diffusion of numberless devices which spread the knowledge and the desire of making this (as it was for some time es teemed) capital addition to the art of teaching, extensively useful. LADY FENN first employed and applied the attraction of engravings, as an assistance in the acquisition of the first rudiments of letters, and she afterwards carried her principle into fuller effect through the agency of various plays and games, which inculcated knowledge by rendering the remembrance of the elements of science the means of entering into the amusement. The example has not been lost. A multitude of similar inventions have been promulgated, and we have now before us an application of the principle to music.

But however ably and benevolently calculated these designs were, they have scarcely done as much as might have been expected. The plans themselves are either forgotten, fallen into disuse, or supplanted by a fresh growth, which, having had their day, are also lost. This fact makes somewhat against any scheme of the sort, because it is not only fair to conjecture, but it is the fact, that experience rarely rejects what is essentially good. This rule may, however, be received cum grano, with some allowance. In the instance

of teaching in sport we apprehend too much was expected, and what was originally intended as an auxiliary, was substituted as a princi. pal. This was not an error in the plan, but in its application. We are perfectly satisfied, that however much the world owes to improvement in the methods of conveying knowledge, the generality of the modern modes of making abridgements have gone very little way indeed towards promoting sound learning in any branch of literature or science. We shall not even yield to the universal demonstration of better principles of instruction, which the prodigious and universal advancement of knowledge exhibits, an advancement we are so far from denying, that it is to us just matter of admiration and astonishment. But we think that all the acquirements we daily wit ness are the results of a more just appreciation of the value of intellectual pursuits and pleasures, and consequently of a more vehement and steady desire to enjoy them; this grand impression leads to more constant study and to a far higher intensity of attention, which we must consider to be the prime promoter of acquisition. Whereever any really shorter road to science has been discovered, we are persuaded the discovery is owing to a better and more complete understanding of the use and application of the faculties and forces of the intellect of a knowledge how to fit the tools to the materials upon which they are to be employed. The philosophy of the mind is far better understood than it was even thirty years ago, and whatever facts have been noted, have been carefully transferred and judicously applied to the art of instruction. Much of a routine, much of a jargon that was useless has been cut off. But labour is still all in all, Little will be gained without it, and even that little will not be long retained. The axiom is as old as Horace, and is confirmed by the entire experience of all the centuries which have since run through the hour glass of time.

Nil sine magno,

Vita labore dedit mortalibus,

is a maxim as true as it is trite, and indeed a maxim is rarely trite that is not true.

The mind is however so variously endowed and constructed, that it is only from a number of examples that we can be enabled to arrive at any tolerably just and general conclusion. It appears to us that the progress of intellect can rarely be forced, and never with impuni ty or lasting success. Even natural prematurity seems to be compen

sated by early decay. In spite of the authority of the great moral dogmatist, it is now, we believe, universally granted, that the difference we daily witness in men, is more organic than artificialthat is to say, that minds are of greatly different capacity, and that the power of institution is exceedingly limited in effect. Men are what nature and education, not what education alone makes them. But we are at the same time firmly of opinion, that the faculty of fixing and prolonging the attention to a subject, (which it has been seen, we consider to be the capital instrument of acquiring instruction) is to be most materially strengthened by judicious treatment of children in their earliest attempts to acquire. And it is under this view that we acknowledge the utility of teaching in sport. It will accustom the mind to the contemplation of the same object for a longer duration of time without weariness, it will renew excitement, and will help to impress and fix the fact intended to be conveyed. As an auxiliary then we should gladly receive the aid it proffers, but we must especially except against the idea that it can supersede a regu lar course of study. It may indeed make that course the shorter, but whoever shall attempt to substitute any other process for regularity in teaching, will in the end, find himself grievously mistaken, and his pupil still more grievously injured. It has, however, its uses and its moral uses.

The game before us has its origin clearly in "THE ROYAL GAME of GOOSE," which has beguiled some of our youthful hours, and was amongst the earliest causes of our hopes, anxieties, and disappointments. MR. GOODBAN has adopted the principle and a good many of the expedients of this noble invention with success, for the inculcation of the first dry elements of musical instruction. He regards the use of this game pretty much in the light that we represent it.— We shall therefore give his introduction in his own words.

"It must be admitted by every person who has had the least experience in the practical part of music, that constant attention and observation are indispensably necessary to obtain a ready and correct idea of the characters and signs commonly used in the science; and that to the neglect of such necessary attention is to be attributed the princi- · pal cause why learners are so retarded in their progress and improvement. For as execution upon an instrument can only be acquired by regular and well directed practice, its attainment, from natural causes and the interference of our studies and pursuits, is generally slow, and must always be progressive-and as, from the impatience of learners and the great desire of parents, in general, to hear their

children play or sing when they begin to learn, the practical part is frequently more the object of the teacher and his pupil's attention than it ought to be, according to the progress which the latter makes in his knowledge of the theory or principles of the science, so it consequently often happens, notwithstanding a tolerably correct idea of the time and names of the notes, &c. may have been acquired at the commencement of their instruction, that a very imperfect knowledge of them is afterwards retained, if the repetition, for any length of time, is discontinued--and thus a defective and incorrect habit of reading music is contracted, which every possible attention on the part of the teacher cannot always prevent, and the difficulties and obstructions which so continually present themselves in the way of their progress, may in a great measure, be considered to originate and depend.

"With a view therefore of enabling all those who are desirous of improving themselves, to remove, with facility, the obstructions so much complained of, and which have so long been a source of regret and vexation to all true lovers of the science, the present plan was conceived and invented. And as the difficulties of adapting a species of entertainment for such a purpose, suited to the capacities and dispositions of all classes, have been anticipated, no pains or exertions have consequently been spared in the arrangement and formation of the game, to combine amusement with instruction, in the use and application of it; and by the assistance which it is intended to enable learners, imperceptibly, as it were, to afford to each other-to create a spirit of emulation amongst them, without injuring their morals and whether the object, so desirable and necessary for the good of the science, is thus to be attained by it, time only, and the opinion of a liberal and generous public, must determine."

Like the "Royal" amusement above cited, the game of musical characters is played upon a plate, which figures, in 150 compartments indicated by progressive numbers, all the indispensably necessary characters and elements of musical learning enumerated in the title. A tee-totum, marked with as many numbers as sides, determines that upon which the players (who spin in turn) are to place their counter. They are then to explain the meaning of the characters which their counter covers, and certain fines and emoluments are awarded according to their success and to their accurate acquaintance with the definitions required. A book which contains all the references and explanations accompanies the tee-totum, counters, and plate.

In looking over the whole, we see nothing wanting to render this game equal to the objects it professes, and it appears to us eminently calculated to assist schools and families in fixing knowledge previously acquired. We therefore recommend it, and if it be not found

useful, we should be disposed to attribute its failure rather to an injudicious employment of its powers than to any defect of its construction. Indeed we have tried its efficacy with success upon a very little girl, whose attention it was exceedingly difficult to fix. A few sugar plums and the delight of victory did wonders. If any thing stops its introduction it will be the price. Twelve shillings and six-pence seems to us to be enormously too dear. The inventor will find his advantage, we are persuaded, in making it more easily accessible to numbers.

Palestine-a sacred Oratorio; the voice parts in score, the instrumental adapted for the piano forte. By Wm. Crotch, Mus. Doc. Professor of Music in the University of Oxford. Messrs. Birchall and Chappell. London.

The invention of the ORATORIO is claimed both for England and Italy. The author of the Biographia Dramatica states in the following quotation the pretentions of his own country :-"If we may believe an honest monk, one WILLIAM STEPHANIDES, or FITZ STEPHEN, in his Descriptio Nobitissimo Civitatis Londine, who writes thus; London, instead of common interludes belonging to the theatre, has plays of a more holy subject: representations of those miracles which the confessors wrought, or of the sufferings wherein the glorious constancy of the martyrs appeared. This author was a monk of Canterbury, who wrote in the reign of Henry II. and died in that of Richard I. in 1191; and as he does not mention these representations as novelties to the people, for he is describing all the common diversions in use at that time, we can hardly fix them lower than the conquest; and this, we believe, is an earlier date than any other nation of Europe can produce, for their theatrical representations." DR. BURNEY says, the first rappresentatione, or exhibition truly dramatic, that was performed in Italy, according to Apostolo Zeno, was a spiritual comedy, at Padua, 1243, 1244. Another representation of the Mysteries of the Passion of Christ, &c. according to MURATORI, was performed at Friuli, 1298. In 1264, was instituted at Rome the Compagnia del Gonfalone, the statutes of which were printed in that city, 1554, and of which the principal employment was to act or re