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not till they die 47; fome that they fing, yet die not: fome speak generally, as though this note were in all; fome but particularly, as though it were only in fome; fome in places, and where we can have no trial of it; others in places, where every experience can refute it; as Aldrovandus upon relation delivered concerning the mufick of the Swans on the river of Thames near London. Now that, which countenanceth and probably confirmeth this opinion, is the ftrange and unufual conformation of the wind-pipe or vocal organ in this animal, observed first by Aldrovandus, and conceived by fome 48 contrived for this intention: But to speak indifferently, this formation of the weazon is not peculiar unto the Swan, but common alfo unto the platea or Shovelard, a bird of no mufical throat; and, as Aldrovandus confeffeth, may thus be contrived in the Swan to contain a larger stock of air, whereby being to be fed on weeds at the bottom they might the longer space detain their heads under water: But

47 The composer of the Article (Cygne Mythol.) in the Encyclopedie, is guilty of this mittake, when he afferts, "Ou lui croyoit un ramage très melodieux, mais c'etoir feulement, lorsqu'il etoit fur le point de mourir:" Various paffages might be produced from the Claffical Authors to refute this remark; but to give an instance only in one, Virgil fays of Swans, which are not dying,

Cum fefe e paftu referunt, & longa canoros
Dant per colla modos.
En. 7. v. 700.

48 Thus Rittershufius in the note on Oppian, de Ven. 1. 11. v. 544, quotes authorities to this purpofe; Ideo autem fuaviter, eum canere dicunt, quia collum longum & inflexum habe, & neceffe eft eluctantem vocem per longum & inflexuofum iter varias reddere modulationes, (Ifidorus, 1. XII. c. 7.) Ambrofius etiam collum cycnis hanc ipfam ob caufam procerius a naturâ datum effe fcribit, ut eo fuavior & magis canorus per procera modulus colla diftinguatur, & longiore exercitatione purior longe refultet, (1. v. c. 22.) Bartholinus in his treatife has minutely confidered the anatomy of the Swan's neck, but he fairly acknowledges, that no inference can be drawn from any physical appearances in favour of the Bird's melody.

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were this formation peculiar, or had they unto this effect an advantage from this part; yet have they a known and open difadvantage from another; that is a flat bill; for no latirof trous animal, whereof nevertheless there are no flender numbers, were ever commended for their note, or accounted among thofe animals, which have been inftructed to fpeak: When therefore we confider the diffention of Authors, the falfity of relations, the indifpofition of the organs, and the immufical note of all we ever beheld or heard of, if generally taken and comprehending all Swans and of all places, we cannot affent thereto: Surely he that is bit with a tarantula fhall never be cured by this mufick; and with the fame hopes we expect to hear the harmony of the fpheres." I shall now proceed to the teftimony of Willughby, who in his Ornithology" has a chapter on the wild Swan, called alfo an Elk, and in fome places a Hooper: Hence, fays he, "what the Ancients have delivered concerning the finging of Swans, if it be true, which I much doubt, feems chiefly to agree to this Bird, and not to the tame Swan: For my part those ftories of the Ancients concerning the finging of the Swans, viz. that thofe Birds at other times, but efpecially, when their death approaches, do with a moft fweet and melodious modulation of their voice fing their own nænia or funeral fong, feemed to me always very unlikely and fabulous, and to have been therefore not undefervedly exploded by Scaliger and others: Howbeit Aldrovandus weighing on both fides the arguments and authorities of learned Men hath (he faith) obferved them to be equal; wherefore to caft the scale, and eftablish the affirmative he thinks that wonderful structure of

49 B. III. c. z. p. 357. ed. 1678.

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the windpipe, by him firft obferved, is of weight fufficient, but this argument, though it be very fpecious and plaufible, yet doth it not conclude the controverfie; for that the wild Swan hath a very loud and fhrill cry, and which may be heard a long way off, the English name Hooper imposed upon it, as I fuppofe, from its hooping and hollowing noise, doth import: Hence it appears, how uncertain and fallacious a way of arguing it is from the final caufe; for though Nature, God's ordering Minifter, always acts for fome end, yet what that is we are often ignorant, and doth not rarely fall out to be far different from what we fancy; nay we may be deceived, when we think we are most fure, and imagine it can be no other than what we have prefumed: wherefore I make more account of the teftimony he alledges as of Fredederick Pendafius, that affirmed, that he often heard Swans finging fweetly in the lake of Mantua, as he was rowed up and down in a boat; but as for the teftimony of George Braun, concerning flocks of Swans in the Sea near London meeting, and as it were welcoming the fleets of fhips returning home with loud and chearful finging, it is without doubt moft falfe: I never heard of any fuch thing:" He then ftates the teftimony of Olaus Wormius, which I have before inferted. The next Author, who challenges our notice, is Monfieur Morin, who has written a Differtation, inferted in the fifth volume 50 of the Hiftoire des Infcriptions & des belles Lettres on this fubject, "why Swans, who formerly fung fo well, fing at prefent fo ill:" After affuming two propofitions as granted, the ancient melody and the modern difcord of this Bird, he inquires, whether the fpecies may no nave dege

so Memoires de Litterature, p. 207.

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nerated; whether their mufick was not the effect of imitation in the feftive times of ancient Græce; whether it may not have proceeded from the effect of climate, or whether there is not fome error in the identity of this Bird: He conjectures that Swans may have been indebted for their pretended voice to Cycnus, Son of Apollo, or to the marvellous relation of fome Travellers; he afferts that in his time there were but few Swans in Græce; and they were then never seen or heard on the banks of Cayfter and Meander: and he concludes, that the whole is a fable, unfupported by any foundation in Nature; that the anatomical form of the neck of the Swan, refembling some musical instruments, the protection of the God Apollo, and the predominant qualities of the Heroes of the name of Cycnus might have confpired to have formed the chimæra in the poetical brain: "Mais à quoi bon f'alambiquer l'efprit à chercher de la raifon, ou il n'y en a point; ils ont fait chanter les Cygnes, comme ils ont fait parler les animaux; voilà tout le miftere, qui n'etoit apparemment pas inconnu à l'auteur de l'ancien proverbe Grec, qui porte queles Cygnes chanteront, quand les Geais cefferont de babil ler ou de crialler: c'eft à dire jamais, parce que le babil eft naturel aux oiseaux de cette derniere efpece "." It happens unfortunately for Monfieur Morin, that he has drawn an erroneous inference from the Greek Proverb 52 ; whofe literal

SI Id. p. 217.

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52 The words are, Τότ ̓ ἄσολαι κύκνοι, ὅταν κολοίοι σιωπήσωσι. They occur in Nazianzen at the end of his first Epistle, (tom. I. p. 768. ed. 1630.) And they are alfo mentioned in the note of Ritterfhufius on Oppian. (De Ven. 1. II. v. 544. p. 781.) where he explains the meaning of the expreffion to imply, that there is no place for modefty and wifdom, when clamour and noife prevail: The words are alfo cited by the Dauphin Editor on Lucretius (1. III. v. 6.) who fays, that the Proverb alludes to thofe who are loquacious, for whofe garrulity there is no place among the learned.

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acceptation specifies, that when the Jackdaws are filent, then will the Swans fing; which I understand to imply, that when the noise of Difcord is hufhed, the charm of melody may then be heard: The contraft is much the fame, as is conveyed in the following lines of Shakespeare,

The nightingale, if the fhould fing by day,

When every goofe is cackling, would be thought
No better a musician than the wren.

The next authority, which I fhall mention, is that of the Author of the British Zoology", who fuppofes "that the ancient idea of the mufical quality of the Swan was ingrafted on the notion, that they were confecrated to Apollo and the Mufes; and on the Pythagorean doctrine of the tranfmigration of fouls into the bodies of animals, as that of the Swan was allotted for the mansion of departed Poets: After the Ancients, continues he, had thus furnifhed thefe Birds with fuch agreeable inmates, it is not to be doubted, but they would attribute to them the fame powers of harmony, that Poets poffeffed, previous to their tranfmigration; but the Vulgar, not diftinguishing between the sweetness of numbers and that of voice, ignorantly believed that to be real, which Philofophers and Poets only meant metaphorically." I can by no means affent to these observations of Mr. Pennant, for the Swan I apprehend was confecrated to Apollo, and was honoured with the tranfmigration of the Poet, because the idea of its melody, whatever might be the foundation of it, had the established fanction of antiquity: This was therefore the caufe, and not the effect of the other two notions, which

53 Vol. II. p. 566 & 567.

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