learn, I trust, to look at the Bible in its simplest form, without any elaborate expositions, or ingenious inferences, as containing the history of the Divine government and education of our race. It will give them a view of the growth of human thought and of human society, which I think explain wonderfully both the facts we meet with elsewhere and the elaborate theories respecting them, which seem to stand out in fierce opposition to each other. It is busy with all common things, with the transactions of daily life; in them, not apart from them, men learn that they are mysterious beings. How God awakens the discovery, how he guides those to whom He has made it, the book declares in the clearest and simplest language-language, however, which would not be plain to us, if there were not the like process going on in ourselves. We ask for an interpretation of it, and we are puzzled, so many are offered; they are so contradictory, each is so much more difficult than the thing to be interpreted. We ask it to interpret what we see and feel, and the different partial notions respecting itself; gradually a light dawns upon us; we feel that it is from above, because the ground at our feet is made clear by it; we feel that it proceeds from that Life which is the light of men.

I do not conceal my belief, that if Theology has a place among studies, it has the chief; it is not a science; it is the science. But I am not the least anxious to urge this claim on its behalf: first,

because it must be made good-if it is a true one— by trial, not by assertion; secondly, because the nature of it may be mistaken. There have been some who have supposed that the Bible, like the Koran, either comprehends all books, or is a substitute for them; that Theology either takes in all sciences, or extinguishes them. Both these opinions I hold to be mischievous and detestable. If the Bible is made the one book which sets aside all others, it soon ceases to be regarded as the book of Him who created the universe, and from whom all the thoughts and wisdom of all creatures come. It becomes not the utterance of His mind, but an idol to which we offer the homage which is due to Him only. If Theology extinguishes all other sciences, it soon extinguishes itself; it becomes a system, its reality is gone. The day we look forward to is that in which every insect and flower, every order of Creation from the lowest upwards, shall be seen in its perfect distinctness, in its fulness of life, in its perfect relation to every other; because He will be fully revealed who called them into existence, who renews their life day by day, in whom they find their purpose and their harmony.

By these tedious explanations I have cleared the way for a very simple statement. I should wish the pupils to come to the class with their Bibles. I propose to begin at the beginning. I cannot exactly say how long we may dwell upon any particular

book; but I should wish it not to be so long as that the pupils should be in danger of losing the sense of connexion between its different parts or between that and the next. I shall very rarely stop to illustrate particular texts; only when the understanding of them is quite necessary to the course of the history. I shall not introduce catechetical instruction at first, as it may be disagreeable to some pupils; gradually I hope it may be adopted. From time to time, I may request written accounts of the Lectures, or answers to written questions. I will only add, that as every teacher is at liberty to lay down what rules he pleases for his own lecture-room, and as every teacher is bound to use those methods which he believes are needful for the right study of his subject, I shall open the Class each day by saying the Lord's Prayer.

XIII.

ON

VOCAL MUSIC.

BY

JOHN HULLAH,

PROFESSOR OF VOCAL MUSIC IN KING'S COLLEGE.

FOLLOWING the example of my Colleagues, I

appear before you for the purpose of presenting a brief sketch of the course of Lectures which it will be my duty to commence shortly in this place; and also, that I may state (so far as the limits of a session of this kind will admit) what objects, in any way different from those common to every similar course, will be sought in them.

On the subject of musical instruction, it has fallen to my lot of late years to write and to say a good deal: and if, in most cases, I have thought it well to leave what are called the "humanizing influences" of Music where I found them, you will easily anticipate that I do not intend to alter my course to-day. It would be idle, indeed, to advocate the claims of an art in an Institution founded for the

education of that sex upon whom, in England, its cultivation has heretofore almost exclusively fallen. But in respect to Music as an element of educationin respect to the best means of arriving at any given result, or the value of those means, apart from the consideration of any result whatever the time has by no means yet arrived when anything can be taken for granted. The estimation in which the art is held, is no doubt very different from that of ten, or even of five years ago; but, I repeat, as an element of education, it has by no means attained the place to which I hope it will one day be thought entitled. Hundreds have essayed the study of Music who till very lately had never given it a thought-would scarcely have considered it a rational pursuit; and thousands are now under instruction, who would once have had no means of getting within the sphere of its influence. But, strange to say, among that particular class who were once the only music studentsfemales of the upper and middle ranks of society— Music (as far as my means of observation allow me to judge) has not made any progress whatever. Amateur singing and amateur playing, in "good society," are very nearly what they were ten years ago; or, to speak more plainly, musical parties still continue to present a great deal of very indifferent music, very indifferently performed, to audiences more indifferent (in another sense) than either the music or the performance. The progress made in