Eighteenth Century

This century contains the most impoitant chapter in the history of music. Scarlatti (1659-1725) who wrote some hundred operas, a number of oratorios and an immense amount of ecclesiastical music, introduced three novel ties destined to influence music deeply. The two principal of these are the Sinfonia or Overture and the accompanied recitative. Every country in Europe took up music and made distinct contributions to it. Purcell's work in the 17th century in England had finely prepared the public mind, and Handel and Bach com pleted the organization of the art of music on a firm footing. It has been said that "'these two great composers of the 18th century, wrote every combination of musical notes that down to our latest times has ever been employed with good effect? . . . °The more the works of these masters are studied the more are they found to foreshadow the supposed novelties in harmony, employed by subsequent artists? (MacFarren, ). The period includes also the life and works of Gluck who did so much to unite music and plot in opera into one harmonious whole. Piccini, Gliick's rival in the famous musical war in Paris, was a much less important musi cian, but he had dramatic power and real musical talent Haydn, often spoken of as the father of the sytnphony, contributed greatly to the development of music and some of the sons of the great Sebastian Bach have an en during place in the history of musical art. Mozart whose untimely death at the age crf 35 cut him off in the flower of his achieve ment is one of the greatest musicians of all time. Before the end of the century Beethoven had rounded the symphony into its modern form and left the world eternally his debtor for his marvelous command over notes. The opera comique of the French which dates from early in the 18th century, the distinction from grand opera being that there was spoken dialogue interspersed with the music, provided opportunity for the development of lighter music that was to occupy so much attention in modern times. What is noteworthy, however, in the 18th century is the depth and serious ness of interest of even the general public in music. Handel's oratorios were given to crowded houses and as Frederic Harrison has said gthe ill designed churches of the period were often crowded with people who were deeply touched by the sacred music given and whose emotions were heartfelt and not at all the result of any fashionable or con ventional feeling? The literature of the 18th century,.opening with 'The Rape of the Lock> and closing with Goethe's

Education reached a very low ebb in the 18th century so that Cardinal Newman suggests the middle of the century as representing prob ably the lowest period in the history of uni versity education, when the students at Oxford and Cambridge scarcely more than °ate their terms,'" that is, lived in residence to receive their degrees, while Winckelmann, wanting to teach Plato at the end of the century, had to have manuscript copies of the author because no Greek edition had been issued in Germany for over 100 years. Philosophy, however, was

the subject of a good deal of attention and exploitation usually on the part of men not directly connected with the universities. It is the age of Locke, of Hume and of Bishop Berke ley in England, whose stay in America in fluenced Jonathan Edwards, of Voltaire and the Encyclopedists in France and of Kant in Ger many. The work of these men lived to in fluence the 19th century. Religion was at a low ebb and it was an age of scepticism. The work of the devoted John Wesley in England, which proved the incentive for the Oxford Movement of the succeeding century, was the first index of reaction. French philosophy in its atheistic aspects was curiously enough a child of English scepticism. Voltaire and the French Encyclopedists (see ENCYCLOPEDIA) at tracted attention rather by the brilliancy of their style, the keenness of their wit and their biting satire than by depth of thought. Vol taire himself pronounced the period an °age of llousseau suggested the abandon ment of artificial culture and refinement and the going back to the primitive state of nature because it seemed hopeless to guide men by reason. Adam Smith's (Wealth of Nations' represented the English philosophy of inde pendent morality applied to practical life.

The 18th is above all the century of the fundamental organization of the physical sci ences in their modern form. The period crystal lized the data of scientific information, till then held in solution, and gave the physical sciences the form they have maintained since. Physics, chemistry, botany, zoology, comparative anat omy, electricity and psychology as well as the elements of social both in history and in statics took shape. Lancisi at the beginning of the century in Italy and at the end of the cen tury Hunter and Bichat in England and France revolutionized methods and ,results in the sciences related to medicine. Morgagni founded pathology. Jenner's discovery of vaccination marked the dawn of a new era in therapeutics. Auenbrugger initiated clinical diagnosis, and the example of such men as Percival Pott, after whom Pott's disease (q.v.) and Pott's fracture are named, gave a new impetus to accuracy of surgical diagnosis. The Vienna School of Medicine began its work as an in heritance from some great students of Boer haave at the beginning of the century, and such men as Cullen, Heberden, Currie, Fothergill. Huxham left an indelible impress upon med ical history. Franklin, Galvani, Volta laid the foundations of the science of electricity while Priestley, Lavoisier and Scheele were doing similar work in chemistry. Laplace, La Grange and others were adding to the magnificent work that Newton had accomplished at the beginning of the 18th century, recognizing very clearly the surpassing value of their predecessor's work. La Grange declared that Newton, whose cipia' received its final form in this century, °was the greatest genius that ever existed." Beside him deserve to be named such men as Halley of the comet, Euler, the Bernouillis, the elder Herschel and Legendre. The century was also particularly fruitful in mathematical genius. In the biological sciences Cuvier, Buffon, Geoffroy St. Hilaire and Lamarck, most of whose work was accomplished before the cen tury closed, did work that was destined to leave its impress deeply upon their sciences. It re quired much more than merely talent and ap plication to make the first great steps in these sciences and only positive genius could have done what these men achieved.