Willis
in particular tells us of a lady who could hear only while a drum was
beating, in so much that her husband, the account says, hired a drummer
as her servant, in order to enjoy the pleasures of her conversation.
[118] Many of the ancients speak of music as a recipe for every kind of
malady, and it is probable that the Latin was _praecinere_, to charm
away pain, _incantare_ to enchant, and our own word _incantation_, came
from the medical use of song.
[119] M. Burette, with Dr. Mead, Baglivi, and all the learned of their
time throughout Europe, seem to have entertained no doubt of this fact,
which, however, philosophical and curious enquirers have since found to
be built upon fraud and fallacy. Vide Serrao, _della Tarantula o vero
falangio di Puglia._
[120] Pope's translation of the Iliad, Book 1.
[121] See a curious Dissertation on the musical modes of the Hindoos by
Sir W. Jones.
CHAPTER XV.
PRESAGES, PRODIGES, PRESENTIMENTS, ETC.
The common opinion of comets being the presages of evil is an old pagan
superstition, introduced and entertained among Christians by their
prejudice for antiquity; and which Mr.
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