We are now arrived at the Reformation, and middle of the sixteenth century; a period which seems favourable for closing this volume, already more bulky than the first. My original intention was, to comprise the whole work in two volumes; but I soon discovered, with some degree of shame and mortification, that to have bestowed no more pages on modern music, concerning which we have so much certain information, than upon the ancient, of which, so little can now be even conjectured, would be like allowing one volume, in a History of England, to the Heptarchy,1 and only one to all subsequent times.

At first, imagining that there would be no need of compression, and, indeed, not seeing the whole compass of my subject, I ransacked antiquity2 for whatever materials it could furnish, relative to the music of the Greeks and Romans, of which the effects have been so splendidly described, and which have long remained, and, it is to be feared, ever will remain, enigmas to all who have the misfortune to be born too late for the strains of swans and sirens.3 When I quitted these enquiries, to survey the rest of my labours, I saw “Alps on Alps arise,”4 which it was impossible to ascend without great pains and perseverance; however, as only one could be assailed at a time, I still was obliged to work in detail at particular parts, without bestowing much attention on the whole: and in this manner a second volume has been produced. If I committed an error, in allotting too many pages of my work to the ancient music, it would have been ill-corrected, by bestowing too few on the modern. Thus, as one error produced a second volume, before the completion of my design, so will a second produce a third; which, soon after the close of the first, appeared inevitable, unless, all proportion of the whole, to its parts, had been sacrificed.

It has never been my wish, or intention, to be always in the press;5 or to keep memory and reflection on the rack,6 at the expence of every moment of leisure for enjoyment or amusement. My industry, in this undertaking, has not been stimulated by profit, and the reputation of an author becomes daily less alluring, as reflection shews it to be more uncertain. Yet, a repugnance to abandoning, unaccomplished, an enterprize, for which such pains and expence have been bestowed in procuring materials, would be still an incitement to new efforts, though every other should fail.

This apology, for the amplification of my original plan, seems due to my first subscribers. I have been obliged, extremely against my inclination, to depart from the letter of my proposals;7 but as it has been done with no selfish or sinister views, my wish being only to render my work more worthy the honour of their patronage, I venture to hope, that no great moral turpitude will be found in the addition, at some future time, of a third volume.8