Entered at Stationers' Hall, according to Act of Parliament. MANCHESTER: PRINTED BY JOHN GADSBY, NEWALL'S-BUILDINGS, PREFACE. POETRY and music, or the expression of sentiment in metrical composition, and the recitation of such sentiment in those modulated tones of the voice whi stitute true melody, have a natural connexion, an adapted to the intellectual and moral constitution of ma Ardent and elevated emotion delights in the splendours of poetic diction, and in the expression, in measured numbers, and well-adapted tune, of the feelings which it inspires. Sound thus lends all its sweetness to truth, and les it more deeply to interest and affect. Devotional ......es have relation, not only to the judgment, but to the affections; and are designed to elevate and purify them, by raising them towards God and heaven. Poetry and music thus become the handmaids of religion; supplying at once an appropriate medium for the expression of the sentiments and the feelings, and a powerful instrument by which to extend their influence. The most ancient poetic composition on record--the Song of Moses when the children of Israel had effected the passage of the Red Sea, had for its object, the ce oration of Jehovah's praises on account of the deliverar he had wrought out for his people:-this composithe sacred page informs us, was sung by Moses ad the children of Israel. The exultation of Deborah and Barak, the spiritual elevation of the Levites on Hezekiah's cleansing the house of the Lord; nay, even the sounds of woe uttered by Jeremiah, on the death of Josiah, afford sufficient proof that the practice of sing ti |