Great proficiency, without which music now ceases to be delightful, cannot, as I have just observed, be made without great application, or the application of some years.

Now all this long application is of a sedentary nature.

But all occupations of a sedentary nature are injurious to the human constitution, and weaken and disorder it in time.

But in proportion as the body is thus weakened by the sedentary nature of the employment, it is weakened again by the enervating powers of the art.

Thus the nervous system is acted upon by two enemies at once, and in the course of the long education necessary for this science, the different disorders of hysteria are produced.
Hence the females of the present age, amongst whom this art has been cultivated to excess, are generally found to have a weak and languid constitution, and to be disqualified, more than others, from becoming healthy wives, or healthy mothers, or the parents of a healthy progeny.
SECT.