whether any person into whose hands these sheets may fall, can turn his eye inwardly, and exclaim with a conscience void of offence and selfishness, I too am a general philanthropist, like the good old English singing master.
Several musical amateurs are associated here under the title of the Apollonian Society. I visited it by invitation at the house of Mr. F. Amelung the acting President, and was most agreeably surprised to hear a concert of instrumental musick performed by about a dozen gentlemen of the town, with a degree {66} of taste and execution, which I could not have expected in so remote a place. I was particularly astonished at the performance on the violin of Mr. Gabler, a German, employed at Gen. O'Hara's glass house, and who is one of the society. His natural talents for musick were so great, that he could not bear the trammels of a scientifick acquisition of it, and therefore never learned a note, yet he joins a correct extempore harmony, to the compositions of Hayden, Pleyel, Bach, Mozart and the other celebrated composers, particularly in their lively movements; he is not quite so happy in his accompaniments of Handel, or of grand or solemn musick generally. His execution of Waltz's is in a sweet and tasty style, and he has composed by ear and committed to memory several pieces, which impress the hearer with regret, that they must die with their author. Indeed he now (when too late) regrets himself, that he had not in his youth, and when he had great opportunities, added science to natural taste.
The Apollonian society is principally indebted for its formation to the labours of Mr. S. H. Dearborn,[29] a New England man, who came here about a year ago, to exercise the profession of a portrait painter, and being a very versatile genius, and having some knowledge of, and taste for
