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Lesson 6: Introducing JavaScript
TRUE/FALSE
1. JavaScript is undoubtedly the most widely used technology on the World Wide Web.
4. In JavaScript, the opening curly brace ( { ) indicates the beginning of a statement block, and the
closing brace ( } ) marks the end of that block.
5. If you make the mistake of entering HTML tags within a JavaScript code block, your browser will still
display them without error.
6. It would be easier to enter the code that can display simple static text messages in a browser using
HTML than to use the JavaScript document.write() method to display the same text messages.
7. If using the else keyword in a JavaScript if statement, the else keyword appears immediately after the
statement block of the if clause and is accompanied by a statement block of its own.
8. HTML tags do not conform to the rules of JavaScript syntax; therefore, the JavaScript interpreter
cannot process them.
9. Once the condition has been evaluated, either the if statement block or the else statement block will be
executed, or both.
10. Strictly speaking, the rules of JavaScript syntax require a semicolon at the end of each line.
MODIFIED TRUE/FALSE
1. It is easy for a Web browser to detect whether a particular Web page contains embedded JavaScript
code. The person who creates the document should use the <string> tag to mark the beginning of a
JavaScript section. ____________________
ANS: F
script
<script>
2. Method names are always followed by a parameter list, even though the list is sometimes empty.
____________________
3. The syntax of the conditional statement in JavaScript is very important. The statement begins with the
keyword if, and then a condition is specified within a pair of parentheses. ____________________
4. A JavaScript condition will always consist of two statements separated by a relational operator.
____________________
ANS: F, tokens
5. If the result of the condition is true, the else block will run. ____________________
ANS: F, if
MULTIPLE CHOICE
1. JavaScript is sometimes referred to as a programming language, but it is more accurate to call it a ____
language.
a. scripting c. sequence
b. helper d. process
ANS: A PTS: 1 REF: 142
3. When working with a compiler, the ____ controls the conversion process of turning human-readable
code into a machine-readable form.
a. browser c. source program
b. programmer d. target program
ANS: B PTS: 1 REF: 142
4. With JavaScript, the browser will convert the script into its equivalent machine-readable form called
____ code.
a. primary c. binary
b. secondary d. sequential
ANS: C PTS: 1 REF: 142
5. The primary purpose of JavaScript is to generate text that will be inserted into the standard ____ text
stream.
a. HTTP c. FTP
b. HTML d. TCP/IP
ANS: B PTS: 1 REF: 142
6. The syntax of the parameter list consists of an opening parenthesis, ____ or more parameter items, and
a closing parenthesis.
a. zero c. two
b. one d. three
ANS: A PTS: 1 REF: 143
7. The JavaScript method ____ simply inserts a string of characters into the standard HTML text stream.
a. document.write() c. document.stream()
b. document.text() d. document.window()
ANS: A PTS: 1 REF: 144
8. When working with JavaScript, always place the ____ directly below the keyword to which it belongs.
a. opening brace c. property name
b. closing brace d. method name
ANS: A PTS: 1 REF: 145
9. When working with JavaScript, always ____ contained within the statement block.
a. highlight comments c. italicize the HTML
b. capitalize tags d. indent the statements
ANS: D PTS: 1 REF: 145
10. When working with JavaScript, always place the closing brace so that it is ____ with its corresponding
opening brace.
a. horizontally aligned c. centered
b. vertically aligned d. right justified
ANS: B PTS: 1 REF: 145
13. The JavaScript if statement supports an optional ____ clause, which defines the action to take if the
specified condition is not true.
a. when c. yet
b. else d. then
ANS: B PTS: 1 REF: 148
14. The purpose of the ____ method is to allow a JavaScript program to display a special dialog box that
will notify the user that an unexpected event has occurred or that some kind of user input is required.
a. notice() c. alert()
b. message() d. warning()
ANS: C PTS: 1 REF: 152
15. ____ is considered to be the JavaScript default object, which means it is not necessary to use its name
explicitly.
a. Script c. Name
b. Value d. Window
ANS: D PTS: 1 REF: 152
16. JavaScript objects contain ____ that programmers can access to obtain information about the object.
a. properties c. lists
b. methods d. syntax strings
ANS: A PTS: 1 REF: 151
17. The bar at the bottom of the browser window that displays messages is called the ____ line.
a. status c. alert
b. help d. command
ANS: A PTS: 1 REF: 156
18. In 1978, two employees of Bell Laboratories, Brian Kernighan and Dennis Ritchie, published a book
titled The C Programming Language, and started the tradition to display the phrase ____.
a. “Hello, World!” c. “Hello, Friend!”
b. “Hello, USA!” d. “Hello Out There!”
ANS: A PTS: 1 REF: 159
FIGURE 6-1
19. Referring to Figure 6-1, the table shows ____ operators.
a. process c. absolute
b. relational d. standard
ANS: B PTS: 1 REF: 148
20. Referring to Figure 6-1 above, the operators shown in the chart are often part of a JavaScript ____.
a. method c. parameter list
b. property d. condition
ANS: D PTS: 1 REF: 148
Case 6-1
Kate is new at her company, and has found some existing JavaScript that she would like to use on the
company’s Web site.
21. In the JavaScript below, Kate realizes that the first line “if (<blank>)” is called the ____.
if (<blank>)
{
input 1;
input 2;
input 3;
}
a. link c. clause
b. condition d. operator
ANS: B PTS: 1 REF: 147 TOP: Critical Thinking
22. In the JavaScript below, Kate discovers that the lines labeled “input 1; input 2; and input 3;” are called
the ____.
if (<blank>)
{
input 1;
input 2;
input 3;
}
a. variables c. constants
b. statements d. operators
ANS: B PTS: 1 REF: 147 TOP: Critical Thinking
Case 6-2
Daniel is writing JavaScript code to see if the person visiting his Web site is using Microsoft Internet
Explorer.
23. The condition being evaluated in this JavaScript code fragment from Daniel’s site is:
In this case, you are utilizing the appName ____ of the navigator object to determine the application
name of the current Web browser.
a. method c. object
b. application d. property
ANS: D PTS: 1 REF: 151 TOP: Critical Thinking
24. In the context of this case, and the code written below,
the term navigator can be used interchangeably with the term ____.
a. browser c. appName
b. Microsoft Internet Explorer d. Name
ANS: A PTS: 1 REF: 151 | 152 TOP: Critical Thinking
COMPLETION
1. In the context of HTML and JavaScript, a(n) ____________________ is nothing more than a sequence
of one or more characters.
ANS: string
ANS: objects
3. A(n) ____________________ is a user-defined name for a memory location whose value can change
over time.
ANS: variable
4. A token can either be a variable name (such as x or count) or a literal ____________________ (such
as 10 or “hello”).
ANS: constant
PTS: 1 REF: 148
ANS: window
MATCHING
Identify the letter of the choice that best matches the phrase or definition.
a. Methods
b. Parameter list
c. Conditional statement
d. Interpretation
e. Syntax
1. Gives programmers the ability to evaluate a specific condition and then perform different actions
depending on the results of that evaluation
2. Provides the method with the information it needs to perform its function correctly
3. JavaScript programmers call upon the services of one or more of these specialized functions that are
within objects
4. Specific rules of grammar in the Javascript language
5. The line-by-line conversion process of scripts that occurs automatically at run time
ESSAY
1. Explain the history of Java and JavaScript. Which came first? How are they related to each other?
Would you rather have worked on the development of Java or the development of JavaScript? Why?
ANS:
Java was created first by Sun Microsystems, Inc. Sun released its cross-platform programming
language to the general public in 1995, and it has grown in popularity at an unprecedented rate ever
since.
But Sun was not the only company looking for ways to enhance the capabilities of standard HTML.
Netscape Communications Corporation was also busy working on technologies to give Web
developers a way to embed user-programmable scripts into static HTML documents. They knew that
they needed to incorporate a well-defined syntax into their design. Netscape employees observed how
popular the Java language was becoming, so they licensed the Java name from Sun and used the Java
syntax in their own scripting language. The result of Netscape’s efforts became known as JavaScript,
and it has also enjoyed a great deal of success in the Internet software development sector.
Language: English
DOCTOR BURNEY,
ARRANGED
BY
IN THREE VOLUMES.
VOL. I.
LONDON:
EDWARD MOXON, 64, NEW BOND STREET.
1832.
LONDON:
BRADBURY AND EVANS, PRINTERS,
BOUVERIE STREET.
PREFACE, OR APOLOGY.
The intentions, or, rather, the directions of Dr. Burney that his
Memoirs should be published; and the expectation of his family and
friends that they should pass through the hands of his present Editor
and Memorialist, have made the task of arranging the ensuing
collations with her own personal recollections, appear to her a
sacred duty from the year 1814.[1]
But the grief at his loss, which at first incapacitated her from such an
effort, was soon afterwards followed by change of place, change of
circumstances—almost of existence—with multiplied casualties that,
eventually, separated her from all her manuscript materials. And
these she only recovered when under the pressure of a new
affliction that took from her all power, or even thought, for their
investigation. During many years, therefore, they have been laid
aside, though never forgotten.
But if Time, as so often we lament, will not stand still upon
happiness, it would be graceless not to acknowledge, with gratitude
to Providence, that neither is it positively stationary upon sorrow: for
though there are calamities which it cannot obliterate, and wounds
which Religion alone can heal, Time yet seems endowed with a
secret principle for producing a mental calm, through which life
imperceptibly glides back to its customary operations; however
powerless Time itself—earthly Time!—must still remain for restoring
lost felicity.
Now, therefore,—most unexpectedly,—that she finds herself
sufficiently recovered from successive indispositions and afflictions to
attempt the acquittal of a debt which has long hung heavily upon
her mind, she ventures to re-open her manuscript stores, and to
resume, though in trembling, her long-forsaken pen.
That the life of so eminent a man should not pass away without
some authenticated record, will be pretty generally thought; and the
circumstances which render her its recorder, grow out of the very
nature of things: she possesses all his papers and documents; and,
from her earliest youth to his latest decline, not a human being was
more confidentially entrusted than herself with the occurrences, the
sentiments, and the feelings of his past and passing days.
Although, as biography, from time immemorial, has claimed the
privilege of being more discursive than history, the Memorialist may
seek to diversify the plain recital of facts by such occasional
anecdotes as have been hoarded from childhood in her memory;
still, and most scrupulously, not an opinion will be given as Dr.
Burney’s, either of persons or things, that was not literally his own:
and fact will as essentially be the basis of every article, as if its
object were still lent to earth, and now listening to this exposition of
his posthumous memoirs with her own recollections.
Nevertheless, though nothing is related that does not belong to Dr.
Burney and his history, the accounts are not always rigidly confined
to his presence, where scenes, or traits, still strong in the
remembrance of the Editor, or still before her eyes in early letters or
diaries, invite to any characteristic details of celebrated personages.
Not slight, however, is the embarrassment that struggles with the
pleasure of these mingled reminiscences, from their appearance of
personal obtrusion: yet, when it is seen that they are never brought
forward but to introduce some incident or speech, that must else
remain untold of Dr. Johnson, Mr. Burke, Mrs. Delany, Mrs. Thrale,
Mr. Bruce—nay, Napoleon—and some other high-standing names, of
recent date to the aged, yet of still living curiosity to the youthful
reader—these apparent egotisms may be something more,—perhaps
—than pardoned.
Where the life has been as private as that of Dr. Burney, its history
must necessarily be simple, and can have little further call upon the
attention of the world, than that which may belong to a wish of
tracing the progress of a nearly abandoned Child, from a small
village of Shropshire, to a Man allowed throughout Europe to have
risen to the head of his profession; and thence, setting his
profession aside, to have been elevated to an intellectual rank in
society, as a Man of Letters—
with most of the eminent men of his day,—Dr. Johnson and Mr.
Burke, soaring above any contemporary mark, always, like Senior
Wranglers, excepted.
And to this height, to which, by means and resources all his own, he
arose, the Genius that impelled him to Fame, the Integrity that
established his character, and the Amiability that magnetized all
hearts,—in the phrase of Dr. Johnson—to go forth to meet him, were
the only materials with which he worked his way.
INTRODUCTION.
COPIED FROM A MANUSCRIPT MEMOIR IN THE DOCTOR’S
OWN HAND-WRITING.
If the life of a humble individual, on whom neither splendid
appointments, important transactions, nor atrocious crimes have
called the attention of the public, can afford amusement to the
friends he leaves behind, without being offered either as a model to
follow, or a precipice to shun, the intention of the writer of these
Memoirs will be fully accomplished. But there is no member of
society who, by diligence, talents, or conduct, leaves his name and
his race a little better than those from which he sprung, who is
totally without some claim to attention on the means by which such
advantages were achieved.
My life, though it has been frequently a tissue of toil, sickness, and
sorrow, has yet been, upon the whole, so much more pleasant and
prosperous than I had a title to expect, or than many others with
higher claims have enjoyed, that its incidents, when related, may,
perhaps, help to put mediocrity in good-humour, and to repress the
pride and overrated worth and expectations of indolence.
Perhaps few have been better enabled to describe, from an actual
survey, the manners and customs of the age in which he lived than
myself; ascending from those of the most humble cottagers, and
lowest mechanics, to the first nobility, and most elevated
personages, with whom circumstances, situation, and accident, at
different periods of my life, have rendered me familiar. Oppressed
and laborious husbandmen; insolent and illiberal yeomanry;
overgrown farmers; generous and hospitable merchants; men of
business and men of pleasure; men of letters; men of science;
artists; sportsmen and country ’squires; dissipated and extravagant
voluptuaries; gamesters; ambassadors; statesmen; and even
sovereign princes, I have had opportunities of examining in almost
every point of view: all these it is my intention to display in their
respective situations; and to delineate their virtues, vices, and
apparent degrees of happiness and misery.
A book of this kind, though it may mortify and offend a few persons
of the present age, may be read with avidity at the distance of some
centuries, by antiquaries and lovers of anecdotes; though it will have
lost the poignancy of personality.
My grandfather, James Macburney, who, by letters which I have seen
of his writing, and circumstances concerning him which I remember
to have heard from my father and mother, was a gentleman of a
considerable patrimony at Great Hanwood, a village in Shropshire,
had received a very good education; but, from what cause does not
appear, in the latter years of his life, was appointed land steward to
the Earl of Ashburnham. He had a house in Privy Garden, Whitehall.
In the year 1727, he walked as esquire to one of the knights, at the
coronation of King George the Second.
My father, James, born likewise at Hanwood, was well educated also,
both in school learning and accomplishments. He was a day scholar
at Westminster School, under the celebrated Dr. Busby, while my
grandfather resided at Whitehall. I remember his telling a story of
the severe chastisement he received from that terrific disciplinarian,
Dr. Busby, for playing truant after school hours, instead of returning
home. My grandfather, who had frequently admonished him not to
loiter in the street, lest he should make improper and mischievous
acquaintance, finding no attention was paid to his injunctions, gave
him a letter addressed to the Reverend Dr. Busby; which he did not
fail to deliver, with ignorant cheerfulness, on his entrance into the
school. The Doctor, when he had perused it, called my father to him,
and, in a very mild, and seemingly good-humoured voice, said,
“Burney, can you read writing?” “Yes, Sir,” answered my father, with
great courage and flippancy. “Then read this letter aloud,” says the
Doctor; when my father, with an audible voice, began: “Sir, My son,
the bearer of this letter, having long disregarded my admonitions
against stopping to play with idle boys in his way home from school
—” Here my father’s voice faltered. “Go on,” says his master; “you
read very well.” “I am sorry to be under the necessity of entreating
you to—to—to—to cor—” Here he threw down the letter, and fell on
his knees, crying out: “Indeed, Sir, I’ll never do so again!—Pray
forgive me!” “O, you read perfectly well,” the Doctor again tells him,
“pray finish the Letter:” And making him pronounce aloud the words,
“correct him;” complied with my grandfather’s request in a very
liberal manner.
Whether my father was intended for any particular profession, I
know not, but, during his youth, besides his school learning, he
acquired several talents and accomplishments, which, in the course
of his life, he was obliged professionally to turn to account. He
danced remarkably well; performed well on the violin, and was a
portrait painter of no mean talents.
Notwithstanding the Mac which was prefixed to my grandfather’s
name, and which my father retained for some time, I never could
find at what period any of my ancestors lived in Scotland or in
Ireland, from one of which it must have been derived. My father and
grandfather were both born in Shropshire, and never even visited
either of those countries.
Early in his life, my father lost the favour of his sire, by eloping from
home, to marry a young actress of Goodman’s-fields’ theatre, by
whom he had a very large family. My grandfather’s affection was
completely alienated by this marriage; joined to disapproving his
son’s conduct in other respects. To the usual obduracy of old age, he
afterwards added a far more than similar indiscretion himself, by
marrying a female domestic, to whom, and to a son, the
consequence of that marriage, he bequeathed all his possessions,
which were very considerable. Joseph, this son, was not more
prudent than my father; for he contrived, early in life, to dissipate
his patrimony; and he subsisted for many years in Norfolk, by
teaching to dance. I visited him in 1756, in a tour I made to
Yarmouth. He lived then at Ormsby, a beautiful village near that
town, with an amiable wife, and a large family of beautiful children,
in an elegant villa, with a considerable garden; and he appeared, at
that time, in perfectly restored and easy circumstances.
N. B.—The fragment whence this is taken here stops.
DOCTOR BURNEY.
Charles Burney was born at Shrewsbury, on the twelfth of April, 1726.
He was issue of a second marriage, of a very different colour with
respect to discretion, or to prejudice, from that with the account of
which he has opened his own narration. The poor actress was no
more; but neither her hardly judged, though enthusiastically admired
profession, nor her numerous offspring, nor the alienation she had
unhappily caused in the family, proved obstacles to the subsequent
union of her survivor with Miss * * * who in those days, though
young and pretty, was called Mrs. Ann Cooper, a Shropshire young
lady, of bright parts and great personal beauty; as well as an
inheritress of a fortune which, for the times, was by no means
inconsiderable. The parchments of the marriage settlement upon this
occasion are still remaining amongst the few family records that Dr.
Burney preserved.
Whether attracted by her beauty, her sprightliness, or her portion; or
by the aggregate influence of those three mighty magnetizers of the
passions of man, is not known; but Wycherley, the famous poet, fine
gentleman, and Wit of the reign of Charles the Second, had been so
enamoured with Mrs. Ann Cooper in her earliest youth, which
flourished in his latest decadency, that he sought her for his bride.
The romance, however, of his adoration, did not extend to breaking
his heart; for though he expired within a few months after her
rejection, it was not from wearing the willow: another fair one, yet
younger, proved less cruel, and changed it to a wreath of myrtle. But
the fates were adverse to his tender propensities, and he outlived
his fair fortune and his nuptials only a fortnight.
A few years after this second marriage, Mr. Burney senior, finally,
and with tolerable success, fixed himself to the profession of
portrait-painting; and, quitting Shrewsbury, established himself in
the city of Chester; where, to his reputation in the delightful arts of
the pencil, he joined a far surpassing pre-eminence in those of
society. His convivial spirit, his ready repartee, and his care-chasing
pleasantry, made his intercourse sought by all to whom such
qualifications afford pleasure: and we are yet, I believe, to learn
where coin of such sterling value for exhilarating our fellow-
creatures, fails of passing current.
The then Earl of Cholmondeley was particularly partial to him, and
his most essential friend.
Charles, who was Mr. Burney’s last born son, had a twin sister, called
Susanna, whom he early lost, but for whom he cherished a peculiar
fondness that he seemed tenderly to transmit to the beloved and
meritorious daughter to whom he gave her name.[2]
CONDOVER.
From what cause is not known, and it is difficult to conceive any that
can justify such extraordinary neglect, young Charles was left in
Shropshire, upon the removal of his parents to Chester; and
abandoned, not only during his infancy, but even during his
boyhood, to the care of an uncultivated and utterly ignorant, but
worthy and affectionate old nurse, called Dame Ball, in the rustic
village of Condover, not far from Shrewsbury.
His reminiscences upon this period were amongst those the most
tenaciously minute, and the most agreeable to his fancy for detail, of
any part of his life; and the uncommon gaiety of his narratory
powers, and the frankness with which he set forth the pecuniary
embarrassments and provoking mischances, to which his thus
deserted childhood was exposed, had an ingenuousness, a good-
humour, and a comicality, that made the subject of Condover not
more delectable to himself than entertaining to his hearer.
Nevertheless, these accounts, when committed to paper, and
produced without the versatility of countenance, and the vivacious
gestures that animated the colloquial disclosures, so lose their
charm, as to appear vapid, languid, and tedious: and the editor only
thus slightly recurs to them for the purpose of pointing out how
gifted must be the man who, through disadvantages of so lowering a
species, could become, in after-life, not only one of the best
informed, but one of the most polished, members of society.
There were few subjects of his childish remembrance with which he
was himself more amused, than with the recital of the favourite
couplets which the good nurse Ball most frequently sang to him at
her spinning wheel; and which he especially loved to chaunt, in
imitating her longdrawn face, and the dolorous tones of her drawling
sadness.
CHESTER.
The education of the subject of these memoirs, when, at length, he
was removed from this his first instructress, whom he quitted, as he
always protested, with agony of grief, was begun at the Free School
at Chester.
It can excite no surprise, his brilliant career through life considered,
that his juvenile studies were assiduous, ardent, and successful. He
was frequently heard to declare that he had been once only
chastised at school, and that not for slackness, but forwardness in
scholastic lore. A favourite comrade, who shared his affections,
though not his application or his genius, was hesitating through an
ill-learnt lesson, and on the point of incurring punishment, when
young Burney, dropping his head on his breast to muffle his voice,
whispered the required answer.
“Burney prompts, Sir!” was loudly called out by a jealous, or
malevolent fellow-student: and Burney paid the ignoble tax at which
his incautious good nature, and superior talents, were assessed.
The resources of practical education ought, perhaps, to be judged
only by the experience which puts them into play; but incongruous,
at least to all thinking, though it may be incompetent, observers,
must seem the discipline that appoints to the instinctive zeal of
youthful friendship, the same degrading species of punishment that
may be necessary for counteracting the sluggard mischiefs of
indolence, or the dangerous examples of misconduct.
The prominent talents of young Burney for music fixed that tuneful
art for his profession; and happily so; for while its pursuit was his
business, its cultivation was his never-ceasing delight.
Yet not exclusively: far otherwise. He had a native love of literature,
in all its branches, that opened his intellects to observation, while it
furnished his mind with embellishments upon almost every subject;
a thirst of knowledge, that rendered science, as far as he had
opportunity for its investigation, an enlargement to his
understanding; and an imagination that invested all the arts with a
power of enchantment.
SHREWSBURY.
His earliest musical instructor was his eldest half brother, Mr. James
Burney, who was then, and for more than half a century afterwards,
organist of St. Margaret’s, Shrewsbury; in which city the young
musician elect began his professional studies.
It was, however, in age only that Mr. James Burney was his brother’s
senior or superior; from him, therefore, whatever could be given or
received, was finished almost ere it was begun, from the quickness
with which his pupil devoted himself to what he called the slavery of
conquering unmeaning difficulties in the lessons of the times.
The following spirited paragraph on his juvenile progress is
transcribed from his early memorandums.
“The celebrated Felton, and after him, the first Dr. Hayes, came from
Oxford to Shrewsbury on a tour, while I was studying hard, without
instruction or example; and they amazed and stimulated me so forcibly by
their performance on the organ, as well as by their encouragement, that I
thenceforward went to work with an ambition and fury that would hardly
allow me to eat or sleep.
“The quantity of music which I copied at this time, of all kinds, was
prodigious; and my activity and industry surprised every body; for, besides
writing, teaching, tuning, and playing for my brother, at my momens
perdus, I was educating myself in every way I was able. With copy-books,
I improved my hand-writing so much, that my father did not believe I
wrote my letters to him myself. I tried hard to at least keep up the little
Latin I had learned; and I diligently practised both the spinet and violin;
which, with reading, transcribing music for business, and poetry for
pleasure; attempts at composition, and attention to my brother’s affairs,
filled up every minute of the longest day.
“I had, also, a great passion for angling; but whenever I could get leisure
to pursue that sport, I ran no risk of losing my time, if the fish did not
bite; for I had always a book in my pocket, which enabled me to wait with
patience their pleasure.”
Another paragraph, which is singular and amusing, is transcribed,
also, from the Shrewsbury Annals:—
CHESTER.
On quitting Shrewsbury to return to his parents at Chester, the
ardour of young Burney for improvement was such as to absorb his
whole being; and his fear lest a moment of daylight should be
profitless, led him to bespeak a labouring boy, who rose with the
sun, to awaken him regularly with its dawn. Yet, as he durst not
pursue his education at the expense of the repose of his family, he
hit upon the ingenious device of tying one end of a ball of pack-
thread round his great toe, and then letting the ball drop, with the
other end just within the boy’s reach, from an aperture in the old-
fashioned casement of his bed-chamber window.
This was no contrivance to dally with his diligence; he could not
choose but rise.
He was yet a mere youth, when, while thus unremittingly studious,
he was introduced to Dr. Arne, on the passage of that celebrated
musician through the city of Chester, when returning from Ireland:
and this most popular of English vocal composers since the days of
Purcel, was so much pleased with the talents of this nearly self-
instructed performer, as to make an offer to Mr. Burney senior, upon
such conditions as are usual to such sort of patronage, to complete
the musical education of this lively and aspiring young man; and to
bring him forth to the world as his favourite and most promising
pupil.
To this proposal Mr. Burney senior was induced to consent; and, in
the year 1714, at the age of seventeen, the eager young candidate
for fame rapturously set off, in company with Dr. Arne, for the
metropolis.
LONDON.
Arrived in London, young Burney found himself unrestrainedly his
own master, save in what regarded his articled agreement with Dr.
Arne. Every part of his numerous family was left behind him, or
variously dispersed, with the single exception of his elder and only
own brother, Richard Burney, afterwards of Worcester, but who, at
this period, was settled in the capital.
This brother was a man of true worth and vigorous understanding,
enriched with a strong vein of native humour. He was an
indefatigable and sapient collector of historical portraits, and
passionately fond of the arts; and he was father of a race of children
who severally, and with distinction, shone in them all; and who
superadded to their ingenuity and their acquirements the most
guileless hearts and scrupulous integrity.
DR. ARNE.
Dr. Arne, professionally, has been fully portrayed by the pupil who,
nominally, was under his guidance; but who, in after-times, became
the historian of his tuneful art.
Eminent, however, in that art as was Dr. Arne, his eminence was to
that art alone confined. Thoughtless, dissipated, and careless, he
neglected, or rather scoffed at all other but musical reputation. And
he was so little scrupulous in his ideas of propriety, that he took
pride, rather than shame, in being publicly classed, even in the
decline of life, as a man of pleasure.
Such a character was ill qualified to form or to protect the morals of
a youthful pupil; and it is probable that not a notion of such a duty
ever occurred to Dr. Arne; so happy was his self-complacency in the
fertility of his invention and the ease of his compositions, and so
dazzled by the brilliancy of his success in his powers of melody—
which, in truth, for the English stage, were in sweetness and variety
unrivalled—that, satisfied and flattered by the practical exertions and
the popularity of his fancy, he had no ambition, or, rather, no
thought concerning the theory of his art.
The depths of science, indeed, were the last that the gay master had
any inclination to sound; and, in a very short time, through
something that mingled jealousy with inability, the disciple was
wholly left to work his own way as he could through the difficulties
of his professional progress.
Had neglect, nevertheless, been the sole deficiency that young
Burney had had to lament, it would effectually have been
counteracted by his own industry: but all who are most wanting to
others, are most rapacious of services for themselves; and the time
in which the advancement of the scholar ought to have been
blended with the advantage of the teacher, was almost exclusively
seized upon for the imposition of laborious tasks of copying music:
and thus, a drudgery fitted for those who have no talents to
cultivate; or those who, in possessing them, are driven from their
enjoyment by distress, filled up nearly the whole time of the student,
and constituted almost wholly the directions of the tutor.
MRS. CIBBER.
Young Burney, now, was necessarily introduced to Dr. Arne’s
celebrated sister, the most enchanting actress of her day, Mrs.
Cibber; in whose house, in Scotland-yard, he found himself in a
constellation of wits, poets, actors, authors, and men of letters.
The social powers of pleasing, which to the very end of his long life
endeared him to every circle in which he mixed, were now first
lighted up by the sparks of convivial collision which emanate, in
kindred minds, from the electricity of conversation. And though, as
yet, he was but a gazer himself in the splendour of this galaxy, he
had parts of such quick perception, and so laughter-loving a taste
for wit and humour, that he not alone received delight from the
sprightly sallies, the ludicrous representations, or the sportive
mimicries that here, with all the frolic of high-wrought spirits, were
bandied about from guest to guest; he contributed personally to the
general enjoyment, by the gaiety of his participation; and appeared,
to all but his modest self, to make an integral part of the brilliant
society into which he was content, nay charmed, to seem admitted
merely as an auditor.
GARRICK.
Conspicuous in this bright assemblage, Garrick, then hardly beyond
the glowing dawn of his unparalleled dramatic celebrity, shone forth
with a blaze of lustre that struck young Burney with enthusiastic
admiration.
And nearly as prompt was the kind impression made in return, by
the new young associate, on the fancy and the liking of this
inimitable outward delineator of the inward human character; who,
to the very close of that splendid circle which he described in the
drama and in literature, retained for this early conquest a
distinguishing, though not, perhaps, a wholly unremitting partiality;
for where is the spoilt child, whether of the nursery or of the public,
who is uniformly exempt from fickleness or caprice,—those wayward
offsprings of lavish indulgence?
Not dense, however, nor frequent, were the occasional intermissions
to the serenity of their intercourse; and the sunshine by which they
were dispersed, beamed from an heightened esteem that, in both
parties, terminated in cordial affection.
THOMSON.
With Thomson, too, whose fame, happily for posterity, hung not
upon the ephemeral charm of accent, variety of attitude, or witchery
of the eye, like that of even the most transcendent of the votaries of
the buskins; with Thomson, too, his favoured lot led him to the
happiness of early and intimate, though, unfortunately, not of long-
enduring acquaintance, the destined race of Thomson, which was
cut short nearly in the meridian of life, being already almost run.
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