Charles Burney

The Present State of Music in France and Italy (2nd, corrected edition)

London: T. Becket and Co., 1773

* * * *

labour, but such a patient perseverance, as
little less than the zeal of enthusiasm can
inspire. It is not the history of an art
in its infant state, whose parents are still
living, that I have ventured to under-
take; but one coeval with the world;
one whose high antiquity renders its
origin as doubtful as the formation of
language, or the first articulations of the
human voice.