Letter refpeEling Sound and Light. ~ 165 



** ufc of It for the folutlon of a very important mufical problem." P, 652 and 651. Why 

 then are wc obliged to call it Dr. Smith's difcovery, or indeed any difcovery at all? Sauvcur 

 had already given dire£l:ions for tuning an organ pipe by means of the rapidity of its beating 

 with others. Mem. de I'Ac. 1701. p. 475. Ed. Amft. Dr. Smith ingenioufly enough 

 extended the method : but it appears to me that the extenfion was perfeftly obvious, and 

 wholly undeferving of the name either of a difcovery or of a theory. If Profeflbr Robifon 

 thinks otherwife, there is nothing further to be faid ; but in all probability Dr. Smith con- 

 fidered this improvement as a very inconfiderable part of the merit of his treatife. No doubt 

 an organ may be more accurately tuned by counting the beats than by any other method, 

 although it maybe queftioned, whether the advantage of counting the abfolute frequency of 

 the beats will ever pradtically compenfate the tedioufnefs of the procefs. 



It remains to be confidered, whether Dr. Smith's changeable harpfichord is or is not an 

 impraflicable inftrument; for, whatever Signor Doria might exclaim, Dr. Smith himfelf 

 does not recommend his fcale for common ufe. It is the opinion of many unprejudiced 

 pradical perfons, that all occafional introdudtions of dilferent femi-tones is perfedly im- 

 prafticable ; and fome who have heard the efFedt of Dr. Smith's inftrument, have declared 

 that to them it wiis by no means agreeable. And indeed if we pay fufficient attention to 

 the pafTij^es and modulations of the greateft compofers, we fhall be convinced, that grant- 

 ing all poffible dexterity in the performer, it would be abfolutely imprafticable to adapt 

 them to an inftrument, fo different from that for which they were compofed, as Dr. Smith's 

 is from the common harpfichord. It may eafily be conceived, that an organ very corredlly 

 tuned, as Mr. Watts's probably was, for a particular key, might appear " fopra modo 

 belliffimo" in that key; but the fequel of the ftory ftiews literally what Dr. Smith has 

 allowed, that his temperament is inapplicable to our inftruments, fince it was utterly im- 

 poflible to fing with it in the key of E e s, a key of exceedingly frequent occurrence. I have 

 been informed on the beft authority, that Dr. Smith reftrifted the organift of Trinity Col- 

 lege to fuch keys and modulations, as were beft fuited to the fyftem by which the organ 

 was tuned ; and that organ, as well as the inftruments which were made lor Dr. Smith, , 

 has long been tuned according to the more common method, 



I fpoke of Dr. Smith's fyftem with flattened major thirds as of no value, not with regard 

 to its intrinfic merits, but becaufe it was not intended for any inftrument in common ufe; 

 fince in thefe inftruments the -difficulty is not fo much how to divide the imperfe£lion 

 among the thirds and fifths of the fame fcale, as to proportion properly the imperfedtions 

 of the thirds of different keys. Yet I do not mean it to be underftood, that I can agree to 

 the folidity of thofe foundations on which Dr. Smith has built his fyftem for a fingle fcale : ■ 

 although to Stanley and to Doria it might be pleafing, becaufe its imperfections are far too 

 fmall to offend the ear. ProfefFor Robifon juftly obferves, that different perfons differ ex- 

 ceedingly in their eftimation of the effeft of the fame temperament on different concords, 

 and that much of this arifes from their different difpofitions : it appears therefore that Dr. 



Smith 

 4- - ■ 



