70 On RYTHMICAL MEASURES. 



able to conceive and exprefs proportional divifions of the unit, 

 with as much eafe and accuracy as they do aggregate numbers, 

 have it in their power to take their unit of fuch dimenfion as 

 beft fuits the nature of the fubjed. This circumftance may 

 perhaps enable us to account for fome of thofe differences 

 which take place betwixt the opinions ot the ancients and of the 

 moderns, upon the fubjedl of rythm. 



There are a few remarks which it may be neceflary to make, 

 before .1 conclude this part of the fubjed. 



In mufic, we fometiines find the unit of time divided into 

 ■two unequal parts, in the proportion either of two to one, or of 

 three to one. In making or perceiving this divifion, we do 

 not firfl break down the \init into three or four, and then allow 

 two or three of thefe to the firfl note, and the remaining one to 

 the other. We have not leifure for this operation. We merely 

 conceive the one as prolonged and accented, and the other as 

 abrupt and feeble. Hence, when we hear fuch divifions, it is 

 very difljcult, without the affiftance of the other parts of the 

 meafure, to determine whether they are made according to the 

 one proportion or the other. A pra(5lifed ear will frequently 

 miftake, and in writing mufic the one is fometimes fubflituted 

 for the other. 



After a diftin^t impreflion has been obtained of the units 

 of which a rythmical fucceffion is compofed, and of the par- 

 cels according to which it is conflruded, we do not lofe that 

 impreflion, although the fucceffion fliould flop, or no found be 

 heard, during the time of one or more of the units. Thefe 

 vacant or filent times, if they are not too long continued, we 

 reckon with nearly the fame eafe and certainty, as if they had 

 all been expreffed by founds ; and we clearly perceive the par- 

 ticular part of the meafure at which the fucceffion of founds 

 recommences. Thefe filent times are called rejls in mufic, and 

 are always accounted as part of the meafure. But this is not 

 all. We can in a manner flop the courfe of the rythmical 



movement, 



