98 On RYTHMIC JL MEASURES. 



times. We can only fay, that they were at much pains to coun- 

 teract a ftrong propenfity of nature, in order to attain an object, 

 the agreeable or happy effed of which we cannot now fo much 

 as conceive. But it may be afked, how are we certain that thefe 

 fmgle times were always ftruck in exad uniformity, or that the 

 intervals marked by the ftrokes were in every cafe equal ? It 

 will poflibly be anfwered, that there was fufficient fecurity for 

 this, in the ftrong natural propenfity which all men feel to ex- 

 prefs fuch fmall times equally and uniformly, when it is not 

 their profelTed intention to do otherwife. But furely the natu- 

 ral propenfity to aflTemble thefe times into equal parcels is alfo 

 ftrong, perhaps, in fome cafes, ftronger than the other. When 

 thefe two propenfities, then, are fet in oppofition to one ano- 

 ther, it becomes a queftion which of them is moft likely to 

 prevail. We are told, that, in the performance of the Greek 

 mufic, the propenfity to the equable expreflion of fingle times 

 prevailed, and that the parcels or aggregates of them were un- 

 eqxial. It is certainly, however, not unnatural to fuppofe, that 

 fometimes the other propenfity might preponderate, and that 

 fome inequality might be admitted amongft the fmaller times, 

 which were marked by the crepitacula, in order to bring the 

 feet or parcels more nearly to equality. Thefe times and mea- 

 fures were not marked by machines, fo conftrucfled that they 

 could never vary, nor by perfons who had no thought nor con- 

 cern, but to ftrike with the hand or fingers at equal intervals of 

 time. The coryphaeus, who regulated and condudled the per- 

 formance, muft be fuppofed to have been a mufician of diftin- 

 guilhed talents, and the fmaller times were marked by per- 

 formers, who were keenly engaged in the bufinefs that was 

 going forward, who probably founded every note of the mufic, 

 and articulated every fyllable of the verfe. It has always ap- 

 peared to me very wonderful and unaccountable, that the deli- 

 cate ears of the ingenious and enlightened Greeks fhould not 

 only bear, but even be delighted, with what a modern cannot 



bear 



