322 On the Question “ Whether Music is necessary to the 
system? It is idle to speak of Natwre—we are all the children 
of Art. But in regard to our senses, is there any rational ground 
for asserting that our ears are more infallible than our eyes? 
Early impressions will produce within us certain ideas of beauty 
which no subsequent comparison can efface : Hence the totter- 
ing foot and sugar-loaf head are held in greater estimation by 
the Chinese, than those of the most perfect statue ever said to 
have been formed by the chisel of Praxiteles.. We may next 
proceed to 
Experiment 2. being one certain, and perhaps the only me- 
thod of tuning the soni stabiles or immoveable tones of the 
disdiapason, agreeably (as 1 conceive) to the laws of the ancient 
system; that is, with three conjunct, and one disjunct, tetra- 
chords; for which purpose I employed a common piano-forte. 
Let the disdiapason or double octave be represented by the 
following letters, taking C as the fundamental : 
CCx DDx EFFxGGx AAwB cex ddx e ffx ggx aaxb © 
This tuning was effected by 
Ist. Tune D toany desired pitch means of a monochord, 
Qdly. -— G a perfect 4th from D | the comparative lengths 
3dly. —— c a perfect 4th from G of sounding wire being 
4thly.-— C a perfect octavefromc }, | Rica ; Inches. 
Sthly.— f aperfect 4th from oe ga ge at 1000 
6thly. ——(@) a perfect octave frome | SUPPOE ss +s 
7thly.-— g a perfect 4th) 6 on o eee of 00D a 750 
as 4 > 
eeu) J ‘|For its octave, 4 of 500 
1000. My 
The ultimate soni stabiles will therefore exhibit themselves in 
the following order : every cther note being subject to the pro- 
posed adjustment of the performer, 
cD G c fg © 
Now this arrangement, which insists upon no more than two 
intermediate notes in either octave, will be found upon trial to 
differ so very little, if at all, from that mode of tuning most 
agreeable to a cultivated ear, that we must consider ‘it (at least. 
for simple melody) as a mere well-regulated outline. 
I could here wish to examine, why the fourth was considered 
by the ancients as the most perfect conchord; so perfect indeed 
as to constitute the main regulator of the scale ;—but the docu- 
ments of antiquity are wanting. We must therefore resort to a 
modern experiment, which I find recorded in one of our Cyclo- 
pedias (I believe Rees’s), which exhibits the question ina sin- 
gularly striking manner. aA 
Not 
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