82“ Whether Music is necessary to the Orator,— 
and so on throughout the passage; the Speaker steadily perse- 
vering until this slow movement was thus thoroughly commanded 
[not read, nor stops regarded] in a manly firm tone without 
whine or drawl, and his ear habituated to proportion. The pas- 
sage was then recited, with occasional reference to the pendu- 
dum: and such licenses were taken for the convenience of de- 
‘livery as were most approved by my associate—even the ratio of 
—V0090 
3, 2, 2, being in many cases preferred by him to that of the per- 
bor; toe aa 
fect dactyl 4, 2, 2 ; and 3, 3 for the spondee instead of 4, 4. 
Were I not unwilling to surpass the reasonable limits of this 
paper, I should submit to the inspection of the reader, not only 
this passage, but also that of Arma virumque cano, and Mnyy 
aeide Sed, as recited by the Speaker. The /ast however having 
‘been more approved than the others, for its chasteness in the 
distribution of forte or emphatic syllables, by the musical gen- 
tlemen before whom it was delivered, must be considered most 
-worthy our present attention: I give it therefore in its exact form * 
(as nearly as our ears could determine), with the relative propor- 
tions set down in figures over the respective syllables. In place 
‘too of encumbering this passage with rests, 1 have set down not 
all the actual pauses (which are more or less optional), but the 
ordinary prominent ones which are represented hy grammatical 
stops; viz. the small, the intermediate, and the great, leaving it 
to the good understanding of the reader to supply those minor 
pauses which the necessary separation of words or the momentary 
relief 
syllable [half the length of the long one] must require a pendulum of four 
inches—no more. In adjusting these pendulums, the centre of the ball 
must be considered as one extremity, the summit of the string as the other. 
This practice of equalizing the short syllables with each other is very useful, 
and is worthy the attention of most professional musicians. The Speaker’s 
oratorical pendulum afforded me no small share of amusement in putting 
some excellent musicians to the test. I suspended from the ceiling of a 
room, a long string to which was attached aa ivory ball similar to that be- 
longing to the pendulum. Now, by the lengthening or shortening of either 
string I regulated different ratios or rendered them irregular, at pleasure ; 
and setting both strings at the same time in motion, I found, to a demon- 
stration, that in place of measuring a ratio of three to two, (or, as some 
pretend, aratio of thirty-two to one)—scarcely an individual could be 
found who was capable of the accurate mensuration of even a duple ratio! 
Is not this an irrefragable proof that the principal requisite for the preser- 
vation of modern time (as [ observed in a former paper) is merely the ha- 
bitual crowding of the integrai parts within the given boundary or bar, and 
not the relative proportions of those integral parts themselves? 
* The author of Prosodia Rationalis has amused himself in his own scien- 
tific way by setting this passage in musical time, ratio cf syllables six to 
one,—for the edification of Homer! If no other reason could be found 
for 
