Chap. XVII. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 231 



Thus I think I have explained what may, at firft fight, ap- 

 pear very fijrprifing, that Numbers ihould be applied to the tones of 

 the liuman voice and of inftruments of mufic. And at the fame 

 time I have fhown, 1 hope to the reader's fatisfadion, what muft, 

 at firft fight, appear likewife very furprifing, that a mufical note can- 

 not exift by itfelf, but only in reference to other notes; fo that all 

 notes are ratios of different kinds. Now to apply numbers, and fuch 

 numbers as I have mentioned, to the tones of the human voice or 

 of any mufical inftrument, muft appear to every man a moft won- 

 derful art ; and it was an art which was unknown to the Greeks till 

 Pythagoras brought from Egypt the knowledge of the odlave, which 

 is the foundation of the art of mufic. I think I have likewife given 

 the reader the philofophy of this art, and fliown him the principles 

 upon which it is founded, and by which it is formed into an art. 



I will only further add upon this fubjedt, that the two beft kinds 

 of the antient mufic, the chromatic and the enharmonic, muft have 

 been much finer mufic than any that we have ; for the materials, 

 which formed thefe two kinds of mufic, were more abundant 

 and more various than the materials of our mufic, which confifts on- 

 ly of tones and femitones and different compofitions of thefe : 

 AVhereas the two kinds of antient mufic I have mentioned were com- 

 pofed not only of tones and femitones, but of the third and fourth 

 parts of tones: So that the ear would not be fatigued by the frequent 

 returns of the fame notes, and fentiments and paflions would be bet- 

 ter exprefled by fuch a variety in their mufic. But what, I am 

 perfuaded, diftinguiflied their mufic more than any thing elfe, was 

 the rhythm of it ; which they ftudied fo much, that it was a com- 

 mon faying among the Greeks, that rhythm was every thing In viu~ 

 fic * : And their writers upon mufic fay, that it is the rhythm, 

 which gives force and expreflion to mufic ; and that without rhythm 



the 



