VIBRATIONS TRANSMIT MUSIC. 1 9 



Pythagoras fancifully suggested that the move- 

 ments of the planets produce harmonious sounds 

 to time their marches through the sky, with tones 

 varying in accordance with their greater distances 

 from the sun. Hence originated the theory of 

 "the music of the spheres." Job refers to this 

 idea in the words, " When the morning stars 

 sang together, and all the sons of God shouted 

 for joy." Shakespeare recurs to this theory in 

 " The Merchant of Venice," " There 's not an 

 orb of all which thou beholdest, that does not 

 in its movement like an angel sing." Addison 

 describes the stars, " For ever singing as they 

 shine." 



The same electric medium, that transmits vibra- 

 tions as light, transmits musical sounds, as tested 

 by telegraph wires connected with telephones ; 

 and were the nerves of the ear as delicately sen- 

 sitive as the nerves of the eye, we might hear, 

 as well as see, the heavenly orbs timing their 

 marches by harmonious measures through the 

 sky. 



UTILIZATION OF AN INVISIBLE MEDIUM FOR TRANS- 

 MITTING MECHANICAL ACTION. 



Two thousand years before Newton suggested 

 the necessity of a connecting material medium 

 between the heavenly bodies, to hold them to- 

 gether in circling orbits, the poet Homer, wit- 

 nessing the glittering links of lightning suspended 



