37 



BEATS. 



BEAUTY. 



addressed to him, aiid his image be placed on the altar within the 

 limits of some diocese, province, or town, or within the houses of the 

 religious order to which the deceased belonged, denning at the same 

 time the peculiar mode of worship allowed by prayers, masses, &c., 

 until the time he may be duly canonised as a saint, to which beatifi- 

 cation is a step. His relics may thenceforth be exposed, his image 

 is crowned with rays, but neither are carried in procession ; and though 

 a special office is appointed in the Church service, the day of the 

 office is not an obligatory festival, and it has no octave. The distinc- 

 tion between beatification and canonisation is this : The first is a mere 

 permission to honour and worship, and the object of this veneration is 

 styled Beatus, in which the pope does not act as a judge to decide on 

 the condition of the person beatified ; while in canonisation this is 

 done, and an injunction is given to venerate the object of it as a saint, 

 Sanctus," acknowledged by the whole Church. Originally it was the 

 bishop of the diocese who allowed the veneration or worship of 

 deceased individuals whom he deemed worthy of it ; and when the 

 worship extended to other dioceses, and by degrees to the Church in 

 general, " with the consent, tacit or expressed, of the supreme pontiff," 

 then the worship, which was before that of simple beatification, ac- 

 quired the character of canonisation. But when, in after times, the 

 question both of beatification and canonisation was referred to the 

 Roman see, the pontiffs, in granting the first, always made the distinc- 

 tion : " dummodo propter prxmissa canonizatus, aut canonizata. non 

 censeatur." (Benedicti XIV. ' Opera,' vol. i. ' De Servorum Dei Beati- 

 ficatione.') In the same chapter Benedict XIV. determines the regu- 

 lations as to the proceedings, evidence, &c., to be gone through previous 

 to granting the writ of beatification. It may be granted to two classes 

 of individuals, martyrs and confessors. After beatification has been 

 obtained, a new suit and fresh evidence of sanctity are required in 

 order to obtain the canonisation of the same individual. In May 1807, 

 five Beati were canonised, or declared saints, in St. Peter's church, by 

 Pius VII. The ceremony is very expensive, and therefore is not 

 performed very frequently. It is only since the pontificate of Alex- 

 ander VII. that the ceremony of beatification has been performed in 

 .St. Peter's church, with great solemnity ; St. Francis de Sales, in Jan. 

 1662, being the first whose beatification was solemnised there. Appli- 

 cations for the honour of beatification are generally made by the friends 

 or relations of the deceased, or by the brethren of the religious order 

 of which he was a member; evidence of his conduct and merits is 

 collected and laid before a congregation of cardinals and prelates; 

 counsel is employed by the applicants, while another counsel opposes 

 the petition, and endeavours to find flaws in the evidence. This latter 

 office is performed by a legal officer of the Roman see, who has been 

 nicknamed CA vvocato del Diavolo, " the devil's advocate," as he per- 

 what is considered an ungracious part, by opposing the admission 

 of a candidate into the category of the saints. 



BEATS, in Music (a term always used in the plural), are the 

 pulsations, throbbings, or beatings, resulting from the joint vibrations 

 of two sounds of the same strength and nearly of the same pitch ; 

 that is, of two sounds differing but little, if at all, in intensity, and 

 which are almost, but not exactly, in unison. When two organ-pipes 

 or two strings sounded together, are nearly, but not accurately, of the 

 same pitch, that is, are not in perfect tune, they produce throbbings 

 that may be compared to the rapid beating of the pulse ; and to these 

 Sauveur, the discoverer of the phenomenon, applied the term liat- 

 tfmetit, or beats, which has since been adopted by all writers on the 

 subject. 



Mr. Woolhouse in his ' Essay on Musical Intervals, Harmonics, &c." 

 London, 1835, Hays " Beats originate in the slight perturbation of the 

 periodic coincidences of the vibrations which take place with the per- 

 fect chord, which perturbation makes one of them gain a little upon 

 the other at these successive places of coincidence : and as soon as 

 this small gain brings two consecutive vibrations about to another 

 .coincidence, a long cycle of the vibrations will be completed, and they 

 will begin and perform a similar long cycle in the same manner, and 

 BO on. The coincidences at the beginning and end of these cycles are 

 the times when the beats are heard, and consequently the time of the 

 cycle is the same as that between two consecutive beats. They seem 

 to be caused by the mutual concurrence of the vibrations in setting 

 the ]rticles of the surrounding air in motion, which makes the joint 

 wiiinil more loud at the places of coincidence, though not with suffi- 

 cient frequency to produce the sensation of a continued sound." 



J)r. Smith has, in his ' Harmonics,' entered fully into the subject of 

 limit, and founded hereon hi well-known system of temperament. 

 [TEMPEKAJCKNT.] In his ninth proposition he says, that " if a con- 

 nee of two sounds be uniform without any beats or undulations, 

 the times of the single vibrations of its sounds have a perfect ratio ; 

 but if it beats or undulates, the ratio of the vibration differs a little 

 ' .1 perfect ratio, more or less, according as the beats are quicker or 

 r. His experiment in demonstration of this is practical, easy, 

 and satisfactory. " Change," says Dr. Smith, " the first string of a 

 violoncello for another about as thick as the second. Then screw up 

 the first string, and while it approaches gradually to a unison with the 

 second, the two sounds will be heard to beat very quick at first, then 

 lower and slower, till at last they make a uniform consonance without 

 any beat* or undulations. At this juncture, either of the strings 

 truck alone, by the bow or finger, will excite large and regular 



vibrations in the other, plainly visible ; which show that the times of 

 their single vibrations are equal." For the vibrating motion of a 

 musical string puts other strings in motion, whose tension and quantity 

 of matter dispose their vibrations to keep time with the pulses of air 

 propagated from the string that is struck ; a phenomenon explained by 

 Galileo, who observes, that a heavy pendulum may be put in motion 

 by the least breath of the mouth, provided the puffs be often 

 repeated, and keep time exactly with the vibrations of the pendulum. 

 " Alter the tension," continues Dr. Smith, in pursuing his experiment, 

 " of either string a very little, and the sounds of the two will beat 

 again. But now the motion of one string struck alone makes the 

 other only start, exciting no regular vibrations in it ; a plain proof that 

 the vibrations of the strings are not isochronous." And while the 

 sounds of both are drawn out with an even bow, not only an audible 

 but a visible beating and irregularity is observable in the vibrations, 

 though in the former case the vibrations were free and uniform. Now 

 measure the length of either string between the nut and bridge, and 

 when the strings are perfect unisons, mark, at the distance of one-third 

 of that length from the nut, one string with a speck of ink. Then 

 place the edge of the nail on the speck, or very near it, and press the 

 string, when, on sounding the remaining two-thirds with the other 

 string open, a uniform consonance of fifths will be heard, the single 

 vibrations of which have the perfect ratio of 3 to 2. But on moving 

 the nail a little downwards or upwards, that ratio will be increased 

 or diminished ; and in both cases the imperfect fifths will beat 

 quicker or slower, accordingly as that perfect ratio is more or less 

 altered. 



Dr. Young remarks of beats, that they furnish a very accurate mode 

 of determining the proportional frequency of vibrations, when the 

 absolute frequency of one of them is known; or the absolute 

 frequency of both, when their proportion is known ; for the beats are 

 usually slow enough to be reckoned, although the vibrations them- 

 selves can never be distinguished. Thus, if one sound consists of 100 

 vibrations in a second, and produces with another acuter sound a single 

 beat in every second, it is obvious that the second sound must consist 

 of 101 vibrations hi a second. (Young's ' Philosophy," i. 390.) 



In tuning unisons, as in the case of two or more pipes or strings, the 

 operator is guided by beats. Till the unison is perfect, more or less of 

 beating will be heard, as the sounds more or less approach each other. 

 " When the unison is complete," observes Sir John Herschel, " no 

 beats are heard : when very defective, the beats have the effect of a 

 rattle of a very unpleasant kind. The complete absence of beats affords 

 the best means of attaining by trial a perfect harmony. Beats will also 

 be heard when other concords, as fifths, are imperfectly adjusted." 

 (Herschel on Sound.) 



Dr. Smith, in the learned work of which we have here availed our- 

 selves, gives some useful practical rules for tuning by means of beats, 

 the substance of which will be found under the head of TUNING. 



BEAUTY is that quality in visible objects in consequence of which 

 their colours and forms are agreeable to the human mind. The word 

 beauty (as Mr. D. Stewart observes, ' Essay on Beauty,' c. ii.) was first 

 applied to objects perceptible by the sight ; and, by an easy transition, 

 it has been extended to objects perceptible by the hearing; as when 

 we speak of beautiful music, a beautiful tune, voice, &c. The in- 

 stances of words which properly signify an impression on one sense 

 being used to signify an impression on another sense are very nume- 

 rous : thus we sometimes pass from the sight to the touch, as when we 

 speak of lightness or heaviness of form and of colour ; from the touch 

 to the hearing, as a sharp, piercing, thrilling, penetrating, or heavy 

 sound ; from the touch to the smell, as a pungent smell ; from the 

 touch to the sight, as harsh and soft colouring ; from the hearing to 

 the sight, as monotony of colour, tone of a picture, harmony of colours; 

 from the taste to the sight, as mellow colouring ; from the taste to the 

 hearing, as sweet music. 



This proneness to transfer words from one object of sense to another 

 does not, however (as Mr. Stewart remarks), explain why the word 

 beauty should be extended only to agreeable sounds, and not to agree- 

 able tastes or odours. That, however, there is a closer affinity between 

 the perceptions of sight and hearing than between those of sight and 

 any other sense, it is not difficult to perceive ; and the fact is satis- 

 factorily traced by the same writer to the following causes : 1 . The 

 pirturetK/ue effect which custom, in many instances, gives to sounds ; as 

 when a tune calls up the image of a person's home or the haunts of his 

 childhood. 2. The expressive power of sounds, as in the case of the 

 human voice, when the expression of the countenance corresponds 

 with the tones of the voice and the meaning of the words which it 

 utters. 3. The significant power of sounds, in consequence of con- 

 ventional speech. In this way they every moment present pictures to 

 the imagination ; and we apply to the description as to the thing 

 described (with hardly any consciousness of speaking figuratively) such 

 words as lively, ylominy, luminous, splendid, picturesque. " To these 

 considerations should be added (as the same writer justly observes), as 

 a cause conspiring powerfully to the same end, the intimate association 

 which, in our apprehensions, is formed between the eye and the ear, 

 as the great inlets of our acquired knowledge, as the only media by 

 which different minds can communicate together, and as the organs by 

 which we receive from the material world the two classes of pleasures 

 which, while they surpass all the rest in variety and in duration, are 



