CENTURY III. 119 



doth. For if we look abroad, we see heaven, a 

 number of stars, trees, hills, men, beasts, at once. 

 And the species of the one doth not confound the 

 other. But if so many sounds came from several 

 parts, one of them would utterly confound the other. 

 So we see, that voices or consorts of music do make 

 an harmony by mixture, which colours do not. It is 

 true nevertheless that a great light drowneth a 

 smaller, that it cannot be seen ; as the sun that of 

 a glow-worm ; as well as a great sound drowneth a 

 lesser. And I suppose likewise, that if there were 

 two lanthorns of glass, the one a crimson, and the 

 other an azure, and a candle within either of them, 

 those coloured lights would mingle, and cast upon a 

 white paper a purple colour. And even in colours, 

 they yield a faint and weak mixture : for white 

 walls make rooms more lightsome than black, &c. 

 but the cause of the confusion in sounds, and the 

 inconfusion in species visible, is, for that the sight 

 worketh in right lines, and maketh several cones ; 

 and so there can be no coincidence in the eye or 

 visual point : but sounds, that move in oblique and 

 arcuate lines, must needs encounter and disturb the 

 one the other. 



225. The sweetest and best harmony is, when 

 every part or instrument is not heard by itself, but 

 a conflation of them all ; which requireth to stand 

 some distance off, even as it is in the mixture of per 

 fumes ; or the taking of the smells of several flowers 

 in the air. 



226. The disposition of the air in other qualities, 



