320 THE SENSES, 



amongst the wires. This would rather prove too much, if 

 anything. Ensconced so near the fountain of music, the effect 

 should seem to have been the reverse of musical. 



As sound consists of waves, larger as the sound is lower 

 in pitch, smaller as it is more acute so, accordingly, as dif- 

 ferent waves of different magnitudes are arranged to pass on 

 to the ears evenly or unevenly, either a mere noise or else 

 music results. The concordance of musical waves may be 

 illustrated by the parallel case of a short-legged and a long- 

 legged person walking together. The two cannot be expected 

 to take equal strides; still, it by no means follows that they 

 must walk unevenly. If Short-legs steps twice to Long-legs' 

 once, the result will be even ; if four times, still even ; and 

 other ratios are soon obvious. Thus is it with music with 

 that part of music termed accord, or harmony, obviously, 

 and with melody too, if we remember, what is the fact, that 

 melody is nothing else than retrospective harmony the me- 

 mory of notes gone by, whose memory still lingers. 



When two sound-waves are propagated simultaneously, 

 one being half the size of the other, the small wave vibrating 

 twice to the other's once, then the two coalesce so absolutely 

 that the ear recognises them as one. The sounds constitute, 

 in fact, the fundamental tone and its octave. If a tense 

 string, which, 011 being struck, yields any definite musical 

 note, be stopped half way, and either part again struck, the 

 note produced will be an octave above the original note. This 

 may be at once perceived on the guitar ; where either of the 

 six strings stopped upon the twelfth fret (half way) will 

 produce the octave of the original string. The other ratios 

 of sound most easily discriminated by the ear are of two to 

 three ; being that of the fundamental note to its fifth : next 

 of four to five, or of the fundamental note to its third. If 

 the fundamental note be indicated by four, then its third will 

 be represented by five, its fifth by six, and its octave by eight. 



Sound is a deceptive sense. We often imagine singings 



