ACTIONS OF THE HAND. 49 



ness of the note; and a cord a millimetre out of place pro- 

 duces a note which even the unpractised ear recognizes as 

 false. But the fingers fall upon the strings at precisely the 

 point required. They run over them, succeeding each other 

 with giddy rapidity, following every imaginable combination, 

 and yet the hand gliding over the instrument incessantly 

 changes its position. Sometimes a single finger produces an 

 isolated note; sometimes two or three act simultaneously to 

 produce a concord; while a fourth, striking the string with 

 increasing rapidity, produces a trill which rivals that of the 

 nightingale. And even this is not all. The other hand 

 holds the bow, and the movements of the right arm must be 

 in correspondence with those of the left hand; the coincid- 

 ence between the movements of one hand and that of the 

 other must be mathematically exact. Add to these all the 

 modifications necessary to produce the piano and the forte, 

 to swell the sound or to let it die away all, in a word, that 

 constitutes musical expression, and it will be admitted that 

 this mechanism is allied to the wonderful, and that it sur- 

 passes the most perfect productions of human art. 



The agility and flexibility of the hands, the concordance 

 and independence of their movements, is not less remarkable 

 in the playing of the pianist. How is it possible not to ad- 

 mire those two hands, both oftenest occupied together, and 

 the action of which alternates or coincides with so much pre- 

 cision and rapidity; together they produce on an average from 

 six to eight notes at a time separating, approaching, crossing, 

 and mingling their fingers, which move over the keys as if each 

 one were completely independent of all the others? A skil- 

 ful pianist produces about 640 notes a minute in medium 

 time, and 960 in extremely quick time. These numbers 

 give us an idea of the rapidity of movement which can be 

 attained by the hand of man. 



The devoted servant of the body, the hand which nourishes 

 it knows also how to defend it. It has been said that man 

 is created without arms. What then is the hand which en- 

 ables him to construct and employ for his defence those in- 

 genious and terrible machines, that hand which can at need 

 itself become a formidable weapon? The poets have sung 



4 



