198 THE HUMAN BODY. 



painter is provided with a faithful mirror, the ear is for the 

 musician a still more infallible guide; not that it surpasses the 

 eye in delicacy of mechanism, but that the mathematical divi- 

 sions of sound, and of their intervals, much more minute 

 than shades of colour, do not admit of confusion. The eye 

 perceives a great number of tints at the same time, which 

 may mingle upon the retina either from their vicinity, or from 

 the rapid displacement of objects, as we see when the 

 molecules of two colours are mixed together, and when a 

 disk of several colours turns on its axis. On the contrary, 

 however rapid the movement in a piece of music, each note 

 produces a distinct sound, and when several reach it simulta- 

 neously they always cause isolated impressions. It is thus 

 that a musician in the midst of the accords of a large or- 

 chestra is able to distinguish a false note and the instrument 

 from which it proceeds. 



The acuteness of hearing has more influence upon the 

 delicacy of auditory impressions, than extent of vision has 

 upon visual impressions; acute vision is not necessary to the 

 painter in judging exactly of colours, but the ear of the 

 musician must have an exquisite sensibility in order that he 

 may appreciate the truthfulness of notes and their harmonic 

 relations; but when once this idea is acquired it is ineffaceable, 

 and enables him to create master-pieces which his ear cannot 

 hear. Beethoven became deaf at forty, and composed all 

 those immortal works which for himself were never per- 

 formed except in his mind. 



It is not rare to find persons who distinguish musical 

 sounds with difficulty and confound them as regards the 

 notes. For those in whom this Daltonism of the ear is ex- 

 treme, music has no existence; they hear only a succession 

 of sounds more or less intense, without harmonious relation 

 or rhythmical succession. Between this condition and that 

 delicacy of ear which marks the leader of an orchestra or a 

 good tuner, the degrees are infinitely varied, and absolute 

 correctness of ear is as rare, at least, as a perfect perception 

 of colour, although musical impressions seem to demand 

 less effort, and to be a more common endowment than the 

 ability to appreciate painting. 



