ANIMALS. 37 



that they might adopt a greater diversity of pro- 

 portions ; and some have actually done so ; but in 

 these the differences of the proportion are so im- 

 perceptible, that the ear is rather fatigued than 

 pleased in making the distinction. In order, 

 however, to give variety, they have admitted half 

 tones ; but in all the countries where music is yet 

 in its infancy, they have rejected such, and they 

 can find music in none but the obvious ones. 

 The Chinese, for instance, have neither flats nor 

 sharps in their music ; but the intervals between 

 their other notes are in the same proportion with 

 ours. 



" Many more barbarous nations have their pe- 

 culiar instruments of music ; and what is remark- 

 able, the proportion between their notes is in all 

 the same as in ours. This is not the place for en- 

 tering into the nature of these sounds, their effects 

 upon the air, or their consonances with each other. 

 We are not now giving a history of sound, but of 

 human perception. 



" All countries are pleased with music ; and if 

 they have not skill enough to produce harmony, 

 at least they seem willing to substitute noise. 

 Without all question, noise alone is sufficient to 

 operate powerfully on the spirits j and if the 

 mind be already predisposed to joy, I have sel- 

 dom found noise fail of increasing it into rapture. 

 The mind feels a kind of distracted pleasure in 

 such powerful sounds, braces up every nerve, and 

 riots in the excess. But, as in the eye, an imme- 

 diate gaze upon the sun will disturb the organs, 

 so, in the ear, a loud unexpected noise disorders 







