COSMIC PHILOSOPHY 



of intensity. And if any one of these elemen- 

 tary sub-conscious psychical states were absent, 

 the character of the conscious sensation would 

 be different from what it is. 



But this is not all. Every musical tone has a 

 timbre or quality of its own, according as it pro- 

 ceeds from a piano, a violin, a flute, or any 

 other instrument. Now, Helmholtz has proved 

 that the quality of any tone is due solely to the 

 number and combinations of certain higher and 

 fainter tones which accompany it. Along with 

 the fundamental note there are heard sundry 

 harmonic notes, due to vibrations from two to 

 ten times more rapid than those which consti- 

 tute the fundamental note. When any note is 

 sounded on the piano, the first six harmonics 

 are sounded with it ; when the same note is 

 sounded on the violin, by means of the bow, 

 the first six harmonics are sounded so feebly 

 as to be overpowered by the seventh, eighth, 

 ninth, and tenth ; and this is the only cause of 

 the diflPerence in quality of tone between the 

 piano and the violin. Now, by an effort of 

 attention these harmonic over- tones may be 

 recognized as distinct sensations when two or 

 three notes are slowly struck. But in ordina- 

 rily rapid playing they are not distinctly recog- 

 nized. Their only effect is to impart to the 

 tones that peculiar quality which enables the ear 

 to recognize the instrument from which they 

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