HARMOifr IN MUSIC. 105 



times of vibration, which produce in the eye the sensation 

 of colour, red having the greatest periodic time, then 

 orange, yellow, green, blue, violet ; the periodic time of 

 violet being about half that of the outermost red. But 

 the eye is unable to decompose compound systems of 

 luminous waves, that is, to distinguish compound colours 

 from one another. It experiences from them a single, 

 unanalysable, simple sensation, that of a mixed colour. 

 It is indifferent to the eye whether this mixed colour 

 results from a union of fundamental colours with simple, 

 or with non-simple ratios of periodic times. The eye has 

 no sense of harmony in the same meaning as the ear. 

 There is no music to the eye. 



Esthetics endeavour to find the principle of artistic 

 beauty in its unconscious conformity to law. To-day I 

 have endeavoured to lay bare the hidden law, on which de- 

 pends the agreeableness of consonant combinations. It is 

 in the truest sense of the word unconsciously obeyed, so 

 far as it depends on the upper partial tones, which, 

 though felt by the nerves, are not usually consciously 

 present to the mind. Their compatibility or incom- 

 patibility however is felt, without the hearer knowing 

 the cause of the feeling he experiences. 



These phenomena of agreeableness of tone, as deter- 

 mined solely by the senses, are of course merely the first 

 step towards the beautiful in music. For the attainment 

 of that higher beauty which a^opeals to the intellect, 

 harmony and dysharmony are only means, although essen- 

 tial and powerful means. In dysharmony the auditory 

 nerve feels hurt by the beats of incompatible tones. It 

 longs for the pure efflux of the tones into harmony. It 

 hastens towards that harmony for satisfaction and rest. 

 Thus both harmony and dysharmony alternately urge and 

 moderate the flow of tones, while the mind sees in their 

 immaterial motion an image of its own perpetually 



