SCIENCE OF RECTITUDE AS DISTINCT FROM EXPEDIENCE. 1385 
and opinion, which must needs be innumerable, what person, 
who could pretend to any knowledge of the subject, would 
refuse to accord to Harmony the rank of a legitimate 
science ? Its title to this position is of course indisputable ; 
for its laws are no arbitrary aggregate of compromises, no 
systematised outgrowth from idiosyncrasies in respect to 
musical taste ; they have for their basis complexities of 
arithmetical ratio between successions, simple and consonant, 
of sound-producing waves of different lengths, and are 
therefore grounded upon relations in which the intellect, in- 
dependently of any aid it may receive from the ear, is able 
to perceive. significance. It is beyond all human power to 
frame the laws to which musical composition, whether as 
regards successive or simultaneous sounds, should conform, 
but the ideally proper function of what is "called an ear for 
music is to be sensitive in exact correspondence with laws 
which have been determined by the constitution of nature. 
Germane to this duty is the proper function of the artist’s 
eye; and, in the discharge of both, the acquisition of technical 
accuracy is facilitated by practice and education. Hence it 
must be evident that facts of large and profound analogical 
import warrant the expectation of finding laws into full 
accord with which it should be our aim to bring the respon- 
sive susceptibilities of that imnermost sense, that spiritual 
eye or ear, which indeed cannot act at all without at least 
discriminating between Right and Wrong, considered respec- 
tively as such, yet does not of necessity discriminate cor- 
rectly, but for the due discharge of its functions needs a 
healthy development, and therefore the aid of such influences 
as tend to strengthen the reverential and sympathetic affec- 
tions. and of such illumination as may ensure a sound judg- 
ment, in so far as the co-operation of the intellect is 
requisite, 
Now, in the first place, it will easily be perceived that a 
certain duty which is commonly held to underlie and deter- 
mine all other conceivable obligations, virtually receives 
scientific recognition, on the assumption that Will is an 
attribute of the First Cause. The original and absolute 
Will of necessity claims unlimited obedience, and its title is 
a self-evident fitness, which the human intellect is so consti- 
tuted as to be able to discern, independently of any impulse 
it may receive from emotion, and which, therefore, in this 
respect may be ranked with mathematical axioms. On the 
same ground, it is of course no less apparent that whatever 
responsive affection and desire the originated being is 
