XXXV.] THE SENSES. 103 



sible as a complex sound ? Why do we not hear the Why do 

 overtones as distinct sonnds from the fundamental, instead se«)iKlarv 

 of hearing a complex sound unlike either ? Why do vibrations, 

 sounds ever combine into a resultant sound, instead of tones, 

 being each transmitted along its own nerve-fibre separately '"^•^f^^l?® 

 to the auditory ganglia, so as to be distinct in the con- funda- 

 sciousness? I am inclined to think the answer is this : J°!"*^ ,.„ 

 All sounds, when heard simultaneously, tend to combine sultant 

 into complex sounds, and the power of distinguishing 

 them, like the rest of man's voluntary powers, has to be 

 acquired by habit. In consequence of the laws which 

 regulate the vibration of strings and other bodies, most 

 sounds are accompanied by overtones ; and as the funda- 

 mental and its overtones are habitually heard together, the The com- 

 ear in most persons never acquires the habit or the power ^I'^^tiou 



. -^ . . -^ . -"^ or distinc- 



of distinguishing them ; while it easily acquires the power tion may 

 of distinguishing sounds which are heard together only by i^abit "^ ^° 

 accident, such as two different voices. In distinguishing 

 two voices which are heard at the same time, the ear is 

 also, no doubt, very much guided by the fact that the 

 different voices rise and fall separately, while a funda- 

 mental note and its overtones rise and fall together. But with prac- 

 it is stated by Helmholtz ^ that it is possible to acquire by ^^^^ °'^^''' 



„,...,. tones may 



practice the power of distmguishing the overtones of a be distin- 

 single vibrating string. guished. 



The senses of sight and hearing are the only senses sight and 

 Avhich minister to the intellect in any high state of intel- ^^^'^""g 



■' ° are the 



lectual development ; and, no doubt for this reason, they most intel- 

 are the only aisthetic senses — that is to say, the only senses anVthe 

 through which we derive any ideas of beauty. It may be °^^J 

 unusual to call that heauty which we admire and enjoy in senses. 

 music, but it certainly impresses the mind exactly as visual 

 beauty does, making allowance only for the unlikeness of 

 one sense to another. The objects of visual beauty are in 

 general much more permanent than sounds can be, and 

 they consequently give a more durable pleasure ; but the Music pro- 

 pleasure due to music, on the other hand, is, while it lasts, duces a 



. more in- 



more intense than that due to visual beauty. The reason tense 



1 Quoted in Tyudall's Lectures on Sound. 



