CON 



53 



CON 



ready been an object of our perceptions or sensations. 

 And even taking conception in its most extensive signi- 

 fication, as the power which gives us the knowledge of 

 every combination which the mind can form, we ap- 

 prehend that even in this sense whatever we can 

 conceive is possible. In the most extravagant workings 

 of the imagination, though the combinations may be 

 new, yet they are all composed of old materials, and 

 though the images may be incongruous, they are not 

 contradictory : however absurd, therefore, they may be, 

 yet they are not impossible. The meaning of the pro- 

 position, contested by Dr Reid, evidently is, that what- 

 ever we can conceive to be possible, is possible. This ex- 

 planation would obviate his objection, drawn from the 

 JReductio ad absurdum, in mathematical propositions ; in 

 which, he says, we are required to conceive things that 

 are impossible, in order to prove them to be so. We 

 can conceive what is nifanl when it is affirmed, that 

 three and three make seven, but we cannot for a mo- 

 ment conceive it to be possible. But then, says Dr 

 Reid, what one man judges to be possible, another judges 

 to be impossible ; the maxim therefore in this sense 

 cannot be true. But whenever two men are found to 

 differ respecting the possibility or impossibility of any 

 proposition, fact, conception, &c. it will probably be 

 found that their conceptions are both correct, according 

 to the virw which they have taken of the subject. From 

 limited views, or false principles, a man may conceive 

 a very obvious truth to be impossible : according to his 

 conception of the subject, he is perfectly right : it can- 

 not be possible, on the principles which he has assumed : 

 but remove his prejudices, and correct the errors of his 

 judgment, and then his conceptions will keep pace with 

 the enlargement of his knowledge, and he will see the 

 truth of what he before conceived to be impossible. 



We have ventured, in this article, to call in question 

 the opinions of some eminent philosophers, whose abili- 

 ties we highly respect, and whose labours we duly ap- 

 preciate. They have done much more, indeed, than 

 could have been reasonably expected, in the infancy of 

 pneumatology : their ingenious observations, and valu- 

 able facts, must facilitate the investigations of future en- 

 quirers : and much certainly yet remains to be done. We 

 conceive the science of pneumatology to be, at present, 

 much in the same state in which chemistry was, in the 

 days of the alchymists, when false but ingenious theo- 

 ries stimulated enquiry, and evolved facts, which a more 

 accurate method of philosophizing has reduced to the 

 regularity of science, (g) 



CONCEPTION, Concepcion, or Penco, is the chief 

 city of Chili, in South America, and principal place of a 

 provinceand cbrregiomento of the same name, was found- 

 ed by Pedro de Valdivia, in the year 1550. The old 

 city was situated on a gentle declivity, at the mouth of 

 the river St Pierre, and its houses and public buildings, 

 with the exception of the college of the Jesuits, were 

 equally mean and insignificant. In the year 1751, it 

 was completely destroyed by an earthquake, and the 

 greater part of it swallowed up by the sea. About three 

 leagues from the old town, and a quarter of a league 

 from the river Biobio, a spot was chosen, in 1 763, for 

 the scite of the new city. In order to guard against the 

 effects of earthquakes, the town was built so as to occupy 

 a great .extent of ground, and the houses were erected 

 only of one story. Owing to the low state of commerce, 

 the houses of the most wealthy inhabitants are destitute 

 of furniture, and almost all the artificers in the town are 

 foreigners. The harbour of Conception, which is in the 

 form of a horse shoe, and wliich is called by the Spa- 



niards Herradura, is five leagues from the town, with 

 which it communicates by means of light vessels by the 

 river Andaliers. The town of Conception carries on a 

 considerable trade with Peru, by means of ten or twelve 

 vessels, and the principal articles of commerce are hides, 

 tallow, dried beef, and wheat, besides the flour and bis- 

 cuit which it furnishes to French vessels on their way 

 to Peru. In return for these it receives from Lima, 

 tobacco, sugar, and some articles of European manufac- 

 ture. The inhabitants also carry on a considerable 

 trade with the Puelches,a savage and independent tribe, 

 who inhabit the Cordilleras. The quantity of gold an-* 

 nually found in the diocese of Conception is valued at 

 200,000 piastres. Population, 13,000. West Long. 

 73° 4.' 45", and South Lat. 36° 49' 10". 



For a fuller account of this town, and the bay of Con- 

 ception, see Ulloa's Voyage to South America, vol. ii. 

 chap. v. vi. p. .- , 34, Eng. edit. 1807; La Perouse's Voy- 

 age round the World, vol. i. ; Alcedo's Geograph. Dic- 

 tionary, vol. i. p. 500. ; and the article Chili, vol. vi. 

 p. 194. (O 



CONCEPTION. See Midwifery. 



CONCERT Pitch, in Music, is that particular pitch, 

 or degree of acuteness, of the several notes which is 

 used in the best concerts of this period. This pitch is 

 entirely a matter of convention, or agreement, among 

 musicians, there being nothing in the nature of sounds 

 that can fix or determine the pitch of any particular 

 note of the scale ; nevertheless, any one of these being- 

 assumed or given, the principles of harmonics, and rules 

 of tuning thence derived, will enable the practical mu- 

 sician, or tuner, therefrom to derive all the other notes 

 of the scale. 



With singers, where no instrumental accompaniments < 

 are used, it is common to use a Pitch-Pipe, almost 

 similar to a stopped organ pipe, having the handle of 

 its piston, or plug, graduated, or marked with the dis- 

 tances to which it should be drawn out, to sound each 

 of the twelve half notes in the scale, or more, if 

 wanted ; and, before beginning any piece of music, 

 the pipe is set to the key-note of the tune, or piece, 

 and sounded. This is called pitching the tune, an- 

 them, glee, &c. 



Performers on stringed instruments, as violins, vio- 

 loncellos, &c. commonly (when there is no organ or 

 piano forte present) use a Tuning-Fork for pitch- 

 ing the note A, (because they have no string for 

 C,) but tuners of keyed-instruments, harps, &c. and 

 some singers, use a C tuning-fork, this being the note 

 which is considered as the fundamental key-note, or 

 lowest of the twelve notes in the scale. The parti- 

 cular C (among its various octaves) that is generally 

 sounded by large tuning-forks, is that on which the 

 tenor-cliff is placed, called the tenor-cliff C, and an- 

 swers to a leger'line above the bass stave, and the same 

 below the treble stave, in written or printed music : 

 it is C-sol-fa-ut of the Guidonian gamut, i: of the Ger- 

 man tablature, and C of the middle septave, according 

 to Earl Stanhope. 



The most modern musical writers seem agreed, that 

 the present pitch of the last-mentioned note is such, 

 that it excites 240 complete or double vibrations in the 

 air, that is, backwards and forwards, in one second of 

 time, at or near a mean state of the barometer at 30 

 inches, and the thermometer at 60°, the latter in parti- 

 cular ; and all the various tables of beats of temper- 

 ed systems, which have been published in the Philoso- 

 phical Magazine by Mr Farey and Mr Smyth, and 

 those which will be given in our work, under the 

 3. 



Concep- 

 tion, 



Concert 

 Pitch. 



