THE SOUL OF SONG. 
“ From harmony, from heavenly harmony, 
This universal frame began: 
From harmony to harmony 
Through all the compass of the notes it ran. 
The diapason closing full in man.” 
Dryden. 
Philosophers tell us that light, heat, and sound, are 
but the various effects of an agitated or vibrating medium. 
That a certain number of one kind of vibrations in a 
given time produce some definite ray of colour; while a 
definite number of some other kind originate a pecu¬ 
liar sound. Sounds thus produced by vibrating currents 
of air may be either noises or musical tones; the dis¬ 
tinction being dependent entirely on the nature and 
number of the vibrations. A mere noise is produced by 
vibrations which have no mathematical proportion one 
to the other : musical tones result from vibrations which 
bear mathematical analysis; each separate tone having 
its specific number of vibrations, and bearing musical 
and numerical relation to all other musical tones. Inas¬ 
much as red, blue, or yellow light are the productions of 
waves in the thin ether, so are all sounds, whether of 
the dear human voice or the dread “ rattling thunder ” 
