Part 58 (2/2)

For the perturbing influence of ht, if it be a myth, is about the most tenacious one on earth This anomalous form of Force may or may not be observable in asylums, where the patients are not directly subjected to it; but anyone who has lived in the back country, ca out with all sorts and conditions of oddities, need not be accounted credulous if he holds the word 'lunatic' to rest on a sounder derivation than 'ill-starred,'

or 'disastrous'

(NOTE -- appended to the end of the final chapter:-- The proportional intensity of sunlight to ht is subject to fluctuations, frohest accepted ratio is 600,000 to 1; the lowest 200,000 to 1

A constutional repugnance to anything savouring of effect prompted me to indicate the lower proportion

The error in the text unfortunately escaped observation -- TC)

But the sub-tropical , chaste, and beautiful as its ideal queen--soothes and elevates the well-balanced ued jews-harp I always carry; and, sitting on the floor with ainst the door-post, unbound the instruan to play It is not the highest class of raph is dictated by no shallow ilorification But I never had opportunity to master any more complicated instrument; and even if I had, it would n't be much use, for I know only about three tunes, and these by no means perfectly

So I played softly and voluptuously, till my scanty repertory was exhausted, and then drifted into a tender capriccio I noticed Alfthe effect of oyrics on the boundary man's skill, I felt put onwhich surprised th

”Like it!” I repeated ”I would give one-fourth of the residue of er and musician As it is, I'm not ive you a song if you like

Hoeetly everything sounds to-night?” Bee-o-buoy-bee-o-buoy-bee-o-buoy----

”Do you like jews-harpup on the bed

”Not if I could play any better instruh I should in any case avoid the piano, for fear of flattening the ends of ers Still, the jews-harp is a jews-harp; and this is the very best I could find in the market Humble as it looks, and humble as it undeniably is, it has sounded in every nook and corner of Riverina Last tiive a poor, consumptive old blackfellow a treat, and now, you see, I tune, to please a peasant's ear, the harp a king had loved to bear” Bee-o-buoy-bee-o-buoy-bee-o-bee-o-bee-o-buoy----

”I'll give you a tune on the violin, if you like,” exclai to his feet

”Thank-you, Alf”

I carefully re-packed my simple instrument, while the boundary man took from its case a dusky, dark-brown violin Then he turned down the lamp till a mere bead of flame showed above the burner, resumed his seat by the table, and, after soan to play

Query: If the relation ofto be derided, what shall we say of the influence of music on the normal mind? Is it not equally unaccountable in operation, however indisputable in effect?

Contemplate music from a scientific standpoint--that is, merely as a succession of sound-waves, conveyed from the instrument to the ear by pulsations of the at medium Music is thus reduced to a series of definite vibrations, a certain number of which constitute a note Each separate note has three distinct properties, or attributes

First, its intensity, or loudness, which is governed by the height, depth, a--of the waves produced in the ulated by the shape, or outline, of these waves Third the pitch, high or lohich is controlled by the distance from crest to crest of the sound-waves--or, as we say, from node to node of the vibrations

To the hest limit of audibleness is reached by sound-waves estiht-hundredths of an inch from node to node--equal to 48,000 vibrations per second The extre is susceptible, has been placed at 75 feet froe of audibleness covers 12 octaves; running, of course, far above and far below the dohness and lowness of sounds which convey musical impression are represented, respectively, by 2,000 and by 30 vibrations per second--or by sound--waves, in the former case, of 6 1/2 inches, and in the latter, of 37 1/2 feet

Therefore, there are not only sounds which by reason of highness or lowness are unmusical, but, beyond these, others to which the tympanum of the human ear is insensible Nature is alive with such sounds, each carrying its three distinct properties of intensity, tirossly close us in, we can no more hear them than we can hear the 'music of the spheres'--apt teruides the h space But, to take an illustration frohest limit of audibleness would resemble a surface lined so minutely and closely as to appear perfectly plain; whilst a sound too low in pitch to be heard would be represented by superficial undulations of land or water so vast in extent that the idea of unevenness would not occur

We have fairly trustworthy evidence that whales communicate with each other by notes so low in pitch--by sound-vibrations so long in range, so few per second--that no human ear can detect the such rapid pulsations--as to be equally inaudible to us

Unison of musical notes is attained when the respective numbers of pulsations per second admit a low common-divisor For instance, the note produced by 60 vibrations per second will chord with one produced by 120--each node of the for with each alternate node of the latter

60 and 90 will also chord; 60 and 70 will produce discord; 60 and 65, worse discord And so on The science of eid mathematical lahich laws the composer need not understand

Air-movement may, of course, take place without sound-vibration, for air is only incidentally a sound-conductor Earth, rain), are better media than the atmosphere, for the transmission of sound But soundsound- the telephone wire, picks up the sound waves at one end, and instantaneously deposits theood order and condition, at the other end--say, a couple of hundred miles away

So that the brilliant pianist of the concert hall; the cornet-player of the ”Ar her angel-donation to sleep; Clancy, thundering forth so up the stringing cattle; the canary in its cage; thein motion the complex e of what they are doing To the philosophic ; they are producing and controlling sound-vibrations, arbitrarily varied in duration and quality; a series of such pulsations constituting a note; a series of notes constituting an air These vibrations are diffused fro with temperature, media, and other conditions; they ripple, spread, percolate, everywhere; they penetrate and saturate all solids and gases, yet are palpable corporeally only to the tympanuraph

Such, however, is the scientific analysis of e appeals by the same process, but with very different effect No one can understand a language which he has not previously learned, word by word; and the verbal appeal, however iinative or spiritual, comes in concrete form--that is, in the nature of information Spoken words inforh the intellectual; whereasoutwardly in the same manner, speaks over the head of intellect to an inborn sense which ceases not to receive as a little child And herein lies its mystery

For the music thus impassively anatonant withbeyond translation A mere ripple of sound-vibration, called into existence by hu fro soul, yet strong to sway heart and hand as the tornado sways the pliant pine