Cursory Remarks on Music, Especially on the Source of the Pleasure which it Communicates [2/2]
W H, pseud. [William Henry] *
Genre: | Essay, Serial |
Subjects: | Music, Feeling, Aesthetics, Sound, Light |
Publications cited: | Darwin 1794–96 |
States: 'An ingenious speculation, however, has been proposed by Dr Franklin, in a letter to Lord Kames, by which he would resolve all melody into harmony. The Hypothesis is founded on a quality ascertained to exist in our organs of sense, viz. that they have the power of retaining, for a time, any impression made by an external object; in consequence of which, in a series of sensations, any one impression becomes intermingled with that which immediately precedes, and with that which immediately follows it. This law of sensation, so far as it is to the phenomena of vision, had not escaped the sagacity of Dr Franklin; but it has since been more fully developed, and ingeniously illustrated by Dr Darwin, in his essay on Ocular Spectra' (460). Describes Franklin and Darwin's hypotheses in more detail. | |
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