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Show [ 136 ] }'rom this curious coincidence, it has been propofed to produce a luminous mufic, confifring of fucceffions or combinations of colours, analogous to a tune in refpeCt to the proportions above mentioned. This might be performed by a frrong light, made by means of Mr. Argand's bmps, paffing thro.ugh coloured gla!Tes, and falling on a defined part of a wall, with moveable blinds before them, which might communicate with the keys of a harpfichord, and thus produce at the fame time vifible and audible mufic in unifon with each other. The execution of this idea is faid by Mr. Guyot to have been attempted by Father Caffel,. without much fuccefs. If this fhould be again attempted, there is another curious coincidence between founds and colours, difcovered by Dr. Darwin, of Shrewfbury, and explained in a paper on what he calls Ocular Spe{/ra, in the Philofophical Tranfacbons , Vol. LXXVI. which might much facilitate the execution of it. In this treatife the DoCtor has demonfrrated, that we fee certain colours , not only with greater eafe and difrinCl:nefs, but with relief and pleafure, after having for fome time contemplated other certain colours; ·as green after red, or red after green; orange after blue, or blue after orange; yellow after violet, or violet after yellow. This, he !hews, arifes from the ocular.fpectrum of the colour lafr viewed coin~iding with the irritation of the colour now under contemplation. Now as the pleafure we receive from the fen fat ion of melodious notes, independent of the previous aifociations of agreeable ideas with them, mufi arifc from our hearing fome proportions of founds after others more eafily, difl:inetly, or agreeably; and as there is a coincidence between the proportions of the primary colours, and the primary founds, if they may be fo called; he argues, that the fame laws mufl: govern the fenfations of both. In this circumfl:ance, therefore, confifis the fifterhood of M ufic and Painting ; and hence they claim a right to borrow metaphors from each. other; muficians to fpeak of the brilliancy of founds, and the l1ght and ihade of a concerto; and painters of the ( I 37 J ha~mony of colours, and the tone of a piCl:ure. Thus it is not qmte fo abfurd, as was imagined, when the blind man afked if the colour fcarlet was like the found of a trumpet. As the coincidence or oppofition of thefe ocular .fpet1ra, (or colours which remain in the eye after we have for fome time contemplated a luminous objeCt) are more eafily and more accurately afcertained, now their laws have been invefl:igated by Dr. Darwin, than the reblls of evanefcent f~tmds upon the ear; it is to be wifhed that fome ingenious mufician would further cultivate this curious field of fcience: for if vifibl~ mufic c~n be agreeably produced, it would be more eafy to add ~ent1ment to It b.y reprefentat!ons of groves and Cupids, and fleepmg nymphs am1d the changmg colours, than is commonly done by the words of audible mufic ? B. You mentioned the greater length of the verfes of Homer and Virgil. Had not thefe poets great advantage in the fuperiority of their languages compared to our own ? P. It is probable, that the introduction of philofophy into a country m.ufr grad.ually affect the language of it; as philofophy converfes m. more appropriated and abfl:raded terms; and thus by degrees eradicates the abundance of metaphor, which is ufed in the more early ages of fociety. Otherwife, though the Greek compound words have more vowels in proportion to their confonanti than the Englifh ones, yet the modes of compounding them are lefs general; as may be feen by variety of inftances given in the preface of the T~anflators, ~refixed .to the SYSTEM OF VEGETABLES by the Lichfield Society; which happy property of our own language ren .. dered that tranflation of Linneus as expreffive and as concife, perhaps more fo than the original. And in one refpeCl:, I believe, the Englifh language ferves the purpofe of poetry better than the antient ones, I mean in the greater eafe of producing perfonifications; for .as our nouns have in general T |