Delsarte’s discovery holds good only for stringed instruments, but this is much; this is an enormous gain.  Hence, it follows that in orchestras directed and tuned without the aid of the ear, there will be no more discords, save between the flutes, hautboys, clarionets, bassoons, horns, cornets, trumpets, trombones, kettle-drums and bass drums.  The triangle might, at a pinch, be tuned by the new method; but it is generally acknowledged that this is not necessary, just as with bells, a discord between the triangle and the other instruments is a good thing; it is popular in all lyric theatres.

And the singers, whom you do not mention, someone may ask, will it be possible to make them sing true, to put them in tune?  Two or three of them are naturally in tune.  Some few, by great care and exactness, may be brought very nearly into tune.  But all the others were not, are not, and will not be in tune, either individually, or with each other, or with the instruments, or with the leader of the orchestra, or with the rhythm, or with the harmony, or with the accent, or with the expression, or with the pitch, or with the language, or with anything resembling precision and good sense.

Delsarte has made it especially easy to tune the piano, by means of an instrument that he calls the phonopticon, which it would take too long to describe here.  Suffice it to say, that it contains an index-hand that marks the exact instant when two or more strings are in perfect unison.  It may be added that the invariable result is so absolutely correct, no matter who may try it or under what conditions, that the most practiced ear could not possibly attain to similar perfection.  Acousticians should not fail to examine this invention at once, the use of which cannot be long in becoming universal.

Index.

A.

Abdominal centre, the, life,
Accent,
Accord of nine, the,
Actors, bad,
Adjective, the,
Adverb, the,
AEsthetic division, chart of,
AEsthetic fact of first rank,
AEsthetics,
  course of, applied,
  lay of,
Alto voice, the,
Anatomy,
Angelo, Michael,
Angels, the,
Anger,
Animals do not laugh,
Ankylosed limbs,
Apollo, the,
Appoggiatura,
Aquinas, St. Thomas,
Archimedean lever,
Architecture, application of the law to,
Aristocrats lie,
Aristotle,
Arms, movements of the,
  five million movements of the agents of the,
  division of,
  three centres in the,
Art,
  the true aim of,
  all, has the same principle,
  definition of,
  how Delsarte considered,
  religious sentiment in,
  the death of,
  elements of,
  the plastic,
  the grand,
  the supreme,
  dramatic, lyric and oratorical,
  best conditions for a work of,
  object of,
  sources of fine,
  not imitation of nature,
Article, the,
Articulate language, weakness of,