[6] The propriety of making 25 : 36 the true ratio of the 5th will be manifest, when it is considered that this is the value of that interval as sounded by voices and perfect instruments; when the 3ds which compose it are made perfect. This interval, as found in the scale which has the fewest tempered concords possible referred to at the beginning of this essay, ought to be regarded as the true 5th, flattened by a comma, in the same manner as one of its component 3ds will be allowed by all to be flattened.
[7] The propriety of this limitation will be manifest, when we consider that in organ music, the chords are generally played more full, and are more protracted, than in music for other keyed instruments. It is harmony which constitutes its character, in a higher degree than in music for other instruments. Hence the harmony of the organ ought not to be impaired by including in our computations any music not adapted to it. If a similar examination of music for the piano-forte would afford a set of results essentially different from those of this proposition, this is no proof that it ought to have any concern in a system of temperament designed primarily for the organ, but merely that the same temperament cannot be equally adapted to different instruments. If, as is probable, such an examination would give essentially the same results, to introduce them would be superfluous.
[8] The smaller works of Phillips and Aikin were not then published; had they been, they could not have superseded Cleaveland; the same may be said of the respectable work of Professor Kidd, of Oxford University.
[9] A vast region in the interior of New-York and Pennsylvania is now fertilized by inexhaustible beds of sulphat of lime, (plaster of Paris,) which, till a very few years since, were not even known to exist.
Near New-Haven immense beds of green marble were discovered in 1811, during a mineralogical excursion: this beautiful material, closely resembling the verd antique, is now, on the spot, wrought into tables, fireplaces, and many other ornamental forms; and although the farmers had made fences of it for 150 years, no one suspected what it was till the study of mineralogy, in Yale College, brought it to light.
[10] See Tilloch's Phil. Mag. Vol. XLII. p. 182.
[11] In the Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia this plant is called limosella tenuifolia.
[12] No return of this tree was made from Brunswick. The date of the cherry-tree is therefore substituted, which is usually in blossom at the same time.
[13] Mr. Correa de Serra, Minister of the King of Portugal.
[14] Communicated by a friend at Paris.