ADAM SMITH ON

MUSIC, DANCING,

AND POETRY,

435

*** \The following Observations were found among Mr. SMITH'S

Manuscripts, "without any intimation whether they were intended
as part of this, or of a different .Essay. As they appeared too
valuable to be suppressed, the Editors have annexed tJicm to
this Essay.]

Of

the Affijiity between Mnsic, Dancing,

and

Poetry.

IN the second part of the preceding Essay I have mentioned the

connection between the two arts of Mnsic and Dancing, formed by
the Rhythmus, as the ancients termed it, or, as we call it, the tune
or measure that equally regulates both.
It is not, however, every sort of step, gesture, or motion, of which the
correspondence with the tune or measure of Music will constitute a
Dance. It must be a step, gesture, or motion of a particular sort. In
a good opera-actor, not only the modulations and pauses of his voice,
but every motion and gesture, every variation, either in the air of his head
or in the attitude of his body, correspond to the time and measure of
Music. The best opera-actor, however, is not, according to the lan
guage of any country in Europe, understood to dance, yet in the per
formance of his part, he makes use of what is called the stage step but
even this step is not understood to be a dancing step.
Though the eye of the most ordinary spectator readily distinguishes
between what is called a dancing step and any other step, gesture, or
motion, yet it may not perhaps be very easy to express what it is which
;

constitutes this distinction.

To

ascertain exactly the precise limits at

which the one species begins, and the other ends, or to give an accurate
definition of this very frivolous matter, might perhaps require more
thought and attention than the very small importance of the subject
may seem to deserve. Were I, however, to attempt to do this, I should
observe, that though in performing any ordinary action in walking,
example from the one end of the room to the other, a person may
sho\v both grace and agility, yet if he betrays the least intention of
showing either, he is sure of offending more or less, and we never fail

for

to accuse him of some degree of vanity and affectation.

In the per
formance of any such ordinary action, every person wishes to appear
to be solely occupied about the proper purpose of the action
if he
means to show either grace or agility, he is careful to conceal that
meaning, and he is very seldom successful in doing so: he offends,
however, just in proportion as he betrays it, and he almost always
In Dancing, on the contrary, every person professes, and
betrays it.
:

avows, as it were, the intention of displaying some degree either of

grace or of agility, or of both. The display of one, or other, or both
of these qualities, is in reality the proper purpose of the action; and
there can never be any disagreeable vanity or affectation in following

TIME ALONE, WITHOUT TUNE, WILL MAKE MUSIC.

436

out the proper purpose of any action. When we say of any particular
person, that he gives himself many affected airs and graces in Dancing,
we mean either that he gives himself airs and graces which are unsuit
able to the nature of the Dance, or that he executes awkwardly, perhaps
exaggerates too much, (the most common fault in Dancing,) the airs
and graces which are suitable to it. Every Dance is in reality a suc
cession of airs and graces of

some kind or other, and of airs and graces

say so, profess themselves to be such. The steps,
gestures, and motions which, as it were, avow the intention of exhibit
ing a succession of such airs and graces, are the steps, the gestures,
and the motions which are peculiar to Dancing, and when these are
performed to the time and the measure of Music, they constitute what
is properly called a Dance.
But though every sort of step, gesture, or motion, even though per
formed to the time and measure of Music, will not alone make a
Dance, yet almost any sort of sound, provided it is repeated with a
distinct rhythmus, or according to a distinct time and measure, though
without any variation as to gravity or acuteness, will make a sort of
which,

Imay

if

Music, no doubt indeed, an imperfect one. Drums, cymbals, and, so

I have observed, all other instruments of
percussion, have only
one note this note, however, when repeated with a certain rhythmus,
or according to a certain time and measure, and sometimes, in order to
mark more distinctly that time and measure, with some little variation
as to loudness and lovvness, though without any as to acuteness and
gravity, does certainly make a sort of Music, which is frequently far
from being disagreeable, and which even sometimes produces consider
able effects.
The simple note of such instruments, it is true, is gene
It does not
rally a very clear, or what is called a melodious, sound.
however seem indispensably necessary that it should be so. The
sound of the muffled drum, when it beats the dead march, is far from
being either clear or melodious, and yet it certainly produces a species
of Music which is sometimes affecting.
Even in the performance of
far as

humble of all artists, of the man who drums upon the table
with his fingers, we may sometimes distinguish the measure, and per
haps a little of the humour, of some favourite song ; and we must allow
that even he makes some sort of Music.
Without a proper step and
motion, the observation of tune alone will not make a Dance ; time
alone, without tune, will make some sort of Music.
That exact observation of tune, or of the proper intervals of gravity
and acuteness, which constitutes the great beauty of all perfect Music,
the most

its great difficulty.

The time, or measure of a song
are simple matters, which even a coarse and unpractised ear is capable
of distinguishing and comprehending but to distinguish and compre

constitutes likewise

hend

the variations of the tune, and to conceive with precision the

exact proportion of every note, is what the finest and most cultivated
all

ADAM SMITH ON

MUSIC, DANCING,

AND POETRY.

437

In the singing
is frequently no more than capable of performing.
of the common people we may generally remark a distinct enough
observation of time, but a very imperfect one of tune. To discover
ear

and to distinguish with precision the proper intervals of tune, must

have been a work of long experience and much observation. In the
theoretical treatises upon Music, what the authors have to say upon
time is commonly discussed in a single chapter of no great length or

The theory of tune

difficulty.

fills

commonly

all

the rest of the volume,

and has long ago become both an extensive and an abstruse science,
which is often but imperfectly comprehended, even by intelligent
nations towards singing,
I have, upon this
attended to
account, been frequently disposed to doubt of the great antiquity of
those national songs, which it is pretended have been delivered down
from age to age by a sort of oral tradition, without having been ever
noted or distinctly recorded for many successive generations. The
artists.

In the

first

rude

efforts of uncivilized

the niceties of tune could be but

little

measure, the humour of the song, might perhaps have been delivered
down in this manner, but it seems scarcely possible that the precise
notes of the tune should have been so preserved.
The method of
singing some of what we reckon our old Scotch songs, has undergone
great alterations within the compass of

my memory, and

it

may have

greater before.
The distinction between the sounds or tones of singing and those of
speaking seems to be of the same kind with thut between the steps,
gestures, and motions of Dancing, and those of any other ordinary

undergone

still

;
though in speaking, a person may show a very agreeable tone
of voice, yet if he seems to intend to show it, if he appears to listen to
the sound of his own voice, and as it were to tune it into a pleasing

action

modulation, he never fails to offend, as guilty of a most disagreeable

In speaking, as in every other ordinary action, we expect
affectation.
and require that the speaker should attend only to the proper purpose
of the action, the clear and distinct expression of what he has to say.
In singing, on the contrary, every person professes the intention to
please by the tone and cadence of his voice ; and he not only appears
to be guilty of no disagreeable affectation in doing so, but we expect
and require that he should do so. To please by the choice and ar
rangement of agreeable sounds is the proper purpose of all Music,
vocal as well as instrumental ; and we always expect and require, that
every person should attend to the proper purpose of whatever action

A person may appear to sing, as well as to dance,

may endeavour to please by sounds and tones which
are unsuitable to the nature of the song, or he may dwell too much on
those which are suitable to it, or in some other way he may show an

he

is

performing.

affectedly

he

overweening conceit of his own abilities, beyond what seems to be

warranted by his performance. The disagreeable affectation appears

THE TONES OF THE SINGING AND THE SPEAKING

438

VOICES.

to consist always, not in attempting to please by a proper, but by some

improper modulation of the voice. It was early discovered that the

vibrations of chords or strings, which either in their lengths, or in their

densities, or in their degrees of tension, bear a certain proportion to
one another, produce sounds which correspond exactly, or, as the

musicians say, are the unisons of those sounds or tones of the human
voice which the ear approves of in singing. This discovery has enabled
musicians o speak with distinctness and precision concerning the
musical sounds or tones of the human voice they can always precisely
ascertain what are the particular sounds or tones which they mean, by
;

ascertaining what are the proportions of the strings of which the vibra
tions produce the unisons of those sounds or tones.
What are called
the intervals

that

is,

the differences, in point of gravity 'and acuteness,

between the sounds or tones of a singing voice, are much greater and
more distinct than those of the speaking voice. Though the former,
therefore, can be measured and appreciated by the proportions of
chords or strings, the latter cannot. The nicest instruments cannot
express the extreme minuteness of these intervals. The heptamerede
of Mr. Sauveur could express an interval so small as the seventh part
of what is called a comma, the smallest interval that is admitted in
modern Music. Yet even this instrument, we are informed by Mr.
Duclos, could not express the minuteness of the intervals in the pro
nunciation of the Chinese language
of all the languages in the world,
that of which the pronunciation is said to approach the nearest to sing
ing, or in which the intervals are said to be the greatest.
As the sounds or tones of the singing voice, therefore, can be ascer
tained or appropriated, while those of the speaking voice cannot the
former are capable of being noted or recorded, while the latter are
;

not.

ADAM SMITH
ON THE

EXTERNAL SENSES;
THE Senses, by which we perceive external objects, are commonly
reckoned Five in Number ; viz. Seeing, Hearing, Smelling, Tasting,
and Touching.

Of these, the four first mentioned are

ticular parts or organs of the body ; the
the Eyes
trils

and

that of

Hearing

to the

Ears

that of Tasting to the Palate.

each of them confined to par

Sense of Seeing is confined to
;

that of Smelling to the Nos

of Touching alone

The Sense