His device for expressing change of octave by means of points would
render the rapid seizing of a particular tone by the performer still
more difficult, and it is strange that he should have preferred this to
the other plan suggested, of indicating height of octave by visible
place above or below a horizontal line. Again, his attempt to simplify
the many varieties of musical time by reducing them all to the two modes
of double and triple time, though laudable enough, yet implies an
imperfect recognition of the full meaning of time, by omitting all
reference to the distribution of accent and to the average time value of
the tones in a particular movement.

FOOTNOTES:

[318] Quoted in Martin's _Hist. de France_, xvi. 158.

[319] _Conf._, viii. 197. Grimm, _Corr. Lit._, i. 27.

[320] _Lettre sur la Musique Francaise_, 178, etc., 187.

[321] P. 197.

[322] _Corr. Lit._, i. 92. His own piece was _Le petit prophete de
Boehmischbroda_, the style of which will be seen in a subsequent
footnote.

[323] He was burnt in effigy by the musicians of the Opera. Grimm,
_Corr. Lit._, i. 113.

[324] This is Turgot's opinion on the controversy (Letter to Caillard,
_Oeuv._, ii. 827):--"Tous avez donc vu Jean-Jacques; la musique est un
excellent passe-port aupres de lui. Quant a l'impossibilite de faire
de la musique francaise, je ne puis y croire, et votre raison ne me
parait pas bonne; car il n'est point vrai que l'essence de la langue
francaise est d'etre sans accent. Point de conversation animee sans
beaucoup d'accent; mais l'accent est libre et determine seulement par
l'affection de celui qui parle, sans etre fixe par des conventions sur
certaines syllabes, quoique nous ayons aussi dans plusieurs mots des
syllabes dominantes qui seules peuvent etre accentuees."

[325] Musset-Pathay, i. 289.

[326] Preface to _Dissertation sur la Musique Moderne_, pp. 32, 33.

[327] I am indebted to Mr. James Sully, M.A., for furnishing me with
notes on a technical subject with which I have too little
acquaintance.

[328] _Dissertation_, p. 42.

[329] P. 52.

[330] _Conf._, vii. 18, 19. Also _Dissertation_, pp. 74, 75.

CHAPTER IX.

VOLTAIRE AND D'ALEMBERT.

Everybody in the full tide of the eighteenth century had something to do
with Voltaire, from serious personages like Frederick the Great and
Turgot, down to the sorriest poetaster who sent his verses to be
corrected or bepraised. Rousseau's debt to him in the days o