of small fractional tones as well as semitones.

Our knowledge of the musical notation of the Greeks rests
entirely on the authority of Alypius, and dates from about the
fourth century A.D. That we could not be absolutely sure of
the readings of ancient Greek melodies, even if we possessed
any, is evident from the fact that these note characters,
which at first were derived from the signs of the zodiac,
and later from the letters of the alphabet, indicate only the
relative pitch of the sounds; the rhythm is left entirely to
the metrical value of the words in the lines to be sung. Two
sets of signs were used for musical notation, the vocal system
consisting of writing the letters of the alphabet in different
positions, upside down, sideways, etc.

Of the instrumental system but little is known, and that
not trustworthy.

[05] The fundamental doctrine of the Pythagorean philosophy
was that the essence of all things rests upon musical
relations, that numbers are the principle of all that
exists, and that the world subsists by the rhythmical
order of its elements. The doctrine of the "Harmony of
the spheres" was based on the idea that the celestial
spheres were separated from each other by intervals
corresponding with the relative length of strings
arranged so as to produce harmonious tones.

[06] Dionysus, the same as the Roman Bacchus.

VII

THE MUSIC OF THE ROMANS--THE EARLY CHURCH

The art history of the world makes it clear to us that when
the art of a country turns to over-elaboration of detail
and mechanical dexterity, when there is a general tendency
toward vividness of _impression_ rather than poignancy and
vitality of _expression_, then we have the invariable sign
of that decadence which inevitably drifts into revolution
of one kind or another. Lasus (500 B.C.), who, as previously
mentioned, was a great flute and lyre player as well as poet,
betrays this tendency, which reached its culmination under the
Romans. Lasus was more of a virtuoso than a poet; he introduced
into Greece a new and florid style of lyre and harp playing;
and it was he who, disliking the guttural Dorian pronunciation
of the letter S, wrote many of his choric poems without using
this letter once in them. Pindar, his pupil, followed in his
footsteps. In many of his odes we find intricate metrical
devices; for instance, the first line of most of the odes
is so arranged metrically tha