ose who pose as public singers and
speakers, one must often wonder where they keep their ears. As a
matter of fact, the ideal listeners are rare, and the critical ear,
like a sentinel on guard, is among students, really seldom to be met
with, if one extend the term "listening" to mean giving attention
equally and in the most critical way, not only to pitch and rhythm,
but also to the quality of sounds, the effects of pauses, shading,
etc., all of which are perceived through the ear.

If such listening requires, as it does, the closest attention, it must
give rise to fatigue, so that it is clear that the lengthy practices
some undertake are against the plainest laws of physiology and
psychology, even if the hearing processes alone be considered; but as
we have before shown, there are other reasons why such long-continued
exercises as some attempt are in every way unwise; in fact, in the
author's opinion, they are in the musical world a great evil under the
sun.

SUMMARY.

Hearing is finally a psychological or mental condition, a state of
consciousness, but is always associated with certain physiological
processes, which are initiated by a physical stimulus in the form of
waves in a fluid surrounding the hair-cells of the auditory end-organ;
which waves may again be traced to the movements of the bones of the
middle ear, caused by the swinging to and fro of the drum-head, owing
to vibrations of the air produced by a sounding body.

The ear is anatomically divisible into external, middle (tympanum or
drum), and internal (labyrinth). The outer ear collects the
vibrations, the middle ear conducts them, and the internal converts
them into a special physiological condition of the hair-cells and the
auditory nerve. This condition is communicated to the other links in
the anatomical hearing chain, until the highest part of the brain, or
cortex, is reached. Hearing, from the physiological point of view, is
the outcome of a series of processes having their development in a
corresponding series of centres, or collections of nerve-cells.

The perceptions associated with the ear, in the mind of the musician,
are those of the pitch, rhythm (and time), and quality of tones. The
loudness of a tone is, of course, recognized by the ear also, but this
is hardly a musical quality proper. In reality, like all that belongs
to hearing, these perceptions are the result of a series of
physiological processes, in which the ear takes an im