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] may be conceived as embarrassed by the unaccustomed position of the scale upon the instrument and its resulting distortion.

The use of the scale at different pitches, of which we have here a practical example, appears to have been reduced to a definite and elaborate system in Chinese theory from time immemorial. In the study of the later development of this, a possible reason will present itself for the choice by the Chinese of the particular transposition of Koung illustrated in Man-nen-fōn and Long-how-sa for (approximate) embodiment on an instrument. We shall find in the mediæval history of Chinese music the reflection of a structural distinction which has been fundamental in the art of Europe since the Reformation, and shall be able to interpret this transposition of our songs as evidence that the distinction in question is neither a purely theoretical one nor purely a matter of history, but a fact of existing musical practice in China as in Europe.

BENJAMIN IVES GILMAN.

NEW YORK.