EAR is used technically in music to denote susceptibility of the auditory organ, as well as of the mind, to all musical impressions; or the faculty of perceiving them correctly, and the power of transmitting them unchanged to the sensorium. When speaking figuratively of an ear, a good ear, a fine ear for music, we mean an ear very sensitive to music—able to distinguish true intonation from false—to perceive accuracy of time and justness of harmony—to feel the beauties of a musical composition and discover its faults, &c. To have no ear for music implies the absence of all these powers. An ear for the measure and cadence of poetical versification and for rhyme, by no means necessarily implies an ear for music, although both may and often do co-exist. Some distinguished poets have been utterly destitute of musical ear; while others, such as Milton, possessed great musical susceptibility. The want of an ear for music is a defect as inscrutable as that peculiarity of eye in some persons which hinders them from distinguishing colours. See MUSIC, § The sense of hearing. (G. F. O.)