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EAR

Volume 8 · 85 words · 1842 Edition

in Music, denotes a kind of internal sense, by which we perceive and judge of harmony and musical sounds. In music we seem universally to acknowledge something like a sense distinct from the external one of hearing, and call it a good ear; and a similar distinction we should probably acknowledge in other affairs, if we had distinct names by which to denote these powers of perception. Thus a greater capacity of perceiving the beauties of painting, sculpture, and architecture, is called a fine taste.