XIII. The vast inferiority of the antients, compared to the moderns, with respect to industry and ability, is also a voluntary supposition. If this was so, it ought not only to be inferred, that they were deficient in the science of music, but in all the other arts also; but this is so far from being the case, that it is known to a certainty, there were many men among them, who arrived to the highest pitch of excellence, both as painters, statuaries, and poets, and who were such, as can hardly be equalled for eminence by any modern whatever. Of the two last of these arts, there are still monuments subsisting, which are invincible proofs, of their great talents for, and masterly performances in both of them; and their skill in the first, may be reasonably inferred, from their ability in the other two; for as Vincentio Carducho, in his _Dialogues on Painting_, justly reasons, if the works of the painters had been defective in any of the material requisites, as some have conjectured, the skill of the statuaries, and the perfection of the statues, would glaringly have displayed the faults of the painters; and would consequently, have discredited them as artists; but this was not the case, for it is established by the authority of history, that their works were exceedingly prized. XIV. This proof then, falls to the ground as ill-founded; but the partizans of modern music, urge another that is tolerably specious; which is, that the antient was very limited, both in the modulation and harmonies of it. As to what regards the modulation, we should observe, that before the time of the famous musician Timotheus, who flourished in the reign of Philip of Macedon, the lyre had no more than seven strings, which expressed or marked seven tones or points only; because to the antient lyre, there were no frets, nor any substitute for them, wherewith they could make on the same string any progression of distinct sounds. Timotheus added two strings to it, which made it an instrument of nine; others maintain it had nine before, and that he added two to them, and made it one of eleven. But admitting this last to be the fact, it then remained an instrument of very small compass, compared to modern instruments. The chant could not exceed the bounds of the instrument, and by all this we may perceive the little variety and extension of antient modulation.