MODE

(Lat. modus.) A term used by Locke to denote " such complex ideas, which, however compounded, contain not in them the supposition of subsisting by themselves, but are considered as dependences on or affections of substances." Of these modes there are two kinds — simple and mixed. Simple modes are " onljr variations or different combinations of the same simple idea, without the mixture of any other, as a dozen or a score, which are nothing but the ideas of so many distinct units added together." Mixed modes are those " compounded of simple ideas of several kinds put together to make one complex one, — e. g. beauty; and consisting of a certain composition of colour and figure, causing delight in the beholder." It need hardly be said that this distinction is founded on a very imperfect and false analysis. The term is now universally laid aside by writers on mental philosophy. Mode. In Music, the melodious constitution of the octave, as consisting of seven e ential and natural sounds besides the key or fundamental. It is not any single note or sound, but the order of the conciuous degrees of an octave, the fundamental note whereof may, in another sense, be called the key, as it signifies the principal note which regulates the rest. The difference between a mode and a key is, that an octave with its natural concinous degrees is called a mode with respect to the manner of dividing it, whilst as regards its place in the scale of music or pitch it is called a key. [s. 769]