KEEPER, in English law, an officer of different descriptions, as the keeper (.?1" the great seal, a lord by his office, and one of tile privy council, through whose hand.; pass charters, commissions, and grants of the king under the great seal ; the keeper of the priry seal, through whose hands pass all charters, &e., before they conic to the great seal. There is also the keeper of the forests, the keeper of the touch, officer of the mint, ,he. KEEPING, a term used in various branches of the Fine Arts, to denote the just proportion and relation of the earl ous parts.—In painting, it signifies the peculiar management of coloring and clriaro oscuro, so as to produce a proper degree of relict.° in different objects, ac cording to their relative position and im portance. If the lights, shadows, and half tints be not in proper keeping, that is, in their exact relative proportion of depths, no rotundity can be effected, and without due opposition of light, shale, and colors, no apparent separation of ob jects can take place.
KE'111-CIIE'TIll, in philology, the name given to various readings in the Ilebrew Bible. Nerd signifies that which
is read, and chetib thut which is written. When any such various readings occur, the false reading or ehetib is written in the text, and the true reading or keri is written in the margin. These correc tions, which are about 1000 in number, have been generally attributed to Ezra; but as several keri-ehetibs are found in the sacred books the produce of his own pen, it is more probable that they are of later date.
in music, the name of the funda mental note or tone, to which the whole piece is accommodated, and in which it usually begins and always coils. Then) are but two species of keys ; one of the major, and one of the minor all the keys in which we employ sharps or flats being deduced from the natural keys of C major and A minor, of which they aro mere transpositions.—The keys of an or gan or pianoforte, are movable project ing levers, made of ivory or wood, so placed as conveniently to receive the fin gers of the performer, by which the me chanism is cot in motion and the sounds produced.