may have, nay, has had to do with the disposition of worlds in space. We note sympathetic vibrations; sympathies, too, as yet beyond our ken, pervade the universe with sweet compelling power, all diverging from, and converging in Love, its grand key note. One law of order rules the psychical and the physical. Shakspere makes Ferdinand say—

"This music crept by me upon the waters;
Allaying both their fury, and my passion,
With its sweet air:"

in the same strain Milton alludes to the musician

"Who with his soft pipe and smooth dittied song,
Well knows to still the wild winds when they roar,

And hush the waving woods:"

and Wordsworth writes

"The pipe of Pan to Shepherds,

Couch'd in the shadow of Maalian pines,

Was passing sweet; the eye-balls of the Leopards,
That in high triumph drew the Lord of Vines,
How did they sparkle to the cymbal's clang!
While Fawns and Satyrs beat the ground

In cadence, and Silenus swang

This way and that, with wild flowers crowned."

This accords with the miraculous powers ascribed to

In

music in ancient times, and among primitive races. infant Greece, the lyre was believed to be all but omnipotent. It stopped the flow of rivers, tamed wild animals, raised the walls of cities, while, in later times, it was employed as a specific by the physician, and, in public education, as a medium of instruction in religion, morals and the laws. In the latter light, it was regarded both

by Plato and Aristotle-men who differed widely in other political maxims. Nor are such views confined to any age. Luther called music "a half discipline and schoolmistress to make the people gentler, milder, more moral and wiser;" and he elsewhere emphatically says-" Next unto theology, I give the place and highest honour unto music." The day is breaking when such opinions will not be confined to the enlightened few.

Among the Greeks, the Spondees of Pythagoras calmed rage as if by magic; discord, and civil commotions even, were stayed by music; and they believed it capable of civilizing fierce and savage nations. The lyre of Orpheus became a constellation in the heavens, and divine honours were paid to the memory of Sappho. Truly the Greeks, who, more than any other nation, worshipped and developed the beautiful-were ruled by the lyre.

The musical traditions of the Chinese are, in many respects, similar to those of Greece. In early ages they shrewdly designated music the "science of sciences," the “rich source from whence all others spring." We find Kinglun, Kovei, and Pinmoukia arresting the flow of rivers, and causing woods and forests to crowd around them, attracted by their performances; and that certain ancient strains drew angels from heaven, and up-conjured departed souls from the regions of woe. They also believe that music can inspire men with the love of virtue and duty. Confucius expressly says "To know if a kingdom be well governed, and if the customs of its inhabitants be bad or good, examine the musical taste which prevails therein.” All music but that of a warlike character, was proscribed by the Emperor Nagaiti, when he wished to rouse the courage of the Celestials.

The Hindoos, also, have music-spells innumerable, serving for all occasions, ordinary or extraordinary, physical or mental: for example, one of their raugs, or melodies-with its minute intervals, broken and irregular time, and modulations frequent and wild-they believe to be a certain bringer on of storms, clouds, and earthquakes; and, in like manner-certain spells being apportioned to each hour of the day, varying with the season of the year-that a strain peculiar to midnight perfectly played, would induce darkness at noon. Such an effect is ascribed to the playing of Mia Tousine, in the time of the Emperor Akbar.

Similar traditions survive in Persia; and Arabic literature abounds in illustrations of Music's power under the guise of similar hyperboles. Numerous are the miracles said to have been wrought by the vocal and instrumental performances of their most skilled musicians.

The wise men among the Arabs perceived-modern writers came to say imagined, but in the clearer light of science we again say perceived the marvellous relation existing between harmonious sounds and the processes of nature, and closely interwove it with their philosophy. Universal in its influence, the tones of the lute furnished medical recipes for almost all diseases; thus literally bracing or toning the mind and frame, restoring both to health, in the same way as Saul's troubled spirit was refreshed by David's playing on the harp. In the tenth century, it is related that on one occasion the learned Al Farabi composed a piece of music, the first movement of which, sung with an instrumental accompaniment before Seidfeddonla the Grand Vizier, joyfully excited the mind with its incongruities, throwing

that prince and his courtiers into incontrollable fits of laughter; the next, waking sympathies, melted all hearts into tears; while the last, the grandest and loftiest of all, lulled and at length plunged every one present into a deep sleep, even the performers themselves being quite unable to resist its potent enchantment. This story is beautifully allegorical of that unconsciousness, or unselfing, which more or less pertains to the very highest efforts of art in any department, both as to production and appreciation; nay, as might be expected, the same law of unconsciousness holds good in life, and may be observed in that reciprocal spontaneity, characteristic of giving and receiving, where there is the purest and highest friendship; for then the musical relations of life are perfect, and all is harmonious.

History furnishes many instances of the power of music, similar to that recorded of David and Saul; and all have in some degree felt its sweet, soothing influences. Truly the poet sings of Apollo

"Music exalts each joy, allays each grief,
Expels diseases, softens every pain,
Subdues the rage of poison and the plague;
And hence the wise of ancient days regarded
One power of Physic, Melody, and Song!"

And Mrs. Browning touchingly and beautifully alludes to

"Antidotes

Of medicated music, answering for
Mankind's forlornest uses."

Shakspere writes—

"Preposterous ass! that never read so far

To know the cause why Music was ordained!
Was it not to refresh the mind of man

After his studies, or his usual pain ?"

And elsewhere, as if describing Al Farabi's third move

ment

"In sweet music is such art;
Killing care and grief of heart

Fall asleep, or, hearing, die."

This depth or universality-speaking in the breeze, in the whispering wood, and the murmuring fountain, in the singing of summer birds, in odour-breathing flowers,

or

"In the words

Of antique verse, and high romance; in form,

Sound, colour;"

in the silent crystal, the plant, the animal, and in man's spirit-manifestly proclaims the harmony of truth; and, the heart right with God,

"Every motion, odour, beam and tone,

With that deep music is in unison."

Shakspere himself, who above all others is the eulogist and poet-laureate of music-ever felicitous as he is farreaching in his allusions-fathoming the deepest depths of its primary and ultimate significance, thus conclusively writes

:

"Therefore, the poet

Did feign that Orpheus drew trees, stones, and floods;
Since nought so stockish, hard, and full of rage,
But music for the time doth change his nature:
The man that hath no music in himself,
Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds,
Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils;
The motions of his spirit are dull as night,

And his affections dark as Erebus:

Let no such man be trusted.-Mark the Music."

The art of music, vocal and instrumental, would seem

to have been almost coeval with man.

Before the deluge,