238 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



If, therefore, we are unable to explain our music to ourselves, and the 

 ancients could not explain their music to themselves, it should not 

 cause surprise if we fail to comprehend their music. For, although 

 it is said, " Human nature is the same in all ages," the tonal art, 

 which appeals to every individual's own inner nature so very directly 

 and intimately, reveals strongly marked differences among men. 



The difficulties to be overcome in forming an adequate conception 

 of the music of other peoples are, therefore, great. If, after persistent 

 effort or even a life-long devotion to performance and composition, we 

 find perplexing mysteries at every turn, we may naturally anticipate 

 encountering inscrutable enigmas in the endeavor to comprehend the 

 true nature of the forms of art specially adapted to the necessities of 

 races so far removed in time and place, thought and feeling, as the 

 ancient Orientals. 



Even the music of the modern occupants of the East is so strange 

 and foreign to our wants and inclinations, that many persons speak of 

 it with disrespect ; and travelers and generally well-informed artists, 

 judging of its merits by the casual performances of poor peripatetic 

 musicians, are frequently led to the belief that it is unworthy special 

 regard. It would be more philosophical to assume that an art prac- 

 ticed throughout the Orient by all classes of persons, in all times, would, 

 if seriously studied, present many aspects worthy of deep reflection. 

 However little we may be able to sympathize with Chinese, Hindoos, 

 Persians, and other peoples in their artistic aspirations, we should not 

 be tempted to jDrovoke a smile at their expense, but approach the study 

 of their music with the greatest respect. In this spirit let us proceed. 



Music and its instruments were commonly believed in the East to 

 be gifts from Heaven, and therefore its cultivation and their preserva- 

 tion became religious duties. The Orientals took no credit to them- 

 selves for inventing the various extraordinary instruments with which 

 they performed their wonder-working melodies, and, as will be pres- 

 ently shown, no modern nation has yet invented a really new one ; 

 for all those we employ are either enlarged or simplified forms of pro- 

 totypes that were in use at the earliest times of which we have any 

 record, and are really prehistoric. 



The sacred books of the Chinese give a complete account of their 

 organ most exact measurements of the lengths, diameters, thickness, 

 materials, etc., of each pipe, and so on not to suggest improvements, 

 or take credit for the devices mentioned ; but simply that, should the 

 instrument from any cause become obsolete, it could be revived ; and 

 thus this great gift, from some remote ancestor, would still be secured 

 for future generations. Confucius and various emperors are portrayed 

 performing on the hin (a stringed instrument), and music occupies the 

 first rank among the sciences. 



In India, Brahma himself is believed to have presented music to 



