594 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



In the fields of music, literature and art do we find the psychological 

 attitude greatly influenced by geographical environment. Music's 

 origin must be looked for in natural causes. The elements of all music 

 exist around us, in the sighing of leaves, the gentle monotone of the 

 winds, not less that in the roar of the ocean or the impressive tones of 

 thunder. Earlier peoples imitated these sounds. And, where climatic 

 conditions were good for the throat, singing qualities were developed. 

 Where external conditions were not good for the throat there was a 

 greater amount of inventing rude and noisy instruments. Brinkton 

 says : " The use of noisy instruments recalled the voices of pealing 

 thunder, the mad rushing waters and the wailing of the winds." Early 

 music went hand in hand with the dance, which was, in turn, largely 

 developed in warm climates and on fertile soils. The Esquimaux savage 

 does not sing and dance as the tropical ones, nor does singing come from 

 the people of the frozen tundra save of the poorest sort. Most Hebrew 

 music was strangely harsh; many of their instruments, tabret, buggag, 

 cjnnbal, pipe, shawn, chiefly wind and percussion instruments, meant 

 noise with piercing effects. For, unsettled " dwellers in tents " as they 

 were, this rough element was unavoidable, for, in moving about they 

 came into contact with the rough elements of nature — storms, sea, winds. 

 The Hebrews who were not " dwellers in tents " had, on the other hand, 

 beautiful music — divine gratitude to Jehovah. The Eomans had no 

 music, because they were enormously successful commercially, because 

 of their geography, and war and conquest were their first considerations. 

 Something of the same is true of America to-day. Too anxious to 

 utilize to the fullest extent her geographical wealth, she borrows music ; 

 chiefly from the negro. Folksongs, one of the truest types of music 

 emanate from the geographically determined life of peoples. All 

 nations had their songs to the soil, to the flock, to the soldiers' march 

 through plain and mountain, had songs of the fisherman, the sower, the 

 reaper. No doubt Eussian music owes much of its melancholy and 

 plaintiveness to the great mournful steppes. Why did the violin de- 

 velop in Italy? Because it, of all instruments, resembles the human 

 voice which was revealed to the Italians. The great German musical 

 names, Beethoven, Mozart, Schubert, Haydn, Handel, Bach, come 

 from southern Germany and were influenced by the singers of Italy. 



Art, with civilization, seems to have arisen in the three great river 

 basins of the Nile, Tigris, Euphrates, where the people had plenty of 

 comfort and time to satisfy their desire for beauty. The amount of 

 coarse, hard, massive rock available no doubt influenced the colossal 

 architecture of Egypt. Chaldaea is a stoneless country, therefore its arts 

 depended upon the nature of the clays. They, the Chald^eans, invented 

 the potter's wheel — the beginning of a great field of art and industry — 

 ceramics. Art of two dimensions, so to speak, painting, tapestry and 



