A Story Outline of Evolution 



portional to the square root of their density. Here again, 

 the laws of Nature are woven into the fundamental fabric 

 of music, which is, after all, just another method of inter- 

 preting the laws of Nature. 



Beauquler says: "Musical vibration is only one partic- 

 ular mode of perceiving the universal vibration. Musical 

 art is the art of sensibility par excellence, since it regulates 

 the great phenomena of vibration into which all external 

 perceptions resolve themselves and transfers it from the 

 region of the unconscious, in which it was hidden, to that of 

 consciousness." When we shall better understand the proc- 

 esses involved in the vibrations that control our nerve 

 actions, we shall then better understand its stimulating or 

 soothing effect upon human emotions in leading soldiers into 

 battle, the bride to the altar, and intoning the grief for one 

 dying or dead. 



It is the most complex and yet the most highly and com- 

 pletely developed of all the Arts. Some writers of recog- 

 nized authority assert that some phases of musical composi- 

 tion have reached a state approximating perfection. Crowest, 

 one of the most trustworthy of these, in speaking of Han- 

 del's masterpiece, "The Messiah," says, in "The Story of 

 the Art of Music," "The Messiah supplies the perfection of 

 oratorio." "After him, however, choral music could be 

 taken to no greater heights." "So far as sacred choral art 

 was concerned, no composer could hope to surpass Bach 

 and Handel." Time alone will tell whether or not these 

 statements are extreme. 



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