5i6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



algebraic terms or simple numbers, as the above illustrations prove. 

 It transfigures the spoken word in song. For its performance gym- 

 nastic exercises are required. Its expressions are like words, in being 

 either conventional or imitative, or partly both ; and, unlike words, in 

 that their meaning can not change. It does not describe soul-states or 

 cause their formation after reflection, like poetry, but reveals and in- 

 duces them immediately, and so surely that Beethoven's sonatas are so 

 many psychologic records. 



The composer is more bound by natural laws than other artists, 

 and yet is so free that his productions more nearly resemble actual 

 creations. Music, in its threefold nature, appeals to man in his three- 

 fold nature. With great splendor of manifestation an orchestra en- 

 gages the ear, and sometimes powerfully affects the nervous system ; 

 whatever is surveyable in the music occupies the intellect, and its sig- 

 nification affects the soul. It is not so much art-calculated as science- 

 inspired. 



Here is ample evidence that a mere " physiological basis " is insuffi- 

 cient for the artist, and the advice that he should form a new art, less 

 dependent upon gorgeous harmonies, is equally futile. For, although a 

 composer exercises greater power over music than the philologist over 

 language (who can only explain and classify roots already existing, 

 being powerless to provide a new one), yet still the course of music is 

 propelled by forces that can not be long or successfully opposed. No 

 one affects to believe that steam, electricity, etc., will be set aside at 

 the bidding of Mr. Ruskin. 



Modern compositions are the natural expression of our time. Even 

 the music of Mozart and Haydn seems to be truly Arcadian, com- 

 pared with that of Beethoven and Schumann. It is comparatively 

 artless, cheerful, and free from sighs. The works of these later writers 

 rise to loftier heights and sink to deeper depths, reveling in a larger 

 scale of human passion than those of their predecessors. Here aspira- 

 tions, longings, strivings, are portrayed with a vividness that mirrors 

 the spirit of the age. This music is not, like Tennyson's " Sleeping 

 Beauty," " a perfect form in perfect rest," but is as in a state of evolu- 

 tion. It wears not so much the expression of Raphael's Madonnas — of 

 the peaceful faith of the cloister — as that of strong, earnest men, exer- 

 cised with honest doubts in the battle of the creeds. We can not turn 

 back, or remain still ; the cry is " Onward ! " and, for good or for evil, 

 we must proceed. Our art, side by side with the civilization it repre- 

 sents, will continue to grow, and then perhaps begin to decay, and 

 finally give place to another still more glorious. 



