THE AGE OF PEUlCLESi. 99 



At the same time, the arts of Faulting, Sculpture, and Music were 

 carried to perfection. Music had from the earliest times received much 

 attention. It was employed to subdue their feelings and add solemnity 

 to their religious ceremonies. It inspired them with courage in the day 

 of battle, and threw an additional charm over the sweetness of domes- 

 tic life. The effects, which tradition ascribed to it, in the days of Am- 

 phion and Orpheus, are unquestionably due, in a great measure, to re- 

 moteness of time and vivacity of imagination. Then the art was rude 

 and produced its happiest results. Its tendency was to soften and re- 

 fine. But music, like every art and acquirement when unsanctified, be- 

 came an instrument of evil. That, which in its infancy subdued and 

 softened, now enervated. That, which arrested the fierce warrior in 

 his mad career and soothed his passions into peace, now held him spell- 

 bound, an idler and a sensualist; and that, which elevated and refined 

 the external man, by influencing his feelings, now destroyed the man- 

 liness and vigor of those feelings, and led him captive, a wanton, per- 

 verted in mind and manners. Aristotle says, ironically, "Every kind of 

 music is good for something ; that of the theatre is good for the mob, 

 being well suited to the perversion of their minds and manners, and let 

 them enjoy it." Plato, Aristoxenus and Plutarch bitterly complain of 

 the corruption of music, as the main source of vice and immorality. 

 That art, which had anciently been used as the vehicle of religious and 

 moral instruction, was employed in the theatres to excite every voluptu- 

 ous and dissolute passion. In modern Italy, and France, and Germany, 

 Ave can see the operation of the same causes modified by the peculiar 

 circumstances of each nation. That such should be the effect of music 

 of this particular kind, many may be slow to believe. Yet we cannot 

 refuse our assent to the concurring testimony of ancient writers, who 

 refer to this cause the extreme degeneracy and corruption which almost 

 imiversally infected the Athenians at the period now under review. 

 Causes, which operate on the many, are not easily mistaken : butsliould 

 we still doubt the cause, the effect at least cannot be denied. Tlie 

 Athenian youth are said to have dissipated their fortunes and melted the, 

 vigor of mind and body by wanton and expensive dalliance with female 

 performers on the theatre. Weary and fastidious with excess of crimi- 

 nal indulgence, they lost all capacity or relish for solid and manly oc- 

 cupations, and at once deserted the exercises of war, and the schools of 

 the philosophers. To fill up the vacuities of their listless lives, they, 

 as well as persons more advanced in years, loitered in the shops of mu- 

 sicians and other artists ; and sauntered in the forum and public places 

 inquiiing after news in which they took no interest, unless some danger 



