An Introduction to a Biology 



to give some idea of the picture called up in the 

 mind, by current scientific phraseology, of the nature 

 and whereabouts of natural laws, by describing the 

 theory of music which I held when I was a boy of 

 about fourteen. At that age music meant to me 

 simply a tune. I thought that a succession of sounds 

 was either a tune or not a tune. If it was, it was 

 part of the order of nature ; if it was not, it was 

 simply a noise. Tunes did not differ in merit. 

 Who was I that I should presume to discriminate 

 between things which were not the work of man ? 

 I only knew two tunes, " Pop goes the weasel " and 

 Sullivan's " Prithee, pretty maiden, will you marry 

 me ? " I thought there existed in the world a cer- 

 tain limited number of tunes ; I do not think I 

 speculated as to their origin, or as to whero the 

 undiscovered tunes were. But I remember thinking 

 with alarm that if many more men like the discoverers 

 of " Pop goes the weasel " and " Prithee, pretty 

 maiden," arose, all the tunes would soon be dis- 

 covered. For I wanted very much to discover a 

 tune myself, but I did not know where to look, or 

 how to set about the search ; moreover, I had no 

 means of knowing whether, or not, all the tunes 

 had been discovered ; in which case it would be 

 no good looking. I thought that all known tunes, 

 together with those which might be unearthed later, 

 had existed for all time, and had, in the literal 

 sense of the word, been discovered — that is to say, 

 located and brought to light by a select few who 

 knew how to do it. This is the first stage in the 

 history of my theory of music. 



The picture of the laws of Nature which I saw in 



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