APPENDIX A LXI 



The extremists in this art invoke satire as their principal divinity. 

 They set out to describe, for example, the feelings of the heir of a 

 maiden aunt who has left him her pet dog instead of fifty thousand 

 pounds. They write waltzes for the piano with the right-hand part 

 in one key, and the left-hand part in another. Masses of orchestral 

 sound move across each other careless of what happens in the passing. 



Perhaps I might be pardoned a short digression here on the 

 subject of Music, — its true progress in the path of perfection; for 

 Music is the art of perfection, and, as Walter Pater declared, all 

 other arts strive towards the condition of Music. The rise and 

 development of modern Music is a matter of barely five hundred years 

 and parallels the growth of modern Science. The developments of 

 both in the future cannot be limited. They may progress side by 

 side, — Science expanding and solving the problems of the universe, and 

 Music fulfilling the definition that Wagner made for it as "the inner- 

 most dream-image of the essential nature of the world". Wagner's 

 music was once satirically called the "Music of the Future". It is 

 now firmly and gloriously fixed in the past. But Music is truly the 

 art of the future. Men will come to it more and more as the art 

 which can express the complex emotions of life in terms of purest 

 beauty. It is the art most fitted to give comfort and release to the 

 spirit and to resolve scepticism as it resolves discords. Side by side 

 with a tone of supersensualism that runs through modern Music we 

 have intellectual developments and also a straining towards spiritual 

 thoughts which restore the balance. It is gratifying to note that 

 Britain is taking the place she once occupied as a leader in musical 

 creation. The obstacle to the understanding of Music has not been 

 the absence of natural correspondences in the mind. Music has uni- 

 versal appeal, but the fact that it must reach the understanding 

 through the ear. It must be twice created, and the written stuff is 

 dumb until awakened into vibrating life. The invention of mechani- 

 cal means for the reproduction of Music and their gradual improve- 

 ment has made Music as accessible as the reproductions of fine 

 paintings. The widespread use of these music machines proves the 

 desire of the people to hear and to understand, and the effect upon 

 the public taste will be appreciable. The style of amateur per- 

 formances will be improved, and it may not be too much to claim for 

 this wide distribution of beautiful and deeply felt music an influence 

 on the creative side and a stimulation to eager youthful spirits to 

 translate their emotions into sound. Music is the great nourisher 

 of the imagination, and the prevalence of great music means the 

 production of great verse. Over and against the poets who have 



