720 president's address — section j. 



other languages can be translated into English, but music is 

 untranslatable ; it is parallel to speech, but not convertible into 

 speech. The man who does not know music is as incapable of 

 proper emotional development as one who is deaf and dumb and 

 blind is incapable of proper intellectual growth. In England, says 

 the gravedigger, Hamlet's madness will not be recognised, for 

 there they are all as mad as he ; and it is only the wide prevalence 

 of musical idiocy (using the word in its proper sense) that prevents 

 the unfortunate idiots from being looked upon with the compassion 

 and treated with the remedies which are appropriate to their case. 

 In sober truth, to teach a child to sing is to endow him with a new 

 sense and a new power, both rich in the potency of otherwise un- 

 attainable joy. 



If it is the aim of education to enable every man to live his 

 life in the fullest and most intense fashion, to realise himself in 

 the greatest variety of ways, then it is little short of a crime to 

 refuse to our children that training in music which literally will 

 add a new territory to the empire of their being, because, forsooth, 

 music is not a compulsory subject for matriculation, and does not 

 indeed lend itself well to examination tests and methods. Con- 

 sider, too, that the knowledge of musical notation is the key to 

 a vast and cosmopolitan literature which must otherwise remain 

 a sealed book to our children. The symphonies of Beethoven, the 

 operas of Mozart, the fugues of John Sebastian Bach rank with 

 the plays of Shakespeare and the epics of Homer and Dante and 

 Milton as amongst the finest achievements of the human intellect ; 

 and the time is fast coming when no man will be regarded as 

 educated who does not know the one as well as the other. Into 

 this realm the curse of Babel has not come ; and when they dis- 

 course sweet music German and Pole, Russian and Englishman 

 speak the same tongue. Hence the study of Music has a special 

 value in promoting the wider spirit of Humanity which will one 

 day link the nations of the world into a great confederacy of 

 mutual sympathy and helpfulness. 



Moreover, the value of Music, and especially of singing, as a 

 recreation can hardly be exaggerated ; audit must be remembered 

 that one of the most important functions of education is to provide 

 the child with the taste and the means for the wise and healthy 

 employment of his leisure time. It is little use securing eight hours 

 out of the twenty-four for play unless we also teach our people 

 how to play and what to play at. If they are only released from 

 labour in order to loaf about the street corners and fuddle them- 

 selves in the pubUc-houses, there is little gain in an eight-hours 

 day ; nor is the case much better with those who have abundant 

 leisure and can find no other occupation for it than playing bridge 

 and talking scandal. As far as out-door sports are concerned, our 

 secondary schools cannot be blamed for any neglect ; and it is a 

 good thing that the State school authorities are taking up this 

 side of education and encouraging cricket and football and rifle- 

 shooting matches between the different schools. Much, too, is 



