Music. 259 



would have been answered without the power of 

 appreciating music. 



The sense of hearing is not absolutely essential 

 to man. It is plain he might exist upon the globe 

 without it. The race would, indeed, be vastly lower 

 than it now is, for we are not to judge from what 

 mutes become under the teaching of those who can 

 hear, what a race of deaf mutes would be, if left to 

 make progress for themselves. 



Hearing is undoubtedly one of the important adap- 

 tations by which man, as a physical being, is fitted 

 to this world ; but the power to appreciate music is 

 an entirely different thing. No necessity for it can 

 be pointed out, if we consider man merely as an 

 animal ; it is simply and solely a source of enjoy- 

 ment. As a condition of this enjoyment, we have 

 the power of appreciating the music when it is pro- 

 dueed ; a power which does not belong to us neces- 

 sarily, for some are without it. We have also the 

 nature of material objects, by which sounds are pro- 

 duced. There is no necessity in the case that air, 

 when vibrating, should produce sounds, and that it 

 should always give the same power to the same in- 

 struments, in all parts of the world. There is no 

 necessity that different kinds of wood and metal, and 

 other materials, should give the variety of sound they 

 do. In fact, the wonderful powers of all the in- 

 struments invented by men, to give sweet sounds, 

 are proofs of the provision that has been made in 

 the nature of things to gratify that love of music 

 implanted in man, simply as a source of enjoyment. 



