Solitude and Company 173 



stately march of the trees make the way a 

 music. 



Where do we find these stimulants and 

 sedatives in town ? Europe is a little better 

 off than we are in artificial helps to spiritual 

 and intellectual life, for it has cathedrals. 

 We could spare all the slums of New York 

 for one vast, shadowy church where grave 

 spirits walked and hushed our turbulence. 

 We are so wondrous fond of artificial light, 

 and so delight in spectacles, that if we had 

 Ely or Lincoln in our country, the first 

 thing to do with it would be to fill its in- 

 side with arc lamps. We are resolved upon 

 it that nobody shall be alone, or quiet, for 

 a minute. Even music, which ought to be 

 a contemplative man's recreation, is enjoyed 

 in glare and heat and hubbub. Plead for 

 silence and shadow, and the audience re- 

 plies that opera and concerts are social 

 functions. How often you are told by these 

 people, as if in the effort to support that 

 position, "I like music, but I don't under- 

 stand it" ! They wouldn't say, " I like lan- 

 guage, but I don't understand it." Music 

 is a language of the emotions, and is to 



