THE ARTS AND RELIGION 273 



least during the adolescent and early adult periods 

 of life. These sensory and emotional experiences 

 are, in general, on a far lower plane than those more 

 subtle responses excited by the music of Brahms, in 

 the sense of being dependent on simpler elementary 

 feelings of passion less mixed with the highly pleas- 

 urable pain sensations that spring from the arous- 

 ing of impulses of self -sacrificial nature impulses 

 always demanded by the least selfish form of love. 

 What has been said suffices to show that a not 

 insignificant phase of the productivity of the repre- 

 sentative masters of modern music has to do with the 

 amorous side of human consciousness, and it cannot 

 be gainsaid that this has its origin in the sex instinct. 

 A recognition of the refinement and nobility of the 

 feelings that have given birth to much of this music 

 must not blind us to its essentially sexual origin. 

 Such feelings may be and doubtless often are wholly 

 distinct from any indulgence even remotely verging 

 on sensuality, but they have their basis as definitely 

 in the cruder necessities of sex as the refined tissues of 

 the nervous system have their parentage in the primi- 

 tive vulgar epithelium of the skin. It is unphilo- 

 sophical for us to lose sight of the biologically humble 

 ancestry of our artistic feelings, and to deliberately 

 close our eyes to it is a process of intellectual snobbery 

 comparable to the spirit that encourages a rich bank 

 director to forget that he was once a laborer on the 

 docks. But it is not merely the music of love that 

 can be traced to this relatively humble origin. 



