300 A BOOK THAT IS WANTED 



proper to this book, that is to say, as a naturalist, 

 from the evolutionary point of view, as I have 

 already treated the instrumental music of birds, 

 beasts, batrachians, and insects. 



I understand the lady's attitude only too well, 

 alas! and I shut my eyes as tight as I can just not 

 to see the Lamia or Lilith, or by whatever name we 

 like to name this too fascinatingly beautiful serpent 

 who steals into our heart and clouds and mocks 

 our understanding. 



It is unnecessary here to hark back to the origin 

 of such music in man — its small pitiful beginnings, 

 which are alike in man and the lower animals — in 

 both a result of the impulse and desire to make a 

 sound for its own sake. It remains to speak of it as 

 we find it in its actual state of development. 



We have noted a great difference in the instru- 

 mental music of the West and East; that in the 

 former this music has been progressive for many 

 centuries, while in the latter it appears to be non- 

 progressive, also that the instruments it retains and 

 values are the same as or resemble those which were 

 also ours in a lower stage of music culture, and have 

 long been discarded. 



It strikes me as a great want in our literature of 

 music that we have no comprehensive work on this 

 development of European instrumental music. There 

 exists in our musical histories and dictionaries an 

 enormous amount of material for such a work. It is 

 a subject which could not fail to inspire and hold the 

 interest of any student of music who should under- 



