310 OBSOLETE INSTRUMENTS 



and listeners to make them better than they were 

 made ? I speak of it here solely as a home instru- 

 ment, not as a voice lost in the tumult of mightier 

 orchestral voices. 



To return. If we listen to the thin tinkling sounds 

 of the instruments which are now practically obsolete, 

 seeing that those who are still able to perform on 

 them are but a few enthusiasts, we can yet under- 

 stand why they have had a great past and that they 

 were once as near and dear to those who listened 

 to them as the very voices of their loved ones. For 

 they do still keep something of their ancient charm, 

 especially the clavicord, and we have to say of them, 

 as of many other things, " The beautiful has vanished 

 and returns not." At the same time we cannot but 

 know the cause of their going; that they cannot 

 make the same appeal to us as to our forbears 

 because we have something better — instruments with 

 a stronger human expression. But those sounds that 

 have the greatest charm on this account are not 

 and must not be like vocal sounds. They are like 

 an echo of vocal music; an echo which is not precise 

 — an echo, but like voices of spirits that hear us 

 and take up and reproduce our singing; and in 

 it we recognise ourselves, all our deepest emotions, 

 purified, brightened, spiritualised; earthly passions 

 recollected in regions beyond the earth. 



The instruments which have this quality in the 

 highest degree are undoubtedly the violin, the 'cello 

 and double bass, the flute and the oboes, the 

 clarionet, the trombone, the bassoon: these with 



