rms, and becomes music simply in
virtue of thus intensifying them; that, from the ancient epic poet
chanting his verses, down to the modern musical composer, men of
unusually strong feelings prone to express them in extreme forms, have
been naturally the agents of these successive intensifications; and that
so there has little by little arisen a wide divergence between this
idealised language of emotion and its natural language: to which direct
evidence we have just added the indirect--that on no other tenable
hypothesis can either the expressiveness or the genesis of music be
explained.

* * * * *

And now, what is the _function_ of music? Has music any effect beyond
the immediate pleasure it produces? Analogy suggests that it has. The
enjoyments of a good dinner do not end with themselves, but minister to
bodily well-being. Though people do not marry with a view to maintain
the race, yet the passions which impel them to marry secure its
maintenance. Parental affection is a feeling which, while it conduces to
parental happiness, ensures the nurture of offspring. Men love to
accumulate property, often without thought of the benefits it produces;
but in pursuing the pleasure of acquisition they indirectly open the way
to other pleasures. The wish for public approval impels all of us to do
many things which we should otherwise not do,--to undertake great
labours, face great dangers, and habitually rule ourselves in a way that
smooths social intercourse: that is, in gratifying our love of
approbation we subserve divers ulterior purposes. And, generally, our
nature is such that in fulfilling each desire, we in some way facilitate
the fulfilment of the rest. But the love of music seems to exist for its
own sake. The delights of melody and harmony do not obviously minister
to the welfare either of the individual or of society. May we not
suspect, however, that this exception is apparent only? Is it not a
rational inquiry--What are the indirect benefits which accrue from
music, in addition to the direct pleasure it gives?

But that it would take us too far out of our track, we should prelude
this inquiry by illustrating at some length a certain general law of
progress;--the law that alike in occupations, sciences, arts, the
divisions that had a common root, but by continual divergence have
become distinct, and are now being separately developed, are not truly
independent, but severally act and