emonials, it was deemed requisite to imitate as near as possible the
voices of the angelic seraphims, and this could not be done by the
rasping bass voices of the well-fed monks; women were out of the
question in the then social stage of church evolution; so that at last a
compromise was effected by admitting the eunuch, who could chant in a
most seraphic soprano, as his prototype, the mendicant priests of
Cybele, had done before him.

Constantinople became the centre of learning for Greek music, and the
fine soprano solos which now form the attraction of many of our modern
churches were sung by the eunuchs. Eunuchs were not only the chief
singers, but they cultivated the art into a science, and Constantinople
furnished through this class the music-teachers for the world, as we
learn that in 1137 the eunuch Manuel and two other singers of his order
established a school of music and singing in Smolensk, Russia. There is
no doubt but that in a moral sense, considering that women are generally
the pupils, this was a most meet and an appropriate arrangement; for,
as St. Alphonsus M. Liquori observed, man was a fool to allow his
daughters or female wards to be taught letters by a man, even if that
man were a saint, and, as real saints were not to be found outside of
heaven, it can well be imagined how much more dangerous it might be to
have them taught music and singing by a man not a eunuch,--elements
which have a recognized special aphrodisiac virtue, as was well known to
the ancient Greeks, who only allowed their wives to listen to a certain
form of music when they (the husbands) were absent from home.

There is not much room for doubt but that both morality and medicine
have too much neglected the study and contemplation of the natural
history of man, and relied altogether too much on the efficacy of church
regulations and castor-oil and rhubarb. There are other things to be
done besides simply framing moral codes and pouring down mandrake into
the stomach; the old conjoined service of priest and doctor should never
have been discontinued, as, by dividing duties that are inseparable,
much harm has resulted. Herein dwelt the great benefit of the early
practice of medicine among the Greeks, and to the physical understanding
and supervision of human nature by the Hebraic law may be said that the
creed owes its greatness and stability, and the Hebrew race its sturdy
stamina. The wisdom of the Mosaic laws is something that al