ting in itself all extremes of good and evil, of lofty and
low."[8] So when a man steeps himself in thoughts of a type, when he
ponders over and lives in the music of a master, his thoughts span the
realms and the ages, and he reaches that master, even if only to touch
the hem of his garment. Then the master's thoughts are his, and he truly
gives of the spirit of the music, for a measure of inspiration has been
vouchsafed to him.

[Note 8: Jung. "Analytical Psychology."]

Whatever we dwell upon has its "tuning" effect upon our thoughts, and
thus we reach some of the lore and wisdom of those who have trodden the
way before us. The inventor and the discoverer are truly what the words
imply: the inventor "comes upon" the new idea or principle, and the
discoverer "uncovers" and makes plain. But all the ideas and all the new
and novel discoveries, and all the laws, were there before: we only
reach them when we have climbed to a sufficient height to be able to
apprehend them. So the musician who reaches the spirit of Bach has, by
the attunement of his thoughts and his aspirations, crept into the heart
of the music and has tugged at the musician's heart-strings. He has
touched the composer's soul, and henceforth he plays Music, not notes.

Again, Bach, and all the masters of Music have in their turn but
discovered the Music that was already there. No man really creates, any
more than the gardener creates an oak tree by the planting of an acorn.
The gardener provides the necessary conditions in which the oak, already
miraculously pent within the acorn, can unfold and develop. So the
musician also provides the necessary conditions in which the spirit of
Music can blossom and bear fruit. He need take to himself no vast amount
of credit, for he is but a trustee of that which has been lent to him:
he neither creates it nor owns it. His music is a gift of spirit, and
when by his life's work he has glorified that gift, then henceforth that
is his contribution to the universal store of spirit, and his Art
belongs to the ages.

Inspiration is a commonplace of life, though only too often we think of
it solely in connection with religion, and especially with reference to
the Bible. Because thought flies free and ever consorts like with like,
so almost every moment of our days we are inspiring others and being
inspired in return. It is mere delusion that we consider ourselves
independent units, for we are literally built of one another