on is full
of danger to the state and ought to be prevented." He looked upon
music as a tonic which does for the mind what gymnastics do for the
body; and taught that only such music ought to be tolerated by the
state as had a moral purpose, while enervating forms should be
suppressed by the law makers.

Yet, after making due allowance for the fact that the word music was
used in this comprehensive sense, enough remains to show that the
power of music proper, the power of rhythmic melody, was profoundly
appreciated by the Greeks. If they had not felt how greatly music
intensifies and quickens the emotions, they would not have wedded all
their poetry to it, nor have resorted to it on all solemn and festive
occasions; nor would the Pythagoreans have found anyone willing to
believe in their doctrine that music has power to control the
passions. "They firmly believed," says Naumann, "that sweet harmony
and flowing melody alone were capable of restoring the even balance of
the disturbed mind, and of renewing its harmonious relations with the
world. Playing on the lyre, therefore, formed part of the daily
exercises of the disciples of the renowned philosopher, and none dared
seek his nightly couch without having first refreshed his soul at the
fount of music, nor return to the duties of the day without having
braced his energies with jubilant strains. Pythagoras is said to have
recommended the use of special melodies as antidotal to special
passions, and indeed, it is related of him that on a certain occasion
he, by a solemn air, brought back to reason a youth who, maddened by
love and jealousy, was about setting fire to the house of his
mistress."

Similar marvellous powers were ascribed to music by the other nations.
The Chinese have an old saying that "Music has the power to make
Heaven descend upon earth." This art was constantly kept under rigid
supervision by the government, and 354 years before Christ, one of the
Emperors issued a special edict against weak, effeminate music; to
which, therefore, a demoralizing influence was obviously attributed.
The Japanese, we read, likewise "revere music and connect it with
their idol worship," and in olden times it seems to have had even a
political function, for it is said that "formerly an ambassador, in
addressing a foreign court to which he was accredited, did not speak,
but sang his mission." The Hindoos, again, attributed supernatural
power to music. Some melodies had the