n the subject for one
dollar. But he does not even need to do that. Music, we read in
Shakespere, has the power of "killing care and grief of heart," and
what he needs, therefore, is to hear some good music every evening, at
home or at the opera. This will draw the blood from the over-worked
part of his brain to another part, and by thus relieving it of the
tormenting persistency of worrying thoughts and business cares,
enable him to enjoy refreshing, dreamless sleep afterward. In this way
music may help to restore his health, cure his dyspepsia, and sweeten
his moral temper.

In America, more than anywhere else, is music needed as a tonic, to
cure the infectious and ridiculous business fever which is responsible
for so many cases of premature collapse. Nowhere else is so much time
wasted in making money, which is then spent in a way that contributes
to no one's happiness--least of all the owner's. We Americans are in
the habit of calling ourselves the most practical nation in the world,
but the fact is it would be difficult to find a nation less practical.
For, what is the object of life? Is it to toil like a galley slave and
never have any amusements? Every nation in Europe, except the English,
knows better how to enjoy the pleasures of life than we do. Our
so-called "practical" men look upon recreation as something useless,
whereas in reality it is the most useful thing in the world.
Recreation is re-creation--regaining the energies lost by hard work.
Those who properly alternate recreation with work, economize their
brain power, and are therefore infinitely more practical than those
who scorn or neglect recreation.

The utility and the moral value of refined pleasures is not
sufficiently understood. It should be proclaimed from the housetops
every day. Bread and butter to eat, and a bed to sleep in, are not the
only useful things in the world, but, in the words of Shelley,
"Whatever strengthens and purifies the affections, enlarges the
imagination, and adds spirit to sense, is useful." Music is useful
because it does this, and it is useful in many other ways. Singing
strengthens the lungs, playing the muscles, and both stimulate the
mind. Milton, Schiller, George Sand, Alfieri, and other geniuses have
testified that music aroused their creative faculties; and in
Beaconsfield's "Contarini" occurs this passage: "I have a passion for
instrumental music. A grand orchestra fills my mind with ideas. I
forget everything