Essays On Education And Kindred Subjects (Fiscle Part- 11), Herbert Spencer [historical books to read .txt] 📗

Is One

Of Very Little Moment. But Further Reflection May Lead Them To A

Contrary Conviction. In Its Bearings Upon Human Happiness, We Believe

That This Emotional Language Which Musical Culture Develops And Refines

Is Only Second In Importance To The   Language Of    The   Intellect; Perhaps

Not Even Second To It. For These Modifications Of    Voice Produced By

Feelings Are The   Means Of    Exciting Like Feelings In Others. Joined With

Gestures And Expressions Of    Face, They Give Life To The   Otherwise Dead

Words In Which The   Intellect Utters Its Ideas; And So Enable The   Hearer

Not Only To _Understand_ The   State Of    Mind They Accompany, But To

_Partake_ Of    That State. In Short, They Are The   Chief Media Of

_Sympathy_. And If We Consider How Much Both Our General Welfare And Our

Immediate Pleasures Depend Upon Sympathy, We Shall Recognise The

Importance Of    Whatever Makes This Sympathy Greater. If We Bear In Mind

That By Their Fellow-Feeling Men Are Led To Behave Justly, Kindly, And

Considerately To Each Other--That The   Difference Between The   Cruelty Of

The Barbarous And The   Humanity Of    The   Civilised, Results From The

Increase Of    Fellow-Feeling; If We Bear In Mind That This Faculty Which

Makes Us Sharers In The   Joys And Sorrows Of    Others, Is The   Basis Of    All

Part 2 Chapter 5 (On The Origin And Function Of Music) Pg 133

The Higher Affections--That In Friendship, Love, And All Domestic

Pleasures, It Is An Essential Element; If We Bear In Mind How Much Our

Direct Gratifications Are Intensified By Sympathy,--How, At The   Theatre,

The Concert, The   Picture Gallery, We Lose Half Our Enjoyment If We Have

No One To Enjoy With Us; If, In Short, We Bear In Mind That For All

Happiness Beyond What The   Unfriended Recluse Can Have, We Are Indebted

To This Same Sympathy;--We Shall See That The   Agencies Which Communicate

It Can Scarcely Be Overrated In Value.

 

 

 

The Tendency Of    Civilisation Is More And More To Repress The

Antagonistic Elements Of    Our Characters And To Develop The   Social

Ones--To Curb Our Purely Selfish Desires And Exercise Our Unselfish

Ones--To Replace Private Gratifications By Gratifications Resulting

From, Or Involving, The   Happiness Of    Others. And While, By This

Adaptation To The   Social State, The   Sympathetic Side Of    Our Nature Is

Being Unfolded, There Is Simultaneously Growing Up A Language Of

Sympathetic Intercourse--A Language Through Which We Communicate To

Others The   Happiness We Feel, And Are Made Sharers In Their Happiness.

 

 

 

This Double Process, Of    Which The   Effects Are Already Sufficiently

Appreciable, Must Go On To An Extent Of    Which We Can As Yet Have No

Adequate Conception. The   Habitual Concealment Of    Our Feelings

Diminishing, As It Must, In Proportion As Our Feelings Become Such As Do

Not Demand Concealment, We May Conclude That The   Exhibition Of    Them Will

Become Much More Vivid Than We Now Dare Allow It To Be; And This Implies

A More Expressive Emotional Language. At The   Same Time, Feelings Of    A

Higher And More Complex Kind, As Yet Experienced Only By The   Cultivated

Few, Will Become General; And There Will Be A Corresponding Development

Of The   Emotional Language Into More Involved Forms. Just As There Has

Silently Grown Up A Language Of    Ideas, Which, Rude As It At First Was,

Now Enables Us To Convey With Precision The   Most Subtle And Complicated

Thoughts; So, There Is Still Silently Growing Up A Language Of    Feelings,

Which, Notwithstanding Its Present Imperfection, We May Expect Will

Ultimately Enable Men Vividly And Completely To Impress On Each Other

All The   Emotions Which They Experience From Moment To Moment.

 

 

 

Thus If, As We Have Endeavoured To Show, It Is The   Function Of    Music To

Facilitate The   Development Of    This Emotional Language, We May Regard

Music As An Aid To The   Achievement Of    That Higher Happiness Which It

Indistinctly Shadows Forth. Those Vague Feelings Of    Unexperienced

Felicity Which Music Arouses--Those Indefinite Impressions Of    An Unknown

Ideal Life Which It Calls Up, May Be Considered As A Prophecy, To The

Fulfilment Of    Which Music Is Itself Partly Instrumental. The   Strange

Capacity Which We Have For Being So Affected By Melody And Harmony May

Be Taken To Imply Both That It Is Within The   Possibilities Of    Our Nature

To Realise Those Intenser Delights They Dimly Suggest, And That They Are

In Some Way Concerned In The   Realisation Of    Them. On This Supposition

The Power And The   Meaning Of    Music Become Comprehensible; But Otherwise

They Are A Mystery.

 

 

 

We Will Only Add, That If The   Probability Of    These Corollaries Be

Admitted, Then Music Must Take Rank As He Highest Of    The   Fine Arts--As

The One Which, More Than Any Other, Ministers To Human Welfare. And

Thus, Even Leaving Out Of    View The   Immediate Gratifications It Is Hourly

Giving, We Cannot Too Much Applaud That Progress Of    Musical Culture

Which Is Becoming One Of    The   Characteristics Of    Our Age.

 

 

 

[1] _Fraser's Magazine_, October 1857.

 

 

 

[2] Those Who Seek Information On This Point May Find It In An

Interesting Tract By Mr. Alexander Bain, On _Animal Instinct And

Intelligence_.

 

 

 

 

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Publication Date: 06-16-2014

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