proportion. Plato asserts that the soul of the world is conjoined with musical proportion. Sir Isaac Newton was of opinion that the principles of harmony pervade the universe, and gives a proof of the general principles from the analogy between colours and sounds. From a number of experiments made on a ray of light with the prism, he found that the primary colours occupied spaces exactly corresponding with those intervals which constitute the octave in the division of a musical chord; and hence he has shown the obvious affinity existing between the harmony of colours and musical sounds. Cicero notices the astonishing power of music, and Plato supposes that the effect of harmony on the mind is equal to that of air on the body. Father Kircher requires four conditions in music proper for the removal of sickness: first, harmony; second, number and proportion; third, efficacious and pathetic words joined to the harmony; fourth, a skill in the adaptation of these indispensable parts to the constitution, disposition, and inclination of the patient. The celebrated Italian composer and musician, Tartini, who lived something over two hundred years ago, taught that with the problem of harmony solved, the mystery of creation, of even divinity itself, would be revealed in the mystical symbols of tone relation. Mysticism, music, and religion are so intimately related, that it is difficult to tell whether music inspires to religion and mysticism, or religion and mysticism inspire to music. If we look upon religion as a state of feeling, a development of man's love nature and highest emotions, then it is only reasonable to suggest that music becomes the means of expression and that through voice or instrument we get the high est and best expression of the God that lives in man. The patron saint of music, St. Cecilia, around whose personality are woven so many wonderful, as well as beautiful, legends of music, was of a deeply religious nature, and seemed to be endowed with power through her music to affect the minds of people to an almost miraculous degree. The poet Dryden, in the following lines, tells in musical verse something of this power: "Orpheus could lead the savage race, Sequacious of the lyre: Mistaking earth for heaven!" The compelling power of music will be better understood when it is once realised that music is probably the highest, as well as the deepest, expression of Universal Will. Music is not a production of any human being, but all music is divine in its origin, and the composer is the discoverer and gives form to that which he discovers. Later, the singer or instrumental musician becomes the interpreter. The imperfections, if there exist any, are not in the original music, but in the inability of the composer to transcribe the music as he heard it in his inner consciousness, or the lack of true interpretation on the part of the singer or the instrumentalist. If music, then, is one of the highest expressions of Universal Will, then beyond doubt it must have a compelling power, and it should be able to overcome any or all obstacles by which anyone may be confronted in this life. It may be made to overcome hate with love, doubt with faith, gloom with hope, bring light out of darkness, and so ennoble, beautify, and strengthen the whole life. CHAPTER VII JOY RHYTHM-THE DANCE "Say, what shall we dance? Shall we bound along the moonlight plain Shall we, like those who rove Through bright Granada's grove, To the light Bolero's measures move? Or choose the Guaracia's languishing lay, And thus to its sound die away? "Strike the gay chords, Let us hear each strain from every shore That music haunts, or young feet wander o'er. Then comes the smooth waltz, to whose floating sound Like dreams we go gliding around, Say, which shall we dance? which shall we dance?" In a study of the psychology of life we are often confronted by little or great movements that spring up almost in a night, swaying, at times, only the body of people or the nation that inaugurated them, and again exerting a world-wide influence. The student of history will find any number of such movements. As a general thing they have small beginnings, but, like the small snowball started rolling down hill, they soon accumulate greater weight and body, and, after a time, assume huge proportions. Reaching their climax, they usually begin to diminish, and then seem gradually to pass away, but this is seldom, if ever, the case. There is always something left behind that may eventually flame into being and repeat itself again. These periodic waves of movements assume many and varied forms; sometimes it may be a financial wave such as the South Sea Bubble. Finance is periodically subject to its years of receding and its years of flood tides, which, whether we know it or not, are states of consciousness. Again, we have such movements as the tulip craze which started in Holland and extended to many other countries, where people squandered fortunes in purchasing rare varieties of tulips. The craze passed away, but left its impression behind, for Holland still produces the greatest number and variety of tulips. In our own country we have had the business card collecting craze, which began first with a comparatively few people at the Centennial Exhibition in 1876, and was later followed by a wave that swept over the whole country. There followed later the 14-15 puzzle. I use the foregoing examples only as an illustration to show that the contagion comes from a few people who are actively engaged in something a little out of the usual order, and that coming from it there is literally a hypnotic suggestion to which the receptive or negative minded are the first to respond, and later the stronger or the more positive minds become more or less influenced. Now, it is natural that this should be so. If we consider humanity as a whole, and the individual units as forming parts of the grand body, then that which affects the parts must eventually come to affect the whole. If the original impulse is a very strong one, then the whole body is affected in a very complete way, but if the first impulse has not some good reason for its existence, or is incomplete or partial, while it may affect the receptive or negative minded, it is quite unlikely that it will affect in any marked way the strong or positive minded portion of the community, the nation, or the world. The foregoing statement is apropos of a movement that had its beginning in our own country. I am referring to the modern dance. Until quite recently the United States would hardly have been called a country that was given, as a whole, to dancing; but the last few years have brought about a wonderful change, and I doubt if, at the present time, there is any other country wherein there is as much dancing going on as in our own. Now there must be some good reason for this very radical change, and I think such a reason will be found in the fact that for many years we, as a people, have been lacking in all true rhythmic expression. We have expressed ourselves in many ways and degrees, but not in a rhythmic way, not in a way that has disclosed much of either grace or beauty, and the pendulum is now swinging in the other direction. And I believe that from this on there will be an ever-increasing effort on the part of a large body of our people to give expression to life in a more beautiful and graceful way, and that this beauty and grace will not be confined solely to the dance, but will enter into practically everything that they do in life. We have not yet grasped the full import of this new movement, for while the dance is probably as old as human life on the planet, yet it is new to countless thousands who have previously cared little if anything for it, and it is new in the sense of its taking such a hold on the imagination and exerting an apparently compelling influence upon so many minds. I do not think that it will be as ephemeral as so many other movements we have passed through. While undoubtedly it will reach its climax and possibly decrease in a large measure, nevertheless it will not only continue to have a greater follow |