which rouses and expresses noble aspirations and pure
emotions can find no room. Normal instincts may also be dulled, the
inner being made, as it were, musically deaf and dumb, by a false
education which stifles and dwarfs the finer feelings, or by
circumstances which permit these to remain dormant.

The emotional natures of human beings differ as widely in kind and
degree as the intellectual and physical natures. In some people
sensibility predominates, and the irresistible activity of fancy and
feeling compels the expression in rhythmic tone combinations of ideals
grasped intuitively. Thus musical genius manifests itself. No amount of
education can bring it into being, but true culture and wise guidance
are needed to equip it for its bold flight. "Neither diligence without
genius, nor genius without education will produce anything thorough,"
as we read in Horace. Other people with marked aptitude for musical
expression have reproductive rather than creative endowments. To them
belongs talent in a greater or less degree, and they are adapted to
promulgate the message which genius formulated for mankind. Talent may
be ripened and brightened by suitable environments and fostering care.

There are besides persons led by genius or talent into other avenues
than those of the tone-world, and the great public with its diverse
grades of emotional and intellectual gifts. The cultivation of the
aesthetic tastes is profitable to all, and no agency contributes so
freely to it as music. Too many people engaged in purely scientific or
practical pursuits have failed to realize this. In those nations known
as musical, and that have become so through generations occupied with
the art, music study is placed on an equal footing with any other worthy
pursuit and no life interest is permitted to exclude musical enthusiasm.

Unless disabled by physical defects, every one displays some sense of
musical sound and rhythmic motion. It is a constant occurrence for
children, without a word of direction, to mark the time of a stirring
tune with hands, feet and swaying motions of the body. A lullaby will
almost invariably soothe a restless infant, and most children old enough
to distinguish and articulate groups of tones will make some attempt at
singing the melodies they have often heard. The average child begins
music lessons with evident pleasure.

It should be no more difficult to strengthen the musical instincts than
any other faculties. O