or upwards of two thousand
years, attributed his acquirements to the command he had gained over
his mind. Fixedness of purpose, steady, undivided attention, mental
concentration, accuracy, alertness, keen perception and wise
discrimination are essential to achievement. This is true of giant
minds; it is equally true of average intellects. The right musical
education will conduce to these habits. Musical education without them
must inevitably be a failure.

Music study is many-sided. To make it truly educative it must be pursued
from both theoretical and practical standpoints. It should include
technical training which affords facility to express whatever a person
may have for expression; intellectual training which enables a person to
grasp the constructive laws of the art, its scope, history and
aesthetics, with all that calls into play the analytic and imaginative
faculties; and spiritual development which imparts warmth and glow to
everything. Even those who do not advance far in music study would do
well, as they proceed, to touch the art on as many sides as possible, in
view of enlarging the musical sense, sharpening the musical perception,
concentrating and multiplying the agencies by virtue of which musical
knowledge and proficiency are attained.

"Truth," said Madox-Brown, the Pre-Raphaelite, "is the means of art, its
end the quickening of the soul." Music does more than quicken the soul;
it reveals the soul, makes it conscious of itself. Springing from the
deepest and best that is implanted in man, it fertilizes the soil from
which it uprises. Both beauty and truth are essential to its welfare. As
Hamilton W. Mabie has said: "We need beauty just as truly as we need
truth, for it is as much a part of our lives. We have learned in part
the lesson of morality, but we have yet to learn the lesson of beauty."
This must be learned through the culture of the aesthetic taste, a matter
of slow growth, which should begin with the rudiments, and is best
fostered in an atmosphere saturated with good music.

Too much stress cannot be laid on the importance of hearing good music.
When it falls on listening ears it removes all desire for anything
coarse or unrefined. Constant companionship with it prepares the ear to
hear, the inner being to receive, and cannot fail to bring forth fruit.
The creations of noble minds form practical working-forces in shaping
character, purifying taste and elevating standards. A literary schol