or whether it may just be a concourse of sweet
sounds signifying nothing. There are those who are prepared to lend
support to the proposition on either side: but, inasmuch as the whole
object of these pages has been to emphasise the spiritual message of
music, our viewpoint would naturally lead us to take up a position in
conflict with that of the "pure music" school.

The difficulty in all discussion, and particularly in such as this,
consists in the fact of our own individual uniqueness. Little as we may
realise it, our standards of judgment and criticism are purely
individual and infinitely variable. Two people see a thing: put
scientifically, the result of this is that each experiences a
stimulation of the optic nerve. Apart from any differences arising from
the varying powers of concentration and observation, the stimulus will
be the same. But the next step in the process of seeing is the
translation of this nerve-stimulus by the brain into a visual image:
this can only be done by the awakening of a brain-picture which is
already there--in short, by recognition. As the pictures already
existing in the mind are compiled by the experience of the individual,
and as no two sets of experiences can possibly be identical in all
respects, it follows that the visual image awakened is a purely personal
and unique one. The thing seen is variable according to the individual.
It is impossible for us to observe alike even when we are concerned with
concrete objects: still more is it impossible when we deal with abstract
subjects such as Art and Beauty. Hence arises the fundamental difficulty
of discussion.

In the world of affairs we have arrived at certain understandings or
conventional views which we generally accept, and upon this basis we
proceed to argue as if our facts were facts--which which they are not.
We agree to regard a certain "colour" as red, although as a matter of
fact it is neither a colour, nor is it red. Colour is merely the
reflection of certain light rays transmitted by ether waves: our red
object reflects the red rays of the spectrum, having absorbed all the
others. But in the absence of light our object is no longer red, and
colour does not exist. Had we generally agreed to call this colour blue,
then it would be blue instead of red. The basis of any argument about
colour must be some sort of convention of this kind to form a common
meeting ground. The difficulty in discussion about music is that such a