sic at least five or
ten years before they can really understand poetry. The infant in arms
has its impatience and anger subdued countless times by the charms of
a cradle song; and in this way music sweetens its temper, turns its
frowns into smiles, and prevents it from becoming habitually cross and
vicious. True, some young children also like to read and recite
poetry, but what delights them in this case is the _musical_ jingle of
rhyme and rhythm, rather than the specific qualities of the verse.

Later in life, when the children go to school, they are, as expert
testimony proves, beneficially affected by singing together, which
rests and refreshes the brain, and teaches them the value and beauty
of co-operation. While thus singing, each child experiences the same
joyous or sad feelings as its classmates, and learns in this way the
great moral lesson of _sympathy_. And this brings us back to what was
said a moment ago regarding the vice of cruelty. Sympathy is the
correlative and antidote of cruelty. If savages were not utterly
devoid of sympathy, they would not take such strange delight in
witnessing the cruel tortures they inflict upon their prisoners.
Indeed, it may be asserted that almost all crimes spring from a lack
of sympathy, and modified forms of cruelty. If you reflect a moment,
you must admit that a man who is truly sympathetic--that is, who
rejoices in his neighbor's happiness and grieves over his
misfortunes--can be neither ungenerous, nor deceitful, nor covetous,
nor jealous, nor ferocious, nor avaricious, etc.; and one need not
therefore be a pantheist to agree with Schopenhauer, that Mitleid, or
sympathy, is the basis of all virtues. If, therefore, it can be shown
that music is a powerful agent in developing this feeling of sympathy,
its far-reaching moral value will become apparent. And this can be
done easily.

Rousseau named his collection of songs "The Consolations of the
Miseries of my Life;" Shakspere called music "The food of love;" and
Chopin, in one of his letters to a friend, after referring to his
first love affair, adds, "How often I relate to my piano everything I
should like to communicate to you." Similar remarks might be quoted by
the score from the letters of composers and other great men devoted to
music, showing that music is valued like a personal friend who is
always ready to sympathize with our joys and sorrows. And when a real
music-lover comes across a beautiful new piece, how