on? Or is it the reflex of the struggles
and the disappointment of that portion of the spirit which I have
assigned as the mover of the emotion itself?

Carry still further the parallel of the vibrating string, and we shall
illustrate the different _degrees_ of emotion. It is only by sounding a
note in exact unison with that to which the string is attuned that we
get the full force of the sympathetic vibration, which is more or less
distinct according as we approach or depart from the keynote, till we
reach the semitone above or below, when it ceases altogether. Even so do
our emotions increase in exact proportion as the exciting cause
approaches perfection--according as the beauty heard or seen or felt
approaches the heavenly keynote. A simple ballad awakens a quiet
pleasure, while the magnificent symphonies of Beethoven or Mozart fill
the soul with a rapture with which the former feeling is no more to be
compared than the brooklet with the ocean; for the latter is
inexpressibly nearer to its heavenly model.

Carry out the theory to its legitimate result, and we shall see that if
it were possible to produce, here on earth, music equal to that which
rings through the celestial arches--if it were possible here to create
beauty in any form, which should fully equal that which shall greet the
freed spirit on its entrance into that better world, then indeed would
our emotions reach their highest possible climax; then indeed should we
hear and see and feel, not with the bodily senses, but with the senses
of the soul; then would there be no vagueness, no sadness in the feeling
as now, but clear and well defined would be our knowledge, comprehending
all spiritual things. Then would our heaven be here on earth, and we
should desire no other. Wisely has a great and merciful God thrown an
impenetrable veil between the soul and its future belongings, and
clipped its wings lest it soar too soon.

So much for a simple strain of music. A trifling matter, perhaps you
will say, to make so much talk about. Not quite so trifling as you may
think, however; for a single musical chord is a more important and
complex thing than to the careless ear it would seem. Who ever cares to
_study_ a single chord of music? And yet how few are there who know that
it is composed of not three or four but a myriad of separate and
distinct sounds, appreciable in exact proportion to the cultivation of
the ear? The uncultivated ear perceives but the three o