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CHINESE MUSIC. 3 Our present complicated system of music is thus comparatively modern. If ancient music exercised a magic influence on its hearers, what shall we say of our modern art, which elevates its admirers to the highest pitch of idealism to which imagination •can be brought ; whose romance transports us out of our spheres, out of the limited circle of our knowledge; whose accents make us shed tears when the subject is sad, tremble when it is terrible, love when it is tender, admire when it is great, a!).ore when it is divine ? This accounts for the i1tesistible attraction exercised by music on those feminine, weak, timid natures, which a continual musing elevates above the tribulations of this world. Woman, en,dowed with the most exquisite feeling of sensitiveness, loves music witµ passjon, because, like her, it softens the manners, disarms force by grace, brings nearer and binds together the different element of society. It also accounts for the instinctive aversion felt by those positive minds, those unbelieveTS, who consider music as an organised row, a kind of noise submitted to the most delirious rules Md expressed by means of an artillery of instruments called pianos, trombones, cornets, etc., which, they say, are best adapted to drive one mad ·or to make one appreciate surdity. Fo~tun~tely fo1: the fine arts, this unfeeling part of mankind is by far the smallest, and their indifference hardly affects the enthusiasm of others. PLATO says that music affected considerably the constitution of the State; CoNFUC1U8 was of the same opinion. Indeed, all skilful politicians, all wise rulers, are aware that they must not look upon their subjects as abstractions, moving them about like the pawns on a chess-board, without considering that men have senses; that these senses create passions; that the science of governing men is simply the science of guiding their feelings ; that the basis of all human institutions rests on public and private customs; and that the fine ai.ts are essentially of a moral character, since they render the man who cultivates them better and happier. And what is health but the essence of happiness, the result of internal contentment., the peaceful feelings of the soul manifested on the exterior e~velope of man. This dissertation may seem out of place in an .article on Chinese ~ usic. Nevertheless it is a fact that the Chinese have had the very same ideas ; and this consideration, taken in connexion with several astonishing similarities between all the ancient systems, will re-enfOl'ce t he belief of music's common origin.