I have already stated
that in public schools music helps to develop a sympathetic feeling of
mutual enjoyment. And why is it that music, ever since the days of the
ancient Hebrews and Greeks, has been always provided at political
meetings and processions, at picnics, dances, funerals, weddings--in
short, at all social and public gatherings? Obviously, because it has
the power of uniting the feelings of many into one homogeneous and
sympathetic wave of emotion. It has a sort of _compulsive_ force which
hurries along even those who are sluggish or unwilling. Plato, in his
Republic, gives the curious advice that, at meetings of older people
wine should be distributed, in order to make them more pliable and
receptive to the counsel of sages. Many would object to such a risky
policy, which, moreover, can well be dispensed with, since music has
quite as much power as wine to arouse a sympathetic and enthusiastic
state of mind at a public assembly, and without any danger of
disastrous consequences. It is the special function of music to
intensify all the emotions with which it is associated.
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