"There is in Souls a sympathy with sounds;
And as the mind is pitched, the ear is pleased
With melting airs or martial, brisk or grave;
Some chord in unison with what we hear
Is touched within us, and the heart replies.
How soft the music of those village bells,
Falling at intervals upon the ear
In cadence sweet, now dying all away,
Now pealing loud again and louder still
Clear and sonorous, as the gale comes on." [9]
As touching the human heart—
"The soul of music slumbers in the shell,
Till waked and kindled by the master's spell,
And feeling hearts—touch them but lightly—pour
A thousand melodies unheard before." [10]
As an education—
"I have sent books and music there, and all
Those instruments with which high spirits call
The future from its cradle, and the past
Out of its grave, and make the present last
In thoughts and joys which sleep, but cannot die,
Folded within their own eternity." [11]
As an aid to religion—
"As from the power of sacred lays
The spheres began to move,
And sung the great Creator's praise
To all the blessed above,
So when the last and dreadful hour
This crumbling pageant shall devour,
The trumpet shall be heard on high.
The dead shall live, the living die,
And music shall untune the sky." [12]
Or again—
"Hark how it falls! and now It steals along,
Like distant bells upon the lake at eve.
When all is still; and now it grows more strong
As when the choral train their dirges weave
Mellow and many voiced; where every close
O'er the old minster roof, in echoing waves reflows.
Oh! I am rapt aloft. My spirit soars
Beyond the skies, and leaves the stars behind;
Lo! angels lead me to the happy shores,
And floating paeans fill the buoyant wind.
Farewell! base earth, farewell! my soul is freed."
The power of Music to sway the feelings of Man has never been more cleverly portrayed than by Dryden in "The Feast of Alexander," though the circumstances of the case precluded any reference to the influence of Music in its noblest aspects.