although it was early honored as the gift of superior beings. The
Chinese philosopher detected a grand world music in the harmonious order
of the heavens and the earth, and wrote voluminous works on musical
theory. When it came to putting this into practice tones were combined
in a pedantic fashion.

In all ages and climes music has ministered to religion and education.
The sacred Vedas bear testimony to the high place it held in Hindu
worship and life. Proud records of stone reveal its dignified rôle in
the civilization of Egypt, where Plato stated there had existed ten
thousand years before his day music that could only have emanated from
gods or godlike men. The art was taught by the temple priests, and the
education of no young person was complete without a knowledge of it.

Egyptian musical culture impressed itself on the Greeks, and also on the
Israelites, whose tone-language gained warmth and coloring from various
Oriental sources. Hebrew scriptures abound in tributes to the worth of
music which was intimately related to the political life, mental
consciousness and national sentiment of the Children of Israel. Through
music they approached the unseen King of kings with the plaintive
outpourings of their grief-laden hearts and with their joyful hymns of
praise and thanksgiving.

From the polished Greeks we gained a basis for the scientific laws
governing our musical art. The splendid music of which we read in
ancient writings has for the most part vanished with the lives it
enriched. Relegated to the guardianship of exclusive classes its most
sacred secrets were kept from the people, and it could not possibly have
attained the expansion we know.