Indeed, it may be asserted that almost all crimes spring from a lack
of sympathy, and modified forms of cruelty. If you reflect a moment,
you must admit that a man who is truly sympathetic--that is, who
rejoices in his neighbor's happiness and grieves over his
misfortunes--can be neither ungenerous, nor deceitful, nor covetous,
nor jealous, nor ferocious, nor avaricious, etc.; and one need not
therefore be a pantheist to agree with Schopenhauer, that Mitleid, or
sympathy, is the basis of all virtues. If, therefore, it can be shown
that music is a powerful agent in developing this feeling of sympathy,
its far-reaching moral value will become apparent. And this can be
done easily.

Rousseau named his collection of songs "The Consolations of the
Miseries of my Life;" Shakspere called music "The food of love;" and
Chopin, in one of his letters to a friend, after referring to his
first love affair, adds, "How often I relate to my piano everything I
should like to communicate to you." Similar remarks might be quoted by
the score from the letters of composers and other great men devoted to
music, showing that music is valued like a personal friend who is
always ready to sympathize with our joys and sorrows. And when a real
music-lover comes across a beautiful new piece, how he bubbles over
with enthusiasm to play or sing it to his friends, and let them share
the pleasure; his own being doubled thereby! I know of no other art
that so vividly arouses this unselfish feeling, this desire for
sympathetic communion. Indeed, music is the most unselfish of all the
arts. A poem is generally read in solitude, and a picture can be seen
by only a few at a time; but a concert or opera may be enjoyed by
5,000 or more at a time--the more the merrier. 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