There are other forms of Music, which though not strictly entitled to the
name, are yet capable of giving intense pleasure. To the sportsman what
Music can excel that of the hounds themselves. The cawing of rooks has
been often quoted as a sound which has no actual beauty of its own, and
yet which is delightful from its associations.
There is, however, a true Music of Nature,--the song of birds, the whisper
of leaves, the ripple of waters upon a sandy shore, the wail of wind or
sea.
There was also an ancient impression that the Heavenly bodies give out
music as well as light: the Music of the Spheres is proverbial.
"There's not the smallest orb which thou beholdest
But in his motion like an angel sings,
Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubims;
Such harmony is in immortal souls
But while this muddy vesture of decay
Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it." [6]
Music indeed often seems as if it scarcely belonged to this material
universe, but was
"A tone
Of some world far from ours,
Where music, and moonlight, and feeling are one.
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