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.
Poets have always attributed to Music--and who would wish to deny it?--a
power even over the inanimate forces of Nature. Shakespeare accounts for
shooting stars by the attraction of Music:
"The rude sea grew civil at her song,
And certain stars shot madly from their spheres
To hear the Sea-maid's music."
Prose writers have also been inspired by Music to their highest eloquence.
"Music," says Plato, "is a moral law. It gives a soul to the universe,
wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, a charm to sadness, gaiety
and life to everything.
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