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[1339b]
[1]
instead of learning to enjoy it rightly and be able to judge it
when they hear others performing, as the Spartans do? for the Spartans although
they do not learn to perform can nevertheless judge good and bad music
correctly, so it is said. And the same argument applies also if music is to be
employed for refined enjoyment and entertainment; why need people learn to
perform themselves instead of enjoying music played by others? And we may consider the conception that we
have about the gods: Zeus does not sing and harp to the poets himself. But
professional musicians we speak of as vulgar people, and indeed we think it not
manly to perform music, except when drunk or for fun.But perhaps these points
will have to be considered afterwards; our first inquiry is whether music ought
not or ought to be included in education, and what is its efficacy among the
three uses of it that have been discussed—does it serve for education
or amusement or entertainment? It is reasonable to reckon it under all of these
heads, and it appears to participate in them all. Amusement is for the sake of
relaxation, and relaxation must necessarily be pleasant, for it is a way of
curing the pain due to laborious work; also entertainment ought admittedly to be
not only honorable but also pleasant, for happiness is derived from both honor
and pleasure;
[20]
but we all pronounce
music to be one of the pleasantest things, whether instrumental or instrumental
and vocal music together (at least Musaeus1 says, ‘Song is man's sweetest joy,’
and that is why people with good reason introduce it at parties and
entertainments, for its exhilarating effect), so that for this reason
also one might suppose that the younger men ought to be educated in music. For
all harmless pleasures are not only suitable for the ultimate object but also
for relaxation; and as it but rarely happens for men to reach their ultimate
object, whereas they often relax and pursue amusement not so much with some
ulterior object but because of the pleasure of it, it would be serviceable to
let them relax at intervals in the pleasures derived from music. But it has come about that men make
amusements an end; for the end also perhaps contains a certain pleasure, but not
any ordinary pleasure, and seeking this they take the other as being this
because it has a certain resemblance to the achievement of the end of their
undertakings. For the end is desirable not for the sake of anything that will
result from it, and also pleasures of the sort under consideration are not
desirable for the sake of some future result, but because of things that have
happened already, for instance labor and pain. One might then perhaps assume
this to be the reason which causes men to seek to procure happiness by means of
those pleasures; but in the case of
taking part in music, this is not because of this reason only, but also because
performing music is useful, as it seems, for relaxation. But nevertheless we
must examine whether it is not the case that, although this has come about,
1 A semi-legendary bard, to whom a number of oracular verses that were current were attributed.
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