[31]
It will, however, I think be sufficiently clear from
the examples I have already quoted, what I regard
as the value and the sphere of music in the training
of an orator. Still I think I ought to be more
emphatic than I have been in stating that the music
which I desire to see taught is not our modern music,
which has been emasculated by the lascivious melodies of our effeminate stage and has to no small
extent destroyed such manly vigour as we still
possessed. No, I refer to the music of old which was
employed to sing the praises of brave men and was
sung by the brave themselves. I will have none
of your psalteries and viols, that are unfit even for
the use of a modest girl. Give me the knowledge
of the principles of music, which have power to
excite or assuage the emotions of mankind.
Quintilian. With an English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1920.
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