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whether we should recognize the music as ours. And so in the case of many of the bygone peoples: we may make flutes and harps and what not, copying from their wall-paintings, but we can never be sure that we have got the true things. All is hazy speculation; and whatever hypotheses we may form, there is no means of ascertaining how far they are right and how far wrong.

And haziness is made doubly hazy, vagueness doubly vague, by our uncertainty as to the music of the elder world. Hardly any has been handed on to us, and what we have we cannot read accurately, and what we can read in a fashion our ears refuse to accept as music. Not by any effort to dissociate myself from the present and the music of the present can I hear that Hymn to Apollo, about which there was so much fuss a few years ago, as other than modern music perverted and out of tune. I remember trying hard one hot summer afternoon in S. James' Hall to fancy myself an ancient Greek without any clothes on and without any modern ideas of tonality and sense of modern scales. It was all to no purpose: simply I heard a succession of notes nearly enough alike to our music to sound disagreeably unmusical. Of course strange noises have passed and in places still pass for music; yet I doubt whether any old Greek would recognize the Hymn to Apollo as we read it. Still, one never knows. It is certain that they liked things that are horribly discordant to us.

It is not necessary to go back SO far as the Greeks: the musicians of the middle ages regarded an accompaniment of fourths and fifths as sublimely beautiful. When the ancient music of a country survives to this day we can get a lesson that ought to make us very careful ere we believe, as Mr. Hermann Smith believes, that

one can deduce the nature of the music from the instruments on which it was played. I, for instance, once had an opportunity of trying some Egyptian instruments and succeeded in drawing forth sundry unpleasant sounds. But at the last Paris Exhibition there was an Egyptian opera and the musicplayed, I suppose, in the traditional way-was very different from all I had dreamed. A grand operatic finale in particular was most amazing. At first I heard nothing but a confused din, and it was only very gradually that I realized that the music-if it could be called music-was in genuine parts. Such an uproar I have never heardnot even when Covent Garden has done its worst with a Wagner chorus; yet I suppose it gave pleasure to native Egptians accustomed to it all their lives. My point, however, is that no European could have deduced such music from a knowledge of the instruments; and I am suspicious as to a good deal that Mr. Smith says. But his book, if a trifle garrulous, is full of suggestion, and will be read with pleasure not only by music-lovers but also by those who care to learn how man came to separate himself by music from the other animals.

In skipping lightly across the ages and over continents we are struck by one fact. The instruments used in warm climates are all small compared with those of colder climates. The Eastern nations have no organs with five keyboards and two hundred stops; they do not even rise to the luxury of a grand piano. A simple pipe serves them, a harp with a few strings ravishes their senses. They have scarcely any harmony. Mr. Smith speaks of the harmony of the ancients and rather vaguely suggests that though undefined, not reduced to rule or indeed at all understood, it yet existed as the result of many players trying to play in unison and not quite

succeeding. Now it is not very generous thus to disparage our ancestors who cannot defend themselves, and since the human ear has not changed since history was first written there is no reason to suppose that the earliest musicians were more prone to get out of tune than is a good average violinist of to-day. Even if they did sometimes get a trifle off the note, it is incredible that any one of them should have got so far away as to produce anything approaching what we call harmony. Of course the people of those days could put up with strange noises and even find them agreeable; but I doubt whether they could find much that was lovely and lovable in a number of performers unable to play in unison. They did not want harmony; harmony is quite a modern invention and need. Harmony came with large bodies of singers, large instruments and above all large bodies of instrumentalists. Now I revert to the fact that in warm climates small instruments, incapable of producing harmonic effects, prevail and larger ones in cold climates. That is to say where people take their music out of doors they are content to have it very simple; whilst when it is heard indoors the ear seems to grow greedier and greedier for more and ever more fulness of tone until we get the stupendous musical structures of Beethoven and Wagner and such instruments as the modern grand piano and organs that merely deafen you with their din. Those who like to listen to music in the open know quite well what they are about. Outside little is gained and much is lost by the multiplication of instruments or by the employment of large ones. A guitar or mandolin on a lake makes a far more penetrating sound than a grand piano-as will have been noticed by everyone who has heard the piano played on a passing steam-launch.

If we have lost the old delight in

simple tune-so that an unaccompanied melody like that for the cor anglais in "Tristan" comes to us as a noveltywe have gained much. While unwilling to speak disrespectfully of the Egyptians, the Chinese, the Hindustanis and the Japanese-and each nation claims to have the most beautiful music in existence-I cannot resist the temptation to say that they lie. Such music as theirs cannot contain what ours does. It pleases them because so far as music is concerned they remain children finding pleasure in simple sensuous effects. That their scales are horrible to my ear does not greatly matter: in the course of a thousand years or so I dare say I should grow accustomed to them; and the main fact is that people do find pleasure in such music and that the music by reason of its structure or lack of structure cannot hold any serious content. Our highly elaborate music can and does. Every day it becomes more intricate, every day we try to express more difficult things. Where will it end? Must we have recourse to quarter-tones and eighths of tones? Not, I believe, for many a century. There are yet miracles to be worked with the twelve notes of our scale, and those who spend their time in working out its possibilities by means of long arithmetical calculations and prophesy that the end is near would be better employed in doing a little thinking. There are not many great melodies in the world. A melody has to be written many hundreds or thousands of times and as it were cast back again and again into the general melting pot until the lucky man comes along and by an inspired touch gives it its final form. There is not a great theme in existence that has not had many feeble forerunners. Some of Beethoven's and Mozart's most marvellous melodies are only fragments of the scale transfigured by a divine touch. I am not

the least anxious about the future. We can no more guess at that than we can guess at the nature of the first The Saturday Review.

music; but as yet there is no need for alarmed talk of exhausted resources. John F. Runciman.

ARCHBISHOP DAVIDSON'S JOURNEY.

From many points of view the journey on which the Archbishop of Canterbury has started is charged with interest and with possibilities of usefulness. Its primary object is, in pursuance of a very cordial invitation received and accepted by the Archbishop, to present the salutations of the Church of England to the forthcoming Triennial Convention of the sister Church in the United States, and to enter into counsel with the prelates and other leading divines of that Communion on matters of common concern. The relations thus exhibited between the two Churches form a happy contrast to the state of things which prevailed during the Colonial period of the history of the United States. For more than a hundred and eighty years the Church of England as planted in America was allowed to carry on a truncated existence, essentially at variance with its own theories, both as to organization and ordinances. The blame for this rested by no means only on one set of shoulders. Among the Nonconformist Colonists there was doubtless much aversion from the strengthening of the Episcopalian interest, and the increase of its dependence upon England which, it was imagined, would ensue upon the reception of Bishops consecrated at home. And even among Colonial Churchmen there was probably not a little reluctance to acquiesce in the establishment of more systematic discipline, the powers for which, if not the persons endowed with them, would have their origin in the Mother-country. On the

other hand, devout and convinced Churchmen in the Colonies felt severely their altogether abnormal and inconsistent position, and there can be no excuse for the failure on the part of the Bishops at home to pay any continuous or practical attention to a situation so extremely unfavorable to the maintenance of any vigorous Church life among their fellow-countrymen across the ocean. When the war of Independence was over, it was not until the resolute Seabury of Connecticut, turning from the indifferent and timid Bishops of England, had obtained consecration from the non-juring Scottish prelates that the former recognized the necessity of acceding to the prayer for episcopal Orders pressed upon them by White and Provoost on behalf of the Churchmen of the Middle States. From the two lines of episcopal succession thus created descend the prelates who in October will welcome Archbishop Davidson at Boston. Several of them, of course, have attended Pan-Anglican Conferences at Lambeth, and in the invitation on which our Primate is now acting they have shown, as he is showing, the conviction that nothing but good can result from the greatest possible development of intimate relations between sister Communions. Each must have much to learn from the other. The conditions under which they have reached their present respective stages of growth afford many points of striking contrast, but the problems with which they have to deal are in many respects closely alike, and

certainly quite enough so for the experience gained in treating them to afford much reciprocally helpful light to members of both Churches. Among such problems are the limits of right and prudent comprehension in regard to diversities of doctrine and ritual in churches which, while protesting, against what is conceived to be mediæval or modern error, cherish as of vital value Catholic formalaries of faith and Catholic traditions of organization and worship. Both Churches,

again, must recognize as among their most essential functions the provision of guidance and inspiration towards the treatment of the tremendous social questions of our times, and especially those connected with the responsibilities of wealth to the community as a whole, and the relations between Capital and Labor.

No doubt the services rendered by the American Episcopal Church in grappling with these great human problems are limited by its size. It does not possess any of the numerical preponderance in the States which is enjoyed by the Church of England here. But it holds, we believe, a high place in the respect and good-will of the American people, as comprising among its membership an important representation of religious thought, at once reverent and liberal, and religious purpose, at once strenuous, sober, and enlightened; and as standing, with emphasis, for that spontaneous attachment to historic continuity, that love of liberty combined with order and a touch of stateliness, which are the special marks of the Anglo-Saxon race in the religious, not less than in the secular, sphere. There is a great part for such a Church to fill in the development of the life of the mighty democracy of the West, alike in its domestic and in its lately realized Imperial aspects. No member of the English Church can fail to be glad that

through the visit of the Archbishop of Canterbury sympathy and interest are to be definitely manifested from here in the work and aspirations of the şister Communion, and none of us can fail to feel that in the intercourse thus advanced we shall gain at least as much as we shall give. It is not, however, merely as the spiritual chief of the Church of England visiting the American Episcopal Church that the Archbishop will be seen in the States, but as the most prominent official representative of English Christianity. The occupant of the chair of St. Augustine personifies as no one else can the most sacred part of that heritage which is held in common by the two great branches of the Anglo-Saxon Whatever divisions, civil and ecclesiastical, have come in long-subsequent centuries, none of them can ever forget that they received their religion from common sources, and that for many ages their life, both spiritual and secular, flowed on in one unbroken stream. Herein, with the common possession of language, literature, and law, lie influences of most potent force, if not for the ultimate re-welding of a single national life, yet for the building up of a friendship and brotherhood which, under reasonable guidance, should attain an indissoluble strength.

race.

Towards that happy consummation the Archbishop's journey is one of those events which are calculated to form a sensible contribution. Visiting the States on an errand which will excite general interest and sympathyfor the inter-ecclesiastical jealousies, of which too much is seen and felt here, have little, if any, place in the American Republic-the Archbishop will inevitably be brought into touch, in the most favorable circumstances, with many of the most influential leaders of American thought; and being the statesman, as well as excellent Churchman, that he is, such intercourse on his part can

not fail to be of service towards the promotion of that increasing mutual understanding in influential quarters on both sides of the ocean which is of vital value to international friendship. Meanwhile, before the visit to the States actually begins, the Primate passes first direct from New York to Canada, where his presence at the hundredth anniversary of the consecration of the Anglican Cathedral at Quebec will be a much-valued asThe Spectator.

surance of the deep interest of English Churchmen at home in all that works for the welfare of their brother Churchmen in the Dominion. This visit to Canada is very happily timed, and will contribute both to the strengthening of inter-Imperial ties and to the growth of happy relations between our North American fellow-subjects and their kindred in the great neighboring Republic.

BOOKS AND AUTHORS.

It is proposed to found a Lectureship ple who know that he is a Pole. His in Literature in Cambridge University in memory of the late Leslie Stephen.

Mrs. Meynell has undertaken to edit for Mr. Grant Richards's "Smaller Classics" a selection from the poems of Herbert, Crashaw, Vaughan, and Treherne. It will appear under the title of "The Mystics" (seventeenth century).

"Susan Clegg and Her Friend Mrs. Lathrop" is the title decided upon by Anne Warner for her book of Susan Clegg stories, some of which are now appearing in The Century. Little, Brown & Co. will publish the book in the fall.

Spain is preparing to celebrate the tercentenary of "Don Quixote" next year with great ceremony, and a number of new editions of Don Quixote may be anticipated in connection with the event. Already one is announced in London-Motteux's translation, revised, with Lockhart's life and notes.

Joseph Conrad's English-sounding name must have perplexed many peo

full baptismal title is Joseph Conrad Korzeniowski. When he was a sailor on an English merchantman Mr. Conrad found his messmates incapable of pronouncing his cognomen, and therefore dropped it.

"Miriam; or, The Sin of David" is the correct title of the new play by Mr. Stephen Phillips, which was at first announced as "David and Bathsheba." The theme is clearly indicated by the title, but the play opens in Cromwell's army, instead of in Jerusalem, and runs its course during the English Civil War.

Hon. Emily Lawless, author of the new life of Maria Edgeworth in The English Men of Letters Series, is herself an Irishwoman, the eldest daughter of the third Baron Cloncurry, and the author of various novels, poems and books relating to Ireland. As long ago as 1886 she published a historical sketch entitled "The Story of Ireland," and in 1901 she fell in with the fashion for garden literature with "A Garden Diary." Her home is Hazelhatch in Surrey.

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