Poetry has its place apart, or rather it has two places, its
own in the field of literature, and another, as an inspiration pervading
all the domain of the fine arts, allied with music by a natural
affinity, connected with painting on the side of imagination, related in
one way or another to all that is expressive of the beautiful. Children
will feel its influence before they can account for it, and it is well
that they should do so--to feel it is in the direction of refusing the
evil and choosing the good.
Music is coming into a more important place among educational influences
now that the old superstition of making every child play the piano is
passing away. It was an injustice both to the right reason of a child
and to the honour of music when it was forced upon those who were
unwilling and unfit to attain any degree of excellence in it. We are
renouncing these superstitions and turning to something more widely
possible--to cultivate the audience and teach them to listen with
intelligence to that which without instruction is scarcely more than
pleasant noise, or at best the expression of emotion. The intellectual
aspect of music is beginning to be brought forward in teaching children,
and with this awakening the whole effect of music in education is
indefinitely raised.
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