If so, why
should they learn themselves, and not, like the Persian and Median
kings, enjoy the pleasure and instruction which is derived from
hearing others? (for surely persons who have made music the business
and profession of their lives will be better performers than those who
practice only long enough to learn). If they must learn music, on
the same principle they should learn cookery, which is absurd. And
even granting that music may form the character, the objection still
holds: why should we learn ourselves? Why cannot we attain true
pleasure and form a correct judgment from hearing others, like the
Lacedaemonians?- for they, without learning music, nevertheless can
correctly judge, as they say, of good and bad melodies. Or again, if
music should be used to promote cheerfulness and refined
intellectual enjoyment, the objection still remains- why should we
learn ourselves instead of enjoying the performances of others? We may
illustrate what we are saying by our conception of the Gods; for in
the poets Zeus does not himself sing or play on the lyre. Nay, we call
professional performers vulgar; no freeman would play or sing unless
he were intoxicated or in jest. But these matters may be left for
the present.
The first question is whether music is or is not to be a part of
education. Of the three things mentioned in our discussion, which does
it produce?- education or amusement or intellectual enjoyment, for
it may be reckoned under all three, and seems to share in the nature
of all of them.
Pages:
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346