THEIE LOTE OF MTTSIC.
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in brutal and degrading sensualities, or in enlightened andelevating arts. If the purer sources of deliglit are undevelopedin the poor, surely they are not to be blamed that their pleasuresare on a level with those of the polype,—creatures in whichthe stomach is the chief organ, and whose anatomy exliibitsnot even the rudiments of a brain or a heart. Those who havenever known the bodily fatigue of a hard day's labour,—theaching of every limb, the painful stiffhess of each muscle, andthe utter exhaustion of all bodily power, which follow uponsevere toil,— cannot teil what inducements there are for work-men to find greater enjoyment in stimulants than in contem-plating the wonders of nature, or the tasteful and gracefulexcellences of art. Nor can we wonder how a man whosehome affords him no comfort and but little peace,—whosesitting-room does duty at once for kitchen, scullery, bedroom,nursery, and washhouse,— flies in preference to the more cosyand sociable accommodations of the taproom. Hence suchpeople require a long course of training before they can betaught to experience greater pleasure from the refined charmsof the concert-room, the picture-gallery, or the free library,than from the coarser and stronger gratifications of the public-house.
In Germany, however, the musical taste is educated evenin the " elementary " schools, the youngest and meanest chil-dren being all taught to sing; so that the ear being trainedfrom very childhood to the nice perceptions of harmony, theindividual in after years gets to find more deliglit in theexercise of this sense than in that of the palate. The conse-quence is, that one of the most exquisite and elevating modcsof amusement of which human nature is susceptible is broughtwithin reach of the poor. To tickle the gustatory nerveswith either dainty food or drink costs some little money;but to be able to reproduce the harmonious combinations
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