Music is the song of the soul.

Music is one of the cornerstones of true education.  The world has not yet awakened to its value as a factor in refining and purifying the character, especially during the early and more plastic years of life.  Man is essentially a creator, and he can be considered in no other way.  It brings the soul into action, ennobles the nature, frees the mind and inspires, so that naturally it finds expression, directly and indirectly, in both art and music.

There is an immense correspondence between music on the one hand, and thought and aspiration on the other, and only that deserves the name of music to which then the noblest and purest aspirations are responsive.  One who really desires to understand the soul of things is ever careful in the selection of music, ever heedful as to what notes are sounded in the hearts of men, lest some harm be done instead of good.

There is a science of consciousness, and into that science music can enter more largely than is usually supposed.  A knowledge of the laws of life can be neither profound nor wide which thus neglects one of the most effective of all forces.  

Let us bring our children, therefore, close to the refining influences of the best in art and music.  In doing so, however, let us realize that the power of beautiful expression in these things is not an affair of the intellect alone, or of custom or convention. Nor can it be learned from books.  It comes from the awaking of the inner powers of the soul, Those qualities of nature which are in sympathy with whatever is high and pure.

Music is the song of he soul, and well we know that it has not yet fulfilled its function.  Had I had the millions that are yearly given out to charity, my first work after I had fed the hungry and clothed the naked, would be to give such help to the families of the poor as would lead to the establishment of a musical life in even the humblest household. For when the soul is stirred by music, when we feel ourselves within reach of the higher ideals of life, then we  find the light.  Do you not know how deeply we can be moved even by the old church hymns, in spite of the old-fashioned theology that pervades.

Music!  What a wonderful power lies in it to swing us out into the universal life!  To realize its power is to realize that when self is forgotten, when personalities disappear, we are free---out in the open air of thought and love and the higher purposes.  And yet even the best that we have today, is but a  materialistic expression in comparison with what it will be.  Everything in music is so imperfect as yet: we are but touching the fringe of the real harmony. 

If we could hold ourselves in the attitude of mind that is created when true music touches us;  we could bind and fasten ourselves to the larger views it opens out and broaden our comprehension of what life really means, we could tear down the veil that divides the seen from the unseen, the seeming from the real; we could look at life as it really is, at ourselves as we really are.

I have always believed that music should be a power among the masses; that the god of music should  rule every household, and that the little children, indeed the whole family, should give as much attention to music as to other duties in life.  If that were only the case, what a beautiful world this would be!  Were we only taught the simple, fundamental laws of music we could throw ourselves upon soul-resources when under the shadow of sorrows and trails of life, and sing ourselves once more into harmony and usefulness, into the light and joy of life.

                       Thank you Katherine Tingley.  One truth, many paths.  Be good, do good.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Louis DiVirgilio