Wabash express. [volume] (Terre-Haute, Vigo Co[unty], Ind.) 1841-186?, 1860-06-06
ALBERT LANCE.

Music, instrumental or vocal, is the Ian
guage of the heart the expression Of th,
sentiments, of the passions, of our long
iugs, aspirations, desires the artistic echC
Of long past scenes OF our youth, the key
note of far distant memories the charmer
which leads us back into the woodbine ar
Dor, where we have dreamed our frs
dream of friendship and love; the fay
which sings us to slumber with the sW eel
sounds of father, mother, brother and sis
ter, and repeats TO US in our dreams the
tale of our fervid affection. She is the
Goddess with the spear and the shield
which stimulates US to bold deeds, which
recalls To orr mind the heroic acts of the
Nibelungen, which mirrors TO US Tell,
Winkelzied. the chevalier Bayard, (sans
peur and sans reproche,) which rouses,
spurs up and kindles our patriotism, and
calls to us in the black ness of night " Bru-
tus, sleepest thou 2" She is the kaleido-
scope, which strews the rough path of our
life with flowers, and shows US in the dis
tance the wood .encircled shores of Geneva
lake, all radiant in the drapery of the
moonlight, while we rest on its swelling
bosom amidst the play Of flutes and man
dolines, and the sounds of a solitary Alp
horn reaches us from afar off, like a voice
of oldon times, and the avalanche of the
distant Alps thuhders along. She is the
TREND friend, whose accents whisper to us
on our deathbed words of consolation and
trust, which are blended with the music of
the spheres in the Elysean fields of another
world.
With the wailing voices of Parces, and
the cry for vengeance of the Eumenydes
and Furies, she frightens US back from the
path of blood and sin; with the dulcet
sounds of happiness. contentment and do
mestic peace she invites us into the cottage
Of the shepherd, where simplicity, virtue
and love have their domicile. With the fan
faro of the trumpets and the beating Of the
drums, she leads us on the battle field,
where force battles with force for the high
est gifts of life, and paints to us with col
or-sounds now the attack, the firing of
small arms and guns, and now the clash
ing of swords, the fierce on set with the
bayonet, the shrieks of the wounded, the
last agony Of the dying, the shouts of vic
tory, aud the night. succeeding the car
mage, which covers the field with black
veil
The language of music is without meas
ure, and without bounds; no dictionary
can write It out All, that ], thou, he, we,
you, they, think, reflect, fancy, imagine,
feel, mediate, doubt, fear or hope, has in
music it's thousand field varied, yet to the
aesthetic sense of the hearer, Ineligible
wordsounds. The entire domain Of the
ideal, of sacrificing friendship. OF
death defying patriotism, make themselves
known to the intelligent mind in we'll de
fined tones; the emotions of the heart, fol
honor and virtue, for the low and sublime
for levity and solidity, for fun and serious
ness, for the sentimental aud unfeeling
for soberness acd mirthfulness, laughing
and crying, gladness and mourning, for the
ecstasy of Heaven, and the despair of He'll
for humor bordering on delirium and sto
lidity, bordering on beastliness, all find il
the tones of music their well defined anC
to the cultivated taste accessible language
Even the elements-the tornado, the earth
quake, lightning and thunder, the ocear
lashed into fury by the tempest-light ant
darkness, rest and motion, waking an,
sleeping, day and night, life and death
spring, summer, autumn and winter
speak to US through music in intelligibl
tones.