The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1899-12-23
MUSIC
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An address delivered at st. Berlard's
Seminary. Rochester. N Y. by MIR
w. p. Burke Of Peoria, Ills. on
the feast Of st. Cecilia. 1899

Among the beauties of earth there is
! none, it is said, which approaches
nearer to Heaven than music. The
exact relations which exist between the
human soul and the vibrations of sound
we do not know, but history attests
! that in all ages, among all races of
| men, civilized or barbarous, music has
possessed that same wondrous power of
| stirring the human heart to its depths
| and of awakening memories as naught
else can.
OF all the conflicting emotions of
which the soul is susceptible, music
can be at once the expression and the
cause. 1t calms or disturbs at will,
brightens its hopes. increases it's joys,
soothes its sorrows, excites to anger
and even to frenzy, or gently and soft
ly dispels passion and violence like
some sweet memory of old that con-
aoles us even while it reproves, and
brings to the heart by its gentle voice,
an unhoped-for peace.
But there is a higher power in music
than all this; a power which, though
at first we may not SO readily advert
to it, yet, when the truth dawns upon
US, is none the less effective. This is
its suggestive power. 1t is that which
awakens our highest and holiest emo
tions, which lifts the soul above the
range of mere sensation into the higher
sphere of thought and revery; in a
word, it, is that which, like an en-
chanter, carries the soul into realms
which are not, it is true. Heaven, but
which seer to have nothing in COM
mon with earth
Mans life gives promise of what it
does not accomplish. 1t promises inn
mortality, yet it is mortal 1t at
tracts us by beginnings which faith
alone brings to an end. We seem to
hear the voice of God, to feel His pres
ence. but we are nysteriously stayed,
our seekings are baffied on the very
threshold of attainment
How often has this truth come home
to US in the contemplation of the beau
ties of nature! All that wins. by its
loveliness, all that fills the eye with
the grace of form and color the ear
with melody and the heart with long
ing, all is, even though we little heed
it's import, faint and partial insight
into the beauty Of God, a dim outline
of His majesty and power: and yet,
Notwithstanding this faintness of view, I
what wonders to the soul of man DO
not these glimpses unfold! To what
mysterious yearnings and strange long
ings do they not give rise!
The very hopeleSSneSS of the striving
draws US on and gives a dignity and
value to this life beyond our most san
guine hopes.
If such he the power of the mute and |
silent things among the beauties of ma
ture, what. then, must be that of mu-
sic, which Is. as. it were, the voice of |
nature the harmonious expression of |
this hidden beauty, Who has not felt. |
while listening to the soul-stiFring |
strains Of some divine melody, that !
sudden entrance of his soul into regions
hitherto unknown? Quick as thought /
the dull. cold. commonplace things of |
life vanish from the mind: they fade |
from view to give place to dreams of
higher worlds, to that pure sphere
wherein the mind sees farther than
the eye and the heart feels deeper than
the hand. - This is that inner world
wherein, through the avenues of music.
me human soul finds a. home. there to
De given foretaste of the harrnonies
# Heaven and to feel her kinship with
God
1t has been said that all Nature sings