In common with all other nations of antiquity, and with some of the present day, the Chinese have always held strong conservative opinions. The principle has been held among them from the earliest times that the pattern of a good thing, whether a religion, an art or a mechanism, having once been found satisfactory, should be made official and never afterward changed. This principle, taken in connection with the limited powers of their chief instrument, accounts for the small progress they have made in music within the past 2000 years. It must be remembered, however, that our knowledge of the music of this country is still far from perfect, the travelers and missionaries from whom it has reached us not having been practical musicians, nor having had sufficiently long opportunities for mastering musical systems so different from what they had previously known, and so contrary to all their inherited percepts of tone. [Illustration: Fig. 18.] The Japanese are a very musical people in their way. The chief instrument of their culture is the ko-ko. (See Fig. 18.) In structure it much resembles the Chinese ke. They have also many other instruments, especially various kinds of imperfect guitars, a few rude violins, and the usual outfit of trumpets, reed pipes and instruments of percussion. Like all the other barbarous nations, they have never had harmony until since they began to learn it from the Europeans. [Illustration] Book Second. THE Apprentice Period of Modern Music. THE DEVELOPMENT OF HARMONY, TONALITY, CANONIC IMITATION AND POLYPHONY. THE GENERAL POPULARIZATION OF THE ART OF MUSIC IN EVERY DIRECTION. CHAPTER V. THE NATURE OF THE TRANSFORMATION, AND THE AGENCIES EFFECTING IT.