Let us adopt a simpler and clearer plan with our pupil; let him have
only two scales whose relations remain unchanged, and indicated by
the same symbols. Whether he sings or plays, let him learn to fix
his scale on one of the twelve tones which may serve as a base, and
whether he modulates in D, C, or G, let the close be always Ut or
La, according to the scale. In this way he will understand what you
mean, and the essential relations for correct singing and playing
will always be present in his mind; his execution will be better
and his progress quicker. There is nothing funnier than what the
French call "natural sol-faing;" it consists in removing the real
meaning of things and putting in their place other meanings which
only distract us. There is nothing more natural than sol-faing by
transposition, when the scale is transposed. But I have said enough,
and more than enough, about music; teach it as you please, so long
as it is nothing but play.
We are now thoroughly acquainted with the condition of foreign
bodies in relation to our own, their weight, form, colour, density,
size, distance, temperature, stability, or motion. We have learnt
which of them to approach or avoid, how to set about overcoming
their resistance or to resist them so as to prevent ourselves from
injury; but this is not enough. Our own body is constantly wasting
and as constantly requires to be renewed. Although we have the
power of changing other substances into our own, our choice is not
a matter of indifference. Everything is not food for man, and what
may be food for him is not all equally suitable; it depends on
his racial constitution, the country he lives in, his individual
temperament, and the way of living which his condition demands.
If we had to wait till experience taught us to know and choose fit
food for ourselves, we should die of hunger or poison; but a kindly
providence which has made pleasure the means of self-preservation
to sentient beings teaches us through our palate what is suitable
for our stomach. In a state of nature there is no better doctor
than a man's own appetite, and no doubt in a state of nature man
could find the most palateable food the most wholesome.
Nor is this all. Our Maker provides, not only for those needs he
has created, but for those we create for ourselves; and it is to
keep the balance between our wants and our needs that he has caused
our tastes to change and vary with our way of living. The further
we are from a state of nature, the more we lose our natural tastes;
or rather, habit becomes a second nature, and so completely replaces
our real nature, that we have lost all knowledge of it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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