depart from our original models (ii. 379 foll.; cp. Laws, vii. 817).
Next as to the music. A song or ode has three parts,--the subject, the
harmony, and the rhythm; of which the two last are dependent upon the
first. As we banished strains of lamentation, so we may now banish the
mixed Lydian harmonies, which are the harmonies of lamentation; and as our
citizens are to be temperate, we may also banish convivial harmonies, such
as the Ionian and pure Lydian. *399* Two remain--the Dorian and Phrygian,
the first for war, the second for peace; the one expressive of courage,
the other of obedience or instruction or religious feeling. And as we
reject varieties of harmony, we shall also reject the many-stringed,
variously-shaped instruments which give utterance to them, and in
particular the flute, which is more complex than any of them. The lyre and
the harp may be permitted in the town, and the Pan's-pipe in the fields.
Thus we have made a purgation of music, and will now make a purgation of
metres. *400* These should be like the harmonies, simple and suitable to
the occasion. There are four notes of the tetrachord, and there are three
ratios of metre, 3/2, 2/2, 2/1, which have all their characteristics, and
the feet have different characteristics as well as the rhythms. But about
this you and I must ask Damon, the great musician, who speaks, if I
remember rightly, of a martial measure as well as of dactylic, trochaic,
and iambic rhythms, which he arranges so as to equalize the syllables with
one another, assigning to each the proper quantity. We only venture to
affirm the general principle that the style is to conform to the subject
and the metre to the style; and that the simplicity and harmony of the
soul should be reflected in them all. This principle of simplicity has to
be learnt by every one in the days of his youth, *401* and may be gathered
anywhere, from the creative and constructive arts, as well as from the
forms of plants and animals.