[116]
As a matter of fact, I believe that we may attach a considerable degree of
importance to the voice and to music generally as a method of sexual
appeal. On this point I agree with Moll, who remarks that "the sense of
hearing here plays a considerable part, and the stimulation received
through the ears is much larger than is usually believed."[117] I am not,
however, inclined to think that this influence is considerable in its
action on men, although Mantegazza remarks, doubtless with a certain
truth, that "some women's voices cannot be heard with impunity." It is
true that the ancients deprecated the sexual or at all events the
effeminating influence of some kinds of music, but they seem to have
regarded it as sedative rather than stimulating; the kind of music they
approved of as martial and stimulating was the kind most likely to have
sexual effects in predisposed persons.
The Chinese and the Greeks have more especially insisted on the
ethical qualities of music and on its moralizing and demoralizing
effects. Some three thousand years ago, it is stated, a Chinese
emperor, believing that only they who understood music are
capable of governing, distributed administrative functions in
accordance with this belief.
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