.. leading
him to commend beautiful objects, and gladly receive them into
his soul, and feed upon them, and grow to be noble and good."
Plato is, however, by no means so consistent and thorough as the
Chinese moralist, for having thus asserted that it is the
influence of music which molds the soul into virtue, he proceeds
to destroy his position with the statement that "we shall never
become truly musical until we know the essential forms of
temperance and courage and liberality and munificence," thus
moving in a circle. It must be added that the Greek conception of
music was very comprehensive and included poetry.
Aristotle took a wider view of music than Plato and admitted a
greater variety of uses for it. He was less anxious to exclude
those uses which were not strictly ethical. He disapproved,
indeed, of the Phrygian harmony as the expression of Bacchic
excitement. He accepts, however, the function of music as a
katharsis of emotion, a notion which is said to have originated
with the Pythagoreans. (For a discussion of Aristotle's views on
music, see W.L. Newman, _The Politics of Aristotle_, vol.
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