Universal History of Music

Music pervades all nature. It is co-eval with the creation. There is nothing in nature that arouses our attention or affects our feelings so quickly as a sound. The murmuring of water, the sighs of the zephyrs, the whispers of the evening breeze, the roar of the storms, the chirpings of the birds, the cries of the animals, the hum of distant multitudes, and the concussion of sonorous bodies, excite in our minds feelings of pleasure, pain, or fear, and contain in them the germs of music.