Music has a wonderful power, as I have elsewhere attempted to show,[24]
of recalling in a vague and indefinite manner, those strong emotions
which were felt during long-past ages, when, as is probable,
our early progenitors courted each other by the aid of vocal tones.
And as several of our strongest emotions--grief, great joy, love,
and sympathy--lead to the free secretion of tears, it is not surprising
that music should be apt to cause our eyes to become suffused
with tears, especially when we are already softened by any of the
tenderer feelings. Music often produces another peculiar effect.
We know that every strong sensation, emotion, or excitement--
extreme pain, rage, terror, joy, or the passion of love--
all have a special tendency to cause the muscles to tremble;
and the thrill or slight shiver which runs down the backbone and
limbs of many persons when they are powerfully affected by music,
seems to bear the same relation to the above trembling of the body,
as a slight suffusion of tears from the power of music does to weeping
from any strong and real emotion.
_Devotion_.--As devotion is, in some degree, related to affection,
though mainly consisting of reverence, often combined with fear,
the expression of this state of mind may here be briefly noticed.
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