Page:Psychology and preaching.djvu/148

 I3O PSYCHOLOGY AND PREACHING

in the constitution of their nervous systems. All normal persons seem to be responsive in some measure to the simple meters, though not all equally. As the rhythms become more complex wide differences of natural susceptibility be come apparent. Some are by nature readily responsive to very complex rhythms, as the born musicians and lovers of music, who are lifted into ecstasy by involved harmonies which to ordinary hearers are only endless tangles of notes. Being beyond the range of their responsiveness, such har monies are to hearers of the latter class likely to be dis agreeable because the rhythms are too complex for their ears. However, within the limits of natural capability it is a matter of education. By constant exercise and training the naturally dull may learn to enjoy to some extent the complicated harmonies of great classical productions. The same is true of poetry, which in its origin was not clearly differentiated from, and in its whole development has been closely related to, music. The two arts are, for obvious reasons, of the utmost importance to the emotional life. The music and hymns of religion, of patriotism and of the simpler personal relations and experiences, have played a great, doubtless the dominant, role in the development and culture of the emotions. Their significance and value can hardly be overestimated. Through them chiefly the great sentiments, which are the most powerful factors in the in spiration, direction and control of human conduct, have been organized. It is questionable whether those who compose a people s music and poetry, especially its songs, do not exert a greater influence upon its destinies than those who formulate its religious and political creeds.

But our concern now is not with music and poetry, com manding as are their functions in human life, but with public speech, in which rhythm is a most important element. In speech there is, first, a rhythm of the words themselves. On this it is necessary to dwell only for a moment. Some words are, when pronounced, harsh, awkward, unrhythmical. They offend the ear; they grate upon the nerves. They

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