Page:The Early English Organ Builders and their work.djvu/14

2, I arrived at the conclusion that the organist cannot be too minutely acquainted with the history of his instrument in order that he may reason upon the various points that may arise in the course of his studies, and draw his inferences from correct data.

No subject in connection with musical art, however remotely, should be ignored by this College. The object of the lectures should be to impart information and to educate the mind of the organist, so that he may take his place upon an equality with the professors of the other arts and sciences. That he does not do so, at present, is, I think, evident, from the way in which music is spoken of out of doors by our legislators and by many men eminent in literature—men, who, both from position and education, ought certainly to know better. Take, for instance, the late discussion in the House of Commons, in which musicians generally were spoken of as mere buffoons, public toys, little better in the scale of art than the