Page:The Early English Organ Builders and their work.djvu/17

 our art, as the best means of internally strengthening ourselves to resist the external prejudice.

The establishment of this College, then, is of the highest importance in bringing forward the peculiar claims of the church musician. We are a body of musicians gathered together for one specific purpose, and bound by one common tie to advance as far as may be the honourable calling of Professor of Music, more especially as relates to the important office of organist, and to claim the proper recognition of his true position in society. Let us, then, never forget the object for which this institution has been founded.

Without further preface, I shall commence my subject, which may be considered as an "unwritten chapter" in the history of the organ.

We are sometimes inclined to overrate the progress of our own time in any branch of knowledge, and to believe that no previous age, nation or individual, has ever arrived at the same degree of