it is my temper, and i like it the better, to affect all harmony: and sure there is musick even in the beauty, and the silent note which cupid strikes, far sweeter than the sound of an instrument. for there is a musick where ever there is a harmony, order, or proportion: and thus far we may maintain the music of the sphears; for those well-ordered motions, and regular paces, though they give no sound unto the ear, yet to the understanding they strike a note most full of harmony. whatsoever is harmonically composed delights in harmony; which makes me much distrust the symmetry of those heads which declaim against all church-musick. for my self, not only for my obedience, but my particular genius, i do embrace it: for even that vulgar and tavern-musick, which makes one man merry, another mad, strikes in me a deep fit of devotion, and a profound contemplation of the first composer. there is something in it of divinity more than the ear discovers: it is an hieroglyphical and shadowed lesson of the whole world, and creatures of god; such a melody to the ear, as the whole world, well understood, would afford the understanding. in brief, it is a sensible fit of that harmony which intellectually sounds in the ears of god.
我生性耽愛(ài)一切之和諧,于此,我且頗以自得;確實(shí),甚至在鴆彼得所奏放的無(wú)聲音籟之中與美感之內(nèi),無(wú)不有音樂(lè)的存在,其吐音之佳妙迥出一般樂(lè)器之上。此亦緣音樂(lè)即在和諧、秩序與比例勻稱之中,而星際樂(lè)聲一說(shuō)至少可以此為部分依據(jù);其秩序井然之動(dòng)作,節(jié)拍分明之步武,此在常人耳中雖悄無(wú)聲息,然在穎慧者聽(tīng)來(lái),確乃和諧無(wú)藝之妙樂(lè)。大凡和諧構(gòu)成之物,必喜和諧,據(jù)此,則彼輩攻擊一切教堂音樂(lè)者,其頭腦之中是否尚有勻稱二字,我實(shí)不能不深致疑慮。至于我自己,我對(duì)上述之音樂(lè)確實(shí)服膺無(wú)已,此固與我之虔誠(chéng)信仰有關(guān),亦系我的特殊稟賦所致;甚即通常旅店之俚俗音樂(lè),所敘不出嬉樂(lè)激切之情,尚能使我對(duì)那最初制曲人于胸臆之中頓生仰慕之忱與遙深之想;其中圣潔處有非人耳所能察覺(jué)者。它是茫茫世界蕓蕓眾生的一篇佶屈恢詭的天啟,使上下塵寰徹悟之后捧供識(shí)者聆賞的一闕悠揚(yáng)的妙樂(lè)。要言之,它是上徹天聽(tīng)的玲瓏曼妙的仙籟的陣陣和諧。