MAN AND THEMETHOD OFEVOLUTION 127
there are about ten thousand in the human ear, each capable
of interpreting about twenty-five gradations of tone. In the
ears of the majority of people they do not respond to more
than from three to ten of the possible gradations. Among
ordinary musical people the greatest degree of efficiency is
about fifteen sounds to each fiber; but the master musician,
who is able to interpret and bring down music from the
Heaven World, requires a greater range to be able to
distinguish the different notes and detect the slightest
discord in the most complicated chords. Persons who require
organs of such exceeding delicacy for the expression of their
faculties are specially taken care of, as the higher state of
their development merits and demands. None other ranks so
high as the musician, which is reasonable when we consider
that while the painter draws his inspiration chiefly from the
world of color—the nearer Desire World—the musician
attempts to bring us the atmosphere of our heavenly home
world (where, as spirits, we are citizens), and to translate
them into the sounds of earth life. His is the highest mission,
because as a mode of expression for soul life, music reigns
supreme. That music is different from and higher than all the
ot her arts can be u nderstood when we reflect t hat a statue or
painting, when once created, is permanent. They are drawn
from the Desire World and are therefore more easily
crystallized, while music, being of the Heaven World, is
more elusive and must be re-created each time we hear it. It
cannot be imprisoned, as shown by the unsuccessful
attempts to do so partially by means of such mechanical
devices as phonographs and piano-players. The music so
reproduced loses much of the soul-stirring sweetness it
possesses when it comes fresh from its own world, carrying
to the soul memories of its home and speaking to it in a