The dance of life / Havelock Ellis.

  • Havelock Ellis
Date:
1926
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The dance of life / Havelock Ellis. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    apprehend the ways of Heaven, in no supernatural sense, for it is on the earth and not in the skies that the Con- fucian Heaven lies concealed. But if human feelings, the instincts,—for in this matter the ancient Chinese were at one with our modern psychologists,—are the field that has to be cultivated, and it is ceremony that ploughs it, and the seeds of right action that are to be planted in it, and discipline that is to weed it, and love that is to gather in the fruits, it is in music, and the joy and peace that accom¬ pany music, that it all ends. Indeed, it is also in music that it all begins. For the sphere in which ceremonies act is Man’s external life ; his internal life is the sphere of music. It is music that moulds the manners and customs that are comprised under ceremony, for Confucius held that there can be music without sound where “ virtue is deep and silent ; and we are reminded of the “ cres¬ cendo of silences on the Chinese pavilion in Villiers de l'lsle Adam’s story, “ Le Secret de l’Ancienne Musique. It is music that regulates the heart and mind, and with that development brings joy, and joy brings repose. And so “ Man becomes Heaven. “ Let ceremonies and music have their course until the earth is filled with them. It is sometimes said that among Chinese moralists and philosophers Lao-tze, the deepest of them all, alone stands aside from the chorus in praise of music and ceremony. When once Confucius came to consult Lao-tze concerning the rules of propriety, and reverence for the teaching of the sages of antiquity, we are told, Lao-tze replied : “ The men of whom you speak, Sir, have, if you please, together with their bones, mouldered. Confucius went away,
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