This is a great field.  It is opening up broader every day.  I do not know any field where a man can go more enthusiastically to work.  It affects not only the physical, but the moral condition.  We have brought about a higher moral tone at Harvard through physical training.  There is less smoking and drinking by far than before the gymnasium was so universally used.  Every thing that develops the whole man affects morals.  Our Maker did not put us here merely to be trained for somewhere else.  No one can walk through the streets of Boston without feeling that there is need enough of work to do right here, in bringing about a better condition of affairs; something which shall be nearer an ideal heaven on earth.—­The Christian Union.

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XXXI.

SAINT CECILIA

THE PATRONESS OF MUSIC-MYTHS CONCERNING THE ORIGIN OF MUSIC-ITS RELATION TO WORK AND BLESSEDNESS

Her legend relates that about the year 230, which would be in the time of the Emperor Alexander.  Severus, Cecilia, a Roman lady, born of a noble and rich family, who in early youth had been converted to Christianity, and had made a vow of perpetual virginity, was constrained by her parents to marry a certain Valerian, a pagan, whom she succeeded in converting to Christianity without infringing the vow she had made.  She also converted her brother-in-law, Tiburtius, and a friend called Maximius, all of whom were martyred in consequence of their faith.

It is further related, among other circumstances purely legendary, that Cecilia often united instrumental music to that of her voice, in singing the praises of the Lord.  On this all her fame has been founded, and she has become the special patroness of music and musicians all the world over.  Half the musical societies of Europe have been named after her, and her supposed musical acquirements have led the votaries of a sister art to find subjects for their work in episodes of her life.  The grand painting by Domenichino, at Bologna, in which the saint is represented as rapt in an ecstasy of devotion, with a small “organ,” as it is called—­an instrument resembling a large kind of Pandean pipes—­in her hand, is well known, as is also Dryden’s beautiful ode.  The illustration which accompanies this chapter, after a painting by one of the brothers Caracci, of the seventeenth century, represents Cecilia at the organ.  Borne heavenward on the tide of music, she sees a vision of the holy family, the child Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, with an angel near at hand in quiet gladness.

    God’s harmony is written
    All through, in shining bars,
    The soul His love has smitten
    As heaven is writ with stars.

MYTHS CONCERNING THE ORIGIN OF MUSIC.