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But for all this, my most honored friends, methinks
you have forgot the chiefest thing of all, and that which
renders music most majestic. For Pythagoras, Archytas,
Plato, and many others of the ancient philosophers, were
of opinion, that there could be no motion of the world or
rolling of the spheres without the assistance of music, since
the Supreme Deity created all things harmoniously. But
[p. 135]
it would be unseasonable now to enter upon such a discourse, especially at this time, when it would be absurd for
Music to transgress her highest and most musical office,
which is to give the laws and limits of time and measure
to all things. Therefore after he had sung a paean, and
offered to Saturn and his offspring, with all the other Gods
and the Muses, he dismissed the company.
Plutarch. Plutarch's Morals. Translated from the Greek by several hands. Corrected and revised by. William W. Goodwin, PH. D. Boston. Little, Brown, and Company. Cambridge. Press Of John Wilson and son. 1874. 1.
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