ABSTRACT
It would have been impossible for (may I call them) musical Divines and musical Believers to have established such a body of doctrine, let alone enjoyed so much in the way of visions and revelations, without the help of a Power as great as that of musical Sound; the one which Scripture, with more psychological insight than historical accuracy, puts at the beginning of things: the Word. This remark may seem inappropriate in view of all my Questionnaires explicitly limiting enquiries to the effects of music “without words or suggestive titles.” But the habitual influence of words is shown nowhere more clearly than in the frequent disregard of this proviso, Answerers evidently overlooking that the music they spoke about often had words and that these might account for what they ascribed to the music.
