Aristides Quintilianus

Summary

On Music

Book 1, chapter 1

I am constantly astonished, my most admirable friends Eusebius and Florentius, at the enthusiasm with which the ancient philosophers devoted themselves to every branch of learning, and at the way in which, after discovering some things for themselves and inheriting some which other people had found out, they carried them on to their proper completion, and ungrudgingly explained and bequeathed to their successors the benefits which flow from them. But I marvel at their greatness of mind most especially on the occasions when we discuss music with one another, as we often do. This pursuit was not for them among those that are of merely casual interest, as many who are ignorant about the matter have supposed, especially nowadays: rather, it was held in honour for its own sake, and was also exceedingly admired for its value in relation to the other sciences, to which it offers an account both of a first principle and, one might almost say, of a final objective.

Another merit peculiar to the art, and one which seems to me especially significant, is this. Unlike the others, its usefulness is not thought to be restricted to one subject matter or to a short period of time: every stage of life, life as a whole and every action can be perfectly ordered only through music.