Note 2 — Chapter I
Reading edition
Aside from the supernatural phase, the great power ascribed to music by all mythologies may well have its foundation in fact. Taking as illustration the ease with which the ignorant classes of the present, especially in thinly settled countries, become the prey of various delusions, it may well be true that whole races have passed through mental stages in which their emotions, aroused by music, exerted an almost irresistible power.