[105] To show how true this is, I may mention that all the melodious sounds produced by wind- and stringed-instruments fall as far short of the music that comes from nightingales and swans, as a copy and imitation falls short of an original, or a perishable species of an imperishable genus.
[106] For we cannot compare the music produced by the human voice with that produced in any other way, since it has the pre-eminent gift of articulation, for which it is prized. For whereas the other kinds by use of the modulation of the voice and the successive changes of the notes can do no more than produce sounds pleasing to the ear, man, having been endowed by nature with articulate utterance equally for speaking and for singing, attracts alike both ear and mind, charming the one by the tune, and gaining the attention of the other by the thoughts expressed.
[107] For just as an instrument put into the hands of an unmusical person is tuneless, but in the hands of a musician answers to the skill which he possesses and becomes tuneful, in exactly the same way speech set in motion by a worthless mind is without tune, but when set going by a worthy one is discovered to be in perfect tune.
[108] Moreover, a lyre or anything of that kind, unless struck by someone, is still: speech too, if not struck by the ruling faculty, of necessity maintains silence. Moreover, just as instruments are tuned to vary in accordance with the infinite number of combinations of the music which they have to give forth, so speech proves itself an harmonious interpreter of the matters dealt with and admits of endless variations.
[109] For who would talk in the same way to parents and children, being slave of the former by nature, and master of the latter in virtue of the same cause? Who would speak in the same way to brothers, cousins, near relatives generally, and to those only distantly connected with him? to those associated with him, and to those with whom he has nothing to do; to fellow-citizens and foreigners; to people differing in no slight or ordinary degree in nature or age? For we have to talk in one way to an old man, in another to a young one, and again in one way to a man of importance and in another to an insignificant person, and so with rich and poor, official and non-official, servant and master, woman and man, skilled and unskilled.
[110] What need to make a list of the innumerable sorts of persons, in our conversation with whom our talk varies, taking one shape at one time, another at another? For indeed the same thing is true of subjects of thought. Their several peculiarities mould our language in conformity with their characteristic aspects; for it would not set forth great things and little, many and few, private and public, sacred and profane, ancient and modern, in the same style, but in the style suited to their respective number or importance or greatness; at one time rising to a lofty tone, at another restraining and holding itself in.
[111] Nor is it only persons and matters dealt with that occasion our speech to vary its form, but the causes too of the things that happen, and the ways in which they happen, and besides these, times and places which enter into all things. Right well then is Jubal, the man who alters the tone and trend of speech, spoken of as the father of psaltery and harp, that is of music, the part being used for the whole, as has been made evident.