It has been well said by Latrobe, that--though the concise and
compressed character of the Mosaic history admits no data upon which to
found this supposition, yet we may readily conclude from the nature of
music, and the original perfection of the human powers, that the Garden
of Eden was no stranger to "singing and the voice of melody."
We read in Scripture that before the Fall, the state of our first
parents was a state of unmingled happiness. Now, it is the very nature
of joy to give utterance to its emotions. Happiness must have its
expression. And thus it may well be supposed that man in his primal
felicity would seek to express, by every conceivable mode, the love,
gratitude, and joy which absorbed every affection of his nature.
Now, the most natural, as well as powerful, medium for conveying those
feelings with which we are acquainted, is music. If then music be the
expression of joy, it cannot be supposed unknown to our first parents,
whose exultation was as intense as it was hallowed.