lives of Handel, Mozart, Bach and of a thousand others, whose love and reverence for it only increased with their knowledge and power, I feel assured that it is not the idle and meaningless thing that some would insist, but truly a language which proclaims the prophecy of immortality. I feel assured that I cannot be wrong, though a thousand lips should sneer at my enthusiasm, and call my speech the ravings of folly. At such moments, I recall the sentences of him whose words have been called “half-battles.” "There is no doubt that many seeds of noble virtues are to be found in such souls as are touched by music; but those who have no feeling for it I hold them to be like stocks and stones. Whoso despises music, as all fanatics do, with him I am not pleased for music is a gift of God, and not an invention of man. It drives away the devil, and makes people cheerful : then they forget all wrath, impurity, pride, and other vices. After theology, I give music the next place and highest honor; and see how David and all saints have uttered their devout thoughts in rhyme, verse and song. Music I have always held dear." Such words from a heart so stout and manly, that the infernal presence could not shake it from a calm equipoise, are not without significance. No one ever accused Martin Luther of effeminacy. The fear hath lately suggested itself, that music would be absorbed in instrumentation, and in the attempt to accomplish impossibilities of execution, would be deflected from its genuine sphere and buried beneath its ornament. The new school of modern France and Germany has produced rather a series of dexterous instrumentalists, than of great creators and originators. The passion for novelty, which characterizes the taste of the present age, is better suited with phantasy pieces, full of wild changes, flights and freaks full of coquetry, brilliancy and bravura — than with the simple character of a profounder school. The effort of this late school has been rather to overcome instrumental difficulties, to attain to a skilful management of technicalities, and to acquire an accomplished mechanism of fingering, than to explore the mystery of music. Thus in our concerts, we but too often feel that the composition was written solely to display the power of the instrument or the skill of the player, and the music sacrificed entirely to attain that end. Yet though the modern school of music is not profound, it is graceful and accomplished. Let us do all honor to the naive and spirited waltz of Strauss, the tender gracefulness of Henselt and Chopin-the fantastic and picturesque grotesqueness of Litzt, and the towering cloud-scenery of Thalberg; but let us not be guilty of the folly of comparing them with the sublime works of Handel and Beethoven with those of Bellini, Weber, Glück, Himmel and Spohr. or even I would congratulate my friends, and all who love music as it should be loved, upon the opportunities which have been afforded us within the last year, to listen to genuine music, performed by artists of feeling and skill. It has not been a slight gratification to hear the deep expression which the violoncello of Knoop yearned forth-the fiery freaks and the pathetic tenderness which have in turn been drawn from the violin by the skilful bows of Nagel and Herwig. Rakeman has also again favored us, and beneath his touch the pianoforte has been as a running stream of harmonies. We have also listened to Spohr's oratorio of the "Last Judgment," and heard the "Adelaide" of Beethoven, from the pure contralto of Mad. Spohr Zahn. But chiefly I rejoice and congratulate you upon the orchestral concerts of the Academy of Music. Therein was Music courted for her own sake. There was but one cause for regret, but it was painful to those who remembered the crowds which flocked to Henry Russell's concerts, to contrast them with the small audiences which were convoked by the charms of true art. But if the audiences were small, they were appreciating. “Fit audience they found, though few;" and we sincerely hope that sufficient patronage may be secured to encourage a continuance of these concerts during the approaching winter. They have done much towards creating a better taste, and awakening a stronger interest in music; and we would fondly anticipate the time when this slight foreign graft may grow to such breadth and strength, that the whole people may refresh themselves beneath the grateful coolness of its shade. As yet we are only beginning, and the prospects of the artist look discouraging. The man whose life is spent in the closet, and whose evidence of action is not a bustling activity, finds but little favor, and is considered as an idler. But when we remember that those great works which stay through the washing and wasting of time, were not accomplished save by the most untiring devotion, and by an earnest struggle against the prejudices of the age, and often time in bitter want and sorrow, we should take heart and fear not. That "mystic song" which Dante chanted from an exiled shore, "patriis extorris ab oris," was not the product of an idle hour it was won by pain and toil, in struggle and by a great earnestness; it was written almost in his blood; and ere it spoke to the world, had, as he says, "made him lean for many years." No great aim was ever won easily; and the paths to greatness are strewn with difficulties. This age is in too great a hurry, to take time to be truly great; it is impatient of that discipline which is the necessary training even of the highest genius. Our science is but too often a happy guess our arts a lucky hit-our literature the amorphous and incongruous product of a ready talent, and not the careful elaboration of deep and thoroughly |