droning of the prayers, interlarded here with a chant, the very memory of which makes one yawn, and there with some hymn tune, sung at a pace compared to which adagio might be called fast? There is a hopeless want of decision and energy in the ordinary conduct of our church prayers. We do not want rapidity so much as a definite conception of the emotional fabric of the whole; and here is the point where music might come to our assistance, by defining the pauses and divisions which the life and interest of the whole service demands. Every orator, every singer, every soloist, and every conductor will readily understand what I mean. He who arranges a religious service, if he wishes it to secure the attention and minister to the edification of the people, should place himself somewhat in the position of an orchestral conductor; it is his business to arrange every detail of the proceedings. The exact moment at which the opening hymn is sung, the general impulse and feeling of the hymn should be impressed upon the choir; the organist should enter into the spirit of the music, and understand its place and function in the service; he should be always on the watch; there should be no unintentional delays in giving out the hymns-no unsettled pauses before the hymn is commenced; the hymns, responses, canticles, anthems, and voluntaries should succeed one another in such a succession and style as to relieve one another, each fitting into its place at the nick of time, never dragging, never jolting, not baulking the attention, or executed in so aimless a manner as to allow the con

gregation to grow listless. But to accomplish all this, or a tithe of it, there must be true art feeling and true religious feeling and true musical taste: and although we are inclined to admit that the English are on the whole a Religious People, we arrive at the sad conviction that, however improving and improvable, the English are not, as a nation, an artistic people, and the English are not a Musical People.

END OF THE FIRST BOOK.

Second Book.

BIOGRAPHICAL.

HANDEL, GLUCK, HAYDN, SCHUBERT,

CHOPIN, MOZART, BEETHOVEN,

AND MENDELSSOHN.

E sometimes hear music called the universal

W language. That will be true some day. Civilized music must ultimately triumph over every other kind of music, because it is based upon natural principles discovered once and for ever, and capable of being universally applied and understood. But at present to speak of music, ancient and modern, savage and scientific, as a universal language, is only true in a limited sense. There is probably no nation upon earth so devoid of tonal sensibility as to be quite callous to the attraction, or even fascination, of sounds produced artificially with a view to excite or to relieve emotion. If we like to call any such medley of sounds music, of course we are at liberty to do so. The rudest howl of the savage as he dances round his bonfire, in the pages of "Robinson Crusoe" or elsewhere, the