would be done by steam? They have had brilliant names among them, it is true; but these have flourished in despite of academical restraints, not in consequence of academical encouragement. And even these seem to have felt the torpedo touch of the fauteuil d'Académi-· cien-to have been affected by the mephitic air which pervaded their hall of audience. Can any thing be more dull than nine tenths of the éloges which every academician was obliged to compose on his predecessor ?-even many of those pronounced by men of real genius are cramped, tawdry, and artificial. The subject, to be sure, was often such that to praise was very difficult; but this serves only to shew of what sort of men the academy must have been composed, when their funeral oration exercised the invention more than any other faculty of their successor. In this country, surely the Royal Academy cannot, by its effects on Painting and Sculpture, lead to very encouraging hopes of the probable results of a similar establishment in the sister art. Painting has not advanced one jot in England since its institution. The Academy then gave it swaddling-clothes and leadingstrings, and it has never got free from either. The greatest painter which England-perhaps Europe-at present possesses, is excluded from the pale of the Academy, for having freely expressed his opinion of its proceedings and merits. But thus it always is; jealousy of real and brilliant deserving leads academicians to prefer servile mediocrity to independent and eclipsing genius. Voltaire was not a member of the French academy (for literature) till he was fifty :-Haydon is not a member of the English academy (for painting) at all. And thus it will be with regard to music. Drudging and mechanical art will meet with all praise and assistance; simple, powerful, natural genius will be discouraged or neglected. -I wish you had kept your ten guineas in your pocket. But you must not, from what I have said, think that I am blind to the necessity of tuition in music. I am quite well aware that teaching is absolutely necessary even for the simplest style. Without good tutoring and considerable practice, no singer could reach real grace and simplicity "As those move easiest who have learned to dance," so are the most perfect performers most able to sing in the simplest way-if they choose it. What I object to is not scientific teaching-but scientific composition. Instruction is necessary for any thing approaching excellence in any style*, but that does not involve that elaborate and scientific music should alone be practised and praised. I cannot well blame the composers themselves; for, when a man devotes himself to any art, he naturally seeks the utmost distinction which it can yield :and the dispensers of musical reputation will give no jot of it to one whose productions are not long, difficult, and complex. If any one ever does venture on a simple melody, let his success be in truth what it may, how slightingly is the effort spoken of! It is "a pretty little thing"-" an air with some sweetness, but no knowledge of music "-or at most " it gives token of talents which we would wish to see employed on more important compositions," as if difficulty and not beauty were the object sought for. Composers, therefore, very naturally devote their talents to works of complexity and science, * Since this letter was written, I have met with an extraordinary exception to this in the instance of a person-a young man-who plays on the piano-forte not only with a taste, feeling, and expression delightful to all, but with a brilliancy and skill of execution which professors themselves have pronounced to be wonderful and extreme-and this, not merely without tuition, but without even at this moment knowing one note of music! This is a practical example of the superiority of natural genius over science, to the extent of which I had not dared to go in my theory. and thence it is that all our favourite and heart-dwelling airs are ancient. Since the improvement, as it is called, in the science of music, the rage for harmony has been so continued and overpowering that all our beautiful melodies are, from very age, acquiring the title of "national." They are sought out for the few who really love them from distant valleys where they have passed in tradition from mouth to mouth for ages-but no one dreams of composing any at this time of day. The prevalence, such as it is, which some of these airs have acquired, I consider to be chiefly owing to the beautiful poetry annexed to them; and now that the verses are printed in a separate volume, you will see that that prevalence will decline. As it is, the taste is much sneered at; conoscenti, and those who would be thought so, always hint that it is held by none but barbarians, "who know nothing of music;"--and this last accusation has, as you may suppose, extreme weight with young ladies just let loose from their Italian master, and eight hours a-day practice. But, after all, it is no use arguing on such subjects. If people, like a quadruped which shall be nameless, are all ears and no soul, all the preachments in the world will never shorten the one or confer the other. For you, I have sometimes hopes of your reformation-for I have seen you feel music as well as listen to it. Shall I ever, in truth, see the day when you will leave science, mechanism, Academies and the dilettanti, for the sake of nature, feeling, simplicity, Miss Stephens and Tom Moore? Your's, as ever, B- FLOWERS. There's not a tree, A flower, a leaf, a blossom, but contains I. MAY'S Old Couple. WATER LILIES. THE yellow gem that earth reluctant yields Beauteous flowers, in times Of ancient Greece, when Fancy sway'd the land, Her virgins, as they drew the clear cool lymph, Sooth'd the young Naiad cradled on your leaves, With lullabies that ruled the rocking stream. Anon her shepherds eyed yon golden boat, And mann'd it straight with some invisible Love, That fled from earth-corrupt and sultry air, To rest on the blue river. Beauteous flowers, Your Maker's hand is on you. He in all His works is inexhaustible. He crowns The green and many-flowering sward, and flings II. THE WILD STRAWBERRY. THE steep is won. Here o'er the cold grey stone |