1 more god-like reply. New swells of triumph precede powers still profounder, worthy to precede the birth of worlds. These are followed by still sublimer wave and crash of sound smiting upon the centre, then pouring its full tides along. Wide wings wave, and nothing is forgot, all lies revealed, expanded, but below. Human loves flow like silver threads amid the solemn mountains and fair vales, and a divine intelligence showers down the sun and shadow from an equal height. The What the Sibyls and Prophets of Michel Angelo demand, is in this majestic work made present to us. sudden uprise of more and more sublimed spirits through Dante's Heaven is before us, and there are no other names amid the prophetic geniuses that called for this congenial and perfected manifestation of themselves, as wide, as deep, as simply grand, and of a more rapturous flood of soul and more full-grown pinions. The effect of the symphony on memory is an intimation of that love with its kindred energy, beyond faith as much as beyond sight, for all is present now, and the secret of creation is read. This, not Haydn's, is "the Creation." He said "the limits were not yet erected" that man could not surpass, nor never will be, shall we forget it? when in hours like these, we have flown upborne on these strong wings into the future, not of lives but of eternities. How can that race be sufficiently reverenced which gave birth to such a man? How be disdained or lost the meanest form that bears lineaments that show a similar design? But enough. To be worthy to speak of men like these we also must live into manly stature, and incarnate the word. What they give is beyond analogies, or memory; it has become a part of life. Let it animate all the rest. Grateful Poans from expanded natures should answer the trumpet call of such a genius. It is said that he was animated in this composition by Schiller's divine truth, Be embraced, millions; and with like incredulity of injustice, each note declares And of this soul, as of the two others I have named, this all-triumphant soul, we know he had nothing but his art; no frail prop of outward happiness, and human affections. That wand was all he had to reveal the treasures of the earth, and point his way to heaven. But enough, since nothing worthy could be said if we wrote forever, and all the gain is in the relief of a tribute of gratitude. We hope those symphonies will never again be divided. in the performance. One part modulates naturally into the other, prepares the mind to expect it, and it is most painful to have an interval of talk and bustle, disturbing, almost destroying the effect of a work as a whole. We are sure that any persons, who can enjoy this music at all, would rather have the whole evening's entertainment shortened by the loss of some other piece, than have a break in the middle of a beautiful work which, to be seen truly, must be seen as a whole. The Academy concerts were almost wholly good. The assistance which they occasionally received from other performers was of value in itself, and arranged in harmony with their own design, only in one instance the introduction of an ordinary vocalist, who attempted, too, music beyond his powers, marred, in some degree, the evening. We received much pleasure from the Oboe of Ribas. This sweet pastoral instrument whose "reedy" sound recals gentle streams and green meadows, came in sweetly between pieces of full harmony, and was played with a delicacy and unpretending grace, in unison with its character. "Time presses," but we cannot close without some account of the talent which fascinated so many in Fanny Ellsler, and which was witnessed by the majority, though prejudice or opinion declared against it. It would be well if the point could be thoroughly discussed and settled by each one in his own way, on what grounds he attends an exhibition of art. Is it to form a friendship with the artist as a man, as a woman, or to witness the results of a distinguished and highly cultivated talent? In what degree is private character to influence us in buying a book, in ordering a portrait, in listening to a song? Some carry these notions farther. We have not heard of any who would not employ a great lawyer, because they did not approve his moral character, or even exclude him, on that account, from their private acquaintance. But we have known persons so consistent in demanding that the whole man should be worthy their approval, as to canvass the propriety of continuing to employ their shoemaker because they heard he was an infidel. "Infidels then cannot make good shoes?"-Looks of high moral indignation were the only reply. Yet each one should settle it distinctly for himself whether he who goes to see the actress or dancer on the stage, or he only who calls upon her to make her personal acquaintance, expresses his approbation of her as a private individual. For now, when there is so clear understanding on these points, people sin a great deal, some in going from curiosity, where they do not think it right to go, and as many, or more, in blaming their neighbors for doing so, without ascertaining their mode of reasoning on the subject. Then, is opera dancing to be tolerated at all? This, too, should be settled, and after full consideration of the subject, not merely answered in the negative because the exhibition is offensive to those not accustomed to it. The pros and cons should be well written out somewhere, and glimpses of the theory of æsthetics might thus be gained by those who now stand on lower ground. We shall merely observe that, no doubt, opera dancing must have a demoralizing effect where it is looked upon in any way. but as an art, and those who criticize the dancer as they would their neighbor should not witness the ballet. But it has risen to the dignity of an art in Europe, will send its most admired professors wherever, on these shores, wealth and luxury have formed that circle which bestows a golden harvest. It is for thinking persons to consider whether they will form the breakwater against this inevitable fact, or whether they may not by raising the standard of thought on the subject, and altering the point of view, disarm it of its power to injure. Let them recollect that the same objections have been urged against exhibitions of statuary, and yielded, that everything tends in the civilized world to a reinstatement of the body in the rights of which it has been defrauded, as an object of care and the vehicle of expression, and that the rope-dancer, the op era-dancer, the gymnast, Mr. Sheridan's boxing-school, and Du Crow, are only the comments on the books on physiology which they keep on their parlor tables and lend to their pale-faced, low-statured friends. So much has, for a long time, the intellect had the upper hand, that we wonder all this shrunken and suffering generation do not snatch the ball and hoop from their children's hands and give their days to restoring to the body its native vigor and pliancy; nor should we wonder at the pleasure in opera-dancing, if it were merely a display of feats of agility and muscular power. But great as is the pleasure received from the sight of a perfect discipline of limb and motion, till they are so pliant to the will that the body seems but thickened soul, and the subtlest emotion is seen at the fingers' ends, and this undoubtedly is the true state of man, and his body, if not thus transparent, is no better than a soul case, or rude hut in which he lives, this is the lesser half. The range of pantomime is as great as the world, and the rapidity and fulness in the motions of the ballet give it an advantage, on its side, perhaps commensurate with those derived by the drama from the beauty of poetic rhythm, and the elaborate and detailed expression of thoughts by means of words. In seeing those ballets which were mostly of a light and graceful character, it was easy to perceive that their range might include the loftier emotions, and that it only required a suitable genius in the performer to make Medea a suitable subject for performance. The charms of M'lle. Elssler are of a naive sportive character, it is as the young girl, sparkling with life and joy, new to all the varied impulses of the heart, half coquettish, more than half conscious of her captivations, that she delights us. She was bewitching in the arch Cracovienne, and in the impassioned feeling of life in her beautiful Spanish dances. The castanets seem invented by that ardent people to count the pulses of a life of ecstasy, to keep time with the movements of an existence incapable of a dull or heavy moment. Blossoming orange groves, perfumed breezes, and melting moonlight fill the thoughts, and the scene seems to have no darker background. The Gipsy is of the same fascinating and luxurious character. It is beautiful, but, lately, in reading Borrow's book upon the Spanish Gipsies, and recalling this ballet, we could not but feel of how much more romantic a character the composition was susceptible. It is but a French Gitana, however graceful and fascinating, that appears in this ballet. La Sylphide seems to require a different order of genius from that of M'lle. Elssler. She is sweetly childlike in her happy play, and evasions of her lover's curiosity. The light hovering motions of the piece, however, suggest an order of grace more refined and poetic than hers, such as is ascribed to Taglioni. In Natalie we saw her to most advantage, and here she appeared to us perfect. The coquettish play of the little peasant queen among her mates, her infantine enchantment as she examines the furniture in the splendid apartment to which she has been conveyed in her sleep, her look when she first surveys herself in a full length mirror, the beautiful awkwardness that steals over her as she prinks and stiffens herself before it, and then the dizzy rapture of the little dance into which she flutters, her timid motions towards the supposed statue, the perfect grace of her weariness as she sits down tired with dancing before it, and the whole tissue of the emotions she exhibits after it comes down and reveals itself, all this is lovely à ravir, for only with French vivacity could one feel or speak about it. That perfect innocence of gesture which a young child exhibits when it has to ask for some little favor which it hopes to obtain from your overweening fondness, or the attitude in which one "tired of play" suddenly sinks down leaning on some favorite companion with an entire abandonment, these rare graces were displayed by the hacknied artiste with a perfection that must be seen to be believed, so truer than life were they! We do not know that the effect she produces can be attested better than by saying that one beautiful afternoon when the trees were all in blossom and the fields in golden green, looking from a wooded cliff across the fields, across the river, was heard from a house opposite at a great distance, played upon a violin, the first movement |