ch old parchments or to make
comparisons.

It was some time before I could piece the scraps of information
together, but gradually I did so, and then assuredly I saw the awfulness
of my influence and position, and determined, with God's blessing, to be
a comfort and support to the widows and orphans who trusted in me, as
well as a source of strength, security, and honour to the nation and its
rulers, and I resolved that henceforth my name, _the Bank of England_,
should carry with it a meaning wherever it was heard, far beyond its
original signification; it should be another term for wealth, honour,
and thrift--a something to be trusted, and in which nothing foul, mean,
or sordid must be found.

(_To be continued._)

HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF MUSICAL FORMS.

SKETCH I.--THE ORATORIO AND PASSION MUSIC (SACRED DRAMA).

BY MYLES B. FOSTER, Organist of the Foundling Hospital.

In a former number, in prefacing reviews of new music, we said
sufficient upon the subject of listening to music to call the attention
of our many readers to the performances going on so frequently in all
parts of the world, and now we persuade ourselves that there may be some
to whom a short account of the various and varied forms, to which our
attention as audience is most frequently invited, would be of interest,
even though they have some knowledge of the subject already; and that
there may be others to whom these very incomplete sketches may appear as
information, and as an incentive to further investigation.

For our first sketch we have chosen the oratorio, for it is undoubtedly
the highest form of musical dramatic art, and is founded upon and
contains the greatest and deepest truths of the Christian life. As
regards the actual music forms employed, we find, indeed, similar ones
in the operas, such as the various forms of recitative, the aria, the
duet, and the chorus, and even the scena; but in the sacred works, who
are the heroes and heroines? Are they not the instruments of the Divine
power, the messengers of the good tidings? And what are the subjects?
Are they not the struggles, the trials, the victories of noble souls?
With such sacred characters, with such lofty thoughts, the composers of
the oratorio, dealing, not with the semblance of truth that the opera
contains, but with the truth itself, are bound to express their feelings
and emotions in the grandest and most perfect thoughts.

Purely sentimental ideas, and the whole l