ritics he is lauded beyond all measure
as one whose scientific skill and gorgeous orchestration are only
equaled by his richness of melody and genius for dramatic and scenic
effects; "by far the greatest composer of recent years;" by another
class we hear him stigmatized as "the very caricature of the universal
Mozart... the Cosmopolitan Jew, who hawks his wares among all nations
indifferently, and does his best to please customers of every kind." The
truth lies between the two, as is wont to be the case in such extremes
of opinion. Meyerbeer's remarkable talent so nearly approaches genius
as to make the distinction a difficult one. He can not be numbered among
those great creative artists who by force of individuality have molded
musical epochs and left an undying imprint on their own and succeeding
ages. On the other hand, his remarkable power of combining the resources
of the lyric stage in a grand mosaic of all that can charm the eye and
car, of wedding rich and gorgeous music with splendid spectacle, gives
him a unique place in music; for, unlike Wagner, whose ideas of stage
necessities are no less exacting, Meyerbeer aims at no reforms in lyric
music, but only to develop the old forms to their highest degree of
effect, under conditions that shall gratify the general artistic sense.
To accomplish this, he spares no means either in or out of music. Though
a German, there is but little of the Teutonic _genre_ in the music of
Weber's fellow pupil. When at the outset he wrote for Italy, he showed
but little of that easy Assomption of the genius of Italian art which
many other foreign composers have attained. It was not till he formed
his celebrated art partnership with Scribe, the greatest of librettists,
and succeeded in opening the gates of the Grand Opera of Paris with all
its resources, more vast than exist anywhere else, that Meyerbeer found
his true vocation, the production of elaborate dramas in music of the
eclectic school. He inaugurated no clearly defined tendencies in his
art; he distinctively belongs to no national school of music; but his
long and important connection with the French lyric stage classifies him
unmistakably with the composers of this nation.

The subject of this sketch belonged to a family of marked ability. Jacob
Beer was a rich Jewish banker of Berlin, highly honored for his robust
intellect and scholarly culture as well as his wealth. William, one of
the sons, became a distinguished astro