tion. Meyerbeer acted on the suggestion with such felicity and
force as to make it the crowning beauty of the work. Similar changes
are understood to have been made in "Le Prophete" by advice of Nourrit,
whose poetical insight seems to have been unerring. It was left to
Duprez, Nourrit's successor, however, to be the first exponent of _John
of Leyden_.

These instances suffice to show how uncertain and unequal was the grasp
of Meyerbeer's genius, and to explain in part why he was so prone to
gorgeous effects, aside from that tendency of the Israelitish nature
which delights in show and glitter. We see something in it akin to the
trick of the rhetorician, who seeks to hide poverty of thought under
glittering phrases. Yet Meyerbeer rose to occasions with a force that
was something gigantic. Once his work was clearly defined in a mind not
powerfully creative, he expressed it in music with such vigor, energy,
and warmth of color as can not be easily surpassed. With this composer
there was but little spontaneous flow of musical thought, clothing
itself in forms of unconscious and perfect beauty, as in the case of
Mozart, Beethoven, Cherubini, Rossini, and others who could be cited.
The constitution of his mind demanded some external power to bring forth
the gush of musical energy.

The operas of Meyerbeer may be best described as highly artistic and
finished mosaic work, containing much that is precious with much that is
false. There are parts of all his operas which can not be surpassed
for beauty of music, dramatic energy, and fascination of effect. In
addition, the strength and richness of his orchestration, which contains
original strokes not found in other composers, give him a lasting claim
on the admiration of the lovers of music. No other composer has united
so many glaring defects with such splendid power; and were it not that
Meyerbeer strained his ingenuity to tax the resources of the singer
in every possible way, not even the mechanical difficulty of producing
these operas in a fashion commensurate with their plan would prevent
their taking a high place among popular operas.

GOUNOD AND THOMAS.

I.

Moscheles, one of the severe classical pianists of the German school,
writes as follows in 1861 in a letter to a friend: "In Gounod I hail a
real composer. I have heard his 'Faust' both at Leipsic and Dresden, and
am charmed with that refined, piquant music. Critics may rave if they
like against the muti