rved. On the 5th of March of the following year his
"Cinq-Mars" was brought out at the Theatre de l'Opera Comique; but
it showed the traces of the haste and carelessness with which it was
written, and therefore commanded little more than a respectful hearing.
His last opera, "Polyeucte," produced at the Grand Opera, October 7,
1878, though credited with much beautiful music, and nobly orchestrated,
is not regarded by the French critics as likely to add anything to the
reputation of the composer of "Faust." Gounod, now at the age of sixty,
if we judge him by the prolonged fertility of so many of the great
composers, may be regarded as not having largely passed the prime of
his powers. The world still has a right to expect much from his genius.
Conceded even by his opponents to be a great musician and a thorough
master of the orchestra, more generous critics in the main agree to rank
Gounod as the most remarkable contemporary composer, with the possible
exception of Richard Wagner. The distinctive trait of his dramatic
conceptions seems to be an imagination hovering between sensuous images
and mystic dreams. Originally inspired by the severe Greek sculpture
of Gluck's music, he has applied that master's laws in the creation of
tone-pictures full of voluptuous color, but yet solemnized at times by
an exaltation which recalls the time when as a youth he thought of the
spiritual dignity of the priesthood. The use he makes of his religious
reminiscences is familiarly illustrated in "Faust." The contrast between
two opposing principles is marked in all of Gounod's dramatic works, and
in "Faust" this struggle of "a soul which invades mysticism and which
still seeks to express voluptuousness" not only colors the music with a
novel fascination, but amounts to an interesting psychological problem.

III.

Gounod's genius fills too large a space in contemporary music to be
passed over without a brief special study. In pursuit of this no better
method suggests itself than an examination of the opera of "Faust," into
which the composer poured the finest inspirations of his life, even
as Goethe embodied the sum and flower of his long career, which had
garnered so many experiences, in his poetic masterpiece.

The story of "Faust" has tempted many composers. Prince Radziwill tried
it, and then Spohr set a version of the theme at once coarse and cruel,
full of vulgar witchwork and love-making only fit for a chambermaid.
Since then Sch