hipful and reposeful in the
heavenly sense. The finest example of this is in the slow movement of
the ninth symphony of Beethoven, where the composer has one of those
lofty moods, which even in his younger times Mrs. Von Breuning used to
call his "_raptus_"--rapture of song.

In a technical point of view the handling of the themes becomes more
masterly in Beethoven than even in Mozart--mainly perhaps because the
symphonies of Beethoven represent a more mature point in his mental
and artistic career than do those of Mozart. The third symphony of
Beethoven was written in 1803, the composer being thirty-three years
old; the fourth waited until he was thirty-five or six. Mozart died at
the age of thirty-five, and whatever we have from his lofty pen came
to the young Mozart, not yet having reached middle life. Observe also
the rapidity with which these great works followed one another from
the pen of Beethoven, when once he had found his voice. The fifth
symphony was written in 1808. In the same year he wrote also the
sixth; four years later, in 1812, the next two symphonies, the seventh
and eight. Then a long pause, filled up with other works, and at
length when the composer was fifty-three years of age, in 1823, the
mighty ninth. If Mozart's life had been spared to enter into the more
comfortable and dignified openings which his death prevented, what
might we not have had from him!

In one sense there is a distinct difference between the symphonies of
Mozart and those of Beethoven. The passionate ideal, the picture of a
deep soul, tossed yet triumphant, is nearer to the latter. Whatever
Mozart may have experienced in the way of "contradiction of sinners"
(as St. Paul calls it), he never allows the fact to find entrance into
his music, and especially into his symphonies. Whether he felt that
these moments did not belong to a high ideal of orchestral pieces, or
whether he was glad to find in the tone world forgetfulness of sorrows
and troubles, we do not know. But Beethoven came nearer to the great
time of the romantic. The inherent interest of whatever belongs to the
human soul was an idea of his time, and unconsciously to himself,
perhaps, it entered into and colored his work. The ninth symphony
belongs to the period when Hegel was delivering his lectures upon the
deepest questions of philosophy, and laying it down as a fundamental
principle that it is the place of art to represent everything
whatever, which sinks or swe