ful sorrow upon the
grave of the remarkable musician who has just passed from among us.
Music is at present receiving such great and general development, that
it reminds us of that which took place in painting in the fourteenth
and fifteenth centuries. Even the artists who limited the productions of
their genius to the margins of parchments, painted their miniatures
with an inspiration so happy, that having broken through the Byzantine
stiffness, they left the most exquisite types, which the Francias, the
Peruginos, and the Raphaels to come were to transport to their frescos,
and introduce upon their canvas.

*****

There have been people among whom, in order to preserve the memory of
their great men or the signal events of their history, it was the
custom to form pyramids composed of the stones which each passer-by
was expected to bring to the pile, which gradually increased to an
unlooked-for height from the anonymous contributions of all. Monuments
are still in our days erected by an analogous proceeding, but in place
of building only a rude and unformed hillock, in consequence of a
fortunate combination the contribution of all concurs in the creation
of some work of art, which is not only destined to perpetuate the mute
remembrance which they wish to honor, but which may have the power to
awaken in future ages the feelings which gave birth to such creation,
the emotions of the contemporaries which called it into being. The
subscriptions which are opened to raise statues and noble memorials to
those who have rendered their epoch or country illustrious, originate
in this design. Immediately after the death of Chopin, M. Camille Pleyel
conceived a project of this kind. He commenced a subscription,
(which conformably to the general expectation rapidly amounted to
a considerable sum,) to have the monument modeled by M. Clesinger,
executed in marble and placed in the Pere La-Chaise. In thinking over
our long friendship with Chopin; on the exceptional admiration which we
have always felt for him ever since his appearance in the musical
world; remembering that, artist like himself, we have been the frequent
interpreter of his inspirations, an interpreter, we may safely venture
to say, loved and chosen by himself; that we have more frequently than
others received from his own lips the spirit of his style; that we
were in some degree identified with his creations in art, and with
the feelings which h