youthful hearts, cradling them in poetic fictions, in
soft illusions. No longer destined to cadence the steps of the high
and grave personages who ceased to bear their part in these dances,
[Footnote: Bishops and Primates formerly assisted in these dances; at
a later date the Church dignitaries took no part in them.] they are
addressed to romantic imaginations, dreaming rather of rapture than of
renown. Meyseder advanced upon this descending path; his dances, full of
lively coquetry, reflect only the magic charms of youth and beauty.
His numerous imitations have inundated us with pieces of music, called
Polonaises, out which have no characteristics to justify the name.

The pristine and vigorous brilliancy of the Polonaise was again
suddenly given to it by a composer of true genius. Weber made of it a
Dithyrambic, in which the glittering display of vanished magnificence
again appeared in its ancient glory. He united all the resources of his
art to ennoble the formula which had been so misrepresented and debased,
to fill it with the spirit of the past; not seeking to recall
the character of ancient music, he transported into music the
characteristics of ancient Poland. Using the melody as a recital,
he accentuated the rhythm, he colored his composition, through his
modulations, with a profusion of hues not only suitable to his subject,
but imperiously demanded by it. Life, warmth, and passion again
circulated in his Polonaises, yet he did not deprive them of the
haughty charm, the ceremonious and magisterial dignity, the natural yet
elaborate majesty, which are essential parts of their character. The
cadences are marked by chords, which fall upon the ear like the rattling
of swords drawn from their scabbards. The soft, warm, effeminate
pleadings of love give place to the murmuring of deep, fall, bass
voices, proceeding from manly breasts used to command; we may almost
hear, in reply, the wild and distant neighings of the steeds of
the desert, as they toss the long manes around their haughty heads,
impatiently pawing the ground, with their lustrous eye beaming with
intelligence and full of fire, while they bear with stately grace the
trailing caparisons embroidered with turquoise and rubies, with which
the Polish Seigneurs loved to adorn them. [Footnote: Among the treasures
of Prince radziwill at Nieswirz were to be seen, in the days of former
splendor, twelve sets of horse trappings, each of a different color,
incrusted