liquid invenisti quod plus omnipotenti Deo possit
placere, sollicite eligas._[62] All was well, too, if singers and
players were animated with the Catholic spirit that breathed in a
Haydn and a Mozart, to say nothing of later giants.[63] Under such
conditions, and with due observance of the unaccompanied chant in
Advent and Lent, the male choirs of both Oratories in England have
probably done a good work, and if so, one worthy of St. Philip's
blessing.

[Footnote 61: By the late Sir John Lambert, K.C.B., and published by
Burns in 1849. Its Preface is well worthy of attention, and we note
with pleasure his remark, "that while pleading for the restoration of
the Ritual Song as the Church system and the music of the people, and
as the basis of all that is really grand and ecclesiastical, the
writer would not wish to be understood to object to the superadding of
the most elaborate music where it can be properly executed, if it does
not supersede the Church Song, and is of a character to harmonize with
it. Doubtless," he adds, "as the Church employs all the resources of
art, as far as in accordance with her own spirit, the most perfect
celebration of the Divine Office would be where both could be
combined. All would then be impressed and edified, each person
according to his peculiar sense, and God would be worshipped with all
the magnificence which art can be made to minister." (p. xiii.)]

[Footnote 62: S. Greg. Epist. xxxi. lib. xii. _De expos. divers.
rerum._]

[Footnote 63: Thus M. Tonnelle, pupil of Father Gratry, of the
Oratory: "Haydn et Mozart, c'est la foi Catholique, c'est la
soumission naive et spontanee, c'est la devotion tendre et vive,"
which can, of course, be truly said without implying that they are
always perfection.]

It was in April, 1886, that two of the Fathers, along with the writer,
played over to Cardinal Newman, Dykes' well-known setting to "Lead,
kindly Light," which (he said) he had never heard before, and he
seemed rather surprised at its very quiet, hymn-like quality. No
piano, he added, could equal the strings, nor any organ,[64] and we
gave him the version of the "Lead" by Pinsuti, and West,[65] as also
Hurrell Froude's "Tyre"[66] and his own "Watchman" and the "Two
Worlds,"[67] all with violoncello _obbligato_. In 1889 he had been
very ill, and when recovering, said to a Father: "Father Faber wrote
the hymn 'Eternal Years.'[68] I have always had the greatest affection
for it--quite a p