ove
ditties, bar room roundelays, passionate scenes from favorite operas,
with snatches from instrumental symphonies, concertos, or what not!
Music, as I have said, is even more subtile in its power of expression
than speech, and the _new words_, which we may perhaps not even hear,
can never banish from our minds the _old impressions_ associated with
the melody. The ears may even be cognizant of the holy sentiments
intended to be conveyed, but the mind's eye will see Sambo, 'First upon
the heel top, then upon the toe;' the love-lorn dame weeping her false
lover, 'Ah, no, she never blamed him, never;' a roystering set of good
fellows clinking glasses, 'We won't go home till morning;' Lucia
imploring mercy from her hard-hearted brother and selfish suitor; Norma
confiding her little ones to the keeping of her rival; or perhaps the
full orchestra at the last 'philharmonic,' supplying the missing notes,
the beginning and the end of some noble idea, now vainly struggling with
the difficulties and incongruities of its new position, its maimed
members mourning their incompleteness, its tortured spirit longing for
the body given by the original creator.

Are we Christians then so poor that we must go begging and stealing
shreds and patches from our more fortunate secular brethren? Has music
deserted us to dwell solely in the camps of the gypsying world? If so,
there must be some fault among ourselves, for music is a pure gift from
God, the only _earthly_ pleasure _promised_ us in heaven. Such
imputation would indeed be a libel upon the almost infinite variety in
the character of music, and its power of consecration to the very
loftiest ends. Ah! there we fear is the rub. _The character of music!_
_That_ seems to have been forgotten. If all these melodies be adapted to
their original aims, can they be suited to new ones so different? Is
there really in musical form, rhythm, melody, and harmony, no capacity
for any real expression? Will the same tune do as well for a dance as
for a prayer, for a moonlight serenade as for an imploration of Divine
mercy?

Now we have no quarrel with dances; they are innocent and useful in
their proper place; human love is a noble gift from the Almighty; we are
not shocked by a good drinking song, provided the singers be sober;
operas _might_ be made highly instrumental in elevating the tone of
modern society; and we listen reverentially to the grand creations of
the masters; but, in addition to al