y should boast of many centuries, of a history, of a long
succession of traditions, of established customs; but modern nations,
particularly Americans, outstrip time, act with precipitation, and have
no leisure to wait the traditions of history. Hence this extraordinary
love of music, the least costly of the arts. They love music as one
loves the conversations of the evening, and refreshing sleep after a
hard day's labor. The art of music then is, if we dare say so, the art
of nations who have no time for meditation and reflection--the art of
ardent and feverish nations; for, to be understood, it requires only
that a man should have a soul, with warm desires and hopes. We find in
this collection two sonnets in honor of Beethoven and Mozart, in which
the genius of the two masters is perfectly appreciated and felt. They
are from Margaret Fuller, since Countess d'Ossoli, who was drowned by
shipwreck on her return to her native country.

BEETHOVEN.

Most intellectual master of the art,
Which best of all teaches the mind of man
The universe in all its varied plan--
What strangely mingled thoughts thy strains impart!
Here the faint tenor thrills the inmost heart,
There the rich bass the reason's balance shows;
Here breathes the softest sigh that love e'er knows;
There sudden fancies seeming without chart,
Float into wildest breezy interludes;
The past is all forgot--hopes sweetly breathe,
And our whole being glows--when lo! beneath
The flowery brink, Despair's deep sob concludes!
Startled, we strive to free us from the chain--
Notes of high triumph swell, and we are thine again!

MOZART.

If to the intellect and passions strong
Beethoven speak, with such resistless power,
Making us share the full creative hour,
When his wand fixed wild Fancy's mystic throng,
Oh, Nature's finest lyre! to thee belong
The deepest, softest tones of tenderness,
Whose purity the listening angels bless,
With silvery clearness of seraphic song.
Sad are those chords, oh heavenward striving soul!
A love, which never found its home on earth,
Pensively vibrates, even in thy mirth,
And gentle laws thy slightest notes control;
Yet dear that sadness! spheral concords felt
Purify most those hearts which most they melt.

Of these two sonnets, we prefer that of Mozart, as expressing better, in
our opinion, the