looked on as one looks on a statue of Praxiteles found in the darkness
and wrecks of Herculaneum. In the words of the old song, slightly
changed--

"I roam'd through France's sanguine sand,
At beauty's altar to adore,
But there the sword had spoil'd the land,
And Beauty's daughters were no more."

* * * * *




ENGLISH MUSIC AND ENGLISH MUSICIANS.


Musical taste, as we observed in a former article, has undergone fewer
mutations in England, than in most other countries where the art has
been cultivated and esteemed. In order, therefore, to acquire an
accurate knowledge of the state of musical taste and science which now
prevails among us, it will be necessary to take a brief retrospect; and
as much of the music still popular was composed during the earliest
period of the art in England, we shall rapidly trace its history from
the times of those early masters, whose names are still held in
remembrance and repute, down to the present century.

When England threw off the Papal yoke, music was little known beyond the
services of the church. Though the secular music of this period was
barbarous in the extreme, yet masses were universally sung, and music