race of musical Michael Angelos, often despise the lamer attributes of
the music of the "sweet south." Such spirits delight in the storm and
the whirlwind; peace and repose have probably no charms for them.

"Music was ordain'd,
Was it not, to refresh the mind of man,
After his studies, or his actual pain?"

Many fly to music to soothe and compose the mind, others seek it as a
means of new and fresh excitement. Neither are now able, in the music of
their country, to find _all_ they seek. We are not, however, without
hope for the future. Never till now has music formed an element in
national education; and the movement now extending throughout the land,
must of necessity be the means of elevating and refining the musical
taste of our countrymen. Improvements, like those already manifest in
the sister arts of painting and sculpture, may be now about to show
themselves in music. Even our _sons_ may wonder at the taste which could
tolerate the music which their fathers had applauded and admired; and
England, long pre-eminent in the useful arts and sciences, and the
serious and more weighty affairs of life, may at length become equally
distinguished in the fine arts, and all those lighter and more elegant
pursuits, which, throughout the history of mankind, have ever formed the
peculiar characteristics of a high degree of civilization and
refinement.

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