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564 ©t)tf &l*2r * ?« [Satobmy,
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THE BANISHED STUDENT'S LAMENT. The earth...
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Cjre sut*
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DON GIOVANNI. By his performance of Otta...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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The Philosophy Of Christianity. A Mossro...
fied , the soul could not be saved ; or , rather , as from the beginning , soul and flesh were one man' and inseparable , without his flesh , man was lost , or would cease to be . But the natural organization of the flesh was infected , and unless organization could begin again from a new original , no pure material substance could exist at all . He , therefore , by whom God had first made the vrorld , entered into the womb of the Virgin in the form ( so to speak ) of a new organic cell , and around it , through ' the virtue of His creative energy , a material body grew again of the substance of his
mother , pure of taint and clean as the first body of the first man when it passed out under His hand in the beginning of all things . In Him thus wonderfully born was the virtue which was to restore the lost power of mankind . He came to redeem man ; and , therefore , he took a human body , and he kept it pure through a human life , till the time came when it could be applied to its marvellous purpose . He died , and then appeared what was the nature of a material human body when freed from the limitations of sin . The grave could not hold it , neither was it possible
that it should see corruption . It was real , for the disciplea were allowed to feel and handle it . He ate and drank with them to assure their senses . But space had no power over it , nor any of the material obstacles which limit an ordinary power . He willed and his body obeyed . He was here , He was there . He was visible , He was invisible . He was in the midst of his disciples and they saw Him , and then He was gone , whither who could tell ? At last He passed away to heaven ; but while in heaven , He was still on earth . His body became the body of His Church on earth ,
not in . metaphor , but in fact . His very material body , in which and by which the faithful would be saved . His flesh and blood were thenceforth to be their food . They were to eat it as they would eat ordinary meat . They were to take it into their system , a pure material substance , to leaven the old natural substance and assimilate it to itself . As they fed upon it it would grow into them , and it would become their own real body . Flesh grown in the old way was the body of death , but the flesh of Christ was the life of the world , over which death
had no power . Circumcision availed nothing , noi uncircumcision—but a neto creature—this new creature , which the child first put on in baptism , being born again into Christ of water and the spirit . In the Eucharist he was fed and sustained , and going on from strength to strength , and ever as the nature of his body changed , being able to render a more complete obedience , he would at last pass away to God through the gate of the grave , and stand holy and perfect in the presence of Christ . Christ had indeed been ever present Avith him ; but because while life lasted some particles of the old Adam would
necessarily cling to him , the Christian ' s mortal eye on earth cannot see Him . Hedged in by " liis muddy vesture of decay , " his eyes , like the eyes of the disci ples of Emraaus , are holdcn , and only in faith he feels Him . But death , which till Christ had died had been the last victory of evil , in virtue of His submission to it , became its own destroyer , for it had power only over the tainted particles of the old substance , and there was nothing iveeded but that these should be washed away and the elect would stand out at once pure and holy , clothed in immortal bodies , like refined gold , the redeemed of Hod .
lhe being who accomplished a work so vast , a ¦ work compared to which the Jirst creation appears but a trilling difficulty , what could He he but (» od ? God Himself ! Who but dlod could have wrested His prize from a power which half tin ; thinking world believed to ho His coequal and coctcrnul adversary . He was ( jod . He was man also , for He was the hitoihI Atlain— -the second starting point of
human growth . He was virgin bom , that no original impurity might infect the substance which lie assumed ; and being Himself sinless , lie showed in the nature of 1 Hh person , niter His resurrection , what the material body would have been in all of \ m except for sin , and what i ( . will he when , after 1 < e < ling on it in its purify , ( he bodies of each of us are transfuritred after its likeness . Hen ; was the secret
» i the Hpirit which set nt . iSinieon on his pillar and cut St . Anlhnny to Mir tomb . * - — of the night watches , lie weary lasts , tin ; penitential scourgingH , and Jit ' oong auHtt-riticH which huvo been alternately thr ; lory and the reproach of the mediaeval ( mints . They ¦ vould overcome their animal bodies , and anticipate 11 life the work of death in uniting themselves more ompletcly to Christ by the deduction of the flesh
which lay as a veil between themselves and Him . And such , I believe , to have been the central idea of the beautiful creed which , for 1800 years , has tuned the heart and formed the mind of the noblest of mankind . Prom this centre it radiated out and spread , as time went on , into the full circle of human activity , flinging its own philosophy and its own peculiar grace over the common detail of the common life of all of us . Like the seven lamps before the Throne of God , the seven mighty angels , and the seven stars , the seven sacraments shed over us a never ceasing stream of blessed influence . First there are the priests , a holy order set apart and endowed with mysterious power , representing
Christ and administering his giits . Christ , in his twelfth year , was presented in the temple , and first entered on His father ' s business ; and the baptized child , when it has grown to an age to become conscious of its vow and of its privilege , again renews it in full knowledge of what it undertakes , and receives again sacramentally a fresh gift of grace to assist it forward on its way . In maturity it seeks a companion to share its pains and pleasures ; and , again , Christ is present to consecrate the union . Marriage , which outside the church only serves to perpetuate the curse and bring fresh inheritors of misery into the world , He made holy by His presence at Cana , and chose it as the symbol to represent His own mystic union with His church .
Even saints cannot live without at times some spot adhering to them . The atmosphere in which we breathe and move is soiled , and Christ has anticipated our wants . Christ did penance forty days in the wilderness , not to subdue His own flesh , for that which was already perfect did not need subduing , but to give to penance a cleansing virtue to serve for our daily or our hourly ablution . Christ consecrates our birth ; Christ throws over u » our baptismal robe of pure unsullied innocence . He strengthens us as we go forward . He raises us when we fall . He feeds us with the substance of His
own most precious body . In the person of His minister he does all this for us , in virtue of that which in His own person he actually performed when a man living on this earth . Last of all , when all is drawing to its close "with us , when life is past , when the work is done , and the dark gate is near , beyond which the garden of an eternal home is waiting to receive us , His tender care has not forsaken us . He has taken away the sting of death , but its appearance is still terrible ; and He will not leave us without special help at our last need . He tried the agony of the moment ; and He sweetens the cup for us before we drink it . We are dismissed to the grave with our bodies anointed with oil , which He made holy in His
last anointing before his passion , and then all is over . We lie down and seem to decay—to decay—but not all . Our natural body decays , the last remains of which we have inherited from Adam , but the spiritual body , that glorified substance which has made our life , and is our real body as We are in Christ , that can never decny , but passes off into the kingdom which is prepared for it ; that other world where there is no sin , and God is all and in all ! Such is the Philosophy of Christianity . It was worn and old when Luther found it . Our posterity will care less to respect Luther for rending it in pieces , when it has learnt to despise the miserable fabric which he stitched together out of its tatters . 1 ?
564 ©T)Tf &L*2r * ?« [Satobmy,
564 © t ) tf & l * 2 r * ?« [ Satobmy ,
The Banished Student's Lament. The Earth...
THE BANISHED STUDENT ' S LAMENT . The earth is gay with leaves and flowers , The skylark soars a nd sings above , The sunlight gleams between the showers Oeep ' iung the shadows of the grove . The waggoner upon his way . Sings out in rude and joyous glee ; I mourn upon this mirthful day , J ' or thou , dear love , art far from me . Mi'thinks thine aerial beauty bcnd . s , Sometimes above the waving woods ; Or , like a ray of moonli ght , lends A passing brightness to the floods ; Or glides along the glistening grasV , Or laughs with children on the lea ; - — 1 dream- to find how hard , alus ! It is to live apart , from thee ! Yet NeinetimcK , from the woodbine wreath , And sometimes , from the lily meek , Or from tin ; lose , I led thy breath In fragrance on my check ; And . sometimes , in the pansy ' s eye , 1 . sec th y smile ami smile to see ; ¦ ¦ - Then stiilo in my heart a nigh To think thou art so far from me . 'Hie wind blows over field ami stream , The ( ruin , with whistle clear and shrill And snow-white Hag of curling steam , ' Swe < ps Hwiflly pant the wooded hill . I bear the brawling of the brooks , The loving birds in couples m ; ,- , And turn , to seek that p (; m . < . j ljoo ] ui > I m : Vr . shall find away limn thee ! ' ( i loom : i- I lrwn > i ,-i !
Cjre Sut*
Cjre sut *
Don Giovanni. By His Performance Of Otta...
DON GIOVANNI . By his performance of Ottavio , Tamberiik has taken such a stride in public favour that Mario's superiority has become more and more questionable . Certainly Mario never sang in the m ask trio with more exquisite expression ; and as for the famous il mio tesoro , therein Tamberiik surpasses all tenors in my catalogue . The tenderness and delicacy with which the opening phrases are given are only eclipsed by that marvellous passage
cercate di asciugar , with its swelling sustahnnen t of the F passing on to B fiat—a passage that thrilled the audience to ecatacy . Tamberiik sings this as Mozart wrote it . Rubini was the first to take the shake upon the A from the accompaniment , and though by so doing orchestra and voice are hi unison , yet the effect was so striking that other tenors have copied it ; but Tamberiik proved thatwith his voice at any rate—what Mozart wrote was the finest after all .
W bile recording this triumph of a singer whom from the first I have battled for , let me also ad d that but for him Covent Garden would have been in a terrible plight , Mario having so frequently been disabled . There ia danger , however , of their overworking Tamberiik : he has scarcely any respite . Tamburini reappeared as Don Giovanni , and sang without voice , but with infinite spirit , and acted without the grace and daring of Don Juan , but with a certain dash which pleased the audience . It was like anything you please , but only not like Don Juan ! As for Madame Castellan ' s Zerlina , I
must say of it as of all her performances : she is a pretty woman with a charming voice , but has no more perception of the part than if she actually did not understand the language she sings . "Batti Batti " was cruelly distorted : she dragged the time as if it were a dirge , and threw in ornaments for which she ought to have been hissed . ( JNT . B . The same remark applies to Tamburini . I am no rigorist . I do not object to singers embroidering- Mozart ; but I do object—vociferously—to singers dragging vulgar commonplaces worn out in the service of Donizetti and Verdi into the music of the divine
Mozart !) let " Batti Batti" gained its encore , as well as " Vedrai Carino / ' also taken too slow ! What a contrast was Grisi ' s impassioned Donna Anna ! and Formes ' s admirably original picture of Leporello ! Grisi , —who , like an insulted empress hearing of a pretender , had snatched up the sacred reaping hook of Nonna to quell the sediziose voct which dared insinuate that Norma had a rival , and once more reasserted her empire over all
hearts , even of those who for a moment doubted whether the youth , dash , fire , and intelligence of Cruvclli were not a match for the great Norma herself— Grisi , I say , fresh from her triumphant rcasscrtion of being the incomparable Priestess supreme over Druids and Fops' Alley , appeared as Donna Anna , just to prove how far below her all younger Annas are ! I wonder whether any one fancies thut Cruvelli will scream till she is past forty , and still be . an enchantress I
'I lie marvellous grace and meaning of the accompaniments to Don . Giovanni were not slurred over by M . Costa and his band : had the ningers been as naught , the accompaniments would have carried oil ' the opera triumphantly . On Thursday , La Favor if a , so long promised , was-produced ; but 1 was forced to bo elsewhere , and must report next week , us on Thursday 1 went to her Majesty ' s Theatre to nee IL PRODKH ) .
Ah a superb spectacle Jl Pradiyo is an unequivocal success . JNo pains have been wpared , and 1 he management has been lavish as well us erudite . But Azuvl , at Drury Lane , lias robbed it of its novelty as a spectacle ; and us an opera , 1 have considerable misgivings . JVot that it is possible to jud tfe of an opera from one hearing , especially when your eyes are dazzled b y such splendour , and your cars assailed by such a tumultuous orchestra ; but this much one hearing enables me to say : that the music is gay , coloured , piquant ; , and that the instrumentation , in Un piquancy and mastery , reveals the hand of one who has written much and successfully—it iN very sparkling , if not
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), June 14, 1851, page 16, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_14061851/page/16/
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