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    994 Htwry PuretU .

    eke out their scanty and precarious remuneration by the sale to their pupils of music , specially adapted for that purpose , in the same way as the surgeon puts his skill and time into his bill under the form of unnecessary medicine . Cathedrals stick to the

    old established anthems , as an integral portion of the old established faith ; and Dissenters must have only what is bald enough and bad enough for the whole congregation to sing with their * most sweet voices , ' and most exquisite skill . Concerts borrow the stars from the Opera , and they will sing nothing new , while money is to be had for the old . O the everlasting Di tanti

    palpiti and all the rest , which make one say with Falstaff , * I know ye as well as he that made ye / And as to music , the theatres are a monopoly within a monopoly . 'In the lowest deep a lower still . ' Happily , at this worst point , we seem on the eve of reformation * Success to Lytton Buhver and his Drama Bills . Should they pass , we may expect a speedy improvement , as well as a more general enjoyment , of every species of theatrical

    entertainment . We may then look forward to the creation of a national taste and a musical public . A stimulus ,, such as has never yet been applied in this country , will be given to musical composition . The impulse will be felt in every department of the art . The talent which now is pining and sterile , seeking in vain not merely the recompense , but an occasion for its exertions , will feel the lightened pressure of the atmosphere , look up to a bright and open sky , and , like the lark , mount , singing .

    The influences under which Purcell ' s genius attained to such a rich and ripe maturity , were in many respects favourable to his character , which was , altogether , a fine and noble one . But we mast not forget that it had two great defects . Of each we may trace the cause , while we deplore the result . He was a timeserver in politics . ' In James the Second ' s time , he sung down

    the Whigs ; and in that of William , the Tories / To produce this prostitution of art , is the natural tendency of depending upon patronage rather than upon the public . We shall never know what can be done by music , poetry , painting , or any of their beautiful combinations , until we have a people educated up to the enjoyment of art . Nor ever till then , save in some rare instances , will the artiste be any other than a degraded character . Then , indeed , he may feel the true nobility of his vocation , and though

    he will still * live to please , * and therefore * must please to live , ' yet the gratification will be incompatible with those unworthy arts which the reign of patronage has generally required of him for its production . Subservience , in the exercise of his powers , to the views of patronizing individuals , was , in some degree , the misfortune of PtirceH ; it will soon , we trust , become the fault , the inexpiable fault , as well as the despicable folly , of any like gifted n > en . Oar other complaint is of the words , the gross and licentious

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1833, page 294, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2614/page/6/