ON THE PRESENT STATE OP THE OPERA IN LONDON. 221 



taste, he deliberately deduces conclusions as easily to be disproved as 

 SO many incorrect geometrical propositions ? The entire tendency 

 of the article is to retard the progress of the art, and to lower the 

 public taste. It opens with depreciating the advantages of theoreti- 

 cal knowledge, both as regards the nature of sound and the princi- 

 ples of composition. The author apparently considers taste, not as 

 founded on and derived from knowledge, but as something apart — 

 something that may be acquired by the perusal of Mr. Hogarth's 

 book. A considerable degree of attention to the subject has con- 

 vinced me that as long as the knowledge of the public remains sta- 

 tionary, it is impossible that taste can progress. The degree of gra- 

 tification arising from music may be immeasurably increased with- 

 out devoting a larger portion of time to the whole range of the art 

 and science than is at present lavished on one branch. If, indeed, 

 time cannot be afforded for both the intellectual and mechanical de- 

 partments, it cannot surely be considered a debateable question 

 whether the finger or the mind should be deemed the more worthy 

 of cultivation. By this change of plan we might, indeed, lose some 

 superfluous and inefficient pianists ; but this loss would be amply 

 compensated by an equal number of true " kenner"* We should 

 be spared the pain of perusing articles like the above, which, pre- 

 suming on the ignorance of the public, attempts to depreciate Pur- 

 cell, talks of " unknown and unfrequented paths of modulation 

 tracked out by Weber and Rossini" — (this is nearly as bad as his 

 connexion of Mozart and Bellini) — and concludes by hurling the 

 anathema which was intended by Rousseau to apply to those who 

 were incapable of appreciating real genius, against all who estimate 

 Bellini at his proper value. Such opinions would then fall as harm- 

 less as an attempt to pull down Shakspeare and to elevate on his 

 pinnacle of deathless fame some author of popular melodramas. 

 Were it not for the high literary authority of the Edinburgh Re- 

 view, it would have been an useless expenditure of time to under- 

 take the refutation of fallacies which a momentary consideration 

 would render palpable. Unfortunately, the dicta of high literary 

 authorities are exempted, on certain subjects, from the ordeal of re- 

 flection. The musical heresies which Addison so confidently pro- 

 mulgated, have since recoiled with double force, from the intended 

 objects of his satire, upon himself. Let authors, then, beware how 

 they dogmatise on subjects with which they are unacquainted, while 



* Knowers ; a word which merits to be naturalized ; connoisseur is associ- 

 ated with pretension, rather than actual knowledge. 



