6 SEBASTIAN BACH AND HIS WORKS. 



spicuously shewn, to confirm our position that the verdict of critics 

 has hitherto been, if not always directly hostile, at least nugatory, 

 to the reputation of Bach, and that this is one of the causes of the 

 neglect by the public of the greatest composer who ever existed. 



Far be from us the wish to set ourselves up as dictators in the 

 place of any one. What we desire is, by inducing every one to rea- 

 son, investigate, and admire with his own faculties, to undermine 

 the power of all dictators whatsoever. If we shall have prevailed 

 upon one only of our readers to work this hitherto neglected mine, 

 and thereby be the mediate cause of his finding an inexhaustible 

 store of intellectual Avealth where he only expected labour and sor- 

 row, we shall deem ourselves amply repaid for the time and space 

 we have deveted to the subject ; if upon more, so much the greater 

 will be our reward. We now proceed to give a sketch of our au- 

 thor's life. 



John Sebastian Bach* was born on the 21st of IMarch, 1685, at 

 Eisenach, where his father was musician to the court and town. 

 He lost his mother before he was ten years of age, and his father 

 shortly after. Thus early left an orphan, he was obliged to have 

 recourse to John Christopher, his elder brother, organist at OrdrufF, 

 from whom he received his first instructions in playing the clavi- 

 chord. t He soon became master of the pieces set before him by his 

 brother, and, indeed, made such rapid progress as to excite his jea- 

 lousy. The following anecdote is a striking instance of pitiful 

 meanness on the one side, and dauntless perseverance on the other. 

 Sebastian Bach had observed, in his brother's possession, a book 

 containing the works of most of the celebrated clavichord composers 

 of the day, and earnestly begged permission to profit by its contents. 

 The refusal he received only increased his desire to possess the for- 

 bidden treasure. This he accomplished by passing his little hands 

 through the interstices of a lattice door which barred his access to 

 the object of his desire, rolling up the book, and thus bringing it 

 forth to the light of day. He now set about copying its contents ; 

 but being obliged to use the greatest secrecy, and not being allowed 

 the use of a candle, he was under the necessity of employing the 

 light of the moon for this purpose. Thus was this child of genius 



• These particulars are extracted from the life of our author by Dr. For- 

 kel, a work which we cannot too often recommend to our readers. We must 

 warn thcni, however, that they will find none of the gossiping details which 

 occupy so nuich space in the po]nilar biogi'aphies of Haydn, Mozart, and 

 Rossini, and which to some, we fear, i'orm their chief attraction. 



f The forerunner of the harpsichord. 



