10 SEBASTIAN BACH AND HIS WORKS. 



works conceived without consideration and executed without study. 

 Here we have the rare and noble example of a man naturally pos- 

 sessed of musical powers, greater, perhaps, than have ever been en- 

 joyed by any single individual, engaged in diligent and unremitting 

 study from early childhood to the close of his long career, never for 

 one moment losing sight of the degree of excellence he wished to 

 obtain, though he knew it unattainable, and consequently always 

 making advances towards it. He who is satisfied with what he has 

 already performed, and looks to no further improvement, does but 

 shew how unworthy is his idea of what ought to be accomplished, 

 and how contemptible his ambition. The essence of true genius is 

 to keep in view a nobler, a more ethereal, sphere of action than is 

 ever dreamt of by common minds — to regard what is already attain- 

 ed only as one step in advance towards the regions of perfect purity, 

 of perfect beauty, in which alone it lives, and moves, and has its 

 being. Can he who is endowed with such a genius ever rest in his 

 glorious career ? — ever console himself with the idea that he has 

 done more or better than his rivals .'' — ever relax his efforts to fulfil 

 the ideal on which his mind's eye continually rests ? No ! for rest 

 implies satisfaction ; and he is not, cannot be satisfied : no ! for he 

 disdains comparison with aught but his own elevated ideas of per- 

 fection : no ! for he longs — he thirsts — for that perfection as the 

 hart panteth for the water-brooks, and he knows that his utmost 

 efforts can only approach him to the wished-for end, never enable 

 hira to attain it. Such is the essence of true genius — such its con- 

 stitution ; in this exists its difference from, its superiority over, that 

 by no means uncommon talent (for it merits no higher designation) 

 of retailing other men's ideas in a novel garb, accompanied by com- 

 plete satisfaction at what it has produced, and by not the slightest 

 desire for anything higher, anything nobler. 



A correct edition of Bach's works, from the first effort of his in- 

 fant muse to the last production of his genius, would, if arranged 

 in chronological order, not only prove highly interesting to those 

 who delight in watching the progress and internal development of 

 the human mind, but \.'ould without doubt be in a great measure 

 conducive to the revival of the art from that stagnation, that hope- 

 less inanity, which, in this country at least, if not in others, is its 

 unfortunate characteristic. Beautiful it is, in spring time of the 

 year to see all Nature rising forth, as it were, from the bleak and 

 dreary abyss of winter, unfolding herself before our eyes in all her 

 loveliness and grandeur, and assuming various shapes, various dispo- 

 sitions, every one of them perfect, every one inimitable. More 



