212 BIRMINGHAM MUSICAL FESTIVAL. 



we contemplate this chain of contrivances, so perfect in all its parts 

 — when we consider that, by further study and more intimate ac- 

 quaintance with the properties of sound, we have been enabled to 

 vary and extend the simple accords of Nature, 



" Untwisting all the chains that tie 

 The hidden soul of harmony" — 



when we behold this admirable mechanism and its splendid results 

 — what shall we say to the vain, short-sighted man who would fain 

 persuade us, not only that so much skill has been lavished in vain, 

 but that to employ the means which the Creator has placed within 

 our reach is actually sinful ? 



The two faculties already enumerated may be said to constitute 

 the foundation on which the splendid fabric of the musical art rests. 

 We now proceed to the consideration of those loftier mental powers 

 which contribute to the beauty and grandeur of its superstructure. 



Idealitij is the soul of art. Without its ethereal spirit Poetry de- 

 generates into mere rhyme, Painting and Sculpture into a slavish 

 imitation of Nature, and Music into a mechanical series of sounds 

 incapable of affording the soul higher pleasure than the cowherd's 

 horn or Ranz des Vaches to the flocks which browse on Alpine pas- 

 tures. Ideality raises up before the mind's eye visions of beauty 

 surpassing far the cold representations of corporeal sense ; it wafts 

 to the ravished soul harmonies inconceivably more pure and more 

 lovely than mortal ear has ever heard. It is the fairy-land of the 

 soul ; enchanted ground, vvhere realities have no place, and grovel- 

 ling ideas find no entrance ; where the enfranchised spirit revels amid 

 forms exquisitely beautiful, and mazes of sound which never weary, 

 never cloy. Such feelings are the noblest proof that man is destined 

 for a higher sphere of action than that in which he here moves ; for 

 it is inconsistent with the wisdom and benevolence of the Creator to 

 suppose that he would have implanted in him aspirations so ardent 

 after excellence unattainable here below, had he not been created 

 with reference to a state in which those aspirations will be fully 

 satisfied. And thus we are enabled to comprehend that, although 

 these feelings may exist and have full scope in the soul, they can 

 never be adequately expressed or made palpable to the corporeal 

 senses. While Ideality ever soars towards perfection, the material 

 media through which its impressions must be conveyed, being neces- 

 sarily impei'fect, intercept its loftiest flights, and force the half, en- 

 franchised fancy back to earth. The two antagonist principles, the 



