321 



HAT, DAVID RAMSAY. 



HAYDN, JOSEPH. 



325B 



intermingled with the fancies of a wild imagination as to be most 

 unreal, and to leave the reader in doubt as to what the author does 

 know and feel. In the following year Mr. Hawthorne wrote some 

 juvenile books ' The Snow Image,' ' Collected Tale?,' and ' True 

 Stories from History and Biography ;' also 'The House of the Seven 

 Gables,' a work which divides his fame with ' The Scarlet Letter," and 

 has precisely the same characteristics of style. Some years previously 

 Mr. Hawthorne had joined the singular enterprise of a few literary 

 colonists calling themselves the Brook Farm Community, a society 

 proceeding on ideas in some measure suggested by or derived from 

 the doctrines of Fourier. They "sought the better life" in tilling 

 the fields, and found them harder than society itself. Mr. Hawthorne's 

 experiences, again coloured by an active imagination, were given to 

 the world in 1852, in 'The Blithedale Romance," in which it is easy to 

 trace characters resembling Mr. Hawthorne, Mr. Dana, and the late 

 Margaret Fuller Ossoli. He also published a ' Life of General Pierce,' 

 and ' A Wonder Book,' a second series of which, called ' Tanglewood 

 Tales," was published in 1853. On the accession of General Pierce to 

 the presidency in 1852, Mr. Hawthorne was appointed consul for the 

 United States at Liverpool ; but in England, although his writings are 

 extensively read, the author is very little known. This is entirely 

 owing to a modest and retiring temperament, avoiding anything like 

 publicity or homage. 



*HAY, DAVID RAMSAY, is the author of some able works on 

 decoration, and on the principles of form and colour applicable to 

 various branches of art. Engaged at Edinburgh in the business of 

 house-painting, he is one of the very small number of persons follow- 

 ing a commercial pursuit connected with building, who may claim to 

 rank as artists art involving the exercise of original mind and the 

 power to discover and unfold the beautiful in various forms and new 

 relations. Mere house-painting not only requires greater manual skill 

 and chemical knowledge than are ordinarily given to it, but it may 

 be properly regarded as an art, like those higher branches called 

 painting and sculpture. 



Mr. Hay was born in Edinburgh in the year 1793. His father dying 

 young, his mother and her family were left wholly unprovided for. 

 He bad however the good fortune to be named after a kind friend of 

 the family the proprietor of the ' Edinburgh Evening Courant ' 

 through whom he received sufficient education to be enabled to act as 

 a ' reading-boy ,' with the view of being ultimately bred to the printing 

 business. This employment however did not suit Mr. Hay's taste ; 

 he was often caught pencil in hand ; and after having several times 

 incurred the displeasure of the foreman for infecting with his love of 

 drawing the boys of the establishment, the young artist, with his 

 benefactor's sanction, at the age of fourteen, left the printing-office, 

 and engaged himself as an apprentice to Mr. Gavin Bengo, a house- 

 painter in Edinburgh. There he learned the rudiments of the trade. 

 He then set to work painting and copying pictures. One of his pro- 

 ductions meeting the eye of Mr. (afterwards Sir Walter) Scott, the 

 latter engaged him to paint a portrait of his favourite cat. Scott was 

 pleased with the production, kindly interested himself in the artist, 

 nnd often talked with him about his (Mr. Hay's) prospects in life : the 

 result was that, by Scott's advice, Mr. Hay devoted his abilities to 

 decorative house-painting rather than to a field of greater ambition. 

 The story has been often told, and Scott's opinion quoted as applicable 

 to art-education, which, as afforded in schools of design, there was at 

 one time an apprehension might tend to the production, in place of 

 superior art-workmen, of inferior painters and sculptors. Scott, as 

 inducement, promised his protege the painting of the house at Abbots- 

 ford, then building; and by the same advice Mr. Hay joined with 

 Mr. William Nicholson, a portrait-painter, but who was also connected 

 with the house-painting business. In 1 824 the decoration of Abbots- 

 ford was commenced under Scott's own supervision, and not according 

 to present principles of taste. In 1828 (about which time he began 

 business on his own account) Mr. Hay published bis firtt work, entitled 

 ' The Laws of Harmonious Colouring," Ac., a work which has gone 

 through six editions, the last, in 1847, being in fact a new work, 

 with a lection on 'The Practice of House-Painting." The work 

 has the merit of priority in the exposition of much of the science 

 of colour, to which increased attention has been called by recent 

 writer*. During the progress of the editions referred to, and since, 

 Mr. Hay has not only given his time to the duties of an extensive 

 business, bat has prosecuted with ardour theoretical inquiries in 

 varied fields. In 1842 he published 'The Natural Principles and 

 Analogy of the Harmony of Form;' in 1843, 'Proportion, or the 

 Geometric Principle of Beauty Analysed;' in 1844, 'An Essay on 

 Ornamental Design, in which its true principles are developed and 

 elucidated," Ac.; in 1845, 'The Principles of Beauty in Colouring 

 Systematized ; ' in the tame year the first edition, and in 1846 the 

 second edition, of 'A Nomenclature of Colours,' wherein he gives 

 upwards of 200 examples of colour.*, and their various hues, tints, and 

 hades; in 1846 also he published 'First Principles of Symmetrical 

 Beauty;' in 1849 he issued a work 'On the Science of those Pro- 

 portions by which the Human Head and Countenance, as represented 

 in Ancient Greek Art, are distinguished from those of Ordinary 

 Nature;' in 1851, "The Geometric Beauty of the Human Figure 

 Defined,' to which is prefixed 'A System of /Esthetic Proportion 

 applicable to Architecture and the other Formative Arts ;' in 1852, 



BlfXi. T>IV. TOf. III. 



' The Natural Principles of Beauty as developed in the Human Figure ; 

 in 1853, 'The Orthographic Beauty of the Parthenon referred to a 

 Law of Nature,' to which he has prefixed ' A few Observations on the 

 Importance of ^Esthetic Science as an Element in Architectural 

 Education;' in 1S55, 'The Harmonic Law of Nature applied to 

 Architectural Design;' and in 1856, 'The Science of Beauty as 

 developed in Nature and applied in Art." These works are all illus- 

 trated, in Borne cases profusely, and have been most favourably 

 received. In connection with the practical process of house-painting, 

 Mr. Hay has made several improvements. The decorations of the 

 meeting-hall of the London Society of Arts were designed and exe- 

 cuted by him about the year 1846. 



HAYDN, JOSEPH, the father of modern orchestral music, the 

 most original and imaginative of composers, was born at Rohrau, 

 about 15 leagues from Vienna, on the 31st of March 1732. His 

 parents were humble; his father was a small wheelwright, and hia 

 mother, previous to her marriage, was cook to the lord of the village ; 

 but both, true Austrian?, were musical. The former had a fine tenor 

 voice, and could play on the harp, the latter sang, and, with the aid 

 of a relation, they got up little concerts on Sunday afternoons, in 

 which the young Haydn, when five years of age, pretended to join 

 them with two pieces of wood cut in imitation of a violin and bow. 

 The accuracy with which his motions kept time with the domestic 

 music attracted the notice of a cousin, a schoolmaster at Haimburg, 

 and a good musician, who made an offer, which was readily accepted, 

 to take the child into his house as a scholar. Under the friendly roof 

 of that kinsman he learned music as an art, soon became capable of 

 using a real violin, and acquired some knowledge of Latin. He was 

 also taught to sing in the parish church, where he was heard by Herr 

 Reuter kapellmeister of the cathedral of St. Stephen at Vienna, who 

 was travelling in search of boys for the use of his choir and imme- 

 diately engaged aa a chorister in the metropolitan church of the 

 empire. 



Under Reuter, Haydn continued till he arrived at the age of thirteen, 

 practising almost incessantly, but receiving only such instructions from 

 his master as qualified him for the duties of the choir. At that period, 

 failing, for want of sufficient knowledge, in an attempt at composition, 

 and being destitute of the means of obtaining the assistance of a mas- 

 ter, he contrived to procure tho well-known treatise on counterpoint 

 by Fuchs, with one or two other works on the theory of music, by 

 means of which, and his own indefatigable industry, he speedily 

 surmounted the first difficulties encountered by a youthful composer. 

 He now made himself known to the famous Porpora, who was living 

 in the hotel of the ambassador from Venice, and by very assiduous 

 attentions to the old musician gained much knowledge from him, 

 particularly in singing, in which he made such progress that tho 

 ambassador having heard him took him into his service, and bestowed 

 on him a trifling salary. But at the age of seventeen his soprano 

 voice left him, and with it fled the present means of living. His 

 father could render him no assistance, and, sorely distressed, he was 

 offered an asylum in the house of Keller, a wig-maker, who had often 

 been charmed by his vocal powers. The hospitality was accepted, and 

 Haydn was in obscurity enabled to pursue his studies. But his 

 residence with the friendly tradesman powerfully influenced his future 

 domestic life. Keller had a daughter, who was offered to the young 

 musician in marriage. He gave his promise to her, which after a time 

 he honourably fulfilled ; the union however did not contribute to the 

 happiness of either party, and ended in a separation not very long 

 after it had taken place. 



By giving a few lessons in music, and occasionally performing in the 

 orchestra for what he could get, Haydn supplied himself with absolute 

 necessaries; and frugality being one of the German virtues, he 

 managed to preserve a tolerably decent appearance till fortune first 

 began to smile on him, by leading him into tho house of the Abate 

 Metastasio, where he gave instructions to the poet's niece, and gained 

 not only a thorough acquaintance with the Italian language, but a 

 general knowledge of literature, and the most useful advice on the 

 subject of setting words to music, from the imperial laureate. This 

 connection also introduced him to the Count Martzin, a noble patron 

 of music, into whose service he entered in 1759; and hence, in 1761, 

 he passed into that of the rich Prince Esterhazy, to whom ho remained 

 attached, as Maestro di Capella, to the end of his life. 



Comfortably settled hi the palace of Eisenetadt, in Hungary, enjoy- 

 ing in moderation his favourite diversions of hunting and fishing, and 

 relieved from care for the future, Haydn there composed all the great 

 works which he produced prior to the year 1791, and under advan- 

 tages which few, if any, have possessed : he had a full choice band, 

 living under the same roof with him, at his command every hour in 

 the day ; he had only to order, and they were ready to try the effect 

 of any piece, or even of any passage, that, quietly seated in his 

 study, he might commit to paper. Thus at leisure he heard, cor- 

 ncted, and refined whatever he conceived, and never sent forth 

 his compositions till they were in a state to fearlessly challenge 

 criticism. 



We now arrive at that reriod in the life of Haydn in which were 

 produced most of those works that have raised his fame to the high 

 point it has attained. In 1790 Salomon, the celebrated violinist, 

 having determined to give a series of subscription concerts in London, 



