Pcrieir of Rccicics, 1/3/13. 



LEADING ARTICLES. 



57 



breast. The reason why opera has so 

 slender a hold upon the affections of 

 the English people is that it is largely 

 a pretence. I f we had an opera founded 

 on a modern subject of deep and 

 general interest, Mr. Cumberland is sure 

 it would command the respect denied to 

 the opera of passion. But in this coun- 

 try opera, he concludes, will remain an 

 exotic growth until we have a composer 

 absorbed in and obsessed by the pro- 

 blems of his own time. 



A FORERUNNER OF WAGNER. 



In the same magazine, Mr. Ernest 

 Newman has an article on Tgnaz Franz 

 Mosel (1772- 1 844), whom he describes as 

 a forerunner of Wagner. Mosel's idol, 

 we are told, was Gluck, and in a book 

 he expounded the principles on which 

 Gluck's reforms were founded, and 

 added suggestions prompted by a gene- 

 ration of further experience. Over and 



over again he anticipated Wagner. To 

 him the ideal opera was a combination, 

 on practically equal terms, of poetry, 

 music, acting, singing, and the art of the 

 stage. He regarded the drama as the 

 basis of opera. He advocated the use of 

 the German language in place of Ita- 

 lian, and as to subjects, he thought 

 mythological subjects the most suitable, 

 adding that if a poet could give his sub- 

 ject a national interest, he would make 

 of an opera something as moving as an 

 ancient Greek tragedy. Speaking of 

 the music, the composer's aim should be 

 to intensify the poet's emotion. Music, 

 he said, was not the end of opera, but 

 merely the means to the end. The first 

 necessity of opera, he declared, was the 

 complete intelligibility of the words. 

 The composer must express the poet's 

 idea as a whole, not in detail. Good 

 music will carry away a singer and 

 make an actor of him unknown to him- 

 self. 



THE THEOSOPHIC AND OCCULT. 



G. S. Arundle, M.A., LL.B., Principal 

 of the Central Hmdu College, Benares, 

 writing in the Theosophist for Decem- 

 ber, gives a vivid word picture of the 

 Theosophical College he would like to 

 see founded. The article is intensely 

 interesting, and many of the suggestions 

 might web be followed by colleges al- 

 ready in existence. The same writer 

 gives an account of a beautiful astral 

 experience. For a moment the veil was 

 lifted ; he was with Alcyone, and m the 

 presence of one of the great Masters. 

 They talk of the future. Suddenly the 

 scene changes, and they are in India. 

 Alcyone is standing on a hill ; below 

 him stretches a vast concourse of people 

 listening as he tells them of the oneness 

 of all life, of the brotherhood of man 

 and of the Fatherhood of God. 

 " Everything I see around me radiates 

 the unity, the stillness, and the peace, 

 and I watch, as it were, how Alcyone- 

 is it One greater than he? — calls to his 

 aid all the forces of Nature, so that 

 every creature, every tree, every plant, 



every flower, every stone, every blade of 

 grass, seems to sing with him his great 

 .Song of Love." So he describes his 

 vision, showing how truly the love of 

 the Divine Father is shown in all things 

 all around Other articles of interest 

 are " Reason and Faith," by C. Shudde- 

 magen, Ph.D., and " The Force of the 

 Master," by C. W. Leadbeater. 



The Christmas Number of the Occtdt 

 Revieiu contains several good articles. 

 Elliott O'Donnell, writing on " Cats and 

 the Unknown," maintains that the cat 

 has the psychic faculty of scent. He 

 says: " I believe in this psychic faculty 

 of smell lies wholly, or in greater part, 

 the solution to the riddle — Why is the 

 cat uncanny?" Geraldine de Robeck 

 contributes a very interesting article on 

 " Abnormal Phenomena in the Lives of 

 the Saints." Nina II. Scott tells of the 

 beliefs and superstitions of the inhabi- 

 tants of the Isle of Islay, where the " evil 

 eye," is a terror and the presence of the 

 "little people " an acknowledged fact. 

 Harry J. Strultoii writes on "The ^h's- 

 lical Marv." 



