' 2" * ftEklSCHfit* AND HIS WORK 



concerts and balls in a " rendezvous of the diseased," 

 where "ministers of state, judges, generals, bishops, 

 projectors, philosophers, wits, poets, players, fiddlers, 

 and buffoons " met and trifled, amid " dressing, and 

 fiddling, and dancing, and gadding, and courting, and 

 plotting." But so it was; and never were men and 

 pursuits so unlike brought face to face, or placed side 

 by side in the business of life. 



When " the music and entertainments of Bath were 

 over for the season," and " when not a soul was seen 

 in the place but a few broken- winded parsons, waddling 

 like so many crows along the North Parade, great 

 overgrown dignitaries and rectors, with rubicund 

 noses and gouty ankles, or broad bloated faces, drag- 

 ging along great swag bellies, the emblems of sloth and 

 indigestion," this pleasant-faced director of concerts 

 and oratorios, this man of smiling look and noble 

 bearing, wearied out with the music of the season, 

 sought rest and refreshment in a constant and devoted 

 study of the higher music of the heavens. He had 

 none to help him but a younger sister, who was un- 

 willingly dragged from the concert-room and the 

 theatre to less congenial pursuits, and for some time a 

 younger brother, who was believed to play the violon- 

 cello divinely, and who certainly could apply himself 

 with credit to mechanical pursuits. With untiring 

 energy he worked out this ancient music of the spheres, 

 till the world was astonished at his success, learning 

 confessed her debts to his genius, and a new era 

 dawned in the history of science. He sprang into fame 

 almost at one bound, passed from theatre and music-room 

 to the Hall of the Royal Society, and was saluted by 

 organs of public opinion as an " extraordinary man." 



