nd quality,
to deserve the name of a public. The sweetness and freshness of her
voice struck me more than ever, but it appears to me rather wanting in
power; and the same impression was produced upon me when I heard her
sing in the Kursaal here. If there should be deficiency of power in the
voice, it will, I fear, affect her success in so large a theatre as
Covent Garden.... She sings Norma again to-night at Mayence, and I am
going--of course without any anxiety, for her success is already
established here; and with great anticipations of pleasure--more even,
if possible, from her acting than her singing; for the latter I am
already familiar with, but of the former I have no experience, and have
always entertained the greatest expectations of it, and I think I shall
not be disappointed.

We have obtained very pleasant apartments here, and I have established
Anne and the children quite comfortably; they were beginning to suffer
from the perpetual moving about, and I shall let them remain undisturbed
here, during the rest of our stay in Germany, and shall either stay
quietly with them, or accompany my sister, if it is determined that we
are to do so, to the places of her various engagements.

Since writing the above, I have seen my sister act Norma, and her
performance fully equalled my expectation; which is great praise, for I
have always had the highest opinion of her dramatic powers, and was, as
I believe you know, earnest with her at one time to leave the opera
stage and become an actress in her own language, as I was very sure of
her entire success, and thought it a better and higher order of thing
than this mere uttering of sound, and perpetual representation of
passion and emotion, comparatively unmixed with intellect. To be sure,
that would be to sacrifice some of her fine natural endowments, and the
art and science of music, in which she has, at so much cost of time and
labor, so thoroughly perfected herself, and which is in itself so
exquisite a thing.... Her carriage is good, easy, and unembarrassed; her
gestures and use of her arms remarkably graceful and appropriate. There
is very little too much action, and that which appears to me redundant
may simply seem so because her conception of the character is, in some
of its parts, impulsive, where it strikes me as concentrated, and would
therefore be sterner and stiller in its effect than she occasionally
makes it. But she has evidently thought over the whole mos