ccount of him given by all those who knew him best; and they add,
as the most remarkable feature of his character, that strong and
deeply-rooted sense of religion, which is the only solid
foundation of moral excellence. Haydn's piety was not a mere
feeling, capable, as is often the case with worldly men, of being
excited for the moment by circumstances, and dying away when the
external influence is removed; it was an active principle, which
guided the whole tenor of his life and conduct. His sacred music
was exalted by the existence, in his mind, of those devout
sentiments which it is the object of sacred music to express.
'When I was engaged in composing _The Creation_,' he used to say,
'I felt myself so penetrated with religious feeling, that before I
sat down to write, I earnestly prayed to God that he would enable
me to praise him worthily.'"--(Vol. i. 304.)
Similar feelings of strong piety, as well as of generous benevolence,
animated and inspired the great and amiable man whose character is
more immediately the subject of this article. It would be difficult,
indeed, to think of an oratorio or requiem written by a scoffer or a
sceptic.
With such exalted requisites, so intense a power, and so extensive a
range of influence, it is strange that the composer should not have
taken the rank and relative dignity to which he seems entitled in the
province of the arts. But honour and fame are chiefly dispensed by
poets and literary men; and it is impossible not to feel that,
generally speaking, the musician is treated by men of letters as an
alien from their own lineage. Music may be praised in vague and
evasive terms; but the individual composer is not deemed deserving of
mention. All the great masters of the pencil have been cordially
commended in immortal verse; but of the great composers' names scarce
a notice is to be found. It is not wonderful that the poet should
prize above all others his own form of art. Poetry, as the mouthpiece
of practical wisdom, as the clearest interpreter of all instruction,
must ever hold an undisputed pre-eminence. Painting, too, as nearest
akin to poetry in the objects it presents and the effects it produces,
may be allowed at least to contest the palm for the second rank. But
that music in the person of her most inspired sons, should have been
sternly excluded from a participation in the honours awarded to her
sister arts, seems an i
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