lar voice. Even with these humbler hands to build up his monument,
the great master of music has a perpetual possession within the hearts
of men, that the poet and the painter may well envy. Every chord in
the human frame that answers to his strains, every tear that rises at
the bidding of his cadences, every sob that struggles for an outlet at
his touches of despairing tenderness, or at the thunders of his
massive harmony, is a tribute to his power and his memory, enough to
console his spirit if it can still be conscious of them, or to have
rewarded his living labours in their progress by a bright anticipation
of their effects. If nobles, and even nations, do not contend for the
possession of his works, or offer a ransom for their purchase, such as
is daily given for the masterpieces of the painter's power; it is the
pride of his genius that his compositions cannot be appropriated or
possessed. An oratorio of Handel, or an opera of Mozart, cannot become
property like a picture of Raphael or Guido. They belong to mankind at
large, open to all, and enjoyable by all who have the faculty to
perceive, and delight in, their beauties; and in every theatre and
public place, in every church and in every chamber throughout
Christendom, a portion of their divine and various influence, suited
to the scene and occasion, is always within reach, to make men gentler
and better, happier and holier, than they would otherwise be without
such manifestations of their Maker's wondrous gifts.

Nowhere can the views we have above suggested be better illustrated,
than in the fate and character of the singular man who, if not the
first, was yet only second to one other, among those on whom music has
shed her fullest inspiration.

It is not our intention to follow minutely the events of Mozart's
life. They are generally well known; and to those who wish to have a
clear, complete, and judicious view of them, we can safely recommend
the book noticed at the outset of this article.

Mozart was born at Salzburg in 1756, and died at Vienna in 1791, in
his thirty-sixth year. But into that short space were compressed as
many proofs and compositions of genius, as much joy and sorrow, as
much triumph and humiliation, as would have crowded a much longer
lifetime. His early indications of genius are well known, and were
indeed wonderful, even as compared with those of other great
composers--for Handel, Haydn, and Beethoven, all gave proofs of their
music