of Euripides, expressed himself as being at a
loss to understand the critics invariably preferring Sophocles to the
other two, and evidently placed Euripides and AEschylus first and
second respectively. A frequently true and natural feeling, whether
displayed by the author of the _Bacchae_, or by the composer of
_Fidelio_, evidently almost atoned, in his estimation, for every
deficiency.

[Footnote 24: _Essays_, i. 7, Fifth Edit.]

He writes to his sister, October, 1834: "There is a lady here" (at
Tunbridge Wells), "who plays most beautifully. I think I never heard
such a touch--why, I cannot make out, for she has not long fingers to
be brilliant. So you must set yourself to rival her. It would be
interesting to _examine_ the causes of expression, which you might
easily do. _Strength_ of finger is one thing certainly. This lady is
not brilliant in the common sense--that is, smart and rattling--but
every note is so full-toned, so perfect, that one requires nothing
beyond itself. This in Beethoven's effective passages produces a
surprising effect. I accompanied her last night and am to do so again
to-night."[25] He wrote in September, 1865, of a certain boy's
progress with the violin: "He plays fluently, so to say; by fluency I
mean in time, in tune, and with execution. This is stage one; stage
two is eloquence, by which I mean grace, delicacy, and expression. To
gain this nothing is better than to accompany his sisters. A boy who
always is first fiddle is in danger of artistic faults parallel to
those which are implied in the metaphorical sense of the words. When
he comes back I think he has had enough of the music-master, and I
shall try to make him turn his thoughts to a higher school of music
than is suitable to a beginner, but I cannot tell whether he is old
enough to take to it. I recollect how slow I was as a boy to like the
school of music which afterwards so possessed me that I have to come
to think Haydn, in spite of his genius, almost vulgar." And just as
Blanco White would seem to have thoroughly initiated Mr. Newman into
the mysteries of Beethoven, so did Dr. Newman lead on his boys (as
they would say) "to swear by" that master. They might start with
Corelli, and go on to Romberg, Haydn, and Mozart: their ultimate goal
was Beethoven, and round would come the "Father Superior" with ancient
copies of the quintet version of the celebrated septet, and
arrangements from the symphonies; nor were the first ten qua