ts, he must make himself its scholar, must
humbly follow the thoughts given him, and must aim at the glory, not
of his own gift, but of the Great Giver."[28] How entirely is this
spirit in accord with the Congregation of Rites; with the sentiments,
indeed, of every lover of true church-music. He was thus very slow to
take (if he ever really took) to new-comers on the field of sacred
music. And holding, as he did, that no good work could be adequately
adjudged without a thorough knowledge of it, he was disinclined to be
introduced to fresh musical names at all, on the bare chance, that
might never occur, of what had been a casual acquaintanceship ripening
into intimate friendship. He had in early days found time and
opportunity to comprehend certain masters, Corelli, Handel, Haydn,
Romberg, Mozart, and Beethoven, but Schubert, Schumann, Wagner ("I
cannot recollect all the fellows' names"[29]); who were these
strangers, intruding somewhat late in the evening upon a dear old
family party? Thus, writing of Mendelssohn's chief sacred work in
March, 1871, which he had been reluctantly induced to go and listen
to, and which he never got to hear again: "I was very much
disappointed the one time that I heard the _Elijah_, not to meet with
a beautiful melody from beginning to end. What can be more beautiful
than Handel's, Mozart's, and Beethoven's melodies?" Now, of course,
there is plenty of melody in the _Elijah_, though it may be conceded
that Mendelssohn's melodious gift is less _copious_ than that of
Mozart, but the fact was, Cardinal Newman never got to know the
_Elijah_, doubtless deemed it long, and felt content to feed upon the
musical _pabulum_ that he had so long found satisfying. And underlying
this particular form of the _gravamen_ against Mendelssohn, we should
say that there existed a species of irritation with some of the modern
oratorio. Was it not very possibly in his eyes a kind of Protestant
rejuvenescence of an eighteenth century Biblical institution, all
quietly founded, without acknowledgment, on St. Philip's own Catholic
creation,[30] and nowadays bidding fair to do duty at convenient
intervals for proper religious worship with large numbers alike of
church-goers and of people who never go to church? Better oratorio
here, it may be said, than nothing at all, and that may be conceded;
but we have an impression that the Cardinal looked jealously at the
use of Scripture for general musical performances in conc