t
the meaning of the picture and of its name. The reply was, 'Why--do you
not see? Those birds are owls, and they are asleep, and the deer is
asleep too, and so they are all watchers!' 'Ah!' returned the lady, as
if this lucid explanation had flooded the subject with light. We were
accompanied by a very bright young girl, who, desirous of visiting the
studio of Mr. Church, and disappointed at learning that it had not been
opened to the guests of the building, exclaimed, 'Heart of the Andes,
indeed! Where is his own?' No lover of the true and the beautiful could
have resisted the pleading of those earnest blue eyes. We also overheard
that 'the Tenth-street boys hold their heads mighty high!' Long may they
continue to do so, and long may success of every kind crown their
efforts, whether as artists or as conscientious, patriotic men!

GOUNOD'S 'FAUST.'

This opera has attracted large audiences wherever it has been
represented, and has elicited much attention and criticism from the
musical public. Dwight's _Journal of Music_, Boston, January 23d,
contains the best review of its merits and defects which we have thus
far chanced to meet. Mr. Dwight gives M. Gounod ample credit for the
good judgment, common sense, science, taste, poetic feeling, rich and
highly dramatic orchestration, ingenious musical characterization of
individuals and situations, and the many passages of beautiful music
found in this elaborate work, but denies to him the _highest_
inspiration, the spontaneity of genius, and the attainment of any very
lofty ideal in the production of continuous, elevated, and
soul-entrancing melodies. We think this a pretty fair statement of the
facts in the case. Mr. Dwight, however, says: 'Not even Mozart in 'Don
Juan' had so great a subject;' and in this connection we feel compelled
to offer a few remarks. We think every great composer owes it to his own
God-gift, and to the human beings whom he is to influence, not to select
intrinsically repulsive subjects, and such have we found both 'Don Juan'
and 'Faust.' Now we are not morbidly fastidious, and we well know the
freedom that must be accorded to art, that it may have ample scope and
range in the delineation of human feeling and romantic situation; but
when we see a representation of 'Don Juan,' we instinctively strive to
ignore the plot, with its odious characters (the sensual Don, the
coarse-minded servant, the unwomanly, man-seeking Elvira, the vengeful
Anna, th