PROGRESSION OF THE ART. 195 operas of Rossini considered by the admirers of Mozart; yet his airs, by the beauty of their rhythm, have found their way into every country on the globe. As to Beethoven's music, the critics of the day, whom I personally knew, pronounced it the ravings of a madman, and, after hearing it for thirty years, now speak of it with wonder and admiration. Music has been progressive ever since the time of the ancient Greeks, and has always given singular delight; but, of all the arts, it has been the slowest in advancing to perfection. At each revolution, it was imagined that the limits of the art had been reached, and that nothing remained beyond, Music exists on emotions, which are more lively as they are more varied. They are also quickly effaced, and therefore, in this art, the necessity of novelty is felt more than in any other. Hence, the interest that is taken in musical eras, and the enthusiasm they excite. Hence, too, the regrets of those who are wedded to music of olden date, and their exclamations that music is gone! -music is totally ruined! which signifies nothing more than that the style of music has been changed. CHAPTER XLVIII. OLD AGE. "When alone" says Lady Ann Lindsay-"I am not above five and twenty, and forget that I am sixty-eight. I see myself in the glass and look very abominably disappointed, I own, but I feel young at heart." The force of this sensation I have felt, and am surprised that I am ranked among old men. Like Lady Ann, I find I am a little changed, when I look in the glass and find not the face of twenty-five. Puzzled at the strangeness of the change, I reflect upon past events, before I can reconcile myself to the fact that time really has made this alteration in me. Still, looking upon this changeable world with undiminished pleasure, I say to myself how lucky it is that we do not often notice the ravages that time is constantly making, or how could we bear up against the reflections which would naturally arise. Painful, indeed, it is to behold in others!-to see those who once figured in youth and beauty's train, now bending like a withered flower! It is to the mind, then, we must turn for real satisfaction. Unimpaired by old age, it grows in beauty and power, and is neither injured nor defaced by time or sickness. Physiologists tell us that the body is constantly undergoing a change; that no person at the age of * |