Without assuming to do so, he collected in luminous sheaves the impressions felt everywhere throughout his country--vaguely felt it is true, yet in fragments pervading all hearts.

Is it not by this power of reproducing in a poetic formula, enchanting to the imagination of all nations, the indefinite shades of feeling widely scattered but frequently met among their compatriots, that the artists truly national are distinguished?
Not without reason has the task been undertaken of collecting the melodies indigenous to every country.

It appears to us it would be of still deeper interest, to trace the influences forming the characteristic powers of the authors most deeply inspired by the genius of the nation to which they belong.

Until the present epoch there have been very few distinctive compositions, which stand out from the two great divisions of the German and Italian schools of music.

But with the immense development which this art seems destined to attain, perhaps renewing for us the glorious era of the Painters of the CINQUE CENTO, it is highly probable that composers will appear whose works will be marked by an originality drawn from differences of organization, of races, and of climates.