to devote a considerable amount of time to composition, and made frequent journeys in the interest of his profession. It would, however, be going too far to say that Bach's position at St. Thomas's was in every way a congenial one. On the contrary many of its duties were irksome to him, and he did not always find it agreeable to be brought into close contact with pupils who, in part at least, were wild and undisciplined. During the first part of his stay, under the lenient rule of the rector, Johann Heinrich Ernesti, the situation was very trying. We must remember that Bach was an artist, and, as such, of an irritable and capricious disposition, hence little adapted to the training of unruly youths. For the rest, although there was indeed no lack of musical interest in Leipsic, the performers engaged by the town authorities bore no comparison with those in the service of the princes' courts, and the proximity of Dresden, where the most eminent singers and instrumentalists were in active co-operation, was unfavorable, on account of easily-instituted comparisons. The town council of Leipsic could not and would not imitate the lavish generosity of the Saxon court in musical matters, and there is no doubt that it often failed to supply what was strictly necessary. A decided want of tact was also shown in dealing with a great artist, revered by the whole musical world, in precisely the same manner as with any other government official. That Bach was often oppressed with discontent is not to be wondered at, and the feeling seems to have reached its culminating point in the year 1730. After discharging the duties of his office for seven years and composing works of such magnitude as the St. John and St. Matthew Passions, numerous church and jubilee cantatas, including three of the latter order in celebration of the second centenary anniversary of the Augsburg Confession in 1730, it was nevertheless said in a council meeting held on the 2d of August, that the cantor was lazy, did not give proper attention to the singing lessons, and, had taken all sorts of unwarrantable liberties, in punishment for which a diminution of his fees had been resolved upon. The "liberties" consisted in his having once sent a member of the choir into the country without previously informing the Burgomaster and having himself made a journey without asking leave. So far as the singing-lessons were concerned, it had for a hundred years been customary for the cantor to give up the charge of them to the prefect of the choir, except on unusually important occasions. By way of response to this incredible proceeding on the part of the council, Bach drew up a memorial with the following title: "A brief but necessary Statement of what constitutes well appointed church music, with a few unprejudiced observations on its present state of decay." In this document he makes a statement of the amount of money he would require in order to organize