Of the two Quintets, that in A, of the juvenile period, is fresh, bright, full of life and charm, having a lovely _Andante Intermezzo_, and an elfin _Scherzo_. The much later one, in B flat, by the irrepressible and soaring impetus of its _Allegro vivace_,--challenge bravely answered in the _finale_,--by the sad ballad-like _Andante scherzando_ in D minor; and by its profoundly, grandly beautiful _Adagio_, is perhaps more popular and always welcomed with sincere delight. There remains the Octet, written just before the Midsummer Night's Dream. It is not a double quartet, two quartets reinforcing or offsetting one another; but it is a conference of eight real parts, eight individualities. The _ensemble_, especially the fiery opening _Allegro_, has the richness and fullness of an organ's diapasons, and naturally abounds in contrapuntal imitation to keep eight such parts employed. It is laid out on the broad scale of a symphony, with great contrast between its several movements, especially between the airy-light, crisp _staccato_ of its _Scherzo_ (forerunner of the fairy overture) and the grand sweep and rush, like a freshet, of the _Presto_ finale. The work bears performance by all the strings of an orchestra, and is not seldom so presented. We come now to his poetic, fascinating Concert Overtures, already ushered in by Shakespeare's fairy wand. Three of these date shortly after the Midsummer Night's Dream. The finest of them is the first, scored in Rome a year or two after his visit to the Hebrides, the outgrowth of an attempt to convey to his sister Fanny, in a piano sketch, his impressions of the "lonely island." The overture is often called "Fingal's Cave." It does not deal in literal description. It is not realistic. It is the feeling of the scene, subjectively conceived. The leading theme (B minor) suggests the dreamy reverie of one leaning over the water, absorbed in its commingling, fluctuating, mystic ebb and flow. The same poetic spirit sang the _Gondellieder_. In the strong answering motive you feel the wild force of the waves dashing on the rock-bound shores; loud calls give the sense of distance; you hear cries of sea-birds; while all bespeaks the watery atmosphere, the solemn silence and the mystic solitude of ocean.