has the merit of having removed the opera from the icy pathos of mythology into real life, into the purely human, and from the Italian to the German language, and thereby to a national path. The most remarkable feature of his operas is the musical characteristic he has given to every figure, so that each acting personage has become an immortal type. That which he has made, he alone could make: a god-like creation, all flooded with light. In hearing Mozart I always wish to exclaim: 'Eternal sunshine in music, thy name is Mozart!'" Mozart once said in regard to his lesser works, "Woe to the man that judges me by these trifles." But the skill in instrumentation, the heaven-born song, the spontaneity of counterpoint, and the exquisite sense of proportion are often displayed in the serenades and _divertimenti_. And in these qualities of art he still reigns supreme. It is true that he founded no school in the narrow sense of the word; but he smoothed the path for Beethoven; and without him the noble line in direct succession would have been of later birth. It is idle, and yet it is common in these days, to compare a composer of one generation, or even of a century, with the composer of earlier or later years. Music itself is in a measure the expression of its time. When counterpoint was regarded as the only medium of music, the opera itself was stiffened by its contrapuntal dress, and religion could only find vent in a fugue. When the singer waxed arrogant, music existed only for his vain glory. Now we are taught to believe that absolute music, music that does not "paint" or "personate" or follow a "program," is of little account; that unless it puts in clearer light some poetical thought or some determined emotion or natural phenomenon, it is worthless; that music is not merely the vehicle of musical thought, but is rather a means of expressing many ideas that might be better expressed in poetry, in prose, or on the canvas. So the times change and with them the fashions in art of every species. There is then perhaps no greatest composer. Plutarchian comparisons between the men of different centuries are of little avail in determining true values. A man must be judged by the conditions of his own time and compared with the men who worked by his side. And what compositions of Mozart's day, instrumental or operatic, have stood the test of the revenger Time? Even the mighty Gluck with his noble theories and statuesque music has bowed the knee to the younger rival. Figaro and Papageno and the dissolute Don Juan Tenorio y Salazar live to-day upon the stage; they are as familiar as the characters of the Old Testament; as Robinson Crusoe or Don Quixote; they are immortalized by the genius of the music-maker of Vienna. It may be said without exaggeration that no composer began his work with such a natural endowment; that Nature created him the greatest musician. His dear friend Haydn, a man not given to vain compliments, a man of hard sense,