Yet, when he chose, Berlioz could write the most exquisite and dainty lyrics possible. What could be more exquisitely tender than many of his songs and romances, and various of the airs and choral pieces from "Beatrice et Benedict," from "Nuits d'Été," "Irlande," and from "L'Enfance du Christ?" Berlioz in his entirety, as man and composer, was a most extraordinary being, to whom the ordinary scale of measure can hardly be applied. Though he founded no new school, he pushed to a fuller development the possibilities to which Beethoven reached out in the Ninth Symphony. He was the great _virtuoso_ on the orchestra, and on this Briarean instrument he played with the most amazing skill. Others have surpassed him in the richness of the musical substance out of which their tone-pictures are woven, in symmetry of form, in finish of detail; but no one has ever equalled him in that absolute mastery over instruments, by which a hundred become as plastic and flexible as one, and are made to embody every phase of the composer's thought with that warmth of colour and precision of form long believed to be necessarily confined to the sister arts. [Decoration] APPENDIX. CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 1520-1594 _Palestrina._ 1633-1687 _Lulli._ 1658-1695 _Purcell._ 1659-1725 _A. Scarlatti._ 1685-1750 _J. S. Bach._ 1685-1759 _Handel._ 1710-1736 _Pergolesi._ 1714-1787 _Gluck._ 1728-1800 _Piccini._ 1732-1809 _Haydn._ 1741-1816 _Paisiello._ 1741-1813 _Grétry._ 1749-1801 _Cimarosa._ 1756-1791 _Mozart._ 1760-1842 _Cherubini._ 1763-1817 _Méhul._ 1770-1827 _Beethoven._ 1774-1851 _Spontini._ 1775-1834 _Boïeldieu._ 1782-1871 _Auber._ 1786-1826 _Weber._ 1791-1864 _Meyerbeer._ 1792-1868 _Rossini._ 1797-1828 _Schubert._ 1798-1848 _Donizetti._ 1799-1862 _Halévy._ 1802-1835 _Bellini._ 1803-1869 _Berlioz._ 1809-1847 _Mendelssohn._ 1809-1849 _Chopin._ 1810-1856 _Schumann._ 1813-1883 _Wagner._ 1813 _Verdi._ 1818 _Gounod._ PRINTED BY WALTER SCOTT, FELLING, NEWCASTLE-ON-TYNE. _MONTHLY SHILLING VOLUMES._ GREAT WRITERS. A New Series of Critical Biographies. Edited by Professor ERIC S. ROBERTSON. _ALREADY ISSUED_-- LIFE OF LONGFELLOW. By Professor ERIC S. ROBERTSON. "The story of the poet's life is well told.... The remarks on Longfellow as a translator are excellent."--_Saturday Review._ "No better life of Longfellow has been published."--_Glasgow Herald._ LIFE OF COLERIDGE. By HALL CAINE. The _Scotsman_ says--"It is a capital book.... Written throughout with spirit and great literary skill. The bibliography is unusually full, and adds to the value of the work."