The musical education of youth was principally intrusted to the Church. Monasteries and religious institutions were careful to train the musical strength, which was later to be at their disposal; special institutions were founded, which were in part the origin of the future Conservatoires, whose mission it was to train their scholars as singers, instrumentalists, or composers, and in every case as thoroughly cultivated musicians. In Venice there were four such foundations in which boys, and more especially girls, received musical instruction, preparatory to devoting themselves to the service of the Church: the Ospidale della Pietà, intended for foundlings; Ospedaletto, where Sacchini was kapellmeister at this time; Gli Mendicanti, and Gli Incurabili, then under Galuppi's direction.[5] In Naples were similar establishments, De Poveridi Gesù-Christo; Della Pietà de' Turchini; S. Onofrio; Loretto. Though all were originally intended as nurseries for church music, yet they were of almost equal service to music of a secular nature; indeed, the most highly gifted among the scholars were likely to prefer the more brilliant and profitable career of the opera stage. But the separation was never complete; operatic composers for the most part worked also for the churches, where opera singers and even professional instrumentalists were often heard. Ecclesiastics, too, practised music in various branches, often with zeal and success. Although this union of musical forces, through the overpowering influence of the opera, worked in time prejudicially on the dignity and purity of church music, yet there can be no doubt of its good effect on the study of form and musical science. The result was all the greater, since the almost instinctive steadfastness of the national taste preserved musicians from aberrations which are only to be checked by rigid limitations as to style and form. An art so formed, {THE ITALIAN TOUR.} (104) with so one-sided a cultivation, must of course die out in the end; but the extraordinary accomplishments of numerous Italian masters cannot fail to impress us with admiration of the share which Italian music, in its fulness of life and activity, had in producing a true musical atmosphere. It was indeed, this firm foundation of scientific knowledge which made possible a liberation of music from its confined Italian limits without abandoning the laws of artistic formation.