Out of this condition come two bright lights that rivet our attention upon Cantor Bach's old home as the centre of influence. Our stream of development, which was a rivulet as it flowed from Flanders, soon became a mighty river, and has now overflowed its banks and formed a great sea of culture. Mendelssohn was one of the most genial characters that we meet in the annals of music. His education and temperament made the adequate adjustment of resources to the fulfilment of his schemes almost intuitive; but his conceptions themselves, although invariably round and poetic, usually lack the bold lines and the deep import that have distinguished the creations of our high-priests. Human characters, like forest-trees, seem to need exposure to trying winds, which if successfully weathered only strengthen their fibres and loosen the soil about their roots, so that they may spread out and extend downward to fresh and deeper sources of impulse. It may be that Mendelssohn's life conditions were too peaceful, that he was too much sheltered from care and adversity to fully develop the depth and nobility of his nature, which flashes out in some parts of "Saint Paul" and "Elijah," and pervades the "Walpurgis Night." His happy disposition found its most characteristic expression in inimitable scherzi and works of that less emotional class. Mendelssohn's elegance of style, richness of color, and his personality caused a wave of imitation to set across musical production, but it soon subsided, for only the most stalwart methods endure the dilution incident to their adoption by lesser talent without degenerating to insipid weakness. Mendelssohn's greatest service to the musical world was rendered in his persistent advocacy of Bach. Schumann, our fifth high-priest, had to encounter the difficulties of life in the open field, having had no social nor financial breastworks from behind which he could ignore the "arrows of outrageous fortune." His path was strewn with thorns, and was unlighted by recognition until near its end. Schumann was not so consummate a master of counterpoint as was Mendelssohn, but his stronger individuality and deeper sensibility filled his fancies with epoch-making qualities. Our art had during the previous quarter century taken on more intensity, greater freedom in voice leading, and, last of all, a well-defined romantic vein. [Illustration: SCHUMANN] By permission of E. H. Schroeder, Berlin