Meyerbeer was a German, but early adopted Italian methods. He was an excellent business man, possessed ample means, and therefore secured deserved recognition early in his career, instead of having lived almost a life of deferred hopes, as is usually the good musician's lot. Meyerbeer is melodious, and is often dramatic, but unlike Weber, sometimes belittles his art in catering to public tastes. His pageant and ballet music are the most characteristic and impressive features of his operas. Wagner expressed contempt for Meyerbeer, but evidently recognized the grandeur of the operatic pageantry of which he was the creator. We see evidences of this phase of Meyerbeer's influence until we pass the "Lohengrin" stage. Many other good operas were produced during the first half of this century, but as they were not potential factors in operatic evolution, I shall mention them only in passing. Adam wrote "Postillion;" Auber, "Fra Diavolo," "Die Stumme von Portici," etc.; Flotow, "Martha" and "Alessandro Stradella;" Hérold, "Zampa;" Kreutzer, "Nachtlager von Granada;" Lortzing, "Der Waffenschmied," "Der Czar und Zimmermann," etc; Marschner, "Hans Heiling," "Der Templer und die Jüdin," and "Der Vampyre;" Nicolai, "The Merry Wives;" Spohr, "Jessonda" and "Faust," and Schumann, "Genoveva." All of these operas are still given at least occasionally, and most of them are excellent musical compositions. The situation at the time when Wagner first manifested a defined tendency towards the music drama was as follows: Gluck had given the world his two great works, and they, together with "Fidelio," "Don Juan," "The Magic Flute," "The Marriage of Figaro," "Der Freischutz," and "Oberon" of the German, and "Trovatore," "William Tell," "Norma," "Lucia di Lammermoor," "La Sonnambula," "Robert le Diable," "Der Prophet," and "Die Hugenotten" of the Italian, were the most prominent and best examples of operatic writing. Although the first steps towards the emancipation of opera from inconsistencies were the result of conditions rather than of premeditation, Wagner had sufficient genius to appreciate the power inherent in logical sequence: a power which, when compared with that resulting from eccentric modes, is as the progress of the ages to that of a leaf borne by the wind. Logical sequence moves onward with irresistible momentum, whereas fragmentary diction is blown about by every wind of caprice. The condition which most influenced Wagner's conceptions was his relation as poet to his musical undertakings. He was in each instance first poet and then composer, and nothing could have been more natural than his early evinced disposition to guard his texts from distorted, disconnected renderings. This disposition grew, as through experience his grasp became more and more comprehensive. There were no backward steps in his career. It was like his schemes,--consequent,--advancing unwaveringly from inception to full realization in "Parsifal" and "Tristan und Isolde."