Musicians will be interested by the fulness with which the Author's views on musical subjects so much in advance of his age, and so just and accurate are developed in many places, such as the dialogue called "The Poet and the Composer," and the conversation which precedes the tale "Master Martin." It would be of much interest could any of Hoffmann's numerous musical compositions be brought to light at the present day; they appear to have been considerably in advance of their period, although Weber's critique on one of Hoffmann's operas is full of high praise. A. E. _Taunton_, _September_, 1886. CONTENTS. SECTION I. PAGE THE STORY OF SERAPION 10 THE STORY OF KRESPEL 24 AN INTERRUPTED CADENCE 54 THE POET AND THE COMPOSER 76 SECTION II. A FRAGMENT OF THE LIVES OF THREE FRIENDS 105 THE ARTUS HOF 152 THE MINES OF FALUN 182 NUTCRACKER AND THE KING OF MICE 211 SECTION III. THE SINGERS' CONTEST 293 AUTOMATONS 352 THE DOGE AND THE DOGARESSA 382 SECTION IV. MASTER MARTIN, THE COOPER, AND HIS MEN 447 THE STRANGER CHILD 509 THE SERAPION BRETHREN. SECTION I. "Look at the question how one will, the bitter conviction is not to be got rid of by persuasion, or by force, that what has been never, never can be again. It is useless to contend with the irresistible power of Time, which goes on continually creating by a process of constant destruction. Nothing survives save the shadowy reflected images left by that part of our lives which has set, and gone far below our horizon; and they often haunt and mock us like evil, ghostly dreams. But _we_ are fools, and expect that matters which, in reality, were nothing but our _ideas_, parts and portions of our own individualities, are to be found actually existent in the world outside us, and blooming in perpetual youth! The woman we have loved and parted from, the friend to whom we have said good-bye, are both lost to us for ever. The people whom, perhaps years afterwards, we meet as _being_ them, are not the same whom we left, neither are we ever the same to them."