remarkable, therefore, that he should not have recognized the difficulties he was placing in the way both of the composer and the performers. The ode has sixty-one lines, divided into eight stanzas of unequal lengths. It sketches the past and present of the nation, the powers which opposed its progress and hindered the development of its freedom, and the elements which at last produced success, closing with cheering auguries for the future, and a welcome to the world. All this might have been set to smooth and fluent verse, which would readily have adapted itself to music; but what composer could have treated successfully such verses as these?-- "Mayflower, Mayflower, slowly hither flying, Trembling westward o'er yon balking sea, Hearts within, 'Farewell, dear England,' sighing, Winds without, 'But dear in vain,' replying, Gray-lipp'd waves about thee shouted, crying, 'No! it shall not be!' "Jamestown, out of thee-- Plymouth, thee--thee, Albany-- Winter cries, 'Ye freeze; away!' Fever cries, 'Ye burn; away!' Hunger cries, 'Ye starve; away!' Vengeance cries, 'Your graves shall stay!' "Hark! Huguenots whispering 'Yea' in the dark, Puritans answering 'Yea' in the dark! 'Yea,' like an arrow shot true to his mark, Darts through the tyrannous heart of Denial. Patience and Labor and solemn-souled Trial, Foiled, still beginning, Soiled, but not sinning, Toil through the stertorous death of the Night, Toil, when wild brother-wars new-dark the light, Toil, and forgive, and kiss o'er, and re-plight." Even in the last verse, where the composer must make his climax, and the singers must be most effective, they are confronted with this unsingable line:-- "And wave the world's best lover's welcome to the world." The only musical verse is the reply of the angel to Columbia in the midst of her ragged and cacophonous meditation, which the composer selected as a solo for bass voice:[20]-- "Long as thine Art shall love true love, Long as thy Science truth shall know, Long as thine Eagle harms no Dove, Long as thy Law by law shall grow, Long as thy God is God above, Thy brother every man below, So long, dear Land of all my love, Thy name shall shine, thy fame shall grow." The prelude for orchestra determines the motive of the whole cantata, and is very spirited; for here, at least, the composer was not hampered by words. The opening verse,-- "From this hundred-terraced height,"