In England, after Handel, and perhaps Haydn, the name of Mendelssohn stands next—that is, taking provincial opinion, which is chiefly concerned with choral works, into account, and not merely London and the larger civic centres. Indeed, it is hardly an exaggeration to say that he stands before Haydn. That master is known, among those of whom we speak, chiefly by his oratorio _The Creation_. But in this work the choral writing is less satisfactory to the average choral singer than either Handel—as represented, say, by _The Messiah_, _Samson_, or _Judas Maccabæus_—or Mendelssohn, by _Elijah_ and _The Hymn of Praise_; and for this reason Mendelssohn no doubt, in the opinion of such people, stands higher than the composer of _The Creation_. We are not arguing as to the justice of such an opinion, which of course leaves out of consideration the instrumentation and the solos of Haydn’s immortal work; but such a condition of things has, none the less, been of much service in England, for _Elijah_ presents many dramatic points which are not to be met with in either Handel or Haydn, and by the study of this work the taste of a very numerous class has been greatly advantaged, and that pernicious worship of Handel, which up to some twenty or thirty years ago dominated British choral music, has to a considerable extent been broken up. Thus the way has been cleared for the introduction of works by the serious musicians of our own time, which are apt to be misunderstood and neglected, because they are often written in a freely dramatic form that is strange, if not obnoxious, to the average chorister. This of course applies to choral music, but all the same a sound and progressive taste in one style is sure to affect the general judgment, and what is true of the oratorio will soon become equally so of the symphony, of chamber music, and of the other forms of composition. [Sidenote: =Mendelssohn’s Character=] Although from his youth up Mendelssohn exhibited a marked spontaneity of manner and freedom from the ordinary conventional restraints of life, yet there was all the time a serious side to his character which made itself manifest quite early in his career. Ferdinand Hiller relates that when Mendelssohn’s teacher, Aloys Schmitt, brought him as a boy to visit Hiller, as they approached the house Hiller, unobserved by them, saw from the window with what gaiety of demeanour Mendelssohn behaved, running behind and leaping on Schmitt’s back in a boisterous and uncontrolled manner, full of life and vigour. When they entered the house, however, while the youth was unconstrained, yet he became quite grave and dignified in his manner, and expressed, in what Hiller thought almost over-ripe a fashion, his views about art and artists. Later in life the same characteristic of restraint showed itself under circumstances of such perennial interest that the story may again be told.