We have it from undoubted authority—and record the fact for the benefit of all aspirants to public applause—that the Quartett-party, which has run the most brilliant and extended course, has devoted to the object which called it into existence the largest amount of industry and energy, in private preparation for its public exhibitions—these qualities being by them considered necessary additions to a well-digested experience, which, as the ground to begin upon, they previously possessed. Instead of rushing into public the moment they had formed their compact with each other, and trusting to the novelty of their introduction, or relying on a name already inscribed in capitals, indicative of honours achieved in another branch of the art, more dependent on manual dexterity than on mental cultivation—we find these (then young) professors patiently submitting themselves to the drudgery of preparation. There is the best authority for stating that they did not think six or eight rehearsals, previous to the production of a work in public, too much trouble, or time and application thrown away, or even unnecessarily bestowed. The success of their undertakings has been commensurate with the pains which they underwent to secure it. This accounts for their having achieved the vantage-ground in the general competition for distinction, while others, of more matured reputation as individual performers, failed to attain the preference which they were equally in quest of, by _apparently_ the same path. How otherwise, it might be asked, could ... But lest some should consider the digression to be growing tedious, let us at once resume the object with which we started, and complete our biographical sketch—leaving the facts and hints that have been incidentally recorded, to the further (private) meditation of such as are more particularly interested in them.