Prince Esterhazy; and he spent thirty years in the obscure Hungarian village belonging to that family, passing only two or three months at Vienna when the prince came to court.

The national music of the Germans is rough, bold, and grand; and although they do not display the softness of the Italians, it is generally acknowledged that in instrumental music, and particularly in that for wind instruments, they have excelled all other nations. The introduction of a more refined manner was reserved for Haydn, who, in originality, pathos, and beautiful air, surpassed all rivalry. Besides numerous pieces for instruments, he composed many operas for the Esterhazy theatre, which were also performed in the theatres of Vienna and Berlin. He also excelled in church music, being only approached in this department by his brother Michael. An oratorio which he composed in 1775, under the title of Il Ritorno di Tobia, for the benefit of the widows of musicians, is as favourite a piece in Germany as Handel's Messiah is in England. His instrumental Passione, in parts, is among the most exquisite of his serious productions.

Although the fame of Haydn excited no small jealousy among his contemporaries, there were two, and these the greatest of them all-namely, Gluck and Mozartwho, with the generosity seldom found wanting in successful talent, warmly declared the friendly and admiring feelings with which they regarded him. In return, he did justice to their merits, and at the death of the latter, was extremely affected, declaring the loss irreparable.

In the service of Prince Esterhazy, Haydn might be considered as in circumstances extremely favourable to the full development of his powers, being at the head

of a great orchestra, and wholly free from the troubles and cares of the world. During that long period, his life was regular, and constantly employed. He rose early in the morning, dressed himself very neatly, and placed himself at a little table by the side of his pianoforte, where he remained with the interruption only of his meals. In the evening he attended rehearsals, or the opera, which was performed four times a week in the prince's palace. Occasionally he amused himself with hunting, and gave the rest of his hours of relaxation to the society of his friends. Living in the utmost retire ́ment, he himself was perhaps the only musical man in Europe who was ignorant of the celebrity of Joseph Haydn.

In 1790, Mr Salomon, who had undertaken to give concerts in London, made proposals to Haydn to assist in conducting these concerts, and to compose pieces for them, offering him £50 for each concert. Haydn accepted the offer, and arrived in England at the age of fifty-nine. He remained in London about twelve months, during which time he composed some of the finest of his works, particularly the magnificent orchestral compositions so well known as the Twelve Symphonies for Salomon's Concerts, and the beautiful English canzonets, the poetry of which was written by Mrs Hunter.

While he resided in London, Haydn enjoyed two high gratifications-that of hearing the music of Handel, with which, like most of his countrymen at that time, he was very slightly acquainted, and that of being present at the concerts of ancient music, which were then splendidly patronised, and carried on with great talent. He witnessed the annual celebration in St Paul's Cathedral, which is attended by the children belonging to the

charity schools in the metropolis; and was affected even to tears by the psalms sung in unison by four thousand infantine voices. One of these tunes he jotted down in his memorandum-book; and he used afterwards to say that this simple and natural air gave him the greatest pleasure he had ever received from music.

Haydn returned to England in 1794, having been engaged by Gallini, the manager of the Opera-house, to compose an opera for that theatre on the subject of Orpheus and Eurydice. But there was some difficulty about opening the theatre, and Haydn left England without having finished his opera. During this visit, he had the honour of the diploma of a Doctor of Music conferred on him by the University of Oxford.

After his return from England, he undertook his great work, the Creation. While in London, he had been inspired with the most profound admiration for the music of Handel, and especially the Messiah; and it is to this feeling that the world is certainly indebted for the Creation. He began this work in 1795, when he was sixtythree years of age, and finished it in the beginning of 1798, having been constantly employed upon it for more than two years.

Two years after the appearance of the Creation, Haydn produced another work, of a similar form, called the Seasons, the words of which are taken from Thomson. This work terminated Haydn's musical career. By the labours of his long life, he had acquired a moderate competency; and after his last return from England, he purchased a small house and garden in one of the suburbs of Vienna, where he resided for the remaining years of his life. Soon after he had taken possession

of his little home, he received a communication from the National Institute of France, informing him that he had been nominated an Associate of that body; an honour by which he was deeply affected. He now began to sink rapidly under the pressure of age and infirmities. He seldom quitted his house and garden; and his enfeebled mind began to be haunted with the double fear of poverty and disease. The visits of his friends would rouse him, and, in conversing with them, he occasionally shewed his former cheerfulness and vivacity. But these gleams were brief and transient, and he sank into his usual state of torpor and depression. His last days were agitated by warlike disturbance. In 1809, the French army led by Napoleon arrived at the gates of Vienna, and the explosion of bombs filled the household of Haydn with terror. On the 26th of May, he caused himself to be placed at his pianoforte, where he sang the national hymn, three times over, with all his remaining energy. It was the song of the swan. While he still sat at the pianoforte, he fell into a state of stupor, and at last expired on the morning of the 31st of May, aged seventy-eight years and two months.

Such was the life of this great, and, it may be added, good man. He was a stranger to every evil and malignant passion, and, indeed, was not much under the influence of passion of any sort. But his disposition was cheerful and gentle, and his heart was brimful of kindly affections. He was friendly and benevolent, open and candid in the expression of his sentiments, always ready to acknowledge and aid the claims of talent in his own art, and, in all his actions, distinguished by the most spotless integrity. His piety was not a mere feeling, capable, as is often the case with worldly men, of being

excited for the moment by circumstances, and dying away when the external influence is removed: it was an active principle, which guided the whole tenor of his life. and conduct. His sacred music was exalted by the existence, in his mind, of those devout sentiments which it is the object of sacred music to express.

JOSIAH WEDGWOOD.

THIS ingenious and amiable man, to whom England is largely indebted for many valuable improvements in pottery, was the younger son of a Staffordshire potter, who possessed a small entailed estate. He was born in July 1730, and received from his father a very limited education and a very small patrimony. At an early period of life he applied himself to his father's profession, which was then limited to the production of only the coarsest kinds of earthenware.

The art of fabricating vessels from clay, which was known to the Egyptians and other nations of antiquity, and also to the Chinese (who made the superior kind. called China-ware so early as the fifth century), was practised at Burslem and some adjacent places in Staffordshire, in, and perhaps before, the reign of Charles II. The possession of extensive fields of clay, and the unfitness of the soil for agriculture, seem to have been the original causes of establishing the earthenware manufacture in this part of England. At the time mentioned the art was in a very rude state, the ware being all extremely clumsy, the colours both coarse and very unskilfully applied, the glazing consisting entirely of