[I am honoured in the charge given me, without dissent, by the present members of the St. George's Company, to convey their thanks to MR. SAMUEL PLIMSOLL, in the terms stated at the close of my last letter.]

LETTER LVII.

I HAVE received, from the author, M. Émile de Lavelaye, his pamphlet," Protestantism and Catholicism in their bearing upon the Liberty and Prosperity of Nations, with an introductory letter by Mr. Gladstone." I do not know why M. de Lavelaye sent me this pamphlet. I thank him for the courtesy; but he has evidently read none of my books, or must have been aware that he could not have written anything more contrary to the positions which I am politically maintaining. On the other hand, I have read none of his books, and I gather from passages in his pamphlet that there may be much in them to which I should be able to express entire adhesion.

But of the pamphlet in question, and its preface, he will, I trust, pardon my speaking in the same frank terms which I should have used had it accidentally come under my notice, instead of by the author's gift. The pamphlet is especially displeasing to me, because it speaks of Liberty' under the common assumption of its desirableness; whereas my own teaching has been, and is, that Liberty, whether in the body, soul, or political estate of men, is only another word for Death, and the final issue of Death, putrefaction: the body, spirit, and political estate being alike healthy only by their bonds and laws; and by Liberty being instantly disengaged into mephitic vapour.

But the matter of this pamphlet, no less than the assumption it is based on, is hateful to me; reviving, as it does, the

be done for young folks to whom "music has little attraction, except in the form of dance, and pictures are nothing"?

With her pardon, pictures are much, to this class of young people. The woodcuts of halfpenny novels representing scenes of fashionable life,—those representing men murdering their wives, in the Police News,-and, finally, those which are to be bought only in the back-shop,-have enormous educational influence on the young British public: which its clergymen, alike ignorant of human nature and human art, think to counteract by decorating their own churches, forsooth,and by coloured prints of the story of Joseph; while the lower tribes of them-Moodys and Sankeys-think to turn modern musical taste to account by fitting negro melodies to hymns.

And yet, my correspondent may be thankful that some remnant of delight is still taken in dance-music. It is the last protest of the human spirit, in the poor fallen creatures, against the reign of the absolute Devil, Pandemonium with Mammon on the throne, instead of Lucifer,--the Son of the Earth, Lord of Hell, instead of the Son of the Morning.

Let her stand in the midst of the main railroad station at Birmingham; and think-what music, or dancing, or other entertainment fit for prodigal sons, could be possible in that pious and little prodigal locality.* Let her read the account of our modern pastoral music, at page 66 of my fifth letter, -of modern Venetian "Barcarolle," page 256 of Letter XIX. and 266 of Letter XX.,-and of our modern Campanile, and Muezzin call to prayer, at page 31 of this Fors.

"Work is prayer"—thinks your Wakefield Mahometan ;— his vociferous minaret, in the name, and by the name, of the Devil, shall summon English votaries to such worship for five miles round; that is to say, over one hundred square miles of English land, the Pandemoniacal voice of the Archangeltrumpet thus arouses men out of their sleep; and Wakefield becomes Wakeful-field, over that blessed space of acre-age. Yes; my correspondent may be thankful that still some

Compare my Birmingham correspondent's opinion of David's "twangling on the harp," page 78, Letter VI.

feeble lust for dancing on the green;-still some dim acknowledgment, by besotted and stupified brains, of the laws of tune and time known to their fathers and mothers-remains possible to the poor wretches discharged by the excursion trains for a gasp of breath, and a gleam of light, amidst what is left to them and us, of English earth and heaven. Waltzing, drunk, in the country roads by our villages; yet innocently drunk, and sleepy at sunset; not, like their born masters and teachers, dancing, wilfully, the cancan of hell, with harlots, at seven in the morning.*

Music, and dancing! They are quite the two primal instruments of education. Make them licentious; let Mr. John Stuart Mill have the dis-ordering of them, so that-(see page 166 of Letter XII.)-" no one shall be guided, or governed, or directed in the way they should go,"-and they sink to lower and lower depth-till the dance becomes Death's; and the music-a shriek of death by strychnine. But let Miriam and David, and the Virgins of Israel, have the ordering of them, and the music becomes at last the Eternal choir; and the Dance, the Karol-dance of Christmas, evermore.†

Virgins of Israel, or of England, richly clad by your kings, and "rejoicing in the dance," how is it you do not divide this sacred, if sacred,-joy of yours with the poor? If it can ever be said of you, as birds of God,

"Oh beauteous birds, methinks ye measure

Your movements to some heavenly tune,"

can you not show wherein the heavenliness of it consists, to -suppose your Sunday-school classes? At present, you keep the dancing to yourselves, and graciously teach them the catechism. Suppose you were to try, for a little while, learning the catechism yourselves; and teaching them-to dance?

*Sesame and Lilies, page 61.

Compare Letter XXIV., page 336; and Dante, Paradiso, xxiv. 16.

"Cosi, quelle carole differente

Mente danzando, della sua ricchezza

Mi si facean stimar, veloci e lente."

Howbeit, in St. George's schools, this, the most 'decorous,' rightly taught, of all exercises, shall not fail of its due discipline to any class whatsoever :-reading, writing, and accounts may all be spared where pupils show no turn to any of those scholarships, but music and dancing, never.* Generally, however, it will be the best singers and dancers who ask for teaching also in literature and art; for all, there shall at least be the way open to these; and for none, danger or corruption possible in these. For in their libraries there shall be none but noble books, and in their sight none but noble art. There is no real difficulty or occasion for dispute in choosing these. Admit the principle of selection, and the practice is easy enough; only, like all practical matters, the work must be done by one man, sufficiently qualified for it; and not by a council. If he err, the error may be represented by any one cognizant of it, and by council corrected. But the main work must be done single-handed.

Thus, for the use of the St. George's Company, I shall myself, if my life is spared, write out a list of books which without any question will be found serviceable in their libraries; a system of art instruction which will be secure so far as it reaches; and a list of purchaseable works of art, which it will be desirable to place in the national schools and museums of the company. With this list of purchaseable works, I shall name, as I have time, those in the museums of Europe which ought to be studied, to the exclusion of those on which time would be wasted.

I have no doubt that this work, though done at first for the St. George's Company, will be found generally useful, and especially that the system of drawing arranged for them will in many respects supersede that of Kensington. I had intended to write it separately, for the use of schools; but after repeated endeavours to arrange it in a popular form, find that it will not so shape itself availably, but must consist of such broad statements of principle as my now enlarged

Compare Letter VIII., p. 110; and Letter IX., p. 121.

This will be added to by future Masters of the Company, with the farther means of specification indicated in page 275 of Letter XXI.