MR. PIPS HIS DIARY.
Execution is Everything in Muſique, and Compoſition little or Nothing: for almoſt no Account is made of the Maſter, and a prepoſterous Value put upon the Player, or Artiſte, as the Frenchified Phraſe now is! After the Concerto, ſome Polkas and Waltzes, which did better pleaſe me; for they were a lively Jingle certainly, and not quite unmeaning. Strange, to find how rare a Thing good Muſique is in Company; and by good Muſique I mean ſuch as do ſtir up the Soul, like the Flowers and Sunſhine in Spring, or Storms and Tempeſts, or ghoſtly Imaginations, or the Thought of great Deeds, or tender or terrible Paſſages in Poetry. My Wife do play ſome brave Pieces in this Kind, by Mynheer Van Beethoven and I would rather hear her perform one of them, than all I did hear to-Night put together; and ſo I did tell her when we got Home, which did content her well. But every one to his Taſte; and they who delight in the trivial Style of Muſique to theirs, as I to mine, not doubting that the Engliſh, that have but juſt begun to be ſenfible to Muſique at all, will be awake to the nobler Sort of it by and by. And, at any Rate, an Evening of inſipid Muſique and weak Tea is better than fitting toping and guzzling after Dinner.
