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A DRAMATIC CRITIC
Handel and Haydn Society. The former
of the numbers named was, in her mouth,
a piece of idyllic religious poetry, the
Pastoral Symphony of the oratorio, in-
formed with a soul, and uttered, as it were,
through the voices of rapt men and jubi-
lant angels. The latter was the only utter-
ance of the centuries' great Song of Faith
to which I had, or have, ever listened with
entire satisfaction. Then, for the first time,
I heard the spirit's assurance of immor-
tality breathed from its depths, not argued
with its lips. Here and there, as in the
words " Yet in my flesh shall I see God "
and " Now is Christ risen from the dead,"
the singer, as if overborne by a sudden
ecstatic vision, broke forth with vehe-
ment intensity; but for the most part the
words were sung as by a soul communing
with the Almighty, not as by a man de-
fending a doctrine against men. So, the
customary conventional exaggeration of
emphasis upon the " I hnoiv " was dis-
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