Two Lectures, DELIVERED IN THE LECTURE HALL OF THE WIMBLEDON VILLAGE CLUB, ON MONDAY EVENING, DEC. 14, 1863; AND MONDAY EVENING, JAN. 11, 1864. BY THE REV. T. HANLY BALL, A.B., CURATE AND LECTURER OF ST. MARY'S, WIMBLEDON. Published at the request and expense of a Parishioner. LONDON: CHARLES J. SKEET, 10, KING WILLIAM STREET, CHARING CROSS. 1864. DEDICATION. PREFACE. A SKETCH OF HANDEL. A SKETCH OF BEETHOVEN. NOTES....

TO JOHN A. BEAUMONT ESQ., WIMBLEDON PARK HOUSE. My Dear Mr. Beaumont , Seneca has well said, "The three main points in the question of benefits, are, first, a judicious choice in the object; secondly, in the matter of our benevolence; and thirdly, in the manner of expressing it." Of the first, it would not be becoming in me to speak; of the second, you are the rightful judge; of the third, I beg leave thus publicly to state, that not only in requesting permission to publish this lecture at your

Before I say of that great composer and extraordinary man whose life I have undertaken to sketch, it will not be out of place, I hope, to make a few remarks on the History and Utility of Music. I.—The History. It has been well said by Latrobe, that—though the concise and compressed character of the Mosaic history admits no data upon which to found this supposition, yet we may readily conclude from the nature of music, and the original perfection of the human powers, that the Garden of Eden was n

(OVERTURE.) Association not only gives significancy to music, but contributes greatly to heighten its agreeable effect. We have heard it performed, some time or other, in an agreeable place, perhaps, or by an agreeable person, or accompanied with words that describe agreeable ideas; or we have heard it in our early years—a period of life which we seldom look back upon without pleasure, and of which Bacon recommends the frequent recollection, as an expedient to preserve health. Nor is it necessar

Note on Page 19 . The earliest copy of the tune, as far as is known, stands in a Genevan edition of a portion of the English Psalter, preserved as an article of rare value in the library of St. Paul's Cathedral. The date of the Psalter is 1561. The tune is therein given to Sternhold's version of the Hundredth Psalm. This fairly settles the vexata questio as to the authorship of the tune. There is no evidence that it originated with Luther, to whom it is generally attributed—but there is evidence