Page:The history of Mendelssohn's oratorio 'Elijah'.djvu/149

 THE REVISED ORATO'.llO.

��attracted crowded audiences, and brought into the exchequer of the Sacred Harmonic Society a clear profit of £z^6.

The second performance (April 23) was honoured by the presence of the Queen and the Prince Consort. What the Prince felt on that occasion found graceful expression in the following tribute to Mendelssohn's genius, which he wrote in the book of words he had used at the concert : —

Baal-worship of debased art, has been able, by his genius and science, to preserve faithfully, like another Elijah, the worship of true art, and once more to accustom our ear, amid the whirl of empty, frivolous sounds, to the pure tones of sympathetic feeling and legitimate harmony : to the Great Master, who makes us conscious of the unity of his conception, through the whole maze of his creation, from the soft whispering to the mighty raging of the elements.
 * To the Noble Artist who, surrounded by the

" Inscribed in grateful remembrance by

" Albert.

" Buckingham Palace, April 24, 1S47."

The original of this is now in the possession of Frau Wach, of Leipzig, Mendelssohn's younger daughter. In the few hours which elapsed between its receipt from the Palace and its presentation to Mendelssohn, the Sacred Harmonic Society had a facsimile copy made, which was carefully sealed up. When the news arrived of Mendelssohn's premature death, the Prince Consort at once gave permission for this copy to be lithographed and circulated. { 127 )

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