A recent trial has caused the publication of a part
of Meyerbeer's will, in which he directs that his notebooks containing unfinished scores and other musical fragments shall be carefully sealed up, and not opened unless one of his grandchildren shows decided taste for music. His object is to prevent his work falling into the hands of men who might use his thoughts under their own names and so diminish his future glory. It has been remarked on this that Meyerbeer cared more for his own fame than for music, and no doubt the provision shows sensitiveness ; but we question if there have been many poets who would like to think that their unfinished and hasty thoughts were to be -vamped up by other hands, and so put forth upon the world. The world might benefit, but it would probably benefit more if the fragment were published as it stood, with the light of the author's name upon it to make men decipher its full meaning.
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