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    ' What are we to understand by this ? ' asked the chapelmaster . ' You must find the application . I really did see the butterfly playing on your grand piano , but I only wished to express an

    idea which struck me when I heard the doctor speak concerning Clara ' s illness . It has always appeared to me as if nature had placed us upon an immense key-board , which we unceasingly use ; we are capable of producing from it rich harmony and flowing melody , but too often we strike the chords so rudely , so inharmoniously , that we fall heart-wounded by the repulsion . '

    ' That is very obscure ; very metaphysical ; ' said the chapelmaster . ' Patience , patience / exclaimed the doctor , laughing ; he is now upon his hobby , and will soon be off , full gallop , to the land of presentiments , of dreams , of sympathies , and perhaps will not stop until he reaches magnetism . '

    c Softly , doctor , softly / said the third dialogist ; ' you ought not to laugh at things whose power you yourself recognise . Did not you say , not many minutes since , that you considered Clara ' s malady psychological ?' ' Well / answered the doctor , ' but what relation do you find betwixt Clara ' s case and that of your unfortunate butterfly ?'

    'To examine it in detail , to sift it down to the least grain of dust on the insect ' s wing , vyould , perhaps , prove rather tiresome . Let the remains of the butterfly repose in peace at the bottom of the piano . Now listen to me , When I came to this town last year , Clara was quite the fashion ; quite recherchee , to speak like the good folks in the new novels . At every party the presence of

    Clara was required , that she might sing a Spanish seguidilla , or an Italian canzonetta , or a French romance . I feared very much that the poor girl would perish in this ocean of tea ; luckily she did not , but another catastrophe has happened and—' ' What catastrophe ? ' exclaimed the doctor and the chapelmaster .

    Gentlemen , you must know that poor Clara is enchanted ; and , whatever the avowal may cost me , I will avow that I , myself , arn the enchanter ; and like the pupil of the magician , who raised the fiend , I have not skill enough to undo what I have done . ' c Stuff ! ' exclaimed the doctor , rising from his chair ; ' here are we quietly sitting and listening whilst he makes fools of us / ' The catastrophe ! the catastrophe F shouted the chapel ^

    master . c Silence , gentlemen , and I will tell you all . You may laugh , if you please , at what I shall tell you ; however , I shall not less regret that I was , without intending it , the cause of evil to Clara ; that I served unconsciously as the conductor for the electric fluid which—'

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    The Sanctus . 83

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    H 2

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1835, page 83, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2642/page/3/