WAY TO ROME, if not to walk therein. — That these last words may not be misunderstood, I will call to my aid a few powerful rhymes, which will even betray to less delicate ears what I mean — what I mean COUNTER TO the “last Wagner” and his Parsifal music: —

— Is this our mode? — From German heart came this vexed ululating? From German body, this self-lacerating? Is ours this priestly hand-dilation, This incense-fuming exaltation?

Is ours this faltering, falling, shambling, This quite uncertain ding-dong-dangling? This sly nun-ogling, Ave-hour-bell ringing, This wholly false enraptured heaven-o’erspringing? — Is this our mode? — Think well! — ye still wait for admission — For what ye hear is ROME — ROME’S FAITH BY INTUITION!