AGNES OF SORRENTO.
The artist’s mission.
What higher honor or grace can befall a creature than to be called upon to make visible to men that beauty of invisible things which is divine and eternal?
Hymns.
“A hymn is a singing angel, and goes walking through the earth, scattering the devils before it. Therefore he who creates hymns imitates the most excellent and lovely works of our Lord God, who made the angels. These hymns watch our chamber-door, they sit upon our pillow, they sing to us when we awake; and therefore our master was resolved to sow the minds of his young people with them, as our lovely Italy is sown with the seeds of all-colored flowers.”
Music the language of Italy.
There is no phase of the Italian mind that has not found expression in its music.