I. H. M.
The Soul's Dark Cottage.—Being called on to reply to matters as plain as those to which I replied last week, I am less reluctant to acknowledge my own ignorance or obliviousness, respecting a couplet of which, I doubt not, hundreds of your readers know the original habitat, but which cannot be recalled to my own memory, nor to that of several friends to whom I have referred. The couplet is—
"The soul's dark cottage, battered and decayed,
Lets in new light through chinks that time hath made."
Effaress.
London, Jan. 4, 1851.
"Small by degrees and beautifully less."—This is a very common quotation, but, although I have made frequent inquiries, I have never yet been able to find out the author of it. Perhaps some of your readers can inform me.
W. H. B.
Musical Plagiarism.—I think I remember to have heard, two or three years ago, of an action for damages brought against an eminent composer, on account of plagiarism in a musical composition; and that the defendant's argument was founded on the fact, that there exist very few really "original compositions," if originality excludes every form of plagiarism. And he adduced as examples the "See the conquering hero," of Handel; and the "Zitti Zitti," of Rossini. Can any of your readers refer me to the minutes of this trial; and tell me if any book has been published in criticism of the originality of composers?
R. M.