STUDY AND STUDIO.
Ajax.—It is delightful and rare for us to be able to offer musical commendation twice consecutively. Your compositions are good enough for us to urge you, in reply to your question, at once to take harmony lessons. In spite of the merit of the chants, there are blemishes in them—consecutive fifths, etc.—which good teaching would enable you to avoid. We particularly like the close of the "Kyrie"; it is very musical. You should work hard, and may hope to succeed.
Tam o' Shanter.—1. Much depends on individual taste and preference in the selection of a subject to study alone. If you are fond of languages, we should advise you to take up Italian, and get Dr. Lemmi's Italian Grammar. You might with advantage join the National Home Reading Union. Address the Secretary, Surrey House, Victoria Embankment, London.—2. Your friend could certainly study French alone; if she could get a little help with the pronunciation, it would be better. We should recommend her to procure Havet's French Course.
OUR OPEN LETTER BOX.
M. E. J. (Malvern) kindly sent us some information about an extract we have repeatedly tried to trace. In consequence of her suggestion, we wrote to Messrs. Bemrose & Sons, 23, Old Bailey, E.C., who have forwarded us a small pink card headed "Resolve." On one side are the words:
"I expect to pass through this world but once; any good thing therefore that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to a human being, or any word that I can speak for Jesus—let me do it now. Let me not neglect or defer it, for I shall not pass this way again."
On the reverse side of the card we read:
"This Resolve was written by a New York lady, much impressed with the thought of the uncertainty of life. Not many days after, she was at a meeting in Madison Square Gardens, where she had distributed some printed leaflets with the Resolve, when the hall roof fell in and she was one of those killed by its fall."
The sentence has been frequently referred, by our correspondents, to Marcus Aurelius. We give the information just as we have received it. The cards, we may add, are 5d. per dozen, post free.
M. H. Coupland sends Lilian the verse inquired for in "The Lesson of the Water Mill," by Sarah Doudney. Laira, A. S., Acacia, A Schoolgirl, point out that the verse Lilian quotes is the fourth, not the last. The last verse runs as follows: