HANDEL.

ABOVE the statue of Addison, in the south cross aisle of Westminster Abbey, is the monument of this great musician, who vainly provided for the honours of an interment and commemoration here, in his last will and testament. It is the work of Roubilliac, and was the last piece he lived to finish. The back-ground is filled with an organ; above, an angel is introduced playing on a harp; and in front is placed a figure of the deceased, in the act of composing, and attitude of inspiration. Beside him is the score of The Messiah,' and that page open beginning, 'I know that my Redeemer liveth,' &c. This statue has been generally praised for a good likeness; but the whole perform. ance can boast no peculiar elegance. The inscription only recapitulates his name, and the dates of his birth and death.*

At the same elevation are two monuments, which demand particular notice, as much on account of the striking manner in which they are finished, as the particular reputation of the names they record. Of these, the one nearest to Handel, was erected by Augusta, mother of George the III. to the memory of Stephen Hales, D.D. F.R.S., the philosopher. It is tabular, and wrought in alto relievo, presenting figures of Religion and Botany supporting a medallion of the deceased. Underneath is a globe, on which, in allusion to the doctor's invention of the ventilator, the winds are displayed. The mere allegory of this design cannot delight, but the grace and neatness with which it is finished are highly pleasing. Dr. Hales was a clergyman deservedly eminent in botany, chemistry, and experimental philosophy. Born at Bekesbourne, in Kent, during the year 1677, he was educated at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, and attained a fellowship in 1703. Devoting his mind, from this period, with great assiduity and no mean success, to philosophical investigations, he first became known by the invention of a brass machine, for the purpose of demonstrating the pla

George Frederick Handel was born on the 24th of February 1684, at Hall, in Upper Saxony, where his father practised physic. A strong passion for music early displayed itself in him; but his father'destining him for the profession of civil law, forbad him to touch an instrument. Notwithstanding this opposition, he con

netary system. This was the foundation of that ingenious piece of mechanism, subsequently completed by Rowley, and so well remembered under the name of an Orrery. In 1733 Hales obtained his doctor's degree from the University of Oxford; and in 1741 communicated to the Royal Society his method for clearing prisons, ships, &c. of foul air, by means of ventilators. Among the published volumes of the same body, are to be found various papers, in which he made known several other projects and inventions, of great interest and utility. Patronised by Frederick, Prince of Wales, and his wife, the Princess Augusta, he might have aspired to the highest dignities in the church; but such was his moderation, that he would not accept even of a canonry in Windsor, and rested content with the living of Teddington, in Middlesex. He was induced, however, to act as almoner and clerk of the closet to her Royal-Highness. Dr. Hales died on the 4th of January, 1761, and is also to be praised for four volumes of Statical Essays, a treatise on the ill consequences of drinking spirituous liquors; Vegetable Statics; and Vegetable Essays.

Not far removed is a sarcophagus projecting from the wall, on which is seated a figure in the robes of a divine. It was erected by Harley, Earl of Oxford, and commemorates John Ernest Grabe, who was born in 1666, and educated at Koninsberg, in Prussia, where his father was professor of theology and history in the University. Becoming dissatisfied with Lutheranism, because it wanted the essentials of an uninterrupted episcopal hierarchy, he was on the point of becoming a convert to Catholicism, when it was suggested to him that the Church of England, possessing the features he desired, was more congenial to his previous creed. To England, therefore, he repaired, and had the fortune of obtaining a pension of 100l. a year from William the III. In 1698, he published the first, and in the year following the second, volume of "Spicilegium SS Patrum," a collection of tracts by the early fathers and heretics. In 1700, he took dean's orders, and was presented with the chaplaincy of Christ's Church, Oxford. Pursuing his critical studies, he edited in succession, the works of Justin Martyr, Irenæus, and Bishop Bull. But his greatest labour was a publication of the Septuagint version of the Old Testament from the Alexandrian Manuscripts. The first four volumes came out by the year 1709, in folio and octavo; and the rest were printed from posthumous manuscripts in 1719 and 1720. He died Nov. 3, 1611, and was buried in the church yard of St. Pancras, Middlesex.

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trived to practise in private, and when only seven years accidentally heard playing on a church organ, after service time, by the Duke of Saxe Weifenfels, who was so much struck by the style of the performance, that he inquired his name, and ultimately encouraged his father to see the bent of his genius cultivated. Accordingly, he was placed under Zackaw, the organist to the cathedral church at Halle, and profited so rapidly by the instructions he received, as to be able to compose church services with instrumental accompaniments during the course of his first year's apprenticeship, and continue for the space of three years after to produce a new service for each recurring sabbath.

After surpassing his master, both as a composer and a performer, he was removed to Berlin in his fourteenth year, and placed under the care of a relative who held a situation at the Court. There he is said to have benefited so much from the lessons of Attilio, who conducted the Italian opera with great success, that the King offered to send him into Italy at his own expense, and undertake the care of his fortune when his education should be completed. But the monarch was proverbially capricious in such matters, and Handel's parents therefore declined his patronage. After such an occurrence it was impossible for the young musician to remain at Berlin: he returned to Halle, panting for a visit to Italy, but restrained from the journey by the narrow circumstances of his parents.

Repairing therefore to Hamburg, where the opera was powerfully supported, he lost his father, and was necessitated to teach pupils, and accept an inferior station in the orchestra. Ere long, however, the principal pianist, a dissipated man, absconded from his creditors, and Handel put in a claim for the appointment upon the presumption of superior ability. A trial of skill between him and the performer on the second harpsichord ensued, and he won the battle: but the victory had nearly cost him dear, for his rival, stung with mortification, made a lunge at his breast with a small sword as he was leaving the house, which must have penetrated to the heart, had not a music book which he had fortunately stuck in his bosom, broke the violence of the blow. Having thus acquired an opportunity for the display of his talents, he soon rose in reputation, and was made composer to the theatre before the year elapsed. The first opera he set was