He
is a man such as I have never known before.' * *
'I went to see Mrs. Wood in the Somnambula. Nothing could
spoil this opera, which expresses an ecstasy, a trance of
feeling, better than anything I ever heard. I have loved every
melody in it for years, and it was happiness to listen to
the exquisite modulations as they flowed out of one another,
endless ripples on a river deep, wide and strewed with
blossoms. I never have known any one more to be loved than
Bellini. No wonder the Italians make pilgrimages to his grave.
In him thought and feeling flow always in one tide; he never
divides himself. He is as melancholy as he is sweet; yet his
melancholy is not impassioned, but purely tender.'
* * * * *
'_Dec. 15, 1840._--I have not time to write out as I should
this sweet story of Melissa, but here is the outline:--
'More than four years ago she received an injury, which caused
her great pain in the spine, and went to the next country
town to get medical advice. She stopped at the house of a poor
blacksmith, an acquaintance only, and has never since been
able to be moved.
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