Our Masonic Contemporaries.

His next encounter seemed like another special interposition of Providence ; for he became the object of benevolent attention to a mother Avho had just lost her son through cholera , and Avho found in the young stranger so remarkable a resemblance to him , that she received him into her house , though possessed of only moderate means herself , and furnished relief to his

necessities . The cholera , in the meanwhile , ceased its ravages , and Paris resumed its habitual aspect Supplied Avith bread and an asylum , and soon afterwards with the loan of a violin , Bro . Ole Bull Avas again enabled to gratify his devotion to music . By degrees his name began to be heardand he arrived at

, some small reputation . Thus encouraged , he ventured the experiment of a concert , and fortune smiled on him for the first time , for he gained 1200 francs , a large sum , considering the position in which he then

was . Possessed of this unexpected aud almost unhoped for little fortune , he set out for Switzerland , and Avent thence into Italy . At Bologna , Avhere his first great manifestation appears to haA e been made , he had tried A'ainly to obtain au introduction to the public , until accident accomplished Avhat he had begau to despair of .

Full o £ painful emotion at the chilling repression Avhich his simple , inartificial , unfriended endeavours had been fated to meet with , he one day sat down to compose something ; and it was partly amidst a flow of obtrusive tears that his purpose was fulfilled . Taking up his instrument , he proceeded to try the effect of the ideas he had just called into life . At that moment it chanced that Madame Eossini ivas

passing by the house in AA'hich his humble apartment was situated . The impression upon her Avas such that she spoke in emphatic terms upon it to the director of the Philharmonic Societ y , who Avas iu a critical predicament , owing to some failure in a promise which had _ been made him . by De Beriot and the Syren Malibran . Madame Eossini ' s piece of intelligence was a hurst of li ght for the " manager in distress "he had found his man . The artist Avas induced to

play before the dilettanti of Bologna , and his success was complete . At Lucca , Florence , Milan , Eome , ancl Venice , the impression lie made AA'as yet greater and more decisive . On each occasion he Avas called several times before

the audience , aud hailed with the utmost enthusiasm . At the Neapolitan Theatre , San Carlo , he Avas summoned back by the public no less than nine times , thrice after the performance of his first piece , and six times at the end of the second . It was a perfect furore . Our Norwegian artist now revisited Parisunder

, happier auspices . "W elcomed and introduced with eager kindness by the composer of Robert le Diahle , he Avas several times listened to with delight on the stage of the opera , and obtained the greatest success that has been known since the displays made by Paganiui .

Opinions Avere' not agreed as to the extent to Avhich Bro . Ole Bull was to be considered an imitator of Paganiui . It appears certain that the example of the latter first led him to attempt the more strange and remote difficulties of the instrument . It Avas during the time of his distressed condition that he found " means to hear the great artist by actually selling his last shirt ,

Avith the produce of which he joined the crowd IQ the saloon of the French Opera . Every one around him , after the electrifying strains of the magical performer , was exclaiming that he had reached the furthest limits of AA'hat was possible on the violin . Bro . Ole Bull ( says the writer of the French

account ) , after applauding like the rest , retired ia thoughtful mood , having just caught the notion that something beyond this was yet possible ; nor did the idea cease to occupy his mind , but gathered fresli strength during his rambles in Switzerland and Italv , until it impelled him , at Trieste , to abandon the old

track , and resign himself to the dictates of his own genius . In justice to Paganiui , it must never be forgotten that he was the first who in modern days conceived the principle of its being possible to extract a variet y of new effects from the versatile instrument that hacl

beeu supposed to haA'e surrendered all its secrets to the great antecedent masters ; and that his practice lent marvellous illustrations to Avhat he proceeded , under that impulse , to explain ; nor does the supremacy of Paganiui , in the " nouveau genre" for the reason previously touched upon in these pages , seem likely seriously shaken by any AVIIO seek the encounter of a

comparison . It may certainly be averred , however , that of-all who have attempted to follow in the direction of the great Grenoese genius , Bro . Ole Bull has beeu , OAA'ing to the fire ancl enthusiasm of his own temperament , decidedly the farthest removed from servility of imitation .

It speaks much for the originality of the Norwegian artist , that , in the early practice of his instrument , instead of a fostering excitement , he had to encounter the decided opposition of adverse views ; and , instead of the open aid of a master , had only for his guide the secret impulses of his own mind .

On the Avhole , he must be acknowledged a man of fine genius , who forced his Avay through no common difficulties to a distinguished rank in the musical world , and AVIIO presents to the contemplation of the persevering student one of the most cheering of those examples AA'hich the history of human struggles in pursuit of some absorbing object is so useful to enforce . It must add not a little to our admiration of

him to find that , in the mysteries of composition , he has discovered and shaped his own course . The ingenuity of construction evident in the orchestral accompaniments to his pieces would suggest a methodical study of the harmonic art ; yet it Avas said , on the contrary , that he Avas quite unacquainted ivith even the elementary rules of that art ,

and that it Avould have puzzled him to tell the conventional name of any one chord . How then did lie arrive at the poAver of striking music in parts ? He opened a score , studied it , thoug ht over it , made a relative examination of its parts after his OAVU way , and then setting to work , as the result

of this progress , became a composer himself . In the character of his compositions Ave may trace the effect of his unusual , and ( it must be confessed ) , somewhat too self-depenclent " moyn de parvenir . " They are impulsive and striking , enriched Avith occasional passages of fine instrumentation , ; aud touched with sAveet visitations of melody—but they are deficient in coherence of structure , and in the comprehensiveness of a well-