cend the wild dreams of Arabian Nights readers. It is the greatest glorification of gew-gaw that we have seen in the New World; and the marvel of it is, that it causes no marvel. So accustomed have our people become to gorgeous shows of gilt gingerbread, that this, the greatest of all, is considered no great things; and musical critics, who are not necessarily critics of everything else, pronounce our magnificent new Opera House a mistake. It is not the largest Opera House in the world, but the most expensively ornamented; yet it does not come up to the expectations of Young America, who requires something more elegant and brilliant. Thus we compliment ourselves. And why not? Steamboats that cost half a million of dollars, lie unnoticed at our docks, and why should we permit ourselves to be excited at the opening of a new opera-house, which cost but three hundred and seventy thousand, and which, after all, is but an exaggerated steamboat saloon? But we must allow, however, that the Academy of Music has an imposing exterior, and that inside, its richness of ornament, and vastness, are rather bewildering and astounding until the eye becomes familiarized with its absurd caryatides (which we heard a lady of fashion call cantharides); its needless brackets, which are heavy enough to crush the pillars that they form continuations of; its fluted pilasters, with capitals longer than their shafts; its ponderous pillars, which support nothing; and its dome, which has no supports; its super-gaseous brilliancy in some parts, and its cavernous gloom in others, where light and brilliancy are most needed. There is no color in the body of the house, and the ornaments lose half their value for the want of a proper background to relieve them. Pure white and gold do not form a fine combination. Nature colors all her productions, and she is a very safe guide to follow in attempts to please the eye. In the new Metropolitan Theatre, built on the site of the Lafarge Hotel, which is much superior to the new Opera House in form, and the arrangement of seats, the dominant tint is buff, relieved with gold, the effect of which, by gas-light, is transcendently beautiful and agreeable to the eye.

The name of the New York Academy of Music is not merely a mistake, it is a deception, for it is not in any sense an Academy, unless the public are to be regarded as pupils, who take occasional instructions in operatic singing, at the

rather expensive rate of three dollars a lesson. An academy of music should not expend all its means in external decorations; some provision ought to be made for the education of neophytes in such a costly temple of art; and we cannot but think that if a small portion of the three hundred and seventy thousand dollars, which the building alone is said to have cost, had been appropriated to the development of musical talent among us, the enterprise would have paid better in the end. An opera house should be elegant and beautiful, and the eye should have pleasant objects to engage it in the pauses when the ear is not engaged by the music. But a little less showy ornaments, and now and then an original piece of music from a native composer, would have been likely to attract larger and better pleased audiences. However, we can afford to make a good many more steps in our progress towards perfection, and we will be thankful for every step in the right direction. We have got a cage for singing birds, and that may cause us to be on the alert to catch the songsters to put into it. At present the Opera House is about a mile too far up town, but this is a fault soon remedied by New York progress. It was "inaugurated," as the phrase goes, by Grisi and Mario, in NorIt is to be hoped that judicious management may yet make this costly enterprise as creditable to the taste and good sense, as it is to the liberality of its projectors.

ma.

We have only room to notice the arrival of LEUTZE's great historical picture of Washington at the Battle of Monmouth, which its munificent owner, David Leavitt, Esq., has allowed the public the privilege of seeing. This picture is the largest, we believe, that Mr. Leutze has yet executed; and, judging from the impression of a single examination of it, it is decidedly his best production. It is full of a hearty, vigorous nature, the groupings are exceedingly natural, and all the details are given with a fidelity and naturalness that will satisfy the most exacting admirers of the literal in art. The figure of Washington is extremely natural, but not noble, and his countenance has not the dignity of energy and passion, but of anger. Although it is lacking in the higher qualities of imagination, its merits are so great and so palpable that it cannot fail to be popular with the masses, and to greatly enhance the reputation of the artist.