He who gave eyes to ears and showed in sound
All thoughts and things in earth or heaven above—­
From fire and hailstones running along the ground
To Galatea grieving for her love—­
He who could show to all unseeing eyes
Glad shepherds watching o’er their flocks by night,
Or Iphis angel-wafted to the skies,
Or Jordan standing as an heap upright—­

And so on.  But there is one subject which Handel never treated—­I mean the Money Market.  Perhaps he avoided it intentionally; he was twice bankrupt, and Mr. R. A. Streatfeild tells me that the British Museum possesses a Ms. letter from him giving instructions as to the payment of the dividends on 500 pounds South Sea Stock.  Let us hope he sold out before the bubble burst; if so, he was more fortunate than Butler, who was at this time of his life in great anxiety about his own financial affairs.  It seemed a pity that Dr. Morell had never offered Handel some such words as these: 

The steadfast funds maintain their wonted state
While all the other markets fluctuate.

Butler wondered whether Handel would have sent the steadfast funds up above par and maintained them on an inverted pedal with all the other markets fluctuating iniquitously round them like the sheep that turn every one to his own way in the Messiah.  He thought something of the kind ought to have been done, and in the absence of Handel and Dr. Morell we determined to write an oratorio that should attempt to supply the want.  In order to make our libretto as plausible as possible, we adopted the dictum of Monsieur Jourdain’s Maitre a danser:  “Lorsqu’on a des personnes a faire parler en musique, il faut bien que, pour la vraisemblance, on donne dans la bergerie.”  Narcissus is accordingly a shepherd in love with Amaryllis; they come to London with other shepherds and lose their money in imprudent speculations on the Stock Exchange.  In the second part the aunt and godmother of Narcissus, having died at an advanced age worth one hundred thousand pounds, all of which she has bequeathed to her nephew and godson, the obstacle to his union with Amaryllis is removed.  The money is invested in consols and all ends happily.

In December, 1886, Butler’s father died, and his financial difficulties ceased.  He engaged Alfred Emery Cathie as clerk, but made no other change, except that he bought a pair of new hair brushes and a larger wash-hand basin.  Any change in his mode of life was an event.  When in London he got up at 6.30 in the summer and 7.30 in the winter, went into his sitting-room, lighted the fire, put the kettle on and returned to bed.  In half an hour he got up again, fetched the kettle of hot water, emptied it into the cold water that was already in his bath, refilled the kettle and put it back on the fire.  After dressing, he came into his sitting-room, made tea and cooked, in his Dutch oven, something he had bought the day before.  His laundress was an