by a heavily sculptured, ribbed, rounded dome; and this is surmounted, on each side, by two cherubs, whose heads almost touch the lofty ceiling.  This whole portion of the sculpture is of eminent beauty.  The two exquisite cherubs of one side are playing on the lyre and the lute; those of the other side on the flute and the horn.  All the reliefs that run round the lower portion of the dome are of singular richness.  We have had an opportunity of seeing one of the artist’s photographs, which showed in detail the full-length figures and the large central mask of this portion of the work, and found them as beautiful on close inspection as the originals at a distance.

Two other lateral compartments, filled with pipes, and still more suggestive of the harp in their form, lead to the square lateral towers.  Over these compartments, close to the round tower, sits on each side a harper, a man on the right, a woman on the left, with their harps, all apparently of natural size.  The square towers, holding pipes in their open interior, are lower than the round towers, and fall somewhat back from the front.  Below, three colossal hermae of Sibyl-like women perform for them the office which the giants and the lion-shapes perform for the round towers.  The four pillars which rise from the base are square, and the dome which surmounts them is square also.  Above the dome is a vase-like support, upon which are disposed figures of the lyre and other musical symbols.

The whole base of the instrument, in the intervals of the figures described, is covered with elaborate carvings.  Groups of musical instruments, standing out almost detached from the background, occupy the panels.  Ancient and modern, clustered with careless grace and quaint variety, from the violin down to a string of sleigh-bells, they call up all the echoes of forgotten music, such as the thousand-tongued organ blends together in one grand harmony.

The instrument is placed upon a low platform, the outlines of which are in accordance with its own.  Its whole height is about sixty feet, its breadth forty-eight feet, and its average depth twenty-four feet.  Some idea of its magnitude may be got from the fact that the wind-machinery and the swell-organ alone fill up the whole recess occupied by the former organ, which was not a small one.  All the other portions of the great instrument come forward into the hall.

In front of its centre stands Crawford’s noble bronze statue of Beethoven, the gift of our townsman, Mr. Charles C. Perkins.  It might be suggested that so fine a work of Art should have a platform wholly to itself; but the eye soon reconciles itself to the position of the statue, and the tremulous atmosphere which surrounds the vibrating organ is that which the almost breathing figure would seem to delight in, as our imagination invests it with momentary consciousness.