Ladies and Gentlemen,—I think I should begin by saying that nowhere in the whole range of music is there a collection of pieces standing on a level with John Sebastian Bach's “Forty-eight Preludes and Fugues.” Through the splendid efforts of the elder Wesley, who lost no opportunity of playing these Fugues both in public and private, and who was continually speaking and writing of them in terms of the highest admiration, these—the Fugues—have now-a-days become well-known. The same cannot be said of the Preludes, though they are quite as wonderful, more brilliant in conception, and the fineness of the workmanship in many of them of the very highest possible order.