On one occasion of being in London we went to Mrs. Sartoris, and enjoyed as usual her power of reproduction of ballad-songs, which seem as if composed by herself at the moment, so intensely does she feel through every thing the poem and music are calculated to excite and to express. Only I always feel the wish that I could gently sponge over her performance, as though it were a picture in which all the lights and shades and all the tints are right, but the contrasts too strong, the transitions too violent, yet nothing wanted for perfection but a little softening down, and degree of moderation.