1 I am tempted to read ‘Lives’, the final letter not being quite beyond doubt; perhaps it is intentionally ambiguous.

* We fear that grounds for impeachment of Taste might be brought from the works of the great Artists themselves: ex. gr. the Rockets, Musquetry, Cavalry, wounded and dying Men that roar, thunder, hiss, crack, tramp, moan, whimper, and howl thro* the Vittoria of Beethoven. The address and skill required for the [management crossed out] execution of the Artillery Notes was such as to call forth the express notice ‘that at Vienna, the great guns were played by the most eminent Maestri di Capella!’ Seriously what should we think?

1 Contrasted or opposed to, a sign frequently used by Coleridge. Compared with.