No sooner was The Creation fairly launched on a fairly long career than van Swieten wanted another oratorio.  Somehow—­or perhaps naturally—­he associated oratorio with England, and as he could not get the music from us, he did as badly as he could—­he came here for the poetry.  The words of nearly all the oratorios are ridiculous.  Those of The Creation are no worse than the words of many by Handel.  Van Swieten, however, did his honest best to provide Haydn with a downright silly book for his last work, and it must be admitted that by going to James Thomson’s Seasons he succeeded.  Like The Creation, it rapidly became popular in Germany, Austria, and England.  It went out sooner than The Creation, and went out, I suspect, also like The Creation, never to return.  It was given in April, 1802, at the Schwartzenburg Palace.

During the period after his return from England—­or, more exactly, from 1796 till 1802—­Haydn wrote most of his bigger church works.  They may be sufficiently discussed here in a few lines; for, though they are still much sung in churches where the Pope’s edicts are regarded merely as things to be laughed at, musically they are by no means of the same importance as his symphonies.  Like all the Viennese school of church composers, Haydn thought nothing of the canons, and, indeed—­also like the others—­he seemed generally to think very little of the meaning of the words.  He was serious and sincere enough, no doubt, but the man was a peasant, and in many respects his mind was a peasant’s.  He had quite a plausible excuse or reason to give for the note of jollity which prevails in his Masses.  When he thought of God, he said, his heart was filled with joy, and that joy found a voice in his music.  He spoke in perfect good faith, but with a little more brains he would have had other feelings than joy in his heart at the more solemn moments of the Mass.  However, he had not, so he missed giving us music to compare with the finest parts of his symphonies and quartets.  What he did write would serve well for the Empire Music Hall to-day were it not so entirely monopolized by churches like the Italian in Hatton Garden, and in its day it was highly thought of.  The fact that the Princes of Esterhazy did not like to be made to feel uncomfortable in church had perhaps something to do with Haydn always feeling elated when he was going to write a mass—­use is second nature.  Not that there are no fine things in his sacred music; only they are rare, and the spirit of the whole is utterly undevotional.  After all, being the man he was, having the mission he had in life to carry out, it may be questioned whether he could have done anything nobler, in which case it is a pity he touched church music.  However, it is easily forgotten, and will be some day.