However widely diffused this idea may be, its justice is, to say the least, highly problematical.

We are far from contesting the glory more difficult of attainment, or the real superiority of the Epic poets, who display their splendid creations upon so large a plan; but we desire that material proportion in music should be estimated by the same measure which is applied to dimension in other branches of the fine arts; as, for example, in painting, where a canvas of twenty inches square, as the Vision of Ezekiel, or Le Cimetiere by Ruysdael, is placed among the chefs d'oeuvre, and is more highly valued than pictures of a far larger size, even though they might be from the hands of a Rubens or a Tintoret.

In literature, is Beranger less a great poet, because he has condensed his thoughts within the narrow limits of his songs?
Does not Petrarch owe his fame to his Sonnets?
and among those who most frequently repeat their soothing rhymes, how many know any thing of the existence of his long poem on Africa?
We cannot doubt that the prejudice which would deny the superiority of an artist--though he should have produced nothing but such Sonatas as Franz Schubert has given us--over one who has portioned out the insipid melodies of many Operas, which it were useless to cite, will disappear; and that in music, also, we will yet take into account the eloquence and ability with which the thoughts and feelings are expressed, whatever may be the size of the composition in which they are developed, or the means employed to interpret them.
In making an analysis of the works of Chopin, we meet with beauties of a high order, expressions entirely new, and a harmonic tissue as original as erudite.

In his compositions, boldness is always justified; richness, even exuberance, never interferes with clearness; singularity never degenerates into uncouth fantasticalness; the sculpturing is never disorderly; the luxury of ornament never overloads the chaste eloquence of the principal lines.

His best works abound in combinations which may be said to form an epoch in the handling of musical style.