Most of them seek not music, but money and applause; and therefore the art they profess is degraded by them into a mere trade.

But you, when you play in public, must forget that PERSONS with little vanities and lesser opinions exist.

Think of what you saw in your journey with Azul; and by a strong effort of your will, you can, if you choose, COMPEL certain harmonies to sound in your ears--fragments of what is common breathing air to the Children of the Ring, some of whom you saw--and you will be able to reproduce them in part, if not in entirety.

But if you once admit a thought of Self to enter your brain, those aerial sounds will be silenced instantly.

By this means, too, you can judge who are the true disciples of music in this world--those who, like Schubert and Chopin, suffered the heaven-born melodies to descend THROUGH them as though they were mere conductors of sound; or those who, feebly imitating other composers, measure out crotchets and quavers by rule and line, and flood the world with inane and perishable, and therefore useless, productions.