Need I say anything on the extraordinary charge made against me--namely, that in some cases I have preferred the testimony of less famous men to that of Liszt?
Are genius, greatness, and fame the measures of trustworthiness?
As to Chopin, the composer of songs, the case is very simple.

His pianoforte pieces are original tone-poems of exquisite beauty; his songs, though always acceptable, and sometimes charming, are not.

We should know nothing of them and the composer, if of his works they alone had been published.

In not publishing them himself, Chopin gave us his own opinion, an opinion confirmed by the singers in rarely performing them and by the public in little caring for them.

In short, Chopin's songs add nothing to his fame.