When I hear it I shall be able to make a comparison between the singers here and our own.
The "Freischutz" made its first appearance on the Warsaw stage in 1826, and therefore was known to Chopin; whereas the other operas were either unknown to him or were not considered decisive tests.
Music and things connected with music, such as music-shops and pianoforte-manufactories, took up Chopin's attention almost exclusively.
He declines with thanks the offer of a ticket for the meetings of the congress:-- I should gain little or nothing for my mind from these discussions, because I am too little of a savant; and, moreover, the professional gentlemen might perhaps look at me, the layman, and think: "How comes Saul among the prophets ?" Of the Royal Library, to which he went with Professor Jarocki, he has no more to say than that "it is very large, but contains few musical works"; and when he visits the Zoological Museum, he thinks all the time what a bore it is, and how he would rather be at Schlesinger's, the best music-shop in the town, and an enterprising publishing house.

That he neglects many things which educated men generally prize, he feels himself, and expresses the fear that his father will reproach him with one-sidedness.

In his excuse he says:-- I have come to Berlin for my musical education, and the library of Schlesinger, consisting of the most interesting works of the composers of all countries and times, must interest me more than any other collections.
The words, he adds, add nothing to the strength of his argument.
It is a comfort to think that I, too, shall yet come to Schlesinger's, and that it is always good for a young man to see much, as from everything something may be learnt.
According to Karasowski, who reports, no doubt faithfully, what he has heard, Chopin was so well versed in all the branches of science, which he cultivated at the Lyceum, that all who knew him were astonished at his attainments, and prognosticated for him a brilliant future.

I am afraid the only authorities for this statement were the parents, the sisters, and other equally indiscriminately-admiring connections, who often discover genius where it is hidden from the cold, unfeeling world outside this sympathetic circle.

Not that I would blame an amiable weakness without which love, friendship, in short, happiness were well-nigh impossible.