THE HISTORY OF AN OPERA-COMIQUE Young musicians often complain, and not without reason, of the difficulties of their careers.

It may, perhaps, be useful to remind them that their elders have not always had beds of roses, and that too often they have had to breast both wind and sea after spending their best years in port, unable to make a start.

These obstacles frequently are the result of the worst sort of malignity, when it is for the best interest of everyone--both of the theatres which rebuff them, and the public which ignores them--that they be permitted to set out under full sail.
In 1864 one of the most brilliant of the reviews had the following comments to make on this subject: Our real duty--and it is a true kindness--is not to encourage them (beginners) but to discourage them.

In art a vocation is everything, and a vocation needs no one, for God aids.

What use is it to encourage them and their efforts when the public obstinately refuses to pay any attention to them?
If an act is ordered from one of them, it fails to go.