A generation ago there appeared in Paris one whose voice was counted the most perfect voice in Europe.

Musical critics gave unstinted praise to the purity of tone and accuracy of execution.

Yet in a few weeks the audiences had dwindled to a handful, and in a few years the singer's name was forgotten.

Obscurity overtook the singer because there was no heart behind the voice and so the tones became metallic.

Contrariwise, the history of Jenny Lind contains a letter to a friend in Sweden, in which the singer writes: "Oh, that I may live two years longer and be permitted to save enough money to complete my orphans' home!" As the sun's warm beams lend a soft blush to the rose and pulsate the crimson tides through to the uttermost edge of each petal, so a great, loving sympathy, sang and sighed, thrilled and throbbed through the tones of the Swedish singer, and ravished the hearts of the people and made her name immortal.
History portrays many men of giant minds whose intellect could not redeem them from aimlessness and obscurity.