In passing I may remark
that Chopin's Polish vocabulary was much less choice than his French
one. As a rule, Chopin's manners were very refined and aristocratic, Mr.
Halle thinks they were too much so. For this refinement resulted in
a uniform amiability which left you quite in the dark as to the real
nature of the man. Many people who made advances to Chopin found like
M. Marmontel--I have this from his own mouth--that he had a temperament
sauvage and was difficult to get at. And all who came near him learned
soon from experience that, as Liszt told Lenz, he was ombrageux. But
while Chopin would treat outsiders with a chilly politeness, he charmed
those who were admitted into his circle both by amiability and wit.
"Usually," says Liszt, "he was lively, his caustic mind unearthed
quickly the ridiculous far below the surface where it strikes all eyes."
And again, "the playfulness of Chopin attacked only the superior keys of
the mind, fond of witticism as he was, recoiling from vulgar joviality,
gross laughter, common merriment, as from those animals more abject
than venomous, the sight of which causes the most nauseous aversion
to certain sensitive and delicate natures." Liszt calls Chopin "a fine
connoisseur in raillery and an ingenious mocker." The testimony of other
acquaintances of Chopin and that of his letters does not allow us to
accept as holding good generally Mr. Halle's experience, who, mentioning
also the Polish artist's wit, said to me that he never heard him utter a
sarcasm or use a cutting expression.

Fondness of society is a characteristic trait in Chopin's mental
constitution. Indeed, Hiller told me that his friend could not be
without company. For reading, on the other hand, he did not much
care. Alkan related to me that Chopin did not even read George Sand's
works--which is difficult to believe--and that Pierre Leroux, who liked
Chopin and always brought him his books, might have found them any time
afterwards uncut on the pianist's table, which is not so difficult to
believe, as philosophy and Chopin are contraries. According to what I
learned from Hiller, Chopin took an interest in literature but read very
little. To Heller it seemed that Chopin had no taste for literature,
indeed, he made on him the impression of an uneducated man. Heller, I
must tell the reader parenthetically, was both a great reader and an
earnest thinker, over whom good books had even the power of making
him neglect and forget