Lecture

_Delivered by Mme. Geraldy at the Berkeley Lyceum, New York, February 6,
1892_.

Ladies:

When I made up my mind to come to this country it was not with the
object of exhibiting _myself_, but to speak to you of my father. In your
country my father is much talked of. In my country, unfortunately, he is
forgotten. My father did not write anything--that is a terrible thing!
He expected to do so some day, but he always put it off. At last he
decided to do so during the war--our unfortunate war! He did not have
many lessons to give at that time, for nobody thought of taking any.
This gave him leisure to write. His work was to have borne the title,
"My Revelatory Episodes." He had only written five chapters when he
died. It was to bring to you these five chapters that I came to America.
But as soon as I began to speak of them I was stopped. "Why do you tell
us this?" they said; "we know all this already." I then discovered that
the books written on my father by the Abbe Delaumosne and by Mme.
Angelique Arnaud had been translated and published in this country. Mme.
Arnaud's book is the better of the two, but it is not practical--not at
all practical.

I have gathered together what I remember in the form of lectures, which
I offer to you. I have been asked for examples; I shall give you
examples. I will begin, however, by giving you a little biographical
sketch of my father, and by telling you how he happened to make his
discovery. He was the son of a country doctor, a man poor but original.
My father was still a very little boy when his father sent him and his
younger brother to Paris. There they were apprenticed to a jeweler and
made bands of gold. Soon the little brother died, and my father was the
only one to follow him to the cemetery. On his way back, after the
burial, he fell fainting on the plain. When he regained consciousness he
heard music in the distance, and, not knowing whence it came, thought it
was the music of the angels. Since then he dreamed of nothing but music;
he wanted to hear all he could; he longed to study it. One day he heard
two little urchins singing in the street. He asked them: "Do you know
music?" The urchins replied: "Yes!" "Will you teach it to me?" "Yes,
certainly," and they sang a scale for him. "Is that all there is of
music?" "Why, yes."

Not long after, he made the acquaintance of an old musician, who became
interested in him, gave him a few lessons, and entered him at