shade, introduced into the songs by the simplest means, which
none but the man of genius would think of; for it is the great artist
who attains his ends through the simplest effects.

While the same atmosphere of thought and feeling is felt in the
spiritual life of Robert Franz which colored the artistic being of
Schubert and Schumann, there is a certain repose and balance all
his own. We get the idea of one never carried away by his genius, or
delivering passionate utterances from the Delphic tripod, but the
master of all his powers, the conscious and skillful ruler of his own
inspirations. If the sense of spontaneous freshness is sometimes lost,
perhaps there is a gain in breadth and finish. If Schubert has unequaled
melody and dramatic force, Schumann drastic and pointed intensity,
Robert Franz deserves the palm for the finish and symmetry of his work.

Of the great song composers, Franz Schubert is the unquestioned master.
To him the modern artistic song owes its birth, and, as in the myth of
Pallas, we find birth and maturity simultaneous. It bloomed at once into
perfect flower, and the wrorld will probably never see any essential
advances in it. It is this form of music which appeals most widely to
the human heart, to old and young, high and low, learned and ignorant.
It has "the one touch of Nature which makes the whole world kin." Even
the mind not attuned to sympathy with the more elaborate forms of music
is soothed and delighted by it; for--

"It is old and plain;
The spinsters and the knitters in the sun,
And the free maids that weave their thread with bones,
Do use to chant it; it is silly sooth,
And dallies with the innocence of love
Like the old age."

CHOPIN.

I.

Never has Paris, the Mecca of European art, genius, and culture,
presented a more brilliant social spectacle than it did in 1832. Hither
ward came pilgrims from all countries, poets, painters, and musicians,
anxious to breathe the inspiring air of the French capital, where
society laid its warmest homage at the feet of the artist. Here came,
too, in dazzling crowds, the rich nobles and the beautiful women of
Europe to find the pleasure, the freedom, the joyous unrestraint, with
which Paris offers its banquet of sensuous and intellectual delights
to the hungry epicure. Then as now the queen of the art-world, Paris
absorbed and assimilated to herself the most brilliant influences in
civilization.

I