lazily, bent over in a constrained manner; in your embarrassment,
you place yourself before the one-lined or two-lined _c_, instead of
before _f_; you sit unsteadily, either too high or too low, only half on
the seat, leaning either too much to the right or to the left; in a
word, as if you did not belong to the fatal music-stool. Your manner
awakens no confidence, and in this way announces that you have none
yourself. How do you expect to exercise control over a grand seven
octave piano, if you do not sit exactly in the middle, with the body
erect and the feet on the two pedals? You are not willing to look the
friend straight in the face, with whom you are to carry on a friendly,
confidential discourse! Even if your attitude and bearing were not so
injurious and dangerous for the performer as it is, still propriety and
good sense would require that you should excite the confidence of your
hearers in you and in your playing by a correct position of the body,
and by a certain decision and resolution, and should prepare him to form
a good opinion of you.

There are, indeed, many _virtuosos_ who think they give evidence of
genius, by throwing themselves on to the music-stool in a slovenly,
lounging manner, and try to show in this way their superiority to a
painstaking performance, and to make up by a showy _nonchalance_ for
what is wanting in their playing. You are, however, a stranger to such
assertion of superior genius, and to such an expression of intensity of
feeling; you do it only from embarrassment, and from a modest want of
confidence in your own powers, which is quite unnecessary. Our great
masters, such as Field, Hummel, Moscheles, Mendelssohn, and others, had
no taste for such improprieties, for such manifestations of genius. They
applied themselves to their task with earnest devotion, and with respect
for the public.

CHAPTER XIII.

ON MUSICAL TALENT.

A large and varied experience is required for a correct estimate of
musical talent in the young. Do not be deceived by the early evidences
of talent; for instance, interest in melodies, correct feeling for time,
an instinct for accenting the important notes, inclination for some
peculiar though often perverted style of performance, quick
apprehension, a natural aptitude for playing, a nice hearing, animation,
rapid progress, docility, superficial gayety; even if all or a part of
these traits are observable in early youth, they must not excite too
sa