INS and
DIANES, who murmur in his ear their most confidential complaints, their
most secret dreams, the style and the manner of conception of Chopin
remind us of Nodier. He knew that he did not act upon the masses, that
he could not warm the multitude, which is like a sea of lead, and as
heavy to set in motion, and which, though its waves may be melted and
rendered malleable by heat, requires the powerful arm of an athletic
Cyclops to manipulate, fuse, and pour into moulds, where the dull
metal, glowing and seething under the electric fire, becomes thought and
feeling under the new form into which it has been forced. He knew he was
only perfectly appreciated in those meetings, unfortunately too few,
in which ALL his hearers were prepared to follow him into those spheres
which the ancients imagined to be entered only through a gate of ivory,
to be surrounded by pilasters of diamond, and surmounted by a dome
arched with fawn-colored crystal, upon which played the various dyes of
the prism; spheres, like the Mexican opal, whose kaleidoscopical foci
are dimmed by olive-colored mists veiling and unveiling the inner
glories; spheres, in which all is magical and supernatural, reminding
us of the marvellous worlds of realized dreams. In such spheres Chopin
delighted. He once remarked to a friend, an artist who has since been
frequently heard: "I am not suited for concert giving; the public
intimidate me; their looks, only stimulated by curiosity, paralyze me;
their strange faces oppress me; their breath stifles me: but you--you
are destined for it, for when you do not gain your public, you have the
force to assault, to overwhelm, to control, to compel them."

Conscious of how much was necessary for the comprehension of his
peculiar talent, he played but rarely in public. With the exception of
some concerts given at his debut in 1831, in Vienna and Munich, he gave
no more, except in Paris, being indeed not able to travel on account of
his health, which was so precarious, that during entire months, he would
appear to be in an almost dying state. During the only excursion which
he made with a hope that the mildness of a Southern climate would be
more conducive to his health, his condition was frequently so alarming,
that more than once the hotel keepers demanded payment for the bed and
mattress he occupied, in order to have them burned, deeming him already
arrived at that stage of consumption in which it becomes so highly
contagio