beauties, either of musical compositions, or of kindred efforts in the
sister arts.

As the manifold forms of art are but different incantations, charged
with electricity from the soul of the artist, and destined to evoke
the latent emotions and passions in order to render them sensible,
intelligible, and, in some degree, tangible; so genius may be manifested
in the invention of new forms, adapted, it may be, to the expression
of feelings which have not yet surged within the limits of common
experience, and are indeed first evoked within the magic circle by the
creative power of artistic intuition. In arts in which sensation is
linked to emotion, without the intermediate assistance of thought and
reflection, the mere introduction of unaccustomed forms, of unused
modes, must present an obstacle to the immediate comprehension of any
very original composition. The surprise, nay, the fatigue, caused by
the novelty of the singular impressions which it awakens, will make it
appear to many as if written in a language of which they were ignorant,
and which that reason will in itself be sufficient to induce them to
pronounce a barbarous dialect. The trouble of accustoming the ear to it
will repel many who will, in consequence, refuse to make a study of it.
Through the more vivid and youthful organizations, less enthralled
by the chains of habit; through the more ardent spirits, won first by
curiosity, then filled with passion for the new idiom, must it penetrate
and win the resisting and opposing public, which will finally catch the
meaning, the aim, the construction, and at last render justice to its
qualities, and acknowledge whatever beauty it may contain. Musicians who
do not restrict themselves within the limits of conventional routine,
have, consequently, more need than other artists of the aid of time.
They cannot hope that death will bring that instantaneous plus-value to
their works which it gives to those of the painters. No musician could
renew, to the profit of his manuscripts, the deception practiced by one
of the great Flemish painters, who, wishing in his lifetime to benefit
by his future glory, directed his wife to spread abroad the news of his
death, in order that the pictures with which he had taken care to cover
the walls of his studio, might suddenly increase in value!

Whatever may be the present popularity of any part of the productions of
one, broken, by suffering long before taken by death, it is neverth