uld be more admired, or less esteemed, and which they well know
how to hide under the subtle smile of an almost imperceptible mockery.
Delighting in the pleasure of mystification, from the most spiritual or
comic to the most bitter and melancholy, they may perhaps find in
this deceptive raillery an external formula of disdain for the veiled
expression of the superiority which they internally claim, but
which claim they veil with the caution and astuteness natural to the
oppressed.

The frail and sickly organization of Chopin, not permitting him the
energetic expression of his passions, he gave to his friends only the
gentle and affectionate phase of his nature. In the busy, eager life
of large cities, where no one has time to study the destiny of another,
where every one is judged by his external activity, very few think it
worth while to attempt to penetrate the enigma of individual character.
Those who enjoyed familiar intercourse with Chopin, could not be blind
to the impatience and ennui he experienced in being, upon the calm
character of his manners, so promptly believed. And may not the artist
revenge the man? As his health was too frail to permit him to give vent
to his impatience through the vehemence of his execution, he sought to
compensate himself by pouring this bitterness over those pages which he
loved to hear performed with a vigor [Footnote: It was his delight to
hear them executed by the great Liszt himself.--Translator.] which he
could not himself always command: pages which are indeed full of the
impassioned feelings of a man suffering deeply from wounds which he does
not choose to avow. Thus around a gaily flagged, yet sinking ship, float
the fallen spars and scattered fragments, torn by warring winds and
surging waves from its shattered sides.

Such emotions have been of so much the more importance in the life
of Chopin, because they have deeply influenced the character of his
compositions. Among the pages published under such influences, may be
traced much analogous to the wire-drawn subtleties of Jean Paul, who
found it necessary, in order to move hearts macerated by passion, blazes
through suffering, to make use of the surprises caused by natural and
physical phenomena; to evoke the sensations of luxurious terrors arising
from occurrences not to be foreseen in the natural order of things;
to awaken the morbid excitements of a dreamy brain. Step by step the
tortured mind of Chopin arrived at a st