ate of sickly irritability; his
emotions increased to a feverish tremor, producing that involution, that
tortuosity of thought, which mark his latest works. Almost suffocating
under the oppression of repressed feelings, using art only to repeat
and rehearse for himself his own internal tragedy, after having wearied
emotion, he began to subtilize it. His melodies are actually tormented;
a nervous and restless sensibility leads to an obstinate persistence
in the handling and rehandling and a reiterated pursuit of the tortured
motifs, which impress us as painfully as the sight of those physical or
mental agonies which we know can find relief only in death. Chopin was a
victim to a disease without hope, which growing more envenomed from year
to year, took him, while yet young, from those who loved him, and laid
him in his still grave. As in the fair form of some beautiful victim,
the marks of the grasping claws of the fierce bird of prey which has
destroyed it, may be found; so, in the productions of which we have just
spoken, the traces of the bitter sufferings which devoured his heart,
are painfully visible.

CHAPTER II.

National Character of the
Polonaise--Oginski--Meyseder--Weber--Chopin--His Polonaise in F Sharp,
Minor--Polonaise--Fantaisie.

It must not be supposed that the tortured aberrations of feeling to
which we have just alluded, ever injure the harmonic tissue in the works
of Chopin on the contrary, they only render it a more curious subject
for analysis. Such eccentricities rarely occur in his more generally
known and admired compositions. His Polonaises, which are less studied
than they merit, on account of the difficulties presented by their
perfect execution, are to be classed among his highest inspirations.
They never remind us of the mincing and affected "Polonaises a la
Pompadour," which our orchestras have introduced into ball-rooms,
our virtuosi in concerts, or of those to be found in our "Parlor
Repertories," filled, as they invariably are, with hackneyed collections
of music, marked by insipidity and mannerism.

His Polonaises, characterized by an energetic rhythm, galvanize and
electrify the torpor of indifference. The most noble traditional
feelings of ancient Poland are embodied in them. The firm resolve
and calm gravity of its men of other days, breathe through these
compositions. Generally of a martial character, courage and daring are
rendered with that simplicity of expression, sai