d to a pitch of irritability
approaching insanity.

Such pictures possess but little real value for art. Like all
descriptions of moments of extremity, of agonies, of death rattles,
of contractions of the muscles where all elasticity is lost, where the
nerves, ceasing to be the organs of the human will, reduce man to
a passive victim of despair; they only serve to torture the soul.
Deplorable visions, which the artist should admit with extreme
circumspection within the graceful circle of his charmed realm!

CHAPTER III.

Chopin's Mazourkas--Polish Ladies--Mazourka in Poland--Tortured
Motives--Early life of Chopin--Zal.

In all that regards expression, the MAZOURKAS of Chopin differ greatly
from his POLONAISES. Indeed they are entirely unlike in character. The
bold and vigorous coloring of the Polonaises gives place to the most
delicate, tender, and evanescent shades in the Mazourkas. A nation,
considered as a whole, in its united, characteristic, and single
impetus, is no longer placed before us; the character and impressions
now become purely personal, always individualized and divided. No
longer is the feminine and effeminate element driven back into shadowy
recesses. On the contrary, it is brought out in the boldest relief, nay,
it is brought into such prominent importance that all else disappears,
or, at most, serves only as its accompaniment. The days are now
past when to say that a woman was charming, they called her GRATEFUL
(WDZIECZNA); the very word charm being derived from WDZIEKI: GRATITUDE.
Woman no longer appears as a protegee, but as a queen; she no longer
forms only the better part of life, she now entirely fills it. Man is
still ardent, proud, and presumptuous, but he yields himself up to a
delirium of pleasure. This very pleasure is, however, always stamped
with melancholy. Both the music of the national airs, and the words,
which are almost always joined with them, express mingled emotions of
pain and joy. This strange but attractive contrast was caused by the
necessity of "CONSOLING MISERY" (CIESZYC BIDE), which necessity induced
them to seek the magical distraction of the graceful Mazourka, with its
transient delusions. The words which were sung to these melodies, gave
them a capability of linking themselves with the sacred associations of
memory, in a far higher degree than is usual with ordinary dance-music.
They were sung and re-sung a thousand times in the days of buoyant
youth, by f