a prism and interpose themselves between
my eyes and his face, I do not see anything greatly to be regretted in
it.[134] I had not yet felt the charm of his personal fascination, I had
neither heard nor seen him, and I did not owe him anything at all, when
my interest was gripped in reading his first symphonic poems; and when
later they pointed the way which was to lead to _La Danse macabre_, _Le
Rouet d'Omphale_, and other works of the same nature, I am sure that my
judgment was not biassed by any prejudice in his favour, and that I
alone was responsible for what I did."[135]

[Footnote 134: The admiration was mutual. M. Saint-Saens even said that
without Liszt he could not have written _Samson et Dalila_. "Not only
did Liszt have _Samson et Dalila_ performed at Weimar, but without him
that work would never have come into being. My suggestions on the
subject had met with such hostility that I had given up the idea of
writing it; and all that existed were some illegible notes.... Then at
Weimar one day I spoke to Liszt about it, and he said to me, quite
trustingly and without having heard a note, 'Finish your work; I will
have it performed here.' The events of 1870 delayed its performance for
several years." (_Revue Musicale_, 8 November, 1901).]

[Footnote 135: _Portraits et Souvenirs_.]

This influence seems to me to explain some of M. Saint-Saens' work. Not
only is this influence evident in his symphonic poems--some of his best
work--but it is to be found in his suites for orchestra, his fantasias,
and his rhapsodies, where the descriptive and narrative element is
strong. "Music should charm unaided," said M. Saint-Saens; "but its
effect is much finer when we use our imagination and let it flow in some
particular channel, thus imaging the music. It is then that all the
faculties of the soul are brought into play for the same end. What art
gains from this is not greater beauty, but a wider field for its
scope--that is, a greater variety of form and a larger liberty."[136]

* * * * *

And so we find that M. Saint-Saens has taken part in the vigorous
attempt of modern German symphony writers to bring into music some of
the power of the other arts: poetry, painting, philosophy, romance,
drama--the whole of life. But what a gulf divides them and him! A gulf
made up, not only of diversities of style, but of the difference between
two races and two worlds. Beside the frenzied outpourings o