y portrayed on festive occasions. Not so with the
piano sonatas, which can be heard and studied in the privacy of one's
home. Even the quartets may be placed in the category since they do not
require an elaborate equipment and preparation for their production.

Take him all in all optimism prevails with him, or rather, in true
philosophic spirit, he demonstrates that the sorrow, the inevitable
trouble and misery of life, is more than offset by the good things the
gods have provided. Life, after all, is a precious gift, which should be
duly appreciated. A period of enjoyment, gayety, strengthens and
fortifies the mind, and enables it better to bear the burdens when they
come. The great creative genius, must perforce, in the very nature of
things, be optimistic in his chosen work. He is more alive, more
possessed with the belief that life with its opportunities is worth
while, than is the case with the ordinary man going about his petty
concerns. In common life, the busiest man is the happiest man, that is
the most satisfied; and this contentment springs from the consciousness
of doing something worth doing, the advantage of which will remain. With
the man of genius, the feeling rises to elation, to rapture, when he
considers the transcendent, imperishable nature of his work. "Dass
Hervorbringen selbst ein Vergnuegen und sein eigner Lohn ist."

The Eighth Symphony which was brought out at the same time as the
Seventh is the shortest by a few bars, of the nine. It was completed in
about four months from the date of its inception. Here as in the
Seventh, the dance element is in the ascendant, commanding, swaying
everything, thus coming back to first principles, almost to the origin
of the art, as an art. The dance is the primordial, autochthonic form of
music; its foundation so to speak. The song had its origin in the dance
as indicated by its name "ballad." It is a comparatively simple matter
to trace its upward course in instrumental music, as such. It is
conceivable that people from remote times on, had the faculty of
originating tunes, and of humming and singing them, and dancing to them
long before such things as scales and notation were conceived of. Song
and dance must have come into being at the same time, and the earliest
dancing was done with a singing accompaniment. As people advanced in the
art and became able to manufacture instruments with which to produce
music to dance by, it is readily apparent that those p