t I am concerned. Wealth can be
achieved, but morality must early in life be inoculated" (_eingeimpft_).
He saw the necessity of religion; that it has been called forth through
the consciousness of utter helplessness in the individual. Man is
encompassed on all sides by inexorable laws, produced and perpetuated by
a power beyond and outside the comprehension. The expression of the
religious sentiment is his effort at propitiation, and is his one
resource. This is the point of view on which Beethoven projected the
grand mass. It is what governed his life.

An inner pressure led him to choose a life of self-abnegation and
rectitude. He saw through and over and beyond the illusions and
allurements of the senses, and so was enabled to live entirely in
harmony with the moral order of the world, in an age, and among a
people, largely given over to the pursuit of pleasure.

A long life is generally considered the best gift which the Fates have
to bestow. In the summary of a man's life it is usually treated of as
implying special virtues in the subject. But a long life in itself is as
nothing in comparison to the quality of the life that is lived. It is by
achievement only that its value can be determined.

WAGNER'S INDEBTEDNESS TO BEETHOVEN

FOREWORD

Beethoven, in Wagner's estimation, is a landmark in music, just as
Shakespeare is in literature, as Jesus or Buddha in religion. He is the
central figure; all others are but radii emanating from him. To
Beethoven was it given to express clearly what the others could but
dimly perceive. The relation of men like Bach or Haendel toward
Beethoven, Wagner held to be analogous to that of the prophets toward
Jesus, namely, one of expectancy. The art reached its culmination in
Beethoven. This is Wagner's summary of the significance of Beethoven's
work, and he proclaimed it continually, from the housetops. It was in
some sort a religious exercise to him to make propaganda for the master
to whom he felt himself so deeply indebted. The burden of his utterances
on the subject of the musician's art is, "A greater than I exists. It is
Beethoven."

Chiefly, perhaps, of the philosopher and the poet must we needs
feel that if any genius reaches out into an interpenetrating
spiritual world, _theirs_ must do so.--F.W.H. MYERS,
Human Personality, Chapter on Genius.

In art the best of all is too spiritual to be given directly t