of his work, while giving himself up so
unreservedly to this spiritual guidance. The two, however, were quite
unlike in many respects. Neither could have done the work of the other.
Beethoven, almost a failure in operatic composition, undertook it no
more after one trial, while Wagner was irresistibly drawn to this style
from the beginning. He felt that with Beethoven the last word had been
said in pure instrumental music, while his literary talents also served
to draw him into this field of operatic composition where they could
find their proper outlet. With that unerring poetic sense which guided
him in the selection of his subjects, he always has the romantic element
to the fore. The atmosphere of romanticism which invests all his works,
is what gives them much of their value. Through the force and purity of
his literary instinct, he was enabled to select topics of supreme
interest, so that his imagination was kept at white heat while
composing. His originality and absolute confidence in himself prevented
him from following Beethoven to any marked extent. He was forced to hew
out a new path for himself. He was, however, not averse to occasionally
taking a hint from him when it would serve his purpose. It is the
prerogative of genius to take its material wherever it can be found.
"Plato," said Emerson, "plays sad havoc with our originalities."
Beethoven's influence is plainly discernible in the preludes and
overtures of the Wagner dramas, which are symphonic throughout. The
frequent use Wagner makes of the trombones, when he wishes to be
particularly impressive, recalls Beethoven. Each had a high opinion of
the trombone where solemnity was required, and made constant use of it.
Beethoven applied it with peculiar effect in the Benedictus of the Mass
in D, and in the Ninth Symphony, which is paralleled by Wagner's use of
it in Parsifal, and in the Funeral march in Siegfried. The extraordinary
uses to which he puts the pedal-point, as well as the variation form,
are instances which show the influence of the older master.

When, however, he takes an idea from Beethoven, he improves on it,
broadening and amplifying it, in general putting it to a better use than
it was where he found it. A great dramatic work admits of fuller and
longer treatment of an idea than is possible in the other forms in which
music can be embodied. The instances just quoted are minor ones of
general application. Of the conceptions in which he is spe