ision to resign his post at St. Blasius' at once. He had, in fact,
already received the offer of a more important engagement. An
invitation to perform before Duke Wilhelm Ernst of Weimar early in the
year 1708 had been seized upon in the hope that it might lead to an
appointment at the Court. The hope was not disappointed, for the Duke
was so delighted with Bach's playing that he immediately offered him
the post of Court and Chamber Organist. Bach had always been on the
best of terms with the elders of St. Blasius' Church, however, and the
separation was accompanied by marks of friendliness on both sides.
Thus we see Bach acting once more on his own initiative--choosing his
path deliberately as he saw the opportunity for furthering the great
objects he had in view.

The wider scope for which he had been longing was now within his
grasp, and from the date of his appointment at Weimar he began to
compose those masterpieces for the organ which in after-years were to
help to make his name famous. Hitherto we have followed the fortunes
of Sebastian Bach as a zealous student, self-dependent, and almost
entirely self-instructed as regards his art, battling against poverty
with stolid indifference to the drawbacks and discomforts that fell to
his share, unmindful of fatigue, seeking neither praise nor reward,
but with his mind wholly set upon the accomplishment of his
life-purpose--the furtherance of his beloved art. The promise of his
childish days had been largely sown in sorrow and disappointment. He
had not been hailed as a prodigy of genius. No crowd of wondering
admirers had gathered to listen to his childish efforts, and to
prognosticate for him the favours of fame and fortune in the near
future. Not even his parents, loving him as they doubtless did, could
have done more than dared to entertain the hope that he would do
honour and credit to the musical name which he bore ere they sank into
their untimely graves, and left him to fight the battle of life alone.
No; the childhood and youth of Sebastian Bach were stages in the life
of a genius which were entirely destitute of the advantages of either
wealth or the patronage of the great, and as such they command our
interest and respect.

Henceforth we have to picture Bach as settled in his Weimar home, no
longer as a student, but as a player and composer whose fame was
gradually spreading throughout the country. So rapid had his progress
been both on the organ and the pi