" I recommend the entire chapter
to such men as Lombroso Levi, Max Nordau and Heinrich Pudor, who
have yet to learn that "all confusion of intellectual substances
is foolish."
Oscar Bie states the Chopin case most excellently:--
Chopin is a poet. It has become a very bad habit to place this
poet in the hands of our youth. The concertos and polonaises
being put aside, no one lends himself worse to youthful
instruction than Chopin. Because his delicate touches
inevitably seem perverse to the youthful mind, he has gained
the name of a morbid genius. The grown man who understands how
to play Chopin, whose music begins where that of another
leaves off, whose tones show the supremest mastery in the
tongue of music--such a man will discover nothing morbid in
him. Chopin, a Pole, strikes sorrowful chords, which do not
occur frequently to healthy normal persons. But why is a Pole
to receive less justice than a German? We know that the
extreme of culture is closely allied to decay; for perfect
ripeness is but the foreboding of corruption.
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