Volume I Part 36 (1/2)
This insignificant episode will prove that Iskar had not grown in races, nor had I acquainted ht of my arrival I knew him not, but I knew _of_ hiave proether with small promise of musical or mental excellence, as all he did was correct to caricature and ini, his vanity had small scope on that score under that quiet roof shadow, so it spent itself upon his person, which was certainly elegant, if vulgar
I am not clear but that one of these personal attractions always infers the other But why I mention Iskar is that I may be peruest regarded hilance, with that child-like scrutiny of what is not true all abashi+ng to the false, _unless_ the false has lost all child-likeness Iskar must, I suppose, have lost it, for he was not the least abashed, and was really going to begin upon his porridge before we had all sat down, if Aronach had not awfully, but serenely, rebuked him Little Starwood, by my side, looked as fair and as pretty as ever, rather more shy than usual Seraphael, now seated, looked round with that exquisitely sweet politeness I have never met with but in him, and asked us each whether ould eat some honey, for he had the honey-pot before hi helped by hi strea as he did so It was so ays ate honey at Aronach's, and it is so I eat it to this day Little Star put out his bowl too Oh! those great heavy wooden bowls! it was just tooto thunder upon hi down (for I kneas angry on account of that guest of his), e heard that voice in its clear authority,--”Dear Aronach, do nothing! the ether,that he had caught the bowl on his outstretched hands, and that not a drop had fallen I anization in which intent and action were simultaneous, the motions of whose will it seemed impossible to retard or anticipate Even Iskar looked astonished at this feat; but he had not long to wonder, for Aronach sternly coreat haste in the disposal of our supper
I needed not urging, for it was natural to feel that the master and his master must wish to be alone,--indeed, I should have been thankful to escape eating, though I was very hungry, that I ht not be in the way; but directly I took pains to do ahat I had before me, I was forbidden by Aronach to ”bolt”
I lay awake an sounds welling up to heaven frouished in a roels, itself their out-shi+ning light I waited to hear his footsteps upon the stairs when he should at length depart; but so soft was that departingwithto reone
CHAPTER xxxI
I think I can relate nothing else of that softest month of summer, nor of sultry June It was not until the last week I was to change , it came when I was hardly prepared for the transfer Aronach returned to his stricter self again after that supper, but I felt certain he had heard a great deal after we had left the table, as an expression of softer character forsook not his eyes and s had passed concerning Starwood, who remained my chief anxiety, as I felt if I left hiet on at all Iskar and I preserved our h I would fain have been more often with him, for I wanted to make him out He practised harder than ever, and hardly took tireat while to dress He was always very jauntily put together e set out to church, and looked like a French manikin But for his upper lip and the shalloidth of his forehead, I thought hi, he was so; but his charht, mysterious
We saw about as little of each other as it was possible to see, living in the sa in the same room; but we never talked at meals, we had no time
It is but fair to allowa very essential feature in ht hours'
practice a day I had ress; but it did not convict me of itself yet, as I was not allowed to play, only to acquaint myself with the anatomy of special compositions, as exercises in theory Iskar played so easily, and gave such an air of playing to practice, that it never occurred to h it was so, as I found in time At this era I hated the violin, just as pianoforte students hate the pianoforte during the period of apprenticeshi+p to , noon, and night; I shrank from it ever unaccustomed, for the penetralia ofand searching its recesses I believe h this epidemic dislike, but I felt myself personally very musically indisposed I could completely dissociate my ideal impression of that I loved from my absolute experience of what I served I was patient, because waiting; content, because faithful; and I pleasedthat my violin--my own property,I handled and tortured every day, fro since fled For all the creators of musical fores, and a little wear and tear separates the soul from the body As for my Amati, I knew its race so pure that I feared for it no premature decay In its dark box I hoped it was at least not unhappy, but I dearly longed for a sight of it, and had I dared, I would have crept into the closet, but that whenever it was unlocked I was locked up The days flew, though they see, as ever in su must the suh the features of German scenery are quite without a certain blooland, they have so; and as I lived then, all life was a fairy-tale book, with half the leaves uncut I was ever dreaotten as soon as drea of all I learned or felt, except as tangibly and wakingly presented to myself I remember, however,I passed in that secluded house, to my sojourn in which I owe all the benisons bestowed upon my after artist life We had supped at our usual hour, but when I arose and advanced to salute Aronach as usual, and sighed to see how bright the sun was still upon everything without and within, he whispered in my ear,--an attention he had never before paid me,--”Stay up by me until the other two are off; for I wish to speak to thee and to give thee some advice”
Iskar saw him whisper, and looked very black because he could not hear; but Aronach waved him out, and bade me shut the door upon him and Starwood I tre with him _tete-a-tete_; we usually had a third party present in the coer[17] He went into the closet first, and ru, appeared laden with a bottle of wine andhid fiddle-case Oh, how I flew to relieve hiain sit dohile he went back into the closet and rulasses and two or three curious jars, rich china, and of a beautiful forlass of wine
It was not the wine that agitated me, but the rarity of the attention, sohiht to have done But he was quite unlass after glass down his own throat I was so unused to wine that the sip I took exhilarated htest wine one can iay jars, and helped me profusely to the exquisite preserves they contained They were so luscious and delicate that they reminded me of Eden fruits; and almost before my wonder had shaped itself into form, certainly before it could have betrayed itself in an to speak,--
”They pique thee, no doubt, and not only thy palate, for thou wast ever curious They come from him of who coood, not the evil nor the negative; and it is on this point I would advise thee, for thou art as inconsiderate as a fledgling turned out of the nest, and art ware of nothing”
”Pray advise lad that I am inconsiderate, to be advised by you”
I looked at him, and was surprised that a deep seriousness overshadowed the constant gravity,--which was as if one entered froht a still more sonorant, though pure; untaught, yet not weak I would not advise thy co, the other too old”
”Iskar too old!” I exclaimed
”Iskar was never a child; whatever thou couldst teach his to the other world”
”There are torlds then in ht; for it had been ever a favorite notion ofhi brown coat--a little leather book, rolled up like a parchment; this he opened, and unfolded a paper that had lain in the curves, and yet curled round unsubers He deliberately bent it back, and held it a aze upon what he clasped, then s on his horn-set eye-glasses, which lent hian to read to me And as I have that little paper still, and as, if not sweet, it is very short, I shall transcribe it here and now:--
”When thou hearest the folks prate about art, be certain thou art never tempted to make friends there; for if they be wise in any other respect, they are fools in this, that they know not when to keep silence and how For art consists not in any of its representatives, and is of itself alone To interpret it aright we ainsay its true ile and serene If thou markest well, thou wilt find ho of those who nificance; for they are too busy to recall that they live for it, and not by it, even though it brings them bread And just as few are those who set apart their musical life from all ambition, even honorable,--for a doth ious many are incapable of the fervor of the few And the few, those I did exclude,--the feho possess in patience this inexhaustible desire,--are those who compose lowing atover the blossomed lindens, was as winter to the summer in my veins, so suddenly penetrated I felt,--”you ood people I have heard speak of the world, and of good people who are not worldly, apart, and seeion I ht so,--land; but she never dared to say so”
”No, of course not; there is no right to say so anywhere now, except in Germany, for here alone has h here, is reverentially regarded as the highest for to the purposes of the soul But thou art right to believe entirely so, that, young as thou art, thou hty may be thy aptness to discern what is new to thee in the old, no less than what answers to the old in the new
”And, first, when thou goest out of leading-strings, never accusto from thine own in those set over thee It is certain that ence; for oftentiination, or fro his instructors in his grand intentions, and giving hi the present hours in the air that should be inforress, in the strictest mechanical course Never till thou hastthe most distant musical effect
”But, secondly, lest thine enthusiasm should perish of starvation under this mechanical pressure, keep thy wits awake to contemplate every artist and token of art that coht And the more thou busiest thyself in mechanical preparation, the more leisure thou shalt discover so to observe; the ination find itself,--a clear sky filled with the sunshi+ne of that enthusiasm which spreads itself over every object in earth and heaven