276 Chapter VI. 



denouement, but it is all done with such confident 

 assurance that one cannot take it amiss ; one feels one's 

 self in the presence of a master who has the complete 

 command of his instrument. With a sino-le stroke of 



o 



the bow he descends lightly and elegantly from the 

 height of passion into quiet, every-day strains, only with 

 a few more strokes to work himself up into passion again. 

 It seems as if he were trying to mock, to tease us. 

 When we are on the point of going below, driven by 

 6 1 degrees of frost (--347 C.), such magnificent tones 

 again vibrate over the strings that we stay, until noses 

 and ears are frozen. For a finale, there is a wild display 

 of fireworks in every tint of flame such a conflagration 

 that one expects every minute to have it down on the ice, 

 because there is not room for it in the sky. But I can 

 hold out no longer. Thinly dressed, without a proper 

 cap, and without gloves, I have no feeling left in body or 

 limbs, and I crawl away below." 



"Sunday, December loth. Another peaceful Sunday. 

 The motto for the day in the English almanac is : ' He 

 is happy whose circumstances suit his temper : but he is 

 more excellent who can suit his temper to any circum- 

 stances ' (Hume). Very true, and exactly the phil- 

 osophy I am practising at this moment. I am lying 

 on my berth in the light of the electric lamp, eating 

 cake and drinking beer whilst I am writing my journal ; 

 presently I shall take a book and settle down to read 

 and sleep. The arc lamp has shone like a sun to-day 





