1891.] 1°° 



had discovered the cause of her trouble she recovered her voice, and was 

 now once more able to give lessons in singing. She had the first laryngo- 

 scope, invented by Manuel Garcia, constructed after her own directions, 

 and by it she discovered the verification of her theories with regard to the 

 head notes of the female voice. In Berlin too she found herself in a de- 

 lightful society, meeting often Du Bois Reymond, the egyptologist Lep- 

 sius and many other distinguished companions. 



In 1866, finding her means of earning a livelihood almost at an end 

 through the straightened means of the German people during the war, 

 which did not permit many to indulge in the luxury of music, she left 

 Germany and came to Philadelphia. Every movement of her life seems to 

 have been made under the stress of stern necessity. She loved a perma- 

 nent home, but she accepted these changes, the parting from old friends, 

 the barriers of language, the unaccustomed ways of a new world, with 

 the same sweet patience and simplicity that characterized her life. 



I am not competent to speak of her musical career in this city and must 

 leave it to abler minds to do it justice. She brought letters from wise and 

 good men in Europe which at once placed her cause in the best hands. 

 The extracts from the valuable sketches of Charlotte Mulligan and Har- 

 riet Hare McClellan, former pupils and friends, which follow my imper- 

 fect record, will supply the information I cannot give. From Dr. Fur- 

 ness she had the highest service that devoted friendship could give, since 

 he gave time and personal labor and much care in translating her manu- 

 scripts into exquisite English. Her work on "The Voice in Singing " 

 is entirely her own. In the "Voice in Speaking " she had much assistance 

 from her son, Dr. Carl Seiler, in the physiological parts. In establishing 

 her school of vocal music she had the personal assistance and generous 

 backing of many devoted friends. 



1 may mention here that within two years of her residence in Philadel- 

 phia Mrs. Seiler was made a member of the American Philosophical 

 Society, an honor accorded to but six women since its foundation : the 

 Princess Catherine Romanowa d'Aschkow, Mrs. Somerville, Miss Maria 

 Mitchell, Mrs. Emma Seiler, Mrs. Louis Agassiz and Miss Helen Abbot. 



I have heard that she was not a good business woman, and I can well 

 believe it. No one has all the gifts. Her monumental work consists in 

 the voices she trained, and in the noble principles of art she inculcated. 

 I am told that the principal strength of her teaching lay in cultivating 

 purity of tone and truthfulness of expression. 



Those who think that she overdid the value of technique, would do 

 well to read her fine chapter on "The Esthetic View " in "The Voice in 

 Singing." It was one of her strongest and deepest principles, differing 

 greatly from some modern ideas, that art and genius cannot do the best if 

 divorced from morality. So she despised "Wagner's music, and would 

 say indignantly, "He is a man of immoral life ; we must not allow that 

 the music of the future can be furnished from such a source." As one of 

 her dear friends said of her to me, "No, Mrs. Seiler could never believe 



PROC. AMER. PHILOS. SOC. XXIX. 136. U. PRINTED DEC. 31, 1891. 



