1905.] on Personal Recollections of Johannes Brahms. 151 



He never coveted fame and applause. There were, next to his art, 

 other things his whole being comprised with a strong love. Himself 

 of a childlike disposition, he loved children. To make children, poor 

 or rich, happy, was to himself pure happiness. He loved the poor, 

 to whom his heart went out in sympathy and pity. Where he could 

 comfort in silence those who suffered in silence, those who struggled 

 against undeserved misfortune, the sick and the helpless, there the 

 man, so modest, sparing and unpretentious in his own wants, became 

 a benefactor, ready for sacrifice. 



He has left us a precious inheritance : the noble example of a 

 rare truthfulness and simplicity in art and life ; of a relentless 

 severity toward himself ; of a hatred of self-conceit and pretence ; of 

 a high-minded, inflexible, unwavering artistic conviction. To him 

 may be truly applied Goethe's fine words in the Epilogue to Schiller's 

 "Lay of the Bell"— 



" With mighty steps his soul advanced 

 Toward the ever true — good — beautiful." 



[G. H.] 



