32 LIBERTY AND A LIVING. 



sceptical, and believed that whether or 'not 

 the Wagner wave had a more solid foundation 

 than passing fashion, the real love of music was 

 not deep enough to encourage the hope of a per- 

 manent opera, such as exists in Vienna, Berlin, 

 Munich, and half-a-dozen other German cities. 

 The idea that the love of Wagner's music is, so 

 to speak, fictitious, and the professions of the 

 Wagner enthusiasts merely due to the extrane- 

 ous influence of the moment, I hear a good deal 

 about, but can never take quite seriously. One 

 of my friends insists that the more violent the 

 craze for Wagnerism, the sooner it will be over, 

 and that the very persons who are now decry- 

 ing every thing but Wagner, will soon be hailing 

 the advent of some new light, more abstruse 

 and bizarre than the Bayreuth master perhaps 

 Ching-Chang, with his orchestra playing in half- 

 a-dozen keys at once. I know that this is a 

 common impression among unmusical people. 

 But I see around me so many persons who are 

 perfectly sincere in the pre-eminent position 

 which they gave to this music of the future, 

 so-called for many years, and now so much the 

 music of the present, that I have long ceased to 

 have any misgivings about the matter. The 

 time was when, with the neophyte's ardor, I was 

 ready to ascribe all opposition to Wagner 

 either to ignorance or dishonesty. Since then, 

 I have met persons who know something of 

 music, and yet prefer Mozart, Beethoven, or 



