canvas, while the Lesson in the National
Gallery (not the young woman at her clavecin, a genuine Vermeer) is
also doubtful, say the experts.

Setting aside the two interiors and the second View of Delft as not
being in the field of the authentic, there remain the Morgan and the
Widener Vermeers. Which of the pair is the thirty-fifth Vermeer? They
are both masterpieces, though the Morgan is blacker and has been
overcleaned.

Since writing the above I had on my return to America the pleasure of
reading Philip L. Hale's wholly admirable study of Vermeer, and many
dark places were made clear; especially concerning the place in the
catalogue of 1696 of the Widener picture, Lady Weighing Gold, often
called Lady Weighing Pearls, because there are pearls on the table
about to be weighed. Mr. Hale, who, as a painter, knows whereof he
speaks, styles Vermeer as "the greatest painter who ever lived," and
meets all the very natural objections to such a bold statement.
Certainly with Velasquez and Da Vinci, Vermeer (the three V's) is the
one of the supreme magicians of paint in the history of art. Who
doubts this should visit Berlin, Dresden, Vienna, and Amsterdam, and
for ever after hold his peace.

VIII

RICHARD STRAUSS AT STUTTGART

I

After a week of Richard Strauss at Stuttgart one begins to entertain a
profound respect for the originality of Richard Wagner. And Wagner
during his embattled career was liberally accused of plagiarism, of
drawing heavy drafts upon the musical banking houses of Beethoven,
Weber, Marschner, Schubert, and how many others! Indeed, one of the
prime requisites of success for a composer is to be called a borrower
of other men's ideas. The truth is that there are only thirty-six
dramatic situations and only seven notes in the scale, and all the
possible permutations will not prevent certain figures, melodic
groups, or musical moods from recurrence. Therefore, to say that
Richard Strauss is a deliberate imitator of Wagner would be to restate
a very common exaggeration. He is inconceivable without Wagner;
nevertheless, he is individual. All his musical life he has been
dodging Wagner and sometimes he succeeds in whipping his devil so far
around the stump that he becomes himself, the glorious Richard
Strauss of Don Quixote, of Till Eulenspiegel, of Hero's Life, and
Elektra. But it may be confessed without