eeds of hereditary consumption developed
themselves. As a young man he was lively and joyous, always ready
for frolic, and with a great fund of humor, especially in caricature.
Students of human character know how consistent these traits are with
a deep undercurrent of melancholy, which colors the whole life when the
immediate impulse of joy subsides.

From the date of 1840 Chopin's health declined; but through the
seven years during which his connection with Mme. Sand continued, he
persevered actively in his work of composition. The final rupture with
the woman he so madly loved seems to have been his death-blow. He spoke
of Mme. Sand without bitterness, but his soul pined in the bitter-sweet
of memory. He recovered partially, and spent a short season of
concert-giving in London, where he was feted and caressed by the best
society as he had been in Paris. Again he was sharply assailed by his
fatal malady, and he returned to Paris to die. Let us describe one of
his last earthly experiences, on Sunday, the 15th of October, 1849.

Chopin had lain insensible from one of his swooning attacks for some
time. His sister Louise was by his side, and the Countess Delphine
Potocka, his beautiful countrywoman and a most devoted friend, watched
him with streaming eyes. The dying musician became conscious, and
faintly ordered a piano to be rolled in from the adjoining room. He
turned to the countess, and whispered, feebly, "Sing." She had a lovely
voice, and, gathering herself for the effort, she sang that famous
canticle to the Virgin which, tradition says, saved Stradella's life
from assassins. "How beautiful it is!" he exclaimed. "My God! how very
beautiful!" Again she sang to him, and the dying musician passed into
a trance, from which he never fully aroused till he expired, two days
afterward, in the arms of his pupil, M. Gutman.

Chopin's obsequies took place at the Madeleine Church, and Lablache sang
on this occasion the same passage, the "Tuba Mirum" of Mozart's Requiem
Mass, which he had sung at the funeral of Beethoven in 1827; while the
other solos were given by Mme. Viardot Garcia and Mme. Castellan. He
lies in Pere Lachaise, beside Cherubini and Bellini.

V.

The compositions of Chopin were exclusively for the piano; and alike as
composer and virtuoso he is the founder of a new school, or perhaps
may be said to share that honor with Robert Schumann--the school which
to-day is represented in its advanced form by Li