met with a most cordial
personal reception there. In this he was aided by scholars who came to
him from Germany, most prominent among whom was Hans von Buelow, who
had been in Weimar with Liszt, and had become enthusiastic over
"Lohengrin." Wagner overcame his own repugnance to the operas of
Meyerbeer and his associates, which he hoped his "Lohengrin" was
destined to obliterate, and directed their performance. To do the
same for his own works, the requisite strength was lacking. "Some of
us are old, others are young. Let the older one think not of himself,
but let him love the younger for the sake of the inheritance which he
places in his heart to cherish anew, for the day will come when the
same shall be proclaimed for the welfare of humanity the world over,"
are the closing words of his "Opera and Drama." He found consolation
and compensation in performing the symphonies of Beethoven, for two of
which he prepared a special program; but as he desired to have the
real motives of his work understood by the hospitable little city, he
wrote a pamphlet, "A Theatre in Zurich," wherein he advocated the
establishment and maintenance of a theatre by the citizens themselves,
as the Greeks had done. It was another evidence of his firm conviction
that the stage had a high mission in the culture of our time. He even
lectured on the subject of dramatic music, and recited the poem of
"Siegfried's Death," which made a profound impression.

Very soon thereafter appeared the remarkable "Letter to Liszt in
Regard to the Goethe Memorial," wherein he confidently asserted that
painter as well as sculptor would decline to compete with the poet
acting in harmony with the musician, and that they would with
reverential awe bow before an art-work in comparison with which their
own productions would seem but lifeless fragments. For such an
art-work there should therefore be prepared a suitable place rather
than continue contributions to the support of the individual arts,
which the former would invigorate and elevate anew. We see to-day that
the plastic arts also strike out in new paths. Liszt and Wagner have
inspired their epoch and the sculptor Zumbusch in Vienna has given us
their busts. In a similar strain he challenged musical criticism and
thereupon began with the gradual spread of "Tannhaeuser," and soon
also of "Lohengrin," those seemingly endless disputes which, however,
at the same time increased the strength of some younger men, among