I do not wish to write a
treatise: my plan is only to give hints and suggestions. I am not
writing in the interest of Stock, Buffalo, & Co.

After the playing, we went to supper: the oysters were good, but the
wine left a little sharp taste. My timid daughter did not like oysters;
but she ate a little salad, and at table listened instead of talking.

A few innocent anecdotes were related at table about horses and balls
and dogs and Stock's future. On taking leave, Madame said
condescendingly to Cecilia, "If you keep on, my dear, one of these days
you will play very nicely."

CHAPTER III.

MANY STUDENTS OF THE PIANO AND FEW PLAYERS.

_(A Letter addressed to the Father of a Piano Pupil)._

It is a pity that you have no sons, for a father takes great delight in
his sons; but I agree with you, when you say that, if you had one, you
would rather he should break stones than pound the piano. You say you
have many friends who rejoice in that paternal felicity, and whose sons,
great and small, bright and dull, have been learning the piano for three
years or more, and still can do nothing. You are doubtless right; and,
further, they never will learn any thing. You ask, Of what use is it to
man or boy to be able to stammer through this or that waltz, or
polonaise or mazurka, with stiff arms, weak fingers, a stupid face, and
lounging figure? What gain is it to art? You say, Is not time worth
gold, and yet we are offered lead? And the poor teachers torment
themselves and the boys, abuse art and the piano; and at the end of the
evening, in despair, torment their own wives, after they have all day
long been scolding, cuffing, and lamenting, without success or
consolation. You speak the truth. I have had the same experience myself,
though not to the same degree, and though I did not bring home to my
wife a dreary face, but only a good appetite. But I did not give myself
up to lamentation over piano-teaching. I gathered up courage and rose
above mere drudgery. I reflected and considered and studied, and tried
whether I could not manage better, as I found I could not succeed with
the boys; and I have managed better and succeeded better, because I have
hit upon a different way, and one more in accordance with nature than
that used in the piano schools. I laid down, as the first and most
important principle, the necessity for "the formation of a fine touch,"
just as singing-teachers rely upon the culture of a fine tone, in o