ning, when the dew was on and the air was melodious
with the song of birds. He had a habit of going bareheaded, carrying his
hat in his hand; and on these country walks, always with bared head, he
would sing or whistle, and unconsciously in his mind the music would be
taking shape that was to be written out later in the quiet of his study.

Brahms knew the world--not simply one little part of it--he knew it as
thoroughly as any man can, and was interested in it all. He knew the
world of workers--the toilers and bearers of burdens. He knew the weak
and the vicious, and his heart went out to them in sympathy; for he knew
his own heart and realized the narrow margin that separates the
so-called "good" from the alleged "bad." He knew that sin is only a
wrong expression of life, and reacts to the terrible disadvantage of the
sinner.

He was interested in mechanics--bookbinding, printing, iron-working,
carpentry, and was well acquainted with all new inventions and
labor-saving devices. He knew the methods of farming, the different
breeds of cattle; he knew what soil would produce best a certain crop,
and understood "rotation." He could call the wild birds by name and
imitate their notes, and studied long their haunts and habits. That
excellent man and talented, George Herschel, in a letter to a friend
speaks of walking with Johannes Brahms along the highway, and Brahms
suddenly calling in alarm, "Look out! look out! you may kill it!"

It was only a tumblebug, but he shrank from putting foot on any living
thing. Brahms reverenced all life, and felt in his heart that he was
brother to that bug in the dust, to the birds that chirruped in the
hedgerows, and to the trees that lifted their outstretching branches to
the sun.

He was deeply religious--although he never knew it. All music is a hymn
of praise, a song of thanksgiving, a chant of faith. Music is a making
manifest to our dull ears the divine harmony of the universe, and thus
all music is sacred music, and all true musicians are priests, for by
their ministrations we are made to realize our Oneness with the Whole.
Through music we read the Universal.

Music is the only one of the arts that can not be prostituted to a base
use. We hear of bad books, of the "Index Expurgatorius," and in every
State there are laws against the publication of immoral books and
indecent pictures. We also hear of orders issued by the courts requiring
certain statues to be removed or veiled,