most promising child, and before he was ten
years of age, said to a friend, "Richard will be able to succeed at
anything he concentrates his mind upon."

The truth of the remark has often been reiterated. The youth was superb
in his mental equipment--strong, capable, independent. Had he turned his
attention to any other profession, or any branch of art or science, he
could have probed the problem to its depths, and made his mark upon the
age in which he lived.

In height Wagner was a little under size, but his deep chest, well-set
neck, and large, shapely head gave him a commanding look. In physique he
resembled the "big little men" like Columbus, Napoleon, Aaron Burr,
Alexander Hamilton and John Bright--men born to command, with ability to
do the thinking for a nation.

It's magnificent to be a great musician, and many musicians are nothing
else, but it is better to be a man than a musician. Richard Wagner was a
man. Environment forced literature upon his attention: he desired to be
a great poet. He wrote essays, stories, quatrains, epics. Chance sent
the work of Beethoven within his radius, and he became filled with the
melody of the master. Young men of this type, full of the pride of
youth, overflowing with energy, search for a something on which to try
their steel. Wagner could write poetry, that was sure, and more, he
could prepare the score and set his words to music. He fell upon the
work like one possessed--and he was. To his amazement the difficulties
of music all faded away, and that which before seemed like a hopeless
task, now became luminous before the heat of his spirit.

Nothing is difficult when you put your heart in it.

The obstacles to be overcome in setting words to sounds were like a game
of chess--a pleasing diversion. In a month he knew as much of the
science of music as many men did who had grubbed at the work a lifetime.
"The finances! Get your principles right and then 'tis a mere matter of
detail, requiring only concentration--I will arrange it," said Napoleon.

Wagner focused on music, yet here seems a good place to say that he
never learned either to play the piano or to sing. He had to trust the
"details" to others. Yet at twenty he led an orchestra. Soon after he
became conductor of the opera at Magdeburg.

In some months more he drifted to Konigsberg, and there acted as
conductor at the Royal Theater. In the company of this theater was a
young woman by the name of Wilhelmina Plan