tgart, and
altogether did not find things so promising as formerly. No profitable
engagements could be secured, and, to cap his misery, Titus, his other
self, left him to join the revolutionists in Poland November 30. His
letters reflect his mental agitation and terror over his parents'
safety. A thousand times he thought of renouncing his artistic
ambitions and rushing to Poland to fight for his country. He never did,
and his indecision--it was not cowardice--is our gain. Chopin put his
patriotism, his wrath and his heroism into his Polonaises. That is why
we have them now, instead of Chopin having been the target of some
black-browed Russian. Chopin was psychically brave; let us not cavil at
the almost miraculous delicacy of his organization. He wrote letters to
his parents and to Matuszyriski, but they are not despairing--at least
not to the former. He pretended gayety and had great hopes for the
future, for he was living entirely on means supplied him by his father.
News of Constantia gladdened him, and he decided to go to Italy, but
the revolution early in 1831 decided him for France. Dr. Malfatti was
good to him and cheered him, and he managed to accomplish much social
visiting. The letters of this period are most interesting. He heard
Sarah Heinefetter sing, and listened to Thaiberg's playing of a
movement of his own concerto. Thalberg was three years younger than
Chopin and already famous. Chopin did not admire him: "Thalberg plays
famously, but he is not my man...He plays forte and piano with the
pedals but not with the hand; takes tenths as easily as I do octaves,
and wears studs with diamonds."

Thalberg was not only too much of a technician for Chopin, but he was
also a Jew and a successful one. In consequence, both poet and Pole
revolted.

Hummel called on Frederic, but we hear nothing of his opinion of the
elder man and his music; this is all the more strange, considering how
much Chopin built on Hummel's style. Perhaps that is the cause of the
silence, just as Wagner's dislike for Meyerbeer was the result of his
obligations to the composer of "Les Huguenots." He heard Aloys Schmitt
play, and uttered the very Heinesque witticism that "he is already over
forty years old, and composes eighty years old music." This in a letter
to Elsner. Our Chopin could be amazingly sarcastic on occasion. He knew
Slavik the violin virtuoso, Merk the 'cellist, and all the music
publishers. At a concert given by Madame Garzi