Volume I Part 12 (2/2)

I fancy that you have penetrated just so far into the Temple of your Art that, like one of the initiates of Eleusis, you commence to experience such awe and reverence for its soleo further research You suddenly forget how much farther you have advanced into the holy precincts than most mortals, who seldoly infinite becomes the vastness of the place, the more interminable its vistas of arches, and the more mysterious its endless successions of aisles The Vatican with its sixty thousand rooms is but a child's toy house cos of Art's infinite te only the entrance, narrow and low as that of a pyramid, can no more comprehend the Illimitable that lies beyond it than they can measure the deeps of the Eternities beyond the fixed stars I cannot help believing that the little shadow of despondency visible in your last letter is an evidence of how thoroughly you have devoted yourself to Music, and a partial contradiction of your oords It would be irrational in you to expect that you could achieve your purposes in the very blush of ether that you already stand in knowledge on a footing with rey-haired disciples and apostles of the art, whose names are familiar inmusical you desire to become; but in art-study one must devote one's whole life to self-culture, and can only hope at last to have cliher and advanced a little farther than anybody else You should feel the deterypt ere led into subterranean vaults and suddenly abandoned in darkness and rising water, whence there was no escape save by an iron ladder As the fugitiveof the quivering stairway gave way immediately he had quitted it, and fell back into the abyss, echoing; but the least exhibition of fear or weariness was fatal to the climber

It seems to me that want of confidence in one's self is not less a curse than it appears to be a consequence of knowledge You hesitate to accept a position on the ground of your own feeling of inadequacy; and the one who fills it is somebody who does not know the rudiments of his duty

”Fools rush in,” etc, and were you to decline the situation proffered by Mr Thomas, merely because you don't think yourself qualified to fill it, I hope you do not iine that any better scholar will fill the bill On the contrary, I believe that some d--d quack would take the position, even at a starvation salary, and actually norance However, you tell me of many other reasons Of course, ---- is a vast and varied ass,--a piebald quack of the sort who y for lack of brains; but I fancy that you would be sure to find some asses at the head of any institution of the sort in this country The de as people cannot tell the difference between a quack and a scholar, the for the cheek of a et his work in I don't think I should care much about the plans and actions of such people, but contentard to a position like that you speak of,--it would afford you large opportunity for study, and in fact compel study upon you as a public instructor At least it seeain, remember that your connection with the _Gazette_ leaves you in the position of the Arabian prince as marbleized from his loins down As an artist you are but half alive there; one half of your existence is paralyzed; you waste your energies in the creation of works which are coffined within twelve hours after their birth; your power of usefulness is absorbed in a direction which can give you no adequate reward hereafter; and the little time you can devote to your studies and your really valuable work is too often borrowed from sleep From the daily press I think you have obtained about all you will get froard of reputation, etc; and there is no future really worth seeking in it Even the most successful editors live a sort of existence which I certainly do not envy, and I am sure you would soon sicken of

Do you not think, too, that any situation like that now offered you ht lead to a far better one under far better conditions? It would certainly introduce you to many whose friendshi+p and appreciation would be invaluable I do not believe that Cincinnati is your true field for future work, and I cannot persuade myself that the city will ever become a _permanent_ artistic centre; but I aery before long, and if you have an opportunity to obtain a good footing in the East, I would take it

Tho an Eastern pedestal for you to light on; for, judging by the admiration expressed for him by the _Times_, _Tribune_, _World_, _Herald_, _Sun_, etc, he must have some influence with musical centres Then Europe would be open to you in a short time with its extraordinary opportunities of art-study, and its treasures of musical literature, to be devoured free of cost Your researches into the archaeology of music, I need hardly say, must be made in Europe rather than here; and I hope you will beforethe Musical Department of the British Museum, and the libraries of Paris and the Eternal City

However, I do not pretend to be an adviser,--only a _suggester_ I think your good little ould be a good adviser; for women seem blessed with a kind of divine intuition, and I sometimes believe they can see usted withyou what interest your last excited inyour own prospects

Let pipe

Sopipe was a Roman military instrument, and was introduced into Scotland by the Roether with the ”kilt” It hostly resemblance to that of the Roman private as exhibited on the Column of Trajan I cannot remember where I have read this, but you can doubtless inforh I have even had the experience of nursing a friend sick of yellow fever The Gods are sparing me for some fantastic reason I enclose some specimens of the death notices which sprinkle our town, and send a copy of the last _Item_

My eyes are eternally played out, and I shall have to abandon newspaper work altogether before long Perhaps I shall do better in so up before o?--what shall I do?” Sometimes I think of Europe, sometimes of the West Indies,--of Florida, France, or the wilderness of London The tio somewhere,--if it is not to join the ”Innuo down to the wharves, I look at the white-winged shi+ps O ye hosts of the infinite ocean, whither will ye bearme,--what hopes, what despairs?

Your sincere friend and admirer, L HEARN

TO H E KREHBIEL

NEW ORLEANS, 1878

MY DEAR KREHBIEL,--I received your admirable little sketch It pleasedto deal with a simpler subject, you were less haossipy, fresh nized several of the cuts That of the upperht-hand corner was of the God Terminus, aantiquity perhaps, although in country districts the Terenerally characterized by a certain sylvan rudeness The earliest Ter the ancients a circle of ground, or square border--it was set by law in Rome at two feet wide--surrounded every homestead This was inviolate to the Gods, and the Ter its borders, or at the corners At certain days in the year the proprietorhy the ancient Hindoos, hom the Greeks and Romans must have had a close relationshi+p in remote antiquity The Greeks called these deities the ?e?? ????? I do not knohence you got the figure; but I know it is a coravers as Gessner, who excelled in antique subjects, delighted to introduce it in sylvan scenes I have an engraving by Leopold Fla on the double flute (charle flute acco from his pedestal of stone

The first flute-player on the left-hand side, at the lower corner, is evidently from a vase, as the treatment of the hair denotes--I should say a Greek vase; and the second one, with the yptian face, appears to be an Etruscan figure The treatment of the eyes and profile looks Etruscan So are much more complicated than I had supposed any of the antique flutes were

You will find a charsley's ”Heroes”--for little ones Of course he does not tell why Medusa's hair was turned into snakes There are several other versions of the legend

I prefer that in which the sword is substituted for the sickle,--a most unwarlike weapon, and a utensil, iven by Hermes to Perseus is said to have been that ith he slew the ed by the gnomes under the roots of the hills of Scandinavia, this weapon slehenever brandished

Fever is bad still I had another attack of dengue, but have got nearly over it I find lemon-juice the best remedy All over town there are little white notices pasted on the la the dismal words:--

Decede Ce matin, a 3 heures Julien Natif de ----,

and so on The death notices are usually sur beneath a weeping ith a huge round Yellow fever deaths occur every day close by So off cannon as a preventive This plan of shooting Yellow Jack was tried in '53 without success It brings on rain; but a rainy day always heralds an increase of the plague You will see by the _Item's_ tabulated record that there is a curious periodicity in the increase It ht be described by a line like this--

[Illustration]

You have doubtless seen the records of pulsationsthe rapidity of blood-circulation The fever actually appears to have a pulsation of graduated increase like that of a feverish vein I think this deerm incubation,--affected, of course, es

Hope you will have your musical talks republished in book form Send us _Golden Hours_ once in a while It will always have a warm notice in the _Item_ Yours in much hurry, with proards to all the boys