Volume I Part 15 (1/2)

DEAR KREHBIEL,--I was so glad to hear froave me much amusement I wish I could have been present at that Chinese concert Itof the kind ever heard of in Cincinnati

It gives me malicious pleasure to inform you that my vile and improper book will probably be published in a fewCandaule”--is being published as a serial in one of the New Orleans papers, with delightful results of shocking people I will send you copies of them when complete

I ay It is a pity there are so few good works on the subject Layard's _unabridged_ works are very extensive; but I do not re them in the Cincinnati library Rawlinson, I think, is h in research The French arefine explorations in this direction

I find frequent referencevaluable information on antique music, drawn froreat French writer upon the same subject I have not seen them; but I fancy you would find so musical instruments I suppose you have read Sir Williaed form of it You know the double flutes, etc, of the ancients are preserved in the museum of Naples In the Cincinnati library is a splendid copy of the work on Egyptian antiquities prepared under Napoleon I, wherein you will find coloured prints--froraphs--of the aea But I do not think there are ood books on the subject of assyrian antiquities there Vickers could put you in the way of getting better works on the subject than any one in the library, I believe

You will hly than ever I shall--although I love theraph the _rapports_ of the antiquities in my mind, like memories of a panoramic procession; while to you, the procession will not be one of shadows, but of splendid facts, with the sound of strangely ancient music and the harmonious tread of sacrificial bands,--all preserved for you through the night of ages And the life of vanished cities and the pageantry of dead faiths will have a farreality for you,--the Musician,--than ever for h yet to do much work I have written an essay upon luxury and art in the tiain, I am not satisfied with it, and fear it will not be published And by the way--I request, and beg, and entreat, and supplicate, and petition, and pray that you will not forget about Mephistopheles Here, in the sweet perfu flowers, I feel myself moved to write the musical romance whereof I spake unto you in the days that were

I can't say that things look very bright here otherwise The prospect is dark as that of stor in the far sky-border,--the lightning signifying hopes and fantasies

But I shall stick to yptian colossus with a broken nose, seated soleinality

Ti into ashes It has been buried under a lava-flood of taxes and frauds and maladministrations so that it has becoists Its condition is so bad that when I write about it, as I intend to do soon, nobody will believe I a the truth But it is better to live here in sackcloth and ashes, than to own the whole State of Ohio

Once in a while I feel the spirit of restlessness upon me, when the Spanish shi+ps come in from Costa Rica and the islands of the West Indies I fancy that some day, I shall wander down to the levee, and creep on board, and sail away to God knohere I ary to see those quaint cities of the Conquistadores and to hear the sandalled sentinels crying through the night--_Sereno alerto!--sereno alerto!_--just as they did two hundred years ago

I send you a little bit of prettiness I cut out of a paper Ah!--_that_ is style, is it not?--and fancy and strength and height and depth It is just in the style of Richter's ”titan”

Major sends his coo to see the Carnival nuisance

Remember me to anybody who cares about it, and believe me always

Faithfully yours, L HEARN

TO H E KREHBIEL

NEW ORLEANS, 1880

MY DEAR KREHBIEL,--Pray remember that your ancestors were the very Goths and Vandals who destroyed the norance and ferocity had spared; and I perceive by your last letter that you possess still traces of that Gothic spirit which detests all beauty that is not beautiful with the fantastic and unearthly beauty that is Gothic

You cannot e the blood in nostic and mystic which you deem superior to all that any Latin rant the existence and the weird charm of the beauty that Gothic minds conceived; but I do not see less beauty in as conceived by the passion and poetry of other races of e everything which claims art-merit by a Gothic standard

Letof the Spirit of Greek Art,--or the sources which inspired its miraculous compositions; and that to do so you would have to study the cliion, the society of the country which produced it My own knowledge is, I regret to say, very iht to tell you that you rong to accuseGreek ideals, or to lecture me upon what is and what is not art in ht say the sament of French writers: you confound Naturalisain, do not suppose that I ae all art, I fear, by inductions from that in which you are a master; but the process in your case is false;--nor will you be able to judge the artistic soul of a people adequately by its musical productions, until you have passed another quarter of a century in the study of the es and civilizations Then it is possible that you may find that secret key; but you cannot possibly do it now, learned as you are, nor do I believe there are a dozen men in the world who could do it

Now I am with the Latin; I live in a Latin city;--I seldoue except when I enter the office for a few brief hours I eat and drink and converse with members of the races you detest like the son of Odin that you are I see beauty here all aroundbeauty I consider it my artistic duty to let myself be absorbed into this new life, and study its form and colour and passion And my impressions I occasionally put into the forust you so much, because they are not of the aesir and Jotunheim Were I able to live in Norway, I should try also to intoxicate ht write of the Saga singers--

”From whose lips in music rolled The Hamavel of Odin old, With sounds mysterious as the roar Of ocean on a stor to the Greek idea, is to seek beauty wherever it is to be found, and separate it froold from ore You do not see beauty in ani breath of Greek art and the ratification is the act of a creator, and the divinest rite of Nature's te to you as a friend, I write of hts and fancies, of my wishes and disappointments, of my frailties and follies and failures and successes,--even as I would write to a brother So that soe in words, appears very strange upon paper And it s to tell you; for this is a land of ical moons and of witches and of warlocks; and were I to tell you all that I have seen and heard in these years in this enchanted City of Dreams you would verily deem me mad rather than morbid

Affectionately yours, L HEARN