BY THE SAME AUTHOR.

Chats with Music Students; or Talks about Music and Music Life.

“A remarkably valuable work.  It is made up of talks to students, calculated to make them think; of hints and suggestions which will be of immense assistance to those who are earnestly trying to become proficient in music.”—­Boston Transcript.

“No other book covers the same broad field which this covers in such a pleasant and inspiring manner.”—­The Writer (Boston).

The Music Life and How to Succeed in it.

“These ideas are worthy of attention from students and workers in all branches of art, science, and literature, who mean to be serious and earnest.”—­Boston Transcript.

“Exceedingly valuable because of its broad impartiality in its exposition of truth, its depth of understanding, and, above all, for its earnest desire, manifest in every word, to lead music students to a love for music itself....  It abounds in high artistic thought and insight.”—­The Boston Times.

CHAPTER I.

What the face tells.

  “And the light dwelleth with him.”—­Daniel II:  22.

Once a master said to a child: 

“If thou wilt study diligently, learn, and do good unto others, thy face shall be filled with light.”

So the child studied busily, learned, and sought how she could do good unto others.  And every little while she ran to the glass to see if the light was coming.  But at each time she was disappointed.  No light was there.  Try as faithfully as she would, and look as often as she would, it was always the same.

I do not know if she doubted the master or not; but it is certain she did not know what to make of it.  She grieved, and day after day her disappointment grew.  At length she could bear it no longer, so she went to the master and said: 

“Dear master, I have been so diligent!  I have tried to learn and to do good unto others.  Yet every time I have sought in my face the light which you promised, it has not been there.  No, not a single time.”

Now the master listened intently, and watching her face as she spoke, he said: 

“Thou poor little one, in this moment, as thou hast spoken to me, thy face has been so filled with light that thou wouldst not believe.  And dost thou know why?  It is because every word thou hast spoken in this moment has come from thy heart.

“Thou must learn in the first days this lesson:  When the thought and the deed are in the heart, then the light is in the face, always, and it is there at no other time.  It could not be.  And what is in thy heart when thou art before the glass?  In that moment hast thou turned away from diligence, and from learning, and from the love of doing good unto others and in thy heart there is left only the poor curiosity to see the light which can never shine when it is sought.  Thou canst never see the light of thy own face.  For thee that light is forever within, and it will not prosper thy way to want to look upon it.  It is only as thou art faithful that this is added unto thee.”