was better to have to do with a single wild beast, which one could avoid, than with a band of little subaltern tigers who are incessantly getting between your legs....  To return to those two unfortunate wretches whom they have condemned to the galleys.  When they come out, what will become of them?  There will be nothing left for them to do, save to turn highway robbers.  The ignominious penalties, which take away all resource from a man, are worse than the capital punishment that takes away his life."[218]

Method and Genius:  an Apologue.—­“There was a question between Grimm and M. Le Roy of creative genius and co-ordinating method.  Grimm detests method; according to him, it is the pedantry of letters.  Those who can only arrange, would do as well to remain idle; those who can only get instruction from what has been arranged, would do as well to remain ignorant.  What necessity is there for so many people knowing anything else besides their trade?  They said a great many things that I don’t report to you, and they would be saying things still, if the Abbe Galiani had not interrupted them: 

’My friends, I remember a fable:  pray listen to it.  One day, in the depths of a forest, a dispute arose between a Nightingale and a Cuckoo.  Each prizes its own gift.  What bird, said the Cuckoo, has a song so easy, so simple, so natural, so measured, as mine?

What bird, said the Nightingale, has a song sweeter, more varied, more brilliant, more touching, than mine?

The Cuckoo: I say few things, but they are things of weight, of order, and people retain them.

The Nightingale: I love to use my voice, but I am always fresh, and I never weary.  I enchant the woods; the Cuckoo makes them dismal.  He is so attached to the lessons of his mother, that he would not dare to venture a single note that he had not taken from her.  Now for me, I recognise no master.  I laugh at rules.  What comparison between his pedantic method and my glorious bursts?

The Cuckoo tried several times to interrupt the Nightingale.  But nightingales always go on singing, and never listen; that is rather their weakness.  Ours, carried away by his ideas, followed them with rapidity, without paying the least attention to the answers of his rival.

So after some talk and counter-talk, they agreed to refer their quarrel to the judgment of a third animal.  But where were they to find this third, equally competent and impartial?  It is not so easy to find a good judge.  They sought on every side.  As they crossed a meadow, they spied an Ass, one of the gravest and most solemn that ever was seen.  Since the creation of the world, no ass had ever had such long ears.  ‘Ah,’ said the Cuckoo, ’our luck is excellent; our quarrel is a matter of ears:  here is our judge.  God Almighty made him for the very purpose!’

The Ass went on browsing.  He little thought that one day he would have to decide a question of music.  But Providence amuses itself with this and many another thing.  Our two birds bow very low, compliment him upon his gravity and his judgment, explain the subject of their dispute, and beseech him, with all deference, to listen to their case and decide.