not think much of each other; but latterly, in the face of certain disturbances which seem to threaten their nourishing business, they have united in mutual admiration; so that in the South the Mendelssohnian school, with all that pertains to it, is now lauded and protected—­whilst, in the North, the prototype of South-German sterility is welcomed [Footnote:  Franz Lachner and his Orchestral Suites.] with sudden and profound respect—­an honour which Lindpaintner of blessed memory [Footnote:  Peter Josef von Lindpainter, 1791-1856, Capellmeister at Stuttgart] did not live to see.  Thus to ensure their prosperity the two species are shaking hands.  Perhaps at the outset such an alliance was rather repugnant to those of the old native type; but they got over the difficulty by the aid of that not particularly laudable propensity of Germans:  namely, a timid feeling of jealousy which accompanies a sense of helplessness (die mit der Unbeholfenheit verbundenc Scheelsucht).  This propensity spoilt the temper of one of the most eminent German musicians of later times, [Footnote:  Robert Schumann.] led him to repudiate his true nature, and to submit to the regulations of the elegant and alien second species.  The opposition of the more subordinate musicians signifies nothing beyond this:  “we cannot advance, we do not want others to advance, and we are annoyed to see them advance in spite of us.”  This is at least honest Philistinism; dishonest only under provocation.

In the newly-formed camp, however, things arc not so simple.  Most complicated maxims have there been evolved from the queer ramifications of personal, social, and even national interests.  Without going into details, I will only touch one prominent point, that here there is A good deal to conceal, A good deal to hide and suppress.  The members of the fraternity hardly think it desirable to show that they are “musicians” at all; and they have sufficient reason for this.

Our true German musician was originally a man difficult to associate with.  In days gone by the social position of musicians in Germany, as in France and England, was far from good.  Princes, and aristocratical society generally, hardly recognised the social status of musicians (Italians alone excepted).  Italians were everywhere preferred to native Germans (witness the treatment Mozart met with at the Imperial Court at Vienna).  Musicians remained peculiar half-wild, half-childish beings, and were treated as such by their employers.  The education, even of the most gifted, bore traces of the fact that they had not really come under the influence of refined and intelligent society—­ (think of Beethoven when he came in contact with Goethe at Teplitz).  It was taken for granted that the mental organisation of professional musicians was such as to render them insusceptible to the influence of culture.  When Marschner,