The successes of their policy, to which they are indebted for the control of public music in Germany, need not detain us; but we are concerned in an examination of the curious religious development within their congregation.  In this respect the earlier maxim, “beware of effect”—­the result of embarrassment and cautious timidity—­has now been changed, from a delicate rule of prudence and security, to a positively aggressive dogma.  The adherents of this dogma hypocritically look askance if they happen to meet with a true man in music.  They pretend to be shocked, as though they had come across something improper.  The spirit of their shyness, which originally served to conceal their own impotence, now attempts the defamation of other people’s potency.  Defamatory insinuations and calumny find ready acceptance with the representatives of German Philistinism, and appear to be at home in that mean and paltry state of things which, as we have seen, environs our musical affairs.

The principal ingredient, however, is an apparently judicious caution in presence of that which one happens to be incapable of, together with detraction of that which one would like to accomplish one’s self.  It is sad, above all things, to find a man so powerful and capable as Robert Schumann concerned in this confusion, and in the end to see his name inscribed on the banner of the new fraternity.  The misfortune was that Schumann in his later days attempted certain tasks for which he was not qualified.  And it is a pity to see that portion of his work, in which he failed to reach the mark he had set himself, raised as the insignia of the latest guild of musicians.  A good deal of Schumann’s early endeavour was most worthy of admiration and sympathy, and it has been cherished and nurtured by us (I am proud here to rank myself with Liszt’s friends) in a more commendable and commending way than by his immediate adherents. [Footnote:  See Appendix D.] The latter, well aware that Schumann had herein evinced true productivity, knowingly kept these things in the background, perhaps because they could not play them in an effective way.  On the other hand, certain works of Schumann conceived on a larger and bolder scale, and in which the limits of his gifts become apparent are now carefully brought forward. [Footnote:  Such as the Overtures to Faust, Die Braut von Messina, Julius Caesar; the “Balladen,” Das Gluck von Edenhall, Des Sanger Fluch, Vom Pagen und der Konigstochter, etc.] The public does not exactly like these works, but their performance offers an opportunity to point out how commendable a thing it is to “make no effect.”  Finally, a comparison with the works of Beethoven in his third period (played as they play them) comes in opportunely.