of writing music to the first part of Goethe’s Faust.  By desire of the Court the Berlin Singakademie used to bring this work to a hearing once every year, and they gave a performance of it even as late as 1879.  An enthusiastic critic once pronounced it to be among modern works one of those that evince most genius.  The vox populi seems to have repealed this judgment, or rather never to have taken cognisance of the case, for outside Berlin the work has not often been heard.  Dr. Langhans wrote to me after the Berlin performance in 1879:—­

I heard yesterday Radziwill’s Faust for the first time, and, I may add, with much satisfaction; for the old-fashioned things to be found in it (for instance, the utilisation of Mozart’s C minor Quartet fugue as overture, the strictly polyphonous treatment of the choruses, &c.) are abundantly compensated for by numerous traits of genius, and by the thorough knowledge and the earnest intention with which the work is conceived and executed.  He dares incredible things in the way of combining speech and song.  That this combination is an inartistic one, on that point we are no doubt at one, but what he has effected by this means is nevertheless in the highest degree remarkable....

By-and-by Chopin will pay the Prince a longer visit, and then we shall learn what he thought of Faust, and how he enjoyed himself at this nobleman’s house.

Chopin’s studies at the Lyceum terminated in the year 1827.  Through his final examination, however, he did not pass so brilliantly as through his previous ones; this time he carried off no prize.  The cause of this falling-off is not far to seek; indeed, has already been hinted at.  Frederick’s inclination and his successes as a pianist and composer, and the persuasions of Elsner and other musical friends, could not but lessen and at last altogether dispel any doubts and misgivings the parents may at first have harboured.  And whilst in consequence of this change of attitude they became less exacting with their son in the matter of school-work, the latter, feeling the slackening of the reins, would more and more follow his natural bent.  The final examination was to him, no doubt, a kind of manumission which freed him from the last remnant of an oppressive bondage.  Henceforth, then, Chopin could, unhindered by disagreeable tasks or other obstacles, devote his whole time and strength to the cultivation of his chosen art.  First, however, he spent now, as in the preceding year, some weeks with his friends in Strzyzewo, and afterwards travelled to Danzig, where he visited Superintendent von Linde, a brother of the rector of the Warsaw Lyceum.