[Footnote 105: Berlioz never ceased to inveigh against the Revolution of
1848--which should have had his sympathies. Instead of finding material,
like Wagner, in the excitement of that time for impassioned
compositions, he worked at _L'Enfance du Christ_. He affected absolute
indifference--he who was so little made for indifference. He approved
the State's action, and despised its visionary hopes.] What
ingratitude! He owed to these revolutions, to these democratic storms,
to these human tempests, the best of all his genius--and he disowned it
all. This musician of a new era took refuge in the past.

* * * * *

Well, what did it matter? Whether he wished it or not, he opened out
some magnificent roads for Art. He has shown the music of France the way
in which her genius should tread; he has shown her possibilities she had
never before dreamed of. He has given us a musical utterance at once
truthful and expressive, free from foreign traditions, coming from the
depths of our being, and reflecting our spirit; an utterance which
responded to his imagination, to his instinct for what was picturesque,
to his fleeting impressions, and his delicate shades of feeling. He has
laid the strong foundation of a national and popular music for the
greatest republic in Europe.

These are shining qualities. If Berlioz had had Wagner's reasoning power
and had made the utmost use of his intuitions, if he had had Wagner's
will and had shaped the inspirations of his genius and welded them into
a solid whole, I venture to say that he would have made a revolution in
music greater than Wagner's own; for Wagner, though stronger and more
master of himself, was less original and, at bottom, but the close of a
glorious past.