_perfection_,--that "terrestrial valley of tears." Truly a beautiful
country, but which is only to be found in Paradise!

Others, instead of thinking, "I will try for the present to do better
than others have done," so harass and torment the poor mortal voices
with their aim at perfect equality and perfect beauty of tone, the
result often is that every thing becomes unequal and far from beautiful.
Some teachers make their pupils so anxious and troubled that, owing to
their close attention to the tone, and the breath, and the
pronunciation, they sing their songs in an utterly wooden manner, and so
in fact they, too, are lost in optimism and in tears; whereas, for
singing, a happy confidence in the ability to succeed is essential.
Others pursue an opposite course, and are guilty of worse faults, as you
will see if you look around. Some of them have no standard of
perfection, but use up the time in an exchange of ideas with their
pupils, with mysterious and conceited "ifs" and "buts." They are very
positive, but only within the narrow circle of their own ideas. They
make no advance in a correct medium path. Some allow pupils to practise
only _staccato_, and others only _legato_, aiming thereby at nobody
knows what. Some allow them to sing too loud, others too feebly; some
philosophize earnestly about beauty in the voice, and others grumble
about unpleasantness in the same; some are enthusiastic about
extraordinary talents, others fret about the want of talent; some have a
passion for making all the sopranos sing alto, others do just the
reverse; some prefer a shadowy, others a clear voice. They all rest
their opinions upon the authority of some famous screaming-master who
has written a singing-system. Upon like authority, some cultivate
chiefly the deep tones, because it is very fine, and "creates an
effect," for soprano voices to be able suddenly to sing like men, or
rather to growl, and because it is the fashion in Paris. Others, on the