magical enthrallment, to judge coldly of their theoretical value.
Their worth has, however, already been felt; but it will be more
highly estimated when the time arrives for a critical examination
of the services rendered by them to art during that period of its
course traversed by Chopin.

It is to him we owe the extension of chords, struck together in
arpeggio, or en batterie; the chromatic sinuosities of which his
pages offer such striking examples; the little groups of
superadded notes, falling like light drops of pearly dew upon the
melodic figure. This species of adornment had hitherto been
modeled only upon the Fioritures of the great Old School of
Italian song; the embellishments for the voice had been servilely
copied by the Piano, although become stereotyped and monotonous:
he imparted to them the charm of novelty, surprise and variety,
unsuited for the vocalist, but in perfect keeping with the
character of the instrument. He invented the admirable harmonic
progressions which have given a serious character to pages,
which, in consequence of the lightness of their subject, made no
pretension to any importance. But of what consequence is the
subject? Is it not the idea which is developed through it, the
emotion with which it vibrates, which expands, elevates and
ennobles it? What tender melancholy, what subtlety, what sagacity
in the master-pieces of La Fontaine, although the subjects are so
familiar, the titles so modest? Equally unassuming are the titles
and subjects of the Studies and Preludes; yet the compositions of
Chopin, so modestly named, are not the less types of perfection
in a mode created by himself, and stamped, like all his other
works, with the high impress of his poetic genius. Written in the
commencement of his career, they are characterized by a youthful