laudatory as it is, and the absence of Chopin's name from other
Warsaw letters, do not remove the doubts which such eulogistic
superlatives raise in the mind of an unbiassed inquirer. But that
Chopin, as a pianist and as a musician generally, had attained a
proficiency far beyond his years becomes evident if we examine
his compositions of that time, to which I shall presently advert.
And that he had risen into notoriety and saw his talents
appreciated cannot be doubted for a moment after what has been
said. Were further proof needed, we should find it in the fact
that he was selected to display the excellences of the
aeolomelodicon when the Emperor Alexander I, during his sojourn
in Warsaw in 1825, [FOOTNOTE: The Emperor Alexander opened the
Diet at Warsaw on May 13, 1825, and closed it on June 13.]
expressed the wish to hear this instrument. Chopin's performance
is said to have pleased the august auditor, who, at all events,
rewarded the young musician with a diamond ring.

A greater event than either the concert or the performance before
the Emperor, in fact, THE event of the year 1825, was the
publication of Chopin's Opus 1. Only he who has experienced the
delicious sensation of seeing himself for the first time in print
can realise what our young author felt on this occasion. Before
we examine this work, we will give a passing glance at some less
important early compositions of the maestro which were published
posthumously.

There is first of all a Polonaise in G sharp minor, said to be of
the year 1822, [FOOTNOTE: See No. 15 of the Posthumous Works in
the Breitkopf and Hartel edition.] but which, on account of the
savoir-faire and invention exhibited in it, I hold to be of a