fashionable society developed. The Czartoryskis, Radziwills,
Skarbeks, Potockis, Lubeckis and the Grand Duke Constantine with
his Princess Lowicka made life pleasant for the talented boy.
Then came his lessons with Joseph Elsner in composition, lessons
of great value. Elsner saw the material he had to mould, and so
deftly did he teach that his pupil's individuality was never
checked, never warped. For Elsner Chopin entertained love and
reverence; to him he wrote from Paris asking his advice in the
matter of studying with Kalkbrenner, and this advice he took
seriously. "From Zwyny and Elsner even the greatest ass must
learn something," he is quoted as having said.

Then there are the usual anecdotes--one is tempted to call them
the stock stories of the boyhood of any great composer. In
infancy Chopin could not hear music without crying. Mozart was
morbidly sensitive to the tones of a trumpet. Later the Polish
lad sported familiarly with his talents, for he is related to
have sent to sleep and awakened a party of unruly boys at his
father's school. Another story is his fooling of a Jew merchant.
He had high spirits, perhaps too high, for his slender physique.
He was a facile mimic, and Liszt, Balzac, Bocage, Sand and others
believed that he would have made an actor of ability. With his
sister Emilia he wrote a little comedy. Altogether he was a
clever, if not a brilliant lad. His letters show that he was not
the latter, for while they are lively they do not reveal much
literary ability. But their writer saw with open eyes, eyes that
were disposed to caricature the peculiarities of others. This
trait, much clarified and spiritualized in later life, became a
distinct, ironic note in his character. Possibly it attracted
Heine, although his irony was on a more intellectual plane.