wholly inexcusable is the habit of some Englishmen of criticising and
censuring the work of foreigners which they dislike because they
cannot understand it. There is a certain section of the English people
who seem to think that it shows patriotism and a becoming national
pride to belittle the work of other nations and speak of it in an
insolent tone of contempt. They habitually misrepresent the
achievements of foreigners in order to make them appear ridiculous.
Over twenty years ago a writer in one of our high-class magazines
informed an astonished world that "the Wagner-bubble has burst!" and
the preposterous nonsense has been repeated again and again in one
form or another ever since. Quite recently we read in one of our
leading English dailies the following sentences: "... Among many of
the best-known critics there is a general consensus of opinion that
with the completion of Strauss' important work [_Elektra_],
Wagnerism will diminish in popularity.... For years and years vain
attempts have been made to get away from Richard Wagner. Creative
musicians have long felt that Wagner's great and never-to-be-forgotten
art no longer suited modern times"! One feels inclined to ask whether
the writer looks upon musical composers as racehorses to be pitted
against each other, or as religious creeds which must destroy their
rivals in order to live.

[Footnote 3: Feeling some doubt as to whether this statement were not
an exaggeration, I have submitted it before publication to my friend
Mr. Eirikr Magnusson of Cambridge, whose profound knowledge of
European literature, ancient and modern, needs no attestation from me.
He replies that, except for the two centuries succeeding the Black
Death in 1402-4, the statement in the text is quite correct. With that
reservation therefore I allow it to stand.]