matter of national concern. All the serious mistakes which he made in
his life, those acts which the sober judgment of his most ardent
admirers must condemn as ill-advised, sprang from his desire to
identify art with national life, for example, his part in the Saxon
revolution of 1849, his proceedings in Munich, in 1865,[7] his
attempts to influence Bismarck, etc.

[Footnote 7: See Note I. at the end of this chapter.]

Wagner's literary works are not easy reading; his German style, though
grammatical and idiomatic, is generally very involved and obscure,
often turgid. There is a want of self-discipline about the thought,
and he is too hasty in committing ill-digested thoughts ill-arranged
to print, while his style is full of tedious mannerisms, such as his
constant use of futile superlatives for positives, the constant
occurrence of certain words not always in their natural meaning, such
as _Bewusstsein_, _Erloesung_, etc. It is in marked contrast
to the lucid and finished workmanship of his dramatic and musical
composition. His dislike for theoretical exposition, and the
constraint under which he wrote are too manifest in his language.
Nevertheless, the reader who perseveres will be rewarded. The
fascination which Wagner's writings have for thinking minds is due to
the importance of the problems involved. As Dannreuther has observed,
wherever Wagner was brought to a stand a social problem lies buried;
the problems which engage his attention are those which lie at the
root of all art and all life. We may not always approve of the
solutions which he offers, but we cannot fail to be interested. And as
we travel on we gradually become aware of brilliant spots of verdure,
passages here and there--sometimes sudden flashes, sometimes whole
pages where the language and the thought are equally remarkable. What,