Dwight frankly admitted that the causes for the limited success of his
journal lay in himself, and said, truly, "We have long realized that we
were not made for the competitive, sharp enterprise of modern journalism.
The turn of mind which looks at the ideal rather than the practical, and
the native indolence of temperament which sometimes goes with it, have
made our movements slow. To be the first in the field with an
announcement, or a criticism, or an idea, was no part of our ambition; how
can one recognize competitors, or enter into competition, and at the same
time keep his eye on truth?"

The real value of Dwight's work in his _Journal of Music_ was expressed in
a letter sent him by Richard Grant White, when the closing number
appeared: "I regret very much this close of your valuable editorial
labors. You have done great work; and have that consciousness to be
sure--some comfort, but it should not be all. There is not a musician of
respectability in the country who is not your debtor." In the "Easy Chair"
Curtis gave a worthy account of the labors of his friend, and showed how
deserving he was of a far greater success than he had reached.

"In the midst of the great musical progress of the country," he wrote, "it
is a curious fact that the oldest, ablest, and most independent of musical
journals in the United States has just suspended publication, on the eve
of the completion of its thirtieth year, for want of adequate support. We
mean, of course, _Dwight's Journal of Music_, which ended with an
admirably manly, candid, and sagacious, but inevitably pathetic,
valedictory from its editor--veteran editor, we should say, if the
atmosphere of good music in which he has lived had not been an enchanted
air in which youth is perpetually renewed.... A more delightful
valedictory it would not be easy to find in the swan song of any
journal....