Walker-My_Musical_Ex.. - Walter Cosand

DEPPE AND SCHARWENCKA 149
friend, whose life-work was science, and not art. He
puts it thus :
' Better inaction than a half-effort—for
in the former you rest ; and if you have a conscience,
you will finally tire of inaction, rouse yourself up, and
push vigorously on ; whereas in the latter case you
may indeed be moving, but you are not advancing,
and every one of these half- efforts tends to relax
the mental system, and to deprive it of the energy to
focus its powers for an effort in a given direction.'
And now I must relate how it came about that,
somewhat earlj' in the winter, the first link was woven
in the singular chain of circumstances which brought
me at last under the influence of Adolf von Henselt.
Many of Henselt's compositions were already known
to me, and I had heard vague rumours here and there
of his extraordinary powers as a virtvoso, but it was
not until I listened to the playing of Mademoiselle
Katy Eanuschewitz (the young lady who had taken
such a prominent position at the Liszt afternoon
reunions) that I became aware of his greatness as a
teacher, and discovered that he was recognised among
musicians as one of the greatest authorities in technique
the world has ever seen. The way by which I was
brought into contact with Henselt was curious enough
it was by a seeming chance, and it came about simply
because on one particular Sunday morning I had
taken a rather longer sleep than usual, and conse-
quently had set out for church fully half an hour
later than I was in the habit of doing. I always
;