Walker-My_Musical_Ex.. - Walter Cosand

HENSELT 193'
had disdained to become as a little child, and enter
the kingdom by the ' strait gate ' ; and he wound up
his exordium by applying to me the words of
Holy Scripture, ' Many are called, but few are
chosen.'
To this letter I replied by telling him that I
believed he had understood me better. I hoped
he would at least have given me credit for an unalloyed
and pure devotion to art for its own sake—
love into which not an iota of worldliness or calcula-
tion had ever entered. I said that, so far from
having the prospect of any social pleasure, I was
likely to lead when in ' St. Petersburg a life of seclu-
sion, which might be almost compared to that of the
monks of La Trappe. I told him Henselt was advanced
in life, and had for many years withdrawn himself
from court circles and general society, and that he
lived wholly for his vocation as teacher, in a circle of
intimate friends, none of whom I might ever know
that before going to Eussia I had seen enough of
Henselt to feel sure that, as far as he was concerned,
I need never reckon on seeing him except when he
gave me a lesson, and that as yet I was not far
enough advanced in the school even for this. I
finally begged him and his admirable wife to reserve
all they chose to think against the Henselt school
until we should meet again.
The next time I passed through Berlin, however,
they were no longer in Charlottenburg, but had gone
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a;