and means were discussed as to how his wants could be best
provided for. The upshot of the discussions was the project of
excursions to Berlin and Vienna. As, however, this plan was not
realised till the autumn of 1828, and no noteworthy incidents or
interesting particulars concerning the intervening period of his
life have become known, I shall utilise this break in the
narrative by trying my hand at a slight sketch of that terra
incognita, the history of music in Poland, more particularly the
history of the musical life in Warsaw, shortly before and in
Chopin's time. I am induced to undertake this task by the
consideration that a knowledge of the means of culture within the
reach of Chopin during his residence in the Polish capital is
indispensable if we wish to form a clear and complete idea of the
artist's development, and that such a knowledge will at the same
time help us to understand better the contents of some of the
subsequent portions of this work. Before, however, I begin a new
chapter and with it the above-mentioned sketch, I should like to
advert to a few other matters.

The reader may perhaps already have asked the question--What was
Chopin like in his outward appearance? As I have seen a
daguerreotype from a picture painted when he was seventeen, I can
give some sort of answer to this question. Chopin's face was
clearly and finely cut, especially the nose with its wide
nostrils; the forehead was high, the eyebrows delicate, the lips
thin, and the lower one somewhat protruding. For those who know
A. Bovy's medallion I may add that the early portrait is very
like it; only, in the latter, the line formed by the lower
jawbone that runs from the chin towards the ear is more rounded,
and the whole has a more youthful appearance. As to the