followed his motion that one seemed to catch echoes of that eternal melody
whereof music itself is but the shadow and presentment. The adagios
reminded me of Beethoven, not as they were imitated, but as all the great
ones, in their appearing, summon all the rest. The mechanical execution
was faultless. I detected no thick note. It was smooth as the sea of
summer, embosoming only deep cloud-shadows and the full sunlight, but no
lesser thing. Then he came, and he withdrew; and my heart followed him.

Do not be alarmed if the critics call him cold, and speak of him
disparagingly when others are mentioned. The noble and heroes serve divine
powers, and at last win men. Men of talent and application love their
instrument as it introduces the world to them; men of genius as it
interprets to them and to the world the mystery of music. Genius men must
reverence, and they are not apt to do it boisterously. Is not the
influence of fine character, which is only genius for virtue, like the
brooding of God over chaos? Which is chaos only to the blind, but teems
with generous, melodious laws to the spiritually discerned. Creation is
the opening of eyes, not the fabrication of objects. "Let there be light"
is the creative fiat, spoken by every God-filled soul. Yet how sure is
this power of Genius.

The world henceforth gives to Ole Bull the full and generous satisfaction
of his needs. It cannot fail to esteem God's messengers when they come, if
they be true and collected. Talent wins the same subsistence; earnest,
unfailing, unshrinking endeavor wins it anywhere; but what does Talent and
Trial do but imitate the action of the result of Genius! How sublime the
revelations it makes in this art! While the rest have risen and culminated
and paused, this seeks a zenith ever loftier and diviner. That deep
nature, that central beauty, which all art strives to reveal, floats to us
in these fine harmonies, to me more subtly and surely than elsewhere. But