To be able to do things is equal in importance to the style of the doing. Both the one and the other, as the French express it, make the sentimental lectures about art in general sink into a true position, not calling forth any respect, still less any consideration from the earnest worker. To learn a Beethoven aria is worth more to one’s culture than to listen to forty lectures about Beethoven; to learn by heart, for one’s very own, one great poem is worth more than a volume of essays about the poet.
The musical clubs where the members are actual workers in that they sing, who really studied for the program, and give instrumental numbers on the same lines, are the clubs that make for culture. And, other things being equal,—that is, Christian character, all good living, all life’s duties well done,—culture is the chief good—summum bonum—of society, the fine flavor that gives zest to all the rest.—Fanny Grant.
