When we hear it, it is as if all our ancestors should suddenly
present themselves. I realize that my tastes may be barbaric, but if
there could only be one kind of music, and I were obliged to choose
between the universal and the local, my preference would be wholly for
the latter, which is the popular music.
ON THE OPTIMISM OF EUNUCHS
In a text book designed for the edification of research workers--a
specimen of peculiarly disagreeable tartuffery--the histologist, Ramon y
Cajal, who, as a thinker, has always been an absolute mediocrity,
explains what the young scholar should be, in the same way that the
Constitution of 1812 made it clear what the ideal Spanish citizen should
be.
So we know now the proper character of the young scholar. He must be
calm, optimistic, serene ... and all this with ten or twelve coppers in
his pocket!
Some friends inform me that in the Institute for Public Education at
Madrid, where an attempt is made to give due artistic orientation to the
pupils, they have contrived an informal classification of the arts in
the order of their importance; first comes painting; then, music; and,
last, literature.
Considering carefully what may be the reasons for such a sequence, it
would appear that the purpose must be to deprive the student of any
occasion for becoming pessimistic.
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