Favorite Songs and Hymns For School and Home

450 Of The World's Best Songs And Hymns, With Lyrics & Sheet music for voice & piano.

	68	FAVORITE SONGS FOR SCHOOL AND HOME.
	The very worst specimens of musical incompetency whicr» may be heard in drawing-rooms are due to the want of perception and the vanity of those who ex­hibit them, v-There are many men and women who might sing or play agreeably if they would confine themselves to things within their powers; but vault­ing ambition carries them pell-mell into the dangers of difficult music which can only be encountered success­fully after years of study and practice, and makes of the struggles, which, it is to be hoped, are more pain­ful to their hearers than themselves, a terrible warning. When one has been present at one or two performances		of this kind, he can understand the feelings of a pro* fessor of music who was gifted with a very lender con­science besides a great talent, and, being asked #ie reason of an unusual fit of gloom, replied: " Well I am just thinking whether I ought to go on teaching these amateurs. They come and learn, but they understand nothing; and they mostly have voices not unlike little cats." No less dreadful than the amateur who has no talent for music is he who has a good deal of talent and so much enthusiasm that his mind is incapable of tak­ing thought for anything else that is excellent For him the big world has nothing at all outside of music.
	MILL MAY. Rapidly.		" First Steps in Music.'*