Favorite Songs and Hymns For School and Home, page: 0068

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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 ex�hibit 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 vault�ing ambition carries them pell-mell into the dangers of difficult music which can only be encountered success�fully after years of study and practice, and makes of the struggles, which, it is to be hoped, are more pain�ful 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 con�science 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 tak�ing 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.'*