[Sidenote: MAZOVIAN MUSICIANS.] Chopin was born and bred in Mazovia, a peculiarly music-loving province. A distinguished Polish writer[9] says: “The love of song characterizes the Slavonic above all other races; the rudest peasant could be allured to the end of the world by his national songs.” The Mazovians have such an intense love for music that they sing about the commonest affairs of life, readily perceiving their pleasing and touching phases. The predilection of the Poles for these songs is often a matter of pecuniary profit, for a beggar, with some talent in singing and playing the violin, has no difficulty in obtaining alms. During the great festivals—Easter, Whitsuntide, and Christmas—men and women walk about the Mazovian villages, singing and playing appropriate dances, and everywhere they are warmly received, gladly listened to, and not sparingly rewarded. Nearly all these songs originated in the cottage, their composers were men who could neither read nor write, and whose names will always remain unknown. Poetical perception and sensibility to the beauties of nature are evidently innate in the Polish character; they are susceptibilities which neither prosaic work, the cares of daily life, nor even the burden of more than a century of national suffering have had power to blunt. In his childhood Chopin had imbedded these folk-songs in his memory, and, impressed by their peculiar beauty, he frequently interwove some especial favorite into his own compositions. He first gave the national dance tune a truly beautiful and perfect form by adorning it with interesting harmonies and poetical arabesques. [Illustration] [Illustration] CHAPTER III. CHOPINʼS EARLY MANHOOD. HIS FIRST JOURNEY. HIS RELATIONS WITH PRINCE ANTON RADZIWILL. The year 1825 found Fredericʼs social and artistic circle continually increasing in numbers and influence, and the fame of his extraordinary musical talents spreading far and wide. He excited universal interest, and it is a proof of his popularity that the only strikingly successful concerts were those in which he took part. His marvellous playing at two grand concerts, given for charitable objects, in the hall of the Conservatoire, on May 27th, and June 10th, 1825, awakened unbounded approbation. As the best pianist in the capital, Chopin was summoned to play before the Emperor, Alexander I., who, during his stay in Warsaw, was desirous of hearing the newly-invented Aelomelodicon.[10] The instrument was placed in the Protestant Church, for the sake of heightening the tone by its being heard under the enormous dome of that building. In token of his admiration of the wonderful performance of the talented youth, then little more than a boy, the Emperor presented him with a valuable diamond ring.