Graham's Magazine, Vol. XXX, No. 6, June 1847Various
General
Graham's Magazine, Vol. XXX, No. 6, June 1847
Various
Literature -- Periodicals; Literature, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals
from neglect and a broken spirit.
I paid the last offices of friendship to my departed friend, and he
rests quietly beside her he so dearly loved in life. There are persons
who seem to be born for each other—whose souls own the same emotions,
the same passions excite them, the same destiny impels them—their fates
seem to be linked together by preordination. It is a strange fact, but
of the many instances which have come under my personal observation, of
hearts apparently fore-doomed for each other, in not one case has
happiness resulted. It appeared as though they were only to love and to
be wretched. So in this instance it proved; for they were to each other
as a sorrow, even while most devoted. But they rest, now, where sorrow
cannot reach them.
I shall give the short history nearly as I found it.
On entering London, my friend’s first care was to procure lodgings in
one of the most humble streets of the metropolis—the best suited to his
narrow means. When the excitement of the change of scene had subsided,
he began to feel that he was alone. “I,” to use his own words, “wandered
about the first few days, in an ecstasy of delight; but chilling
sensation of loneliness crept on apace; I felt myself alone amidst the
thousands; I looked around, and sought in vain for one familiar face to
give a smile of recognition; not one among the million that surrounded
me, would return a friendly pressure of my hand; there were none to
smile at my prosperity, to weep at my misfortunes, or to tend me should
I sink upon a bed of sickness. I have walked amidst the loneliest scenes
of nature, where not one sign of mortality intruded; I have wandered
alone upon the barren heath; have buried myself within the bosom of the
deepest wood, have singly stood upon the lofty mountain’s brow, but
never felt that I was truly, utterly alone till now.” After a few days
he began to present himself to the notice of the publishers. He was
received with the utmost politeness by many, and was requested to bring
some of his works, that they might judge of their merits. He left them,
flushed with hopes of success, and returned with some of his best
compositions, but, unfortunately, the gentlemen were from home. Again
and again, and yet again he called, until at last, when hope was
departing, he was honored by a hearing. The songs were “beautiful,
charming,” but they feared that they would not sell—this symphony was
too long, that required altering; these harmonies were too full, that
passage was too difficult; but if these, not perhaps faults, only
publishing faults, were altered, they would get them out for him. He
left them much depressed, and felt lowered in his own opinion—for a
young and sensitive mind is depressed or elated by the good or bad
opinion of the world. To cut and hack his songs to pieces went sorely
against his feelings. The very symphonies which the buying public would
not play, contain most frequently the most refined and choice thoughts,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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