Error is better than doubt, provided we err in
good faith; and the main thing is to speak out the thing that one really
feels and believes. I hope M. d'Indy will forgive me if I have gone far
wrong, and that he will see in these pages a sincere effort to
understand him and a keen sympathy with himself, and even with his
ideas, though I do not always share them. But I have always thought that
in life a man's opinions go for very little, and that the only thing
that matters is the man himself. Freedom of spirit is the greatest
happiness one can know; one must be sorry for those who have not got it.
And there is a secret pleasure in rendering homage to another's splendid
creed, even though it is one that we do not ourselves profess.
RICHARD STRAUSS
The composer of _Heldenleben_ is no longer unknown to Parisians. Every
year at Colonne's or Chevillard's we see his tall, thin silhouette
reappear in the conductor's desk. There he is with his abrupt and
imperious gestures, his wan and anxious face, his wonderfully clear
eyes, restless and penetrating at the same time, his mouth shaped like a
child's, a moustache so fair that it is nearly white, and curly hair
growing like a crown above his high round forehead.
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