Nay more, it may even lead us to acknowledge, however reluctantly, that amidst the loud braying of Rellstab there occurred occasionally utterances that were by no means devoid of articulation and sense.

Take, for instance, this--I do not remember just now a propos of which composition, but it is very appropriate to those we are now discussing:--"The whole striving of the composer must be regarded as an aberration, based on decided talent, we admit, but nevertheless an aberration." You see the most hostile of Chopin's critics does not deny his talent; indeed, Rellstab sometimes, especially subsequently, speaks quite patronisingly about him.

I shall take this opportunity to contradict the current notion that Chopin had just cause to complain of backwardness in the recognition of his genius, and even of malicious attacks on his rising reputation.

The truth of this is already partly disproved by the foregoing, and it will be fully so by the sequel.
The pieces which I have formed into a third group show us the composer free from the fetters that ambition and other preoccupations impose.
Besides Chopin's peculiar handling we find in them more of his peculiar sentiment.

If the works of the first group were interesting as illustrating the development of the student, those of the second group that of the virtuoso, and those of both that of the craftsman, the works of the third group furnish us most valuable documents for the history of the man and poet.