THE PATH OF VISION
musical critic's dogmatism and esoteric sidelights thereon, until I beheld this striking and telling symbol of a tone-poem. I shut my eyes and enjoy the music; I open them and enjoy the music and the picture. I behold the waters in their coruscating splendor; I hear them sing as they roll on, meandering to the sea; and with the soul's surgings of color and shade, intensified through my own interpreting medium, I have the poem, the picture, the song—all in one masterpiece.
A tone poem, therefore, is that which appeals to the ear and the eye as well as to the eye of the soul. It is the living, moving, singing incarnation of Poetry, Painting and Music. I offer this, a footnote by Nature, to the esteemed critic's learning. And it is devoid, it will be observed, of the ruffles and flounces of criticism.
The holy trinity of Art symbolized in a mountain stream. For if we can not see a picture in a fine piece of music or hear the strains of a distant song in a picture,—
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