F. Liszt
Weymar, December 19th, 1860
249. To Dr. Franz Brendel
Dear Friend,
Your article "For the New Year" is most capital and worthy of you. In three places I would merely venture to propose some slight alterations for your consideration. You will find them marked + and with the letters A, B, C.
At + A it would suit things better to say as follows: "Concert- rooms and theaters, the scene of the most palpable speculation, personal passion, and severing struggles." Or, if you think the word "most palpable" too strong, let us put another, such as "the commonest" or "the most mercantile speculation," etc.
+ B, instead of opinion, "the most affected assumption" Here there is more question of assumption than of opinion. If angenommen [affected] sounds too much like Anmassung [assumption], let us put "the widespread assumption."
+ C, instead of "outward forces," I would rather have another word, such as "powers," "factors," "levers," or any one that is better. I do not know why the "Machle" [forces] do not seem to me quite right here.
Finally, + D, I think it would be advisable ruthlessly to strike out the following short sentence: "Indeed it would not be saying too much if it were to be asserted that in many circles it takes the place of religion,"—apart from the consideration of whether it is accurate or not, because for the most part the men of the State are sure to take offence at it. "How," they will say, "you wish us to support a movement that aims at nothing less than the doing away with religion?"—and, behold, there is a new bugbear ready, and the most healthy and just endeavors are checked for many a year!—
I am in perfect agreement with all the rest, with the exception of the parenthesis marked *—"without thereby, as has often been the case hitherto, falling into the unpractical mistake of conceding to the public things which they do not want, and diminishing the revenues." For, by the way, let me also say parenthetically that, if I had not done this with most resolute intention for many years, Wagner could not truly have said in his letter to Villot (page 40 of the French edition of his translation of the four Operas): "Tout a coup mes relations avec le public prirent un autre tour, sur lequel je n'avais pas compte le moins du monde: mes operas se repandaient." ["All at once my relations with the public took a fresh turn, on which I had not calculated the least bit in the world: my operas were becoming known."