831.
Concerning the characteristics of national genius in regard to the strange and to the borrowed—
English genius vulgarises and makes realistic everything it sees;
The French whittles down, simplifies, rationalises, embellishes;
The German muddles, compromises, involves, and infects everything with morality;
The Italian has made by far the freest and most subtle use of borrowed material, and has enriched it with a hundred times more beauty than it ever drew out of it: it is the richest genius, it had the most to bestow.
832.
The Jews, with Heinrich Heine and Offenbach, approached genius in the sphere of art. The latter was the most intellectual and most high-spirited satyr, who as a musician abided by great tradition, and who, for him who has something more than ears, is a real relief after the sentimental and, at bottom, degenerate musicians of German romanticism.
833.