"Here Chopin has the conviction that he has lost his power of expression. With the determination to discover whether his brain can still originate ideas, he strikes his head with a hammer . In the third and fourth measures on can hear the blood trickle . He is desperate at finding no inspiration ; he strikes again with the hammer and with greater force . In the key of A flat he finds his powers again. Appeased, he seeks his former key and closes contentedly."

“In the intellectual market the quantity of the demand rises in proportion to that of the supply, but its quality does not keep pace with this increase. For example, the Old Testament of pianoforte players, Bach’s “Das wohltemperierte Klavier” is perhaps in almost as many hands as the New Testament, Beethoven’s Pianoforte Sonatas, but in few more heads than it was in former years, when it could only be had for six times the present price. Doubtless, its leaves are somewhat oftener turned over, but now, as then, about the sixth part, likely enough just the first sixth, is all that is studied in the real meaning of the word. Here truly is little more gained than a merely superficial acquaintance with the great father of German music.”