Page:Rolland - A musical tour through the land of the past.djvu/32

20 artists of the close of the nineteenth century and the calm plenitude of bygone ages! Victories that are too complete consume the spirit of the victors; when their first intoxication has abated they break the mainspring of the will, depriving it of its motive power. The triumphant genius of a Wagner laid waste the future of German music. The quiet strength of a Kuhnau embraced the idea of the future destinies of German art, and the presentiment, as it were, of his great successor: Johann Sebastian Bach.