Page:The Spirit of French Music.djvu/68

 that "the vacuity he found in society made him neglect it," and the great man must have got quite used to administering drastic treatment to simpletons, fools, wind-bags and intriguers. He was, we cannot doubt it, a good straight man, and not lacking in kindness too; but of this he was very sparing, as he was of his money so gloriously earned. We have evidence of his generous help being given to artists whose talent interested hinhim [sic].

He was a very tall man, and extremely thin, "which made him look," says Chabanon, "more like a ghost than a man." Grimm finds him "as emaciated and shrivelled as M. de Voltaire," whom he resembled in appearance, but without having his mischievous physiognomy. The expression of his face was severe, "all its features were big and announced the firmness of his character."

Voltaire and Rameau … There exists a contemporary engraving in which we see these two gaunt figures shaking hands and paying each other compliments. It is symbolic. They were beyond all doubt the two finest spirits of their age.

Apart from the indications of Maret on the uncompleted studies of Rameau at the Jesuit college at Dijon, we possess no direct information about the musician's intellectual development, his favourite authors or his reading. But we must not let ourselves suppose that he gave no attention to the cultivation of his mind, and that music limited the horizon of his ideas. There is extant a letter of his which is valuable evidence on this subject. It was found among the