Germans are fond of establishing an antithesis between “talent” and “character” between a man of genius and a man of action. Seldom, it is true, the two go together. Few of the great thinkers and poets of the world have lived an active life in the ordinary sense. Even dramatists, although by the very essence of their genius dependent on the events of history and daily life, are not generally an exception to this rule. Like Fielding's poet, they regard it as their “business to record great actions and not to do them.” This is different with Wagner. He is emphatically “a man of action”—of action restless, and extending over many branches of thought and feeling. He has heard the roar of cannon and musketry on and off the stage, and the shouts of excited mobs are no less known, although less familiar, to him than the sedate applause of audiences in concert-hall and theatre. A story might be told of him very different from the ordinary summary of an artist's life-time: “He was born, took a wife, and died.” One day, no doubt, it will be told by himself, if not by others. But in the mean time the materials for his biography are scanty, and of comparatively little interest. A few dates furnished by himself on various occasions form a small stock of facts of which the numerous so-called biographies in German, English, and French, are more or less florid transcriptions.