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ceiving such a demand. Our people, however, have drawn other
conclusions and have quietly rejected it. Nor have they troubled
themselves very much to refute the arguments in its support.
Josephine has pointed out, for example, that her voice might suffer
from the exertions of labor, that as a matter of fact, the exertions
of labor are slight compared to those of singing; besides, they
deprive her of any chance of getting enough rest after singing and
of strengthening herself for the next concert, she has to exhaust
herself completely in the process, and that even so, it is impossible
for her under these circumstances ever to attain the peak of her
performance. The people listen to her and go on as before. These
people, so easily moved, sometimes cannot be moved at all. Some·
times their refusal is so stern that Josephine herself is taken aback;
she appears to give in, does her work properly and sings as well as
she cap; but this only lasts for a while, then she returns to the
struggle with new energy-of which, for this purpose, she seems
to have an inexhaustible supply.
Now it is of course obvious that Josephine is not fighting
really for her literal demands. She is sensible, she is not afraid of
work, since, indeed, the fear of work is alien to us on the whole;
even if her demands were to be granted she would live no differ·
ently than before, her work would not interfere with her singing at
all, and her singing itself, no doubt, would not get any better. So
what she is really fighting for is but a public and unambiguous
recognition of her art that will outlive time, and tower far above
anything known till now. While almost everything else seems
attainable to her, this stubbornly eludes her. Perhaps she ought
to have directed her attack in a different quarter from the very
beginning, perhaps she herself has recognized her mistake by now,
but it is too late to retreat, retreat would mean beipg unfaithful
to herself; therefore she has to stand or fall by this demand.
If
she really had the enemies she claims to have, she might
be able to watch the struggle amusedly, without lifting a finger
herself. But she has no enemies, and even if some of us have
objections to her now and then, this struggle amuses no one; if only
because the nation shows a cold, judicial attitude here such as is
rarely seen among us. And even if some one approved of this
attitude in this particular case, he would be deprived of all joy by
the very thought that the nation might act similarly towards him
