man, who is probably far too free, too hard, too cheerful, too healthy, too anti-Catholic for the taste of old and mellow civilized nations. He may even have been a sin against Romanticism, this anti-Latin Siegfried: well, Wagner atoned amply for this sin in his old sad days, when⁠—anticipating a taste which has meanwhile passed into politics⁠—he began, with the religious vehemence peculiar to him, to preach, at least, the way to Rome , if not to walk therein.⁠—That these last words may not be misunderstood, I will call to my aid a few powerful rhymes, which will even betray to less delicate ears what I mean⁠—what I mean counter to the “last Wagner” and his Parsifal music:⁠—