I well remember the enthusiasm to which Hector Berlioz gave expression a propos of what he termed the "splendid self-abnegation" displayed with respect to the rehearsals of his Damnation de Faust by the executant members of the Musik-Verein, who, day after day and evening after evening, at the coldest time of the year, in Vienna— the week before Christmastide — sate "repeating" his numbers for four and five hours at a stretch.