I cannot get your German Singers out of my head. I’m moved to enquire why so slight a thing should have given one such pleasure. And I’m sure the answer goes deep... For I believe it comes to this. Neither art, nor commerce, nor decency in national relations can put one leg before another without some sort of aspiration that cannot be expressed in terms of logic. The desire for good living is at present made to appear a thing “whose action is no stronger than a flower” when confronted with all the rational other-than-life reasons for living & ways of maintaining life. The effrontery of power has made nobility of life appear footling & civilised man is made ashamed of his immortal longings. Nothing can redeem this miserable bestial state of affairs but the demonstration of spiritual vitality which is what all true art is. You waken immortal longings—you present an image of a life of true values when you get fifty people to sing beautifully in a place enshrining the dearest of traditions. Moreover the desire you awake is one that by its nature cannot be daunted by circumstance or relegated to the realms of self-advantage. << less