Excerpt from Memoirs of an Artist: An Autobiography Gounod, in these memoirs, terms words docile and faithful servants of thought, and states their duty to be to lead one to the summit without rude shock - mysterious guides, who conceal both themselves and their methods. Words served him thus. He was their master, as he was master of all things he took in hand to perform, his dominating genius attuning thought to phrase as sweetly as it wove melody and harmony into musical expression. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.