If Heaven has bestowed on you a fine imagination

you will often be seated at your piano

in solitary hours

as if attached to it;

you will desire to express the feelings of your heart

in harmony

and the more clouded the sphere of harmony

may perhaps be to you

the more mysteriously you will feel

as if drawn into magic circles.

In youth these may be

your happiest hours.

Beware however

of abandoning yourself

too often

to the influence of a talent

that induces you

to lavish powers and time

as it were upon phantoms

Mastery over the forms of composition

and a clear expression of your ideas

can only be attained by constant writing

Write therefore

more than you improvise

Robert Schumann