SPECTATOR'S LIBRARY.

BIOGRAPHY,

The Life of Mozart, including his Correspondence. By Edward Holmes, Author of "A Ramble among the Musicians of Germany." Chapman wad Hall.

TRAVELS,

Revelations of Spain in 1845. By an English Resident. In two volumes.• .Colburn•

GOSSIP, A Book for a Rainy Day; or Recollections of the Events of the last SLyty-six Years. By John Thomas Smith, late Keeper of the Prints and Drawings in the British

Museum; Author of " Nollekens and his Times," &c Bentley.

MR. EDWARD HOLMES'S LIFE OF MOZART.

THE leading points or rather the popular wonders in the career of Mozart are well known. Every anecdote-book of musicians tells how at three years old he delighted himself by striking chords on the harpsichord ; bow his father, a sound and in his day and district a celebrated musician, began to teach him, half in sport and half in earnest; with what rapidity the child mastered the practical art of music, whilst he instinctively com- posed little pieces, and finally a concerto ; and how, at six years of age, the father, the prodigy, and an elder sister, made a musical tour, em- bracing Munich, Paris, and London. Any striking story of his youth and manhood—such as the composition of the Overture of Don Gio- vanni on the day the piece was produced, and its performance without rehearsal—is equally well known ; and the singular not to say myste- rious circumstances connected with his own death and his last pro- duction, The Requiem, have been circulated in various forms, with the last mystery heightened into the supernatural. The facts of Mozart's career were equally accessible in biographical receptacles. Such as, that he was born in 1756, at Salzburg, where his father was Vice-Kapellmeister to the Archbishop ; that on the return of the family-party from their professional tour in 1766, Mozart and his father commenced a new one to Vienna and Italy, which may be said to have lasted till 1772,—the epoch of a new and unmusical Arch- bishop of Salzburg, from whose ignorance and haughty temper both the Mozarts suffered much. Their sojourn at Salzburg, however, was to a considerable extent nominal; the reputation of Mozart, and a dislike to his situation, inducing continual tours, in which his father usually accompanied him. At last, in September 1757, when Mozart was in his twenty-second year, the Archbishop became unbearable, and the young musician started on a tour to better himself; but, after trying one or two German capitals and Paris without success, or perhaps without patience to wait for it, he had to return to the Archbishop's service. In 1781, Mozart, having previously composed Idonteneo for the Elector of Bavaria, accompanied his employer to Vienna; at which city they finally parted. Mozart selected the Austrian capital for his residence during the remainder of his short life ; which closed in 1791,—prema- ttirely destroyed by incessant activity, and anxious struggles with an adverse fortune, in some degree created by his own thoughtless good- nature and want of prudence.

This meagre outline, more or less filled up, may be found in almost every biographical dictionary : but the only regular English biography of the Shakspere of music is a translation of a French translation from the German. To supply this deficiency in our literature, by giving a minute and vivid picture of the daily life and character of Mozart, with a view of his influence upon music, is the object of Mr. Holmes ; which he has very ably and agreeably accomplished. Besides sifting the formal lives and less elaborate notices or scattered information respecting Mo- zart, the biographer has picked up some floating knowledge : but his main source is the Mozart Correspondence, published in a crude and ill- arranged state by Nissen, who married the widow of the great musician. By means of well-considered selections from Mozart's own letters, we not only have an autobiographical picture of his feelings and employments, struck off at the moment of action or sensation, but obtain some valuable insight into his mode of considering the composition of his operas, and some useful criticism on practical music. The letters of Leopold Mo- zart, the father, during their earlier tours, complete the picture, at a time when Mozart himself was too young to have given any sketches of him- self In this not easy task of selecting from a mass of personal cor- respondence that which is strictly biographical, and combining it with a narrative whose materials are derived from a variety of sources, Mr. Holmes has succeeded happily ; as the general spirit he has brought to his task shows a mind that has long been occupied with music as well as with Mozart, and has not taken up the subject to order.

In considering the character of Mozart, it would seem that the wonder of his genius was the first object : but on this we have doubts. The highest class of genius is that which originates a class rather than a school—as Homer founded epic poetry, Herodotus history, ./Eschylus the Greek drama, and Shakspere the English, or rather the modern in Opposition to the classical. To this rank Mozart has scarcely a claim : he rather reformed and vivified than created—founded a new style, but not a new class. The most remarkable feature, to us, is his variety, copiousness, and incessant activity. He was never still ; or more properly, his physical organization did not permit repose. When not composing or playing, he was writing to his family, mixing '.society, or enjoying himself with his friends. In estimating the fer- tility of his mind, we must not look merely to the number of his works. He was a practical musician as well as a composer, and was much occupied in performances public and private ; he hail continually to con- duct, and waste time with managers and singers; during part of his career he taught the piano ; he was constantly dancing attendance upon the great ; and he travelled a great deal, at a period when travel had none of the present facilities.

The secret of his musical fertility is less to be found in readiness of in- vention than in pregnant fertility of musical thought. With Mozart as with Scott, writing seems to have been a kind of necessity. To borrow a medical illustration, his brain secreted music, and felt compelled to throw it off, without regard to external hinderances. A great subject like an opera stimulated him to elevation, variety, and character : but if it caused excitement it did not increase labour ; he seems to have been as fluent in the composition of a drama as in the smallest piece—possibly more so. It would have looked like an unerring instinct, but that in his letters to his father, giving an account of his progress, we see a critical judgment at work, as well in the libretto as the music. It may be mentioned that Mozart sacrificed music, as we know from the revised Lear that Shakspere sacrificed poetry, to dramatic effect. Mozart's precocity is undoubtedly a wonder, but not more wonderful than his genius or his fertility. Music, whether we consider it in the popular sense of tune, or in that of Shakspere's definition, "concord ot sweet sounds," is sensuous rather than intellectual. In the higher branches of the art, where human passions or human sentiments have to be expressed, the same species of knowledge and thought are necessary which the poet or painter must possess. A similar necessity does not exist in the lower kind of music : it is rather instinct than art. The story of the concerto for the clavier may seem to contradict this: but young Mozart was familiar with the forms of the composition ; whereas a child in his fourth or fifth year could not comprehend the description, passion, or sentiments, necessary to poetry; he might imitate the jingle of verse, but his matter could only be the infantile feelings within his ex- perience, or a reflection of commonplaces. Measured sounds, in fact, would be about all he could reach. If the juvenile pieces could be ex- amined by a profoundly critical eye, this, we suspect, is all that the childish Mozart attained : and this effect seems a matter of physical organization rather than intelligent operation. The lower animals pro- duce this kind of music ; very foolish people excel in it ; idiots are ca- pable of it—Cymon "whistled as he went, for want of thought."

In all the lower arts, too, which, combining corporeal exercise with in- telligent power, depend for excellence upon physical conformation, apparent precocity seems a natural law. The singer, the dancer, the musician, exhibit their tendencies with the first dawn of reason, or even before it—as soon as the respective organs come into play : they attain excellence in early youth ; and, with some very rare exceptions, pass away in the prime of life, when those powers which depend upon thought and reflection are just maturing. The embryo actor is ad- dicted to spouting; and if he excels in the gymnastics, and is rather a player of impulse than of art—like Edmund Kean—he soon culminates, and soon declines ; for the whole effect is not to be ascribed to debauchery. It is the want of considering all these things which has made the preco- city of Mozart be considered so wonderful, when it is not more so than his genius. Pope "lisped in numbers "; the exercises of Milton were "known by certain vital signs they had that they were likely to live" ; and Cowley published in childhood. If we have Pope's Ode to Solitude as he left it at twelve, it is perhaps more surprising than anything in the domains of precocious art, from the matured tone of its philosophy.

As an individual, Mozart possessed the attractive qualities which be- long to what is popularly called genius,—meaning a strong development of the impulsive over the reflective powers, but mingled in his case with more steady domestic virtues than his class often exhibits. His family af- fections were so strong in childhood as to be almost morbid ; amid all the anxieties, excitements, and triumphs of his worldly career, he still turned to borne: and indeed, it is from his letters, written in the snatched in- tervals of a busy and exhausting time, that the most interesting and in- forming picture is presented of his life. In his social relations, too, he exhibited an attention, obedience, and sense of duty, that men of genius have not generally shown. Till his health was broken, and his spirit exasperated by embarrassed affairs, coupled with a sense of insufficient reward, not even his evil associates of the green-room and the orchestra could lead him into excesses. Even then, the guilelessness and simplicity of his nature were apparent ; and to his wife he always confessed his in- fidelities. With the other qualities of genius he had its pride and reckless- ness of speech. The last, it is probable, made him more enemies than envy of his merits and musical success. The former developed itself at a very early age, and continued through life. His well-known reply, "Neither too many nor too few," when the Emperor Joseph told him there were too many notes in a composition, was merely the fulfilment of his early promise. When the family arrived at Paris on their first tour, little Mo- zart was presented to Madame Pompadour on a table ; and, as usual, he offered to kiss her ; but the King's mistress turned away : "Who is this that will not kiss me ?" he exclaimed ; "the Empress kissed me." He even claimed to be a prophet in his own country- " The family were one day visited, on their return from this tour, by a pompons gentleman, who was in some difficulty how to address Wolfgang—whether in the respectful or familiar style; [in the third person plural, or the second person sin- gular, by which the Germans distinguish their more worshipful or familiar ac- quaintance]. At last he thought fit to steer a middle course. And so we have been in France and England, and have been at court, and have done ourselves great honour.' The little hero, jealous of his dignity, replied, Yet I never re- member to have seen you anywhere but at Salzburg.' " The ticklish subject of the difficulties of genius is treated by Mr. Holmes with great fairness—for he does not attempt to cloak the cir- cumstances that aggravated them ; but with some artiatical dexterity— for he puts the distresses in the most striking point of view, whilst he does not pursue the causes which led to them. Whether Mozart, as he says, fell upon an age too backward for him in a musical sense, may be doubted. Professional envy, opposition, and intrigue, he had of course to encounter : but every one of his operas succeeded ; his music was generally appreciated by the people; his own playing left all other competitors, even Clementi, at an infinite distance; the Emperor and the nobility ac- knowledged his merit ; and Haydn enthusiastically proclaimed his ma- rivalled powers. "All I know is," said Haydn, when appealed to at a party where the company were criticizing Don Giovanni, "that Mozart is the greatest composer now existing." But Mozart unluckily fell upon a transition-age. The day of individual patronage was waning ; that of the public had scarcely arrived. Unhappily, too, Leopold Mozart, the father, was deeply possessed with the necessity of patronage ; he had made the entire scheme of musical life depend upon sticking to the skirts of a great man ; and though his son to some extent shook off the trammels thus imposed upon him, their influence operated upon him through life; and probably both father and son had a slight taint of the vaid-expecting spirit, by which the system of patronage corrupted all who came within its operation. Still, in despite of this unfortunate position, justice should be done to the world. In looking back, we have the ad- vantage : we survey the whole from the vantage-ground of distance— contemporaries can only see bit by bit, when they see at all ; and, amid the impudent claims of impostors, it is not always easy to decide upon real merit, or, when the merit is admitted, to say whether it is a sudden flash or the commencement of a sustained career. Mozart, be it remem- bered, died young, before the age at which Haydn and Gluck had fully developed their powers : and his life was not devoid of that patronage, as a base of exertion, on which his father was continually dwelling. In 1178, when at Paris, he was offered the post of Organist at Versailles, with a salary of 2,000 livres, (about 80/. a year,) which only re- quired a six-months residence. His father advised him to accept the offer ; but Mozart declined it, and was fain to return to the haughty and ignorant Archbishop. A year before his death, the King of Prussia diked him a pension of 3,000 dollars a year, if he would reside at Berlin and manage the orchestra,—giving him "a year and a day" to consider of it : but Mozart did not like to leave Vienna, and the Em- peror, who paid him attentions. Just previous to his decease, the post of Kapellmeister to the Cathedral Church of St. Stephen's was given him ; which would have made him easy for life. For some time before his death, the Emperor Joseph made him Chamber-Composer to the Court, with a salary of 800 florins. On this sinecure appointment Mr. Holmes comments with a severity unusual to his good-nature. The ap- pointment of a sinecure might be ill-judged, and the sum niggardly ; but there seems no ground of censure on the transaction so far as it went. The Emperor gave a pension under the guise of a post, and, what Mozart seems to have valued more, a court title.

There was in those days, as we have intimated, a smaller public to re-

ward literature or art ; the law threw fewer defences round mental pro- ductions—if; indeed, in Germany there is much protection now ; and the Moral tone on this subject was exceedingly low, especially among man- agers and musicians. These drawbacks notwithstanding, Mozart acquired sufficient means, by his concerts, his compositions, his operas, and his teaching, to have avoided difficulties, but for, as Mr. Holmes expresses it, "an ill-regulated household" ; which probably arose from the temptations to expense that an uncertain income is generally observed to produce. His gains, however, would have been much greater but for a facility Which approached weakness and sometimes went beyond it,—a fault, no doubt, that always carries its consequences with it, but whose effects should not be charged upon third parties. Mozart gave and scattered his compositions with a facile carelessness that deprived him of much that he might have reserved for his own profit ; his charity made him the dupe of plausible impostors ; and his genial disposition, with his love for music, rendered him the prey of that "bad company" in which Chesterfield ranked the whole body of musicians. By two persons, one a musician, one a manager, Mozart was cruelly defrauded, without, it would appear, learning wisdom by experience. Mr. Holmes gives the fol- lowing traits of the musical worthy.

"On reaching home, it became an early object with him to release some of the

valuables that his wife had parted with, to prevent his paying the exorbitant interest on which alone he could have raised money. This, however, his gains permitted him for the present only to accomplish in part; and Stadler, the clarionet-player, was intrusted with the commission to redeem some articles and renew the term of others. The tickets, or duplicates, now received, were soon afterwards stolen from an unlocked cabinet in Mozart's house, under circumstances that left no doubt of their having been purloined by Stadler. This man was the /miller acquaintance of the composer—his inmate at all times, fed at his table, employed by him in business, and enabled to turn the knowledge thus gained to his own advantage. His unprincipled character, and the incredible forbearance of Mozart, will appear from another anecdote. He was constantly lurking about on Use watch to discover the best opportunity of borrowing money. The Emperor, on a certain occasion, sent Mozart fifty ducats; which as soon as Stadler knew, he came to the composer, representing that he should be utterly ruined if he could not borrow that sum. Mozart wanted the money himself; but, never proof against a tale of distress, he gave him two valuable watches (repeaters) to raise money upon, with the words, There—go and bring me the ticket, and take care to have them out at the right time.' Stadler neglected to do this; Mozart, in order to save his watches, was obliged to advance him the fifty ducats with interest— which the fellow actually kept; Mozart gave him a severe reprimand for his base and dishonest conduct—but continued, as usual, to receive him at his table and to be his benefactor."

It Seen18 difficult to imagine how any income could have secured a man with such "incredible forbearance" from pecuniary difficulties. The wonder is, not that he was involved, but that his life was not more dis- turbed than it was. The smallness of his debts at his death speaks greatly in favour of Mozart's honesty.

In making these remarks, we have no wish to detract from the sym- pathy which the worldly difficulties of genius inspire, but to point the moral they contain. When, as in the case of some eminent names in

literature, the rewards of art are not equal to the subsistence of the art- ist, there is nothing to do but to pity and deplore ; but when the means of living are furnished, they can only be made available by following the law which social life requires. Genius cannot prevent results from cor- responding with their causes: confusion must follow neglect, embarrass- ment even occasional profusion; and the very qualities which attract af- fection will be made a means of injury if the profligate and unprincipled be selected for intimacy. Bread, as our great moral poet remarked, is not the reward of virtue as virtue, but the recompense of other qualities, which may be exercised even by the wicked. " That vice may merit; the price of toll: The knave deserves it when he tills the soil; The knave deserves it when he tempts the main, ineeefolly fights Set kings or dives for gain."

In this analytical review of the life and character of Mozart, we have left unnoticed the various incidents and lifelike traits that give such viva- city and interest to this biography by Mr. Holmes, independently of the genial spirit by which it is animated. These traits, however, are not easily presented except in a very fragmentary way, unless we had a space at our disposal nearly equal to the volume : for Mr. Holmes has confined his materials to pure biography with a strictness quite unex- ampled in these days, and in his criticisms and remarks he is full without over-minuteness. A few extracts, however, will convey an idea of his mode of treatment, and of the sort of marter that will be found in his pages. The following anecdote contains a great truth ; though Mozart was perhaps somewhat hyperbolical, for it is difficult to suppose that so sound a musician as his father had not made him thoroughly acquainted.with the literature of music, as he certainly had with general literature.

MOZART OW COMPOSING.

During one of his jonmies, Mozart was the guest of a musician, whose son, a boy of twelve years old, already played the pianoforte very skilfully. "But, Herr Kapellmeister," said the boy, " I should like very much to compose something. How sin I to begin ? " " Pho, pho' you must wait" " You composed mucli earlier." " But asked nothing about it. If one has the spirit of a composer, one because cause one cannot help it." At these words, which were uttered in a lively manner by Mozart, the boy looked downcast and ashamed. He, however, said, " I merely meant to ask if you could recommend me any book." " Come, come," returned Mozart, kindly patting the boy's cheek, " all that is of no use. Here, here, and here," pointing to the ear, the head, and " is your school. If all is right there, then you may take the pen without delay."

MOZART ON WONDERFUL EXECUTION.

" You are to know that, before dinner, he [the Abbe Vogler] had scrambled through my concerto (the same which the young lady of the house plays)prima vista. The first movement went prestissimo, the andante allegro, and the rondo again prestissimo. He played the bass, for the most part, differently from that written, and often changed both harmony and melody entirely. As for his ra- pidity,everything;-

pidity, t surpasses neither eyes nor hands can follow it. But what

kind of sight-playing is that ? Hearers—I mean those who are worthy of the name—can only say that they have seem music and clavier-playing; they hear, think, and feel as little during it as the performer himself. 'Ion may easily sup- pose how insupportable it was, as I was in no conditition to say, Much too fast.' Besides, it is much easier to play a thing quickly than slowly; because, in the former case, many notes may be dropped out of a passage and not missed: but is that desirable? In rapid execution the performer may change the right and the left hands without its being noticed: but is that good? And in what does the art of playing at sight consist? Certainly in this—in playing a piece in the exact time in which it should go' and in giving to all the notes passages, &e. their appropriate expression, so that a listener might imagine dud he who played it had himself composed it."

MUSICAL COMPOSERS IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.

The profession of a dramatic composer seems to have been at this time one of incredible hardship. However successful an opera might be, the manager seldom increased the original sum agreed for with the composer, but left him to augment his stipend by arrangements of his work in " hiumorde" for the public gardens, and in various other shapes for the music-sellers; so that the conclusion of an opera was but the commencement of his labour, if he wished to profit. But this was not all: musical property being entirely unprotected, and the score of Adam opera left in the hands of the copyist, with liberty to dispose of as many tran- scripts on his own account as there might be a demand for, the composer was fre- quently forestalled and robbed of the fruits of his invention. In the autumn of the year 1782' the Prussian Ambassador Baron Von Beide- sel, ordered a copy of the score of Die Eny-uhrang aus dem Ambassador, to be sent to Berlin; and Mozart expressed his thanks that the commission was given to him and not to the copyist. In writing to his father on this subject, he appears to be so dissatisfied with the state of dramatic rewards as they affected the composer, that he had some idea of engaging in a theatrical property on his own account. It would seem that the custom at that period was, as it has been since, to allow the copyist of the theatre to have the advantage, by way of peninisite, of furnish- ing copies of new music; and Mozart upon this occasion evidently felt that, how- ever he might be warranted on every principle of reason and .justice in disposing of a copy of his own work, he was committing a violation of established usage, which his enemies would be sure to bring against him on the first opportunity.

EFFECT OF MANNERS.

Le Nozze di Figaro is the third dramatic piece which its composer had pro- duced by desire of the Emperor Joseph; the whole of whose splendid patronage had hitherto consisted in setting Mozart to work, and in repaying him by an occasional bow in public—by granting him a general facility of access, and treat- ing him with a great store of what Parson Evans in the play contemptuously calls good worts." It is worth while to contrast the two patrons of the composer, the Emperor Joseph and the Archbishop of Salzburg, for the sake of the light they reflect upon his character. The Emperor, who spoke respectfully of his art, but gave him nothing, inspired him with a degree of attachment that almost brought his understanding into question; while the Archbishop, who provided him with some means of existence, coupled with insults and degradations, was the object of his unmitigated dislike.

DEALLNG WITH A SINGER.

The original Zerlina of the opera was Signora Bondini, daughter of the manager. In rehearsing that part of the finale of the first act where she is seized by Don Giovanni there was some difficulty in getting her to scream in the right manner and place. It was tried repeatedly, and failed. At length, Mozart, desiring the orchestra to repeat the piece, went quietly on the stage, and, awaiting the time that she was to make the exclamation, grasped her so suddenly and so forcibly, that, really alarmed, she shrieked in good earnest. He was now content. " That's the way,' said he, praising her; "you must cry out just in that manner."

GLUCK AND MOZART COMPARED.

About this time, shortly after his return to Vienna, the long and eventful career of Gluck was brought to a close by a renewed attack of apoplexy. In dramatic accent, as well as in harmony and melody, this composerhad so much in common with Mozart as to render it somewhat surprising that his works are now almost confined to the cabinet of the musician, while those of his contemporary still keep possession of the stage. But the reason will become obvious when it isconsiderea that the interest in the operas of Gluck is maintained by short airs and short choruses, which form inseparable parts of a great whole and, artfully-contrived' scenes, in which he moves no step without the immediate inspiration of the poetry and situation; while Mozart, on the contrary, fills up the scantiest outline from his invention, wandering at will, as he somewhere describes himself, in the mein luxury of imagination. How then does it happen that the one, who requires the theatre and an entire connected representation, should no longer keep possession of the stage, while the other, who furnishes such exquisite morsels for the, con- cert-room and the chamber, still exercises his sovereignty there? For this simple reason, that in order to preserve popularity on the stage, it is necessai7tO5up the audience with music which they can carry out of the theatre—music wiva sari be retained alone, and can charm by itself without the help of dramatic aux- iliaries. It is because Mozart's operas are crowded with passages that wing their flight into the concert-room and the chamber, that they have always maintained their influence on the stage. Another circumstance may also be referred to as giving them continual freshness—the choice of subjects; which are almost in- iariably derived from the romance of real life, affording greater scope for variety of style and contrasts of passion; while Gluck's operas are exclusively founded on remote and barbaric themes. Mozart, with his nervous and playful genius, keeps within the range of our sympathies: Gluck deals with materials that lie beyond them.

MOZART AND BRETHOVIUT COMPOSING.

We may here take a picture of two great symphonists with a work still under- going the process of gestation. Mozart when he washed his hands in the morn- Tag could never remain quiet, but traversed his chamber, knocking one heel ikgiunst the other, immersed in thought. At table he would fasten the corners of his napkin, and, while drawing it backwards and forwards on his mouth, make grimaces, apparently "loot in meditation." Beethoven, in a fit of abstraction, would pour several jugs of water on his hands, "humming and roaring." After wetting his clothes through, he would pace up and down the room with a vacant expression of countenance, and eyes frightfully distended. Schlictegroll has observed that Mozart's physiognomy was remarkable for its extreme mobility. The expression changed every moment. His body also was in perpetual motion; he was either playing with his hands or beating the ground with his foot.

THE GENIUS IN DECLINE.

Throughout this year of incessant occupation, discouragement was gaining ground upon him; and the thinness of his catalogue during 1789-90, when com- positions appear only at the rate of one a month, or even at longer intervals, affords conclusive evidence of the fact The music-shops, as a source of income, were almost closed to him, as he could not submit his genius to the dictates of fashion. Hofmeister, the publisher, having once advised him to write in a more popular style, or he could not continue to purchase his compositions, he answered, with unusual bitterness "Then I can make no more by my pen; and I had better starve and go to destruction at once." The fits of dejection which he experienced were Partly the effect of bodily ailments, but more of a weariness with the per- plexity of affairs and of a prospect which afforded him but one object on which he could gaze with certainty of relief, and that was—death. Constant disappoint- ment introduced him to indulgences which he had not before permitted himself. He became wild in the pursuit of pleasure: whatever changed the scene was delightful to him, and the more extravagant the better. His associates, and the frequent guests at his table, were recommended by their animal spirits and capa- city as boon companions. They were stage-players and orchestral musicians—low and unprincipled persons, whose acquaintance injured him still more in reputation than in flume. Iwo of these men, Schickaneder, the director of a theatre, (for whom Mozart wrote the Zatzberfilite,) and Stadler, a clarionet-player, are known to have behaved with gross dishonesty towards the composer; and yet he forgave them, and continued their benefactor. The society of Schiekaneder, a man of grotesque humour, often in difficulties' but of inexhaustible cheerfulness and good- fellowship, had attractions for Mozart, and led him into some excesses that con- tainted to the disorder of his health, as he was obliged to retrieve at night the hours lost in the day. A long-continued irregularity of income, also, disposed him to make the most of any favourable moment; and when a few rouleans of gold brought the means of enjoyment, the champagne and tokay .began to flow. This eourse is unhappily no novelty in the shifting life of genius, overworked and ill-rewarded, and seeking to throw off its cares in the pursuits and excitements of vulgar existence. It is necessary to know the composer as a man of pleasure, in order to understand certain allusions in the correspondence of his last years, when his affairs were in the most embarrassed condition, and his absence from Vienna frequently caused by the pressure of creditors. Me appears at this time to have experienced moments of poignant self-reproach. His love of dancing, masquerades, masked balls, &c., was so great, that he did not willingly forego an opportunity of joining any one of those assemblies, whether public or private. He dressed handsomely, and wished to make a favourable impression in society independently Of his music. He was sensitive with regard to his figure, and was annoyed when he heard that the Prussian Ambassador had said to some one, "You must not estimate the genius of Mozart by the insignificance of his exterior." The extremi- ty of his animal spirits may occasion surprise. He composed pantomimes and ballets, and danced in them himself, and at the carnival balls sometimes assumed a character. He was actually incomparable in Arlequin and Pierrot. The public masquerades at Vienna, during the carnival, were supported with all the vivacity of Italy: the Emperor occasionally mingled in them, and his example was generally followed. We are not, therefore, to measure these enjoyments by our colder Northern notions.

Although this is nominally the "Life of Mozart" only, the thoughts and actions of Mozart were so mixed up with his family, that the work contains notices of his mother and sister, with a sufficient account of his father, Leopold Mozart, and a very full portrait of the latter, for the most part painted by himself in his letters. We think Mr. Holmes is rather partial to the family, or at least to its head ; for Leopold Mozart was not free from the faults of insincerity, servility, and a dissatisfaction with reward, which have been held to belong to the professional musician. Much of this, however, was induced by the circumstances of his age and country, and the hard necessity with which he had to struggle through life. Out of Germany and in another career, he might have been a man of exemplary character and shining figure : for he had a profound sense of religion, a strict morality in all the domestic and social relations, a mind which both comprehended important matters and at- tended to little things. The perplexed career of his son would have been still more perplexed but for the written advice, and, we may safely assume, the personal direction, of his father. Leopold Mozart had a native prudence, and in the court of the Archbishop he had acquired a Worldly spirit, which closely resembles that of Chesterfield ; though, when we compare the fiddler's letters to his son with those of the peer, the moral advantage is not on the side of the latter. The directions hi the first of the following extracts are worthy of a courtier ; as the attention to minuthe exhibited in the second might have emanated from any man of affairs.

PLEASE YOUR ORCHESTRA.

Endeavour always to keep the orchestra in good humour, and by flattery and Praises to incline them to serve you: as I know your way of writing—that it requires the most unusual attention from every instrument; and it is really no joke when the attention and diligence of an orchestra are thus kept upon the stretch during three hours at least. Everyone, nay even the most wretched tenor- Player himself, has a lively pleasure in being complimented tete a tote, and will, in consequence, become so mw.1 the more zealous and attentive; and such a civility costs you no more than a word or two. However, all this you know as well as I; and I now only mention it because the rehearsals do not always afford an opportu- nity for it, and then it is forgotten—while as soon as the opera is on the stage, you will want the friendship and zeal of the entire orchestra. It is then that the attention of every individual player must be exerted to the utmeet.

MINUTE ATTENTION.

The minuteness vvith whkh Leopold Mozart stores up and answers all the paints in his son's letter, cannot fail to attract attention. It was a matter that cost him some trouble and arrangement; which he describes to his son in this way-4 should forget a hundred things that I wish to write to you about, if I were not to make brief memoranda on a sheet of paper, which I especially reserve for that purpose. When anything strikes me which it is desirable to communicate to you, I note it down in a few words; and when I write to you, I take this sheet of paper. and first extract the novelties, then read your last letter through, and reply to it, You might do the same. I strike my _pen through such memoranda as are the subject of my letter, and reserve those which are left for the next occasion. And you, my dear wife, must put the lines closer together in writing ;—you see howl do ft."

If Leopold Mozart, however, was not free from insincerity, and some other faults of his profession, the following circumstances are a sufficient excuse for even greater failings. The passage occurs in an admirable letter of advice and appeal to his son. "From the time of your birth, and indeed earlier, ever since my marriage, I have found it a hard task to support a wife, and, by degrees, a family. of seven children, two relatives by marriage, and the mother, on a certain income of twenty-five florins a month- out of this to pay for maintenance and the expenses of childbed, deaths, and sicknesses; which expenses, when you reflect upon them, will convince you that I not only never devoted a kreutzer to my own private pleasure, but that I could never, in spite of all my contrivances and care, have managed to live free from debt without the especial favour of God; and yet I never was in debt till now. I devoted all my time to you two, in the hope and indeed reliance upon your care in return; that you would procure for me a peace ful old age, in which I might render account to God for the education of my chil dren, and, without any other concern than the salvation of my soul, quietly await death. But Providence has so ordered, that I must now afresh commence the ungrateful task of lesson-giving; and in a place too where this dreary labour is so ill-paid that it will not support one from one end of the year to the other; and yet it is to be thought a matter of rejoicing if, after talking oneself into a con- sumption, something or other is got by it."

This volume forms a part of Messrs. Chapman and Hall's speculation to discard the fashionable bulk and high price in new works connected with the belles lettres. The novels of Mount Sorel and Mrs. Hall's Whiteboy were specimens of the attempt in fiction, and Mr. Ilolmes's Life qf Mozart is a still more favourable example of the series in biography.