duration, and the orchestra but poorly supplied with singers; it was
therefore his earnest desire to get some permanent appointment in which
he could exercise freely his talent for composition, and reckon on
a sufficient income. When childhood and boyhood had passed away, his
_quondam_ patrons ceased to wonder at, or feel interest in, his genius,
and Mozart, whose early years had been spent in familiar intercourse
with the principal nobility of Europe, who had been from court to court,
and received distinctions and caresses unparalleled in the history of
musicians, up to the period of his death gained no situation worthy
his acceptance, but earned his fame in the midst of worldly cares and
annoyances, in alternate abundance and poverty, deceived by pretended
friendship, or persecuted by open enmity. The obstacles which Mozart
surmounted in establishing the immortality of his muse, leave those
without excuse who plead other occupations and the necessity of gaining
a livelihood as an excuse for want of success in the art. Where the
creative faculty has been bestowed, it will not be repressed by
circumstances.

In the exterior of Mozart there was nothing remarkable; he was small in
person, and had a very agreeable countenance, but it did not discover
the greatness of his genius at the first glance. His eyes were tolerably
large and well shaped, more heavy than fiery in the expression; when he
was thin they were rather prominent. His sight was always quick and
strong; he had an unsteady abstracted look, except when seated at the
piano-forte, when the whole form of his visage was changed. His hands
were small and beautiful, and he used them so softly and naturally upon
the piano-forte, that the eye was no less delighted than the ear. It was
surprising that he could grasp so much as he did in the bass. His head
was too large in proportion to his body, but his hands and feet were in
perfect symmetry, of which he was rather vain. The stunted growth of