as a player, from the careful instruction which both the children
received from their parent, but began then to exhibit the extraordinary
precocity of his musical mind; the minuets and other little movements
which he composed from the age of four to seven show a consistency of
thought and a symmetry of design which promised a maturity of the
highest genius. Of the first expedition of Leopold Mozart with his son
and daughter, in January, 1762, little account is preserved, further
than that they visited Munich, and played concertos on the harpsichord
before the royal family. In the following autumn, (Wolfgang being then
in his seventh year), the father proceeded in the same company to
Vienna; the journey was made by water, and the family gave concerts at
the principal towns they passed, as occasion served. Leopold Mozart
writes, "On Tuesday we arrived at Ips, where two Minorites and a
Benedictine who accompanied us said mass,[4] during which our little
Wolfgang _tumbled about_ upon the organ and played so well, that the
Franciscan fathers, who were just sitting down to dinner with some
guests, left the table, and ran with all their company into the choir,
where they were filled with wonder." A little before, he says, "the
children are as merry as when they were at home. The boy is friendly
with every body, but particularly with military officers, as though he
had known them all his life. He is the admiration of all." At the Court
of Vienna the family was received with great favour, the Emperor Francis
I. being mightily pleased with "the little magician," as he used
playfully to call young Mozart. "There is nothing wonderful," said the
emperor one day, joking with him, "in playing with all the fingers, but
to play with _one_ finger and with the keys covered, would really be
surprising." Upon which the child instantly performed in this manner
with as much neatness and certainty as if he had long practised it. The
father writes, "you will scarcely believe me when I tell you how
graciously we have been received. The empress took Wolfgang on her lap,