let them go on."

(Reported by Schindler as referring to critics who had declared
him ripe for the madhouse.)

206. "To your gentlemen critics I recommend a little more
foresight and shrewdness, particularly in respect of the products
of younger authors, as many a one, who might otherwise make
progress, may be frightened off. So far as I am concerned I am
far from thinking myself so perfect as not to be able to endure
faulting; yet at the beginning the clamor of your critic was so
debasing that I could scarcely discuss the matter when I compared
myself with others, but had to remain quiet and think: they do
not understand. I was the more able to remain quiet when I
recalled how men were praised who signify little among those who
know, and who have almost disappeared despite their good points.
Well, pax vobiscum, peace to them and me,--I would never have
mentioned a syllable had you not begun."

(April 22, 1801, to Breitkopf and Hartel, publishers of the
"Allgemeine Musik Zeitung.")

207. "Who was happier than I when I could still pronounce the
sweet word 'mother' and have it heard? To whom can I speak it
now?"

(September 15, 1787, from Bonn to Dr. Schade, of Augsburg, who had
aided him in his return journey from Vienna to Bonn. His mother
had died on July 17, 1787.)