reputation? I don't know whether you share my opinion, but they
appear to me, on the whole, very careless. They are pretty to
listen to, they are very pretty to look at, the effect is
excellent, the edition (thanks to our friend Hofmeister) is most
carefully done; but, all counted, I question whether H. is
anything but a distinguished mediocrity. [How highly Liszt
thought, later on, of Henselt's Concerto and other of his
compositions is well known, and is spoken of in a subsequent
letter to Baroness Wrangel, in May, 1883.] For the rest, he is
very young, and will doubtless develop. Let us, at least, hope
so.

I am extremely sorry that I cannot come and pay you a little
visit at Leipzig at present. It is one of my keenest desires to
make your personal acquaintance and to pass some days with you.
But as that is not possible now, let us, at least, try not to be
entirely separated, and let us combat, as far as we can, the
laziness about writing, which is, I think, equally in us both.

In a fortnight I am returning to Venice. I shall be back in Milan
at the time of the coronation (towards the end of August). Next
winter I expect to pass in Rome, if the cholera or some other
plague does not stop it. I will not induce you to come to Italy.
Your sympathies would be too deeply wounded there. If they have
even heard that Beethoven and Weber ever existed, it is as much
as they have done.

Will you not have what you have sent me printed? Haslinger would
have it gladly, I think, and it would be a great pleasure to me
to see my name associated with yours.