"everybody would go into mourning, and I, who will be summoned
hither and thither, must weep along with the others.")

209. "Rest assured that I am a changed man; outside of my health
I know of nothing more necessary than money. I am certainly not a
miser,--it would be difficult for me to change myself into one--and
yet the people here think me more disposed to be stingy than
prodigal; and for a beginning that will suffice. So far as pupils
are concerned I can have as many as I want; but I do not want many;
I want better pay than the others, and therefore I am content with
fewer. One must put on a few airs at the beginning or one is lost,
i.e. one must travel the common road with the many."

(Vienna, May 26, 1781, to his father.)

210. "Depend confidently on me. I am no longer a fool, and you
will still less believe that I am a wicked and ungrateful son.
Meanwhile trust my brains and my good heart implicitly, and you
shall never be sorry. How should I have learned to value money? I
never had enough of it in my hands. I remember that once when I
had 20 ducats I thought myself rich. Need alone teaches the value
of money."

(Vienna, May 26, 1781, to his father.)

211. "If it were possible that it should vex me I should do my
best not to notice it; as it is, thank God, there is no need of
my deceiving myself because only the opposite could vex me, and I
should have had to decline, which is always too bad when one is
dealing with a grand gentleman."