(Paris, July 3, 1778, to his father, who, like the son, was a man
of sincere piety and abhorred Voltaire's atheism.)

108. "When God gives a man an office he also gives him sense;
that's the case with the Archduke. Before he was a priest he was
much wittier and intelligent; spoke less but more sensibly. You
ought to see him now! Stupidity looks out of his eyes, he talks
and chatters eternally and always in falsetto. His neck is
swollen,--in short he has been completely transformed."

(Vienna, November 17, 1781, to his father. The person spoken of
was Archduke Maximilian, who afterward became Archbishop of
Cologne, and was the patron of Beethoven. [The ambiguity of the
opening statement is probably due to carelessness in writing, or
Mozart's habit of using double negatives. H.E.K.])



WOLFGANG, THE GERMAN



Mozart's Germanism is a matter of pride to the German people. To
him "German" was no empty concept, as it was to the majority of
his contemporaries. He is therefore honored as a champion of
German character and German art, worthy as such to stand beside
Richard Wagner. Properly to appreciate his patriotism it is
necessary to hear in mind that in Mozart's day Germany was a
figment of the imagination, the French language, French manners