Salzburg, 1769.

MY DEAR YOUNG LADY,--

I beg you will pardon the liberty I take in plaguing you with
these few lines, but as you said yesterday that there was nothing
you could not understand in Latin, and I might write what I chose
in that language, I could not resist the bold impulse to write
you a few Latin lines. When you have deciphered these, be so good
as to send me the answer by one of Hagenauer's servants, for my
messenger cannot wait; remember, you must answer this by a
letter.

[Footnote: By a messenger of the Hagenauer family, in whose
house, opposite the inn of "Den drei Allurten," Mozart was born,
and with whom his family were on the most intimate terms.]

"Cuperem scire, de qua causa, a quam plurimis adolescentibus
ottium usque adeo oestimetur, ut ipsi se nec verbis, nec
verberibus ad hoc sinant abduci."

[Footnote: "I should like to know the reason why indolence is so
highly prized by very many young men, that neither by words nor
blows will they suffer themselves to be roused from it."]

WOLFGANG MOZART.