arts, especially in the theatres and in music; we also see the
impulses of his own heart and a hundred other things which, in
fascination, and universal as well as artistic interest, have
scarcely a parallel in our literature. The style may fail to a
certain degree in polish, that is, in definite purpose in
expressing what he wished to say in an attractive or congenial
form,--an art, however, which Mozart so thoroughly understood in
his music. His mode of writing, especially in the later letters
from Vienna, is often very slovenly, evidencing how averse the
Maestro was to the task. Still these letters are manifestly the
unconstrained, natural, and simple outpourings of his heart,
delightfully recalling to our minds all the sweetness and pathos,
the spirit and grace, which have a thousand times enchanted us in
the music of Mozart. The accounts of his visit to Paris may,
indeed, lay claim to a certain aesthetic value, for they are
written throughout with visible zest in his own descriptions, and
also with wit, and charm, and characteristic energy. As these
combined merits can only become apparent by an ungarbled series
of the letters, I have resolved, after many long years of zealous
research in collecting them, to undertake the work,--that is, to
publish the letters entire that have come to my knowledge.

It now only remains for me to give some words of explanation as
to the method I have pursued in editing them.

In the first place, this edition, (being transcribed closely from
the originals,) if compared with the letters already published,
will prove that the latter are open to many corrections, both in
trivial and more important respects. I have forborne, however,
attracting attention to the deviations from the original text,