more satisfying to the man of high ambition. He made London
his home for twenty years, and during this time became one of the most
prominent figures in the art circles of that great city. Moscheles's
mental accomplishments and singular geniality of nature contributed,
with his very great abilities as a musician, to give him a position
attained by but few artists. He gave lessons to none but the most
talented pupils, and his services were sought by the most wealthy
families of the English capital, though the ability to pay great prices
was by no means a passport to the good graces of Moscheles. Among
the pupils who early came under the charge of this great master was
Thalberg, who even then was a brilliant player, but found in the exact
knowledge and great experience of Moscheles that which gave the
crowning finish to his style. Busy in teaching, composing, and public
performance; busy in responding to the almost incessant demands made by
social necessity on one who was not only intimate in the best circles
of London society, but the center to whom all foreign artists of merit
gravitated instantly they arrived in London; busy in confidential
correspondence with all the great musicians of Europe, who discussed
with the genial and sympathetic Moscheles all their plans and
aspirations, and to whom they turned in their moments of trouble, he
was indeed a busy man; and had it not been for the loving labors of his
wife, who was his secretary, his musical copyist, and his assistant in
a myriad of ways, he would have been unequal to his burden. Moscheles's
diary tells the story of a man whose life, though one of tireless
industry, was singularly serene and happy, and without those salient
accidents and vicissitudes which make up the material of a picturesque
life.

He made almost yearly tours to the Continent for concert-giving
purposes, and kept his friendship with the great composers of the
Continent green by personal contact. Beethoven was the god of his
musical idolatry, and his pilgrimage to Vienna was always delightful
to him. When Beethoven, in the early part of 1827, was in dire distress
from poverty, just before his death, it was to Moscheles that he applied
for assistance; and it was this generous friend who promptly arranged
the concert with the Philharmonic Society by which one hundred pounds
sterling was raised to alleviate the dying moments of the great man
whom his own countrymen would have let starve, even as the