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the paternal pleasure of seeing, hearing, and embracing you. Lead the life of a good Catholic Christian; love and fear God; pray to him with devotion and sincerity, and let your conduct be such, that should I never see you more, the hour of my death may be free from apprehension. From my heart I bless you." His reception at Paris was comparatively cold. The Parisians were scarcely done with the "faction fight" in which the rivalry of Gluck and Piccini had involved them; but none of the partisans were inclined to be enthusiastic about the new-comer. His only great admirer, and his best friend, seems to have been his acute and accomplished countryman Grimm, who prophesied that monarchs would dispute for the possession of Mozart. The prediction was fulfilled, but not in sufficient time to benefit the unhappy subject of their competition. "Baron Grimm and myself often vent our indignation at the state of music here, that is to say, between ourselves; but in public it is always '_bravo! bravissimo!_' and clapping till the fingers burn. What most displeases me is, that the French gentlemen have only so far improved their taste as to be able to _endure_ good things; but as for any perception that their music is bad--Heaven help them!--and the singing--_oime!_" Again he writes-- "You advise me to visit a great deal, in order to make new acquaintances, or to revive the old ones. That is, however, impossible. The distance is too great, and the ways too miry to go on foot; the muddy state of Paris being indescribable; and to take a coach, one may soon drive away four or five livres, and all in vain, for the people merely pay you compliments, and then it is over. They ask me to come on this or that day--I play, and then they say, '_O c'est un prodige, c'est inconcevable, c'est etonnant_;' and then '_a Dieu_.'" "All this, however," Mr Holmes observes, "might have been endured, so far as mere superciliousness and _hauteur_ to the professional musician were involved, if these people had possessed any real feeling or love for music; but it was their total want of all taste, their utter viciousness, that rendered them hateful to Mozart. He was ready to make any sacrifice for his family, but longed to escape from the artificial and heartless Parisians. "If I were in a place," he writes, "where people had ears
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