all the fears he had expressed previously to his journey to Paris;
thought no more that teaching would interfere with the higher
vocation of his muse; and was content to become the fashionable
performer, teacher, and pianoforte composer of the day. This mode
of life for a time had its temptations and its success; and he
hoped that he might still better assist his father at Vienna than
at Salzburg, as he was at intervals able to remit to him sums of
from ten to thirty ducats. But here commenced the precarious
existence which the composer was for the future destined to lead.
For, not only was the taste of Vienna then, as now, proverbially
variable and flippant--not only was concert-giving an uncertain
speculation, and teaching an inconstant source of income--but in a
man, who, like Mozart, had, from time to time, strong impulses to
write for the theatre, it frequently happened that the order and
regularity of his engagements were made to yield to the object
which engrossed him; and that the profits of his time were
sacrificed on the one hand, without any proportionate advantage on
the other."

Let it be observed that Mozart's payment for teaching among the
Austrian nobility, was, at the rate of five shillings a lesson!

Mozart was distinguished for virtues which belong only to great or
good men when labouring in the field of emulation--an absence of all
envy and jealousy, of which he was himself too much the object, and a
just and generous estimate of excellence in others. As observed by Mr
Holmes, good music, not his own, was his best relaxation from his
toils; and his predecessors and contemporaries were alike sure of that
sincere admiration which sprang from an unselfish love of the art. His
regard and respect for Haydn, who was greatly his inferior in genius
and power, is a pleasing illustration of what we have said.

"At this time, Joseph Haydn was established as kapell-meister in
the service of Prince Nicholas Esterhazy, and enjoyed a very
extensive reputation, which, indeed, the native energy of his
genius, and the fortunate circumstances of his mature life,
enabled him to earn with ease in a variety of compositions. He was
frequently at Vienna, in the suite of his prince; and it was
natural that Mozart, who had long lived on terms of mutual esteem
with Michael Haydn, at Salzburg, should be predisposed to a reg