y
towards captiousness on the part of his hearers. Felix's whole wish
was to satisfy himself as to his progress in music, and, young as he
was, he had the sense and determination to pursue his bent without
regard to the plaudits of his father's friends. Abraham Mendelssohn,
notwithstanding his business capacities, was himself a great lover of
the arts, and especially of music, in regard to which, indeed, he
showed considerable judgment. That his children should exhibit similar
tastes to his own was, therefore, to him a matter of delightful
satisfaction, for he shared with his wife Leah a deep interest in all
that affected his children's education. He watched Felix with peculiar
care, for it seemed to him that he inherited many of the traits as
well as the capacity for learning which had distinguished the
grandfather and philosopher, Moses Mendelssohn. Felix undoubtedly
possessed the bright dark eyes and the humorous temperament of his
grandfather, for he was one of the brightest and merriest of children.
The family was not a large one. Jakob Ludwig Felix (to give the
subject of our story his full names), who was born February 3, 1809,
ranked second in age, the eldest child being Fanny Caecilie; after
Felix came Rebekka, and, lastly, little Paul. The three elder children
were born in Hamburg, where the family continued to reside until the
occupation of the town by the French soldiers in 1811 made life there
so miserable for the German inhabitants that as many families as could
contrive to do so escaped to other towns of Germany which were free
from the presence of the invading army. Amongst those who successfully
eluded the watchfulness of the French guards by resorting to disguise
was the family of Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, the head of which had
followed the example of his wife's brother in adopting the latter name
as a means of distinguishing his own from other branches of the
Mendelssohn family. With his wife and children Abraham fled to Berlin
to make his home in the house of the grandmother, situated beside the
canal in the north-east quarter of the town, to which we have been
already introduced.

No happier surroundings could have been imagined than those amidst
which Felix Mendelssohn's childhood was passed. The residence was in
the Neue Promenade, a broad, open street, bounded on one side only by
houses, and extending on the other side to the banks of the canal.
Here a wide stretch of grass-land, with a plentiful d