umberless letters, many of them
containing descriptions of scenery and incident such as entitle them
to rank as literary productions--yet there is not the slightest
evidence of haste or carelessness; even the writing itself is artistic
in its delicacy and finish. He received countless letters, and he
preserved them all by pasting them into scrapbooks kept for the
purpose. The same scrupulous care is observable in the writing of his
musical manuscripts, and no fewer than forty-four volumes of these
works, constructed by his own hands, are preserved in the Imperial
Library at Berlin. His talent for drawing was considerable, and his
love for the pursuit enabled him to accumulate a large collection of
finished works, in every one of which is exhibited the same
painstaking care and accuracy with regard to detail. Finally, we must
mention his devotion to his family. No more loving father could have
been found than Mendelssohn was to his children; he entered into their
games and lessons with the same eager desire to add to their
enjoyment, or to ease their labours, as he displayed towards the
greater world outside his home.

We must now hasten to record an event which was destined to stamp
Mendelssohn's career with undying fame--the completion of his oratorio
'Elijah.' This, his greatest work, owed its inspiration to a short
passage in the book he reverenced most of all. One day his friend
Hiller found him deep in the Bible. 'Listen,' he said, and then he
read in a gentle, agitated voice the passage from the First Book of
Kings, beginning with the words, 'And behold, the Lord passed by.'
'Would not that be splendid for an oratorio!' he exclaimed; and from
that moment the idea began to grow in his mind. And as it grew he saw
it in a clearer, brighter light, until, when the spring of 1846
arrived, the work was all but completed. In a letter to Jenny Lind,
the famous singer and his intimate friend, he writes: 'I am jumping
about my room for joy! If it only turns out half as good as I fancy it
is how pleased I shall be!'

[Illustration: '"_Would not that be splendid for an
oratorio!_"']

The years intervening between the inception of this great work and its
completion had brought no little anxiety and strain connected with his
arduous labours, and they had brought one deep sorrow, the loss of his
mother, whose death had been as sudden and unexpected as that of the
father. Honours had been bestowed upon him by royal han