and may remain as if they had never been. The
influence which music exercised on my mind, and, I believe, on my
heart also, I have related in my _Musical Recollections_. The image of
those passing years, though its general tone was melancholy, chiefly
owing to my mother's melancholy, seemed to me at the time free from
all unhappiness. My work at school and at home was not too heavy; I
was fond of it, and very fond of books. Books were scarce then, and
whoever possessed a new and valuable book was expected to lend it to
his friends in the little town. If a man was known to possess, say,
Goethe's works or Jean Paul's works, the consequence was that one went
to him or to her to ask for the loan of them. And not only books, but
paper and pens also were scarce. The first steel pens came in when I
was still in the lower school, and bad as they were they were looked
upon as real treasures by the schoolboys who possessed them. Paper was
so dear that one had to be very sparing in its use. Every margin and
cover was scribbled over before it was thrown away, and I felt often
so hampered by the scarcity of paper that I gladly accepted a set of
copybooks instead of any other present that I might have asked for on
my birthday or at Christmas. I am sorry to say I have had to suffer
all my life from the inefficiency of our writing master, or maybe from
the fact that my thoughts were too quick for my pen. In other subjects
I did well, but though I was among the first in each class, I was by
no means cleverer than other boys. In the lower school work was more
like conversation or like hearing news from our teachers. The idea of
effort did not yet exist. The drudgery began, however, when I entered
the upper school, the gymnasium, and learnt the elements of Latin and
Greek. Though our teachers were very conscientious, they tried to make
our work no burden to us, and the constant change of places in each
class kept up a lively rivalry among the boys, though I am not sure
that it did not make me rather ambitious and at times conceited.
Still, I had few enemies, and it seemed of much more consequence who
could knock down another boy than who could gain a place above him. I
feel sure I could have done a great deal more at school than I did,
but it was partly my music and partly my incessant headaches that
interfered with my school work.

I remember as a boy that certain streets were inhabited exclusively by
Jewish families. A large number of J