describe the gray scenery of the north, and
he replied in music by improvising his impressions. This theme was
afterward worked out in the elaborate overture.

We will not follow him in his various travels through France and Italy.
Suffice it to say that his keen and passionate mind absorbed everything
in art which could feed the divine hunger, for he was ever discontented,
and had his mind fixed on an absolute and determined ideal. During this
time of travel he became intimate with the sculptor Thorwaldsen, and
the painters Leopold Robert and Horace Vernet. This period produced
"Walpurgis Night," the first of the "Songs without Words," the great
symphony in A major, and the "Melusine" overture. He is now about to
enter on the epoch which puts to the fullest test the varied resources
of his genius. To Moscheles he writes, in answer to his old teacher's
warm praise: "Your praise is better than three orders of nobility." For
several years we see him busy in multifarious ways, composing, leading
musical festivals, concert-giving, directing opera-houses, and
yet finding time to keep up a busy correspondence with the most
distinguished men in Europe; for Mendelssohn seemed to find in
letter-writing a rest for his overtaxed brain.

In 1835 he completed his great oratorio of "St. Paul," for Leipsic. The
next year he received the title of Doctor of Philosophy and the Fine
Arts; and in 1837 he married the charming Cecile Jean-renaud, who made
his domestic life so gentle and harmonious. It has been thought strange
that Mendelssohn should have made so little mention of his lovely wife
in his letters, so prone as he was to speak of affairs of his daily
life. Be this as it may, his correspondence with Moscheles, Devrient,
and others, as well as the general testimony of his friends, shows us
unmistakably that his home-life was blessed in an exceptional degree
with intellectual sympathy, and the tenderest, most thoughtful love.

In 1841 Mendelssohn became Kapellmeister of the Prussian court. He now
wrote the "Athalie" music, the "Midsummer-Night's Dream," and a large
number of lesser pieces, including the "Songs without Words," and piano
sonatas, as well as much church music. The greatest work of this
period was the "Hymn of Praise," a symphonic cantata for the Leipsic
anniversary of the invention of printing, regarded by many as his finest
composition.

Mendelssohn always loved England, and made frequent visits across the
Channel