nyhow?--

"'Hail to the man who upwards strives
Ever in happy unconcern:
Whom neither blame nor praise contrives
From his own nature's path to turn.

On, and still on, the journey went,
Yet has he kept us all in view,
Working in age with youth's intent,
In living--fresh, in loving--true.'

"Were my version but as true to the original as your father's life
was to his noble ideal, it would be good indeed. As it is, accept
the best of yours truly ever,

ROBERT BROWNING."

Having started on my recollections of Mendelssohn, I am somewhat
perplexed to know how many or how few of them I should record here. So
much has been published about him, first by my mother in "The Life of
Moscheles,"[1] where she has used my father's diaries and
correspondence, and then by myself, when I translated and edited
Mendelssohn's letters to my parents,[2] that perhaps I ought not to run
the risk of telling what is already known. But, on the other hand,
Mendelssohn plays so prominent a part in my early recollections, that I
cannot write these without attempting to portray the principal figure,
my father's most intimate friend and my very dear godfather.

I shall, at any rate, have to exercise due discretion and care, for
Mendelssohn, and what he said and did, was such a constant theme of
conversation in our family, that I grew up knowing my parents' friend
nearly as well as they did themselves, and I may consider myself
fortunate if, in recording my earliest impressions, I do not find myself
remembering things that happened before I was born.

The very first letter which connects me with Mendelssohn is the one in
which he congratulates my parents on the arrival of a son and heir. He
heads it with a pen-and-ink drawing, representing a diminutive baby in a
cradle, surrounded by all the instruments of the orchestra.

"Here they are, dear Moscheles," he says, "wind instruments and fiddles,
for the son and heir must not be kept waiting till I come--he must have
a cradle song, with drums and trumpets and janissary music; fiddles
alone are not nearly lively enough. May every happiness and joy and
blessing attend the little stranger; may he be prosperous, may he do
well whatever he does, and may it fare well with him in the world!

"So he is to be called Felix, is he? How nice and kind of you to make
him my godchild, _in forma_! The first present his godfather makes him
is the abov