ne of the choruses, with the refrain _tout
l'univers_, was much sung by her children, the old lady cried out
irritably, "_Wie mies ist mir vor tout l'univers_" ("How sick I am of
'all the world!'").[81]

To say apologetically that the circumstances of the times produced such
feeling and action may be a partial defense of these women, but it is
not the truth. Henriette Mendelssohn's will is a characteristic
document. The introduction runs thus: "In these the last words I address
to my dear relatives, I express my gratitude for all their help and
affection, and also that they in no wise hindered me in the practice of
my religion. I have only myself to blame if the Lord God did not deem me
worthy to be the instrument for the conversion of all my brothers and
sisters to the Catholic Church, the only one endowed with saving grace.
May the Lord Jesus Christ grant my prayer, and bless them all with the
light of His countenance. Amen!" Such were the sentiments of Moses
Mendelssohn's daughters!

The sons inclined towards Protestantism. Abraham is reported to have
said that at first he was known as the son of his father, and later as
the father of his son. His wife was Leah Salomon, the sister of Salomon
Bartholdy, afterwards councillor of legation. His surname was really
only Salomon; Bartholdy he had assumed from the former owner of a garden
in Koepenikerstrasse on the Spree which he had bought. To him chiefly the
formal acceptance of Christianity by Abraham's family was due. When
Abraham hesitated about having his children baptized, Bartholdy wrote:
"You say that you owe it to your father's memory (not to abandon
Judaism). Do you think that you are committing a wrong in giving your
children a religion which you and they consider the better? In fact, you
would be paying a tribute to your father's efforts in behalf of true
enlightenment, and he would have acted for your children as you have
acted for them, perhaps for himself as I am acting for myself." This
certainly is the climax of frivolity! So it happened that one of
Mendelssohn's grandsons, Philip Veit, became a renowned Catholic church
painter, and another, Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, one of the most
celebrated of Protestant composers.

After his family, we are interested in the philosopher's disciples. They
are men of a type not better, but different. What in his children sprang
from impulsiveness and conviction, was due to levity and imitativeness
in his followers.