This letter will show what an impartial and incorruptible judge Mendelssohn possessed in his father.
[19] The following letter from Mendelssohn’s Father will certainly not be read without interest, as it throws so clear a light on the intellectual relations between father and son; a place may therefore be appropriately found for it here. It has been selected from a large collection of letters of a similar tendency.
[20] By Reichardt. Compare the passage in reference to Reichardt in the letter of December 28th, 1833.
[21] “St. Paul.”
[22] Compare the passage on this subject in the letter of April 3rd, 1835.
[23] “Hommage à Handel.”
[24] The death of his Father.
[25] This refers to the circumstance of Mendelssohn’s father having advised him to “hang up on a nail” the elfin and spirit life with which, for a certain period, Mendelssohn had chiefly occupied himself in his compositions, and to proceed to graver works.
[26] He alludes to the Musical Festival, where “St. Paul” was performed for the first time.
[27] Verkenius.