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would learn a minuet in half an hour, "I am composing a concerto for the and a piece of greater extent in less than harpsichord, and have almost got to the twice that time. Immediately after he end of the first part."-" Let us see this played them with the greatest clearness, fine scrawl."— No, I have not yet finand perfectly in time. In less than a ished it." The father, however, took year he made such rapid progress, that, the paper, and shewed his friend a sheet at five years old, he already invented full of notes, which could scarcely be little pieces of music which he played decyphered for the blots of ink. The to his father, and which the latter, in two friends at first laughed heartily at order to encourage the rising talent of this heap of scribbling, but after a little his son, was at the trouble of writing time, when the father had looked at it down. Before the little Mozart acquir- with more attention, his eyes were fased a taste for music, he was so fond of tened on the paper; and, at length, all the amusements of his age, which overflowed with tears of joy, and wonwere in any way calculated to interest der, “Look, my friend, said he, with a him, that he sacrificed even his meals to smile of delight, "every thing is comthem. On every occasion he manifested posed according to the rules: it is a pity a feeling and affectionate heart. He that the piece cannot be made use of, would say ten times in a day to those but it is too difficult: nobody would be about him, "Do you love me well?" able to play it."" It is a concerto," and whenever in jest they said No, the replied the son, "and must be studied till tears would roll down his cheeks. From it can be properly played "—" This is the moment be became acquainted with the style in which it ought to be execut music, his relish for the sports and ed." He accordingly began to play, but amusements of his age vanished, or to succeeded only so far as to give them an render them pleasing to him, it was nec essary to introduce music in them. A friend of his parents often amused himself in playing with him: sometimes they carried the play-things in procession from one room to another; then, the one who had nothing to carry, sung a march, or played it on the violin.

idea of what he had intended. At that time the young Mozart firmly believed that to play a concerto was about as easy as to work a miracle, and, accordingly, the composition in question was a heap of notes, correctly placed, but senting so many difficulties, that the most skilful performer would have found it impossible to play it.

pre

During some months, a fondness for the usual studies of childhood gained The young composer so astonished such an ascendancy over Wolfgang, that his father, that the latter conceived the he sacrificed every thing, even music to idea of exhibiting him at the differe it it. While he was learning arithmetic, courts of Germany. There is nothing the tables, the chairs, and even the walls, extraordinary in such an idea in that were covered with figures which he had country. As soon, therefore, as Wolfchalked upon them. The vivacity of gang had attained his sixth year, the his mind led him to attach himself easily Mozart family, consisting of the father, to every new object that was presented the mother, the daughter, and Wolfgang, to him. Music, however, soon became took a journey to Munich. The two again the favourite object of his pursuit. children performed before the Elector, He made such rapid advances in it, that and received infinite commendations, his father, notwithstanding he was al- This first expedition succeeded in every ways with him, and in the way of ob- respect. The young artists, delighted serving his progress, could not help re- with the reception they had met with, garding him as a prodigy. The follow- redoubled their application on their reing anecdote, related by an eye-witness turn to Silsburg, and acquired a degree is a proof of this.

His father returning from the church one day with a friend, found his son busy in writing." What are you doing there, my little fellow ?" asked he.

of execution on the piano, which no longer required the consideration of their youth, to render it highly remarkable, During the autumn of the year 1732, the whole family repaired to Vienna, and

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player, who had then just begun to compose, came to Mozart, the father, to request his observations on six trios, which he had written during the journey of the former to Vienna. Schatchtner, the

the children performed before the court. en him during his residence at the capi-The Emperor Francis I. said, in jest, tal, and amused himself with it. A short on that occasion, to little Wolfgang: time afterwards, Wenzl, a skilful violin"It is not very difficult to play with all one's fingers, but to play with only one, without seeing the keys, would indeed be extraordinary." Without manifesting the least surprise at this strange proposal, the child immediately began to Archbishop's trumpeter, to whom Moplay with a single finger, and with the greatest possible precision and clearness. He afterwards desired them to cover the keys of the pianoforte, and continued to play in the same manner, as if he had long practised it.

zart was particularly attached, happened to be at the house, and we give the following anecdote in his words :

"The Father," said Schachtuer, "played the bass, Wenzl the first violin, and I was to play the second. Mozart From his most tender age, Mozart, requested permission to take this last animated with the true feeling of his art, part; but his father reproved him for was never vain of the compliments paid this childish demand, observing, that as him by the great. He only performed he had never received any regular lesinsignificant trifles when he had to do sons.on the violin, he could not possibly with people unacquainted with music. play it properly. The son replied, that He played, on the contrary, with all the it did not appear to him necessary to refire and attention of which he was capa- ceive lessons in order to play the second ble, when in the presence of connois- violin. His father, half angry at this seurs; and his father was often obliged reply, told him to go away, and not in to have recourse to artifice, and to make terrupt us. Wolfgang was so hurt at the great men, before whom he was to this, that he began to cry bitterly. As exhibit, pass for such with him. When he was going away with his little violin, Mozart at the age of six years, sat down I begged that he might be permitted to to play in the presence of the Emperor Francis, he addressed himself to his majesty and asked, "Is not M. Wagenseil here? We must send for him: he understands the thing." The Emperor sent for Wagenseil, and gave up his place to him, by the side of the piano. Sir," said Mozart, to the composer, "I am going to play one of your concertos; you must not turn over the leaves for me."

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play with me, and the father, with a good deal of difficulty, consented. Well, said he to Wolfgang, you may play with M. Schachtner, on condition that you play very softly, and do not let yourself be heard: otherwise, I shall send you out directly. We began the trio, little Mozart playing with me, but it was not long before I perceived, with the greatest astonishment, that I was perfectly useless. Without saying any thing, I Hitherto, Wolfgang had only played laid down my violin, and looked at the on the harpsichord, and the extraordina- father, who shed tears of affection at ry skill which he displayed on that in- the sight. The child played all the six strument, seemed to exclude even the trios in the same manner. The comwish that he should apply to any other. mendations we gave him made him preBut the genius which animated him, far tend that he could play the first violin. surpassed any hopes that his friends To humour him, we let him try, and could have dared to entertain: he had not even occasion for lessons.

On his return from Vienna to Salsburg with his parents, he brought with him a small violin, which had been giv

could not forbear laughing on hearing him execute this part, very imperfectly it is true, but still so as never to be set fast."

Varieties: Critical, Literary, and Historical.

VARIETIES:

CRITICAL, LITERARY, AND HISTORICAL.

Kev. Dr. Thomas Fuller, who was born in the year 1608, was sent very early to Queen's College, where his shining abilities soon found ample means There is much melancholy sweetness for their display. Taking holy orders in the following poem on the memory of at the usual age, he rapidly passed a young lady to whom he had been through his degrees, when after being tenderly attached.

When Fortune fail'd and friends were few; in 1633, and was educated at West

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Dr. South was remarkable in his enemies in the warres.'-If this order writings for a humourous vein of satire, were also enlarged to those who in peace which he would indulge even in the had excellently deserved of the church, pulpit; and preaching a sermon before or commonwealth, it might well be reCharles II. on the vicissitudes of hu- vived.

man life, he made the following remark: "The shortest, plainest, and truest "Who that beheld such a beggarly epitaphs are best. I say the shortest : bankrupt fellow as Cromwell first enter- for when a passenger sees a chronicle ing the Parliament-house, with a thread- written on a tombe, he takes it on trust bare coat and greasy hat, perhaps neith- some great man lies there buried, wither of them paid for, could have suspect- out taking pains to examine who it is. ed that in the space of so few years he Mr. Cambden in his Remains, presents should by the murder of one King, and us with examples of great men that had the banishment of another, ascend the little epitaphs. And when once a witty throne ?" gentleman was asked what epitaph was fittest to be written on Mr. Cambden's tombe, Let it be,' said he,

Charles was thrown by this sally into a fit of laughter, and turning to Lord Rochester he said, "Your chaplain must be a Bishop, therefore put me in mind of him at the next vacancy."

Had the good Doctor not earnestly refused a bishopric when offered him, we should have thought he had one in view; for his remark on Cromwell was rather time-serving.

EXTRACTS FROM FULLER.--CHARITY.

"Tombes are the clothes of the dead: a grave is but a plain suit, and a rich monument is one embroidered.

"Tombes ought in some sort to be proportioned not to the wealth but deserts of the party interred.

'Cambden's Remains.'

I say also the plainest: for except the sense lie above ground, few will trouble themselves to dig for it. Lastly, it must be true: not as in some monuments, where the red veins in the marble may seem to blush at the falsehoods written on it. He was a witty man who first taught a stone to speak, but he was a wicked man that taught it first to lie.

"A good memory is the best monument: others are subject to casualty and time; and we know that the Pyramids themselves, doting with age, have forgotten the names of their founders. Let us be carefull to provide rest for our souls, and our bodies will provide rest for themselves."

EXTRACTS FROM SOUTH.-CONSCIENCE.

"Conscience is the great repository and magazine of all those pleasures that can afford any solid refreshment to the "There were officers appointed in soul. For when this is calm and serene the Grecian games, who always by pub and absolving, then, properly, a man lick authority did pluck down the statues may be said to enjoy all things, and, erected to the victours, if they exceeded what is more, himself; for that he must the true symmetrie and proportion of do before he can enjoy any thing else. their bodies. We need such now-a- But it is only pious life, led by the dayes, to order monuments to men's rules of a severe religion, that can authormerits, chiefly to reform such depopulat- ize a man's conscience to speak coming tombes as have no good fellowship fortably to him: it is this that must with them, but engrosse all the room, word the sentence, before the conscience leaving neither seats for the living nor can pronounce it, and then it will do it graves for the dead. It was a wise and with majesty and authority. It will not thrifty law which Reutha King of Scot- whisper, but proclaim a jubilee to the land made, That noblemen should have mind; it will not drop, but pour in oil so many pillars or long pointed stones upon the wounded heart. And is there set on their sepulchres as they had slain any pleasure comparable to that which

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springs from hence? The pleasure of conscience is not only greater than all other pleasures, but may also serve instead of them; for they only please and affect the mind in transitu, in the pitiful narrow compass of actual fruition: whereas, that of conscience entertains and feeds it a long time after with durable, lasting reflections.

"Naturalists observe, that when the frost seizes upon wine, they are only the slighter and more watery parts of it that are subject to be congealed; but still there is a mighty spirit, which can retreat into itself, and there within its own compass be secure from the freezing impression of the element round about it: and just so it is with the spirit of man; while a good conscience makes it firm and impenetrable, an outward affliction can no more benumb or quell it, than a blast of wind can freeze up the blood in a man's veins, or a little shower of rain soak into his heart, and quench the principle of life itself."

SINCERITY.

"The very life and soul of all religion is sincerity; and therefore the good ground' in which alone the immortal seed of the word' sprang up to perfection,is said to be those that 'received it into an honest heart; that is, a plain, clear, and wellmeaning heart; an heart not doubled, nor cast into the various folds and workings of a dodging shifting hypocrisy; for the truth is, the more spiritual and refined any sin is, the more hardly is the soul cured of it, because the more difficultly convinced; and in all our spiritual maladies, conviction must still begin the cure."

PLEASURES OF A VIRTUOUS LIFE.

"The providence of God hath so ordered the course of things, that there is no action, the usefulness of which has made it the matter of duty, and of a profession, but a man may bear the continual pursuit of it without loathing and satiety. The same shop and trade that employs a man in his youth, employs him also in his age. Every morning he rises fresh to his hammer and his anvil; he passes the day singing; custom has naturalized his labour to him; his shop is his element; and he cannot, with any enjoyment of himself live out of it. Whereas, no custom can make the painfulness of a

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debauch easy or pleasing to a man, since nothing can be pleasant that is unnatural. But now, if God has so interwoven such a pleasure with the works of our ordinary calling, how much superior and more refined must that be that arises from the survey of a pious and wellordered life!”

From the Literary Gazette.

The Duchess of Devonshire still has her parties at Rome every week. She seems determined to rival her father, the late Earl of Bristol, in her patronage of She is about to publish, at the fine arts. her private expense, a splendid edition of Annibal Caro's celebrated translation of the Æneid, with illustrations executed by the first Roman artists, together with a translation of Horace's Journey to Brundusium, in the same splendid style of illustration. Her Grace has also undertaken, with the permission of the Government, an excavation in the Roman Forum, which promises the most interesting results; and further still, it is understood that she intends giving a commission for some one work to every Roman artist who ranks above mediocrity.

One cannot be surprised, after this, to hear of an author dedicating the first volume of his work to St. Peter, and the second to the Duchess of Devonshire This has literally occurred.

M. Joanny, the provincial Talma, is The Gard Journal now at Nismes. states, that this actor produced so great an effect in Hamlet, when he proceeded to stab the King, that frightful screams issued from the boxes, and several of the audience made their escape from the house.

A dispute of precedence between a Fiacre and a Nobleman's carriage took place a few days ago in Paris. It may serve to show the difference which time has brought about on French manners. The scene took place in the Rue NeueSaint-Augustin-“Drive on,coachman," said the Nobleman, thrusting his head out at the carriage window." Do not stir an inch," said the person in the Fiacre, to the driver of his equipage.—“ But, Sir," replied the Nobleman, "by what

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