UNCLE IN ENGLAND. 33 



following year he invented little sonatas, which 

 he played for his father, who always wrote them 

 down to encourage him. Music was introduced 

 into all his sports, none of which were accept- 

 able to him without it ; and if sometimes a fond- 

 ness for the usual occupations of childhood did 

 influence .his mind, yet music soon became 

 again the favourite object. 



Before he was six years of age, his father, ob- 

 serving him writing busily, asked what he was 

 doing: the - little boy said, he was composing a 

 concerto for the harpsichord. The father took 

 the paper, and laughed heartily at the blots and 

 scribbles ; but when he examined it with more 

 attention, he shewed it to a friend with tears of 

 delight, saying, " Look, my friend, every thing is 

 composed according to the rules ; it is a pity that 

 the piece cannot be made use of, but it is too 

 difficult, nobody would be able to play it." 



The progress of this wonderful child was equal 

 to this beginning, and in various public exhibi- 

 tions in Germany, and particularly at Vienna, he 

 excited, at a very early age, the astonishment of 

 all musical people by his science, by the correct- 

 ness of his ear, and by his powerful execution. 

 At the age of thirteen, he composed his first 

 opera ; and you w 7 ell know, Mamma, the nume- 

 rous beautiful compositions which distinguished 

 his short life ; for he died at the age of thirty-six. 

 Surely this was a genius ! 



