It is no easy matter to imagine all that must have occurred before the father resolved to permit his son to take a step which might possibly cost himself both his position and his livelihood, but it may all be very readily divined from the following passages in the Mozart letters. The son writes: “I hope that you meet with less vexation now than when I was in Salzburg, for I must confess that I was its sole cause.” And again: “I was badly treated, I did not deserve it. You naturally sympathized with me, but too much. That was the principal reason why I hastened away from Salzburg.” And the father: “You are, indeed, right, my dear son. I felt the greatest vexation at the contemptible treatment which you received. It was that that preyed on my heart so, that kept me from sleeping, that was ever in my thoughts, and which would have surely ended by consuming me entirely.” And here follows an outburst characteristic of the feelings of the Mozarts: “My dear son, when you are happy, so am I, so is your mother, so is your sister, so are we all. And that you will be happy I hope from God’s grace, and through the confidence I place in your sensible behavior.” And, indeed, this last was the only cause of solicitude the father had when his son started on his journey. Not that he had any doubt as to the young man’s character or goodness of heart. He had as much faith in both as in the “superiority of his son’s talents.” What alarmed him was Wolfgang’s want of experience. Wolfgang had never traveled alone. And who had better opportunity to know the extent of this inexperience than the faithful mentor who, as the son himself confesses, had always served him like a friend, nay like a servant? The father’s utterances here are full of beauty. They show us many a trait characteristic of the whole life of the yet youthful but immortal prodigy of art.