But L. Mozart's satisfaction was not entirely without alloy. He was too intimately acquainted with the Salzburg court to feel certain of obtaining such a position as would enable him to educate his children in a way befitting their talents. On this point he had written to Hagenauer, shortly before their return:-- Everything depends on my having a position at home which is suitable to my children. God (all too merciful to me, miserable sinner) has endowed my children with such genius that, laying aside my duty as a father, my ambition urges me to sacrifice all else to their education. Every moment lost, is lost for ever, and if I never realised before how precious the time of youth is, I know it now. You know that my children are accustomed to work; if they once had an excuse for idleness, such as an inconvenient house, or want of opportunity for study, my whole fabric would fall to the ground. Custom is an iron path, and Wolfgang has still much to learn. But how shall we be treated in Salzburg? Perhaps we shall be only too glad to take our knapsacks on our backs and be off again. At any rate, I offer my children to my country. If it will have none of them, that is not my fault, and will be my country's loss. So shrewd a man of the world had no idea of burying the pound that might produce such excellent interest. {INSTRUCTION IN COUNTERPOINT.} (51) The uneventful stay of nearly a year which L. Mozart made with his children in Salzburg was employed in mechanical practice, and perhaps still more in the study of composition. A detailed account of these studies is not obtainable; but L. Mozart's wise and earnest views, his clear apprehension that genius entails twofold labour and exertion on its possessor, leave no doubt as to the severity and thoroughness of his instruction to his son. An exercise book containing exercises in thorough-bass and counterpoint is preserved in the Mozarteum at Salzburg, bearing no date, but evidently falling within this period. The intervals and scales are followed by a long list of short lessons on a given melody generally in three parts, to be worked out harmonically and according to the different kinds of simple counterpoint. (_Nota contra notam; duoy quatuor nota contra notam; cum ligaturis; floridum_.) The choral tunes which serve as Cantus firmus are taken from Fux's Gradus ad Pamassum, which was no doubt employed as a textbook.[4] The lessons, corrections, and brief notes are generally in the father's writing, the working out and the fair copies of the corrected lessons are of course made by Wolfgang; on one occasion he jokingly notes the different parts as _Il Sign. d'Alto, il Marchese Tenore, il Duca Basso_. An observation of the compositions of this period, which are still preserved, will show us the result of the studies.