MY DEAR SIR: It will certainly give me great pleasure to see and hear you again at Weimar, but I trust that you will excuse me if I do not accept the proposition you make, that of giving you regular lessons, from which, moreover, I fancy you would have little to gain. As for your idea of settling for some time at Weimar, it would be well for me to discuss it a little with you before you carry it out. The distance from Leipsic being so short, it would cause you but little inconvenience to pay me a short visit here, in the course of which it will be easy for me to say exactly what I believe will be best for you. Accept, my dear sir, the expression of my feelings of esteem and consideration for you. F. LISZT. WEIMAR, August 3, 1851. DEAR MR. MASON: Your welcome letter gives me very hearty pleasure, and I beg you to rest assured of the continuance of my most affectionate feelings for you. I often hear of your triumphs in America, and I rejoice to know that your talent is rightly appreciated and praised. Your compositions have not reached me yet, but I am all ready to make them very welcome. In a fortnight I start for Weimar. The Tonkuenstler Versammlung is to take place this year at Meiningen, from the 22d to the 25th of August. I shall attend it, as also the Wartburg Jubilee Festival, at which my oratorio "Sainte Elisabeth" will be given on the 28th of August. Perhaps I may meet there Mr. Theodore Thomas and Mr. S. B. Mills, of whom you have spoken to me. The ability of Mr. Thomas I have heard highly praised; I have to thank him particularly for the interest which he takes in my "Poemes Symphoniques." Those artists who desire to give themselves the trouble of understanding and interpreting my works are separated, by that alone, from the ranks of the commonplace. I, more than any one, owe them gratitude, and I shall not fail to show it to Messrs. Thomas and Mills when I have the pleasure of making their acquaintance. The news which reaches me from time to time of musical things in America is usually favorable to the cause of the progress of contemporary art which I am proud to serve and uphold. It seems that with you chicanery, blunders, and stupidity of a criticism perverted by ignorance, envy, and venality, exercise less influence than in the Old World. I congratulate you on it. May you successfully follow the noble career of an artist with industry, perseverance, resignation, modesty, and an unshaken faith in the Ideal--such as you showed in Weimar, dear Mr. Mason. Your truly affectionate and devoted FR. LISZT. ROME, July 8, 1867.