Kratz shows himself always to the greatest advantage when he is very badly off. As soon as he gains a little money, he generally becomes quarrelsome. It would only be painful to trace his ups and downs,--the former occurring but occasionally, and being but slight,--until his arrival in Cassel. In this town the manager of the theatre, perhaps in an unguarded moment of compassion, gives him hope of an engagement as singer. The music-director Guhr holds out the same encouragement, amounting almost to a promise. They afterwards find that their intention cannot possibly be carried out. Kratz, greatly disappointed, brings an action against them for breach of promise. Other persons become implicated in this formidable law-suit, which is carried on for about two years. During all the time Kratz makes constant pedestrian tours into the country, giving musical-declamatory entertainments in the small towns and villages, living on the plainest of fare and sleeping upon straw. When he has scraped together a few thalers, he returns to Cassel to hand them over to his lawyer. One cannot but admire his energy; if he had employed only half of it in a noble cause, he might have done much good. He lost his law-suit and left Cassel. On New Year's Eve, 1816, we find him in full-dress at a ball given by a former fellow-student, now a person of high position in Quedlinburg, who has taken him for a week into his house, and has dressed him up. The next day, Kratz reflects upon the event, in his journal, thus:-- "January 1st, 1817. Every thing changes in life. The deadening winter is followed by the reviving spring; out of the moistened eye beams again the sun-ray of joy. The first day of the last year found me in the hut of a peasant, sleeping on a couch of straw, and my rest unpleasantly disturbed by the firing of volleys by the peasant lads; the first day of this year finds me awake in a brilliantly-lighted saloon, where I am surrounded by varicoloured figures moving in the brightness of light, where the sound of music floats agreeably about my ears, while I am blissfully waltzing round with the most charming girl in the room." Unfortunately for Kratz, this blissful state was of but short duration. Soon we find him again as before in his "Rambles of an Artist," except that he now moves gradually to the North, until he reaches Hamburg, which he enters, and where we lose sight of him. In the present survey several books have been mentioned which possess but little value. Still, they deserve a place among the fanciful, paradoxical, extravagant, and quaint publications relating to the art of music. Some more might have been cited; but the list is probably large enough to convince the lover of music that we are by no means in want of curiosities in our musical literature. [Illustration] [37] 'Hinterlassene Schriften von C. M. von Weber. Zweite Ausgabe, Leipzig, 1850.' Vol. II., P. 14. [38] 'Geschichte der Oper in Berlin, von L. Schneider. Berlin, 1850,' P. 240.