My brother-in-law, Prince Anton, has written to me already that the King of Saxony expects your beautiful Mass. Respecting D----r, I have spoken with our gracious Monarch, and likewise with Count Dietrichstein. I do not know whether this recommendation will be of use, as there is to be a competition for the appointment in question, in which any one wishing to obtain it, has to prove his fitness. It would be a gratification to me if I could be useful to that clever man, whom I heard with pleasure playing the organ last Monday in Baden,--especially as I am convinced that you would not recommend an unworthy person. I hope you have written down your Canon, and I pray you, in case it might be injurious to your health to come to town, not to exert yourself too soon out of attachment to me. Your well-wishing RUDOLPH.[25] Vienna, July 31st, 1823." No doubt, there have been in olden time kings who, as history records, possessed as much skill in music as their best bards or minstrels. If Alfred the Great could enter and explore the Danish camp under the disguise of a harper, his harp-playing must have been in the genuine professional manner of his time, otherwise it would have revealed to the Danish lovers of music that he was not what he pretended to be. To become an eminent musician, one requires, besides an extraordinary talent, much time, freedom from disturbance, and perseverance,--conditions which are seldom at the command of royal personages. The middle classes are in this respect the most favoured,--as they are, in fact, in all intellectual pursuits. When King Solomon says: "Give me neither poverty nor riches," (Proverbs, Chap. XXX. v. 8), he speaks rather as a musician, or poet. A king requires riches as necessarily as a musician requires talent. [24] 'Tonkuenstler-Lexicon Berlin's, von C. Freiherrn von Ledebur;' Berlin, 1861; p. 6. [25] 'Biographie von Ludwig van Beethoven, verfasst von A. Schindler;' Muenster, 1845; p. 141. [Illustration] COMPOSERS AND PRACTICAL MEN.