“SAN REMO, _January_ 30_th_ (_February_ 11_th_), 1878. “DEAR FRIEND,--I have read your letter with great pleasure.... If I expressed myself too sharply, please forget it. Now let us drop the subject entirely. “I think you have acted wisely in postponing my opera until next year. I agree with you that it is better to have it studied without undue haste and to perform the work in its entirety. You may rest assured that I shall not give the work to the Petersburg Conservatoire. So far, I have not been asked to do so; if I were invited, I should refuse. I hope this letter may reach you about the moment of the first rehearsal of my (Fourth) Symphony. I am very anxious about the Scherzo. I think I told you that the quicker it can go, the better. Now I begin to think it should not be taken _too_ fast. However, I entrust myself entirely to your intelligence, and believe you will find out the right _tempo_ better than I can. “I have read your letter a second time. You ask if I care to have your advice. Of course I do. You know I am always ready to accept the advice of a judicious friend and that I have frequently sought yours, not only in matters concerning music, but in my daily life. It was not the advice you gave me in your letter which hurt me, but the harsh, dry tone (at least so it seemed to me) of your communication, the reproach to my indolence, and the insinuation that I only refused to go to Paris because N. von Meck was allowing me enough to live upon; in short, you entirely misunderstood the true motives of my conduct. “I have become terribly misanthropical, and dread the thought of having to change my present mode of life, in which I hardly come in contact with anyone. At the same time I am weary of it, and would gladly relinquish all the natural beauties and the climate of this place to be once more in my beloved Moscow.” _To N. F. von Meck._ “SAN REMO, _February_ 1_st_ (13_th_), 1878. “MY DEAR FRIEND,--Yesterday I forgot to thank you for the Schopenhauer.[59]