Mendelssohn's Outlook on Life

In addition to his great gifts as a composer and pianist, Mendelssohn was also a very thoughtful person and often his thinking takes on a philosophical cast. The first group of excerpts from his correspondence which follow all have to do with his aim, his “motto” he says in one place, on how to approach his personal life.

I intend to start at the beginning of this year to devote three years to traveling…. The object is not to appear in public, but rather to be musically benefited by my travel, to compare the various views and opinions of others and thus to consolidate my own taste.[1]

…..

I have learnt now that we ought to approach the slightest project shyly and rejoice at the smallest success for even that depends on fortunate coincidence….

People, scenery, hours to which I had long joyfully looked forward to turned out to be cold, unenjoyable and often disagreeable. The smallest pleasures went wrong through mere chance and great pleasures came to pass for the same reason. All and everything turned out differently from what I expected, desired or feared. This always has been my experience and always will be. But instead of making me apprehensive or anxious, it inspires me with courage and far from being fearful for small projects, I take up great ones with confidence.[2]

…..

I had a little annoyance – which, according to my theory is a part of pleasure….[3]

…..

Do not commend what is new till it has made some progress in the world and acquired a name, for till then it is a mere matter of taste.[4]

I may tell you confidentially that I am beginning to feel a particular aversion to everything cosmopolitan…. Anything that aspires to be distinguished and beautiful and great must be one-sided.[5]

…..

I have always found that the very opposite of what the wise people say invariably occurs![6]

…..

First Motto: Tell it to none but the wise.

Second Motto: Worrying Pays.[7]

…..

Although I love my art, more from my heart indeed than words can say, there are other things before which even that love must vanish and be silent.[8]

…..

The older I grow, the more clearly I see how important it is to learn first and then form an opinion, not the other way around nor both simultaneously.[9]

Mendelssohn also makes thoughtful references in his correspondence on matters of character and how matters of character affect one’s life. A few examples,

Individual failures and strife must not be allowed to have their growth in the heart. There must be something to occupy and to elevate it far above these isolated external things.[10]

…..

You are also persuaded that what people usually call honor and fame are but doubtful advantages, while another species of honor, of a more elevated and spiritual nature, is as essential as it is rare.

The truth of this is best seen in the case of those who possess all possible worldly distinctions, without deriving from them a moment of real pleasure, but only causing them the more greedily to crave after them….[11]

I know nothing worse than the abuse or non-use of God’s gifts, and have no sympathy for those who trifle with them.[12]

…..

In this world everyone ought to be honest and useful and he who is not so must and ought to be abused, from the Lord Chamberlain to the cobbler.[13]

…..

It is really difficult to say which, in the present day, should be considered most important; without talent nothing can be done, but without character just as little. We see instances of this day after day, in people of the finest capacities, who once excited great expectations and yet accomplish nothing.[14]

And now follow some of Mendelssohn’s reflections on his intellectual habits and discipline.

If only words were not so cold! Especially written words![15]

…..

For thorough self-cultivation, the whole of man’s life is required (and often does not suffice).[16]

…..

If we could only preserve through life the fresh, contented and lofty tone of feeling which, for the first few days on returning from a journey, leads us to look at every object with such satisfaction, and on the journey makes us rise superior to all annoyances. If we could only remain inwardly in this buoyant traveling spirit, while continuing to live in the quiet of home, we should indeed be vastly perfect![17]

…..

If a thing is not rightly begun it never comes to a good end. I do not believe that public tracasseries can pave the way to public opinion. Indeed I believe that such things have always existed and always will exist, independent of the vox populi, which is the vox Dei.[18]\

To improve what is already good, or to create what is new and good, would be an undertaking that I should rejoice in and which might be learned, even if there were no previous knowledge of the subject. But to change what is positively bad into better things, is both a hard and a thankless task.[19]

…..

I cannot as yet reconcile myself to distraction of thought and everyday life, as it is called, or to life with men who in fact care very little about you, and to whom what we can never forget or recover from, is only a mere piece of news.[20]

…..

I think that it more than ever the duty of everyone to be very industrious in his own sphere and to concentrate all his powers on accomplishing the very best of which he is capable.[21]

Finally we provide some of Mendelssohn’s philosophical thoughts and observations on society at large. The first is concerned with a phony science in which there was much public interest early in the 19^th century. It was one of the practitioners in Vienna of this “science,” the study of the implications of the shape of the skull, who secretly acquired the head of Haydn for study. A friend of mine was on the aristocratic committee which fairly recently acquired the skull and reburied it with the rest of Haydn.

The other day I went to see Dr. Spurzheim’s phrenological cabinet, shown by a young physician. A group of murderers placed in contrast to a group of musicians interested me greatly, and my belief in physiognomy received strong confirmation. Indeed, the very difference between Gluck’s forehead and that of a parricide is very striking and removes all doubt. But when people want to enter into minute detail and show me where Gluck had his bump of music and where his inventive power was, or exactly where the philosophy is lodged in Socrates’ skull, that is very precarious ground and seems to me unscientific….[22]

…..

I wish the devil would take the odious vanity that is the order of the day now! By heaven! These people do not know anything beyond their tiresome “I” and that is the reason they are so faint-hearted.[23]

You must battle your way through the present living mob, before you can arrive at the nobility, long since dead, and those who have not a strong arm are sure to come badly off in the conflict.[24]

…..

It is quite fitting that people should be presented to each other through the medium of music, [instead of] by a third person in society. Indeed, I think that in the former case they feel even more intimate and confidential. Moreover [regarding language], people who introduce anyone often pronounce the name so indistinctly that you seldom know who is standing before you. And as to whether the man is gay and friendly or sad and gloomy you are never told. So we [musicians] are better off.[25]

…..

Once a man has become callous, he is no longer amenable to kindness and friendliness….[26]

…..

We are surrounded here by disagreeable specimens of pastors, who embitter every pleasure, either of their own or of others. Dry, prosaic pedants who declare that a concert is a sin, a walk frivolous and pernicious, but a theater the lake of brimstone itself…. The most deplorable thing is the arrogance with which such people look down on others, having no belief in any goodness but their own.[27]

…..

I may indeed congratulate you on the fact that no spurious connoisseurs or dilettanti can grope their way into your most favorite thoughts [Oriental languages], while you must feel the more secure and tranquil in your own vocation because arrogant ignorance cannot presume to attack you behind your bulwarks of quaint letters and hieroglyphics. The critics must at least first be able to criticize, so you are better off in this respect than we are, against whom they always appeal to their own paltry conceptions.[28]

…..

Formerly I used positively to hate all speculators in art, but now I feel chiefly compassions for them, because I see so few who are at rest. It is a never ending strife for money and fame, and the most superior talents, as well as inferior ones, join in it.[29]