my failure, I decided that Italy was not intelligent enough and too
much sunk in the dull round of routine to accept the innovations I
conceived of; so I thought of going to Germany.

"I traveled thither by way of Hungary, listening to the myriad voices
of nature, and trying to reproduce that sublime harmony by the help of
instruments which I constructed or altered for the purpose. These
experiments involved me in vast expenses which had soon exhausted my
savings. And yet those were our golden days. In Germany I was
appreciated. There has been nothing in my life more glorious than that
time. I can think of nothing to compare with the vehement joys I found
by the side of Marianna, whose beauty was then of really heavenly
radiance and splendor. In short, I was happy.

"During that period of weakness I more than once expressed my passion
in the language of earthly harmony. I even wrote some of those airs,
just like geometrical patterns, which are so much admired in the world
of fashion that you move in. But as soon as I made a little way I met
with insuperable obstacles raised by my rivals, all hypercritical or
unappreciative.

"I had heard of France as being a country where novelties were
favorably received, and I wanted to get there; my wife had a little
money and we came to Paris. Till then no one had actually laughed in
my face; but in this dreadful city I had to endure that new form of
torture, to which abject poverty ere long added its bitter sufferings.
Reduced to lodging in this mephitic quarter, for many months we have
lived exclusively on Marianna's sewing, she having found employment
for her needle in working for the unhappy prostitutes who make this
street their hunting ground. Marianna assures me that among those poor