Page:Selected letters of Mendelssohn 1894.djvu/105

Rh (2) Do you think there are any leading features of the story, or of the character and teaching of Paul, either omitted or set in a false light?

(3) Where would you make the divisions of the first and second parts?

(4) Do you think I could bring in the chorale. Some people have objected to it very strongly, and yet I cannot bring myself to give it up altogether, for it seems to me it must have a natural place in every oratorio taken from the New Testament. If you agree to this, please let me hear what chorales you would put in, and where. You see I ask a great deal, but then I shall have to work hard enough when I begin the music, and, besides, I know you take an interest in the matter.

If you can oblige me in all this, just send a few words to Berlin, where I must be for two or three days after to-morrow; it is to take care of my father, who was with me in England, and became seriously ill there. He is well again now, thank God! but I have had so much anxiety all this time that I want to do everything possible till I can feel he is safe at home. Then off again, and back to Düsseldorf. You know that I was director of the musical festival there, and have opportunely got settled there for two or three years to manage the church music and the singing association, and probably a new theatre that is to be founded there as well; my private reason, however, is to get an opportunity of composing in peace and for myself. I find the country and the people charming, and the “St. Paul” is to be brought