Page:Selected letters of Mendelssohn 1894.djvu/13

 been asked to say a few words to introduce this new translation of a selection from the letters of Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy to the public. Mendelssohn is so well-known and so much beloved in England that to some this may seem unnecessary. But there are still many who, much as they enjoy his music, do not know him in his almost equally attractive character of a letter-writer, and to these the present volume may be heartily recommended. At any rate the task is a very pleasant one to me, and I think that I am not without justification in attempting it. I believed that I knew these very letters well; and yet, on reading them over again in Mr. Alexander’s version, they come upon me almost as freshly