George Upton

There is no person in musical or general history whose life can be studied by young people with more advantage, or followed in its general characteristics with more profit than Johann Sebastian Bach. The old saying that genius is only the highest capacity for work has sometimes been attributed to him. Whether he originated the saying or not, his life illustrates its truth. His industry was astonishing, whether in adverse or prosperous circumstances, though his remuneration, considering the magnitude of his achievements, now seems a beggarly pittance.

The life-story of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart contained in this volume closes with his admission to membership in the Accademia Filarmonica at Bologna, Italy. Mozart was then in his fifteenth year. Up to that time his life had been a happy one, free from care, untouched by adversity, and crowned with continuous successes. He was admired by the people, considered a prodigy by the greatest composers, and was received with extraordinary honors at the Courts of Austria, France, Holland, and England. His twenty remaining years, embittered by enmities and saddened by privations and misfortunes, find no place in this life-story.

William Tell by George Upton; Translated from the German of Ferdinand Schmidt.William Tell is a folk hero of Switzerland. His legend is recorded in a late 15th-century Swiss chronicle. According the legend Tell, expert crossbow, killed Gessler, a tyrannic of Habsburg Austria positioned in Altdorf, Uri.Iconoclasts may deny the existence of William Tell, historians and critics may assign him to the shadowy realm of legend, but all Switzerland, even after six centuries have passed, still cherishes his memory. He typifies patriotic purpose and incorruptibility of character. The work of the critics is in vain, for the people everywhere still cling to the hero of Burglen, who defied Gessler and was leader in the uprising which resulted in throwing off the Hapsburg yoke, and no child can be convinced that the boy William, brave son of a brave father, did not stand under the lime-tree in Altdorf, with the apple on his curly head, and call: "Shoot, father I am not afraid. I am standing still."