TO SECRETARY HIRTE AT COLOGNE.
Düsseldorf, 18th May, 1835.
Honored Sir,—Accept my thanks for your friendly lines which have given me great pleasure. The idea which you communicate in them does me honour, but I must admit that I have a certain shyness about it, which I have been unable to get rid of for a considerable time. It is now so much the vogue for unknown or ordinary people to have their likenesses published so as to become a little better known, or else they do it to get a reputation without earning one, that I have always hesitated to do this too early myself. I should like to avoid it till I had accomplished something which I could be persuaded really deserved this honour. That is, however, not the case at present, and I should be happy to see such a recognition postponed till, in my own conviction, I am worthier of it. But I owe you many thanks for the friendship and kindness which prompted your proposal.I am, etc., etc.,
Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy.
