Giuseppe Tartini - Lettere e documenti / Pisma in dokumenti / Letters and Documents - Volume / Knjiga / Volume II

253 LETTERS 3. Tartini in Prague to his brother Domenico in Piran Prague, 3 November 1725 I have heard the terrible news from Signor Pietro, and the ruin into which, from all directions, your interests and mine are about to fall. I am writing this letter not with the purpose of telling you that I can remedy them in some part, as our misfortunes are universal, and here I am spending everything on medicines to get myself through this winter. But to beg you in visceribus Christi for two things. One is, my dear Brother, that you and your wife, and our esteemed mother, and the small children, and the priest in particular, should all of you turn at once with sound heart to God with prayers, and with actions, and with all that God likes, as I profess to you that the misfortunes that have occurred in our household are not of human doing, but punishments of God for our old sins, and for those that perhaps some of us are still committing, God forbid. And bear in mind well, that there is no other hope but this one and this one alone in the world, and so if you are interested in the good of your soul, of your body, and of your poor children, you must do what I say, and you must do it quickly and have it done by everyone in our household. Otherwise, if you do not act thus, not only you and you alone but even I will suffer damnation; and the curses of God, from which there shall be no shelter whatsoever, shall come upon us and the fault shall be our own and no one else’s. Think, what I am saying to you at present, I say not in order to preach to you, but God causes me to speak thus, so that I am obliged to tell you and to warn you of this, as if it were God’s revelation, so that neither you nor the others can claim ignorance as an excuse. I am telling you clearly, so think about it, because a lot more is at stake than you believe, given that it concerns both body and soul and mother, wife, children and brothers. Read my letter at the table, so that all can hear it, and may everyone think about their affairs. The other thing I must beg of you is that if during this year or more than half of next year you should see your things, from first to last, fall to such ruin that you are left with nothing in this world and, in order to live, you must so to speak go begging from door to door, remember not to despair (and live, nonetheless, in God’s grace), indeed remember that this shall be the real sign of those truths, which I may have predicted for you; for if these will be true, it will also be true that before the year has ended, you and everybody and I myself shall fare a lot better than our father ever fared and than we, with all our industry, would have ever been able to fare. Do not search for the how or when of this, because it is indeed a miracle of God, and it shall be such, unless we prevent it with our faults and bad living. Therefore be strong, resist bravely any trouble that God may send you, and always think that this is the eve, in which one fasts, of the feast in which one rejoices. Above all respect our mother, because our greatest sins have been against her, so we must amend them with just as much respect. Keep yourself healthy and await with all peace and courage the time of my prediction.