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

391 LETTERS obtain my goal, which is quite distant from music; and to cover my intentions and hide them from an entire company of ungodly men of no religion, who have created a sect amongst them, who have tried to lead me to their ungodliness in every way possible, and who (having found me, by the grace of God, to be quite opposed to their feelings) are keeping a very watchful eye on me and all of my things. I am therefore forced to use great art to deceive them and to produce one day in public those very discoveries pertaining precisely to the destruction of materialism, which the said class of people infinitely fears (I have had, on many occasions, ferocious disputes with men who were most esteemed by the public and are in general aware of my subjects and my designs), for which they have occupied every position and used every means to stop me from making them public. I then deceive them with the present means of this book, in which I have inserted, with great art, those seeds and fundaments which do not appear in any way (and certainly nobody will notice them if not advised by me), but once they are accepted by the learned world in the strict and precise sense in which they appear to me and they are, that is sufficient to me and is even more so for my purpose. Therefore, this being so (and I swear to you that it really is so), I ask Your Reverence not to be taken aback by some admiring and distinguished expression which you shall find in the book in favour of some person. I must necessarily act in this way to act prudently. Do not be surprised by the jumps and the gaps which you will find in the rules of counterpoint; none of this is there if not for my purpose. Therefore, please conceive of the matter as I am writing to you and consider it in this sense and aspect. Take note that both the practical things and the demonstrative ones of the first, second and third chapter contain the secret. Your Reverence shall see them matched rigorously to music in general, to harmony in particular. Here lies my art, and my quite honest trickery, as they are so directed towards the purpose there clearly proposed, and they prove it in such a way that it seems impossible that one may have another aim and intention than the one which appears there. But indeed it is so and in due time Your Reverence will see it to be a fact; and, with Your Reverence, Padre Riccati and the Most Illustrious Signor Dottor Balbi, who are the only three people who in these harshest of circumstances I can trust and to whom I shall come in person in due time, as I wrote to you. This letter of mine requires no reply, nor do I wish for one in any way by means of the post, should Your Reverence need to answer me in this regard, and concerning such news. If this need were to arise, please wait for some particular opportunity with a man who is entirely trustworthy, and do not trust the post in any way, as evil will certainly ensue, for by now it has been detected by those people I mentioned above that I have dealings there on this matter. When you write to me by post, write about my book with natural opinions, as if it were a real book on counterpoint, written with that sole purpose, and nothing more. For the moment, do not make any use whatsoever of this letter of mine with the Most Illustrious Signor Dottor Balbi; it will be discussed in person in due time, and I ask Your Reverence to