I [...] ask you to accept as a present from me the accompanying Symphony, written when I was eighteen years old. [...] I ask for nothing in return but that you should glance over it in some idle hour or other. Perhaps it may serve to give you an indication of my honest efforts and industry. [...]
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner, Vol. 1, selected and ed. Wilhelm Altmann, trans. M. M. Bozman (J. M. Dent & Sons, 1927), No. 32