sed away by your promise to strive more earnestly after the
true and pure happiness, based on active exertion. Something hovered before
me in my last letter, which though perhaps _not quite justly_ yet called
forth a dark mood; this, after all that has passed, was indeed very
possible; still who would not rejoice when the transgressor returns to the
right path?--and this I hope I shall live to see. I was especially pained
by your coming so late on Sunday, and hurrying away again so early. I mean
to come in to-morrow with the joiner and to send off these old hags; they
are too bad for anything. Until the other housekeeper arrives, I can make
use of the joiner. More of this when we meet, and I know you will think I
am right. Expect me then to-morrow without fail, whether it rains or not.

Your loving

FATHER,

Who fondly embraces you.

450.

TO THE ABBE MAXIMILIAN STADLER.

February 6, 1826.

REVEREND AND HONORED SIR,--

You have really done well in rendering justice to the _manes_ of Mozart by
your inimitable pamphlet, which so searchingly enters into the matter [the
Requiem], and you have earned the gratitude of the lay and the profane, as
well as of all who are musical, or have any pretensions to be so. To bring
a thing of this kind forward as H.W.[1] has done, a man must either be a
great personage, or a nonentity. Be it remembered also that it is said this
same person has written a book on composition, and yet has ascribed to
Mozart such passages as the following:--

[Music: Bass clef]

and has added such things as,--

[Music: Treble clef, B-flat major.
A-gnus de-i
pec-ca-ta mun-di.]

[Music: Treble clef, B-flat major.
Qui tol-lis pec-ca-ta, qui tol-lis pec-ca-ta,]

as samples of his own composition! H.W.'s astonishing knowledge of harmony
and melody recall the old composers of the Empire,--Sterkel, [illegible,]
Kalkbrenner (the father), Andre, &c.

_Requiescant in pace!_ I especially thank you, my dear friend, for the
pleasure you have conferred on me by your pamphlet. I have always accounted
myself one of Mozart's greatest admirers, and shall continue to be so to my
last breath. I beg, venerable sir, for your blessing, and I am, with
sincere esteem and veneration, yours,

BEETHOVEN.

[Footnote 1: Gottfried Weber, the well-known theorist, who was one of those
engaged in the dispute as to the genuineness of Mozart's Requiem.]

451.

TO GOTTFRIED WEBER.

April 3, 1826.

Holz tells me