e he was undergoing.

_Extracts from Beethoven's Will._

"O ye who consider or declare me to be hostile, obstinate, or
misanthropic, what injustice ye do me! Ye know not the secret causes of
that which to you wears such an appearance. My heart and my mind were
from childhood prone to the tender feelings of affection. Nay, I was
always disposed even to perform great actions. Born, with a lively,
ardent disposition, susceptible to the diversions of society, I was
forced at an early age to renounce them and to pass my life in
seclusion. If I strove at any time to set myself above all this, O, how
cruelly was I driven back, by the doubly painful experience of my
defective hearing! And yet it was not possible for me to say to people,
'Speak louder, for I am deaf.' Ah! how could I proclaim the defect of a
sense, that I once possessed in the highest perfection, in a perfection
in which few of my colleagues possess or ever did possess it? Indeed, I
cannot. Forgive me then, if ye see me draw back when I would gladly
mingle among you.

"O God, thou lookest down upon my misery; thou knowest that it is
accompanied with love of my fellow creatures, and a disposition to do
good! O, men, when ye shall read this, think that ye have wronged me!

I go to meet death with joy; if he comes before I have had occasion to
develop all my professional abilities, he will come too soon for me, in
spite of my hard fate, and I should wish that he had delayed his
arrival. But even then I am content, for he will release me from a state
of endless suffering. Come when thou wilt, I shall meet thee with
firmness. Farewell."

"There is a calm for those who weep;
A rest for weary pilgrims found;
And while the mouldering ashes sleep
Low in the ground,
The soul of origin divine,
God's glorious image, freed from day,
In Heaven's eternal sphere shall shine
A star of day."

[_In Questa Tomba Oscura._ Words by Goethe; Music by Beethoven.]

Let us proceed from grave to gay. I have already told you that Beethoven
was a man of ardent feeling, and passionately in love with a young lady,
Madame Von Arnim. I will read to you, one of his love letters, and I
recommend the style to all the unmarried I have the pleasure to
address:--

VIENNA, _August 11th, 1810_.

"DEAREST BETTINE,

"Never was a fairer spring than this year's; this I say and feel, too,
as in it I made your acquaintance. You must, indeed, have yours