ve only the beautiful; otherwise I might love myself."

(In 1809, to Baron von Gleichenstein. As for the personal reference it
seems likely that Beethoven referred to Elise Burger, second wife of
the poet G. August Burger, with whom he had got acquainted after she had
been divorced and become an elocutionist.)

200. "Am I not a true friend? Why do you conceal your necessities from
me? No friend of mine must suffer so long as I have anything."

(To Ferdinand Ries, in 1801. Ries's father had been kind to Beethoven on
the death of his mother in 1787.)

201. "I would rather forget what I owe to myself than what I owe to
others."

(To Frau Streicher, in the summer of 1817.)

202. "I never practice revenge. When I must antagonize others I do no
more than is necessary to protect myself against them, or prevent them
from doing further evil."

(To Frau Streicher, in reference to the troubles which his servants gave
him, many of which, no doubt, were due to faults of his own, excusable
in a man in his condition of health.)

203. "Be convinced that mankind, even in your case, will always be
sacred to me."

(To Czapka, Magisterial Councillor, August, 1826, in the matter of his
nephew's attempt at suicide.)

204. "H. is, and always will be, too weak for friendship, and I look
upon him and Y. as mere instruments upon which I play when I feel
like it; but they can never be witnesses of my internal and external
activities, and just as little real participants. I value them according
as they do me service."

(Summer of 1800, to the friend of his youth, Pastor Amenda. H. was
probably the faithful Baron Zmeskall von Domanovecz.)

205. "If it amuses them to talk and write about me in that manner, let
them go on."

(Reported by Schindler as referring to critics who had declared him ripe
for the madhouse.)

206. "To your gentlemen critics I recommend a little more foresight and
shrewdness, particularly in respect of the products of younger authors,
as many a one, who might otherwise make progress, may be frightened off.
So far as I am concerned I am far from thinking myself so perfect as not
to be able to endure faulting; yet at the beginning the clamor of your
critic was so debasing that I could scarcely discuss the matter when I
compared myself with others, but had to remain quiet and think: they do
not understand. I was the more able to remain quiet when I rec