--how lovely to see my native country again!"

(Diary, 1812-1818.)

18. "A little house here, so small as to yield one's self a little
room,--only a few days in this divine Bruehl,--longing or desire,
emancipation or fulfillment."

(Written in 1816 in Bruehl near Modling among the sketches for the
Scherzo of the pianoforte sonata op. 10.)

[Like many another ejaculatory remark of Beethoven's, it is difficult to
understand. See Appendix. H. E. K.]

19. "When you reach the old ruins, think that Beethoven often paused
there; if you wander through the mysterious fir forests, think that.
Beethoven often poetized, or, as is said, composed there."

(In the fall of 1817, to Mme. Streicher, who was at a cure in Baden.)

20. "Nature is a glorious school for the heart! It is well; I shall be a
scholar in this school and bring an eager heart to her instruction. Here
I shall learn wisdom, the only wisdom that is free from disgust; here I
shall learn to know God and find a foretaste of heaven in His knowledge.
Among these occupations my earthly days shall flow peacefully along
until I am accepted into that world where I shall no longer be a
student, but a knower of wisdom."

(Copied into his diary, in 1818, from Sturm's "Betrachtungen uber die
Werke Gottes in der Natur.")

21. "Soon autumn will be here. Then I wish to be like unto a fruitful
tree which pours rich stores of fruit into our laps! But in the winter
of existence, when I shall be gray and sated with life, I desire for
myself the good fortune that my repose be as honorable and beneficent as
the repose of nature in the winter time."

(Copied from the same work of Sturm's.)

CONCERNING TEXTS

Not even a Beethoven was spared the tormenting question of texts for
composition. It is fortunate for posterity that he did not exhaust his
energies in setting inefficient libretti, that he did not believe that
good music would suffice to command success in spite of bad texts. The
majority of his works belong to the field of purely instrumental music.
Beethoven often gave expression to the belief that words were a less
capable medium of proclamation for feelings than music. Nevertheless
it may be observed that he looked upon an opera, or lyric drama, as the
crowning work of his life. He was in communication with the best poets
of his time concerning opera texts. A letter of his on the subject was
found in the blood-spotte