out under the open sky, much
of his best work was done. The famous "Moonlight Sonata" was shaped on
one of these lonely walks by night across the fields when the Master
could shake his shaggy head, lift up his face to the sky, and cry aloud,
all undisturbed. In the recesses of his imagination he saw the sounds.
There are men to whom sounds are invisible symbols of forms and colors.

The law of compensation never rests. Everything conspired to drive
Beethoven in upon his art--it was his refuge and retreat. When love
spurned him, and misunderstandings with kinsmen came, and lawsuits and
poverty added their weight of woe, he fell back upon music, and out
under the stars he listened to the sonatas of God. Next day he wrote
them out as best he could, always regretting that his translations were
not quite perfect. He was ever stung with a noble discontent, and in
times of exaltation there ran in his deaf ears the words, "Arise and get
thee hence, for this is not thy rest!"

And so his work was in a constant ascending scale. Richard Wagner has
acknowledged his indebtedness to Beethoven in several essays, and in
many ways. In fact it is not too much to say that Beethoven was the
spiritual parent of Wagner. From his admiration of Beethoven, Wagner
developed the strong, sturdy, independent quality of his nature that led
to his exile--and his success.

Behold the face of Ludwig Beethoven--is there not something Titanic
about it? What selfness, what will, what resolve, what power! And those
tear-stained eyes--have they not seen sights of which no tongue can
tell, nor tongue make plain?

His life of solitude helped foster the independence of his nature, and
kept his mind clear and free from all the idle gossip of the rabble. He
went his way alone, and played court fool to no titled and alleged
nobility. The democracy of the man is not our least excuse for honoring
him. He was one with the plain people of earth, and the only aristocracy
he acknowledged was the aristocracy of intellect.

In the work done after his fortieth year there is greater freedom, an
ease and an increased strength, with a daring quality which uplifts and
gives you courage. The tragic interest and intense emotionalism are
gone, and you behold a resignation and the success that wins by
yielding. The man is no longer at war with destiny. There is no
struggle.

We pay for everything we receive--nay, all things can be obtained if we
but pay the price. One of t