pirations for Y.R.H. If I may venture to add a wish for
myself to the foregoing, it is, that I may daily thrive and prosper more in
Y.R.H.'s good graces. The master will always strive not to be unworthy of
the favor of his illustrious master and pupil.

[K.]

[Footnote 1: Beethoven directed his A major Symphony in the Burgher concert
in the Royal Redoutensaal on the 25th December, 1816.]

208.

TO G. DEL RIO.

... As to his mother, she urgently requested to see Carl in my house. You
have sometimes seen me tempted to place more confidence in her, and my
feelings would lead me to guard against harshness towards her, especially
as it is not in her power to injure Carl. But you may well imagine that to
one usually so independent of others, the annoyances to which I am exposed
through Carl are often utterly insupportable, and above all with regard to
his mother; I am only too glad to hear nothing of her, which is the cause
of my avoiding her name. With respect to Carl, I beg you will enforce the
strictest discipline on him, and if he refuses to obey your orders or to do
his duty, I trust you will at once _punish_ him. Treat him as if he were
your own child rather than a _mere pupil_, for I already told you that
during his father's lifetime he only submitted to the discipline of blows,
which was a bad system; still, such was the fact, and we must not forget
it.

If you do not see much of me, pray ascribe it solely to the little
inclination I have for society, which is sometimes more developed and
sometimes less; and this you might attribute to a change in my feelings,
but it is not so. What is good alone lives in my memory, and not what is
painful. Pray impute therefore solely to these hard times my not more
practically showing my gratitude to you on account of Carl. God, however,
directs all things; so my position may undergo a favorable change, when I
shall hasten to show you how truly I am, with sincere esteem, your grateful
friend,

L. V. BEETHOVEN.

I beg you will read this letter to Carl.

209.

TO G. DEL RIO.

Carl must be at H.B.'s to-day before four o'clock; I must request you
therefore to ask his professor to dismiss him at half-past three o'clock;
if this cannot be managed he must not go into school at all. In the latter
case, I will come myself and fetch him; in the former, I will meet him in
the passage of the University. To avoid all confusion, I beg for an
explicit answer as to what you settl