tion for Beethoven's
genius. Beethoven was also on excellent terms with the Count's sisters,
and later became engaged to one of them, the Countess Therese. It is
well known that the Countess Therese exercised a powerful fascination
over him, but so did many another of the gifted Vienna ladies in the
course of his life.

So vast a quantity of work was accomplished by the master during this
summer, that it is likely the proximity of these friends only served to
stimulate his genius. The Appassionata Sonata was worked over, the
Rasoumowsky Quartets were finished, as well as the Fourth Symphony,
besides lesser works, so that he could not have spent much time in
social intercourse. He was in the period of his greatest productivity;
the creative instinct was strong in him and impelled him onward in his
work to the exclusion of other desires. Even friendship had to give way
in great measure to the passion for creating which had become a
necessity of his existence.

That the life was a tranquil and contented one may be inferred by the
character of the Fourth Symphony. Beethoven loved country life, and
surrounded as he was by his friends, whose first thought was for him, he
had everything to make him satisfied. The serenity which speaks to us
through the Fourth Symphony is something for which the world should ever
be grateful. Our highest happiness often comes to us through the frame
of mind superinduced by external influences. This symphony is a song of
joy, ecstatic in its pure exuberance of spirits; again, it is a
benediction that breathes into our minds somewhat of its own spirit of
calm and content. The storm and stress of life is forgotten; all is
holiday humor. We are in the midst of a Shakespearian comedy, with its
alternations of humor and sentiment, its joyous atmosphere, its idyllic
simplicity; the forest of Arden has come to us. It was written to
celebrate his engagement to the Countess Therese. In it he is inspired
by the very genius of happiness. It is as if, having obtained his
heart's desire, he invites us to partake with him the joy that the gods
have provided.

But it is only for once, as if to emphasize the fact that happiness is
not the object of existence and is not even our right primarily. He
gives few instances in which the element of pain or sadness does not
enter to some extent. His works abound in psychological suggestion;
they illustrate every phase of life. The philosophic import of the
Fourth Sy