Painting by A. C. Michael.
"The outer world ... once more stands before him as in the Pastoral Symphony: everything is rendered luminous to him by his inner happiness."
Beethoven was, indeed, as has been observed, "precisely like Shakespeare in his bearing towards the formal laws of his art, and in his emancipation from and penetration of them." He stood, as has previously been shown, nearer in point of genius to Shakespeare than to any other man: and verified the truth of Schumann's dictum that "all arts are reducible to one," and are guided by the same fundamental rules.
After a brief but exhilarating ramble in the open air, Beethoven proposed that Neate should return to dinner with him, and after that should—perhaps—receive his first lesson. The young man was overwhelmed at such unexpected kindness and camaraderie as he was receiving from the master, and gratefully accompanied him back to the city.
Before going to the Sailer-stätte, however, Beethoven turned into Steiner's, the music publisher's, which he was in the habit of frequenting about noon-day; where there was "nearly always a little crowd of composers, and a brisk interchange of musical opinion." (Hättenbrenner).
Beethoven was to-day in a genial and expansive frame of mind. Possibly the advent of a young Englishman had struck him as a good omen for the fulfilment of his cherished hopes towards English fame. He held forth at considerable length, upon all manner of subjects, from music to philosophy. "His criticisms were ingenuous, original, full of curious ideas" and boundless imagination. Finally, at the reiterated request of those he most favoured among the younger men, he reluctantly consented to play—to exemplify, as they cunningly put it, the opinions which he had been urging, and the laws he had been laying down.