He used to read the Augsburg newspaper, and he was fond of talking of politics. It was a time of political unrest. Beethoven revered the heroes of Plutarch; the leaders in the American revolution; Napoleon Bonaparte as long as he was First Consul. A bronze statue of Brutus was on his work-table. It is not necessary, then, to add that he was a republican by sentiment. He dreamed of a future when all men should be brothers, and the finale of the Ninth Symphony is the musical expression of the dream and the wish. We have seen his fondness for women. There is no proof however that he was ever under the spell of an unworthy passion. A wife was to him a sacred being; and in an age when unlimited gallantry was regarded as an indispensable characteristic of a polished gentleman, Beethoven was pure in speech and in life. He was even prudish in his desire to find an untainted libretto for his music, and he could not understand how Mozart was willing to accept the text of "Don Giovanni." He was born in the Roman Catholic faith, and just before his death he took the Sacrament; but in his life he was rather a speculative deist. His prayer book was "Thoughts on the works of God in Nature," by Sturm. It was difficult for him to separate God from Nature. Many passages in his letters show his sense of religious duty to man and God, and his trust and his humility. He copied out and kept constantly on his work-table these lines found by Champollion Figeac on an Egyptian temple:
I am that which is,
I am all that is, that has been, and that shall be; no mortal hand has lifted my veil.
He is by himself and it is to him that everything owes existence.
Although his education had been neglected sadly in his youth, he was not without literary culture. He could not write a legible hand;—indeed, he himself described his chirography as "this cursed writing that I cannot alter"; his letters are often awkwardly expressed and incorrect; but they also abound in blunt directness, in personal revelation, and in a rude and overpowering eloquence. In his reading he was first enthusiastic over Klopstock; he soon wearied of the constant longing of that poet for death and abandoned him for Goethe. He was familiar with Schiller and the German poets that were his own contemporaries. His literary idols were Homer, Plutarch, and Shakespeare. He read the latter in the translation by Eschenburg, which he preferred to that by Schlegel; this translation was in his library, and it was thumbed by incessant reading. Schindler says that Plato's "Republic" was "transfused into his flesh and blood." He was an insatiable reader of histories. At the house of Mrs. Von Breuning in Bonn he was guided in a measure by the brother of his hostess. He knew Milton, Swift and other English writers in the translations, and he was kindly disposed thereby toward England and Englishmen. It is not so easy to discover his opinions concerning music from the few works found in his library, nor would it be wise to argue from the chance collection. There was a volume of pieces taken from the compositions of Palestrina, Vittoria, Nanini and other Italians. He had but little of Sebastian Bach, who was then known chiefly as the author of "The Well-tempered Clavichord." He owned a portion of the score of "Don Giovanni" and a few of Mozart's pianoforte sonatas; he preferred, however, the sonatas of Clementi, which he praised extravagantly. He was not ashamed to call himself the pupil of Salieri. He held Gyrowetz and Weigl in sincere esteem. Prejudiced at first against Weber, who had written violent critical articles against him, he changed his opinion after a more careful examination of "Der Freischütz," in which he found "the claw of the devil" side by side with "singular things." "I see what he intends, but in reading certain pages, such as the infernal chase, I cannot help smiling. After all, the effect may be right; it is necessary to hear it; but alas, I can no longer hear!" He was undoubtedly jealous of Rossini; "Fortune gave him a pretty talent and the gift of inventing agreeable melodies"; but he thought him no better than a scene-painter and accused him of a want of learning. Of all composers he appears to have most admired Handel dead and Cherubini, his contemporary. In a letter that was written by him to that great Italian-French composer, who is too much neglected in these restless days, Beethoven assured him that he put his operas above all other works for the stage; that he took a more lively interest in one of his new compositions than in his own; that he honored and loved him; that if it were not for his deafness, he would go to Paris that he might see him; and he begged him to consider him as worthy of ranking in the number of true artists. Of Handel he said, and shortly before his death, "This is the incomparable master, the master of masters. Go to him, and learn how to produce, with few means, effects that are like a thunder-clap."
PEN AND INK SKETCH OF BEETHOVEN
As he appeared on the streets of Vienna; drawn by J.P. Lyser, probably about 1820-25.