of. You will then also find that I infinitely prefer dealing with _one_
person of your description than with a variety of people of the ordinary
stamp.

Pray, let me have an immediate answer, as I am now on the verge of deciding
on the publication of various works. If you consider it worth while, be so
good as to send me a duplicate of the list with which you furnished Herr
Steiner. In the expectation of a speedy reply, I remain, with esteem,

Your obedient

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN.


307.

TO HERREN PETERS & CO.

Vienna, July 26, 1822.

I write merely to say that I agree to give you the Mass and pianoforte
arrangement of it for 1000 florins C.M. You shall receive the above,
written out in score, by the end of July, perhaps a few days sooner or
later. As I am always very much occupied, and have been indisposed for the
last five months, and works to be sent to a distance requiring the most
careful supervision, I must proceed rather more slowly than usual. At all
events, Steiner shall get nothing further from me, as he has just played me
a most Jewish trick; so he is not one of those who might have had the Mass.
The competition for my works is at present very great, for which I thank
the Almighty, as I have hitherto been such a loser. I am the foster-father