or bad, has often been harmful to me."

(July 23, 1815, to Archduke Rudolph, while excusing himself for
not having visited H.R.H., on the ground that he had been
occupied in noting a musical idea which had occurred to him.)

50. "As is my habit, the pianoforte part of the concerto (op. 19)
was not written out in the score; I have just written it,
wherefore, in order to expedite matters, you receive it in my
not too legible handwriting."

(April 22, 1801, to the publisher Hofmeister, in Leipzig.)

51. "Correspondence, as you know, was never my forte; some of my
best friends have not had a letter from me in years. I live only
in my notes (compositions), and one is scarcely finished when
another is begun. As I am working now I often compose three,
even four, pieces simultaneously."

(Vienna, June 29, 1800, to Wegeler, in Bonn.)

52. "I never write a work continuously, without interruption. I am
always working on several at the same time, taking up one, then
another."

(June 1, 1816, to Medical Inspector Dr. Karl von Bursy, when the
latter asked about an opera (the book by Berge, sent to
Beethoven by Amenda), which was never written.)

53. "I must accustom myself to think out at once the whole, as