"finger dancing" and "throwing the hands in the air.")

[#79 was skipped in the 1905 edition--error?]



ON HIS OWN WORKS



80. "I haven't a single friend; I must live alone. But well I
know that God is nearer to me than to the others of my art; I
associate with Him without fear, I have always recognized and
understood Him, and I have no fear for my music,--it can meet
no evil fate. Those who understand it must become free from all
the miseries that the others drag with them."

(To Bettina von Arnim. [Bettina's letter to Goethe, May 28,
1810.])

81. "The variations will prove a little difficult to play,
particularly the trills in the coda; but let that not frighten
you. It is so disposed that you need play only the trills,
omitting the other notes because they are also in the violin
part. I would never have written a thing of this kind had I not
often noticed here and there in Vienna a man who after I had
improvised of an evening would write down some of my
peculiarities and make boast of them next day. Foreseeing that
these things would soon appear in print I made up my mind to
anticipate them. Another purpose which I had was to embarrass the