So open-hearted and straightforward a character as Beethoven
could not have pictured himself with less reserve or greater
truthfulness than he did during his life. Frankness toward
himself, frankness toward others (though sometimes it went to the
extreme of rudeness and ill-breeding) was his motto. The joyous
nature which was his as a lad, and which was not at all averse to
a merry prank now and then, underwent a change when he began to
lose his hearing. The dread of deafness and its consequences drove
him nearly to despair, so that he sometimes contemplated suicide.
Increasing hardness of hearing gradually made him reserved, morose
and gloomy. With the progress of the malady his disposition and
character underwent a decided change,--a fact which may be said to
account for the contradictions in his conduct and utterances. It
made him suspicious, distrustful; in his later years he imagined
himself cheated and deceived in the most trifling matters by
relatives, friends, publishers, servants.

Nevertheless Beethoven's whole soul was filled with a high
idealism which penetrated through the miseries of his daily life;
it was full, too, of a great love toward humanity in general and
his unworthy nephew in particular. Towards his publishers he often
appeared covetous and grasping, seeking to rake and scrape
together all the money possible; but this was only for the purpose
of assuring the future of his nephew. At the same time, in a merry
moment, he would load down his table with all that kitchen and
cellar could provide, for the reflection of his friends. Thus he
oscillated continuously between two extremes; but the power which
swung the pendulum was always the aural malady. He grew peevish
and capricious towards his best friends, rude, even brutal at