times in his treatment of them; only in the next moment to
overwhelm them most pathetically with attentions. Till the end of
his life he remained a sufferer from his passionate disposition
over which he gradually obtained control until, at the end, one
could almost speak of a sunny clarification of his nature.

He has heedlessly been accused of having led a dissolute life, of
having been an intemperate drinker. There would be no necessity
of contradicting such a charge even if there were a scintilla of
evidence to support it; a drinker is not necessarily a
dishonorable man, least of all a musician who drinks. But, the
fact of the matter is that it is not true. If once Beethoven wrote
a merry note about merrymaking with friends, let us rejoice that
occasions did sometimes occur, though but rarely, when the heart
of the sufferer was temporarily gladdened.

He was a strict moralist, as is particularly evidenced by the
notes in his journal which have not been made public. In many
things which befell him in his daily life he was as ingenuous as
a child. His personality, on the whole, presented itself in such
a manner as to invite the intellectual and social Philistine to
call him a fool.



160. "I shall print a request in all the newspapers that
henceforth all artists refrain from painting my picture without
my knowledge; I never thought that my own face would bring me
embarrassment."