Chapter L: Van Beethoven,

The best _generalissimus_ for the good,
But the devil himself for the bad!

217.

TO STEINER.

The Lieutenant-General is requested to send his _Diabolum_, that I may tell him myself my opinion of the "Battle," which is _printed in the vilest manner_. There is much to be altered.

THE G----S.

218.

TO TOBIAS HASLINGER.

MY GOOD ADJUTANT,--

Best of all little fellows! Do see again about that house, and get it for me. I am very anxious also to procure _the treatise on education_. It is of some importance to me to be able to compare my own opinions on this subject with those of others, and thus still further improve them. As for our juvenile Adjutant, I think I shall soon have hit on the right system for his education. Your

CONTRA FA,

_Manu propria._

219.

TO THE HIGH-BORN HERR HASLINGER, HONORARY MEMBER OF THE HÖFEN GRABENS AND PATER NOSTER GÄSSCHEN.

BEST OF ALL PRINTERS AND ENGRAVERS,--

Be kinder than kind, and throw off a hundred impressions of the accompanying small plate.[1] I will repay you threefold and fourfold. Farewell!

Your

BEETHOVEN.

[Footnote 1: This is possibly the humorous visiting-card that Beethoven sometimes sent to his friends, with the inscription _Wir bleiben die Alten_ ("We are the same as ever"), and on reversing the card, a couple of asses stared them in the face! Frau Eyloff told me of a similar card that her brother Schindler once got from Beethoven on a New Year's day.]

220.

TO BARONESS DOROTHEA VON ERTMANN.[1]

Feb. 23, 1817.

MY DEAR AND VALUED DOROTHEA CECILIA,--

You have no doubt often misjudged me, from my apparently forbidding manner; much of this arose from circumstances, especially in earlier days, when my nature was less understood than at present. You know the manifestations of those self-elected apostles who promote their interests by means very different from those of the true Gospel. I did not wish to be included in that number. Receive now what has been long intended for you,[2] and may it serve as a proof of my admiration of your artistic talent, and likewise of yourself! My not having heard you recently at Cz---- [Czerny's] was owing to indisposition, which at last appears to be giving way to returning health.

I hope soon to hear how you get on at St. Polten [where her husband's regiment was at that time quartered], and whether you still think of your admirer and friend,