Beethoven's Letters.[1]
I.
To Carl Amenda at Wirben in Courland.
My dear, my good Amenda, my heartily beloved friend.
With deep emotion, with mixed pain and pleasure did I receive and read your last letter. To what can I compare your fidelity, your attachment to me. Oh! how pleasant it is that you have always remained so kind to me; yes, I also know that you, of all men, are the most trustworthy. You are no Viennese friend; no, you are one of those such as my native country produces. How often do I wish you were with me, your Beethoven is most unhappy, and at strife with nature and Creator. The latter I have often cursed for exposing His creatures to the smallest chance, so that frequently the richest buds are thereby crushed and destroyed. Only
- ↑ For the Letter, I have been kindly allowed by Messrs. J. M. Dent & Con., to use Mr. J. S. Shedlock's splendid translation in his monumental, "Letters of Ludwig van Beethoven" (3 volumes, 1909), which contain no less than 7,220 documents.
