For him mere conventionalities had no terrors. When the law of established custom seemed just and sufficient, he observed it. When it did not, he became a law unto himself. He placed the claims of life, right, and truth in a place of supremacy over all other claims. One of his pupils, Ferdinand Ries, once attempted to convince him of the impropriety of certain use he had made of consecutive fifths in one of his compositions. During the discussion Ries called attention to a number of composers who had forbidden their use in the manner under discussion. When Ries had finished, Beethoven replied with spirit, “And they have forbidden them! Well, I allow them.” As has been said, self-reliance was one of the strongest elements in his nature. At one time, Moscheles, the Austrian composer, prepared a piano arrangement of Beethoven’s “Fidelio” and sent it to him with the inscription “With God’s help” written upon it. When it came back to the hand of Moscheles, he found that the master had written upon it the reply, “O man, help thyself.” He possessed of a genial nature and a happy sense of humor. When a music student in Vienna, he had three teachers at the same time, each one of whom was a great name in music. Under one of them, Schuppanzigh, he studied violin. His relations with this instructor were especially pleasant—more so than those which prevailed between him and at least one of the others. As time passed, the teacher revealed an increasing tendency to corpulence, whereupon Beethoven took up the habit of addressing him as “My Lord Falstaff.” A high appreciation of purely personal qualities was a part of Beethoven’s makeup. To him these constituted the only true fortune. He had a brother, Johann, who had become wealthy, and whose worldly success had acted so unfortunately upon his nature that his pride and arrogance had become somewhat unduly swollen. One day this brother called on the composer and did not find him at home. He left a card bearing this inscription, “Johann van Beethoven, Land Proprietor.” Upon returning home and receiving the card, the musician promptly returned it to his brother with the added words, “Ludwig van Beethoven, Brain Proprietor.” On another occasion, a stranger mistook the word Van in his name for the common sign of nobility. When addressed as a nobleman, he revealed his true spirit of democracy by laying his hand first upon his head and then upon his heart and replying that whatever claim to nobility he had lay at those two points.