“Such incidents brought me to the verge of madness, and little more was wanted to make me put an end to my existence. [Illustration: RELICS OF BEETHOVEN.] “Only my art held me back. Ah, I felt that it was impossible to leave the world before I had accomplished my mission! “Great God, Thou who lookest down upon me, Thou seest my heart and Thou knowest that love and goodwill abide there.” Immediately after this will, the six sacred songs, to words by Gellert (op. 48), were composed. There is something infinitely pathetic in the thought of this great, lonely man, so profoundly ashamed of his bodily infirmity, and so conscious that he was misunderstood by all his fellow-men, turning thus in the hour of his sorest need to the One whom he could trust. The first of the six songs is a Prayer, the last a Song of Repentance. They are all very simple, as such songs should be, and through them the strong, personal note is unmistakable. The quiet life at Heiligenstadt had another beneficial effect upon Beethoven. Both the Pastoral Symphony and the Pastoral Sonate trace the source of their inspiration to the pine forests, the rustic surroundings and Sabbath stillness of this picturesque village. The Symphony of course was a later work, but it was also composed at this, Beethoven’s favourite holiday resort. But ardent lover of Nature though he was, he was not the sort of man who could pass his days in sylvan solitude. He was extremely sociable, even, in his way, extremely domestic. Probably if he had secured the happy home life for which he so often longed, we should have been the losers, for he might truly have said, with Heine— “Out of my great sorrows I make the little songs.” When he made his will at Heiligenstadt he believed himself to be dying. At the close of it came this prayer— “O Providence, let once a day of pure happiness shine upon me!” That prayer was granted, and he found many days of pure happiness by the side of the Countess Therese of Brunswick, the aunt of the faithless Julie. Countess Therese was the right woman for him, and nobody knows why their marriage did not take place. They were certainly betrothed, and Therese’s brother Franz was Beethoven’s most intimate friend. To him the Sonate Appassionata was dedicated, surely the grandest tribute that could be paid to any friendship. It was written during the composer’s visit to the Brunswicks’ estate in Hungary in the summer of 1806, and probably was intended as a message for Therese, which her lover could not trust himself to deliver. Soon after leaving the Brunswicks Beethoven wrote to the Count—