(Diary.)
315. “Go to the devil with your ‘gracious Sir!’ There is only one who
can be called gracious, and that is God.”
(About 1824 or 1825, to Rampel, a copyist, who, apparently, had been
a little too obsequious in his address to Beethoven. [As is customary
among the Viennese to this day. H. E. K.])
316. “What is all this compared with the great Tonemaster above!
above! above! and righteously the Most High, whereas here below all is
mockery,--dwarfs,--and yet Most High!!”
(To Schott, publisher in Mayence, in 1822--the same year in which
Beethoven copied the Egyptian inscription.)
317. “There is no loftier mission than to approach the Divinity nearer
than other men, and to disseminate the divine rays among mankind.”
(August, 1823, to Archduke Rudolph.)
318. “Heaven rules over the destiny of men and monsters (literally,
human and inhuman beings), and so it will guide me, too, to the better
things of life.”
(September 11, 1811, to the poet Elsie von der Recke.)
319. “It’s the same with humanity; here, too (in suffering), he must
show his strength, i.e. endure without knowing or feeling his nullity,
and reach his perfection again for which the Most High wishes to make us
worthy.”
(May 13, 1816, to Countess Erdody, who was suffering from incurable
lameness.)
320. “Religion and thorough-bass are settled things concerning which
there should be no disputing.”
(Reported by Schindler.)
331. “All things flowed clear and pure out of God. Though often darkly
led to evil by passion, I returned, through penance and purification
to the pure fountain,--to God,--and to your art. In this I was never
impelled by selfishness; may it always be so. The trees bend low under
the weight of fruit, the clouds descend when they are filled with
salutary rains, and the benefactors of humanity are not puffed up by
their wealth.”
(Diary, 1815. The first portion seems to be a quotation, but Beethoven
continues after the dash most characteristically in his own words and a
change of person.)
322. “God is immaterial, and for this reason transcends every
conception. Since He is invisible He can have no form. But from what
we observe in His work we may conclude that He is eternal, omnipotent,
omniscient and omnipresent.”
(Copied, with the remark: “From Indian literature” from an unidentified
work, into the Diary of 1816.)
323. “In praise of Thy goodness I must confess that Thou didst try with
all Thy means to draw me to Thee. Sometimes it pleased Thee to let me
feel the heavy hand of Thy displeasure and to humiliate my proud heart
by manifold castigations. Sickness and misfortune didst Thou send upon
me to turn my thoughts to my errantries.--One thing, only, O Father, do
I ask: cease not to labor for my betterment. In whatsoever manner it be,
let me turn to Thee and become fruitful in good works.”
(Copied into the Diary from Sturm’s book, “Observations Concerning the
Works of God in Nature.”)