s genius and force of character, were the cause of much suffering to
himself and others.

Beethoven in appearance was short and stockily built; his face was not
at all good looking. It is said he was generally meanly dressed and
was homely, but full of nobility, fine feeling and highly cultivated.
The eyes were black and bright, and they dilated, when the composer
was lost in thought, in a way that made him look inspired. A mass of
dark hair surmounted a high broad forehead. He often looked gloomy,
but when he smiled it was with a radiant brightness. His hands were
strong and the fingers short and pressed out with much practise. He
was very particular about hand position when playing. As a conductor
he made many movements, and is said to have crouched below the desk in
soft passages; in Crescendos he would gradually lift himself up
until at the loudest parts he would rise to his full height with arms
extended, even springing into the air, as though he would float in
space.

Beethoven as a teacher, showed none of the impatience and carelessness
that were seen in his personal habits. He insisted on a pupil
repeating the passage carefully a number of times, until it could be
played to his satisfaction. He did not seem to mind a few wrong notes,
but the pupil must not fail to grasp the meaning or put in the right
expression, or his anger would be aroused. The first was an accident,
the other would be a lack of knowledge of feeling.

Beethoven loved nature as much or more than any musician ever did. How
he hailed the spring because he knew the time would soon come when he
could close the door of his lodgings in the hot city, and slip away to
some quiet spot and hold sweet communion with nature. A forest was a
paradise, where he could ramble among the trees and dream. Or he
would select a tree where a forking branch would form a seat near the
ground. He would climb up and sit in it for hours, lost in thought.
Leaning against the trunk of a lime tree, his eyes fixed upon the
network of leaves and branches above him, he sketched the plan of his
oratorio "The Mount of Olives"; also that of his one opera "Fidelio,"
and the third Symphony, known as the "Eroica." He wrote to a friend,
"No man loves the country more than I. Woods, trees and rocks give the
response which man requires. Every tree seems to say 'Holy, holy.'"

Already, as a young man, symptoms of deafness began to appear, and
the fear of becoming a victim of this ma