d not been pointed
out. It is difficult to understand Haydn's conduct in this matter, for
the perfidious treatment suspected by Beethoven is quite at variance
with the ordinarily accepted character of the old man, and I cannot
help fancying that the only foundation for Beethoven's suspicion was
that Haydn did not quite understand the erratic genius of the youth
till some time afterward. Beethoven dedicated his three pianoforte
sonatas, Op. II., to Haydn, and when the latter suggested that he
should add on the title page "Pupil of Haydn," the "Great Mogul"
refused, bluntly saying "that he had never learnt anything from him."
After Haydn, Albrechtsberger and Salieri were for a time his teachers,
but Beethoven got on no better with them, and Albrechtsberger said,
"Have nothing to do with him; he has learnt nothing, and will never do
anything in decent style." Perhaps not in your pedant's style, O great
contrapuntist!

Beethoven cannot be said to have been unfortunate in his friends. He
had many true and faithful ones throughout his life, and though he
suffered from pecuniary troubles, caused by the conduct of his
brothers, he was never in such a state of grinding poverty as some
other artists, such as Schubert, have been--never compelled to waste
precious years of his life in producing "pot-boilers"--working not for
art so much as for mere food and shelter. In 1794 Prince Karl
Lichnowski, who had been a pupil of Mozart, and who, as well as his
wife Christiane, was _fanatico per la musica_, proposed that Beethoven
should come and live at his palace. They had no children; a suite of
rooms was placed at the musician's disposal; no terms were proposed;
the offer was the most delicate and friendly imaginable, and was
accepted by Beethoven in the spirit in which it was made. For ten
years he resided with the Lichnowskis, and these were probably the
years of purest happiness in the great composer's life, although early
in their course the terrible affliction of deafness began to be felt
by him. He at this time freely frequented the salons of the Viennese
nobility, many of whom were accomplished virtuosi themselves, and were
able to appreciate the great genius of the new-comer, rough and
bearish as oftentimes he must have appeared to them--a great contrast
to the courtly Haydn and Salieri, who might be seen sitting side by
side on the sofa in some grandee's music-room, with their swords,
wigs, ruffles, silk stockings, and snuff-b