years afterward he was as badly smitten with Amalie Seebald the singer.
We can only reiterate the former statement, music was his one passion,
in this he was supreme. His art had so strong a hold on him that nothing
else could come between. These love affairs were episodes in his social
life. They were as episodical with the ladies concerned, who later,
generally married in their own station, and, let us hope were happy ever
afterward.

The artistic temperament will account for these rhapsodies. Ill health
in this period probably had as much to do with his lessened
productivity as anything else. Schindler states that he had been on bad
terms with his stomach for many years of his Vienna life. Confirmation
of this is to be found in Beethoven's letters in which complaints about
stomach and intestinal troubles are frequently met with in these years.
These gastro-intestinal disturbances which so afflicted him had their
origin in the chronic liver trouble to which he finally succumbed.

In the spring of 1812 he resolved by the advice of his physician to try
the baths of Bohemia, and we find him at Toeplitz, one of many
notabilities, who were spending the summer at this place. Here he made
the acquaintance of Goethe whom he held in great esteem. It was here
also that he met Amalie Seebald of whom mention has already been made.
She was a fine singer, and a beautiful, amiable woman of considerable
talent. Beethoven wrote the following in her album:

Ludwig van Beethoven
Den Sie wenn Sie wollten
Doch nicht vergessen sollten.

Ludwig van Beethoven
Whom if you would
Forget, you never should.

It may be said in passing, that she was not the last to whom Beethoven
yielded his susceptible heart. It would make a long list were it
arranged chronologically, from the early Bonn days to his forty-fifth
year.

[Illustration: Fac-simile of a letter from Beethoven to Amalie Seebald,
written by Toeplitz; during the summer of 1812. The autograph, from which
the fac-simile is obtained, is in the Lenox Library, New York, and was
photographed for this work by permission of the librarian.]

[Transcriber's note: The letter reads thus (words that I'm not sure
of are marked with asterisks) "Es geht schon liebe A. besser wenn Sie
es anstaendig heissen, allein zu mir zu kommen, so koennen Sie mir eine
grosse Freude machen, ist [a]ber dass Sie dieses unanstaendig finden, so
wissen Sie, wie ich die Frejheit aber Mensche