nd untried
conditions.

As might have been expected, Karl's widow, who was the daughter of a
rich citizen, contested his right to the control of the boy, and began
legal proceedings to obtain possession of him. This was the
advance-guard of a series of troubles that began to close in on him at
this period, ending only with his life. Years of litigation followed,
the issue being at times in favor of one side, then of the other, the
boy meanwhile being in charge of the successful party. The new
responsibility, assumed with scarcely a thought as to consequences, not
only interfered with the bachelor habits of a lifetime, but the mental
disturbance occasioned by the lawsuits which ensued, seriously
interrupted his work, so that for some years very little was
accomplished in the way of new compositions. "The higher a man is,"
said Goethe (Conversations with Eckermann), "the more he is under the
influence of daemons, and he must take heed lest his guiding will counsel
him to a wrong path." Could he have foreseen how this adoption of the
child would interfere with his cherished work, he might have paused to
consider the matter, before binding himself irrevocably by his promise
to his brother.

With never a fixed habitation, no sense of the value of money, giving it
away to those in need as readily as if it had no value, often enduring
privation himself in consequence; with a mode of life so simple that the
entire menage was frequently transported elsewhere on slight
provocation, this ascetic was now to encounter housekeeping problems,
make money, save it (most difficult of all), employ servants, in short
undertake in middle-age and in impaired health, duties the nature of
which he could not even form an estimate.

The plan of adopting the boy might not have been such a visionary one,
could Beethoven have been in entire control from the start. While the
litigation went on, discipline was out of the question. There were
occasional victories for the mother, who then had the boy under her
absolute control until such time as Beethoven was able to get the
decision of the Court reversed. Even when the boy was under the uncle's
charge, the mother managed at times to gain access to him in order to
poison his mind against the uncle. Her influence whenever she was able
to exert it was naturally adverse. That there should be a stronger
affinity between mother and son, than between uncle and nephew is not
surprising. She had had entire