d on the occasion of the tragic
death of Prince Kinsky, who had acted so liberally by him in the matter
of the pension. It is probable that the work of writing a Requiem Mass
would have proved congenial to him. He was in the right mood for it on
completion of the Mass in D, and it is rather singular that he did not
undertake it instead of the Symphony. Religious questions were occupying
his mind more and more in these years. It must be admitted that his
religion was as peculiar to himself as was his music. He affiliated with
no church, although baptized as a Catholic, and brought up in that
church; but the frequent appeals to the Divinity in his journals, show
his belief in, and reliance on, a higher power. He formulated his own
religion as did Thoreau. The man who could write, "Socrates and Jesus
were patterns to me" lived a correct life in its essentials. His
asceticism, his unselfishness, the sympathy which he continually showed
for others, his unworldliness,--what else is this but the gist of New
Testament teaching? Like a tree nourished on alien soil, which yet
produces fairer and better fruit than the native ones, and becomes the
parent of a new variety, this man achieved his high development of
character by being a law unto himself like the anchorites of old.

CHAPTER XIV

NINTH SYMPHONY

We stand to-day before the Beethovenian Symphony as before the
landmark of an entirely new period in the history of universal art,
for through it there came into the world a phenomenon not even
remotely approached by anything the art of any age or any people
has to show us.
--WAGNER.

During the period of his work on the Mass, and for some time before,
Beethoven's thoughts were occupied more or less with that stupendous
work, the Ninth Symphony, sketches for which began to appear already in
1813, shortly after his meeting with Goethe. That Beethoven looked up to
Goethe ever after as to a spiritual mentor, studying his works,
absorbing his thought, is plain. In projecting this symphony he may very
well have designed it as a counterpart to Faust, as has been suggested.
Actually begun in 1817, it had to be laid aside before much had been
accomplished on it, in favor of the Mass in D. This gave him plenty of
time to mature his conception of the work; and this ripening process,
covering a period of ten years from its first inception, w