Oh! if you could have witnessed my emotions yesterday when this incident occurred, you would not think that I exaggerate in saying that such a token of your recollection brought tears to my eyes, and made me feel very sad.  Little as I may deserve favor in your eyes, believe me, my dear friend, (let me still call you so,) I have suffered, and still suffer severely from the privation of your friendship.  Never can I forget you and your dear mother.  You were so kind to me that your loss neither can nor will be easily replaced.  I know what I have forfeited, and what you were to me, but in order to fill up this blank I must recur to scenes equally painful for you to hear and for me to detail.

As a slight requital of your kind souvenir, I take the liberty to send you some variations, and a Rondo with violin accompaniment.  I have a great deal to do, or I would long since have transcribed the Sonata I promised you.  It is as yet a mere sketch in manuscript, and to copy it would be a difficult task even for the clever and practised Paraquin [counter-bass in the Electoral orchestra].  You can have the Rondo copied, and return the score.  What I now send is the only one of my works at all suitable for you; besides, as you are going to Kerpen [where an uncle of the family lived], I thought these trifles might cause you pleasure.

Farewell, my friend; for it is impossible for me to give you any other name.  However indifferent I may be to you, believe me, I shall ever continue to revere you and your mother as I have always done.  If I can in any way contribute to the fulfilment of a wish of yours, do not fail to let me know, for I have no other means of testifying my gratitude for past friendship.

I wish you an agreeable journey, and that your dear mother may return entirely restored to health!  Think sometimes of your affectionate friend,

Beethoven.

6.

To Herr Schenk.

June, 1794.

Dear Schenk,[1]—­

I did not know that I was to set off to-day to Eisenstadt.  I should like to have talked to you again.  In the mean time rest assured of my gratitude for your obliging services.  I shall endeavor, so far as it lies in my power, to requite them.  I hope soon to see you, and once more to enjoy the pleasure of your society.  Farewell, and do not entirely forget your

Beethoven.

[Footnote 1:  Schenk, afterwards celebrated as the composer of the “Dorf Barbier,” was for some time Beethoven’s teacher in composition.  This note appears to have been written in June, 1794, and first printed in the “Freischuetz,” No. 183, about 1836, at the time of Schenk’s death, when his connection with Beethoven was mentioned.]

7.

To Dr. Wegeler,—­Vienna.[1]

...  In what an odious light have you exhibited me to myself!  Oh!  I acknowledge it, I do not deserve your friendship.  It was no intentional or deliberate malice that induced me to act towards you as I did, but inexcusable thoughtlessness alone.