Poet and musician were utterly dissimilar; it is not likely that either influenced the other to any appreciable degree.  “It is a great folly,” said Goethe in 1824 (Conversations with Eckermann) “to hope that other men will harmonize with us.  I have never hoped this.  I have always regarded each man as an independent individual, whom I endeavored to study, and to understand with all his peculiarities, but from whom I desired no further sympathy.  In this way have I been enabled to converse with every man, and thus alone is produced the knowledge of various characters, and the dexterity necessary for the conduct of life.”  It was probably in this coldly analytical frame of mind, that the great councillor viewed the composer.  But it was a momentous event to the latter to know Goethe.  He had before this set to music a number of his ballads and had only recently composed the music to his Egmont.  Many years afterward, in 1822, in an interview with Rochlitz who made a pilgrimage from Leipzig to make his acquaintance, he reverts to this time.  “Since the Carlsbad summer when I met Goethe, I read him every day, that is when I do read.  He has killed Klopstock for me, but Goethe he lives and he wants us all to live.  This is why it is so easy to make music to his words.”

CHAPTER IX

OPTIMISTIC TREND

Thus, with what has hitherto been effected, the clue to the
labyrinth of what is yet to be done is given us. 
—­HERDER:  Apotheosis of Humanity.

Beethoven visited quite a number of places during the summer of 1812 in quest of health.  While at Carlsbad he gave a concert in aid of the people of Baden, who had lost heavily through a disastrous fire there, on which occasion he extemporized.  It seems to have been a success financially, but not artistically.  In a letter to the Archduke he cites it as being “a poor concert for the poor.”  “Es war eigentlich ein armes Koncert fuer die Armen.”  This was owing to lack of time for rehearsals, and to the fact that only one other person, Herr Polledro, a violinist of Turin, took part in it.  The concert was given within twelve hours from its inception, because many noteworthy guests were on the point of leaving town, and their presence was desired to insure a good attendance.  The necessity must have been great to induce him to undertake it at all.  His dislike for improvising for others was deep-seated, and was increased by his deafness.

In the fall we find him visiting his brother Johann at Linz, where he made quite a long stay.  It was not alone Johann whom he was visiting; he had good friends there, among them Kapellmeister Gloeggl, whom he saw nearly every day.  At the latter’s request the master composed three equali for trombones for All Souls’ Day, then near at hand.  These equali, as it turned out, were eventually used for Beethoven’s funeral.  The Kapellmeister’s son, then a lad of fourteen, relates an incident of