The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1865-09-05

Let us, then, be up and doing,
Not content to idly gaze,
For the girls each ones pursuing,
Like the man whose business pays.
The Loves OF Beethoven.
There is prevalent idea that no
man can be q great poet or great
musician withou having been in love.
As fhost men have preference some
time in the course of their lives, there
does not appear to be- any reason why
these should form an exception to the
rnle. The question whether Beetho-
ven was ever in love, has, it seems,
been warmly disputed by his biogra-
piers. Baron Ernoay seems to have
set. the question at rest in q recent
article, published in the Rerue Con-
temporaine, that is, so far as assertion
goes, and if he has not been misI9d by
DR.. Wegeler.
His first love, it seems, WITS Jean
nette d. Honrath, of Cologne. Tie
young lady is described as fair, of an
affectionate character and endearing
manners. She used occasionally to
come to Bonn to visit family there
to whom Beethoven was known, and
this led to his forming an attachment
to her.,
Unfortunately for his peace of mind,
the1ady no sooner received the ad-
dresses Of q captain in the Austrian
service than she discarded her mu-
;sicaladmirer; and yet he was not man
altogether unworthy of being regard
ed with favor by lady from merely
physical point of view in his younger
days. He had not then the stern, un-
attractive. expression Of countenance
which characterizes the portraits taken
of him in middle age. Seyfried, who
knew him well in his youth, says he
was then of the middle height, broad
shouldered and robust very model
of strength.
Add to this that heehad keen, pc
netrating eye, and characteristic
physiognomy, and we have the picture
Of a man who might reasonably ex-
pect that the course of true love would
run smoothly in his case. But those
who remember-and who does not
the pathetic sonata, "Absence and Re-
turn," would be surprised rather than
, otherwise to hear that he had escaped
the ordeal which has purified so many
geniuses of loving we'll, but not
wisely. In point of fact, it appears
that this sonata is connected with o
love passage in his life, which is re-
ferred to in the following letter, writ
ten by him to DR.. Wegeler. In this
letter he refers, in q very'despondent
tone, to the state of his hearing,
which, in spite of all the remedies he
had tried, was getting worse; and he
was then about to seek new doctors.
After describing how hard he was
working, even grudging the time he
was Obliged to devote TO- sleep, to to
complete work that should do him
honor, he says:
''For the last two years I have
lived a solitary life. I dare say am
considered a misanthrope, and yet
>am notanything of the kind. A met
amorphosis has been worked in me by
a dear and most .ravishing girl, whom
I love and who loves me. am in
debted to her for many happy mo-
ments during these two years, and for
the first time in my life feel that
marriage could make me perfectly
happy. Unfortunately our social po-
sition is not the same and
in my situation & really could not
marry shall have much to
go through before that can be-"
Some passages are evidently sup
pressed in this letter; but we can
gather from it that his life was embit-
tered by his malady: and the obstacle
which the aristocratic prejudices of
the Austrians placed in the way of his
marriage, for the lady on whom he
had placed his affections was count
ess: To this circumstance perhaps,
quite as much as to any democratic
convictions, may be attributed the