We can only reiterate the former statement, music was his one passion,
in this he was supreme. His art had so strong a hold on him that nothing
else could come between. These love affairs were episodes in his social
life. They were as episodical with the ladies concerned, who later,
generally married in their own station, and, let us hope were happy ever
afterward.
The artistic temperament will account for these rhapsodies. Ill health
in this period probably had as much to do with his lessened
productivity as anything else. Schindler states that he had been on bad
terms with his stomach for many years of his Vienna life. Confirmation
of this is to be found in Beethoven's letters in which complaints about
stomach and intestinal troubles are frequently met with in these years.
These gastro-intestinal disturbances which so afflicted him had their
origin in the chronic liver trouble to which he finally succumbed.
In the spring of 1812 he resolved by the advice of his physician to try
the baths of Bohemia, and we find him at Toeplitz, one of many
notabilities, who were spending the summer at this place.
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