His letters to Ries are full of the subject of making money. "Waere
ich nicht noch immer der arme Beethoven," he says with unconscious
humor, in one of the letters. "If I could but get to London, what would
I not write for the Philharmonic Society. If it please God to restore my
health, which is already improved, I may yet avail myself of the several
propositions made me, not only from Europe, but even North America, and
thus my finances might again prosper."
His naive reference to this country[D] refers to the offer made him by
the Haendel and Haydn Society of Boston for an oratorio, the text of
which was to be furnished by them. His work on the Ninth Symphony
prevented him from accepting it, but it is something that will always
redound to the credit of the society. That the critical faculty should,
already at that time, have been sufficiently well developed in this
country as to lead to such a commission, augurs well for its future
art-history. While one portion were engaged in subduing the wilderness,
fighting Indians, extending the frontier, others were already reaching
out for the highest and best in art and literature.
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