The master, deep in the thought of creative work, was, no
doubt, to a great extent unconscious of this sordidness. At all events
he gave no sign. But he contributed very little to the social well-being
of the family. Two aims only seem to have occupied his mind at this
time: the welfare of his nephew, and the carrying to completion of a few
great works already sketched or begun. These included a Tenth Symphony,
(for the Philharmonic Society of London), the Oratorio, The Victory of
the Cross, for the Vienna Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde, music to
Goethe's Faust, which latter he must have been in good mood for,--as
well as an overture on Bach. "I hope yet," he writes from Johann's home,
"to bring some great works into the world, and then like an old child,
to close my earthly career somewhere among good people." He worked with
feverish haste in the latter years of his life, whenever his health
permitted, even abandoning his books in favor of his work. Failing
health prevented him from forcing it ahead as in former years, but he
worked up to the limit of his powers.
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