"
Again, "It is for his soul's welfare that I am concerned. Wealth can be
achieved, but morality must early in life be inoculated" (_eingeimpft_).
He saw the necessity of religion; that it has been called forth through
the consciousness of utter helplessness in the individual. Man is
encompassed on all sides by inexorable laws, produced and perpetuated by
a power beyond and outside the comprehension. The expression of the
religious sentiment is his effort at propitiation, and is his one
resource. This is the point of view on which Beethoven projected the
grand mass. It is what governed his life.
An inner pressure led him to choose a life of self-abnegation and
rectitude. He saw through and over and beyond the illusions and
allurements of the senses, and so was enabled to live entirely in
harmony with the moral order of the world, in an age, and among a
people, largely given over to the pursuit of pleasure.
A long life is generally considered the best gift which the Fates have
to bestow. In the summary of a man's life it is usually treated of as
implying special virtues in the subject.
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