To: Johann Nepomuk Kanka, Prague
Vienna, Autumn, 1814

Anderson v1 pg473-474 - letter #502


      A thousand thanks, my esteemed K[anka]. At last I have again found someone who stands up for what is right and a man who can think and write without wretched formalities – You can hardly conceive how I am sighing for the end of this business, seeing that in everything relating to my financial affairs it compels me to live in a state of uncertainty – not to mention how it injures me in other respects.  You yourself know that a man’s spirit, the active creative spirit, must not be tied down to the wretched necessities of life.  And this business robs me of many other things conducive to a happy existence. I have been compelled, and still am compelled, to set bounds to my inclination, nay more, to the duty which I had imposed on myself, i.e. to work by means of my art for human beings in distress – I shall not say anything to you about our monarchs and so forth or about our monarchies and so forth, for the papers report everything to you – I much prefer the empire of the mind, and I regard it as the highest of all spiritual and worldly monarchies – Do let me know what you would like me to send you for yourself, that is to say, what my poor musical powers can produce, so that I may provide something for your own musical thoughts or feelings – Don’t you need all the papers relating to the Kinsky affair?  If you do, I will send them to you, for they contain the most important evidence which you too, I fancy, have read at my home – Think of me and remember that you are acting for an unselfish artist in his dealings with a niggardly family.  How ready people are to rob the poor artist of what they owe him in other ways – And Zeus, to whom one used to be able to invite oneself for ambrosia, no longer exists – Lend wings, dear friend, to the slow feet of justice.

       To whatever heights I feel uplifted when in happy moments I find myself raised to my artistic atmosphere, yet the spirits of this earth pull me down again; and among those spirits are to be found these two lawsuits – You also have unpleasant experiences, though indeed in view of the insight and the capabilities which you have acquired, and particularly of your profession, I should not have believed it.  Yet I must again draw your attention to myself.  Thanks to my charming disciples and colleagues I have drunk to the full a cup of bitter sorrow and have already won the crown of martyrdom in art.  – Please think of me every day and when doing so imagine that you are thinking of a whole world; for of course I should be expecting too much to ask you to think of so small an individual as myself –

       With my warmest regard and friendship, your devoted
                                                                                          Beethoven