eccentric in bis habits, that the world was long inclined to cull him a madman. He was bom on the 17th of December, 1770, at Bonn, on the Rhine, his father occupying the situation of tenor at the electoral chapel. It has, however, been said, that his father was Frederic William II. of Prussia, as if none but a royal descent was adequate to his genius. His faculties developed themselves so early, that his father began to instruct him when he was only five years old, but soon found him above his lessons. Hence he gave him over to Van der Enden, one of the best pianists of that time. Subsequently, Neefe, by orders of the elector Maximilian, became Beethoven's master. He initiated the extraordinary child into the works of Sebastian Bach and Handel, which ever excited his reverence and veneration. At the age of eight (so it is said, at least), he excelled as a violin player; and at thirteen, some of his compositions were printed. But it was improvisation and the fantasia libera, in which he shone most brightly, and which he first exhibited before the learned composer, Junker, at Cologne, pouring forth a superabundance of rich and brilliant ideas. It was in this sort of boundless ramble, as it were, tlial his mind found nourishment and scope. In composition, he continually violated the rules of harmony then received. This caused an opposition that often harassed him, and probably iniured his temper. The talent) which he inowed on the organ, induced his patron, the elector, to send him in1792 to Vienna, to perfect under Haydn his theoretic and practical acquirements. Just in the same way as Corneille had not been able to understand Racine, Uaydn was mistaken in Beethoven, whom he thought "not destined to be a musical composer and when asked his opinion about him, said drily, "he plays well on the piano." Mozart, h…

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