“O God! send your light into beautiful
Nature.”
“Who can express completely the glory
and ecstasy of the woods. O, the sweet
solitude of the forest!”
“Ere long comes the fall. Then may I be like the fruitful tree, which pours
rich store of fruit into our laps! But
in the wintertime of our life, when I shall be gray and tired of life, I wish
that I may have the good fortune to have repose as honorable and good as the
repose of Nature in wintertime.”
“Nature is a magnificent school for
the soul!”
“No man can adore the woods and trees
as I adore them. Nature send back to us
the echo which man desires.”
“In summer, I read Goethe every
day—when I read at all.”
“I am pursued by the kindness of men
which I do not intend to earn, and yet, which really do earn. That a man should humble himself before his
fellow-man pains me; and when I consider myself as part of the Universe, what
am I, and who is He they call the Most High?”
“To me a residence in a town during
the summer is misery.”
“Thus, then, I take leave of you, and
with sadness, too. The fond hope I
brought with me here of being to a certain degree cured now utterly forsakes
me. As autumn leaves fall and wither, so
are my hopes blighted. Almost as I came
I depart. Even the lofty courage that so
often animated me in the lovely days of summer is gone forever. O, Providence! vouchsafe me one day of pure felicity! How long have I been estranged from the glad
echo of true joy! When, O my God, when
shall I again feel it in the temple of Nature and of Man?”
Enjoy The Knight’s performance of the first of movement from Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6 (Pastoral):
THE ETUDE MUSIC MAGAZINE – July 1910
