Saturday, March 9:
R. tells me that he once tried to grasp the idea of the “thing in itself” by considering the mountain in Zurich, the Uetli. He went for a walk with an acquaintance, Prof. Eschenburg, and said to him, “There is the Ueth - that is to say, in a certain light and at this or that distance it appears to us to be that, a mountain, but what is it in itself?” His companion replied, “Oh, you are an incorrigible metaphysician,” which amused R. greatly.
The Rivista Europea prints a nice article by Schure about the Bayreuth venture, and in Italy a Wagner subscription fund is now being opened; the periodical itself has started it off with 150 francs. R. works. In the afternoon letters arrive, all very unsatisfactory. Lauterbach, the concertmaster in Dresden, is behaving badly. Betz agrees to sing in the 9th, but says Niemann is feeling offended by R. At such times one is struck by all the misery of life. We go for a walk, R. and I, then I to the dancing lesson. Bismarck’s splendid speech in the Upper Chamber enlivens our evening. Then we read Maria Stuart, during which we are conscious of Schiller’s weakness for too much talk; R. says, for instance, that in the scene with Maria the role of Mortimer is unplayable.