Monday, April 21:
Birds twittering in the early hours, then military music and artillery, less enjoyable. Very cordial parting from the Ritters; I hope they will come to Bayreuth. I feel the need to preserve R.'s relationship with all the people to whom he was once close, so that he can find compensation for the sad instability of his previous outward life in the continuity of his inner relationships.
Lovely journey from the valley of the Main, “the cradle of German civilization,” to the valley of the Rhine, “that fanatic expression of Nature.” “But the best of all,” says R., “is that we are journeying through it together; they are insignificant excursions, but what help would it be to us to travel through the length and breadth of Berlin, for example?” I tell him I wish to get to know every little corner of our Franconia and to awaken in our children a love and interest for what is close to them and places. R. agrees with me: “Those are their roots; cut them, and the sap dries up and the tree dies, however lofty its crown. Hankering after distant lands also makes people superficial.”
Disappointment in Darmstadt. Brandt, with his wonderful facial expression, “reserved, but with so much showing through,” was not there, but instead his son, whose superficiality arouses R. to violent denunciations of the negligent Herr Brückwald. In Mainz, M. Maier.
At 7 in the evening in Cologne, with curious emotions. The German flag on a raft, the imperial coinage, arouse in R. feelings of joy that the ancient idea of the German Empire has resisted all destruction and still shines through, however altered in form, making the German structure completely different from any other. Sorrow over the intellectual unproductivity of these splendid lands.
Met by our friends; they reply to R.'s questions about the state of things with enthusiastic phrases, and R. tells me he will converse with them in future as Alexius Commenus conversed with his generals in Walter Scott's novel, those generals who, when he asks them how many soldiers he has, reply, “They are like sand on the shore, like stars in the sky,” whereupon the King impatiently demands figures!