Wednesday, August 13:
With the children; bad weather; no visit to the house. In the evening finished the pamphlet, whose conclusion does not satisfy us. R. says: “He should have advised the theologians to study philosophy up to its highest level, from which viewpoint alone one can recognize the value and meaning of religion. The proposal of a vow with restrictions is disagreeable and petty.”
At lunch R. talks about his childhood, how he was thrashed by his father Geyer with the whip he had bought with stolen money, and how his sisters cried outside the door.
My remarks about our friend Nietzsche’s essay bring us to the subject of German style, and R. says that in school one should learn above all to speak properly; then writing would come of its own accord.
Splendid state of affairs in France, where the Orléans and the Bourbons are celebrating their reconciliation with a pilgrimage! R. believes that the masters of the situation are the Bonapartists, who are letting all these absurdities happen in order to bring about the ruin of the one party by the other.