Saturday, October 18:
Correspondence between the Pope and the Emperor; the latter’s reply splendid, the first free acknowledgment of Protestantism since Luther, dispatched on Sabbath Day. Discussion with R. concerning the religious situation, how to avoid throwing out the baby with the bath water? “The unfortunate thing,” says R., “is that the naive and beautiful faith of the people has met with a civilized world, and that has corrupted it.”
Our Protestant clergy, under whom the good dean is now suffering so much, are behaving so badly that one must almost believe in the future of a tabula rasa. I am reading a book by Princess W[ittgenstein], which might truly be called the pirouettes and entrechats of scholastic theology (De la nature).
The restlessness of such intellects looks strange in comparison with the wisdom and equanimity of the Nordic heroes. Reflections on the magnificent Roman world, which was great and humane until it came into contact with the Germans; fear then made it treacherous, and attempts were made to effect what the legions could no longer achieve by moral means. A children’s party in honor of Lusch; in the evening, Uhland. R. is working so regularly and so concentratedly that in day-to-day matters he is absent-minded.