Sunday, October 19:
In church, not enough edification; then on the battlements, where the sun is shining splendidly and I can sit with Malwida while the children play. R. works.
In the afternoon R. shows us pictures of old Roman coins; the picture of Hadrian particularly strikes him. We talked about the splendors of the Roman world and the blessings of a good prince (king); a good king can do more good than a bad one can do evil, hence the advantage of a monarchy. We regarded the heads: what serenity, what nobility, what solicitude is expressed in them!
Went for a walk with R. and Fidi, the other children are tired. No reading in the evening, conversed on various subjects, glanced through Gryphius. At the end of the evening R. played me the Andante from Haydn's Symphony in D, the London Symphony; infinite delight in his masterly art. Haydn, spurred on after Mozart's death by Mozart's genius, became the true predecessor of Beethoven; varied instrumentation, and yet so artistic; everything speaks, everything is inspiration: "All the bold deeds of these modern people mean nothing to me-they are not inventions, just accumulations."