Thursday, February 26:
The Emperor’s note shows our good dean to have been wrong; the mood in Prussia seems very determined. R. works. From Hamburg he has received 60 thalers as the result of a concert given for the benefit of Bayreuth by the military band in Hamburg. Still very touching proofs of interest.
Delight in the pictures based on the Nibelungenring, which have been affixed in the hall of our house. R. is delighted for Fidi’s sake; I tell him I wish he, R., had had such things done for him. Fidi’s constant high spirits please him. “That is life’s flowering; it is how the Will shows pleasure; this is what drives it to produce childhood.”
In the evening we read the introduction to the book on Gallicisms; Frederick the Great speaking of M. Ouafiiz amuses us very much, although his deep insight exalts us at the same time. “How terrible, how sad,” says R., “that such a being shows characteristics which are downright grotesque, and which turn him merely into a subject for anecdotes!” “Latin was to Charlemagne what French was to Frederick.” Praising our Emperor, R. says: “It is only as a man of culture that he shows up badly, that is to say, only when he comes into contact with our culture. Otherwise he is truly a hero.”