Friday, June 11:
R. sets out to see Wolfiel in order to seek some clarity at last in the accommodation problem. He receives it, too, namely, that everything will cost more than was at first thought.
In the afternoon an examination of the two girls in arithmetic, during which R. makes the remark that the decimal system really is too rigidly drawn, whereas the duodecimal system is much more natural; the six days of the week with one additional day, the twelve cycles of the moon, these are folk concepts and much more adaptable; the decimal system is more convenient for bankers.
R. at the theater; I write a lot of letters and teach the children. R. walked to the theater, returns not very cheerful; discussion about accommodations, to build and furnish a guesthouse for 600 people would cost 400,000 florins! ...
In the evening Herr Unger, who seems to be gaining courage, and Herr Rubinstein, with whom R. goes through Beethoven’s F-sharp Major and F Minor Sonatas. Conversation about Berlioz’s works; and about the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, into which R. smuggled himself as a boy and met his uncle there, who said of Beethoven: “One thinks one has grasped him, but he always slips away.” R. says it seemed to him that he had never before heard anything like it.