Saturday, January 4:
Again R. did not have a good night, but there were no alarming episodes, and after breakfast he greets me with the verse “My wife comes from her bath, and life resumes its normal path!” But all day long he does not feel well, and he does no work, reading Plutarch and also the Fliegende Blätter instead. In the evening I read some of Wolzogen’s “German Language” to him, and we mark places where the style does not seem very good.
I do not know why, but late in the evening he says: “Oh, I shall show these gentlemen! I would close all the universities on the spot - and then seek ways and means of enabling significant men to teach.”
R. is somewhat annoyed at the nonarrival of the advance from Mannheim. A few days ago, referring to the release of the King to the theaters, he likened himself to a faithful dog who defended the basket of meat from other dogs for a long while, but in the end, assailed on all sides, fell on it himself and ate it up!