Monday, June 2:
R. had a good night. Our conversation turns to the letters; R. is pleased with them, and I always come back to feeling how splendid it is that his character appears so consistent at all periods of his life. As then, he is still expecting socialism to take over, the only difference being that he does not foresee its happening at any particular time.
We then indulge in speculating whether, just as our great men found a way of linking their outlook to the newly discovered ancient Greece, future generations, having devoured our present times, will find a link to our kind of art. I express my hope that every substantial community will have a theater like ours, thus replacing and renewing the Passion plays. In the morning R. reads Carlyle’s The French Revolution with great enjoyment.
After lunch we continue reading the letters in the summerhouse, I truly entranced. We find it almost painful to be interrupted when we are in this mood, and have to listen to reports about Vienna from our friends, the Wolz.'s and the Jagers. Oh, God, how remote it all is! Just as remote as the prospect of R.’s having a success in Paris in ’49! The letters are the finest ones I have ever read.... In the evening we read in them his introduction to Theater Reform, and then we finish Mohammed; we are very moved by the miracle which is a human being, ye have compassion on one another - that is where God begins, says R.