Saturday, July 26:
R. slept well and again settles down to his work, from which he tells me another very funny remark (about Brahman marriages). The weather is fine, the children are at the Eremitage, R. and I follow them there in the carriage, a lovely evening, intoxicating scent of linden blossoms, delight in the children (“Our only link with the outside world,” says R., who feels he should be paying them much more attention, living with them much more, taking part in their education!).
The photographs after this year’s May Festival please him greatly; he thinks Fidi looks like the Goethe in the small edition (1834). In the evening he reads the final pages of his article to friend Wolzogen and me. He also gives him C. Frantz’s reply to his letter, which is very distressing, in regard both to the circumstances which are now pushing this talented man in the direction of the Catholic party and to his own lack of clarity in philosophical matters, which makes him look like a complete fanatic.