Saturday, November 15:
I asked R. last night to repeat to me the thoughts on religion which he had expressed at lunch; this leads him to say jokingly this morning that he will introduce a new religion for me alone. Siegfried’s indisposition causes us to send for the doctor, and when he looks through the exercise book (geometry), he, too, has his doubts, though he does admit that mathematics is a very necessary subject nowadays, even in medicine, with optics, for example, being applied mathematics. “Applied mathematics and denied experience,” says R.
Over coffee he tells us the Goethe verse [newspaper clipping enclosed; see notes], though the way in which it is introduced throws an alarming light on the customs of our own day. In the evening Don Quixote, with a great deal of laughter and untold pleasure in following the all-knowing writer into the smallest of details. Before we go to lunch R. shows me the orchestral sketch of Parsifal and his ruled score; in the former all the instruments have been written in. These preparations provide his final pleasure in his work, he says, for once it is written down, pleasure vanishes - all that is left is piano arrangement, publication, and, worst of all, performance!