Sunday, November 16:
R. is somewhat better, though he is still not allowed out of doors. However, he is having good nights, and today he continues ruling according to his method. The book by Herr v. Weber which he is reading gives him little pleasure, since the intellectual level seems very low - joy in discovering the Kölner Zeitung and the Gartenlaube in Africa, in playing Offenbach quadrilles, etc.!
The postcard from Leipzig [enclosed; see notes] gives R. pleasure, and he says, “If I were to go to Leipzig now, they would certainly harness four donkeys and drive me through the city,” which makes us all laugh heartily. Goethe’s saying about uncongenial and insignificant people [newspaper clipping enclosed; see notes] also pleases us greatly. And we linger long in spirit in Italy; our friends describe Paestum and much else besides, whereupon R. turns to me: “God, how uneducated we are! They already know everything, we nothing at all.” R. talks about Sismondi and stresses his pleasure in his book; talking about one of the many Italian adventurers, he says, “All these people needed was some great territory in order to become a Hannibal or an Alexander.” The history of the various cities reflects Greece in a curious way, he says. He always speaks of Pisa with particular feeling.
After taking his afternoon rest, he collects his two friends for a glass of beer, and after a while he comes to tell me that he has been speaking very passionately, is feeling rather tired, and would like me to go down. I am met by silence and, I think, emotion. Yesterday friend G. remarked to me: if only he could write down all the things he had heard! It had been his views on life, and then he gave a short account of his own life, how his disgust with existing conditions had so taken possession of him that he did not wish to accept the conductor’s position. Later R. also tells me in brief what he said - I know how, too - the fire that is expended, enough to melt whole icebergs, but also to devour the straw and destroy the undergrowth!
{Added on a later page but referred back to this point: “When I come down to supper, I see R. in the hall, Marke and Brange playing the organ.”}
Don Quixote in the evening, somewhat trying since much of it is not designed for being read aloud to women. However, R., with divine calm, continues equably to read, and we put a brave face on it.
(This morning R. received a letter from Herr Gützlaff, a head teacher in Elbing, along with a book containing quotations from Schopenhauer about animals. We are pleased with both.)