Tuesday, January 13:
R. had a good night, but he is worried by a possible return of the erysipelas. All the same, he is cheerful and exclaims to Herr v. St., “I am only serious once a week.”
When, toward midday, Herr v. St. talks about the performance of the Euryanthe Overture, R. takes up the subject of tempo and the need in Weber’s overtures to play the allegros with great fire, holding back somewhat the middle theme, which is usually a cantilena; of course, if one overdoes it, he says, one is lost, and that is why he would have liked to have an orchestra, so that he could show how these classical pieces should be played. We have been sent some reminiscences of the first performance of Tannhäuser by Max Weber, all of it untrue. So much for the testimony of contemporaries!
In the evening talk about socialism, arising from a remark by Lassalle about the press; R. remarks how absurd he was to believe that the state could encourage socialism by recognizing the common right to vote; the state implies a guarantee of property, he says. Then our conversation turns to the Moravian Brothers and their way of life, and when Herr v. Stein expresses the opinion that, having shed transcendental faith, philanthropy will one day become even more powerful, R. flies into a rage; it is always the same, he says, people think only of the church and confuse this with Christianity. The true task is to glorify the pure figure of Christ, so that his example provides an outward bond. Humanity runs in two parallel lines, he continues; the one is concerned with nothing but plunder and murder, the other can be regarded as a reaction against that; no figure is more sublimely moving than that of Christ, and all the rest who affect us have been his imitators.
He speaks very agitatedly and without all his usual clarity, and when, as is his habit after speaking at length, he goes out and then returns, he looks very pale, his hands are cold and damp, and he is coughing. He tells me the thought he has written down: “The path from religion to art bad, from art to religion good.” He feels that I will not understand it expressed with such brevity; I do understand it, but worry, and with it the swarm of superstitious ideas which at times slumber in one’s heart like the Furies in the temple are disturbed, creating a condition which is indeed worthy of pity.