Tuesday, February 24:
R. had a bad night and feels worn out, just goes for a little walk in the garden, where a flowering cactus gives him pleasure.
In the evening our friends the Joukowskys and a lady from Vienna; the German language allows us to converse congenially. R. talks about sainthood and withdrawal from life, in Schopenhauer’s sense, and in connection with that he plays the Prelude to Parsifal. To conclude the evening he reads to us his favorite scenes between Falstaff, the page, and the Lord Chief Justice, and we remark that it is less the subject than the genius which creates so harmonious a mood; we found little difficulty in passing from the Saviour to Sir John!