Cosima's Diaries

Diary Entry of February 28, 1880

Overview

With no sitting, the narrator handles letters while R. stays occupied with the biography and an intense interest in the ideas he has found in Gleizes. Their drive to Posilipo is pleasant, but the evening turns testy as R. complains about smoking, decorators, and his lifelong habit of regret.

Content

Saturday, February 28:

No sitting for me today, but letters, R. still occupied with his biography. First drive out with Lusch, on the Posilipo, always a delight. R. quotes to me a statement by Cato which he has found in Gleizes and which greatly enchants him: “I do not like dealing with people whose palates are more sensitive than their hearts.”

When I tell R. that I find it hard to reconcile Schopenhauer’s philosophy with the idea that human beings are made better or worse by what they eat, R. says, “One does not have to assume for a fact that Nature made men evil, but as we see them, they are evil, and this is due to their habit of eating meat.”

In the evening laughing displeasure over attempts at smoking. The decorators he had to call in again to set up the “tent” annoy him. “I regret it! I have spent my whole life regretting.” In the evening H. IV.