Sunday, March 28:
R. had a restless night, and in poor spirits summons me to dictation. How sad it sounds when he calls this a corvée. We have come to Moscow, and the dreariness of that period is hard to bear. He reads Schopenhauer, and his ideas for his article on the affinities between art and religion are growing ever clearer in his mind.
Visitors, some of whom R. receives himself. To the gentlemen of the Conservatoire, whom the Duke of Bagnara introduces to us, R. recommends the foundation of an opera school; he says that Italian opera still dominates the world and will continue to do so, whereas one can get to know his works only in Germany; consequently it would be a good thing if the Conservatoire were to set up an opera school here in which good ensemble and correct performances would be insisted on; in this way the extravagant demands of singers, both male and female, might be eliminated.
Afterward we joke, R. and I, that he always finds connecting links with education; but I mean it seriously when I remark that he, so bold in his desires, pays no regard to what exists already; and yet, whenever he sees signs of movement, whenever he comes into contact with an existing state of things, he always shows ways and means toward improvement. A lovely spring day.
In the evening Herr Tachard, very noisy about Alsace and Bismarck. He would like Alsace to be neutral and Metz to become a federal garrison, whereupon R. replies with great passion: "I am not in favor of the present state of things, I find it as bad as it can possibly be, and I expect so little from the Germans that, if I were 10 years younger, I should emigrate to America. But when I hear talk of French susceptibilities, how they cannot tolerate our regaining a province which was snatched from us by an arrogant despot at a time when we were shedding our blood for our faith, then I say: the D------ take them all, and the French must be beaten once again." A dismal state of affairs, Moltke is urging war, since everyone is expecting France, its strength restored, to attack us.