Thursday, February 10:
R. writes to the conductor Eckert in Berlin; I have advised him to give his support to the production of Die Meistersinger there; perhaps he will even attend it. At lunch he announces that on Eva’s birthday (February 17) Die Meistersinger is to be given its first performance in Vienna, which delights us.
In the afternoon I discuss with him Janus’s book, which I regret having read, since it casts an all-too-dismal light on human history. R. replies: “Burning and torture are no longer possible, but when one hears of people starving to death in London, can one talk of progress? And isn’t any common-or-garden Jesuit right when he asks, ‘What use are all your parliaments and bills and all the rest of your fine institutions, when people are dying of hunger in the streets?’”
He continues: “People are stupid, rather than evil; the fact that they are malicious, that of course comes from the illusion which deceives every individual into thinking that he is everything and the rest of the world nothing. But the fact that, when so good a person as Peabody appears, he achieves nothing with his charity, and knows no better than to give his donations to the aldermen of London to distribute, with the result that people go on dying of starvation—it is that which makes one despair.”
Letter from Prof. Gruppe in Berlin, reporting that the Academy will be very pleased if R. gives a lecture there.
Lunch with the children and afterward games. (Letter from Richter: Lohengrin held up on account of the scenery.)