Tuesday, March 1:
Letter from Prof. Nietzsche enclosing another from the bookseller Lesimple, who reports that on his instigation (via Prof. N.) the question of R.’s being given the direction of the music festival in Bonn is being eagerly discussed. R. tells me he will accept if I go with him.
Splendid weather, the children in the garden, R. goes for a long walk with Porges, which does him good. In the evening we go through the arrangements of the Beethoven symphonies made for solo piano by my father, then R. asks Porges in the manner of Socrates the meaning of the philosophical expressions with which his essay is unfortunately heavily larded.
Nothing much emerges from P.’s answers, so then R. explains to him how it is that the Holy Grail can be regarded as freedom. Renunciation, repudiation of the will, the oath of chastity separate the Knights of the Grail from the world of appearances. The knight is permitted to break his oath through the condition which he imposes on the woman — for, if a woman could so overcome a natural propensity as not to ask, she would be worthy of admission to the Grail. It is the possibility of this salvation which permits the knight to marry. The Knight of the Grail is sublime and free because he acts, not in his own behalf, but for others. He desires nothing more for himself.
In the evening R. says to me, “Justice reigns in this world, only it is difficult to recognize.”