Saturday, March 19:
Wrote letters (to Düfflipp, to pacify him; to my mother). In the morning R. again speaks about religion. “This need for religion shows that human beings are in fact disposed toward good. What a comforting example, after all, is offered by such a religion as that of Buddha, in which the reward is the gentle heart itself and the punishment the angry heart!” R. reads Lusch the account of the Battle of Thermopylae. I hope the child will retain the impression.
After lunch R. is very despondent; Die Meistersinger so badly presented in Vienna, Lohengrin held up in Brussels, on top of that the unsuccessful Rienzi in Paris and in Munich the bygone Rheingold and the impending Walküre—it is all vexatious, and then our personal affairs still remain unsolved. He says he really ought to insure personally that his things are better performed, and he talks of the possibility of traveling to Berlin. Meanwhile he has sent Betz a telegram, asking him whether he can guarantee that the performance will be a good one.