Saturday, April 16:
We talk about women. R. says, “When they lose a certain timid modesty, try to be something other than wives and mothers, how unpleasantly stiff they become!” Talk about Easter eggs. R. relates how, when he was in Eisleben, some friends of his uncle sent him a basket of large crows’ eggs with the inscription “Green eggs for Richard Geyer”; their green color gave him a great delight. A letter from Judith, they want to visit us. A “charitable hand,” as R. calls it, has sent us a very ugly article by Heinrich Dorn about Die Meistersinger; wretched, pitiful creatures! A ridiculous, adulatory poem to R., with the request that he write some words under the cipher A. v. T., we see as one of those vulgar traps to which R. is always being exposed because he is regarded, alas, as an operatic composer! On the other hand, the turbulent enthusiasm of the French gives us little pleasure, either. So Schopenhauer is completely right! We read yesterday an article about Sch[openhauer] entitled “Un bouddhiste contemporain” in which the only thing which pleased us was some of Schopenhauer’s own words on the subject of progress. The Jesuits are making approaches to the Jews, amusing account of a conversation between the Pope and the Lehmann brothers! — R. still not quite well. — We burn winter in the form of a bogeyman bearing our Christmas tree on his head—great joy among the children. Marie Bassenheim with us overnight.