Monday, September 18:
R. slept well, but Siegfried is still very pale. Our breakfast is cheerful, however, and R. tells us about the book on Buddha which he is now reading and which constantly states that one can know nothing for certain; he says this critical approach to history is fine, but it should not be applied to subjects like this. The news of the floods is dreadful, and R. asks me what I think of God’s intelligence now! — In spite of the rain R. and I go out around midday to look at furniture, and in the afternoon we move into the Vendramin, worried about S.’s pallor! In the evening the singers appear; R. gives them a substantial gift, along with a request never to come again.
Tuesday-Wednesday, September 19-20:
R. had a wretched night with wild dreams; first about Lusch’s engagement, then about two cavaliers who were with me and who behaved scornfully toward R.; when R. turned to them and gave them to understand that he knew the sort of lives they were leading, I, angry about it, saw them asking R. whether he had been speaking with this man or that; R.: “Yes,” then, threatened, calling out, “Police!,” and I, to his relief, also loudly crying, “Police!” along with him. — He has now decided either to find contentment here or, failing that, to return to Wahnfried forever. Over our breakfast together he talks about the book on Buddha and says that by giving much attention to Buddha one learns to understand Christianity, and people were surely now beginning to realize that the greatest heroic power lies in resignation. At lunch, after having taken some opium, he turns to that curious book about Judaism he once read and says that such clairvoyant, pessimistic people achieve some kind of progress, the present-day historians and scientists none at all. A telegram from Glasenapp consenting to R.’s proposal touches us greatly (telegram enclosed; see notes). On the other hand, news of Frau Lucca’s behavior and the King’s plans with regard to Parsifal cause R. great alarm. In the evening Herr v. St. reads us his article about Renan’s M. Aurèle. R. remarks that it is characteristic of Renan to maintain that the Christians, by forbidding usury, held up civilization for several centuries.