Tuesday, September 27:
Saint Cosmas Day; I tell R. I am curious to see whether my father will send me a telegram as usual.
Fidi still unwell, probably teething. Apart from that I am very embarrassed that my picture has not yet arrived, though I was told three weeks ago that it had been sent off, and Lenbach, to whom I wrote on account of it, has not replied to me at all. Instead, I receive a parcel for the children full of little things which “their father” had bought for them in Venice. Their grandmother forwards these with a letter. Great joy among the children, I am touched that the parcel for Loulou is inscribed August 25, 1870, in Hans’s handwriting.
Visit Mme Stockar-Escher, return home in very fine weather. Very good article by the philosopher Vischer on the Germans and the French, tough home truths. R. says, “A pipe-smoking German like that has character.” On the other hand, insane agitation on behalf of Herr Jakoby in all German newspapers. R. says, “As we well know, Jews have no interest in the formation of a German empire, but, on the contrary, are in favor of cosmopolitanism.” Read Schopenhauer in the evening (“Death and Indestructibility”).