Monday, October 24:
Letter from Prof. Nietzsche, who, now recovered, has returned to Basel; he voices his fears that in the coming days militarism, and above all pietism, will make their pressure felt everywhere. R. very incensed by this thought. “I will tolerate anything,” he exclaims, “police, soldiers, muzzling of the press, restrictions of Parliament, but on no account obscurantism. The only thing human beings can be proud of is the freedom of the spirit, it is the only thing which raises them above animals; to restrict or take away this freedom is worse even than castrating them.”
I write to Frau Schuré, who (contrary to her usual custom) wrote to me in French. We discuss the woeful attitude of these Alsatians, who now want to use force to remain French, which they never were!
It is said that Mme Viardot has lost her whole fortune through the war and must take up singing again. We discuss this lady’s remarkable talent coupled with what is, for us, her weird character; R. attributes it to her Jewishness: “These people do not possess the soul of their gifts.”
The returning foehn affects R. very badly. A bath relieves him. In the evening we read a pamphlet by Prof. Adolph Wagner from Freiburg, many good things about Alsace and Lorraine.