Wednesday, May 31:
Another man from Vienna who offers himself and his resources for the art of the future. The King also writes from Hochkopf, and in a friendly way. Walked to the woods with the children; R. meanwhile forwards his collected works, the Jewish pamphlet is not to be included, that is to say, he sends the list of contents to Fritzsch.
At lunch R. sings a theme by Beethoven, the second in the first movement of the F Minor Sonata, and says, “No one before him or after him has ever given us anything like that; it is sublimity when it becomes pleasurable, when it has been caught and one floats in it.”
During coffee on the terrace R. is enchanted by the sight of a little sailing boat gliding over the lake. “What is a steamboat in comparison? One turns one’s eyes away; our whole modern world is reflected in it. Well, yes, it has its uses, but one cannot expect it to provide motives any more for the painter.”
I write to Marie Schleinitz that I am expecting my father to approach me, but I cannot write to him. In the evening Carlyle’s Frederick the Great.