Wednesday, October 18:
No help, replies which are none; Brandt sends a telegram, saying he was waiting for R.’s reply! And Ottilie writes that she has found the right person for our children, but unfortunately she is already engaged.
R. is very worn out, does not work, but is thinking of it all the time. He has the theme for the Rhinemaidens in the third act, but he says he will have to make an alteration to the text, which he does not like doing.
At lunch I talk about a clothing ceremony I once attended; that brought us on to the subject of religious orders, and R. said they arose from the feeling that the church is a servant of politics and that pious people should seek refuge from it in silent solitude. “Saints,” R. continued, “did in fact exist before Christ, just as the verb came before the noun and the poet before poetry, that is to say, the gift of seeing, of contemplating, before the activity; the ecstasy of a soul, intent on renouncing life, came genetically earlier, and it fashioned for itself the symbol of the sacrificed innocent. All the same, it is foolish to try to analyze such things, which one cannot really grasp.”
Jakob took the little dog to the market, thinking it would then find its way back to its master, but the dog followed him everywhere and returned home with him. We are increasingly struck with his resemblance to Kos and think he may have been his son, since there are no others of this breed in Lucerne. This thought moves and pleases us all very much; we are calling the little stray Vito and hope to keep him.
In Bavaria the minister Lutz has delivered a very strong statement from the Catholic party; this suggests that Bismarck is in earnest. It is reported in many newspapers that the Bayreuth venture is assured. Uncle Eduard does not reply. In the evening read Carlyle.