Dearest Wesendonck,
To-day my long-awaited box came altogether unexpectedly from Venice, which has really put me in good humour, and confirmed my belief that everything agreeable is purely negative; had things followed the usual order with this box, it never would have appeared to me as something special, whereas the whole contents are now as if newly bestowed on me, and in particular my [musical] sketches, which I already had half given up for lost. Now I have a complete library in my salon. So I will take this recovery as a good sign, and hope that many another interrogative in my situation will soon be bearably cleared up as well.
From Germany I hear that there is no hurry for my works; in face of the grand Germanic war, one can scarcely expect folk to trouble much about such-like art-trifles; time enough for that after the war! Yet I could wish that the gentlemen in Italy would come to blows a little less punctiliously; for before the war has begun, it cannot well come to an end, and it doesn't quite suit me to wait over-long. My projected American alliance is therefore becoming doubly valuable to me. Meanwhile I drink mineral-water; it was time to take some active measure against the more and more rebellious basic matters of my earthly shell. For sake of my work I wished to put it off; yet at last I had to intervene: and now hope smiles on me that, with consent obtained from the Lower House, I may effect free motion for the Upper House of my microcosmic private parliament. At present I can only work as if to while away the time, for one can't compound with minerals for ever.
Don't delay in duly carrying out your Lucerne plan, to which I so look forward. May "Pentecost, the lovely feast," soon come for all of us. Fare you right well! Greet big and little children in your house, and think as well as you are able of
Your
R. W.
Source: Richard Wagner's Letters to Wesendonck et al., trans. and indexed by William Ashton Ellis (Grant Richards, 1899), No. 18