[...] It has startled and concerned me greatly to learn that you are so troubled about Karl. At the same time I was puzzled to know what particular ill you had in mind. He has grown very dear to me and my heart has been perfectly open to him. So, I think, has his to me. He himself could not quite understand how it was he seemed to you unhappy. I think, my dear friend, that you do not judge quite rightly when you suppose that he is seeking something, and that this quest makes him discontented with what he has. Give him time and a little independence. I cannot conceal from myself that he also has married too early. Yet whatever disadvantage arises from that can best be allayed if a little freedom of movement is given him now. He is so noble, so pure, so incapable of any hypocrisy or deceit, that you need expect nothing but good of him if you leave him entirely to himself. I do not think a lonely stay in Switzerland with his wife would be good for either of them, and I advised him to settle with her in Dresden by preference. He is so passionately attached now to Italy and its art treasures that I believe a stay in Rome, etc., would have an uncommonly fortunate and inspiriting effect on him. If he goes there, you may take comfort in the fact that it is partly upon my advice. He is so discreet and modest that he may well be allowed the satisfaction of such noble tastes. Set your mind quite at ease about him. I expect much from his present work and hope it will soon take him back to Germany, where, by opening an entirely fresh career, he will greatly benefit exteriorly and interiorly. [...]
I have a big thing to ask of Emilie, namely to get a copy made of my sketch for Wieland and to send it to Frau Caroline Röckel at Weimar. [...]
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner, Vol. 2, selected and ed. Wilhelm Altmann, trans. M. M. Bozman (J. M. Dent & Sons, 1927), No. 402