My great and dear Friend!
Cosima says that you would not come, even if I were to invite you! Well, we should have to endure that as we have had to endure so much else! But I cannot forbear to give you the invitation. And what do I say to you when I speak the word "Come"? You came into my life as the greatest man with whom I was ever privileged to use the confident speech of friendship. Slowly you drifted away from me, perhaps because you never felt as intimate with me as I with you. Instead of your personal presence, the regenerate, essential spiritual "you" came to me and fulfilled my longing for a perfect intimacy. Thus in full perfection you live before me, within me, and we are united as if beyond the grave. You were the first to ennoble me with your love; in it I am now espoused to a second, a higher life, and can do what I could never have achieved alone. So you could be all to me, while I could be little to you. How immeasurably, then, I have the advantage of you!
And so when I say to you, "Come!" I say "Come to yourself!" For here you will find yourself. Blessing and love be upon you, whatever you decide! [...]
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner, Vol. 2, selected and ed. Wilhelm Altmann, trans. M. M. Bozman (J. M. Dent & Sons, 1927), No. 657