My esteemed dear Friend!
You are the last person to whom I am writing since my return; for two days I have done nothing but write letters, and have only got round to you late in the evening; so it is with friendship! The friend comes last, because we know with certainty that it is he alone who has patience and forbearance.
We expect in a few days a report as to the success of the Vienna Society, that the favourable news may be used in lending interest to the corner-stone laying—an interest which I intend to increase by an extraordinary musical performance for which I have already taken the preparatory steps.
Under all circumstances my goal remains the same, and the certainty of reaching it is guaranteed by my move to Bayreuth. . . . That, however, which fills me deeply with courage and composure is the fact that I have gained you, my friend! Had I not encountered you on my way to the goal—you, and the characteristics and intellectual traits which you possess—I should possibly have recoiled before the difficulties, and relinquished the idea of absolving my task. And yet there is one thing which stands above all others, and that is the depth of my artistic conviction as it manifests itself in the consciousness of my mission. That now, on the rough pathway mapped out for me by this mission, I find you, my friend,—and moreover, as you are, who you are, and where you are,—I recognise as the fulfilment of a profound decree of fate, and you will have to accept the position and consent to be regarded by me as “eudaemonic”! . . . Some patience will be necessary, but above all things you must have faith and courage. We must wait and see what the next few weeks bring. . . .
In the meantime the entire Triebschen sends greetings to the dear Feustel house in Bayreuth! . . .
Farewell, dear friend! I am happy when I even think of you. Greetings to all friends, above all, your dear ones, and be assured of my genuine gratitude for your friendship.
Yours,
Richard Wagner.
Source: The Story of Bayreuth as Told in the Bayreuth Letters of Richard Wagner, trans. and ed. Caroline V. Kerr (Small, Maynard and Company, 1912), No. 16