Gave the elder girls piano lessons, did history with Lusch, wrote to Hemsen, the librarian; the mere mention of my friend’s death oppresses me and bows me down. — In the afternoon a severe thunderstorm, which is kind enough not to last forever, unlike the Wandering Jew. When I tell R. how surprised I am to find that Lusch has forgotten all her history, he tells me that in the third form at school the teacher had asked the children for the causes of the 30 Years’ War; silence everywhere, until he had pleased him greatly with the answer “The princes’ independence from the Emperor.”
At supper R. tries in vain to explain to Richter that only monastic orders, with their vows of poverty and complete renunciation, can help against general misery; R. is always moved by the sight of poor children with bare feet. In the evening the “Nibelungen Kanzlei,” as they are every where called here, being recognized even by the post office. R. makes music with them, the great scene between Wotan and Fricka “in which the joy in living is vanquished” and the following one.
During the night a raging thunderstorm, lightning flashes advance on us like fiery dragons.