262.

Zurich, July 8th, 1858.

This affair of T. and X., dearest Franz, has become very significant to me.  It has shown me most clearly and definitely that even amongst the best of friends a certain mode of action may be perverted beyond recognition into its very opposite; and I look with horror upon the cares of this world, where everything is ruled by confusion and error to the verge of madness.  It was absolutely terrible to me to read your charges against T. What I felt is difficult to describe; it was like a longing for death.  About this young T. I recently wrote to you in a very unconventional manner.  Two things make me overlook all his shortcomings, and attach me to him to such a degree that I feel inclined to place much confidence in him.  One of them is his boundless love for you, the absolute abandonment of his impertinence as soon as you are mentioned, his most tender and deep reverence for you; the other, the beautiful warmth and genuine friendship which he shows at every moment for X. In the present case also he defended the latter in a really touching manner, and speaks of him always with enthusiastic praise of his heart and his intellect.  Were it not for these two traits I should not know what to think of this young man, who speaks of God and the world in the most ruthless manner.  Curiously enough, your reproach hit him in this particular point, and when he showed me your letter there was a peculiar desperate question in his glance.  With such experiences the boy will become quickly, almost too quickly, mature.

My words will show you how deeply this matter has affected me; it is one of the thousand things which, when they occur to me, estrange me more and more from this world.

Farewell, and write to me again soon.

Always cordially your

R. W.

263.

I cannot understand in what manner I have caused you grief, but I feel the painful rebound of your wounded heart.  My admonition to T. proceeded from a pure cause.  X. himself knew nothing of it, and T. would have done well if he had kept silence towards you.  “Insinuations” and “diplomacy” are surely out of the question.  I greatly dislike mixing myself up with other people’s affairs, and if I have done so this time, it was certainly not because I was led to it by others (I give you my word, that not a word has been said or written about the whole matter), but merely because it had been imposed upon me as a kind of duty to act as guardian to T., and it appeared only too probable that his conduct had not been very correct.  The young Titan sometimes gives way to an absence of mind and a state of overexcitement, against which those who wish him well should warn him.  His exceptional talent and his genial and prepossessing manner generally incline me towards being overindulgent with him, and I do not deny my genuine love and partiality for this remarkable specimen of a “Liszt of the future,” as T. has been called at Vienna.  But for that very reason I expect him to be a good and steady fellow in all respects.