Thursday 23rd (December 23rd, 1875)

A fine day; R., despite an ugly dream (he hid himself, was detained, taken prisoner), in good spirits — and I also, despite a deep sorrow that seems it will never end! Quietly decorated the Christmas tree at sunset; nuts and apples gleaming in the golden light — a cheerful sadness. How gladly would I bear all, could I but spare others the trial! I do not complain that this has been allotted to me — just is all that we suffer — I lament for others, for someone else! … 

In the evening continued the adorning, while R., chancing upon a volume of the “Correspondence générale de Voltaire” (Volume VIII) in the library, reads us several letters from it, to our great amusement. We recall Goethe and Frederick the Great, how welcome to them this fine, lively, cultivated spirit must have been.