Weimar, November 6th, 1882
Dear Friendly One [Chere bienveillante],
I am still detained here, partly on account of a stupid indisposition,—nothing serious, but disagreeably prolonged. I make a rule of never bothering my head about my health, and I beg my friends never to trouble about it.
Thank you for sending the 3rd volume of the correspondence of George Sand. The long letter of 20 pages to Mazzini, dated the 23rd May, '52, appears to me to be a chef d'oeuvre of judgment and foresight. In 1852 few political men were placed in a sufficiently elevated position to rule the fluctuations of socialism and to understand its necessary value. Mazzini himself was mistaken in this, as well as in regard to the importance of the acquisition of universal suffrage. Forgive me for wandering off thus into political matters, of which I don't understand anything, and of which it does not concern me to talk. But I will just quote to you a mot which in 1842 was rather widely spread on the sly in Petersburg. A fair lady of my acquaintance told me that the Emperor Nicholas had said to her of me, "As to his hair and his political opinions, they displease me." I begged the same lady to transmit my reply, which was as follows: His Majesty has every right in the world to judge me as seemeth well to him, nevertheless I venture to beg him not to think that I am an idiot. Now it would be idiocy on my part to proclaim political opinions. The Emperor shall know them when he deigns to put 300,000 soldiers at my disposal.—
To return to the letters of George Sand. Those addressed in '52 to Prince Jerome Bonaparte and to Louis Napoleon about the pardoning of several democrats are in exquisite taste; the genius of a great heart appears in them. Allow me to beg for the little account of the books that you have been so kind as to send me, dear Madame Tardieu, and please add to it the price of the subscription to the Bien public. I suppose you only took it for one quarter, and I will not go on with it, not having time to read half the papers which my profession and my tastes would lead me to peruse. Besides this my eyes, without having exactly anything the matter with them, do not any longer adapt themselves either to reading or writing without reprieve; and by evening I often feel extremely tired…
Has the Independance Belge spoken of a most interesting and superb volume,
"The Correspondence and Musical Works of Constantin Huygens" (17th century), published by Jonckbloet and Land, professors at the University of Leyden, magnificently edited by Brill at Leyden?
The work is worthy of notice.
To the kind remarks which the Indpendance has inserted on the concert of the 23rd October with the Liszt programme, [A Liszt- concert in the Weimar theater in celebration of his birthday.] I add the observation that the real title of my "Transcription" of the "Rakoczy March" should be—"Paraphrase symphonique." It has more than double the number of pages of Berlioz's well-known one, and was written before his. From delicacy of feeling for my illustrious friend I delayed the publication of it until after his death; for he had dedicated to me his orchestral version of the Rakoczy, for which, however, one of my previous transcriptions served him, chiefly for the harmonisation, which differs, as is well known, from the rudimentary chords usually employed in the performances of the Tsiganes and other little orchestras on the same lines. Without any vanity I simply intimate the fact, which any musician can verify for himself.
At last I have just written to my most honored and more than obliging collaborator, Mr. Lagye. His excellent French translation of my four Psalms is being engraved. As soon as it is out you shall have it.