When the Prince shortly afterwards proceeded to Kissingen, Grunow continued to send him the proofs, as he had received no orders to the contrary. They were not returned, and the printers had therefore to stop work. I, however, received the following long letter from the Chancellor, which was written by an amanuensis on official foolscap, like a State document, the two sheets being tied together with silk thread in the Imperial colours.
“Kissingen, August 3rd, 1883.
“Dear Sir,
“You probably have no adequate conception of the state of my health and of my need of rest or you would doubtless not be the only person who begrudges me the latter, while the Emperor and the Empire and all their officials respect it. Possibly you have also no notion of the difficulties of the work which you expect me to do. On former occasions of a similar kind I have corrected all errors of fact which had arisen through mistakes on your part or on that of others. Now, however, you wish to submit to the public with regard to my way of thinking and my inner man inferences drawn from observations made by yourself and others, which in great part are actually incorrect. (He had then in his hands Chapters II. and III., and a considerable portion of Chapter IV.) It is, therefore, not surprising that your conclusions do not correspond with the facts, so that if you were to publish them I should be forced to controvert and refute them. There are a number of gross errors of fact, and confusions of jest and earnest, in the expressions and incidents upon which you base your view of my supposed way of thinking. You assume that in everything that I have ever said in your presence for the entertainment of my guests at table, or in my own home, or in what you have gathered from the unreliable accounts of third persons, I have invariably given serious expression to my inmost feelings with the conscientiousness of a witness giving evidence on oath before a Court.
“In view of the pedantry with which you utilise scattered fragments of conversation, a man in my position would be obliged never to depart for a moment from a formal mode of expressing himself or step down from his official stilts. Everything you say in particular respecting my attitude towards Christianity and the question of the Jews is not only monstrously indiscreet, but thoroughly false. (Everything?) The jokes about my superstition have already appeared in print, and in so far as there is any truth in them are just mere jokes or consideration for the feelings of other people. I will make one of a dinner party of thirteen as often as you like, and am ready to undertake the most important and delicate business on a Friday.
“At the present moment I am particularly interested in setting public opinion right as to my share in the Catholic question. What you give on the subject is incomplete and superficial, and as soon as my health has improved I should like to supply you with better material. For that purpose it would be necessary that I should see you personally as soon as I have finished my cure. If I were to correct this and other points by correspondence I should have to myself rewrite your book. But I must be left absolutely in peace for the duration of my Kissingen cure, and cannot occupy myself editorially with such difficult and delicate questions as those you touch upon.
“I would suggest to you to recast your book altogether, as in its present form I do not believe it will be favourably received. The work is far too lengthy, and, in particular, it contains too much material published long since by yourself and others. What is new in it is in part of little interest, while other portions are incorrect, so that I should be obliged publicly to dispute their accuracy.
“I shall be very pleased to read the further proofs in order to form an idea of the whole. When I have done that, I can afterwards give you my opinion in Berlin or Friedrichsruh, but while I remain here I must decline every description of critical or editorial work.
“(Signed) v. Bismarck.”
In reply to this communication, I excused myself for having sent the proofs, through my ignorance of his absolute need of rest, and by recalling the fact that, in 1878, I had been permitted to send him such proofs to Kissingen and Gastein. The printing was then postponed for about eight weeks, until the beginning of October. On the 5th of that month I wrote to Friedrichsruh to ask whether it was now agreeable to him to receive me for the purpose of the interview which he had mentioned as desirable in his letter of the 3rd of August. On the 6th of October Count Herbert wrote that his father would be glad to see me as soon as he had read the proofs sent to him in the summer. Owing to his journey and the state of his health he had not been able to do so up to the present.