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Vienna, February 21, 1875
Dear Friend,
Won't you pack your bags around March 15 and come and spend the next semester in cosy, virtuous old Vienna? Truly, it would betoken a strength of mind worthy of immortal praise. But what are you up to, or, better, were you up to before you wrote to me? Seven or more days have elapsed, and all the saints with the Lord at their head would like to know what has happened in the meantime. Tell me, is political economy a form of economics? Two principles, one “sweet” and the other probably not too bitter either. When the A.E. was in its heyday, it, too, recognized but two principles, one “obscure” and the other “lucid,” but it never discussed matters of taste discrimination. I might forgive you if the principles had fallen upon you, like rain upon the cornfield, effortlessly and unexpectedly, but your actions betray intent. It is quite possible that someone should learn four Heine verses by heart for no set purpose, but no one learns a long poem of needless lyrical content by R. Prutz1 without having deliberated at length on the profit that might be derived from it. You seem to be almost like Fritz Marlow in Lindau's “Erfolg,” who also memorized a complete dialogue with quotations in usum delphinarum.2 I expect some clarification of this whole subject and not by word of mouth either, for it will be five months or more before we can meet again. Only in summer does the delight of the principles come into bloom. I remember a so-called rose garden, a feast of dahlias,