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Vienna, September 7, 1877
Querido Berganza,
You will see from the heading of this letter that time is slipping by me unmarked by any special events; I should not have confused
September with August otherwise.1 I worked hard for a time, but then I broke off to read Pickwick instead of botany and tutti quanti. I have read the Macaulay volume2 you left me at least four times, opening it somewhere near the middle and going on till fatigue stopped me. The two essays on Bacon and Temple are quite outstanding. I have no news at all of our friends. Perhaps some of the rings of our circle were drowned in the lake at Gmunden during the last storm, but perhaps not, because the papers carried no such news. I cannot really tell. Only Paneth, who is unsure whether he should go to Vienna or Berlin, has written to me. Lipiner is here, or rather in Baden;3 I have had a fairly long chat with him and, if he gives me the chance, I may well try to become more closely acquainted. I am not at all sure what to make of him; I have neither taken the measure of his intellect nor weighed up his personality. All in all, however, I am not inclined to endorse Wahle's condemnation, but have a very favorable opinion of him. I normally consider Wahle a good observer—personal considerations have perhaps robbed him of his competency in this instance. Anyway, I care no more about Lipiner's opinion of Wahle than about Wahle's opinion of Lipiner, for respect and affection are reciprocated in this case. I am told that Braun is here but have not seen him. This is an example of how old attachments can evaporate.
The war is keeping us in tremendous suspense. Unfortunately no sensible news about the vast scene of carnage has appearing during the past few days. About a week ago a battle was fought at Pelischat,4 and from a comparison of all the reports in the European press it is impossible to tell who was the actual victor and what really happened. Our Turkophile newspapers keep prophesying a Russian catastrop