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January 1, 1896
My dear Wilhelm,
The first leisure time in the New Year belongs to you — to clasp your hand across these few kilometers and to tell you how glad I was to have your recent news from the family room and study. That you have a son — and with him the prospect of other children; as long as the hope for him was still a distant one, I did not want to admit either to you or to myself what you would have missed. Your kind should not die out, my dear friend; the rest of us need people like you too much. How much I owe you: solace, understanding, stimulation in my loneliness, meaning to my life that I gained through you, and finally even health that no one else could have given back to me. It is primarily through your example that intellectually I gained the strength to trust my judgment, even when I am left alone — though not by you — and, like you, to face with lofty humility all the difficulties that the future may bring. For all that, accept my humble thanks! I know that you do not need me as much as I need you, but I also know that I have a secure place in your affection.
Even if you had not said so explicitly, I would have noticed that