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Vienna, Tuesday night
August 28, 1883
My precious girl
I came to my patient today completely at a loss how to find the necessary sympathy and attentiveness for him; I felt so limp and apathetic. But this feeling vanished when he began to complain and I to realize that I have a function and an influence here. I don't think I have ever attended him with greater care, nor made such an impression on him; work really is a blessing. And now I
feel well and calm; I have decided to be severe with myself so as not to fall back into such a state of weakness; the awareness of calm preparedness is surely the finest thing a man can find in himself. It is what the poet described in the lines:
New strength and heart to meet the world incite me,The woe of earth, the bliss of earth, invite me….1
The mood for which an even greater poet found the loftiest expression with the words: