17 November 1873 – 23 November 1873

C. speaks of the second part of Faust^ which he has been reading again : ' All this is very inferior to Shakespeare.' We talked of death — I recalled Goethe's conversation with Falk on the day of Wieland's funeral, and how he spoke of the continuance of existence after death as a thing of course, and said some very remarkable things. C. said, ' I have thought little of this, pro or con. I long ago despaired of any response to such an inquiry.' On another day about the same time he said to me, ' Dying of old age is a painful process. Still, this may be called an euthanasia, — and there are flaming glimpses and glories sometimes among the deepening clouds.' One day Carlyle said to me, ' Life's a Dream.' Tennyson (who was in town) said to me the very same words on, I think, the very same day, without any reference having been made to the conversation with C, and while talking on a difi^erent subject. C. has no belief at all in the efficiency of the British Army : ' nobody connected with it has the least knowledge of the art of war. Our officers ought to be sent to Germany to learn something of this, and one or two of our Royal Princes ought to go.'