Apr. 3 –
    To feel once again the sacred dignity of life after a year or more of hideous mocking. Where have I been? Into what horrible abyss have I looked; in what mud have I waded – And now life has assumed once again its tragic dignity, stately joy, and stern seriousness –
    Tho I have played it often I heard Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony tonight for the first time in years-[i]
    (Note: The pessimistic outlook on human life, amounting almost to misanthropy, revealed in the 1919 notebooks, explains the above. (Mar.4,1955[ii]