234 DOCS.
237,
238
JULY
1916
For
the
rest,
you
know
what
I
mean:
“we
are
sinners,
one
and
all.”
If
a
person
is
held to blame for all his
misdeeds,
and if
that
which
belongs
on
the
other
side of
the
scale
is not
counted
accordingly,
then
surely
we
all
belong
in
hell.
(It may
be
that
I
am
generalizing
too much:
but
I,
for
one,
certainly.).
The
woman’s
sufferings
had left
their
mark
clearly
on
her
appearance
for
a
long
time
already;
she did not let herself
go
either,
but
overburdened herself with too much
work[5]-which
was
only
discovered
by
chance when
an
unexpected
visit
was
paid
there
once.
All
this
does not
mean
to
say,
though,
that
any
pair
of horses could be used in
a
single
team,
and with all due
respect
for
both, they
might
be used
separately.
That
she does not
quite
understand
this
I
can grasp
better than that
you
cannot
understand it.
And
joy
in sheer
existence
(I
hope you
will
[feel
that]
for
long
and
unmixed
I
grant you
with all
my
heart.
May
heaven
preserve
it for
us!
238. To
Michele Besso
[Berlin,] 21
July 1916
Dear Uncle
Toby,[1]
I
am
exceedingly pleased
that the
nasty
matter
seems
to
be
blowing over so
smoothly.
I didn’t
suspect
a
pretense
at
all,
but
surely,
conditions
brought
on
purely by
the
nerves.[2]
Dear
Michele,
we men are
deplorable,
dependent creatures,
this I
admit
gladly
to
anyone.
But
compared
to
these
women, every
one
of
us
is
a
king;
for he
stands
more or
less
on
his
own
two
feet,
not constantly
waiting
for
something
outside
of
himself
to
cling on
to.
They, however, always
wait for
someone
to
come
along
who
will
use
them
as
he
sees
fit. If
this
does
not happen,
they
simply
fall
to
pieces.
As
concerns
my wife,
please
consider
the
following.
She has
a
worry-free
life,
has her
two
fine
boys
with
her,
lives in
a lovely
area,
can use
her
time
freely,
and basks in
the
aura
of abandoned innocence. The
only
thing
she
is
missing
is
someone
to dominate
her!
Now,
is
it
really
so
terrible
in
your
eyes
that
I
fled
from
this
responsibility
after
many
attempts
this
way
and that?[3] Who would
tolerate
having something
which to him has
an
odious
smell stuck in his
nose
his
life
long,
for
no
purpose
at
all,
with
the
secondary obligation
of
putting
on a
friendly
face?
I
gladly acknowledge
that
each
one
of
us
would
go
to
hell,
were
the
Lord
(in
ignoring
His
absolute
responsibility)
to
want to
pass
severe
judgment
on
us.[4]
But
far from
wanting
to
stand
before
the
court
together
with
the
woman,
I make do
with
my
own
defense;
and
this
defense takes
place
only
before
you
and
Zangger;