Alexander Muller soon disappeared from our midst, as he became
more and more engrossed by domestic calamities, bodily
infirmities, and the mechanical drudgery of giving lessons by the
hour. As for the musician Abt, I had never felt particularly
drawn towards him, in spite of his Schwalben, and he too speedily
left us to carve a brilliant career for himself in Brunswick.

In the meantime, however, our Zurich circle was enriched by all
kinds of additions from without, mainly due to the political
shipwrecks. On my return, in January, 1850, I had already found
Adolph Kolatschek, a plain, though not unprepossessing-looking
man, though he was a bit of a bore. He imagined himself born to
be an editor, and had founded a German monthly magazine, which
was to open a field for those who had been outwardly conquered in
the recent movements to continue their fight in the inner realm
of the spirit. I felt almost flattered at being picked out by him
as an author, and being informed that 'a power like mine' ought
not to be absent from a union of spiritual forces such as was to
be established by his enterprise. I had previously sent him from
Paris my treatise on Kunst und Klima; and he now gladly accepted
some fairly long extracts from my still unpublished Oper und
Drama, for which he moreover paid me a handsome fee. This man
made an indelible impression on my mind as the only instance I
have met of a really tactful editor. He once handed me the
manuscript of a review on my Kunstwerk der Zukunft, written by a
certain Herr Palleske, to read, saying that he would not print it
without my express consent, though he did not press me to give
it. It was a superficial article, without any true comprehension
of the subject, and couched in most arrogant terms. I felt that
if it appeared in this particular journal it would certainly