The Case of Wagner
{"WorkMasterId":5796,"WpPageId":271241,"ParentWpPageId":189661,"Slug":"the-case-of-wagner","Url":"https://chrisdeasy.com/theos/humanities/philosophy/philosophers/friedrich-nietzsche/the-case-of-wagner/","RelativeUrl":"theos/humanities/philosophy/philosophers/friedrich-nietzsche/the-case-of-wagner/","HasFullText":true,"RawHtmlLength":390781,"CleanHtmlLength":334671,"Kicker":"Philosophy Work","Title":"The Case of Wagner","Deck":"Nietzsche uses Wagner as a diagnostic case for decadence, theatricality, morality, nationalism, and the health of art and culture.","BackLink":{"Text":"Back to Friedrich Nietzsche","Url":"https://chrisdeasy.com/theos/humanities/philosophy/philosophers/friedrich-nietzsche/"},"AuthorCard":{"Label":"Author","Title":"Friedrich Nietzsche","Url":"https://chrisdeasy.com/theos/humanities/philosophy/philosophers/friedrich-nietzsche/","MediaHref":"","ImageSrc":"https://chrisdeasy.com/wp-content/uploads/friedrich-nietzsche-01-klassik-stoeving-portrait.jpg","ImageAlt":"Friedrich Nietzsche portrait by Hans Olde Stoewing","FilterTerra":"Western Europe","ClickText":"Friedrich Nietzsche","ClickHref":"https://chrisdeasy.com/theos/humanities/philosophy/philosophers/friedrich-nietzsche/","Copies":["1844 CE – 1900 CE","Röcken, Saxony, Prussia","German philosopher of genealogy, perspectivism, tragedy, value creation, nihilism, and the critique of Christianity whose work reshaped modern ethics, aesthetics, psychology, and continental philosophy."]},"ContextCards":[{"Label":"Period","Key":"Period:4","Title":"Modern History","DateText":"1800 CE – 1944 CE","Url":"https://chrisdeasy.com/theos/humanities/philosophy/eras-of-thought/philosophers-of-modern-history/"},{"Label":"Era","Key":"Era:11","Title":"Long 19th Century","DateText":"1870 CE – 1913 CE","Url":"https://chrisdeasy.com/theos/humanities/philosophy/eras-of-thought/philosophers-of-modern-history/philosophers-of-the-long-19th-century/"},{"Label":"Composition","Title":"1888 CE","Url":"","DateText":""}],"DateNote":"Published in 1888 CE; visible polemical music/aesthetics status required.","GeoCards":[{"Label":"Region","Key":"Region:1"},{"Label":"Terra Avita","Key":"TerraAvita:1"},{"Label":"Terra Avita Region","Key":"TerraAvitaRegion:3"},{"Label":"Modern Country","Key":"Country:DEU:1"}],"OriginalTitle":"Der Fall Wagner","Language":"German","DisciplineCards":[{"Label":"Primary Discipline","Key":"Discipline:aesthetics"},{"Label":"Secondary Discipline","Key":"Discipline:ethics"}],"Tradition":"Continental philosophy / Nietzschean critique","FullText":{"Title":"Full Text","Copy":"Public-domain full text from Project Gutenberg eBook #52166 .","Url":"","Label":"","Kicker":"","Cards":[]},"CoreThesis":["Nietzsche uses Wagner as a diagnostic case for decadence, theatricality, morality, nationalism, and the health of art and culture."],"Classification":{"AlternateTitles":"The Case of Wagner: A Musician\u0027s Problem","KeyConcepts":"Friedrich Nietzsche; perspectivism; genealogy; will to power; eternal recurrence; nihilism; value creation; master morality; slave morality; ressentiment; Dionysian; Apollonian; tragedy; death of God; Christianity; ascetic ideal; language; drives; body; science; morality; art; Zarathustra","Methodology":"Genealogy, aphorism, philology, cultural criticism, polemic, psychological diagnosis, literary-philosophical experiment, historical reconstruction, and critique of morality and religion.","Structure":"The page records an approved Nietzsche work with visible date, posthumous, unpublished, aphoristic, revised, embedded, or fragmentary notes where needed."},"Arguments":["Nietzsche uses Wagner as a diagnostic case for decadence, theatricality, morality, nationalism, and the health of art and culture."],"Influence":{"InfluencedBy":"Schopenhauer, Wagner, Heraclitus, Greek tragedy, Presocratic philosophy, Paul Ree, French moralists, philology, and nineteenth-century naturalism.","InfluenceOn":""},"Significance":["Included as one of the direct Nietzsche work pages approved for the Friedrich Nietzsche full-process update.","The work documents Nietzsche\u0027s influence on morality, nihilism, religion critique, aesthetics, language, psychology, genealogy, and continental philosophy."],"EvidenceNote":["Direct Nietzsche work page approved in the Friedrich Nietzsche update. The Will to Power, collected works, correspondence, notebooks, fragments, individual aphorisms, editorial compilations, modern translations, catalog rows, biographies, and scholarship remain evidence/Other Voices."],"MainSections":[{"Kind":"RawSection","Title":"Full Versions","BodyHtml":"\u003cdiv class=\"dz-philo__full-version-grid\"\u003e\n \u003carticle class=\"dz-philo__full-version-card\"\u003e\n \u003cp class=\"dz-philo__full-version-provider\"\u003eProject Gutenberg\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003ch3 class=\"dz-philo__full-version-title\"\u003eProject Gutenberg eBook #52166\u003c/h3\u003e\n \u003cp class=\"dz-philo__full-version-meta\"\u003eHtmlText · Imported\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003ca class=\"dz-philo__full-version-link\" href=\"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/52166\"\u003eOpen full version\u003c/a\u003e\n \u003c/article\u003e\n \u003c/div\u003e"},{"Kind":"TextSection","Title":"Core Thesis","Paragraphs":["Nietzsche uses Wagner as a diagnostic case for decadence, theatricality, morality, nationalism, and the health of art and culture."]},{"Kind":"FieldSection","Title":"Classification","Fields":[{"Label":"Alternate Titles","Value":"The Case of Wagner: A Musician\u0027s Problem"},{"Label":"Key Concepts","Value":"Friedrich Nietzsche; perspectivism; genealogy; will to power; eternal recurrence; nihilism; value creation; master morality; slave morality; ressentiment; Dionysian; Apollonian; tragedy; death of God; Christianity; ascetic ideal; language; drives; body; science; morality; art; Zarathustra"},{"Label":"Methodology","Value":"Genealogy, aphorism, philology, cultural criticism, polemic, psychological diagnosis, literary-philosophical experiment, historical reconstruction, and critique of morality and religion."},{"Label":"Structure","Value":"The page records an approved Nietzsche work with visible date, posthumous, unpublished, aphoristic, revised, embedded, or fragmentary notes where needed."}]},{"Kind":"TextSection","Title":"Arguments","Paragraphs":["Nietzsche uses Wagner as a diagnostic case for decadence, theatricality, morality, nationalism, and the health of art and culture."]},{"Kind":"FieldSection","Title":"Influence","Fields":[{"Label":"Influenced By","Value":"Schopenhauer, Wagner, Heraclitus, Greek tragedy, Presocratic philosophy, Paul Ree, French moralists, philology, and nineteenth-century naturalism."},{"Label":"Influence On","Value":"Heidegger, existentialism, Foucault, Deleuze, post-structuralism, psychoanalysis, literary modernism, genealogy, value theory, and modern continental philosophy."}]},{"Kind":"TextSection","Title":"Significance","Paragraphs":["Included as one of the direct Nietzsche work pages approved for the Friedrich Nietzsche full-process update.","The work documents Nietzsche\u0027s influence on morality, nihilism, religion critique, aesthetics, language, psychology, genealogy, and continental philosophy."]},{"Kind":"TextSection","Title":"Evidence Note","Paragraphs":["Direct Nietzsche work page approved in the Friedrich Nietzsche update. The Will to Power, collected works, correspondence, notebooks, fragments, individual aphorisms, editorial compilations, modern translations, catalog rows, biographies, and scholarship remain evidence/Other Voices."]},{"Kind":"RawSection","Title":"Full Text","BodyHtml":"\u003cp class=\"dz-philo__section-copy dz-philo__full-text-source\"\u003ePublic-domain full text from \u003ca href=\"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/52166\"\u003eProject Gutenberg eBook #52166\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003carticle class=\"dz-philo__full-text-body\"\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"figcenter\" style=\"width: 500px;\"\u003e\r\n\u003cimg alt=\"\" src=\"https://chrisdeasy.com/wp-content/uploads/gutenberg-the-case-of-wagner-cover.png\" width=\"500\" id=\"img_images_cover.png\"\u003e\r\n\u003c/div\u003e\r\n\u003ch1\u003eTHE CASE OF WAGNER\u003c/h1\u003e\r\n\u003ch3\u003eBY\u003c/h3\u003e\r\n\u003ch2\u003eFRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE\u003c/h2\u003e\r\n\u003ch4\u003eI\u003c/h4\u003e\r\n\u003ch4\u003eTHE CASE OF WAGNER\u003c/h4\u003e\r\n\u003ch4\u003eII\u003c/h4\u003e\r\n\u003ch4\u003eNIETZSCHE \u003ci\u003eCONTRA\u003c/i\u003e WAGNER\u003c/h4\u003e\r\n\u003ch4\u003eIII\u003c/h4\u003e\r\n\u003ch4\u003e \u003ci\u003eSELECTED APHORISMS\u003c/i\u003e\u003c/h4\u003e\r\n\u003ch4\u003eTRANSLATED BY ANTHONY M. LUDOVICI\u003c/h4\u003e\r\n\u003ch4\u003eIV\u003c/h4\u003e\r\n\u003ch4\u003eWE PHILOLOGISTS\u003c/h4\u003e\r\n\u003ch4\u003eTRANSLATED BY J. M. KENNEDY\u003c/h4\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"figcenter\" style=\"width: 175px;\"\u003e\r\n\u003cimg alt=\"\" src=\"https://chrisdeasy.com/wp-content/uploads/gutenberg-the-case-of-wagner-ill-niet.jpg\" width=\"175\" id=\"img_images_ill_niet.jpg\"\u003e\r\n\u003c/div\u003e\r\n\u003ch4\u003eThe Complete Works of Friedrich Nietzsche\u003c/h4\u003e\r\n\u003ch5\u003eThe First Complete and Authorised English Translation\u003c/h5\u003e\r\n\u003ch4\u003eEdited by Dr Oscar Levy\u003c/h4\u003e\r\n\u003ch4\u003eVolume Eight\u003c/h4\u003e\r\n\u003ch5\u003eT.N. FOULIS\u003c/h5\u003e\r\n\u003ch5\u003e13 \u0026amp; 15 FREDERICK STREET\u003c/h5\u003e\r\n\u003ch5\u003eEDINBURGH: AND LONDON\u003c/h5\u003e\r\n\u003ch5\u003e1911\u003c/h5\u003e\r\n\u003chr class=\"full\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp style=\"font-size: 0.8em;\"\u003e\r\nCONTENTS\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003ca href=\"#TRANSLATORS_PREFACE\" class=\"pginternal\"\u003eTRANSLATOR\u0027S PREFACE.\u003c/a\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003ca href=\"#PREFACE_TO_THE_THIRD_EDITION1\" class=\"pginternal\"\u003ePREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION\u003c/a\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003ca href=\"#PREFACE\" class=\"pginternal\"\u003eAUTHOR\u0027S PREFACE\u003c/a\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003ca href=\"#THE_CASE_OF_WAGNER\" class=\"pginternal\"\u003eTHE CASE OF WAGNER\u003c/a\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003ca href=\"#NIETZSCHE_CONTRA_WAGNER\" class=\"pginternal\"\u003eNIETZSCHE \u003ci\u003eCONTRA\u003c/i\u003e WAGNER\u003c/a\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003ca href=\"#SELECTED_APHORISMS\" class=\"pginternal\"\u003eSELECTED APHORISMS\u003c/a\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003ca href=\"#TRANSLATORS_INTRODUCTION\" class=\"pginternal\"\u003eTRANSLATOR\u0027S INTRODUCTION TO \"WE PHILOLOGISTS\"\u003c/a\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003ca href=\"#WE_PHILOLOGISTS\" class=\"pginternal\"\u003eWE PHILOLOGISTS\u003c/a\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003chr class=\"chap\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_ix\"\u003e[Pg ix]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003ch4\u003e \u003ca id=\"TRANSLATORS_PREFACE\"\u003eTRANSLATOR\u0027S PREFACE.\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/h4\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eNietzsche wrote the rough draft of \"The Case of Wagner\" in Turin,\r\nduring the month of May 1888; he completed it in Sils Maria towards the\r\nend of June of the same year, and it was published in the following\r\nautumn. \"Nietzsche \u003ci\u003econtra\u003c/i\u003e Wagner\" was written about the middle of\r\nDecember 1888; but, although it was printed and corrected before\r\nthe New Year, it was not published until long afterwards owing to\r\nNietzsche\u0027s complete breakdown in the first days of 1889.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIn reading these two essays we are apt to be deceived, by their\r\nvirulent and forcible tone, into believing that the whole matter is\r\na mere cover for hidden fire,—a mere blind of æsthetic discussion\r\nconcealing a deep and implacable personal feud which demands and will\r\nhave vengeance. In spite of all that has been said to the contrary,\r\nmany people still hold this view of the two little works before us;\r\nand, as the actual facts are not accessible to every one, and rumours\r\nare more easily believed than verified, the error of supposing that\r\nthese pamphlets were dictated by personal animosity, and even by\r\nNietzsche\u0027s envy of Wagner in his glory, seems to be a pretty common\r\none. Another very general error is to suppose that the point at issue\r\nhere is not one concerning music at all, but concerning religion. It\r\nis taken for granted that\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_x\"\u003e[Pg x]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e the aspirations, the particular quality,\r\nthe influence, and the method of an art like music, are matters quite\r\ndistinct from the values and the conditions prevailing in the culture\r\nwith which it is in harmony, and that however many Christian elements\r\nmay be discovered in Wagnerian texts, Nietzsche had no right to raise\r\næsthetic objections because he happened to entertain the extraordinary\r\nview that these Christian elements had also found their way into\r\nWagnerian music.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eTo both of these views there is but one reply:—they are absolutely\r\nfalse.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIn the \"Ecce Homo,\" Nietzsche\u0027s autobiography,—a book which from\r\ncover to cover and line for line is sincerity itself—we learn what\r\nWagner actually meant to Nietzsche. On pages 41, 44, 84, 122, 129, \u0026amp;c.,\r\nwe cannot doubt that Nietzsche is speaking from his heart,—and what\r\ndoes he say? —In impassioned tones he admits his profound indebtedness\r\nto the great musician, his love for him, his gratitude to him,—how\r\nWagner was the only German who had ever been anything to him—how his\r\nfriendship with Wagner constituted the happiest and most valuable\r\nexperience of his life,—how his breach with Wagner almost killed him.\r\nAnd, when we remember, too, that Wagner on his part also declared that\r\nhe was \"alone\" after he had lost \"that man\" (Nietzsche), we begin to\r\nperceive that personal bitterness and animosity are out of the question\r\nhere. We feel we are on a higher plane, and that we must not judge\r\nthese two men as if they were a couple of little business people who\r\nhad had a suburban squabble.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_xi\"\u003e[Pg xi]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eNietzsche declares (\"Ecce Homo,\" p. 24) that he never attacked persons\r\nas persons. If he used a name at all, it was merely as a means to\r\nan end, just as one might use a magnifying glass in order to make a\r\ngeneral, but elusive and intricate fact more clear and more apparent;\r\nand if he used the name of David Strauss, without bitterness or spite\r\n(for he did not even know the man), when he wished to personify\r\nCulture-Philistinism, so, in the same spirit, did he use the name of\r\nWagner, when he wished to personify the general decadence of modern\r\nideas, values, aspirations and Art.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eNietzsche\u0027s ambition, throughout his life, was to regenerate European\r\nculture. In the first period of his relationship with Wagner, he\r\nthought that he had found the man who was prepared to lead in this\r\ndirection. For a long while he regarded his master as the Saviour of\r\nGermany, as the innovator and renovator who was going to arrest the\r\ndecadent current of his time and lead men to a greatness which had died\r\nwith antiquity. And so thoroughly did he understand his duties as a\r\ndisciple, so wholly was he devoted to this cause, that, in spite of all\r\nhis unquestioned gifts and the excellence of his original achievements,\r\nhe was for a long while regarded as a mere \"literary lackey\" in\r\nWagner\u0027s service, in all those circles where the rising musician was\r\nmost disliked.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eGradually, however, as the young Nietzsche developed and began to gain\r\nan independent view of life and humanity, it seemed to him extremely\r\ndoubtful whether Wagner actually was pulling the same way with him.\r\nWhereas, theretofore, he had\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_xii\"\u003e[Pg xii]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e identified Wagner\u0027s ideals with his own,\r\nit now dawned upon him slowly that the regeneration of German culture,\r\nof European culture, and the trans-valuation of values which would be\r\nnecessary for this regeneration, really lay off the track of Wagnerism.\r\nHe saw that he had endowed Wagner with a good deal that was more his\r\nown than Wagner\u0027s. In his love he had transfigured the friend, and the\r\ncomposer of \"Parsifal\" and the man of his imagination were not one. The\r\nfact was realised step by step; disappointment upon disappointment,\r\nrevelation after revelation, ultimately brought it home to him, and\r\nthough his best instincts at first opposed it, the revulsion of feeling\r\nat last became too strong to be scouted, and Nietzsche was plunged into\r\nthe blackest despair. Had he followed his own human inclinations, he\r\nwould probably have remained Wagner\u0027s friend until the end. As it was,\r\nhowever, he remained loyal to his cause, and this meant denouncing his\r\nformer idol.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\"Joyful Wisdom,\" \"Thus Spake Zarathustra,\" \"Beyond Good and Evil,\" \"The\r\nGenealogy of Morals,\" \"The Twilight of the Idols,\" \"The Antichrist\"\r\n—all these books were but so many exhortations to mankind to step\r\naside from the general track now trodden by Europeans. And what\r\nhappened? Wagner began to write some hard things about Nietzsche;\r\nthe world assumed that Nietzsche and Wagner had engaged in a paltry\r\npersonal quarrel in the press, and the whole importance of the real\r\nissue was buried beneath the human, all-too-human interpretations which\r\nwere heaped upon it.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_xiii\"\u003e[Pg xiii]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eNietzsche was a musician of no mean attainments. For a long while, in\r\nhis youth, his superiors had been doubtful whether he should not be\r\neducated for a musical career, so great were his gifts in this art; and\r\nif his mother had not been offered a six-years\u0027 scholarship for her son\r\nat the famous school of Pforta, Nietzsche, the scholar and philologist,\r\nwould probably have been an able composer. When he speaks about music,\r\ntherefore, he knows what he is talking about, and when he refers to\r\nWagner\u0027s music in particular, the simple fact of his long intimacy\r\nwith Wagner during the years at Tribschen, is a sufficient guarantee\r\nof his deep knowledge of the subject. Now Nietzsche was one of the\r\nfirst to recognise that the principles of art are inextricably bound\r\nup with the laws of life, that an æsthetic dogma may therefore promote\r\nor depress all vital force, and that a picture, a symphony, a poem or\r\na statue, is just as capable of being pessimistic, anarchic, Christian\r\nor revolutionary, as a philosophy or a science is. To speak of a\r\ncertain class of music as being compatible with the decline of culture,\r\ntherefore, was to Nietzsche a perfectly warrantable association of\r\nideas, and that is why, throughout his philosophy, so much stress is\r\nlaid upon æsthetic considerations.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eBut if in England and America Nietzsche\u0027s attack on Wagner\u0027s art may\r\nstill seem a little incomprehensible, let it be remembered that the\r\nContinent has long known that Nietzsche was actually in the right Every\r\nyear thousands are now added to the large party abroad who have ceased\r\nfrom believing in the great musical revolutionary of\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_xiv\"\u003e[Pg xiv]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e the seventies;\r\nthat he was one with the French Romanticists and rebels has long since\r\nbeen acknowledged a fact in select circles, both in France and Germany,\r\nand if we still have Wagner with us in England, if we still consider\r\nNietzsche as a heretic, when he declares that \"Wagner was a musician\r\nfor unmusical people,\" it is only because we are more removed than we\r\nimagine, from all the great movements, intellectual and otherwise,\r\nwhich take place on the Continent.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIn Wagner\u0027s music, in his doctrine, in his whole concept of art,\r\nNietzsche saw the confirmation, the promotion—aye, even the\r\nencouragement, of that decadence and degeneration which is now rampant\r\nin Europe; and it is for this reason, although to the end of his life\r\nhe still loved Wagner, the man and the friend, that we find him, on\r\nthe very eve of his spiritual death, exhorting us to abjure Wagner the\r\nmusician and the artist.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp style=\"margin-left: 70%; font-size: 0.8em;\"\u003eANTHONY M. LUDOVICI.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003chr class=\"chap\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_xv\"\u003e[Pg xv]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003ch4\u003e \u003ca id=\"PREFACE_TO_THE_THIRD_EDITION1\"\u003ePREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION\u003c/a\u003e\u003ca id=\"FNanchor_1_1\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003ca class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_1_1\"\u003e[1]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/h4\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIn spite of the adverse criticism with which the above preface has met\r\nat the hands of many reviewers since the summer of last year, I cannot\r\nsay that I should feel justified, even after mature consideration, in\r\naltering a single word or sentence it contains. If I felt inclined\r\nto make any changes at all, these would take the form of extensive\r\nadditions, tending to confirm rather than to modify the general\r\nargument it advances; but, any omissions of which I may have been\r\nguilty in the first place, have been so fully rectified since, thanks\r\nto the publication of the English translations of Daniel Halévy\u0027s and\r\nHenri Lichtenberger\u0027s works, \"The Life of Friedrich Nietzsche,\"\u003ca id=\"FNanchor_2_2\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003ca class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_2_2\"\u003e[2]\u003c/a\u003e and\r\n\"The Gospel of Superman,\"\u003ca id=\"FNanchor_3_3\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003ca class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_3_3\"\u003e[3]\u003c/a\u003e respectively, that, were it not for the\r\nfact that the truth about this matter cannot be repeated too often, I\r\nshould have refrained altogether from including any fresh remarks of my\r\nown in this Third Edition.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIn the works just referred to (pp. 129 \u003ci\u003eet seq.\u003c/i\u003e in Halévy\u0027s book, and\r\npp. 78 \u003ci\u003eet seq.\u003c/i\u003e in Lichtenberger\u0027s\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_xvi\"\u003e[Pg xvi]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e book), the statement I made in my\r\npreface to \"Thoughts out of Season,\" vol. i., and which I did not think\r\nit necessary to repeat in my first preface to these pamphlets, will be\r\nfound to receive the fullest confirmation.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe statement in question was to the effect that many long years before\r\nthese pamphlets were even projected, Nietzsche\u0027s apparent \u003ci\u003evolte-face\u003c/i\u003e\r\nin regard to his hero Wagner had been not only foreshadowed, but\r\nactually stated in plain words, in two works written during his\r\nfriendship with Wagner,—the works referred to being \"The Birth of\r\nTragedy\" (1872), and \"Wagner in Bayreuth\" (1875) of which Houston\r\nStuart Chamberlain declares not only that it possesses \"undying\r\nclassical worth\" but that \"a perusal of it is indispensable to all who\r\nwish to follow the question [of Wagner] to its roots.\"\u003ca id=\"FNanchor_4_4\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003ca class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_4_4\"\u003e[4]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe idea that runs through the present work like a leitmotif—the idea\r\nthat Wagner was at bottom more of a mime than a musician—was so far\r\nan ever present thought with Nietzsche that it is even impossible to\r\nascertain the period when it was first formulated.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIn Nietzsche\u0027s wonderful autobiography (\u003ci\u003eEcce Homo,\u003c/i\u003e p. 88), in\r\nthe section dealing with the early works just mentioned, we find\r\nthe following passage: \"In the second of the two essays [Wagner\r\nin Bayreuth] with a profound certainty of instinct, I already\r\ncharacterised the elementary factor in Wagner\u0027s nature as a\r\ntheatrical talent which, in all his means and aspirations, draws\r\nits final conclusions.\"\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_xvii\"\u003e[Pg xvii]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e And as early as 1874, Nietzsche wrote in\r\nhis diary:—\"Wagner is a born actor. Just as Goethe was an abortive\r\npainter, and Schiller an abortive orator, so Wagner was an abortive\r\ntheatrical genius. His attitude to music is that of the actor; for he\r\nknows how to sing and speak, as it were out of different souls and from\r\nabsolutely different worlds (\u003ci\u003eTristan\u003c/i\u003e and the \u003ci\u003eMeistersinger\u003c/i\u003e)\".\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThere is, however, no need to multiply examples, seeing, as I have\r\nsaid, that in the translations of Halévy\u0027s and Lichtenberger\u0027s\r\nbooks the reader will find all the independent evidence he could\r\npossibly desire, disproving the popular, and even the learned belief\r\nthat, in the two pamphlets before us we have a complete, apparently\r\nunaccountable, and therefore \"demented\" \u003ci\u003evolte-face\u003c/i\u003e on Nietzsche\u0027s\r\npart. Nevertheless, for fear lest some doubt should still linger in\r\ncertain minds concerning this point, and with the view of adding\r\ninterest to these essays, the Editor considered it advisable, in the\r\nSecond Edition, to add a number of extracts from Nietzsche\u0027s diary of\r\nthe year 1878 (ten years before \"The Case of Wagner,\" and \"Nietzsche\r\n\u003ci\u003econtra\u003c/i\u003e Wagner\" were written) in order to show to what extent those\r\nlearned critics who complain of Nietzsche\u0027s \"morbid and uncontrollable\r\nrecantations and revulsions of feeling,\" have overlooked even the plain\r\nfacts of the case when forming their all-too-hasty conclusions. These\r\nextracts will be found at the end of \"Nietzsche \u003ci\u003econtra\u003c/i\u003e Wagner.\" While\r\nreading them, however, it should not be forgotten that they were never\r\nintended for publication by Nietzsche himself—a fact which accounts\r\nfor their unpolished and sketchy form—and\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_xviii\"\u003e[Pg xviii]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e that they were first\r\npublished in vol. xi. of the first German Library Edition (pp. 99-129)\r\nonly when he was a helpless invalid, in 1897. Since then, in 1901 and\r\n1906 respectively, they have been reprinted, once in the large German\r\nLibrary Edition (vol. xi. pp. 181-202), and once in the German Pocket\r\nEdition, as an appendix to \"Human-All-too-Human,\" Part II.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eAn altogether special interest now attaches to these pamphlets; for, in\r\nthe first place we are at last in possession of Wagner\u0027s own account\r\nof his development, his art, his aspirations and his struggles, in the\r\namazing self-revelation entitled \u003ci\u003eMy Life\u003c/i\u003e\u003ca id=\"FNanchor_5_5\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003ca class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_5_5\"\u003e[5]\u003c/a\u003e; and secondly, we now\r\nhave \u003ci\u003eEcce Homo,\u003c/i\u003e Nietzsche\u0027s autobiography, in which we learn for the\r\nfirst time from Nietzsche\u0027s own pen to what extent his history was that\r\nof a double devotion—to Wagner on the one hand, and to his own life\r\ntask, the Transvaluation of all Values, on the other.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eReaders interested in the Nietzsche-Wagner controversy will naturally\r\nlook to these books for a final solution of all the difficulties which\r\nthe problem presents. But let them not be too sanguine. From first\r\nto last this problem is not to be settled by \"facts.\" A good deal of\r\ninstinctive choice, instinctive aversion, and instinctive suspicion\r\nare necessary here. A little more suspicion, for instance, ought\r\nto be applied to Wagner\u0027s \u003ci\u003eMy Life,\u003c/i\u003e especially in England, where\r\ncritics are not half suspicious enough about a continental artist\u0027s\r\nself-revelations, and are too prone, if they have suspicions at all, to\r\napply them in the wrong place.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_xix\"\u003e[Pg xix]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eAn example of this want of \u003ci\u003efinesse\u003c/i\u003e in judging foreign writers is to\r\nbe found in Lord Morley\u0027s work on Rousseau,—a book which ingenuously\r\ntakes for granted everything that a writer like Rousseau cares to say\r\nabout himself, without considering for an instant the possibility that\r\nRousseau might have practised some hypocrisy. In regard to Wagner\u0027s\r\nlife we might easily fall into the same error—that is to say, we might\r\ntake seriously all he says concerning himself and his family affairs.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eWe should beware of this, and should not even believe Wagner when he\r\nspeaks badly about himself. No one speaks badly about himself without\r\na reason, and the question in this case is to find out the reason. Did\r\nWagner—in the belief that genius was always immoral—wish to pose as\r\nan immoral Egotist, in order to make us believe in his genius, of which\r\nhe himself was none too sure in his innermost heart? Did Wagner wish to\r\nappear \"sincere\" in his biography, in order to awaken in us a belief in\r\nthe sincerity of his music, which he likewise doubted, but wished to\r\nimpress upon the world as \"true\"? Or did he wish to be thought badly\r\nof in connection with things that were not true, and that consequently\r\ndid not affect him, in order to lead us off the scent of true things,\r\nthings he was ashamed of and which he wished the world to ignore—just\r\nlike Rousseau (the similarity between the two is more than a\r\nsuperficial one) who barbarously pretended to have sent his children to\r\nthe foundling hospital, in order not to be thought incapable of having\r\nhad any children at all? In short, where is the bluff in Wagner\u0027s\r\nbiography? Let us therefore\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_xx\"\u003e[Pg xx]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e be careful about it, and all the more so\r\nbecause Wagner himself guarantees the truth of it in the prefatory\r\nnote. If we were to be credulous here, we should moreover be acting in\r\ndirect opposition to Nietzsche\u0027s own counsel as given in the following\r\naphorisms (Nos. 19 and 20, \u003ca href=\"#Page_89\" class=\"pginternal\"\u003ep. 89\u003c/a\u003e):—\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\"It is very difficult to trace the course of Wagner\u0027s development,—no\r\ntrust must be placed in his own description of his soul\u0027s experiences.\r\nHe writes party-pamphlets for his followers.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\"It is extremely doubtful whether Wagner is able to bear witness about\r\nhimself.\"\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eWhile on \u003ca href=\"#Page_37\" class=\"pginternal\"\u003ep. 37\u003c/a\u003e (the note), we read:—\"He [Wagner] was not proud enough\r\nto be able to suffer the truth about himself. Nobody had less pride\r\nthan he. Like Victor Hugo he remained true to himself even in his\r\nbiography,—he remained an actor.\"\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eHowever, as a famous English judge has said:— \"Truth will come out,\r\neven in the witness box,\" and, as we may add in this case, even in\r\nan autobiography. There is one statement in Wagner\u0027s \u003ci\u003eMy Life\u003c/i\u003e which\r\nsounds true to my ears at least-a statement which, in my opinion,\r\nhas some importance, and to which Wagner himself seems to grant a\r\nmysterious significance. I refer to the passage on p. 93 of vol.\r\ni., in which Wagner says:—\"Owing to the exceptional vivacity and\r\ninnate susceptibility of my nature … I gradually became conscious\r\nof a certain power of transporting or bewildering my more indolent\r\ncompanions.\"\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThis seems innocent enough. When, however, it is read in conjunction\r\nwith Nietzsche\u0027s trenchant\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_xxi\"\u003e[Pg xxi]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e criticism, particularly on pp. \u003ca href=\"#Page_14\" class=\"pginternal\"\u003e14\u003c/a\u003e, \u003ca href=\"#Page_15\" class=\"pginternal\"\u003e15\u003c/a\u003e, \u003ca href=\"#Page_16\" class=\"pginternal\"\u003e16\u003c/a\u003e,\r\n\u003ca href=\"#Page_17\" class=\"pginternal\"\u003e17\u003c/a\u003e and \u003ca href=\"#Page_18\" class=\"pginternal\"\u003e18\u003c/a\u003e of this work, and also with a knowledge of Wagner\u0027s music, it\r\nbecomes one of the most striking passages in Wagner\u0027s autobiography;\r\nfor it records how soon he became conscious of his dominant instinct\r\nand faculty.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eI know perfectly well that the Wagnerites will not be influenced by\r\nthese remarks. Their gratitude to Wagner is too great for this. He has\r\nsupplied the precious varnish wherewith to hide the dull ugliness of\r\nour civilisation. He has given to souls despairing over the materialism\r\nof this world, to souls despairing of themselves, and longing to be\r\nrid of themselves, the indispensable hashish and morphia wherewith to\r\ndeaden their inner discords. These discords are everywhere apparent\r\nnowadays. Wagner is therefore a common need, a common benefactor.\r\nAs such he is bound to be worshipped and adored in spite of all\r\negotistical and theatrical autobiographies.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eAlbeit, signs are not wanting—at least among his Anglo-Saxon\r\nworshippers who stand even more in need of romanticism than their\r\ncontinental brethren, —which show that, in order to uphold Wagner,\r\npeople are now beginning to draw distinctions between the man and\r\nthe artist. They dismiss the man as \"human-all-too-human,\" but they\r\nstill maintain that there are divine qualities in his music. However\r\ndistasteful the task of disillusioning these psychological tyros may\r\nbe, they should be informed that no such division of a man into two\r\nparts is permissible, save in Christianity (—the body and the soul—);\r\nbut that outside purely religious spheres it is utterly\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_xxii\"\u003e[Pg xxii]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e unwarrantable.\r\nThere can be no such strange divorce between a bloom and the plant on\r\nwhich it blows, and has a black woman ever been known to give birth to\r\na white child?\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eWagner, as Nietzsche tells us on \u003ca href=\"#Page_19\" class=\"pginternal\"\u003ep. 19\u003c/a\u003e, \"was something complete, he was\r\na typical \u003ci\u003edecadent,\u003c/i\u003e in whom every sign of \u0027free will\u0027 was lacking,\r\nin whom every feature was necessary.\" Wagner, allow me to add, was\r\na typical representative of the nineteenth century, which was the\r\ncentury of contradictory values, of opposed instincts, and of every\r\nkind of inner disharmony. The genuine, the classical artists of that\r\nperiod, such men as Heine, Goethe, Stendhal, and Gobineau, overcame\r\ntheir inner strife, and each succeeded in making a harmonious whole\r\nout of himself—not indeed without a severe struggle; for everyone of\r\nthem suffered from being the child of his age, \u003ci\u003ei.e.,\u003c/i\u003e a decadent. The\r\nonly difference between them and the romanticists lies in the fact\r\nthat they (the former) were conscious of what was wrong with them, and\r\npossessed the will and the strength to overcome their illness; whereas\r\nthe romanticists chose the easier alternative—namely, that of shutting\r\ntheir eyes on themselves.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\"I am just as much a child of my age as Wagner—\u003ci\u003ei.e.,\u003c/i\u003e I am a\r\n\u003ci\u003edecadent\"\u003c/i\u003e says Nietzsche. \"The only difference is that I recognised\r\nthe fact, that I struggled against it.\"\u003ca id=\"FNanchor_6_6\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003ca class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_6_6\"\u003e[6]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eWhat Wagner did was characteristic of all romanticists and contemporary\r\nartists: he drowned and overshouted his inner discord by means of\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_xxiii\"\u003e[Pg xxiii]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nexuberant pathos and wild exaltation. Far be it from me to value\r\nWagner\u0027s music \u003ci\u003ein extenso\u003c/i\u003e here—this is scarcely a fitting\r\nopportunity to do so;—but I think it might well be possible to show,\r\non purely psychological grounds, how impossible it was for a man like\r\nWagner to produce real art. For how can harmony, order, symmetry,\r\nmastery, proceed from uncontrolled discord, disorder, disintegration,\r\nand chaos? The fact that an art which springs from such a marshy soil\r\nmay, like certain paludal plants, be \"wonderful,\" \"gorgeous,\" and\r\n\"overwhelming,\" cannot be denied; but true art it is not. It is so just\r\nas little as Gothic architecture is,—that style which, in its efforts\r\nto escape beyond the tragic contradiction in its mediæval heart, yelled\r\nits hysterical cry heavenwards and even melted the stones of its\r\nstructures into a quivering and fluid jet, in order to give adequate\r\nexpression to the painful and wretched conflict then raging between the\r\nbody and the soul.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThat Wagner, too, was a great sufferer, there can be no doubt; not,\r\nhowever, a sufferer from strength, like a true artist, but from\r\nweakness—the weakness of his age, which he never overcame. It is for\r\nthis reason that he should be rather pitied than judged as he is now\r\nbeing judged by his German and English critics, who, with thoroughly\r\nneurotic suddenness, have acknowledged their revulsion of feeling a\r\nlittle too harshly.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\"I have carefully endeavoured not to deride, or deplore, or detest …\"\r\nsays Spinoza, \"but to understand\"; and these words ought to be our\r\nguide, not only in the case of Wagner, but in all things.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eInner discord is a terrible affliction and nothing\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_xxiv\"\u003e[Pg xxiv]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e is so certain to\r\nproduce that nervous irritability which is so trying to the patient\r\nas well as to the outer world, as this so-called spiritual disease.\r\nNietzsche was probably quite right when he said the only real and\r\ntrue music that Wagner ever composed did not consist of his elaborate\r\narias and overtures, but of ten or fifteen bars which, dispersed here\r\nand there, gave expression to the composer\u0027s profound and genuine\r\nmelancholy. But this melancholy had to be overcome, and Wagner with\r\nthe blood of a \u003ci\u003ecabotin\u003c/i\u003e in his veins, resorted to the remedy that\r\nwas nearest to hand—that is to say, the art of bewildering others\r\nand himself. Thus he remained ignorant about himself all his life;\r\nfor there was, as Nietzsche rightly points out (\u003ca href=\"#Page_37\" class=\"pginternal\"\u003ep. 37\u003c/a\u003e, \u003ci\u003enote\u003c/i\u003e),\r\nnot sufficient pride in the man for him to desire to know or to\r\nsuffer gladly the truth concerning his real nature. As an actor his\r\nruling passion was vanity; but in his case it was correlated with a\r\nsemi-conscious knowledge of the fact that all was not right with him\r\nand his art. It was this that caused him to suffer. His egomaniacal\r\nbehaviour and his almost Rousseauesque fear and suspicion of others\r\nwere only the external manifestations of his inner discrepancies. But,\r\nto repeat what I have already said, these abnormal symptoms are not in\r\nthe least incompatible with Wagner\u0027s music, they are rather its very\r\ncause, the root from which it springs.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIn reality, therefore, Wagner the man and Wagner the artist were\r\nundoubtedly one, and constituted a splendid romanticist. His music as\r\nwell as his autobiography are proofs of his wonderful gifts in this\r\ndirection. His success in his time, as in ours,\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_xxv\"\u003e[Pg xxv]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e is due to the craving\r\nof the modern world for actors, sorcerers, bewilderers and idealists\r\nwho are able to conceal the ill-health and the weakness that prevail,\r\nand who please by intoxicating and exalting. But this being so, the\r\nworld must not be disappointed to find the hero of a preceding age\r\nexplode in the next. It must not be astonished to find a disparity\r\nbetween the hero\u0027s private life and his \"elevating\" art or romantic and\r\nidealistic gospel. As long as people will admire heroic attitudes more\r\nthan heroism, such disillusionment is bound to be the price of their\r\nerror. In a truly great man, life-theory and life-practice, if seen\r\nfrom a sufficiently lofty point of view, must and do always agree; in\r\nan actor, in a romanticist, in an idealist, and in a Christian, there\r\nis always a yawning chasm between the two, which, whatever well-meaning\r\ncritics may do, cannot be bridged posthumously by acrobatic feats \u003ci\u003ein\r\npsychologicis.\u003c/i\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eLet anyone apply this point of view to Nietzsche\u0027s life and theory.\r\nLet anyone turn his life inside out, not only as he gives it to us in\r\nhis \u003ci\u003eEcce Homo,\u003c/i\u003e but as we find it related by all his biographers,\r\nfriends and foes alike; and what will be the result? Even if we ignore\r\nhis works—the blooms which blowed from time to time from his life—we\r\nabsolutely cannot deny the greatness of the man\u0027s \u003ci\u003eprivate practice,\u003c/i\u003e\r\nand if we fully understand and appreciate the latter, we must be\r\nsingularly deficient in instinct and in \u003ci\u003eflair\u003c/i\u003e if we do not suspect\r\nthat some of this greatness is reflected in his life-task.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp style=\"margin-left: 70%; font-size: 0.8em;\"\u003eANTHONY M. LUDOVICI.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp style=\"margin-left: 5%; font-size: 0.8em;\"\u003eLONDON, JULY 1911.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003chr class=\"r5\"\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"footnote\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca id=\"Footnote_1_1\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003ca href=\"#FNanchor_1_1\" class=\"pginternal\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"label\"\u003e[1]\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/a\u003e It should be noted that the first and second editions of\r\nthese essays on Wagner appeared in pamphlet form, for which the above\r\nfirst preface was written.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"footnote\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca id=\"Footnote_2_2\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003ca href=\"#FNanchor_2_2\" class=\"pginternal\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"label\"\u003e[2]\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/a\u003e Fisher Unwin, 1911.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"footnote\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca id=\"Footnote_3_3\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003ca href=\"#FNanchor_3_3\" class=\"pginternal\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"label\"\u003e[3]\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/a\u003e T. N. Foulis, 1910.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"footnote\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca id=\"Footnote_4_4\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003ca href=\"#FNanchor_4_4\" class=\"pginternal\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"label\"\u003e[4]\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/a\u003e See \u003ci\u003eRichard Wagner,\u003c/i\u003e by Houston Stuart Chamberlain\r\n(translated by G. A. Hight), pp. 15, 16.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"footnote\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca id=\"Footnote_5_5\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003ca href=\"#FNanchor_5_5\" class=\"pginternal\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"label\"\u003e[5]\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/a\u003e Constable \u0026amp; Co., 1911.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"footnote\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca id=\"Footnote_6_6\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003ca href=\"#FNanchor_6_6\" class=\"pginternal\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"label\"\u003e[6]\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/a\u003e See Author\u0027s Preface to \"The Case of Wagner\" in this\r\nvolume.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003chr class=\"chap\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_xxvi\"\u003e[Pg xxvi]\u003c/a\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_xxvii\"\u003e[Pg xxvii]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\r\n\u003ch3\u003e \u003ca id=\"THE_CASE_OF_WAGNER\"\u003eTHE CASE OF WAGNER\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/h3\u003e\r\n\u003ch5\u003eA MUSICIAN\u0027S PROBLEM\u003c/h5\u003e\r\n\u003ch5\u003eA LETTER FROM TURIN, MAY 1888\u003c/h5\u003e\r\n\u003ch5\u003e\"RIDENDO DICERE SEVERUM …\"\u003c/h5\u003e\r\n\u003chr class=\"tb\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_xxviii\"\u003e[Pg xxviii]\u003c/a\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_xxix\"\u003e[Pg xxix]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003ch4\u003e \u003ca id=\"PREFACE\"\u003ePREFACE\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/h4\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eI am writing this to relieve my mind. It is not malice alone which\r\nmakes me praise Bizet at the expense of Wagner in this essay. Amid a\r\ngood deal of jesting I wish to make one point clear which does not\r\nadmit of levity. To turn my back on Wagner was for me a piece of fate;\r\nto get to like anything else whatever afterwards was for me a triumph.\r\nNobody, perhaps, had ever been more dangerously involved in Wagnerism,\r\nnobody had defended himself more obstinately against it, nobody had\r\never been so overjoyed at ridding himself of it. A long history!—Shall\r\nI give it a name?—If I were a moralist, who knows what I might not\r\ncall it! Perhaps a piece of \u003ci\u003eself-mastery.\u003c/i\u003e—But the philosopher does\r\nnot like the moralist, neither does he like high-falutin\u0027 words….\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eWhat is the first and last thing that a philosopher demands of himself?\r\nTo overcome his age in himself, to become \"timeless.\" With what then\r\ndoes the philosopher have the greatest fight? With all that in him\r\nwhich makes him the child of his time. Very well then! I am just as\r\nmuch a child of my age as Wagner—\u003ci\u003ei.e.,\u003c/i\u003e I am a decadent. The only\r\ndifference is that I recognised the fact,\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_xxx\"\u003e[Pg xxx]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e that I struggled against it.\r\nThe philosopher in me struggled against it.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eMy greatest preoccupation hitherto has been the problem of \u003ci\u003edecadence,\u003c/i\u003e\r\nand I had reasons for this. \"Good and evil\" form only a playful\r\nsubdivision of this problem. If one has trained one\u0027s eye to detect\r\nthe symptoms of decline, one also understands morality,—one\r\nunderstands what lies concealed beneath its holiest names and tables\r\nof values: \u003ci\u003ee.g., impoverished\u003c/i\u003e life, the will to nonentity, great\r\nexhaustion. Morality \u003ci\u003edenies\u003c/i\u003e life…. In order to undertake such a\r\nmission I was obliged to exercise self-discipline:—I had to side\r\nagainst all that was morbid in myself including Wagner, including\r\nSchopenhauer, including the whole of modern \u003ci\u003ehumanity.\u003c/i\u003e—A profound\r\nestrangement, coldness and soberness towards all that belongs to my\r\nage, all that was contemporary: and as the highest wish, Zarathustra\u0027s\r\neye, an eye which surveys the whole phenomenon—mankind—from an\r\nenormous distance,—which look down upon it.—For such a goal—what\r\nsacrifice would not have been worth while? What \"self-mastery\"! What\r\n\"self-denial\"!\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe greatest event of my life took the form of a \u003ci\u003erecovery.\u003c/i\u003e Wagner\r\nbelongs only to my diseases.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eNot that I wish to appear ungrateful to this disease. If in this essay\r\nI support the proposition that Wagner is \u003ci\u003eharmful,\u003c/i\u003e I none the less\r\nwish to\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_xxxi\"\u003e[Pg xxxi]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e point out unto whom, in spite of all, he is indispensable—to\r\nthe philosopher. Anyone else may perhaps be able to get on without\r\nWagner: but the philosopher is not free to pass him by. The philosopher\r\nmust be the evil conscience of his age,—but to this end he must\r\nbe possessed of its best knowledge. And what better guide, or more\r\nthoroughly efficient revealer of the soul, could be found for the\r\nlabyrinth of the modern spirit than Wagner? Through Wagner modernity\r\nspeaks her most intimate language: it conceals neither its good nor\r\nits evil; it has thrown off all shame. And, conversely, one has almost\r\ncalculated the whole of the value of modernity once one is clear\r\nconcerning what is good and evil in Wagner. I can perfectly well\r\nunderstand a musician of to-day who says: \"I hate Wagner but I can\r\nendure no other music.\" But I should also understand a philosopher who\r\nsaid: \"Wagner is modernity in concentrated form.\" There is no help for\r\nit, we must first be Wagnerites….\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003chr class=\"chap\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_xxxii\"\u003e[Pg xxxii]\u003c/a\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_1\"\u003e[Pg 1]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003ch4\u003eTHE CASE OF WAGNER\u003c/h4\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e1.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eYesterday—would you believe it?—I heard \u003ci\u003eBizet\u0027s\u003c/i\u003e masterpiece for the\r\ntwentieth time. Once more I attended with the same gentle reverence;\r\nonce again I did not run away. This triumph over my impatience\r\nsurprises me. How such a work completes one! Through it one almost\r\nbecomes a \"masterpiece\" oneself.—And, as a matter of fact, each time\r\nI heard \u003ci\u003eCarmen\u003c/i\u003e it seemed to me that I was more of a philosopher, a\r\nbetter philosopher than at other times: I became so forbearing, so\r\nhappy, so Indian, so \u003ci\u003esettled….\u003c/i\u003e To sit for five hours: the first\r\nstep to holiness!—May I be allowed to say that Bizet\u0027s orchestration\r\nis the only one that I can endure now? That other orchestration which\r\nis all the rage at present—the Wagnerian—is brutal, artificial and\r\n\"unsophisticated\" withal, hence its appeal to all the three senses of\r\nthe modern soul at once. How terribly Wagnerian orchestration affects\r\nme! I call it the \u003ci\u003eSirocco.\u003c/i\u003e A disagreeable sweat breaks out all over\r\nme. All my fine weather vanishes.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eBizet\u0027s music seems to me perfect. It comes forward lightly,\r\ngracefully, stylishly. It is lovable,\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_2\"\u003e[Pg 2]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e it does not sweat. \"All that\r\nis good is easy, everything divine runs with light feet\": this is\r\nthe first principle of my æsthetics. This music is wicked, refined,\r\nfatalistic: and withal remains popular,—it possesses the refinement of\r\na race, not of an individual. It is rich. It is definite. It builds,\r\norganises, completes: and in this sense it stands as a contrast to the\r\npolypus in music, to \"endless melody.\" Have more painful, more tragic\r\naccents ever been heard on the stage before? And how are they obtained?\r\nWithout grimaces! Without counterfeiting of any kind! Free from the\r\n\u003ci\u003elie\u003c/i\u003e of the grand style!—In short: this music assumes that the\r\nlistener is intelligent even as a musician,—thereby it is the opposite\r\nof Wagner, who, apart from everything else, was in any case the most\r\n\u003ci\u003eill-mannered\u003c/i\u003e genius on earth (Wagner takes us as if … he repeats a\r\nthing so often that we become desperate,—that we ultimately believe\r\nit).\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eAnd once more: I become a better man when Bizet speaks to me. Also a\r\nbetter musician, a better \u003ci\u003elistener.\u003c/i\u003e Is it in any way possible to\r\nlisten better?—I even burrow behind this music with my ears. I hear\r\nits very cause. I seem to assist at its birth. I tremble before the\r\ndangers which this daring music runs, I am enraptured over those happy\r\naccidents for which even Bizet himself may not be responsible.—And,\r\nstrange to say, at bottom I do not give it a thought, or am not aware\r\nhow much thought I really do give it. For quite other ideas are running\r\nthrough my head the while…. Has any one ever observed that music\r\n\u003ci\u003eemancipates\u003c/i\u003e the spirit? gives wings to thought? and that the\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_3\"\u003e[Pg 3]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e more\r\none becomes a musician the more one is also a philosopher? The grey\r\nsky of abstraction seems thrilled by flashes of lightning; the light\r\nis strong enough to reveal all the details of things; to enable one to\r\ngrapple with problems; and the world is surveyed as if from a mountain\r\ntop.—With this I have defined philosophical pathos.—And unexpectedly\r\n\u003ci\u003eanswers\u003c/i\u003e drop into my lap, a small hailstorm of ice and wisdom, of\r\nproblems \u003ci\u003esolved.\u003c/i\u003e Where am I? Bizet makes me productive. Everything\r\nthat is good makes me productive. I have gratitude for nothing else,\r\nnor have I any other touchstone for testing what is good.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e2.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eBizet\u0027s work also saves; Wagner is not the only \"Saviour.\" With it one\r\nbids farewell to the \u003ci\u003edamp\u003c/i\u003e north and to all the fog of the Wagnerian\r\nideal. Even the action in itself delivers us from these things. From\r\nMérimée it has this logic even in passion, from him it has the direct\r\nline, \u003ci\u003einexorable\u003c/i\u003e necessity; but what it has above all else is that\r\nwhich belongs to sub-tropical zones—that dryness of atmosphere, that\r\n\u003ci\u003elimpidezza\u003c/i\u003e of the air. Here in every respect the climate is altered.\r\nHere another kind of sensuality, another kind of sensitiveness and\r\nanother kind of cheerfulness make their appeal. This music is gay, but\r\nnot in a French or German way. Its gaiety is African; fate hangs over\r\nit, its happiness is short, sudden, without reprieve. I envy Bizet\r\nfor having had the courage of this sensitiveness, which hitherto in\r\nthe cultured music\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_4\"\u003e[Pg 4]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e of Europe has found no means of expression,—of\r\nthis southern, tawny, sunburnt sensitiveness…. What a joy the golden\r\nafternoon of its happiness is to us! When we look out, with this music\r\nin our minds, we wonder whether we have ever seen the sea so \u003ci\u003ecalm.\u003c/i\u003e\r\nAnd how soothing is this Moorish dancing! How, for once, even our\r\ninsatiability gets sated by its lascivious melancholy!—And finally\r\nlove, love translated back into \u003ci\u003eNature!\u003c/i\u003e Not the love of a \"cultured\r\ngirl!\"—no Senta-sentimentality.\u003ca id=\"FNanchor_1_7\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003ca class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_1_7\"\u003e[1]\u003c/a\u003e But love as fate, as a fatality,\r\ncynical, innocent, cruel,—and precisely in this way \u003ci\u003eNature!\u003c/i\u003e The love\r\nwhose means is war, whose very essence is the \u003ci\u003emortal hatred\u003c/i\u003e between\r\nthe sexes!—I know no case in which the tragic irony, which constitutes\r\nthe kernel of love, is expressed with such severity, or in so terrible\r\na formula, as in the last cry of Don José with which the work ends:\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp style=\"margin-left: 20%;\"\u003e\r\n\"Yes, it is I who have killed her,\u003cbr\u003e\r\nI—my adored Carmen!\"\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e—Such a conception of love (the only one worthy of a philosopher)\r\nis rare: it distinguishes one work of art from among a thousand\r\nothers. For, as a rule, artists are no better than the rest of the\r\nworld, they are even worse—they \u003ci\u003emisunderstand\u003c/i\u003e love. Even Wagner\r\nmisunderstood it. They imagine that they are selfless in it because\r\nthey appear to be seeking the advantage of another creature often\r\nto their own disadvantage. But in return they want to \u003ci\u003epossess\u003c/i\u003e the\r\nother creature…. Even\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_5\"\u003e[Pg 5]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e God is no exception to this rule, he is\r\nvery far from thinking \"What does it matter to thee whether I love\r\nthee or not?\"—He becomes terrible if he is not loved in return.\r\n\"\u003ci\u003eL\u0027amour\u003c/i\u003e—and with this principle one carries one\u0027s point against\r\nGods and men—\u003ci\u003eest de tous les sentiments le plus égoïste, et par\r\nconséquent, lorsqu\u0027il est blessé, le moins généreux\"\u003c/i\u003e (B. Constant).\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e3.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003ePerhaps you are beginning to perceive how very much this music\r\n\u003ci\u003eimproves\u003c/i\u003e me?—\u003ci\u003eIl faut méditerraniser la musique:\u003c/i\u003e and I have my\r\nreasons for this principle (\"Beyond Good and Evil,\" pp. 216 \u003ci\u003eet seq.\u003c/i\u003e).\r\nThe return to Nature, health, good spirits, youth, \u003ci\u003evirtue!\u003c/i\u003e—And yet I\r\nwas one of the most corrupted Wagnerites…. I was able to take Wagner\r\nseriously. Oh, this old magician! what tricks has he not played upon\r\nus! The first thing his art places in our hands is a magnifying glass:\r\nwe look through it, and we no longer trust our own eyes.—Everything\r\ngrows bigger, \u003ci\u003eeven Wagner grows bigger….\u003c/i\u003e What a clever rattlesnake.\r\nThroughout his life he rattled \"resignation,\" \"loyalty,\" and \"purity\"\r\nabout our ears, and he retired from the \u003ci\u003ecorrupt\u003c/i\u003e world with a song of\r\npraise to chastity! !—And we believed it all….\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e—But you will not listen to me? You \u003ci\u003eprefer\u003c/i\u003e even the \u003ci\u003eproblem\u003c/i\u003e\r\nof Wagner to that of Bizet? But neither do I underrate it; it has\r\nits charm. The problem of salvation is even a venerable problem.\r\nWagner pondered over nothing so deeply as over salvation: his opera\r\nis the opera of salvation.\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_6\"\u003e[Pg 6]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e Someone always wants to be saved in\r\nhis operas,—now it is a youth; anon it is a maid,—this is \u003ci\u003ehis\r\nproblem.\u003c/i\u003e—And how lavishly he varies his \u003ci\u003eleitmotif\u003c/i\u003e! What rare and\r\nmelancholy modulations! If it were not for Wagner, who would teach us\r\nthat innocence has a preference for saving interesting sinners? (the\r\ncase in \"Tannhäuser\"). Or that even the eternal Jew gets saved and\r\n\u003ci\u003esettled down\u003c/i\u003e when he marries? (the case in the \"Flying Dutchman\").\r\nOr that corrupted old females prefer to be saved by chaste young men?\r\n(the case of Kundry). Or that young hysterics like to be saved by\r\ntheir doctor? (the case in \"Lohengrin\"). Or that beautiful girls most\r\nlove to be saved by a knight who also happens to be a Wagnerite? (the\r\ncase in the \"Mastersingers\"). Or that even married women also like\r\nto be saved by a knight? (the case of Isolde). Or that the venerable\r\nAlmighty, after having compromised himself morally in all manner of\r\nways, is at last delivered by a free spirit and an immoralist? (the\r\ncase in the \"Ring\"). Admire, more especially this last piece of wisdom!\r\nDo you understand it? I—take good care not to understand it….\r\nThat it is possible to draw yet other lessons from the works above\r\nmentioned,—I am much more ready to prove than to dispute. That one\r\nmay be driven by a Wagnerian ballet to desperation—\u003ci\u003eand\u003c/i\u003e to virtue!\r\n(once again the case in \"Tannhäuser\"). That not going to bed at the\r\nright time may be followed by the worst consequences (once again the\r\ncase of \"Lohengrin\"),—That one can never be too sure of the spouse\r\none actually marries (for the third time, the case of \"Lohengrin\").\r\n\"Tristan and\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_7\"\u003e[Pg 7]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e Isolde\" glorifies the perfect husband who, in a certain\r\ncase, can ask only one question: \"But why have ye not told me this\r\nbefore? Nothing could be simpler than that!\" Reply:\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp style=\"margin-left: 20%;\"\u003e\r\n\"That I cannot tell thee.\u003cbr\u003e\r\nAnd what thou askest,\u003cbr\u003e\r\nThat wilt thou never learn.\"\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\"Lohengrin\" contains a solemn ban upon all investigation and\r\nquestioning. In this way Wagner stood for the Christian concept,\r\n\"Thou must and shalt \u003ci\u003ebelieve!\u003c/i\u003e\" It is a crime against the highest\r\nand the holiest to be scientific…. The \"Flying Dutchman\" preaches\r\nthe sublime doctrine that woman can moor the most erratic soul, or\r\nto put it into Wagnerian terms \"save\" him. Here we venture to ask a\r\nquestion. Supposing that this were actually true, would it therefore\r\nbe desirable?—What becomes of the \"eternal Jew\" whom a woman adores\r\nand \u003ci\u003eenchains?\u003c/i\u003e He simply ceases from being eternal; he marries,—that\r\nis to say, he concerns us no longer.—Transferred into the realm of\r\nreality, the danger for the artist and for the genius—and these\r\nare of course the \"eternal Jews\"—resides in woman: \u003ci\u003eadoring\u003c/i\u003e women\r\nare their ruin. Scarcely any one has sufficient character not to be\r\ncorrupted—\"saved\" when he finds himself treated as a God:—he then\r\nimmediately condescends to woman.—Man is a coward in the face of all\r\nthat is eternally feminine: and this the girls know.—In many cases of\r\nwoman\u0027s love, and perhaps precisely in the most famous ones, the love\r\nis no more than a refined form of \u003ci\u003eparasitism,\u003c/i\u003e a making one\u0027s nest\r\nin\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_8\"\u003e[Pg 8]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e another\u0027s soul and sometimes even in another\u0027s flesh—Ah! and how\r\nconstantly at the cost of the host!\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eWe know the fate of Goethe in old-maidish moralin-corroded Germany. He\r\nwas always offensive to Germans, he found honest admirers only among.\r\nJewesses. Schiller, \"noble\" Schiller, who cried flowery words into\r\ntheir ears,—he was a man after their own heart. What did they reproach\r\nGoethe with?—with the Mount of Venus, and with having composed certain\r\nVenetian epigrams. Even Klopstock preached him a moral sermon; there\r\nwas a time when Herder was fond of using the word \"Priapus\" when he\r\nspoke of Goethe. Even \"Wilhelm Meister\" seemed to be only a symptom\r\nof decline, of a moral \"going to the dogs.\" The \"Menagerie of tame\r\ncattle,\" the worthlessness of the hero in this book, revolted Niebuhr,\r\nwho finally bursts out in a plaint which \u003ci\u003eBiterolf\u003c/i\u003e\u003ca id=\"FNanchor_2_8\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003ca class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_2_8\"\u003e[2]\u003c/a\u003e might well\r\nhave sung: \"nothing so easily makes a painful impression as \u003ci\u003ewhen a\r\ngreat mind despoils itself of its wings and strives for virtuosity in\r\nsomething greatly inferior, while it renounces more lofty aims.\"\u003c/i\u003e But\r\nthe most indignant of all was the cultured woman: all smaller courts\r\nin Germany, every kind of \"Puritanism\" made the sign of the cross\r\nat the sight of Goethe, at the thought of the \"unclean spirit\" in\r\nGoethe.—This history was what Wagner set to music. He \u003ci\u003esaves\u003c/i\u003e Goethe,\r\nthat goes without saying; but he does so in such a clever way that he\r\nalso takes the side of the cultured woman.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_9\"\u003e[Pg 9]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eGoethe gets saved: a prayer saves him, a cultured woman \u003ci\u003edraws him out\r\nof the mire.\u003c/i\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e—As to what Goethe would have thought of Wagner?—Goethe once set\r\nhimself the question, \"what danger hangs over all romanticists: the\r\nfate of romanticists?\" His answer was: \"To choke over the rumination\r\nof moral and religious absurdities.\" In short: \u003ci\u003eParsifal….\u003c/i\u003e The\r\nphilosopher writes thereto an epilogue. \u003ci\u003eHoliness\u003c/i\u003e—the only remaining\r\nhigher value still seen by the mob or by woman, the horizon of the\r\nideal for all those who are naturally short-sighted. To philosophers,\r\nhowever, this horizon, like every other, is a mere misunderstanding, a\r\nsort of slamming of the door in the face of the real beginning of their\r\nworld,—their danger, their ideal, their desideratum…. In more polite\r\nlanguage: \u003ci\u003eLa Philosophie ne suffit pas au grand nombre. Il lui faut la\r\nsainteté….\u003c/i\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e4.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eI shall once more relate the history of the \"Ring.\" This is its proper\r\nplace. It is also the history of a salvation: except that in this case\r\nit is Wagner himself who is saved,—Half his life-time Wagner believed\r\nin the \u003ci\u003eRevolution\u003c/i\u003e as only a Frenchman could have believed in it. He\r\nsought it in the runic inscriptions of myths, he thought he had found\r\na typical revolutionary in Siegfried.-\"Whence arises all the evil in\r\nthis world?\" Wagner asked himself. From \"old contracts\": he replied,\r\nas all revolutionary ideologists have done. In plain English: from\r\ncustoms, laws,\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_10\"\u003e[Pg 10]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e morals, institutions, from all those things upon which\r\nthe ancient world and ancient society rests. \"How can one get rid of\r\nthe evil in this world? How can one get rid of ancient society?\" Only\r\nby declaring war against \"contracts\" (traditions, morality). \u003ci\u003eThis\r\nSiegfried does.\u003c/i\u003e He starts early at the game, very early: his origin\r\nitself is already a declaration of war against morality—he is the\r\nresult of adultery, of incest…. Not the saga, but Wagner himself is\r\nthe inventor of this radical feature; in this matter he \u003ci\u003ecorrected\u003c/i\u003e\r\nthe saga…. Siegfried continues as he began: he follows only his\r\nfirst impulse, he flings all tradition, all respect, all \u003ci\u003efear\u003c/i\u003e to the\r\nwinds. Whatever displeases him he strikes down. He tilts irreverently\r\nat old god-heads. His principal undertaking, however, is to emancipate\r\nwoman,—\"to deliver Brunnhilda.\" … Siegfried and Brunnhilda; the\r\nsacrament of free love; the dawn of the golden age; the twilight of the\r\nGods of old morality—\u003ci\u003eevil is got rid of….\u003c/i\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eFor a long while Wagner\u0027s ship sailed happily along this course. There\r\ncan be no doubt that along it Wagner sought his highest goal.—What\r\nhappened? A misfortune. The ship dashed on to a reef; Wagner had run\r\naground. The reef was Schopenhauer\u0027s philosophy; Wagner had stuck fast\r\non a \u003ci\u003econtrary\u003c/i\u003e view of the world. What had he set to music? Optimism?\r\nWagner was ashamed. It was moreover an optimism for which Schopenhauer\r\nhad devised an evil expression,—\u003ci\u003eunscrupulous\u003c/i\u003e optimism. He was more\r\nthan ever ashamed. He reflected for some time; his position seemed\r\ndesperate…. At last a path of escape\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_11\"\u003e[Pg 11]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e seemed gradually to open before\r\nhim: what if the reef on which he had been wrecked could be interpreted\r\nas a goal, as the ulterior motive, as the actual purpose of his\r\njourney? To be wrecked here, this was also a goal. \u003ci\u003eBene navigavi cum\r\nnaufragium feci …\u003c/i\u003e and he translated the \"Ring\" into Schopenhauerian\r\nlanguage. Everything goes wrong, everything goes to wrack and ruin, the\r\nnew world is just as bad as the old one:—Nonentity, the Indian Circe\r\nbeckons…. Brunnhilda, who according to the old plan had to retire\r\nwith a song in honour of free love, consoling the world with the hope\r\nof a socialistic Utopia in which \"all will be well\"; now gets something\r\nelse to do. She must first study Schopenhauer. She must first versify\r\nthe fourth book of \"The World as Will and Idea.\" \u003ci\u003eWagner was saved….\u003c/i\u003e\r\nJoking apart, this \u003ci\u003ewas\u003c/i\u003e a salvation. The service which Wagner owes to\r\nSchopenhauer is incalculable. It was the \u003ci\u003ephilosopher of decadence\u003c/i\u003e who\r\nallowed the \u003ci\u003eartist of decadence\u003c/i\u003e to find himself.—\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e5.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe artist of decadence.\u003c/i\u003e That is the word. And here I begin to\r\nbe serious. I could not think of looking on approvingly while this\r\n\u003ci\u003edécadent\u003c/i\u003e spoils our health—and music into the bargain. Is Wagner\r\na man at all? Is he not rather a disease? Everything he touches he\r\ncontaminates. \u003ci\u003eHe has made music sick.\u003c/i\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eA typical \u003ci\u003edécadent\u003c/i\u003e who thinks himself necessary with his corrupted\r\ntaste, who arrogates to himself\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_12\"\u003e[Pg 12]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e a higher taste, who tries to establish\r\nhis depravity as a law, as progress, as a fulfilment.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eAnd no one guards against it. His powers of seduction attain monstrous\r\nproportions, holy incense hangs around him, the misunderstanding\r\nconcerning him is called the Gospel,—and he has certainly not\r\nconverted only the \u003ci\u003epoor in spirit\u003c/i\u003e to his cause!\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eI should like to open the window a little. Air! More air!—\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe fact that people in Germany deceive themselves concerning Wagner\r\ndoes not surprise me. The reverse would surprise me. The Germans have\r\nmodelled a Wagner for themselves, whom they can honour: never yet have\r\nthey been psychologists; they are thankful that they misunderstand.\r\nBut that people should also deceive themselves concerning Wagner in\r\nParis! Where people are scarcely anything else than psychologists. And\r\nin Saint Petersburg! Where things are divined, which even Paris has no\r\nidea of. How intimately related must Wagner be to the entire decadence\r\nof Europe for her not to have felt that he was decadent! He belongs\r\nto it: he is its protagonist, its greatest name…. We bring honour\r\non ourselves by elevating him to the clouds.—For the mere fact that\r\nno one guards against him is in itself already a sign of decadence.\r\nInstinct is weakened, what ought to be eschewed now attracts. People\r\nactually kiss that which plunges them more quickly into the abyss.—Is\r\nthere any need for an example? One has only to think of the régime\r\nwhich anæmic, or gouty, or diabetic people\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_13\"\u003e[Pg 13]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e prescribe for themselves.\r\nThe definition of a vegetarian: a creature who has need of a\r\ncorroborating diet. To recognise what is harmful as harmful, to be able\r\nto deny oneself what is harmful, is a sign of youth, of vitality. That\r\nwhich is harmful lures the exhausted: cabbage lures the vegetarian.\r\nIllness itself can be a stimulus to life: but one must be healthy\r\nenough for such a stimulus!—Wagner increases exhaustion: \u003ci\u003etherefore\u003c/i\u003e\r\nhe attracts the weak and exhausted to him. Oh, the rattlesnake joy of\r\nthe old Master precisely because he always saw \"the little children\"\r\ncoming unto him!\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eI place this point of view first and foremost: Wagner\u0027s art is\r\ndiseased. The problems he sets on the stage are all concerned with\r\nhysteria; the convulsiveness of his emotions, his over-excited\r\nsensitiveness, his taste which demands ever sharper condimentation,\r\nhis erraticness which he togged out to look like principles, and,\r\nlast but not least, his choice of heroes and heroines, considered\r\nas physiological types (—a hospital ward!—): the whole represents\r\na morbid picture; of this there can be no doubt. \u003ci\u003eWagner est une\r\nnevrose.\u003c/i\u003e Maybe, that nothing is better known to-day, or in any\r\ncase the subject of greater study, than the Protean character of\r\ndegeneration which has disguised itself here, both as an art and as\r\nan artist. In Wagner our medical men and physiologists have a most\r\ninteresting case, or at least a very complete one. Owing to the very\r\nfact that nothing is more modern than this thorough morbidness, this\r\ndilatoriness and excessive irritability of the nervous\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_14\"\u003e[Pg 14]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e machinery,\r\nWagner is the \u003ci\u003emodern artist par excellence,\u003c/i\u003e the Cagliostro of\r\nmodernity. All that the world most needs to-day, is combined in the\r\nmost seductive manner in his art,—the three great stimulants of\r\nexhausted people: \u003ci\u003ebrutality, artificiality\u003c/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003einnocence\u003c/i\u003e (idiocy).\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eWagner is a great corrupter of music. With it, he found the means\r\nof stimulating tired nerves,—and in this way he made music ill. In\r\nthe art of spurring exhausted creatures back into activity, and of\r\nrecalling half-corpses to life, the inventiveness he shows is of no\r\nmean order. He is the master of hypnotic trickery, and he fells the\r\nstrongest like bullocks. Wagner\u0027s \u003ci\u003esuccess\u003c/i\u003e—his success with nerves,\r\nand therefore with women—converted the whole world of ambitious\r\nmusicians into disciples of his secret art. And not only the ambitious,\r\nbut also the \u003ci\u003eshrewd….\u003c/i\u003e Only with morbid music can money be made\r\nto-day; our big theatres live on Wagner.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e6.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e—Once more I will venture to indulge in a little levity. Let us\r\nsuppose that Wagner\u0027s \u003ci\u003esuccess\u003c/i\u003e could become flesh and blood and assume\r\na human form; that, dressed up as a good-natured musical savant, it\r\ncould move among budding artists. How do you think it would then be\r\nlikely to express itself?—\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eMy friends, it would say, let us exchange a word or two in private.\r\nIt is easier to compose bad music than good music. But what, if\r\napart from this it\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_15\"\u003e[Pg 15]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e were also more profitable, more effective, more\r\nconvincing, more exalting, more secure, more \u003ci\u003eWagnerian?… Pulchrum\r\nest paucorum hominum.\u003c/i\u003e Bad enough in all conscience! We understand\r\nLatin, and perhaps we also understand which side our bread is buttered.\r\nBeauty has its drawbacks: we know that. Wherefore beauty then? Why not\r\nrather aim at size, at the sublime, the gigantic, that which moves\r\nthe \u003ci\u003emasses?\u003c/i\u003e—And to repeat: it is easier to be titanic than to be\r\nbeautiful; we know that….\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eWe know the masses, we know the theatre. The best of those who assemble\r\nthere,—German youths, horned Siegfrieds and other Wagnerites, require\r\nthe sublime, the profound, and the overwhelming. This much still lies\r\nwithin our power. And as for the others who assemble there,—the\r\ncultured \u003ci\u003ecrétins,\u003c/i\u003e the \u003ci\u003eblasé\u003c/i\u003e pigmies, the eternally feminine, the\r\ngastrically happy, in short the people—they also require the sublime,\r\nthe profound, the overwhelming. All these people argue in the same way.\r\n\"He who overthrows us is strong; he who elevates us is godly; he who\r\nmakes us wonder vaguely is profound.\"—Let us make up our mind then, my\r\nfriends in music: we do want to overthrow them, we do want to elevate\r\nthem, we do want to make them wonder vaguely. This much still lies\r\nwithin our powers.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIn regard to the process of making them wonder: it is here that our\r\nnotion of \"style\" finds its starting-point. Above all, no thoughts!\r\nNothing is more compromising than a thought! But the state of mind\r\nwhich \u003ci\u003eprecedes\u003c/i\u003e thought, the labour\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_16\"\u003e[Pg 16]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e of the thought still unborn, the\r\npromise of future thought, the world as it was before God created it\r\n—a recrudescence of chaos…. Chaos makes people wonder …\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIn the words of the master: infinity but without melody.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIn the second place, with regard to the over-throwing,—this belongs\r\nat least in part, to physiology. Let us, in the first place, examine\r\nthe instruments. A few of them would convince even our intestines\r\n(—they \u003ci\u003ethrow open\u003c/i\u003e doors, as Händel would say), others becharm our\r\nvery marrow. The \u003ci\u003ecolour of the melody is\u003c/i\u003e all-important here; \u003ci\u003ethe\r\nmelody itself\u003c/i\u003e is of no importance. Let us be precise about \u003ci\u003ethis\u003c/i\u003e\r\npoint. To what other purpose should we spend our strength? Let us be\r\ncharacteristic in tone even to the point of foolishness! If by means of\r\ntones we allow plenty of scope for guessing, this will be put to the\r\ncredit of our intellects. Let us irritate nerves, let us strike them\r\ndead: let us handle thunder and lightning,—that is what overthrows….\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eBut what overthrows best, is \u003ci\u003epassion.\u003c/i\u003e—We must try and be clear\r\nconcerning this question of passion. Nothing is cheaper than passion!\r\nAll the virtues of counterpoint may be dispensed with, there is no\r\nneed to have learnt anything,—but passion is always within our reach!\r\nBeauty is difficult: let us beware of beauty!… And also of \u003ci\u003emelody!\u003c/i\u003e\r\nHowever much in earnest we may otherwise be about the ideal, let us\r\nslander, my friends, let us slander,—let us slander melody! Nothing\r\nis more dangerous than a beautiful melody! Nothing is\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_17\"\u003e[Pg 17]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e more certain\r\nto ruin taste! My friends, if people again set about loving beautiful\r\nmelodies, we are lost!…\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eFirst principle:\u003c/i\u003e melody is immoral. \u003ci\u003eProof:\u003c/i\u003e \"Palestrina.\"\r\n\u003ci\u003eApplication:\u003c/i\u003e \"Parsifal.\" The absence of melody is in itself\r\nsanctifying….\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eAnd this is the definition of passion. Passion—or the acrobatic feats\r\nof ugliness on the tight-rope of enharmonic.—My friends, let us dare\r\nto be ugly! Wagner dared it! Let us heave the mud of the most repulsive\r\nharmonies undauntedly before us. We must not even spare our hands! Only\r\nthus, shall we become \u003ci\u003enatural….\u003c/i\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eAnd now a last word of advice. Perhaps it covers everything.—\u003ci\u003eLet\r\nus be idealists\u003c/i\u003e/—If not the cleverest, it is at least the wisest\r\nthing we can do. In order to elevate men we ourselves must be exalted.\r\nLet us wander in the clouds, let us harangue eternity, let us be\r\ncareful to group great symbols all around us! \u003ci\u003eSursum! Bumbum!—\u003c/i\u003e\r\nthere is no better advice. The \"heaving breast\" shall be our argument,\r\n\"beautiful feelings\" our advocates. Virtue still carries its point\r\nagainst counterpoint. \"How could he who improves us, help being\r\nbetter than we?\" man has ever thought thus. Let us therefore improve\r\nmankind!—in this way we shall become good (in this way we shall even\r\nbecome \"classics\"—Schiller became a \"classic\"). The straining after\r\nthe base excitement of the senses, after so-called beauty, shattered\r\nthe nerves of the Italians: let us remain German! Even Mozart\u0027s\r\nrelation to music—Wagner spoke this word of comfort to us—was at\r\nbottom frivolous….\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_18\"\u003e[Pg 18]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e Never let us acknowledge that music \"may be a\r\nrecreation,\" that it may \"enliven,\" that it may \"give pleasure.\" \u003ci\u003eNever\r\nlet us give pleasure!\u003c/i\u003e—we shall be lost if people once again think of\r\nmusic hedonistically…. That belongs to the bad eighteenth century….\r\nOn the other hand, nothing would be more advisable (between ourselves)\r\nthan a dose of—\u003ci\u003ecant, sit venia verbo.\u003c/i\u003e This imparts dignity.—And\r\nlet us take care to select the precise moment when it would be fitting\r\nto have black looks, to sigh openly, to sigh devoutly, to flaunt grand\r\nChristian sympathy before their eyes. \"Man is corrupt: who will save\r\nhim? \u003ci\u003ewhat will save him?\"\u003c/i\u003e Do not let us reply. We must be on our\r\nguard. We must control our ambition, which would bid us found new\r\nreligions. But no one must doubt that it is \u003ci\u003ewe\u003c/i\u003e who save him, that in\r\n\u003ci\u003eour\u003c/i\u003e music alone salvation is to be found…. (See Wagner\u0027s essay,\r\n\"Religion and Art\")\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e7.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eEnough! Enough! I fear that, beneath all my merry jests, you are\r\nbeginning to recognise the sinister truth only too clearly—the picture\r\nof the decline of art, of the decline of the artist. The latter, which\r\nis a decline of character, might perhaps be defined provisionally in\r\nthe following manner: the musician is now becoming an actor, his art is\r\ndeveloping ever more and more into a talent for \u003ci\u003etelling lies.\u003c/i\u003e In a\r\ncertain chapter of my principal work which bears the title \"Concerning\r\nthe\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_19\"\u003e[Pg 19]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e Physiology of Art,\"\u003ca id=\"FNanchor_3_9\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003ca class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_3_9\"\u003e[3]\u003c/a\u003e I shall have an opportunity of showing more\r\nthoroughly how this transformation of art as a whole into histrionics\r\nis just as much a sign of physiological degeneration (or more\r\nprecisely a form of hysteria), as any other individual corruption, and\r\ninfirmity peculiar to the art which Wagner inaugurated: for instance\r\nthe restlessness of its optics, which makes it necessary to change\r\none\u0027s attitude to it every second. They understand nothing of Wagner\r\nwho see in him but a sport of nature, an arbitrary mood, a chapter of\r\naccidents. He was not the \"defective,\" \"ill-fated,\" \"contradictory\"\r\ngenius that people have declared him to be. Wagner was something\r\n\u003ci\u003ecomplete,\u003c/i\u003e he was a typical \u003ci\u003edecadent,\u003c/i\u003e in whom every sign of \"free\r\nwill\" was lacking, in whom every feature was necessary. If there is\r\nanything at all of interest in Warner, it is the consistency with which\r\na critical physiological condition may convert itself, step by step,\r\nconclusion after conclusion, into a method, a form of procedure, a\r\nreform of all principles, a crisis in taste.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eAt this point I shall only stop to consider the question of \u003ci\u003estyle.\u003c/i\u003e\r\nHow is \u003ci\u003edecadence\u003c/i\u003e in \u003ci\u003eliterature\u003c/i\u003e characterised? By the fact that in\r\nit life no longer animates the whole. Words become predominant and\r\nleap right out of the sentence to which they belong, the sentences\r\nthemselves trespass beyond their bounds, and obscure the sense of\r\nthe whole page, and the page in its turn gains in vigour at\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_20\"\u003e[Pg 20]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e the\r\ncost of the whole,—the whole is no longer a whole. But this is the\r\nformula for every decadent style: there is always anarchy among the\r\natoms, disaggregation of the will,—in moral terms: \"freedom of the\r\nindividual,\"—extended into a political theory: \"\u003ci\u003eequal\u003c/i\u003e rights for\r\nall.\" Life, equal vitality, all the vibration and exuberance of life,\r\ndriven back into the smallest structure, and the remainder left almost\r\nlifeless. Everywhere paralysis, dis-tress, and numbness, or hostility\r\nand chaos: both striking one with ever increasing force the higher the\r\nforms of organisation are into which one ascends. The whole no longer\r\nlives at all: it is composed, reckoned up, artificial, a fictitious\r\nthing.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIn Wagners case the first thing we notice is an hallucination, not\r\nof tones, but of attitudes. Only after he has the latter does he\r\nbegin to seek the semiotics of tone for them. If we wish to admire\r\nhim, we should observe him at work here: how he separates and\r\ndistinguishes, how he arrives at small unities, and how he galvanises\r\nthem, accentuates them, and brings them into pre-eminence. But in\r\nthis way he exhausts his strength: the rest is worthless. How paltry,\r\nawkward, and amateurish is his manner of \"developing,\" his attempt at\r\ncombining incompatible parts. His manner in this respect reminds one\r\nof two people who even in other ways are not unlike him in style—the\r\nbrothers Goncourt; one almost feels compassion for so much impotence.\r\nThat Wagner disguised his inability to create organic forms, under the\r\ncloak of a principle, that he should have con\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_21\"\u003e[Pg 21]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003estructed a \"dramatic\r\nstyle\" out of what we should call the total inability to create any\r\nstyle whatsoever, is quite in keeping with that daring habit, which\r\nstuck to him throughout his life, of setting up a principle wherever\r\ncapacity failed him. (In this respect he was very different from\r\nold Kant, who rejoiced in another form of daring, \u003ci\u003ei.e.:\u003c/i\u003e whenever\r\na principle failed him, he endowed man with a \"capacity\" which took\r\nits place….) Once more let it be said that Wagner is really only\r\nworthy of admiration and love by virtue of his inventiveness in small\r\nthings, in his elaboration of details,—here one is quite justified in\r\nproclaiming him a master of the first rank, as our greatest musical\r\n\u003ci\u003eminiaturist,\u003c/i\u003e who compresses an infinity of meaning and sweetness\r\ninto the smallest space. His wealth of colour, of chiaroscuro, of\r\nthe mystery of a dying light, so pampers our senses that afterwards\r\nalmost every other musician strikes us as being too robust. If people\r\nwould believe me, they would not form the highest idea of Wagner from\r\nthat which pleases them in him to-day. All that was only devised for\r\nconvincing the masses, and people like ourselves recoil from it just\r\nas one would recoil from too garish a fresco. What concern have we\r\nwith the irritating brutality of the overture to the \"Tannhäuser\"?\r\nOr with the Walkyrie Circus? Whatever has become popular in Wagner\u0027s\r\nart, including that which has become so outside the theatre, is in bad\r\ntaste and spoils taste. The \"Tannhäuser\" March seems to me to savour\r\nof the Philistine; the overture to the \"Flying Dutchman\" is much ado\r\nabout nothing;\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_22\"\u003e[Pg 22]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e the prelude to \"Lohengrin\" was the first, only too\r\ninsidious, only too successful example of how one can hypnotise with\r\nmusic (—I dislike all music which aspires to nothing higher than to\r\nconvince the nerves). But apart from the Wagner who paints frescoes\r\nand practises magnetism, there is yet another Wagner who hoards small\r\ntreasures: our greatest melancholic in music, full of side glances,\r\nloving speeches, and words of comfort, in which no one ever forestalled\r\nhim,—the tone-master of melancholy and drowsy happiness…. A lexicon\r\nof Wagner\u0027s most intimate phrases—a host of short fragments of from\r\nfive to fifteen bars each, of music which \u003ci\u003enobody knows….\u003c/i\u003e Wagner had\r\nthe virtue of \u003ci\u003edécadents,\u003c/i\u003e—pity….\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e8.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e—\"Very good! But how can this \u003ci\u003edécadent\u003c/i\u003e spoil one\u0027s taste if\r\nperchance one is not a musician, if perchance one is not oneself\r\na \u003ci\u003edécadent?\"\u003c/i\u003e—Conversely! How can one \u003ci\u003ehelp\u003c/i\u003e it! \u003ci\u003eJust\u003c/i\u003e you try\r\nit!—You know not what Wagner is: quite a great actor! Does a more\r\nprofound, a more \u003ci\u003eponderous\u003c/i\u003e influence exist on the stage? Just look at\r\nthese youthlets,—all benumbed, pale, breathless! They are Wagnerites:\r\nthey know nothing about music,—and yet Wagner gets the mastery of\r\nthem. Wagner\u0027s art presses with the weight of a hundred atmospheres:\r\ndo but submit, there is nothing else to do…. Wagner the actor is a\r\ntyrant, his pathos flings all taste, all resistance, to the winds.\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_23\"\u003e[Pg 23]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\n—Who else has this persuasive power in his attitudes, who else sees\r\nattitudes so clearly before anything else! This holding-of-its-breath\r\nin Wagnerian pathos, this disinclination to have done with an intense\r\nfeeling, this terrifying habit of dwelling on a situation in which\r\nevery instant almost chokes one.——\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eWas Wagner a musician at all? In any case he was something else to \u003ci\u003ea\r\nmuch greater degree\u003c/i\u003e—that is to say, an incomparable \u003ci\u003ehistrio,\u003c/i\u003e the\r\ngreatest mime, the most astounding theatrical genius that the Germans\r\nhave ever had, our \u003ci\u003escenic artist par excellence.\u003c/i\u003e He belongs to some\r\nother sphere than the history of music, with whose really great and\r\ngenuine figure he must not be confounded. Wagner \u003ci\u003eand\u003c/i\u003e Beethoven—this\r\nis blasphemy—and above all it does not do justice even to Wagner….\r\nAs a musician he was no more than what he was as a man: he \u003ci\u003ebecame\u003c/i\u003e a\r\nmusician, he \u003ci\u003ebecame\u003c/i\u003e a poet, because the tyrant in him, his actor\u0027s\r\ngenius, drove him to be both. Nothing is known concerning Wagner, so\r\nlong as his dominating instinct has not been divined.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eWagner was \u003ci\u003enot\u003c/i\u003e instinctively a musician. And this he proved by the\r\nway in which he abandoned all laws and rules, or, in more precise\r\nterms, all style in music, in order to make what he wanted with it,\r\n\u003ci\u003ei.e.,\u003c/i\u003e a rhetorical medium for the stage, a medium of expression, a\r\nmeans of accentuating an attitude, a vehicle of suggestion and of the\r\npsychologically picturesque. In this department Wagner may well stand\r\nas an inventor and an innovator of the first order—he \u003ci\u003eincreased the\r\npowers of speech\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_24\"\u003e[Pg 24]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e of music to an incalculable degree\u003c/i\u003e—: he is the\r\nVictor Hugo of music as language, provided always we allow that under\r\ncertain circumstances music may be something which is not music, but\r\nspeech—instrument—\u003ci\u003eancilla dramaturgica.\u003c/i\u003e Wagner\u0027s music, \u003ci\u003enot\u003c/i\u003e\r\nin the tender care of theatrical taste, which is very tolerant, is\r\nsimply bad music, perhaps the worst that has ever been composed. When\r\na musician can no longer count up to three, he becomes \"dramatic,\" he\r\nbecomes \"Wagnerian.\" …\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eWagner almost discovered the magic which can be wrought even now\r\nby means of music which is both incoherent and \u003ci\u003eelementary.\u003c/i\u003e His\r\nconsciousness of this attains to huge proportions, as does also\r\nhis instinct to dispense entirely with higher law and \u003ci\u003estyle.\u003c/i\u003e The\r\nelementary factors—sound, movement, colour, in short, the whole\r\nsensuousness of music—suffice. Wagner never calculates as a musician\r\nwith a musician\u0027s conscience: all he strains after is effect, nothing\r\nmore than effect. And he knows what he has to make an effect upon!—In\r\nthis he is as unhesitating as Schiller was, as any theatrical man must\r\nbe; he has also the latter\u0027s contempt for the world which he brings to\r\nits knees before him. A man is an actor when he is ahead of mankind in\r\nhis possession of this one view, that everything which has to strike\r\npeople as true, must not be true. This rule was formulated by Talma: it\r\ncontains the whole psychology of the actor, it also contains—and this\r\nwe need not doubt—all his morality. Wagner\u0027s music is never true.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e—But it is supposed to be so: and thus everything is as it should be.\r\nAs long as we are young, and\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_25\"\u003e[Pg 25]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e Wagnerites into the bargain, we regard\r\nWagner as rich, even as the model of a prodigal giver, even as a great\r\nlandlord in the realm of sound. We admire him in very much the same\r\nway as young Frenchmen admire Victor Hugo—that is to say, for his\r\n\"royal liberality.\" Later on we admire the one as well as the other for\r\nthe opposite reason: as masters and paragons in economy, as \u003ci\u003eprudent\u003c/i\u003e\r\namphitryons. Nobody can equal them in the art of providing a princely\r\nboard with such a modest outlay.—The Wagnerite, with his credulous\r\nstomach, is even sated with the fare which his master conjures up\r\nbefore him. But we others who, in books as in music, desire above all\r\nto find \u003ci\u003esubstance,\u003c/i\u003e and who are scarcely satisfied with the mere\r\nrepresentation of a banquet, are much worse off. In plain English,\r\nWagner does not give us enough to masticate. His recitative—very\r\nlittle meat, more bones, and plenty of broth—I christened \"\u003ci\u003ealia\r\ngenovese\u003c/i\u003e\": I had no intention of flattering the Genoese with this\r\nremark, but rather the \u003ci\u003eolder recitativo,\u003c/i\u003e the \u003ci\u003erecitativo secco.\u003c/i\u003e\r\nAnd as to Wagnerian \u003ci\u003eleitmotif,\u003c/i\u003e I fear I lack the necessary culinary\r\nunderstanding for it. If hard pressed, I might say that I regard it\r\nperhaps as an ideal toothpick, as an opportunity of ridding one\u0027s self\r\nof what remains of one\u0027s meal. Wagner\u0027s \"arias\" are still left over.\r\nBut now I shall hold my tongue.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e9.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eEven in his general sketch of the action, Wagner is above all an actor.\r\nThe first thing that occurs to him is a scene which is certain to\r\nproduce a\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_26\"\u003e[Pg 26]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e strong effect, a real \u003ci\u003eactio,\u003c/i\u003e\u003ca id=\"FNanchor_4_10\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003ca class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_4_10\"\u003e[4]\u003c/a\u003e with a basso-relievo of\r\nattitudes; an \u003ci\u003eoverwhelming\u003c/i\u003e scene, this he now proceeds to elaborate\r\nmore deeply, and out of it he draws his characters. The whole of what\r\nremains to be done follows of itself, fully in keeping with a technical\r\neconomy which has no reason to be subtle. It is not Corneille\u0027s public\r\nthat Wagner has to consider, it is merely the nineteenth century.\r\nConcerning the \"actual requirements of the stage\" Wagner would have\r\nabout the same opinion as any other actor of to-day: a series of\r\npowerful scenes, each stronger than the one that preceded it,—and,\r\nin between, all kinds of \u003ci\u003eclever\u003c/i\u003e nonsense. His first concern is to\r\nguarantee the effect of his work; he begins with the third act, he\r\n\u003ci\u003eapproves\u003c/i\u003e his work according to the quality of its final effect.\r\nGuided by this sort of understanding of the stage, there is not much\r\ndanger of one\u0027s creating a drama unawares. Drama demands \u003ci\u003einexorable\u003c/i\u003e\r\nlogic: but what did Wagner care about logic? Again I say, it was not\r\nCorneille\u0027s public that he had to consider; but\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_27\"\u003e[Pg 27]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e merely Germans!\r\nEverybody knows the technical difficulties before which the dramatist\r\noften has to summon all his strength and frequently to sweat his blood:\r\nthe difficulty of making the \u003ci\u003eplot\u003c/i\u003e seem necessary and the unravelment\r\nas well, so that both are conceivable only in a certain way, and so\r\nthat each may give the impression of freedom (the principle of the\r\nsmallest expenditure of energy). Now the very last thing that Wagner\r\ndoes is to sweat blood over the plot; and on this and the unravelment\r\nhe certainly spends the smallest possible amount of energy. Let anybody\r\nput one of Wagner\u0027s \"plots\" under the microscope, and I wager that he\r\nwill be forced to laugh. Nothing is more enlivening than the dilemma\r\nin \"Tristan,\" unless it be that in the \"Mastersingers.\" Wagner is \u003ci\u003eno\u003c/i\u003e\r\ndramatist; let nobody be deceived on this point. All he did was to\r\nlove the word \"drama\"—he always loved fine words. Nevertheless, in\r\nhis writings the word \"drama\" is merely a misunderstanding (—\u003ci\u003eand\u003c/i\u003e a\r\npiece of shrewdness: Wagner always affected superiority in regard to\r\nthe word \"opera\"—); just as the word \"spirit\" is a misunderstanding\r\nin the New Testament.—He was not enough of a psychologist for drama;\r\nhe instinctively avoided a psychological plot—but how?—by always\r\nputting idiosyncrasy in its place … Very modern—eh? Very Parisian!\r\nvery decadent! … Incidentally, the \u003ci\u003eplots\u003c/i\u003e that Wagner knows how to\r\nunravel with the help of dramatic inventions, are of quite another\r\nkind. For example, let us suppose that Wagner requires a female voice.\r\nA whole act without a woman\u0027s voice would be\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_28\"\u003e[Pg 28]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e impossible! But in this\r\nparticular instance not one of the heroines happens to be free. What\r\ndoes Wagner do? He emancipates the oldest woman on earth, Erda: \"Step\r\nup, aged grand-mamma! You have got to sing!\" And Erda sings. Wagner\u0027s\r\nend has been achieved. Thereupon he immediately dismisses the old lady:\r\n\"Why on earth did you come? Off with you! Kindly go to sleep again!\"\r\nIn short, a scene full of mythological awe, before which the Wagnerite\r\n\u003ci\u003ewonders\u003c/i\u003e all kinds of things….\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e—\"But the substance of Wagner\u0027s texts! their mythical substance, their\r\neternal substance:\"—Question: how is this substance, this eternal\r\nsubstance tested? The chemical analyst replies: Translate Wagner into\r\nthe real, into the modern,—let us be even more cruel, and say: into\r\nthe bourgeois! And what will then become of him?—Between ourselves, I\r\nhave tried the experiment. Nothing is more entertaining, nothing more\r\nworthy of being recommended to a picnic-party, than to discuss Wagner\r\ndressed in a more modern garb: for instance Parsifal, as a candidate\r\nin divinity, with a public-school education (—the latter, quite\r\nindispensable \u003ci\u003efor pure\u003c/i\u003e foolishness). What \u003ci\u003esurprises\u003c/i\u003e await one!\r\nWould you believe it, that Wagner\u0027s heroines one and all, once they\r\nhave been divested of the heroic husks, are almost Indistinguishable\r\nfrom Mdme. Bovary!—just as one can conceive conversely, of Flaubert\u0027s\r\nbeing \u003ci\u003ewell able\u003c/i\u003e to transform all his heroines into Scandinavian\r\nor Carthaginian women, and then to offer them to Wagner in this\r\nmythologised form as a libretto. Indeed, generally\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_29\"\u003e[Pg 29]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e speaking, Wagner\r\ndoes not seem to have become interested in any other problems than\r\nthose which engross the little Parisian decadents of to-day. Always\r\nfive paces away from the hospital! All very modern problems, all\r\nproblems which are at home \u003ci\u003ein big cities!\u003c/i\u003e do not doubt it!… Have\r\nyou noticed (it is in keeping with this association of ideas) that\r\nWagner\u0027s heroines never have any children?—They \u003ci\u003ecannot\u003c/i\u003e have them,…\r\nThe despair with which Wagner tackled the problem of arranging in some\r\nway for Siegfried\u0027s birth, betrays how modern his feelings on this\r\npoint actually were.—\"emancipated woman\"—but not with any hope of\r\noffspring.—And now here is a fact which leaves us speechless: Parsifal\r\nis Lohengrin\u0027s father! How ever did he do it?—Ought one at this\r\njuncture to remember that \"chastity works miracles\"?…\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp style=\"margin-left: 20%;\"\u003e\u003ci\u003eWagnerus dixit princeps in castitate auctoritas.\u003c/i\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e10.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eAnd now just a word \u003ci\u003een passant\u003c/i\u003e concerning Wagner\u0027s writings: they are\r\namong other things a school of \u003ci\u003eshrewdness.\u003c/i\u003e The system of procedures\r\nof which Wagner disposes, might be applied to a hundred other\r\ncases,—he that hath ears to hear let him hear. Perhaps I may lay claim\r\nto some public acknowledgment, if I put three ox the most valuable of\r\nthese procedures into a precise form.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eEverything that Wagner \u003ci\u003ecannot\u003c/i\u003e do is bad.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eWagner could do much more than he does; but his strong principles\r\nprevent him.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eEverything that Wagner \u003ci\u003ecan\u003c/i\u003e do, no one will\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_30\"\u003e[Pg 30]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e ever be able to do after\r\nhim, no one has ever done before him, and no one must ever do after\r\nhim: Wagner is godly….\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThese three propositions are the quintessence of Wagner\u0027s\r\nwritings;—the rest is merely—\"literature.\"\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e—Not every kind of music hitherto has been in need of literature;\r\nand it were well, to try and discover the actual reason of this. Is\r\nit perhaps that Wagner\u0027s music is too difficult to understand? Or did\r\nhe fear precisely the reverse.—that it was too easy,—that people\r\nmight \u003ci\u003enot understand it with sufficient difficulty?\u003c/i\u003e—As a matter of\r\nfact, his whole life long, he did nothing but repeat one proposition:\r\nthat his music did not mean music alone! But something more! Something\r\nimmeasurably more!… \"\u003ci\u003eNot music alone\u003c/i\u003e\"—\u003ci\u003eno\u003c/i\u003e musician would speak\r\nin this way. I repeat, Wagner could not create things as a whole; he\r\nhad no choice, he was obliged to create things in bits; with \"motives,\"\r\nattitudes, formulæ, duplications, and hundreds of repetitions, he\r\nremained a rhetorician in music,—and that is why he was at bottom\r\n\u003ci\u003eforced\u003c/i\u003e to press \"this means\" into the foreground. \"Music can never be\r\nanything else than a means\": this was his theory; but above all it was\r\nthe only \u003ci\u003epractice\u003c/i\u003e that lay open to him. No musician however thinks\r\nin this way.—Wagner was in need of literature, in order to persuade\r\nthe whole world to take his music seriously, profoundly, \"because it\r\n\u003ci\u003emeant\u003c/i\u003e an infinity of things\"; all his life he was the commentator of\r\nthe \"Idea.\"—What does Elsa stand for? But without a doubt, Elsa is\r\n\"the unconscious\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_31\"\u003e[Pg 31]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e \u003ci\u003emind of the people\u003c/i\u003e\" (—\"when I realised this, I\r\nnaturally became a thorough revolutionist\"—).\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eDo not let us forget that, when Hegel and Schelling were misleading\r\nthe minds of Germany, Wagner was still young: that he guessed, or\r\nrather fully grasped, that the only thing which Germans take seriously\r\nis—\"the idea,\"—that is to say, something obscure, uncertain,\r\nwonderful; that among Germans lucidity is an objection, logic a\r\nrefutation. Schopenhauer rigorously pointed out the dishonesty of\r\nHegel\u0027s and Schelling\u0027s age,—rigorously, but also unjustly; for he\r\nhimself, the pessimistic old counterfeiter, was in no way more \"honest\"\r\nthan his more famous contemporaries. But let us leave morality out of\r\nthe question, Hegel is a \u003ci\u003ematter of taste….\u003c/i\u003e And not only of German\r\nbut of European taste! … A taste which Wagner understood!—which he\r\nfelt equal to! which he has immortalised!—All he did was to apply\r\nit to music—he invented a style for himself, which might mean an\r\n\"infinity of things,\"—he was \u003ci\u003eHegel\u0027s\u003c/i\u003e heir…. Music as \"Idea.\"—\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eAnd how well Wagner was understood!—The same kind of man who used\r\nto gush over Hegel, now gushes over Wagner; in his school they\r\neven \u003ci\u003ewrite\u003c/i\u003e Hegelian.\u003ca id=\"FNanchor_5_11\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003ca class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_5_11\"\u003e[5]\u003c/a\u003e But he who understood Wagner best, was\r\nthe German youthlet. The two words \"infinity\" and \"meaning\" were\r\nsufficient for this: at their sound the youthlet immediately began\r\nto feel exceptionally happy. Wagner did \u003ci\u003enot\u003c/i\u003e conquer these boys\r\nwith music, but with the \"idea\":—it is\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_32\"\u003e[Pg 32]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e the enigmatical vagueness\r\nof his art, its game of hide-and-seek amid a hundred symbols, its\r\npolychromy in ideals, which leads and lures the lads. It is Wagner\u0027s\r\ngenius for forming clouds, his sweeps and swoops through the air,\r\nhis ubiquity and nullibiety—precisely the same qualities with which\r\nHegel led and lured in his time!—Moreover in the presence of Wagner\u0027s\r\nmultifariousness, plenitude and arbitrariness, they seem to themselves\r\njustified—\"saved.\" Tremulously they listen while the \u003ci\u003egreat symbols\u003c/i\u003e\r\nin his art seem to make themselves heard from out the misty distance,\r\nwith a gentle roll of thunder, and they are not at all displeased if at\r\ntimes it gets a little grey, gruesome and cold. Are they not one and\r\nall, like Wagner himself, on \u003ci\u003equite intimate terms\u003c/i\u003e with bad weather,\r\nwith German weather! Wotan is their God: but Wotan is the God of bad\r\nweather…. They are right, how could these German youths—in their\r\npresent condition,—miss what we others, we \u003ci\u003ehalcyonians,\u003c/i\u003e miss in\r\nWagner? \u003ci\u003ei.e.: la gaya scienza;\u003c/i\u003e light feet, wit, fire, grave, grand\r\nlogic, stellar dancing, wanton intellectuality, the vibrating light of\r\nthe South, the calm sea—perfection….\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e11.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e—I have mentioned the sphere to which Wagner belongs—certainly not to\r\nthe history of music. What, however, does he mean historically?—\u003ci\u003eThe\r\nrise of the actor in music,\u003c/i\u003e a momentous event which not only leads me\r\nto think but also to fear.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIn a word: \"Wagner and Liszt.\" Never yet\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_33\"\u003e[Pg 33]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e have the \"uprightness\"\r\nand \"genuineness\" of musicians been put to such a dangerous test.\r\nIt is glaringly obvious: great success, mob success is no longer\r\nthe achievement of the genuine,—in order to get it a man must be\r\nan actor!—Victor Hugo and Richard Wagner—they both prove one\r\nand the same thing: that in declining civilisations, wherever\r\nthe mob is allowed to decide, genuineness becomes superfluous,\r\nprejudicial, unfavourable. The actor, alone, can still kindle \u003ci\u003egreat\u003c/i\u003e\r\nenthusiasm.—And thus it is \u003ci\u003ehis golden age\u003c/i\u003e which is now dawning—his\r\nand that of all those who are in any way related to him. With drums\r\nand fifes, Wagner marches at the head of all artists in declamation,\r\nin display and virtuosity. He began by convincing the conductors\r\nof orchestras, the scene-shifters and stage-singers, not to forget\r\nthe orchestra:—he \"delivered\" them from monotony…. The movement\r\nthat Wagner created has spread even to the land of knowledge: whole\r\nsciences pertaining to music are rising slowly, out of centuries\r\nof scholasticism. As an example of what I mean, let me point more\r\nparticularly to \u003ci\u003eRiemann\u0027s\u003c/i\u003e services to rhythmics; he was the first\r\nwho called attention to the leading idea in punctuation—even\r\nfor music (unfortunately he did so with a bad word; he called it\r\n\"phrasing\").—All these people, and I say it with gratitude, are\r\nthe best, the most respectable among Wagner\u0027s admirers—they have a\r\nperfect right to honour Wagner. The same instinct unites them with one\r\nanother; in him they recognise their highest type, and since he has\r\ninflamed them with his own ardour they feel\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_34\"\u003e[Pg 34]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e themselves transformed\r\ninto power, even into great power. In this quarter, if anywhere,\r\nWagner\u0027s influence has really been \u003ci\u003ebeneficent.\u003c/i\u003e Never before has\r\nthere been so much thinking, willing, and industry in this sphere.\r\nWagner endowed all these artists with a new conscience: what they now\r\nexact and \u003ci\u003eobtain\u003c/i\u003e from themselves, they had never exacted before\r\nWagner\u0027s time—before then they had been too modest. Another spirit\r\nprevails on the stage since Wagner rules there: the most difficult\r\nthings are expected, blame is severe, praise very scarce,—the good\r\nand the excellent have become the rule. Taste is no longer necessary,\r\nnor even is a good voice. Wagner is sung only with ruined voices: this\r\nhas a more \"dramatic\" effect. Even talent is out of the question.\r\nExpressiveness at all costs, which is what the Wagnerian ideal—the\r\nideal of decadence—demands, is hardly compatible with talent. All that\r\nis required for this is virtue—that is to say, training, automatism,\r\n\"self-denial.\" Neither taste, voices, nor gifts; Wagner\u0027s stage\r\nrequires but one thing: \u003ci\u003eGermans!…\u003c/i\u003e The definition of a German:\r\nan obedient man with long legs…. There is a deep significance in\r\nthe fact that the rise of Wagner should have coincided with the rise\r\nof the \"Empire\": both phenomena are a proof of one and the same\r\nthing—obedience and long legs.—Never have people been more obedient,\r\nnever have they been so well ordered about. The conductors of Wagnerian\r\norchestras, more particularly, are worthy of an age, which posterity\r\nwill one day call, with timid awe, the \u003ci\u003eclassical age of war.\u003c/i\u003e\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_35\"\u003e[Pg 35]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e Wagner\r\nunderstood how to command; in this respect, too, he was a great\r\nteacher. He commanded as a man who had exercised an inexorable will\r\nover himself—as one who had practised lifelong discipline: Wagner\r\nwas, perhaps, the greatest example of self-violence in the whole of\r\nthe history of art (—even Alfieri, who in other respects is his\r\nnext-of-kin, is outdone by him. The note of a Torinese).\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e12.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThis view, that our actors have become more worthy of respect than\r\nheretofore, does not imply that I believe them to have become less\r\ndangerous … But who is in any doubt as to what I want,—as to what\r\nthe \u003ci\u003ethree requisitions\u003c/i\u003e are concerning which my wrath and my care and\r\nlove of art, have made me open my mouth on this occasion?\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eThat the stage should not become master of the arts. That the actor\r\nshould not become the corrupter of the genuine.\u003c/i\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eThat music should not become an art of lying.\u003c/i\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp style=\"margin-left: 70%; font-size: 0.8em;\"\u003eFRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_36\"\u003e[Pg 36]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003ch5\u003ePOSTSCRIPT\u003c/h5\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe gravity of these last words allows me at this point to introduce a\r\nfew sentences out of an unprinted essay which will at least leave no\r\ndoubt as to my earnestness in regard to this question. The title of\r\nthis essay is: \"What Wagner has cost us.\"\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eOne pays dearly for having been a follower of Wagner. Even to-day a\r\nvague feeling that this is so, still prevails. Even Wagner\u0027s success,\r\nhis triumph, did not uproot this feeling thoroughly. But formerly it\r\nwas strong, it was terrible; it was a gloomy hate throughout almost\r\nthree-quarters of Wagner\u0027s life. The resistance which he met with\r\namong us Germans cannot be too highly valued or too highly honoured.\r\nPeople guarded themselves against him as against an illness,—not\r\nwith arguments—it is impossible to refute an illness—, but with\r\nobstruction, with mistrust, with repugnance, with loathing, with sombre\r\nearnestness, as though he were a great rampant danger. The æsthetes\r\ngave themselves away when out of three schools of German philosophy\r\nthey waged an absurd war against Wagner\u0027s principles with \"ifs\" and\r\n\"fors\"—what did he care about principles, even his own!—The Germans\r\nthemselves had enough instinctive good sense to dispense with every\r\n\"if\" and \"for\" in this matter. An instinct is weakened when it becomes\r\nconscious: for by\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_37\"\u003e[Pg 37]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e becoming conscious it makes itself feeble. If there\r\nwere any signs that in spite of the universal character of European\r\ndecadence there was still a modicum of health, still an instinctive\r\npremonition of what is harmful and dangerous, residing in the German\r\nsoul, then it would be precisely this blunt resistance to Wagner which\r\nI should least like to see underrated. It does us honour, it gives us\r\nsome reason to hope: France no longer has such an amount of health at\r\nher disposal. The Germans, these \u003ci\u003eloiterers par excellence,\u003c/i\u003e as history\r\nshows, are to-day the most backward among the civilised nations of\r\nEurope: this has its advantages,—for they are thus relatively the\r\nyoungest.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eOne pays dearly for having been a follower of Wagner. It is only\r\nquite recently that the Germans have overcome a sort of dread of\r\nhim,—the desire to be rid of him occurred to them again and again.\u003ca id=\"FNanchor_6_12\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003ca class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_6_12\"\u003e[6]\u003c/a\u003e\r\nDoes anybody remember a very curious occurrence in which, quite\r\nunexpectedly towards the end, this\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_38\"\u003e[Pg 38]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e old feeling once more manifested\r\nitself? It happened at Wagner\u0027s funeral. The first Wagner Society,\r\nthe one in Munich, laid a wreath on his grave with this inscription,\r\nwhich immediately became famous: \"Salvation to the Saviour!\" Everybody\r\nadmired the lofty inspiration which had dictated this inscription, as\r\nalso the taste which seemed to be the privilege of the followers of\r\nWagner. Many also, however (it was singular enough), made this slight\r\nalteration in it: \"Salvation \u003ci\u003efrom\u003c/i\u003e the Saviour\" —People began to\r\nbreathe again.—\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eOne pays dearly for having been a follower of Wagner. Let us try to\r\nestimate the influence of this worship upon culture. Whom did this\r\nmovement press to the front? What did it make ever more and more\r\npre-eminent?—In the first place the layman\u0027s arrogance, the arrogance\r\nof the art-maniac. Now these people are organising societies, they\r\nwish to make their taste prevail, they even wish to pose as judges\r\n\u003ci\u003ein rebus musicis et musicantibus.\u003c/i\u003e Secondly: an ever increasing\r\nindifference towards severe, noble and conscientious schooling in\r\nthe service of art; and in its place the belief in genius, or in\r\nplain English, cheeky dilettantism (—the formula for this is to be\r\nfound in the \u003ci\u003eMastersingers).\u003c/i\u003e Thirdly, and this is the worst of\r\nall: \u003ci\u003eTheatrocracy\u003c/i\u003e—, the craziness of a belief in the pre-eminence\r\nof the theatre, in the right of the theatre to rule supreme over\r\nthe arts, over Art in general…. But this should be shouted into\r\nthe face of Wagnerites a hundred times over: that the theatre is\r\nsomething lower than art, something secondary, something coarsened,\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_39\"\u003e[Pg 39]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nabove all something suitably distorted and falsified for the mob. In\r\nthis respect Wagner altered nothing: Bayreuth is grand Opera—and not\r\neven good opera…. The stage is a form of Demolatry in the realm of\r\ntaste, the stage is an insurrection of the mob, a \u003ci\u003eplebiscite\u003c/i\u003e against\r\ngood taste…. The case of Wagner proves this fact: he captivated the\r\nmasses—he depraved taste, he even perverted our taste for opera!—\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eOne pays dearly for having been a follower of Wagner. What has\r\nWagner-worship made out of spirit? Does Wagner liberate the spirit?\r\nTo him belong that ambiguity and equivocation and all other qualities\r\nwhich can convince the uncertain without making them conscious of why\r\nthey have been convinced. In this sense Wagner is a seducer on a grand\r\nscale. There is nothing exhausted, nothing effete, nothing dangerous\r\nto life, nothing that slanders the world in the realm of spirit, which\r\nhas not secretly found shelter in his art; he conceals the blackest\r\nobscurantism in the luminous orbs of the ideal. He flatters every\r\nnihilistic (Buddhistic) instinct and togs it out in music; he flatters\r\nevery form of Christianity, every religious expression of decadence.\r\nHe that hath ears to hear let him hear: everything that has ever grown\r\nout of the soil of impoverished life, the whole counterfeit coinage of\r\nthe transcendental and of a Beyond found its most sublime advocate in\r\nWagner\u0027s art, not in formulæ (Wagner is too clever to use formulæ), but\r\nin the persuasion of the senses which in their turn makes the spirit\r\nweary and morbid. Music in the form of Circe … in\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_40\"\u003e[Pg 40]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e this respect\r\nhis last work is his greatest masterpiece. In the art of seduction\r\n\"Parsifal\" will for ever maintain its rank as a stroke of genius….\r\nI admire this work. I would fain have composed it myself. Wagner was\r\nnever better inspired than towards the end. The subtlety with which\r\nbeauty and disease are united here, reaches such a height, that it\r\ncasts so to speak a shadow upon all Wagner\u0027s earlier achievements:\r\nit seems too bright, too healthy. Do ye understand this? Health and\r\nbrightness acting like a shadow? Almost like an objection?… To this\r\nextent are we already pure fools…. Never was their a greater Master\r\nin heavy hieratic perfumes—Never on earth has there been such a\r\nconnoisseur of paltry infinities, of all that thrills, of extravagant\r\nexcesses, of all the feminism from out the vocabulary of happiness!\r\nMy friends, do but drink the philtres of this art! Nowhere will ye\r\nfind a more pleasant method of enervating your spirit, of forgetting\r\nyour manliness in the shade of a rosebush…. Ah, this old magician,\r\nmightiest of Klingsors; how he wages war against us with his art,\r\nagainst us free spirits! How he appeals to every form of cowardice of\r\nthe modern soul with his charming girlish notes! There never was such\r\na \u003ci\u003emortal hatred\u003c/i\u003e of knowledge! One must be a very cynic in order to\r\nresist seduction here. One must be able to bite in order to resist\r\nworshipping at this shrine. Very well, old seducer! The cynic cautions\r\nyou—\u003ci\u003ecave canem\u003c/i\u003e….\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eOne pays dearly for having been a follower of Wagner. I contemplate\r\nthe youthlets who have long been exposed to his infection. The first\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_41\"\u003e[Pg 41]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nrelatively innocuous effect of it is the corruption of their taste.\r\nWagner acts like chronic recourse to the bottle. He stultifies, he\r\nbefouls the stomach. His specific effect: degeneration of the feeling\r\nfor rhythm. What the Wagnerite calls rhythmical is what I call, to\r\nuse a Greek metaphor, \"stirring a swamp.\" Much more dangerous than\r\nall this, however, is the corruption of ideas. The youthlet becomes a\r\nmoon-calf, an \"idealist.\" He stands above science, and in this respect\r\nhe has reached the master\u0027s heights. On the other hand, he assumes\r\nthe airs of a philosopher; he writes for the \u003ci\u003eBayreuth Journal;\u003c/i\u003e he\r\nsolves all problems in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy\r\nMaster. But the most ghastly thing of all is the deterioration of\r\nthe nerves. Let any one wander through a large city at night, in all\r\ndirections he will hear people doing violence to instruments with\r\nsolemn rage and fury, a wild uproar breaks out at intervals. What is\r\nhappening? It is the disciples of Wagner in the act of worshipping\r\nhim…. Bayreuth is another word for a Hydro. A typical telegram from\r\nBayreuth would read \u003ci\u003ebereits bereut\u003c/i\u003e (I already repent). Wagner is bad\r\nfor young men; he is fatal for women. What medically speaking is a\r\nfemale Wagnerite? It seems to me that a doctor could not be too serious\r\nin putting this alternative of conscience to young women: either one\r\nthing or the other. But they have already made their choice. You cannot\r\nserve two Masters when one of these is Wagner. Wagner redeemed woman;\r\nand in return woman built Bayreuth for him. Every sacrifice, every\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_42\"\u003e[Pg 42]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nsurrender: there was nothing that they were not prepared to give him.\r\nWoman impoverishes herself in favour of the Master, she becomes quite\r\ntouching, she stands naked before him. The female Wagnerite, the most\r\nattractive equivocality that exists to-day: she is the incarnation of\r\nWagner\u0027s cause: his cause triumphs with her as its symbol…. Ah, this\r\nold robber! He robs our young men: he even robs our women as well,\r\nand drags them to his cell…. Ah, this old Minotaur! What has he not\r\nalready cost us? Every year processions of the finest young men and\r\nmaidens are led into his labyrinth that he may swallow them up, every\r\nyear the whole of Europe cries out \"Away to Crete! Away to Crete!\" …\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_43\"\u003e[Pg 43]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003ch5\u003eSECOND POSTSCRIPT\u003c/h5\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIt seems to me that my letter is open to some misunderstanding. On\r\ncertain faces I see the expression of gratitude; I even hear modest but\r\nmerry laughter. I prefer to be understood here as in other things. But\r\nsince a certain animal, \u003ci\u003ethe worm of\u003c/i\u003e Empire, the famous \u003ci\u003eRhinoxera,\u003c/i\u003e\r\nhas become lodged in the vineyards of the German spirit, nobody any\r\nlonger understands a word I say. The \u003ci\u003eKreuz-Zeitung\u003c/i\u003e has brought this\r\nhome to me, not to speak of the \u003ci\u003eLitterarisches Centralblatt\u003c/i\u003e I have\r\ngiven the Germans the deepest books that they have ever possessed—a\r\nsufficient reason for their not having understood a word of them…. If\r\nin this essay I declare war against Wagner—and incidentally against a\r\ncertain form of German taste, if I seem to use strong language about\r\nthe cretinism of Bayreuth, it must not be supposed that I am in the\r\nleast anxious to glorify any other musician. Other musicians are not to\r\nbe considered by the side of Wagner. Things are generally bad. Decay\r\nis universal. Disease lies at the very root of things. If Wagner\u0027s\r\nname represents the ruin of music, just as Bernini\u0027s stands for the\r\nruin of sculpture, he is not on that account its cause. All he did\r\nwas to accelerate the fall,—though we are quite prepared to admit\r\nthat he did it in a way which makes one recoil with horror from this\r\nalmost instantaneous decline\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_44\"\u003e[Pg 44]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e and fall to the depths. He possessed\r\nthe ingenuousness of decadence: this constituted his superiority. He\r\nbelieved in it. He did not halt before any of its logical consequences.\r\nThe others hesitated—that is their distinction. They have no\r\nother. What is common to both Wagner and \"the others\" consists in\r\nthis: the decline of all organising power; the abuse of traditional\r\nmeans, without the capacity or the aim that would justify this. The\r\ncounterfeit imitation of grand forms, for which nobody nowadays is\r\nstrong, proud, self-reliant and healthy enough; excessive vitality in\r\nsmall details; passion at all costs; refinement as an expression of\r\nimpoverished life, ever more nerves in the place of muscle. I know\r\nonly one musician who to-day would be able to compose an overture as\r\nan organic whole: and nobody else knows him.\u003ca id=\"FNanchor_7_13\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003ca class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_7_13\"\u003e[7]\u003c/a\u003e He who is famous now,\r\ndoes not write better music than Wagner, but only less characteristic,\r\nless definite music:—less definite, because half measures, even in\r\ndecadence, cannot stand by the side of completeness. But Wagner was\r\ncomplete; Wagner represented thorough corruption; Wagner has had\r\nthe courage, the will, and the conviction for corruption. What does\r\nJohannes Brahms matter? … It was his good fortune to be misunderstood\r\nby Germany he was taken to be an antagonist of Wagner—people required\r\nan antagonist!—But he did not write necessary music, above all he\r\nwrote too much music!—When one is not rich one should\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_45\"\u003e[Pg 45]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e at least have\r\nenough pride to be poor!… The sympathy which here and there was meted\r\nout to Brahms, apart from party interests and party misunderstandings,\r\nwas for a long time a riddle to me: until one day through an accident,\r\nalmost, I discovered that he affected a particular type of man. He\r\nhas the melancholy of impotence. His creations are not the result of\r\nplenitude, he thirsts after abundance. Apart from what he plagiarises,\r\nfrom what he borrows from ancient or exotically modern styles—he is\r\na master in the art of copying,—there remains as his most individual\r\nquality a \u003ci\u003elonging….\u003c/i\u003e And this is what the dissatisfied of all\r\nkinds, and all those who yearn, divine in him. He is much too little\r\nof a personality, too little of a central figure…. The \"impersonal,\"\r\nthose who are not self-centred, love him for this. He is especially the\r\nmusician of a species of dissatisfied women. Fifty steps further on,\r\nand we find the female Wagnerite—just as we find Wagner himself fifty\r\npaces ahead of Brahms.—The female Wagnerite is a more definite, a more\r\ninteresting, and above all, a more attractive type. Brahms is touching\r\nso long as he dreams or mourns over himself in private—in this respect\r\nhe is modern;—he becomes cold, we no longer feel at one with him\r\nwhen he poses as the child of the classics. … People like to call\r\nBrahms Beethoven\u0027s heir: I know of no more cautious euphemism.—All\r\nthat which to-day makes a claim to being the grand style in music is\r\non precisely that account either false to us or false to itself. This\r\nalternative is suspicious enough: in itself it contains a\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_46\"\u003e[Pg 46]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e casuistic\r\nquestion concerning the value of the two cases. The instinct of the\r\nmajority protests against the alternative; \"false to us\"—they do not\r\nwish to be cheated;—and I myself would certainly always prefer this\r\ntype to the other (\"False to itself\"). This is \u003ci\u003emy\u003c/i\u003e taste.—Expressed\r\nmore clearly for the sake of the \"poor in spirit\" it amounts to this:\r\nBrahms \u003ci\u003eor\u003c/i\u003e Wagner…. Brahms is \u003ci\u003enot\u003c/i\u003e an actor.—A very great part\r\nof other musicians may be summed up in the concept Brahms.—I do not\r\nwish to say anything about the clever apes of Wagner, as for instance\r\nGoldmark: when one has \"The Queen of Sheba\" to one\u0027s name, one belongs\r\nto a menagerie,—one ought to put oneself on show.—Nowadays all things\r\nthat can be done well and even with a master hand are small. In this\r\ndepartment alone is honesty still possible. Nothing, however, can cure\r\nmusic as a whole of its chief fault, of its fate, which is to be the\r\nexpression of general physiological contradiction,—which is, in fact,\r\nto be modern.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe best instruction, the most conscientious schooling, the most\r\nthorough familiarity, yea, and even isolation, with the Old\r\nMasters,—all this only acts as a palliative, or, more strictly\r\nspeaking, has but an illusory effect, because the first condition\r\nof the right thing is no longer in our bodies; whether this first\r\ncondition be the strong race of a Händel or the overflowing animal\r\nspirits of a Rossini. Not everyone has the right to every teacher:\r\nand this holds good of whole epochs.—In itself it is not impossible\r\nthat there are still remains of stronger natures, typical unadapted\r\nmen, somewhere\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_47\"\u003e[Pg 47]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e in Europe: from this quarter the advent of a somewhat\r\nbelated form of beauty and perfection, even in music, might still be\r\nhoped for. But the most that we can expect to see are exceptional\r\ncases. From the rule, that corruption is paramount, that corruption is\r\na fatality,—not even a God can save music.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_48\"\u003e[Pg 48]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003ch5\u003eEPILOGUE\u003c/h5\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eAnd now let us take breath and withdraw a moment from this narrow world\r\nwhich necessarily must be narrow, because we have to make enquiries\r\nrelative to the value of \u003ci\u003epersons.\u003c/i\u003e A philosopher feels that he wants\r\nto wash his hands after he has concerned himself so long with the \"Case\r\nof Wagner.\" I shall now give my notion of what is \u003ci\u003emodern.\u003c/i\u003e According\r\nto the measure of energy of every age, there is also a standard that\r\ndetermines which virtues shall be allowed and which forbidden. The\r\nage either has the virtues of \u003ci\u003eascending\u003c/i\u003e life, in which case it\r\nresists the virtues of degeneration with all its deepest instincts.\r\nOr it is in itself an age of degeneration, in which case it requires\r\nthe virtues of declining life,—in which case it hates everything\r\nthat justifies itself, solely as being the outcome of a plenitude,\r\nor a superabundance of strength. Æsthetic is inextricably bound up\r\nwith these biological principles: there is decadent æsthetic, and\r\n\u003ci\u003eclassical\u003c/i\u003e æsthetic,—\"Beauty in itself\" is just as much a chimera\r\nas any other kind of idealism.—Within the narrow sphere of the\r\nso-called moral values, no greater antithesis could be found than that\r\nof \u003ci\u003emaster-morality\u003c/i\u003e and the morality of \u003ci\u003eChristian\u003c/i\u003e valuations: the\r\nlatter having grown out of a thoroughly morbid soil. (—The gospels\r\npresent us with the same physiological types, as do the novels of\r\nDostoiewsky),\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_49\"\u003e[Pg 49]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e the master-morality (\"Roman,\" \"pagan,\" \"classical,\"\r\n\"Renaissance\"), on the other hand, being the symbolic speech of\r\nwell-constitutedness, of \u003ci\u003eascending\u003c/i\u003e life, and of the Will to Power\r\nas a vital principle. Master-morality \u003ci\u003eaffirms\u003c/i\u003e just as instinctively\r\nas Christian morality \u003ci\u003edenies\u003c/i\u003e (\"God,\" \"Beyond,\" \"self-denial,\"—all\r\nof them negations). The first reflects its plenitude upon things,—it\r\ntransfigures, it embellishes, it \u003ci\u003erationalises\u003c/i\u003e the world,—the latter\r\nimpoverishes, bleaches, mars the value of things; it \u003ci\u003esuppresses\u003c/i\u003e the\r\nworld. \"World\" is a Christian term of abuse. These antithetical forms\r\nin the optics of values, are \u003ci\u003eboth\u003c/i\u003e necessary: they are different\r\npoints of view which cannot be circumvented either with arguments or\r\ncounter-arguments. One cannot refute Christianity: it is impossible to\r\nrefute a diseased eyesight. That people should have combated pessimism\r\nas if it had been a philosophy, was the very acme of learned stupidity.\r\nThe concepts \"true\" and \"untrue\" do not seem to me to have any sense in\r\noptics.—That, alone, which has to be guarded against is the falsity,\r\nthe instinctive duplicity which \u003ci\u003ewould fain\u003c/i\u003e regard this antithesis as\r\nno antithesis at all: just as Wagner did,—and his mastery in this\r\nkind of falseness was of no mean order. To cast side-long glances at\r\nmaster-morality, at \u003ci\u003enoble\u003c/i\u003e morality (—Icelandic saga is perhaps the\r\ngreatest documentary evidence of these values), and at the same time to\r\nhave the opposite teaching, the \"gospel of the lowly,\" the doctrine of\r\nthe \u003ci\u003eneed\u003c/i\u003e of salvation, on one\u0027s lips!… Incidentally, I admire the\r\nmodesty of Christians who go to Bayreuth. As for myself, I could \u003ci\u003enot\u003c/i\u003e\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_50\"\u003e[Pg 50]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nendure to hear the sound of certain words on Wagner\u0027s lips. There are\r\nsome concepts which are too good for Bayreuth…. What? Christianity\r\nadjusted for female Wagnerites, perhaps \u003ci\u003eby\u003c/i\u003e female Wagnerites—for,\r\nin his latter days Wagner was thoroughly \u003ci\u003efeminini generis—?\u003c/i\u003e Again I\r\nsay, the Christians of to-day are too modest for me,… If Wagner were\r\na Christian, then Liszt was perhaps a Father of the Church!—The need\r\nof \u003ci\u003esalvation,\u003c/i\u003e the quintessence of all Christian needs, has nothing in\r\ncommon with such clowns: it is the most straightforward expression of\r\ndecadence, it is the most convincing and most painful affirmation of\r\ndecadence, in sublime symbols and practices. The Christian wishes \u003ci\u003eto\r\nbe rid\u003c/i\u003e of himself. \u003ci\u003eLe mot est toujours haïssable.\u003c/i\u003e Noble morality,\r\nmaster-morality, on the other hand, is rooted in a triumphant saying of\r\nyea to \u003ci\u003eone\u0027s self,\u003c/i\u003e—it is the self-affirmation and self-glorification\r\nof life; it also requires sublime symbols and practices; but only\r\n\"because its heart is too full.\" The whole of beautiful art and of\r\ngreat art belongs here: their common essence is gratitude. But we must\r\nallow it a certain instinctive repugnance \u003ci\u003eto décadents,\u003c/i\u003e and a scorn\r\nand horror of the latter\u0027s symbolism: such things almost prove it.\r\nThe noble Romans considered Christianity as a \u003ci\u003efœda superstitio\u003c/i\u003e:\r\nlet me call to your minds the feelings which the last German of noble\r\ntaste—Goethe—had in regard to the cross. It is idle to look for more\r\nvaluable, more \u003ci\u003enecessary\u003c/i\u003e contrasts….\u003ca id=\"FNanchor_8_14\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003ca class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_8_14\"\u003e[8]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_51\"\u003e[Pg 51]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eBut the kind of falsity which is characteristic of the Bayreuthians is\r\nnot exceptional to-day. We all know the hybrid concept of the Christian\r\ngentleman. This \u003ci\u003einnocence\u003c/i\u003e in contradiction, this \"clean conscience\"\r\nin falsehood, is rather modern \u003ci\u003epar excellence,\u003c/i\u003e with it modernity is\r\nalmost defined. Biologically, modern man represents a \u003ci\u003econtradiction of\r\nvalues,\u003c/i\u003e he sits between two stools, he says yea and nay in one breath.\r\nNo wonder that it is precisely in our age that falseness itself became\r\nflesh and blood, and even genius! No wonder \u003ci\u003eWagner\u003c/i\u003e dwelt amongst\r\nus! It was not without reason that I called Wagner the Cagliostro of\r\nmodernity…. But all of us, though we do not know it, involuntarily\r\nhave values, words, formulæ, and morals in our bodies, which are\r\nquite \u003ci\u003eantagonistic\u003c/i\u003e in their origin—regarded from a physiological\r\nstandpoint, we are \u003ci\u003efalse….\u003c/i\u003e How would a \u003ci\u003ediagnosis of the modern\r\nsoul\u003c/i\u003e begin? With a determined incision into this agglomeration of\r\ncontradictory instincts, with the total suppression of its antagonistic\r\nvalues, with vivisection applied to its most \u003ci\u003einstructive\u003c/i\u003e case. To\r\nphilosophers the \"Case of Wagner\" is a \u003ci\u003ewindfall\u003c/i\u003e—this essay, as you\r\nobserve, was inspired by gratitude.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003chr class=\"r5\"\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"footnote\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca id=\"Footnote_1_7\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003ca href=\"#FNanchor_1_7\" class=\"pginternal\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"label\"\u003e[1]\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/a\u003e Senta is the heroine in the \"Flying Dutchman,\"—Tr.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"footnote\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca id=\"Footnote_2_8\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003ca href=\"#FNanchor_2_8\" class=\"pginternal\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"label\"\u003e[2]\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/a\u003e A character in \"Tannhäuser.\"—\u003ci\u003eTr.\u003c/i\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"footnote\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca id=\"Footnote_3_9\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003ca href=\"#FNanchor_3_9\" class=\"pginternal\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"label\"\u003e[3]\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/a\u003e See \"The Will to Power,\" vol. ii, authorised English\r\nedition.—\u003ci\u003eTr.\u003c/i\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"footnote\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca id=\"Footnote_4_10\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003ca href=\"#FNanchor_4_10\" class=\"pginternal\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"label\"\u003e[4]\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/a\u003e \u003ci\u003eNote.\u003c/i\u003e—It was a real disaster for æsthetics when the\r\nword drama got to be translated by \"action.\" Wagner is not the only\r\nculprit here; the whole world does the same;—even the philologists\r\nwho ought to know better. What ancient drama had in view was \u003ci\u003egrand\r\npathetic scenes,\u003c/i\u003e—it even excluded action (or placed it \u003ci\u003ebefore\u003c/i\u003e\r\nthe piece or \u003ci\u003ebehind\u003c/i\u003e the scenes). The word drama is of Doric\r\norigin, and according to the usage of the Dorian language it meant\r\n\"event,\" \"history,\"—both words in a hieratic sense. The oldest drama\r\nrepresented local legends, \"sacred history,\" upon which the foundation\r\nof the cult rested (—thus it was not \"action,\" but fatality: dran in\r\nDoric has nothing to do with action).\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"footnote\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca id=\"Footnote_5_11\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003ca href=\"#FNanchor_5_11\" class=\"pginternal\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"label\"\u003e[5]\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/a\u003e Hegel and his school wrote notoriously obscure German.\r\n—\u003ci\u003eTr.\u003c/i\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"footnote\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca id=\"Footnote_6_12\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003ca href=\"#FNanchor_6_12\" class=\"pginternal\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"label\"\u003e[6]\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/a\u003e Was Wagner a German at all? There are reasons enough for\r\nputting this question. It is difficult to find a single German trait\r\nin his character. Great learner that he was, he naturally imitated a\r\ngreat deal that was German—but that is all. His very soul contradicts\r\neverything which hitherto has been regarded as German; not to mention\r\nGerman musicians!—His father was an actor of the name of Geyer….\r\nThat which has been popularised hitherto as \"Wagner\u0027s life\" is \u003ci\u003efable\r\nconvenue\u003c/i\u003e if not something worse. I confess my doubts on any point\r\nwhich is vouched for by Wagner alone. He was not proud enough to be\r\nable to suffer the truth about himself. Nobody had less pride than he.\r\nLike Victor Hugo he remained true to himself even in his biography,—he\r\nremained an actor.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"footnote\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca id=\"Footnote_7_13\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003ca href=\"#FNanchor_7_13\" class=\"pginternal\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"label\"\u003e[7]\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/a\u003e This undoubtedly refers to Nietzsche\u0027s only disciple and\r\nfriend, Peter Gast.—\u003ci\u003eTr.\u003c/i\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"footnote\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca id=\"Footnote_8_14\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003ca href=\"#FNanchor_8_14\" class=\"pginternal\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"label\"\u003e[8]\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/a\u003e My \"Genealogy of Morals\" contains the best exposition of\r\nthe antithesis \u003ci\u003e\"noble morality\"\u003c/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003e\"Christian\u003c/i\u003e \u003ci\u003emorality\u003c/i\u003e\"; a more\r\ndecisive turning point in the history of religious and moral science\r\ndoes not perhaps exist. This book, which is a touchstone by which I can\r\ndiscover who are my peers, rejoices in being accessible only to the\r\nmost elevated and most severe minds: the others have not the ears to\r\nhear me. One must have one\u0027s passion in things, \u003ci\u003ewherein\u003c/i\u003e no one has\r\npassion nowadays.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003chr class=\"chap\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_52\"\u003e[Pg 52]\u003c/a\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_53\"\u003e[Pg 53]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\r\n\u003ch3\u003e \u003ca id=\"NIETZSCHE_CONTRA_WAGNER\"\u003eNIETZSCHE \u003ci\u003eCONTRA\u003c/i\u003e WAGNER\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/h3\u003e\r\n\u003ch5\u003eTHE BRIEF OF A PSYCHOLOGIST\u003c/h5\u003e\r\n\u003ch4\u003eBy\u003c/h4\u003e\r\n\u003ch5\u003eFRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE\u003c/h5\u003e\r\n\u003chr class=\"chap\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_54\"\u003e[Pg 54]\u003c/a\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_55\"\u003e[Pg 55]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003ch5\u003e \u003ca id=\"PREFACE2\"\u003ePREFACE\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/h5\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe following chapters have been selected from past works of mine,\r\nand not without care. Some of them date back as far as 1877. Here and\r\nthere, of course, they will be found to have been made a little more\r\nintelligible, but above all, more brief. Read consecutively, they can\r\nleave no one in any doubt, either concerning myself, or concerning\r\nWagner: we are antipodes. The reader will come to other conclusions,\r\ntoo, in his perusal of these pages: for instance, that this is an\r\nessay for psychologists and \u003ci\u003enot\u003c/i\u003e for Germans…. I have my readers\r\neverywhere, in Vienna, St Petersburg, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Paris, and\r\nNew York—but \u003ci\u003e1 have none\u003c/i\u003e in Europe\u0027s Flat-land—Germany…. And I\r\nmight even have something to say to Italians whom I love just as much\r\nas I … \u003ci\u003eQuousque tandem, Crispi\u003c/i\u003e … Triple alliance: a people can\r\nonly conclude a \u003ci\u003emisalliance\u003c/i\u003e with the \"Empire.\" …\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp style=\"margin-left: 70%; font-size: 0.8em;\"\u003eFRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp style=\"margin-left: 5%; font-size: 0.8em;\"\u003eTURIN, \u003ci\u003eChristmas\u003c/i\u003e 1888.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003chr class=\"chap\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_56\"\u003e[Pg 56]\u003c/a\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_57\"\u003e[Pg 57]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003ch4\u003eNIETZSCHE \u003ci\u003eCONTRA\u003c/i\u003e WAGNER\u003c/h4\u003e\r\n\u003ch5\u003eWHEREIN I ADMIRE WAGNER.\u003c/h5\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eI believe that artists very often do not know what they are best\r\nable to do. They are much too vain. Their minds are directed to\r\nsomething prouder than merely to appear like little plants, which,\r\nwith freshness, rareness, and beauty, know how to sprout from their\r\nsoil with real perfection. The ultimate goodness of their own garden\r\nand vineyard is superciliously under-estimated by them, and their love\r\nand their insight are not of the same quality. Here is a musician who\r\nis a greater master than anyone else in the discovering of tones,\r\npeculiar to suffering, oppressed, and tormented souls, who can endow\r\neven dumb misery with speech. Nobody can approach him in the colours\r\nof late autumn, in the indescribably touching joy of a last, a very\r\nlast, and all too short gladness; he knows of a chord which expresses\r\nthose secret and weird midnight hours of the soul, when cause and\r\neffect seem to have fallen asunder, and at every moment something may\r\nspring out of nonentity. He is happiest of all when creating from out\r\nthe nethermost depths of human happiness,\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_58\"\u003e[Pg 58]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e and, so to speak, from out\r\nman\u0027s empty bumper, in which the bitterest and most repulsive drops\r\nhave mingled with the sweetest for good or evil at last. He knows\r\nthat weary shuffling along of the soul which is no longer able either\r\nto spring or to fly, nay, which is no longer able to walk; he has\r\nthe modest glance of concealed suffering, of understanding without\r\ncomfort, of leave-taking without word or sign; verily as the Orpheus\r\nof all secret misery he is greater than anyone, and many a thing was\r\nintroduced into art for the first time by him, which hitherto had not\r\nbeen given expression, had not even been thought worthy of art—the\r\ncynical revolts, for instance, of which only the greatest sufferer is\r\ncapable, also many a small and quite microscopical feature of the soul,\r\nas it were the scales of its amphibious nature—yes indeed, he is the\r\nmaster of everything very small. But this he refuses to be! His tastes\r\nare much more in love with vast walls and with daring frescoes! … He\r\ndoes not see that his spirit has another desire and bent—a totally\r\ndifferent outlook—that it prefers to squat peacefully in the corners\r\nof broken-down houses: concealed in this way, and hidden even from\r\nhimself, he paints his really great masterpieces, all of which are very\r\nshort, often only one bar in length—there, only, does he become quite\r\ngood, great and perfect, perhaps there alone.—Wagner is one who has\r\nsuffered much—and this elevates him above other musicians.—I admire\r\nWagner wherever he sets \u003ci\u003ehimself\u003c/i\u003e to music.—\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_59\"\u003e[Pg 59]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003ch5\u003eWHEREIN I RAISE OBJECTIONS.\u003c/h5\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eWith all this I do not wish to imply that I regard this music as\r\nhealthy, and least of all in those places where it speaks of Wagner\r\nhimself. My objections to Wagner\u0027s music are physiological objections.\r\nWhy should I therefore begin by clothing them in æsthetic formulæ?\r\nÆsthetic is indeed nothing more than applied physiology.—The fact I\r\nbring forward, my \u003ci\u003e\"petit fait vrai\"\u003c/i\u003e is that I can no longer breathe\r\nwith ease when this music begins to have its effect upon me; that my\r\nfoot immediately begins to feel indignant at it and rebels: for what\r\nit needs is time, dance, march: even the young German Kaiser could\r\nnot march to Wagner\u0027s Imperial March,—what my foot demands in the\r\nfirst place from music is that ecstasy which lies in good walking,\r\nstepping and dancing. But do not my stomach, my heart, my circulation\r\nalso protest? Are not my intestines also troubled? And do I not become\r\nhoarse unawares? … in order to listen to Wagner I require Géraudel\u0027s\r\nPastilles…. And then I ask myself, what is it that my whole body\r\nmust have from music in general? for there is no such thing as a\r\nsoul…. I believe it must have relief: as if all animal functions\r\nwere accelerated by means of light, bold, unfettered, self-reliant\r\nrhythms; as if brazen and leaden life could lose its weight by means of\r\ndelicate and smooth melodies. My melancholy would fain rest its head\r\nin the haunts and abysses of perfection: for this reason I need music.\r\nBut Wagner makes one ill—What do I care about the theatre? What do I\r\ncare\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_60\"\u003e[Pg 60]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e about the spasms of its moral ecstasies in which the mob—and\r\nwho is not the mob to-day?—rejoices? What do I care about the whole\r\npantomimic hocus-pocus of the actor? You are beginning to see that I\r\nam essentially anti-theatrical at heart. For the stage, this mob art\r\n\u003ci\u003epar excellence,\u003c/i\u003e my soul has that deepest scorn felt by every artist\r\nto-day. With a stage success a man sinks to such an extent in my esteem\r\nas to drop out of sight; failure in this quarter makes me prick my\r\nears, makes me begin to pay attention. But this was not so with Wagner;\r\nnext to the Wagner who created the most unique music that has ever\r\nexisted there was the Wagner who was essentially a man of the stage,\r\nan actor, the most enthusiastic mimomaniac that has perhaps existed\r\non earth, even as a musician. And let it be said \u003ci\u003een passant\u003c/i\u003e that if\r\nWagner\u0027s theory was \"drama is the object, music is only a means\"—his\r\npractice was from beginning to end, the attitude is the end, drama and\r\neven music can never be anything else than means.\" Music as the manner\r\nof accentuating, of strengthening, and deepening dramatic poses and all\r\nthings which please the senses of the actor; and Wagnerian drama only\r\nan opportunity for a host of interesting attitudes!—Alongside of all\r\nother instincts he had the dictatorial instinct of a great actor in\r\neverything: and, as I have already said, as a musician also.—On one\r\noccasion, and not without trouble, I made this clear to a Wagnerite\r\n\u003ci\u003epur sang,\u003c/i\u003e—clearness and a Wagnerite! I won\u0027t say another word.\r\nThere were reasons for adding; \"For heaven\u0027s sake, be a little more\r\ntrue unto yourself! We are not in\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_61\"\u003e[Pg 61]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e Bayreuth now. In Bayreuth people\r\nare only upright in the mass; the individual lies, he even lies to\r\nhimself. One leaves oneself at home when one goes to Bayreuth, one\r\ngives up all right to one\u0027s own tongue and choice, to one\u0027s own taste\r\nand even to one\u0027s own courage, one knows these things no longer as one\r\nis wont to have them and practise them before God and the world and\r\nbetween one\u0027s own four walls. In the theatre no one brings the finest\r\nsenses of his art with him, and least of all the artist who works for\r\nthe theatre,—for here loneliness is lacking; everything perfect does\r\nnot suffer a witness…. In the theatre one becomes mob, herd, woman,\r\nPharisee, electing cattle, patron, idiot—Wagnerite: there, the most\r\npersonal conscience is bound to submit to the levelling charm of the\r\ngreat multitude, there the neighbour rules, there one \u003ci\u003ebecomes\u003c/i\u003e a\r\nneighbour.\"\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003ch5\u003eWAGNER AS A DANGER.\u003c/h5\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e1.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe aim after which more modern music is striving, which is now\r\ngiven the strong but obscure name of \"unending melody,\" can be\r\nclearly understood by comparing it to one\u0027s feelings on entering the\r\nsea. Gradually one loses one\u0027s footing and one ultimately abandons\r\noneself to the mercy or fury of the elements: one has to swim. In the\r\nsolemn, or fiery, swinging movement, first slow and then quick, of\r\nold music—one had to do something quite different; one had to dance.\r\nThe measure which was required for this and the control of certain\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_62\"\u003e[Pg 62]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nbalanced degrees of time and energy, forced the soul of the listener\r\nto continual sobriety of thought.—Upon the counterplay of the cooler\r\ncurrents of air which came from this sobriety, and from the warmer\r\nbreath of enthusiasm, the charm of all good music rested—Richard\r\nWagner wanted another kind of movement,—he overthrew the physiological\r\nfirst principle of all music before his time. It was no longer a matter\r\nof walking or dancing,—we must swim, we must hover…. This perhaps\r\ndecides the whole matter. \"Unending melody\" really wants to break all\r\nthe symmetry of time and strength; it actually scorns these things—Its\r\nwealth of invention resides precisely in what to an older ear sounds\r\nlike rhythmic paradox and abuse. From the imitation or the prevalence\r\nof such a taste there would arise a danger for music—so great that we\r\ncan imagine none greater—the complete degeneration of the feeling\r\nfor rhythm, \u003ci\u003echaos\u003c/i\u003e in the place of rhythm…. The danger reaches\r\nits climax when such music cleaves ever more closely to naturalistic\r\nplay-acting and pantomime, which governed by no laws of form, aim at\r\neffect and nothing more…. Expressiveness at all costs and music a\r\nservant, a slave to attitudes—this is the end….\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e2.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eWhat? would it really be the first virtue of a performance (as\r\nperforming musical artists now seem to believe), under all\r\ncircumstances to attain to a \u003ci\u003ehaut-relief\u003c/i\u003e which cannot be surpassed?\r\nIf this were applied to Mozart, for instance, would\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_63\"\u003e[Pg 63]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e it not be a\r\nreal sin against Mozart\u0027s spirit,—Mozart\u0027s cheerful, enthusiastic,\r\ndelightful and loving spirit? He who fortunately was no German, and\r\nwhose seriousness is a charming and golden seriousness and not by any\r\nmeans that of a German clodhopper…. Not to speak of the earnestness\r\nof the \"marble statue.\" … But you seem to think that all music is the\r\nmusic of the \"marble statue\"? —that all music should, so to speak,\r\nspring out of the wall and shake the listener to his very bowels? …\r\nOnly thus could music have any effect! But on whom would the effect\r\nbe made? Upon something on which a noble artist ought never to deign\r\nto act,—upon the mob, upon the immature! upon the blasts! upon the\r\ndiseased! upon idiots! upon \u003ci\u003eWagnerites\u003c/i\u003e!…\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003ch5\u003eA MUSIC WITHOUT A FUTURE.\u003c/h5\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eOf all the arts which succeed in growing on the soil of a particular\r\nculture, music is the last plant to appear; maybe because it is the\r\none most dependent upon our innermost feelings, and therefore the\r\nlast to come to the surface—at a time when the culture to which it\r\nbelongs is in its autumn season and beginning to fade. It was only in\r\nthe art of the Dutch masters that the spirit of mediæval Christianity\r\nfound its expression—, its architecture of sound is the youngest,\r\nbut genuine and legitimate, sister of the Gothic. It was only in\r\nHandel\u0027s music that the best in Luther and in those like him found\r\nits voice, the Judeo-heroic trait which gave the Reformation a touch\r\nof\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_64\"\u003e[Pg 64]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e greatness—the Old Testament, \u003ci\u003enot\u003c/i\u003e the New, become music. It was\r\nleft to Mozart, to pour out the epoch of Louis XIV., and of the art\r\nof Racine and Claude Lorrain, in \u003ci\u003eringing\u003c/i\u003e gold; only in Beethoven\u0027s\r\nand Rossini\u0027s music did the Eighteenth Century sing itself out—the\r\ncentury of enthusiasm, broken ideals, and \u003ci\u003efleeting joy.\u003c/i\u003e All real and\r\noriginal music is a swan song.—Even our last form of music, despite\r\nits prevalence and its will to prevail, has perhaps only a short time\r\nto live: for it sprouted from a soil which was in the throes of a\r\nrapid subsidence,—of a culture which will soon be \u003ci\u003esubmerged.\u003c/i\u003e A\r\ncertain Catholicism of feeling, and a predilection for some ancient\r\nindigenous (so-called national) ideals and eccentricities, was its\r\nfirst condition. Wagner\u0027s appropriation of old sagas and songs,\r\nin which scholarly prejudice taught us \u003ci\u003eto\u003c/i\u003e see something German\r\n\u003ci\u003epar excellence\u003c/i\u003e—now we laugh at it all, the resurrection of these\r\nScandinavian monsters with a thirst for ecstatic sensuality and\r\nspiritualisation—the whole of this taking and giving on Wagner\u0027s part,\r\nin the matter of subjects, characters, passions, and nerves, would also\r\ngive unmistakable expression to the \u003ci\u003espirit of his music\u003c/i\u003e provided that\r\nthis music, like any other, did not know how to speak about itself save\r\nambiguously: for \u003ci\u003emusica is a woman….\u003c/i\u003e We must not let ourselves\r\nbe misled concerning this state of things, by the fact that at this\r\nvery moment we are living in a reaction, \u003ci\u003ein the heart itself\u003c/i\u003e of a\r\nreaction. The age of international wars, of ultramontane martyrdom,\r\nin fact, the whole interlude-character which typifies the present\r\ncondition of Europe, may\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_65\"\u003e[Pg 65]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e indeed help an art like Wagner\u0027s to sudden\r\nglory, without, however, in the least ensuring its \u003ci\u003efuture prosperity.\u003c/i\u003e\r\nThe Germans themselves have no future….\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003ch5\u003eWE ANTIPODES.\u003c/h5\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003ePerhaps a few people, or at least my friends, will remember that\r\nI made my first plunge into life armed with some errors and some\r\nexaggerations, but that, in any case, I began with \u003ci\u003ehope\u003c/i\u003e in my\r\nheart. In the philosophical pessimism of the nineteenth century, I\r\nrecognised—who knows by what by-paths of personal experience—the\r\nsymptom of a higher power of thought, a more triumphant plenitude\r\nof life, than had manifested itself hitherto in the philosophies of\r\nHume, Kant and Hegel!—I regarded \u003ci\u003etragic\u003c/i\u003e knowledge as the most\r\nbeautiful luxury of our culture, as its most precious, most noble,\r\nmost dangerous kind of prodigality; but, nevertheless, in view of its\r\noverflowing wealth, as a justifiable \u003ci\u003eluxury.\u003c/i\u003e In the same way, I\r\nbegan by interpreting Wagner\u0027s music as the expression of a Dionysian\r\npowerfulness of soul. In it I thought I heard the earthquake by means\r\nof which a primeval life-force, which had been constrained for ages,\r\nwas seeking at last to burst its bonds, quite indifferent to how\r\nmuch of that which nowadays calls itself culture, would thereby be\r\nshaken to ruins. You see how I misinterpreted, you see also, what I\r\n\u003ci\u003ebestowed\u003c/i\u003e upon Wagner and Schopenhauer—myself…. Every art and\r\nevery philosophy may be regarded either as a cure or as a stimulant\r\nto\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_66\"\u003e[Pg 66]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e ascending or declining life: they always presuppose suffering and\r\nsufferers. But there are two kinds of sufferers:—those that suffer\r\nfrom \u003ci\u003eoverflowing vitality,\u003c/i\u003e who need Dionysian art and require\r\na tragic insight into, and a tragic outlook upon, the phenomenon\r\nlife,—and there are those who suffer from \u003ci\u003ereduced\u003c/i\u003e vitality, and\r\nwho crave for repose, quietness, calm seas, or else the intoxication,\r\nthe spasm, the bewilderment which art and philosophy provide. Revenge\r\nupon life itself—this is the most voluptuous form of intoxication\r\nfor such indigent souls!… Now Wagner responds quite as well as\r\nSchopenhauer to the twofold cravings of these people,—they both deny\r\nlife, they both slander it but precisely on this account they are my\r\nantipodes.—The richest creature, brimming over with vitality,—the\r\nDionysian God and man, may not only allow himself to gaze upon the\r\nhorrible and the questionable; but he can also lend his hand to the\r\nterrible deed, and can indulge in all the luxury of destruction,\r\ndisaggregation, and negation,—in him evil, purposelessness and\r\nugliness, seem just as allowable as they are in nature—because of\r\nhis bursting plenitude of creative and rejuvenating powers, which\r\nare able to convert every desert into a luxurious land of plenty.\r\nConversely, it is the greatest sufferer and pauper in vitality, who\r\nis most in need of mildness, peace and goodness—that which to-day is\r\ncalled humaneness—in thought as well as in action, and possibly of a\r\nGod whose speciality is to be a God of the sick, a Saviour, and also\r\nof logic or the abstract intelligibility of existence even for idiots\r\n(—the typical \"free-spirits,\"\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_67\"\u003e[Pg 67]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e like the idealists, and \"beautiful\r\nsouls,\" are \u003ci\u003edécadents\u003c/i\u003e—); in short, of a warm, danger-tight, and\r\nnarrow confinement, between optimistic horizons which would allow of\r\nstultification…. And thus very gradually, I began to understand\r\nEpicurus, the opposite of a Dionysian Greek; and also the Christian\r\nwho in fact is only a kind of Epicurean, and who, with his belief\r\nthat \"faith saves,\" carries the principle of Hedonism \u003ci\u003eas far as\r\npossible\u003c/i\u003e—far beyond all intellectual honesty…. If I am ahead of\r\nall other psychologists in anything, it is in this fact that my eyes\r\nare more keen for tracing those most difficult and most captious of\r\nall deductions, in which the largest number of mistakes have been\r\nmade,—the deduction which makes one infer something concerning the\r\nauthor from his work, something concerning the doer from his deed,\r\nsomething concerning the idealist from the need which produced this\r\nideal, and something concerning the imperious \u003ci\u003ecraving\u003c/i\u003e which stands at\r\nthe back of all thinking and valuing.—In regard to all artists of what\r\nkind soever, I shall now avail myself of this radical distinction: does\r\nthe creative power in this case arise from a loathing of life, or from\r\nan excessive \u003ci\u003eplenitude\u003c/i\u003e of life? In Goethe, for instance, an overflow\r\nof vitality was creative, in Flaubert—hate: Flaubert, a new edition\r\nof Pascal, but as an artist with this instinctive belief at heart:\r\n\"\u003ci\u003eFlaubert est toujours haïssable, l\u0027homme n\u0027est rien, l\u0027œuvre est\r\ntout….\u003c/i\u003e\" He tortured himself when he wrote, just as Pascal tortured\r\nhimself when he thought—the feelings of both were inclined to be\r\n\"non-egoistic.\" … \"Disinterestedness\"—the\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_68\"\u003e[Pg 68]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e principle of decadence,\r\nthe will to nonentity in art as well as in morality.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003ch5\u003eWHERE WAGNER IS AT HOME.\u003c/h5\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eEven at the present day, France is still the refuge of the most\r\nintellectual and refined culture in Europe, it remains the high school\r\nof taste: but one must know where to find this France of taste. The\r\n\u003ci\u003eNorth-German Gazette,\u003c/i\u003e for instance, or who-ever expresses his\r\nsentiments in that paper, thinks that the French are \"barbarians,\"—as\r\nfor me, if I had to find the \u003ci\u003eblackest\u003c/i\u003e spot on earth, where slaves\r\nstill required to be liberated, I should turn in the direction of\r\nNorthern Germany…. But those who form part of \u003ci\u003ethat select\u003c/i\u003e France\r\ntake very good care to \u003ci\u003econceal themselves\u003c/i\u003e: they are a small body\r\nof men, and there may be some among them who do not stand on very\r\nfirm legs—a few may be fatalists, hypochondriacs, invalids; others\r\nmay be enervated, and artificial,—such are those who would fain be\r\nartistic,—but all the loftiness and delicacy which still remains to\r\nthis world, is in their possession. In this France of intellect, which\r\nis also the France of pessimism, Schopenhauer is already much more at\r\nhome than he ever was in Germany; his principal work has already been\r\ntranslated twice, and the second time so excellently that now I prefer\r\nto read Schopenhauer in French (—he was an \u003ci\u003eaccident\u003c/i\u003e among Germans,\r\njust as I am—the Germans have no fingers wherewith to grasp us; they\r\nhaven\u0027t any fingers at all,—but only claws). And I do not mention\r\nHeine—l\u0027\u003ci\u003eadorable Heine,\u003c/i\u003e as\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_69\"\u003e[Pg 69]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e they say in Paris—who long since has\r\npassed into the flesh and blood of the more profound and more soulful\r\nof French lyricists. How could the horned cattle of Germany know how\r\nto deal with the \u003ci\u003edélicatesses\u003c/i\u003e of such a nature!—And as to Richard\r\nWagner, it is obvious, it is even glaringly obvious, that Paris is\r\nthe very \u003ci\u003esoil\u003c/i\u003e for him: the more French music adapts itself to the\r\nneeds of \u003ci\u003el\u0027âme moderne,\u003c/i\u003e the more Wagnerian it will become,—it is\r\nfar enough advanced in this direction already.—In this respect one\r\nshould not allow one\u0027s self to be misled by Wagner himself—it was\r\nsimply dis-graceful on Wagner\u0027s part to scoff at Paris, as he did, in\r\nits agony in 1871…. In spite of it all, in Germany Wagner is only a\r\nmisapprehension: who could be more incapable of understanding anything\r\nabout Wagner than the Kaiser, for instance?—To everybody familiar with\r\nthe movement of European culture, this fact, however, is certain, that\r\nFrench romanticism and Richard Wagner are most intimately related. All\r\ndominated by literature, up to their very eyes and ears—the first\r\nEuropean artists with a \u003ci\u003euniversal literary\u003c/i\u003e culture,—most of them\r\nwriters, poets, mediators and minglers of the senses and the arts, all\r\nfanatics in \u003ci\u003eexpression,\u003c/i\u003e great discoverers in the realm of the sublime\r\nas also of the ugly and the gruesome, and still greater discoverers\r\nin passion, in working for effect, in the art of dressing their\r\nwindows,—all possessing talent far above their genius,—virtuosos to\r\ntheir backbone, knowing of secret passages to all that seduces, lures,\r\nconstrains or overthrows; born enemies of logic and of straight lines,\r\nthirsting after the exotic, the\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_70\"\u003e[Pg 70]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e strange and the monstrous, and all\r\nopiates for the senses and the understanding. On the whole, a daring\r\ndare-devil, magnificently violent, soaring and high-springing crew of\r\nartists, who first had to teach their own century—-it is the century\r\nof the mob—what the concept \"artist\" meant. But they were \u003ci\u003eill….\u003c/i\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003ch5\u003eWAGNER AS THE APOSTLE OF CHASTITY.\u003c/h5\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e1.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\r\nIs this the German way?\u003cbr\u003e\r\nComes this low bleating forth from German hearts?\u003cbr\u003e\r\nShould Teutons, sin repenting, lash themselves,\u003cbr\u003e\r\nOr spread their palms with priestly unctuousness,\u003cbr\u003e\r\nExalt their feelings with the censer\u0027s fumes,\u003cbr\u003e\r\nAnd cower and quake and bend the trembling knee,\u003cbr\u003e\r\nAnd with a sickly sweetness plead a prayer?\u003cbr\u003e\r\nThen ogle nuns, and ring the Ave-bell,\u003cbr\u003e\r\nAnd thus with morbid fervour out-do heaven?\u003cbr\u003e\r\nIs this the German way?\u003cbr\u003e\r\nBeware, yet are you free, yet your own Lords.\u003cbr\u003e\r\nWhat yonder lures is Rome, Rome\u0027s faith sung without words.\r\n\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e2.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThere is no necessary contrast between sensuality and chastity; every\r\ngood marriage, every genuine love affair is above this contrast; but\r\nin those cases where the contrast exists, it is very far from being\r\nnecessarily a tragic one. This, at least, ought to hold good of all\r\nwell-constituted and good-spirited\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_71\"\u003e[Pg 71]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e mortals, who are not in the least\r\ninclined to reckon their unstable equilibrium between angel and \u003ci\u003epetite\r\nbête,\u003c/i\u003e without further ado, among the objections to existence, the more\r\nrefined and more intelligent like Hafis and Goethe, even regarded it as\r\nan additional attraction. It is precisely contradictions of this kind\r\nwhich lure us to life…. On the other hand, it must be obvious, that\r\nwhen Circe\u0027s unfortunate animals are induced to worship chastity, all\r\nthey see and \u003ci\u003eworship\u003c/i\u003e therein, is their opposite—oh! and with what\r\ntragic groaning and fervour, may well be imagined—that same painful\r\nand thoroughly superfluous opposition which, towards the end of his\r\nlife, Richard Wagner undoubtedly wished to set to music and to put on\r\nthe stage, \u003ci\u003eAnd to what purpose?\u003c/i\u003e we may reasonably ask.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e3.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eAnd yet this other question can certainly not be circumvented: what\r\nbusiness had he actually with that manly (alas! so unmanly) \"bucolic\r\nsimplicity,\" that poor devil and son of nature—Parsifal, whom he\r\nultimately makes a catholic by such insidious means—what?—was Wagner\r\nin earnest with Parsifal? For, that he was laughed at, I cannot deny,\r\nany more than Gottfried Keller can…. We should like to believe that\r\n\"Parsifal\" was meant as a piece of idle gaiety, as the closing act and\r\nsatyric drama, with which Wagner the tragedian wished to take leave of\r\nus, of himself, and above all \u003ci\u003eof tragedy,\u003c/i\u003e in a way which befitted\r\nhim and his dignity, that is to say, with an extravagant, lofty and\r\nmost malicious parody of tragedy itself, of all\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_72\"\u003e[Pg 72]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e the past and terrible\r\nearnestness and sorrow of this world, of the most \u003ci\u003eridiculous\u003c/i\u003e form of\r\nthe unnaturalness of the ascetic ideal, at last overcome. For Parsifal\r\nis the subject \u003ci\u003epar excellence\u003c/i\u003e for a comic opera…. Is Wagner\u0027s\r\n\"Parsifal\" his secret laugh of superiority at himself, the triumph\r\nof his last and most exalted state of artistic freedom, of artistic\r\ntranscendence—is it Wagner able to \u003ci\u003elaugh\u003c/i\u003e at himself? Once again we\r\nonly wish it were so; for what could Parsifal be if he were \u003ci\u003emeant\r\nseriously?\u003c/i\u003e Is it necessary in his case to say (as I have heard people\r\nsay) that \"Parsifal\" is \"the product of the mad hatred of knowledge,\r\nintellect, and sensuality?\" a curse upon the senses and the mind in one\r\nbreath and in one fit of hatred? an act of apostasy and a return to\r\nChristianly sick and obscurantist ideals? And finally even a denial of\r\nself, a deletion of self, on the part of an artist who theretofore had\r\nworked with all the power of his will in favour of the opposite cause,\r\nthe spiritualisation and sensualisation of his art? And not only of his\r\nart, but also of his life? Let us remember how enthusiastically Wagner\r\nat one time walked in the footsteps of the philosopher Feuerbach.\r\nFeuerbach\u0027s words \"healthy sensuality\" struck Wagner in the thirties\r\nand forties very much as they struck many other Germans—they called\r\nthemselves the young Germans—that is to say, as words of salvation.\r\nDid he ultimately \u003ci\u003echange his mind\u003c/i\u003e on this point? It would seem that\r\nhe had at least had the desire of \u003ci\u003echanging\u003c/i\u003e his doctrine towards the\r\nend…. Had \u003ci\u003ethe hatred of life\u003c/i\u003e become dominant in him as in Flaubert?\r\nFor \"Parsifal\"\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_73\"\u003e[Pg 73]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e is a work of rancour, of revenge, of the most secret\r\nconcoction of poisons with which to make an end of the first conditions\r\nof life; \u003ci\u003eit is a bad work.\u003c/i\u003e The preaching of chastity remains an\r\nincitement to unnaturalness: I despise anybody who does not regard\r\n\"Parsifal\" as an outrage upon morality.—\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003ch5\u003eHOW I GOT RID OF WAGNER.\u003c/h5\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e1.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eAlready in the summer of 1876, when the first festival at Bayreuth\r\nwas at its height, I took leave of Wagner in my soul. I cannot endure\r\nanything double-faced. Since Wagner had returned to Germany, he had\r\ncondescended step by step to everything that I despise—even to\r\nanti-Semitism. … As a matter of fact, it was then high time to bid\r\nhim farewell: but the proof of this came only too soon. Richard Wagner,\r\nostensibly the most triumphant creature alive; as a matter of fact,\r\nthough, a cranky and desperate \u003ci\u003edécadent,\u003c/i\u003e suddenly fell helpless\r\nand broken on his knees before the Christian cross…. Was there no\r\nGerman at that time who had the eyes to see, and the sympathy in his\r\nsoul to feel, the ghastly nature of this spectacle? Was I the only\r\none who \u003ci\u003esuffered from\u003c/i\u003e it?—Enough, the unexpected event, like a\r\nflash of lightning, made me see only too clearly what kind of a place\r\nit was that I had just left,—and it also made me shudder as a man\r\nshudders who unawares has just escaped a great danger. As I continued\r\nmy journey alone, I trembled. Not long after this I\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_74\"\u003e[Pg 74]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e was ill, more\r\nthan ill—I was \u003ci\u003etired;\u003c/i\u003e—tired of the continual disappointments over\r\neverything which remained for us modern men to be enthusiastic about,\r\nof the energy, industry, hope, youth, and love that are \u003ci\u003esquandered\r\neverywhere;\u003c/i\u003e tired out of loathing for the whole world of idealistic\r\nlying and conscience-softening, which, once again, in the case of\r\nWagner, had scored a victory over a man who was of the bravest; and\r\nlast but not least, tired by the sadness of a ruthless suspicion—that\r\nI was now condemned to be ever more and more suspicious, ever more and\r\nmore contemptuous, ever more and more \u003ci\u003edeeply\u003c/i\u003e alone than I had been\r\ntheretofore. For I had no one save Richard Wagner…. I was always\r\n\u003ci\u003econdemned\u003c/i\u003e to the society of Germans….\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e2.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eHenceforward alone and cruelly distrustful of myself, I then took\r\nup sides—not without anger—\u003ci\u003eagainst myself\u003c/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003efor\u003c/i\u003e all that\r\nwhich hurt me and fell hard upon me: and thus I found the road to\r\nthat courageous pessimism which is the opposite of all idealistic\r\nfalsehood, and which, as it seems to me, is also the road to \u003ci\u003eme—to\r\nmy mission….\u003c/i\u003e That hidden and dominating thing, for which for long\r\nages we have had no name, until ultimately it comes forth as our\r\nmission,—this tyrant in us wreaks a terrible revenge upon us for every\r\nattempt we make either to evade him or to escape him, for every one\r\nof our experiments in the way of befriending people to whom we do not\r\nbelong, for every active occupation, however estimable, which may make\r\nus diverge from our principal object:—\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_75\"\u003e[Pg 75]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003eaye, and even for every virtue\r\nwhich would fain protect us from the rigour of our most intimate sense\r\nof responsibility. Illness is always the answer, whenever we venture\r\nto doubt our right to \u003ci\u003eour\u003c/i\u003e mission, whenever we begin to make things\r\ntoo easy for ourselves. Curious and terrible at the same time! It is\r\nfor our relaxation that we have to pay most dearly! And should we wish\r\nafter all to return to health, we then have no choice: we are compelled\r\nto burden ourselves \u003ci\u003emore\u003c/i\u003e heavily than we had been burdened before….\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003ch5\u003eTHE PSYCHOLOGIST SPEAKS.\u003c/h5\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e1.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe oftener a psychologist—a born, an unavoidable psychologist\r\nand soul-diviner—turns his attention to the more select cases and\r\nindividuals, the greater becomes his danger of being suffocated by\r\nsympathy: he needs greater hardness and cheerfulness than any other\r\nman. For the corruption, the ruination of higher men, is in fact the\r\nrule: it is terrible to have such a rule always before our eyes.\r\nThe manifold torments of the psychologist who has discovered this\r\nruination, who discovers once, and then discovers almost repeatedly\r\nthroughout all history, this universal inner \"hopelessness\" of\r\nhigher men, this eternal \"too late!\" in every sense—may perhaps\r\none day be the cause of his \"going to the dogs \"himself. In almost\r\nevery psychologist we may see a tell-tale predilection in favour of\r\nintercourse with commonplace and well-ordered\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_76\"\u003e[Pg 76]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e men: and this betrays\r\nhow constantly he requires healing, that he needs a sort of flight\r\nand forgetfulness, away from what his insight and incisiveness—from\r\nwhat his \"business\"—has laid upon his conscience. A horror of his\r\nmemory is typical of him. He is easily silenced by the judgment of\r\nothers; he hears with unmoved countenance how people honour, admire,\r\nlove, and glorify, where he has opened his eyes and \u003ci\u003eseen\u003c/i\u003e—or he\r\neven conceals his silence by expressly agreeing with some obvious\r\nopinion. Perhaps the paradox of his situation becomes so dreadful that,\r\nprecisely where he has learnt \u003ci\u003egreat sympathy,\u003c/i\u003e together with \u003ci\u003egreat\r\ncontempt,\u003c/i\u003e the educated have on their part learnt great reverence. And\r\nwho knows but in all great instances, just this alone happened: that\r\nthe multitude worshipped a God, and that the \"God\" was only a poor\r\nsacrificial animal! \u003ci\u003eSuccess\u003c/i\u003e has always been the greatest liar—and\r\nthe \"work\" itself, the \u003ci\u003edeed,\u003c/i\u003e is a success too; the great statesman,\r\nthe conqueror, the discoverer, are disguised in their creations until\r\nthey can no longer be recognised; the \"work\" of the artist, of the\r\nphilosopher, only invents him who has created it, who is reputed to\r\nhave created it; the \"great men,\" as they are reverenced, are poor\r\nlittle fictions composed afterwards; in the world of historical values\r\ncounterfeit coinage \u003ci\u003eprevails.\u003c/i\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e2.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThose great poets, for example, such as Byron, Musset, Poe, Leopardi,\r\nKleist, Gogol (I do not dare to mention much greater names, but I\r\nimply\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_77\"\u003e[Pg 77]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e them), as they now appear, and were perhaps obliged to be:\r\nmen of the moment, sensuous, absurd, versatile, light-minded and\r\nquick to trust and to distrust; with souls in which usually some flaw\r\nhas to be concealed; often taking revenge with their works for an\r\ninternal blemish, often seeking forgetfulness in their soaring from\r\na too accurate memory, idealists out of proximity to the mud:—what\r\na \u003ci\u003etorment\u003c/i\u003e these great artists are and the so-called higher men\r\nin general, to him who has once found them out! We are all special\r\npleaders in the cause of mediocrity. It is conceivable that it is just\r\nfrom woman—who is clair-voyant in the world of suffering, and, alas!\r\nalso unfortunately eager to help and save to an extent far beyond her\r\npowers—that \u003ci\u003ethey\u003c/i\u003e have learnt so readily those outbreaks of boundless\r\n\u003ci\u003esympathy\u003c/i\u003e which the multitude, above all the reverent multitude,\r\noverwhelms with prying and self-gratifying interpretations. This\r\nsympathising invariably deceives itself as to its power; woman would\r\nlike to believe that love can do \u003ci\u003eeverything\u003c/i\u003e—it is the \u003ci\u003esuperstition\u003c/i\u003e\r\npeculiar to her. Alas, he who knows the heart finds out how poor,\r\nhelpless, pretentious, and blundering even the best and deepest love\r\nis—how much more readily it \u003ci\u003edestroys\u003c/i\u003e than saves….\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e3.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe intellectual loathing and haughtiness of every man who has suffered\r\ndeeply—the extent to which a man can suffer, almost determines the\r\norder of rank—the chilling uncertainty with which he is thoroughly\r\nimbued and coloured, that by\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_78\"\u003e[Pg 78]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e virtue of his suffering he \u003ci\u003eknows more\u003c/i\u003e\r\nthan the shrewdest and wisest can ever know, that he has been familiar\r\nwith, and \"at home\" in many distant terrible worlds of which \u003ci\u003e\"you\u003c/i\u003e\r\nknow nothing!\"—this silent intellectual haughtiness, this pride of\r\nthe elect of knowledge, of the \"initiated,\" of the almost sacrificed,\r\nfinds all forms of disguise necessary to protect itself from contact\r\nwith gushing and sympathising hands, and in general from all that\r\nis not its equal in suffering. Profound suffering makes noble; it\r\nseparates.—One of the most refined forms of disguise is Epicurism,\r\nalong with a certain ostentatious boldness of taste which takes\r\nsuffering lightly, and puts itself on the defensive against all that\r\nis sorrowful and profound. There are \"cheerful men\" who make use of\r\ngood spirits, because they are misunderstood on account of them—they\r\n\u003ci\u003ewish\u003c/i\u003e to be misunderstood. There are \"scientific minds\" who make use\r\nof science, because it gives a cheerful appearance, and because love of\r\nscience leads people to conclude that a person is shallow—they \u003ci\u003ewish\u003c/i\u003e\r\nto mislead to a false conclusion. There are free insolent spirits which\r\nwould fain conceal and deny that they are at bottom broken, incurable\r\nhearts—this is Hamlet\u0027s case: and then folly itself can be the mask of\r\nan unfortunate and alas! all too dead-certain knowledge.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_79\"\u003e[Pg 79]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003ch5\u003eEPILOGUE\u003c/h5\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eI have often asked myself whether I am not much more deeply indebted\r\nto the hardest years of my life than to any others. According to the\r\nvoice of my innermost nature, everything necessary, seen from above and\r\nin the light of a \u003ci\u003esuperior\u003c/i\u003e economy, is also useful in itself—not\r\nonly should one bear it, one should \u003ci\u003elove\u003c/i\u003e it…. \u003ci\u003eAmor fati:\u003c/i\u003e this is\r\nthe very core of my being.—And as to my prolonged illness, do I not\r\nowe much more to it than I owe to my health? To it I owe a \u003ci\u003ehigher\u003c/i\u003e\r\nkind of health, a sort of health which grows stronger under everything\r\nthat does not actually kill it!—\u003ci\u003eTo it, I owe even my philosophy….\u003c/i\u003e\r\nOnly great suffering is the ultimate emancipator of spirit; for it\r\nteaches one that \u003ci\u003evast suspiciousness\u003c/i\u003e which makes an X out of every\r\nU, a genuine and proper X, \u003ci\u003ei.e.,\u003c/i\u003e the antepenultimate letter: Only\r\ngreat suffering; that great suffering, under which we seem to be over\r\na fire of greenwood, the suffering that takes its time—forces us\r\nphilosophers to descend into our nethermost depths, and to let go of\r\nall trustfulness, all good-nature, all whittling-down, all mildness,\r\nall mediocrity,—on which things we had formerly staked our humanity.\r\nI doubt whether such suffering improves a man; but I know that it\r\nmakes him \u003ci\u003edeeper….\u003c/i\u003e Supposing we learn to set our pride, our scorn,\r\nour strength of will against it, and thus resemble the Indian\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_80\"\u003e[Pg 80]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e who,\r\nhowever cruelly he may be tortured, considers himself revenged on his\r\ntormentor by the bitterness of his own tongue. Supposing we withdraw\r\nfrom pain into nonentity, into the deaf, dumb, and rigid sphere of\r\nself-surrender, self-forgetfulness, self-effacement: one is another\r\nperson when one leaves these protracted and dangerous exercises in the\r\nart of self-mastery; one has one note of interrogation the more, and\r\nabove all one has the will henceforward to ask more, deeper, sterner,\r\nharder, more wicked, and more silent questions, than anyone has ever\r\nasked on earth before…. Trust in life has vanished; life itself has\r\nbecome a \u003ci\u003eproblem.\u003c/i\u003e —But let no one think that one has therefore\r\nbecome a spirit of gloom or a blind owl! Even love of life is still\r\npossible,—but it is a \u003ci\u003edifferent kind\u003c/i\u003e of love…. It is the love for\r\na woman whom we doubt….\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e2.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe rarest of all things is this: to have after all another taste—a\r\n\u003ci\u003esecond\u003c/i\u003e taste. Out of such abysses, out of the abyss of \u003ci\u003egreat\r\nsuspicion\u003c/i\u003e as well, a man returns as though born again, he has a\r\nnew skin, he is more susceptible, more full of wickedness; he has a\r\nfiner taste for joyfulness; he has a more sensitive tongue for all\r\ngood things; his senses are more cheerful; he has acquired a second,\r\nmore dangerous, innocence in gladness; he is more childish too, and a\r\nhundred times more cunning than ever he had been before.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eOh, how much more repulsive pleasure now is to him, that coarse, heavy,\r\nbuff-coloured pleasure,\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_81\"\u003e[Pg 81]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e which is understood by our pleasure-seekers,\r\nour \"cultured people,\" our wealthy folk and our rulers! With how much\r\nmore irony we now listen to the hubbub as of a country fair, with which\r\nthe \"cultured\" man and the man about town allow themselves to be forced\r\nthrough art, literature, music, and with the help of intoxicating\r\nliquor, to \"intellectual enjoyments.\" How the stage-cry of passion now\r\nstings our ears; how strange to our taste the whole romantic riot and\r\nsensuous bustle, which the cultured mob are so fond of, together with\r\nits aspirations to the sublime, to the exalted and the distorted, have\r\nbecome. No: if we convalescents require an art at all, it is \u003ci\u003eanother\u003c/i\u003e\r\nart-a mocking, nimble, volatile, divinely undisturbed, divinely\r\nartificial art, which blazes up like pure flame into a cloudless\r\nsky! But above all, an art for artists, \u003ci\u003eonly for artists!\u003c/i\u003e We are,\r\nafter all, more conversant with that which is in the highest degree\r\nnecessary—cheerfulness, \u003ci\u003eevery kind of\u003c/i\u003e cheerfulness, my friends!…\r\nWe men of knowledge, now know something only too well: oh how well we\r\nhave learnt by this time, to forget, \u003ci\u003enot\u003c/i\u003e to know, as artists!…\r\nAs to our future: we shall scarcely be found on the track of those\r\nEgyptian youths who break into temples at night, who embrace statues,\r\nand would fain unveil, strip, and set in broad daylight, everything\r\nwhich there are excellent reasons to keep concealed.\u003ca id=\"FNanchor_1_15\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003ca class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_1_15\"\u003e[1]\u003c/a\u003e No, we are\r\ndisgusted with this bad taste, this will to truth, this search\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_82\"\u003e[Pg 82]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e after\r\ntruth \"at all costs\": this madness of adolescence, \"the love of truth\";\r\nwe are now too experienced, too serious, too joyful, too scorched, \u003ci\u003etoo\r\nprofound\u003c/i\u003e for that…. We no longer believe that truth remains truth\r\nwhen it is \u003ci\u003eunveiled,\u003c/i\u003e—we have lived enough to understand this….\r\nTo-day it seems to us good form not to strip everything naked, not\r\nto be present at all things, not to desire to \"know\" all. \"\u003ci\u003eTout\r\ncomprendre c\u0027est tout mépriser.\u003c/i\u003e\" … \"Is it true,\" a little girl once\r\nasked her mother, \"that the beloved Father is everywhere?—I think\r\nit quite improper,\"—a hint to philosophers…. The shame with which\r\nNature has concealed herself behind riddles and enigmas should be held\r\nin higher esteem. Perhaps truth is a woman who has reasons for \u003ci\u003enot\r\nrevealing her reasons?\u003c/i\u003e … Perhaps her name, to use a Greek word is\r\n\u003ci\u003eBaubo?\u003c/i\u003e—Oh these Greeks, they understood, the art of \u003ci\u003eliving!\u003c/i\u003e For\r\nthis it is needful to halt bravely at the surface, at the fold, at the\r\nskin, to worship appearance, and to believe in forms, tones, words, and\r\nthe whole \u003ci\u003eOlympus of appearance\u003c/i\u003e! These Greeks were superficial—from\r\n\u003ci\u003eprofundity.\u003c/i\u003e … And are we not returning to precisely the same thing,\r\nwe dare-devils of intellect who have scaled the highest and most\r\ndangerous pinnacles of present thought, in order to look around us\r\nfrom that height, in order to \u003ci\u003elook down\u003c/i\u003e from that height? Are we not\r\nprecisely in this respect—\u003ci\u003eGreeks?\u003c/i\u003e Worshippers of form, of tones, of\r\nwords? Precisely on that account—\u003ci\u003eartists?\u003c/i\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003chr class=\"r5\"\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"footnote\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca id=\"Footnote_1_15\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003ca href=\"#FNanchor_1_15\" class=\"pginternal\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"label\"\u003e[1]\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/a\u003e An allusion to Schiller\u0027s poem: \"Das verschleierte Bild zu\r\nSais.\"—\u003ci\u003eTr.\u003c/i\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\r\n\u003chr class=\"chap\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_83\"\u003e[Pg 83]\u003c/a\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_84\"\u003e[Pg 84]\u003c/a\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_85\"\u003e[Pg 85]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003ch3\u003e \u003ca id=\"SELECTED_APHORISMS\"\u003eSELECTED APHORISMS\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/h3\u003e\r\n\u003ch5\u003eSELECTED APHORISMS FROM NIETZSCHE\u0027S RETROSPECT\u003cbr\u003e\r\nOF HIS YEARS OF FRIENDSHIP WITH WAGNER.\u003c/h5\u003e\r\n\u003ch4\u003e(\u003ci\u003eSummer\u003c/i\u003e 1878.)\u003c/h4\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e1.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eMy blunder was this, I travelled to Bayreuth with an ideal in my\r\nbreast, and was thus doomed to experience the bitterest disappointment.\r\nThe preponderance of ugliness, grotesqueness and strong pepper\r\nthoroughly repelled me.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e2.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eI utterly disagree with those who were dissatisfied with the\r\ndecorations, the scenery and the mechanical contrivances at Bayreuth.\r\nFar too much industry and ingenuity was applied to the task of chaining\r\nthe imagination to matters which did not belie their \u003ci\u003eepic\u003c/i\u003e origin. But\r\nas to the naturalism of the attitudes, of the singing, compared with\r\nthe orchestra!! What affected, artificial and depraved tones, what a\r\ndistortion of nature, were we made to hear!\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e3.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eWe are witnessing the death agony of the \u003ci\u003elast Art:\u003c/i\u003e Bayreuth has\r\nconvinced me of this.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_86\"\u003e[Pg 86]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e4.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eMy picture of Wagner, completely surpassed him; I had depicted an\r\n\u003ci\u003eideal monster\u003c/i\u003e—one, however, which is perhaps quite capable of\r\nkindling the enthusiasm of artists. The real Wagner, Bayreuth as it\r\nactually is, was only like a bad, final proof, pulled on inferior\r\npaper from the engraving which was my creation. My longing to see real\r\nmen and their motives, received an extraordinary impetus from this\r\nhumiliating experience.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e5.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThis, to my sorrow, is what I realised; a good deal even struck me with\r\nsudden fear. At last I felt, however, that if only I could be strong\r\nenough to take sides against myself and what I most loved I would find\r\nthe road to truth and get solace and encouragement from it—and in this\r\nway I became filled with a sensation of joy far greater than that upon\r\nwhich I was now voluntarily turning my back.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e6.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eI was in love with art, passionately in love, and in the whole\r\nof existence saw nothing else than art—and this at an age when,\r\nreasonably enough, quite different passions usually possess the soul.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e7.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eGoethe\u003c/i\u003e said: \"The yearning spirit within me, which in earlier years\r\nI may perhaps have fostered too earnestly, and which as I grew older\r\nI tried my utmost to combat, did not seem becoming in the\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_87\"\u003e[Pg 87]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e man,\r\nand I therefore had to strive to attain to more complete freedom.\"\r\nConclusion?—I have had to do the same.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e8.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eHe who wakes us always wounds us.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e9.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eI do not possess the talent of being loyal, and what is still worse, I\r\nhave not even the vanity to try to appear as if I did.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e10.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eHe who accomplishes anything that lies beyond the vision and the\r\nexperience of his acquaintances,—provokes envy and hatred masked as\r\npity,—prejudice regards the work as decadence, disease, seduction.\r\nLong faces.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e11.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eI frankly confess that I had hoped that by means of art the Germans\r\nwould become thoroughly disgusted with \u003ci\u003edecaying Christianity\u003c/i\u003e—I\r\nregarded German mythology as a solvent, as a means of accustoming\r\npeople to polytheism.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eWhat a fright I had over the Catholic revival!!\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e12.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIt is possible neither to suffer sufficiently acutely from life, nor\r\nto be so lifeless and emotionally weak, as to have \u003ci\u003eneed\u003c/i\u003e of Wagner\u0027s\r\nart, as to require it as a medium. This is the principal reason of\r\none\u0027s \u003ci\u003eopposition\u003c/i\u003e to it, and not baser motives: something\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_88\"\u003e[Pg 88]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e to which we\r\nare not driven by any personal need, and which we do not \u003ci\u003erequire,\u003c/i\u003e we\r\ncannot esteem so highly.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e13.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIt is a question either of no longer \u003ci\u003erequiring\u003c/i\u003e Wagner\u0027s art, or of\r\nstill requiring it\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eGigantic forces lie concealed in it: \u003ci\u003eit drives one beyond its own\r\ndomain.\u003c/i\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e14.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eGoethe\u003c/i\u003e said: \"Are not Byron\u0027s audacity, sprightliness and grandeur\r\nall creative? We must beware of always looking for this quality in that\r\nwhich is perfectly pure and moral. All \u003ci\u003egreatness\u003c/i\u003e is creative the\r\nmoment we realise it.\" This should be applied to Wagner\u0027s art.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e15.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eWe shall always have to credit Wagner with the fact that in the second\r\nhalf of the nineteenth century he impressed art upon our memory as an\r\nimportant and magnificent thing. True, he did this in his own fashion,\r\nand this was not the fashion of upright and far-seeing men.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e16.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eWagner \u003ci\u003eversus\u003c/i\u003e the cautious, the cold and the contented of the\r\nworld—in this lies his greatness —he is a stranger to his age—he\r\ncombats the frivolous and the super-smart.—But he also fights the\r\njust, the moderate, those who delight in the world (like Goethe); and\r\nthe mild, the people of charm, the scientific among men—this is the\r\nreverse of the medal.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_89\"\u003e[Pg 89]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e17.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eOur youth was up in arms against the \u003ci\u003esoberness\u003c/i\u003e of the age. It plunged\r\ninto the cult of excess, of passion, of ecstasy, and of the blackest\r\nand most austere conception of the world.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e18.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eWagner pursues one form of madness, the age another form. Both carry on\r\ntheir chase at the same speed, each is as blind and as unjust as the\r\nother.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e19.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIt is very difficult to trace the course of Wagner\u0027s inner\r\ndevelopment—no trust must be placed in his own description of his\r\nsoul\u0027s experiences. He writes party-pamphlets for his followers.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e20.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIt is extremely doubtful whether Wagner is able to bear witness about\r\nhimself.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e21.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThere are men who try in vain to make a principle out of \u003ci\u003ethemselves.\u003c/i\u003e\r\nThis was the case with Wagner.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e22.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eWagner\u0027s obscurity concerning final aims; his non-antique fogginess.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e23.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eAll Wagner\u0027s ideas straightway become manias; he is \u003ci\u003etyrannised\u003c/i\u003e over\r\nby them. How can \u003ci\u003esuch a man allow himself to be tyrannised over in\r\nthis\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_90\"\u003e[Pg 90]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e way!\u003c/i\u003e For instance by his hatred of Jews. He \u003ci\u003ekills\u003c/i\u003e his themes\r\nlike his \"ideas,\" by means of his violent love of repeating them. The\r\nproblem of excessive length and breadth; he bores us with his raptures.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e24.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003e\"C\u0027est la rage de vouloir penser et sentir au delà de sa force\"\u003c/i\u003e\r\n(Doudan). The Wagnerites.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e25.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eWagner whose ambition far exceeds his natural gifts, has tried an\r\nincalculable number of times to achieve what lay beyond his powers—but\r\nit almost makes one shudder to see some one assail with such\r\npersistence that which defies conquest—the fate of his constitution.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e26.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eHe is always thinking of the most \u003ci\u003eextreme\u003c/i\u003e expression,—in every word.\r\nBut in the end superlatives begin to pall.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e27.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThere is something which is in the highest degree suspicious in Wagner,\r\nand that is Wagner\u0027s suspicion. It is such a strong trait in him, that\r\non two occasions I doubted whether he were a musician at all.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e28.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe proposition: \"in the face of perfection there is no salvation save\r\nlove,\"\u003ca id=\"FNanchor_1_16\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003ca class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_1_16\"\u003e[1]\u003c/a\u003e is thoroughly\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_91\"\u003e[Pg 91]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e Wagnerian. Profound jealousy of everything\r\ngreat from which he can draw \u003ci\u003efresh\u003c/i\u003e ideas. Hatred of all that which he\r\ncannot approach: the Renaissance, French and Greek art in style.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"footnote\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca id=\"Footnote_1_16\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003ca href=\"#FNanchor_1_16\" class=\"pginternal\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"label\"\u003e[1]\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/a\u003e What Schiller said of Goethe.—TR.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e29.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eWagner is jealous of all periods that have shown \u003ci\u003erestraint:\u003c/i\u003e he\r\ndespises beauty and grace, and finds only his own \u003ci\u003evirtues\u003c/i\u003e in the\r\n\"Germans,\" and even attributes all his failings to them.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e30.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eWagner has not the power to unlock and liberate the soul of those he\r\nfrequents: Wagner is not sure of himself, but distrustful and arrogant.\r\nHis \u003ci\u003eart\u003c/i\u003e has this effect upon artists, it is envious of all rivals.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e31.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003ePlato\u0027s Envy.\u003c/i\u003e He would fain monopolise Socrates. He saturates the\r\nlatter with himself, pretends to adorn him καλὸς Σωκράτης, and\r\ntries to separate all Socratists from him in order himself to appear as\r\nthe only true apostle. But his historical presentation of him is false,\r\neven to a parlous degree: just as Wagner\u0027s presentation of Beethoven\r\nand Shakespeare is false.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e32.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eWhen a dramatist speaks about himself he plays a part: this is\r\ninevitable. When Wagner speaks about Bach and Beethoven he speaks like\r\none for whom he would fain be taken. But he impresses\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_92\"\u003e[Pg 92]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e only those who\r\nare already convinced, for his dissimulation and his genuine nature are\r\nfar too violently at variance.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e33.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eWagner struggles against the \"frivolity\" in his nature, which to him\r\nthe ignoble (as opposed to Goethe) constituted the joy of life.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e34.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eWagner has the mind of the ordinary man who prefers to trace things to\r\n\u003ci\u003eone\u003c/i\u003e cause. The Jews do the same: one \u003ci\u003eaim,\u003c/i\u003e therefore one Saviour. In\r\nthis way he simplifies German and culture; wrongly but strongly.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e35.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eWagner admitted all this to himself often enough when in private\r\ncommunion with his soul: I only wish he had also admitted it publicly.\r\nFor what constitutes the greatness of a character if it is not this,\r\nthat he who possesses it is able to take sides even against himself in\r\nfavour of truth.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e\u003ci\u003eWagner\u0027s Teutonism.\u003c/i\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e36.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThat which is un-German in Wagner. He lacks the German charm and grace\r\nof a Beethoven, a Mozart, a Weber; he also lacks the flowing, cheerful\r\nfire (\u003ci\u003eAllegro con brio\u003c/i\u003e) of Beethoven and Weber. He cannot be free and\r\neasy without being grotesque. He lacks modesty, indulges in\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_93\"\u003e[Pg 93]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e big drums,\r\nand always tends to surcharge his effect. He is not the good official\r\nthat Bach was. Neither has he that Goethean calm in regard to his\r\nrivals.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e37.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eWagner always reaches the high-water mark of his vanity when he\r\nspeaks of the German nature (incidentally it is also the height of\r\nhis imprudence); for, if Frederick the Great\u0027s justice, Goethe\u0027s\r\nnobility and freedom from envy, Beethoven\u0027s sublime resignation, Bach\u0027s\r\ndelicately transfigured spiritual life,—if steady work performed\r\nwithout any thought of glory and success, and without envy, constitute\r\nthe true \u003ci\u003eGerman\u003c/i\u003e qualities, would it not seem as if Wagner almost\r\nwished to prove he is no German?\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e38.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eTerrible wildness, abject sorrow, emptiness, the shudder of joy,\r\nunexpectedness,—in short all the qualities peculiar to the Semitic\r\nrace! I believe that the Jews approach Wagner\u0027s art with more\r\nunderstanding than the Aryans do.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e39.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eA passage concerning the Jews, taken from Taine.—As it happens, I have\r\nmisled the reader, the passage does not concern Wagner at all.—But\r\ncan it be possible that Wagner is a Jew? In that case we could readily\r\nunderstand his dislike of Jews.\u003ca id=\"FNanchor_2_17\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003ca class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_2_17\"\u003e[2]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"footnote\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca id=\"Footnote_2_17\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003ca href=\"#FNanchor_2_17\" class=\"pginternal\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"label\"\u003e[2]\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/a\u003e See note on page 37.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_94\"\u003e[Pg 94]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e40.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eWagner\u0027s art is absolutely the \u003ci\u003eart of the age;\u003c/i\u003e an æsthetic age would\r\nhave rejected it. The more subtle people amongst us actually do reject\r\nit even now. The \u003ci\u003ecoarsifying\u003c/i\u003e of everything Æsthetic.—Compared with\r\nGoethe\u0027s ideal it is very far behind. The moral contrast of these\r\nself-indulgent burningly loyal creatures of Wagner, acts like a \u003ci\u003espur,\u003c/i\u003e\r\nlike an irritant: and even this sensation is turned to account in\r\nobtaining an \u003ci\u003eeffect\u003c/i\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e41.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eWhat is it in our age that Wagner\u0027s art expresses? That brutality and\r\nmost delicate weakness which exist side by side, that running wild of\r\nnatural instincts, and nervous hyper-sensitiveness, that thirst for\r\nemotion which arises from fatigue and the love of fatigue.—All this is\r\nunderstood by the Wagnerites.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e42.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eStupefaction or intoxication\u003c/i\u003e constitute all Wagnerian art. On the\r\nother hand I could mention instances in which Wagner stands \u003ci\u003ehigher,\u003c/i\u003e\r\nin which real joy flows from him.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e43.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe reason why the figures in Wagner\u0027s art behave so madly, is because\r\nhe greatly feared lest people would doubt that they were alive.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e44.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eWagner\u0027s art is an appeal to inartistic people; all means are welcomed\r\nwhich help towards obtaining\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_95\"\u003e[Pg 95]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e an effect. It is calculated not to\r\nproduce an \u003ci\u003eartistic effect\u003c/i\u003e but an effect upon the \u003ci\u003enerves in general\u003c/i\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e45.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eApparently in Wagner we have an art \u003ci\u003efor everybody,\u003c/i\u003e because coarse and\r\nsubtle means seem to be united in it. Albeit its pre-requisite may be\r\nmusico-æsthetic education, and \u003ci\u003eparticularly\u003c/i\u003e with \u003ci\u003emoral\u003c/i\u003e indifference.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e46.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIn Wagner we find the most ambitious \u003ci\u003ecombination\u003c/i\u003e of all means with\r\nthe view of obtaining the strongest effect: whereas genuine musicians\r\nquietly develop individual \u003ci\u003egenres\u003c/i\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e47.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eDramatists are \u003ci\u003eborrowers\u003c/i\u003e—their principal source of wealth—artistic\r\nthoughts drawn from the epos. Wagner borrowed from classical music\r\nbesides. Dramatists are constructive geniuses, they are not inventive\r\nand original as the epic poets are. Drama takes a lower rank than the\r\nepos: it presupposes a coarser and more democratic public.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e48.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eWagner does not altogether trust \u003ci\u003emusic.\u003c/i\u003e He weaves kindred sensations\r\ninto it in order to lend it the character of greatness. He measures\r\nhimself on others; he first of all gives his listeners intoxicating\r\ndrinks in order to lead them into believing that it \u003ci\u003ewas the music that\r\nintoxicated them.\u003c/i\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_96\"\u003e[Pg 96]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e49.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe same amount of talent and industry which makes the classic, when it\r\nappears some time \u003ci\u003etoo late,\u003c/i\u003e also makes the baroque artist like Wagner.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e50.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eWagner\u0027s art is calculated to appeal to short-sighted people—one\r\nhas to get much too close up to it (Miniature): it also appeals to\r\nlong-sighted people, but not to those with normal sight.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003ch5\u003e \u003ci\u003eContradictions in the Idea of Musical Drama.\u003c/i\u003e\u003c/h5\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e51.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eJust listen to the second act of the \"Götterdämmerung,\" without\r\nthe drama. It is chaotic music, as wild as a bad dream, and it is\r\nas frightfully distinct as if it desired to make itself clear even\r\nto deaf people. This volubility \u003ci\u003ewith nothing to say\u003c/i\u003e is alarming.\r\nCompared with it the drama is a genuine relief.—Is the fact that\r\nthis music when heard alone, is, as a whole intolerable (apart from\r\na few intentionally isolated parts) in its \u003ci\u003efavour?\u003c/i\u003e Suffice it to\r\nsay that this music without its accompanying drama, is a perpetual\r\ncontradiction of all the highest laws of style belonging to older\r\nmusic: he who thoroughly accustoms himself to it, loses all feeling\r\nfor these laws. But has the drama \u003ci\u003ebeen improved\u003c/i\u003e thanks to this\r\naddition? A \u003ci\u003esymbolic interpretation\u003c/i\u003e has been affixed to it, a sort\r\nof philological commentary, which sets fetters upon the inner and\r\nfree understanding of the imagination—it is tyrannical.\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_97\"\u003e[Pg 97]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e Music is\r\nthe language of the commentator, who talks the whole of the time and\r\ngives us no breathing space. Moreover his is a difficult language which\r\nalso requires to be explained. He who step by step has mastered, first\r\nthe libretto (language!), then converted it into action in his mind\u0027s\r\neye, then sought out and understood, and became familiar with the\r\nmusical symbolism thereto: aye, and has fallen in love with all three\r\nthings: such a man then experiences a great joy. But how \u003ci\u003eexacting!\u003c/i\u003e\r\nIt is quite impossible to do this save for a few short moments,—such\r\ntenfold attention on the part of one\u0027s eyes, ears, understanding, and\r\nfeeling, such acute activity in apprehending without any productive\r\nreaction, is far too exhausting!—Only the very fewest behave in this\r\nway: how is it then that so many are affected? Because most people\r\nare only intermittingly attentive, and are inattentive for sometimes\r\nwhole passages at a stretch; because they bestow their undivided\r\nattention now upon the music, later upon the drama, and anon upon the\r\nscenery—that is to say they \u003ci\u003etake the work to pieces.\u003c/i\u003e—But in this\r\nway the kind of work we are discussing is condemned: not the drama but\r\na moment of it is the result, an arbitrary selection. The creator of a\r\nnew \u003ci\u003egenre\u003c/i\u003e should consider this! The arts should not always be dished\r\nup together,—but we should imitate the moderation of the ancients\r\nwhich is truer to human nature.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e52.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eWagner reminds one of lava which blocks its own course by congealing,\r\nand suddenly finds\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_98\"\u003e[Pg 98]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e itself checked by dams which it has itself built.\r\nThere is no \u003ci\u003eAllegro con fuoco\u003c/i\u003e for him.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e53.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eI compare Wagner\u0027s music, which would fain have the same effect as\r\nspeech, with that kind of sculptural relief which would have the same\r\neffect as painting. The highest laws of style are violated, and that\r\nwhich is most sublime can no longer be achieved.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e54.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe general heaving, undulating and rolling of Wagner\u0027s art.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e55.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIn regard to Wagner\u0027s rejection of form, we are reminded of Goethe\u0027s\r\nremark in conversation with Eckermann: \"there is no great art in being\r\nbrilliant if one respects nothing.\"\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e56.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eOnce one theme is over, Wagner is always embarrassed as to how to\r\ncontinue. Hence the long preparation, the suspense. His peculiar\r\ncraftiness consisted in transvaluing his weakness into virtues.—\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e57.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe \u003ci\u003elack\u003c/i\u003e of melody and the poverty of melody in Wagner. Melody is a\r\nwhole consisting of many beautiful proportions, it is the reflection of\r\na well-ordered soul. He strives after melody; but if he finds one, he\r\nalmost suffocates it in his embrace.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_99\"\u003e[Pg 99]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e58.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe natural nobility of a Bach and a Beethoven, the beautiful soul\r\n(even of a Mendelssohn) are wanting in Wagner. He is one degree lower.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e59.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eWagner imitates himself again and again—mannerisms. That is why he was\r\nthe quickest among musicians to be imitated. It is so easy.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e60.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eMendelssohn who lacked the power of radically staggering one\r\n(incidentally this was the talent of the Jews in the Old Testament),\r\nmakes up for this by the things which were his own, that is to say:\r\nfreedom within the law, and noble emotions kept within the limits of\r\nbeauty.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e61.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eLiszt,\u003c/i\u003e the first \u003ci\u003erepresentative\u003c/i\u003e of all musicians, but \u003ci\u003eno\r\nmusician.\u003c/i\u003e He was the prince, not the statesman. The conglomerate of a\r\nhundred musicians\u0027 souls, but not enough of a personality to cast his\r\nown shadow upon them.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e62.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe most wholesome phenomenon is \u003ci\u003eBrahms,\u003c/i\u003e in whose music there is more\r\nGerman blood than in that of Wagner\u0027s. With these words I would say\r\nsomething complimentary, but by no means wholly so.\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_100\"\u003e[Pg 100]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e 63.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIn Wagner\u0027s writings there is no greatness or peace, but presumption.\r\nWhy?\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e64.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eWagner\u0027s Style.\u003c/i\u003e— The habit he acquired, from his earliest days,\r\nof having his say in the most important matters without a sufficient\r\nknowledge of them, has rendered him the obscure and incomprehensible\r\nwriter that he is. In addition to this he aspired to imitating the\r\nwitty newspaper article, and finally acquired that presumption which\r\nreadily joins hands with carelessness: \"and, behold, it was very good.\"\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e65.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eI am alarmed at the thought of how much pleasure I could find in\r\nWagner\u0027s style, which is so careless as to be unworthy of such an\r\nartist.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e66.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIn Wagner, as in Brahms, there is a blind denial of the healthy, in his\r\nfollowers this denial is deliberate and conscious.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e67.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eWagner\u0027s art is for those who are conscious of an essential blunder in\r\nthe conduct of their lives. They feel either that they have checked\r\na great nature by a base occupation, or squandered it through idle\r\npursuits, a conventional marriage, \u0026amp;c. \u0026amp;c.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_101\"\u003e[Pg 101]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIn this quarter the condemnation of the world is the outcome of the\r\ncondemnation of the ego.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e68.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eWagnerites do not wish to alter themselves in any way; they live\r\ndiscontentedly in insipid, conventional and brutal circumstances—only\r\nat intervals does art have to raise them as by magic above these\r\nthings. Weakness of will.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e69.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eWagner\u0027s art is for scholars who do not dare to become philosophers:\r\nthey feel discontented with themselves and are generally in a state\r\nof obtuse stupefaction—from time to time they take a bath in the\r\n\u003ci\u003eopposite conditions.\u003c/i\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e70.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eI feel as if I had recovered from an illness: with a feeling of\r\nunutterable joy I think of Mozart\u0027s \u003ci\u003eRequiem.\u003c/i\u003e I can once more enjoy\r\nsimple fare.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e71.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eI understand Sophocles\u0027 development through and through—it was the\r\nrepugnance to pomp and pageantry.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e72.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eI gained an insight into the injustice of \u003ci\u003eidealism,\u003c/i\u003e by noticing that\r\nI avenged myself on Wagner for the disappointed hopes I had cherished\r\nof him.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e73.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eI leave my loftiest duty to the end, and that is to thank Wagner and\r\nSchopenhauer publicly, and\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_102\"\u003e[Pg 102]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e to make them as it were take sides against\r\nthemselves.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e74.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eI counsel everybody not to fight shy of such paths (Wagner and\r\nSchopenhauer). The wholly \u003ci\u003eunphilosophic\u003c/i\u003e feeling of remorse, has\r\nbecome quite strange to me.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eWagner\u0027s Effects.\u003c/i\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e75.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eWe must strive to oppose the false after-effects of Wagner\u0027s art. If\r\nhe, in order to create Parsifal, is forced to pump fresh strength from\r\nreligious sources, this is not an example but a danger.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e76.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eI entertain the fear that the effects of Wagner\u0027s art will ultimately\r\npour into that torrent which takes its rise on the other side of the\r\nmountains, and which knows how to flow even over mountains.\u003ca id=\"FNanchor_3_18\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003ca class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_3_18\"\u003e[3]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"footnote\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca id=\"Footnote_3_18\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003ca href=\"#FNanchor_3_18\" class=\"pginternal\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"label\"\u003e[3]\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/a\u003e It should be noted that the German Catholic party is\r\ncalled the Ultramontane Party. The river which can thus flow over\r\nmountains is Catholicism, towards which Nietzsche thought Wagner\u0027s art\r\nto be tending.—TR.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003chr class=\"chap\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_103\"\u003e[Pg 103]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\r\n\u003ch3\u003e \u003ca id=\"WE_PHILOLOGISTS\"\u003eWE PHILOLOGISTS\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/h3\u003e\r\n\u003ch5\u003eAUTUMN 1874\u003c/h5\u003e\r\n\u003ch5\u003e(PUBLISHED POSTHUMOUSLY)\u003c/h5\u003e\r\n\u003ch5\u003eTRANSLATED BY J. M. KENNEDY\u003c/h5\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"center\" style=\"font-size: 0.8em;\"\u003eAUTHOR OF \"THE QUINTESSENCE OF NIETZSCHE,\"\u003cbr\u003e \"RELIGIONS AND PHILOSOPHIES\r\nOF THE EAST,\" \u0026amp;.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe mussel is crooked inside and rough outside: it is only\r\nwhen we hear its deep note after blowing into it that we can\r\nbegin to esteem it at its true value.—(Ind. Sprüche, ed.\r\nBöthlingk, i. 335.)\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eAn ugly-looking wind instrument: but we must first blow into\r\nit.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/blockquote\u003e\r\n\u003chr class=\"r5\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_104\"\u003e[Pg 104]\u003c/a\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_105\"\u003e[Pg 105]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003ch5\u003e\u003ca id=\"TRANSLATORS_INTRODUCTION\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003eTRANSLATOR\u0027S INTRODUCTION\u003c/h5\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe subject of education was one to which Nietzsche, especially\r\nduring his residence in Basel, paid considerable attention; and his\r\ninsight into it was very much deeper than that of, say, Herbert\r\nSpencer or even Johann Friedrich Herbart, the latter of whom has in\r\nlate years exercised considerable influence in scholastic circles.\r\nNietzsche clearly saw that the \"philologists\" (using the word chiefly\r\nin reference to the teachers of the classics in German colleges and\r\nuniversities) were absolutely unfitted for their high task, since they\r\nwere one and all incapable of entering into the spirit of antiquity.\r\nAlthough at the first reading, therefore, this book may seem to be\r\nrather fragmentary, there are two main lines of thought running through\r\nit: an incisive criticism of German professors, and a number of\r\nconstructive ideas as to what classical culture really should be.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThese scattered aphorisms, indeed, are significant as showing how far\r\nNietzsche had travelled along the road over which humanity had been\r\ntravelling from remote ages, and how greatly he was imbued with the\r\npagan spirit which he recognised in Goethe and valued in Burckhardt.\r\nEven at this early period of his life Nietzsche was convinced that\r\nChristianity was the real danger to culture; and not merely modern\r\nChristianity, but also the Alexandrian culture, the last gasp of Greek\r\nantiquity, which had\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_106\"\u003e[Pg 106]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e helped to bring Christianity about. When, in the\r\nlater aphorisms of \"We Philologists,\" Nietzsche appears to be throwing\r\nover the Greeks, it should be remembered that he does not refer to the\r\nGreeks of the era of Homer or Æschylus, or even of Aristotle, but to\r\nthe much later Greeks of the era of Longinus.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eClassical antiquity, however, was conveyed to the public through\r\nuniversity professors and their intellectual offspring; and these\r\nprofessors, influenced (quite unconsciously, of course) by religious\r\nand \"liberal\" principles, presented to their scholars a kind of\r\nemasculated antiquity. It was only on these conditions that the State\r\nallowed the pagan teaching to be propagated in the schools; and if,\r\nwhere classical scholars were concerned, it was more tolerant than the\r\nChurch had been, it must be borne in mind that the Church had already\r\ndone all the rough work of emasculating its enemies, and had handed\r\ndown to the State a body of very innocuous and harmless investigators.\r\nA totally erroneous conception of what constituted classical culture\r\nwas thus brought about Where any distinction was actually made, for\r\nexample, later Greek thought was enormously over-rated, and early Greek\r\nthought equally undervalued. Aphorism 44, together with the first\r\nhalf-dozen or so in the book, may be taken as typical specimens of\r\nNietzsche\u0027s protest against this state of things.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIt must be added, unfortunately, that Nietzsche\u0027s observations in this\r\nbook apply as much to England as to Germany. Classical teachers here\r\nmay not be rated so high as they are in Germany; but their\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_107\"\u003e[Pg 107]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e influence\r\nwould appear to be equally powerful, and their theories of education\r\nand of classical antiquity equally chaotic. In England as in Germany\r\nthey are \"theologians in disguise.\" The danger of modern \"values\" to\r\ntrue culture may be readily gathered from a perusal of aphorisms that\r\nfollow: and, if these aphorisms enable even one scholar in a hundred to\r\nenter more thoroughly into the spirit of a great past, they will not\r\nhave been penned in vain.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp style=\"margin-left: 75%; font-size: 0.8em;\"\u003eJ. M. KENNEDY.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp style=\"margin-left: 5%; font-size: 0.8em;\"\u003eLONDON, \u003ci\u003eJuly,\u003c/i\u003e1911.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_108\"\u003e[Pg 108]\u003c/a\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_109\"\u003e[Pg 109]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e1.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eTo what a great extent men are ruled by pure hazard, and how little\r\nreason itself enters into the question, is sufficiently shown by\r\nobserving how few people have any real capacity for their professions\r\nand callings, and how many square pegs there are in round holes: happy\r\nand well chosen instances are quite exceptional, like happy marriages,\r\nand even these latter are not brought about by reason. A man chooses\r\nhis calling before he is fitted to exercise his faculty of choice.\r\nHe does not know the number of different callings and professions\r\nthat exist; he does not know himself; and then he wastes his years\r\nof activity in this calling, applies all his mind to it, and becomes\r\nexperienced and practical. When, afterwards, his understanding has\r\nbecome fully developed, it is generally too late to start something\r\nnew; for wisdom on earth has almost always had something of the\r\nweakness of old age and lack of vigour about it.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eFor the most part the task is to make good, and to set to rights as\r\nwell as possible, that which was bungled in the beginning. Many will\r\ncome to recognise that the latter part of their life shows a purpose\r\nor design which has sprung from a primary discord: it is hard to live\r\nthrough it Towards the end of his life, however, the average man has\r\nbecome accustomed to it—then he may make a mistake in regard\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_110\"\u003e[Pg 110]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e to\r\nthe life he has lived, and praise his own stupidity: \u003ci\u003ebene navigavi\r\ncum naufragium feci:\u003c/i\u003e he may even compose a song of thanksgiving to\r\n\"Providence.\"\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e2\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eOn inquiring into the origin of the philologist I find:\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e1. A young man cannot have the slightest conception of what the Greeks\r\nand Romans were.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e2. He does not know whether he is fitted to investigate into them;\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e3. And, in particular, he does not know to what extent, in view of\r\nthe knowledge he may actually possess, he is fitted to be a teacher.\r\nWhat then enables him to decide is not the knowledge of himself or his\r\nscience; but\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003e(a)\u003c/i\u003e Imitation.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003e(b)\u003c/i\u003e The convenience of carrying on the kind of\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003ework which he had begun at school.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003e(c)\u003c/i\u003e His intention of earning a living.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIn short, ninety-nine philologists out of a hundred \u003ci\u003eshould\u003c/i\u003e not be\r\nphilologists at all.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e3\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe more strict religions require that men shall look upon their\r\nactivity simply as one means of carrying out a metaphysical scheme: an\r\nunfortunate choice of calling may then be explained as a test of the\r\nindividual. Religions keep their eyes fixed only upon the salvation of\r\nthe individual: whether he is a slave or a free man, a merchant or a\r\nscholar, his aim in life has nothing to do with his calling, so that\r\na wrong choice is not such a very great piece\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_111\"\u003e[Pg 111]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e of unhappiness. Let\r\nthis serve as a crumb of comfort for philologists in general; but true\r\nphilologists stand in need of a better understanding: what will result\r\nfrom a science which is \"gone in for\" by ninety-nine such people?\r\nThe thoroughly unfitted majority draw up the rules of the science in\r\naccordance with their own capacities and inclinations; and in this way\r\nthey tyrannise over the hundredth, the only capable one among them. If\r\nthey have the training of others in their hands they will train them\r\nconsciously or unconsciously after their own image: what then becomes\r\nof the classicism of the Greeks and Romans?\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe points to be proved are:—\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003e(a)\u003c/i\u003e The disparity between philologists and the ancients.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003e(b)\u003c/i\u003e The inability of the philologist to train his pupils, even with\r\nthe help of the ancients.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003e(c)\u003c/i\u003e The falsifying of the science by the (incapacity of the)\r\nmajority; the wrong requirements held in view; the renunciation of the\r\nreal aim of this science.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e4\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eAll this affects the sources of our present philology: a sceptical and\r\nmelancholy attitude. But how otherwise are philologists to be produced?\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe imitation of antiquity: is not this a principle which has been\r\nrefuted by this time?\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe flight from actuality to the ancients: does not this tend to\r\nfalsify our conception of antiquity?\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_112\"\u003e[Pg 112]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e5\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eWe are still behindhand in one type of contemplation: to understand\r\nhow the greatest productions of the intellect have a dreadful and evil\r\nbackground: the sceptical type of contemplation. Greek antiquity is now\r\ninvestigated as the most beautiful example of life.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eAs man assumes a sceptical and melancholy attitude towards his life\u0027s\r\ncalling, \u003ci\u003eso\u003c/i\u003e we must sceptically examine the highest life\u0027s calling of\r\na nation: in order that we may understand what life is.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e6\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eMy words of consolation apply particularly to the single tyrannised\r\nindividual out of a hundred: such exceptional ones should simply treat\r\nall the unenlightened majorities as their subordinates; and they\r\nshould in the same way take advantage of the prejudice, which is still\r\nwidespread, in favour of classical instruction—they need many helpers.\r\nBut they must have a clear perception of what their actual goal is.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e7\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003ePhilology as the science of antiquity does not, of course, endure for\r\never; its elements are not inexhaustible. What cannot be exhausted,\r\nhowever, is the ever-new adaptation of one\u0027s age to antiquity; the\r\ncomparison of the two. If we make it our task to understand our own\r\nage better by means of antiquity, then our task will be an everlasting\r\none.—This is the antinomy of philology: people have always endeavoured\r\nto understand antiquity by means of the\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_113\"\u003e[Pg 113]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e present—and shall the present\r\nnow be understood by-means of antiquity? Better: people have explained\r\nantiquity to themselves out of their own experiences; and from the\r\namount of antiquity thus acquired they have assessed the value of\r\ntheir experiences. Experience, therefore, is certainly an essential\r\npre-requisite for a philologist—that is, the philologist must first of\r\nall be a man; for then only can he be productive as a philologist. It\r\nfollows from this that old men are well suited to be philologists if\r\nthey were not such during that portion of their life which was richest\r\nin experiences.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIt must be insisted, however, that it is only through a knowledge\r\nof the present that one can acquire an inclination for the study of\r\nclassical antiquity. Where indeed should the impulse come from if not\r\nfrom this inclination? When we observe how few philologists there\r\nactually are, except those that have taken up philology as a means of\r\nlivelihood, we can easily decide for ourselves what is the matter with\r\nthis impulse for antiquity: it hardly exists at all, for there are no\r\ndisinterested philologists.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eOur task then is to secure for philology the universally educative\r\nresults which it should bring about. The means: the limitation of\r\nthe number of those engaged in the philological profession (doubtful\r\nwhether young men should be made acquainted with philology at all).\r\nCriticism of the philologist. The value of antiquity: it sinks with\r\nyou: how deeply you must have sunk, since its value is now so little!\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_114\"\u003e[Pg 114]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e8\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIt is a great advantage for the true philologist that a great deal\r\nof preliminary work has been done in his science, so that he may\r\ntake possession of this inheritance if he is strong enough for it—I\r\nrefer to the valuation of the entire Hellenic mode of thinking. So\r\nlong as philologists worked simply at details, a misunderstanding of\r\nthe Greeks was the consequence. The stages of this under-valuation\r\nare: the sophists of the second century, the philologist-poets of the\r\nRenaissance, and the philologist as the teacher of the higher classes\r\nof society (Goethe, Schiller).\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eValuing is the most difficult of all.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIn what respect is one most fitted for this valuing?—Not, at all\r\nevents, when one is trained for philology as one is now. It should be\r\nascertained to what extent our present means make this last object\r\nimpossible.—Thus the philologist himself is not the aim of philology.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e9\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eMost men show clearly enough that they do not regard themselves as\r\nindividuals: their lives indicate this. The Christian command that\r\neveryone shall steadfastly keep his eyes fixed upon his salvation, and\r\nhis alone, has as its counterpart the general life of mankind, where\r\nevery man lives merely as a point among other points—living not only\r\nas the result of earlier generations, but living also only with an\r\neye to the future. There are only three forms of existence in which\r\na man remains an individual: as a philosopher, as a Saviour, and as\r\nan artist. But just let us consider how a scientific man bungles his\r\nlife:\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_115\"\u003e[Pg 115]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e what has the teaching of Greek particles to do with the sense\r\nof life?—Thus we can also observe how innumerable men merely live, as\r\nit were, a preparation for a man: the philologist, for example, as a\r\npreparation for the philosopher, who in his turn knows how to utilise\r\nhis ant-like work to pronounce some opinion upon the value of life.\r\nWhen such ant-like work is not carried out under any special direction\r\nthe greater part of it is simply nonsense, and quite superfluous.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e10\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eBesides the large number of unqualified philologists there is, on the\r\nother hand, a number of what may be called born philologists, who from\r\nsome reason or other are prevented from becoming such. The greatest\r\nobstacle, however, which stands in the way of these born philologists\r\nis the bad representation of philology by the unqualified philologists.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eLeopardi is the modern ideal of a philologist: The German philologists\r\ncan do nothing. (As a proof of this Voss should be studied!)\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e11\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eLet it be considered how differently a science is propagated from the\r\nway in which any special talent in a family is transmitted. The bodily\r\ntransmission of an individual science is something very rare. Do the\r\nsons of philologists easily become philologists? \u003ci\u003eDubito.\u003c/i\u003e Thus there\r\nis no such accumulation of philological capacity as there was, let us\r\nsay, in Beethoven\u0027s family of musical capacity.\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_116\"\u003e[Pg 116]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e Most philologists\r\nbegin from the beginning; and even then they learn from books, and not\r\nthrough travels, \u0026amp;c. They get some training, of course.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e12\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eMost men are obviously in the world accidentally: no necessity of a\r\nhigher kind is seen in them. They work at this and that; their talents\r\nare average. How strange! The manner in which they live shows that they\r\nthink very little of themselves: they merely esteem themselves in so\r\nfar as they waste their energy on trifles (whether these be mean or\r\nfrivolous desires, or the trashy concerns of their everyday calling).\r\nIn the so-called life\u0027s calling, which everyone must choose, we may\r\nperceive a touching modesty on the part of mankind. They practically\r\nadmit in choosing thus: \"We are called upon to serve and to be of\r\nadvantage to our equals—the same remark applies to our neighbour and\r\nto his neighbour; so everyone serves somebody else; no one is carrying\r\nout the duties of his calling for his own sake, but always for the sake\r\nof others: and thus we are like geese which support one another by\r\nthe one leaning against the other. \u003ci\u003eWhen the aim of each one of us is\r\ncentred in another, then we have all no object in existing;\u003c/i\u003e and this\r\n\u0027existing for others\u0027 is the most comical of comedies.\"\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e13\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eVanity is the involuntary inclination to set one\u0027s self up for an\r\nindividual while not really being one; that is to say, trying to appear\r\nindependent when one is dependent. The case of wisdom is the exact\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_117\"\u003e[Pg 117]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\ncontrary: it appears to be dependent while in reality it is independent.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e14\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe Hades of Homer—From what type of existence is it really copied? I\r\nthink it is the description of the philologist: it is better to be a\r\nday-labourer than to have such an anæmic recollection of the past.—\u003ca id=\"FNanchor_1_19\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003ca class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_1_19\"\u003e[1]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"footnote\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca id=\"Footnote_1_19\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003ca href=\"#FNanchor_1_19\" class=\"pginternal\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"label\"\u003e[1]\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/a\u003e No doubt a reminiscence of the \"Odyssey,\" Bk. ix.—TR.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e15\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe attitude of the philologist towards antiquity is apologetic, or\r\nelse dictated by the view that what our own age values can likewise\r\nbe found in antiquity. The right attitude to take up, however, is\r\nthe reverse one, viz., to start with an insight into our modern\r\ntopsyturviness, and to look back from antiquity to it—and many things\r\nabout antiquity which have hitherto displeased us will then be seen to\r\nhave been most profound necessities.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eWe must make it clear to ourselves that we are acting in an absurd\r\nmanner when we try to defend or to beautify antiquity: \u003ci\u003ewho\u003c/i\u003e are we!\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e16\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eWe are under a false impression when we say that there is always some\r\ncaste which governs a nation\u0027s culture, and that therefore savants are\r\nnecessary; for savants only possess knowledge concerning culture (and\r\neven this only in exceptional cases). Among learned men themselves\r\nthere might be a few, certainly not a caste, but even these would\r\nindeed be rare.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_118\"\u003e[Pg 118]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e17\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eOne very great value of antiquity consists in the fact that its\r\nwritings are the only ones which modern men still read carefully.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eOverstraining of the memory—very common among philologists, together\r\nwith a poor development of the judgment.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e18\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eBusying ourselves with the culture-epochs of the past: is this\r\ngratitude? We should look backwards in order to explain to ourselves\r\nthe present conditions of culture: we do not become too laudatory in\r\nregard to our own circumstances, but perhaps we should do so in order\r\nthat we may not be too severe on ourselves.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e19\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eHe who has no sense for the symbolical has none for antiquity: let\r\npedantic philologists bear this in mind.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e20\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eMy aim is to bring about a state of complete enmity between our present\r\n\"culture\" and antiquity. Whoever wishes to serve the former must hate\r\nthe latter.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e21\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eCareful meditation upon the past leads to the impression that we are\r\na multiplication of many pasts: so how can we be a final aim? But why\r\nnot? In most instances, however, we do not wish to be this. We take up\r\nour positions again in the\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_119\"\u003e[Pg 119]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e ranks, work in our own little corner, and\r\nhope that what we do may be of some small profit to our successors. But\r\nthat is exactly the case of the cask of the Danæ: and this is useless,\r\nwe must again set about doing everything for ourselves, and only\r\nfor ourselves—measuring science by ourselves, for example with the\r\nquestion: What is science to us? not: what are we to science? People\r\nreally make life too easy for themselves when they look upon themselves\r\nfrom such a simple historical point of view, and make humble servants\r\nof themselves. \"Your own salvation above everything\"—that is what you\r\nshould say; and there are no institutions which you should prize more\r\nhighly than your own soul.—Now, however, man learns to know himself:\r\nhe finds himself miserable, despises himself, and is pleased to find\r\nsomething worthy of respect outside himself. Therefore he gets rid of\r\nhimself, so to speak, makes himself subservient to a cause, does his\r\nduty strictly, and atones for his existence. He knows that he does not\r\nwork for himself alone; he wishes to help those who are daring enough\r\nto exist on account of themselves, like Socrates. The majority of men\r\nare as it were suspended in the air like toy balloons; every breath\r\nof wind moves them.—As a consequence the savant must be such out of\r\nself-knowledge, that is to say, out of contempt for himself—in other\r\nwords he must recognise himself to be merely the servant of some higher\r\nbeing who comes after him. Otherwise he is simply a sheep.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_120\"\u003e[Pg 120]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e22\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIt is the duty of the free man to live for his own sake, and not for\r\nothers. It was on this account that the Greeks looked upon handicrafts\r\nas unseemly.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eAs a complete entity Greek antiquity has not yet been fully valued:\r\nI am convinced that if it had not been surrounded by its traditional\r\nglorification, the men of the present day would shrink from it horror\r\nstricken. This glorification, then, is spurious; gold-paper.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e23\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe false enthusiasm for antiquity in which many philologists live.\r\nWhen antiquity suddenly comes upon us in our youth, it appears to us\r\nto be composed of innumerable trivialities; in particular we believe\r\nourselves to be above its ethics. And Homer and Walter Scott—who\r\ncarries off the palm? Let us be honest! If this enthusiasm were really\r\nfelt, people could scarcely seek their life\u0027s calling in it. I mean\r\nthat what we can obtain from the Greeks only begins to dawn upon us in\r\nlater years: only after we have undergone many experiences, and thought\r\na great deal.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e24\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003ePeople in general think that philology is at an end—while I believe\r\nthat it has not yet begun.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe greatest events in philology are the appearance of Goethe,\r\nSchopenhauer, and Wagner; standing on their shoulders we look far into\r\nthe distance The fifth and sixth centuries have still to be discovered.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_121\"\u003e[Pg 121]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e25\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eWhere do we see the effect of antiquity? Not in language, not in the\r\nimitation of something or other, and not in perversity and waywardness,\r\nto which uses the French have turned it. Our museums are gradually\r\nbecoming filled up: I always experience a sensation of disgust when\r\nI see naked statues in the Greek style in the presence of this\r\nthought-less philistinism which would fain devour everything.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_122\"\u003e[Pg 122]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003ch5\u003ePLANS AND THOUGHTS RELATING TO A WORK ON PHILOLOGY\u003c/h5\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"center\" style=\"font-size: 0.8em;\"\u003e(1875)\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e26\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eOf all sciences philology at present is the most favoured: its progress\r\nhaving been furthered for centuries by the greatest number of scholars\r\nin every nation who have had charge of the noblest pupils. Philology\r\nhas thus had one of the best of all opportunities to be propagated from\r\ngeneration to generation, and to make itself respected. How has it\r\nacquired this power?\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eCalculations of the different prejudices in its favour.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eHow then if these were to be frankly recognised as prejudices? Would\r\nnot philology be superfluous if we reckoned up the interests of a\r\nposition in life or the earning of a livelihood? What if the truth were\r\ntold about antiquity, and its qualifications for training people to\r\nlive in the present?\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIn order that the questions set forth above may be answered let us\r\nconsider the training of the philologist, his genesis: he no longer\r\ncomes into being where these interests are lacking.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIf the world in general came to know what an unseasonable thing for us\r\nantiquity really is,\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_123\"\u003e[Pg 123]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e philologists would no longer be called in as the\r\neducators of our youth.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eEffect of antiquity on the non-philologist likewise nothing. If they\r\nshowed themselves to be imperative and contradictory, oh, with what\r\nhatred would they be pursued! But they always humble themselves.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003ePhilology now derives its power only from the union between the\r\nphilologists who will not, or cannot, understand antiquity and public\r\nopinion, which is misled by prejudices in regard to it.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe real Greeks, and their \"watering down\" through the philologists.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe future commanding philologist sceptical in regard to our entire\r\nculture, and therefore also the destroyer of philology as a profession.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003ch5\u003eTHE PREFERENCE FOR ANTIQUITY\u003c/h5\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e27\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIf a man approves of the investigation of the past he will also approve\r\nand even praise the fact—and will above all easily understand it—that\r\nthere are scholars who are exclusively occupied with the investigation\r\nof Greek and Roman antiquity: but that these scholars are at the same\r\ntime the teachers of the children of the nobility and gentry is not\r\nequally easy of comprehension—here lies a problem.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eWhy philologists precisely? This is not altogether such a matter\r\nof course as the case of a professor of medicine, who is also a\r\npractical physician and surgeon. For, if the cases were identical,\r\npreoccupation with Greek and Roman antiquity would be\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_124\"\u003e[Pg 124]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e identical with\r\nthe \"science of education.\" In short the relationship between theory\r\nand practice in the philologist cannot be so quickly conceived. Whence\r\ncomes his pretension to be a teacher in the higher sense, not only\r\nof all scientific men, but more especially of all cultured men? This\r\neducational power must be taken by the philologist from antiquity; and\r\nin such a case people will ask with astonishment: how does it come that\r\nwe attach such value to a far-off past that we can only become cultured\r\nmen with the aid of its knowledge?\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThese questions, however, are not asked as a rule: The sway of\r\nphilology over our means of instruction remains practically\r\nunquestioned; and antiquity \u003ci\u003ehas\u003c/i\u003e the importance assigned to it. To\r\nthis extent the position of the philologist is more favourable than\r\nthat of any other follower of science. True, he has not at his disposal\r\nthat great mass of men who stand in need of him—the doctor, for\r\nexample, has far more than the philologist. But he can influence picked\r\nmen, or youths, to be more accurate, at a time when all their mental\r\nfaculties are beginning to blossom forth—people who can afford to\r\ndevote both time and money to their higher development. In all those\r\nplaces where European culture has found its way, people have accepted\r\nsecondary schools based upon a foundation of Latin and Greek as the\r\nfirst and highest means of instruction. In this way philology has found\r\nits best opportunity of transmitting itself, and commanding respect:\r\nno other science has been so well favoured. As a general rule all\r\nthose who have passed through such institutions have afterwards borne\r\ntestimony to the\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_125\"\u003e[Pg 125]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e excellence of their organisation and curriculum,\r\nand such people are, of course, unconscious witnesses in favour of\r\nphilology. If any who have not passed through these institutions should\r\nhappen to utter a word in disparagement of this education, an unanimous\r\nand yet calm repudiation of the statement at once follows, as if\r\nclassical education were a kind of witchcraft, blessing its followers,\r\nand demonstrating itself to them by this blessing. There is no attempt\r\nat polemics: \"We have been through it all.\" \"We know it has done us\r\ngood.\"\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eNow there are so many things to which men have become so accustomed\r\nthat they look upon them as quite appropriate and suitable, for habit\r\nintermixes all things with sweetness; and men as a rule judge the\r\nvalue of a thing in accordance with their own desires. The desire for\r\nclassical antiquity as it is now felt should be tested, and, as it\r\nwere, taken to pieces and analysed with a view to seeing how much of\r\nthis desire is due to habit, and how much to mere love of adventure—I\r\nrefer to that inward and active desire, new and strange, which gives\r\nrise to a productive conviction from day to day, the desire for a\r\nhigher goal, and also the means thereto: as the result of which people\r\nadvance step by step from one unfamiliar thing to another, like an\r\nAlpine climber.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eWhat is the foundation on which the high value attached to antiquity\r\nat the present time is based, to such an extent indeed that our whole\r\nmodern culture is founded on it? Where must we look for the origin of\r\nthis delight in antiquity, and the preference shown for it?\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_126\"\u003e[Pg 126]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eI think I have recognised in my examination of the question that all\r\nour philology—that is, all its present existence and power—is based\r\non the same foundation as that on which our view of antiquity as the\r\nmost important of all means of training is based. Philology as a means\r\nof instruction is the clear expression of a predominating conception\r\nregarding the value of antiquity, and the best methods of education.\r\nTwo propositions are contained in this statement: In the first place\r\nall higher education must be a historical one; and secondly, Greek and\r\nRoman history differs from all others in that it is classical. Thus the\r\nscholar who knows this history becomes a teacher. We are not here going\r\ninto the question as to whether higher education ought to be historical\r\nor not; but we may examine the second and ask: in how far is it classic?\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eOn this point there are many widespread prejudices. In the first place\r\nthere is the prejudice expressed in the synonymous concept, \"The study\r\nof the humanities\": antiquity is classic because it is the school of\r\nthe humane.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eSecondly: \"Antiquity is classic because it is enlightened——\"\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e28\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIt is the task of all education to change certain conscious actions\r\nand habits into more or less unconscious ones; and the history of\r\nmankind is in this sense its education. The philologist now practises\r\nunconsciously a number of such occupations and habits. It is my object\r\nto ascertain how\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_127\"\u003e[Pg 127]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e his power, that is, his instinctive methods of work,\r\nis the result of activities which were formerly conscious, but which he\r\nhas gradually come to feel as such no longer: \u003ci\u003ebut that consciousness\r\nconsisted of prejudices.\u003c/i\u003e The present power of philologists is based\r\nupon these prejudices, for example the value attached to the \u003ci\u003eratio\u003c/i\u003e\r\nas in the cases of Bentley and Hermann. Prejudices are, as Lichtenberg\r\nsays, the art impulses of men.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e29\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIt is difficult to justify the preference for antiquity since it has\r\narisen from prejudices:\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e1. From ignorance of all non-classical antiquity.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e2. From a false idealisation of humanitarianism, whilst Hindoos and\r\nChinese are at all events more humane.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e3. From the pretensions of school-teachers.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e4. From the traditional admiration which emanated from antiquity itself.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e5. From opposition to the Christian church; or as a support for this\r\nchurch.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e6. From the impression created by the century-long work of the\r\nphilologists, and the nature of this work: it must be a gold mine,\r\nthinks the spectator.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e7. The acquirement of knowledge attained as the result of the study.\r\nThe preparatory school of science.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIn short, partly from ignorance, wrong impressions, and misleading\r\nconclusions; and also from the interest which philologists have in\r\nraising their science to a high level in the estimation of laymen.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_128\"\u003e[Pg 128]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eAlso the preference for antiquity on the part of the artists, who\r\ninvoluntarily assume proportion and moderation to be the property of\r\nall antiquity. Purity of form. Authors likewise.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe preference for antiquity as an abbreviation of the history of the\r\nhuman race, as if there were an autochthonous creation here by which\r\nall becoming might be studied.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe fact actually is that the foundations of this preference are\r\nbeing removed one by one, and if this is not remarked by philologists\r\nthemselves, it is certainly being remarked as much as it can possibly\r\nbe by people outside their circle. First of all history had its effect,\r\nand then linguistics brought about the greatest diversion among\r\nphilologists themselves, and even the desertion of many of them. They\r\nhave still the schools in their hands: but for how long! In the form\r\nin which it has existed up to the present philology is dying out; the\r\nground has been swept from under its feet. Whether philologists may\r\nstill hope to maintain their status is doubtful; in any case they are a\r\ndying race.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e30\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe peculiarly significant situation of philologists: a class of\r\npeople to whom we entrust our youth, and who have to investigate quite\r\na special antiquity. The highest value is obviously attached to this\r\nantiquity. But if this antiquity has been wrongly valued, then the\r\nwhole foundation upon which the high position of the philologist is\r\nbased suddenly collapses. In any case this antiquity has\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_129\"\u003e[Pg 129]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e been very\r\ndifferently valued; and our appreciation of the philologists has\r\nconstantly been guided by it. These people have borrowed their power\r\nfrom the strong prejudices in favour of antiquity,—this must be made\r\nclear.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003ePhilologists now feel that when these prejudices are at last refuted,\r\nand antiquity depicted in its true colours, the favourable prejudices\r\ntowards them will diminish considerably. \u003ci\u003eIt is thus to the interest\r\nof their profession not to let a clear impression of antiquity come to\r\nlight: in particular the impression that antiquity in its highest sense\r\nrenders one \"out of season\"\u003c/i\u003e i.e., \u003ci\u003ean enemy to one\u0027s own time.\u003c/i\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIt is also to the interest of philologists as a class not to let their\r\ncalling as teachers be regarded from a higher standpoint than that to\r\nwhich they themselves can correspond.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e31\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIt is to be hoped that there are a few people who look upon it as\r\na problem why philologists should be the teachers of our noblest\r\nyouths. Perhaps the case will not be always so.—It would be much more\r\nnatural \u003ci\u003eper se\u003c/i\u003e if our children were instructed in the elements of\r\ngeography, natural science, political economy, and sociology, if they\r\nwere gradually led to a consideration of life itself, and if finally,\r\nbut much later, the most noteworthy events of the past were brought\r\nto their knowledge. A knowledge of antiquity should be among the last\r\nsubjects which a student would take up; and would not this position of\r\nantiquity in the curriculum of a school be more honourable for it than\r\nthe present one?—\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_130\"\u003e[Pg 130]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003eAntiquity is now used merely as a propædeutic for\r\nthinking, speaking, and writing; but there was a time when it was the\r\nessence of earthly knowledge, and people at that time wished to acquire\r\nby means of practical learning what they now seek to acquire merely by\r\nmeans of a detailed plan of study—a plan which, corresponding to the\r\nmore advanced knowledge of the age, has entirely changed.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThus the inner purpose of philological teaching has been entirely\r\naltered; it was at one time material teaching, a teaching that taught\r\nhow to live; but now it is merely formal.\u003ca id=\"FNanchor_3_20\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003ca class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_3_20\"\u003e[3]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"footnote\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca id=\"Footnote_3_20\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003ca href=\"#FNanchor_3_20\" class=\"pginternal\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"label\"\u003e[3]\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/a\u003e Formal education is that which tends to develop the\r\ncritical and logical faculties, as opposed to material education,\r\nwhich is intended to deal with the acquisition of knowledge and its\r\nvaluation, \u003ci\u003ee.g.,\u003c/i\u003e history, mathematics, \u0026amp;c. \"Material\" education, of\r\ncourse, has nothing to do with materialism.—TR.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e32\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIf it were the task of the philologist to impart formal education,\r\nit would be necessary for him to teach walking, dancing, speaking,\r\nsinging, acting, or arguing: and the so-called formal teachers did\r\nimpart their instruction this way in the second and third centuries.\r\nBut only the training of a scientific man is taken into account, which\r\nresults in \"formal\" thinking and writing, and hardly any speaking at\r\nall.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e33\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIf the gymnasium is to train young men for science, people now say\r\nthere can be no more\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_131\"\u003e[Pg 131]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e preliminary preparation for any particular\r\nscience, so comprehensive have all the sciences become. As a\r\nconsequence teachers have to train their students generally, that is\r\nto say for all the sciences—for scientificality in other words; and\r\nfor that classical studies are necessary! What a wonderful jump! a most\r\ndespairing justification! Whatever is, is right,\u003ca id=\"FNanchor_4_21\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003ca class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_4_21\"\u003e[4]\u003c/a\u003e even when it is\r\nclearly seen that the \"right\" on which it has been based has turned to\r\nwrong.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"footnote\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca id=\"Footnote_4_21\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003ca href=\"#FNanchor_4_21\" class=\"pginternal\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"label\"\u003e[4]\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/a\u003e The reference is not to Pope, but to Hegel.—TR.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e34\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIt is accomplishments which are expected from us after a study of the\r\nancients: formerly, for example, the ability to write and speak. But\r\nwhat is expected now! Thinking and deduction: but these things are not\r\nlearnt \u003ci\u003efrom\u003c/i\u003e the ancients, but at best \u003ci\u003ethrough\u003c/i\u003e the ancients, by\r\nmeans of science. Moreover, all historical deduction is very limited\r\nand unsafe; natural science should be preferred.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e35\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIt is the same with the simplicity of antiquity as it is with the\r\nsimplicity of style: it is the highest thing which we recognise and\r\nmust imitate; but it is also the last Let it be remembered that the\r\nclassic prose of the Greeks is also a late result\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e36\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eWhat a mockery of the study of the \"humanities\" lies in the fact that\r\nthey were also called \"belles lettres\" (bellas litteras)!\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_132\"\u003e[Pg 132]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e37\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eWolfs\u003ca id=\"FNanchor_5_22\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003ca class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_5_22\"\u003e[5]\u003c/a\u003e reasons why the Egyptians, Hebrews Persians, and other\r\nOriental nations were not to be set on the same plane with the\r\nGreeks and Romans: \"The former have either not raised themselves,\r\nor have raised themselves only to a slight extent, above that type\r\nof culture which should be called a mere civilisation and bourgeois\r\nacquirement, as opposed to the higher and true culture of the mind.\"\r\nHe then explains that this culture is spiritual and literary: \"In\r\na well-organised nation this may be begun earlier than order and\r\npeacefulness in the outward life of the people (enlightenment).\"\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eHe then contrasts the inhabitants of easternmost Asia (\"like such\r\nindividuals, who are not wanting in clean, decent, and comfortable\r\ndwellings, clothing, and surroundings; but who never feel the necessity\r\nfor a higher enlightenment\") with the Greeks (\"in the case of the\r\nGreeks, even among the most educated inhabitants of Attica, the\r\ncontrary often happens to an astonishing degree; and the people neglect\r\nas insignificant factors that which we, thanks to our love of order,\r\nare in the habit of looking upon as the foundations of mental culture\r\nitself\").\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"footnote\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca id=\"Footnote_5_22\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003ca href=\"#FNanchor_5_22\" class=\"pginternal\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"label\"\u003e[5]\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/a\u003e Friedrich August Wolf (1759-1824), the well-known\r\nclassical scholar, now chiefly remembered by his \"Prolegomena ad\r\nHomerum.\"—TR.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e38\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eOur terminology already shows how prone we are to judge the ancients\r\nwrongly: the exaggerated sense of literature, for example; or, as Wolf,\r\nwhen\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_133\"\u003e[Pg 133]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e speaking of the \"inner history of ancient erudition,\" calls it,\r\n\"the history of learned enlightenment.\"\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e39\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eAccording to Goethe, the ancients are \"the despair of the emulator.\"\r\nVoltaire said: \"If the admirers of Homer were honest, they would\r\nacknowledge the boredom which their favourite often causes them.\"\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e40\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe position we have taken up towards classical antiquity is at bottom\r\nthe profound cause of the sterility of modern culture; for we have\r\ntaken all this modern conception of culture from the Hellenised Romans.\r\nWe must distinguish within the domain of antiquity itself: when we come\r\nto appreciate its purely productive period, we condemn at the same time\r\nthe entire Romano Alexandrian culture. But at the same time also we\r\ncondemn our own attitude towards antiquity, and likewise our philology.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e41\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThere has been an age-long battle between the Germans and antiquity,\r\n\u003ci\u003ei.e.,\u003c/i\u003e a battle against the old culture: it is certain that precisely\r\nwhat is best and deepest in the German resists it. The main point,\r\nhowever, is that such resistance is only justifiable in the case of\r\nthe Romanised culture; for this culture, even at that time, was a\r\nfalling-off from something more profound and noble. It is this latter\r\nthat the Germans are wrong in resisting.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_134\"\u003e[Pg 134]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e42\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eEverything classic was thoroughly cultivated by Charles the Great,\r\nwhilst he combated everything heathen with the severest possible\r\nmeasures of coercion. Ancient mythology was developed, but German\r\nmythology was treated as a crime. The feeling underlying all this,\r\nin my opinion, was that Christianity had already overcome the old\r\nreligion: people no longer feared it, but availed themselves of the\r\nculture that rested upon it. But the old German gods were feared.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eA great superficiality in the conception of antiquity—little else than\r\nan appreciation of its formal accomplishments and its knowledge—must\r\nthereby have been brought about. We must find out the forces that\r\nstood in the way of increasing our insight into antiquity. First of\r\nall, the culture of antiquity is utilised as an incitement towards the\r\nacceptance of Christianity: it became, as it were, the premium for\r\nconversion, the gilt with which the poisonous pill was coated before\r\nbeing swallowed. Secondly, the help of ancient culture was found to be\r\nnecessary as a weapon for the intellectual protection of Christianity.\r\nEven the Reformation could not dispense with classical studies for this\r\npurpose.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe Renaissance, on the other hand, now begins, with a clearer sense\r\nof classical studies, which, however, are likewise looked upon from\r\nan anti-Christian standpoint: the Renaissance shows an awakening of\r\nhonesty in the south, like the Reformation in the north. They could\r\nnot but clash; for a sincere leaning towards antiquity renders one\r\nunchristian.\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_135\"\u003e[Pg 135]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e On the whole, however, the Church succeeded in turning\r\nclassical studies into a harmless direction: the philologist was\r\ninvented, representing a type of learned man who was at the same time\r\na priest or something similar. Even in the period of the Reformation\r\npeople succeeded in emasculating scholarship. It is on this account\r\nthat Friedrich August Wolf is noteworthy: he freed his profession from\r\nthe bonds of theology. This action of his, however, was not fully\r\nunderstood; for an aggressive, active element, such as was manifested\r\nby the poet-philologists of the Renaissance, was not developed. The\r\nfreedom obtained benefited science, but not man.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e43\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIt is true that both humanism and rationalism have brought antiquity\r\ninto the field as an ally; and it is therefore quite comprehensible\r\nthat the opponents of humanism should direct their attacks against\r\nantiquity also. Antiquity, however, has been misunderstood and\r\nfalsified by humanism: it must rather be considered as a testimony\r\nagainst humanism, against the benign nature of man, \u0026amp;c. The opponents\r\nof humanism are wrong to combat antiquity as well; for in antiquity\r\nthey have a strong ally.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e44\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIt is so difficult to understand the ancients. We must wait patiently\r\nuntil the spirit moves us. The human element which antiquity shows\r\nus must not be confused with humanitarianism. This contrast must be\r\nstrongly emphasised: philology suffers by endeavouring to substitute\r\nthe humanitarian;\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_136\"\u003e[Pg 136]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e young men are brought forward as students of\r\nphilology in order that they may thereby become humanitarians. A good\r\ndeal of history, in my opinion, is quite sufficient for that purpose.\r\nThe brutal and self-conscious man will be humbled when he sees things\r\nand values changing to such an extent.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe human element among the Greeks lies within a certain \u003ci\u003enaïveté\u003c/i\u003e\r\nthrough which man himself is to be seen—state, art, society, military\r\nand civil law, sexual relations, education, party. It is precisely the\r\nhuman element which may be seen everywhere and among all peoples; but\r\namong the Greeks it is seen in a state of nakedness and inhumanity\r\nwhich cannot be dispensed with for purposes of instruction. In addition\r\nto this, the Greeks have created the greatest number of individuals;\r\nand thus they give us so much insight into men,—a Greek cook is more\r\nof a cook than any other.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e45\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eI deplore a system of education which does not enable people to\r\nunderstand Wagner, and as the result of which Schopenhauer sounds harsh\r\nand discordant in our ears: such a system of education has missed its\r\naim.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e46\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"center\" style=\"font-size: 0.8em;\"\u003e(THE FINAL DRAFT OF THE FIRST CHAPTER.)\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp style=\"margin-left: 20%;\"\u003e\r\nIl faut dire la vérité et s\u0027immoler.—\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 0.8em;\"\u003eVOLTAIRE.\u003c/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eLet us suppose that there were freer and more superior spirits who were\r\ndissatisfied with the education now in vogue, and that they summoned\r\nit to their tribunal, what would the defendant say to\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_137\"\u003e[Pg 137]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e them? In all\r\nprobability something like this: \"Whether you have a right to summon\r\nanyone here or not, I am at all events not the proper person to be\r\ncalled. It is my educators to whom you should apply. It is their duty\r\nto defend me, and I have a right to keep silent. I am merely what they\r\nhave made me.\"\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThese educators would now be haled before the tribunal, and among\r\nthem an entire profession would be observed: the philologists. This\r\nprofession consists in the first place of those men who make use\r\nof their knowledge of Greek and Roman antiquity to bring up youths\r\nof thirteen to twenty years of age, and secondly of those men\r\nwhose task it is to train specially-gifted pupils to act as future\r\nteachers-\u003ci\u003ei.e.,\u003c/i\u003e as the educators of educators. Philologists of the\r\nfirst type are teachers at the public schools; those of the second are\r\nprofessors at the universities.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe first-named philologists are entrusted with the care of certain\r\nspecially-chosen youths, those who, early in life, show signs of talent\r\nand a sense of what is noble, and whose parents are prepared to allow\r\nplenty of time and money for their education. If other boys, who do\r\nnot fulfil these three conditions, are presented to the teachers, the\r\nteachers have the right to refuse them. Those forming the second class,\r\nthe university professors, receive the young men who feel themselves\r\nfitted for the highest and most responsible of callings, that of\r\nteachers and moulders of mankind; and these professors, too, may refuse\r\nto have anything to do with young men who are not adequately equipped\r\nor gifted for the task.\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_138\"\u003e[Pg 138]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e If, then, the educational system of a period\r\nis condemned, a heavy censure on philologists is thereby implied:\r\neither, as the consequence of their wrong-headed view, they insist on\r\ngiving bad education in the belief that it is good; or they do not wish\r\nto give this bad education, but are unable to carry the day in favour\r\nof education which they recognise to be better. In other words, their\r\nfault is either due to their lack of insight or to their lack of will.\r\nIn answer to the first charge they would say that they knew no better,\r\nand in answer to the second that they could do no better. As, however,\r\nthese philologists bring up their pupils chiefly with the aid of Greek\r\nand Roman antiquity, their want of insight in the first case may be\r\nattributed to the fact that they do not understand antiquity; and\r\nagain to the fact that they bring forward antiquity into the present\r\nage as if it were the most important of all aids to instruction, while\r\nantiquity, generally speaking, does not assist in training, or at all\r\nevents no longer does so.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eOn the other hand, if we reproach our professors with their lack of\r\nwill, they would be quite right in attributing educational significance\r\nand power to antiquity; but they themselves could not be said to be\r\nthe proper instruments by means of which antiquity could exhibit such\r\npower. In other words, the professors would not be real teachers\r\nand would be living under false colours: but how, then, could they\r\nhave reached such an irregular position? Through a misunderstanding\r\nof themselves and their qualifications. In order, then, that we may\r\nascribe to philologists their share in this bad educational system\r\nof the present time, we may sum up the different\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_139\"\u003e[Pg 139]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e factors of their\r\ninnocence and guilt in the following sentence: the philologist, if\r\nhe wishes for a verdict of acquittal, must understand three things:\r\nantiquity, the present time, and himself: his fault lies in the fact\r\nthat he either does not understand antiquity, or the present time, or\r\nhimself.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e47\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIt is not true to say that we can attain culture through antiquity\r\nalone. We may learn something from it, certainly; but not culture\r\nas the word is now understood. Our present culture is based on an\r\nemasculated and mendacious study of antiquity. In order to understand\r\nhow ineffectual this study is, just look at our philologists: they,\r\ntrained upon antiquity, should be the most cultured men. Are they?\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e48\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin of the philologist. When a great work of art is exhibited there\r\nis always some one who not only feels its influence but wishes to\r\nperpetuate it. The same remark applies to a great state—to everything,\r\nin short, that man produces. Philologists wish to perpetuate the\r\ninfluence of antiquity: and they can set about it only as imitative\r\nartists. Why not as men who form their lives after antiquity?\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e49\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe decline of the poet-scholars is due in great part to their\r\nown corruption: their type is continually arising again; Goethe\r\nand Leopardi, for example, belong to it. Behind them plod the\r\nphilologist-savants. This type has its origin in the sophisticism of\r\nthe second century.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_140\"\u003e[Pg 140]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e50\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eAh, it is a sad story, the story of philology! The disgusting\r\nerudition, the lazy, inactive passivity, the timid submission.—Who was\r\never free?\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e51\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eWhen we examine the history of philology it is borne in upon us how few\r\nreally talented men have taken part in it. Among the most celebrated\r\nphilologists are a few who ruined their intellect by acquiring a\r\nsmattering of many subjects, and among the most enlightened of them\r\nwere several who could use their intellect only for childish tasks. It\r\nis a sad story: no science, I think, has ever been so poor in talented\r\nfollowers. Those whom we might call the intellectually crippled found a\r\nsuitable hobby in all this hair-splitting.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e52\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe teacher of reading and writing, and the reviser, were the first\r\ntypes of the philologist.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e53\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eFriedrich August Wolf reminds us how apprehensive and feeble were the\r\nfirst steps taken by our ancestors in moulding scholarship—how even\r\nthe Latin classics, for example, had to be smuggled into the university\r\nmarket under all sorts of pretexts, as if they had been contraband\r\ngoods. In the \"Göttingen Lexicon\" of 1737, J. M. Gesner tells us of the\r\nOdes of Horace: \"ut imprimis, quid prodesse \u003ci\u003ein severioribus studiis\u003c/i\u003e\r\npossint, ostendat.\"\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_141\"\u003e[Pg 141]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e54\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eI was pleased to read of Bentley: \"non tam grande pretium\r\nemendatiunculis meis statuere soleo, ut singularem aliquam gratiam inde\r\nsperem aut exigam.\"\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eNewton was surprised that men like Bentley and Hare should quarrel\r\nabout a book of ancient comedies, since they were both theological\r\ndignitaries.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e55\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eHorace was summoned by Bentley as before a judgment seat, the authority\r\nof which he would have been the first to repudiate. The admiration\r\nwhich a discriminating man acquires as a philologist is in proportion\r\nto the rarity of the discrimination to be found in philologists.\r\nBentley\u0027s treatment of Horace has something of the schoolmaster about\r\nit. It would appear at first sight as if Horace himself were not the\r\nobject of discussion, but rather the various scribes and commentators\r\nwho have handed down the text: in reality, however, it is actually\r\nHorace who is being dealt with. It is my firm conviction that to have\r\nwritten a single line which is deemed worthy of being commented upon\r\nby scholars of a later time, far outweighs the merits of the greatest\r\ncritic. There is a profound modesty about philologists. The improving\r\nof texts is an entertaining piece of work for scholars, it is a kind of\r\nriddle-solving; but it should not be looked upon as a very important\r\ntask. It would be an argument against antiquity if it should speak less\r\nclearly to us because a million words stood in the way!\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_142\"\u003e[Pg 142]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e56\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eA school-teacher said to Bentley: \"Sir, I will make your grandchild as\r\ngreat a scholar as you are yourself.\" \"How can you do that,\" replied\r\nBentley, \"when I have forgotten more than you ever knew?\"\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e57\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eBentley\u0027s clever daughter Joanna once lamented to her father that he\r\nhad devoted his time and talents to the criticism of the works of\r\nothers instead of writing something original. Bentley remained silent\r\nfor some time as if he were turning the matter over in his mind. At\r\nlast he said that her remark was quite right: he himself felt that\r\nhe might have directed his gifts in some other channel. Earlier in\r\nlife, nevertheless, he had done something for the glory of God and\r\nthe improvement of his fellow-men (referring to his \"Confutation of\r\nAtheism\"), but afterwards the genius of the pagans had attracted him,\r\nand, \u003ci\u003edespairing of attaining their level in any other way,\u003c/i\u003e he had\r\nmounted upon their shoulders so that he might thus be able to look over\r\ntheir heads.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e58\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eBentley, says Wolf, both as man of letters and individual, was\r\nmisunderstood and persecuted during the greater part of his life, or\r\nelse praised maliciously.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eMarkland, towards the end of his life—as was the case with so many\r\nothers like him—became imbued with a repugnance for all scholarly\r\nreputation, to such an extent, indeed, that he partly tore\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_143\"\u003e[Pg 143]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e up and\r\npartly burnt several works which he had long had in hand.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eWolf says: \"The amount of intellectual food that can be got from\r\nwell-digested scholarship is a very insignificant item.\"\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIn Winckelmann\u0027s youth there were no philological studies apart from\r\nthe ordinary bread-winning branches of the science—people read and\r\nexplained the ancients in order to prepare themselves for the better\r\ninterpretation of the Bible and the Corpus Juris.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e59\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIn Wolf\u0027s estimation, a man has reached the highest point of historical\r\nresearch when he is able to take a wide and general view of the whole\r\nand of the profoundly conceived distinctions in the developments in\r\nart and the different styles of art. Wolf acknowledges, however, that\r\nWinckelmann was lacking in the more common talent of philological\r\ncriticism, or else he could not use it properly: \"A rare mixture of\r\na cool head and a minute and restless solicitude for hundreds of\r\nthings which, insignificant in themselves, were combined in his case\r\nwith a fire that swallowed up those little things, and with a gift of\r\ndivination which is a vexation and an annoyance to the uninitiated.\"\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e60\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eWolf draws our attention to the fact that antiquity was acquainted\r\nonly with theories of oratory and poetry which facilitated production,\r\nτέχναι and \u003ci\u003eartes\u003c/i\u003e that formed real orators and poets, \"while at the\r\npresent day we shall soon have theories upon\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_144\"\u003e[Pg 144]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e which it would be as\r\nimpossible to build up a speech or a poem as it would be to form a\r\nthunderstorm upon a brontological treatise.\"\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e61\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eWolf\u0027s judgment on the amateurs of philological knowledge is\r\nnoteworthy: \"If they found themselves provided by nature with a mind\r\ncorresponding to that of the ancients, or if they were capable of\r\nadapting themselves to other points of view and other circumstances\r\nof life, then, with even a nodding acquaintance with the best\r\nwriters, they certainly acquired more from those vigorous natures,\r\nthose splendid examples of thinking and acting, than most of those\r\ndid who during their whole life merely offered themselves to them as\r\ninterpreters.\"\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e62\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eSays Wolf again: \"In the end, only those few ought to attain really\r\ncomplete knowledge who are born with artistic talent and furnished with\r\nscholarship, and who make use of the best opportunities of securing,\r\nboth theoretically and practically, the necessary technical knowledge.\"\r\nTrue!\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e63\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eInstead of forming our students on the Latin models I recommend the\r\nGreek, especially Demosthenes: simplicity! This may be seen by a\r\nreference to Leopardi, who is perhaps the greatest stylist of the\r\ncentury\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e64\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\"Classical education\": what do people see in it? Something that is\r\nuseless beyond rendering a period\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_145\"\u003e[Pg 145]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e of military service unnecessary and\r\nsecuring a degree!\u003ca id=\"FNanchor_6_23\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003ca class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_6_23\"\u003e[6]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"footnote\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca id=\"Footnote_6_23\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003ca href=\"#FNanchor_6_23\" class=\"pginternal\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"label\"\u003e[6]\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/a\u003e Students who pass certain examinations need only serve one\r\nyear in the German Army instead of the usual two or three.—TR.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e65\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eWhen I observe how all countries are now promoting the advancement of\r\nclassical literature I say to myself, \"How harmless it must be!\" and\r\nthen, \"How useful it must be!\" It brings these countries the reputation\r\nof promoting \"free culture.\" In order that this \"freedom\" may be\r\nrightly estimated, just look at the philologists!\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e66\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eClassical education! Yea, if there were only as much paganism as Goethe\r\nfound and glorified in Winckelmann, even that would not be much. Now,\r\nhowever, that the lying Christendom of our time has taken hold of\r\nit, the thing becomes over-powering, and I cannot help expressing my\r\ndisgust on the point.—People firmly believe in witchcraft where this\r\n\"classical education \"is concerned. They, however, who possess the\r\ngreatest knowledge of antiquity should likewise possess the greatest\r\namount of culture, viz., our philologists; but what is classical about\r\nthem?\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e67\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eClassical philology is the basis of the most shallow rationalism:\r\nalways having been dishonestly applied, it has gradually become quite\r\nineffective. Its effect is one more illusion of the modern man.\r\nPhilologists are nothing but a guild of sky-pilots who are\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_146\"\u003e[Pg 146]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e not known\r\nas such: this is why the State takes an interest in them. The utility\r\nof classical education is completely used up, whilst, for example, the\r\nhistory of Christianity still shows its power.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e68\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003ePhilologists, when discussing their science, never get down to the root\r\nof the subject: they never set forth philology itself as a problem. Bad\r\nconscience? or merely thoughtlessness?\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e69\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eWe learn nothing from what philologists say about philology: it is all\r\nmere tittle-tattle—for example, Jahn\u0027s\u003ca id=\"FNanchor_7_24\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003ca class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_7_24\"\u003e[7]\u003c/a\u003e \"The Meaning and Place of\r\nthe Study of Antiquity in Germany.\" There is no feeling for what should\r\nbe protected and defended: thus speak people who have not even thought\r\nof the possibility that any one could attack them.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"footnote\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca id=\"Footnote_7_24\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003ca href=\"#FNanchor_7_24\" class=\"pginternal\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"label\"\u003e[7]\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/a\u003e Otto Jahn (1813-69), who is probably best remembered in\r\nphilological circles by his edition of Juvenal.—\u003ci\u003eTR.\u003c/i\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e70\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003ePhilologists are people who exploit the vaguely-felt dissatisfaction of\r\nmodern man, and his desire for \"something better,\" in order that they\r\nmay earn their bread and butter.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eI know them—I myself am one of them.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e71\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eOur philologists stand in the same relation to true educators as\r\nthe medicine-men of the wild Indians do to true physicians. What\r\nastonishment will be felt by a later age!\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_147\"\u003e[Pg 147]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e72\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eWhat they lack is a real taste for the strong and powerful\r\ncharacteristics of the ancients. They turn into mere panegyrists, and\r\nthus become ridiculous.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e73\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThey have forgotten how to address other men; and, as they cannot speak\r\nto the older people, they cannot do so to the young.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e74\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eWhen we bring the Greeks to the knowledge of our young students, we\r\nare treating the latter as if they were well-informed and matured\r\nmen. What, indeed, is there about the Greeks and their ways which is\r\nsuitable for the young? In the end we shall find that we can do nothing\r\nfor them beyond giving them isolated details. Are these observations\r\nfor young people? What we actually do, however, is to introduce our\r\nyoung scholars to the collective wisdom of antiquity. Or do we not? The\r\nreading of the ancients is emphasised in this way.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eMy belief is that we are forced to concern ourselves with antiquity at\r\na wrong period of our lives. At the end of the twenties its meaning\r\nbegins to dawn on one.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e75\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThere is something disrespectful about the way in which we make\r\nour young students known to the ancients: what is worse, it is\r\nunpedagogical; for what can result from a mere acquaintance with\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_148\"\u003e[Pg 148]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nthings which a youth cannot consciously esteem! Perhaps he must learn\r\nto \"\u003ci\u003ebelieve,\u003c/i\u003e\" and this is why I object to it.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e76\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThere are matters regarding which antiquity instructs us, and about\r\nwhich I should hardly care to express myself publicly.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e77\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eAll the difficulties of historical study to be elucidated by great\r\nexamples.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eWhy our young students are not suited to the Greeks.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe consequences of philology: Arrogant expectation.\r\nCulture-philistinism. Superficiality.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eToo high an esteem for reading and writing. Estrangement from the\r\nnation and its needs. The philologists themselves, the historians,\r\nphilosophers, and jurists all end in smoke.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eOur young students should be brought into contact with real sciences.\r\nLikewise with real art.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIn consequence, when they grew older, a desire for \u003ci\u003ereal\u003c/i\u003e history would\r\nbe shown.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e78\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eInhumanity: even in the \"Antigone,\" even in Goethe\u0027s \"Iphigenia.\"\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe want of \"rationalism\" in the Greeks.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eYoung people cannot understand the political affairs of antiquity.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe poetic element: a bad expectation.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_149\"\u003e[Pg 149]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e79\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eDo the philologists know the present time? Their judgments on it as\r\nPericlean; their mistaken judgments when they speak of Freytag\u0027s\u003ca id=\"FNanchor_8_25\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003ca class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_8_25\"\u003e[8]\u003c/a\u003e\r\ngenius as resembling that of Homer, and so on; their following in the\r\nlead of the litterateurs; their abandonment of the pagan sense, which\r\nwas exactly the classical element that Goethe discovered in Winckelmann.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"footnote\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca id=\"Footnote_8_25\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003ca href=\"#FNanchor_8_25\" class=\"pginternal\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"label\"\u003e[8]\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/a\u003e Gustav Freytag: at one time a famous German novelist.\r\n—TR.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e80\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe condition of the philologists may be seen by their indifference at\r\nthe appearance of Wagner. They should have learnt even more through him\r\nthan through Goethe, and they did not even glance in his direction.\r\nThat shows that they are not actuated by any strong need, or else they\r\nwould have an instinct to tell them where their food was to be found.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e81\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eWagner prizes his art too highly to go and sit in a corner with it,\r\nlike Schumann. He either surrenders himself to the public (\"Rienzi\") or\r\nhe makes the public surrender itself to him. He educates it up to his\r\nmusic. Minor artists, too, want their public, but they try to get it by\r\ninartistic means, such as through the Press, Hanslick,\u003ca id=\"FNanchor_9_26\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003ca class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_9_26\"\u003e[9]\u003c/a\u003e \u0026amp;c.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"footnote\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca id=\"Footnote_9_26\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003ca href=\"#FNanchor_9_26\" class=\"pginternal\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"label\"\u003e[9]\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/a\u003e A well-known anti-Wagnerian musical critic of Vienna.\r\n—TR.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e82\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eWagner perfected the inner fancy of man: later generations will see a\r\nrenaissance in sculpture. Poetry must precede the plastic art.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_150\"\u003e[Pg 150]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e83\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eI observe in philologists:\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e1. Want of respect for antiquity.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e2. Tenderness and flowery oratory; even an apologetic tone.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e3. Simplicity in their historical comments.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e4. Self-conceit.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e5. Under-estimation of the talented philologists.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e84\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003ePhilologists appear to me to be a secret society who wish to train our\r\nyouth by means of the culture of antiquity: I could well understand\r\nthis society and their views being criticised from all sides, A great\r\ndeal would depend upon knowing what these philologists understood by\r\nthe term \"culture of antiquity.\"—If I saw, for example, that they\r\nwere training their pupils against German philosophy and German music,\r\nI should either set about combating them or combating the culture of\r\nantiquity, perhaps the former, by showing that these philologists had\r\nnot understood the culture of antiquity. Now I observe:\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e1. A great indecision in the valuation of the culture of antiquity on\r\nthe part of philologists.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e2. Something very non-ancient in themselves; something non-free.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e3. Want of clearness in regard to the particular type of ancient\r\nculture they mean.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e4. Want of judgment in their methods of instruction, \u003ci\u003ee.g.,\u003c/i\u003e\r\nscholarship.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e5. Classical education is served out mixed up with Christianity.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_151\"\u003e[Pg 151]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e85\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIt is now no longer a matter of surprise to me that, with such\r\nteachers, the education of our time should be worthless. I can never\r\navoid depicting this want of education in its true colours, especially\r\nin regard to those things which ought to be learnt from antiquity if\r\npossible, for example, writing, speaking, and so on.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e86\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe transmission of the emotions is hereditary: let that be recollected\r\nwhen we observe the effect of the Greeks upon philologists.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e87\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eEven in the best of cases, philologists seek for no more than mere\r\n\"rationalism\" and Alexandrian culture—not Hellenism.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e88\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eVery little can be gained by mere diligence, if the head is dull.\r\nPhilologist after philologist has swooped down on Homer in the mistaken\r\nbelief that something of him can be obtained by force. Antiquity speaks\r\nto us when it feels a desire to do so; not when we do.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e89\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe inherited characteristic of our present-day philologists: a certain\r\nsterility oi insight has resulted: for they promote the science, but\r\nnot the philologist.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_152\"\u003e[Pg 152]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e90\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe following is one way of carrying on classical studies, and a\r\nfrequent one: a man throws himself thoughtlessly, or is thrown, into\r\nsome special branch or other, whence he looks to the right and left and\r\nsees a great deal that is good and new. Then, in some unguarded moment,\r\nhe asks himself: \"But what the devil has all this to do with me?\" In\r\nthe meantime he has grown old and has become accustomed to it all; and\r\ntherefore he continues in his rut—just as in the case of marriage.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e91\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIn connection with the training of the modern philologist the influence\r\nof the science of linguistics should be mentioned and judged; a\r\nphilologist should rather turn aside from it: the question of the early\r\nbeginnings of the Greeks and Romans should be nothing to him: how can\r\nthey spoil their own subject in such a way?\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e92\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eA morbid passion often makes its appearance from time to time in\r\nconnection with the oppressive uncertainty of divination, a passion for\r\nbelieving and feeling sure at all costs: for example, when dealing with\r\nAristotle, or in the discovery of magic numbers, which, in Lachmann\u0027s\r\ncase, is almost an illness.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e93\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe consistency which is prized in a savant is pedantry if applied to\r\nthe Greeks.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_153\"\u003e[Pg 153]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e94\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"center\"\u003e(THE GREEKS AND THE PHILOLOGISTS.)\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"center\"\u003e\r\n\u003ctable style=\"border-spacing: 0px;padding: 2px;border-width: 0px;\"\u003e\r\n\u003ctbody\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\r\n\u003ctd\u003e\r\nTHE GREEKS:\r\n\u003c/td\u003e\r\n\u003ctd\u003e\r\nTHE PHILOLOGISTS are:\r\n\u003c/td\u003e\r\n\u003c/tr\u003e\r\n\u003ctr\u003e\r\n\u003ctd class=\"tdl\"\u003e\r\nrender homage to beauty,\u003cbr\u003e\r\ndevelop the body,\u003cbr\u003e\r\nspeak clearly,\u003cbr\u003e\r\nare religious transfigurers\u003cbr\u003e\r\nof everyday occurrences,\u003cbr\u003e\r\nare listeners and observers, \u003cbr\u003e\r\nhave an aptitude for the\u003cbr\u003e\r\nsymbolical,\u003cbr\u003e\r\nare in full possession of\u003cbr\u003e\r\ntheir freedom as men,\u003cbr\u003e\r\ncan look innocently out\u003cbr\u003e\r\ninto the world,\u003cbr\u003e\r\nare the pessimists of\u003cbr\u003e\r\nthought.\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003c/td\u003e\r\n\u003ctd class=\"tdl\" style=\"vertical-align: top;\"\u003e\r\nbabblers and triflers,\u003cbr\u003e\r\nugly-looking creatures,\u003cbr\u003e\r\nstammerers,\u003cbr\u003e\r\nfilthy pedants,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\r\nquibblers and scarecrows,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\r\nunfitted for the symbolical,\u003cbr\u003e\r\nardent slaves of the State,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\r\nChristians in disguise,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\r\nphilistines.\r\n\u003c/td\u003e\r\n\u003c/tr\u003e\r\n\u003c/tbody\u003e\u003c/table\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e95\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eBergk\u0027s \"History of Literature\": Not a spark of Greek fire or Greek\r\nsense.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e96\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003ePeople really do compare our own age with that of Pericles, and\r\ncongratulate themselves on the reawakening of the feeling of\r\npatriotism: I remember a parody on the funeral oration of Pericles by\r\nG. Freytag,\u003ca id=\"FNanchor_10_27\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003ca class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_10_27\"\u003e[10]\u003c/a\u003e in which this prim and strait-laced \"poet\" depicted the\r\nhappiness now experienced by sixty-year-old men.—All pure and simple\r\ncaricature!\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_154\"\u003e[Pg 154]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e So this is the result! And sorrow and irony and seclusion\r\nare all that remain for him who has seen more of antiquity than this.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"footnote\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca id=\"Footnote_10_27\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003ca href=\"#FNanchor_10_27\" class=\"pginternal\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"label\"\u003e[10]\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/a\u003e See note on p. 149.—TR.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e97\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIf we change a single word of Lord Bacon\u0027s we may say: infimarum\r\nGræcorum virtutum apud philologos laus est, mediarum admiratio,\r\nsupremarum sensus nullus.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e98\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eHow can anyone glorify and venerate a whole people! It is the\r\nindividuals that count, even in the case of the Greeks.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e99\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThere is a great deal of caricature even about the Greeks: for example,\r\nthe careful attention devoted by the Cynics to their own happiness.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e100\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe only thing that interests me is the relationship of the people\r\nconsidered as a whole to the training of the single individuals: and in\r\nthe case of the Greeks there are some factors which are very favourable\r\nto the development of the individual. They do not, however, arise from\r\nthe goodwill of the people, but from the struggle between the evil\r\ninstincts.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eBy means of happy inventions and discoveries, we can train the\r\nindividual differently and more highly than has yet been done by mere\r\nchance and accident. There are still hopes: the breeding of superior\r\nmen.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_155\"\u003e[Pg 155]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e101\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe Greeks are interesting and quite disproportionately important\r\nbecause they had such a host of great individuals. How was that\r\npossible? This point must be studied.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e102\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe history of Greece has hitherto always been written optimistically.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e103\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eSelected points from antiquity: the power, fire, and swing of the\r\nfeeling the ancients had for music (through the first Pythian Ode),\r\npurity in their historical sense, gratitude for the blessings of\r\nculture, the fire and corn feasts.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe ennoblement of jealousy: the Greeks the most jealous nation.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eSuicide, hatred of old age, of penury. Empedocles on sexual love.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e104\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eNimble and healthy bodies, a clear and deep sense for the observation\r\nof everyday matters, manly freedom, belief in good racial descent and\r\ngood upbringing, warlike virtues, jealousy in the ἀριστεύειν, ιdelight\r\nin the arts, respect for leisure, a sense for free individuality, for\r\nthe symbolical.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e105\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe spiritual culture of Greece an aberration of the amazing political\r\nimpulse towards ἀριστεύειν. The polis utterly opposed to new education;\r\nculture nevertheless existed.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_156\"\u003e[Pg 156]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e106\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eWhen I say that, all things considered, the Greeks were more moral\r\nthan modern men: what do I mean by that? From what we can perceive\r\nof the activities of their soul, it is clear that they had no shame,\r\nthey had no bad conscience. They were more sincere, open-hearted,\r\nand passionate, as artists are; they exhibited a kind of child-like\r\n\u003ci\u003enaïveté.\u003c/i\u003e It thus came about that even in all their evil actions\r\nthey had a dash of purity about them, something approaching the holy.\r\nA remarkable number of individualities: might there not have been a\r\nhigher morality in that? When we recollect that character develops\r\nslowly, what can it be that, in the long run, breeds individuality?\r\nPerhaps vanity, emulation? Possibly. Little inclination for\r\nconventional things.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e107\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe Greeks as the geniuses among the nations.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eTheir childlike nature, credulousness.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003ePassionate. Quite unconsciously they lived in such a way as to\r\nprocreate genius. Enemies of shyness and dulness. Pain. Injudicious\r\nactions. The nature of their intuitive insight into misery, despite\r\ntheir bright and genial temperament. Profoundness in their apprehension\r\nand glorifying of everyday things (fire, agriculture). Mendacious,\r\nunhistorical. The significance of the polis in culture instinctively\r\nrecognised; favourable as a centre and periphery for great men (the\r\nfacility of surveying a community, and also the possibility of\r\naddressing it as a whole). Individuality raised to the highest power\r\nthrough the polis. Envy, jealousy, as among gifted people.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_157\"\u003e[Pg 157]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e108\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe Greeks were lacking in sobriety and caution. Over-sensibility;\r\nabnormally active condition of the brain and the nerves; impetuosity\r\nand fervour of the will.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e109\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\"Invariably to see the general in the particular is the distinguishing\r\ncharacteristic of genius,\" says Schopenhauer. Think of Pindar,\r\n\u0026amp;c.—\"ΣωΦροσύνη,\" according to Schopenhauer, has its roots in the\r\nclearness with which the Greeks saw into themselves and into the world\r\nat large, and thence became conscious of themselves.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe \"wide separation of will and intellect\" indicates the genius, and\r\nis seen in the Greeks.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\"The melancholy associated with genius is due to the fact that the\r\nwill to live, the more clearly it is illuminated by the contemplating\r\nintellect, appreciates all the more clearly the misery of its\r\ncondition,\" says Schopenhauer. \u003ci\u003eCf.\u003c/i\u003e the Greeks.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e110\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe moderation of the Greeks in their sensual luxury, eating, and\r\ndrinking, and their pleasure therein; the Olympic plays and their\r\nworship: that shows what they were.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIn the case of the genius, \"the intellect will point out the faults\r\nwhich are seldom absent in an instrument that is put to a use for which\r\nit was not intended.\"\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\"The will is often left in the lurch at an awkward moment: hence\r\ngenius, where real life is concerned\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_158\"\u003e[Pg 158]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e is more or less unpractical—its\r\nbehaviour often reminds us of madness.\"\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e111\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eWe contrast the Romans, with their matter-of-fact earnestness, with the\r\ngenial Greeks! Schopenhauer: \"The stern, practical, earnest mode of\r\nlife which the Romans called \u003ci\u003egravitas\u003c/i\u003e presupposes that the intellect\r\ndoes not forsake the service of the will in order to roam far off among\r\nthings that have no connection with the will.\"\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e112\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIt would have been much better if the Greeks had been conquered by the\r\nPersians instead of by the Romans.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e113\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe characteristics of the gifted man who is lacking in genius are to\r\nbe found in the average Hellene—all the dangerous characteristics of\r\nsuch a disposition and character.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e114\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eGenius makes tributaries of all partly-talented people: hence the\r\nPersians themselves sent their ambassadors to the Greek oracles.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e115\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe happiest lot that can fall to the genius is to exchange doing and\r\nacting for leisure; and this was something the Greeks knew how to\r\nvalue. The blessings of labour! \u003ci\u003eNugari\u003c/i\u003e was the Roman name for all\r\nthe exertions and aspirations of the Greeks.\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_159\"\u003e[Pg 159]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e No happy course of life\r\nis open to the genius; he stands in contradiction to his age and must\r\nperforce struggle with it. Thus the Greeks: they instinctively made\r\nthe utmost exertions to secure a safe refuge for themselves (in the\r\n\u003ci\u003epolis\u003c/i\u003e). Finally, everything went to pieces in politics. They were\r\ncompelled to take up a stand against their enemies: this became ever\r\nmore and more difficult, and at last impossible.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e116\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eGreek culture is based on the lordship of a small class over four to\r\nnine times their number of slaves. Judged by mere numbers, Greece was\r\na country inhabited by barbarians. How can the ancients be thought\r\nto be humane? There was a great contrast between the genius and the\r\nbreadwinner, the half-beast of burden. The Greeks believed in a racial\r\ndistinction. Schopenhauer wonders why Nature did not take it into her\r\nhead to invent two entirely separate species of men.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe Greeks bear the same relation to the barbarians \"as free-moving or\r\nwinged animals do to the barnacles which cling tightly to the rocks and\r\nmust await what fate chooses to send them\"—Schopenhauer\u0027s simile.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e117\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe Greeks as the only people of genius in the history of the world.\r\nSuch they are even when considered as learners; for they understand\r\nthis best of all, and can do more than merely trim and adorn themselves\r\nwith what they have borrowed, as did the Romans.\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_160\"\u003e[Pg 160]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e The constitution of\r\nthe \u003ci\u003epolls\u003c/i\u003e is a Phœnician invention: even this has been imitated by\r\nthe Hellenes. For a long time they dabbled in everything, like joyful\r\ndilettanti. Aphrodite is likewise Phœnician. Neither do they disavow\r\nwhat has come to them through immigration and does not originally\r\nbelong to their own country.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e118\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe happy and comfortable constitution of the politico-social position\r\nmust not be sought among the Greeks: that is a goal which dazzles the\r\neyes of our dreamers of the future! It was, on the contrary, dreadful;\r\nfor this is a matter that must be judged according to the following\r\nstandard: the more spirit, the more suffering (as the Greeks themselves\r\nprove). Whence it follows: the more stupidity, the more comfort. The\r\nphilistine of culture is the most comfortable creature the sun has ever\r\nshone upon: and he is doubtless also in possession of the corresponding\r\nstupidity.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e119\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe Greek \u003ci\u003epolis\u003c/i\u003e and the αἰὲν ἀριστεύειν grew up out of mutual enmity.\r\nHellenic and philanthropic are contrary adjectives, although the\r\nancients flattered themselves sufficiently.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eHomer is, in the world of the Hellenic discord, the pan-Hellenic Greek.\r\nThe \"ἀγών\" of the Greeks is also manifested in the Symposium in the\r\nshape of witty conversation.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e120\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eWanton, mutual annihilation inevitable: so long as a single \u003ci\u003epolis\u003c/i\u003e\r\nwished to exist—its envy for\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_161\"\u003e[Pg 161]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e everything superior to itself, its\r\ncupidity, the disorder of its customs, the enslavement of the women,\r\nlack of conscience in the keeping of oaths, in murder, and in cases of\r\nviolent death.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eTremendous power of self-control: for example in a man like Socrates,\r\nwho was capable of everything evil.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e121\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIts noble sense of order and systematic arrangement had rendered the\r\nAthenian state immortal.—The ten strategists in Athens! Foolish! Too\r\nbig a sacrifice on the altar of jealousy.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e122\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe recreations of the Spartans consisted of feasting, hunting, and\r\nmaking war: their every-day life was too hard. On the whole, however,\r\ntheir state is merely a caricature of the polis; a corruption of\r\nHellas. The breeding of the complete Spartan—but what was there great\r\nabout him that his breeding should have required such a brutal state!\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e123\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe political defeat of Greece is the greatest failure of culture;\r\nfor it has given rise to the atrocious theory that culture cannot be\r\npursued unless one is at the same time armed to the teeth. The rise of\r\nChristianity was the second greatest failure: brute force on the one\r\nhand, and a dull intellect on the other, won a complete victory over\r\nthe aristocratic genius among the nations. To be a Philhellenist now\r\nmeans to be a foe of brute force and stupid intellects. Sparta was the\r\nruin of Athens in so far\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_162\"\u003e[Pg 162]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e as she compelled Athens to turn her entire\r\nattention to politics and to act as a federal combination.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e124\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThere are domains of thought where the \u003ci\u003eratio\u003c/i\u003e will only give rise to\r\ndisorder; and the philologist, who possesses nothing more, is lost\r\nthrough it and is unable to see the truth: \u003ci\u003ee.g.,\u003c/i\u003e in the consideration\r\nof Greek mythology. A merely fantastic person, of course, has no claim\r\neither: one must possess Greek imagination and also a certain amount of\r\nGreek piety. Even the poet does not require to be too consistent, and\r\nconsistency is the last thing Greeks would understand.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e125\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eAlmost all the Greek divinities are accumulations of divinities: we\r\nfind one layer over another, soon to be hidden and smoothed down by\r\nyet a third, and so on. It scarcely seems to me to be possible to pick\r\nthese various divinities to pieces in a scientific manner; for no good\r\nmethod of doing so can be recommended: even the poor conclusion by\r\nanalogy is in this instance a very good conclusion.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e126\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eAt what a distance must one be from the Greeks to ascribe to them\r\nsuch a stupidly narrow autochthony as does Ottfried Müller!\u003ca id=\"FNanchor_11_28\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003ca class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_11_28\"\u003e[11]\u003c/a\u003e How\r\nChristian it is to assume, with Welcker,\u003ca id=\"FNanchor_12_29\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003ca class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_12_29\"\u003e[12]\u003c/a\u003e that the Greeks were\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_163\"\u003e[Pg 163]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\noriginally monotheistic! How philologists torment themselves by\r\ninvestigating the question whether Homer actually wrote, without being\r\nable to grasp the far higher tenet that Greek art long exhibited an\r\ninward enmity against writing, and did not wish to be read at all.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"footnote\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca id=\"Footnote_11_28\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003ca href=\"#FNanchor_11_28\" class=\"pginternal\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"label\"\u003e[11]\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/a\u003e Karl Ottfried Müller (1797-1840), classical archæologist,\r\nwho devoted special attention to Greece.—TR.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"footnote\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca id=\"Footnote_12_29\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003ca href=\"#FNanchor_12_29\" class=\"pginternal\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"label\"\u003e[12]\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/a\u003e Friedrich Gottlieb Welcker (1784-1868), noted for his\r\nultra-profound comments on Greek poetry.—TR.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e127\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIn the religious cultus an earlier degree of culture comes to light: a\r\nremnant of former times. The ages that celebrate it are not those which\r\ninvent it; the contrary is often the case. There are many contrasts\r\nto be found here. The Greek cultus takes us back to a pre-Homeric\r\ndisposition and culture. It is almost the oldest that we know of the\r\nGreeks—older than their mythology, which their poets have considerably\r\nremoulded, so far as we know it—Can this cult really be called Greek?\r\nI doubt it: they are finishers, not inventors. \u003ci\u003eThey preserve\u003c/i\u003e by means\r\nof this beautiful completion and adornment.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e128\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIt is exceedingly doubtful whether we should draw any conclusion\r\nin regard to nationality and relationship with other nations from\r\nlanguages. A victorious language is nothing but a frequent (and not\r\nalways regular) indication of a successful campaign. Where could there\r\nhave been autochthonous peoples! It shows a very hazy conception of\r\nthings to talk about Greeks who never lived in Greece. That which\r\nis really Greek is much less the result of natural aptitude than of\r\nadapted institutions, and also of an acquired language.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_164\"\u003e[Pg 164]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e129\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eTo live on mountains, to travel a great deal, and to move quickly\r\nfrom one place to another: in these ways we can now begin to compare\r\nourselves with the Greek gods. We know the past, too, and we almost\r\nknow the future. What would a Greek say, if only he could see us!\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e130\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe gods make men still more evil; this is the nature of man. If we\r\ndo not like a man, we wish that he may become worse than he is, and\r\nthen we are glad. This forms part of the obscure philosophy of hate—a\r\nphilosophy which has never yet been written, because it is everywhere\r\nthe \u003ci\u003epudendum\u003c/i\u003e that every one feels.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e131\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe pan-Hellenic Homer finds his delight in the frivolity of the gods;\r\nbut it is astounding how he can also give them dignity again. This\r\namazing ability to raise one\u0027s self again, however, is Greek.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e132\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eWhat, then, is the origin of the envy of the gods? people did not\r\nbelieve in a calm, quiet happiness, but only in an exuberant one.\r\nThis must have caused some displeasure to the Greeks; for their soul\r\nwas only too easily wounded: it embittered them to see a happy man.\r\nThat is Greek. If a man of distinguished talent appeared, the flock\r\nof envious people must have become astonishingly large. If any one\r\nmet with a misfortune, they\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_165\"\u003e[Pg 165]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e would say of him: \"Ah! no wonder! he was\r\ntoo frivolous and too well off.\" And every one of them would have\r\nbehaved exuberantly if he had possessed the requisite talent, and would\r\nwillingly have played the rôle of the god who sent the unhappiness to\r\nmen.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e133\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe Greek gods did not demand any complete changes of character, and\r\nwere, generally speaking, by no means burdensome or importunate: it was\r\nthus possible to take them seriously and to believe in them. At the\r\ntime of Homer, indeed, the nature of the Greek was formed: flippancy\r\nof images and imagination was necessary to lighten the weight of its\r\npassionate disposition and to set it free.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e134\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eEvery religion has for its highest images an analogon in the\r\nspiritual condition of those who profess it. The God of Mohammed: the\r\nsolitariness of the desert, the distant roar of the lion, the vision\r\nof a formidable warrior. The God of the Christians: everything that\r\nmen and women think of when they hear the word \"love.\" The God of the\r\nGreeks: a beautiful apparition in a dream.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e135\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eA great deal of intelligence must have gone to the making up of a Greek\r\npolytheism: the expenditure of intelligence is much less lavish when\r\npeople have only \u003ci\u003eone\u003c/i\u003e God.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e136\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eGreek morality is not based on religion, but on the \u003ci\u003epolis.\u003c/i\u003e\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_166\"\u003e[Pg 166]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e There\r\nwere only priests of the individual gods; not representatives of the\r\nwhole religion: \u003ci\u003ei.e.,\u003c/i\u003e no guild of priests. Likewise no Holy Writ.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e137\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe \"lighthearted\" gods: this is the highest adornment which has ever\r\nbeen bestowed upon the world—with the feeling, How difficult it is to\r\nlive!\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e138\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIf the Greeks let their \"reason\" speak, their life seems to them\r\nbitter and terrible. They are not deceived. But they play round life\r\nwith lies: Simonides advises them to treat life as they would a play;\r\nearnestness was only too well known to them in the form of pain. The\r\nmisery of men is a pleasure to the gods when they hear the poets\r\nsinging of it. Well did the Greeks know that only through art could\r\neven misery itself become a source of pleasure; \u003ci\u003evide tragœdiam.\u003c/i\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e139\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIt is quite untrue to say that the Greeks only took \u003ci\u003ethis\u003c/i\u003e life into\r\ntheir consideration—they suffered also from thoughts of death and\r\nHell. But no \"repentance\" or contrition.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e140\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe incarnate appearance of gods, as in Sappho\u0027s invocation to\r\nAphrodite, must not be taken as poetic licence: they are frequently\r\nhallucinations. We conceive of a great many things, including the will\r\nto die, too superficially as rhetorical.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_167\"\u003e[Pg 167]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e141\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe \"martyr\" is Hellenic: Prometheus, Hercules. The hero-myth became\r\npan-Hellenic: a poet must have had a hand in that!\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e142\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eHow \u003ci\u003erealistic\u003c/i\u003e the Greeks were even in the domain of pure inventions!\r\nThey poetised reality, not yearning to lift themselves out of it. The\r\nraising of the present into the colossal and eternal, \u003ci\u003ee.g.,\u003c/i\u003e by Pindar.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e143\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eWhat condition do the Greeks premise as the model of their life in\r\nHades? Anæmic, dreamlike, weak: it is the continuous accentuation of\r\nold age, when the memory gradually becomes weaker and weaker, and the\r\nbody still more so. The senility of senility: this would be our state\r\nof life in the eyes of the Hellenes.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e144\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe naïve character of the Greeks observed by the Egyptians.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e145\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe truly scientific people, the literary people, were the Egyptians\r\nand not the Greeks. That which has the appearance of science among\r\nthe Greeks, originated among the Egyptians and later on returned to\r\nthem to mingle again with the old current. Alexandrian culture is an\r\namalgamation of Hellenic and Egyptian: and when our world again founds\r\nits culture upon the Alexandrian culture, then …\u003ca id=\"FNanchor_13_30\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003ca class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_13_30\"\u003e[13]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"footnote\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca id=\"Footnote_13_30\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003ca href=\"#FNanchor_13_30\" class=\"pginternal\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"label\"\u003e[13]\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/a\u003e \"We shall once again be shipwrecked.\" The omission is in\r\nthe original.—TR.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_168\"\u003e[Pg 168]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e146\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe Egyptians are far more of a literary people than the Greeks. I\r\nmaintain this against Wolf. The first grain in Eleusis, the first vine\r\nin Thebes, the first olive-tree and fig-tree. The Egyptians had lost a\r\ngreat part of their mythology.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e147\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe unmathematical undulation of the column in Paestum is analogous to\r\nthe modification of the \u003ci\u003etempo:\u003c/i\u003e animation in place of a mechanical\r\nmovement.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e148\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe desire to find something certain and fixed in æsthetic led to the\r\nworship of Aristotle: I think, however, that we may gradually come to\r\nsee from his works that he understood nothing about art; and that it is\r\nmerely the intellectual conversations of the Athenians, echoing in his\r\npages, which we admire.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e149\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIn Socrates we have as it were lying open before us a specimen of the\r\nconsciousness out of which, later on, the instincts of the theoretic\r\nman originated: that one would rather die than grow old and weak in\r\nmind.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e150\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eAt the twilight of antiquity there were still wholly unchristian\r\nfigures, which were more beautiful, harmonious, and pure than those\r\nof any Christians: \u003ci\u003ee.g.,\u003c/i\u003e Proclus. His mysticism and syncretism were\r\nthings that precisely Christianity cannot reproach him with. In any\r\ncase, it would be my desire to live together\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_169\"\u003e[Pg 169]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e with such people. In\r\ncomparison with them Christianity looks like some crude brutalisation,\r\norganised for the benefit of the mob and the criminal classes.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eProclus, who solemnly invokes the rising moon.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e151\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eWith the advent of Christianity a religion attained the mastery which\r\ncorresponded to a pre-Greek condition of mankind: belief in witchcraft\r\nin connection with all and everything, bloody sacrifices, superstitious\r\nfear of demoniacal punishments, despair in one\u0027s self, ecstatic\r\nbrooding and hallucination; man\u0027s self become the arena of good and\r\nevil spirits and their struggles.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e152\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eAll branches of history have experimented with antiquity: critical\r\nconsideration alone remains. By this term I do not mean conjectural and\r\nliterary-historical criticism.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e153\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eAntiquity has been treated by all kinds of historians and their\r\nmethods. We have now had enough experience, however, to turn the\r\nhistory of antiquity to account without being shipwrecked on antiquity\r\nitself.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e154\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eWe can now look back over a fairly long period of human existence:\r\nwhat will the humanity be like which is able to look back at us from\r\nan equally long distance? which finds us lying intoxicated among the\r\ndebris of old culture! which finds its only consolation in \"being good\"\r\nand in holding\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_170\"\u003e[Pg 170]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e out the \"helping hand,\" and turns away from all other\r\nconsolations!—Does beauty, too, grow out of the ancient culture? I\r\nthink that our ugliness arises from our metaphysical remnants: our\r\nconfused morals, the worthlessness of our marriages, and so on, are the\r\ncause. The beautiful man, the healthy, moderate, and enterprising man,\r\nmoulds the objects around him into beautiful shapes after his own image.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e155\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eUp to the present time all history has been written from the standpoint\r\nof success, and, indeed, with the assumption of a certain reason in\r\nthis success. This remark applies also to Greek history: so far we\r\ndo not possess any. It is the same all round, however: where are the\r\nhistorians who can survey things and events without being hum-bugged\r\nby stupid theories? I know of only one, Burckhardt. Everywhere the\r\nwidest possible optimism prevails in science. The question: \"What would\r\nhave been the consequence if so and so had not happened?\" is almost\r\nunanimously thrust aside, and yet it is the cardinal question. Thus\r\neverything becomes ironical. Let us only consider our own lives. If we\r\nexamine history in accordance with a preconceived plan, let this plan\r\nbe sought in the purposes of a great man, or perhaps in those of a sex,\r\nor of a party. Everything else is a chaos.—Even in natural science we\r\nfind this deification of the necessary.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eGermany has become the breeding-place of this historical optimism;\r\nHegel is perhaps to blame for this. Nothing, however, is more\r\nresponsible for\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_171\"\u003e[Pg 171]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e the fatal influence of German culture. Everything\r\nthat has been kept down by success gradually rears itself up: history\r\nas the scorn of the conqueror; a servile sentiment and a kneeling down\r\nbefore the actual fact—\"a sense for the State,\" they now call it, as\r\nif \u003ci\u003ethat\u003c/i\u003e had still to be propagated! He who does not understand how\r\nbrutal and unintelligent history is will never understand the stimulus\r\nto make it intelligent. Just think how rare it is to find a man with\r\nas great an intelligent knowledge of his own life as Goethe had: what\r\namount of rationality can we expect to find arising out of these other\r\nveiled and blind existences as they work chaotically with and in\r\nopposition to each other?\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eAnd it is especially naïve when Hellwald, the author of a history of\r\nculture, warns us away from all \"ideals,\" simply because history has\r\nkilled them off one after the other\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e156\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eTo bring to light without reserve the stupidity and the want of reason\r\nin human things: that is the aim of \u003ci\u003eour\u003c/i\u003e brethren and colleagues.\r\nPeople will then have to distinguish what is essential in them, what is\r\nincorrigible, and what is still susceptible of further improvement. But\r\n\"Providence\" must be kept out of the question, for it is a conception\r\nthat enables people to take things too easily. I wish to breathe the\r\nbreath of \u003ci\u003ethis\u003c/i\u003e purpose into science. Let us advance our knowledge of\r\nmankind! The good and rational in man is accidental or apparent, or\r\nthe contrary of something very irrational. There will come a time when\r\n\u003ci\u003etraining\u003c/i\u003e will be the only thought.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_172\"\u003e[Pg 172]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e157\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eSurrender to necessity is exactly what I do not teach—for one must\r\nfirst know this necessity to be necessary. There may perhaps be many\r\nnecessities; but in general this inclination is simply a bed of\r\nidleness.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e158\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eTo know history now means: to recognise how all those who believed in\r\na Providence took things too easily. There is no such thing. If human\r\naffairs are seen to go forward in a loose and disordered way, do not\r\nthink that a god has any purpose in view by letting them do so or that\r\nhe is neglecting them. We can now see in a general way that the history\r\nof Christianity on earth has been one of the most dreadful chapters in\r\nhistory, and that a stop \u003ci\u003emust\u003c/i\u003e be put to it. True, the influence of\r\nantiquity has been observed in Christianity even in our own time; and,\r\nas it diminishes, so will our knowledge of antiquity diminish also to\r\nan even greater extent. Now is the best time to recognise it: we are no\r\nlonger prejudiced in favour of Christianity, but we still understand\r\nit, and also the antiquity that forms part of it, so far as this\r\nantiquity stands in line with Christianity.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e159\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003ePhilosophic heads must occupy themselves one day with the collective\r\naccount of antiquity and make up its balance-sheet. If we have this,\r\nantiquity will be overcome. All the shortcomings which now vex us have\r\ntheir roots in antiquity, so that we cannot continue to treat this\r\naccount with\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_173\"\u003e[Pg 173]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e the mildness which has been customary up to the present.\r\nThe atrocious crime of mankind which rendered Christianity possible,\r\nas it actually became possible, is the \u003ci\u003eguilt\u003c/i\u003e of antiquity. With\r\nChristianity antiquity will also be cleared away.—At the present time\r\nit is not so very far behind us, and it is certainly not possible to\r\ndo justice to it. It has been availed of in the most dreadful fashion\r\nfor purposes of repression, and has acted as a support for religious\r\noppression by disguising itself as \"culture.\" It was common to hear the\r\nsaying, \"Antiquity has been conquered by Christianity.\"\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThis was a historical fact, and it was thus thought that no harm\r\ncould come of any dealings with antiquity. Yes; it is so plausible\r\nto say that we find Christian ethics \"deeper\" than Socrates! Plato\r\nwas easier to compete with! We are at the present time, so to speak,\r\nmerely chewing the cud of the very battle which was fought in the first\r\ncenturies of the Christian era—with the exception of the fact that\r\nnow, instead of the clearly perceptible antiquity which then existed,\r\nwe have merely its pale ghost; and, indeed, even Christianity itself\r\nhas become rather ghostlike. It is a battle fought \u003ci\u003eafter\u003c/i\u003e the decisive\r\nbattle, a post-vibration. In the end, all the forces of which antiquity\r\nconsisted have reappeared in Christianity in the crudest possible form:\r\nit is nothing new, only quantitatively extraordinary.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e160\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eWhat severs us for ever from the culture of antiquity is the fact that\r\nits foundations have become too shaky for us. A criticism of the Greeks\r\nis at\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_174\"\u003e[Pg 174]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e the same time a criticism of Christianity; for the bases of the\r\nspirit of belief, the religious cult, and witchcraft, are the same in\r\nboth.—There are many rudimentary stages still remaining; but they are\r\nby this time almost ready to collapse.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThis would be a task: to characterise Greek antiquity as irretrievably\r\nlost, and with it Christianity also and the foundations upon which, up\r\nto the present time, our society and politics have been based.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e161\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eChristianity has conquered antiquity—yes; that is easily said. In the\r\nfirst place, it is itself a piece of antiquity; in the second place,\r\nit has preserved antiquity; in the third place, it has never been\r\nin combat with the pure ages of antiquity. Or rather: in order that\r\nChristianity itself might remain, it had to let itself be overcome\r\nby the spirit of antiquity—for example, the idea of empire, the\r\ncommunity, and so forth. We are suffering from the uncommon want\r\nof clearness and uncleanliness of human things; from the ingenious\r\nmendacity which Christianity has brought among men.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e162\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIt is almost laughable to see how nearly all the sciences and arts\r\nof modern times grow from the scattered seeds which have been wafted\r\ntowards us from antiquity, and how Christianity seems to us here to\r\nbe merely the evil chill of a long night, a night during which one is\r\nalmost inclined to believe that all is over with reason and honesty\r\namong men. The battle waged against the natural man has given rise to\r\nthe unnatural man.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_175\"\u003e[Pg 175]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e163\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eWith the dissolution of Christianity a great part of antiquity has\r\nbecome incomprehensible to us, for instance, the entire religious basis\r\nof life. On this account an imitation of antiquity is a false tendency:\r\nthe betrayers or the betrayed are the philologists who still think\r\nof such a thing. We live in a period when many different conceptions\r\nof life are to be found: hence the present age is instructive to an\r\nunusual degree; and hence also the reason why it is so ill, since it\r\nsuffers from the evils of all its tendencies at once. The man of the\r\nfuture: the European man.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e164\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe German Reformation widened the gap between us and antiquity: was it\r\nnecessary for it to do so? It once again introduced the old contrast of\r\n\"Paganism\" and \"Christianity\"; and it was at the same time a protest\r\nagainst the decorative culture of the Renaissance—it was a victory\r\ngained over the same culture as had formerly been conquered by early\r\nChristianity.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIn regard to \"worldly things,\" Christianity preserved the grosser views\r\nof the ancients. All the nobler elements in marriage, slavery, and the\r\nState are unchristian. It \u003ci\u003erequired\u003c/i\u003e the distorting characteristics of\r\nworldliness to prove itself.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e165\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe connection between humanism and religious rationalism was\r\nemphasised as a Saxonian trait by Köchly: the type of this philologist\r\nis Gottfried Hermann.\u003ca id=\"FNanchor_14_31\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003ca class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_14_31\"\u003e[14]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"footnote\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca id=\"Footnote_14_31\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003ca href=\"#FNanchor_14_31\" class=\"pginternal\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"label\"\u003e[14]\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/a\u003e Johann Gottfried Jakob Hermann (1772-1848), noted for his\r\nworks on metre and Greek grammar.—TR.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_176\"\u003e[Pg 176]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e166\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eI understand religions as narcotics: but when they are given to such\r\nnations as the Germans, I think they are simply rank poison.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e167\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eAll religions are, in the end, based upon certain physical assumptions,\r\nwhich are already in existence and adapt the religions to their needs:\r\nfor example, in Christianity, the contrast between body and soul,\r\nthe unlimited importance of the earth as the \"world,\" the marvellous\r\noccurrences in nature. If once the opposite views gain the mastery—for\r\ninstance, a strict law of nature, the helplessness and superfluousness\r\nof all gods, the strict conception of the soul as a bodily process—all\r\nis over. But all Greek culture is based upon such views.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e168\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eWhen we look from the character and culture of the Catholic Middle\r\nAges back to the Greeks, we see them resplendent indeed in the rays\r\nof higher humanity; for, if we have anything to reproach these Greeks\r\nwith, we must reproach the Middle Ages with it also to a much greater\r\nextent. The worship of the ancients at the time of the Renaissance was\r\ntherefore quite honest and proper. We have carried matters further in\r\none particular point, precisely in connection with that dawning ray of\r\nlight. We have outstripped the Greeks in the clarifying of the world by\r\nour studies of nature and men. Our knowledge is much greater, and our\r\njudgments are more moderate and just.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_177\"\u003e[Pg 177]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIn addition to this, a more gentle spirit has become widespread, thanks\r\nto the period of illumination which has weakened mankind—but this\r\nweakness, when turned into morality, leads to good results and honours\r\nus. Man has now a great deal of freedom: it is his own fault if he\r\ndoes not make more use of it than he does; the fanaticism of opinions\r\nhas become much milder. Finally, that we would much rather live in the\r\npresent age than in any other is due to science; and certainly no other\r\nrace in the history of mankind has had such a wide choice of noble\r\nenjoyments as ours—even if our race has not the palate and stomach to\r\nexperience a great deal of joy. But one can live comfortably amid all\r\nthis \"freedom\" only when one merely understands it and does not wish to\r\nparticipate in it—that is the modern crux. The participants appear to\r\nbe less attractive than ever: how stupid they must be!\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThus the danger arises that knowledge may avenge itself on us, just as\r\nignorance avenged itself on us during the Middle Ages. It is all over\r\nwith those religions which place their trust in gods, Providences,\r\nrational orders of the universe, miracles, and sacraments; as is also\r\nthe case with certain types of holy lives, such as ascetics; for we\r\nonly too easily conclude that such people are the effects of sickness\r\nand an aberrant brain. There is no doubt that the contrast between\r\na pure, incorporeal soul and a body has been almost set aside. Who\r\nnow believes in the immortality of the soul! Everything connected\r\nwith blessedness or damnation, which was based upon certain erroneous\r\nphysiological assumptions, falls to the ground as soon as these\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_178\"\u003e[Pg 178]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nassumptions are recognised to be errors. Our scientific assumptions\r\nadmit just as much of an interpretation and utilisation in favour of a\r\nbesotting philistinism—yea, in favour of bestiality—as also in favour\r\nof \"blessedness\" and soul-inspiration. As compared with all previous\r\nages, we are now standing on a new foundation, so that something may\r\nstill be expected from the human race.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eAs regards culture, we have hitherto been acquainted with only one\r\ncomplete form of it, \u003ci\u003ei.e.,\u003c/i\u003e the city-culture of the Greeks, based as\r\nit was on their mythical and social foundations; and one incomplete\r\nform, the Roman, which acted as an adornment of life, derived from the\r\nGreek. Now all these bases, the mythical and the politico-social, have\r\nchanged; our alleged culture has no stability, because it has been\r\nerected upon insecure conditions and opinions which are even now almost\r\nready to collapse.—When we thoroughly grasp Greek culture, then,\r\nwe see that it is all over with it. The philologist is thus a great\r\nsceptic in the present conditions of our culture and training: that is\r\nhis mission. Happy is he if, like Wagner and Schopenhauer, he has a dim\r\npresentiment of those auspicious powers amid which a new culture is\r\nstirring.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e169\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThose who say: \"But antiquity nevertheless remains as a subject of\r\nconsideration for pure science, even though all its educational\r\npurposes may be disowned,\" must be answered by the words, What is pure\r\nscience here! Actions and characteristics must be judged; and those\r\nwho judge them must stand\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_179\"\u003e[Pg 179]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e above them: so you must first devote your\r\nattention to overcoming antiquity. If you do not do that, your science\r\nis not pure, but impure and limited: as may now be perceived.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e170\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eTo overcome Greek antiquity through our own deeds: this would be the\r\nright task. But before we can do this we must first \u003ci\u003eknow\u003c/i\u003e it!—There\r\nis a thoroughness which is merely an excuse for inaction. Let it be\r\nrecollected how much Goethe knew of antiquity: certainly not so much as\r\na philologist, and yet sufficient to contend with it in such a way as\r\nto bring about fruitful results. One \u003ci\u003eshould\u003c/i\u003e not even know more about\r\na thing than one could create. Moreover, the only time when we can\r\nactually \u003ci\u003erecognise\u003c/i\u003e something is when we endeavour to \u003ci\u003emake\u003c/i\u003e it. Let\r\npeople but attempt to live after the manner of antiquity; and they will\r\nat once come hundreds of miles nearer to antiquity than they can do\r\nwith all their erudition.—Our philologists never show that they strive\r\nto emulate antiquity in any way, and thus \u003ci\u003etheir\u003c/i\u003e antiquity remains\r\nwithout any effect on the schools.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe study of the spirit of emulation (Renaissance, Goethe), and the\r\nstudy of despair.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe non-popular element in the new culture of the Renaissance: a\r\nfrightful fact!\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e171\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe worship of classical antiquity, as it was to be seen in Italy,\r\nmaybe interpreted as the only earnest, disinterested, and fecund\r\nworship which has yet fallen to the lot of antiquity. It is a splendid\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_180\"\u003e[Pg 180]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nexample of Don Quixotism; and philology at best is such Don Quixotism.\r\nAlready at the time of the Alexandrian savants, as with all the\r\nsophists of the first and second centuries, the Atticists, \u0026amp;c., the\r\nscholars are imitating something purely and simply chimerical and\r\npursuing a world that never existed. The same trait is seen throughout\r\nantiquity: the manner in which the Homeric heroes were copied, and all\r\nthe intercourse held with the myths, show traces of it. Gradually all\r\nGreek antiquity has become an object of Don Quixotism. It is impossible\r\nto understand our modern world if we do not take into account the\r\nenormous influence of the purely fantastic. This is now confronted by\r\nthe principle: there can be no imitation. Imitation, however, is merely\r\nan artistic phenomenon, \u003ci\u003ei.e.,\u003c/i\u003e it is based on appearance: we can\r\naccept manners, thoughts, and so on through imitation; but imitation\r\ncan create nothing. True, the creator can borrow from all sides and\r\nnourish himself in that way. And it is only as creators that we shall\r\nbe able to take anything from the Greeks. But in what respect can\r\nphilologists be said to be creators! There must be a few dirty jobs,\r\nsuch as knackers\u0027 men, and also text-revisers: are the philologists to\r\ncarry out tasks of this nature?\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e172\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eWhat, then, is antiquity \u003ci\u003enow,\u003c/i\u003e in the face of modern art, science,\r\nand philosophy? It is no longer the treasure-chamber of all knowledge;\r\nfor in natural and historical science we have advanced greatly beyond\r\nit. Oppression by the church has\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_181\"\u003e[Pg 181]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e been stopped. A \u003ci\u003epure\u003c/i\u003e knowledge of\r\nantiquity is now possible, but perhaps also a more ineffective and\r\nweaker knowledge.—This is right enough, if effect is known only as\r\neffect on the masses; but for the breeding of higher minds antiquity is\r\nmore powerful than ever.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eGoethe as a German poet-philologist; Wagner as a still higher stage:\r\nhis clear glance for the only worthy position of art. No ancient work\r\nhas ever had so powerful an effect as the \"Orestes\" had on Wagner. The\r\nobjective, emasculated philologist, who is but a philistine of culture\r\nand a worker in \"pure science,\" is, however, a sad spectacle.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e173\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eBetween our highest art and philosophy and that which is recognised to\r\nbe truly the oldest antiquity, there is no contradiction: they support\r\nand harmonise with one another. It is in this that I place my hopes.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e174\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe main standpoints from which to consider the importance of antiquity:\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e1. There is nothing about it for young people; for it exhibits man with\r\nan entire freedom from shame.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e2. It is not for direct imitation, but it teaches by which means art\r\nhas hitherto been perfected in the highest degree.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e3. It is accessible only to a few, and there should be a \u003ci\u003epolice des\r\nmœurs\u003c/i\u003e in charge of it—as there should be also in charge of bad\r\npianists who play Beethoven.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e4. These few apply this antiquity to the judgment\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_182\"\u003e[Pg 182]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e of our own time, as\r\ncritics of it; and they judge antiquity by their own ideals and are\r\nthus critics of antiquity.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e5. The contrast between the Hellenic and the Roman should be studied,\r\nand also the contrast between the early Hellenic and the late Hellenic.\r\n—Explanation of the different types of culture.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e175\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe advancement of science at the expense of man is one of the most\r\npernicious things in the world. The stunted man is a retrogression in\r\nthe human race: he throws a shadow over all succeeding generations.\r\nThe tendencies and natural purpose of the individual science become\r\ndegenerate, and science itself is finally shipwrecked: it has made\r\nprogress, but has either no effect at all on life or else an immoral\r\none.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e176\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eMen not to be used like things!\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eFrom the former very incomplete philology and knowledge of antiquity\r\nthere flowed out a stream of freedom, while our own highly developed\r\nknowledge produces slaves and serves the idol of the State.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e177\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThere will perhaps come a time when scientific work will be carried\r\non by women, while the men will have to \u003ci\u003ecreate,\u003c/i\u003e using the word in a\r\nspiritual sense: states, laws, works of art, \u0026amp;c.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003ePeople should study typical antiquity just as they do typical men:\r\n\u003ci\u003ei.e.,\u003c/i\u003e imitating what they\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_183\"\u003e[Pg 183]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e understand of it, and, when the pattern\r\nseems to lie far in the distance, considering ways and means and\r\npreliminary preparations, and devising stepping-stones.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e178\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe whole feature of study lies in this: that we should study only what\r\nwe feel we should like to imitate; what we gladly take up and have the\r\ndesire to multiply. What is really wanted is a progressive canon of the\r\n\u003ci\u003eideal\u003c/i\u003e model, suited to boys, youths, and men.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e179\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eGoethe grasped antiquity in the right way: invariably with an emulative\r\nsoul. But who else did so? One sees nothing of a well-thought-out\r\npedagogics of this nature: who knows that there is a certain knowledge\r\nof antiquity which cannot be imparted to youths!\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe puerile character of philology: devised by teachers for pupils.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e180\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe ever more and more common form of the ideal: first men, then\r\ninstitutions, finally tendencies, purposes, or the want of them. The\r\nhighest form: the conquest of the ideal by a backward movement from\r\ntendencies to institutions, and from institutions to men.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e181\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eI will set down in writing what I no longer believe—and also what I\r\ndo believe. Man stands in the midst of the great whirlpool of forces,\r\nand imagines\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_184\"\u003e[Pg 184]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e that this whirlpool is rational and has a rational aim in\r\nview: error! The only rationality that we know is the small reason of\r\nman: he must exert it to the utmost, and it invariably leaves him in\r\nthe lurch if he tries to place himself in the hands of \"Providence.\"\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eOur only happiness lies in reason; all the remainder of the world is\r\ndreary. The highest reason, however, is seen by me in the work of the\r\nartist, and he can feel it to be such: there may be something which,\r\nwhen it can be consciously brought forward, may afford an even greater\r\nfeeling of reason and happiness: for example, the course of the solar\r\nsystem, the breeding and education of a man.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eHappiness lies in rapidity of feeling and thinking: everything else is\r\nslow, gradual, and stupid. The man who could feel the progress of a ray\r\nof light would be greatly enraptured, for it is very rapid.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThinking of one\u0027s self affords little happiness. But when we do\r\nexperience happiness therein the reason is that we are not thinking of\r\nourselves, but of our ideal. This lies far off; and only the rapid man\r\nattains it and rejoices.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eAn amalgamation of a great centre of men for the breeding of better\r\nmen is the task of the future. The individual must become familiarised\r\nwith claims that, when he says Yea to his own will, he also says Yea\r\nto the will of that centre—for example, in reference to a choice,\r\nas among women for marriage, and likewise as to the manner in which\r\nhis child shall be brought up. Until now no single individuality, or\r\nonly the very rarest, have been free: they were influenced by these\r\nconceptions, but likewise\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_185\"\u003e[Pg 185]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e by the bad and contradictory organisation of\r\nthe individual purposes.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e182\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eEducation is in the first place instruction in what is necessary, and\r\nthen in what is changing and in-constant. The youth is introduced to\r\nnature, and the sway of laws is everywhere pointed out to him; followed\r\nby an explanation of the laws of ordinary society. Even at this early\r\nstage the question will arise: was it absolutely necessary that this\r\nshould have been so? He gradually comes to need history to ascertain\r\nhow these things have been brought about. He learns at the same time,\r\nhowever, that they may be changed into something else. What is the\r\nextent of man\u0027s power over things? This is the question in connection\r\nwith all education. To show how things may become other than what they\r\nare we may, for example, point to the Greeks. We need the Romans to\r\nshow how things became what they were.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e183\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIf, then, the Romans had spurned the Greek culture, they would perhaps\r\nhave gone to pieces completely. When could this culture have once again\r\narisen? Christianity and Romans and barbarians: this would have been an\r\nonslaught: it would have entirely wiped out culture. We see the danger\r\namid which genius lives. Cicero was one of the greatest benefactors of\r\nhumanity, even in his own time.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThere is no \"Providence\" for genius; it is only for the ordinary run\r\nof people and their wants that\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_186\"\u003e[Pg 186]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e such a thing exists: they find their\r\nsatisfaction, and later on their justification.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e184\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThesis: the death of ancient culture inevitable. Greek culture must be\r\ndistinguished as the archetype; and it must be shown how all culture\r\nrests upon shaky conceptions.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe dangerous meaning of art: as the protectress and galvanisation of\r\ndead and dying conceptions; history, in so far as it wishes to restore\r\nto us feelings which we have overcome. To feel \"historically\" or \"just\"\r\ntowards what is already past, is only possible when we have risen above\r\nit. But the danger in the adoption of the feelings necessary for this\r\nis very great: let the dead bury their dead, so that we ourselves may\r\nnot come under the influence of the smell of the corpses.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"center\" style=\"font-size: 0.8em;\"\u003eTHE DEATH OF THE OLD CULTURE.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e1. The signification of the studies of antiquity hitherto pursued:\r\nobscure; mendacious.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e2. As soon as they recognise the goal they condemn themselves to death:\r\nfor their goal is to describe ancient culture itself as one to be\r\ndemolished.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e3. The collection of all the conceptions out of which Hellenic culture\r\nhas grown up. Criticism of religion, art, society, state, morals.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e4. Christianity is likewise denied.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e5. Art and history—dangerous.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e6. The replacing of the study of antiquity which has become superfluous\r\nfor the training of our youth.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThus the task of the science of history is completed,\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_187\"\u003e[Pg 187]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e and it itself\r\nhas become superfluous, if the entire inward continuous circle of past\r\nefforts has been condemned. Its place must be taken by the science of\r\nthe \u003ci\u003efuture.\u003c/i\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e185\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\"Signs\" and \"miracles\" are not believed; only a \"Providence\" stands in\r\nneed of such things. There is no help to be found either in prayer or\r\nasceticism or in \"vision.\" If all these things constitute religion,\r\nthen there is no more religion for me.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eMy religion, if I can still apply this name to something, lies in the\r\nwork of breeding genius: from such training everything is to be hoped.\r\nAll consolation comes from art. Education is love for the offspring;\r\nan excess of love over and beyond our self-love. Religion is \"love\r\nbeyond ourselves.\" The work of art is the model of such a love beyond\r\nourselves, and a perfect model at that\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e186\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe stupidity of the will is Schopenhauer\u0027s greatest thought, if\r\nthoughts be judged from the standpoint of power. We can see in Hartmann\r\nhow he juggled away this thought. Nobody will ever call something\r\nstupid—God.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e187\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThis, then, is the new feature of all the future progress of the\r\nworld: men must never again be ruled over by religious conceptions.\r\nWill they be any \u003ci\u003eworse?\u003c/i\u003e It is not my experience that they behave\r\nwell and morally under the yoke of religion; I am not on the side of\r\nDemopheles.\u003ca id=\"FNanchor_15_32\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003ca class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_15_32\"\u003e[15]\u003c/a\u003e The fear of a\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_188\"\u003e[Pg 188]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e beyond, and then again the fear of\r\ndivine punishments will hardly have made men better.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"footnote\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca id=\"Footnote_15_32\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003ca href=\"#FNanchor_15_32\" class=\"pginternal\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"label\"\u003e[15]\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/a\u003e A type in Schopenhauer\u0027s Essay \"On Religion.\" See\r\n\"Parerga and Paralipomena.\"—TR.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e188\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eWhere something great makes its appearance and lasts for a relatively\r\nlong time, we may premise a careful breeding, as in the case of the\r\nGreeks. How did so many men become free among them? Educate educators!\r\nBut the first educators must educate themselves! And it is for these\r\nthat I write.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e189\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe denial of life is no longer an easy matter: a man may become a\r\nhermit or a monk—and what is thereby denied! This conception has now\r\nbecome deeper: it is above all a discerning denial, a denial based upon\r\nthe will to be just; not an indiscriminate and wholesale denial.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e190\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe seer must be affectionate, otherwise men will have no confidence in\r\nhim: Cassandra.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e191\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe man who to-day wishes to be good and saintly has a more difficult\r\ntask than formerly: in order to be \"good,\" he must not be so\r\nunjust to knowledge as earlier saints were. He would have to be a\r\nknowledge-saint: a man who would link love with knowledge, and who\r\nwould have nothing to do with gods or demigods or \"Providence,\" as the\r\nIndian saints likewise had nothing to do with them. He should\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_189\"\u003e[Pg 189]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e also be\r\nhealthy, and should keep himself so, otherwise he would necessarily\r\nbecome distrustful of himself. And perhaps he would not bear the\r\nslightest resemblance to the ascetic saint, but would be much more like\r\na man of the world.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e192\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe better the state is organised, the duller will humanity be.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eTo make the individual uncomfortable is my task!\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe great pleasure experienced by the man who liberates himself by\r\nfighting.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eSpiritual heights have had their age in history; inherited energy\r\nbelongs to them. In the ideal state all would be over with them.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e193\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe highest judgment on life only arising from the highest energy of\r\nlife. The mind must be removed as far as possible from exhaustion.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIn the centre of the world-history judgment will be the most accurate;\r\nfor it was there that the greatest geniuses existed.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe breeding of the genius as the only man who can truly value and deny\r\nlife.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eSave your genius! shall be shouted unto the people: set him free! Do\r\nall you can to unshackle him.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe feeble and poor in spirit must not be allowed to judge life.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"parnum\"\u003e194\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eI dream of a combination of men who shall make no concessions, who\r\nshall show no consideration, and\u003c/i\u003e\u003cspan class=\"pagenum\"\u003e\u003ca id=\"Page_190\"\u003e[Pg 190]\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e \u003ci\u003ewho shall be willing to be called\r\n\"destroyers\": they apply the standard of their criticism to everything\r\nand sacrifice themselves to truth. The bad and the false shall be\r\nbrought to light! We will not build prematurely we do not know, indeed,\r\nwhether we shall ever be able to build, or if it would not be better\r\nnot to build at all There are lazy pessimists and resigned ones in this\r\nworld—and it is to their number that we refuse to belong!\u003c/i\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003ch4\u003eFINIS.\u003c/h4\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\r\n\u003c/article\u003e"}],"SectionSequence":["Back Link","Work Title","Deck","Author","Period","Era","Composition","Date Note","Region","Terra Avita","Terra Avita Region","Modern Country","Original Title","Language","Primary Discipline","Secondary Discipline","Tradition","Full Versions","Core Thesis","Classification","Arguments","Influence","Significance","Evidence Note","Full Text"],"Counts":{"ContextCards":3,"GeoCards":4,"DisciplineCards":2,"Links":11,"Sections":25,"Styles":3,"Scripts":1}}