to appear unreasonable, for he brought with him not only a tragic
conception of Life, but a tragic philosophy. A tragic philosophy--the
marriage of Knowledge and Tragedy: nothing could have seemed more
irrational to modern Europe than that!
192
_Tragedy and Arguments_
Those who desire to restore a tragic conception of Life should not
use these arguments: that Happiness is a condition which, if it were
possible of realization, would become intolerable, producing its
opposite, unhappiness; or that only when the individual renounces
Happiness does Happiness become his. These are the statements of a
Hedonism once removed. The argument for the tragic view should be
founded on considerations altogether irrelevant to Happiness. It should
not care enough about Happiness even to disdain it.
193
_Morality and Happiness_
Philosophers have from the beginning acknowledged that Happiness is
not won by seeking for it, but by striving for other things. This,
however, has not prevented them from proclaiming Happiness as the goal
of Man and as the deliberate object of ethics. Contradiction upon
contradiction! If the individual cannot by taking thought capture
Happiness, is it conceivable that a community can, or the human race,
in toto? To throw a net round this mirage compounded of desire and
fancy--surely Reason was itself the most unreasonable thing to attempt
that. And, after all, does Man desire Happiness? Tragedy denies it.
194
_End or Effect_
One may possess all the virtues save Love, and remain unhappy.
Love, however, brings Happiness with it as the sun brings light. Is
Happiness, then, the end of morality? Or an effect of Love?
195
_Superiority_
In order to despise enjoyment, one need only be supremely happy or
supremely wretched.
196
_Beauty and Tragedy_
In every beautiful face there is nobility, strength and a touch of
sadness--the seal of tragedy is upon it. To make Life beautiful, then,
would be to make it tragic? Nay, rather let us say that to make Life
tragic is to make it beautiful. Supreme beauty is but the expression
in which are comprised in a miracle of unity the sorrow and the joy of
Tragedy. For in the most radiant manifestation of Beauty there is a
brooding solemnity; in the most sorrowful there is triumph.
197
_Experimenting in Life_
The aim of the æsthetes was without enduring Tragedy to enjoy Beauty.
To that end they devised their creed of experimentation in Life: they
wished to know all the joys of the soul and of the senses without
inconvenience to themselves. Perceiving that Love and Beauty bring
suffering in their train, they decided to _take the initiative_ against
them, in other words, to "experience" them. All they experienced,
however, was--their experiences. That, indeed, was all they desired:
their "experimenting in Life" was escaping from Life. Without the
courage to accept Life with the Dionysians or to renounce it with the
ascetics, they hit upon the plan of stealing a march upon it. Well, it
was certainly not upon Life that they stole a march!
198
_Christian and Dionysian_
The Christian and the Dionysian are both of them step-children and
solutions of Pessimism. A gloomy and realistic view of the world
was necessary before either of them could be born. In Christianity
Pessimism was translated into symbols. "Original Sin" and
"transgression against God"--these were the theological counterparts
of the pessimist's "suffering," "the tyranny of the Will." How did
Christianity find relief from this fundamental pessimism? By a pathetic
illusion in which mankind were transformed into erring children, who,
however, were forgiven by an indulgent Father. Here suffering was
still an argument against Life, and a palliative was sought and found.
The Dionysian, however, affirmed Life in the very tragicality of its
aspect, and, by so doing, achieved a victory over it. In short, to the
Dionysian Life is a tragedy; to the Christian it is a pathetic tale
with a happy ending.
199
_History of the Dionysian_
In the beginning he possessed innocence: the world appeared to him
as beautiful, Man as good, and the future as immeasurable. The great
illusion of Rousseau was his--a "natural man" himself, believing in the
"natural man," a romanticist, a credulous, not too sincere, "beautiful"
soul--a youth with the qualities of youth. But a day came when
unwillingly and painfully his soul forced his eyes open and compelled
them to look, and he saw without illusion; the cruelty beneath smiling
Appearance, the red claw, and conscienceless, inappeasable appetite.
Looking at Man he found him a powerless little creature, condemned
to a few years in this world, cut off by Death, and even during his
life circumscribed by invincible limitation. Nevertheless, this man
disdained to hide his head in the sands of illusion; and immediately he
became altogether more worthy of respect, more real, almost sublime. A
noble resignation to Life now characterized him; the classical writers,
especially the Greeks with their naturalistic pessimism, seemed to him
the highest thing; and he accepted the theory of Original Sin. All
honour to him when he reached, after a painful journey, this spare but
real conclusion! All honour to this pessimist who would not deceive
himself!
One day, however, the thought came to him, "Even if pain and necessity
be the truths of Life! There is something within me which can turn
these, also, to account! I can transfigure them. Pain, Struggle,
Change--these will no longer enslave me; for these shall be my slaves!"
At that moment he became a Dionysian: he had turned the corner of
pessimism, and had gained freedom. Original Sin was no longer true for
him; for a new truth had dawned in whose light the old was quenched.
From an illusive freedom in the beginning, through bondage to
necessity, to a new freedom--the history of the Dionysian. The
pessimist is more profound than the "natural man," but the Dionysian is
the most profound of all. He burrows deeper than pessimism itself; he
grows, the most happy of men, out of the very soil of pessimism.
200
_Tragic Affirmation_
To feel happy at this moment--is not that to approve of your whole
life, of its suffering, conflict, ennui and scepticism no less than
its victories and festivals? This moment is what it is by virtue of
these experiences; justify it and you justify them. The physical
agony which left its mark upon you; the anguish of bereavement and of
disillusionment; the cynicism with which you consoled yourself; the
years when you lived altogether bereft of hope; your most profound
and most petty thoughts and actions; your meanest, bitterest and
noblest experiences: all these are unconsciously affirmed in your
affirmation of this moment. Let them be affirmed consciously! Or is
your soul afraid to go as far as your will? Looking back now with new
eyes over your life, you find that precisely what you cannot do is to
repent--least of all of your sins and griefs! For to repent is to will
Life to be other than Life, and essentially not to affirm.
He who contemplates his life thus, perhaps understands for the first
time what is the meaning of Tragedy.
201
_Mastery and Tragedy_
The desire of Man to subjugate Nature and Fate and obtain mastery
over his resources--perhaps it is as well that this is meantime
unattainable! For Man's spirit is not yet noble enough for him to use
his power aright: he would use it, if he could grasp it now, as a means
to Happiness! Our first duty is to fight the idea of Happiness, to
make Man tragic. Once Man wills Tragedy, however, the more mastery he
acquires the better.
202
_The Hidden Faculty_
When we speak hopefully of the discovery of still undiscovered
faculties in Man, to what do we look forward? In plain terms, how do we
expect this faculty to be of use to us? In bringing about Happiness?
It is almost a tragedy--it is a tragedy without the nobility--that
in our time the most beautiful, heroic and powerful things have to
bow their heads and become slaves to this weak and pathetic tyrant,
Happiness. Should we then oppose the addition of one more divine power
to the imprisoned? Well, a hope consoles us. For the discovery of a new
faculty in Man will not make him more happy, but simply more powerful;
his self-expression in action will be the more complete; the essential
conflict of Life will be magnified; Life will become more tragic. So
think well, you votaries of Happiness, before you bring to life another
power of the tragic creature, Man. Far better for your ends if you
could but succeed in killing some of those he already possesses. But
have you not sometimes tried to do that?
203
_The Other Side_
And yet Man cannot create without Happiness. The soul that lives
in shadow becomes unhealthy and sterile: sunshine is after all the
great health-bringing and fructifying thing. Happiness does make a
man nobler; more ready to generosity and heroism; more careless of
enjoyment. Happiness! But what is Happiness? The Happiness that is
essential to the best life is a state of the soul: this is doubtless
that which Goethe and Heine praised. But the other, the Happiness
of the utilitarian, is an effect of calculated action, the reward
of a sort of ethical thrift. The first, however, is independent of
calculation, and even a little scornful of it; for in its confidence
and plenitude it dares to put out on the gloomiest seas. It is not
unrelated to Love, this effect of an affirmative attitude to Life. When
people praise Happiness, how one desires to believe it is this that
they praise.
204
_The Two Species_
The few have a conception of Life different from that of the many. To
the latter still pertain such notions as "do as you would be done by,"
and so forth. They understand a morality but not the end of morality.
The few, however, who understand both the morality and the reason for
it, who have a conception of Life more difficult and unyielding, seem
to the many cold and a little inhuman. The lives of the latter, on the
other hand, appear to the few as a naively happy, narrow and absurd
form of existence.
205
_Nietzsche_
What was Nietzsche, that subtlest of modern riddles? First, a great
tragic poet: it was by a divine accident that he was at the same
time a profound thinker and the deepest psychologist. But his tragic
affirmative was the core of his work, of which thought and analysis
were but outgrowths. Without it, his subtlety might have made him
another Pascal. The Will to Power, which makes suffering integral in
Life; the Order of Rank whereby the bulk of mankind are doomed to
slavery; the Superman himself, that most sublime child of Tragedy; and
the last affirmation, the Eternal Recurrence: these are the conceptions
of a tragic poet. It is, indeed, by virtue of his tragic view of Life
that Nietzsche is for us a force of such value. For only by means of it
could modern existence, sunk in scepticism, pessimism and the greatest
happiness of the greatest number, be re-created.
For the last two centuries Europe has been under the domination of
the concept of Happiness as progress. Altruism, the ideology of the
greatest happiness of the greatest number, altruism as a means of
universalizing Happiness, was preached in the eighteenth century; until
after a while it was seen by such clear-sighted observers as Voltaire
that men did not obey this imperative of altruism; therefore they were
condemned: the moral indignation of the eighteenth century, the century
of censoriousness par excellence, was the result. First, an impossible
morality was demanded, and for the attainment of an unattainable ideal;
then Man was condemned because he failed to comply with it, because he
was Man. Thus in the end the ideal of the greatest happiness worked
out in pessimism: Life became hideous and, worst of all, immoral, to
the utilitarian, when it was seen that altruism and happiness are
alike impossible. Schopenhauer is here the heir of Voltaire: the moral
condemnation of the one has become in the other a condemnation of Life
itself, more profound, more poetical, more logical. Altruism has in
Schopenhauer deepened into Pity; for Pity is altruism bereft of the
illusion of Happiness.
How was Man to avoid now the almost inevitable bourne of Nihilism? By
renouncing altogether Happiness as a value; by restoring a conception
of Life in which Happiness was neither a positive nor a negative
standard, but something irrelevant, an accident: in short, by setting
up a tragic conception of Life. This was the task of Nietzsche: in how
far he succeeded how can we yet say?
206
_Again_
Nietzsche loved not goodness but greatness: the True, the _Great_ and
the Beautiful. Was not this the necessary corollary of his æsthetic
evaluation of Life?
207
_Sacrifices_
"The first of the first fruits of thy land thou shalt bring into the
house of the Lord thy God."
Thus spoke the oldest reverence. We should not scoff at this feeling
but rather try to understand it; for it is only too rare in our time.
What was its meaning to the rulers of Israel? Gratitude, a beautiful,
affirmative thing. To enrich Life with our highest gifts, which we
freely offer in thanksgiving for what Life has given us,--that should
be our form of sacrifice. And we should perform it gladly, with
festive, overflowing heart, not with sullen and conscientious face, as
if Life were a usurer.
208
_Our Poverty_
The spiritual poverty of modern life is appalling; and all the more
because men are unconscious of it. Prayer was in former times the
channel whereby a profound current of spiritual life flowed into the
lives of men and enriched them. This source of wealth has now almost
ceased, and Man has become less spiritual, more impoverished. We must
seek a new form of prayer. Better not live at all than live without
reverence and gratitude! Let our sacramental attitude to Life be our
form of prayer. Let us no longer desire to live when that has perished.
209
_Finis_
"To abjure half measures and to live resolutely in the Whole, the Full,
the Beautiful."--GOETHE.
"To try to see in all things necessity as beauty."--NIETZSCHE.
THE END
End of Project Gutenberg's We Moderns, by Edwin Muir and H. L. Mencken