buff-coloured pleasure, which is understood by our pleasure-seekers,
our "cultured people," our wealthy folk and our rulers! With how much
more irony we now listen to the hubbub as of a country fair, with which
the "cultured" man and the man about town allow themselves to be forced
through art, literature, music, and with the help of intoxicating
liquor, to "intellectual enjoyments." How the stage-cry of passion now
stings our ears; how strange to our taste the whole romantic riot and
sensuous bustle, which the cultured mob are so fond of, together with
its aspirations to the sublime, to the exalted and the distorted, have
become. No: if we convalescents require an art at all, it is _another_
art-a mocking, nimble, volatile, divinely undisturbed, divinely
artificial art, which blazes up like pure flame into a cloudless
sky! But above all, an art for artists, _only for artists!_ We are,
after all, more conversant with that which is in the highest degree
necessary--cheerfulness, _every kind of_ cheerfulness, my friends!...
We men of knowledge, now know something only too well: oh how well we
have learnt by this time, to forget, _not_ to know, as artists!...
As to our future: we shall scarcely be found on the track of those
Egyptian youths who break into temples at night, who embrace statues,
and would fain unveil, strip, and set in broad daylight, everything
which there are excellent reasons to keep concealed.[1] No, we are
disgusted with this bad taste, this will to truth, this search after
truth "at all costs": this madness of adolescence, "the love of truth";
we are now too experienced, too serious, too joyful, too scorched, _too
profound_ for that.... We no longer believe that truth remains truth
when it is _unveiled,_--we have lived enough to understand this....
To-day it seems to us good form not to strip everything naked, not
to be present at all things, not to desire to "know" all. "_Tout
comprendre c'est tout mépriser._" ... "Is it true," a little girl once
asked her mother, "that the beloved Father is everywhere?--I think
it quite improper,"--a hint to philosophers.... The shame with which
Nature has concealed herself behind riddles and enigmas should be held
in higher esteem. Perhaps truth is a woman who has reasons for _not
revealing her reasons?_ ... Perhaps her name, to use a Greek word is
_Baubo?_--Oh these Greeks, they understood, the art of _living!_ For
this it is needful to halt bravely at the surface, at the fold, at the
skin, to worship appearance, and to believe in forms, tones, words, and
the whole _Olympus of appearance_! These Greeks were superficial--from
_profundity._ ... And are we not returning to precisely the same thing,
we dare-devils of intellect who have scaled the highest and most
dangerous pinnacles of present thought, in order to look around us
from that height, in order to _look down_ from that height? Are we not
precisely in this respect--_Greeks?_ Worshippers of form, of tones, of
words? Precisely on that account--_artists?_
[Footnote 1: An allusion to Schiller's poem: "Das verschleierte Bild zu
Sais."--_Tr._]
SELECTED APHORISMS
SELECTED APHORISMS FROM NIETZSCHE'S RETROSPECT
OF HIS YEARS OF FRIENDSHIP WITH WAGNER.
(_Summer_ 1878.)
1.
My blunder was this, I travelled to Bayreuth with an ideal in my
breast, and was thus doomed to experience the bitterest disappointment.
The preponderance of ugliness, grotesqueness and strong pepper
thoroughly repelled me.
2.
I utterly disagree with those who were dissatisfied with the
decorations, the scenery and the mechanical contrivances at Bayreuth.
Far too much industry and ingenuity was applied to the task of chaining
the imagination to matters which did not belie their _epic_ origin. But
as to the naturalism of the attitudes, of the singing, compared with
the orchestra!! What affected, artificial and depraved tones, what a
distortion of nature, were we made to hear!
3.
We are witnessing the death agony of the _last Art:_ Bayreuth has
convinced me of this.
4.
My picture of Wagner, completely surpassed him; I had depicted an
_ideal monster_--one, however, which is perhaps quite capable of
kindling the enthusiasm of artists. The real Wagner, Bayreuth as it
actually is, was only like a bad, final proof, pulled on inferior
paper from the engraving which was my creation. My longing to see real
men and their motives, received an extraordinary impetus from this
humiliating experience.
5.
This, to my sorrow, is what I realised; a good deal even struck me with
sudden fear. At last I felt, however, that if only I could be strong
enough to take sides against myself and what I most loved I would find
the road to truth and get solace and encouragement from it--and in this
way I became filled with a sensation of joy far greater than that upon
which I was now voluntarily turning my back.
6.
I was in love with art, passionately in love, and in the whole
of existence saw nothing else than art--and this at an age when,
reasonably enough, quite different passions usually possess the soul.
7.
_Goethe_ said: "The yearning spirit within me, which in earlier years
I may perhaps have fostered too earnestly, and which as I grew older
I tried my utmost to combat, did not seem becoming in the man,
and I therefore had to strive to attain to more complete freedom."
Conclusion?--I have had to do the same.
8.
He who wakes us always wounds us.
9.
I do not possess the talent of being loyal, and what is still worse, I
have not even the vanity to try to appear as if I did.
10.
He who accomplishes anything that lies beyond the vision and the
experience of his acquaintances,--provokes envy and hatred masked as
pity,--prejudice regards the work as decadence, disease, seduction.
Long faces.
11.
I frankly confess that I had hoped that by means of art the Germans
would become thoroughly disgusted with _decaying Christianity_--I
regarded German mythology as a solvent, as a means of accustoming
people to polytheism.
What a fright I had over the Catholic revival!!
12.
It is possible neither to suffer sufficiently acutely from life, nor
to be so lifeless and emotionally weak, as to have _need_ of Wagner's
art, as to require it as a medium. This is the principal reason of
one's _opposition_ to it, and not baser motives: something to which we
are not driven by any personal need, and which we do not _require,_ we
cannot esteem so highly.
13.
It is a question either of no longer _requiring_ Wagner's art, or of
still requiring it
Gigantic forces lie concealed in it: _it drives one beyond its own
domain._
14.
_Goethe_ said: "Are not Byron's audacity, sprightliness and grandeur
all creative? We must beware of always looking for this quality in that
which is perfectly pure and moral. All _greatness_ is creative the
moment we realise it." This should be applied to Wagner's art.
15.
We shall always have to credit Wagner with the fact that in the second
half of the nineteenth century he impressed art upon our memory as an
important and magnificent thing. True, he did this in his own fashion,
and this was not the fashion of upright and far-seeing men.
16.
Wagner _versus_ the cautious, the cold and the contented of the
world--in this lies his greatness --he is a stranger to his age--he
combats the frivolous and the super-smart.--But he also fights the
just, the moderate, those who delight in the world (like Goethe); and
the mild, the people of charm, the scientific among men--this is the
reverse of the medal.
17.
Our youth was up in arms against the _soberness_ of the age. It plunged
into the cult of excess, of passion, of ecstasy, and of the blackest
and most austere conception of the world.
18.
Wagner pursues one form of madness, the age another form. Both carry on
their chase at the same speed, each is as blind and as unjust as the
other.
19.
It is very difficult to trace the course of Wagner's inner
development--no trust must be placed in his own description of his
soul's experiences. He writes party-pamphlets for his followers.
20.
It is extremely doubtful whether Wagner is able to bear witness about
himself.
21.
There are men who try in vain to make a principle out of _themselves._
This was the case with Wagner.
22.
Wagner's obscurity concerning final aims; his non-antique fogginess.
23.
All Wagner's ideas straightway become manias; he is _tyrannised_ over
by them. How can _such a man allow himself to be tyrannised over in
this way!_ For instance by his hatred of Jews. He _kills_ his themes
like his "ideas," by means of his violent love of repeating them. The
problem of excessive length and breadth; he bores us with his raptures.
24.
_"C'est la rage de vouloir penser et sentir au delà de sa force"_
(Doudan). The Wagnerites.
25.
Wagner whose ambition far exceeds his natural gifts, has tried an
incalculable number of times to achieve what lay beyond his powers--but
it almost makes one shudder to see some one assail with such
persistence that which defies conquest--the fate of his constitution.
26.
He is always thinking of the most _extreme_ expression,--in every word.
But in the end superlatives begin to pall.
27.
There is something which is in the highest degree suspicious in Wagner,
and that is Wagner's suspicion. It is such a strong trait in him, that
on two occasions I doubted whether he were a musician at all.
28.
The proposition: "in the face of perfection there is no salvation save
love,"[1] is thoroughly Wagnerian. Profound jealousy of everything
great from which he can draw _fresh_ ideas. Hatred of all that which he
cannot approach: the Renaissance, French and Greek art in style.
[Footnote 1: What Schiller said of Goethe.--TR.]
29.
Wagner is jealous of all periods that have shown _restraint:_ he
despises beauty and grace, and finds only his own _virtues_ in the
"Germans," and even attributes all his failings to them.
30.
Wagner has not the power to unlock and liberate the soul of those he
frequents: Wagner is not sure of himself, but distrustful and arrogant.
His _art_ has this effect upon artists, it is envious of all rivals.
31.
_Plato's Envy._ He would fain monopolise Socrates. He saturates the
latter with himself, pretends to adorn him καλὸς Σωκράτης, and
tries to separate all Socratists from him in order himself to appear as
the only true apostle. But his historical presentation of him is false,
even to a parlous degree: just as Wagner's presentation of Beethoven
and Shakespeare is false.
32.
When a dramatist speaks about himself he plays a part: this is
inevitable. When Wagner speaks about Bach and Beethoven he speaks like
one for whom he would fain be taken. But he impresses only those who
are already convinced, for his dissimulation and his genuine nature are
far too violently at variance.
33.
Wagner struggles against the "frivolity" in his nature, which to him
the ignoble (as opposed to Goethe) constituted the joy of life.
34.
Wagner has the mind of the ordinary man who prefers to trace things to
_one_ cause. The Jews do the same: one _aim,_ therefore one Saviour. In
this way he simplifies German and culture; wrongly but strongly.
35.
Wagner admitted all this to himself often enough when in private
communion with his soul: I only wish he had also admitted it publicly.
For what constitutes the greatness of a character if it is not this,
that he who possesses it is able to take sides even against himself in
favour of truth.
_Wagner's Teutonism._
36.
That which is un-German in Wagner. He lacks the German charm and grace
of a Beethoven, a Mozart, a Weber; he also lacks the flowing, cheerful
fire (_Allegro con brio_) of Beethoven and Weber. He cannot be free and
easy without being grotesque. He lacks modesty, indulges in big drums,
and always tends to surcharge his effect. He is not the good official
that Bach was. Neither has he that Goethean calm in regard to his
rivals.
37.
Wagner always reaches the high-water mark of his vanity when he
speaks of the German nature (incidentally it is also the height of
his imprudence); for, if Frederick the Great's justice, Goethe's
nobility and freedom from envy, Beethoven's sublime resignation, Bach's
delicately transfigured spiritual life,--if steady work performed
without any thought of glory and success, and without envy, constitute
the true _German_ qualities, would it not seem as if Wagner almost
wished to prove he is no German?
38.
Terrible wildness, abject sorrow, emptiness, the shudder of joy,
unexpectedness,--in short all the qualities peculiar to the Semitic
race! I believe that the Jews approach Wagner's art with more
understanding than the Aryans do.
39.
A passage concerning the Jews, taken from Taine.--As it happens, I have
misled the reader, the passage does not concern Wagner at all.--But
can it be possible that Wagner is a Jew? In that case we could readily
understand his dislike of Jews.[2]
[Footnote 2: See note on page 37.]
40.
Wagner's art is absolutely the _art of the age;_ an æsthetic age would
have rejected it. The more subtle people amongst us actually do reject
it even now. The _coarsifying_ of everything Æsthetic.--Compared with
Goethe's ideal it is very far behind. The moral contrast of these
self-indulgent burningly loyal creatures of Wagner, acts like a _spur,_
like an irritant: and even this sensation is turned to account in
obtaining an _effect_.
41.
What is it in our age that Wagner's art expresses? That brutality and
most delicate weakness which exist side by side, that running wild of
natural instincts, and nervous hyper-sensitiveness, that thirst for
emotion which arises from fatigue and the love of fatigue.--All this is
understood by the Wagnerites.
42.
_Stupefaction or intoxication_ constitute all Wagnerian art. On the
other hand I could mention instances in which Wagner stands _higher,_
in which real joy flows from him.
43.
The reason why the figures in Wagner's art behave so madly, is because
he greatly feared lest people would doubt that they were alive.
44.
Wagner's art is an appeal to inartistic people; all means are welcomed
which help towards obtaining an effect. It is calculated not to
produce an _artistic effect_ but an effect upon the _nerves in general_.
45.
Apparently in Wagner we have an art _for everybody,_ because coarse and
subtle means seem to be united in it. Albeit its pre-requisite may be
musico-æsthetic education, and _particularly_ with _moral_ indifference.
46.
In Wagner we find the most ambitious _combination_ of all means with
the view of obtaining the strongest effect: whereas genuine musicians
quietly develop individual _genres_.
47.
Dramatists are _borrowers_--their principal source of wealth--artistic
thoughts drawn from the epos. Wagner borrowed from classical music
besides. Dramatists are constructive geniuses, they are not inventive
and original as the epic poets are. Drama takes a lower rank than the
epos: it presupposes a coarser and more democratic public.
48.
Wagner does not altogether trust _music._ He weaves kindred sensations
into it in order to lend it the character of greatness. He measures
himself on others; he first of all gives his listeners intoxicating
drinks in order to lead them into believing that it _was the music that
intoxicated them._
49.
The same amount of talent and industry which makes the classic, when it
appears some time _too late,_ also makes the baroque artist like Wagner.
50.
Wagner's art is calculated to appeal to short-sighted people--one
has to get much too close up to it (Miniature): it also appeals to
long-sighted people, but not to those with normal sight.
_Contradictions in the Idea of Musical Drama._
51.
Just listen to the second act of the "Götterdämmerung," without
the drama. It is chaotic music, as wild as a bad dream, and it is
as frightfully distinct as if it desired to make itself clear even
to deaf people. This volubility _with nothing to say_ is alarming.
Compared with it the drama is a genuine relief.--Is the fact that
this music when heard alone, is, as a whole intolerable (apart from
a few intentionally isolated parts) in its _favour?_ Suffice it to
say that this music without its accompanying drama, is a perpetual
contradiction of all the highest laws of style belonging to older
music: he who thoroughly accustoms himself to it, loses all feeling
for these laws. But has the drama _been improved_ thanks to this
addition? A _symbolic interpretation_ has been affixed to it, a sort
of philological commentary, which sets fetters upon the inner and
free understanding of the imagination--it is tyrannical. Music is
the language of the commentator, who talks the whole of the time and
gives us no breathing space. Moreover his is a difficult language which
also requires to be explained. He who step by step has mastered, first
the libretto (language!), then converted it into action in his mind's
eye, then sought out and understood, and became familiar with the
musical symbolism thereto: aye, and has fallen in love with all three
things: such a man then experiences a great joy. But how _exacting!_
It is quite impossible to do this save for a few short moments,--such
tenfold attention on the part of one's eyes, ears, understanding, and
feeling, such acute activity in apprehending without any productive
reaction, is far too exhausting!--Only the very fewest behave in this
way: how is it then that so many are affected? Because most people
are only intermittingly attentive, and are inattentive for sometimes
whole passages at a stretch; because they bestow their undivided
attention now upon the music, later upon the drama, and anon upon the
scenery--that is to say they _take the work to pieces._--But in this
way the kind of work we are discussing is condemned: not the drama but
a moment of it is the result, an arbitrary selection. The creator of a
new _genre_ should consider this! The arts should not always be dished
up together,--but we should imitate the moderation of the ancients
which is truer to human nature.
52.
Wagner reminds one of lava which blocks its own course by congealing,
and suddenly finds itself checked by dams which it has itself built.
There is no _Allegro con fuoco_ for him.
53.
I compare Wagner's music, which would fain have the same effect as
speech, with that kind of sculptural relief which would have the same
effect as painting. The highest laws of style are violated, and that
which is most sublime can no longer be achieved.
54.
The general heaving, undulating and rolling of Wagner's art.
55.
In regard to Wagner's rejection of form, we are reminded of Goethe's
remark in conversation with Eckermann: "there is no great art in being
brilliant if one respects nothing."
56.
Once one theme is over, Wagner is always embarrassed as to how to
continue. Hence the long preparation, the suspense. His peculiar
craftiness consisted in transvaluing his weakness into virtues.--
57.
The _lack_ of melody and the poverty of melody in Wagner. Melody is a
whole consisting of many beautiful proportions, it is the reflection of
a well-ordered soul. He strives after melody; but if he finds one, he
almost suffocates it in his embrace.
58.
The natural nobility of a Bach and a Beethoven, the beautiful soul
(even of a Mendelssohn) are wanting in Wagner. He is one degree lower.
59.
Wagner imitates himself again and again--mannerisms. That is why he was
the quickest among musicians to be imitated. It is so easy.
60.
Mendelssohn who lacked the power of radically staggering one
(incidentally this was the talent of the Jews in the Old Testament),
makes up for this by the things which were his own, that is to say:
freedom within the law, and noble emotions kept within the limits of
beauty.
61.
_Liszt,_ the first _representative_ of all musicians, but _no
musician._ He was the prince, not the statesman. The conglomerate of a
hundred musicians' souls, but not enough of a personality to cast his
own shadow upon them.
62.
The most wholesome phenomenon is _Brahms,_ in whose music there is more
German blood than in that of Wagner's. With these words I would say
something complimentary, but by no means wholly so. 63.
In Wagner's writings there is no greatness or peace, but presumption.
Why?
64.
_Wagner's Style._-- The habit he acquired, from his earliest days,
of having his say in the most important matters without a sufficient
knowledge of them, has rendered him the obscure and incomprehensible
writer that he is. In addition to this he aspired to imitating the
witty newspaper article, and finally acquired that presumption which
readily joins hands with carelessness: "and, behold, it was very good."
65.
I am alarmed at the thought of how much pleasure I could find in
Wagner's style, which is so careless as to be unworthy of such an
artist.
66.
In Wagner, as in Brahms, there is a blind denial of the healthy, in his
followers this denial is deliberate and conscious.
67.
Wagner's art is for those who are conscious of an essential blunder in
the conduct of their lives. They feel either that they have checked
a great nature by a base occupation, or squandered it through idle
pursuits, a conventional marriage, &c. &c.
In this quarter the condemnation of the world is the outcome of the
condemnation of the ego.
68.
Wagnerites do not wish to alter themselves in any way; they live
discontentedly in insipid, conventional and brutal circumstances--only
at intervals does art have to raise them as by magic above these
things. Weakness of will.
69.
Wagner's art is for scholars who do not dare to become philosophers:
they feel discontented with themselves and are generally in a state
of obtuse stupefaction--from time to time they take a bath in the
_opposite conditions._
70.
I feel as if I had recovered from an illness: with a feeling of
unutterable joy I think of Mozart's _Requiem._ I can once more enjoy
simple fare.
71.
I understand Sophocles' development through and through--it was the
repugnance to pomp and pageantry.
72.
I gained an insight into the injustice of _idealism,_ by noticing that
I avenged myself on Wagner for the disappointed hopes I had cherished
of him.
73.
I leave my loftiest duty to the end, and that is to thank Wagner and
Schopenhauer publicly, and to make them as it were take sides against
themselves.
74.
I counsel everybody not to fight shy of such paths (Wagner and
Schopenhauer). The wholly _unphilosophic_ feeling of remorse, has
become quite strange to me.
_Wagner's Effects._
75.
We must strive to oppose the false after-effects of Wagner's art. If
he, in order to create Parsifal, is forced to pump fresh strength from
religious sources, this is not an example but a danger.
76.
I entertain the fear that the effects of Wagner's art will ultimately
pour into that torrent which takes its rise on the other side of the
mountains, and which knows how to flow even over mountains.[3]
[Footnote 3: It should be noted that the German Catholic party is
called the Ultramontane Party. The river which can thus flow over
mountains is Catholicism, towards which Nietzsche thought Wagner's art
to be tending.--TR.]
WE PHILOLOGISTS
AUTUMN 1874
(PUBLISHED POSTHUMOUSLY)
TRANSLATED BY J. M. KENNEDY
AUTHOR OF "THE QUINTESSENCE OF NIETZSCHE," "RELIGIONS AND PHILOSOPHIES
OF THE EAST," &C.
The mussel is crooked inside and rough outside: it is only
when we hear its deep note after blowing into it that we can
begin to esteem it at its true value.--(Ind. Sprüche, ed.
Böthlingk, i. 335.)
An ugly-looking wind instrument: but we must first blow into
it.
TRANSLATOR'S INTRODUCTION
The subject of education was one to which Nietzsche, especially
during his residence in Basel, paid considerable attention; and his
insight into it was very much deeper than that of, say, Herbert
Spencer or even Johann Friedrich Herbart, the latter of whom has in
late years exercised considerable influence in scholastic circles.
Nietzsche clearly saw that the "philologists" (using the word chiefly
in reference to the teachers of the classics in German colleges and
universities) were absolutely unfitted for their high task, since they
were one and all incapable of entering into the spirit of antiquity.
Although at the first reading, therefore, this book may seem to be
rather fragmentary, there are two main lines of thought running through
it: an incisive criticism of German professors, and a number of
constructive ideas as to what classical culture really should be.
These scattered aphorisms, indeed, are significant as showing how far
Nietzsche had travelled along the road over which humanity had been
travelling from remote ages, and how greatly he was imbued with the
pagan spirit which he recognised in Goethe and valued in Burckhardt.
Even at this early period of his life Nietzsche was convinced that
Christianity was the real danger to culture; and not merely modern
Christianity, but also the Alexandrian culture, the last gasp of Greek
antiquity, which had helped to bring Christianity about. When, in the
later aphorisms of "We Philologists," Nietzsche appears to be throwing
over the Greeks, it should be remembered that he does not refer to the
Greeks of the era of Homer or Æschylus, or even of Aristotle, but to
the much later Greeks of the era of Longinus.
Classical antiquity, however, was conveyed to the public through
university professors and their intellectual offspring; and these
professors, influenced (quite unconsciously, of course) by religious
and "liberal" principles, presented to their scholars a kind of
emasculated antiquity. It was only on these conditions that the State
allowed the pagan teaching to be propagated in the schools; and if,
where classical scholars were concerned, it was more tolerant than the
Church had been, it must be borne in mind that the Church had already
done all the rough work of emasculating its enemies, and had handed
down to the State a body of very innocuous and harmless investigators.
A totally erroneous conception of what constituted classical culture
was thus brought about Where any distinction was actually made, for
example, later Greek thought was enormously over-rated, and early Greek
thought equally undervalued. Aphorism 44, together with the first
half-dozen or so in the book, may be taken as typical specimens of
Nietzsche's protest against this state of things.