Human, All Too Human Volume Ii Part 18

HOW FAR PIETY OBSCURES.-In later centuries the great man is credited with all the great qualities and virtues of his century. Thus all that is best is continually obscured by piety, which treats the picture as a sacred one, to be surrounded with all manner of votive offerings. In the end the picture is completely veiled and covered by the offerings, and thenceforth is more an object of faith than of contemplation.

208.

STANDING ON ONE'S HEAD.-If we make truth stand on its head, we generally fail to notice that our own head, too, is not in its right position.

209.

ORIGIN AND UTILITY OF FASHION.-The obvious satisfaction of the individual with his own form excites imitation and gradually creates the form of the many-that is, fashion. The many desire, and indeed attain, that same comforting satisfaction with their own form. Consider how many reasons every man has for anxiety and shy self-concealment, and how, on this account, three-fourths of his energy and goodwill is crippled and may become unproductive! So we must be very grateful to fashion for unfettering that three-fourths and communicating self-confidence and the power of cheerful compromise to those who feel themselves bound to each other by its law. Even foolish laws give freedom and calm of the spirit, so long as many persons have submitted to their sway.

210.

LOOSENERS OF TONGUES.-The value of many men and books rests solely on their faculty for compelling all to speak out the most hidden and intimate things. They are looseners of tongues and crowbars to open the most stubborn teeth. Many events and misdeeds which are apparently only sent as a curse to mankind possess this value and utility.

211.

INTELLECTUAL FREEDOM OF DOMICILE.(12)-Who of us could dare to call himself a "free spirit" if he could not render homage after his fashion, by taking on his own shoulders a portion of that burden of public dislike and abuse, to men to whom this name is attached as a reproach? We might as well call ourselves in all seriousness "spirits free of domicile" (_Freizugig_) (and without that arrogant or high-spirited defiance) because we feel the impulse to freedom (_Zug zur Freiheit_) as the strongest instinct of our minds and, in contrast to fixed and limited minds, practically see our ideal in an intellectual nomadism-to use a modest and almost depreciatory expression.

212.

YES, THE FAVOUR OF THE MUSES!-What Homer says on this point goes right to our heart, so true, so terrible is it:

"The Muse loved him with all her heart and gave him good and evil, for she took away his eyes and vouchsafed him sweet song."

This is an endless text for thinking men: she gives good and evil, that is _her_ manner of loving with all her heart and soul! And each man will interpret specially for himself why we poets and thinkers have to give up our eyes in her service.(13)

213.

AGAINST THE CULTIVATION OF MUSIC.-The artistic training of the eye from childhood upwards by means of drawing, painting, landscape-sketching, figures, scenes, involves an estimable gain in life, making the eyesight keen, calm, and enduring in the observation of men and circ.u.mstances. No similar secondary advantage arises from the artistic cultivation of the ear, whence public schools will generally do well to give the art of the eye a preference over that of the ear.

214.

THE DISCOVERERS OF TRIVIALITIES.-Subtle minds, from which nothing is farther than trivialities, often discover a triviality after taking all manner of circuitous routes and mountain paths, and, to the astonishment of the non-subtle, rejoice exceedingly.

215.

MORALS OF SAVANTS.-A regular and rapid advance in the sciences is only possible when the individual is compelled to be not so distrustful as to test every calculation and a.s.sertion of others, in fields which are remote from his own. A necessary condition, however, is that every man should have compet.i.tors in his own sphere, who are extremely distrustful and keep a sharp eye upon him. From this juxtaposition of "not too distrustful" and "extremely distrustful" arises sincerity in the republic of learning.

216.

REASONS FOR STERILITY.-There are highly gifted minds which are always sterile only because, from temperamental weakness, they are too impatient to wait for their pregnancy.

217.

THE PERVERTED WORLD OF TEARS.-The manifold discomforts which the demands of higher culture cause to man finally pervert his nature to such an extent that he usually keeps himself stoical and unbending. Thus he has tears in reserve only for rare occasions of happiness, so that many must weep even at the enjoyment of painlessness-only when happy does his heart still beat.

218.

THE GREEKS AS INTERPRETERS.-When we speak of the Greeks we unwittingly speak of to-day and yesterday; their universally known history is a blank mirror, always reflecting something that is not in the mirror itself. We enjoy the freedom of speaking about them in order to have the right of being silent about others-so that these Greeks themselves may whisper something in the ear of the reflective reader. Thus the Greeks facilitate to modern men the communication of much that is debatable and hard to communicate.

219.