We Philologists Part 13

188

Where something great makes its appearance and lasts for a relatively long time, we may premise a careful breeding, as in the case of the Greeks. How did so many men become free among them? Educate educators!

But the first educators must educate themselves! And it is for these that I write.

189

The denial of life is no longer an easy matter: a man may become a hermit or a monk--and what is thereby denied! This conception has now become deeper . it is above all a discerning denial, a denial based upon the will to be just; not an indiscriminate and wholesale denial.

190

The seer must be affectionate, otherwise men will have no confidence in him Ca.s.sandra.

191

The man who to-day wishes to be good and saintly has a more difficult task than formerly . in order to be "good," he must not be so unjust to knowledge as earlier saints were. He would have to be a knowledge-saint: a man who would link love with knowledge, and who would have nothing to do with G.o.ds or demiG.o.ds or "Providence," as the Indian saints likewise had nothing to do with them. He should also be healthy, and should keep himself so, otherwise he would necessarily become distrustful of himself. And perhaps he would not bear the slightest resemblance to the ascetic saint, but would be much more like a man of the world.

192

The better the state is organised, the duller will humanity be.

To make the individual uncomfortable is my task!

The great pleasure experienced by the man who liberates himself by fighting.

Spiritual heights have had their age in history; inherited energy belongs to them. In the ideal state all would be over with them.

193

The highest judgment on life only arising from the highest energy of life. The mind must be removed as far as possible from exhaustion.

In the centre of the world-history judgment will be the most accurate; for it was there that the greatest geniuses existed.

The breeding of the genius as the only man who can truly value and deny life.

Save your genius! shall be shouted unto the people: set him free! Do all you can to unshackle him.

The feeble and poor in spirit must not be allowed to judge life.

194

_I dream of a combination of men who shall make no concessions, who shall show no consideration, and who shall be willing to be called "destroyers": they apply the standard of their criticism to everything and sacrifice themselves to truth. The bad and the false shall be brought to light! We will not build prematurely: we do not know, indeed, whether we shall ever be able to build, or if it would not be better not to build at all. There are lazy pessimists and resigned ones in this world--and it is to their number that we refuse to belong!_

FOOTNOTES:

[1] No doubt a reminiscence of the "Odyssey," Bk. ix--TR.

[2] Formal education is that which tends to develop the critical and logical faculties, as opposed to material education, which is intended to deal with the acquisition of knowledge and its valuation, _e.g._, history, mathematics, &c. "Material" education, of course, has nothing to do with materialism--TR.

[3] The reference is not to Pope, but to Hegel.--TR.

[4] Friedrich August Wolf (1759-1824), the well-known cla.s.sical scholar, now chiefly remembered by his "Prolegomena ad Homerum."--TR.

[5] Students who pa.s.s certain examinations need only serve one year in the German Army instead of the usual two or three--TR.

[6] Otto Jahn (1813-69), who is probably best remembered in philological circles by his edition of Juvenal.--TR.

[7] Gustav Freytag at one time a famous German novelist--TR.

[8] A well-known anti-Wagnerian musical critic of Vienna.--TR.

[9] See note on p 149.--TR.

[10] Karl Ottfried Muller (1797-1840), cla.s.sical archaeologist, who devoted special attention to Greece--TR.

[11] Friedrich Gottlieb Welcker (1784-1868), noted for his ultra-profound comments on Greek poetry--TR.

[12] "We shall once again be shipwrecked." The omission is in the original--TR.

[13] Johann Gottfried Jakob Hermann (1772-1848), noted for his works on metre and Greek grammar.--TR.

[14] A type in Schopenhauer's Essay "On Religion." See "Parerga and Paralipomena"--TR.

FINIS.