No More Learning

Is this a sign that Strauss has never
ceased to be a Christian theologian, and that he
has therefore never learned to be a philosopher?
For we find still greater cause for surprise in the
fact that he quite fails to distinguish between belief
and knowledge, and continually mentions his " new
belief" and the still newer science in one breath.
Or is " new belief" merely an ironical concession
to ordinary parlance? This almost seems to be
the case; for here and there he actually allows
"new belief" and "newer science" to be inter-
changeable terms, as for instance on page ir,
where he asks on which side, whether on that of
the ancient orthodoxy or of modern science, "exist
more of the obscurities and insufficiencies unavoid-
able in human speculation. "
Moreover, according to the scheme laid down
in the Introduction, his desire is to disclose those


## p. 72 (#164) #############################################

72 THOUGHTS OUT OF SEASON.
proofs upon which the modern view of life is based;
but he derives all these proofs from science, and
in this respect assumes far more the attitude of a
scientist than of a believer.
At bottom, therefore, the religion is not a new
belief, but, being of a piece with modern science, it
has nothing to do with religion at all. If Strauss,
however, persists in his claims to be religious, the
grounds for these claims must be beyond the pale
of recent science. Only the smallest portion of the
Straussian book—that is to say, but a few isolated
pages—refer to what Strauss in all justice might
call a belief, namely, that feeling for the "All"
for which he demands the piety that the old
believer demanded for his God. On the pages in
question, however, he cannot claim to be altogether
scientific; but if only he could lay claim to being
a little stronger, more natural, more outspoken,
more pious, we should be content. Indeed, what
perhaps strikes us most forcibly about him is the
multitude of artificial procedures of which he avails
himself before he ultimately gets the feeling that
he still possesses a belief and a religion; he
reaches it by means of stings and blows, as we
have already seen. How indigently and feebly
this emergency-belief presents itself to us! We
shiver at the sight of it.
Although Strauss, in the plan laid down in his
Introduction, promises to compare the two faiths,
the old and the new, and to show that the latter
will answer the same purpose as the former, even
he begins to feel, in the end, that he has promised
too much. For the question whether the new


## p. 73 (#165) #############################################

DAVID STRAUSS. 73
belief answers the same purpose as the old,
or is better or worse, is disposed of incident-
ally, so to speak, and with uncomfortable haste,
in two or three pages (p. 436 et seq'), and
is actually bolstered up by the following subter-
fuge: "He who cannot help himself in this matter
is beyond help, is not yet ripe for our standpoint"
(p. 436). How differently, and with what intensity
of conviction, did the ancient Stoic believe in the
All and the rationality of the All! And, viewed
in this light, how does Strauss's claim to originality
appear? But, as we have already observed, it
would be a matter of indifference to us whether it
were new, old, original, or imitated, so that it were
only more powerful, more healthy, and more
natural. Even Strauss himself leaves this double-
distilled emergency-belief to take care of itself as
often as he can do so, in order to protect himself and
us from danger, and to present his recently acquired
biological knowledge to his "We" with a clear con-
science. The more embarrassed he may happen to
be when he speaks of faith, the rounder and fuller
his mouth becomes when he quotes the greatest
benefactor to modern men—Darwin. Then he not
only exacts belief for the new Messiah, but also for
himself—the new apostle. For instance, while dis-
cussing one of the most intricate questions in
natural history, he declares with true ancient pride:
"I shall be told that I am here speaking of things
about which I understand nothing. Very well; but
others will come who will understand them, and
who will also have understood me" (p. 241).
According to this, it would almost seem as


## p. 74 (#166) #############################################

74 THOUGHTS OUT OF SEASON.
though the famous "We" were not only in duty
bound to believe in the "All," but also in the
naturalist Strauss; in this case we can only hope
that in order to acquire the feeling for this last
belief, other processes are requisite than the pain-
ful and cruel ones demanded by the first belief.
Or is it perhaps sufficient in this case that the
subject of belief himself be tormented and stabbed
with the view of bringing the believers to that
"religious reaction" which is the distinguishing
sign of the "new faith. " What merit should we
then discover in the piety of those whom Strauss
calls "We"?
Otherwise, it is almost to be feared that modern
men will pass on in pursuit of their business
without troubling themselves overmuch concern-
ing the new furniture of faith offered them by
the apostle: just as they have done heretofore,
without the doctrine of the rationality of the All.
The whole of modern biological and historical
research has nothing to do with the Straussian
belief in the All, and the fact that the modern
Philistine does not require the belief is proved by
the description of his life given by Strauss in the
chapter," What is our Rule of Life? " He is there-
fore quite right in doubting whether the coach to
which his esteemed readers have been obliged to
trust themselves "with him, fulfils every require-
ment. " It certainly does not; for the modern man
makes more rapid progress when he does not take
his place in the Straussian coach, or rather, he got
ahead much more quickly long before the Straussian
coach ever existed. Now, if it be true that the


## p. 75 (#167) #############################################

DAVID STRAUSS. 75
famous " minority " which is " not to be overlooked,"
and of which, and in whose name, Strauss speaks,
"attaches great importance to consistency," it must
be just as dissatisfied with Strauss the Coachbuilder
as we are with Strauss the Logician.
Let us, however, drop the question of the logician.
Perhaps, from the artistic point of view, the book
really is an example of a well-conceived plan, and
does, after all, answer to the requirements of the
laws of beauty, despite the fact that it fails to meet
with the demands of a well-conducted argument.
And now, having shown that he is neither a scientist
nor a strictly correct and systematic scholar, for
the first time we approach the question: Is Strauss
a capable writer? Perhaps the task he set himself
was not so much to scare people away from the
old faith as to captivate them by a picturesque
and graceful description of what life would be with
the new. If he regarded scholars and educated
men as his most probable audience, experience
ought certainly to have told him that whereas one
can shoot such men down with the heavy guns of
scientific proof, but cannot make them surrender,
they may be got to capitulate all the more quickly
before "lightly equipped" measures of seduction.
"Lightly equipped," and "intentionally so," thus
Strauss himself speaks of his own book. Nor do
his public eulogisers refrain from using the same
expression in reference to the work, as the following
passage, quoted from one of the least remarkable
among them, and in which the same expression is
merely paraphrased, will go to prove:—
"The discourse flows on with delightful harmony:


## p. 76 (#168) #############################################

76 THOUGHTS OUT OF SEASON.
wherever it directs its criticism against old ideas it
wields the art of demonstration, almost playfully;
and it is with some spirit that it prepares the new
ideas it brings so enticingly, and presents them
to the simple as well as to the fastidious taste.
The arrangement of such diverse and conflicting
material is well thought out for every portion of it
required to be touched upon, without being made
too prominent; at times the transitions leading
from one subject to another are artistically
managed, and one hardly knows what to admire
most—the skill with which unpleasant questions
are shelved, or the discretion with which they are
hushed up. "
The spirit of such eulogies, as the above clearly
shows, is not quite so subtle in regard to judging
of what an author is able to do as in regard to
what he wishes. What Strauss wishes, however, is
best revealed by his own emphatic and not quite
harmless commendation of Voltaire's charms, in
whose service he might have learned precisely those
"lightly equipped" arts of which his admirer
speaks—granting, of course, that virtue may be
acquired and a pedagogue can ever be a dancer.
Who could help having a suspicion or two, when
reading the following passage, for instance, in which
Strauss says of Voltaire, "As a philosopher [he]
is certainly not original, but in the main a mere
exponent of English investigations: in this respect,
however, he shows himself to be completely master
of his subject, which he presents with incom-
parable skill, in all possible lights and from all
possible sides, and is able withal to meet the de-


## p. 77 (#169) #############################################

DAVID STRAUSS. 77
mands of thoroughness, without, however, being
over-severe in his method "? Now, all the negative
traits mentioned in this passage might be applied
to Strauss. No one would contend, I suppose,
that Strauss is original, or that he is over-severe in
his method; but the question is whether we can
regard him as "master of his subject," and grant
him "incomparable skill"? The confession to the
effect that the treatise was intentionally "lightly
equipped " leads us to think that it at least aimed at
incomparable skill.
It was not the dream of our architect to build a
temple, nor yet a house, but a sort of summer-
pavilion, surrounded by everything that the art of
gardening can provide. Yea, it even seems as if
that mysterious feeling for the All were only cal-
culated to produce an aesthetic effect, to be, so to
speak, a view of an irrational element, such as the
sea, looked at from the most charming and rational
of terraces. The walk through the first chapters—
that is to say, through the theological catacombs
with all their gloominess and their involved and
baroque embellishments—was also no more than
an aesthetic expedient in order to throw into greater
relief the purity, clearness, and common sense of
the chapter "What is our Conception of the Uni-
verse? " For, immediately after that walk in the
gloaming and that peep into the wilderness of
Irrationalism, we step into a hall with a skylight
to it. Soberly and limpidly it welcomes us: its
mural decorations consist of astronomical charts
and mathematical figures; it is filled with scientific
apparatus, and its cupboards contain skeletons,


## p. 78 (#170) #############################################

78 THOUGHTS OUT OF SEASON.
stuffed apes, and anatomical specimens. But now,
really rejoicing for the first time, we direct our steps
into the innermost chamber of bliss belonging to
our pavilion-dwellers; there we find them with
their wives, children, and newspapers, occupied in
the commonplace discussion of politics; we listen
for a moment to their conversation on marriage,
universal suffrage, capital punishment, and work-
men's strikes, and we can scarcely believe it to be
possible that the rosary of public opinions can be
told off so quickly. At length an attempt is made
to convince us of the classical taste of the inmates.
A moment's halt in the library, and the music-room
suffices to show us what we had expected all along,
namely, that the best books lay on the shelves, and
that the most famous musical compositions were
in the music-cabinets. Some one actually played
something to us, and even if it were Haydn's music,
Haydn could not be blamed because it sounded
like Riehl's music for the home. Meanwhile the
host had found occasion to announce to us his
complete agreement with Lessing and Goethe,
although with the latter only up to the second part
of Faust. At last our pavilion-owner began to
praise himself, and assured us that he who could
not be happy under his roof was beyond help
and could not be ripe for his standpoint, where-
upon he offered us his coach, but with the polite
reservation that he could not assert that it would
fulfil every requirement, and that, owing to the
stones on his road having been newly laid down,
we were not to mind if we were very much
jolted. Our Epicurean garden-god then took


## p. 79 (#171) #############################################

DAVID STRAUSS. 79
leave of us with the incomparable skill which he
praised in Voltaire.
Who could now persist in doubting the existence
of this incomparable skill? The complete master
of his subject is revealed; the lightly equipped
artist-gardener is exposed, and still we hear the
voice of the classical author saying, " As a writer I
shall for once cease to be a Philistine: I will not
be one; I refuse to be one! But a Voltaire—the
German Voltaire—or at least the French Lessing. "
With this we have betrayed a secret. Our
Master does not always know which he prefers
to be—Voltaire or Lessing; but on no account
will he be a Philistine. At a pinch he would not
object to being both Lessing and Voltaire—that
the word might be fulfilled that is written," He had
no character, but when he wished to appear as if
he had, he assumed one. "
If we have understood Strauss the Confessor
correctly, he must be a genuine Philistine, with a
narrow, parched soul and scholarly and common-
place needs; albeit no one would be more indignant
at the title than David Strauss the Writer. He
would be quite happy to be regarded as mischievous,
bold, malicious, daring; but his ideal of bliss would
consist in finding himself compared with either
Lessing or Voltaire—because these men were un-
doubtedly anything but Philistines. In striving
after this state of bliss, he often seems to waver


## p. 80 (#172) #############################################

80
THOUGHTS OUT OF SEASON.
between two alternatives — either to mimic the
brave and dialectical petulance of Lessing, or to
affect the manner of the faun-like and free-spirited
man of antiquity that Voltaire was. When taking
up his pen to write, he seems to be continually
posing for his portrait; and whereas at times
his features are drawn to look like Lessing's,
anon they are made to assume the Voltairean
mould. While reading his praise of Voltaire's
manner, we almost seem to see him abjuring the
consciences of his contemporaries for not having
learned long ago what the modern Voltaire had
to offer them. “Even his excellences are won-
derfully uniform,” he says: “simple naturalness,
transparent clearness, vivacious mobility, seductive
charm. Warmth and emphasis are also not want-
ing where they are needed, and Voltaire's innermost
nature always revolted against stiltedness and
affectation; while, on the other hand, if at times
wantonness or passion descend to an unpleasantly
low level, the fault does not rest so much with the
stylist as with the man. ” According to this, Strauss
seems only too well aware of the importance of
simplicity in style; it is ever the sign of genius, which
alone has the privilege to express itself naturally
and guilelessly. When, therefore, an author selects
a simple mode of expression, this is no sign what-
ever of vulgar ambition; for although many are
aware of what such an author would fain be taken
for, they are yet kind enough to take him precisely
for that. The genial writer, however, not only
reveals his true nature in the plain and unmis-
takable form of his utterance, but his super-


## p. 81 (#173) #############################################

DAVID STRAUSS.
81
abundant strength actually dallies with the material
he treats, even when it is dangerous and difficult.
Nobody treads stiffly along unknown paths, especi-
ally when these are broken throughout their course
by thousands of crevices and furrows; but the
genius speeds nimbly over them, and, leaping with
grace and daring, scorns the wistful and timorous
step of caution.
Even Strauss knows that the problems he
prances over are dreadfully serious, and have ever
been regarded as such by the philosophers who
have grappled with them; yet he calls his book
lightly equipped! But of this dreadfulness and of
the usual dark nature of our meditations when con-
sidering such questions as the worth of existence
and the duties of man, we entirely cease to be
conscious when the genial Master plays his antics
before us, “lightly equipped, and intentionally so. ”
Yes, even more lightly equipped than his Rousseau,
of whom he tells us it was said that he stripped
himself below and adorned himself on top, whereas
Goethe did precisely the reverse. Perfectly guile-
less geniuses do not, it appears, adorn themselves
at all; possibly the words “lightly equipped” may
simply be a euphemism for “naked. ” The few
who happen to have seen the Goddess of Truth
declare that she is naked, and perhaps, in the minds
of those who have never seen her, but who implicitly
believe those few, nakedness or light equipment
is actually a proof, or at least a feature, of truth.
Even this vulgar superstition turns to the advan-
tage of the author's ambition. Some one sees
something naked, and he exclaims: "What if this


## p. 81 (#174) #############################################


80
Teens CT OR SEASON
THOUGHTS
Ille
110
TE
sight of a so
which manife
him as a con
society as an d er Wide bizel broke hue
bon ay pag ar palie
, le mately found a lot
cena letal der tan ane distres va
wings, and si
stage we bring
into view: but
dayad lo mazas his dreling place at
castry and other we came to comprehend te
side?
The charact
but the succes
is clear he is
tan krag lagd of tire The greater tal de
des entreten ble skrental in heavy mist; dirt
reveal someth
recall Rienzi
Tannhäuser a
for any los tr te maron, and thus alibiyet
de manera o fail in the future he was not alone
bo dani He must have felt like a neten
between two alternativ
brave and dialectical p
affect the manner of the
man of antiquity that V
up his pen to write, he
posing for his portrai
his features are drawi
anon they are made t
mould. While reading
manner, we almost seen
consciences of his conte
learned long ago what
to offer them. “Even
derfully uniform,” he s
transparent clearness, vi
charm. Warmth and en
ing where they are neede
nature always revolted
affectation; while, on ti
wantonness or passion d
low level, the fault does
stylist as with the man. ”
seems only too well aw
simplicity in style; it is ev
alone has the privilege
and guilelessly. When,
a simple mode of expres
ever of vulgar ambition
aware of what such an a
for, they are yet kind en
for that. The genial
reveals his true nature
takable form of his
Tristan and
Brunhilda, -a
Tant el dag zat tanaing manly algo de
readh a dent drukar why far fan kang the
The thought was a temptation to his faits
gai bagal pa by his tempuran bigas de
by a secret cu
morality which
ever purer an
this point we
the presence
Wagner's own
meet with the
Schiller's char
stein and To
course, and
author's deve
I is higher and
In the Nibel
hilda is awal
daing the bes bal d matatir in the day
detavad nika'lake hal bi haus haluar
moral music
to such a hig
unconscious)
snow-peaks o


## p. 81 (#175) #############################################


\YREUTH.
115
ਪਰ ਇਸ ਨਾਲ ਨਾਲ ਹੈ : t s :ਣ ਹੋਇ
Nikosaya të dog ukone
dyte mateka traga zane
and bathed
lay herself,
d even the
ber. Now,
Tannhäuser
e n el pre ting at ang mit
Textir aste it al
to perceive
stucasly be
power and
as y actices , 22
len preto sad by philosophia eta
throw of
frecisa ser HTLITE VZS
star ap
h melan-
sed it, be
blicated for him ;
he discovered in
rmore resourceful
little more than
and expedients,
ed, only for the
i occurred to his
uined closely and
life, to recall one
night be said to
vention burlesque
nust have been,
le periods of his
in it,-he who
, breathed freely
ablime spheres,
a.
ife, a detailed de-
der to inspire the
ion which are its
uiring knowledge,
the nation learned
raordinary. And
anger threatened
ble than that in
tly without either
thither by disturb-
ring his strength
ster of music and
ventor in the pre-
the execution of
✓ him the glory of
el for lofty artistic
mage and
ries of the



## p. 81 (#176) #############################################


80
THE CONTES AT OP SZALON
THOUGHTS
14
110
TH
sight of a sou
which manifes
him as a cons
wings, and she
stage we bring
into view: but
side?
The characte
but the success
is clear he is !
secih etmed te le borsel brake boy
han ng peterpartie de ancly hund a bez
cranio taldeare dan once distres a
al bar ons banget bin. Thus Wa
dogad bis sechs bis dreling place a
mentand then we come to comprehet
nature of the sites lib rich he gravitate
bendrak bu ke was able to take
than trag legd od time The greater bal
Ismertebbe stated in heavy mit is
Ang the league sto kere had no general by
between two alterna
brave and dialectical
affect the manner of
man of antiquity that
up his pen to write,
posing for his porti
his features are dra
anon they are made
mould. While read
manner, we almost se
consciences of his co
learned long ago wha
to offer them. "Eve
derfully uniform," he
transparent clearness,
charm. Warmth and
ing where they are nee
nature always revolt
affectation; while, on
wantonness or passion
low level, the fault do
stylist as with the man
seems only too well
simplicity in style; it is
alone has the privileg
and guilelessly. Whe
a simple mode of expl
ever of vulgar ambit
aware of what such ai
for, they are yet kind
for that. The genia
reveals his true natur
takable form of his
reveal somethi
recall Rienzi!
Tannhäuser an
Tristan and 1
Brunhilda, – all
by a secret cur
frankos kr te marom, and thus alle
nad olid to the future, he was not alone
to davant le max have felt like a com
tarteles draken with fatigue, eraseated
morality which
ever purer and
calles zonezh a' death rather langs kart
this point we
The taget nosa temptation to his fizik
ga bugal w by his temerary hyes
dzig tes les act d'andata in the de
the presence o
Wagner's own
meet with the
Schiller's chara
stein and Te
course, and I'
author's devel
I is higher and
In the Nibelu
hilda is awak
moral music!
to such a hig)
unconsciously
snow-peaks ol
kian, hor ter were cap sinhos torta


## p. 81 (#177) #############################################


UTH.
115
III
AYREUTH.
waren tachta s ka
צנצנו. הנצפון
; and bathed
splay berseli,
nd even the
het. Now
Tannhänser
to percent
1: how rest
estuously he
e power and
n which he
to throw off
brine The
per E27
to renounce
od now into
d the most
the related intes
blicated for him;
he discovered in
rmore resourceful
little more than
and expedients,
ed, only for the
s occurred to his
ained closely and
life, to recall one
night be said to
hention burlesque
must have been
le periods of his
in it,—he who
, breathed freely
ablime spheres,
ta.
ife, a detailed de-
rder to inspire the
ion which are its
uiring knowledge,,
the nation learned
raordinary. And
anger threatened
ble than that in-
tly without either
thither by disturb-
ving his strength
ster of music and
ventor in the pre-
the execution of
y him the glory of
el for lofty artistic
ith melan-
ompositions
series of the

Tannhera
Labegin
Tevere le
I


## p. 81 (#178) #############################################

80 THOUGHTS OUT OF SEASON.
between two alternatives — either to mimic the
brave and dialectical petulance of Lessing, or to
affect the manner of the faun-like and free-spirited
man of antiquity that Voltaire was. When taking
up his pen to write, he seems to be continually
posing for his portrait; and whereas at times
his features are drawn to look like Lessing's,
anon they are made to assume the Voltairean
mould. While reading his praise of Voltaire's
manner, we almost seem to see him abjuring the
consciences of his contemporaries for not having
learned long ago what the modern Voltaire had
to offer them. "Even his excellences are won-
derfully uniform," he says: "simple naturalness,
transparent clearness, vivacious mobility, seductive
charm. Warmth and emphasis are also not want-
ing where they are needed, and Voltaire's innermost
nature always revolted against stiltedness and
affectation; while, on the other hand, if at times
wantonness or passion descend to an unpleasantly
low level, the fault does not rest so much with the
stylist as with the man. " According to this, Strauss
seems only too well aware of the importance of
simplicity in style; it is ever the sign of genius, which
alone has the privilege to express itself naturally
and guilelessly. When, therefore, an author selects
a simple mode of expression, this is no sign what-
ever of vulgar ambition; for although many are
aware of what such an author would fain be taken
for, they are yet kind enough to take him precisely
for that. The genial writer, however, not only
reveals his true nature in the plain and unmis-
takable form of his utterance, but his super-


## p. 81 (#179) #############################################

DAVID STRAUSS. 81
abundant strength actually dallies with the material
he treats, even when it is dangerous and difficult.
Nobody treads stiffly along unknown paths, especi-
ally when these are broken throughout their course
by thousands of crevices and furrows; but the
genius speeds nimbly over them, and, leaping with
grace and daring, scorns the wistful and timorous
step of caution.
Even Strauss knows that the problems he
prances over are dreadfully serious, and have ever
been regarded as such by the philosophers who
have grappled with them; yet he calls his book
lightly equipped! But of this dreadfulness and of
the usual dark nature of our meditations when con-
sidering such questions as the worth of existence
and the duties of man, we entirely cease to be
conscious when the genial Master plays his antics
before us, "lightly equipped, and intentionally so. "
Yes, even more lightly equipped than his Rousseau,
of whom he tells us it was said that he stripped
himself below and adorned himself on top, whereas
Goethe did precisely the reverse. Perfectly guile-
less geniuses do not, it appears, adorn themselves
at all; possibly the words "lightly equipped" may
simply be a euphemism for "naked. " The few
who happen to have seen the Goddess of Truth
declare that she is naked, and perhaps, in the minds
of those who have never seen her, but who implicitly
believe those few, nakedness or light equipment
is actually a proof, or at least a feature, of truth.
Even this vulgar superstition turns to the advan-
tage of the author's ambition. Some one sees
something naked, and he exclaims: "What if this
F


## p. 82 (#180) #############################################

82 THOUGHTS OUT OF SEASON.
were the truth! " Whereupon he grows more
solemn than is his wont. By this means, however,
the author scores a tremendous advantage; for he
compels his reader to approach him with greater
solemnity than another and perhaps more heavily
equipped writer. This is unquestionably the best
way to become a classical author; hence Strauss
himself is able to tell us: "I even enjoy the un-
sought honour of being, in the opinion of many, a
classical writer of prose. " He has therefore achieved
his aim. Strauss the Genius goes gadding about
the streets in the garb of lightly equipped goddesses
as a classic, while Strauss the Philistine, to use an
original expression of this genius's, must, at all
costs, be "declared to be on the decline," or
"irrevocably dismissed. "
But, alas! in spite of all declarations of decline
and dismissal, the Philistine still returns, and all
too frequently. Those features, contorted to
resemble Lessing and Voltaire, must relax from
time to time to resume their old and original shape.
The mask of genius falls from them too often, and
the Master's expression is never more sour and his
movements never stiffer than when he has just
attempted to take the leap, or to glance with the
fiery eye, of a genius. Precisely owing to the fact
that he is too lightly equipped for our zone, he runs
the risk of catching cold more often and more
severely than another. It may seem a terrible
hardship to him that every one should notice this;
but if he wishes to be cured, the following diagnosis
of his case ought to be publicly presented to him :—
Once upon a time there lived a Strauss, a brave,


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DAVID STRAUSS. 83
severe, and stoutly equipped scholar, with whom
we sympathised as wholly as with all those in
Germany who seek to serve truth with earnestness
and energy, and to rule within the limits of their
powers. He, however, who is now publicly famous
as David Strauss, is another person. The theo-
logians may be to blame for this metamorphosis;
but, at any rate, his present toying with the mask
of genius inspires us with as much hatred and
scorn as his former earnestness commanded respect
and sympathy. When, for instance, he tells us,
"it would also argue ingratitude towards my genius
if I were not to rejoice that to the faculty of an
incisive, analytical criticism was added the innocent
pleasure in artistic production," it may astonish
him to hear that, in spite of this self-praise, there
are still men who maintain exactly the reverse, and
who say, not only that he has never possessed the
gift of artistic production, but that the "innocent"
pleasure he mentions is of all things the least
innocent, seeing that it succeeded in gradually
undermining and ultimately destroying a nature
as strongly and deeply scholarly and critical as
Strauss's—in fact, the real Straussian genius. In
a moment of unlimited frankness, Strauss himself
indeed adds: "Merck was always in my thoughts,
calling out, 'Don't produce such child's play
again; others can do that too! '" That was the
voice of the real Straussian genius, which also
asked him what the worth of his newest, innocent,
and lightly equipped modern Philistine's testament
was. Others can do that too! And many could
do it better. And even they who could have done


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84 THOUGHTS OUT OF SEASON.
it best, i. e. those thinkers who are more widely
endowed than Strauss, could still only have made
nonsense of it.
I take it that you are now beginning to under-
stand the value I set on Strauss the Writer. You
are beginning to realise that I regard him as a
mummer who would parade as an artless genius
and classical writer. When Lichtenberg said, "A
simple manner of writing is to be recommended,
if only in view of the fact that no honest man
trims and twists his expressions," he was very far
from wishing to imply that a simple style is a proof
of literary integrity. I, for my part, only wish that
Strauss the Writer had been more upright, for then
he would have written more becomingly and have
been less famous. Or, if he would be a mummer
at all costs, how much more would he not have
pleased me if he had been a better mummer—one
more able to ape the guileless genius and classical
author! For it yet remains to be said that Strauss
was not only an inferior actor but a very worthless
stylist as well.
XI.
Of course, the blame attaching to Strauss for
being a bad writer is greatly mitigated by the fact
that it is extremely difficult in Germany to become
even a passable or moderately good writer, and
that it is more the exception than not, to be a
really good one. In this respect the natural soil is
wanting, as are also artistic values and the proper
method of treating and cultivating oratory. This


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DAVID STRAUSS. 85
latter accomplishment, as the various branches of
it, i. e. drawing-room, ecclesiastical and Parlia-
mentary parlance, show, has not yet reached the
level of a national style; indeed, it has not yet
shown even a tendency to attain to a style at all,
and all forms of language in Germany do not yet
seem to have passed a certain experimental stage.
In view of these facts, the writer of to-day, to
some extent, lacks an authoritative standard, and
he is in some measure excused if, in the matter of
language, he attempts to go ahead of his own
accord. As to the probable result which the
present dilapidated condition of the German
language will bring about, Schopenhauer, perhaps,
has spoken most forcibly. "If the existing state of
affairs continues," he says, "in the year 1900
German classics will cease to be understood, for
the simple reason that no other language will be
known, save the trumpery jargon of the noble
present, the chief characteristic of which is im-
potence. " And, in truth, if one turn to the latest
periodicals, one will find German philologists and
grammarians already giving expression to the
view that our classics can no longer serve us as
examples of style, owing to the fact that they
constantly use words, modes of speech, and syntactic
arrangements which are fast dropping out of
currency. Hence the need of collecting specimens
of the finest prose that has been produced by our
best modern writers, and of offering them as
examples to be followed, after the style of Sander's
pocket dictionary of bad language. In this book,
that repulsive monster of style Gutzkow appears as


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86 (#184) #############################################

86 THOUGHTS OUT OF SEASON.
a classic, and, according to its injunctions, we seem
to be called upon to accustom ourselves to quite a
new and wondrous crowd of classical authors,
among which the first, or one of the first, is David
Strauss: he whom we cannot describe more aptly
than we have already—that is to say, as a worthless
stylist. Now, the notion which the Culture-
Philistine has of a classic and standard author
speaks eloquently for his pseudo-culture—he who
only shows his strength by opposing a really
artistic and severe style, and who, thanks to the
persistence of his opposition, finally arrives at
a certain uniformity of expression, which again
almost appears to possess unity of genuine style.
In view, therefore, of the right which is granted to
every one to experiment with the language, how is
it possible at all for individual authors to discover
a generally agreeable tone? What is so generally
interesting in them? In the first place, a negative
quality—the total lack of offensiveness: but
every really productive thing is offensive. The
greater part of a German's daily reading matter is
undoubtedly sought either in the pages of news-
papers, periodicals, or reviews. The language of
these journals gradually stamps itself on his brain,
by means of its steady drip, drip, drip of similar
phrases and similar words. And, since he generally
devotes to reading those hours of the day during
which his exhausted brain is in any case not
inclined to offer resistance, his ear for his native
tongue so slowly but surely accustoms itself to this
everyday German that it ultimately cannot endure
its absence without pain. But the manufacturers


## p. 87 (#185) #############################################

DAVID STRAUSS. 87
of these newspapers are, by virtue of their trade,
most thoroughly inured to the effluvia of this
journalistic jargon; they have literally lost all
taste, and their palate is rather gratified than not
by the most corrupt and arbitrary innovations.
Hence the tutti unisono with which, despite the
general lethargy and sickliness, every fresh
solecism is greeted; it is with such impudent
corruptions of the language that her hirelings are
avenged against her for the incredible boredom
she imposes ever more and more upon them. I
remember having read " an appeal to the German
nation," by Berthold Auerbach, in which every
sentence was un-German, distorted and false, and
which, as a whole, resembled a soulless mosaic of
words cemented together with international syntax.
As to the disgracefully slipshod German with
which Edward Devrient solemnised the death of
Mendelssohn, I do not even wish to do more than
refer to it. A grammatical error—and this is the
most extraordinary feature of the case—does not
therefore seem an offence in any sense to our
Philistine, but a most delightful restorative in the
barren wilderness of everyday German. He still,
however, considers all really productive things to
be offensive. The wholly bombastic, distorted,
and threadbare syntax of the modern standard
author—yea, even his ludicrous neologisms—are
not only tolerated, but placed to his credit as the
spicy element in his works. But woe to the stylist
with character, who seeks as earnestly and perse-
veringly to avoid the trite phrases of everyday
parlance, as the "yester-night monster blooms of


## p. 88 (#186) #############################################

88 THOUGHTS OUT OF SEASON.
modern ink - flingers," as Schopenhauer says!
When platitudes, hackneyed, feeble, and vulgar
phrases are the rule, and the bad and the corrupt
become refreshing exceptions, then all that is
strong, distinguished, and beautiful perforce acquires
an evil odour. From which it follows that, in
Germany, the well-known experience which befell
the normally built traveller in the land of hunch-
backs is constantly being repeated. It will be
remembered that he was so shamefully insulted
there, owing to his quaint figure and lack of dorsal
convexity, that a priest at last had to harangue the
people on his behalf as follows: "My brethren,
rather pity this poor stranger, and present thank-
offerings unto the gods, that ye are blessed with
such attractive gibbosities. "
If any one attempted to compose a positive
grammar out of the international German style of
to-day, and wished to trace the unwritten and
unspoken laws followed by every one, he would
get the most extraordinary notions of style
and rhetoric. He would meet with laws which
are probably nothing more than reminiscences
of bygone schooldays, vestiges of impositions
for Latin prose, and results perhaps of choice
readings from French novelists, over whose
incredible crudeness every decently educated
Frenchman would have the right to laugh. But
no conscientious native of Germany seems to have
given a thought to these extraordinary notions
under the yoke of which almost every German
lives and writes.
As an example of what I say, we may find an


## p. 89 (#187) #############################################

DAVID STRAUSS. 89
injunction to the effect that a metaphor or a simile
must be introduced from time to time, and that
it must be new; but, since to the mind of the
shallow-pated writer newness and modernity are
identical, he proceeds forthwith to rack his brain
for metaphors in the technical vocabularies of the
railway, the telegraph, the steamship, and the
Stock Exchange, and is proudly convinced that such
metaphors must be new because they are modern.
In Strauss's confession-book we find liberal tribute
paid to modern metaphor. He treats us to a simile,
covering a page and a half, drawn from modern
road-improvement work; a few pages farther back
he likens the world to a machine, with its wheels,
stampers, hammers, and "soothing oil" (p. 432);
"A repast that begins with champagne" (p. 384);
"Kant is a cold-water cure" (p. 309); "The
Swiss constitution is to that of England as a
watermill is to a steam-engine, as a waltz-tune
or a song to a fugue or symphony" (p. 301);
"In every appeal, the sequence of procedure must
be observed. Now the mean tribunal between the
individual and humanity is the nation" (p. 165)
"If we would know whether there be still any life
in an organism which appears dead to us, we are
wont to test it by a powerful, even painful stimulus,
as for example a stab" (p. 161) ; "The religious
domain in the human soul resembles the domain
of the Red Indian in America" (p. 160)
"Virtuosos in piety, in convents" (p. 107); "And
place the sum-total of the foregoing in round
numbers under the account" (p. 205); "Darwin's
theory resembles a railway track that is just


## p. 90 (#188) #############################################

OO THOUGHTS OUT OF SEASON.
marked out . . . where the flags are fluttering
joyfully in the breeze. " In this really highly
modern way, Strauss has met the Philistine
injunction to the effect that a new simile must be
introduced from time to time.
Another rhetorical rule is also very widespread,
namely, that didactic passages should be composed
in long periods, and should be drawn out into
lengthy abstractions, while all persuasive passages
should consist of short sentences followed by
striking contrasts. On page 154 in Strauss's book
we find a standard example of the didactic and
scholarly style—a passage blown out after the
genuine Schleiermacher manner, and made to
stumble along at a true tortoise pace: "The
reason why, in the earlier stages of religion, there
appear many instead of this single Whereon, a
plurality of gods instead of the one, is explained
in this deduction of religion, from the fact that the
various forces of nature, or relations of life, which
inspire man with the sentiment of unqualified
dependence, still act upon him in the commence-
ment with the full force of their distinctive
characteristics; that he has not as yet become
conscious how, in regard to his unmitigated
dependence upon them, there is no distinction
between them, and that therefore the Whereon
of this dependence, or the Being to which it
conducts in the last instance, can only be one. "
On pages 7 and 8 we find an example of the
other kind of style, that of the short sentences
containing that affected liveliness which so excited
certain readers that they cannot mention Strauss


## p. 91 (#189) #############################################

DAVID STRAUSS. 91
any more without coupling his name with Lessing's.
"I am well aware that what I propose to delineate
in the following pages is known to multitudes as
well as to myself, to some even much better.
A few have already spoken out on the subject
.
Am I therefore to keep silence? I think not.
For do we not all supply each other's deficiencies?
If another is better informed as regards some
things, I may perhaps be so as regards others; while
yet others are known and viewed by me in a dif-
ferent light. Out with it, then! let my colours be
displayed 'that it may be seen whether they are
genuine or not. '"
It is true that Strauss's style generally maintains
a happy medium between this sort of merry quick-
march and the other funereal and indolent pace;
but between two vices one does not invariably find
a virtue; more often rather only weakness, helpless
paralysis, and impotence. As a matter of fact, I
was very disappointed when I glanced through
Strauss's book in search of fine and witty passages;
for, not having found anything praiseworthy in the
Confessor, I had actually set out with the express
purpose of meeting here and there with at least
some opportunities of praising Strauss the Writer.
I sought and sought, but my purpose remained
unfulfilled. Meanwhile, however, another duty
seemed to press itself strongly on my mind—that
of enumerating the solecisms, the strained meta-
phors, the obscure abbreviations, the instances of
bad taste, and the distortions which I encountered;
and these were of such a nature that I dare do no
more than select a few examples of them from


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92 THOUGHTS OUT OF SEASON.
among a collection which is too bulky to be given
in full. By means of these examples I may
succeed in showing what it is that inspires, in
the hearts of modern Germans, such faith in
this great and seductive stylist Strauss: I refer
to his eccentricities of expression, which, in the
barren waste and dryness of his whole book,
jump out at one, not perhaps as pleasant but as
painfully stimulating, surprises. When perusing
such passages, we are at least assured, to use a
Straussian metaphor, that we are not quite dead,
but still respond to the test of a stab. For the
rest of the book is entirely lacking in offensiveness
—that quality which alone, as we have seen,
is productive, and which our classical author
has himself reckoned among the positive virtues.
When the educated masses meet with exaggerated
dulness and dryness, when they are in the pre-
sence of really vapid commonplaces, they now
seem to believe that such things are the signs
of health; and in this respect the words of the
author of the dialogus de oratoribus are very much
to the point: "Mam ipsam quam jactant sanitatem
non firmitate sed jejunio consequunlur. " That is
why they so unanimously hate every firmitas,
because it bears testimony to a kind of health
quite different from theirs; hence their one wish
to throw suspicion upon all austerity and terse-
ness, upon all fiery and energetic movement, and
upon every full and delicate play of muscles.
They have conspired to twist nature and the
names of things completely round, and for the
future to speak of health only there where we see


## p. 93 (#191) #############################################

DAVID STRAUSS. 93
weakness, and to speak of illness and excitability
where for our part we see genuine vigour. From
which it follows that David Strauss is to them a
classical author.
If only this dulness were of a severely logical
order! but simplicity and austerity in thought
are precisely what these weaklings have lost, and
in their hands even our language has become
illogically tangled. As a proof of this, let any
one try to translate Strauss's style into Latin:
in the case of Kant, be it remembered, this is
possible, while with Schopenhauer it even becomes
an agreeable exercise. The reason why this test
fails with Strauss's German is not owing to the
fact that it is more Teutonic than theirs, but
because his is distorted and illogical, whereas theirs
is lofty and simple. Moreover, he who knows how
the ancients exerted themselves in order to learn
to write and speak correctly, and how the moderns
omit to do so, must feel, as Schopenhauer says,
a positive relief when he can turn from a German
book like the one under our notice, to dive into
those other works, those ancient works which seem
to him still to be written in a new language. "For
in these books," says Schopenhauer, "I find a
regular and fixed language which, throughout,
faithfully follows the laws of grammar and ortho-
graphy, so that I can give up my thoughts com-
pletely to their matter; whereas in German I am
constantly being disturbed by the author's im-
pudence and his continual attempts to establish
his own orthographical freaks and absurd ideas—
the swaggering foolery of which disgusts me. It is


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94 THOUGHTS OUT OF SEASON.
really a painful sight to see a fine old language,
possessed of classical literature, being botched by
asses and ignoramuses! "
Thus Schopenhauer's holy anger cries out to
us, and you cannot say that you have not been
warned. He who turns a deaf ear to such warnings,
and who absolutely refuses to relinquish his faith
in Strauss the classical author, can only be given
this last word of advice—to imitate his hero. In
any case, try it at your own risk; but you will
repent it, not only in your style but in your head,
that it may be fulfilled which was spoken by the
Indian prophet, saying, "He who gnaweth a
cow's horn gnaweth in vain and shorteneth his
life; for he grindeth away his teeth, yet his belly
is empty. "
XII.
By way of concluding, we shall proceed to give
our classical prose-writer the promised examples of
his style which we have collected. Schopenhauer
would probably have classed the whole lot as " new
documents serving to swell the trumpery jargon of
the present day "; for David Strauss may be com-
forted to hear (if what follows can be regarded as
a comfort at all) that everybody now writes as he
does; some, of course, worse, and that among the
blind the one-eyed is king. Indeed, we allow
him too much when we grant him one eye; but
we do this willingly, because Strauss does not
write so badly as the most infamous of all cor-
rupters of German—the Hegelians and their


## p. 95 (#193) #############################################

DAVID STRAUSS. 95
crippled offspring. Strauss at least wishes to
extricate himself from the mire, and he is already
partly out of it; still, he is very far from being on
dry land, and he still shows signs of having stam-
mered Hegel's prose in youth. In those days,
possibly, something was sprained in him, some
muscle must have been overstrained. His ear,
perhaps, like that of a boy brought up amid the
beating of drums, grew dull, and became incapable
of detecting those artistically subtle and yet mighty
laws of sound, under the guidance of which every
writer is content to remain who has been strictly
trained in the study of good models. But in this
way, as a stylist, he has lost his most valuable
possessions, and stands condemned to remain re-
clining, his life long, on the dangerous and barren
shifting sand of newspaper style—that is, if he do
not wish to fall back into the Hegelian mire.
Nevertheless, he has succeeded in making himself
famous for a couple of hours in our time, and
perhaps in another couple of hours people will
remember that he was once famous; then, how-
ever, night will come, and with her oblivion; and
already at this moment, while we are entering his
sins against style in the black book, the sable
mantle of twilight is falling upon his fame. For
he who has sinned against the German language
has desecrated the mystery of all our Germanity.
Throughout all the confusion and the changes of
races and of customs, the German language alone,
as though possessed of some supernatural charm,
has saved herself; and with her own salvation she
has wrought that of the spirit of Germany. She


## p. 96 (#194) #############################################

96 THOUGHTS OUT OF SEASON.
alone holds the warrant for this spirit in future
ages, provided she be not destroyed at the sacri-
legious hands of the modern world. "But Di
meliora! Avaunt, ye pachyderms, avaunt! This
is the German language, by means of which men
express themselves, and in which great poets have
sung and great thinkers have written. Hands off! "*
******
To put it in plain words, what we have seen
have been feet of clay, and what appeared to be of
the colour of healthy flesh was only applied paint.
Of course, Culture-Philistinism in Germany will be
very angry when it hears its one living God referred
to as a series of painted idols. He, however, who
dares to overthrow its idols will not shrink, despite
all indignation, from telling it to its face that it has
forgotten how to distinguish between the quick and
the dead, the genuine and the counterfeit, the
original and the imitation, between a God and a
host of idols; that it has completely lost the
healthy and manly instinct for what is real and
right. It alone deserves to be destroyed; and
already the manifestations of its power are sink-
ing; already are its purple honours falling from it;
but when the purple falls, its royal wearer soon
follows.
* Translator's note. —Nietzsche here proceeds to quote
those passages he has culled from The Old and the New
Faith with which he undertakes to substantiate all he has
said relative to Strauss's style; as, however, these passages,
with his comments upon them, lose most of their point when
rendered into English, it was thought best to omit them
altogether.


## p. 97 (#195) #############################################

DAVID STRAUSS. 97
Here I come to the end of my confession of
faith. This is the confession of an individual;
and what can such an one do against a whole
world, even supposing his voice were heard every-
where! In order for the last time to use a precious
Straussism, his judgment only possesses "that
amount of subjective truth which is compatible with
a complete lack of objective demonstration "—is not
that so, my dear friends? Meanwhile, be of good
cheer. For the time being let the matter rest at
this " amount which is compatible with a complete
lack"! For the time being! That is to say, for
as long as that is held to be out of season which
in reality is always in season, and is now more than
ever pressing; I refer to . . . speaking the truth*
* Translator's note. — All quotations from The Old
Faith and the New which appear in the above translation
have either been taken bodily out of Mathilde Blind's trans-
lation (Asher and Co. , 1873), or are adaptations from that
translation.


## p. 98 (#196) #############################################



## p. 99 (#197) #############################################

RICHARD WAGNER IN
BAYREUTH.


## p. 100 (#198) ############################################



## p. 101 (#199) ############################################

RICHARD WAGNER IN
BAYREUTH.
i.
FOR an event to be great, two things must be
united—the lofty sentiment of those who accomplish
it, and the lofty sentiment of those who witness it.
No event is great in itself, even though it be the
disappearance of whole constellations, the destruc-
tion of several nations, the establishment of vast
empires, or the prosecution of wars at the cost
of enormous forces: over things of this sort the
breath of history blows as if they were flocks of
wool. But it often happens, too, that a man of
might strikes a blow which falls without effect
upon a stubborn stone; a short, sharp report is
heard, and all is over. History is able to record
little or nothing of such abortive efforts. Hence
the anxiety which every one must feel who,
observing the approach of an event, wonders
whether those about to witness it will be worthy
of it. This reciprocity between an act and its
reception is always taken into account when any-


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102 THOUGHTS OUT OF SEASON.
thing great or small is to be accomplished; and he
who would give anything away must see to it that
he find recipients who will do justice to the mean-
ing of his gift. This is why even the work of a
great man is not necessarily great when it is short,
abortive, or fruitless; for at the moment when he
performed it he must have failed to perceive that
it was really necessary; he must have been care-
less in his aim, and he cannot have chosen and
fixed upon the time with sufficient caution. Chance
thus became his master; for there is a very intimate
relation between greatness and the instinct which
discerns the proper moment at which to act.
We therefore leave it to those who doubt
Wagner's power of discerning the proper time for
action, to be concerned and anxious as to whether
what is now taking place in Bayreuth is really oppor-
tune and necessary. To us who are more confident
it is clear that he believes as strongly in the greatness
of his feat as in the greatness of feeling in those
who are to witness it. Be their number great or
small, therefore, all those who inspire this faith in
Wagner should feel extremely honoured; for that
it was not inspired by everybody, or by the whole
age, or even by the whole German people, as they
are now constituted, he himself told us in his
dedicatory address of the 22nd of May 1872, and not
one amongst us could, with any show of conviction,
assure him of the contrary. "I had only you to
turn to," he said, "when I sought those who I
thought would be in sympathy with my plans,—
you who are the most personal friends of my own
particular art, my work and activity: only you


## p. 103 (#201) ############################################

RICHARD WAGNER IN BAYREUTH. 103
could I invite to help me in my work, that it
might be presented pure and whole to those who
manifest a genuine interest in my art, despite the
fact that it has hitherto made its appeal to them
only in a disfigured and adulterated form. "
It is certain that in Bayreuth even the spectator
is a spectacle worth seeing. If the spirit of some
observant sage were to return, after the absence of
a century, and were to compare the most remark-
able movements in the present world of culture, he
would find much to interest him there. Like one
swimming in a lake, who encounters a current of
warm water issuing from a hot spring, in Bayreuth
he would certainly feel as though he had suddenly
plunged into a more temperate element, and would
tell himself that this must rise out of a distant and
deeper source: the surrounding mass of water,
which at all events is more common in origin, does
not account for it. In this way, all those who
assist at the Bayreuth festival will seem like men
out of season; their raison-d'etre and the forces
which would seem to account for them are else-
where, and their home is not in the present age.
I realise ever more clearly that the scholar, in
so far as he is entirely the man of his own day,
can only be accessible to all that Wagner does and
thinks by means of parody,—and since everything
is parodied nowadays, he will even get the event
of Bayreuth reproduced for him, through the very
un-magic lanterns of our facetious art-critics. And
one ought to be thankful if they stop at parody;
for by means of it a spirit of aloofness and
animosity finds a vent which might otherwise hit


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104 THOUGHTS OUT OF SEASON.
upon a less desirable mode of expression. Now,
the observant sage already mentioned could not
remain blind to this unusual sharpness and tension
of contrasts. They who hold by gradual develop-
ment as a kind of moral law must be somewhat
shocked at the sight of one who, in the course of
a single lifetime, succeeds in producing something
absolutely new. Being dawdlers themselves, and
insisting upon slowness as a principle, they are
very naturally vexed by one who strides rapidly
ahead, and they wonder how on earth he does it.
No omens, no periods of transition, and no con-
cessions preceded the enterprise at Bayreuth; no
one except Wagner knew either the goal or the
long road that was to lead to it. In the realm of
art it signifies, so to speak, the first circumnaviga-
tion of the world, and by this voyage not only was
there discovered an apparently new art, but Art
itself. In view of this, all modern arts, as arts of
luxury which have degenerated through having
been insulated, have become almost worthless.
And the same applies to the nebulous and incon-
sistent reminiscences of a genuine art, which we
as modern Europeans derive from the Greeks; let
them rest in peace, unless they are now able to
shine of their own accord in the light of a new
interpretation. The last hour has come for a good
many things; this new art is a clairvoyante that
sees ruin approaching—not for art alone. Her
warning voice must strike the whole of our prevail-
ing civilisation with terror the instant the laughter
which its parodies have provoked subsides. Let
it laugh and enjoy itself for yet a while longer!


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RICHARD WAGNER IN BAVREUTH. 105
And as for us, the disciples of this revived art,
we shall have time and inclination for thoughtful-
ness, deep thoughtfulness. All the talk and noise
about art which has been made by civilisation
hitherto must seem like shameless obtrusiveness;
everything makes silence a duty with us—the quin-
quennial silence of the Pythagoreans. Which of
us has not soiled his hands and heart in the disgust-
ing idolatry of modern culture? Which of us can
exist without the waters of purification? Who
does not hear the voice which cries, " Be silent and
cleansed "? Be silent and cleansed! Only the merit
of being included among those who give ear to this
voice will grant even us the lofty look necessary
to view the event at Bayreuth; and only upon this
look depends the great future of the event.
When on that dismal and cloudy day in May
1872, after the foundation stone had been laid on
the height of Bayreuth, amid torrents of rain, and
while Wagner was driving back to the town with
a small party of us, he was exceptionally silent,
and there was that indescribable look in his eyes
as of one who has turned his gaze deeply inwards.
The day happened to be the first of his sixtieth
year, and his whole past now appeared as but a long
preparation for this great moment. It is almost a
recognised fact that in times of exceptional danger,
or at all decisive and culminating points in their
lives, men see the remotest and most recent events
of their career with singular vividness, and in one
rapid inward glance obtain a sort of panorama of
a whole span of years in which every event is faith-
fully depicted. What, for instance, must Alexander


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106 THOUGHTS OUT OF SEASON.
the Great have seen in that instant when he caused
Asia and Europe to be drunk out of the same
goblet? But what went through Wagner's mind on
that day—how he became what he is, and what he
will be—we only can imagine who are nearest to
him, and can follow him, up to a certain point, in
his self-examination; but through his eyes alone
is it possible for us to understand his grand work,
and by the help of this understanding vouch for
its fruitfulness.
II.
It were strange if what a man did best and most
liked to do could not be traced in the general out-
line of his life, and in the case of those who are
remarkably endowed there is all the more reason
for supposing that their life will present not only
the counterpart of their character, as in the case of
every one else, but that it will present above all the
counterpart of their intellect and their most in-
dividual tastes. The life of the epic poet will have
a dash of the Epos in it—as from all accounts was
the case with Goethe, whom the Germans very
wrongly regarded only as a lyrist—and the life of
the dramatist will probably be dramatic.
The dramatic element in Wagner's development
cannot be ignored, from the time when his ruling
passion became self-conscious and took possession
of his whole being. From that time forward there
is an end to all groping, straying, and sprouting of
offshoots, and over his most tortuous deviations
and excursions, over the often eccentric disposition


## p. 107 (#205) ############################################

RICHARD WAGNER IN BAYREUTH. 107
of his plans, a single law and will are seen to rule,
in which we have the explanation of his actions,
however strange this explanation may sometimes
appear. There was, however, an ante-dramatic
period in Wagner's life—his childhood and youth—
which it is impossible to approach without discover-
ing innumerable problems. At this period there
seems to be no promise yet of himself, and what
one might now, in a retrospect, regard as a pledge
for his future greatness, amounts to no more than
a juxtaposition of traits which inspire more dismay
than hope; a restless and excitable spirit, nervously
eager to undertake a hundred things at the same
time, passionately fond of almost morbidly exalted
states of mind, and ready at any moment to veer
completely round from calm and profound medita-
tion to a state of violence and uproar. In his case
there were no hereditary or family influences at
work to constrain him to the sedulous study of one
particular art. Painting, versifying, acting, and
music were just as much within his reach as the
learning and the career of a scholar; and the super-
ficial inquirer into this stage of his life might even
conclude that he was born to be a dilettante. The
small world within the bounds of which he grew
up was not of the kind we should choose to be the
home of an artist. He ran the constant risk of
becoming infected by that dangerously dissipated
attitude of mind in which a person will taste of
everything, as also by that condition of slackness
resulting from the fragmentary knowledge of all
things, which is so characteristic of University
towns. His feelings were easily roused and but


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108 THOUGHTS OUT OF SEASON.
indifferently satisfied; wherever the boy turned,
he found himself surrounded by a wonderful and
would-be learned activity, to which the garish
theatres presented a ridiculous contrast, and the
entrancing strains of music a perplexing one.