The
Greeks went rapidly forward, but equally rapidly
downwards; the movement of the whole machine
is so intensified that a single stone thrown amid
its wheels was sufficient to break it.
Greeks went rapidly forward, but equally rapidly
downwards; the movement of the whole machine
is so intensified that a single stone thrown amid
its wheels was sufficient to break it.
Nietzsche - v06 - Human All-Too-Human - a
I cannot persuade myself that the
history of the Greeks followed that natural course
for which it is so celebrated. They were much too
variously gifted to be gradual in the orderly man-
ner of the tortoise when running a race with Achilles,
and that is called natural development. The
Greeks went rapidly forward, but equally rapidly
downwards; the movement of the whole machine
is so intensified that a single stone thrown amid
its wheels was sufficient to break it. Such a stone,
for instance, was Socrates; the hitherto so wonder-
fully regular, although certainly too rapid, develop-
ment of the philosophical science was destroyed in
one night. It is no idle question whether Plato,
had he remained free from the Socratic charm,
would not have discovered a still higher type of the
philosophic man, which type is for ever lost to us.
We look into the ages before him as into a sculptor's
workshop of such types. The fifth and sixth
centuries B. C. seemed to promise something more
vOl. 1. Q
## p. 241 (#338) ############################################
240 HUMAN, ALL-TOO-HUMAN.
themselves and their" truth," and with it they over-
threw all their neighbours and predecessors; each
one was a warlike, violent tyrant. The happiness in
believing themselves the possessors of truth was per-
haps never greater in the world, but neither were the
hardness, the arrogance, and the tyranny and evil
of such a belief. They were tyrants, they were
that, therefore, which every Greek wanted to be,
and which every one was if he was able. Perhaps
Solon alone is an exception; he tells in his poems
how he disdained personal tyranny. But he did
it for love of his works, of his law-giving; and
to be a law-giver is a sublimated form of tyranny.
Parmenides also made laws. Pythagoras and
Empedocles probably did the same; Anaximander
founded a city. Plato was the incarnate wish to
become the greatest philosophic law-giver and
founder of States; he appears to have suffered
terribly over the non-fulfilment of his nature, and
towards his end his soul was filled with the bitterest
gall. The more the Greek philosophers lost in
power the more they suffered inwardly from this
bitterness and malice; when the various sects fought
for their truths in the street, then first were the
souls of these wooers of truth completely clogged
through envy and spleen; the tyrannical element
then raged like poison within their bodies. These
many petty tyrants would have liked to devour
each other; there survived not a single spark of love
and very little joy in their own knowledge. The
saying that tyrants are generally murdered and that
their descendants are short-lived, is true also of the
tyrants of the mind. Their history is short and
## p. 241 (#339) ############################################
SIGNS OF HIGHER AND LOWER CULTURE. 241
violent, and their after-effects break off suddenly.
It may be said of almost all great Hellenes that
they appear to have come too late: it was thus
with jEschylus, with Pindar, with Demosthenes, with
Thucydides: one generation—and then it is passed
for ever. That is the stormy and dismal element
in Greek history. We now, it is true, admire the
gospel of the tortoises. To think historically is
almost the same thing now as if in all ages history
had been made according to the theory "The
smallest possible amount in the longest possible
time! " Oh! how quickly Greek history runs on!
Since then life has never been so extravagant—so
unbounded. I cannot persuade myself that the
history of the Greeks followed that natural course
for which it is so celebrated. They were much too
variously gifted to be gradual in the orderly man-
ner of the tortoise when running a race with Achilles,
and that is called natural development. The
Greeks went rapidly forward, but equally rapidly
downwards; the movement of the whole machine
is so intensified that a single stone thrown amid
its wheels was sufficient to break it. Such a stone,
for instance, was Socrates; the hitherto so wonder-
fully regular, although certainly too rapid, develop-
ment of the philosophical science was destroyed in
one night. It is no idle question whether Plato,
had he remained free from the Socratic charm,
would not have discovered a still higher type of the
philosophic man, which type is for ever lost to us.
We look into the ages before him as into a sculptor's
workshop of such types. The fifth and sixth
centuries B. C. seemed to promise something more
vol. 1. Q
## p. 241 (#340) ############################################
240 HUMAN, ALL-TOO-HUMAN.
themselves and their" truth," and with it they over-
threw all their neighbours and predecessors; each
one was a warlike, violent tyrant. The happiness in
believing themselves the possessors of truth was per-
haps never greater in the world, but neither were the
hardness, the arrogance, and the tyranny and evil
of such a belief. They were tyrants, they were
that, therefore, which every Greek wanted to be,
and which every one was if he was able. Perhaps
Solon alone is an exception; he tells in his poems
how he disdained personal tyranny. But he did
it for love of his works, of his law-giving; and
to be a law-giver is a sublimated form of tyranny.
Parmenides also made laws. Pythagoras and
Empedocles probably did the same; Anaximander
founded a city. Plato was the incarnate wish to
become the greatest philosophic law-giver and
founder of States; he appears to have suffered
terribly over the non-fulfilment of his nature, and
towards his end his soul was filled with the bitterest
gall. The more the Greek philosophers lost in
power the more they suffered inwardly from this
bitterness and malice; when the various sects fought
for their truths in the street, then first were the
souls of these wooers of truth completely clogged
through envy and spleen; the tyrannical element
then raged like poison within their bodies. These
many petty tyrants would have liked to devour
each other; there survived not a single spark of love
and very little joy in their own knowledge. The
saying that tyrants are generally murdered and that
their descendants are short-lived, is true also of the
tyrants of the mind. Their history is short and
## p. 241 (#341) ############################################
SIGNS OF HIGHER AND LOWER CULTURE. 24I
violent, and their after-effects break off suddenly.
It may be said of almost all great Hellenes that
they appear to have come too late: it was thus
with ^Eschylus, with Pindar, with Demosthenes, with
Thucydides: one generation—and then it is passed
for ever. That is the stormy and dismal element
in Greek history. We now, it is true, admire the
gospel of the tortoises. To think historically is
almost the same thing now as if in all ages history
had been made according to the theory "The
smallest possible amount in the longest possible
time! " Oh! how quickly Greek history runs on!
Since then life has never been so extravagant—so
unbounded. I cannot persuade myself that the
history of the Greeks followed that natural course
for which it is so celebrated. They were much too
variously gifted to be gradual in the orderly man-
ner of the tortoise when running a race with Achilles,
and that is called natural development. The
Greeks went rapidly forward, but equally rapidly
downwards; the movement of the whole machine
is so intensified that a single stone thrown amid
its wheels was sufficient to break it. Such a stone,
for instance, was Socrates; the hitherto so wonder-
fully regular, although certainly too rapid, develop-
ment of the philosophical science was destroyed in
one night. It is no idle question whether Plato,
had he remained free from the Socratic charm,
would not have discovered a still higher type of the
philosophic man, which type is for ever lost to us.
We look into the ages before him as into a sculptor's
workshop of such types. The fifth and sixth
centuries B. C. seemed to promise something more
vol. 1. Q
## p. 241 (#342) ############################################
240 HUMAN, ALL-TOO-HUMAN.
themselves and their " truth," and with it they over-
threw all their neighbours and predecessors; each
one was a warlike, violent tyrant. The happiness in
believing themselves the possessors of truth was per-
haps never greater in the world, but neither were the
hardness, the arrogance, and the tyranny and evil
of such a belief. They were tyrants, they were
that, therefore, which every Greek wanted to be,
and which every one was if he was able. Perhaps
Solon alone is an exception; he tells in his poems
how he disdained personal tyranny. But he did
it for love of his works, of his law-giving; and
to be a law-giver is a sublimated form of tyranny.
Parmenides also made laws. Pythagoras and
Empedocles probably did the same; Anaximander
founded a city. Plato was the incarnate wish to
become the greatest philosophic law-giver and
founder of States; he appears to have suffered
terribly over the non-fulfilment of his nature, and
towards his end his soul was filled with the bitterest
gall. The more the Greek philosophers lost in
power the more they suffered inwardly from this
bitterness and malice; when the various sects fought
for their truths in the street, then first were the
souls of these wooers of truth completely clogged
through envy and spleen; the tyrannical element
then raged like poison within their bodies. These
many petty tyrants would have liked to devour
each other; there survived not a single spark of love
and very little joy in their own knowledge. The
saying that tyrants are generally murdered and that
their descendants are short-lived, is true also of the
tyrants of the mind. Their history is short and
## p. 241 (#343) ############################################
SIGNS OF HIGHER AND LOWER CULTURE. 241
violent, and their after-effects break off suddenly.
It may be said of almost all great Hellenes that
they appear to have come too late: it was thus
with ^Eschylus, with Pindar, with Demosthenes, with
Thucydides: one generation—and then it is passed
for ever. That is the stormy and dismal element
in Greek history. We now, it is true, admire the
gospel of the tortoises. To think historically is
almost the same thing now as if in all ages history
had been made according to the theory "The
smallest possible amount in the longest possible
time! " Oh! how quickly Greek history runs on!
Since then life has never been so extravagant—so
unbounded. I cannot persuade myself that the
history of the Greeks followed that natural course
for which it is so celebrated. They were much too
variously gifted to be gradual in the orderly man-
ner of the tortoise when running a race with Achilles,
and that is called natural development. The
Greeks went rapidly forward, but equally rapidly
downwards; the movement of the whole machine
is so intensified that a single stone thrown amid
its wheels was sufficient to break it. Such a stone,
for instance, was Socrates; the hitherto so wonder-
fully regular, although certainly too rapid, develop-
ment of the philosophical science was destroyed in
one night. It is no idle question whether Plato,
had he remained free from the Socratic charm,
would not have discovered a still higher type of the
philosophic man, which type is for ever lost to us.
We look into the ages before him as into a sculptor's
workshop of such types. The fifth and sixth
centuries B. C. seemed to promise something more
vOl. 1. Q
## p. 241 (#344) ############################################
240 HUMAN, ALL-TOO-HUMAN.
themselves and their " truth," and with it they over-
threw all their neighbours and predecessors; each
one was a warlike, violent tyrant. The happiness in
believing themselves the possessors of truth was per-
haps never greater in the world, but neither were the
hardness, the arrogance, and the tyranny and evil
of such a belief. They were tyrants, they were
that, therefore, which every Greek wanted to be,
and which every one was if he was able. Perhaps
Solon alone is an exception; he tells in his poems
how he disdained personal tyranny. But he did
it for love of his works, of his law-giving; and
to be a law-giver is a sublimated form of tyranny.
Parmenides also made laws. Pythagoras and
Empedocles probably did the same; Anaximander
founded a city. Plato was the incarnate wish to
become the greatest philosophic law-giver and
founder of States; he appears to have suffered
terribly over the non-fulfilment of his nature, and
towards his end his soul was filled with the bitterest
gall. The more the Greek philosophers lost in
power the more they suffered inwardly from this
bitterness and malice; when the various sects fought
for their truths in the street, then first were the
souls of these wooers of truth completely clogged
through envy and spleen; the tyrannical element
then raged like poison within their bodies. These
many petty tyrants would have liked to devour
each other; there survived not a single spark of love
and very little joy in their own knowledge. The
saying that tyrants are generally murdered and that
their descendants are short-lived, is true also of the
tyrants of the mind. Their history is short and
## p. 241 (#345) ############################################
SIGNS OF HIGHER AND LOWER CULTURE. 24I
violent, and their after-effects break off suddenly.
It may be said of almost all great Hellenes that
they appear to have come too late: it was thus
with ^Eschylus, with Pindar, with Demosthenes, with
Thucydides: one generation—and then it is passed
for ever. That is the stormy and dismal element
in Greek history. We now, it is true, admire the
gospel of the tortoises. To think historically is
almost the same thing now as if in all ages history
had been made according to the theory "The
smallest possible amount in the longest possible
time! " Oh! how quickly Greek history runs on!
Since then life has never been so extravagant—so
unbounded. I cannot persuade myself that the
history of the Greeks followed that natural course
for which it is so celebrated. They were much too
variously gifted to be gradual in the orderly man-
ner of the tortoise when running a race with Achilles,
and that is called natural development. The
Greeks went rapidly forward, but equally rapidly
downwards; the movement of the whole machine
is so intensified that a single stone thrown amid
its wheels was sufficient to break it. Such a stone,
for instance, was Socrates; the hitherto so wonder-
fully regular, although certainly too rapid, develop-
ment of the philosophical science was destroyed in
one night. It is no idle question whether Plato,
had he remained free from the Socratic charm,
would not have discovered a still higher type of the
philosophic man, which type is for ever lost to us.
We look into the ages before him as into a sculptor's
workshop of such types. The fifth and sixth
centuries B. C. seemed to promise something more
vOl. 1. Q
## p. 241 (#346) ############################################
240 HUMAN, ALL-TOO-HUMAN.
themselves and their" truth," and with it they over-
threw all their neighbours and predecessors; each
one was a warlike, violent tyrant. The happiness in
believing themselves the possessors of truth was per-
haps never greater in the world, but neither were the
hardness, the arrogance, and the tyranny and evil
of such a belief. They were tyrants, they were
that, therefore, which every Greek wanted to be,
and which every one was if he was able. Perhaps
Solon alone is an exception; he tells in his poems
how he disdained personal tyranny. But he did
it for love of his works, of his law-giving; and
to be a law-giver is a sublimated form of tyranny.
Parmenides also made laws. Pythagoras and
Empedocles probably did the same; Anaximander
founded a city. Plato was the incarnate wish to
become the greatest philosophic law-giver and
founder of States; he appears to have suffered
terribly over the non-fulfilment of his nature, and
towards his end his soul was filled with the bitterest
gall. The more the Greek philosophers lost in
power the more they suffered inwardly from this
bitterness and malice; when the various sects fought
for their truths in the street, then first were the
souls of these wooers of truth completely clogged
through envy and spleen; the tyrannical element
then raged like poison within their bodies. These
many petty tyrants would have liked to devour
each other; there survived not a single spark of love
and very little joy in their own knowledge. The
saying that tyrants are generally murdered and that
their descendants are short-lived, is true also of the
tyrants of the mind. Their history is short and
## p. 241 (#347) ############################################
SIGNS OF HIGHER AND LOWER CULTURE. 241
violent, and their after-effects break off suddenly.
It may be said of almost all great Hellenes that
they appear to have come too late: it was thus
with ^schylus, with Pindar, with Demosthenes, with
Thucydides: one generation—and then it is passed
for ever. That is the stormy and dismal element
in Greek history. We now, it is true, admire the
gospel of the tortoises. To think historically is
almost the same thing now as if in all ages history
had been made according to the theory "The
smallest possible amount in the longest possible
time! " Oh! how quickly Greek history runs on!
Since then life has never been so extravagant—so
unbounded. I cannot persuade myself that the
history of the Greeks followed that natural course
for which it is so celebrated. They were much too
variously gifted to be gradual in the orderly man-
ner of the tortoise when running a race with Achilles,
and that is called natural development. The
Greeks went rapidly forward, but equally rapidly
downwards; the movement of the whole machine
is so intensified that a single stone thrown amid
its wheels was sufficient to break it. Such a stone,
for instance, was Socrates; the hitherto so wonder-
fully regular, although certainly too rapid, develop-
ment of the philosophical science was destroyed in
one night. It is no idle question whether Plato,
had he remained free from the Socratic charm,
would not have discovered a still higher type of the
philosophic man, which type is for ever lost to us.
We look into the ages before him as into a sculptor's
workshop of such types. The fifth and sixth
centuries B. C. seemed to promise something more
vol. 1. Q
## p. 241 (#348) ############################################
240 HUMAN, ALL-TOO-HUMAN.
themselves and their" truth," and with it they over-
threw all their neighbours and predecessors; each
one was a warlike, violent tyrant. The happiness in
believing themselves the possessors of truth was per-
haps never greater in the world, but neither were the
hardness, the arrogance, and the tyranny and evil
of such a belief. They were tyrants, they were
that, therefore, which every Greek wanted to be,
and which every one was if he was able. Perhaps
Solon alone is an exception; he tells in his poems
how he disdained personal tyranny. But he did
it for love of his works, of his law-giving; and
to be a law-giver is a sublimated form of tyranny.
Parmenides also made laws. Pythagoras and
Empedocles probably did the same; Anaximander
founded a city. Plato was the incarnate wish to
become the greatest philosophic law-giver and
founder of States; he appears to have suffered
terribly over the non-fulfilment of his nature, and
towards his end his soul was filled with the bitterest
gall. The more the Greek philosophers lost in
power the more they suffered inwardly from this
bitterness and malice; when the various sects fought
for their truths in the street, then first were the
souls of these wooers of truth completely clogged
through envy and spleen; the tyrannical element
then raged like poison within their bodies. These
many petty tyrants would have liked to devour
each other; there survived not a single spark of love
and very little joy in their own knowledge. The
saying that tyrants are generally murdered and that
their descendants are short-lived, is true also of the
tyrants of the mind. Their history is short and
## p. 241 (#349) ############################################
SIGNS OF HIGHER AND LOWER CULTURE. 24I
violent, and their after-effects break off suddenly.
It may be said of almost all great Hellenes that
they appear to have come too late: it was thus
with ^Eschylus, with Pindar, with Demosthenes, with
Thucydides: one generation—and then it is passed
for ever. That is the stormy and dismal element
in Greek history. We now, it is true, admire the
gospel of the tortoises. To think historically is
almost the same thing now as if in all ages history
had been made according to the theory "The
smallest possible amount in the longest possible
time! " Oh! how quickly Greek history runs on!
Since then life has never been so extravagant—so
unbounded. I cannot persuade myself that the
history of the Greeks followed that natural course
for which it is so celebrated. They were much too
variously gifted to be gradual in the orderly man-
ner of the tortoise when running a race with Achilles,
and that is called natural development.
The
Greeks went rapidly forward, but equally rapidly
downwards; the movement of the whole machine
is so intensified that a single stone thrown amid
its wheels was sufficient to break it. Such a stone,
for instance, was Socrates; the hitherto so wonder-
fully regular, although certainly too rapid, develop-
ment of the philosophical science was destroyed in
one night. It is no idle question whether Plato,
had he remained free from the Socratic charm,
would not have discovered a still higher type of the
philosophic man, which type is for ever lost to us.
We look into the ages before him as into a sculptor's
workshop of such types. The fifth and sixth
centuries B. C. seemed to promise something more
vol. 1. Q
## p. 241 (#350) ############################################
240 HUMAN, ALL-TOO-HUMAN.
themselves and their " truth," and with it they over-
threw all their neighbours and predecessors; each
one was a warlike, violent tyrant. The happiness in
believing themselves the possessors of truth was per-
haps never greater in the world, but neither were the
hardness, the arrogance, and the tyranny and evil
of such a belief. They were tyrants, they were
that, therefore, which every Greek wanted to be,
and which every one was if he was able. Perhaps
Solon alone is an exception; he tells in his poems
how he disdained personal tyranny. But he did
it for love of his works, of his law-giving; and
to be a law-giver is a sublimated form of tyranny.
Parmenides also made laws. Pythagoras and
Empedocles probably did the same; Anaximander
founded a city. Plato was the incarnate wish to
become the greatest philosophic law-giver and
founder of States; he appears to have suffered
terribly over the non-fulfilment of his nature, and
towards his end his soul was filled with the bitterest
gall. The more the Greek philosophers lost in
power the more they suffered inwardly from this
bitterness and malice; when the various sects fought
for their truths in the street, then first were the
souls of these wooers of truth completely clogged
through envy and spleen; the tyrannical element
then raged like poison within their bodies. These
many petty tyrants would have liked to devour
each other; there survived not a single spark of love
and very little joy in their own knowledge. The
saying that tyrants are generally murdered and that
their descendants are short-lived, is true also of the
tyrants of the mind. Their history is short and
## p. 241 (#351) ############################################
SIGNS OF HIGHER AND LOWER CULTURE. 24I
violent, and their after-effects break off suddenly.
It may be said of almost all great Hellenes that
they appear to have come too late: it was thus
with ^ischylus, with Pindar, with Demosthenes, with
Thucydides: one generation—and then it is passed
for ever. That is the stormy and dismal element
in Greek history. We now, it is true, admire the
gospel of the tortoises. To think historically is
almost the same thing now as if in all ages history
had been made according to the theory "The
smallest possible amount in the longest possible
time! " Oh! how quickly Greek history runs on!
Since then life has never been so extravagant—. so
unbounded. I cannot persuade myself that the
history of the Greeks followed that natural course
for which it is so celebrated. They were much too
variously gifted to be. gradual in the orderly man-
ner of the tortoise when running a race with Achilles,
and that is called natural development. The
Greeks went rapidly forward, but equally rapidly
downwards; the movement of the whole machine
is so intensified that a single stone thrown amid
its wheels was sufficient to break it. Such a stone,
for instance, was Socrates; the hitherto so wonder-
fully regular, although certainly too rapid, develop-
ment of the philosophical science was destroyed in
one night. It is no idle question whether Plato,
had he remained free from the Socratic charm,
would not have discovered a still higher type of the
philosophic man, which type is for ever lost to us.
We look into the ages before him as into a sculptor's
workshop of such types. The fifth and sixth
centuries B. C. seemed to promise something more
vOl. 1. Q
## p. 242 (#352) ############################################
242 HUMAN, ALL-TOO-HUMAN.
and higher even than they produced ; they s
short at promising and announcing. Ai
there is hardly a greater loss than the loss of i
of a new, hitherto undiscovered highest /V. o
of the philosophic life. Even of the older tyr.
greater number are badly transmitted; it sect
me that all philosophers, from Thales to Dcmoci
are remarkably difficult to recognise, but who
succeeds in imitating these figures walks amoi
specimens of the mightiest and purest type. 1
ability is certainly rare, it was even absent
those later Greeks, who occupied themselves w ,
the knowledge of the older philosophy; Aristot:
especially, hardly seems to have had eyes in h a
head when he stands before these great ones. An i
thus it appears as if these splendid philosophers
had lived in vain, or as if they had only been in-
tended to prepare the quarrelsome and talkative
followers of the Socratic schools. As I have
said, here is a gap, a break in development; some
great misfortune must have happened, and the only
statue which might have revealed the meaning and
purpose of that great artistic training was either
broken or unsuccessful; what actually happened
has remained for ever a secret of the workshop.
That which happened amongst the Greeks—
namely, that every great thinker who believed him-
self to be in possession of the absolute truth
became a tyrant, so that even the mental history of
the Greeks acquired that violent, hasty and danger-
ous character shown by their political history,—this
type of event was not therewith exhausted, much
that is similar has happened even in more modern
## p. 243 (#353) ############################################
HIGHER AND LOWER CULTURE. 243
<ugh gradually becoming rarer and now
1 showing the pure, naive conscience of
_ philosophers. For on the whole, oppo-
^" ;£Qnnar 'Ctrines and scepticism now speak too
ttit -at ly, too loudly. The period of mental
ilC -tt>5 is past. It is true that in the spheres of
^^7^7" culture there must always be a supremacy,
"7Ttt it iceforth this supremacy lies in the hands of
*os-: garchs of the mind. In spite of local and
^ccniE. - -al separation they form a cohesive society,
^mjc- » members recognise and acknowledge each
cnzci's: :, whatever public opinion and the verdicts of
Ta- jw and newspaper writers who influence the
ar: ~- ses may circulate in favour of or against them.
trit ntal superiority, which formerly divided and
-\v. 2i bittered, nowadays generally unites; how could
- in? e separate individuals assert themselves and swim
-;o: trough life on their own course, against all currents,
»> r they did not see others like them living here and
;. . - . here under similar conditions, and grasped their
b hands,in the struggle as much against the ochlocratic
character of the half mind and half culture as
against the occasional attempts to establish a
tyranny with the help of the masses? Oligarchs
are necessary to each other, they are each other's
best joy, they understand their signs, but each is
nevertheless free, he fights and conquers in his
place and perishes rather than submit.
262.
Homer. —The greatest fact in Greek culture
remains this, that Homer became so early Pan-
## p. 243 (#354) ############################################
242
HUMAN, ALL-TOO-HUMAN.
and higher even than they produced ; they stopped
short at promising and announcing. And yet
there is hardly a greater loss than the loss of a type,
of a new, hitherto undiscovered highest possibility
of the philosophic life. Even of the older type the
greater number are badly transmitted; it seems to
me that all philosophers, from Thales to Democritus,
are remarkably difficult to recognise, but whoever
succeeds in imitating these figures walks amongst
specimens of the mightiest and purest type. This
ability is certainly rare, it was even absent in
those later Greeks, who occupied themselves with
the knowledge of the older philosophy; Aristotle,
especially, hardly seems to have had eyes in his
head when he stands before these great ones. And
thus it appears as if these splendid philosophers
had lived in vain, or as if they had only been in-
tended to prepare the quarrelsome and talkative
followers of the Socratic schools. As I have
said, here is a gap, a break in development; some
great misfortune must have happened, and the only
statue which might have revealed the meaning and
purpose of that great artistic training was either
broken or unsuccessful; what actually happened
has remained for ever a secret of the workshop.
That which happened amongst the Greeks—
namely, that every great thinker who believed him-
self to be in possession of the absolute truth
became a tyrant, so that even the mental history of
the Greeks acquired that violent, hasty and danger-
ous character shown by their political history,—this
type of event was not therewith exhausted, much
that is similar has happened even in more modern
>
i
I
over-
each
fcssin
JPer-
-ethe
I evil
Were
> be,
haps
>ems
did
and
any.
and
ider
i to
and
red
ind
•est
in
his
rht
ed
nt
se
ur
le
it
e
a
## p. 243 (#355) ############################################
SIGNS OF HIGHER AND LOWER CULTURE. 243
>
times, although gradually becoming rarer and now
but seldom showing the pure, naive conscience of
the Greek philosophers. For on the whole, oppo-
sition doctrines and scepticism now speak too
powerfully, too loudly. The period of mental
tyranny is past. It is true that in the spheres of
higher culture there must always be a supremacy,
but henceforth this supremacy lies in the hands of
the oligarchs of the mind. In spite of local and
political separation they form a cohesive society,
whose members recognise and acknowledge each
other, whatever public opinion and the verdicts of
review and newspaper writers who influence the
masses may circulate in favour of or against them.
Mental superiority, which formerly divided and
embittered, nowadays generally unites; how could
the separate individuals assert themselves and swim
through life on their own course, against all currents,
if they did not see others like them living here and
there under similar conditions, and grasped their
hands. in thestruggle as much against the ochlocratic
character of the half mind and half culture as
against the occasional attempts to establish a
tyranny with the help of the masses? Oligarchs
are necessary to each other, they are each other's
best joy, they understand their signs, but each is
nevertheless free, he fights and conquers in his
place and perishes rather than submit.
262.
Homer. —The greatest fact in Greek culture
remains this, that Homer became so early Pan-
## p. 244 (#356) ############################################
244
HUMAN, ALL-TOO-HUMAN.
Hellenic. All mental and human freedom to
which the Greeks attained is traceable to this
fact. At the same time it has actually been fatal
to Greek culture, for Homer levelled, inasmuch as
he centralised, and dissolved the more serious
instincts of independence. From time to time
there arose from the depths of Hellenism an
opposition to Homer; but he always remained
victorious. All great mental powers have an
oppressing effect as well as a liberating one; but
it certainly makes a difference whether it is Homer
or the Bible or Science that tyrannises over
mankind.
263.
Talents. — In such a highly developed
humanity as the present, each individual naturally
has access to many talents. Each has an inborn
talent, but only in a few is that degree of tough-
ness, endurance, and energy born and trained that
he really becomes a talent, becomes what he is,—
that is, that he discharges it in works and actions.
264.
The Witty Person either Overvalued
or Undervalued. —Unscientific but talented
people value every mark of intelligence, whether
it be on a true or a false track; above all, they
want the person with whom they have inter-
course to entertain them with his wit, to spur
them on, to inflame them, to carry them away in
seriousness and play, and in any case to be a
## p. 245 (#357) ############################################
SIGNS OF HIGHER AND LOWER CULTURE. 245
powerful amulet to protect them against boredom.
Scientific natures, on the other hand, know that
the gift of possessing all manner of notions should
be strictly controlled by the scientific spirit: it is
not that which shines, deludes and excites, but
the often insignificant truth that is the fruit which
he knows how to shake down from the tree of
knowledge. Like Aristotle, he is not permitted
to make any distinction between the " bores" and
the " wits," his dcemon leads him through the desert
as well as through tropical vegetation, in order
that he may only take pleasure in the really
actual, tangible, true. In insignificant scholars
this produces a general disdain and suspicion of
cleverness, and, on the other hand, clever people
frequently have an aversion to science, as have,
for instance, almost all artists.
265.
SENSE in SCHOOL. —School has no task more
important than to teach strict thought, cautious
judgment, and logical conclusions, hence it must
pay no attention to what hinders these operations,
such as religion, for instance. It can count on the
fact that human vagueness, custom, and need will
later on unstring the bow of all-too-severe thought.
But so long as its influence lasts it should enforce
that which is the essential and distinguishing point
in man: "Sense and Science, the very highest
power of man "—as Goethe judges. The great
natural philosopher, Von Baer, thinks that the
superiority of all Europeans, when compared to
## p. 246 (#358) ############################################
246 HUMAN, ALL-TOO-HUMAN.
Asiatics, lies in the trained capability of giving
reasons for that which they believe, of which the
latter are utterly incapable. Europe went to the
school of logical and critical thought, Asia still
fails to know how to distinguish between truth and
fiction, and is not conscious whether its convictions
spring from individual observation and systematic
thought or from imagination. Sense in the school
has made Europe what it is; in the Middle Ages
it was on the road to become once more a part
and dependent of Asia,—forfeiting, therefore, the
scientific mind which it owed to the Greeks.
266.
The Undervalued Effect of Public-
School Teaching. —The value of a public
school is seldom sought in those things which are
really learnt there and are carried away never to
be lost, but in those things which are learnt and
which the pupil only acquires against his will, in
order to get rid of them again as soon as possible.
Every educated person acknowledges that the
reading of the classics, as now practised, is a
monstrous proceeding carried on before young
people are ripe enough for it by teachers who
with every word, often by their appearance alone,
throw a mildew on a good author. But therein
lies the value, generally unrecognised, of these
teachers who speak the abstract language of the
higher culture, which, though dry and difficult to
understand, is yet a sort of higher gymnastics of the
brain; and there is value in the constant recurrence
## p. 247 (#359) ############################################
SIGNS OF HIGHER AND LOWER CULTURE. 247
in their language of ideas, artistic expressions,
methods and allusions which the young people
hardly ever hear in the conversations of their
relatives and in the street. Even if the pupils
only hear, their intellect is involuntarily trained
to a scientific mode of regarding things. It is
not possible to emerge from this discipline entirely
untouched by its abstract character, and to remain
a simple child of nature.
267.
Learning many Languages. —The learning
of many languages fills the memory with words
instead of with facts and thoughts, and this is a
vessel which, with every person, can only contain
a certain limited amount of contents. Therefore
the learning of many languages is injurious, inas-
much as it arouses a belief in possessing dexterity
and, as a matter of fact, it lends a kind of delusive
importance to social intercourse. It is also indirectly
injurious in that it opposes the acquirement of
solid knowledge and the intention to win the
respect of men in an honest way. Finally, it is
the axe which is laid to the root of a delicate
sense of language in our mother-tongue, which
thereby is incurably injured and destroyed. The
two nations which produced the greatest stylists,
the Greeks and the French, learned no foreign
languages. But as human intercourse must always
grow more cosmopolitan, and as, for instance, a
good merchant in London must now be able to
read and write eight languages, the learning of
## p. 247 (#360) ############################################
246 HUMAN, ALL-TOO-HUMAN.
Asiatics, lies in the trained capability of giving
reasons for that which they believe, of which the
latter are utterly incapable. Europe went to the
school of logical and critical thought, Asia still
fails to know how to distinguish between truth and
fiction, and is not conscious whether its convictions
spring from individual observation and systematic
thought or from imagination. Sense in the school
has made Europe what it is; in the Middle Ages
it was on the road to become once more a part
and dependent of Asia,—forfeiting, therefore, the
scientific mind which it owed to the Greeks.
266.
The Undervalued Effect of Public-
School Teaching. —The value of a public
school is seldom sought in those things which are
really learnt there and are carried away never to
be lost, but in those things which are learnt and
which the pupil only acquires against his will, in
order to get rid of them again as soon as possible.
Every educated person acknowledges that the
reading of the classics, as now practised, is a
monstrous proceeding carried on before young
people are ripe enough for it by teachers who
with every word, often by their appearance alone,
throw a mildew on a good author. But therein
lies the value, generally unrecognised, of these
teachers who speak the abstract language of the
higher culture, which, though dry and difficult to
understand, is yet a sort of higher gymnastics of the
brain; and there is value in the constant recurrence
-^
## p. 247 (#361) ############################################
SIGNS OF HIGHER AND LOWER CULTURE. 247
in their language of ideas, artistic expressions,
methods and allusions which the young people
hardly ever hear in the conversations of their
relatives and in the street. Even if the pupils
only hear, their intellect is involuntarily trained
to a scientific mode of regarding things. It is
not possible to emerge from this discipline entirely
untouched by its abstract character, and to remain
a simple child of nature.
267.
Learning many Languages. —The learning
of many languages fills the memory with words
instead of with facts and thoughts, and this is a
vessel which, with every person, can only contain
a certain limited amount of contents. Therefore
the learning of many languages is injurious, inas-
much as it arouses a belief in possessing dexterity
and, as a matter of fact, it lends a kind of delusive
importance to social intercourse. It is also indirectly
injurious in that it opposes the acquirement of
solid knowledge and the intention to win the
respect of men in an honest way. Finally, it is
the axe which is laid to the root of a delicate
sense of language in our mother-tongue, which
thereby is incurably injured and destroyed. The
two nations which produced the greatest stylists,
the Greeks and the French, learned no foreign
languages. But as human intercourse must always
grow more cosmopolitan, and as, for instance, a
good merchant in London must now be able to
read and write eight languages, the learning of
## p. 247 (#362) ############################################
246 HUMAN, ALL-TOO-HUMAN.
Asiatics, lies in the trained capability of giving
reasons for that which they believe, of which the
latter are utterly incapable. Europe went to the
school of logical and critical thought, Asia still
fails to know how to distinguish between truth and
fiction, and is not conscious whether its convictions
spring from individual observation and systematic
thought or from imagination. Sense in the school
has made Europe what it is; in the Middle Ages
it was on the road to become once more a part
and dependent of Asia,—forfeiting, therefore, the
scientific mind which it owed to the Greeks.
266.
The Undervalued Effect of Public-
School Teaching. —The value of a public
school is seldom sought in those things which are
really learnt there and are carried away never to
be lost, but in those things which are learnt and
which the pupil only acquires against his will, in
order to get rid of them again as soon as possible.
Every educated person acknowledges that the
reading of the classics, as now practised, is a
monstrous proceeding carried on before young
people are ripe enough for it by teachers who
with every word, often by their appearance alone,
throw a mildew on a good author. But therein
lies the value, generally unrecognised, of these
teachers who speak the abstract language of the
higJier culture, which, though dry and difficult to
understand, is yet a sort of higher gymnastics of the
brain; and there is value in the constant recurrence
## p. 247 (#363) ############################################
SIGNS OF HIGHER AND LOWER CULTURE. 247
in their language of ideas, artistic expressions,
methods and allusions which the young people
hardly ever hear in the conversations of their
relatives and in the street. Even if the pupils
only hear, their intellect is involuntarily trained
to a scientific mode of regarding things. It is
not possible to emerge from this discipline entirely
untouched by its abstract character, and to remain
a simple child of nature.
267.
Learning many Languages. —The learning
of many languages fills the memory with words
instead of with facts and thoughts, and this is a
vessel which, with every person, can only contain
a certain limited amount of contents. Therefore
the learning of many languages is injurious, inas-
much as it arouses a belief in possessing dexterity
and, as a matter of fact, it lends a kind of delusive
importance to social intercourse. It is also indirectly
injurious in that it opposes the acquirement of
solid knowledge and the intention to win the
respect of men in an honest way. Finally, it is
the axe which is laid to the root of a delicate
sense of language in our mother-tongue, which
thereby is incurably injured and destroyed. The
two nations which produced the greatest stylists,
the Greeks and the French, learned no foreign
languages. But as human intercourse must always
grow more cosmopolitan, and as, for instance, a
good merchant in London must now be able to
read and write eight languages, the learning of
## p. 247 (#364) ############################################
246 HUMAN, ALL-TOO-HUMAN.
Asiatics, lies in the trained capability of giving
reasons for that which they believe, of which the
latter are utterly incapable. Europe went to the
school of logical and critical thought, Asia still
fails to know how to distinguish between truth and
fiction, and is not conscious whether its convictions
spring from individual observation and systematic
thought or from imagination. Sense in the school
has made Europe what it is; in the Middle Ages
it was on the road to become once more a part
and dependent of Asia,—forfeiting, therefore, the
scientific mind which it owed to the Greeks.
266.
The Undervalued Effect of Public-
School Teaching. —The value of a public
school is seldom sought in those things which are
really learnt there and are carried away never to
be lost, but in those things which are learnt and
which the pupil only acquires against his will, in
order to get rid of them again as soon as possible.
Every educated person acknowledges that the
reading of the classics, as now practised, is a
monstrous proceeding carried on before young
people are ripe enough for it by teachers who
with every word, often by their appearance alone,
throw a mildew on a good author. But therein
lies the value, generally unrecognised, of these
teachers who speak the abstract language of the
higher culture, which, though dry and difficult to
understand, is yet a sort of higher gymnastics of the
brain; and there is value in the constant recurrence
^
## p. 247 (#365) ############################################
SIGNS OF HIGHER AND LOWER CULTURE. 247
in their language of ideas, artistic expressions,
methods and allusions which the young people
hardly ever hear in the conversations of their
relatives and in the street. Even if the pupils
only hear, their intellect is involuntarily trained
to a scientific mode of regarding things. It is
not possible to emerge from this discipline entirely
untouched by its abstract character, and to remain
a simple child of nature.
267.
Learning many Languages. —The learning
of many languages fills the memory with words
instead of with facts and thoughts, and this is a
vessel which, with every person, can only contain
a certain limited amount of contents. Therefore
the learning of many languages is injurious, inas-
much as it arouses a belief in possessing dexterity
and, as a matter of fact, it lends a kind of delusive
importance to social intercourse. It is also indirectly
injurious in that it opposes the acquirement of
solid knowledge and the intention to win the
respect of men in an honest way. Finally, it is
the axe which is laid to the root of a delicate
sense of language in our mother-tongue, which
thereby is incurably injured and destroyed. The
two nations which produced the greatest stylists,
the Greeks and the French, learned no foreign
languages. But as human intercourse must always
grow more cosmopolitan, and as, for instance, a
good merchant in London must now be able to
read and write eight languages, the learning of
## p. 247 (#366) ############################################
246 HUMAN, ALL-TOO-HUMAN.
history of the Greeks followed that natural course
for which it is so celebrated. They were much too
variously gifted to be gradual in the orderly man-
ner of the tortoise when running a race with Achilles,
and that is called natural development. The
Greeks went rapidly forward, but equally rapidly
downwards; the movement of the whole machine
is so intensified that a single stone thrown amid
its wheels was sufficient to break it. Such a stone,
for instance, was Socrates; the hitherto so wonder-
fully regular, although certainly too rapid, develop-
ment of the philosophical science was destroyed in
one night. It is no idle question whether Plato,
had he remained free from the Socratic charm,
would not have discovered a still higher type of the
philosophic man, which type is for ever lost to us.
We look into the ages before him as into a sculptor's
workshop of such types. The fifth and sixth
centuries B. C. seemed to promise something more
vOl. 1. Q
## p. 241 (#338) ############################################
240 HUMAN, ALL-TOO-HUMAN.
themselves and their" truth," and with it they over-
threw all their neighbours and predecessors; each
one was a warlike, violent tyrant. The happiness in
believing themselves the possessors of truth was per-
haps never greater in the world, but neither were the
hardness, the arrogance, and the tyranny and evil
of such a belief. They were tyrants, they were
that, therefore, which every Greek wanted to be,
and which every one was if he was able. Perhaps
Solon alone is an exception; he tells in his poems
how he disdained personal tyranny. But he did
it for love of his works, of his law-giving; and
to be a law-giver is a sublimated form of tyranny.
Parmenides also made laws. Pythagoras and
Empedocles probably did the same; Anaximander
founded a city. Plato was the incarnate wish to
become the greatest philosophic law-giver and
founder of States; he appears to have suffered
terribly over the non-fulfilment of his nature, and
towards his end his soul was filled with the bitterest
gall. The more the Greek philosophers lost in
power the more they suffered inwardly from this
bitterness and malice; when the various sects fought
for their truths in the street, then first were the
souls of these wooers of truth completely clogged
through envy and spleen; the tyrannical element
then raged like poison within their bodies. These
many petty tyrants would have liked to devour
each other; there survived not a single spark of love
and very little joy in their own knowledge. The
saying that tyrants are generally murdered and that
their descendants are short-lived, is true also of the
tyrants of the mind. Their history is short and
## p. 241 (#339) ############################################
SIGNS OF HIGHER AND LOWER CULTURE. 241
violent, and their after-effects break off suddenly.
It may be said of almost all great Hellenes that
they appear to have come too late: it was thus
with jEschylus, with Pindar, with Demosthenes, with
Thucydides: one generation—and then it is passed
for ever. That is the stormy and dismal element
in Greek history. We now, it is true, admire the
gospel of the tortoises. To think historically is
almost the same thing now as if in all ages history
had been made according to the theory "The
smallest possible amount in the longest possible
time! " Oh! how quickly Greek history runs on!
Since then life has never been so extravagant—so
unbounded. I cannot persuade myself that the
history of the Greeks followed that natural course
for which it is so celebrated. They were much too
variously gifted to be gradual in the orderly man-
ner of the tortoise when running a race with Achilles,
and that is called natural development. The
Greeks went rapidly forward, but equally rapidly
downwards; the movement of the whole machine
is so intensified that a single stone thrown amid
its wheels was sufficient to break it. Such a stone,
for instance, was Socrates; the hitherto so wonder-
fully regular, although certainly too rapid, develop-
ment of the philosophical science was destroyed in
one night. It is no idle question whether Plato,
had he remained free from the Socratic charm,
would not have discovered a still higher type of the
philosophic man, which type is for ever lost to us.
We look into the ages before him as into a sculptor's
workshop of such types. The fifth and sixth
centuries B. C. seemed to promise something more
vol. 1. Q
## p. 241 (#340) ############################################
240 HUMAN, ALL-TOO-HUMAN.
themselves and their" truth," and with it they over-
threw all their neighbours and predecessors; each
one was a warlike, violent tyrant. The happiness in
believing themselves the possessors of truth was per-
haps never greater in the world, but neither were the
hardness, the arrogance, and the tyranny and evil
of such a belief. They were tyrants, they were
that, therefore, which every Greek wanted to be,
and which every one was if he was able. Perhaps
Solon alone is an exception; he tells in his poems
how he disdained personal tyranny. But he did
it for love of his works, of his law-giving; and
to be a law-giver is a sublimated form of tyranny.
Parmenides also made laws. Pythagoras and
Empedocles probably did the same; Anaximander
founded a city. Plato was the incarnate wish to
become the greatest philosophic law-giver and
founder of States; he appears to have suffered
terribly over the non-fulfilment of his nature, and
towards his end his soul was filled with the bitterest
gall. The more the Greek philosophers lost in
power the more they suffered inwardly from this
bitterness and malice; when the various sects fought
for their truths in the street, then first were the
souls of these wooers of truth completely clogged
through envy and spleen; the tyrannical element
then raged like poison within their bodies. These
many petty tyrants would have liked to devour
each other; there survived not a single spark of love
and very little joy in their own knowledge. The
saying that tyrants are generally murdered and that
their descendants are short-lived, is true also of the
tyrants of the mind. Their history is short and
## p. 241 (#341) ############################################
SIGNS OF HIGHER AND LOWER CULTURE. 24I
violent, and their after-effects break off suddenly.
It may be said of almost all great Hellenes that
they appear to have come too late: it was thus
with ^Eschylus, with Pindar, with Demosthenes, with
Thucydides: one generation—and then it is passed
for ever. That is the stormy and dismal element
in Greek history. We now, it is true, admire the
gospel of the tortoises. To think historically is
almost the same thing now as if in all ages history
had been made according to the theory "The
smallest possible amount in the longest possible
time! " Oh! how quickly Greek history runs on!
Since then life has never been so extravagant—so
unbounded. I cannot persuade myself that the
history of the Greeks followed that natural course
for which it is so celebrated. They were much too
variously gifted to be gradual in the orderly man-
ner of the tortoise when running a race with Achilles,
and that is called natural development. The
Greeks went rapidly forward, but equally rapidly
downwards; the movement of the whole machine
is so intensified that a single stone thrown amid
its wheels was sufficient to break it. Such a stone,
for instance, was Socrates; the hitherto so wonder-
fully regular, although certainly too rapid, develop-
ment of the philosophical science was destroyed in
one night. It is no idle question whether Plato,
had he remained free from the Socratic charm,
would not have discovered a still higher type of the
philosophic man, which type is for ever lost to us.
We look into the ages before him as into a sculptor's
workshop of such types. The fifth and sixth
centuries B. C. seemed to promise something more
vol. 1. Q
## p. 241 (#342) ############################################
240 HUMAN, ALL-TOO-HUMAN.
themselves and their " truth," and with it they over-
threw all their neighbours and predecessors; each
one was a warlike, violent tyrant. The happiness in
believing themselves the possessors of truth was per-
haps never greater in the world, but neither were the
hardness, the arrogance, and the tyranny and evil
of such a belief. They were tyrants, they were
that, therefore, which every Greek wanted to be,
and which every one was if he was able. Perhaps
Solon alone is an exception; he tells in his poems
how he disdained personal tyranny. But he did
it for love of his works, of his law-giving; and
to be a law-giver is a sublimated form of tyranny.
Parmenides also made laws. Pythagoras and
Empedocles probably did the same; Anaximander
founded a city. Plato was the incarnate wish to
become the greatest philosophic law-giver and
founder of States; he appears to have suffered
terribly over the non-fulfilment of his nature, and
towards his end his soul was filled with the bitterest
gall. The more the Greek philosophers lost in
power the more they suffered inwardly from this
bitterness and malice; when the various sects fought
for their truths in the street, then first were the
souls of these wooers of truth completely clogged
through envy and spleen; the tyrannical element
then raged like poison within their bodies. These
many petty tyrants would have liked to devour
each other; there survived not a single spark of love
and very little joy in their own knowledge. The
saying that tyrants are generally murdered and that
their descendants are short-lived, is true also of the
tyrants of the mind. Their history is short and
## p. 241 (#343) ############################################
SIGNS OF HIGHER AND LOWER CULTURE. 241
violent, and their after-effects break off suddenly.
It may be said of almost all great Hellenes that
they appear to have come too late: it was thus
with ^Eschylus, with Pindar, with Demosthenes, with
Thucydides: one generation—and then it is passed
for ever. That is the stormy and dismal element
in Greek history. We now, it is true, admire the
gospel of the tortoises. To think historically is
almost the same thing now as if in all ages history
had been made according to the theory "The
smallest possible amount in the longest possible
time! " Oh! how quickly Greek history runs on!
Since then life has never been so extravagant—so
unbounded. I cannot persuade myself that the
history of the Greeks followed that natural course
for which it is so celebrated. They were much too
variously gifted to be gradual in the orderly man-
ner of the tortoise when running a race with Achilles,
and that is called natural development. The
Greeks went rapidly forward, but equally rapidly
downwards; the movement of the whole machine
is so intensified that a single stone thrown amid
its wheels was sufficient to break it. Such a stone,
for instance, was Socrates; the hitherto so wonder-
fully regular, although certainly too rapid, develop-
ment of the philosophical science was destroyed in
one night. It is no idle question whether Plato,
had he remained free from the Socratic charm,
would not have discovered a still higher type of the
philosophic man, which type is for ever lost to us.
We look into the ages before him as into a sculptor's
workshop of such types. The fifth and sixth
centuries B. C. seemed to promise something more
vOl. 1. Q
## p. 241 (#344) ############################################
240 HUMAN, ALL-TOO-HUMAN.
themselves and their " truth," and with it they over-
threw all their neighbours and predecessors; each
one was a warlike, violent tyrant. The happiness in
believing themselves the possessors of truth was per-
haps never greater in the world, but neither were the
hardness, the arrogance, and the tyranny and evil
of such a belief. They were tyrants, they were
that, therefore, which every Greek wanted to be,
and which every one was if he was able. Perhaps
Solon alone is an exception; he tells in his poems
how he disdained personal tyranny. But he did
it for love of his works, of his law-giving; and
to be a law-giver is a sublimated form of tyranny.
Parmenides also made laws. Pythagoras and
Empedocles probably did the same; Anaximander
founded a city. Plato was the incarnate wish to
become the greatest philosophic law-giver and
founder of States; he appears to have suffered
terribly over the non-fulfilment of his nature, and
towards his end his soul was filled with the bitterest
gall. The more the Greek philosophers lost in
power the more they suffered inwardly from this
bitterness and malice; when the various sects fought
for their truths in the street, then first were the
souls of these wooers of truth completely clogged
through envy and spleen; the tyrannical element
then raged like poison within their bodies. These
many petty tyrants would have liked to devour
each other; there survived not a single spark of love
and very little joy in their own knowledge. The
saying that tyrants are generally murdered and that
their descendants are short-lived, is true also of the
tyrants of the mind. Their history is short and
## p. 241 (#345) ############################################
SIGNS OF HIGHER AND LOWER CULTURE. 24I
violent, and their after-effects break off suddenly.
It may be said of almost all great Hellenes that
they appear to have come too late: it was thus
with ^Eschylus, with Pindar, with Demosthenes, with
Thucydides: one generation—and then it is passed
for ever. That is the stormy and dismal element
in Greek history. We now, it is true, admire the
gospel of the tortoises. To think historically is
almost the same thing now as if in all ages history
had been made according to the theory "The
smallest possible amount in the longest possible
time! " Oh! how quickly Greek history runs on!
Since then life has never been so extravagant—so
unbounded. I cannot persuade myself that the
history of the Greeks followed that natural course
for which it is so celebrated. They were much too
variously gifted to be gradual in the orderly man-
ner of the tortoise when running a race with Achilles,
and that is called natural development. The
Greeks went rapidly forward, but equally rapidly
downwards; the movement of the whole machine
is so intensified that a single stone thrown amid
its wheels was sufficient to break it. Such a stone,
for instance, was Socrates; the hitherto so wonder-
fully regular, although certainly too rapid, develop-
ment of the philosophical science was destroyed in
one night. It is no idle question whether Plato,
had he remained free from the Socratic charm,
would not have discovered a still higher type of the
philosophic man, which type is for ever lost to us.
We look into the ages before him as into a sculptor's
workshop of such types. The fifth and sixth
centuries B. C. seemed to promise something more
vOl. 1. Q
## p. 241 (#346) ############################################
240 HUMAN, ALL-TOO-HUMAN.
themselves and their" truth," and with it they over-
threw all their neighbours and predecessors; each
one was a warlike, violent tyrant. The happiness in
believing themselves the possessors of truth was per-
haps never greater in the world, but neither were the
hardness, the arrogance, and the tyranny and evil
of such a belief. They were tyrants, they were
that, therefore, which every Greek wanted to be,
and which every one was if he was able. Perhaps
Solon alone is an exception; he tells in his poems
how he disdained personal tyranny. But he did
it for love of his works, of his law-giving; and
to be a law-giver is a sublimated form of tyranny.
Parmenides also made laws. Pythagoras and
Empedocles probably did the same; Anaximander
founded a city. Plato was the incarnate wish to
become the greatest philosophic law-giver and
founder of States; he appears to have suffered
terribly over the non-fulfilment of his nature, and
towards his end his soul was filled with the bitterest
gall. The more the Greek philosophers lost in
power the more they suffered inwardly from this
bitterness and malice; when the various sects fought
for their truths in the street, then first were the
souls of these wooers of truth completely clogged
through envy and spleen; the tyrannical element
then raged like poison within their bodies. These
many petty tyrants would have liked to devour
each other; there survived not a single spark of love
and very little joy in their own knowledge. The
saying that tyrants are generally murdered and that
their descendants are short-lived, is true also of the
tyrants of the mind. Their history is short and
## p. 241 (#347) ############################################
SIGNS OF HIGHER AND LOWER CULTURE. 241
violent, and their after-effects break off suddenly.
It may be said of almost all great Hellenes that
they appear to have come too late: it was thus
with ^schylus, with Pindar, with Demosthenes, with
Thucydides: one generation—and then it is passed
for ever. That is the stormy and dismal element
in Greek history. We now, it is true, admire the
gospel of the tortoises. To think historically is
almost the same thing now as if in all ages history
had been made according to the theory "The
smallest possible amount in the longest possible
time! " Oh! how quickly Greek history runs on!
Since then life has never been so extravagant—so
unbounded. I cannot persuade myself that the
history of the Greeks followed that natural course
for which it is so celebrated. They were much too
variously gifted to be gradual in the orderly man-
ner of the tortoise when running a race with Achilles,
and that is called natural development. The
Greeks went rapidly forward, but equally rapidly
downwards; the movement of the whole machine
is so intensified that a single stone thrown amid
its wheels was sufficient to break it. Such a stone,
for instance, was Socrates; the hitherto so wonder-
fully regular, although certainly too rapid, develop-
ment of the philosophical science was destroyed in
one night. It is no idle question whether Plato,
had he remained free from the Socratic charm,
would not have discovered a still higher type of the
philosophic man, which type is for ever lost to us.
We look into the ages before him as into a sculptor's
workshop of such types. The fifth and sixth
centuries B. C. seemed to promise something more
vol. 1. Q
## p. 241 (#348) ############################################
240 HUMAN, ALL-TOO-HUMAN.
themselves and their" truth," and with it they over-
threw all their neighbours and predecessors; each
one was a warlike, violent tyrant. The happiness in
believing themselves the possessors of truth was per-
haps never greater in the world, but neither were the
hardness, the arrogance, and the tyranny and evil
of such a belief. They were tyrants, they were
that, therefore, which every Greek wanted to be,
and which every one was if he was able. Perhaps
Solon alone is an exception; he tells in his poems
how he disdained personal tyranny. But he did
it for love of his works, of his law-giving; and
to be a law-giver is a sublimated form of tyranny.
Parmenides also made laws. Pythagoras and
Empedocles probably did the same; Anaximander
founded a city. Plato was the incarnate wish to
become the greatest philosophic law-giver and
founder of States; he appears to have suffered
terribly over the non-fulfilment of his nature, and
towards his end his soul was filled with the bitterest
gall. The more the Greek philosophers lost in
power the more they suffered inwardly from this
bitterness and malice; when the various sects fought
for their truths in the street, then first were the
souls of these wooers of truth completely clogged
through envy and spleen; the tyrannical element
then raged like poison within their bodies. These
many petty tyrants would have liked to devour
each other; there survived not a single spark of love
and very little joy in their own knowledge. The
saying that tyrants are generally murdered and that
their descendants are short-lived, is true also of the
tyrants of the mind. Their history is short and
## p. 241 (#349) ############################################
SIGNS OF HIGHER AND LOWER CULTURE. 24I
violent, and their after-effects break off suddenly.
It may be said of almost all great Hellenes that
they appear to have come too late: it was thus
with ^Eschylus, with Pindar, with Demosthenes, with
Thucydides: one generation—and then it is passed
for ever. That is the stormy and dismal element
in Greek history. We now, it is true, admire the
gospel of the tortoises. To think historically is
almost the same thing now as if in all ages history
had been made according to the theory "The
smallest possible amount in the longest possible
time! " Oh! how quickly Greek history runs on!
Since then life has never been so extravagant—so
unbounded. I cannot persuade myself that the
history of the Greeks followed that natural course
for which it is so celebrated. They were much too
variously gifted to be gradual in the orderly man-
ner of the tortoise when running a race with Achilles,
and that is called natural development.
The
Greeks went rapidly forward, but equally rapidly
downwards; the movement of the whole machine
is so intensified that a single stone thrown amid
its wheels was sufficient to break it. Such a stone,
for instance, was Socrates; the hitherto so wonder-
fully regular, although certainly too rapid, develop-
ment of the philosophical science was destroyed in
one night. It is no idle question whether Plato,
had he remained free from the Socratic charm,
would not have discovered a still higher type of the
philosophic man, which type is for ever lost to us.
We look into the ages before him as into a sculptor's
workshop of such types. The fifth and sixth
centuries B. C. seemed to promise something more
vol. 1. Q
## p. 241 (#350) ############################################
240 HUMAN, ALL-TOO-HUMAN.
themselves and their " truth," and with it they over-
threw all their neighbours and predecessors; each
one was a warlike, violent tyrant. The happiness in
believing themselves the possessors of truth was per-
haps never greater in the world, but neither were the
hardness, the arrogance, and the tyranny and evil
of such a belief. They were tyrants, they were
that, therefore, which every Greek wanted to be,
and which every one was if he was able. Perhaps
Solon alone is an exception; he tells in his poems
how he disdained personal tyranny. But he did
it for love of his works, of his law-giving; and
to be a law-giver is a sublimated form of tyranny.
Parmenides also made laws. Pythagoras and
Empedocles probably did the same; Anaximander
founded a city. Plato was the incarnate wish to
become the greatest philosophic law-giver and
founder of States; he appears to have suffered
terribly over the non-fulfilment of his nature, and
towards his end his soul was filled with the bitterest
gall. The more the Greek philosophers lost in
power the more they suffered inwardly from this
bitterness and malice; when the various sects fought
for their truths in the street, then first were the
souls of these wooers of truth completely clogged
through envy and spleen; the tyrannical element
then raged like poison within their bodies. These
many petty tyrants would have liked to devour
each other; there survived not a single spark of love
and very little joy in their own knowledge. The
saying that tyrants are generally murdered and that
their descendants are short-lived, is true also of the
tyrants of the mind. Their history is short and
## p. 241 (#351) ############################################
SIGNS OF HIGHER AND LOWER CULTURE. 24I
violent, and their after-effects break off suddenly.
It may be said of almost all great Hellenes that
they appear to have come too late: it was thus
with ^ischylus, with Pindar, with Demosthenes, with
Thucydides: one generation—and then it is passed
for ever. That is the stormy and dismal element
in Greek history. We now, it is true, admire the
gospel of the tortoises. To think historically is
almost the same thing now as if in all ages history
had been made according to the theory "The
smallest possible amount in the longest possible
time! " Oh! how quickly Greek history runs on!
Since then life has never been so extravagant—. so
unbounded. I cannot persuade myself that the
history of the Greeks followed that natural course
for which it is so celebrated. They were much too
variously gifted to be. gradual in the orderly man-
ner of the tortoise when running a race with Achilles,
and that is called natural development. The
Greeks went rapidly forward, but equally rapidly
downwards; the movement of the whole machine
is so intensified that a single stone thrown amid
its wheels was sufficient to break it. Such a stone,
for instance, was Socrates; the hitherto so wonder-
fully regular, although certainly too rapid, develop-
ment of the philosophical science was destroyed in
one night. It is no idle question whether Plato,
had he remained free from the Socratic charm,
would not have discovered a still higher type of the
philosophic man, which type is for ever lost to us.
We look into the ages before him as into a sculptor's
workshop of such types. The fifth and sixth
centuries B. C. seemed to promise something more
vOl. 1. Q
## p. 242 (#352) ############################################
242 HUMAN, ALL-TOO-HUMAN.
and higher even than they produced ; they s
short at promising and announcing. Ai
there is hardly a greater loss than the loss of i
of a new, hitherto undiscovered highest /V. o
of the philosophic life. Even of the older tyr.
greater number are badly transmitted; it sect
me that all philosophers, from Thales to Dcmoci
are remarkably difficult to recognise, but who
succeeds in imitating these figures walks amoi
specimens of the mightiest and purest type. 1
ability is certainly rare, it was even absent
those later Greeks, who occupied themselves w ,
the knowledge of the older philosophy; Aristot:
especially, hardly seems to have had eyes in h a
head when he stands before these great ones. An i
thus it appears as if these splendid philosophers
had lived in vain, or as if they had only been in-
tended to prepare the quarrelsome and talkative
followers of the Socratic schools. As I have
said, here is a gap, a break in development; some
great misfortune must have happened, and the only
statue which might have revealed the meaning and
purpose of that great artistic training was either
broken or unsuccessful; what actually happened
has remained for ever a secret of the workshop.
That which happened amongst the Greeks—
namely, that every great thinker who believed him-
self to be in possession of the absolute truth
became a tyrant, so that even the mental history of
the Greeks acquired that violent, hasty and danger-
ous character shown by their political history,—this
type of event was not therewith exhausted, much
that is similar has happened even in more modern
## p. 243 (#353) ############################################
HIGHER AND LOWER CULTURE. 243
<ugh gradually becoming rarer and now
1 showing the pure, naive conscience of
_ philosophers. For on the whole, oppo-
^" ;£Qnnar 'Ctrines and scepticism now speak too
ttit -at ly, too loudly. The period of mental
ilC -tt>5 is past. It is true that in the spheres of
^^7^7" culture there must always be a supremacy,
"7Ttt it iceforth this supremacy lies in the hands of
*os-: garchs of the mind. In spite of local and
^ccniE. - -al separation they form a cohesive society,
^mjc- » members recognise and acknowledge each
cnzci's: :, whatever public opinion and the verdicts of
Ta- jw and newspaper writers who influence the
ar: ~- ses may circulate in favour of or against them.
trit ntal superiority, which formerly divided and
-\v. 2i bittered, nowadays generally unites; how could
- in? e separate individuals assert themselves and swim
-;o: trough life on their own course, against all currents,
»> r they did not see others like them living here and
;. . - . here under similar conditions, and grasped their
b hands,in the struggle as much against the ochlocratic
character of the half mind and half culture as
against the occasional attempts to establish a
tyranny with the help of the masses? Oligarchs
are necessary to each other, they are each other's
best joy, they understand their signs, but each is
nevertheless free, he fights and conquers in his
place and perishes rather than submit.
262.
Homer. —The greatest fact in Greek culture
remains this, that Homer became so early Pan-
## p. 243 (#354) ############################################
242
HUMAN, ALL-TOO-HUMAN.
and higher even than they produced ; they stopped
short at promising and announcing. And yet
there is hardly a greater loss than the loss of a type,
of a new, hitherto undiscovered highest possibility
of the philosophic life. Even of the older type the
greater number are badly transmitted; it seems to
me that all philosophers, from Thales to Democritus,
are remarkably difficult to recognise, but whoever
succeeds in imitating these figures walks amongst
specimens of the mightiest and purest type. This
ability is certainly rare, it was even absent in
those later Greeks, who occupied themselves with
the knowledge of the older philosophy; Aristotle,
especially, hardly seems to have had eyes in his
head when he stands before these great ones. And
thus it appears as if these splendid philosophers
had lived in vain, or as if they had only been in-
tended to prepare the quarrelsome and talkative
followers of the Socratic schools. As I have
said, here is a gap, a break in development; some
great misfortune must have happened, and the only
statue which might have revealed the meaning and
purpose of that great artistic training was either
broken or unsuccessful; what actually happened
has remained for ever a secret of the workshop.
That which happened amongst the Greeks—
namely, that every great thinker who believed him-
self to be in possession of the absolute truth
became a tyrant, so that even the mental history of
the Greeks acquired that violent, hasty and danger-
ous character shown by their political history,—this
type of event was not therewith exhausted, much
that is similar has happened even in more modern
>
i
I
over-
each
fcssin
JPer-
-ethe
I evil
Were
> be,
haps
>ems
did
and
any.
and
ider
i to
and
red
ind
•est
in
his
rht
ed
nt
se
ur
le
it
e
a
## p. 243 (#355) ############################################
SIGNS OF HIGHER AND LOWER CULTURE. 243
>
times, although gradually becoming rarer and now
but seldom showing the pure, naive conscience of
the Greek philosophers. For on the whole, oppo-
sition doctrines and scepticism now speak too
powerfully, too loudly. The period of mental
tyranny is past. It is true that in the spheres of
higher culture there must always be a supremacy,
but henceforth this supremacy lies in the hands of
the oligarchs of the mind. In spite of local and
political separation they form a cohesive society,
whose members recognise and acknowledge each
other, whatever public opinion and the verdicts of
review and newspaper writers who influence the
masses may circulate in favour of or against them.
Mental superiority, which formerly divided and
embittered, nowadays generally unites; how could
the separate individuals assert themselves and swim
through life on their own course, against all currents,
if they did not see others like them living here and
there under similar conditions, and grasped their
hands. in thestruggle as much against the ochlocratic
character of the half mind and half culture as
against the occasional attempts to establish a
tyranny with the help of the masses? Oligarchs
are necessary to each other, they are each other's
best joy, they understand their signs, but each is
nevertheless free, he fights and conquers in his
place and perishes rather than submit.
262.
Homer. —The greatest fact in Greek culture
remains this, that Homer became so early Pan-
## p. 244 (#356) ############################################
244
HUMAN, ALL-TOO-HUMAN.
Hellenic. All mental and human freedom to
which the Greeks attained is traceable to this
fact. At the same time it has actually been fatal
to Greek culture, for Homer levelled, inasmuch as
he centralised, and dissolved the more serious
instincts of independence. From time to time
there arose from the depths of Hellenism an
opposition to Homer; but he always remained
victorious. All great mental powers have an
oppressing effect as well as a liberating one; but
it certainly makes a difference whether it is Homer
or the Bible or Science that tyrannises over
mankind.
263.
Talents. — In such a highly developed
humanity as the present, each individual naturally
has access to many talents. Each has an inborn
talent, but only in a few is that degree of tough-
ness, endurance, and energy born and trained that
he really becomes a talent, becomes what he is,—
that is, that he discharges it in works and actions.
264.
The Witty Person either Overvalued
or Undervalued. —Unscientific but talented
people value every mark of intelligence, whether
it be on a true or a false track; above all, they
want the person with whom they have inter-
course to entertain them with his wit, to spur
them on, to inflame them, to carry them away in
seriousness and play, and in any case to be a
## p. 245 (#357) ############################################
SIGNS OF HIGHER AND LOWER CULTURE. 245
powerful amulet to protect them against boredom.
Scientific natures, on the other hand, know that
the gift of possessing all manner of notions should
be strictly controlled by the scientific spirit: it is
not that which shines, deludes and excites, but
the often insignificant truth that is the fruit which
he knows how to shake down from the tree of
knowledge. Like Aristotle, he is not permitted
to make any distinction between the " bores" and
the " wits," his dcemon leads him through the desert
as well as through tropical vegetation, in order
that he may only take pleasure in the really
actual, tangible, true. In insignificant scholars
this produces a general disdain and suspicion of
cleverness, and, on the other hand, clever people
frequently have an aversion to science, as have,
for instance, almost all artists.
265.
SENSE in SCHOOL. —School has no task more
important than to teach strict thought, cautious
judgment, and logical conclusions, hence it must
pay no attention to what hinders these operations,
such as religion, for instance. It can count on the
fact that human vagueness, custom, and need will
later on unstring the bow of all-too-severe thought.
But so long as its influence lasts it should enforce
that which is the essential and distinguishing point
in man: "Sense and Science, the very highest
power of man "—as Goethe judges. The great
natural philosopher, Von Baer, thinks that the
superiority of all Europeans, when compared to
## p. 246 (#358) ############################################
246 HUMAN, ALL-TOO-HUMAN.
Asiatics, lies in the trained capability of giving
reasons for that which they believe, of which the
latter are utterly incapable. Europe went to the
school of logical and critical thought, Asia still
fails to know how to distinguish between truth and
fiction, and is not conscious whether its convictions
spring from individual observation and systematic
thought or from imagination. Sense in the school
has made Europe what it is; in the Middle Ages
it was on the road to become once more a part
and dependent of Asia,—forfeiting, therefore, the
scientific mind which it owed to the Greeks.
266.
The Undervalued Effect of Public-
School Teaching. —The value of a public
school is seldom sought in those things which are
really learnt there and are carried away never to
be lost, but in those things which are learnt and
which the pupil only acquires against his will, in
order to get rid of them again as soon as possible.
Every educated person acknowledges that the
reading of the classics, as now practised, is a
monstrous proceeding carried on before young
people are ripe enough for it by teachers who
with every word, often by their appearance alone,
throw a mildew on a good author. But therein
lies the value, generally unrecognised, of these
teachers who speak the abstract language of the
higher culture, which, though dry and difficult to
understand, is yet a sort of higher gymnastics of the
brain; and there is value in the constant recurrence
## p. 247 (#359) ############################################
SIGNS OF HIGHER AND LOWER CULTURE. 247
in their language of ideas, artistic expressions,
methods and allusions which the young people
hardly ever hear in the conversations of their
relatives and in the street. Even if the pupils
only hear, their intellect is involuntarily trained
to a scientific mode of regarding things. It is
not possible to emerge from this discipline entirely
untouched by its abstract character, and to remain
a simple child of nature.
267.
Learning many Languages. —The learning
of many languages fills the memory with words
instead of with facts and thoughts, and this is a
vessel which, with every person, can only contain
a certain limited amount of contents. Therefore
the learning of many languages is injurious, inas-
much as it arouses a belief in possessing dexterity
and, as a matter of fact, it lends a kind of delusive
importance to social intercourse. It is also indirectly
injurious in that it opposes the acquirement of
solid knowledge and the intention to win the
respect of men in an honest way. Finally, it is
the axe which is laid to the root of a delicate
sense of language in our mother-tongue, which
thereby is incurably injured and destroyed. The
two nations which produced the greatest stylists,
the Greeks and the French, learned no foreign
languages. But as human intercourse must always
grow more cosmopolitan, and as, for instance, a
good merchant in London must now be able to
read and write eight languages, the learning of
## p. 247 (#360) ############################################
246 HUMAN, ALL-TOO-HUMAN.
Asiatics, lies in the trained capability of giving
reasons for that which they believe, of which the
latter are utterly incapable. Europe went to the
school of logical and critical thought, Asia still
fails to know how to distinguish between truth and
fiction, and is not conscious whether its convictions
spring from individual observation and systematic
thought or from imagination. Sense in the school
has made Europe what it is; in the Middle Ages
it was on the road to become once more a part
and dependent of Asia,—forfeiting, therefore, the
scientific mind which it owed to the Greeks.
266.
The Undervalued Effect of Public-
School Teaching. —The value of a public
school is seldom sought in those things which are
really learnt there and are carried away never to
be lost, but in those things which are learnt and
which the pupil only acquires against his will, in
order to get rid of them again as soon as possible.
Every educated person acknowledges that the
reading of the classics, as now practised, is a
monstrous proceeding carried on before young
people are ripe enough for it by teachers who
with every word, often by their appearance alone,
throw a mildew on a good author. But therein
lies the value, generally unrecognised, of these
teachers who speak the abstract language of the
higher culture, which, though dry and difficult to
understand, is yet a sort of higher gymnastics of the
brain; and there is value in the constant recurrence
-^
## p. 247 (#361) ############################################
SIGNS OF HIGHER AND LOWER CULTURE. 247
in their language of ideas, artistic expressions,
methods and allusions which the young people
hardly ever hear in the conversations of their
relatives and in the street. Even if the pupils
only hear, their intellect is involuntarily trained
to a scientific mode of regarding things. It is
not possible to emerge from this discipline entirely
untouched by its abstract character, and to remain
a simple child of nature.
267.
Learning many Languages. —The learning
of many languages fills the memory with words
instead of with facts and thoughts, and this is a
vessel which, with every person, can only contain
a certain limited amount of contents. Therefore
the learning of many languages is injurious, inas-
much as it arouses a belief in possessing dexterity
and, as a matter of fact, it lends a kind of delusive
importance to social intercourse. It is also indirectly
injurious in that it opposes the acquirement of
solid knowledge and the intention to win the
respect of men in an honest way. Finally, it is
the axe which is laid to the root of a delicate
sense of language in our mother-tongue, which
thereby is incurably injured and destroyed. The
two nations which produced the greatest stylists,
the Greeks and the French, learned no foreign
languages. But as human intercourse must always
grow more cosmopolitan, and as, for instance, a
good merchant in London must now be able to
read and write eight languages, the learning of
## p. 247 (#362) ############################################
246 HUMAN, ALL-TOO-HUMAN.
Asiatics, lies in the trained capability of giving
reasons for that which they believe, of which the
latter are utterly incapable. Europe went to the
school of logical and critical thought, Asia still
fails to know how to distinguish between truth and
fiction, and is not conscious whether its convictions
spring from individual observation and systematic
thought or from imagination. Sense in the school
has made Europe what it is; in the Middle Ages
it was on the road to become once more a part
and dependent of Asia,—forfeiting, therefore, the
scientific mind which it owed to the Greeks.
266.
The Undervalued Effect of Public-
School Teaching. —The value of a public
school is seldom sought in those things which are
really learnt there and are carried away never to
be lost, but in those things which are learnt and
which the pupil only acquires against his will, in
order to get rid of them again as soon as possible.
Every educated person acknowledges that the
reading of the classics, as now practised, is a
monstrous proceeding carried on before young
people are ripe enough for it by teachers who
with every word, often by their appearance alone,
throw a mildew on a good author. But therein
lies the value, generally unrecognised, of these
teachers who speak the abstract language of the
higJier culture, which, though dry and difficult to
understand, is yet a sort of higher gymnastics of the
brain; and there is value in the constant recurrence
## p. 247 (#363) ############################################
SIGNS OF HIGHER AND LOWER CULTURE. 247
in their language of ideas, artistic expressions,
methods and allusions which the young people
hardly ever hear in the conversations of their
relatives and in the street. Even if the pupils
only hear, their intellect is involuntarily trained
to a scientific mode of regarding things. It is
not possible to emerge from this discipline entirely
untouched by its abstract character, and to remain
a simple child of nature.
267.
Learning many Languages. —The learning
of many languages fills the memory with words
instead of with facts and thoughts, and this is a
vessel which, with every person, can only contain
a certain limited amount of contents. Therefore
the learning of many languages is injurious, inas-
much as it arouses a belief in possessing dexterity
and, as a matter of fact, it lends a kind of delusive
importance to social intercourse. It is also indirectly
injurious in that it opposes the acquirement of
solid knowledge and the intention to win the
respect of men in an honest way. Finally, it is
the axe which is laid to the root of a delicate
sense of language in our mother-tongue, which
thereby is incurably injured and destroyed. The
two nations which produced the greatest stylists,
the Greeks and the French, learned no foreign
languages. But as human intercourse must always
grow more cosmopolitan, and as, for instance, a
good merchant in London must now be able to
read and write eight languages, the learning of
## p. 247 (#364) ############################################
246 HUMAN, ALL-TOO-HUMAN.
Asiatics, lies in the trained capability of giving
reasons for that which they believe, of which the
latter are utterly incapable. Europe went to the
school of logical and critical thought, Asia still
fails to know how to distinguish between truth and
fiction, and is not conscious whether its convictions
spring from individual observation and systematic
thought or from imagination. Sense in the school
has made Europe what it is; in the Middle Ages
it was on the road to become once more a part
and dependent of Asia,—forfeiting, therefore, the
scientific mind which it owed to the Greeks.
266.
The Undervalued Effect of Public-
School Teaching. —The value of a public
school is seldom sought in those things which are
really learnt there and are carried away never to
be lost, but in those things which are learnt and
which the pupil only acquires against his will, in
order to get rid of them again as soon as possible.
Every educated person acknowledges that the
reading of the classics, as now practised, is a
monstrous proceeding carried on before young
people are ripe enough for it by teachers who
with every word, often by their appearance alone,
throw a mildew on a good author. But therein
lies the value, generally unrecognised, of these
teachers who speak the abstract language of the
higher culture, which, though dry and difficult to
understand, is yet a sort of higher gymnastics of the
brain; and there is value in the constant recurrence
^
## p. 247 (#365) ############################################
SIGNS OF HIGHER AND LOWER CULTURE. 247
in their language of ideas, artistic expressions,
methods and allusions which the young people
hardly ever hear in the conversations of their
relatives and in the street. Even if the pupils
only hear, their intellect is involuntarily trained
to a scientific mode of regarding things. It is
not possible to emerge from this discipline entirely
untouched by its abstract character, and to remain
a simple child of nature.
267.
Learning many Languages. —The learning
of many languages fills the memory with words
instead of with facts and thoughts, and this is a
vessel which, with every person, can only contain
a certain limited amount of contents. Therefore
the learning of many languages is injurious, inas-
much as it arouses a belief in possessing dexterity
and, as a matter of fact, it lends a kind of delusive
importance to social intercourse. It is also indirectly
injurious in that it opposes the acquirement of
solid knowledge and the intention to win the
respect of men in an honest way. Finally, it is
the axe which is laid to the root of a delicate
sense of language in our mother-tongue, which
thereby is incurably injured and destroyed. The
two nations which produced the greatest stylists,
the Greeks and the French, learned no foreign
languages. But as human intercourse must always
grow more cosmopolitan, and as, for instance, a
good merchant in London must now be able to
read and write eight languages, the learning of
## p. 247 (#366) ############################################
246 HUMAN, ALL-TOO-HUMAN.
