No More Learning

"How many


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THE DAWN OF DAY. 179
and what class of people will consume this? " is
his question of questions. Hence, he instinctively
and incessantly employs this mode of valuation and
applies it to everything, including the productions
of art and science, and of thinkers, scholars, artists,
statesmen, nations, political parties, and even entire
ages: with respect to everything produced or
created he inquires into the supply and demand in
order to estimate for himself the value of a thing.
This, when once it has been made the principle of
an entire culture, worked out to its most minute
and subtle details, and imposed upon every kind
of will and knowledge, this is what you men of the
coming century will be proud of,—if the prophets
of the commercial classes are right in putting that
century into your possession! But I have little be-
lief in these prophets. Credat Judceus Apella—to
speak with Horace.
176.
The Criticism of our Ancestors. —Why
should we now endure the truth, even about the
most recent past? Because there is now always a
new generation which feels itself in contradiction
to the past and enjoys in this criticism the first-
fruits of its sense of power. In former times the
new generation, on the contrary, wished to base
itself on the old and began to feel conscious of its
power, not only in accepting the opinions of its
ancestors but, if possible, taking them even more
seriously. To criticise ancestral authority was in
former times a vice; but at the present time our
idealists begin by making it their starting-point.


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i8o THE DAWN OF DAY.
i/7-
To learn Solitude. —O ye poor fellows in
the great centres of the world's politics, ye young
and talented men, who, urged on by ambition, think
it your duty to propound your opinion of every
event of the day,—for something is always happen-
ing,—who, by thus making a noise and raising
a cloud of dust, mistake yourselves for the rolling
chariot of history; who, because ye always listen,
always suit the moment when ye can put in your
word or two, thereby lose all real productiveness.
Whatever may be your desire to accomplish great
deeds, the deep silence of pregnancy never comes
to you! The event of the day sweeps you along
like straws before the wind whilst ye lie under the
illusion that ye are chasing the event,—poor fel-
lows! If a man wishes to act the hero on the
stage he must not think of forming part of the
chorus; he should not even know how the chorus
is made up.
178.
Daily Wear and Tear. —These young men
are lacking neither in character, nor talent, nor zeal,
but they have never had sufficient time to choose
their own path; they have, on the contrary, been
habituated from the most tender age to have their
path pointed out to them. At the time when
they were ripe enough to be sent into the "desert,"
something else was done with them. They were
turned to account, estranged from themselves, and


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THE DAWN OF DAY. i8i
brought up in such a way that they became ac-
customed to be worn out by their daily toil. This
was imposed on them as a duty, and now they
cannot do without it; they would not wish it to be
otherwise. The only thing that cannot be refused
to these poor beasts of burden is their " holidays"
—such is the name they give to this ideal of leisure
in an overworked century; "holidays," in which
they may for once be idle, idiotic, and childish to
their heart's content.
179.
As little State as possible ! —All political
and economic matters are not of such great value
that they ought to be dealt with by the most
talented minds: such a waste of intellect is at
bottom worse than any state of distress. These
matters are, and ever will be, the province of smaller
minds, and others than the smaller minds should
not be at the service of this workshop: it would be
better to let the machinery work itself to pieces
again! But as matters stand at the present time,
when not only do all people believe that they must
know all about it day by day, but wish likewise
to be always busy about it, and in so doing neglect
their own work, it is a great and ridiculous mis-
take. The price that has to be paid for the " public
safety " is far too high, and, what is maddest of all,
we effect the very opposite of " public safety," a
fact which our own dear century has undertaken
to prove, as if this had never been proved before!
To make society secure against thieves and fire, and
to render it thoroughly fit for all kinds of trade and


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182 THE DAWN OF DAY.
traffic, and to transform the State in a good and
evil sense into a kind of Providence—these aims
are low, mediocre, and not by any means indis-
pensable; and we should not seek to attain them
by the aid of the highest means and instruments
which exist—means which we should reserve pre-
cisely for our highest and rarest aims! Our epoch',
however much it may babble about economy, is a
spendthrift: it wastes intellect, the most precious
thing of all.
180.
Wars. —The great wars of our own day are the
outcome of historical study.
181.
Governing. —Some people govern because of
their passion for governing; others in order that
they may not be governed,—the latter choose it as
the lesser of two evils.
182.
Rough and Ready Consistency. —Peoplesay
of a man with great respect, " He is a character"—
that is, when he exhibits a rough and ready con-
sistency, when it is evident even to the dullest eye.
But, whenever a more subtle and profound intellect
sets itself up and shows consistency in a higher
manner, the spectators deny the existence of any
character. That is why cunning statesmen usually
act their comedy under the cloak of a kind of rough
and ready consistency.


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THE DAWN OF DAY. 183
I83.
The Old and the Young. —" There is some-
thingimmoral about Parliaments,"—so many people
still think,—" for in them views even against the
Government may be expressed. "—" We should
always adopt that view of a subject which our
gracious Lord commands,"—this is the eleventh
commandment in many an honest old head, especi-
ally in Northern Germany. We laugh at it as an
out-of-date fashion, but in former times it was the
moral law itself. Perhaps we shall again some day
laugh at that which is now considered as moral by
a generation brought up under a parliamentary
regime, namely, the policy of placing one's party
before one's own wisdom, and of answering every
question concerning the public welfare in such a
way as to fill the sails of the party with a favour-
able gust of wind. "We must take that view of a
subject which the position of our party calls for"
—such would be the canon. In the service of such
morals we may now behold every kind of sacrifice,
even martyrdom and conquest over one's self.
184.
The State as a Production of Anarchists.
—In countries inhabited by tractable men there
are always a few backsliders and intractable
people. For the present the latter have joined the
Socialists more than any other party. If it should
happen that these people once come to have the
making of the laws, they may be relied upon to


## p. 184 (#224) ############################################

184 THE DAWN OF DAY.
impose iron chains upon themselves, and to practise
a dreadful discipline,—they know themselves! and
they will endure these harsh laws with the know-
ledge that they themselves have imposed them—
the feeling of power and of this particular power
will be too recent among them and too attractive
for them not to suffer anything for its sake.
185.
Beggars. —Beggars ought to be suppressed;
because we get angry both when we help them and
when we do not.
186.
BUSINESS Men. —Your business is your greatest
prejudice, it binds you to your locality, your society
and your tastes. Diligent in business but lazy in
thought, satisfied with your paltriness and with
the cloak of duty concealing this contentment:
thus you live, and thus you like your children to
be.
187.
A Possible Future. —Is it impossible for us
to imagine a social state in which the criminal will
publicly denounce himself and dictate his own
punishment, in the proud feeling that he is thus
honouring the law which he himself has made, that
he is exercising his power, the power of a lawmaker,
in thus punishing himself? He may offend for
once, but by his own voluntary punishment he
raises himself above his offence, and not only ex-
piates it by his frankness, greatness, and calmness.


## p. 185 (#225) ############################################

THE DAWN OF DAY. 185
but adds to it a public benefit. —Such would be
the criminal of a possible future, a criminal who
would, it is true, presuppose a future legislation
based upon this fundamental idea: "I yield in
great things as well as in small only to the law
which I myself have made. " How many experi-
ments must yet be made! How many futures
have yet to dawn upon mankind!
188.
Stimulants and Food. —Nations are deceived
so often because they are always looking for a
deceiver, i. e. a stimulating wine for their senses.
When they can only have this wine they are
glad to put up even with inferior bread. Intoxica-
tion is to them more than nutriment—this is the
bait with which they always let themselves be
caught! What, to them, are men chosen from
among themselves—although they may be the
most expert specialists—as compared with the
brilliant conquerors, or ancient and magnificent
princely houses! In order that he may inspire
them with faith, the demagogue must at least ex-
hibit to them a prospect of conquest and splendour.
People will always obey, and even do more than
obey, provided that they can become intoxicated
in doing so. We may not even offer them repose
and pleasure without this laurel crown and its
maddening influence.
This vulgar taste which ascribes greater im-
portance to intoxication than nutrition did not by
any means originate in the lower ranks of the


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186 THE DAWN OF DAY.
population: it was, on the contrary, transplanted
there, and on this backward soil it grows in great
abundance, whilst its real origin must be sought
amongst the highest intellects, where it flourished
for thousands of years. The people is the last
virgin soil upon which this brilliant weed can grow.
Well, then, is it really to the people that we should
entrust politics in order that they may thereby
have their daily intoxication?
189.
High Politics. —Whatever may be the in-
fluence in high politics of utilitarianism and the
vanity of individuals and nations, the sharpest spur
which urges them onwards is their need for the
feeling of power—a need which rises not only in
the souls of princes and rulers, but also gushes forth
from time to time from inexhaustible sources in the
people. The time comes again and again when the
masses are ready to stake their lives and their
fortunes, their consciences and their virtue, in order
that they may secure that highest of all enjoyments
and rule as a victorious, tyrannical, and arbitrary
nation over other nations (or at all events think that
they do).
On occasions such as these, feelings of pro-
digality, sacrifice, hope, confidence, extraordinary
audacity, and enthusiasm will burst forth so
abundantly that a sovereign who is ambitious or
far-sighted will be able to seize the opportunity for
making war, counting upon the good conscience of
his people to hide his injustice. Great conquerors


## p. 187 (#227) ############################################

THE DAWN OF DAY. 187
have always given utterance to the pathetic lan-
guage of virtue; they have always been surrounded
by crowds of people who felt themselves, as it were,
in a state of exaltation and would listen to none
but the most elevated oratory. The strange mad-
ness of moral judgments! When man experi-
ences the sensation of power he feels and calls
himself good; and at exactly the same time the
others who have to endure his power call him
evil! —Hesiod, in his fable of the epochs of man,
has twice in succession depicted the same epoch,
that of the heroes of Homer, and has thus made two
epochs out of one: to those who lived under the
terrible iron heel of those adventurous despots, or
had heard their ancestors speak of them, the epoch
appeared to be evil; but the descendants of those
chivalric races worshipped it as the"good old times,"
and as an almost ideally blissful age. The poet
could thus not help doing what he did,—his audience
probably included the descendants of both races.
190.
Former German Culture. — When the
Germans began to interest other European nations,
which is not so very long ago, it was owing to a
culture which they no longer possess to-day, and
which they have indeed shaken off with a blind
ardour, as if it had been some disease; and yet they
have not been able to replace it by anything better
than political and national lunacy. They have in
this way succeeded in becoming even more inter-
esting to other nations than they were formerly


## p. 188 (#228) ############################################

188 THE DAWN OF DAY.
through their culture: and may that satisfy them!
It is nevertheless undeniable that this German
culture has fooled Europeans, and that it did not
deserve the interest shown in it, and much less the
imitation and emulation displayed by other nations
in trying to rival it.
Let us look back for a moment upon Schiller,
Wilhelm von Humboldt, Schleiermacher, Hegel,
and Schelling; let us read their correspondence and
mingle for a time with the large circle of their
followers: what have they in common, what
characteristics have they, that fill us, as we are now,
partly with a feeling of nausea and partly with pitiful
and touching emotions? First and foremost, the
passion for appearing at all costs to be morally
exalted, and then the desire for giving utterance
to brilliant, feeble, and inconsequential remarks,
together with their fixed purpose of looking upon
everything (characters, passions, times, customs) as
beautiful—" beautiful," alas, in accordance with a
bad and vague taste, which nevertheless pretended
to be of Hellenic origin. We behold in these people
a weak,good-natured,and glistening idealism,which,
above all, wished to exhibit noble attitudes and noble
voices, something at once presumptuous and in-
offensive, and animated by a cordial aversion to
"cold " or " dry " reality—as also to anatomy, com-
plete passions, and every kind of philosophical con-
tinence and scepticism, but especially towards the
knowledge of nature in so far as it was impossible
to use it as religious symbolism.
Goethe, in his own characteristic fashion, ob-
served from afar these movements of German


## p. 189 (#229) ############################################

THE DAWN OF DAY. 189
culture: placing himself beyond their influence,
gently remonstrating, silent, more and more con-
firmed in his own better course. A little later, and
Schopenhauer also was an observer of these move-
ments—a great deal of the world and devilry of the
world had again been revealed to him, and he
spoke of it both roughly and enthusiastically, for
there is a certain beauty in this devilry! And what
was it, then, that really seduced the foreigners and
prevented them from viewing this movement as
did Goethe and Schopenhauer, or, better, from ig-
noring it altogether? It was that faint lustre, that
inexplicable starlight which formed a mysterious
halo around this culture. The foreigners said to
themselves: "This is all very very remote from us;
our sight, hearing, understanding, enjoyment, and
powers of valuations are lost here, but in spite of
that there may be some stars! There may be
something in it! Is it possible that the Germans
have quietly discovered some corner of heaven and
settled there? We must try to come nearer to
these Germans. " So they did begin to come nearer
to the Germans, while not so very long afterwards
the Germans put themselves to some trouble to get
rid of this starlight halo: they knew only too well
that they had not been in heaven, but only in a
cloud!
191.
Better Men. —They tell me that our art is
meant for the men of the present day, these greedy,
unsatisfied, undisciplined, disgusted, and harassed
spirits, and that it exhibits to them a picture of


## p. 189 (#230) ############################################

188
THE DAWN OF DAY.
through their culture: and may that satisfy them!
It is nevertheless undeniable that this German
culture has fooled Europeans, and that it did not
deserve the interest shown in it, and much less the
imitation and emulation displayed by other nations
in trying to rival it.
Let us look back for a moment upon Schiller,
Wilhelm von Humboldt, Schleiermacher, Hegel,
and Schelling; let us read their correspondence and
mingle for a time with the large circle of their
followers: what have they in common, what
characteristics have they, that fill us, as we are now,
partly with a feeling of nausea and partly with pitiful
and touching emotions? First and foremost, the
passion for appearing at all costs to be morally
exalted, and then the desire for giving utterance
to brilliant, feeble, and inconsequential remarks,
together with their fixed purpose of looking upon
everything (characters, passions, times, customs) as
beautiful—“ beautiful,” alas, in accordance with a
bad and vague taste, which nevertheless pretended
to be of Hellenic origin. We behold in these people
a weak, good-natured, and glistening idealism, which,
above all, wished to exhibit noble attitudes and noble
voices, something at once presumptuous and in-
offensive, and animated by a cordial aversion to
“cold” or “ dry” reality-as also to anatomy, com-
plete passions, and every kind of philosophical con-
tinence and scepticism, but especially towards the
knowledge of nature in so far as it was impossible
to use it as religious symbolism.
Goethe, in his own characteristic fashion, ob-
served from afar these movements of German


## p. 189 (#231) ############################################

THE DAWN OF DAY.
189
culture: placing himself beyond their influence,
gently remonstrating, silent, more and more con-
firmed in his own better course. A little later, and
Schopenhauer also was an observer of these move-
ments—a great deal of the world and devilry of the
world had again been revealed to him, and he
spoke of it both roughly and enthusiastically, for
there is a certain beauty in this devilry! And what
was it, then, that really seduced the foreigners and
prevented them from viewing this movement as
did Goethe and Schopenhauer, or, better, from ig-
noring it altogether? It was that faint lustre, that
inexplicable starlight which formed a mysterious
halo around this culture. The foreigners said to
themselves : “This is all very very remote from us;
our sight, hearing, understanding, enjoyment, and
powers of valuations are lost here, but in spite of
that there may be some stars! There may be
something in it! Is it possible that the Germans
have quietly discovered some corner of heaven and
settled there? We must try to come nearer to
these Germans. ” So they did begin to come nearer
to the Germans, while not so very long afterwards
the Germans put themselves to some trouble to get
rid of this starlight halo: they knew only too well
that they had not been in heaven, but only in a
cloud!
191.
BETTER MEN. —They tell me that our art is
meant for the men of the present day, these greedy,
unsatisfied, undisciplined, disgusted, and harassed
spirits, and that it exhibits to them a picture of


## p. 190 (#232) ############################################

I90 THE DAWN OF DAY.
happiness, exaltation, and unworldliness beside that
of their own brutality, so that for once they may for-
get and breathe freely; nay, perhaps find that they
may derive some encouragement towards flight and
conversion from that oblivion. Poor artists, with
such a public as this; half of whose thoughts re-
quire the attention of a priest, and the other half
the attention of an alienist! How much happier
was Corneille—" Our great Corneille! " as Madame
de SeVigne" exclaimed, with the accent of a woman
in the presence of a whole man,—how far superior
was his audience, which he could please with
pictures of chivalric virtues, strict duty, generous
devotion, and heroic self-denial! How differently
did he and they love existence, not as coming from
blind and confused "will," which we curse because
we cannot destroy it; but loving existence as a
place, so to speak, where greatness joined with
humanity is possible, and where even the greatest
restraint of form, such as submission to the caprice
of priests and princes, could not suppress either the
pride, chivalric feeling, the grace or the intellect of
individuals, but could, on the contrary, be felt as a
charm and incentive,as a welcome contrast to innate
self-glorification and distinction and the inherited
power of volition and passion.
192.
The Desire for Perfect Opponents. —It
cannot be denied that the French have been the
most Christian nation in the world, not because the
devotion of masses in France has been greater than


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THE DAWN OF DAY. 19I
elsewhere, but because those Christian ideals which
are most difficult to realise have become incar-
nated here instead of merely remaining fancies,
intentions, or imperfect beginnings. Take Pascal,
for example, the greatest of all Christians in his
combination of ardour, intellect, and honesty, and
consider what elements had to be combined in his
case! Take F^nelon, the most perfect and at-
tractive embodiment of ecclesiastical culture in all
its power: a sublime golden mean of whom a
historian would be tempted to prove the impossi-
bility, whilst in reality he was merely the perfection
of something exceedingly difficult and improbable.
Take Madame de Guyon among her companions,
the French Quietists: and everything that the
eloquence and ardour of the Apostle Paul has en-
deavoured to divine with regard to the Christian's
state of semi-divinity, this most sublime, loving,
silent, and ecstatic state is seen verified in her, with-
out, however, that Jewish obtrusiveness that Paul
showed towards God—due in the case of Madame
de Guyon to the real old French artlessness in
words and gestures, artlessness at once womanly,
subtle, and distinguished. Consider, again, the
founder of the Trappists—the last person who
really took seriously the ascetic ideal of Christi-
anity, not because he was an exception among
Frenchmen, but because he was a true Frenchman:
for up to our own day his gloomy organisation has
not been able to acclimatise itself and to prosper,
except among Frenchmen; and it has followed
them into Alsace and Algeria.
Let us not forget the Huguenots, either: that


## p. 192 (#234) ############################################

192 THE DAWN OF DAY.
combination of a martial and industrial spirit, re-
fined manners and Christian severity, has never
been more beautifully exhibited. And it was at
Port Royal that the great Christian erudition beheld
its last era of prosperity; and in France more than
anywhere else great men know how to prosper.
Though not at all superficial, a great Frenchman
has always his apparent superficiality;—he has, so
to speak, a natural skin for his real contents and
depth,—while, on the other hand, the depth of a
great German is generally, as it were, closed up in an
ugly-shaped box, like an elixir, which, by means of a
hard and curious covering, endeavours to preserve
itself from the light of day and the touch of thought-
less hands. And now let us endeavour to find out
why a people like the French, so prolific in perfect
types of Christians, likewise necessarily brought
forth the perfect contrary types, those of unchristian
free-thought! The French free-thinker, in his own
inward being, had to fight against truly great men,
and not, like the free-thinkers of other nations,
merely against dogmas and sublime abortions.
193-
Esprit and Morals. —The German, who
possesses the secret of knowing how to be tedious
in spite of wit, knowledge, and feeling, and who has
habituated himself to consider tediousness as moral,
is in dread in the presence of French esprit lest it
should tear out the eyes of morality—but a dread
mingled with "fascination," like that experienced
by the little bird in the presence of the rattlesnake.


## p. 193 (#235) ############################################

THE DAWN OF DAY. 193
Amongst all the celebrated Germans none possessed
more esprit than Hegel, but he also had that great
German dread of itwhich brought about his peculiar
and defective style. For the nature of this style
resembles a kernel, which is wrapped up so many
times in an outer covering that it can scarcely peep
through, now and then glancing forth bashfully and
inquisitively, like "young women peeping through
their veils," to use the words of that old woman-
hater, vEschylus. This kernel, however, is a witty
though often impertinent joke on intellectual sub-
jects, a subtle and daring combination of words,
such as is necessary in a society of thinkers as
gilding for a scientific pill—but, enveloped as it is
in an almost impenetrable cover, it exhibits itself
as the most abstruse science, and likewise as the
worst possible moral tediousness. Here the Ger-
mans had a permissible form of esprit and they
revelled in it with such boundless delight that
even Schopenhauer's unusually fine understanding
could not grasp it—during the whole of his life he
thundered against the spectacle that the Germans
offered to him, but he could never explain it.
194.
Vanity of the Teachers of Morals. —The
relatively small success which teachers of morals
have met with may be explained by the fact that
they wanted too much at once, i. e. they were too
ambitious and too fond of laying down preceots
for everybody. In other words, they were beating
the air and making speeches to animals in order to
N


## p. 194 (#236) ############################################

194 THE DAWN OF DAY.
turn them into men; what wonder, then, that the
animals thought this tedious! We should rather
choose limited circles and endeavour to find and
promote morals for them: for instance, we should
make speeches to wolves with the object of turning
them into dogs; but, above all, the greatest success
will remain for the man who does not seek to
educate either everybody or certain limited circles,
but only one single individual, and who cannot be
turned to the right or left from his straight purpose.
The last century was superior to ours precisely
because it possessed so many individually educated
men, as well as educators in the same proportion,
who had made this their life's task, and who with
this task were dignified not only in their own eyes
but in those of all the remaining " good society. "
195-
The so-called Classical Education. —
Alas!
we discover that our life is consecrated to
knowledge and that we should throw it away, nay,
that we should even have to throw it away if this
consecration did not protect us from ourselves: we
repeat this couplet, and not without deep emotion:
Thee, Fate, I follow, though I fain would not,
And yet I must, with many a sigh and groan!
And then, in looking backwards over the course of
our lives, we discover that there is one thing that
cannot be restored to us: the wasted period of our
youth, when our teachers did not utilise these ardent
and eager years to lead us to the knowledge of
things, but merely to this so-called " classical edu-
S


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THE DAWN OF DAY. 195
cation "! Only think of this wasted youth, when
we were inoculated clumsily and painfully with an
imperfect knowledge of the Greeks and Romans as
well as of their languages, contrary to the highest
principle of all culture, which holds that we should
not give food except to those who hunger for it!
Think of that period of our lives when we had
mathematics and physics forced down our throats,
instead of being first of all made acquainted with
the despair of ignorance, instead of having our little
daily life, our activities, and everything occurring
in our houses, our workshops, in the sky, and in
nature, split up into thousands of problems, pain-
ful, humiliating and irritating problems—and thus
having our curiosity made acquainted with the
fact that we first of all require a mathematical and
mechanical knowledge before we can be allowed
to rejoice in the absolute logic of this knowledge!
If we had only been imbued with reverence for
those branches of science, if we had only been made
to tremble with emotion—were it only for once—
at the struggles, the defeats, and the renewed
combats of those great men, of the martyrdom
which is the history of pure science! But, on the
contrary, we were allowed to develop a certain con-
tempt for those sciences in favour of historical
training, formal education * and "classicism. "
And we allowed ourselves to be so easily de-
* " Formal education" is the name given in Germany to
those branches of learning which tend to develop the logical
faculties, as opposed to "material" education which deals
with the acquisition of facts and all kinds of " useful" know-
ledge. —Tr.


## p. 196 (#238) ############################################

196 THE DAWN OF DAY.
ceived! Formal education! Might we not have
pointed to the best teachers at our high schools and
asked laughingly, " Where then do they keep their
formal education? and, if it is wanting in them,
how can they teach it? " And classicism! Did
we get any of that instruction which the ancients
used to impart to their youth? Did we learn to
speak or to write like them? Did we ceaselessly
exercise ourselves in that duel of speech, dialectic?
Did we learn to move as beautifully and proudly
as they did, and to excel as they did in wrestling,
throwing, and boxing? Did we learn anything of
that practical asceticism of all the Greek philo-
sophers? Did we receive any training in a single
ancient virtue, and in the way in which the ancients
were trained in it? Was not all meditation upon
morals wanting in our education ? —And how much
more the only possible criticism on the subject of
morality, those courageous and earnest attempts to
live according to this or that morality! Did our
teachers ever stir up a feeling in us which the ancients
valued more highly than moderns? Did they in the
spirit of the ancients indicate to us the divisions of
the day and of life, and those aims by which the lives
of the ancients were guided? Did we learn the
ancient languages as we now learn the modern ones,
viz. that we might speak them fluently and well?
Nowhere can we find a real proficiency or any new
faculty as the result of those toilsome years!
only the knowledge of what men had learnt and
were able to do in past ages!
And what knowledge! Nothing becomes clearer
to me year by year than the fact that the entire


## p. 197 (#239) ############################################

THE DAWN OF DAY. 197
Greek and ancient mode oflife, however simple and
evident it must seem to our eyes, is in truth very
difficult to understand, and even scarcely accessible,
and that the customary ease with which we babble
about the ancients is either giddy levity or the old
hereditary conceit of our thoughtlessness. We are
deceived by words and ideas which appear to re-
semble our own, but behind them there is always
concealed a feeling which must be strange, incom-
prehensible, or painful to our modern conceptions.
And these are realms in which boys are allowed
to roam about! Enough : we roamed about them
in our childhood, and there we became seized with
an almost ineradicable antipathy for all antiquity,
the antipathy arising from an intimacy which
was apparently too great! For so great is the
conceit of our classical teachers, who would almost
make it appear that they had gained full control
over the ancients, that they pass on this conceit to
their pupils, together with the suspicion that such
a possession is of little use for making people happy,
but is good enough for honest, foolish old book-
worms. "Let them brood over their treasure: it is
well worthy of them ! "—It is with this unexpressed
thought that we completed our classical education.
It can't be changed now—for us, at all events!
But let us not think of ourselves alone!
196.
The most personal Questions of Truth.
—What am I really doing, and what do I mean by
doing it? That is the question of truth which is
not taught under our present system of education,


## p. 198 (#240) ############################################

I98 THE DAWN OF DAY.
and consequently not asked, because there is no
time for it. On the other hand,we have always time
and inclination for talking nonsense with children,
rather than telling them the truth; for flattering
women who will later on be mothers, rather than
telling them the truth; and for speaking with young
men about their future and their pleasures, rather
than about the truth!
But what, after all, are seventy years! —Time
passes, and they soon come to an end ; it matters as
little to us as it does to the wave to know how and
whither it is rolling! No, it might even be wisdom
not to know it.
"Agreed; but it shows a want of pride not even
to inquire into the matter; our culture does not
tend to make people proud. "
"So much the better! "
"Is it really? "
197.
Enmity of the Germans towards En-
lightenment. —Let us consider the contributions
which in the first half of this century the Germans
made to general culture by their intellectual work.
In the first place, let us take the German philo-
sophers : they went back to the first and oldest stage
of speculation, for they were content with con-
ceptions instead of explanations, like the thinkers
of dreamy epochs—a pre-scientific type of philo-
sophy was thus revived by them. Secondly, we
have the German historians and romanticists: their
efforts on the whole aimed at restoring to the place
of honour certain old and primitive sentiments,


## p. 199 (#241) ############################################

THE DAWN OF DAY. 199
especially Christianity, the "soul of the people," folk-
lore, folk-speech, medievalism, Oriental asceticism,
and Hinduism. In the third place, there are the
natural philosophers who fought against the spirit
of Newton and Voltaire, and, like Goethe and
Schopenhauer, endeavoured to re-establish the idea
of a deified or diabolised nature, and of its absolute
ethical and symbolical meaning. The main general
tendency of the Germans was directed against
enlightenment and against those social revolutions
which were stupidly mistaken for the consequences
of enlightenment: the piety towards everything that
existed tried to become piety towards everything
that had ever existed, only in order that heart and
mind might be permitted to fill themselves and
gush forth again, thus leaving no space for future
and novel aims. The cult of feeling took the place
of the cult of reason, and the German musicians, as
the best exponents of all that is invisible, enthusi-
astic, legendary, and passionate, showed themselves
more successful in building up the new temple than
all the other artists in words and thoughts.
If, in considering these details, we have taken into
account the fact that many good things were said
and investigated, and that many things have since
then been more fairly judged than on any previous
occasion, there yet remains to be said of the whole
that it was a general danger, and one by no means
small, to set knowledge altogether below feeling
under the appearance of an entire and definitive ac-
quaintance with the past—and, to use that expres-
sion of Kant, who thus defined his own particular
task—" To make way again for belief by fixing the


## p. 200 (#242) ############################################

200 THE DAWN OF DAY.
limits of knowledge. " Let us once more breathe
freely, the hour of this danger is past! And yet,
strange to say, the very spirits which these Germans
conjured up with such eloquence have at length be-
come the most dangerous for the intentions of those
who did conjure them up: history, thecomprehension
of origin and development, sympathy with the past,
the new passion for feeling and knowledge, after
they had been for a long time at the service of this
obscure exalted and retrograde spirit, have once
more assumed another nature, and are now soaring
with outstretched wings above the heads of those
who once upon a time conjured them forth, as new
and stronger genii of that very enlightenment to
combat which they had been resuscitated. It is this
enlightenment which we have now to carry forward,
—caring nothing for the fact that there has been
and still is "a great revolution," and again a great
"reaction " against it: these are but playful crests
of foam when compared with the truly great current
on which we float, and want to float.
198.
Assigning Prestige to one's Country. —
It is the men of culture who determine the rank
of their country, and they are characterised by an
innumerable number of great inward experiences,
which they have digested and can now value
justly. In France and Italy this fell to the lot of
the nobility; in Germany, where up to now the
nobility has been, as a rule, composed of men who
had not much intellect to boast about (perhaps this


## p. 201 (#243) ############################################

THE DAWN OF DAY.
201
will soon cease to be the case), it was the task of the
priests, the school teachers and their descendants.
199.
WE ARE NOBLER. --Fidelity, generosity, con-
cern for one's good reputation: these three qualities,
combined in one sentiment, we call noble, dis-
tinguished, aristocratic; and in this respect we excel
the Greeks. We do not wish to give this up at
any cost under the pretext that the ancient objects
of these virtues have rightly fallen in esteem, but
we wish cautiously to substitute new objects for
these most precious and hereditary impulses. To
understand why the sentiments of the noblest
Greeks must be considered as inferior and scarcely
respectable in the present age, where we are still
under the influence of the chivalric and feudal
nobility, we must recall the words of consolation to
which Ulysses gave utterance in the midst of the
most humiliating situations, “ Bear with it, my dear
heart, bear with it! Thou hast borne with many
more swinish things * than these! ” As an instance
of this mythical example, consider also the tale of
that Athenian officer, who, when threatened with
a stick by another officer in the presence of the
entire general staff, shook off his disgrace with the
words, “Strike, but listen to me. ” (This was
Themistocles, that ingenious Ulysses of the classical
* The reference is to the Odyssey, xx. 18: “TéThadi on,
kpadin. kai kúvtepov aklo tor' érins . . . " etc. Kúvtepos, from
kúwv, "a dog,” lit. more dog-like, i. e. shameless, horrible,
audacious. —TR.


## p. (#244) ################################################

200
THE DAWN OF DAY.
limits of knowledge. " Let us once more breathe
freely, the hour of this danger is past! And yet,
strange to say, the very spirits which these Germans
conjured up with such eloquence have at length be-
come the most dangerous for the intentions of those
who did conjure them up: history, thecomprehension
of origin and development, sympathy with the past,
the new passion for feeling and knowledge, after
they had been for a long time at the service of this
obscure exalted and retrograde spirit, have once
more assumed another nature, and are now soaring
with outstretched wings above the heads of those
who once upon a time conjured them forth, as new
and stronger genii of that very enlightenment to
combat which they had been resuscitated. It is this
enlightenment which we have now to carry forward,
-caring nothing for the fact that there has been
and still is a great revolution," and again a great
“ reaction " against it: these are but playful crests
of foam when compared with the truly great current
on which we float, and want to float.
198.
ASSIGNING PRESTIGE TO ONE'S COUNTRY. -
It is the men of culture who determine the rank
of their country, and they are characterised by an
innumerable number of great inward experiences,
which they have digested and can now value
justly. In France and Italy this fell to the lot of
the nobility ; in Germany, where up to now the
nobility has been, as a rule, composed of men who
had not much intellect to boast about (perhaps this


## p. 199 (#245) ############################################

THE DAWN OF DAY.
201
will soon cease to be the case), it was the task of the
priests, the school teachers and their descendants.
199.
WE ARE NOBLER. -—Fidelity, generosity, con-
cern for one's good reputation: these three qualities,
combined in one sentiment, we call noble, dis-
tinguished, aristocratic; and in this respect we excel
the Greeks. We do not wish to give this up at
any cost under the pretext that the ancient objects
of these virtues have rightly fallen in esteem, but
we wish cautiously to substitute new objects for
these most precious and hereditary impulses. To
understand why the sentiments of the noblest
Greeks must be considered as inferior and scarcely
respectable in the present age, where we are still
under the influence of the chivalric and feudal
nobility, we must recall the words of consolation to
which Ulysses gave utterance in the midst of the
most humiliating situations, “ Bear with it, my dear
heart, bear with it! Thou hast borne with many
more swinish things * than these! ” As an instance
of this mythical example, consider also the tale of
that Athenian officer, who, when threatened with
a stick by another officer in the presence of the
entire general staff, shook off his disgrace with the
words, “Strike, but listen to me. " (This was
Themistocles, that ingenious Ulysses of the classical
* The reference is to the Odyssey, xx. 18 : “ Térdadi sń,
kpadin. kaì kúvtepov aklo nor' érins . . . " etc. Kúvtepos, from
kúwv, "a dog," lit. more dog-like, i. e. shameless, horrible,
audacious. -TR.


## p. 200 (#246) ############################################

200
THE DAWN OF DAY.
limits of knowledge. " Let us once more breathe
freely, the hour of this danger is past! And yet,
strange to say, the very spirits which these Germans
conjured up with such eloquence have at length be-
come the most dangerous for the intentions of those
who did conjure them up: history, thecomprehension
of origin and development, sympathy with the past,
the new passion for feeling and knowledge, after
they had been for a long time at the service of this
obscure exalted and retrograde spirit, have once
more assumed another nature, and are now soaring
with outstretched wings above the heads of those
who once upon a time conjured them forth, as new
and stronger genii of that very enlightenment to
combat which they had been resuscitated. It is this
enlightenment which we have now to carry forward,
-caring nothing for the fact that there has been
and still is “a great revolution," and again a great
"reaction" against it: these are but playful crests
of foam when compared with the truly great current
on which we float, and want to float.
198.
ASSIGNING PRESTIGE TO ONE'S COUNTRY. -
It is the men of culture who determine the rank
of their country, and they are characterised by an
innumerable number of great inward experiences,
which they have digested and can now value
justly. In France and Italy this fell to the lot of
the nobility; in Germany, where up to now the
nobility has been, as a rule, composed of men who
had not much intellect to boast about (perhaps this


## p. 201 (#247) ############################################

THE DAWN OF DAY.
201
will soon cease to be the case), it was the task of the
priests, the school teachers and their descendants.
199.
WE ARE NOBLER. --Fidelity, generosity, con-
cern for one's good reputation: these three qualities,
combined in one sentiment, we call noble, dis-
tinguished, aristocratic; and in this respect we excel
the Greeks. We do not wish to give this up at
any cost under the pretext that the ancient objects
of these virtues have rightly fallen in esteem, but
we wish cautiously to substitute new objects for
these most precious and hereditary impulses. To
understand why the sentiments of the noblest
Greeks must be considered as inferior and scarcely
respectable in the present age, where we are still
under the influence of the chivalric and feudal
nobility, we must recall the words of consolation to
which Ulysses gave utterance in the midst of the
most humiliating situations, “ Bear with it, my dear
heart, bear with it! Thou hast borne with many
more swinish things * than these! ” As an instance
of this mythical example, consider also the tale of
that Athenian officer, who, when threatened with
a stick by another officer in the presence of the
entire general staff, shook off his disgrace with the
words,“ Strike, but listen to me. ” (This was
Themistocles, that ingenious Ulysses of the classical
* The reference is to the Odyssey, xx. 18: “Tétlaði on,
kpadin. kaì kúvtepov allo mot' érins . . . " etc. Kúvtepos, from
kuwv, "a dog," lit. more dog-like, i. e. shameless, horrible,
audacious. —TR.


## p. (#248) ################################################

200
THE DAWN OF DAY.
limits of knowledge. " Let us once more breathe
freely, the hour of this danger is past! And yet,
strange to say, the very spirits which these Germans
conjured up with such eloquence have at length be-
come the most dangerous for the intentions of those
who did conjure them up: history, thecomprehension
of origin and development, sympathy with the past,
the new passion for feeling and knowledge, after
they had been for a long time at the service of this
obscure exalted and retrograde spirit, have once
more assumed another nature, and are now soaring
with outstretched wings above the heads of those
who once upon a time conjured them forth, as new
and stronger genii of that very enlightenment to
combat which they had been resuscitated. It is this
enlightenment which we have now to carry forward,
-caring nothing for the fact that there has been
and still is “a great revolution,” and again a great
"reaction " against it: these are but playful crests
of foam when compared with the truly great current
on which we float, and want to float.
198.
ASSIGNING PRESTIGE TO ONE'S COUNTRY. -
It is the men of culture who determine the rank
of their country, and they are characterised by an
innumerable number of great inward experiences,
which they have digested and can now value
justly. In France and Italy this fell to the lot of
the nobility ; in Germany, where up to now the
nobility has been, as a rule, composed of men who
had not much intellect to boast about (perhaps this


## p. 199 (#249) ############################################

THE DAWN OF DAY.
201
will soon cease to be the case), it was the task of the
priests, the school teachers and their descendants.
199.
WE ARE NOBLER. -—Fidelity, generosity, con-
cern for one's good reputation: these three qualities,
combined in one sentiment, we call noble, dis-
tinguished, aristocratic; and in this respect we excel
the Greeks. We do not wish to give this up at
any cost under the pretext that the ancient objects
of these virtues have rightly fallen in esteem, but
we wish cautiously to substitute new objects for
these most precious and hereditary impulses. To
understand why the sentiments of the noblest
Greeks must be considered as inferior and scarcely
respectable in the present age, where we are still
under the influence of the chivalric and feudal
nobility, we must recall the words of consolation to
which Ulysses gave utterance in the midst of the
most humiliating situations, “ Bear with it, my dear
heart, bear with it! Thou hast borne with many
more swinish things * than these! ” As an instance
of this mythical example, consider also the tale of
that Athenian officer, who, when threatened with
a stick by another officer in the presence of the
entire general staff, shook off his disgrace with the
words,“ Strike, but listen to me. ” (This was
Themistocles, that ingenious Ulysses of the classical
* The reference is to the Odyssey, xx. 18: “Tétladı on,
kpaðin. kaì kúvtepov ärlo tot' érins . . . " etc. Kúvtepos, from
kuwv, “a dog," lit. more dog-like, i. e. shameless, horrible,
audacious. —TR.


## p. 200 (#250) ############################################

200
THE DAWN OF DAY.
limits of knowledge. " Let us once more breathe
freely, the hour of this danger is past! And yet,
strange to say, the very spirits which these Germans
conjured up with such eloquence have at length be-
come the most dangerous for the intentions of those
who did conjure them up: history, thecomprehension
of origin and development, sympathy with the past,
the new passion for feeling and knowledge, after
they had been for a long time at the service of this
obscure exalted and retrograde spirit, have once
more assumed another nature, and are now soaring
with outstretched wings above the heads of those
who once upon a time conjured them forth, as new
and stronger genii of that very enlightenment to
combat which they had been resuscitated. It is this
enlightenment which we have now to carry forward,
-caring nothing for the fact that there has been
and still is “a great revolution," and again a great
"reaction " against it: these are but playful crests
of foam when compared with the truly great current
on which we float, and want to float.
198.
ASSIGNING PRESTIGE TO ONE'S COUNTRY. -
It is the men of culture who determine the rank
of their country, and they are characterised by an
innumerable number of great inward experiences,
which they have digested and can now value
justly. In France and Italy this fell to the lot of
the nobility; in Germany, where up to now the
nobility has been, as a rule, composed of men who
had not much intellect to boast about (perhaps this


## p. 201 (#251) ############################################

THE DAWN OF DAY.
201
will soon cease to be the case), it was the task of the
priests, the school teachers and their descendants.
199.
WE ARE NOBLER. --Fidelity, generosity, con-
cern for one's good reputation: these three qualities,
combined in one sentiment, we call noble, dis-
tinguished, aristocratic; and in this respect we excel
the Greeks.