No More Learning

5 I
When we examine the history of philology it is
borne in upon us how few really talented men have
taken part in it. Among the most celebrated philo-
logists are a few who ruined their intellect by
acquiring a smattering of many subjects, and
among the most enlightened of them were several
who could use their intellect only for childish tasks.
It is a sad story: no science, I think, has ever been
so poor in talented followers. Those whom we
might call the intellectually crippled found a suit-
able hobby in all this hair-splitting.
52
The teacher of reading and writing, and the re-
viser, were the first types of the philologist.
53
Friedrich August Wolf reminds us how appre-
hensive and feeble were the first steps taken by our
ancestors in moulding scholarship—how even the
Latin classics, for example, had to be smuggled
into the university market under all sorts of pre-
texts, as if they had been contraband goods. In
the “Göttingen Lexicon. ” of 1737, J. M. Gesner tells
us of the Odes of Horace: “ut imprimis, quid pro-
desse in severioribus studiis possint, ostendat. ”


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WE PHILOLOGISTS I4 I
54
I was pleased to read of Bentley: “non tam
grande pretium emendatiunculis meis statuere
soleo, ut singularem aliquam gratiam inde sperem
aut exigam. ”
Newton was surprised that men like Bentley and
Hare should quarrel about a book of ancient
comedies, since they were both theological digni-
taries.
55 -
Horace was summoned by Bentley as before a
judgment seat, the authority of which he would
have been the first to repudiate. The admiration
which a discriminating man acquires as a philologist
is in proportion to the rarity of the discrimination
to be found in philologists. Bentley's treatment of
Horace has something of the schoolmaster about it.
It would appear at first sight as if Horace himself
were not the object of discussion, but rather the
various scribes and commentators who have handed
down the text: in reality, however, it is actually
Horace who is being dealt with. It is my firm con-
viction that to have written a single line which is
deemed worthy of being commented upon by scho-
lars of a later time, far outweighs the merits of the
greatest critic. There is a profound modesty about
philologists. The improving of texts is an enter-
taining piece of work for scholars, it is a kind of
riddle-solving; but it should not be looked upon as
a very important task. It would be an argument
against antiquity if it should speak less clearly to
us because a million words stood in the way!


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I42 WE PHILOLOGISTS
56
A school-teacher said to Bentley: “Sir, I will
make your grandchild as great a scholar as you
are yourself. ” “How can you do that,” replied
Bentley, “when I have forgotten more than you
ever knew P”
57
Bentley's clever daughter Joanna once lamented
to her father that he had devoted his time and talents
to the criticism of the works of others instead of
writing something original. Bentley remained silent
for some time as if he were turning the matter over
in his mind. At last he said that her remark was
quite right: he himself felt that he might have
directed his gifts in some other channel. Earlier
in life, nevertheless, he had done something for the
glory of God and the improvement of his fellow-
men (referring to his “Confutation of Atheism”),
but afterwards the genius of the pagans had attracted
him, and, despairing of attaining their level in any
other way, he had mounted upon their shoulders so
that he might thus be able to look over their heads.
58
Bentley, says Wolf, both as man of letters and
individual, was misunderstood and persecuted
during the greater part of his life, or else praised
maliciously.
Markland, towards the end of his life—as was
the case with so many others like him—became
imbued with a repugnance for all scholarly reputa-
tion, to such an extent, indeed, that he partly tore


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WE PHILOLOGISTS I43
up and partly burnt several works which he had
long had in hand.
Wolf says: “The amount of intellectual food that
can be got from well-digested scholarship is a very
insignificant item. ”
In Winckelmann's youth there were no philologi-
cal studies apart from the ordinary bread-winning
branches of the science—people read and explained
the ancients in order to prepare themselves for the
better interpretation of the Bible and the Corpus
Juris.
59
In Wolf's estimation, a man has reached the
highest point of historical research when he is able
to take a wide and general view of the whole and
of the profoundly conceived distinctions in the de-
velopments in art and the different styles of art.
Wolf acknowledges, however, that Winckelmann
was lacking in the more common talent of philo-
logical criticism, or else he could not use it properly:
“A rare mixture of a cool head and a minute and
restless solicitude for hundreds of things which, in-
significant in themselves, were combined in his case
with a fire that swallowed up those little things, and
with a gift of divination which is a vexation and an
annoyance to the uninitiated. ”
6O
Wolf draws our attention to the fact that anti-
quity was acquainted only with theories of oratory
and poetry which facilitated production, réxval and
artes that formed real orators and poets, “while at
the present day we shall soon have theories upon


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I44 WE PHILOLOGISTS
which it would be as impossible to build up a speech
or a poem as it would be to form a thunderstorm
upon a brontological treatise. ”
6I
Wolf's judgment on the amateurs of philological
knowledge is noteworthy: “If they found them-
selves provided by nature with a mind correspond-
ing to that of the ancients, or if they were capable
of adapting themselves to other points of view and
other circumstances of life, then, with even a nod-
ding acquaintance with the best writers, they cer-
tainly acquired more from those vigorous natures,
those splendid examples of thinking and acting, than
most of those did who during their whole life merely
offered themselves to them as interpreters. ”
62
Says Wolf again: “In the end, only those few
ought to attain really complete knowledge who are
born with artistic talent and furnished with scholar-
ship, and who make use of the best opportunities
of securing, both theoretically and practically, the
necessary technical knowledge. ” True !
63
Instead of forming our students on the Latin
models I recommend the Greek, especially Demos-
thenes: simplicity This may be seen by a refer-
ence to Leopardi, who is perhaps the greatest stylist
of the century.
64
“Classical education”: what do people see in it?
Something that is useless beyond rendering a period


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WE PHILOLOGISTS I45
of military service unnecessary and securing a
degree | *
65
When I observe how all countries are now pro-
moting the advancement of classical literature I
say to myself, “How harmless it must bel" and
then, “How useful it must be l’” It brings these
countries the reputation of promoting “free culture. ”
In order that this “freedom” may be rightly esti-
mated, just look at the philologists |
66
Classical education 1 Yea, if there were only as
much paganism as Goethe found and glorified in
Winckelmann, even that would not be much.
Now, however, that the lying Christendom of our
time has taken hold of it, the thing becomes over-
powering, and I cannot help expressing my disgust
on the point. —People firmly believe in witchcraft
where this “classical education” is concerned. They,
however, who possess the greatest knowledge of anti-
quity should likewise possess the greatest amount
of culture, viz. , our philologists; but what is classical
about them P
67
Classical philology is the basis of the most shallow
rationalism: always having been dishonestly applied,
it has gradually become quite ineffective. Its effect
is one more illusion of the modern man. Philolo-
gists are nothing but a guild of sky-pilots who are
* Students who pass certain examinations need only serve
one year in the German Army instead of the usual two or
three. —TR.
IO


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146 WE PHILOLOGISTS
|
not known as such : this is why the State takes an
interest in them. The utility of classical education
is completely used up, whilst, for example, the
history of Christianity still shows its power.
68
Philologists, when discussing their science, never
get down to the root of the subject: they never set
forth philology itself as a problem. Bad conscience 2
or merely thoughtlessness?
69
We learn nothing from what philologists say
about philology: it is all mere tittle-tattle—for
example, Jahn's. " “The Meaning and Place of the
Study of Antiquity in Germany. ” There is no
feeling for what should be protected and defended :
thus speak people who have not even thought of
the possibility that any one could attack them.
7O
Philologists are people who exploit the vaguely-
felt dissatisfaction of modern man, and his desire
for “something better,” in order that they may earn
their bread and butter.
I know them—I myself am one of them.
71
Our philologists stand in the same relation to
true educators as the medicine-men of the wild
Indians do to true physicians. What astonishment
will be felt by a later age
* Otto Jahn (1813-69), who is probably best remembered
in philological circles by his edition of Juvenal. —TR.


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WE PHILOLOGISTS I47
72
What they lack is a real taste for the strong and
powerful characteristics of the ancients. They turn
into mere panegyrists, and thus become ridiculous.
73
They have forgotten how to address other men;
and, as they cannot speak to the older people, they
cannot do so to the young.
74
When we bring the Greeks to the knowledge of
our young students, we are treating the latter as if
they were well-informed and matured men. What,
indeed, is there about the Greeks and their ways
which is suitable for the young P In the end we
shall find that we can do nothing for them beyond
giving them isolated details. Are these observa-
tions for young people? What we actually do,
however, is to introduce our young scholars to
the collective wisdom of antiquity. Or do we
not? The reading of the ancients is emphasised
in this way.
My belief is that we are forced to concern our-
selves with antiquity at a wrong period of our lives.
At the end of the twenties its meaning begins to
dawn on one.
75
There is something disrespectful about the way
in which we make our young students known to
the ancients: what is worse, it is unpedagogical;
for what can result from a mere acquaintance with


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148 WE PHILOLOGISTS
things which a youth cannot consciously esteem!
Perhaps he must learn to “believe,” and this is why
I object to it.
76
There are matters regarding which antiquity in-
structs us, and about which I should hardly care to
express myself publicly.
77
All the difficulties of historical study to be eluci-
dated by great examples. *
Why our young students are not suited to the
Greeks.
The consequences of philology:
Arrogant expectation.
Culture-philistinism.
Superficiality.
Too high an esteem for reading and writing.
Estrangement from the nation and its needs.
The philologists themselves, the historians, philo-
sophers, and jurists all end in smoke.
Our young students should be brought into con-
tact with real sciences.
Likewise with real art.
In consequence, when they grew older, a desire
for real history would be shown.
78
Inhumanity: even in the “Antigone,” even in
Goethe's “Iphigenia. ”
The want of “rationalism" in the Greeks.
Young people cannot understand the political
affairs of antiquity.
The poetic element: a bad expectation.


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WE PHILOLOGISTS I49
79
Do the philologists know the present time?
Their judgments on it as Periclean; their mistaken
judgments when they speak of Freytag's" genius as
resembling that of Homer, and so on; their fol-
lowing in the lead of the littérateurs; their abandon-
ment of the pagan sense, which was exactly the
classical element that Goethe discovered in Winckel-
mann.
8O
The condition of the philologists may be seen
by their indifference at the appearance of Wagner.
They should have learnt even more through him
than through Goethe, and they did not even glance
in his direction. That shows that they are not
actuated by any strong need, or else they would
have an instinct to tell them where their food was
to be found.
8I
Wagner prizes his art too highly to go and sit in
a corner with it, like Schumann. He either sur-
renders himself to the public (“Rienzi”) or he
makes the public surrender itself to him. He edu-
cates it up to his music. Minor artists, too, want
their public, but they try to get it by inartistic
means, such as through the Press, Hanslick, &c.
82
Wagner perfected the inner fancy of man: later
generations will see a renaissance in sculpture.
Poetry must precede the plastic art.
* Gustav Freytag : at one time a famous German novelist.
—TR.
+ A well-known anti-Wagnerian musical critic of Vienna.
—TR.


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I 50 WE PHILOLOGISTS
83
I observe in philologists:
1. Want of respect for antiquity.
2. Tenderness and flowery oratory; even an
apologetic tone.
3. Simplicity in their historical comments.
4. Self-conceit.
5. Under-estimation of the talented philologists.
84
Philologists appear to me to be a secret society
who wish to train our youth by means of the cul-
ture of antiquity: I could well understand this
society and their views being criticised from all
sides. A great deal would depend upon knowing
what these philologists understood by the term
“culture of antiquity. ”—If I saw, for example, that
they were training their pupils against German philo-
sophy and German music, I should either set about
combating them or combating the culture of anti-
quity, perhaps the former, by showing that these
philologists had not understood the culture of anti-
quity. Now I observe:
1. A great indecision in the valuation of the
culture of antiquity on the part of philologists.
2. Something very non-ancient in themselves;
something non-free.
3. Want of clearness in regard to the particular
type of ancient culture they mean.
4. Want of judgment in their methods of instruc-
tion, e. g. , scholarship.
5. Classical education is served out mixed up with
Christianity.


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WE PHILOLOGISTS I5 I
85
It is now no longer a matter of surprise to me
that, with such teachers, the education of our time
should be worthless. I can never avoid depicting
this want of education in its true colours, especially
in regard to those things which ought to be learnt
from antiquity if possible, for example, writing,
speaking, and so on.
86
The transmission of the emotions is hereditary:
let that be recollected when we observe the effect
of the Greeks upon philologists.
87
Even in the best of cases, philologists seek for no
more than mere “rationalism" and Alexandrian
culture—not Hellenism.
88
Very little can be gained by mere diligence, if
the head is dull. Philologist after philologist has
swooped down on Homer in the mistaken belief
that something of him can be obtained by force.
Antiquity speaks to us when it feels a desire to do
so ; not when we do.
89
The inherited characteristic of our present-day
philologists: a certain sterility of insight has re-
sulted; for they promote the science, but not the
philologist,


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I 52 WE PHILOLOGISTS
90
The following is one way of carrying on classical
studies, and a frequent one: a man throws himself
thoughtlessly, or is thrown, into some special branch
or other, whence he looks to the right and left and
sees a great deal that is good and new. Then, in
some unguarded moment, he asks himself: “But
what the devil has all this to do with me? ” In the
meantime he has grown old and has become accus-
tomed to it all; and therefore he continues in his
rut—just as in the case of marriage.
9I
In connection with the training of the modern
philologist the influence of the science of linguistics
should be mentioned and judged; a philologist
should rather turn aside from it: the question of
the early beginnings of the Greeks and Romans
should be nothing to him : how can they spoil their
own subject in such a way?
92
A morbid passion often makes its appearance
from time to time in connection with the oppressive
uncertainty of divination, a passion for believing and
feeling sure at all costs: for example, when dealing
with Aristotle, or in the discovery of magic numbers,
which, in Lachmann's case, is almost an illness.
93
The consistency which is prized in a savant is
pedantry if applied to the Greeks,


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WE PHILOLOGISTS
I53
94
(THE GREEKS AND THE PHILOLOGISTS. )
THE GREEKS:
renderhomage to beauty,
develop the body,
speak clearly,
arereligious transfigurers
of everyday occur-
rences,
are listeners and ob-
servers,
have an aptitude for the
symbolical,
are in full possession of
their freedom as men,
can look innocently out
into the world,
are the pessimists of
THE PHILOLOGISTS are:
babblers and triflers,
ugly-looking creatures,
stammerers,
filthy pedants,
quibblers and scarecrows,
unfitted for the symboli-
cal,
ardent
State,
Christians in disguise,
slaves of the
philistines.
thought.
* 95
Bergk's “History of Literature”: Not a spark of
Greek fire or Greek sense.
J 96
People really do compare our own age with that
of Pericles, and congratulate themselves on the re-
awakening of the feeling of patriotism: I remember
a parody on the funeral oration of Pericles by G.
Freytag,” in which this prim and strait-laced
“poet” depicted the happiness now experienced by
sixty-year-old men. —All pure and simple carica-
* See note on p. 149. -TR,


## p. 154 (#190) ############################################

I54 WE PHILOLOGISTS
ture! So this is the result! And sorrow and irony
and seclusion are all that remain for him who has
seen more of antiquity than this.
97
If we change a single word of Lord Bacon's we
may say: infimarum Graecorum virtutum apud philo-
logos laus est, mediarum admiratio, supremarum
sensus nullus.
98
How can anyone glorify and venerate a whole
people! It is the individuals that count, even in
the case of the Greeks.
99
There is a great deal of caricature even about the
Greeks: for example, the careful attention devoted
by the Cynics to their own happiness.
IOO
The only thing that interests me is the relation-
ship of the people considered as a whole to the
training of the single individuals: and in the case
of the Greeks there are some factors which are very
favourable to the development of the individual.
They do not, however, arise from the goodwill of
the people, but from the struggle between the evil
instincts.
By means of happy inventions and discoveries,
we can train the individual differently and more
highly than has yet been done by mere chance and
accident. There are still hopes: the breeding of
superior men,


## p. 155 (#191) ############################################

WE PHILOLOGISTS I 55
IOI
The Greeks are interesting and quite dispro-
portionately important because they had such a
host of great individuals. How was that possible?
This point must be studied.
IO2
The history of Greece has hitherto always been
written optimistically.
IO3
Selected points from antiquity: the power, fire,
and swing of the feeling the ancients had for music
(through the first Pythian Ode), purity in their his-
torical sense, gratitude for the blessings of culture,
the fire and corn feasts.
The ennoblement of jealousy: the Greeks the
most jealous nation.
Suicide, hatred of old age, of penury. Empe-
docles on sexual love.
IO4
Nimble and healthy bodies, a clear and deep
sense for the observation of everyday matters, manly
freedom, belief in good racial descent and good
upbringing, warlike virtues, jealousy in the dpurrečew,
delight in the arts, respect for leisure, a sense for
free individuality, for the symbolical.
IO5
The spiritual culture of Greece an aberration of
the amazing political impulse towards āpurrečev.
The tróAts utterly opposed to new education; culture
nevertheless existed,


## p. 156 (#192) ############################################

156 WE PHILOLOGISTS
IO6
When I say that, all things considered, the Greeks
were more moral than modern men: what do I mean
by that? From what we can perceive of the activi-
ties of their soul, it is clear that they had no shame,
they had no bad conscience. They were more sin-
cere, open-hearted, and passionate, as artists are ;
they exhibited a kind of child-like maiveté. It thus
came about that even in all their evil actions they had
a dash of purity about them, something approaching
the holy. A remarkable number of individualities:
might there not have been a higher morality in that?
When we recollect that character develops slowly,
what can it be that, in the long run, breeds indi-
viduality? Perhaps vanity, emulation ? Possibly.
Little inclination for conventional things.
Io?
The Greeks as the geniuses among the nations.
Their childlike nature, credulousness.
Passionate. Quite unconsciously they lived in such
a way as to procreate genius. Enemies of shyness
and dulness. Pain. Injudicious actions.
The nature
of their intuitive insight into misery, despite their
bright and genial temperament. Profoundness in
their apprehension and glorifying of everyday things
(fire, agriculture). Mendacious, unhistorical. The
significance of the tróAts in culture instinctively re-
cognised; favourable as a centre and periphery for
great men (the facility of surveying a community,
and also the possibility of addressing it as a whole).
Individuality raised to the highest power through
the TóAts. Envy, jealousy, as among gifted people.
–


## p. 157 (#193) ############################################

WE PHILOLOGISTS I 57
IO8
The Greeks were lacking in sobriety and caution.
Over-sensibility; abnormally active condition of the
brain and the nerves; impetuosity and fervour of
the will.
IO9
“Invariably to see the general in the particular is
the distinguishing characteristic of genius,” says
Schopenhauer. Think of Pindar, &c. —“Xopporávn,”
according to Schopenhauer, has its roots in the clear-
ness with which the Greeks saw into themselves and
into the world at large, and thence became conscious
of themselves.
The “wide separation of will and intellect” indi-
cates the genius, and is seen in the Greeks.
“The melancholy associated with genius is due to
the fact that the will to live, the more clearly it is
illuminated by the contemplating intellect, appre-
ciates all the more clearly the misery of its condi-
tion,” says Schopenhauer. Cf. the Greeks.
I IO
The moderation of the Greeks in their sensual
luxury, eating, and drinking, and their pleasure
therein; the Olympic plays and their worship: that
shows what they were.
In the case of the genius, “the intellect will point
out the faults which are seldom absent in an instru-
ment that is put to a use for which it was not
intended. ”
“The will is often left in the lurch at an awkward
moment: hence genius, where real life is concerned,
|
|



## p. 158 (#194) ############################################

158 WE PHILOLOGISTS
is more or less unpractical—its behaviour often re-
minds us of madness. ”
III
We contrast the Romans, with their matter-of-
fact earnestness, with the genial Greeks' Scho-
penhauer: “The stern, practical, earnest mode of
life which the Romans called gravitas presupposes
that the intellect does not forsake the service of
the will in order to roam far off among things that
have no connection with the will. ”
II2
It would have been much better if the Greeks
had been conquered by the Persians instead of by
the Romans.
II 3
The characteristics of the gifted man who is
| lacking in genius are to be found in the average
. Hellene—all the dangerous characteristics of such
a disposition and character.
II4
Genius makes tributaries of all partly-talented
people: hence the Persians themselves sent their
ambassadors to the Greek oracles.
II5
The happiest lot that can fall to the genius is to
exchange doing and acting for leisure; and this was
something the Greeks knew how to value. The
blessings of labour ! Wugari was the Roman name
for all the exertions and aspirations of the Greeks.
.


## p. 159 (#195) ############################################

WE PHILOLOGISTS I 59
No happy course of life is open to the genius; he
stands in contradiction to his age and must perforce
struggle with it. Thus the Greeks: they instinctively
made the utmost exertions to secure a safe refuge
for themselves (in the polis). Finally, everything
went to pieces in politics. They were compelled to
take up a stand against their enemies: this became
ever more and more difficult, and at last impossible.
II6
Greek culture is based on the lordship of a small
class over four to nine times their number of slaves.
Judged by mere numbers, Greece was a country in-
habited by barbarians. How can the ancients be
thought to be humane? There was a great contrast
between the genius and the breadwinner, the half-
beast of burden. The Greeks believed in a racial
distinction. Schopenhauer wonders why Nature
did not take it into her head to invent two entirely
separate species of men.
The Greeks bear the same relation to the bar-
barians “as free-moving or winged animals do to
the barnacles which cling tightly to the rocks and
must await what fate chooses to send them *-
Schopenhauer's simile.
I 17
The Greeks as the only people of genius in the
history of the world. Such they are even when
considered as learners; for they understand this
best of all, and can do more than merely trim and
adorn themselves with what they have borrowed, as
did the Romans.



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I6O WE PHILOLOGISTS
|
|
The constitution of the polis is a Phoenician in-
vention: even this has been imitated by the Hellenes.
For a long time they dabbled in everything, like joy-
ful dilettanti. Aphrodite is likewise Phoenician.
Neither do they disavow what has come to them
through immigration and does not originally belong
to their own country. -*
II. 8
The happy and comfortable constitution of the
politico-social position must not be sought among
the Greeks: that is a goal which dazzles the eyes
of our dreamers of the future | It was, on the con-
trary, dreadful ; for this is a matter that must be
judged according to the following standard: the
more spirit, the more suffering (as the Greeks them-
selves prove). Whence it follows: the more stupidity,
, the more comfort. The philistine of culture is the
most comfortable creature the sun has ever shone
upon : and he is doubtless also in possession of the
corresponding stupidity.
II9 -
The Greek polis and the aiev dowrreóew grew up
out of mutual enmity. Hellenic and philanthropic
are contrary adjectives, although the ancients flat-
tered themselves sufficiently.
Homer is, in the world of the Hellenic discord,
the pan-Hellenic Greek. The “dyāv" of the Greeks
is also manifested in the Symposium in the shape of
witty conversation.
I2O
Wanton, mutual annihilation inevitable: so long
as a single polis wished to exist—its envy for every-


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WE PIHILOLOGISTS I61
thing superior to itself, its cupidity, the disorder of
its customs, the enslavement of the women, lack
of conscience in the keeping of oaths, in murder,
and in cases of violent death.
Tremendous power of self-control: for example
in a man like Socrates, who was capable of every-
thing evil.
I2 I
Its noble sense of order and systematic arrange-
ment had rendered the Athenian state immortal. —
The ten strategists in Athens! Foolish ' Too big
a sacrifice on the altar of jealousy.
I22
The recreations of the Spartans consisted of feast-
ing, hunting, and making war: their every-day life
was too hard. On the whole, however, their state is
merely a caricature of the polis; a corruption of
Hellas. The breeding of the complete Spartan–
but what was there great about him that his breed-
ing should have required such a brutal state
I23
The political defeatof Greece is the greatest failure
of culture; for it has given rise to the atrocious
theory that culture cannot be pursued unless one is
at the same time armed to the teeth. The rise of
Christianity was the second greatest failure: brute
force on the one hand, and a dull intellect on the
other, won a complete victory over the aristocratic
genius among the nations. To be a Philhellenist
now means to be a foe of brute force and stupid
intellects. Sparta was the ruin of Athens in so far

II


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I62 WE PHILOLOGISTS
as she compelled Athens to turn her entire attention
to politics and to act as a federal combination.
I24
There are domains of thought where the ratio
will only give rise to disorder; and the philologist,
who possesses nothing more, is lost through it and
is unable to see the truth: e. g. , in the consideration
of Greek mythology. A merely fantastic person, of
course, has no claim either: one must possess Greek
imagination and also a certain amount of Greek
piety. Even the poet does not require to be too
consistent, and consistency is the last thing Greeks
would understand.
125
Almost all the Greek divinities are accumulations
of divinities: we find one layer over another, soon to
be hidden and smoothed down by yet a third, and
so on. It scarcely seems to me to be possible to
pick these various divinities to pieces in a scientific
manner; for no good method of doing so can be
recommended: even the poor conclusion by analogy
is in this instance a very good conclusion.
I26
At what a distance must one be from the Greeks
to ascribe to them such a stupidly narrow autoch-
thony as does Ottfried Müller " How Christian it
is to assume, with Welcker,t that the Greeks were
* Karl Ottfried Müller (1797-1840), classical archaeologist,
who devoted special attention to Greece. —TR.
t Friedrich Gottlieb Welcker (1784-1868), noted for his
ultra-profound comments on Greek poetry. —TR.


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WE PHILOLOGISTS 163
originally monotheistic | How philologists torment
themselves by investigating the question whether
Homer actually wrote, without being able to grasp
the far higher tenet that Greek art long exhibited
an inward enmity against writing, and did not wish
to be read at all.
127
In the religious cultus an earlier degree of culture
comes to light: a remnant of former times. The ages
that celebrate it are not those which invent it; the
contrary is often the case. There are many con-
trasts to be found here. The Greek cultus takes us
back to a pre-Homeric disposition and culture. It
is almost the oldest that we know of the Greeks—
older than their mythology, which their poets have
considerably remoulded, so far as we know it—Can
this cult really be called Greek P I doubt it: they
are finishers, not inventors. They preserve by means
of this beautiful completion and adornment.
I28
It is exceedingly doubtful whether we should
draw any conclusion in regard to nationality and
relationship with other nations from languages. A
victorious language is nothing but a frequent (and
not always regular) indication of a successful cam-
paign. Where could there have been autochthonous
peoples It shows a very hazy conception of things
to talk about Greeks who never lived in Greece.
That which is really Greek is much less the result
of natural aptitude than of adapted institutions, and
also of an acquired language.


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164 WE PHILOLOGISTS
I29
To live on mountains, to travel a great deal, and
to move quickly from one place to another: in these
ways we can now begin to compare ourselves with
the Greek gods. We know the past, too, and we
| almost know the future. What would a Greek say,
if only he could see us!
I 30
The gods make men still more evil; this is the
nature of man. If we do not like a man, we wish
that he may become worse than he is, and then we
are glad. This forms part of the obscure philosophy
of hate—a philosophy which has never yet been
written, because it is everywhere the pudendum that
every one feels.
I31
The pan-Hellenic Homer finds his delight in the
frivolity of the gods; but it is astounding how he
can also give them dignity again. This amazing
ability to raise one's self again, however, is Greek.
I32
What, then, is the origin of the envy of the gods?
people did not believe in a calm, quiet happiness,
but only in an exuberant one. This must have
caused some displeasure to the Greeks; for their
soul was only too easily wounded: it embittered
them to see a happy man. That is Greek. If a
man of distinguished talent appeared, the flock of
envious people must have become astonishingly
large. If any one met with a misfortune, they


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WE PHILOLOGISTS 165
would say of him: “Ah! no wonder he was too
frivolous and too well off. ” And every one of them
would have behaved exuberantly if he had possessed
the requisite talent, and would willingly have played
the rôle of the god who sent the unhappiness to men.
I33
The Greek gods did not demand any complete
changes of character, and were, generally speaking,
by no means burdensome or importunate: it was
thus possible to take them seriously and to believe
in them. At the time of Homer, indeed, the nature
of the Greek was formed: flippancy of images and
imagination was necessary to lighten the weight of
its passionate disposition and to set it free.
I34
Every religion has for its highest images an analo-
gon in the spiritual condition of those who profess
it. The God of Mohammed : the solitariness of the
desert, the distant roar of the lion, the vision of a
formidable warrior. The God of the Christians:
everything that men and women think of when they
hear the word “love. ” The God of the Greeks: a
beautiful apparition in a dream.
I 35
A great deal of intelligence must have gone to
the making up of a Greek polytheism: the expendi-
ture of intelligence is much less lavish when people
have only one God.
136
Greek morality is not based on religion, but on
the polis.


## p. 166 (#202) ############################################

|
I66 we PHILOLOGISTs
There were only priests of the individual gods;
not representatives of the whole religion: i. e. , no
guild of priests. Likewise no Holy Writ.
I37
The “lighthearted" gods: this is the highest
adornment which has ever been bestowed upon the
world—with the feeling, How difficult it is to live!
138
If the Greeks let their “reason” speak, their life
seems to them bitter and terrible. They are not
deceived. But they play round life with lies:
Simonides advises them to treat life as they would
a play; earnestness was only too well known to
them in the form of pain. The misery of men is
a pleasure to the gods when they hear the poets
singing of it. Well did the Greeks know that only
through art could even misery itself become a source
of pleasure; vide tragaediam.
I39
It is quite untrue to say that the Greeks only took
this life into their consideration—they suffered also
from thoughts of death and Hell. But no “repent-
ance” or contrition.
I4O
The incarnate appearance of gods, as in Sappho's
invocation to Aphrodite, must not be taken as poetic
licence: they are frequently hallucinations. Wecon-
ceive of a great many things, including the will to
die, too superficially as rhetorical.


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WE PHILOLOGISTS 167
I4 I
The “martyr” is Hellenic: Prometheus, Hercules.
The hero-myth became pan-Hellenic: a poet must
have had a hand in that
I42
How realistic the Greeks were even in the domain
of pure inventions ! They poetised reality, not
yearning to lift themselves out of it. The raising
of the present into the colossal and eternal, e. g. , by
Pindar. -
I43
What condition do the Greeks premise as the
model of their life in Hades? Anaemic, dreamlike,
weak: it is the continuous accentuation of old age,
when the memory gradually becomes weaker and
weaker, and the body still more so. The senility
of senility: this would be our state of life in the
eyes of the Hellenes.
I44
The naïve character of the Greeks observed by
the Egyptians.
I45
The truly scientific people, the literary people, )
were the Egyptians and not the Greeks. That which
has the appearance of science among the Greeks,
originated among the Egyptians and later on re-
turned to them to mingle again with the old current.
Alexandrian culture is an amalgamation of Hellenic
and Egyptian ; and when our world again founds
its culture upon the Alexandrian culture, then . . . *
* “We shall once again be shipwrecked. ” The omission
is in the original—TR, -


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I68 WE PHILOLOGISTS
|
146
The Egyptians are far more of a literary people
than the Greeks. I maintain this against Wolf.
The first grain in Eleusis, the first vine in Thebes,
the first olive-tree and fig-tree. The Egyptians
had lost a great part of their mythology.
I47
The unmathematical undulation of the column in
Paestum is analogous to the modification of the
tempo: animation in place of a mechanical move-
ment.
I48
The desire to find something certain and fixed
in aesthetic led to the worship of Aristotle: I think,
however, that we may gradually come to see from
his works that he understood nothing about art; and
that it is merely the intellectual conversations of the
Athenians, echoing in his pages, which we admire.
I49
In Socrates we have as it were lying open before
us a specimen of the consciousness out of which,
later on, the instincts of the theoretic man originated:
that one would rather die than grow old and weak
in mind.
I 50
At the twilight of antiquity there were still wholly
unchristian figures, which were more beautiful, har-
monious, and pure than those of any Christians: e. g. ,
+ Proclus. His mysticism and syncretism were things
that precisely Christianity cannot reproach him with.
In any case, it would be my desire to live together


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WE PHILOLOGISTS 169
with such people. In comparison with them Chris-
tianity looks like some crude brutalisation, organ-
ised for the benefit of the mob and the criminal
classes.
Proclus, who solemnly invokes the rising moon.
I5 I
With the advent of Christianity a religion attained
the mastery which corresponded to a pre-Greek con-
dition of mankind: belief in witchcraft in connection
with all and everything, bloody sacrifices, supersti-
tious fear of demoniacal punishments, despair in
one's self, ecstatic brooding and hallucination; man's
self become the arena of good and evil spirits and
their struggles.
I52
All branches of history have experimented with
antiquity: critical consideration alone remains. By
this term I do not mean conjectural and literary-
historical criticism.
I 53
Antiquity has been treated by all kinds of his-
torians and their methods. We have now had
enough experience, however, to turn the history of
antiquity to account without being shipwrecked on
antiquity itself.
I54
We can now look back over a fairly long period
of human existence: what will the humanity be
like which is able to look back at us from an equally
long distance? which finds us lying intoxicated
among the débris of old culture which finds its
only consolation in “being good” and in holding |


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17o WE PHILOLOGISTS
out the “helping hand,” and turns away from all
other consolations ! —Does beauty, too, grow out of
the ancient culture? I think that our ugliness
arises from our metaphysical remnants: our con-
fused morals, the worthlessness of our marriages,
and so on, are the cause. The beautiful man, the
healthy, moderate, and enterprising man, moulds
the objects around him into beautiful shapes after
his own image.
I 55
Up to the present time all history has been
written from the standpoint of success, and, indeed,
with the assumption of a certain reason in this
success. This remark applies also to Greek his-
tory: so far we do not possess any. It is the same
all round, however: where are the historians who
can survey things and events without being hum-
bugged by stupid theories P I know of only one,
Burckhardt. Everywhere the widest possible opti-
---"
mism prevails in science. The question: “What
would have been the consequence if so and so had
not happened? ” is almost unanimously thrust aside,
and yet it is the cardinal question. Thus every-
thing becomes ironical. Let us only consider our
own lives. If we examine history in accordance
with a preconceived plan, let this plan be sought
in the purposes of a great man, or perhaps in those
of a sex, or of a party. Everything else is a chaos.
—Even in natural science we find this deification of
the necessary.
Germany has become the breeding-place of this
historical optimism ; Hegel is perhaps to blame
for this. Nothing, however, is more responsible for


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WE PHILOLOGISTS 171
the fatal influence of German culture. Everything
that has been kept down by success gradually rears
itself up : history as the scorn of the conqueror; a
servile sentiment and a kneeling down before
the actual fact—“a sense for the State,” they now
call it, as if that had still to be propagated He
who does not understand how brutal and unintelli-
gent history is will never understand the stimulus
to make it intelligent. Just think how rare it is to
find a man with as great an intelligent knowledge
of his own life as Goethe had : what amount of
rationality can we expect to find arising out of these
other veiled and blind existences as they work chao-
tically with and in opposition to each other ?
And it is especially naïve when Hellwald, the
author of a history of culture, warns us away from
all “ideals,” simply because history has killed them
off one after the other.
I56.
To bring to light without reserve the stupidity
and the want of reason in human things: that is |
the aim of our brethren and colleagues. People
will then have to distinguish what is essential in
them, what is incorrigible, and what is still suscep-
tible of further improvement. But “Providence”
must be kept out of the question, for it is a concep-
tion that enables people to take things too easily.
I wish to breathe the breath of this purpose into
science. Let us advance our knowledge of man-
kind | The good and rational in man is accidental
or apparent, or the contrary of something very irra-
tional. There will come a time when training will
be the only thought.