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[9] A well-known anti-Wagnerian musical critic of Vienna. —TR.
82
Wagner perfected the inner fancy of man: later generations will see a renaissance in sculpture. Poetry must precede the plastic art.
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 culture 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 philosophy and German music, I should either set about combating them or combating the culture of antiquity, perhaps the former, by showing that these philologists had not understood the culture of antiquity. 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 instruction, e.g., scholarship.
5. Classical education is served out mixed up with Christianity.
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 oi insight has resulted: for they promote the science, but not the philologist.
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 accustomed to it all; and therefore he continues in his rut—just as in the case of marriage.
91
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.
94
(THE GREEKS AND THE PHILOLOGISTS.)
| THE GREEKS: | THE PHILOLOGISTS are: |
|
render homage to beauty, develop the body, speak clearly, are religious transfigurers of everyday occurrences, are listeners and observers, 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 thought. |
babblers and triflers, ugly-looking creatures, stammerers, filthy pedants, quibblers and scarecrows, unfitted for the symbolical, ardent slaves of the State, Christians in disguise, philistines. |
95
Bergk's "History of Literature": Not a spark of Greek fire or Greek sense.
96
People really do compare our own age with that of Pericles, and congratulate themselves on the reawakening of the feeling of patriotism: I remember a parody on the funeral oration of Pericles by G. Freytag,[10] in which this prim and strait-laced "poet" depicted the happiness now experienced by sixty-year-old men.—All pure and simple caricature![Pg 154] 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.
[10] See note on p. 149.—TR.
97
If we change a single word of Lord Bacon's we may say: infimarum Grcorum virtutum apud philologos 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.
100
The only thing that interests me is the relationship 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.
101
The Greeks are interesting and quite disproportionately important because they had such a host of great individuals. How was that possible? This point must be studied.
102
The history of Greece has hitherto always been written optimistically.
