Volume Ii Part 18 (1/2)
HOW FAR PIETY OBSCURES.-In later centuries the great man is credited with all the great qualities and virtues of his century. Thus all that is best is continually obscured by piety, which treats the picture as a sacred one, to be surrounded with all manner of votive offerings. In the end the picture is completely veiled and covered by the offerings, and thenceforth is more an object of faith than of contemplation.
208.
STANDING ON ONE'S HEAD.-If we make truth stand on its head, we generally fail to notice that our own head, too, is not in its right position.
209.
ORIGIN AND UTILITY OF FAs.h.i.+ON.-The obvious satisfaction of the individual with his own form excites imitation and gradually creates the form of the many-that is, fas.h.i.+on. The many desire, and indeed attain, that same comforting satisfaction with their own form. Consider how many reasons every man has for anxiety and shy self-concealment, and how, on this account, three-fourths of his energy and goodwill is crippled and may become unproductive! So we must be very grateful to fas.h.i.+on for unfettering that three-fourths and communicating self-confidence and the power of cheerful compromise to those who feel themselves bound to each other by its law. Even foolish laws give freedom and calm of the spirit, so long as many persons have submitted to their sway.
210.
LOOSENERS OF TONGUES.-The value of many men and books rests solely on their faculty for compelling all to speak out the most hidden and intimate things. They are looseners of tongues and crowbars to open the most stubborn teeth. Many events and misdeeds which are apparently only sent as a curse to mankind possess this value and utility.
211.
INTELLECTUAL FREEDOM OF DOMICILE.(12)-Who of us could dare to call himself a ”free spirit” if he could not render homage after his fas.h.i.+on, by taking on his own shoulders a portion of that burden of public dislike and abuse, to men to whom this name is attached as a reproach? We might as well call ourselves in all seriousness ”spirits free of domicile” (_Freizugig_) (and without that arrogant or high-spirited defiance) because we feel the impulse to freedom (_Zug zur Freiheit_) as the strongest instinct of our minds and, in contrast to fixed and limited minds, practically see our ideal in an intellectual nomadism-to use a modest and almost depreciatory expression.
212.
YES, THE FAVOUR OF THE MUSES!-What Homer says on this point goes right to our heart, so true, so terrible is it:
”The Muse loved him with all her heart and gave him good and evil, for she took away his eyes and vouchsafed him sweet song.”
This is an endless text for thinking men: she gives good and evil, that is _her_ manner of loving with all her heart and soul! And each man will interpret specially for himself why we poets and thinkers have to give up our eyes in her service.(13)
213.