d.
Everything is arranged for a solemn, festive effect. "That is no
longer the theatre, it is divine worship," was the final verdict
accordingly. "Baireuth" is the temple of the Holy Grail.

At length we come to the principal theme, and with it to the climax of
this historical sketch of such a mighty and all-important artistic
lifework, to "Parsifal" itself. The mere mention of its contents
attests its importance for the present and the future. Wagner's
"Parsifal," in an important sense, can be termed our national drama.
Such a work like AEschylus' "Persian" and Sophocles' Oedipus-trilogy,
should recall to the consciousness of a world-historical people the
period in which it stands in the world's history, and thereby make
clear the mission it has to fulfil.

That we Germans have begun again to make world-history in a political
sense, since the last generation, is evidenced by the great action of
the time which seems for the present to have settled the politics of
Europe and extended its influence upon the world at large. Beyond the
domain of politics however the real movers of the world are the ideas
which animate humanity and of which politics are but a sign of life
possessing subordinate influence. In this movement of the mind we
Germans are, without question, much older than a mere generation, as
indeed Wagner's poetic material everywhere confirms. The one work in
which Kaulbach's genius triumphed, the "Battle of the Huns," gained
for him a world-wide fame, more by the plastic idea revealed in the
perpetual struggle of the spirits than by its artistic execution. We
stand to-day before, or rather in, a like mighty contest. Two moral
religious sentiments struggle against each other for life and death in
invisible as well as visible conflict. To which shall be the victory?

In the year 1850 Wagner wrote a pamphlet of weighty import. It reveals
an expression of the utmost moment, though it has been heeded least by
those whom it concerns as much as life and death; or, rather, it has
not been understood at all, because these natures are more attracted
by the trivial. Its most impressive confirmation is to-day furnished
by art, above all else by actual representations on the boards that
typify the world. "Parsifal" also is such a symbol, and in so large a
world-historical and even metaphysical sense, that by it the stage
has become a place dedicated to the proclamation of highest truth and
morality. We have seen the grot