in his hero. Let us consider this
hero.

He is an idealist with unbounded faith in the power of the mind and the
liberating virtue of art. This idealism is at first religious, as in
_Tod und Verklaerung_, and tender and compassionate as a woman, and full
of youthful illusions, as in _Guntram_. Then it becomes vexed and
indignant with the baseness of the world and the difficulties it
encounters. Its scorn increases, and becomes sarcastic _(Till
Eulenspiegel)_; it is exasperated with years of conflict, and, in
increasing bitterness, develops into a contemptuous heroism. How
Strauss's laugh whips and stings us in _Zarathustra_! How his will
bruises and cuts us in _Heldenleben_! Now that he has proved his power
by victory, his pride knows no limit; he is elated and is unable to see
that his lofty visions have become realities. But the people whose
spirit he reflects see it. There are germs of morbidity in Germany
to-day, a frenzy of pride, a belief in self, and a scorn for others that
recalls France in the seventeenth century. "_Dem Deutschen gehoert die
Welt_" ("Germany possesses the world") calmly say the prints displayed
in the shop windows in Berlin. But when one arrives at this point the
mind becomes delirious. All genius is raving mad if it comes to that;
but Beethoven's madness concentrated itself in himself, and imagined
things for his own enjoyment. The genius of many contemporary German
artists is an aggressive thing, and is characterised by its destructive
antagonism. The idealist who "possesses the world" is liable to
dizziness. He was made to rule over an interior world. The splendour of
the exterior images that he is called upon to govern dazzles him; and,
like Caesar, he goes astray. Germany had hardly attained the position of
empire of the world when she found Nietzsche's voice and that of the
deluded artists of the _Deutsches Theater_ and the _Secession_. Now
there is the grandiose music of Richard Strauss.

What is all this fury leading to? What does this heroism aspire to? This
force of will, bitter and strained, grows faint when it has reached its
goal, or even before that. It does not know what to do with its victory.
It disdains it, does not believe in it, or grows tired of it.[182]

[Footnote 182: "The German spirit, which but a little while back had the
will to dominate Europe, the force to govern Europe, has finally made up
its mind to abandon it."--Nietzsche.]

Like Michelangelo's _Victory_, i