on Wagner's part, in the matter of subjects, characters, passions,
and nerves, would also give unmistakable expression to the _spirit of his
music_ provided that this music, like any other, did not know how to speak
about itself save ambiguously: for _musica is a woman_.{~HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS~} We must not let
ourselves be misled concerning this state of things, by the fact that at
this very moment we are living in a reaction, _in the heart itself_ of a
reaction. The age of international wars, of ultramontane martyrdom, in
fact, the whole interlude-character which typifies the present condition
of Europe, may indeed help an art like Wagner's to sudden glory, without,
however, in the least ensuring its _future prosperity_. The Germans
themselves have no future.{~HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS~}

We Antipodes.

Perhaps a few people, or at least my friends, will remember that I made my
first plunge into life armed with some errors and some exaggerations, but
that, in any case, I began with _hope_ in my heart. In the philosophical
pessimism of the nineteenth century, I recognised--who knows by what
by-paths of personal experience--the symptom of a higher power of thought,
a more triumphant plenitude of life, than had manifested itself hitherto
in the philosophies of Hume, Kant and Hegel!--I regarded _tragic_ knowledge
as the most beautiful luxury of our culture, as its most precious, most
noble, most dangerous kind of prodigality; but, nevertheless, in view of
its overflowing wealth, as a justifiable _luxury_. In the same way, I
began by interpreting Wagner's music as the expression of a Dionysian
powerfulness of soul. In it I thought I heard the earthquake by means of
which a primeval life-force, which had been constrained for ages, was
seeking at last to burst its bonds, quite indifferent to how much of that
which nowadays calls itself culture, would thereby be shaken to ruins. You
see how I misinterpreted, you see also, what I _bestowed_ upon Wagner and
Schopenhauer--myself.{~HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS~} Every art and every philosophy may be regarded
either as a cure or as a stimulant to ascending or declining life: they
always presuppose suffering and sufferers. But there are two kinds of
sufferers:--those that suffer from _overflowing vitality_, who need
Dionysian art and require a tragic insight into, and a tragic outlook
upon, the phenomenon life,--and there are those who suffer from _reduced_
vitality, and who crave for repose, q