last in possession of Wagner's own account of
his development, his art, his aspirations and his struggles, in the
amazing self-revelation entitled _My Life_;(5) and secondly, we now have
_Ecce Homo_, Nietzsche's autobiography, in which we learn for the first
time from Nietzsche's own pen to what extent his history was that of a
double devotion--to Wagner on the one hand, and to his own life task, the
Transvaluation of all Values, on the other.

Readers interested in the Nietzsche-Wagner controversy will naturally look
to these books for a final solution of all the difficulties which the
problem presents. But let them not be too sanguine. From first to last
this problem is not to be settled by "facts." A good deal of instinctive
choice, instinctive aversion, and instinctive suspicion are necessary
here. A little more suspicion, for instance, ought to be applied to
Wagner's _My Life_, especially in England, where critics are not half
suspicious enough about a continental artist's self-revelations, and are
too prone, if they have suspicions at all, to apply them in the wrong
place.

An example of this want of _finesse_ in judging foreign writers is to be
found in Lord Morley's work on Rousseau,--a book which ingenuously takes
for granted everything that a writer like Rousseau cares to say about
himself, without considering for an instant the possibility that Rousseau
might have practised some hypocrisy. In regard to Wagner's life we might
easily fall into the same error--that is to say, we might take seriously
all he says concerning himself and his family affairs.

We should beware of this, and should not even believe Wagner when he
speaks badly about himself. No one speaks badly about himself without a
reason, and the question in this case is to find out the reason. Did
Wagner--in the belief that genius was always immoral--wish to pose as an
immoral Egotist, in order to make us believe in his genius, of which he
himself was none too sure in his innermost heart? Did Wagner wish to
appear "sincere" in his biography, in order to awaken in us a belief in
the sincerity of his music, which he likewise doubted, but wished to
impress upon the world as "true"? Or did he wish to be thought badly of in
connection with things that were not true, and that consequently did not
affect him, in order to lead us off the scent of true things, things he
was ashamed of and which he wished the world to ignore--just like Rousseau
(the similar