gner admitted all this to himself often enough when in private communion
with his soul. I only wish he had also admitted it publicly. For what
constitutes the greatness of a character if it is not this, that he who
possesses it is able to take sides even against himself in favour of
truth.

_Wagner's Teutonism._

36.

That which is un-German in Wagner. He lacks the German charm and grace of
a Beethoven, a Mozart, a Weber; he also lacks the flowing, cheerful fire
(_Allegro con brio_) of Beethoven and Weber. He cannot be free and easy
without being grotesque. He lacks modesty, indulges in big drums, and
always tends to surcharge his effect. He is not the good official that
Bach was. Neither has he that Goethean calm in regard to his rivals.

37.

Wagner always reaches the high-water mark of his vanity when he speaks of
the German nature (incidentally it is also the height of his imprudence);
for, if Frederick the Great's justice, Goethe's nobility and freedom from
envy, Beethoven's sublime resignation, Bach's delicately transfigured
spiritual life,--if steady work performed without any thought of glory and
success, and without envy, constitute the true _German_ qualities, would
it not seem as if Wagner almost wished to prove he is no German?

38.

Terrible wildness, abject sorrow, emptiness, the shudder of joy,
unexpectedness,--in short all the qualities peculiar to the Semitic race! I
believe that the Jews approach Wagner's art with more understanding than
the Aryans do.

39.

A passage concerning the Jews, taken from Taine.--As it happens, I have
misled the reader, the passage does not concern Wagner at all.--But can it
be possible that Wagner is a Jew? In that case we could readily understand
his dislike of Jews.(17)

40.

Wagner's art is absolutely the _art of the age_: an aesthetic age would
have rejected it. The more subtle people amongst us actually do reject it
even now. The _coarsifying_ of everything aesthetic.--Compared with Goethe's
ideal it is very far behind. The moral contrast of these self-indulgent
burningly loyal creatures of Wagner, acts like a _spur_, like an irritant
and even this sensation is turned to account in obtaining an _effect_.

41.

What is it in our age that Wagner's art expresses? That brutality and most
delicate weakness which exist side by side, that running wild of natural
instincts, and nervous hyper-sensitiveness, that thirst