Friedrich_Nietzsche - Untimely_Meditations_(Cambridge_Texts_in_the_History_of_Philosophy__1997)

iUntimely Meditationsbest teacher who, by recalling to us the misfortunes of others,instructs us in how we may steadfastly endure our own changes offortune. He who has learned to recogni:ze in this the meaning of historyis vexed at the sight of inquisitive tourists or pedantic micrologistsclambering about on the pyramids of the great eras of the past;where he finds inspiration to imitate or to do better, he does not wishto encounter the idler who, hungry for distraction or excitement,prowls around as though among pictures in a gallery. Among thesefeeble and hopeless idlers, among those around him who seemactive but are in fact merely agitated and bustling, the man of actionavoids despair and disgust by turning his gaze backwards and pausingfor breath in his march towards the goal. His goal, however, ishappiness, perhaps not his own but often that of a nation or of mankindas a whole; he flees from resignation and needs history as aspecific against it. Mostly there is no reward beckoning him on,unless it be fame, that is, the expectation of a place of honour in thetemple of history, where he in tum can be a teacher, comforter andadmonisher to those who come after hiIJl. For the commandmentwhich rules over him is: that which in the past was able to expand theconcept 'man' and make it more beautiful must exist everlastingly,so as to be able to accomplish this everlastingly. That the greatmoments in the struggle of the human individual constitute a chain,that this chain unites mankind across the millennia like a range ofhuman mountain peaks, that the summit of such a long-agomoment shall be for me still living, bright and great - that is thefu ndamental idea of the faith in humanity which finds expression inthe demand for a monumental history. But it is precisely this demandthat greatness shall be everlasting that sparks off the most fearful ofstruggles. For everything else that lives ries No. The monumentalshall not come into existence - that is the counter-word. Apathetichabit, all that is base and petty, filling every corner of the earth andbillowing up around all that is great like a heavy breath of the earth,casts itself across the path that greatness has to tread on its way toimmortality and retards, deceives, suffocates and stifles it. This path,however, leads through human brains! Through the brains oftimorous and shortlived animals which emerge again and again tothe same needs and distresses and fend off destruction only witheffort and then only for a short time. For they want first of all but onething: to live, at any cost. Who would associate them with that hardrelay-race of monumental history through which alone greatnessgoes on living! And yet again and again there awaken some who,68