Friedrich_Nietzsche - Untimely_Meditations_(Cambridge_Texts_in_the_History_of_Philosophy__1997)

On the uses and disadvantages of history for lift- its quite radical conflict with the spirit of any 'new age', any 'modemawareness' - this origin must itself be known historically, historymustitself resolve the problem of history, knowledge must turn its stingagainst itself - this threefold must is the imperative of the 'new age',supposing this age really does contain anything new, powerful,original and promising more life. Or is it actually the case that weGermansto leave the Romance nations out of account - mustalways be no more than 'heirs' in all the higher affairs of culture,because that is all we can ever be; a proposition once memorablyexpressed by Wilhelm Wackernagel: 'We Germans are a nation ofheirs, with all our higher knowledge, even with our beliefs, no morethan heirs of the world of antiquity; even those hostile to it continuallybreathe the immortal spirit of classical culture beside thespirit of Christianity, and if anyone succeeded in excluding these twoelements from the atmosphere which surrounds the inner world ofman there would not be much left to prolong a life of the spirit.' Andeven if we Germans were really no more than heirs - to be able tolook upon such a culture as that as our rightful inheritance wouldmake the appellation 'heirs' the greatest and proudest possible: yetwe would nonetheless be obliged to ask whether it really was oureternal destiny to be pupils of declining antiquity: at some time or otherwe might be permitted gradually to set our goal higher and more distant,some time or other we ought to be allowed to claim credit forhaving developed the spirit of Alexandrian-Roman culture so noblyand fruitfully among other means through our universal history ­that we might now as a reward be permitted to set ourselves the evenmightier task of striving to get behind and beyond this Alexandrianworld and boldly to seek our models in the original ancient Greekworld of greatness, naturalness and humanity. But there we also discoverthe reality of an essentially unhistorical culture and one which is nonetheless,or rather on that account, an inexpressibly richer and more vital culture.Even if we Germans were in fact nothing but successorswe couldnot be anything greater or prouder than successors if we hadappropriated such a culture and were the heirs and successors ofthat.What I mean by this and it is all I mean is that the thought ofbeing epigones, which can often be a painful thought, is also capableof evoking great effects and grand hopes for the future in both anindividual and in a nation, provided we regard ourselves as the heirsand successors of the astonishing powers of antiquity and see in thisour honour and our spur. What I do not mean, therefore, is that we103