Friedrich_Nietzsche - Untimely_Meditations_(Cambridge_Texts_in_the_History_of_Philosophy__1997)

On the uses and disadvantages of history for lifewithout smiling; for they will call to mind the time whenHartmann's parodistic gospel was listened to, absorbed, attacked,revered, propagated and canonized with all the simple honestyof the 'German mind', indeed with 'the wry earnestness of theowl', as Goethe puts it. But the world must get on, that idealcondition will not be created by dreaming, it must be fo ught andstruggled for, and the path to redemption from that owlish earnestnesslies only through cheerfulness. The time will come when onewill prudently refrain from all constructions of the world-process oreven of the history of man; a time when one will regard not themasses but individuals, who form a kind of bridge across the turbulentstream of becoming. These individuals do not carry forwardany kind of process but live contemporaneously with one another;thanks to history, which permits such a collaboration, they live asthat republic of genius of which Schopenhauer once spoke; onegiant calls to another across the desert intervals of time and, undisturbedby the excited chattering dwarfs who creep about beneaththem, the exalted spirit-dialogue goes on. It is the task of history tobe the mediator between them and thus again and again to inspireand lend the strength for the production of the great man. No,the goal of humanity cannot lie in its end but only in its highestexemplars.Our comedian has, of course, a different point of view, and withthat admirable dialectic which is as genuine as its admirers areadmirable he tells us: 'The concept of evolution is not compatiblewith ascribing to the world-process an infinite duration in the past,since then every conceivable evolution must have already been runthrough, which is not the case (oh rogue!); so likewise we cannot concedeto the process an infinite duration in the fu ture; both wouldannul the concept of evolution towards a goal (rogue again!) andwould make the world-process resemble the Danaides' water-jugs.The complete victory of the logical over the illogical (oh rogue ofrogues!) must, however, coincide with the temporal end of theworld-process, the Last Day.' No, you alert and mocking spirit, aslong as the illogical reigns as it does today, as long, fo r example, asone can speak of the 'world-process' as you speak of it and gainuniversal applause, the Last Day is still far off: fo r it is still too cheerfulon this earth, many illusions still flourish, fo r example the illusionyour contemporaries harbour about you, we are not yet ready to behurled back into your nothingness: for we believe that it will be evenmerrier here once people have begun to understand you, you misunderstoodreader of the unconscious. If, however, disgust should