Friedrich_Nietzsche - Untimely_Meditations_(Cambridge_Texts_in_the_History_of_Philosophy__1997)

Sclwpenhauer as educatorquote a sentence of his own: 'a philosopher must be very honest notto call poetry or rhetoric to his aid'. That there is something calledhonesty and that it is even a virtue belongs, I know, in the age ofpublic opinion to the private opinions that are forbidden; and thus Ishall not be praising Schopenhauer but only characterizing him if Irepeat: he is honest even as a writer; and so few writers are honestthat one ought really to mistrust anyone who writes. I know of onlyone writer whom I would compare with Schopenhauer, indeed setabove him, in respect of honesty: Montaigne. That such a man wrotehas truly augmented the joy ofliving on this earth. Since getting toknow this freest an mightiest of souls, I at least have come to feelwhat he felt about Plutarch: 'as soon as I glance at him I grow a leg ora wing.' * If I were set the task, I could endeavour to make myselfat home in the world with him.Schopenhauer has a second quality in common with Montaigne,as well as honesty: a cheerfulness that really cheers. Aliis laetus, sibisapiens. t For there are two very different kinds of cheerfulness. Thetrue thinker always cheers and refreshes, whether he is being seriousor humorous, expressing his human insight or his divine forbearance;without peevish gesturing, trembling hands, tearfilledeyes, but with certainty and simplicity, courage and .strength,perhaps a little harshly and valiantly but in any case as a victor: andthis it iscombatedto behold the victorious god with all the monsters he hasthat cheers one most profoundly. The cheerfulness onesometimes encounters in mediocre writers and bluff and abruptthinkers, on the other hand, makes us feel miserable when we readit: the effect produced upon me, for example, by David Strauss'scheerfulness. One feels downright ashamed to have such cheerfulcontemporaries, because they compromise our time and the peoplein it before posterity. This kind of cheerful thinker simply does notsee the sufferings and the monsters he purports to see and combat;and his cheerfulness is vexing because he is deceiving us: he wants tomake us believe that a viaory has been fought and won. For at bottomthere is cheerfulness only where there is a victory; and this applies tothe works of true thinkers just as much as it does to any work of art.Let its content be as dreadful and as serious as the problem of lifeitself: the work will produce a depressing and painful effect only if"" A misunderstandingofMontaigne's assertion: 'Je ne Ie puis si peu accointer que jen'en tire cuisse ou aisle', which Florio translates as: 'He can no sooner come in mysight bur I pull some leg or wing from him.'tAliis [actus, sibi sapiens: cheerful for others, wise fo r himself135