Friedrich_Nietzsche - Untimely_Meditations_(Cambridge_Texts_in_the_History_of_Philosophy__1997)

Sclwpenhauer as educatordesires stilled, sure of its strength; thus he victoriously fulfilled hiscalling with greatness and dignity. In the other half there dwelt aburning longing; we comprehend it when we hear that he turnedaway with a pained expression from the picture of the great fo underorla Trappe, * Rance, with the words: 'That is a matter of.grace.' Forthe genius longs more deeply for sainthood because from hiswatchtower he has seen farther and more clearly than other men,down into the reconciliation of knowledge with being, over into thedomain of peace and denial of the will, across to the other coast ofwhich the Indians speak. But precisely here is the miracle: howinconceivably whole and unbreakable must Schopenhauer's naturehave been if it could not be destroyed even by this longing and yetwas not petrified by it! What that means, each will understandaccording to what and how much he is: and none of us will ever fullyunderstand it.The more one reflects on the three dangers just described, themore surprising it becomes that Schopenhauer should have defendedhimself against them with such vigour and emerged from the battlein such good shape. He bore many scars and open wounds, it is true;and he had acquired a disposition that may perhaps seem a little tooastringent and sometimes also too pugnacious. But even the greatestof men cannot attain to his own ideal. That Schopenhauer can offe rus a model is certain, all these scars and blemishes notwithstanding.One might say, indeed, that that in his nature which was imperfectand all too human brings us closer to him in a human sense, fo r itlets us see him as a fellow sufferer and not only in the remote heightsof a genius.Those three constitutional dangers that threatened Schopenhauerthreaten us all. Each of us bears a productive uniqueness within himas the core of his being; and when he becomes aware of it, thereappears around him a strange penumbra which is the mark of hissingularity. Most find this something unendurable, because theyare, as aforesaid, lazy, and because a chain of toil and burdens is suspendedfrom this uniqueness. There can be no doubt that, for thesingular man who encumbers himself with this chain, life witholdsalmost everything - cheerfulness, security, ease, honour - that hedesired of it in his youth; solitude is the gift his fellow men present tohim; let him live where he will, he will always find there the desertand the cave. Let him see to it that he does not become subjugated,*la Trappe: monastery from which the Trappist order takes its name.143