Friedrich_Nietzsche - Untimely_Meditations_(Cambridge_Texts_in_the_History_of_Philosophy__1997)

Richard Wagner in Bayreuthart: as a result of which, as it seems, there has been discovered notonly a new art but an itself. All the arts of modern times have, asisolated and stunted or as luxury arts, been almost disvalued; andthe uncertain, ill coordinated recollections of a true art which wemoderns have derived from the Greeks may now also rest in peace,except insofar as they are now able to shine of themselves in the lightof a new understanding. For many things the time has come to dieout; this new art is a prophet which sees the end approaching fo rother things than the arts. Its admonishing hand must make a verydisquieting impression upon our entire contemporary culture assoon as the laughter provoked by parodies of it has subsided: let themerriment go on for a little while yet!We, on the other hand, we disciples of an resurrected, will havethe time and the will for profound, serious reflection! The noise andchatter which has hitherto gone on about an we are bound to findshamelessly imponunate from now on; everything imposes upon ussilence, the five-year silence of the Pythagoreans. Who of us has notdirtied his hands and heart in the service of the idols of modern culture?Who is not in need of the water of purification, who does nothear the voice that admonished him: be silent and be cleansed! besilent and be cleansed! Only as those who listen to this voice are wealso granted the mighty insight with which we have to view the event atBayreuth, and only in this insight does there lie the mighty future ofthat event.When on that day in the May of 1872 the foundation stone was laidon the hill at Bayreuth amid pouring rain and under a darkened sky,Wagner drove with some of us back to the town; he was silent and heseemed to be gazing into himself with a look not to be described inwords. It was the first day of his sixtieth year: everything that hadgone before was a preparation for this moment. We know that attimes of exceptional danger, or in general at any decisive turningpointof their lives, men compress together all they have experiencedin an infinitely accelerated inner panorama, and behold distantevents as sharply as they do the most recent ones. What may Alexanderthe Great not have seen in the moment he caused Asia and Europe tobe drunk out of the same cup? What Wagner beheld within him onthat day, however - how he became what he is and what he will be ­we who are closest to him can to a certain extent also see: and it isonly from this Wagnerian inner view that we shall be able to understandhis great deed itself - and with this understanding guarantee itsfruitfulness.199