Friedrich_Nietzsche - Untimely_Meditations_(Cambridge_Texts_in_the_History_of_Philosophy__1997)

Untimely Meditationshow uncommon such a posture is, one should compa r e it with thatof its great counter-example, Goethe, who, as a learner and man ofknowledge, appears like a many-branched river system which fails tosustain its full force as far as the sea but loses and scatters at least asmuch on its windings and meanderings as it bears on to its estuary. Itis true that such a nature as Goethe's has and gives more enjoyment,something mild and nobly prodigal hovers about it, whereas theviolence of Wagner's current may terrify and scare one away. But lethim who will be afraid: we others shall take courage from the sight ofa hero who, even in regard to modern culture, 'has not learnedfear' . *Just as little has he learned to let himself be placated by historyand philosophy, to allow their softening and quietist effects tooperate upon him. Neither the creative nor the embattled artist wasdeflected from his course by the force of what he had learned or theact oflearning itself. As soon as his creative power takes hold on himhistory becomes malleable clay in his hands; his relationshiptowards it suddenly becomes quite di,ierent from that of anyscholar, it becomes similar to that of the Greek towards his myths,that is to say towards something which offers material for plastic andpoetic invention, performed with love and a certain shy devotion, tobe sure, but nonetheless also with the magisterial right of the creator.And precisely because it is to him even more flexible and changeablethan any dream, he can transform a single event into something thattypifies whole ages and thus achieve a truth of representation such asthe historian can never attain to. Where else has the courtly Middle. Ages been transformed into a flesh-and-blood figure as it has inLohengrin? And will the Meistersinger not speak of the Germannature to all fu ture ages - more, will it not constitute one of the ripestfruits of that nature, which always seeks reformation not revolution,and though broadly content with itself has not fo rgotten that noblestexpression of discontent, the innovative deed?And it was to precisely this kind of discontent that Wagner wascompelled again and again by his involvement with history andphilosophy: he discovered here, not only weapons and armour, butalso and above all the inspiring afflatus that wafts from the tombs ofall great warriors, of all great sufferers and thinkers. One cannotstand out more clearly from the whole contemporary age thanthrough the way one employs history and philosophy. The former,'" A phrase from Siegfried.206