Friedrich_Nietzsche - Untimely_Meditations_(Cambridge_Texts_in_the_History_of_Philosophy__1997)

Richard Wagner in Bayreuththat one is reminded almost palpably of the very relative nature of allconcepts of time: it almost seems as though many things belongtogether and time is only a cloud which makes it hard for our eyes toperceive the fact. The history of the exact sciences especially evokesthe impression that we even now stand in the closest proximity to theAlexandrian-Hellenic world and that the pendulum of history hasswung back to the point from which it started its swing intoenigmatic distant and lost horizons. The picture presented by ourcontemporary world is certainly not a novel one: to him who knowshistory it must seem more and more as though he were recognizingthe old fam iliar features of a face. The spirit of Hellenic culture liesendlessly dispersed over our present-day world: while forces of allkinds crowd fO lWard and the fruits of the modern sciences andaccomplishments are bartered, the pale features of the Hellenicappear ghostlike in the distance. The earth, which has now been sufficientlyorientalized, longs again fo r the Hellenic; he who wants toassist here has need of speed and a winged fo ot, to be sure, if he is tobring together all the manifold disseminated points of knowledge,the remotest continents of talent, to run through and command thewhole tremendous region. Thus it i that we now have need of aseries of counter-Alexanders possessing the mighty capacity to drawtogether and unite, to reach the remotest threads and to preserve theweb from being blown away. Not to cut the Gordian knot, as Alexanderdid, so that its ends fluttered to all the corners of the earth, butto tie itagain - that is now the task. I recognize in Wagner such a counter­Alexander: he unites what was separate, feeble and inactive; if amedicinal expression is permitted, he possesses an astringent power:to this extent he is one of the truly great cultural masters. He is masterof the arts, the religions, the histories of the various nations, yet he isthe opposite of a polyhistor, a spirit who only brings together andarranges: fo r he is one who unites what he has brought together intoa living structure, a simplifier of the world. One will not misunderstandsuch an idea if one compares this most general task set for him by hisgenius with the much narrower one which the name of Wagnerusually calls to mind. What is expected of him is a reform of thetheatre: supposing he achieved it, what would thereby have beenaccomplished fo r that higher and remoter task?Certainly modern man would have been altered and reformed:everything in our modern world is so dependent on everything elsethat to remove a single nail is to make the whole building trembleand collapse. This may seem an exaggerated thing to say of the209