Friedrich_Nietzsche - Untimely_Meditations_(Cambridge_Texts_in_the_History_of_Philosophy__1997)

Introductionwas wrong in what I wrote: at least my error dishonored neitherthem nor me. It is something to err in such a way! It is also somethingfor precisely me to be led astray by such errors. At thattime, moreover, when I had resolved to paint portraits of 'thephilosopher' and 'the artist' - to render, as it were, my own 'categoricalimperative': at such a time it was also an inestimablebenefit for me not to have to apply my own colors to an emptycanvas containing nothing real, but rather to be able to paint, soto speak, upon shapes that were already sketched out inadvance. Without realizing it, I was speaking only for myselfindeed, at bottom, only of myself.27l,JThis passage points directly to what was unquestionably forNietzsche himself the most poignant and significant feature of theUntimely Meditations: namely, the many specific ways in which thesetexts so clearly anticipate and foreshadow the future direction of histhinking. In the view of their author, these youthful works constituteda series of public pledges and solemn promises concerning hisown future tasks and projects. The note just cited, for example, concludeswith the observation that, 'Anyone who reads these textswith a young and fiery soul will perhaps guess the solemn vowwith which I then bound myself to my life - with which I resolvedto live my own life. 'Nowhere is the extraordinary personal significance of theUn timely Meditations for Nietzsche himself more clearly expressedthan in the draft of a letter from this same period (August 1885)to an unidentified correspondent, to whom Nietzsche confides,'For me, my "Untimely Ones" signify promises. What they are forothers, I do not know. Believe me, I would have ceased living along time ago if I had turned aside even a single step from thesepromises! Perhaps someone will yet discover that from Human, AllToo Human on I have done nothing but fulfill my promises.' Thisclaim, which is publicly repeated in Nietzsche's discussion of theMeditations in Ecce Homo, occurs over and over again in the correspondence6f his final years, where he reiterates. his description ofthe Untimely Meditations as 'personal confessions', 'public pledges'and 'solemn promises to myself . 28What exactly was it that Nietzsche believed he had 'promised'himself and his readers in these early works? What did he thinkhe had 'publicly pledged' to do? A partial answer to this questionmay be inferred from a remark contained in a letter he sent toxxvii