Friedrich_Nietzsche - Untimely_Meditations_(Cambridge_Texts_in_the_History_of_Philosophy__1997)

David Strauss, the confessor and the writerno longer supposed to engender enthusiasm, even though Goethemight th i nk it did: stupefaction is now the goal of these unphilosophicaladmirers of nil admirari* when they seek to understandeverything historically. While professing to hate fanaticism andintolerance in any form, what they really hated was the donlinatinggenius and the tyranny of the real demands of culture; and that iswhy they employed all their powers in paralyzing, stupefying or disruptingall those quarters where fresh and powerful movementsmight be expected to appear. A philosophy which chastely concealedbehind arabesque flourishes the philistine confession of itsauthor invented in addition a formula for the apotheosis of the commonplace:it spoke of the rationality of the real, and thus ingratiateditself with the cultural philistine, who also loves arabesque flourishesbut above all conceives himself alone to be real and treats his realityas the standard of reason in the world. He now permitted everyone,himself included, to reflect, to research, to aestheticize, above all tocompose poetry and music, to paint pictures, even to create entirephilosophies: the sole proviso was that everything must remain as itwas before, that nothing should at any price undermine the'rational' and the 'ral', that is to say, the philistine. The latter, to besure, is very partial to abandoning himself from time to time to thepleasant and daring extravagances of art and sceptical historiographyand knows how to appreciate the charm of such formsof entertainment and distraction; but he sternly segregates the'serious things of life' - that is to say profession, business, wife andchild - from its pleasures: and to the latter belongs more or lesseverything that has anything to do with culture. Therefore woe to anart that starts to take itself seriously and makes demands that touchupon his livelihood, his business and his habits, in short, his philistine'serious things of life' he averts his eyes from such an art asthough from something indecent, and with the air of a duenna hewarns every defenceless virtue not to look.Being so fo nd of dissuading, he is grateful to the artist who paysheed to him and lets himself be dissuaded; he gives him to understandthat henceforth no sublime masterpieces are to be demandedof him, but only two much easier things: either imitation of actualityto the point of mimicry in idylls or gently humorous satires, or freecopies of the most familiar and famous of the classics, though incorporatingtimid concessions to the taste of the time. For when he"'nil admirari: to wonder at nothing11