Friedrich_Nietzsche - Untimely_Meditations_(Cambridge_Texts_in_the_History_of_Philosophy__1997)

David Strauss, the confessor and the writerindeed: there have also been ungifted visionaries, visionaries who donot arouse and fire us and yet intend to produce a very lasting effecthistorically as life-guides and to dominate the future: how muchmore is it incumbent upon us to subject their visionary enthusiasmto the control of reason. Lichtenberg even says: 'There are enthusiasticvisionaries devoid of ability, and these are truly dangerouspeople.' For the present, and in aid of this control by reason, wewould like an honest answer to three questions. First: how does thenew believer imagine his Heaven? Secondly: how far does thecourage bestowed on him by the new faith extend? And thirdly: howdoes he write his books? Strauss the confessor shall answer the firstand second questions for us, Strauss the writer the third.The Heaven of the new believer will naturally have to be a Heavenon earth: for the Christian 'prospect of an immortal Heavenly life'has, together with the other consolations of Christianity, 'irrevocablyfallen away' for him who has 'even one foot' in the Straussian camp(p. 364). There is some significance in how a religion elects to depictits Heaven: and if it be true that Christianity knows no otherHeavenly occupation than music-making and singing, then theStrauss ian philistine cannot very well be expected to look forward toit. The confessional book does, however, contain one paradisialpage, page 294: unroll this parchment first of all, most fo rtunatephilistine! All Heaven.will there climb down to you. 'We shall giveonly an indication', Strauss says, 'of what we do, of what we havedone these many years. Besides our profession - for we belong to themost varied professions, we are by no means only scholars or artistsbut also office workers and soldiers, tradesmen and landed proprietors,and, to say it again, there are not a few of us but many thousandsand not the worst in any country besides our profession, Isay, we try to keep our minds as open as possible to all the higherinterests of mankind: during recent years we have participated in theliveliest way in the great national war and the construction of theGerman state, and we feel ourselves profoundly uplifted by thisturn, as glorious as it was unexpected, in the history of our muchtriednation. We assist our understanding of these things throughhistorical studies, which have now been made easy even for theunlearned by a series of attractive and popularly written historicalworks; at the same time, we seek to broaden our knowledge ofnature, for which there is likewise no lack of aids accessible to thecommon understanding; and lastly, we find in the writings of ourgreat poets, in performances of the works of our great composers, a17