Schopenhauerian philosophy and in Wagnerian music. After what has been said in the text, no inconsistency will be felt, when, in claiming to be (with the possible exception of Heraclitus) the first "tragic philosopher," he adds, "that is, the extremest antithesis and antipodes of a pessimistic philosopher" (Ecce Homo, III, i, § 3).
f In writing to Brandes of the new prefaces to his earlier works, he says that they may perhaps throw some light on him, "supposing that I am not dark in myself (dark in and for myself), as obscurrissimus obscurorum virorum.… This were possible" (Briefe, III, 275).
g Nietzsche's singular double attitude to the world is daringly stated in the last two lines of a verse, which may be put into rough prose thus:
"I will be wise because it pleases me to be so,
And not because anybody else commands it.
I praise God, because He made the world
As stupidly as possible."
(Werke, pocket ed., VI, 427.)
CHAPTER XIV
a I am not sure whether Will to Power, § 545, expresses a view of space inconsistent with that stated in the text or not; and whether Werke, XII, 48, § 118, also expresses a discordant view of time. On more than one ultimate metaphysical point, varying statements linger in such fragmentary notes as we have, and a final definitive word, which would put an end to our uncertainty, is lacking.
b Walther Lob deals with "eternal recurrence" from the "scientific" point of view, and presents objections to it, in the Deutsche Rundschau, November, 1908. I may add that Nietzsche regards the general mechanical view as useful for purposes of investigation and discovery, but imperfect and provisional (Will to Power, § 1066).
c Nietzsche argues that if recurrence did not take place, this would be something inexplicable by accident and a contrary intention would have to be presupposed—an intention embodied in the structure of the forces. In other words, either recurrence or an arbitrary God! See Werke, XII, 56-7, §§ 103, 105.
d I give also, with his kind permission, W. B. Smith's translation (originally printed in Poet Lore, 1905, XVI, iii, 91):
""O Man! Give ear!
What saith the midnight deep and drear?
From sleep, from sleep,
I woke and from a dream profound;—
The world is deep.
And deeper than the day can sound.
Deep is its woe—,
Joy—deeper still than heart's distress.
Woe saith. Forgo!
But joy wills Everlastingness,
Wills deep, deep Everlastingness."
e The shepherd into whose throat the serpent (the idea of "eternal recurrence ") has crawled, bites its head off at the instigation of Zarathustra and spits it out—and laughs, laughed as man has never laughed before (Zarathustra, III, ii, § 2; in xiii, § 2, it is Zarathustra who has the experience). Zarathustra chants love for eternity (III, xvi); his disciples, too, after a festival with him, are lifted up, ready to live, and to live again. "Was that life?" will I say to death, "Well! once again!" (IV, xix, § 1). I take it that not the bare idea of return, but
