The
German scholar believes that it will detract from the respect due him if
he does not assume a tone of condescension or overbearing censure.
Examine the first scientific journal you may happen to pick up; even the
smallest anonymous announcement breathes the air of infinite
superiority."
A second passage is quoted from the great work of Wilhelm Scherer,
"Geschichte der Deutschen Litteratur" (Pages 20-21): "Recklessness seems
to be the curse of our spiritual development ... obstinacy in good and
in evil. Beauty we have not often served, nor long at a time." These
are, of course, not the judgments of the present writer.
Conviction does not flow from the argument concerning England's brutal
egoism and reckless immorality under the cloak of sanctimoniousness; nor
is there strength in the appeal for Teuton culture. All has the tone of
special pleading and makes doubly significant a sentence from Nietzsche
when he pleads for an overcoming of our ideals of veracity: "'I have
done this thing,' says my memory, 'I could not have done this thing,'
says my pride and remains inexorable. Finally memory yields.
Pages:
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