Chapter II: Therapeutics (3)

[364] Alfred Binet, _Les Altérations de la Personnalité_, Paris, 1892, p. 23, communicates the case (observed by Bourru and Burot, and often cited) of Louis B., who united in himself six different personalities--six ‘I’s’ having not the slightest knowledge of each other, each possessing another character, another memory, other peculiarities of feeling and movement, etc.

[365] ‘Suicidal’ is here not a mere rhetorical expression. If the tyrannical power of instinct always ends by leading the individual in the long-run to his destruction, it sometimes does this directly. Instinct, namely, may have for its direct object suicide or self-mutilation; and the ‘free’ man obeying his instinct has then the ‘liberty’ of mutilating or killing himself, although that so little tallies with his real wish that he seeks in others a protection from himself. See Dr. R. von Krafft-Ebing, _Lehrbuch der gerichtlichen Psychopathologie_. Dritte umgearbeitete Auflage. Stuttgart, 1892, p. 311.

[366] Herbert Spencer, _The Individual versus the State_. London, 1884.

[367] Dr. Ph. Boileau de Castelnau, ‘Misopédie ou Lésion de l’Amour de la Progeniture’ (_Annales médico-psychologiques_, 3^e série, 7^e volume, p. 553). In this work the author communicates twelve observations, in which the natural feeling of the mother for her children was transformed by disease into hatred.

[368] G. Ferrero, ‘L’Atavisme de la Prostitution,’ _Revue scientifique_, 50^e volume, p. 136.

[369] R. von Krafft-Ebing, _Psychopathia sexualis_, etc., 7^{te} Auflage, p. 89 (the third edition of this book, from which I have made my previous citations, contains nothing on masochism), and _Neue Forschungen auf dem Gebiete der Psychopathia sexualis eine medicinisch-psychologische Studie_, Zweite umgearbeitete und vermehrte Auflage, Stuttgart, 1891, p. 1 _ff._ Krafft-Ebing gives this explanation of his word (p. 1 _et seq._): ‘By masochism I understand a peculiar perversion of the psychic _vita sexualis_, consisting in this, that the individual seized with it is dominated in his sexual feeling and thought by the idea that he is wholly and unconditionally subjected to the will of a person of the opposite sex, who treats him imperiously, humiliates and maltreats him.’ The word is formed from the name Sacher-Masoch, because ‘his writings delineate exactly typical pictures of the perverted psychic life of men of this kind’ (_Neue Forschungen_, etc., p. 37). I do not look upon this designation as a happy one. Krafft-Ebing himself shows that Zola and, long before him, Rousseau (he might have added Balzac in Baron Hulot in _Parents pauvres_, part i.: _La cousine Bette_) have embodied this condition quite as clearly as Sacher-Masoch. Hence I prefer the designation ‘passivism,’ proposed by Dimitry Stefanowsky. See _Archives de l’Anthropologie criminelle_, 1892, p. 294.

[370] Ehrhard, _op. cit._, p. 88.

[371] Persian for Zoroaster.

[372] Dr. Hugo Kaatz, _Die Weltanschauung Friedrich Nietzsche_: Erster Theil, ‘Cultur und Moral’; Zweiter Theil, ‘Kunst und Leben.’ Dresden und Leipzig, 1892, 1 Th., p. vi.: ‘We are accustomed, especially in matters concerning the deepest problems of thought, to a finished, systematic exposition.... There is none of all this in Nietzsche. No single work of his forms a finished whole, or is wholly intelligible without the others. Each book, moreover, is totally wanting in organic structure. Nietzsche writes almost exclusively in aphorisms, which, filling sometimes two lines, sometimes several pages, are complete in themselves, and seldom manifest any direct connection with each other.... With proud indifference to the reader, the author has avoided cutting even _one_ gap in the hedge with which he has closely surrounded his intellectual creations. Access to him must be gained by fighting,’ etc. In spite of its seeming obscurity, Nietzsche has himself given such pointed information concerning his method of work as amounts to an avowal. ‘All writing makes me angry or ashamed; for me, writing is a necessity.’ ‘But why, then, do you write?’ ‘Yes, my dear friend, let me say it in confidence: I have hitherto found no other means of _ridding_ myself of my thoughts.’ (The italics are Nietzsche’s.) ‘And why do you wish to rid yourself of them?’ ‘Why I wish? Do I so wish? I must.’ _Die fröhliche Wissenschaft._ Neue Ausgabe, p. 114.

[373] Dr. Max Zerbst, _Nein und Ja!_ Leipzig, 1892.

[374] Robert Schellwien, _Max Stirner und Friedrich Nietzsche_, _Erscheinungen des modernen Geister und das Wesen des Menschen_. Leipzig, 1892.

[375] I refuted this silly sophism before Nietzsche propounded it in the passages above quoted from _Zur Genealogie der Moral_, p. 66, and _Jenseits von Gut und Böse_, p. 228. See _Die conventionellen Lügen der Kulturmenschheit_, 14 Aufl., pp. 211, 212: ‘This expression [of Proudhon’s, that property is theft] can be regarded as true only from the sophistical standpoint that everything existing exists for itself, and from the fact of its existence derives its right to belong to itself. According to this view, forsooth, a man steals the blade of grass he plucks, the air he breathes, the fish he catches; but, then, the martin, too, is stealing when it swallows a fly, and the grub when it eats its way into the root of a tree; then Nature is altogether peopled by arch-thieves, and, in general, everything steals that lives, _i.e._, absorbs from without materials not belonging to it, and organically elaborates them, and a block of platinum, which does not even pilfer from the air a little oxygen with which to oxidize itself, would be the sole example of honesty on our globe. No; property resulting from earning, that is, from the exchange of a determined amount of labour for a corresponding amount of goods, is not theft.’ If, throughout this passage, ‘theft’ be substituted for the word ‘exploitation,’ used by Nietzsche, his sophism is answered.

[376] _The Sacred Books of the East._ Translated by various Oriental scholars, and edited by F. Max Müller. The Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1st series, vol. x.: _Dhammapada_, by F. Max Müller; and _Sutta-Nipâta_, by V. Fausböll.

[377] _The Sacred Books of the East_, etc., vol. xix.: _Fo-sho-hing-tsan-king_, by Rev. S. Beal.

[378] Charles Darwin, _The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex_; London, J. Murray, 1885, p. 101: ‘All the baboons had reascended the heights, excepting a young one, about six months old, who, loudly calling for aid, climbed on a block of rock, and was surrounded. Now one of the largest males, a true hero, came down again from the mountain, slowly went to the young one, coaxed him, and triumphantly led him away, the dogs being too much astonished to make an attack.’

[379] Friedrich Nietsche, _Zur Genealogie der Moral_. _Eine Streitschrift._ Zweite Auflage. Leipzig, 1892, § 80.

[380] Gustav Freytag, _Bilder aus der deutschen Vergangenheit_. Erster Band, aus dem Mittelalter. Leipzig, 1872, p. 42 _ff._: ‘The Roman Consul, Papirius Carbo ... denies the strangers [the Cimbrians and Teutons!] the right of sojourn because the inhabitants are enjoying the rights of hospitality of the Romans. The strangers excuse themselves by saying they did not know that the natives were under Roman protection, and they are ready to leave the country.... The Cimbrians do not seek a quarrel; they send to Consul Silanus, and urgently entreat him to assign them lands; they are willing in return for it to serve the Romans in time of war.... Once more the strangers do not invade Roman territory, but send an embassy to the Senate and repeat the request for an assignment of land.... The victorious Germans now sent a fresh embassy to the leader of the other army, for the third time, to sue for peace and ask for land and seed-corn.’

[381] _Zur Genealogie der Moral_, p. 79.

[382] _Ibid._, p. 73.

[383] Charles Darwin, _op. cit._, p. 98: ‘As soon as the mental faculties had become highly developed, images of all past actions and motives would be incessantly passing through the brain of each individual; and that feeling of dissatisfaction, or even misery, which invariably results ... from any unsatisfied instinct, would arise as often as it was perceived that the enduring and always present social instinct had yielded to some other instinct, at the time stronger, but neither enduring in its nature nor leaving behind it a very vivid impression. It is clear that many instinctive desires, such as that of hunger, are, in their nature, of short duration, and, after being satisfied, are not readily or vividly recalled,’ etc.

[384] _Zur Genealogie der Moral_, p. 9.

[385] _Ibid._, p. 48.

[386] _Jenseits von Gut und Böse_, p. 91: ‘The criminal is, often enough, not grown to the level of his deed: he dwarfs and traduces it. The legal defenders of the criminal are rarely artists enough to turn the beautiful terribleness of the deed to the profit of the doer.’

[387] ‘A people is the detour of nature, in order to arrive at six or seven great men.’ See also: ‘The essential thing in a good and healthy aristocracy is, that it should feel itself to be _not_ the function, but the _end_ and justification, be it of royalty or of the commonwealth--that it should, therefore, with a good conscience, suffer the sacrifice of a countless number of men who, _for its sake_, must be humbled and reduced to imperfect beings, to slaves, to instruments.’--_Jenseits von Gut und Böse_, p. 226.

[388] The following are a few examples, which could easily be centupled (literally, not hyperbolically)--_Jenseits von Gut und Böse_, p. 63: ‘It is the Orient, the deep Orient.’ p. 239: ‘Such books of depth and of the first importance.’ p. 248: ‘Deep suffering ennobles.’ ‘A bravery of taste, resisting all that is sorrowful and deep.’ p. 249: ‘Any fervour and thirstiness which constantly drives the soul ... into the bright, the brilliant, the deep, the delicate.’ p. 256: ‘An odour quite as much of depth [!] as of decay.’ p. 260: ‘To lie tranquilly like a mirror, so that the deep heaven might reflect itself in them.’ p. 262: ‘I often think how I may make him [man] stronger, wickeder, and deeper.’ _Also sprach Zarathustra_, pt. i., p. 71: ‘But thou Deep One, thou sufferest too deeply even from little wounds.’ Pt. ii., p. 52: ‘Immovable is my depth; but it sparkles with floating enigmas and laughters’ (!!). p. 64: ‘And this for me is knowledge: all depth should rise--to my height.’ p. 70: ‘They did not think enough into the depth.’ Pt. iii., p. 22: ‘The world is deep, and deeper than the day has ever thought it.’ Pt. iv., p. 129: ‘What says the deep midnight?... From a deep dream am I awakened. The world is deep, and deeper than the day thought. Deep in its woe. Joy--deeper still than sorrow of heart. All joy ... wishes for deep, deep eternity,’ etc.

[389] _Zur Genealogie der Moral_, p. 167.

[390] _Jenseits von Gut und Böse_, p. 159: ‘Our virtues? It is probable that we, too, still have our virtues, albeit they are no longer the true-hearted and robust virtues for which we hold our grandfathers in honour--though at a little distance.’ p. 154: ‘The man beyond good and evil, the master of his virtues ... he ought to be the greatest.’ So then, ‘beyond good and evil,’ and yet having ‘virtues’!

[391] _Zur Genealogie der Moral_, p. 79: ‘As a premise to this hypothesis concerning the origin of the evil conscience [through the ‘transvaluation of values’ and the ‘revolt of slaves in morality’] belongs the fact ... that this transformation was in no way gradual, or voluntary, and did not manifest itself as an organic growing into new conditions, but as a rapture, a leap, a compulsion.’ Hence, not only was that good which had previously been evil, but this ‘transvaluation’ even occurred suddenly, ordered one fine day by authority!

[392] _Jenseits von Gut und Böse_, p. 232: ‘Slave-morality is essentially a utilitarian morality.

[393] _Die fröhliche Wissenschaft_, p. 32: ‘In reality, however, evil instincts are just as purposive, as conservative of the species, and as indispensable as the good, only they have a different function.’ _Zur Genealogie der Moral_, p. 21: ‘At the root of all ... noble races lies the beast of prey ... this foundation needs from time to time to disburden itself; the animal must out, must hie him back to the desert.’ This means that it is essential to his health, and, consequently, of utility to him.

[394] _Zur Genealogie der Moral_, p. 6: ‘To what disorders, however, this [democratic] prejudice can give rise, is shown by the infamous [!] case of Buckle. The plebeianism of the modern spirit, which is of English origin, once more breaks forth ... there.’ _Jenseits von Gut und Böse_, p. 212: ‘There are truths that are best recognised by mediocre heads.... We are driven to this proposition since the intellect of mediocre Englishmen--I may mention Darwin, John Stuart Mill, and Herbert Spencer--acquired preponderance in the mean region of European taste.’

[395] _Die fröhliche Wissenschaft_, p. 43.

[396] See, in my novel, _Die Krankheit des Jahrhunderts_, Leipzig, 1889, Band I., p. 140, Schrötter’s remarks: ‘Egoism is a word. All depends upon the interpretation. Every living being strives for happiness, _i.e._, for contentment.... He [the healthy man] cannot be happy when he sees others suffer. The higher the man’s development, the livelier is this feeling.... The egoism of these men consists in their seeking out the pain of others and striving to alleviate it, in which, while combating the sufferings of others, they are simply struggling to attain to their own happiness. A Catholic would say of St. Vincent de Paul or of Carlo Borromeo, He was a great saint; I should say of him, He was a great egoist.’

[397] _Die fröhliche Wissenschaft_, p. 48.

[398] Dr. Hugo Kaatz, _op. cit._, Thiel I., Vorrede, p. viii.

[399] Robert Schellwien, _Max Stierner und Friedrich Nietzsche_. Leipzig, 1892, p. 23.

[400] _Also sprach Zarathustra_, pt. i., p. 84: ‘The “thou” is proclaimed holy, but not yet the “I.”’

[401] _Zur Genealogie der Moral_, p. 43.

[402] _Die fröhliche Wissenschaft_, p. 222.

[403] _Jenseits von Gut und Böse_, pp. 78, 106.

[404] C. Lombroso and R. Laschi, _Le Crime politique et les Révolutions_. Paris, 1892, t. i., p. 142.

[405] R. Schellwien, _op. cit._, p. 7: ‘The literary activity of the two thinkers [!] is separated by more than fifty years; but great as may be the difference between them, the agreement is not less, and thus the essential characters of systematic individualism are presented with all the more distinctness.’

[406] See, in my _Paradoxe_, the chapter ‘Wo ist die Wahrheit?’

[407] ‘With what magic she lays hold of me! What? Has all the world’s repose embarked here?’ ‘What use has the inspired one for wine? What? Give the mole wings and proud imaginings?’ ‘In so far as he says Yes to this other world, what? must he not then say No to its counterpart, this world?’ ‘Round about God all becomes--what? perhaps world?’ ‘A pessimist ... who says Yes to morality ... to _læde-neminem_-morality; what? is that really--a pessimist?’ ‘Fear and pity: with these feelings has man hitherto stood in the presence of woman. What? Is there now to be an end of this?’ I will content myself with these examples, but let it be remarked once for all, that all the specimens I adduce here for the purpose of examining Nietzsche’s mental state could easily be multiplied a hundredfold, as the characteristic peculiarities recur in him hundreds of times. On one occasion he plainly becomes conscious of this living note of interrogation, always present in his mind as an obsession. In _Also sprach Zarathustra_, pt. iii., p. 55, he calls the passion for rule, ‘the flashing note of interrogation by the side of premature answers.’ In this connection, this expression has absolutely no sense; but it at once becomes intelligible when it is remembered that the insane are in the habit of suddenly giving utterance to the ideas springing up in their consciousness. Nietzsche plainly _saw_ in his mind ‘the flashing note of interrogation,’ and suddenly, and without transition, spoke of it.

[408] ‘A Greek life, to which he said, No.’ ‘A pessimist who not merely says, No, wishes No [!] but who ... does No’ [!!]. ‘An inward saying No to this or that thing.’ ‘Free for death, and free in death, a holy No-sayer.’ Then as a complementary counterpart: ‘Pregnant with lightnings, who say, Yes! laugh Yes!’ ‘While all noble morality grows to itself out of a triumphant saying Yea.’ (He feels himself to be something) ‘at least saying Yea to life.’ ‘To be able to say Yea to yourself, that is ... a ripe fruit.’ (Disinterested wickedness is felt by primitive humanity to be something) ‘to which conscience valiantly says Yea.’ We see what use Nietzsche makes of his saying ‘Nay’ and ‘Yea.’ It stands in the place of nearly all verbs joining subject with predicate. The thought ‘I am thirsty’ would, by Nietzsche, be thus expressed, ‘I say Yes to water.’ Instead of ‘I am sleepy,’ he would say, ‘I say Nay to wakefulness,’ or, ‘I say Yes to bed,’ etc. This is the way in which invalids in incomplete aphasia are in the habit of paraphrasing their thoughts.

[409] Dr. Hermann Türck, _Fr. Nietzsche und seine philosophischen Irrwege_, Zweite Auflage. Dresden, 1891, p. 7.

[410] B. Ball, _La Folie érotique_, Paris, 1888, p. 50: ‘I have sketched for you the picture of chaste love (amorous lunacy, or the erotomania of Esquirol), where the greatest excesses remain enclosed within the limits of feeling, and are never polluted by the intervention of the senses. I have shown you some examples of this delirium pushed to the extreme bounds of insanity, without the intermixture of a single idea foreign to the domain of platonic affection.’

[411] In one passage of _Zur Genealogie der Moral_, p. 132, Nietzsche speaks of the ‘species of moral onanists and self-indulgers.’ He does not apply the expression to himself; but it was unquestionably suggested by an obscure suspicion of his own state of mind.

[412] Dr. R. von Krafft-Ebing, _Neue Forschungen_, u. s. w., p. 45 _ff._: ‘The complete contrary of masochism is Sadism. While in the former the subject desires to suffer sorrows, and to feel himself in subjection to violence, in the latter his aim is to cause sorrows, and to exercise violence.... All the acts and situations carried out in the active part played by Sadism constitute, for masochism, the object of longing, to be attained passively. In both perversions these acts form a progression from purely symbolic events to grievous misdeeds.... Both are to be considered as original psychopathies of mentally abnormal individuals, afflicted in particular with psychic _Hyperæsthesia sexualis_, but also, as a rule, with other anomalies.... The pleasure of causing sorrow and the pleasure of experiencing sorrow appear only as two different sides of the same psychic event, the primary and essential principle in which is the consciousness of active and passive subjection respectively.’ See Nietzsche, _Also sprach Zarathustra_, pt. i., p. 95: ‘Thou art going to women? Forget not the whip!’ _Jenseits von Gut und Böse_, p. 186: ‘Woman unlearns the fear of man,’ and thus ‘exposes her most womanly instincts.’

[413] Krafft-Ebing, _Neue Forschungen_, u. s. w., p. 108. (A sexual-psychopath thus writes): ‘I take great interest in art and literature. Among poets and authors, those attract me most who describe refined feelings, peculiar passions, choice impressions: an artificial (or ultra-artificial) style pleases me. In music, again, the nervous, stimulating music of a Chopin, a Schumann, a Schubert[!], a Wagner, etc., appeal to me most. In art, all that is not only original, but bizarre, attracts me.’ P. 128 (another patient): ‘I am passionately fond of music, and am an enthusiastic partisan of Richard Wagner, for whom I have remarked a predilection in most of us [sufferers from contrary-sexual-feeling]; I find that this music accords so very much with our nature,’ etc.

[414] See, in _Paradoxe_, the chapter on ‘Evolutionistische Æsthetik.’

[415] Dr. Max Zerbst, _Nein und Ja!_ Leipzig, 1892, p. vii.: ‘It is not impossible that this little book may fall into the hands of some who are nearly connected with the invalid ... whom every indelicate treatment of his affliction must wound most deeply.’ The very last person having the right to complain of indelicate treatment, and to demand consideration, is surely a partisan of Nietzsche’s, who claims for himself the ‘joy in wishing to cause woe,’ and ‘grand unscrupulousness’ as the ‘privilege of the over-man’! Zerbst calls his book a reply to that by Dr. Hermann Türck; but it is nothing but a childishly obstinate and insolent repetition of all Nietzsche’s assertions, the insanity of which has been proved by Dr. Türck. It is exceedingly droll that Zerbst, appealing to a feeble compilation by Ziehen, wishes to demonstrate to Türck that there are no such things as psychoses of the will. Now, Türck has not said a single word about a psychosis of the will in Nietzsche; but Nietzsche, indeed, in _Fröhliche Wissenschaft_, p. 270, does speak of ‘monstrous disease of the will,’ and of a ‘will-disease.’ Zerbst’s objection, therefore, applies, not to Türck, but to his own master--Nietzsche.

[416] Dr. Hugo Kaatz, _op. cit._, pt. i., p. 6.

[417] Ola Hansson, _Das junge Skandinavien. Vier Essays._ Dresden und Leipzig, 1891, p. 12.

[418] Albert Kniepf, _Theorie der Geisteswerthe_. Leipzig, 1892.

[419] Dr. Max Zerbst, _op. cit._, p. 1: ‘O, this modern natural science! these modern psychologists! Nothing is sacred to them!’ ‘When a man, grown up in the school of sickly “idealism,” confronts a cruel savant of this kind ... this godless man takes a small piece of chalk in his hand,’ etc. He ‘turns to the nonplussed idealist,’ and the latter somewhat timidly answers, and ‘adds something sorrowfully,’ whereupon ‘the young psychologist replies, with a gentle shrug of his shoulders.’ Quite so! the ‘cruel,’ the ‘godless,’ the ‘shoulder-shrugging’ young psychologist is himself, Zerbst; the whimpering idealist, the ‘timid’ and ‘sorrowful’ speaker and questioner is his opponent, Dr. Türck!

[420] Kurt Eisner, _Psychopathia spiritualis. Friedrich Nietzsche und die Apostel der Zukunft._ Leipzig, 1892.

[421] Ola Hansson, _Materialisimen i Skönlitteraturen, Populär-vetenskapliga_ [scientific!] _Afhandlingar_. Stockholm, undated, pp. 28, 50. In this brochure Hansson also designates the author of _Rembrandt als Erzieher_ as a ‘genius’!!

[422] _Revue politique et littéraire_, année 1891.

[423] ‘During his sojourn of several years in the solitary mountainous district of Sils Maria ... he was in the habit ... of lying on a verdant neck of land stretching into the lake. One spring he returned, to find, on the consecrated [!] spot, a seat, on which trivial folk might rest, in the place hitherto peopled only by his most secret thoughts and visions. And the sight of this all too human [!] structure was enough to render the beloved place of sojourn insupportable to him. He never set foot there again.’--Ola Hansson, quoted from Dr. Hermann Türck, _op. cit._, p. 10.

[424] Dr. Wilhelm Griesinger, _op. cit._, p. 77.

[425] Dr. von Krafft-Ebing, _Lehrbuch der Psychiatrie auf klinischer Grundlage für praktische Aertze und Studirende_. Vierte theilweise umgearbeitete Auflage. Stuttgart, 1890, p. 363 _ff._

[426] Translator.

[427] Dr. Hermann Türck, _op. cit._, s. 59.

[428] _Jenseits von Gut und Böse_, pp. 198, 201.

[429] _Die fröhliche Wissenschaft_, p. 130.

[430] _Jenseits von Gut und Böse_, p. 147.

[431] _Also Sprach Zarathustra_, pt. iii., p. 74.

[432] _Paris unter der dritten Republik_, Vierte Auflage. Leipzig, 1890. _Zola und Naturalismus Ausgewählte Pariser Briefe_, Zweite Auflage. Leipzig, 1887. ‘Pot Bouille, von Zola.’

[433] Jules Huret, _Enquête sur l’Évolution littéraire_, p. 135.

[434] J. H. Rosny, _Vamireh: Roman des Temps primitifs_. Paris, 1892.

[435] Ferdinand Brunetière, _Le Roman naturaliste_, nouvelle édition. Paris, 1892, p. 285.

[436] Thirty years before realism began to create a disturbance in Germany, with its mania for description, the Swiss novelist, Gottfried Keller, with a curious premonition, ridiculed it. See _Die Leute von Seldwyla_, Auflage 12, Berlin, 1892, Band II., p. 108. (The hero of the story entitled _Die missbrauchten Liebesbriefe_ [the misused love-letters] suddenly conceives the notion of becoming an author.) ‘He laid aside the book of commercial notes, and drew forth a smaller one provided with a little steel lock. Then he placed himself before the first tree he came to, examined it attentively, and wrote: “A beech-trunk. Pale gray, with still paler flecks and transverse stripes. Two kinds of moss cover it, one almost blackish, and one of a sheeny, velvety green. In addition, yellowish, reddish and white lichen, which often run one into another.... Might perhaps be serviceable in scenes with brigands.” Next he paused before a stake driven into the earth, on which some child had hung a dead slow-worm. He wrote: “Interesting detail. A small staff driven into the ground. Body of a silver-gray snake wound round it.... Is Mercury dead, and has he left his stick with dead snakes sticking here? This last allusion serviceable, above all, for commercial tales. N.B.--The staff or stake is old and weather-beaten; of the same colour as the snake; in places where the sun shines upon it it is covered with little silver-gray hairs. (This last observation might be new, etc.),”’ etc.

[437] Edmond et Jules de Goncourt, _Manette Solomon_. Paris, 1876, pp. 3, 145, 191.

[438] F. Brunetière, _op. cit._, p. 153.

[439] F. Brunetière, _op. cit._, p. 156.

[440] ‘Everything is a mystery. Everything is a semblance. Nothing really exists.’ The saying of one of Arnaud’s patients afflicted with the mania of negation. See F. L. Arnaud, ‘Sur le Délire des Négations,’ _Annales médico-psychologiques_, 7^e série, t. xvi., p. 387 _et seq._

[441] I would lay humanity on a white page, all things, all beings, a work which would be a vast ark.’--E. Zola, preface to _La Faute de l’Abbé Mouret_, edition of 1875. ‘Throw yourself into the commonplace current of existence.’ ‘Choose for your hero a person in the simplicity of daily life.’ ‘No hollow apotheoses, no grand false sentiments, no ready-made formulæ.’--E. Zola, _Le Roman expérimental_, _passim_.

[442] The family of Kérangal has been the subject of many works, and is well known in technical literature. The last published work on them is due to Dr. Paul Aubry: ‘Une Famille de Criminels,’ _Annales médico-psychologiques_, 7^e séries, t. xvi., p. 429 (reproduced in _La Contagion du Meurtre_, by the same author; Paris, 1894). See especially, pp. 432, 433, the curious genealogical tree of the family, in which Zola’s celebrated genealogical tree of the Rougon-Macquart and the Quenu-Gradelle can be immediately recognised.

[443] Brunetière, _op. cit._, p. iii.

[444] James Sully, _Pessimism: A History and a Criticism_. London, 1877, p. 411.

[445] Dr. Paul Sollier, _Psychologie de l’Idiot et de l’Imbécile_. Paris, 1891, p. 95.

[446] Catrou, _Étude sur la Maladie des Tics convulsifs_ (Jumping, Latab, Myriachit). Paris, 1890.

[447] Lombroso, _L’Uomo delinquente_, etc., pp. 450-480.

[448] His descriptions of impulsive criminals are not really exact. The laity have greatly admired his description of the assassin Lantier in _La Bête humaine_. The most competent judge in such matters, however, Lombroso, says of this character, which has been inspired in M. Zola, according to his own declaration, by _L’Uomo delinquente_: ‘M. Zola, in my opinion, has never observed criminals in real life.... His criminal characters give me the impression of the wanness and inaccuracy of certain photographs which reproduce portraits, not from Nature, but from pictures.’--_Le piu recenti scoperte ed applicazioni della psichiatria ed antropologia criminale. Con 3 tavole e 52 figure nel testo._ Torino, 1893, p. 356.

[449] Dr. R. von Krafft-Ebing, _Psychopathia Sexualis_, etc., 3^e Auflage; Stuttgart, 1888. Beobachtung 23, Zippes Fall, s. 55; Beobachtung 24, Passow’s Fall, s. 56; Aum. zu s. 57, Lombroso’s Fall.

Cæsare Lombroso, _Le piu recenti scoperte_, etc., p. 227: ‘He always had voluptuous sensations on seeing animals killed, or in perceiving in shops feminine under-garments and linen.’ The case of which Lombroso here speaks is that of a degenerate of fifteen years old, who had been observed by Dr. MacDonald, of Clark University.

[450] Léon Tolstoi, _[Œuvres complètes_, p. 385: ‘He smelt the warmth of her body, inhaled the odour of her perfumes ... and at this moment Pierre understood that not only _might_ Hélène become his wife, but that she _must_ become so--that nothing else was possible.’] It is related that the King of France, Henri III., married Marie of Cleves because, at the wedding of the King of Navarre and his sister, Marguerite of Valois, wishing to dry his face in the chemise wet with the perspiration of the young princess, he was so intoxicated by the scent which emanated from it, that he had no rest till he had won her who had borne it. See Krafft-Ebing, _Psychopathia Sexualis_, p. 17.

[451] Léon Tolstoi, _[Œuvres complètes_, t. ii., p. 385: ‘With him there had come into the room a strong, but not disagreeable, smell,’ etc.]

[452] Maurice Barrès, _L’Ennemi des Lois_, p. 47.

[453] Edmond de Goncourt, _La Faustin_. Paris, 1882, p. 267.

[454] Alfred Binet, _Le Fétichisme dans l’Amour_, etc., p. 26. This passage will make the German reader think of the sniffer of souls, G. Jaeger; I have no occasion to mention him here.

[455] Dr. R. von Krafft-Ebing, _Psychopathie Sexualis_, p. 15, foot-note, p. 17.

[456] E. Séguin, _Traitement morale, Hygiène et Education des Idiots_. Paris, 1846.

[457] L. Bernard, _Le Odeurs dans le Romans de Zola_. Montpellier, 1889.

[458] _Le Temps_, N^o du 13 Février, 1892: ‘Current literature ... is, at present, at an inconceivably low ebb in Germany. From one end of the year to the other it is becoming an impossibility to discover a novel, a drama, or a page of criticism worthy of notice. The _Deutsche Rundschau_ itself recently admitted this in despair. It is not only the talent and the style which are deficient--all is poor, weak and flat; one might imagine one’s self in France, in the time of Bouilly.... Even the desire to rise above a certain level of ordinary writing seems wanting. One ends by being thankful to any contemporary German author who is seen to be making ... the simplest effort not to write like a crossing-sweeper.’ Every German who observes all the literary productions of his contemporaries will see that this is the opinion of a spiteful enemy. This opinion, nevertheless, is explained and justified by the fact that at the present day it is only the ‘realists’ who make enough stir to be heard in certain places abroad, and that there the natives are delighted to be able to consider them as representing all the German literature of the day.

[459] Arno Holz--Johannes Schlaf, _Die Familie Selicke_, 3^e Auflage; Berlin, 1892, p. vi.: ‘In fact, nothing so provokes us to smile ... as when they, in their anxiety to find models, label us as plagiarists of the great foreign authors. Let them say it, then.... It will be acknowledged some day that there has never yet been in our literature a movement less influenced from without, more strongly originated from within--in one word, more _national_--than this movement, even at the further development of which we look to-day, and which has had for its visible point of departure our _Papa Hamlet_. _Die Familie Selicke_ is the most thoroughly German piece of writing our literature possesses,’ etc. This passage may serve the reader as a model both of the style in which these lads write, and of the tone in which they speak of themselves and their productions.

[460] The complaint of want of money is a constant refrain among the ‘Young Germans.’ Listen to Baron Detlev von Liliencron: ‘You had nothing to eat again to-day; as a set-off, every blackguard has had his fill.’ ‘The terror of infernal damnation is--A garden of roses under the kisses of spring,--When I think of how heart and soul fret,--To be hourly bitten by the need of money.’ And Karl Bleibtreu: ‘Brass reigns, gold reigns,--Genius goes its way a-begging.’ ‘To call a ton of gold one’s own,--Sublime end, unattainable to man!’ etc.

[461] Heinz Tovote, _Im Liebesrausch_, Berliner Roman, 6^e Auflage. Berlin, 1893.

[462] Hermann Bahr, _Die gute Schule; Seelenstände._ Berlin, 1890.

[463] _Einsame Menschen_; Drama. 1891, p. 84.

[464] Gerhart Hauptmann, _Vor Sonnenaufgang_; Soziales Drama, 6^e Auflage; Berlin, 1892, p. 14: ‘During the two years of my imprisonment, I wrote my first book on political economy.’ p. 42: ‘The Icarians ... share equally all work and all desert. No one is poor; there are no poor among them.’ p. 47: ‘My fight is a fight for the happiness of all.... Moreover, I must say that the fight in the interest of progress brings me great satisfaction.’ (Let it be understood that not the smallest trace of this famous ‘fight’ is to be seen in the piece!) p. 63: ‘I should like to study the state of things here. I shall study the position of the miners here.... My work must be pre-eminently descriptive,’ etc.

[465] Since this book has been published, Hauptmann has put on the stage two new pieces: _The Beaver Pelisse_, which was an utter fiasco, and _Hannele, a Dream Poem_, much discussed on account of its strange mysticism.

[466] Scipio Sighele, _La Folla delinquente_, Turin, 1892; translated into French, _La Foule criminelle_, Paris, 1893. Fournial, _Essai sur la Psychologie des Foules_. Lyon, 1892.

[467] Gerhart Hauptmann, _Die Weber_, Schauspiel aus den vierziger Jahren, 2^e Auflage; Berlin, 1892, p. 39:

BERTHA. Where is father, then? [Old Baumert has gone silently away.]

MOTHER BAUMERT. I don’t know where he can have gone.

BERTHA. Could it be that he’s no longer used to meat?

MOTHER BAUMERT (_beside herself, in tears_). There now, you see--you see for yourself, he can’t even keep it down. He’ll throw up all the little good food he has had.

OLD BAUMERT (_returns, crying with vexation_). Well, well, ’twill soon be all over with me. They’ll soon have done for me. If one do chance to get something good, one isn’t able to keep it. (_He sits down on the bench by the stove, weeping._) [All this conversation is written in Silesian dialect.]

[468] Gerhart Hauptmann, _Der Apostel_, _Bahnwärter Thiel_, Novellistische Studien. Berlin, 1892.

[469] Hans Merian, _Die sogenannten ‘Jungdeutschen’ in unsererzeitgenössischen Literatur_, 2^e Auflage. Leipzig, ss. 12, 14. Undated.

[470] C. Lombroso and R. Laschi, _Le Crime politique_, etc., t. ii., p. 116.

[471] Dr. R. von Krafft-Ebing, _Neue Forshungen_, etc., 2 Auflage, pp. 109, 118. By the same, _Psychopathia Sexualis_, 3 Auflage, p. 65.

[472] Dr. A. B. Morel, _Traité des Dégénérescences_, p. 581, note: ‘The state of arrested development and _sterility_ are the essential characteristics of beings arrived at the extreme limit of degeneracy.’

[473] C. Lombroso and R. Laschi, _Le Crime politique_, etc., t. i., p. 8 _et seq._

[474] Charles Darwin, _A Naturalist’s Voyage round the World, Journal of Researches_, etc., chap. x.

[475] Ernest Renan, _Feuilles détachées_. Paris, 1892, Préface, p. 10.

[476] Ludwig Fulda, _Das verlorene Paradies_, Schauspiel in drei Aufzügen. Stuttgart, 1892. _Cf._ p. 112:

MÜHLBERGER. Rika, Rika; come out!

FREDERIKA. Oh, Lord! will they send me back?

MÜHLBERGER. Here’s my daughter. She must go into the fresh air--into the fresh air.

FREDERIKA. Father, let me be. I must work.

MÜHLBERGER (_with passionate resolution_). No. No more work--no more--no more work. You must go out into the fresh air, my child--my good sick child. (_He holds her in his embrace. Pause. No one present can escape from the impression of this episode._)

So says the author! I do not think that these sentimental phrases produce the smallest effect on anybody. Note (in the original) how Fulda, an author of talent, in no way affiliated to the ‘Young-German realists,’ is himself sufficiently intimidated by their ranting to seek for ‘modernity’ by using the Berlin dialect.

[477] Ernst von Wildenbruch, _Die Haubenlerche_, Schauspiel in vier Akten. Berlin, 1891. _Cf._ p. 134:

AUGUST. Work builds the world. Therefore, it must be executed for its own sake; it must be loved!... And you--when I have seen you standing before your tub--with the water-scoop in your hand--in such a way that the windows flew open--then I thought, Ah! here is one who loves his tub!...

ILEFELD. Master August, ‘tis as if I had been married to it, to my tub--that’s how it’s been!

AUGUST. And yet you leave it standing there so that anybody might take your place? What am I to say to the tub, should it ask after Paul Ilefeld?

ILEFELD (_sits down heavily and dries his eyes with his hand_).

All the workmen I know would be convulsed with laughing at this conversation.

[478] Madame Minna Wettstein-Adelt, _Three and a Half Months in a Factory_, Eine praktische Studie, 2^e Auflage. Berlin, 1892.

[479] Paul Gœhre, _Three Months Factory Hand and Apprentice_, Eine praktische Studie. Leipzig, 1892.

[480] Dr. S. Frenkel, ‘Die Therapie atactischer Bewegungstörungen,’ _Münchener medizinische Wochenschrift_, Nr. 52. 1892.

[481] A. G. Bianchi, _La Patologia del Genie e gli scienziati Italiani_. Milano, 1892, p. 79.

[482] Allusion is here made to the political influence exercised in a number of German electoral districts by the anti-Semite Passchen, a proved lunatic, with a mania for persecution.--TRANSLATOR.