Chapter VII: The Final Solitude (3)

Thus the condition of physical jubilation to which imminent madness brought him let him escape neither presentiment nor anguish. He wished to reassemble for the last time the memories and impressions which life had left to him, and to compose a work which should be bizarre, triumphant, and desperate. Look at the titles of the chapters: "Why I am so prudent.--Why I am so wise.--Why I have written such good books.--Why I am a fatality.--Glory and eternity...." He calls his last work: _Ecce Homo._ What does he mean? Is he Antichrist or another Christ? He is both together. Like Christ, he has sacrificed himself. Christ is man and God: He has conquered the temptations to which He made Himself accessible. Nietzsche is man and Superman: he has known every feeble desire, every cowardly thought, and has cast them from him. None before him was so tender or so hard; no reality has alarmed him. He has taken upon himself not the sins of men, but all their passions in their greatest force. "Jesus on the Cross," he writes, "is an anathema upon life; Dionysos broken in bits is a _promise_ of life, of life indestructible and ever-renewed." The solitary Christian had his God: Nietzsche lives alone and without God. The sage of old had his friends: Nietzsche lives alone and without friends. He lives nevertheless, and can sing, in his cruel extremity, the Dionysian hymn. "I am not a saint," he writes, "but a satyr." And again, "I have written so many books, and such beautiful ones: how should I not be grateful to life?"

No; Nietzsche was a saint, not a satyr, and a wounded saint who aspired to die. He said that he felt grateful to life; it was false, for his soul was quite embittered. He lied, but sometimes man has no other way to victory. When Arria, dying from the blow she had given herself, said to her husband as she passed him her weapon: _"Pœte, non dolet._.." she lied, and it was to her glory that she lied. And here, may we not pass on Nietzsche himself the judgment that he had passed upon her? "Her holy falsehood," he wrote in 1879, "obscures all the truths that have ever been said by the dying." Nietzsche had not triumphed. _Ecce Homo:_ he was broken but would not avow it. A poet, he wished that his cry of agony should be a song; a last lyrical transport uplifted his soul and gave him the force to lie.

Thou sinkst to eve!
Thine eye already
Gleams half-bruised;
Drops from thy dew,
Like tears outstrewn,
Stream; the purple of thy love
Goes silent over the milky sea,
Thy ultimate, tardy blessedness....

All around, only the waves and their mirth.
What once was hard
Has foundered in a blue oblivion--
My boat lies idle now.
Tempest and travel--how unlearnt
Hope and desire are drowned,
The soul and the sea he sleek.

_Seventh_ solitude
Never felt I
Closer to me the sweet serenity,
Warmer the rays of the sun.
--Shines not even the ice of my summit?

A rapid, silvery fish,
My bark glides away, afar."

Nevertheless he was conscious that the fame, so long desired, approached. Georges Brandes, who was going to repeat and publish his lectures, found him a new reader, the Swede Auguste Strindberg. Very pleased, Nietzsche announced it to Peter Gast. "Strindberg has written to me," he said, "and for the first time I receive a letter in which I find a world-historic _(Welthistorik)_ accent." In St. Petersburg they were getting ready to translate his _Case of Wagner._ In Paris, Hippolyte Taine sought and found him a correspondent: Jean Bordeau, contributor to the _Débats_ and the _Revue des Deux Mondes._ "At last," wrote Nietzsche, "the grand Panama Canal towards France has been opened." His old comrade Deussen handed him two thousand francs, the offering of an unknown who wished to subscribe to an edition of his works. Madame de Salis Marschlins offered him a thousand. Friedrich Nietzsche should have been happy, but it was too late.

How were his last days spent? We do not know. He lived in a furnished apartment, the guest of a humble family, which lodged him and, if he wished, fed him. He corrected the proofs of _Ecce Homo,_ adding a postscript to the early text, then a dithyrambic poem; meanwhile he prepared a new pamphlet for publication, _Nietzsche contra Wagner._ "Before launching the first edition of my great work," he wrote to his publisher, "we must prepare the public, we must create a genuine tension--or it will be _Zarathustra_ over again." On the 8th of December he wrote to Peter Gast: "I have re-read _Ecce Homo,_ I have weighed every word in scales of gold: literally it cuts the history of humanity into two sections--the highest superlative of dynamite." On the 29th of December he wrote to his publisher: "I am of your opinion, as to _Ecce Homo;_ let us not exceed 1,000 copies; a thousand copies for Germany of a book, written in the grand style, is indeed rather more than reasonable. But in France, I say it quite seriously, I count on an issue of 80,000--or 40,000 copies." On the 2nd of January another letter (in a rough and deformed hand): "Return me the poem--on with _Ecce!_"

There exists a tradition, difficult to verify, that, during these latter days, Nietzsche often played fragments of Wagner to his hosts. He would say to them: "I knew him," and talk of Triebschen. The thing does not seem improbable, for now his memories of his greatest happiness may well have visited him, and he may have found delight in recounting them to simple people ignorant of his life. Had he not just written in _Ecce Homo:_

"Since I am here recalling the consolations of my life, I ought to express in a word my gratitude for what was by far my most profound and best-loved joy--my intimacy with Richard Wagner. I wish to be just with regard to the rest of my human relationships; but I absolutely cannot efface from my life the days at Triebschen, days of confidence, of gaiety; of sublime flashes--days of _profound_ happiness. I do not know what Wagner was for others: our sky was never darkened by a cloud."

* * * * *

On the 9th of January, 1889, Franz Overbeck was sitting, with his wife, at the window of his quiet house in Basle, when he saw old Burckhardt stop and ring at his door. He was surprised: Burckhardt was not an intimate, and some intuition warned him that Nietzsche, their common friend, was the cause of this visit. For some weeks he had had disquieting notes from Turin. Burckhardt brought him a long letter which all too clearly confirmed his presentiments. Nietzsche was mad. "I am Ferdinand de Lesseps," he wrote, "I am Prado, I am Chambige [the two assassins with whom the Paris newspapers were then occupied]; I have been buried twice this autumn."

A few moments later Overbeck received a similar letter, and all Nietzsche's friends were likewise advised. He had written to each of them.

"Friend Georges," he wrote to Brandes, "since you have discovered me, it is not wonderful to find me: what is now difficult is to lose me.

"THE CRUCIFIED."

Peter Gast received a message the tragic significance of which he did not understand:

_"A mon maestro Pietro._

"Sing me a new song. The world is clear and all the skies
rejoice."

"Ariadne, I love you," he wrote to Cosima Wagner.

Overbeck started immediately. He found Nietzsche, watched over by his hosts, ploughing the piano with his elbow, singing and crying his Dionysian glory. He was able to bring him back to Basle, and introduce him, without too painful a scene, into a hospital, where his mother came to seek him.

He lived another ten years. The first of them were cruel, the later more kindly; sometimes even there seemed to be hope. He would recall his work.

"Have I not written fine books?" he would say.

He was shown portraits of Wagner.

"Him," he would say, "I loved much."

These returns of consciousness might have been frightful; it seems that they were not. One day his sister, as she sat by his side, could not restrain her tears.

"Lisbeth," he said, "why do you cry? Are we not happy?"

The ruined intellect could not be saved, but the uncorrupted soul kept sweet and charming, open to pure impressions.

One day a young man who was occupied with the publication of his work was out with him on his short walk. Nietzsche perceived a little girl at the side of the road, and was charmed. He went up to her, stopped, and with a hand drew back the hair which lay low on her forehead; then, contemplating the frank face with a smile, he said:

"Is it not the picture of innocence?"

Friedrich Nietzsche died at Weimar on the 25th of August, 1900.

[1] In French in the text.

[2] Morals are free in the pensions on the Mediterranean, and no doubt we are unaware of all the episodes of Friedrich Nietzsche's life. But this reservation must be made. According to evidence which we have been able to gather, his manner of life, in the Engadine, never gave occasion for the least gossip. On the contrary he seems, we are told, to have avoided young women.

[3] "I am very happy," wrote Taine, "that my articles on Napoleon have struck you as true, and nothing can more exactly sum up my impression than the two German words which you use: _Unmensch_ und _Uebermensch._"--Letter of July 12, 1887.

INDEX

A

About
Æschylus; Greece of
Alexander
Alsace
Anaxagoras
_Anti-Christ, The_
Apollo, "Leader of States"
Apollonian Spirit, The, Nietzsche's definition of
Aquila
Arabs, The
Ariadne
Aristotle
Athens
Attica

B

Bacchus-Dionysus
Bach, Nietzsche's love of
Bahnsen
Bashkirtseff, Marie
Basle, Nietzsche's appointment at University of;
Nietzsche's life at
Baudelaire, C.
Baumbrach, Professor
Baumgarten, Marie
Bavaria
Bayreuth, theatre of;
Wagner at;
destiny of;
foundation stone of theatre laid;
financial difficulties at;
Nietzsche's appeal on its behalf;
rehearsals at;
its "beautiful souls";
its journal condemns _Human, All Too Human_;
_Parsifal_ played at;
"6,000 feet above Bayreuth"
Beethoven;
Nietzsche studies life of;
centenary of
Bellini
Bergamo
Berlin; Nietzsche in;
parliamentary intrigues of
Berlioz
_Bestimmung der Oper, Die_
_Beyond Good and Evil_
_Birth of Tragedy_;
its Wagnerian tendency
Bismarck
Bizet
Blanc, Louis
Bohemia
Bonn, University of;
Nietzsche at
Bordeau, Jean
Borgia, Cæsar
Bourget, Paul
Brahms
Brandes, Georges;
appreciates _Genealogy of Morals_;
lectures on Nietzsche
Brenner, A.
Brockhaus, Madame
Bucharest
Büchner
Bülow, Hans von
Burckhardt, Jacob Nietzsche's confidant at Basle;
shares Nietzsche's grief
Byron; Nietzsche's love of

C

Carlsruhe
_Carmen_
_Case of Wagner, The_;
publication of
Catholicism, Nietzsche's detestation of
Cavour
Chamfort
Chiavari
Chillon, Nietzsche at
_Choephores_ of Æschylus, The
Chopin
Christianity, Wagner and; and Nietzsche's spiritual life
Cimarosa
Cloisters, Nietzsche's project of
Coire
Cologne
Columbus, Christopher
Cook, Captain
Copenhagen, University of
Corsica
Culture of _The Renaissance in Italy_ The

D

d'Agoult, Madame
Dante
Darwinism
_Dawn of Day, The_;
failure of;
preface to
De Brossé
Democritus
Descartes
Deussen, Paul, Nietzsche's college comrade;
Nietzsche's letter to on becoming Professor at Basle
Diogenes Laertius
Dionysian Songs
Dionysos; Nietzsche as
Dönhoff, Countess
Don Quixote
Dresden
Dühring; _The Value of Life_
Dürer

E

_Ecce Homo_
Eckermann
_Educational Institutions, The Future of_
Emerson, R. W.
Empedocles
Engadine, The, Nietzsche in
Eternal Return, The, Nietzsche's conception of;
his horror of;
abandons the idea;
re-adopts it;
Euripides
Europe, condition of;
tragical era of;
Europe, Goethe, and Napoleon

F

Faust, _quoted_
Feuerbach
Fichte
Finland
Flaubert, Gustave
Flimms
Florence
Förster, marriage with Nietzsche's sister
France, Nietzsche in
Franco-German War
Frankfurt, Peace of
Frederick the Great
Frederick II
Frederick William of Prussia
Freiligrath
Friburg
Friedrich von Hohenstaufen
Friendship, Nietzsche's view of
Fritzsch
Froeschwüler
Fuchs, Carl

G

Galiani, Abbé, The
Garda, Lake of, Nietzsche at
Garibaldi
Gast, Peter;
with Nietzsche at Venice;
aids Nietzsche;
Nietzsche's correspondence with
Gautier
Gavarri
_Gay Science, The_;
preface to
_Genealogy of Morals,_
Geneva
Genoa, Nietzsche at
Germany, Nietzsche's hopes of;
its "delirium of conceit after Metz,";
fails to celebrate Beethoven;
Nietzsche abandons;
the mission of the German Empire;
the "two Germanys";
Nietzsche's projected mission to;
Nietzsche "spits out lava on";
Nietzsche's summons to
the "sombre Empire,";
defaming the Germans
Gersdorff, Baron von, Nietzsche's correspondence with
Gobineau, Count
Goethe;
quoted by Mazzini;
to inspire Nietzsche's great work
Goldmarck
Goncourts, Journal of the
Greek poets, Nietzsche's love of
Greeks, The, genius of;
Germanic Hellenism;
the Homeric problem;
Goethe, Wagner, and;
and tragedy;
Nietzsche's lectures on æsthetic of Greek tragedy;
the Greek genius and war;
of the sixth and seventh centuries;
the two Greeces;
tragic philosophers of
Grunewald
Guyau

H

Hamburg
Hartmann, E. von
Hasse
Hegel
Heidelberg, Union of
Heinze
Helen
_Hellenism and Pessimism_
Heraclitus
Herodotus
Herzen
Hildebrant, Karl
Hölderlin, read by Nietzsche;
life and work of;
similarity to Nietzsche
Homer
_Human, All Too Human_
Humboldt
Hymn to Friendship
Hymn to Life
Hymn to Solitude

I

_Iliad, The_
Italy

J

Java, Earthquake of
Jena
Judic

K

Kant
Kief
Kiel
Klingenbrunn
Köselitz, _see_ Peter Gast

L

Lange
Lanzky, Paul
with Nietzsche at Nice;
with Nietzsche at Ruta
_Laws of Manu, The_
Leipsic;
Nietzsche at
Lenbach
Leopardi
Leskien
Lessing
_Letters of an Heretical esthete, The_
Liszt
_Litterarisches Centralblatt, The_
_Lohengrin,_
_L'Ombra di Venezia_
London
Louis of Bavaria; Wagner writes
treatise for; saves Bayreuth
Louvre, The, burning of
Lucerne
Lucretius
Lugano; Nietzsche among the Germans at
Lunéville
Luther; Nietzsche's Lutheranism

M

Maggiori, Lake
Manfred
Mannheim
Marasoff, Madame
Marguerite of Savoy
Marienbad
Maupassant, Guy de
Mazzini, meeting with Nietzsche;
Nietzsche's veneration for
Meiningen
_Meistersingers,_
Mendelssohn
Mentone
Mérimée, Prosper
Messina
Metz
Meyer, Milly
Meysenbug, Fräulein von;
her _Memoirs of an Idealist_;
correspondence with Nietzsche;
at Naples with Nietzsche
Michelet
Mill, S.
_Miscellaneous Opinions and Apothegms_
Moltke, von
Monaco
Mond, G.
Montaigne
Mozart
Mucius Scævola
Munich
_Music of the Future, The_

N

Nancy
Naples, Nietzsche at
Napoleon the Great
Napoleon III
Naumburg-sur-Saale, Nietzsche's home at;
provinciality of;
Nietzsche spends Christmas of 1873 at
Newton
New York
_Nibelungen, The,_
Nice, Nietzsche at
Nietzki, Counts
Nietzsche, Frau, goes to Naumburg with her family
Nietzsche's tender letters to
Nietzsche, Friedrich, birth of;
death of his father and brother;
his journal;
residence at Naumburg;
desires to become a clergyman;
first composition;
enters college at Naumburg;
writes history of childhood;
scholarship at Pforta; life at Pforta;
weakening of religious faith;
question of his future;
address to his masters and comrades;
leaves Pforta; enters University of Bonn;
his new life; fights a duel;
dislike of Bonn; studies philology;
love of the Greek poets;
letter to his sister on Christianity;
flies from Bonn; completes his studies at Leipsic;
reads _The World as Will end Representation_;
researches on Theognis of Megara;
as Prussian patriot; second year at Leipsic;
enthusiasm for art and the classics; style;
friendship with Rohde;
as conscript; falls from horse;
opinion of German politics;
discovery of Wagner;
meeting with Wagner;
appointed Professor at Basle;
visits Wagner at Triebschen;
lectures on the "Homeric Problem";
his admiration for Wagner;
_The Birth of Tragedy_; Hellenism;
aids Wagner; on Socrates;
serves as ambulancer in Franco-Prussian War;
illness of; distrust of Prussian power;
returns to Basle and sees Wagner again;
project of a cloister; on War;
at Lugano; his horror at the burning of the Louvre;
Wagner's guest; publishes _The Birth of Tragedy,_;
ill-success of the book; farewell to Triebschen;
at Bayreuth; wishes to fight for Wagner;
and Fräulein von Meysenbug;
in North Italy; at Splügen;
return to Basle; how to found a culture;
holidays at Naumburg;
philosophical formulas;
goes to Bayreuth; attack on Strauss;
his friendship with Gersdorff;
_Thoughts Out of Season_;
proposed series of twenty pamphlets;
begins to distrust Wagnerian art;
_Schopenhauer as Educator_;
visits the Wagners with his sister;
depression; serious illness;
with his sister at Basle;
at Chülon;
letter to Fräulein von Meysenbug on her
_Memoirs of an Idealist_;
his book on Wagner;
absence from Bayreuth rehearsals;
at Bayreuth festivals;
his distress; failure of eyesight;
visit to Fräulein von Meysenbug at Naples;
sees Wagner at Sorrento; isolates himself;
life at Naples;
his veneration for Mazzini; leaves Naples;
takes cure at Rosenlaui;
friendship with Rée;
_Human, All Too Human,_;
impression of _Parsifal,_;
his grief over Wagner;
resigns professorship;
awaits death in Engadine;
returns to Naumburg;
terrible sufferings;
first visit to Venice and convalescence; at Genoa;
publication of _The Dawn of Day,_; at Sils-Maria;
conceives the Eternal Return at Sils-Maria;
the discovery of _Carmen_;
Nietzsche and Lou Salomé;
his quarrel with Rée and Lou;
the poem of Zarathustra;
the principle of the Superman;
attempts to complete his poem;
friendship with Heinrich von Stein;
joined by Lanzky at Nice;
failure to win Stein from Wagnerism;
abandons his lyrical work;
says farewell to his sister at Naumburg;
at Nice;
_Beyond Good and Evil,_;
his kindness to Peter Gast;
visits Rohde at Leipsic;
visits his mother at Naumburg;
returns to the Engadine;
the _Will to Power,_;
Taine's letter of praise;
prefaces to the _Dawn of Day_ and _The Gay Science_;
returns to Nice; as a critic;
_The Genealogy of Morals,_;
returns to Venice;
relations with Rohde;
Georges Brandes's letter;
design for new work;
arrival at Turin;
reads _The Laws of Manu_;
attack on Wagner;
the _Antichrist_:
_Ecce Homo_;
his opinion of Strindberg;
loss of reason; death of
Nietzsche, Lisbeth (Förster-Nietzsche);
with Nietzsche at Naumburg;
with Nietzsche at Lugano;
with Nietzsche at Flimms;
with Nietzsche at Basle;
accompanies Nietzsche to Engadine;
marriage of;
reconciliation with Nietzsche;
correspondence with Nietzsche
_Nietzsche contra Wagner_
Novalis

O

O., Madame
_Odyssey_
Œdipus
_Of the State and Religion,_ Wagner's
_Old Faith and the New, The,_
Overbeck, Professor

P

Paraguay
Paris
Parmenides
_Parsifal_
Pascal
Pforta
Philadelphia
_Philology of the Future, The_
_Philosophers of Tragic Greece, The_
Pindar
Plato
Plutarch
Pobles
Poland
Portofino
Port Royal des Champs
Prague
Prussia
Puccini
Pythagoras
Pythagoreans, The

R

Rapallo
Recoaro
_Reden Eines Hoffenden_
Rée, Paul;
rupture with Nietzsche
Renan
_Rhinegold, The_
Ritschl, Nietzsche's master at Bonn
_Rivista Europa, La_
Röcken
Röder, Madame
Rohde, Erwin, friendship with Nietzsche;
spends holiday with Nietzsche;
project of travel with Nietzsche;
defends _Birth of Tragedy_;
appointed Professor at Leipsic;
quarrel with Nietzsche;
correspondence with Nietzsche
Rolph
Rome; Nietzsche at,
Romundt;
enters orders
Rosenlaui
Rossaro
Rossini
Rousseau
Russians, The, Nietzsche's view of
Ruten

S

Sadowa, Battle of
Sainte-Beuve
Salis-Marschlins, Fräulein von
Salomé, Lou;
poems to Nietzsche;
her description of Nietzsche;
quarrel with Nietzsche
San Remo
Santa Margherita
Schaffler, Herr
Schelling
Schiller
Schlegels, The
Schmeitzner, Herr
Schopenhauer, Arthur,
_The World as Will and Representation_;
Nietzsche's admiration of;
truest philosopher
_Schopenhauer as Educator,_
Schubert
Schumann
Schüre, E., his description of Nietzsche
Scott, Walter
Sedan
Semiramis
Seydlitz, Baron von
Seydlitz, Irene von
Sicily
_Siegfried,_ "Idyll" performed at Triebschen
Sienna
Sils-Maria, Nietzsche at
Simonides
Singer, Herr
Slavery, Nietzsche's view of its necessity
Socialism
Socrates;
Nietzsche's condemnation of;
Socratic Greece;
ranked above Æschylus
Sophocles
Sparta
Spencer, Herbert
Spinoza
Spiteler, Carl
Splügen
State, The
Stendhal
Stein, H. von;
mission to Nietzsche;
visit to Sils;
death of
Steinabad, Nietzsche at
"Stellar Friendship"
Stewart, B.
Strassbourg; University of
Strauss, D.
Stresa
Strindberg, A.
Sulzer
Superman, The
Surlei
_Sutta Nipata, The,_
"Swiss, The Loyal"
Switzerland

T

Tacitus
Taine, H., letter to Nietzsche
Tautenberg
Tempel Leborecht, meeting with Nietzsche
Thales
Theognis of Megara
Theseus
_Thoughts out of Season_
Thucydides
_Thus Spake Zarathustra_;
publication of; second part of;
Nietzsche's attempt to complete poem;
its perfection of language; failure with public;
the fourth section
_Traveller and his Shadow, The_
Treischke, Herr, German historian
Triebschen, Wagner at;
Christmas festivals at;
changed life of;
Wagner's departure from
_Tristan_
Tübingen
Turgenieff, Ivan
Turin; Nietzsche at
Tuscany
_Twilight of the Gods_
_Twilight of the Idols_

U

Universities, prestige of in Germany
_Use and Abuse of History, The_

V

V. P., Madame
_Valkyrie, The,_ Nietzsche's criticism of
Vallambrosa
Vauvenargues
Venice;
Nietzsche's visit to;
Nietzsche with Gast at
Vibac
Voltaire

W

Wagner, Cosima;
Nietzsche and
Wagner, Richard, Nietzsche's discovery
of and acquaintance with;
and Schopenhauer; at Triebschen;
his treatise _On the State and Religion_;
interest in Nietzsche and correspondence;
the "poet of Germany";
and the Beethoven centenary;
and the German victories;
buffoonery of;
advises Nietzsche on his work;
his intimates;
visits Mannheim with Nietzsche;
Nietzsche spends Christmas with;
praises _The Birth of Tragedy_;
leaves Triebschen;
lays foundation-stone of Bayreuth Theatre;
his distrust; the Wagnerian cult;
renewed intimacy with Nietzsche;
mention of;
difficulties at Bayreuth;
as an "art";
his liking for Nietzsche;
relations with Nietzsche;
letters to Nietzsche;
Nietzsche's book on;
his neo-Christianity;
triumphs of; at Sorrento;
and _Human, All Too Human_;
references to;
death of;
further references to;
_Case of Wagner_;
_Nietzsche contra Wagner_
Wahnfried
War, Nietzsche's views on
Weimar; Nietzsche's death at
_Will to Power, The_
Willamowitz
William, Emperor
Windisch
Wissenberg
Wolf, F. A.
_World as Will and Representation, The_
Wörth

Z

Zarathustra;
"the lawgiver"
Zarncke
Zimmern, Miss
Zoagli
Zola
Zürich, Nietzsche at

End of Project Gutenberg's The life of Friedrich Nietzsche, by Daniel Halévy