New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1896-07-26
DECADENT PHILOSOPHY.
SOME IDEAS THAT COME OUT OF
GERMANY.

T ana None BY friedrich Netasche Translated
York: The Macmillan Company
The IDOLS; NIETzSCHE CONTRA WAH -,
T TER S Common msal'' svo Pp Xxx sS NcwYork
The Macmillan Company
There Is a Nietzsche-Arc at Naumburs
There is q Nietzsche cult in Europe monu-
raent to him Is being erected In Little feui'ns'o'
through popular subscription, as we go 10 press
II "a therefore. meet that thought should be
..%.c about Nietzsche among all thoughtful peo-
p,e nesides we are told that every one Will be
talking about him in a month or two II be-
hooyes thoughtful people to be In sympathy WITH
their surroundings Nietzsche. moreover. Is a
person to be taken very seriously. we say th's
IN all seriousness. He Is fascinating menace
n man whose literary executors carry neaVy
responsibility In circulating his works IN Ter
man and in English. His own responsibility is
great. Of course; but his brain has been over
thrown ard he is living In sanitarium Ills
literary executors are healthy German proles-
sors who ought to know how specious Is MS
philosophy how short-sghted and even ABSURD
Il IS to mention him las Professor Tile uoes III
his introduction to The Case or wagner III
the same breath with Darwin and Spinoza- They
fail to perceive that where Spinoza ana Oar
win contributed useful books to literature
Nietzsche's work. at best. is work Of destruc-
ticn-and, furthermore. destroys fine things
without putting anything sane or heipful IN
their place.
At the outset II Is we'll that Nietzsche should
be recognized for what he is. To start with
the theory that his philosophy must be consid-
cred side by side with the great PHILOSOPHERS of
&c cts RI
1t is as though one were to consider Stephane
Maiiarme and William Wordsworth as belonging
to the same sphere of poetical inspiration. The
trouble among the classes of restless thinkers
and writer's who especially affect him. as among
the drawing-rvom cohorts who will rally round
his gonfalon next winter is that intellectual
cowardice holds their faculties of judgment in
atrophy This is neither an arbitrary nor an
ungracious assumption. 1t Is the kind of criti-
c,sm passed with perfect safety after the event.
which the condition OF society at the present
time excuses while the event is ripening There
is nothing so memorable fashion. That has
been said q million times-after the thing had
again been proved. Why not admit the fact
when 1t is most opposite? Nietzsohe is just now
the fashion. Timid folk dazzled by his epi-
grams. "It Is impossible" they argue, that so
witty a phrase-maker could lack profundity OF
thought: his scheme may be obscure, but all
philosophical schemes are obscure; NietZsche is
just bit more mysterious than his preoeces-
sors because he is bit more profound. And
besides, does not So-and-so say that Nietzsche
has introduced a and invaluable element
into the world-thought of the latter years Of the
nineteenth century? The world thought! Think
Of 1t. Nietzsche has been wrestling with it. He
has done wonders We protest that there Is
nothing exagge rated in this supposittiou5 atti-
tude. Its bonelessness is only too familiar.
1t would not be so necessary TO point out the
kind of reception which Nietzsche should or
should not get. If 1t not that he is. after ALL
representative Of his representatives, the type
in excelsis Of the people who WILL so to speak.
manage his campaign. He stands for the ultra
modern dissatisfaction with all things particu-
larly with all disciplinary things. which finds
its expression now in the so-caled mysticism OF
Belgium or Paris. with its return to license by
way Of art" in literature and painting now in
the cheap paradoxes Of dn Oscar Wilde. or the
disgusting Hlll-Toppery which among English
anaemics takes the place of art" OF course
the people OF the Nietzsche cult would scout any
such comparison as this: but they, poor enthus-
asts are prevented by their frenzy from seeing
f. how closely aligned Nietzsche is with the least
amusing OF Partisan or London malcontents.
They all tarred with the same brI;h they
are all. German professor and French rapin
alike persuaded that there Is no greater wisdom
than this ITO live alone must be animal
or god-says Aristotle. The third case Is
wanting; one must be both--a philosopher" The
last word Is italicised in its original position
among certain "Apophthegms and Darts by
Netzsche which appear In the volume entitled
1.-The Case OF Wagner" We refer to the en-
p phasis as II indicates one transcendant element
of the Nietzsche philosophy, the element Of
20 aristccracy I'VE philosophers" he seems to
say, ARE the elect Of the earth Go away you
naughty Christians, you horrid moraists. You
are so stupid You don't know how nice 1t is to
be an animal and a god both az the same time.
G, away" and the voice rises to on hystertcal
scream Let us alone We will be wicked; we
will be ourselves We are wise You are fools.
with your goodness To us only has the true
wisdom come" 1t Is not difficult to understand
the acceptance this sort Of thing finds among
people tired of the restraints Of civilization. You
have only to vote decency a bore and 10! the
thing is done. Man. noble heroic Man, with his
huge Mind must not be asked to be bored That
were rank heresy And so the argument contn-
ues. ad infnitum. ad nauseam. ad doticum.
1t may be retorted that we draw too sweeping
a conclusion from the single Dart" which We
have extracted from Nietzsches CULVER. The
reader is referred TO the two thick volumes in
which the master is thus far permitted to ad-
dress an English-speaking audience, and to the
equally bulky books which are to follow In rea-
sonably swift succession. Study Of the man will
afford the inquiring student some entertainment:
but II he gets anything out of Nietzsche more
profound or more important than the obscrva-
tion as to the elements Of the philosophical unit
4 ho xxtl, otd oFo DAM cote Euif
in Nietzsche will prove anything: agreement
with his fundamental hypothesis Of a psychology
cal and physiological see-saw the only true
basis for human life will enable man 10 follow
him anywhere. But there has never been any
Lat IL In ha ,lnnar haarc Torn