New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1920-05-02
A Disciple Of Nietzsche
Modern Spirit Analysed in Series of Essays by
Young Scotchraan

N F IMITATION be the sincerest form
of fattery, Mr.. Edwin Muir may
be counted most devout woE~
shipper at the shrine Of Fried
rich Nietzsche. His collection Of es-
says ave Moderns,' the fourth OF
Alfred A. Knopf's Free Lance Books,
reveals the influence of tho German
iconoclast down to the most minute de-
tails of style. Mr.. Muir employs most
of Nietzsche's familiar devices Of ex-
preston. He writes in disconnected
paragraphs, which he groups occasion
ally under loose titles, His paragraphs
vary greatly in contents, from learned
disquisitions to paradoxical epigrams.
AS in the case of Nietzsche. they fire.
quently end on provocative interro-
cation point.
II would be quite impossible for any
one to initiate Nietzsche's thought
through all its twists and evolutions;
but the author adopts as cardinal arti-
cles Of his faith Niotzsche's aversion
to Christianity and democracy and his
passionate desire for a reversion to
Greek habits Of thinking and living.
Mr. Muir's phrases often possess a
genuine Nietzschean ring, keen and bit
ter and fiercely insistent upon the rights
vulgar herd.
What, then, is equality but the An
finitely consoling consciousness of
tainted creatures that every one on this
earth is tainted?"
THE best we can do, then, Is to in
augurate society in which great men
will find it possible to live, will be even
encouraged to live"
Do not these sentences suggest
Beyond Good and Evil" and Human,
All Too Human? Mr.. Muir is also
Nietzschean to the core in his con-
temptuous anti-utilitarianism, in his IN
leisure, in his denunciation of the ten
dency TO turn the whole human race
into an industrial machine, The fol-
lowing passage expresses his attitude
so we'll that it is worth quoting in its
entirety:
"The very greatest danger con
fronts u people who renounce leisure
that people will become shallow-just
consider England. For OF all things
noble 1t is hard to see the immediate
needed before one can see in them a
meaning at all. Art, literature and
philosophy are not obvious goods. At
the first glance they appear even re-
4 pellent. Alas, then, for them in All
age OF first chances. In such All age, it
is true, they will not altogether disap-
pear. Something worse will happen.
They will be degraded, made obvious,
misunderstood; in one word, popular
| ized--the fate OF our time, Society
should be organized so as to give to
it's members the maximum Of leisure.
Thus would the dissemination of art
and philosophy be made at least pos
sibie. But society should at the same
time provide for privileged class Of
artists and philosophers, with absolute
leisure, who would work only when the
inner compulsion made them. The sec
ond condition is at least as important
as the first"
The author pours out Walls Of scorn
upon the modern realistic novel. To
him this form of literature implies at
once lack of taste end poverty Of Gre
alive genius. What is easier, and what
is more stupid, than Photographic re-
production Of the drab details Of every
day life? What IS needed is selection
compression, judicious omission. But
these processes demand artistic discrim-
nation, and 1t is just that quality that
the modern realists lack,
Despite its obvious genesis in
Nietzsche, Mr. Muir's work Is by no
means destitute Of original value. In
the first place the author interprets
his master faithfully and adequately