Foerster-Nietzsche, Elizabeth

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NIETZSCHE, FRANCE, AND ENGLAND.BY ELIZABETH FOERSTER-NIETZSCHE.Translated from the manuscript by Caroline V. Kerr. Cf. the article "A Visitto Elizabeth Foerster-Nietzsche" in our last issue.THE distinguished philologist Friedrich Ritschl once said to mybrother: "We German intellectuals have always had a genuinefondness for France, but it is an unfortunate love and will everremain so. Do what we will, the French will never understand us,nor reciprocate our feelings. Despite the infamous calumnies writ-ten about us in France [Ritschl here referred to the press campaignduring the Franco-Prussian War] Germans of the intellectual classwill retain their affection for the French, even though the Germannation as a whole continues to regard France as its arch-enemy."My brother was among these literary Francomaniacs who fellunder the spell of French belles-lettres and philosophical literatureof the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and he was so stronglyimbued with the French spirit that his own philosophical concepts,according to Ritschl, were like "the writings of a French romancer."One of my brother's fondest dreams was to make a long stayin Paris with his friend Rohde, and there is a pleasant passage inone of his letters referring to this plan. He writes, "I can pictureto myself a couple of philosophic flaneurs with serious eyes andsmiling lips, strolling through the boulevards and becoming well-known figvires in the museums and libraries, in the Closerie des Lilasand in the cool recesses of Notre Dame."But nothing came of this plan, owing to the fact that Nietzschehad barely finished his studies when he was called to the faculty ofthe University of Basle (1869) and was still there when the warcame to destroy at one rude blow his French affinities.My brother was a passionate patriot, and Richard Wagner waswont to compare him to one of the famous Liitzow Brigade of 1813.148 rilE OPEN COURT.He was determined to join the ranks of the German army as a volun-teer and to this end presented a request to the Swiss government.But to preserve the nation's strict neutrality, the Swiss government.resolved to grant leave of absence to the German professors in itsemploy only on the condition that they would not enlist for activeservice.Greatly depressed because he was not allowed to join the activeranks, Nietzsche went to Erlangen to take a course of training as afield-nurse. While there he wrote to our mother, "Our nationalcivilization is at stake, and no sacrifice could be too great to defendit. These accursed French tigers !...." And after learning whatactual warfare meant he wrote, "There is such a thing as bravery,genuine German courage, which is an essentially different qualityfrom the clan of our pitiable neighbors." His feeling against Francewas strengthened by cruel practices with which he became acquaintedin his work as a field-nurse. These experiences must have been ofa very painful character, as he always begged his friends not toquestion him about them. But eventually he came to the conclusionthat an entire nation should not be held responsible for the deedsof some cruel and inflamed individuals. Gradually his sympathiesswung back to his first love, France, the more as he began to viewwith growing distrust the new Germany, and he often sighed forthe days when Germany was not yet politically united, and for herformer virtues.In one of his letters of that time he writes, "The German iswonderful as a soldier and greatly to be admired as a scholar andscientist, but otherwise he is only moderately admirable."About this time, a spirit of literary self-glorification, not at alljustified by actual conditions, began to make itself manifest inGermany, and as Nietzsche understood by culture the unity ofartistic style in all manifestations of national life, he believed thatthis could only be found in France, where tradition and nationalspirit combined to produce such conditions.I should not like to be misunderstood on this point ; it was notthe France of the nineteenth century that my brother prized, as healways spoke with indignation of the "democratic clamor" of mod-ern France. It was the France of the sixteenth and seventeenthcenturies, her profoundly passionate genius, her refined literary in-genuity, that commanded his admiration. He adored Montaigne,of whom he once said, "That such a man has lived and written,can only increase our desire to live and labor." If he regardedMontaigne as, in a certain sense, the founder of French intellectualNIETZSCHE, FRANCE, AND ENGLAND. 149aristocracy, Pascal was to him the embodiment of the deep, pas-sionate forces of his century. He often said that he loved Pascalas he would a brother, and felt closely akin to him in spirit. Vol-taire, whom he always called a"grand-seigneur oi intellect," he prizedas the last great dramatist. It was to Voltaire that the first editionof Menschliches, Allzumenschliches was dedicated. It is necessaryto explain, however, that this dedication was occasioned by thehundredth anniversary of Voltaire's death, and not by any greataffection my brother entertained for the philosopher. A letter writ-ten in June, 1878, contains a passage which throws light upon thedeep and tragic meaning which Nietzsche attributed to this dedi-cation :"To me there has always been a terrifying symbol in the fateof this man, about whom, even after a hundred years, it is impossibleto get an unbiased judgment; it is toward the emancipators of in-tellect that the world is most implacable in its hatred and most indis-criminating in its love."Nietzsche always insisted that the "modern French idea" of theeighteenth century was of English origin, and regarded it as acomplete perversion of French intellect and intuition. He alwayswas hostile to Rousseau, although in his youth he was a passionateadmirer of the picture of oppressed mankind as drawn by thisFrench writer. "In every socialistic upheaval, it is ever the manRousseau who is moving like the hidden forces imprisoned underMt. Etna. When oppressed and half crushed by the arrogant castespirit and merciless wealth of the world, when perverted by thepriesthood and humiliated by the ridiculous laws of conduct estab-lished by convention—man turns to nature in his hour of need, andis suddenly made to realize that she is as remote as was ever anEpicurean god. It is because man, himself, has sunk so deep in thechaos of an unnatural world that his prayers never reach nature'ssanctuary."Later in his life my brother conceived a great antipathy toRousseau because, as he said, "Rousseau remained a plebeian andraised the mobile vulgus to the dignity of the goddess of Justice,"He also believed that it was Rousseau who sowed the seeds of theFrench Revolution, thereby destroying the old aristocratic France.Despite my brother's abhorrence of the great French Revolu-tion, he entertained the greatest admiration for Napoleon, who, hesaid, restored his faith in the tremendous power of the individual,that is to say, in his own doctrine of the Herrenmoral. He alwaysemphasized the fact that Napoleon was not French but Corsican,150 THE OPEN COURT.and spoke of him as "the condottiere as a genius in the grandstyle." Like Napoleon, Nietzsche had a strong aversion to Madamede Stael, whom he pronounced "an unsexed woman, who had theaudacity to recommend the Germans to the sympathy of Europe asgentle, good-hearted, weak-willed literary blockheads." Nietzschehimself could be very severe in his criticisms of Germany and theGermans, but he boiled with indignation when such criticism camefrom a foreign source.Irrespective of political transitions from republic to empire andback again, the France of the nineteenth century was unsympatheticto him, but he was broad-minded enough to admit that French in-tellect deepened after tlic war of 1870-71. "France is still the seatof intellectual culture and the great school of literary taste, but onemust know where to look for these qualities. Those who belong tothis France hold themselves aloof ; they are few in number, andamong them are persons who are unsteady on their legs—fatalists,engloomed souls, diseased minds, fragile and over-sensitive spirits,who feel the need of shunning the glaring light of the every-dayworld. But one thing they all possess in common, and that is theability to close their ears to the insane stupidity and clamorousgabble of the democratic bourgeoisie."Only a very few of the Frenchmen then considered leaders ofthought excited Nietzsche's admiration : Renan he pronounced "asweetish bonbon" ; Sainte-Beuve was "a disappointed poet whosmacked of soul-snuffling, and would only too gladly have concealedfrom the world the fact that he possessed neither stability of willnor of philosophy—and was lacking in artihus et litteris, which isnot surprising in view of the shortcomings just mentioned" ; forVictor Hugo he coined the phrase, "Pharus standing on the shoreof the ocean of nonsense" ; George Sand was lactea uhertas, themilch cow with a beautiful soul ; les freres de Goncourt were "thetwo Ajaxes in battle with Homer, set to music by Offenbach" ; "thejoy in evil smells," was the aphorism he coined for Zola.In his judgment of Flaubert and Baudelaire, Nietzsche wasmore lenient. "Flaubert, owing to his strength of character, wasable to endure lack of success and loneliness (unusual qualitiesamong Frenchmen) and occupies a preeminent place in the fieldof romantic esthetics and style." Of Baudelaire, the pessimist,Nietzsche wrote, "He belongs to that almost incredible species ofliterary amphibian, which is equally German and Parisian in spirit;there is something in his poetry which in Germany is called 'senti-ment' or 'infinite melody,' in less elegant phraseology, we sometimesNIETZSCHE, FR.\NCE, AND ENGLAND. 151call it the 'moral blues' [Katsenjainmer] ; for the rest, Baudelairehas a very decided, if somewhat decadent taste, and with this hetyrannizes over the irresolute souls of his time." Merimee was char-acterized as a "genuine, if not a particularly rich nature, living inspurious surroundings, but enough of an optimist to play his part inthe comedy without becoming nauseated."My brother always entertained the greatest reverence for Taine,whom he regarded as the foremost historian of Europe, a scholarwhose courage and will-power never succumbed to the fatalisticpressure of learning.With the exception of Brandes, Taine was the only Europeanscholar of note who wrote words of recognition and appreciation tomy brother ; I am always moved when I read the following passagein my brother's note-book, which undoubtedly refers to Taine, al-though his name is not mentioned : "There really exist in France, atpresent an understanding and an appreciation of those rare andrarely satisfied souls, w^iose outlook on life is too broad to admit ofany petty patriotism, but who understand how to love the south eventhough they be from the north, or the north even though they befrom the south."Toward other French historians my brother was more critical,reproaching them with having elbowed their way into the souls ofmen in whose class and company they did not belong. "For example,what has such a perspiring plebeian as Michelet to do with Napoleon,quite irrespective of the fact as to whether he hated him or lovedhim ? The single fact that he shouts and rants is sufficient to bar himfrom the company of a Napoleon." And then : "What had theelegant, mediocre Thiers to do with this same Napoleon ? He createsa laugh, this little man, when with the gesture of a wise judge, headmires Napoleon and compares him to C?esar, Hannibal, and Fred-erick the Great. . . .Personally, I rank an historian much higher whohas the courage to admit that certain ground is too sacred for hisfeet."It will be seen that my brother had a wide range of affinities formodern French literature. Shortly before his last illness, he spoke tome of French writers whom he particularly enjoyed. Among thesewere Paul Bourget, Pierre Loti, Gyp, Meilhac, Anatole France, JulesLemaitre, and Guy de Maupassant, the latter "a pronounced Latinwho makes an especial appeal to me." Up to the time of his mentalparalysis, Nietzsche always turned to French books in his momentsof leisure, saying that he found solace in the deep sense of stylecombined with the "grace of saneness" [Grasie der A^uchternheit].152 THE OPEN COURT.He could not find sufficient words to praise the psychology of theFrench intellectuals, and he considered German psychologists notmeasuring up to French standards. Half ironically he once said:"Two centuries of psychological and artistic discipline, my gentle-men of Germany. But you will never catch up with them!" Hadmy brother lived to witness the development of German psycho-logical work of the past twenty years, he would uncjuestionably haverevoked this statement.After I had married and gone to live in Paraguay, he wroteto me: "Now that you and Gersdorfif [one of his best friends] haveboth run away and left me, I find my only i-ecreation in Frenchbooks. On the whole, I cling to my old friends which we onceenjoyed together; only a few new acquaintances have been addedto the list, among them Galiani and Taine, whom, however, youwill only appreciate after you have become a skeptical old woman."French literary circles, on the other hand, had shown a markedinterest in Nietzsche, and by 1905, his complete works had appearedin a French translation. However, it is very much to be deploredthat my brother's admirers in France did not bring any more search-ing criticism to bear upon the French edition, as they would havefound that the translators had taken unpardonable liberties with thespirit of the text, and had, consciously or unconsciously, created animpression of unwarranted chauvinism on the part of my brotherwhen comparing France and Germany. But as the translators hadbeen awarded prizes by the French Academy, their work was nat-urally not questioned.My brother's antipathy to England and the English was asmarked as his predilection for the French, despite the fact thatShakespeare and Lord Byron were the literary gods of his schooldays and commanded his allegiance throughout life. The one Shake-spearean character which he loved and admired above all others wasJulius Caesar, and only a few days before his mental paralysis hewrote: 'T can find no higher formula for Shakespeare than thathe was able to conceive a man of the type of Caesar, to whose tragicfriendship with Brutus the dramatist's finest tragedy was dedicated..... Independence of soul is here emphasized ; if one loves freedom,one must be able to sacrifice his dearest friend, even though thisfriend be the most splendid specimen of manhood, an ornament tosociety, and an unparalleled genius. No sacrifice can be deemed toogreat if the freedom of a great soul is threatened by friendship.Shakespeare must have felt this, as the manner in which he exaltsNIETZSCHE, FRi\NCE, AND ENGLAND. 153Caesar forms the highest tribute he could have paid to Brutus. Firsthe raises the inner conflict in the soul of Brutus to a supremetragedy, and then portrays the tremendous soul-power by which hewas enabled to break the bonds which bound him to Csesar."My brother always believed that in his Julius Cccsar the poethad placed on record documentary evidence of some obscure ex-perience or unknown adventure in his own life, and if I rememberrightly, it was just this tragedy that confirmed my brother in hisbelief that the poet whom the world knows as Shakespeare was noneother than Lord Bacon.Nietzsche often criticized the lack of moderation in Shakespeare,on this point agreeing with Byron who once said, "I consider Shake-speare the worst possible model of style, notwithstanding the factthat he is a most extraordinary poet."To my brother's mind, Byron only lacked thirty years of ex-perience to have become the greatest of modern dramatists. LikeGoethe, he admired the boldness and grandeur of Byron's life andworks, finding in Manfred the nearest approach to his own philosophicideals. It was in his early Byronic rhapsodies that Nietzsche firstmade use of the expression "Superman" (a term belonging toGoethe by right of priority) which indicates the original significanceattached by Nietzsche to this much-interpreted word.Another of his prime favorites was Sir Walter Scott, whomhe called the "English Homer," by reason of his spirited descriptionof England's past, and his tendency to glorify the valorous deedsand heroic achievements of his countrymen. In the course of timeI read aloud to my brother sixteen of the Waverley Novels, besidesmany works of Thackeray, Dickens, and George Eliot, but he wasnever carried away by the pictures of English life as there por-trayed. Nietzsche always felt the discordant note in the Englishnational character, and was unpleasantly affected by the intellectualcumbrousness, the religious insincerity, and the lack of genuineartistic perceptions. He often said that the English had no musicin their souls, and complained that "the most highly cultivated Eng-lishman was totally lacking in rhythm, both in his soul-vibrationsand in his physical movements."I don't remember ever hearing my brother agree with Englishsentiment on any subject whatsoever; the only thing arousing hisadmiration being the recognition English scholars accorded oneanother even when of diametrically opposed opinion. This mani-festation of good-will and broad-mindedness, he regarded as some-thing quite unique and exemplary. If I should attempt to single154 THE OPEN COURT.out the one quality which repelled Nietzsche in the English character,I should say it was cant, which he often said was the inborn viceof the English. He found this spirit of cant even in the writingsof English philosophers, and despite his high opinion of such menas Darwin, John Stuart Mill, and Herbert Spencer, he had but anill-concealed contempt for what he called their utilitarian spirit andtheir utter lack of an ideal.He did not regard the English as a race of philosophers, andalthough he had words of genuine appreciation for Locke andHume, and in certain points admitted them to be in the right asopposed to Kant, his estimate of English philosophy on the wholemight be summed up in what he once said of Carlyle : "What islacking and always has been lacking in England, was well known tothat half actor and rhetorician, the harebrained Carlyle, who bymeans of passionate gestures and grimaces endeavored to concealfrom the world what he realized to be his own inherent lack, namely,a genuine depth of intellectual insight—in other words, of philos-ophy."Nietzsche feared that the influence of English philosophy withits plebeian tendencies and intellectual mediocrity—as he expressedit: "the influence of England's small-mindedness [Kleingeisterei]"—might some day prove a real danger to the whole of Europe. "Oneshould not lose sight of the fact," he wrote, "that England's utili-tarian spirit has already depreciated European intellect, in fact,reduced it to the lowest level."

Nietzsche, France, and England.

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Nietzsche, France, and England.

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