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undefinedThere is this modicum of truth in the extravagant statement of the Encyclopedia Britannica, art. "Nietzsche," "Revolt against the whole civilized [sic] environment in which he was brought up is the keynote of Nietzsche's literary career." On the other hand, R. M. Meyer finds in him a reflection of the voluntaristic tendency, both theoretical and practical, of the nineteenth century." This is accordingly Nietzsche's point of departure: there are beings who 'will.' At Descartes' proposition, 'I think'—he had to shrug his shoulders critically. For not in vain is Nietzsche a child of the time, in which Treitschke reduced all politics to will to power—and Bismarck lived Treitschke's politics. Not in vain a child of the time, for which 'willing' was equivalent to 'willing to effect,' 'willing to create'; in which young Disraeli declared, 'What I teach I will accomplish'; in which men of force (Kraftnaturen) like Gambetta, Lassalle, Mazzini, Garibaldi had vital influence on tens of thousands" (Nietzsche, sein Leben imd seine Werke, pp. 679-80). Cf. also August Dorner, Pessimismus, Nietzsche und Naturalismus, p. 191.

undefined As to the political movement of the Germans, see pp. 466-7 of this volume.

undefined He said the same of Schopenhauer, adding, "The Germans have no finger for us, they have in general no fingers, only paws." Cf., as to his differences with German idealists, Werke, XIII, 337-8, § 838.

undefined As to German soldiers, see the discriminating article by Julius Bab in Die Hilfe, December 31, 1915, "Friedrich Nietzsche und die deutsche Gegenwart." Stephen Graham is of the opinion (he says "sure") that "many British soldiers who have rifles on their shoulders today have learned of Nietzsche and have a warm place in their hearts for him" (Russia and the World, 1915, p. 138).

undefined Havelock Ellis and the late William Wallace published valuable short studies of Nietzsche at an early date.

undefined Cf. Karl Joël, Nietzsche und die Romantik, p. 328; Henri Lichtenberger, La Philosophie de Nietzsche, pp. 83 ff.; R. Richter, Friedrich Nietzsche, sein Leben und sein Werk (2d ed.), pp. 91 ff.; H. Vaihinger, Nietzsche als Philosoph, p. 16; Ernst Horneffer, Nietzsches letztes Schaffen, p. 20; August Dorner, op. cit., pp. 118, 122 n.; R. H. Grützmacher, Nietzsche, ein akademisches Publikum, pp. 49-52; H. Höffding, Moderne Philosophen, p. 145; R. M. Meyer, op. cit., passim. For an instance of arbitrary judgment in the matter, see George Saintsbury's The Later Nineteenth Century, p. 244; History of Criticism, pp. 582-4. Houston Stewart Chamberlain (Die Grundlagen des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts, I, xxv) even says that Nietzsche became a victim of madness, when he fell away from Wagner! More reasonable, or at least reasoned, conjectures appear in Theobald Ziegler's Friedrich Nietzsche, p. 20, and P. J. Möbius' Nietzsche, passim. On the other hand, William Wallace and Havelock Ellis saw the facts as they were at the outset. A statement of Julius Kaftan, a not over-friendly critic who was with Nietzsche in Sils-Maria for three weeks in the late summer of 1888, is interesting: "I have during the whole time never perceived any trace whatever of an incipient mental derangement." At the same time, Nietzsche himself appears to have had a foreboding at times of some sort of a collapse,