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confined to the philosopher who writes books, or even
introduces HIS philosophy into books! Stendhal
furnishes a last feature of the portrait of the free-spirited
philosopher, which for the sake of German taste I will not
omit to underline for it is OPPOSED to German taste.
Pour etre bon philosophe, says this last great psychologist,
il faut etre sec, clair, sans illusion. Un banquier, qui a fait
fortune, a une partie du caractere requis pour faire des
decouvertes en philosophie, c est-a-dire pour voir clair
dans ce qui est.
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40. Everything that is profound loves the mask: the
profoundest things have a hatred even of figure and
likeness. Should not the CONTRARY only be the right
disguise for the shame of a God to go about in? A question
worth asking! it would be strange if some mystic has not
already ventured on the same kind of thing. There are
proceedings of such a delicate nature that it is well to
overwhelm them with coarseness and make them
unrecognizable; there are actions of love and of an
extravagant magnanimity after which nothing can be wiser
than to take a stick and thrash the witness soundly: one
thereby obscures his recollection. Many a one is able to
obscure and abuse his own memory, in order at least to
have vengeance on this sole party in the secret: shame is
inventive. They are not the worst things of which one is
most ashamed: there is not only deceit behind a mask
there is so much goodness in craft. I could imagine that a
man with something costly and fragile to conceal, would
roll through life clumsily and rotundly like an old, green,
heavily-hooped wine-cask: the refinement of his shame
requiring it to be so. A man who has depths in his shame
meets his destiny and his delicate decisions upon paths
which few ever reach, and with regard to the existence of
which his nearest and most intimate friends may be
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ignorant; his mortal danger conceals itself from their eyes,
and equally so his regained security. Such a hidden nature,
which instinctively employs speech for silence and
concealment, and is inexhaustible in evasion of
communication, DESIRES and insists that a mask of
himself shall occupy his place in the hearts and heads of his
friends; and supposing he does not desire it, his eyes will
some day be opened to the fact that there is nevertheless a
mask of him there and that it is well to be so. Every
profound spirit needs a mask; nay, more, around every
profound spirit there continually grows a mask, owing to
the constantly false, that is to say, SUPERFICIAL
interpretation of every word he utters, every step he takes,
every sign of life he manifests.
41. One must subject oneself to one s own tests that
one is destined for independence and command, and do so
at the right time. One must not avoid one s tests, although
they constitute perhaps the most dangerous game one can
play, and are in the end tests made only before ourselves
and before no other judge. Not to cleave to any person,
be it even the dearest every person is a prison and also a
recess. Not to cleave to a fatherland, be it even the most
suffering and necessitous it is even less difficult to detach
one s heart from a victorious fatherland. Not to cleave to a
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sympathy, be it even for higher men, into whose peculiar
torture and helplessness chance has given us an insight.
Not to cleave to a science, though it tempt one with the
most valuable discoveries, apparently specially reserved for
us. Not to cleave to one s own liberation, to the
voluptuous distance and remoteness of the bird, which
always flies further aloft in order always to see more under
it the danger of the flier. Not to cleave to our own
virtues, nor become as a whole a victim to any of our
specialties, to our hospitality for instance, which is the
danger of dangers for highly developed and wealthy souls,
who deal prodigally, almost indifferently with themselves,
and push the virtue of liberality so far that it becomes a
vice. One must know how TO CONSERVE
ONESELF the best test of independence.
42. A new order of philosophers is appearing; I shall
venture to baptize them by a name not without danger. As
far as I understand them, as far as they allow themselves to
be understood for it is their nature to WISH to remain
something of a puzzle these philosophers of the future
might rightly, perhaps also wrongly, claim to be designated
as tempters. This name itself is after all only an attempt,
or, if it be preferred, a temptation.
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43. Will they be new friends of truth, these coming
philosophers? Very probably, for all philosophers hitherto
have loved their truths. But assuredly they will not be
dogmatists. It must be contrary to their pride, and also
contrary to their taste, that their truth should still be truth
for every one that which has hitherto been the secret
wish and ultimate purpose of all dogmatic efforts. My
opinion is MY opinion: another person has not easily a
right to it such a philosopher of the future will say,
perhaps. One must renounce the bad taste of wishing to
agree with many people. Good is no longer good when
one s neighbour takes it into his mouth. And how could
there be a common good ! The expression contradicts
itself; that which can be common is always of small value.
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