be aught save the product of his spatial and temporal surroundings, of his day in fact, that historic period of the human race’s evolution into which he happens to be thrown. The correctness of such an assertion seems undeniable; merely it fails to explain why, the more considerable that individual, in the greater contradiction has he stood with his time. And this cannot be so lightly disposed of. To cite the sublimest of all examples, the cotemporary world most certainly did not comport itself toward Jesus Christ as though it had nursed him at its breast and delighted in acknowledging him its fittest product.” [935W-{9/78} The Public In Time And Space: PW Vol. VI, p. 85]
[936W-{9/78} The Public In Time And Space: PW Vol. VI, p. 86-87]
[P. 86] {anti-FEUER/NIET} {SCHOP} “If in a review of the course of history we go by nothing but its ruling laws of gravity, that pressure and counter-pressure which bring forth shapes akin to those the surface of the earth presents, the wellnigh sudden outcrop of over-topping mental heights must often make us ask upon what plan these minds were moulded. And then we are bound to presuppose a law quite other, concealed from eyes historical, ordaining the mysterious sequence of a spiritual life whose acts are guided by denial of the world and all its history. For we observe that the very points at which these minds make contact with their era and surroundings, become the starting points of errors and embarrassments in their own utterance: so that it is just the influences of Time, which involve them in a fate so tragical that precisely where the work of intellectual giants appears intelligible to their era, it proves of no account for the higher mental life; and only a later generation, arrived at knowledge through the very lead that remained unintelligible to the contemporaneous world, can seize the import of their [P. 87] revelations. Thus the seasonable, in the works of a great spirit, would also be the questionable.” [936W-{9/78} The Public In Time And Space: PW Vol. VI, p. 86-87]
[937W-{9/78} The Public In Time And Space: PW Vol. VI, p. 92-93]
[P. 92] {FEUER} “ … it was a fresh hearing of Liszt’s Dante Symphony that revived the problem, what place in our art-world should be allotted to a creation as brilliant as it is masterly. Shortly before I had been busy reading the Divine Comedy … ; to me that tone-poem of Liszt’s now appeared the creative act of a redeeming genius, freeing Dante’s unspeakably pregnant intention from the [P. 93] inferno of his superstitions by the purifying fire of musical Ideality, and setting it in the paradise of sure and blissful feeling. Here the soul of Dante’s poem is shown in purest radiance.” [937W-{9/78} The Public In Time And Space: PW Vol. VI, p. 92-93]
[938W-{9/25/78} CD Vol. II, p. 156]
[P. 156] “Herr Loeffler … very unsuccessful with the ‘world inheritance’; this lack of simplicity in grasping even the smallest things! Now the ‘Ring’ is supposed to represent downfall through materialism! Herr Kulke the Wagnerian argues like Herr Lipiner the Schopenhauerian, accusing the poet of making a mistake!” [938W-{9/25/78} CD Vol. II, p. 156]
[939W-{9/28/78}CD Vol. II, p. 158]
[P. 158] “In the evening he plays the third act of Tristan. When I voice my wonder that he could have completed this miracle in a hotel room, with not a soul to look after or care for him, he says:
