ON STATE AND RELIGION Page 4
(4) Cf. Vol. I., 30-31.-Tr.
(5) Cf. Vol. I., 58.-Tr.
(6) Cf. Letters to Uhlig, pp. 81-82, written October 22nd, 1850.-Tr.
(7) Cf. Vol I., 24, and Vol II., 178.-Tr.
(8) "Zu schauen kam ich, nicht zu schaffen "-Wotan in Siegfried, act ii. -Tr.
(9) Cf. Vol. II., 186-187.-Tr.
(10) "Wahn-Vermögen." As the word "Wahn" is frequently used in these pages, and is absolutely untranslatable, I shall mostly retain it as it stands. It does not so much mean an "illusion" or "delusion," in general, as a "semi-conscious feigning" (such as the 'legal fiction'), a "dream," or a "symbolical aspiration "-its etymological kinship being quite as near to "fain" as to "feign"; but the context will leave the reader in no doubt as to its particular application in any sentence. It will be remembered that "Wahn" plays an important part in Hans Sachs' monologue in Die Meistersinger, act iii; the poem of that drama, containing the Wahn-monologue in a somewhat more extended form than its ultimate version, had already been published in 1862.-Tr.
(11) Arthur Schopenhauer, in "Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung," vol. ii, cap. 27. The philosopher there compares the operations of this "animal instinct" with a case of what we now should call hypnotism, and says that "insects are, in a certain sense, natural somnambulists . . . They have the feeling that they must perform a certain action, without exactly knowing why." He also compares this "instinct" to the "daimonion" of Socrates, but does not absolutely employ the expression "Wahn" in this connection. Neither does the "spirit of the race" (or "species"), mentioned by Wagner a few sentences farther on, occur in so many words with Schopenhauer. Nowadays for "the spirit of the race" some of us might be inclined to read "the principle of the survival of the fittest"; but the explanation of its mode of action, through a "Wahn," would hold as good to-day as thirty years ago.-Tr.
(12) "Von einem allgemeinen Rechtszustande,"-literally, "of a general (or universal) state of right (or law) ;" the expression seems to refer to the so-called "Balance of power," and may also be paraphrased by the more modern European concert."-Tr.
(13) "Das plastische Gedächtniss "-evidently the mental record of things in their visual, concrete form, as opposed to their abstract labels. -Tr.
(14) Cf. Amfortas; at this epoch our author was drafting his Parsifal. -Tr.
(15) Cf. Vol II., 178, 179. Upon coupling the present parallelism with that noted on page 11 antea, it would appear highly probable that King Ludwig had been studying Part II. of Oper und Drama, and had directed Wagner's attention to this section-surrounding the Œdipus-Antigone myth-in particular.-TR.
(16) "So weit die intellektualen Vorstellungfäshigkeiten des menschlichen Verstandes reichen, und in ihrer praktischen Anwendung als Vernunft sich geltend machen, ist durchaus keine Vorstellung zu gewinnen, welche nicht genau immer nur wieder diese selbe Welt des Bedürfnisses und des Wechsels erkennen liesse: da diese der Quell unserer Unseligkeit ist, muss daher jene andere Welt der Erlösung von dieser Welt genau so verschieden sein, als diejenige Erkenntnissart, durch welche wir sie erkennen sollen, verschieden von derjenigen sein muss, welcher einzig diese täuschende leidenvolle Welt sich darstellt."
(17) "Diese wunderwirkende Vorstellung, die wir, der gemeinen praktischen Vorstellungsweise gegenuber, nur als Wahn auffassen können" etc. I here have translated the first "Vorstellung" as "intuition," though "idea" is the word generally employed for rendering the Schopenhauerian term; literally it signifies an image "set before the mind," and hence any "mental concept," but with a less abstract shade of meaning than "Begriff"-the bare "idea"; a difficulty arises at times, in the translation of this term, from its connoting not only the "mental picture" itself, but also the act of forming it.-Tr..
(18) Cf. "Doch wenn der mich im Himmel hält, dann liegt zu Füssen mir die Welt." Die Meistersinger, act ii.-Tr.
(19) "Wie die höchste Kraft der Religion sich im Glauben kundgiebt, liegt ihre wesentlichste Bedeutung in ihrem Dogma."
(20) "Und dieser [Glaube] muss, soll er erfolgreich sein, in dem Maasse innig, unbedingt und zweifellos sein, als das Dogma in sich all' das Unbegreifliche, und der gemeinen Erkenntniss widerspruchvoll Dünkende enthält, welches durch die unvergleichliche Schwierigkeit seiner Abfassung bedingt war." The obscurity of this sentence-credo ouia impossibile-will be cleared up in the next paragraph.-Tr.
(21) "Da erdämmerte mild erhab'ner Macht im Busen mir die Nacht; mein Tag war da vollbracht." Tristan und Isolde, act ii.-Tr.
(22) "Nicht darf sie Zweifels Last beschweren; sie sahen meine gute That." Lohengrin, act ii.-Tr.
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