/lit/ - Literature

>>23075605
An eye for the Great is gladly dispensed with by the Progress-believer; the only question is whether he has replaced it by a proper eye for the Small. It is much to be feared that he no longer even rightly sees the smallest, since his loss of every ideal gauge deprives him of all power of Judgment. How correctly the Greeks beheld the smallest, because they first had rightly judged the great! But the theory of Constant Progress takes refuge in the "infinitely broader horizon" of the modern world, as compared with the narrow field of vision of the old. Admirably has the poet Leopardi recognised this very widening of man's horizon as the cause of mankind's loss of power to rightly apprehend the Great. To us, who stand at the centre of this infinitely extended horizon, the grandeurs that sprang from the narrower vision of the antique world are of far more crushing greatness, when once they suddenly confront us from the bowels of the earth, than ever they were to that world which saw them rise unnumbered. With justice Schiller asks what modern unit would measure himself against the Athenian, man to man, for the prize of manhood?—But the ancient world had also religion. Who derides antique religiousness, let him read in Plutarch's writings how this classically cultured philosopher of the later, ill-reputed era of the Romo-Grecian world expresses himself on heresy and unbelief, and he will admit that we scarce could get its equal from our theologians of the Church, to say nothing of anything better. Our world, on the contrary, is irreligious. How should a Highest dwell in us, when we no longer are capable of honouring, of even recognising the Great? And if perchance we recognise it, we are taught by our barbarous civilisation to hate and persecute it, for it stands in the way of general progress. But the Highest—what should this world have to traffic with that? How can it be asked to venerate the sorrows of the Saviour? 'Twould be as though one did not think it perfect! For sake of decency (and the widened horizon) one has patched up a sort of divine worship sufficient for the day: but what "educated" person gladly goes to church?—Before all, "Away with the Great!"

>>23013843
>According to an anecdote, Bruckner and Wagner drank so much beer together that, upon arriving home, Bruckner realized he had forgotten which symphony Wagner had chosen. He wrote a letter back to Wagner saying "Symphony in D minor, where the trumpet begins the theme?" Wagner scribbled back "Yes! Best wishes! Richard Wagner."
>After this, Wagner often referred to Bruckner as "Bruckner the trumpet" and the two became firm friends. In the dedication, Bruckner referred to Wagner as "the unreachable world-famous noble master of poetry and music".