The mussel is crooked inside and rough outside · it is only when we
hear its deep note after blowing into it that we can begin to
esteem it at its true value.--(Ind. Spruche, ed Bothlingk, 1 335)

An ugly-looking-wind instrument · but we must first blow into it.


TRANSLATOR'S INTRODUCTION

The subject of education was one to which Nietzsche, especially during
his residence in Basel, paid considerable attention, and his insight
into it was very much deeper than that of, say, Herbert Spencer or even
Johann Friedrich Herbart, the latter of whom has in late years exercised
considerable influence in scholastic circles. Nietzsche clearly saw that
the "philologists" (using the word chiefly in reference to the teachers
of the classics in German colleges and universities) were absolutely
unfitted for their high task, since they were one and all incapable of
entering into the spirit of antiquity. Although at the first reading,
therefore, this book may seem to be rather fragmentary, there are two
main lines of thought running through it: an incisive criticism of
German professors, and a number of constructive ideas as to what
classical culture really should be.

These scattered aphorisms, indeed, are significant as showing how far
Nietzsche had travelled along the road over which humanity had been
travelling from remote ages, and how greatly he was imbued with the
pagan spirit which he recognised in Goethe and valued in Burckhardt.
Even at this early period of his life Nietzsche was convinced that
Christianity was the real danger to culture; and not merely modern