of religion and art. This imposing sameness, this tutti unisono which,
though it responds to no word of command, is yet ever ready to burst
forth, cozens him into the belief that here a culture must be
established and flourishing. But Philistinism, despite its systematic
organisation and power, does not constitute a culture by virtue of its
system alone; it does not even constitute an inferior culture, but
invariably the reverse--namely, firmly established barbarity. For the
uniformity of character which is so apparent in the German scholars of
to-day is only the result of a conscious or unconscious exclusion and
negation of all the artistically productive forms and requirements of
a genuine style. The mind of the cultured Philistine must have become
sadly unhinged; for precisely what culture repudiates he regards as
culture itself; and, since he proceeds logically, he succeeds in
creating a connected group of these repudiations--a system of
non-culture, to which one might at a pinch grant a certain "unity of
style," provided of course it were Ot nonsense to attribute style to
barbarity. If he have to choose between a stylish act and its
opposite, he will invariably adopt the latter, and, since this rule
holds good throughout, every one of his acts bears the same negative
stamp. Now, it is by means of this stamp that he is able to identify
the character of the "German culture," which is his own patent; and
all things that do not bear it are so many enemies and obstacles drawn
up against him. In the presence of these arrayed forces the
Culture-Philistine either does no more than ward off the blows, or
else he denies, holds his tongue, stops his ears, and refuses to face
facts. He is a negative creature--even in his hatred and animosity.
Nobody, however, is more disliked by him than the man who regards him
as a Philistine, and tells him what he is--namely, the barrier in the
way of all powerful men and creators, the labyrinth for all who doubt
and go astray, the swamp for all the weak and the weary, the fetters