which of my friends would have seen more in it than a piece of unwarrantable, though fortunately harmless, arrogance? Ten years have elapsed, and no one has yet felt it a duty to his conscience to defend my name against the absurd silence beneath which it has been entombed. It was a foreigner, a Dane, who first showed sufficient keenness of instinct and of courage to do this, and who protested indignantly against my so-called friends. At what German University to-day would such lectures on my philosophy be possible, as those which Dr. Brandes delivered last spring in Copenhagen, thus proving once more his right to the title psychologist? For my part, these things have never caused me any pain; that which is _necessary_ does not offend me. _Amor fati_ is the core of my nature. This, however, does not alter the fact that I love irony and even world-historic irony. And thus, about two years before hurling the destructive thunderbolt of the _Transvaluation,_ which will send the whole of civilisation into convulsions, I sent my _Case of Wagner_ out into the world. The Germans were given the chance of blundering and immortalising their stupidity once more on my account, and they still have just enough time to do it in. And have they fallen in with my plans? Admirably! my dear Germans. Allow me to congratulate you. [Footnote 1: The motto of _The Case of Wagner._--TR.] [Footnote 2: An opera by Nessler which was all the rage in Germany twenty years ago.--TR.] [Footnote 3: Unfortunately it is impossible to render this play on the words in English.--TR.] [Footnote 4: The German National Song (_Deutschland, Deutschland über alles_).--TR.] [Footnote 5: Ever since the year 1617 such plays have been produced by the Protestants of Germany.--TR.] [Footnote 6: _Schleiermacher_ literally means a weaver or maker of veils.--TR.] WHY I AM A FATALITY 1