THE CONSOLING SPEECH OF A DESPERATE ADVANCE.--Our age gives the impression of an intermediate condition; the old ways of regarding the world, the old cultures still partially exist, the new are not yet sure and customary and hence are without decision and consistency. It appears as if everything would become chaotic, as if the old were being lost, the new worthless and ever becoming weaker. But this is what the soldier feels who is learning to march; for a time he is more uncertain and awkward, because his muscles are moved sometimes according to the old system and sometimes according to the new, and neither gains a' decisive victory. We waver, but it is necessary not to lose courage and give up what we have newly gained. Moreover, we _cannot_ go back to the old, we _have_ burnt our boats; there remains nothing but to be brave whatever happen.--_March ahead,_ only get forward! Perhaps our behaviour looks like _progress_; but if not, then the words of Frederick the Great may also be applied to us, and indeed as a consolation: "_Ah, mon cher Sulzer, vous ne connaissez pas assez cette race maudite, à laquelle nous appartenons._" 249. SUFFERING FROM PAST CULTURE.--Whoever has solved the problem of culture suffers from a feeling similar to that of one who has inherited unjustly-gotten riches, or of a prince who reigns thanks to the violence of his ancestors. He thinks of their origin with grief and is often ashamed, often irritable. The whole sum of strength, joy, vigour, which he devotes to his possessions, is often balanced by a deep weariness, he cannot forget their origin. He looks despondingly at the future; he knows well that his successors will suffer from the past as he does. 250.