The Germans, these _loiterers par excellence,_ as history shows, are to-day the most backward among the civilised nations of Europe: this has its advantages,--for they are thus relatively the youngest. One pays dearly for having been a follower of Wagner. It is only quite recently that the Germans have overcome a sort of dread of him,--the desire to be rid of him occurred to them again and again.[6] Does anybody remember a very curious occurrence in which, quite unexpectedly towards the end, this old feeling once more manifested itself? It happened at Wagner's funeral. The first Wagner Society, the one in Munich, laid a wreath on his grave with this inscription, which immediately became famous: "Salvation to the Saviour!" Everybody admired the lofty inspiration which had dictated this inscription, as also the taste which seemed to be the privilege of the followers of Wagner. Many also, however (it was singular enough), made this slight alteration in it: "Salvation _from_ the Saviour" --People began to breathe again.-- One pays dearly for having been a follower of Wagner. Let us try to estimate the influence of this worship upon culture. Whom did this movement press to the front? What did it make ever more and more pre-eminent?--In the first place the layman's arrogance, the arrogance of the art-maniac. Now these people are organising societies, they wish to make their taste prevail, they even wish to pose as judges _in rebus musicis et musicantibus._ Secondly: an ever increasing indifference towards severe, noble and conscientious schooling in the service of art; and in its place the belief in genius, or in plain English, cheeky dilettantism (--the formula for this is to be found in the _Mastersingers)._ Thirdly, and this is the worst of all: _Theatrocracy_--, the craziness of a belief in the pre-eminence of the theatre, in the right of the theatre to rule supreme over the arts, over Art in general.... But this should be shouted into the face of Wagnerites a hundred times over: that the theatre is something lower than art, something secondary, something coarsened, above all something suitably distorted and falsified for the mob. In this respect Wagner altered nothing: Bayreuth is grand Opera--and not even good opera.... The stage is a form of Demolatry in the realm of taste, the stage is an insurrection of the mob, a _plebiscite_ against good taste.... The case of Wagner proves this fact: he captivated the masses--he depraved taste, he even perverted our taste for opera!--