[Footnote 6: Was Wagner a German at all? There are reasons enough for putting this question. It is difficult to find a single German trait in his character. Great learner that he was, he naturally imitated a great deal that was German--but that is all. His very soul contradicts everything which hitherto has been regarded as German; not to mention German musicians!--His father was an actor of the name of Geyer.... That which has been popularised hitherto as "Wagner's life" is _fable convenue_ if not something worse. I confess my doubts on any point which is vouched for by Wagner alone. He was not proud enough to be able to suffer the truth about himself. Nobody had less pride than he. Like Victor Hugo he remained true to himself even in his biography,--he remained an actor.] [Footnote 7: This undoubtedly refers to Nietzsche's only disciple and friend, Peter Gast.--_Tr._] [Footnote 8: My "Genealogy of Morals" contains the best exposition of the antithesis _"noble morality"_ and _"Christian_ _morality_"; a more decisive turning point in the history of religious and moral science does not perhaps exist. This book, which is a touchstone by which I can discover who are my peers, rejoices in being accessible only to the most elevated and most severe minds: the others have not the ears to hear me. One must have one's passion in things, _wherein_ no one has passion nowadays.] NIETZSCHE _CONTRA_ WAGNER THE BRIEF OF A PSYCHOLOGIST By FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE PREFACE The following chapters have been selected from past works of mine, and not without care. Some of them date back as far as 1877. Here and there, of course, they will be found to have been made a little more intelligible, but above all, more brief. Read consecutively, they can leave no one in any doubt, either concerning myself, or concerning Wagner: we are antipodes. The reader will come to other conclusions, too, in his perusal of these pages: for instance, that this is an essay for psychologists and _not_ for Germans.... I have my readers everywhere, in Vienna, St Petersburg, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Paris, and New York--but _1 have none_ in Europe's Flat-land--Germany.... And I might even have something to say to Italians whom I love just as much as I ... _Quousque tandem, Crispi_ ... Triple alliance: a people can only conclude a _misalliance_ with the "Empire." ... FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE. TURIN, _Christmas_ 1888. NIETZSCHE _CONTRA_ WAGNER WHEREIN I ADMIRE WAGNER.