"Man as a poet, as a thinker, as a god, as love, as power"--this man, following his divine inspiration to subdue the earth and to make it his, became the greatest stimulus to Life itself, the greatest bond between earth and the human soul; and, in shedding the glamour of his personality, like the sun, upon the things he interpreted and valued, he also gilded, by reflection, his fellow creatures. There is not a thing we call sacred, beautiful, good or precious, that has not been valued for us by this man, and when we, like children, call out for the Truth about the riddles of this world, it is not for the truth of reality which is the object of Christianity and of science for which we crave; but for the simplifications[42] and values of this man-god, who, by the art-form, into which he casts reality, makes us believe that reality is as he says it is. If this man is lacking, then we succumb to the blackest despair. If he is with us, we voluntarily yield to boundless joy and good cheer. His function is the divine principle on earth; his creation Art "is the highest task and the properly metaphysical activity of this life."[43] [26] _W. P._, Vol. II, p. 28; also C.E., p. 288. See also Schelling, Sämmtliche Werke, Vol. V, "_Vorlesungen über die Methode des akademischen Studiums_," p. 286: "The first origin of religion in general, as of every other kind of knowledge and culture, can be explained only as the teaching of higher natures." [27] _W. P._, Vol. II, p. 89: "The Will to Truth at this stage is essentially the art of interpretation." [28] Thus Schiller, in one of his happy moments, called beauty our second creator (zweite Schöpferin). [29] Prof. W. M. Flinders Petrie, The Religion of Ancient Egypt, p. 67. [30] That those who successfully determined values even in comparatively recent times should have been regarded almost universally as enjoying "some closer intimacy with the Deity than ordinary mortals," proves how very godlike and sacred the establishment of order was thought to be. See Max Müller, _Introduction to the Science of Religion_, p. 88. [31] _W. P._, Vol. II, p. 102. [32] _W. P._, Vol. II, p. 107. [33] _H. A. H._, Vol. I, p. 154. [34] _W. P._, Vol. II, p. 108: "Art is the will to overcome Becoming, it is a process of eternalizing." And p. 107: "To stamp Becoming with the character of Being--this is the highest Will to Power." See also _G. M._, p. 199. [35] _W. P._, Vol. II, pp. 289, 290. See also H.A.H., Vol. I, p. 154. [36] _Z._, I, IV. [37] Schelling and Hegel both held this view; the one expressed it quite categorically in his lectures on Philosophy and Mythology, and the other in his _Philosophy of History_. [38] _Z._, I, XI. [39] _Z._, I, XV. [40] _Z._, I, XVI. [41] _W. P._, Vol. I, p. 113.