And now a last word of advice. Perhaps it covers everything.--_Let us be idealists_/--If not the cleverest, it is at least the wisest thing we can do. In order to elevate men we ourselves must be exalted. Let us wander in the clouds, let us harangue eternity, let us be careful to group great symbols all around us! _Sursum! Bumbum!--_ there is no better advice. The "heaving breast" shall be our argument, "beautiful feelings" our advocates. Virtue still carries its point against counterpoint. "How could he who improves us, help being better than we?" man has ever thought thus. Let us therefore improve mankind!--in this way we shall become good (in this way we shall even become "classics"--Schiller became a "classic"). The straining after the base excitement of the senses, after so-called beauty, shattered the nerves of the Italians: let us remain German! Even Mozart's relation to music--Wagner spoke this word of comfort to us--was at bottom frivolous.... Never let us acknowledge that music "may be a recreation," that it may "enliven," that it may "give pleasure." _Never let us give pleasure!_--we shall be lost if people once again think of music hedonistically.... That belongs to the bad eighteenth century.... On the other hand, nothing would be more advisable (between ourselves) than a dose of--_cant, sit venia verbo._ This imparts dignity.--And let us take care to select the precise moment when it would be fitting to have black looks, to sigh openly, to sigh devoutly, to flaunt grand Christian sympathy before their eyes. "Man is corrupt: who will save him? _what will save him?"_ Do not let us reply. We must be on our guard. We must control our ambition, which would bid us found new religions. But no one must doubt that it is _we_ who save him, that in _our_ music alone salvation is to be found.... (See Wagner's essay, "Religion and Art") 7.