_The return to Kant_ in our century means a _return to the eighteenth century,_ people desire to create themselves a right to the _old ideas_ and to the old exaltation--hence a theory of knowledge which "describes limits," that is to say, which admits _of the option of fixing a Beyond to the domain of reason._ _Hegel's_ way of thinking is not so very far removed from that of Goethe: see the latter on the subject of Spinoza, for instance. The will to deify the All and Life, in order to find both _peace_ and _happiness_ in contemplating them: Hegel looks for reason everywhere--in the presence of reason man may be _submissive_ and resigned. In Goethe we find a kind of _fatalism_ which is almost _joyous_ and _confiding,_ which neither revolts nor weakens, which strives to make a totality out of itself, in the belief that only in totality does everything seem good and justified, and find itself resolved. 96. The period of _rationalism_--followed by a period of _sentimentality._ To what extent does Schopenhauer come under "sentimentality"? (Hegel under intellectuality?) 97. The seventeenth century _suffers_ from _humanity_ as from a _host of contradictions_ ("_l'amas de contradictions_" that we are); it endeavours to discover man, to _co-ordinate him,_ to excavate him: whereas the eighteenth century tries to forget what is known of man's nature, in order to adapt him to its Utopia. "Superficial, soft, humane"--gushes over "humanity." The seventeenth century tries to banish all traces of the individual in order that the artist's work may resemble life as much as possible. The eighteenth century strives _to create interest in the author_ by means of the work. The seventeenth century seeks art in art, a piece of culture; the eighteenth uses art in its propaganda for political and social reforms. "Utopia," the "ideal man," the deification of Nature, the vanity of making one's own personality the centre of interest, subordination to the propaganda of _social ideas,_ charlatanism--all this we derive from the eighteenth century. The style of the seventeenth century: _propre exact et libre._ The strong individual who is self-sufficient, or who appeals ardently to God--and that obtrusiveness and indiscretion of modern authors--these things are _opposites._ "Showing-oneself-off"--what a contrast to the Scholars of Port-Royal! Alfieri had a sense for the _grand style._ The hate of the _burlesque_ (that which lacks dignity), _the lack of a sense of Nature_ belongs to the seventeenth century. 98.