the general decadence of modern ideas, values, aspirations and
Art.

Nietzsche's ambition, throughout his life, was to regenerate European
culture. In the first period of his relationship with Wagner, he thought
that he had found the man who was prepared to lead in this direction. For
a long while he regarded his master as the Saviour of Germany, as the
innovator and renovator who was going to arrest the decadent current of
his time and lead men to a greatness which had died with antiquity. And so
thoroughly did he understand his duties as a disciple, so wholly was he
devoted to this cause, that, in spite of all his unquestioned gifts and
the excellence of his original achievements, he was for a long while
regarded as a mere "literary lackey" in Wagner's service, in all those
circles where the rising musician was most disliked.

Gradually, however, as the young Nietzsche developed and began to gain an
independent view of life and humanity, it seemed to him extremely doubtful
whether Wagner actually was pulling the same way with him. Whereas,
theretofore, he had identified Wagner's ideals with his own, it now dawned
upon him slowly that the regeneration of German culture, of European
culture, and the transvaluation of values which would be necessary for
this regeneration, really lay off the track of Wagnerism. He saw that he
had endowed Wagner with a good deal that was more his own than Wagner's.
In his love he had transfigured the friend, and the composer of "Parsifal"
and the man of his imagination were not one. The fact was realised step by
step; disappointment upon disappointment, revelation after revelation,
ultimately brought it home to him, and though his best instincts at first
opposed it, the revulsion of feeling at last became too strong to be
scouted, and Nietzsche was plunged into the blackest despair. Had he
followed his own human inclinations, he would probably have remained
Wagner's friend until the end. As it was, however, he remained loyal to
his cause, and this meant denouncing his former idol.

"Joyful Wisdom," "Thus Spake Zarathustra," "Beyond Good and Evil," "The
Genealogy of Morals," "The Twilight of the Idols," "The Antichrist"--all
these books were but so many exhortations to mankind to step aside from
the general track now trodden by Europeans. And what happened? Wagner
began to write some hard things about Nietzsche; the world assumed that
Nietzsche and Wagner had engaged in a paltry personal