xists and is formed, bears within itself
the germ of death and corruption; that the Lord of all creation himself
is but the shuttlecock of irresistible, absolute force, compelling the
unconditional surrender of subject and object.

Humor, then, grows out of the contemplation of the tragedy of life. But
it does not stop there. If the world is so pitiful, so fragile, it is
not worth a tear, not worth hatred, or contempt. The only sensible
course is to accept it as it is, as a nothing, an absolute
contradiction, calling forth ridicule. At this point, a sense of tragedy
is transformed into demoniac glee. No more is this a permanent state.
The humorist is too impulsive to accept it as final. Moreover, he feels
that with the world he has annihilated himself. In the phantom realm
into which he has turned the world, his laughter reverberates with
ghostlike hollowness. Recognizing that the world meant more to him than
he was willing to admit, and that apart from it he has no being, he
again yields to it, and embraces it with increased passion and ardor.
But scarcely has the return been effected, scarcely has he begun to
realize the beauties and perfections of the world, when sadness,
suffering, pain, and torture, obtrude themselves, and the old
overwhelming sense of life's tragedy takes possession of him. This train
of thought, plainly discernible in Heine's poems, he also owes to his
descent. A mind given to such speculations naturally seeks poetic solace
in _Weltschmerz_, which, as everybody knows, is still another heirloom
of his race.

These are the most important characteristics, some admirable, some
reprehensible, which Heine has derived from his race, and they are the
very ones that raised opponents against him, one of the most interesting
and prominent among them being the German philosopher Arthur
Schopenhauer. His two opinions on Heine, expressed at almost the same
time, are typical of the antagonism aroused by the poet. In his book,
"The World as Will and Idea,"[102] he writes: "Heine is a true humorist
in his _Romanzero_. Back of all his quips and gibes lies deep
seriousness, _ashamed_ to speak out frankly." At the same time he says
in his journal, published posthumously: "Although a buffoon, Heine has
genius, and the distinguishing mark of genius, ingenuousness. On close
examination, however, his ingenuousness turns out to have its root in
Jewish shamelessness; for he, too, belongs to the nation of which Riemer
sa