II.

Art and nothing else! Art is the great means of making life possible, the great seducer to life, the great stimulus of life.

Art is the only superior counter-agent to all will to the denial of life; it is _par excellence_ the anti-Christian, the anti-Buddhistic, the anti-Nihilistic force.

Art is the alleviation of the seeker after knowledge,--of him who recognises the terrible and questionable character Of existence, and who will recognise it,--of the tragic seeker after knowledge.

Art is the alleviation of the man of action,--of him who not only sees the terrible and questionable character of existence, but also lives it, will live it,--of the tragic and warlike man, the hero. Art is the alleviation of the sufferer,--as the way to states in which pain is willed, is transfigured, is deified, where suffering is a form of great ecstasy.