110

The moderation of the Greeks in their sensual luxury, eating, and drinking, and their pleasure therein; the Olympic plays and their worship . that shows what they were.

In the case of the genius, “the intellect will point out the faults which are seldom absent in an instrument that is put to a use for which it was not intended.”

“The will is often left in the lurch at an awkward moment:  hence genius, where real life is concerned, is more or less unpractical—­its behaviour often reminds us of madness.”

111

We contrast the Romans, with their matter-of-fact earnestness, with the genial Greeks!  Schopenhauer:  “The stern, practical, earnest mode of life which the Romans called gravitas presupposes that the intellect does not forsake the service of the will in order to roam far off among things that have no connection with the will.”

112

It would have been much better if the Greeks had been conquered by the
Persians instead of by the Romans.

113

The characteristics of the gifted man who is lacking in genius are to be found in the average Hellene—­all the dangerous characteristics of such a disposition and character.

114

Genius makes tributaries of all partly-talented people:  hence the
Persians themselves sent their ambassadors to the Greek oracles.

115

The happiest lot that can fall to the genius is to exchange doing and acting for leisure; and this was something the Greeks knew how to value.  The blessings of labour! Nugari was the Roman name for all the exertions and aspirations of the Greeks.

No happy course of life is open to the genius, he stands in contradiction to his age and must perforce struggle with it.  Thus the Greeks . they instinctively made the utmost exertions to secure a safe refuge for themselves (in the polis).  Finally, everything went to pieces in politics.  They were compelled to take up a stand against their enemies . this became ever more and more difficult, and at last impossible.

116

Greek culture is based on the lordship of a small class over four to nine times their number of slaves.  Judged by mere numbers, Greece was a country inhabited by barbarians.  How can the ancients be thought to be humane?  There was a great contrast between the genius and the breadwinner, the half-beast of burden.  The Greeks believed in a racial distinction.  Schopenhauer wonders why Nature did not take it into her head to invent two entirely separate species of men.

The Greeks bear the same relation to the barbarians “as free-moving or winged animals do to the barnacles which cling tightly to the rocks and must await what fate chooses to send them”—­Schopenhauer’s simile.

117

The Greeks as the only people of genius in the history of the world.  Such they are even when considered as learners; for they understand this best of all, and can do more than merely trim and adorn themselves with what they have borrowed, as did the Romans.