Likewise, when an artist seizes an instant of the movement of a dancer, it allows us to glimpse both the "before" and the "after": "The marvelous suppleness with which a dancer moves from one figure to another, and provokes our admiration in the face of such artistry: it is fixated for a moment, so that wc can see, simultaneously, the past, the present and the future, and wc are thus transported into a supra terrestrial state." 65
Whoever practices the art of living must also recognize that each instant is pregnant: heavy with meaning, it contains both the past and the future; not only of the individual, but also of the cosmos in which he is plunged. This is what Goethe gives us to understand in his poem "The Testament:" "'
Let reason b e present everywhere
Where life rejoices in life.
This point at which life rejoices in life iK nothing other thnn t he prcitcnt instnnt. "Then," cont in ucN Goet he,
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the past has gained steadfastness
The present is alive beforehand,
The Instant is eternity.
Goethe is even more explicit on this point in one of his conversations with Eckermann:67 "Hold fast to the present. Every circumstance, every instant is of infinite value, for it is the representative of an entire eternity."
Some commentators have believed they could explain Goethe's conception of the instant as eternity by Neoplatonic or Pietistic influence.68 It is true that we do find within these traditions the representation of God as eternal present; but such a conception is not to be found in Goethe's writings. When Goethe speaks of the eternal in his poem entitled "Testament," for example, he is talking about the eternity of the cosmic process of becoming: Throughout all things, the Eternal pursues its course . . . .
Being is eternal, for laws
Protect the living treasures
With which the All adorns itself.
In order to explain the Goethean notion of the instant as representative of eternity, we must rather think of the Epicurean and Stoic tradition of which I have spoken above. This tradition affirmed, in the first place, that one instant of happiness is equivalent to an eternity; and, secondly, that one instant of existence contains the whole eternity of the cosmos. In Goethean terms, this second idea could be expressed by saying that the instant is the symbol of eternity. Goethe defined the symbol as "the living, instantaneous revelation of the unexplorable," 69 but we could just as well define the instant as "the living symbol of the unexplorable." The idea of the
"unexplorable" corresponds to what, for Goethe, is the inexpressible mystery at the basis of nature and of all reality. It is its very fleetingness and perishable nature that make the instant the symbol of eternity, because its ephemeral nature reveals the eternal movement and metamorphosis which is, simultaneously, the eternal presence of being: "All that· is perishable is only a symbol." 70
It is here that the thought of death comes into play, for life itself is perpetual metamorphosis, and, inseparably, the death of every instant.
Sometimes, for Goethe, this theme takes on a mystical tone: In order to find himself in the Infinite
The individual willingly accepts to disappear.
It is a pleasure to abandon oneself.71
l would 1m1i11&: the living creature who aspires to death in the flame.72
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Themes
In the last analysis, then, it is eternity - that is, the totality of being - which gives the present moment its value, meaning, and pregnancy. "If the eternal remains present to us at each instant, we do not suffer from the fleetingness of time." 73 The ultimate meaning of Goethe's attitude toward the present is thus, as it was for ancient philosophy, the happiness and the duty of existing in the cosmos. It is a profound feeling of participation in and identification with a reality which transcends the limits of the individual. "Great is the joy of existence, and greater yet the joy we feel in the presence of the world." 7�
"Throughout all things, the Eternal pursues its course. Hold on to Being with delight!" 75
We ought here to cite the entire song of the watchman Lynceus near the end of the Second Faust:
In all things, I see
The eternal adornment,
And since it pleases me,
I please myself as well.
You, my happy eyes: ·
Whatever you have seen,
Be it what it may,
It certainly was beautiful.71•
In his work on Winckelmann, Goethe presents this wonderstruck consent to being - to the being of the entire cosmos - as characteristic of the ancient soul.
If man feels at home in the world as within an All, an All which is great, beautiful, noble and precious; if the pleasure of living in harmony with this All gives him a pure, free delight, then the universe - if it could be conscious of itself - would exult with joy; it would have attained its goal, and would be amazed at this summit of its becoming and its being. After all, what good is all this profligate abundance of suns, planets, moons, stars, Milky Ways, comets, nebula, worlds in the process of becoming and which have come to be, if, when all is said and done, one happy man does not rejoice, unconsciously, in his own existence?77
When Goethe says "unconsciously," he means that the reasons why people may be happy, and may be in harmony with the universe, arc unknown and completely incomprehensible to them. Here we come across another case of the "unexplorable," 78 to use one of Goethe's favorite expressions. Y ct the innocent joy of existing, and the spontaneous, unrcflccting pleasure which living beings take in existence, arc an original phenomenon which reveals the presence of 1m uncxplorahlc my11tcry: "The child iN plcni;cd by l ht• cnkc,
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without knowing anything about the pastry-cook; and starlings like cherries, without them stopping to think about where they came from." 79
We again find this "yes" to the world and consent to being in the following passage from Nietzsche, whatever reservations about it he himself may have had: Let us assume we say "Yes!" to one single, unique moment: we have thus said yes, not only to ourselves, but to the whole of existence. For nothing is isolated, neither in ourselves nor in things. And if, even once, our soul has vibrated and resounded like a string with happiness, all eternity was necessary to create the conditions for this one event; and all eternity has been approved, redeemed, justified, and affirmed.80
Not long ago, Georges Friedmann courageously denounced the tragic lack of balance which has come about in the modern world between "power" and
"wisdom." 81 If we have chosen here to present some aspects of one of the fundamental themes of the European spiritual tradition, it was not in order to satisfy some historical or literary curiosity, but to describe a spiritual attitude: an attitude which, for ourselves and for modern man in general, hypnotized as we arc by language, images, information, and the myth of the future, seemed to us to provide one of the best means of access to this wisdom, so misunderstood and yet so necessary. The call of Socrates speaks to us more now than ever before: "Take care for yourself." 82 This call is echoed by Nietzsche's remark: "Is it not the case that all human institutions"