_Historia abscondita._--Every great man has a power which operates backward; all history is again placed on the scales on his account, and a thousand secrets of the past crawl out of their lurking-places--into _his_ sunlight. There is absolutely no knowing what history may be some day. The past is still perhaps undiscovered in its essence! There is yet so much reinterpreting ability needed!
_Heresy and Witchcraft._--To think otherwise than is customary--that is by no means so much the activity of a better intellect, as the activity of strong, wicked inclinations,--severing, isolating, refractory, mischief-loving, malicious inclinations. Heresy is the counterpart of witchcraft, and is certainly just as little a merely harmless affair, or a thing worthy of honour in itself. Heretics and sorcerers are two kinds of bad men; they have it in common that they also feel themselves wicked; their unconquerable delight is to attack and injure whatever rules,--whether it be men or opinions. The Reformation, a kind of duplication of the spirit of the Middle Ages at a time when it had no longer a good conscience, produced both of these kinds of people in the greatest profusion.
_Last Words._-It will be recollected that the Emperor Augustus, that terrible man, who had himself as much in his own power and could be silent as well as any wise Socrates, became indiscreet about himself in his last words; for the first time he let his mask fall, when he gave to understand that he had carried a mask and played a comedy,--he had played the father of his country and wisdom on the throne well, even to the point of illusion! _Plaudite amid, comœdia finita est!--_The thought of the dying Nero: _qualis artifex pereo!_ was also the thought of the dying Augustus: histrionic conceit! histrionic loquacity! And the very counterpart to the dying Socrates!--But Tiberius died silently, that most tortured of all self-torturers,--_he_ was _genuine_ and not a stage-player! What may have passed through his head in the end! Perhaps this: "Life--that is a long death. I am a fool, who shortened the lives of so many! Was _I_ created for the purpose of being a benefactor? I should have given them eternal life: and then I could have _seen them dying_ eternally. I had such good eyes _for that: qualis spectator pereo!_" When he seemed once more to regain his powers after a long death-struggle, it was considered advisable to smother him with pillows,--he died a double death.