Here I will merely superimpose two quotations—one from Schopenhauer’s Parerga und Paralipomena, and another from Mann’s Doctor Faustus. It is not that I think that a commentary, at least a commentary, is unnecessary; I simply cannot force myself to put it down on paper. One more thing. The two quotations are not particularly well matched; still, precisely the slight incongruence appeals to me very much. Yes, the last caveat: Schopenhauer did not consider the possibility of a plebeian despot, which is unfortunate from the point of view of my design.

Well, I am just babbling by now; my reluctance to do what I planned, without much ado, only unveils my embarrassment. First, Schopenhauer:

People of very great ability will as a rule get on better with people of very limited ability than they will with people of ordinary ability, for the same reason as the despot and the plebeian, the grandparents and the grandchildren are natural allies.

One note is due here: this is an aphorism; Schopenhauer does not explain what he meant by “the same reason.” That is great here! And second, Mann, that is, Zeitblom, the biographer:

Last year the horrible man escaped with his life—by now surely only an insanely flaring and flickering existence—from the plot of desperate patriots trying to salvage the future of Germany and the last remnant of her material goods. Now he has commanded his soldiery to drown in a sea of blood in the attack on Berlin and to shoot every officer who speaks of surrender. And the order has been in considerable measure obeyed.

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