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Recht
hatte aber Nathanael doch, als er seinem
Freunde Lothar schrieb, daß des widerwärtigen
Wetterglashändlers Coppola Gestalt
recht feindlich in sein Leben getreten
sei. Alle fühlten das, da Nathanael
gleich in den ersten Tagen in seinem ganzen
Wesen durchaus verändert sich zeigte.
Er versank in düstre Träumereien,
und trieb es bald so seltsam, wie man es
niemals von ihm gewohnt gewesen. Alles,
das ganze Leben war ihm Traum und Ahnung
geworden; immer sprach er davon, wie jeder
Mensch, sich frei wähnend, nur dunklen
Mächten zum grausamen Spiel diene,
vergeblich lehne man sich dagegen auf,
demütig müsse man sich dem fügen,
was das Schicksal verhängt habe. Er
ging so weit, zu behaupten, daß es
töricht sei, wenn man glaube, in Kunst
und Wissenschaft nach selbsttätiger
Willkür zu schaffen; denn die Begeisterung,
in der man nur zu schaffen fähig sei,
komme nicht aus dem eignen Innern, sondern
sei das Einwirken irgend eines außer
uns selbst liegenden höheren Prinzips.
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However, Nathaniel was quite right, when he wrote to his friend Lothaire that the form of the repulsive barometer-dealer, Coppola, had had a most evil effect on his life. All felt, even in the first days, that Nathaniel had undergone a complete change in his whole being. He sank into a gloomy reverie, and behaved in a strange manner that had never been known in him before. Everything, his whole life, had become to him a dream and a foreboding, and he was always saying that man, although he might think himself free, only served for the cruel sport of dark powers. These he said it was vain to resist; man must patiently resign himself to his fate. He even went so far as to say that it is foolish to think that we do anything in art and science according to our own independent will; for the inspiration which alone enables us to produce anything does not proceed from within ourselves, but is the effect of a higher principle without.
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