158 Nietzscherepose, as well as a certain cruel relentlessness of thought" (8,315). His
relentless program for enlightenment in the summer of 1876 comprised
thirteen planned treatises. Nietzsche planned to write on the topics
"Property and Work," "Religion," '«Women and Children," "Social
Life," "State," "Liberation," "Free Spirit," 'Teacher," and "Easygoing
People." He envisioned a series of extended essays rather than a collec-
tion of aphorisms, but aphorisms would round out each selection as a
"supplement" (8,290).
Since Nietzsche's physical discomfort, neurological disorders, vision
problems, and migraines had now worsened, he applied for and was
granted a year's leave of absence. He intended to spend this year in the
company of friends, especially his new friend Paul Rèe, at the home of
Malwida von Meysenbug in Sorrento. In the few weeks between the
Bayreuth Festival and his departure for southern Italy, he compiled his
notes for an expository essay called "The Free Spirit," which he had first
collected in his notebook under the tide "The Plowshare." While work-
ing on this project, Nietzsche must have realized that the material would
not form a cohesive whole, but would instead retain an aphoristic char-
acter. From this point on, Nietzsche had to grapple with a nagging sus-
picion that the aphoristic form might be an admission of failure. Did he
lack sufficient stamina for a sustained treatise? Could this vast continent
of the human and all-too-human, as well as the superhuman Übermensch
that came later, be presented in any kind of self-contained or even sys-
tematic form? Nietzsche, in any case, had a new problem. Later, in The
Twilight of the Idols, he claimed: "I distrust all systematize« and stay out
of their way. The will to a system is a deficiency in integrity" (6,63; 77
"Maxims and Arrows" § 26). The reality of the situation was not as
clear-cut. When Nietzsche was working on The Will to Power in the mid-
1880s, he wrote to his publisher: "I now need profound tranquillity, for
many, many years to come, because I am facing the elaboration of my
entire system of thought" (Β 7,297). So it was a system of thought after
all? Certainly a closed system in the manner of Hegel repelled him, but
Nietzsche did aim at articulating the links between his diverse ideas. He