228 Nietzschetion. It demonstrates that the idea of recurrence not only does not
thwart and undermine experimentation with a stagnant metaphysics but
is obviously part and parcel of it Astonishing as it may seem to us, it was
the allegedly arithmetic and physical evidence of this doctrine that over-
whelmed him. The key calculation established that the quantum of force
of the universe as matter or energy is limited, but time is infinite.
Therefore, in this infinite period of time, all possible constellations of
matter and energy, and consequendy all possible events pertaining to
both the animate and the inanimate realms, have already taken place, and
they will recur ad infinitum. In addition to many brief reflections on the
notion of recurrence that we find in the notebooks, there is only a sin-
gle sustained passage on this theme, which contains the statements on
recurrence that Nietzsche frequendy iterated in subsequent writings,
statements in which the lava of inspiration had indeed gone cold and
solidified into theory: 'The wodd of forces is not subject to any stand-
still; because otherwise it would have been reached, and the clock of
existence would stand stilL The world of forces therefore never reaches
a state of equilibrium. It never has a moment of respite; its force and its
movement are equally great at any given moment. Whatever condition
this wodd may reach, it must have reached it already; not once, but innu-
merable times. This moment, for instance: it has already been here once,
and many times, and will return, all of the forces distributed exacdy as
they are now: and so it is with the moment that gave birth to this one and
the moment that is the child of this one. Humanity! Your whole life
becomes like an hourglass, always being inverted and always running out
again—one vast minute of time in-between until all conditions under
which you arose converge once more in the revolution of the wodd"
(9,498).
"Gratification" is the word that springs to mind to express this amaz-
ing feeling of having solved something akin to a difficult math problem;
everything has been thought out completely and brought to a state of
flawlessness. The fact that astute observers such as Georg Simmel later
pointed out that the philosopher had miscalculated is beside the point.