Eternal Recurrence and The Cay Science 233Nietzsche himself sensed this and was therefore quite hesitant about
presenting it He recognized that this doctrine was ultimately fit only for
a prophet or a clown.
The summer of inspiration in Sils-Maria brought Nietzsche giddy ela-
tion, but also unbearable headaches, stomach cramps, and nausea.
During the day, he sometimes spent as many as eight hours on his feet,
and in the evenings he sat in his tiny room, with a view out onto a sod-
den wall of rock. It was so cold in August that he had to wear gloves
even in his room. His tears were not just tears of joy. In a letter to Franz
Overbeck, which he wrote in Latin so that Overbecks wife would not be
able to read it, he described his dire situation as follows: "Pain is van-
quishing my life and wilL Oh, what months I have had, and what a sum-
mer! I have experienced as much torment to my body as I have seen
changes in the sky. Every cloud conceals some form of lightning that
can hit me with surprising force and altogether destroy my hapless self.
I have already summoned death as a doctor and hoped yesterday would
be my final day—but I hoped in vain. Where on earth is there a sky that
is eternally cheerful, my sky? Farewell, my friend!" (Β 6,128; Sept. 18,
1881). A few days later, he registered the same complaint in a letter to
Peter Gast with the comment "that a sky that stays clear for months at a
time has become an essential condition of life for me, as I now realize" (B
6,131; Sept 22,1881).
Then came a period of recuperation, a great climatic turning point.
Nietzsche had the good fortune of spending an uncharacteristically
bright, mild, and sunny winter in Genoa. After completing the first three
books of The Gay Science, he wrote to Gast on January 29, 1882: "Oh,
what a time we are having! Oh, the wonder of this beautiful January!" (Β
6,161). To commemorate this winter, "the most beautiful of my life," he
called the fourth book of The Gay Science "Sanctus Januarius."
This book, completed in early 1882 and originally conceived as a
sequel to Daybreak, set out to depict the landscape of life and knowledge
by incorporating his insights of the summer. He composed it in a state
of bliss. Weeks would pass that were free of physical pain and oppres-