54 Nietzsche
2,208), he wrote in a letter to Carl von Gersdorff on April 6, 1867. A
"categorical imperative" aroused him with the directive:^ c<You should
and must write"; in this instant he recognized to his horror that he was
unable to do so. "Suddenly the pen froze in my hand." He perused
Lessing, Lichtenberg, and Schopenhauer for stylistic guidance, but "the
Graces" seemed unwilling to approach him. How would he find the key
to unleash "some gay spirits" in his style? Perplexed but determined, he
resolved to work on himself, keeping in mind that he had yet to cross the
threshold. He forced himself to interpret the troubling recognition that
"I have simply no style at all in German" as a gift, reasoning that anyone
wishing to become an author had to admit the "blank slate of our sty-
listic arts into our conscience" (B 2,214).
For the time being, Nietzsche remained within his chosen field of
philology, which continued to captivate him when he was offered a dis-
tinguished professorship in classical philology in Basel before he had
even concluded his doctoral dissertation. However, as a philologist who
had looked over the fence of his discipline and discovered his passion
for writing and philosophizing, he felt confident that he had the power
to breathe life into his field.
Nietzsche called the process of transforming the established canon
and strictures of his field into something personally meaningful the cre-
ation of a "second nature" (/3,291). He described this concept in an
autobiographical sketch, written in 1867 after his military service, by cit-
ing the example of the foot soldier who initially fears that he will forget
how to walk during drills "if he is taught the consciousness of lifting his
foot" However, once marching has been integrated into his flesh and
blood, "he can walk just as freely as before" (/3,291). The concept of
"second nature" would acquire a pivotal significance for Nietzsche.
When in 1882 his friends chided him that his free-spirited conduct was
out of line with his nature and that he had gone too far with it, he
defended himself in a letter to the pianist and composer Hans von
Bülow, who was Cosima Wagner's first husband: "True, it may be a 'sec-