Beyond Good and Evil

by Friedrich Nietzsche

Published in 1886

Beyond Good and Evil: Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future is a book by philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, first published in 1886. In it, Nietzsche attacks past philosophers for their lack of critical sense and their blind acceptance of Christian dogmas. He moves 'beyond good and evil' in the sense of leaving behind the traditional morality which he believes to be a product of historical forces and psychological needs.

Genres: Philosophy

Tags: philosophy, existentialism, morality, will to power, ethics

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 Index: original.md
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+# BEYOND GOOD AND EVIL
+# BEYOND GOOD AND EVIL
 ## License
 The version of this book is: v1.1
 ## CHAPTER I. PREJUDICES OF PHILOSOPHERS
+**From *Beyond Good and Evil* (1886) by Friedrich Nietzsche**
+. The Will to Truth, which is to tempt us to many a hazardous
+enterprise, the famous Truthfulness of which all philosophers have
+hitherto spoken with respect, what questions has this Will to Truth not
+laid before us! What strange, perplexing, questionable questions! It is
+already a long story; yet it seems as if it were hardly commenced. Is
+it any wonder if we at last grow distrustful, lose patience, and turn
+impatiently away? That this Sphinx teaches us at last to ask questions
+ourselves? WHO is it really that puts questions to us here? WHAT really
+is this "Will to Truth" in us? In fact we made a long halt at the
+question as to the origin of this Will--until at last we came to an
+absolute standstill before a yet more fundamental question. We inquired
+about the VALUE of this Will. Granted that we want the truth: WHY NOT
+RATHER untruth? And uncertainty? Even ignorance? The problem of the
+value of truth presented itself before us--or was it we who presented
+ourselves before the problem? Which of us is the Oedipus here? Which
+the Sphinx? It would seem to be a rendezvous of questions and notes of
+interrogation. And could it be believed that it at last seems to us as
+if the problem had never been propounded before, as if we were the first
+to discern it, get a sight of it, and RISK RAISING it? For there is risk
+in raising it, perhaps there is no greater risk.
+**1\.** The Will to Truth has tempted us into many ventures, yet we must ask: what is this "Will to Truth" within us? We paused long at its origin, then stopped before a more fundamental question: its VALUE.
+. "HOW COULD anything originate out of its opposite? For example, truth
+out of error? or the Will to Truth out of the will to deception? or the
+generous deed out of selfishness? or the pure sun-bright vision of the
+wise man out of covetousness? Such genesis is impossible; whoever dreams
+of it is a fool, nay, worse than a fool; things of the highest
+value must have a different origin, an origin of THEIR own--in this
+transitory, seductive, illusory, paltry world, in this turmoil of
+delusion and cupidity, they cannot have their source. But rather in
+the lap of Being, in the intransitory, in the concealed God, in the
+'Thing-in-itself--THERE must be their source, and nowhere else!"--This
+mode of reasoning discloses the typical prejudice by which
+metaphysicians of all times can be recognized, this mode of valuation
+is at the back of all their logical procedure; through this "belief" of
+theirs, they exert themselves for their "knowledge," for something that
+is in the end solemnly christened "the Truth." The fundamental belief of
+metaphysicians is THE BELIEF IN ANTITHESES OF VALUES. It never occurred
+even to the wariest of them to doubt here on the very threshold (where
+doubt, however, was most necessary); though they had made a solemn
+vow, "DE OMNIBUS DUBITANDUM." For it may be doubted, firstly, whether
+antitheses exist at all; and secondly, whether the popular valuations
+and antitheses of value upon which metaphysicians have set their
+seal, are not perhaps merely superficial estimates, merely provisional
+perspectives, besides being probably made from some corner, perhaps from
+below--"frog perspectives," as it were, to borrow an expression current
+among painters. In spite of all the value which may belong to the true,
+the positive, and the unselfish, it might be possible that a higher
+and more fundamental value for life generally should be assigned to
+pretence, to the will to delusion, to selfishness, and cupidity. It
+might even be possible that WHAT constitutes the value of those good and
+respected things, consists precisely in their being insidiously
+related, knotted, and crocheted to these evil and apparently opposed
+things--perhaps even in being essentially identical with them. Perhaps!
+But who wishes to concern himself with such dangerous "Perhapses"!
+For that investigation one must await the advent of a new order of
+philosophers, such as will have other tastes and inclinations, the
+reverse of those hitherto prevalent--philosophers of the dangerous
+"Perhaps" in every sense of the term. And to speak in all seriousness, I
+see such new philosophers beginning to appear.
+> **Quote:** "Granted that we want the truth: WHY NOT RATHER untruth? And uncertainty? Even ignorance?"
+. Having kept a sharp eye on philosophers, and having read between
+their lines long enough, I now say to myself that the greater part of
+conscious thinking must be counted among the instinctive functions, and
+it is so even in the case of philosophical thinking; one has here to
+learn anew, as one learned anew about heredity and "innateness." As
+little as the act of birth comes into consideration in the whole process
+and procedure of heredity, just as little is "being-conscious" OPPOSED
+to the instinctive in any decisive sense; the greater part of the
+conscious thinking of a philosopher is secretly influenced by his
+instincts, and forced into definite channels. And behind all logic and
+its seeming sovereignty of movement, there are valuations, or to speak
+more plainly, physiological demands, for the maintenance of a definite
+mode of life For example, that the certain is worth more than the
+uncertain, that illusion is less valuable than "truth" such valuations,
+in spite of their regulative importance for US, might notwithstanding be
+only superficial valuations, special kinds of _niaiserie_, such as may
+be necessary for the maintenance of beings such as ourselves. Supposing,
+in effect, that man is not just the "measure of things."
+Has this Sphinx finally taught us to ask our own questions? Which of us is Oedipus here? Which the Sphinx? It seems the problem had never been posed before us—there is no greater risk than raising it.
+. The falseness of an opinion is not for us any objection to it: it is
+here, perhaps, that our new language sounds most strangely. The
+question is, how far an opinion is life-furthering, life-preserving,
+species-preserving, perhaps species-rearing, and we are fundamentally
+inclined to maintain that the falsest opinions (to which the synthetic
+judgments a priori belong), are the most indispensable to us, that
+without a recognition of logical fictions, without a comparison of
+reality with the purely IMAGINED world of the absolute and immutable,
+without a constant counterfeiting of the world by means of numbers,
+man could not live--that the renunciation of false opinions would be
+a renunciation of life, a negation of life. TO RECOGNISE UNTRUTH AS A
+CONDITION OF LIFE; that is certainly to impugn the traditional ideas of
+value in a dangerous manner, and a philosophy which ventures to do so,
+has thereby alone placed itself beyond good and evil.
+**2\.** "How could truth arise from error? Or generosity from selfishness?" Such questions reveal the metaphysician's core prejudice: that things of highest value must spring from Being, from the 'Thing-in-itself.'
+. That which causes philosophers to be regarded half-distrustfully
+and half-mockingly, is not the oft-repeated discovery how innocent they
+are--how often and easily they make mistakes and lose their way, in
+short, how childish and childlike they are,--but that there is not
+enough honest dealing with them, whereas they all raise a loud and
+virtuous outcry when the problem of truthfulness is even hinted at in
+the remotest manner. They all pose as though their real opinions had
+been discovered and attained through the self-evolving of a cold, pure,
+divinely indifferent dialectic (in contrast to all sorts of mystics,
+who, fairer and foolisher, talk of "inspiration"), whereas, in fact, a
+prejudiced proposition, idea, or "suggestion," which is generally
+their heart's desire abstracted and refined, is defended by them with
+arguments sought out after the event. They are all advocates who do not
+wish to be regarded as such, generally astute defenders, also, of their
+prejudices, which they dub "truths,"--and VERY far from having the
+conscience which bravely admits this to itself, very far from having
+the good taste of the courage which goes so far as to let this be
+understood, perhaps to warn friend or foe, or in cheerful confidence
+and self-ridicule. The spectacle of the Tartuffery of old Kant, equally
+stiff and decent, with which he entices us into the dialectic
+by-ways that lead (more correctly mislead) to his "categorical
+imperative"--makes us fastidious ones smile, we who find no small
+amusement in spying out the subtle tricks of old moralists and ethical
+preachers. Or, still more so, the hocus-pocus in mathematical form, by
+means of which Spinoza has, as it were, clad his philosophy in mail and
+mask--in fact, the "love of HIS wisdom," to translate the term fairly
+and squarely--in order thereby to strike terror at once into the heart
+of the assailant who should dare to cast a glance on that invincible
+maiden, that Pallas Athene:--how much of personal timidity and
+vulnerability does this masquerade of a sickly recluse betray!
+> **Quote:** "The fundamental belief of metaphysicians is THE BELIEF IN ANTITHESES OF VALUES."
+. It has gradually become clear to me what every great philosophy up
+till now has consisted of--namely, the confession of its originator, and
+a species of involuntary and unconscious auto-biography; and moreover
+that the moral (or immoral) purpose in every philosophy has constituted
+the true vital germ out of which the entire plant has always grown.
+Indeed, to understand how the abstrusest metaphysical assertions of a
+philosopher have been arrived at, it is always well (and wise) to first
+ask oneself: "What morality do they (or does he) aim at?" Accordingly,
+I do not believe that an "impulse to knowledge" is the father of
+philosophy; but that another impulse, here as elsewhere, has only made
+use of knowledge (and mistaken knowledge!) as an instrument. But whoever
+considers the fundamental impulses of man with a view to determining
+how far they may have here acted as INSPIRING GENII (or as demons and
+cobolds), will find that they have all practiced philosophy at one time
+or another, and that each one of them would have been only too glad to
+look upon itself as the ultimate end of existence and the legitimate
+LORD over all the other impulses. For every impulse is imperious, and as
+SUCH, attempts to philosophize. To be sure, in the case of scholars, in
+the case of really scientific men, it may be otherwise--"better," if
+you will; there there may really be such a thing as an "impulse to
+knowledge," some kind of small, independent clock-work, which, when well
+wound up, works away industriously to that end, WITHOUT the rest of
+the scholarly impulses taking any material part therein. The actual
+"interests" of the scholar, therefore, are generally in quite another
+direction--in the family, perhaps, or in money-making, or in politics;
+it is, in fact, almost indifferent at what point of research his little
+machine is placed, and whether the hopeful young worker becomes a
+good philologist, a mushroom specialist, or a chemist; he is not
+CHARACTERISED by becoming this or that. In the philosopher, on the
+contrary, there is absolutely nothing impersonal; and above all,
+his morality furnishes a decided and decisive testimony as to WHO HE
+IS,--that is to say, in what order the deepest impulses of his nature
+stand to each other.
+Even the most cautious never doubted this—though we should doubt whether such opposites exist, and whether these valuations aren't merely "frog perspectives" from below. Perhaps the highest values are precisely those insidiously knotted to their apparent opposites. Untangling this requires new philosophers, explorers of the dangerous "Perhaps."
+. How malicious philosophers can be! I know of nothing more stinging
+than the joke Epicurus took the liberty of making on Plato and the
+Platonists; he called them Dionysiokolakes. In its original sense,
+and on the face of it, the word signifies "Flatterers of
+Dionysius"--consequently, tyrants' accessories and lick-spittles;
+besides this, however, it is as much as to say, "They are all ACTORS,
+there is nothing genuine about them" (for Dionysiokolax was a popular
+name for an actor). And the latter is really the malignant reproach that
+Epicurus cast upon Plato: he was annoyed by the grandiose manner, the
+mise en scene style of which Plato and his scholars were masters--of
+which Epicurus was not a master! He, the old school-teacher of Samos,
+who sat concealed in his little garden at Athens, and wrote three
+hundred books, perhaps out of rage and ambitious envy of Plato, who
+knows! Greece took a hundred years to find out who the garden-god
+Epicurus really was. Did she ever find out?
+**3\.** After long observation, I say: most conscious thinking, even philosophical, is instinct. "Being conscious" is not opposed to the instinctive. Behind all logic lie valuations—physiological requirements for maintaining a way of life. That certainty outranks uncertainty, that truth beats illusion—these valuations might be mere foolishness necessary for beings like us. Man is not the "measure of all things."
+. There is a point in every philosophy at which the "conviction" of
+the philosopher appears on the scene; or, to put it in the words of an
+ancient mystery:
+**4\.** That an opinion is false is no objection; what matters is how far it promotes and preserves life. The falsest opinions are most indispensable. Without logical fictions, without falsifying the world through absolutes, humanity could not live. To renounce false opinions would be to renounce life.
+Adventavit asinus, Pulcher et fortissimus.
+> **Quote:** "TO RECOGNISE UNTRUTH AS A CONDITION OF LIFE; that is certainly to impugn the traditional ideas of value in a dangerous manner, and a philosophy which ventures to do so, has thereby alone placed itself beyond good and evil."
+. You desire to LIVE "according to Nature"? Oh, you noble Stoics, what
+fraud of words! Imagine to yourselves a being like Nature, boundlessly
+extravagant, boundlessly indifferent, without purpose or consideration,
+without pity or justice, at once fruitful and barren and uncertain:
+imagine to yourselves INDIFFERENCE as a power--how COULD you live
+in accordance with such indifference? To live--is not that just
+endeavouring to be otherwise than this Nature? Is not living valuing,
+preferring, being unjust, being limited, endeavouring to be different?
+And granted that your imperative, "living according to Nature," means
+actually the same as "living according to life"--how could you do
+DIFFERENTLY? Why should you make a principle out of what you yourselves
+are, and must be? In reality, however, it is quite otherwise with you:
+while you pretend to read with rapture the canon of your law in Nature,
+you want something quite the contrary, you extraordinary stage-players
+and self-deluders! In your pride you wish to dictate your morals and
+ideals to Nature, to Nature herself, and to incorporate them therein;
+you insist that it shall be Nature "according to the Stoa," and would
+like everything to be made after your own image, as a vast, eternal
+glorification and generalism of Stoicism! With all your love for truth,
+you have forced yourselves so long, so persistently, and with such
+hypnotic rigidity to see Nature FALSELY, that is to say, Stoically,
+that you are no longer able to see it otherwise--and to crown all, some
+unfathomable superciliousness gives you the Bedlamite hope that
+BECAUSE you are able to tyrannize over yourselves--Stoicism is
+self-tyranny--Nature will also allow herself to be tyrannized over: is
+not the Stoic a PART of Nature?... But this is an old and everlasting
+story: what happened in old times with the Stoics still happens today,
+as soon as ever a philosophy begins to believe in itself. It always
+creates the world in its own image; it cannot do otherwise; philosophy
+is this tyrannical impulse itself, the most spiritual Will to Power, the
+will to "creation of the world," the will to the causa prima.
+**5\.** What makes us mock philosophers is not their childish errors but their dishonesty. They pretend their opinions emerged from cold, pure logic when they're actually defending preconceived propositions—their heart's desire in disguise. They are lawyers for their prejudices, lacking the conscience to admit it.
+. The eagerness and subtlety, I should even say craftiness, with
+which the problem of "the real and the apparent world" is dealt with at
+present throughout Europe, furnishes food for thought and attention; and
+he who hears only a "Will to Truth" in the background, and nothing else,
+cannot certainly boast of the sharpest ears. In rare and isolated
+cases, it may really have happened that such a Will to Truth--a certain
+extravagant and adventurous pluck, a metaphysician's ambition of the
+forlorn hope--has participated therein: that which in the end always
+prefers a handful of "certainty" to a whole cartload of beautiful
+possibilities; there may even be puritanical fanatics of conscience,
+who prefer to put their last trust in a sure nothing, rather than in an
+uncertain something. But that is Nihilism, and the sign of a despairing,
+mortally wearied soul, notwithstanding the courageous bearing such a
+virtue may display. It seems, however, to be otherwise with stronger
+and livelier thinkers who are still eager for life. In that they side
+AGAINST appearance, and speak superciliously of "perspective," in
+that they rank the credibility of their own bodies about as low as the
+credibility of the ocular evidence that "the earth stands still," and
+thus, apparently, allowing with complacency their securest possession
+to escape (for what does one at present believe in more firmly than
+in one's body?),--who knows if they are not really trying to win back
+something which was formerly an even securer possession, something
+of the old domain of the faith of former times, perhaps the "immortal
+soul," perhaps "the old God," in short, ideas by which they could live
+better, that is to say, more vigorously and more joyously, than by
+"modern ideas"? There is DISTRUST of these modern ideas in this mode
+of looking at things, a disbelief in all that has been constructed
+yesterday and today; there is perhaps some slight admixture of satiety
+and scorn, which can no longer endure the BRIC-A-BRAC of ideas of the
+most varied origin, such as so-called Positivism at present throws on
+the market; a disgust of the more refined taste at the village-fair
+motleyness and patchiness of all these reality-philosophasters, in whom
+there is nothing either new or true, except this motleyness. Therein it
+seems to me that we should agree with those skeptical anti-realists and
+knowledge-microscopists of the present day; their instinct, which repels
+them from MODERN reality, is unrefuted... what do their retrograde
+by-paths concern us! The main thing about them is NOT that they wish
+to go "back," but that they wish to get AWAY therefrom. A little MORE
+strength, swing, courage, and artistic power, and they would be OFF--and
+not back!
+The spectacle of Kant's hypocrisy—luring us down logical alleys to his "categorical imperative"—amuses us. More amusing still is Spinoza's mathematical hocus-pocus, armoring his philosophy to terrorize challengers. How much personal timidity and vulnerability this masquerade of a sickly recluse betrays—masking his philosophy behind the invincible Pallas Athene!
+. It seems to me that there is everywhere an attempt at present to
+divert attention from the actual influence which Kant exercised on
+German philosophy, and especially to ignore prudently the value which
+he set upon himself. Kant was first and foremost proud of his Table of
+Categories; with it in his hand he said: "This is the most difficult
+thing that could ever be undertaken on behalf of metaphysics." Let us
+only understand this "could be"! He was proud of having DISCOVERED a
+new faculty in man, the faculty of synthetic judgment a priori. Granting
+that he deceived himself in this matter; the development and rapid
+flourishing of German philosophy depended nevertheless on his pride, and
+on the eager rivalry of the younger generation to discover if possible
+something--at all events "new faculties"--of which to be still
+prouder!--But let us reflect for a moment--it is high time to do so.
+"How are synthetic judgments a priori POSSIBLE?" Kant asks himself--and
+what is really his answer? "BY MEANS OF A MEANS (faculty)"--but
+unfortunately not in five words, but so circumstantially, imposingly,
+and with such display of German profundity and verbal flourishes, that
+one altogether loses sight of the comical niaiserie allemande involved
+in such an answer. People were beside themselves with delight over this
+new faculty, and the jubilation reached its climax when Kant further
+discovered a moral faculty in man--for at that time Germans were still
+moral, not yet dabbling in the "Politics of hard fact." Then came
+the honeymoon of German philosophy. All the young theologians of the
+Tubingen institution went immediately into the groves--all seeking for
+"faculties." And what did they not find--in that innocent, rich, and
+still youthful period of the German spirit, to which Romanticism, the
+malicious fairy, piped and sang, when one could not yet distinguish
+between "finding" and "inventing"! Above all a faculty for the
+"transcendental"; Schelling christened it, intellectual intuition,
+and thereby gratified the most earnest longings of the naturally
+pious-inclined Germans. One can do no greater wrong to the whole of
+this exuberant and eccentric movement (which was really youthfulness,
+notwithstanding that it disguised itself so boldly, in hoary and senile
+conceptions), than to take it seriously, or even treat it with moral
+indignation. Enough, however--the world grew older, and the dream
+vanished. A time came when people rubbed their foreheads, and they still
+rub them today. People had been dreaming, and first and foremost--old
+Kant. "By means of a means (faculty)"--he had said, or at least meant to
+say. But, is that--an answer? An explanation? Or is it not rather merely
+a repetition of the question? How does opium induce sleep? "By means of
+a means (faculty)," namely the virtus dormitiva, replies the doctor in
+Moliere,
+**6\.**
+    Quia est in eo virtus dormitiva,
+    Cujus est natura sensus assoupire.
+> **Quote:** "it has gradually become clear to me what every great philosophy up till now has consisted of—namely, the confession of its originator, and a species of involuntary and unconscious auto-biography."
+But such replies belong to the realm of comedy, and it is high time
+to replace the Kantian question, "How are synthetic judgments a PRIORI
+possible?" by another question, "Why is belief in such judgments
+necessary?"--in effect, it is high time that we should understand
+that such judgments must be believed to be true, for the sake of the
+preservation of creatures like ourselves; though they still might
+naturally be false judgments! Or, more plainly spoken, and roughly and
+readily--synthetic judgments a priori should not "be possible" at all;
+we have no right to them; in our mouths they are nothing but false
+judgments. Only, of course, the belief in their truth is necessary, as
+plausible belief and ocular evidence belonging to the perspective view
+of life. And finally, to call to mind the enormous influence which
+"German philosophy"--I hope you understand its right to inverted commas
+(goosefeet)?--has exercised throughout the whole of Europe, there is
+no doubt that a certain VIRTUS DORMITIVA had a share in it; thanks to
+German philosophy, it was a delight to the noble idlers, the virtuous,
+the mystics, the artiste, the three-fourths Christians, and the
+political obscurantists of all nations, to find an antidote to the still
+overwhelming sensualism which overflowed from the last century into
+this, in short--"sensus assoupire."...
+The moral purpose is the vital seed of every philosophy. The philosopher's morality reveals the hierarchy of his deepest impulses—those inspiring genii (or demons) that have all, at one time or another, tried to rule as master. Scholars may have a genuine "impulse to knowledge"—a small clockwork that runs independently. The philosopher has nothing impersonal; his entire system testifies who he is.
+. As regards materialistic atomism, it is one of the best-refuted
+theories that have been advanced, and in Europe there is now perhaps
+no one in the learned world so unscholarly as to attach serious
+signification to it, except for convenient everyday use (as an
+abbreviation of the means of expression)--thanks chiefly to the Pole
+Boscovich: he and the Pole Copernicus have hitherto been the greatest
+and most successful opponents of ocular evidence. For while Copernicus
+has persuaded us to believe, contrary to all the senses, that the earth
+does NOT stand fast, Boscovich has taught us to abjure the belief in the
+last thing that "stood fast" of the earth--the belief in "substance," in
+"matter," in the earth-residuum, and particle-atom: it is the greatest
+triumph over the senses that has hitherto been gained on earth. One
+must, however, go still further, and also declare war, relentless war
+to the knife, against the "atomistic requirements" which still lead a
+dangerous after-life in places where no one suspects them, like the more
+celebrated "metaphysical requirements": one must also above all give
+the finishing stroke to that other and more portentous atomism which
+Christianity has taught best and longest, the SOUL-ATOMISM. Let it be
+permitted to designate by this expression the belief which regards the
+soul as something indestructible, eternal, indivisible, as a monad,
+as an atomon: this belief ought to be expelled from science! Between
+ourselves, it is not at all necessary to get rid of "the soul" thereby,
+and thus renounce one of the oldest and most venerated hypotheses--as
+happens frequently to the clumsiness of naturalists, who can hardly
+touch on the soul without immediately losing it. But the way is open
+for new acceptations and refinements of the soul-hypothesis; and such
+conceptions as "mortal soul," and "soul of subjective multiplicity,"
+and "soul as social structure of the instincts and passions," want
+henceforth to have legitimate rights in science. In that the NEW
+psychologist is about to put an end to the superstitions which have
+hitherto flourished with almost tropical luxuriance around the idea of
+the soul, he is really, as it were, thrusting himself into a new desert
+and a new distrust--it is possible that the older psychologists had a
+merrier and more comfortable time of it; eventually, however, he finds
+that precisely thereby he is also condemned to INVENT--and, who knows?
+perhaps to DISCOVER the new.
+**7\.** Epicurus called Plato and his followers *Dionysiokolakes*—"flatterers of Dionysius" and, more biting, "actors." He mocked Plato's grandiose style and theatricality, which he lacked. The old schoolteacher from Samos, hidden in his Athenian garden—who knows if envy drove him? It took Greece a century to understand who Epicurus was.
+. Psychologists should bethink themselves before putting down the
+instinct of self-preservation as the cardinal instinct of an organic
+being. A living thing seeks above all to DISCHARGE its strength--life
+itself is WILL TO POWER; self-preservation is only one of the indirect
+and most frequent RESULTS thereof. In short, here, as everywhere else,
+let us beware of SUPERFLUOUS teleological principles!--one of which
+is the instinct of self-preservation (we owe it to Spinoza's
+inconsistency). It is thus, in effect, that method ordains, which must
+be essentially economy of principles.
+**8\.** Every philosophy reaches a point where the philosopher's "conviction" appears, as the ancient mystery says: *Adventavit asinus, Pulcher et fortissimus.*
+. It is perhaps just dawning on five or six minds that natural
+philosophy is only a world-exposition and world-arrangement (according
+to us, if I may say so!) and NOT a world-explanation; but in so far as
+it is based on belief in the senses, it is regarded as more, and for a
+long time to come must be regarded as more--namely, as an explanation.
+It has eyes and fingers of its own, it has ocular evidence and
+palpableness of its own: this operates fascinatingly, persuasively, and
+CONVINCINGLY upon an age with fundamentally plebeian tastes--in fact, it
+follows instinctively the canon of truth of eternal popular sensualism.
+What is clear, what is "explained"? Only that which can be seen and
+felt--one must pursue every problem thus far. Obversely, however, the
+charm of the Platonic mode of thought, which was an ARISTOCRATIC mode,
+consisted precisely in RESISTANCE to obvious sense-evidence--perhaps
+among men who enjoyed even stronger and more fastidious senses than our
+contemporaries, but who knew how to find a higher triumph in remaining
+masters of them: and this by means of pale, cold, grey conceptional
+networks which they threw over the motley whirl of the senses--the
+mob of the senses, as Plato said. In this overcoming of the world, and
+interpreting of the world in the manner of Plato, there was an ENJOYMENT
+different from that which the physicists of today offer us--and likewise
+the Darwinists and anti-teleologists among the physiological workers,
+with their principle of the "smallest possible effort," and the greatest
+possible blunder. "Where there is nothing more to see or to grasp, there
+is also nothing more for men to do"--that is certainly an imperative
+different from the Platonic one, but it may notwithstanding be the right
+imperative for a hardy, laborious race of machinists and bridge-builders
+of the future, who have nothing but ROUGH work to perform.
+**9\.** "Live according to Nature," you Stoics? What a fraud! Imagine Nature: boundlessly extravagant, indifferent, purposeless, pitiless. How could you live according to that indifference? Living IS valuing, preferring, being unjust, being limited. In fact, you want the opposite: to dictate your morals to Nature, to make her Stoic. You force yourselves to see Nature falsely—Stoically—so long you can see no other way.
+. To study physiology with a clear conscience, one must insist on
+the fact that the sense-organs are not phenomena in the sense of the
+idealistic philosophy; as such they certainly could not be causes!
+Sensualism, therefore, at least as regulative hypothesis, if not as
+heuristic principle. What? And others say even that the external world
+is the work of our organs? But then our body, as a part of this external
+world, would be the work of our organs! But then our organs themselves
+would be the work of our organs! It seems to me that this is a
+complete REDUCTIO AD ABSURDUM, if the conception CAUSA SUI is something
+fundamentally absurd. Consequently, the external world is NOT the work
+of our organs--?
+> **Quote:** "philosophy is this tyrannical impulse itself, the most spiritual Will to Power, the will to 'creation of the world,' the will to the causa prima."
+. There are still harmless self-observers who believe that there are
+"immediate certainties"; for instance, "I think," or as the superstition
+of Schopenhauer puts it, "I will"; as though cognition here got hold
+of its object purely and simply as "the thing in itself," without any
+falsification taking place either on the part of the subject or the
+object. I would repeat it, however, a hundred times, that "immediate
+certainty," as well as "absolute knowledge" and the "thing in itself,"
+involve a CONTRADICTIO IN ADJECTO; we really ought to free ourselves
+from the misleading significance of words! The people on their part may
+think that cognition is knowing all about things, but the philosopher
+must say to himself: "When I analyze the process that is expressed in
+the sentence, 'I think,' I find a whole series of daring assertions, the
+argumentative proof of which would be difficult, perhaps impossible:
+for instance, that it is _I_ who think, that there must necessarily be
+something that thinks, that thinking is an activity and operation on the
+part of a being who is thought of as a cause, that there is an 'ego,'
+and finally, that it is already determined what is to be designated by
+thinking--that I KNOW what thinking is. For if I had not already decided
+within myself what it is, by what standard could I determine whether
+that which is just happening is not perhaps 'willing' or 'feeling'? In
+short, the assertion 'I think,' assumes that I COMPARE my state at the
+present moment with other states of myself which I know, in order to
+determine what it is; on account of this retrospective connection with
+further 'knowledge,' it has, at any rate, no immediate certainty for
+me."--In place of the "immediate certainty" in which the people may
+believe in the special case, the philosopher thus finds a series of
+metaphysical questions presented to him, veritable conscience questions
+of the intellect, to wit: "Whence did I get the notion of 'thinking'?
+Why do I believe in cause and effect? What gives me the right to speak
+of an 'ego,' and even of an 'ego' as cause, and finally of an 'ego'
+as cause of thought?" He who ventures to answer these metaphysical
+questions at once by an appeal to a sort of INTUITIVE perception, like
+the person who says, "I think, and know that this, at least, is
+true, actual, and certain"--will encounter a smile and two notes of
+interrogation in a philosopher nowadays. "Sir," the philosopher will
+perhaps give him to understand, "it is improbable that you are not
+mistaken, but why should it be the truth?"
+**10\.** The current handling of "real vs. apparent world" reveals not just a Will to Truth but perhaps a desire to escape modern ideas. Some thinkers, hungry for life, take sides against appearance to win back older certainties: the immortal soul, the old God. They distrust what was built yesterday, disgusted by Positivism's patched-together clutter. Their backward paths matter less than their desire to get AWAY.
+. With regard to the superstitions of logicians, I shall never tire
+of emphasizing a small, terse fact, which is unwillingly recognized by
+these credulous minds--namely, that a thought comes when "it" wishes,
+and not when "I" wish; so that it is a PERVERSION of the facts of the
+case to say that the subject "I" is the condition of the predicate
+"think." ONE thinks; but that this "one" is precisely the famous old
+"ego," is, to put it mildly, only a supposition, an assertion, and
+assuredly not an "immediate certainty." After all, one has even gone too
+far with this "one thinks"--even the "one" contains an INTERPRETATION of
+the process, and does not belong to the process itself. One infers here
+according to the usual grammatical formula--"To think is an activity;
+every activity requires an agency that is active; consequently"... It
+was pretty much on the same lines that the older atomism sought, besides
+the operating "power," the material particle wherein it resides and out
+of which it operates--the atom. More rigorous minds, however, learnt at
+last to get along without this "earth-residuum," and perhaps some day we
+shall accustom ourselves, even from the logician's point of view, to
+get along without the little "one" (to which the worthy old "ego" has
+refined itself).
+**11\.** Kant was proud of his Table of Categories and of discovering synthetic judgment *a priori*. But his answer to "How are synthetic judgments *a priori* possible?"—"by means of a means (a faculty)"—is comical German silliness, like Molière's *virtus dormitiva*.
+. It is certainly not the least charm of a theory that it is
+refutable; it is precisely thereby that it attracts the more subtle
+minds. It seems that the hundred-times-refuted theory of the "free will"
+owes its persistence to this charm alone; some one is always appearing
+who feels himself strong enough to refute it.
+> **Quote:** "How are synthetic judgments a PRIORI possible?"
+. Philosophers are accustomed to speak of the will as though it were
+the best-known thing in the world; indeed, Schopenhauer has given us
+to understand that the will alone is really known to us, absolutely and
+completely known, without deduction or addition. But it again and
+again seems to me that in this case Schopenhauer also only did what
+philosophers are in the habit of doing--he seems to have adopted a
+POPULAR PREJUDICE and exaggerated it. Willing seems to me to be above
+all something COMPLICATED, something that is a unity only in name--and
+it is precisely in a name that popular prejudice lurks, which has got
+the mastery over the inadequate precautions of philosophers in all ages.
+So let us for once be more cautious, let us be "unphilosophical": let
+us say that in all willing there is firstly a plurality of sensations,
+namely, the sensation of the condition "AWAY FROM WHICH we go," the
+sensation of the condition "TOWARDS WHICH we go," the sensation of this
+"FROM" and "TOWARDS" itself, and then besides, an accompanying muscular
+sensation, which, even without our putting in motion "arms and legs,"
+commences its action by force of habit, directly we "will" anything.
+Therefore, just as sensations (and indeed many kinds of sensations) are
+to be recognized as ingredients of the will, so, in the second place,
+thinking is also to be recognized; in every act of the will there is
+a ruling thought;--and let us not imagine it possible to sever this
+thought from the "willing," as if the will would then remain over!
+In the third place, the will is not only a complex of sensation and
+thinking, but it is above all an EMOTION, and in fact the emotion of the
+command. That which is termed "freedom of the will" is essentially the
+emotion of supremacy in respect to him who must obey: "I am free, 'he'
+must obey"--this consciousness is inherent in every will; and equally
+so the straining of the attention, the straight look which fixes itself
+exclusively on one thing, the unconditional judgment that "this and
+nothing else is necessary now," the inward certainty that obedience
+will be rendered--and whatever else pertains to the position of the
+commander. A man who WILLS commands something within himself which
+renders obedience, or which he believes renders obedience. But now let
+us notice what is the strangest thing about the will,--this affair so
+extremely complex, for which the people have only one name. Inasmuch as
+in the given circumstances we are at the same time the commanding AND
+the obeying parties, and as the obeying party we know the sensations of
+constraint, impulsion, pressure, resistance, and motion, which usually
+commence immediately after the act of will; inasmuch as, on the other
+hand, we are accustomed to disregard this duality, and to deceive
+ourselves about it by means of the synthetic term "I": a whole series
+of erroneous conclusions, and consequently of false judgments about the
+will itself, has become attached to the act of willing--to such a degree
+that he who wills believes firmly that willing SUFFICES for action.
+Since in the majority of cases there has only been exercise of will
+when the effect of the command--consequently obedience, and therefore
+action--was to be EXPECTED, the APPEARANCE has translated itself into
+the sentiment, as if there were a NECESSITY OF EFFECT; in a word, he who
+wills believes with a fair amount of certainty that will and action are
+somehow one; he ascribes the success, the carrying out of the willing,
+to the will itself, and thereby enjoys an increase of the sensation
+of power which accompanies all success. "Freedom of Will"--that is the
+expression for the complex state of delight of the person exercising
+volition, who commands and at the same time identifies himself with
+the executor of the order--who, as such, enjoys also the triumph over
+obstacles, but thinks within himself that it was really his own will
+that overcame them. In this way the person exercising volition adds the
+feelings of delight of his successful executive instruments, the useful
+"underwills" or under-souls--indeed, our body is but a social structure
+composed of many souls--to his feelings of delight as commander. L'EFFET
+C'EST MOI. what happens here is what happens in every well-constructed
+and happy commonwealth, namely, that the governing class identifies
+itself with the successes of the commonwealth. In all willing it is
+absolutely a question of commanding and obeying, on the basis, as
+already said, of a social structure composed of many "souls", on which
+account a philosopher should claim the right to include willing-as-such
+within the sphere of morals--regarded as the doctrine of the relations
+of supremacy under which the phenomenon of "life" manifests itself.
+Time to replace this with:
+. That the separate philosophical ideas are not anything optional or
+autonomously evolving, but grow up in connection and relationship with
+each other, that, however suddenly and arbitrarily they seem to appear
+in the history of thought, they nevertheless belong just as much to
+a system as the collective members of the fauna of a Continent--is
+betrayed in the end by the circumstance: how unfailingly the most
+diverse philosophers always fill in again a definite fundamental scheme
+of POSSIBLE philosophies. Under an invisible spell, they always revolve
+once more in the same orbit, however independent of each other they
+may feel themselves with their critical or systematic wills, something
+within them leads them, something impels them in definite order the
+one after the other--to wit, the innate methodology and relationship
+of their ideas. Their thinking is, in fact, far less a discovery than a
+re-recognizing, a remembering, a return and a home-coming to a far-off,
+ancient common-household of the soul, out of which those ideas formerly
+grew: philosophizing is so far a kind of atavism of the highest order.
+The wonderful family resemblance of all Indian, Greek, and German
+philosophizing is easily enough explained. In fact, where there is
+affinity of language, owing to the common philosophy of grammar--I mean
+owing to the unconscious domination and guidance of similar grammatical
+functions--it cannot but be that everything is prepared at the outset
+for a similar development and succession of philosophical systems,
+just as the way seems barred against certain other possibilities of
+world-interpretation. It is highly probable that philosophers within the
+domain of the Ural-Altaic languages (where the conception of the subject
+is least developed) look otherwise "into the world," and will be
+found on paths of thought different from those of the Indo-Germans and
+Mussulmans, the spell of certain grammatical functions is ultimately
+also the spell of PHYSIOLOGICAL valuations and racial conditions.--So
+much by way of rejecting Locke's superficiality with regard to the
+origin of ideas.
+> **Quote:** "Why is belief in such judgments necessary?"
+. The CAUSA SUI is the best self-contradiction that has yet been
+conceived, it is a sort of logical violation and unnaturalness; but the
+extravagant pride of man has managed to entangle itself profoundly and
+frightfully with this very folly. The desire for "freedom of will"
+in the superlative, metaphysical sense, such as still holds sway,
+unfortunately, in the minds of the half-educated, the desire to bear
+the entire and ultimate responsibility for one's actions oneself, and
+to absolve God, the world, ancestors, chance, and society therefrom,
+involves nothing less than to be precisely this CAUSA SUI, and, with
+more than Munchausen daring, to pull oneself up into existence by the
+hair, out of the slough of nothingness. If any one should find out in
+this manner the crass stupidity of the celebrated conception of "free
+will" and put it out of his head altogether, I beg of him to carry
+his "enlightenment" a step further, and also put out of his head the
+contrary of this monstrous conception of "free will": I mean "non-free
+will," which is tantamount to a misuse of cause and effect. One
+should not wrongly MATERIALISE "cause" and "effect," as the natural
+philosophers do (and whoever like them naturalize in thinking at
+present), according to the prevailing mechanical doltishness which makes
+the cause press and push until it "effects" its end; one should use
+"cause" and "effect" only as pure CONCEPTIONS, that is to say, as
+conventional fictions for the purpose of designation and mutual
+understanding,--NOT for explanation. In "being-in-itself" there is
+nothing of "casual-connection," of "necessity," or of "psychological
+non-freedom"; there the effect does NOT follow the cause, there "law"
+does not obtain. It is WE alone who have devised cause, sequence,
+reciprocity, relativity, constraint, number, law, freedom, motive,
+and purpose; and when we interpret and intermix this symbol-world,
+as "being-in-itself," with things, we act once more as we have always
+acted--MYTHOLOGICALLY. The "non-free will" is mythology; in real life
+it is only a question of STRONG and WEAK wills.--It is almost always
+a symptom of what is lacking in himself, when a thinker, in every
+"causal-connection" and "psychological necessity," manifests something
+of compulsion, indigence, obsequiousness, oppression, and non-freedom;
+it is suspicious to have such feelings--the person betrays himself. And
+in general, if I have observed correctly, the "non-freedom of the will"
+is regarded as a problem from two entirely opposite standpoints, but
+always in a profoundly PERSONAL manner: some will not give up their
+"responsibility," their belief in THEMSELVES, the personal right to
+THEIR merits, at any price (the vain races belong to this class); others
+on the contrary, do not wish to be answerable for anything, or blamed
+for anything, and owing to an inward self-contempt, seek to GET OUT OF
+THE BUSINESS, no matter how. The latter, when they write books, are
+in the habit at present of taking the side of criminals; a sort of
+socialistic sympathy is their favourite disguise. And as a matter of
+fact, the fatalism of the weak-willed embellishes itself surprisingly
+when it can pose as "la religion de la souffrance humaine"; that is ITS
+"good taste."
+Such judgments must be believed for the preservation of creatures like us, though they may be false. This *VIRTUS DORMITIVA* served as an antidote to materialism for noble idlers, mystics, and reactionaries across Europe—it put the senses to sleep.
+. Let me be pardoned, as an old philologist who cannot desist from
+the mischief of putting his finger on bad modes of interpretation, but
+"Nature's conformity to law," of which you physicists talk so proudly,
+as though--why, it exists only owing to your interpretation and bad
+"philology." It is no matter of fact, no "text," but rather just a
+naively humanitarian adjustment and perversion of meaning, with which
+you make abundant concessions to the democratic instincts of the modern
+soul! "Everywhere equality before the law--Nature is not different in
+that respect, nor better than we": a fine instance of secret motive,
+in which the vulgar antagonism to everything privileged and
+autocratic--likewise a second and more refined atheism--is once more
+disguised. "Ni dieu, ni maitre"--that, also, is what you want; and
+therefore "Cheers for natural law!"--is it not so? But, as has been
+said, that is interpretation, not text; and somebody might come along,
+who, with opposite intentions and modes of interpretation, could read
+out of the same "Nature," and with regard to the same phenomena, just
+the tyrannically inconsiderate and relentless enforcement of the claims
+of power--an interpreter who should so place the unexceptionalness and
+unconditionalness of all "Will to Power" before your eyes, that almost
+every word, and the word "tyranny" itself, would eventually seem
+unsuitable, or like a weakening and softening metaphor--as being too
+human; and who should, nevertheless, end by asserting the same about
+this world as you do, namely, that it has a "necessary" and "calculable"
+course, NOT, however, because laws obtain in it, but because they are
+absolutely LACKING, and every power effects its ultimate consequences
+every moment. Granted that this also is only interpretation--and you
+will be eager enough to make this objection?--well, so much the better.
+**12\.** Materialist atomism is thoroughly refuted, thanks to Boscovich, who taught us to renounce belief in "substance" and "matter." We must also kill the more ominous atomism Christianity taught: SOUL-ATOMISM, the belief in an indestructible, eternal soul-monad. This should be expelled from science.
+. All psychology hitherto has run aground on moral prejudices and
+timidities, it has not dared to launch out into the depths. In so far
+as it is allowable to recognize in that which has hitherto been written,
+evidence of that which has hitherto been kept silent, it seems as if
+nobody had yet harboured the notion of psychology as the Morphology
+and DEVELOPMENT-DOCTRINE OF THE WILL TO POWER, as I conceive of it.
+The power of moral prejudices has penetrated deeply into the most
+intellectual world, the world apparently most indifferent and
+unprejudiced, and has obviously operated in an injurious, obstructive,
+blinding, and distorting manner. A proper physio-psychology has to
+contend with unconscious antagonism in the heart of the investigator,
+it has "the heart" against it even a doctrine of the reciprocal
+conditionalness of the "good" and the "bad" impulses, causes (as
+refined immorality) distress and aversion in a still strong and manly
+conscience--still more so, a doctrine of the derivation of all good
+impulses from bad ones. If, however, a person should regard even
+the emotions of hatred, envy, covetousness, and imperiousness
+as life-conditioning emotions, as factors which must be present,
+fundamentally and essentially, in the general economy of life (which
+must, therefore, be further developed if life is to be further
+developed), he will suffer from such a view of things as from
+sea-sickness. And yet this hypothesis is far from being the strangest
+and most painful in this immense and almost new domain of dangerous
+knowledge, and there are in fact a hundred good reasons why every one
+should keep away from it who CAN do so! On the other hand, if one has
+once drifted hither with one's bark, well! very good! now let us set our
+teeth firmly! let us open our eyes and keep our hand fast on the helm!
+We sail away right OVER morality, we crush out, we destroy perhaps the
+remains of our own morality by daring to make our voyage thither--but
+what do WE matter. Never yet did a PROFOUNDER world of insight reveal
+itself to daring travelers and adventurers, and the psychologist who
+thus "makes a sacrifice"--it is not the sacrifizio dell' intelletto,
+on the contrary!--will at least be entitled to demand in return that
+psychology shall once more be recognized as the queen of the sciences,
+for whose service and equipment the other sciences exist. For psychology
+is once more the path to the fundamental problems.
+But we needn't abandon the soul hypothesis entirely. New concepts—'mortal soul,' 'soul as subjective multiplicity,' and 'soul as a social structure of the instincts and passions'—must now be granted legitimate rights in science. The new psychologist must INVENT and perhaps DISCOVER.
+**13\.**
+> **Quote:** "A living thing seeks above all to DISCHARGE its strength—life itself is WILL TO POWER; self-preservation is only one of the indirect and most frequent RESULTS thereof."
+Beware of superfluous teleological principles like the instinct of self-preservation—we owe that to Spinoza's inconsistency.
+**14\.** Natural science is only a world-interpretation, not explanation. Yet its sensory basis makes it seem more. Materialism's charm works on an age with common tastes: what can be seen and felt is "explained."
+Plato's mode, by contrast, was aristocratic: resistance to sensory evidence. He threw pale, cold, conceptual networks over the 'mob of the senses,' as Plato called them, finding a higher triumph in remaining their master. Unlike today's "smallest possible effort" principle, Plato's imperative overcame the world.
+**15\.** Sense organs are not "phenomena" in idealism's sense—they could not be causes. If the external world is our organs' work, and our body is part of that world, then our organs are their own work: *REDUCTIO AD ABSURDUM*. The external world is NOT our organs' work.
+**16\.** Some believe in "immediate certainties" like "I think." But analyzing this yields bold assertions: that *I* think, that thinking is an activity requiring a cause, that an "ego" exists, that I know what thinking is. "I think" has no immediate certainty; it assumes comparison with other states and retrospective knowledge. It presents metaphysical questions about cause, ego, and thinking itself.
+**17\.**
+> **Quote:** "a thought comes when 'it' wishes, and not when 'I' wish"
+Saying the "I" conditions thinking is a perversion. *Something* thinks, but that this is the old "ego" is mere supposition. The "something" itself interprets. Grammar misleads: "Thinking is an activity; every activity requires an agent; therefore…" Someday we may abandon this "something," as atomism abandoned its material residue.
+**18\.** A theory's refutability attracts subtle minds. The hundred-times-refuted theory of "free will" persists for this reason alone.
+**19\.** Philosophers treat will as the best-known thing, yet it seems complicated, a unity only in name. In willing: sensations of away-from and toward, muscular sensations, commanding thought, and the emotion of command. "Freedom of will" is this feeling of superiority.
+> **Quote:** "L'EFFET C'EST MOI."
+We are simultaneously commander and commanded, deceiving ourselves through the "I." We believe will suffices for action; the appearance of necessity becomes a feeling. The willer enjoys triumph, adding pleasure from successful "under-wills"—our body's social structure of many souls. Willing is commanding and obeying within a social structure of instincts. Philosophy should include willing-as-such in ethics, as the study of life's power relations.
+**20\.** Philosophical ideas belong to a system, like continental animals, despite appearing randomly. An invisible spell drives philosophers through a definite scheme. Philosophizing is atavism—a remembering of an ancient household of the soul.
+Family resemblance across Indian, Greek, and German philosophy is no accident. Language's shared grammar unconsciously guides thought. Ural-Altaic speakers likely see the world differently. The spell of grammatical functions is the spell of physiological values and racial conditions—so much for Locke's superficiality about ideas' origin.
+**21\.**
+> **Quote:** "The CAUSA SUI is the best self-contradiction that has yet been conceived, it is a sort of logical violation and unnaturalness."
+The desire for ultimate responsibility is this *causa sui*—an attempt, with more than Munchausen daring, to pull oneself into existence by the hair out of the slough of nothingness. Discard both "free will" and "unfree will," that misuse of cause and effect. Cause and effect are concepts, not explanations. In reality, only strong and weak wills exist.
+Seeing compulsion in causality reveals a thinker's lack. "Unfreedom of will" is treated personally: some cling to responsibility (vain races); others, despising themselves, flee it, siding with criminals and disguising fatalism as "religion of suffering."
+**22\.** "Nature's conformity to law" is interpretation, not text—a human-centric distortion. It reflects democratic hostility to privilege, a refined atheism: "neither god nor master."
+Another interpreter might read the same phenomena as pure Will to Power, where law is absent and power acts absolutely. Both are interpretation.
+**23\.** Psychology has been stalled by moral prejudices. It dares not venture into depths. A genuine physio-psychology must be morphology and DEVELOPMENTAL THEORY OF THE WILL TO POWER. Considering hatred, envy, greed as life-conditioning emotions makes one seasick. Yet this is far from the strangest truth in this dangerous territory. The psychologist who thus 'makes a sacrifice'—it is not the > **Quote:** "sacrifizio dell' intelletto" , on the contrary!—will at least be entitled to demand that
+> **Quote:** "Psychology shall once more be recognized as the queen of the sciences, for whose service and equipment the other sciences exist."
+For psychology is once again the path to fundamental problems.
 ## CHAPTER II. THE FREE SPIRIT
+**24\.** Oh, holy simplicity! How we have made everything clear, free, easy, simple—giving our senses free passage to the superficial, our thoughts a godlike desire for wanton pranks and wrong inferences. We have maintained our ignorance from the start, to enjoy freedom, recklessness, heartiness, joy—to enjoy life! Only on this granite foundation of ignorance could knowledge arise; the will to knowledge rests on a more powerful will: the will to ignorance, the uncertain, the untrue!
+. O sancta simplicitas! In what strange simplification and
+falsification man lives! One can never cease wondering when once one has
+got eyes for beholding this marvel! How we have made everything around
+us clear and free and easy and simple! how we have been able to give
+our senses a passport to everything superficial, our thoughts a godlike
+desire for wanton pranks and wrong inferences!--how from the beginning,
+we have contrived to retain our ignorance in order to enjoy an almost
+inconceivable freedom, thoughtlessness, imprudence, heartiness,
+and gaiety--in order to enjoy life! And only on this solidified,
+granite-like foundation of ignorance could knowledge rear itself
+hitherto, the will to knowledge on the foundation of a far more powerful
+will, the will to ignorance, to the uncertain, to the untrue! Not as
+its opposite, but--as its refinement! It is to be hoped, indeed, that
+LANGUAGE, here as elsewhere, will not get over its awkwardness, and that
+it will continue to talk of opposites where there are only degrees
+and many refinements of gradation; it is equally to be hoped that the
+incarnated Tartuffery of morals, which now belongs to our unconquerable
+"flesh and blood," will turn the words round in the mouths of us
+discerning ones. Here and there we understand it, and laugh at the way
+in which precisely the best knowledge seeks most to retain us in this
+SIMPLIFIED, thoroughly artificial, suitably imagined, and suitably
+falsified world: at the way in which, whether it will or not, it loves
+error, because, as living itself, it loves life!
+> **Quote:** "Not as its opposite, but—as its refinement!"
+. After such a cheerful commencement, a serious word would fain be
+heard; it appeals to the most serious minds. Take care, ye philosophers
+and friends of knowledge, and beware of martyrdom! Of suffering "for the
+truth's sake"! even in your own defense! It spoils all the innocence
+and fine neutrality of your conscience; it makes you headstrong against
+objections and red rags; it stupefies, animalizes, and brutalizes, when
+in the struggle with danger, slander, suspicion, expulsion, and even
+worse consequences of enmity, ye have at last to play your last card
+as protectors of truth upon earth--as though "the Truth" were such an
+innocent and incompetent creature as to require protectors! and you of
+all people, ye knights of the sorrowful countenance, Messrs Loafers and
+Cobweb-spinners of the spirit! Finally, ye know sufficiently well that
+it cannot be of any consequence if YE just carry your point; ye know
+that hitherto no philosopher has carried his point, and that there might
+be a more laudable truthfulness in every little interrogative mark
+which you place after your special words and favourite doctrines (and
+occasionally after yourselves) than in all the solemn pantomime and
+trumping games before accusers and law-courts! Rather go out of the way!
+Flee into concealment! And have your masks and your ruses, that ye may
+be mistaken for what you are, or somewhat feared! And pray, don't forget
+the garden, the garden with golden trellis-work! And have people around
+you who are as a garden--or as music on the waters at eventide, when
+already the day becomes a memory. Choose the GOOD solitude, the free,
+wanton, lightsome solitude, which also gives you the right still to
+remain good in any sense whatsoever! How poisonous, how crafty, how bad,
+does every long war make one, which cannot be waged openly by means
+of force! How PERSONAL does a long fear make one, a long watching
+of enemies, of possible enemies! These pariahs of society, these
+long-pursued, badly-persecuted ones--also the compulsory recluses, the
+Spinozas or Giordano Brunos--always become in the end, even under the
+most intellectual masquerade, and perhaps without being themselves aware
+of it, refined vengeance-seekers and poison-Brewers (just lay bare
+the foundation of Spinoza's ethics and theology!), not to speak of
+the stupidity of moral indignation, which is the unfailing sign in a
+philosopher that the sense of philosophical humour has left him. The
+martyrdom of the philosopher, his "sacrifice for the sake of truth,"
+forces into the light whatever of the agitator and actor lurks in him;
+and if one has hitherto contemplated him only with artistic curiosity,
+with regard to many a philosopher it is easy to understand the dangerous
+desire to see him also in his deterioration (deteriorated into a
+"martyr," into a stage-and-tribune-bawler). Only, that it is necessary
+with such a desire to be clear WHAT spectacle one will see in any
+case--merely a satyric play, merely an epilogue farce, merely the
+continued proof that the long, real tragedy IS AT AN END, supposing that
+every philosophy has been a long tragedy in its origin.
+We can only hope language keeps its clumsiness, speaking of opposites where there are only degrees. Even the best knowledge loves error because, as a living thing, it loves life.
+. Every select man strives instinctively for a citadel and a privacy,
+where he is FREE from the crowd, the many, the majority--where he may
+forget "men who are the rule," as their exception;--exclusive only of
+the case in which he is pushed straight to such men by a still stronger
+instinct, as a discerner in the great and exceptional sense. Whoever, in
+intercourse with men, does not occasionally glisten in all the green
+and grey colours of distress, owing to disgust, satiety, sympathy,
+gloominess, and solitariness, is assuredly not a man of elevated tastes;
+supposing, however, that he does not voluntarily take all this burden
+and disgust upon himself, that he persistently avoids it, and remains,
+as I said, quietly and proudly hidden in his citadel, one thing is then
+certain: he was not made, he was not predestined for knowledge. For as
+such, he would one day have to say to himself: "The devil take my good
+taste! but 'the rule' is more interesting than the exception--than
+myself, the exception!" And he would go DOWN, and above all, he would
+go "inside." The long and serious study of the AVERAGE man--and
+consequently much disguise, self-overcoming, familiarity, and bad
+intercourse (all intercourse is bad intercourse except with one's
+equals):--that constitutes a necessary part of the life-history of every
+philosopher; perhaps the most disagreeable, odious, and disappointing
+part. If he is fortunate, however, as a favourite child of knowledge
+should be, he will meet with suitable auxiliaries who will shorten and
+lighten his task; I mean so-called cynics, those who simply recognize
+the animal, the commonplace and "the rule" in themselves, and at the
+same time have so much spirituality and ticklishness as to make them
+talk of themselves and their like BEFORE WITNESSES--sometimes they
+wallow, even in books, as on their own dung-hill. Cynicism is the only
+form in which base souls approach what is called honesty; and the
+higher man must open his ears to all the coarser or finer cynicism, and
+congratulate himself when the clown becomes shameless right before
+him, or the scientific satyr speaks out. There are even cases where
+enchantment mixes with the disgust--namely, where by a freak of nature,
+genius is bound to some such indiscreet billy-goat and ape, as in the
+case of the Abbe Galiani, the profoundest, acutest, and perhaps also
+filthiest man of his century--he was far profounder than Voltaire, and
+consequently also, a good deal more silent. It happens more frequently,
+as has been hinted, that a scientific head is placed on an ape's body, a
+fine exceptional understanding in a base soul, an occurrence by no means
+rare, especially among doctors and moral physiologists. And whenever
+anyone speaks without bitterness, or rather quite innocently, of man
+as a belly with two requirements, and a head with one; whenever any one
+sees, seeks, and WANTS to see only hunger, sexual instinct, and vanity
+as the real and only motives of human actions; in short, when any one
+speaks "badly"--and not even "ill"--of man, then ought the lover of
+knowledge to hearken attentively and diligently; he ought, in general,
+to have an open ear wherever there is talk without indignation. For the
+indignant man, and he who perpetually tears and lacerates himself with
+his own teeth (or, in place of himself, the world, God, or society),
+may indeed, morally speaking, stand higher than the laughing and
+self-satisfied satyr, but in every other sense he is the more ordinary,
+more indifferent, and less instructive case. And no one is such a LIAR
+as the indignant man.
+**25\.** After such a cheerful start, a serious word for the most serious minds: Take care, you philosophers, beware martyrdom! Suffering "for truth" ruins the innocence of your conscience, makes you stubborn, dull, brutal. No philosopher has ever been proven completely right; your own question marks contain more truthfulness than solemn posturing. > **Quote:** ...as though 'the Truth' were such an innocent and incompetent creature as to require protectors! and you of all people, ye knights of the sorrowful countenance...  Rather, flee into hiding! Have your masks and tricks. Choose the *good* solitude—free, playful, lighthearted. How poisonous long war makes a person when it cannot be fought openly! These long-persecuted outcasts—Spinoza, Giordano Bruno—always become, even unawares, refined seekers of vengeance and brewers of poison (look at Spinoza's foundations!). The martyrdom of the philosopher drags the actor within him into the light. With artistic curiosity, one understands the dangerous desire to see him declined into a stage-martyr—a satirical epilogue proving the real tragedy has ended.
+. It is difficult to be understood, especially when one thinks and
+lives gangasrotogati [Footnote: Like the river Ganges: presto.] among
+those only who think and live otherwise--namely, kurmagati [Footnote:
+Like the tortoise: lento.], or at best "froglike," mandeikagati
+[Footnote: Like the frog: staccato.] (I do everything to be "difficultly
+understood" myself!)--and one should be heartily grateful for the
+good will to some refinement of interpretation. As regards "the good
+friends," however, who are always too easy-going, and think that as
+friends they have a right to ease, one does well at the very first to
+grant them a play-ground and romping-place for misunderstanding--one can
+thus laugh still; or get rid of them altogether, these good friends--and
+laugh then also!
+**26\.** Every exceptional person instinctively seeks sanctuary from the crowd—unless driven by the stronger instinct of the supreme observer. Anyone who doesn't occasionally turn green and gray with disgust at humanity lacks refined taste. But if he avoids this burden, hiding proudly in his sanctuary, he is not made for knowledge. For the seeker of knowledge must one day say: "To hell with my good taste! The average man is more interesting than I, the exception!" And go *down*, and *inside*. The long study of the *average* man—much disguise, self-mastery, unpleasant company—this is the most hateful part of a philosopher's life story. Lucky ones find allies: the cynics, who recognize the animal in themselves and have enough intellect to speak *before witnesses* of their kind.
+. What is most difficult to render from one language into another
+is the TEMPO of its style, which has its basis in the character of the
+race, or to speak more physiologically, in the average TEMPO of the
+assimilation of its nutriment. There are honestly meant translations,
+which, as involuntary vulgarizations, are almost falsifications of the
+original, merely because its lively and merry TEMPO (which overleaps and
+obviates all dangers in word and expression) could not also be
+rendered. A German is almost incapacitated for PRESTO in his language;
+consequently also, as may be reasonably inferred, for many of the most
+delightful and daring NUANCES of free, free-spirited thought. And just
+as the buffoon and satyr are foreign to him in body and conscience,
+so Aristophanes and Petronius are untranslatable for him. Everything
+ponderous, viscous, and pompously clumsy, all long-winded and wearying
+species of style, are developed in profuse variety among Germans--pardon
+me for stating the fact that even Goethe's prose, in its mixture of
+stiffness and elegance, is no exception, as a reflection of the "good
+old time" to which it belongs, and as an expression of German taste at a
+time when there was still a "German taste," which was a rococo-taste
+in moribus et artibus. Lessing is an exception, owing to his histrionic
+nature, which understood much, and was versed in many things; he who was
+not the translator of Bayle to no purpose, who took refuge willingly in
+the shadow of Diderot and Voltaire, and still more willingly among the
+Roman comedy-writers--Lessing loved also free-spiritism in the TEMPO,
+and flight out of Germany. But how could the German language, even
+in the prose of Lessing, imitate the TEMPO of Machiavelli, who in his
+"Principe" makes us breathe the dry, fine air of Florence, and cannot
+help presenting the most serious events in a boisterous allegrissimo,
+perhaps not without a malicious artistic sense of the contrast he
+ventures to present--long, heavy, difficult, dangerous thoughts, and
+a TEMPO of the gallop, and of the best, wantonest humour? Finally, who
+would venture on a German translation of Petronius, who, more than any
+great musician hitherto, was a master of PRESTO in invention, ideas, and
+words? What matter in the end about the swamps of the sick, evil world,
+or of the "ancient world," when like him, one has the feet of a wind,
+the rush, the breath, the emancipating scorn of a wind, which makes
+everything healthy, by making everything RUN! And with regard to
+Aristophanes--that transfiguring, complementary genius, for whose
+sake one PARDONS all Hellenism for having existed, provided one has
+understood in its full profundity ALL that there requires pardon and
+transfiguration; there is nothing that has caused me to meditate more on
+PLATO'S secrecy and sphinx-like nature, than the happily preserved petit
+fait that under the pillow of his death-bed there was found no
+"Bible," nor anything Egyptian, Pythagorean, or Platonic--but a book of
+Aristophanes. How could even Plato have endured life--a Greek life which
+he repudiated--without an Aristophanes!
+> **Quote:** "Cynicism is the only form in which base souls approach what is called honesty"
+. It is the business of the very few to be independent; it is a
+privilege of the strong. And whoever attempts it, even with the best
+right, but without being OBLIGED to do so, proves that he is probably
+not only strong, but also daring beyond measure. He enters into a
+labyrinth, he multiplies a thousandfold the dangers which life in itself
+already brings with it; not the least of which is that no one can see
+how and where he loses his way, becomes isolated, and is torn piecemeal
+by some minotaur of conscience. Supposing such a one comes to grief, it
+is so far from the comprehension of men that they neither feel it, nor
+sympathize with it. And he cannot any longer go back! He cannot even go
+back again to the sympathy of men!
+The higher man must listen to every cynicism, even when fascination mixes with disgust—as with Abbé Galiani, the most profound, sharpest, filthiest man of his century, deeper and more silent than Voltaire. When someone speaks without indignation of man as a belly with two requirements, and a head with one, seeing only hunger, sex, vanity as motives—when anyone speaks "badly" of man—the lover of knowledge should listen. The indignant man may stand higher morally, but he is more ordinary, less instructive.
+. Our deepest insights must--and should--appear as follies, and under
+certain circumstances as crimes, when they come unauthorizedly to
+the ears of those who are not disposed and predestined for them. The
+exoteric and the esoteric, as they were formerly distinguished by
+philosophers--among the Indians, as among the Greeks, Persians, and
+Mussulmans, in short, wherever people believed in gradations of rank and
+NOT in equality and equal rights--are not so much in contradistinction
+to one another in respect to the exoteric class, standing without, and
+viewing, estimating, measuring, and judging from the outside, and not
+from the inside; the more essential distinction is that the class in
+question views things from below upwards--while the esoteric class views
+things FROM ABOVE DOWNWARDS. There are heights of the soul from which
+tragedy itself no longer appears to operate tragically; and if all the
+woe in the world were taken together, who would dare to decide whether
+the sight of it would NECESSARILY seduce and constrain to sympathy, and
+thus to a doubling of the woe?... That which serves the higher class of
+men for nourishment or refreshment, must be almost poison to an entirely
+different and lower order of human beings. The virtues of the common
+man would perhaps mean vice and weakness in a philosopher; it might be
+possible for a highly developed man, supposing him to degenerate and go
+to ruin, to acquire qualities thereby alone, for the sake of which he
+would have to be honoured as a saint in the lower world into which he
+had sunk. There are books which have an inverse value for the soul and
+the health according as the inferior soul and the lower vitality, or the
+higher and more powerful, make use of them. In the former case they are
+dangerous, disturbing, unsettling books, in the latter case they are
+herald-calls which summon the bravest to THEIR bravery. Books for the
+general reader are always ill-smelling books, the odour of paltry people
+clings to them. Where the populace eat and drink, and even where they
+reverence, it is accustomed to stink. One should not go into churches if
+one wishes to breathe PURE air.
+> **Quote:** "And no one is such a LIAR as the indignant man."
+. In our youthful years we still venerate and despise without the art
+of NUANCE, which is the best gain of life, and we have rightly to do
+hard penance for having fallen upon men and things with Yea and Nay.
+Everything is so arranged that the worst of all tastes, THE TASTE FOR
+THE UNCONDITIONAL, is cruelly befooled and abused, until a man learns
+to introduce a little art into his sentiments, and prefers to try
+conclusions with the artificial, as do the real artists of life. The
+angry and reverent spirit peculiar to youth appears to allow itself no
+peace, until it has suitably falsified men and things, to be able
+to vent its passion upon them: youth in itself even, is something
+falsifying and deceptive. Later on, when the young soul, tortured by
+continual disillusions, finally turns suspiciously against itself--still
+ardent and savage even in its suspicion and remorse of conscience: how
+it upbraids itself, how impatiently it tears itself, how it revenges
+itself for its long self-blinding, as though it had been a voluntary
+blindness! In this transition one punishes oneself by distrust of one's
+sentiments; one tortures one's enthusiasm with doubt, one feels even the
+good conscience to be a danger, as if it were the self-concealment and
+lassitude of a more refined uprightness; and above all, one espouses
+upon principle the cause AGAINST "youth."--A decade later, and one
+comprehends that all this was also still--youth!
+**27\.** It is difficult to be understood when thinking at a fast pace among tortoises. One should be grateful for refined interpreters. As for "good friends" who are too lazy, provide them a playground for misunderstanding from the start—then laugh, or be rid of them.
+. Throughout the longest period of human history--one calls it the
+prehistoric period--the value or non-value of an action was inferred
+from its CONSEQUENCES; the action in itself was not taken into
+consideration, any more than its origin; but pretty much as in China at
+present, where the distinction or disgrace of a child redounds to
+its parents, the retro-operating power of success or failure was what
+induced men to think well or ill of an action. Let us call this period
+the PRE-MORAL period of mankind; the imperative, "Know thyself!" was
+then still unknown.--In the last ten thousand years, on the other hand,
+on certain large portions of the earth, one has gradually got so far,
+that one no longer lets the consequences of an action, but its origin,
+decide with regard to its worth: a great achievement as a whole, an
+important refinement of vision and of criterion, the unconscious effect
+of the supremacy of aristocratic values and of the belief in "origin,"
+the mark of a period which may be designated in the narrower sense as
+the MORAL one: the first attempt at self-knowledge is thereby
+made. Instead of the consequences, the origin--what an inversion
+of perspective! And assuredly an inversion effected only after long
+struggle and wavering! To be sure, an ominous new superstition, a
+peculiar narrowness of interpretation, attained supremacy precisely
+thereby: the origin of an action was interpreted in the most definite
+sense possible, as origin out of an INTENTION; people were agreed in the
+belief that the value of an action lay in the value of its intention.
+The intention as the sole origin and antecedent history of an action:
+under the influence of this prejudice moral praise and blame have been
+bestowed, and men have judged and even philosophized almost up to the
+present day.--Is it not possible, however, that the necessity may now
+have arisen of again making up our minds with regard to the reversing
+and fundamental shifting of values, owing to a new self-consciousness
+and acuteness in man--is it not possible that we may be standing on
+the threshold of a period which to begin with, would be distinguished
+negatively as ULTRA-MORAL: nowadays when, at least among us immoralists,
+the suspicion arises that the decisive value of an action lies precisely
+in that which is NOT INTENTIONAL, and that all its intentionalness, all
+that is seen, sensible, or "sensed" in it, belongs to its surface or
+skin--which, like every skin, betrays something, but CONCEALS still
+more? In short, we believe that the intention is only a sign or symptom,
+which first requires an explanation--a sign, moreover, which has too
+many interpretations, and consequently hardly any meaning in itself
+alone: that morality, in the sense in which it has been understood
+hitherto, as intention-morality, has been a prejudice, perhaps a
+prematureness or preliminariness, probably something of the same rank
+as astrology and alchemy, but in any case something which must be
+surmounted. The surmounting of morality, in a certain sense even the
+self-mounting of morality--let that be the name for the long-secret
+labour which has been reserved for the most refined, the most upright,
+and also the most wicked consciences of today, as the living touchstones
+of the soul.
+**28\.** What is hardest to translate is the *tempo* of a style, rooted in a race's metabolism. Well-meaning translations vulgarize when they cannot capture a lively *tempo*. A German is almost incapable of *presto*; consequently he lacks many nuances of free-spirited thought. The buffoon and satyr are foreign to him in body and conscience—so Aristophanes and Petronius are untranslatable. Everything heavy, sticky, pompously clumsy develops among Germans. Even Goethe's prose, with its stiff elegance, reflects a rococo German taste. Lessing is the exception, with his theatrical nature—he loved free-spirited *tempo* and fled Germany. But how could German capture Machiavelli's *allegrissimo* in *The Prince*, where serious events race along boisterously? Finally, who would dare translate Petronius, master of *presto*? > **Quote:** What matter in the end about the swamps of the sick, evil world... when like him, one has the feet of a wind, the rush, the breath, the emancipating scorn of a wind, which makes everything healthy, by making everything RUN!  Or Aristophanes, that transfiguring genius for whose sake we pardon Greek culture? Nothing reveals Plato's sphinx nature more than this:
+. It cannot be helped: the sentiment of surrender, of sacrifice for
+one's neighbour, and all self-renunciation-morality, must be mercilessly
+called to account, and brought to judgment; just as the aesthetics
+of "disinterested contemplation," under which the emasculation of art
+nowadays seeks insidiously enough to create itself a good conscience.
+There is far too much witchery and sugar in the sentiments "for others"
+and "NOT for myself," for one not needing to be doubly distrustful here,
+and for one asking promptly: "Are they not perhaps--DECEPTIONS?"--That
+they PLEASE--him who has them, and him who enjoys their fruit, and also
+the mere spectator--that is still no argument in their FAVOUR, but just
+calls for caution. Let us therefore be cautious!
+> **Quote:** "under the pillow of his death-bed there was found no 'Bible,' nor anything Egyptian, Pythagorean, or Platonic—but a book of Aristophanes."
+. At whatever standpoint of philosophy one may place oneself nowadays,
+seen from every position, the ERRONEOUSNESS of the world in which we
+think we live is the surest and most certain thing our eyes can light
+upon: we find proof after proof thereof, which would fain allure us into
+surmises concerning a deceptive principle in the "nature of things."
+He, however, who makes thinking itself, and consequently "the spirit,"
+responsible for the falseness of the world--an honourable exit, which
+every conscious or unconscious advocatus dei avails himself of--he
+who regards this world, including space, time, form, and movement, as
+falsely DEDUCED, would have at least good reason in the end to become
+distrustful also of all thinking; has it not hitherto been playing upon
+us the worst of scurvy tricks? and what guarantee would it give that
+it would not continue to do what it has always been doing? In all
+seriousness, the innocence of thinkers has something touching and
+respect-inspiring in it, which even nowadays permits them to wait upon
+consciousness with the request that it will give them HONEST answers:
+for example, whether it be "real" or not, and why it keeps the outer
+world so resolutely at a distance, and other questions of the same
+description. The belief in "immediate certainties" is a MORAL NAIVETE
+which does honour to us philosophers; but--we have now to cease being
+"MERELY moral" men! Apart from morality, such belief is a folly which
+does little honour to us! If in middle-class life an ever-ready distrust
+is regarded as the sign of a "bad character," and consequently as an
+imprudence, here among us, beyond the middle-class world and its Yeas
+and Nays, what should prevent our being imprudent and saying: the
+philosopher has at length a RIGHT to "bad character," as the being who
+has hitherto been most befooled on earth--he is now under OBLIGATION
+to distrustfulness, to the wickedest squinting out of every abyss of
+suspicion.--Forgive me the joke of this gloomy grimace and turn of
+expression; for I myself have long ago learned to think and estimate
+differently with regard to deceiving and being deceived, and I keep at
+least a couple of pokes in the ribs ready for the blind rage with which
+philosophers struggle against being deceived. Why NOT? It is nothing
+more than a moral prejudice that truth is worth more than semblance; it
+is, in fact, the worst proved supposition in the world. So much must be
+conceded: there could have been no life at all except upon the basis
+of perspective estimates and semblances; and if, with the virtuous
+enthusiasm and stupidity of many philosophers, one wished to do away
+altogether with the "seeming world"--well, granted that YOU could do
+that,--at least nothing of your "truth" would thereby remain! Indeed,
+what is it that forces us in general to the supposition that there is an
+essential opposition of "true" and "false"? Is it not enough to suppose
+degrees of seemingness, and as it were lighter and darker shades and
+tones of semblance--different valeurs, as the painters say? Why might
+not the world WHICH CONCERNS US--be a fiction? And to any one who
+suggested: "But to a fiction belongs an originator?"--might it not be
+bluntly replied: WHY? May not this "belong" also belong to the fiction?
+Is it not at length permitted to be a little ironical towards the
+subject, just as towards the predicate and object? Might not the
+philosopher elevate himself above faith in grammar? All respect
+to governesses, but is it not time that philosophy should renounce
+governess-faith?
+How could Plato have endured Greek life without Aristophanes!
+. O Voltaire! O humanity! O idiocy! There is something ticklish in
+"the truth," and in the SEARCH for the truth; and if man goes about it
+too humanely--"il ne cherche le vrai que pour faire le bien"--I wager he
+finds nothing!
+**29\.**
+. Supposing that nothing else is "given" as real but our world of
+desires and passions, that we cannot sink or rise to any other "reality"
+but just that of our impulses--for thinking is only a relation of these
+impulses to one another:--are we not permitted to make the attempt and
+to ask the question whether this which is "given" does not SUFFICE, by
+means of our counterparts, for the understanding even of the so-called
+mechanical (or "material") world? I do not mean as an illusion, a
+"semblance," a "representation" (in the Berkeleyan and Schopenhauerian
+sense), but as possessing the same degree of reality as our emotions
+themselves--as a more primitive form of the world of emotions, in
+which everything still lies locked in a mighty unity, which afterwards
+branches off and develops itself in organic processes (naturally also,
+refines and debilitates)--as a kind of instinctive life in which all
+organic functions, including self-regulation, assimilation, nutrition,
+secretion, and change of matter, are still synthetically united with
+one another--as a PRIMARY FORM of life?--In the end, it is not only
+permitted to make this attempt, it is commanded by the conscience of
+LOGICAL METHOD. Not to assume several kinds of causality, so long as
+the attempt to get along with a single one has not been pushed to its
+furthest extent (to absurdity, if I may be allowed to say so): that is
+a morality of method which one may not repudiate nowadays--it follows
+"from its definition," as mathematicians say. The question is ultimately
+whether we really recognize the will as OPERATING, whether we believe in
+the causality of the will; if we do so--and fundamentally our belief IN
+THIS is just our belief in causality itself--we MUST make the attempt
+to posit hypothetically the causality of the will as the only causality.
+"Will" can naturally only operate on "will"--and not on "matter" (not
+on "nerves," for instance): in short, the hypothesis must be
+hazarded, whether will does not operate on will wherever "effects"
+are recognized--and whether all mechanical action, inasmuch as a power
+operates therein, is not just the power of will, the effect of will.
+Granted, finally, that we succeeded in explaining our entire instinctive
+life as the development and ramification of one fundamental form of
+will--namely, the Will to Power, as my thesis puts it; granted that all
+organic functions could be traced back to this Will to Power, and that
+the solution of the problem of generation and nutrition--it is one
+problem--could also be found therein: one would thus have acquired the
+right to define ALL active force unequivocally as WILL TO POWER. The
+world seen from within, the world defined and designated according to
+its "intelligible character"--it would simply be "Will to Power," and
+nothing else.
+> **Quote:** "It is the business of the very few to be independent; it is a privilege of the strong."
+. "What? Does not that mean in popular language: God is disproved, but
+not the devil?"--On the contrary! On the contrary, my friends! And who
+the devil also compels you to speak popularly!
+Whoever attempts it without being obliged proves himself daring beyond measure. He enters a labyrinth, multiplying life's dangers—no one can see where he loses his way, becomes isolated, is torn by some minotaur of conscience. If he comes to grief, it is beyond others' understanding. He can no longer go back!
+. As happened finally in all the enlightenment of modern times with
+the French Revolution (that terrible farce, quite superfluous when
+judged close at hand, into which, however, the noble and visionary
+spectators of all Europe have interpreted from a distance their own
+indignation and enthusiasm so long and passionately, UNTIL THE TEXT HAS
+DISAPPEARED UNDER THE INTERPRETATION), so a noble posterity might once
+more misunderstand the whole of the past, and perhaps only thereby make
+ITS aspect endurable.--Or rather, has not this already happened? Have
+not we ourselves been--that "noble posterity"? And, in so far as we now
+comprehend this, is it not--thereby already past?
+**30\.** Our deepest insights must appear as follies, even crimes, to those unsuited for them. The distinction between "exoteric" and "esoteric" is not that one stands outside, but that exoteric views from below while esoteric views *from above*. From certain heights, tragedy itself seems no longer tragic. The virtues of the common man might count as vice in a philosopher; a ruined high man might be honored as a saint below. Books have opposite value depending on the soul that uses them—dangerous to the lower, herald-calls to the higher.
+. Nobody will very readily regard a doctrine as true merely because
+it makes people happy or virtuous--excepting, perhaps, the amiable
+"Idealists," who are enthusiastic about the good, true, and beautiful,
+and let all kinds of motley, coarse, and good-natured desirabilities
+swim about promiscuously in their pond. Happiness and virtue are no
+arguments. It is willingly forgotten, however, even on the part of
+thoughtful minds, that to make unhappy and to make bad are just as
+little counter-arguments. A thing could be TRUE, although it were in
+the highest degree injurious and dangerous; indeed, the fundamental
+constitution of existence might be such that one succumbed by a full
+knowledge of it--so that the strength of a mind might be measured by
+the amount of "truth" it could endure--or to speak more plainly, by the
+extent to which it REQUIRED truth attenuated, veiled, sweetened, damped,
+and falsified. But there is no doubt that for the discovery of certain
+PORTIONS of truth the wicked and unfortunate are more favourably
+situated and have a greater likelihood of success; not to speak of the
+wicked who are happy--a species about whom moralists are silent. Perhaps
+severity and craft are more favourable conditions for the development of
+strong, independent spirits and philosophers than the gentle, refined,
+yielding good-nature, and habit of taking things easily, which are
+prized, and rightly prized in a learned man. Presupposing always,
+to begin with, that the term "philosopher" be not confined to the
+philosopher who writes books, or even introduces HIS philosophy into
+books!--Stendhal furnishes a last feature of the portrait of the
+free-spirited philosopher, which for the sake of German taste I will
+not omit to underline--for it is OPPOSED to German taste. "Pour etre
+bon philosophe," says this last great psychologist, "il faut etre sec,
+clair, sans illusion. Un banquier, qui a fait fortune, a une partie du
+caractere requis pour faire des decouvertes en philosophie, c'est-a-dire
+pour voir clair dans ce qui est."
+> **Quote:** "Books for the general reader are always ill-smelling books, the odour of paltry people clings to them."
+. Everything that is profound loves the mask: the profoundest things
+have a hatred even of figure and likeness. Should not the CONTRARY only
+be the right disguise for the shame of a God to go about in? A question
+worth asking!--it would be strange if some mystic has not already
+ventured on the same kind of thing. There are proceedings of such a
+delicate nature that it is well to overwhelm them with coarseness
+and make them unrecognizable; there are actions of love and of an
+extravagant magnanimity after which nothing can be wiser than to take
+a stick and thrash the witness soundly: one thereby obscures his
+recollection. Many a one is able to obscure and abuse his own memory, in
+order at least to have vengeance on this sole party in the secret:
+shame is inventive. They are not the worst things of which one is
+most ashamed: there is not only deceit behind a mask--there is so much
+goodness in craft. I could imagine that a man with something costly and
+fragile to conceal, would roll through life clumsily and rotundly like
+an old, green, heavily-hooped wine-cask: the refinement of his shame
+requiring it to be so. A man who has depths in his shame meets his
+destiny and his delicate decisions upon paths which few ever reach,
+and with regard to the existence of which his nearest and most intimate
+friends may be ignorant; his mortal danger conceals itself from their
+eyes, and equally so his regained security. Such a hidden nature,
+which instinctively employs speech for silence and concealment, and is
+inexhaustible in evasion of communication, DESIRES and insists that a
+mask of himself shall occupy his place in the hearts and heads of his
+friends; and supposing he does not desire it, his eyes will some day be
+opened to the fact that there is nevertheless a mask of him there--and
+that it is well to be so. Every profound spirit needs a mask; nay, more,
+around every profound spirit there continually grows a mask, owing to
+the constantly false, that is to say, SUPERFICIAL interpretation
+of every word he utters, every step he takes, every sign of life he
+manifests.
+Where the masses eat, drink, worship—there is stench.
+. One must subject oneself to one's own tests that one is destined
+for independence and command, and do so at the right time. One must not
+avoid one's tests, although they constitute perhaps the most dangerous
+game one can play, and are in the end tests made only before ourselves
+and before no other judge. Not to cleave to any person, be it even the
+dearest--every person is a prison and also a recess. Not to cleave to
+a fatherland, be it even the most suffering and necessitous--it is even
+less difficult to detach one's heart from a victorious fatherland. Not
+to cleave to a sympathy, be it even for higher men, into whose peculiar
+torture and helplessness chance has given us an insight. Not to cleave
+to a science, though it tempt one with the most valuable discoveries,
+apparently specially reserved for us. Not to cleave to one's own
+liberation, to the voluptuous distance and remoteness of the bird, which
+always flies further aloft in order always to see more under it--the
+danger of the flier. Not to cleave to our own virtues, nor become as
+a whole a victim to any of our specialties, to our "hospitality" for
+instance, which is the danger of dangers for highly developed
+and wealthy souls, who deal prodigally, almost indifferently with
+themselves, and push the virtue of liberality so far that it becomes
+a vice. One must know how TO CONSERVE ONESELF--the best test of
+independence.
+**31\.** In youth we worship and despise without nuance, and pay penance for our simple Yes and No. Youth distorts to vent its passion. Later, the tortured soul turns against itself, scolding its enthusiasm, seeing good conscience as a danger. One takes a stand *against* youth. A decade later, one realizes: this, too, was youth.
+. A new order of philosophers is appearing; I shall venture to baptize
+them by a name not without danger. As far as I understand them, as far
+as they allow themselves to be understood--for it is their nature to
+WISH to remain something of a puzzle--these philosophers of the
+future might rightly, perhaps also wrongly, claim to be designated as
+"tempters." This name itself is after all only an attempt, or, if it be
+preferred, a temptation.
+**32\.** Throughout prehistory, the value of an action was judged by its *consequences*—the *pre-moral* period. In the last ten thousand years, people reached the *moral* period: worth decided by origin, by intention. This was a great achievement, but also birthed the prejudice that intention is the sole origin of action. However, we immoralists suspect that the decisive value lies in what is *NOT INTENTIONAL*. Intention is only a sign requiring explanation—a sign with too many interpretations. Morality of intention is a prejudice, like astrology and alchemy, that must be overcome. The self-overcoming of morality is the labor reserved for the most refined consciences.
+. Will they be new friends of "truth," these coming philosophers? Very
+probably, for all philosophers hitherto have loved their truths. But
+assuredly they will not be dogmatists. It must be contrary to their
+pride, and also contrary to their taste, that their truth should still
+be truth for every one--that which has hitherto been the secret wish
+and ultimate purpose of all dogmatic efforts. "My opinion is MY opinion:
+another person has not easily a right to it"--such a philosopher of the
+future will say, perhaps. One must renounce the bad taste of wishing to
+agree with many people. "Good" is no longer good when one's neighbour
+takes it into his mouth. And how could there be a "common good"! The
+expression contradicts itself; that which can be common is always of
+small value. In the end things must be as they are and have always
+been--the great things remain for the great, the abysses for the
+profound, the delicacies and thrills for the refined, and, to sum up
+shortly, everything rare for the rare.
+**33\.** The sentiment of surrender, sacrifice for one's neighbor, the morality of self-renunciation—must be mercilessly judged. So must the aesthetics of "disinterested contemplation." There is too much sugar in "for others." Ask immediately: "Are these DECEPTIONS?" That they please is no argument in their favor.
+**34\.** The error of the world we think we live in is the most certain thing our eyes find. Anyone who makes thinking responsible for falseness, or who regards space, time, form as falsely deduced, should distrust all thinking—has it not played the shabbiest tricks? The innocence of thinkers is touching, their belief in "immediate certainties" a moral naivety. But here, beyond middle-class Yes and No, the philosopher has a RIGHT to "bad character." As the being most fooled on earth, he must cast wicked glances into every abyss of suspicion.
+. Need I say expressly after all this that they will be free, VERY
+free spirits, these philosophers of the future--as certainly also they
+will not be merely free spirits, but something more, higher, greater,
+and fundamentally different, which does not wish to be misunderstood and
+mistaken? But while I say this, I feel under OBLIGATION almost as much
+to them as to ourselves (we free spirits who are their heralds and
+forerunners), to sweep away from ourselves altogether a stupid old
+prejudice and misunderstanding, which, like a fog, has too long made the
+conception of "free spirit" obscure. In every country of Europe, and the
+same in America, there is at present something which makes an abuse of
+this name a very narrow, prepossessed, enchained class of spirits,
+who desire almost the opposite of what our intentions and instincts
+prompt--not to mention that in respect to the NEW philosophers who are
+appearing, they must still more be closed windows and bolted doors.
+Briefly and regrettably, they belong to the LEVELLERS, these wrongly
+named "free spirits"--as glib-tongued and scribe-fingered slaves of
+the democratic taste and its "modern ideas" all of them men without
+solitude, without personal solitude, blunt honest fellows to whom
+neither courage nor honourable conduct ought to be denied, only, they
+are not free, and are ludicrously superficial, especially in their
+innate partiality for seeing the cause of almost ALL human misery and
+failure in the old forms in which society has hitherto existed--a notion
+which happily inverts the truth entirely! What they would fain attain
+with all their strength, is the universal, green-meadow happiness of the
+herd, together with security, safety, comfort, and alleviation of life
+for every one, their two most frequently chanted songs and doctrines
+are called "Equality of Rights" and "Sympathy with All Sufferers"--and
+suffering itself is looked upon by them as something which must be
+DONE AWAY WITH. We opposite ones, however, who have opened our eye and
+conscience to the question how and where the plant "man" has hitherto
+grown most vigorously, believe that this has always taken place under
+the opposite conditions, that for this end the dangerousness of his
+situation had to be increased enormously, his inventive faculty and
+dissembling power (his "spirit") had to develop into subtlety and daring
+under long oppression and compulsion, and his Will to Life had to be
+increased to the unconditioned Will to Power--we believe that severity,
+violence, slavery, danger in the street and in the heart, secrecy,
+stoicism, tempter's art and devilry of every kind,--that everything
+wicked, terrible, tyrannical, predatory, and serpentine in man, serves
+as well for the elevation of the human species as its opposite--we do
+not even say enough when we only say THIS MUCH, and in any case we
+find ourselves here, both with our speech and our silence, at the OTHER
+extreme of all modern ideology and gregarious desirability, as their
+antipodes perhaps? What wonder that we "free spirits" are not exactly
+the most communicative spirits? that we do not wish to betray in every
+respect WHAT a spirit can free itself from, and WHERE perhaps it will
+then be driven? And as to the import of the dangerous formula, "Beyond
+Good and Evil," with which we at least avoid confusion, we ARE something
+else than "libres-penseurs," "liben pensatori" "free-thinkers,"
+and whatever these honest advocates of "modern ideas" like to call
+themselves. Having been at home, or at least guests, in many realms of
+the spirit, having escaped again and again from the gloomy, agreeable
+nooks in which preferences and prejudices, youth, origin, the accident
+of men and books, or even the weariness of travel seemed to confine us,
+full of malice against the seductions of dependency which he concealed
+in honours, money, positions, or exaltation of the senses, grateful even
+for distress and the vicissitudes of illness, because they always free
+us from some rule, and its "prejudice," grateful to the God, devil,
+sheep, and worm in us, inquisitive to a fault, investigators to the
+point of cruelty, with unhesitating fingers for the intangible, with
+teeth and stomachs for the most indigestible, ready for any business
+that requires sagacity and acute senses, ready for every adventure,
+owing to an excess of "free will", with anterior and posterior souls,
+into the ultimate intentions of which it is difficult to pry, with
+foregrounds and backgrounds to the end of which no foot may run, hidden
+ones under the mantles of light, appropriators, although we resemble
+heirs and spendthrifts, arrangers and collectors from morning till
+night, misers of our wealth and our full-crammed drawers, economical
+in learning and forgetting, inventive in scheming, sometimes proud of
+tables of categories, sometimes pedants, sometimes night-owls of
+work even in full day, yea, if necessary, even scarecrows--and it is
+necessary nowadays, that is to say, inasmuch as we are the born, sworn,
+jealous friends of SOLITUDE, of our own profoundest midnight and midday
+solitude--such kind of men are we, we free spirits! And perhaps ye are
+also something of the same kind, ye coming ones? ye NEW philosophers?
+> **Quote:** "It is nothing more than a moral prejudice that truth is worth more than semblance; it is, in fact, the worst proved supposition in the world."
+Life could not exist except on perspective and appearance. What forces us to assume opposition between "true" and "false"? Why not degrees of appearance? Why might the world not be a fiction? And must a fiction have an author? Might that requirement itself belong to the fiction? Is it not time philosophy renounced its faith in grammar—its governess-faith?
+**35\.** O Voltaire! O humanity! O idiocy! There is something delicate about truth-seeking; if one pursues it too humanely—"il ne cherche le vrai que pour faire le bien"—I wager he finds nothing!
+**36\.** Supposing nothing is "given" but our world of desires and passions, and thinking is only their relation—may we ask if this is SUFFICIENT for understanding the "material" world? Not as illusion, but as having the same reality as our emotions—a more primitive form in which all organic functions are synthetically united. If we recognize will as ACTIVE, we must attempt to set up will-causality as the only causality. "Will" acts only on "will"—not on "matter." If we succeed in explaining all instinctive life as development of one fundamental will—the Will to Power—and trace all organic functions to it, we have the right to define ALL active force as WILL TO POWER.
+> **Quote:** "The world seen from within, the world defined and designated according to its 'intelligible character'--it would simply be 'Will to Power,' and nothing else."
+**37\.** "What? Doesn't that mean God is disproved, but the devil is not?" On the contrary! On the contrary! And who forces you to speak popular language?
+**38\.** Just as the French Revolution—a farce close up, yet seen from afar by noble spectators who projected their indignation until
+> **Quote:** "THE TEXT HAS DISAPPEARED UNDER THE INTERPRETATION"
+so a noble future generation might misunderstand the whole past to endure it. Or has this already happened? Have we not been that noble posterity? And now that we understand, is it already past?
+**39\.** No one will consider a doctrine true simply because it makes happy or virtuous—except amiable "Idealists." Happiness and virtue are not arguments. Nor is unhappiness or "badness" a counter-argument. Truth may be harmful; existence might be such that one perishes from full knowledge. > **Quote:** ...the strength of a mind might be measured by the amount of 'truth' it could endure—or to speak more plainly, by the extent to which it REQUIRED truth attenuated, veiled, sweetened, damped, and falsified.  The wicked and unfortunate are better placed for discovering certain truths. Harshness and cunning may favor strong spirits more than gentle good nature. Stendhal gives a final feature for the free-spirited philosopher: "To be a good philosopher, one must be dry, clear, without illusion. A banker who has made a fortune has part of the character needed for philosophy—to see clearly into what exists."
+**40\.**
+> **Quote:** "Everything that is profound loves the mask: the profoundest things have a hatred even of figure and likeness."
+There are actions so delicate they must be buried in coarseness; acts of love after which one beats the witness with a stick to cloud his memory. Shame is inventive. A man with something fragile to hide might roll through life like an old wine barrel; the refinement of his shame requires it. Such hidden natures use speech for silence, want a mask in their friends' hearts. Even if he doesn't want it, he discovers a mask of him exists there—and it is better so.
+**41\.** One must test if one is destined for independence. Do not cling to any person, fatherland, sympathy, science, liberation, or even your own virtues. One must know how TO CONSERVE ONESELF—the best test of independence.
+> **Quote:** "One must know how TO CONSERVE ONESELF—the best test of independence."
+**42\.** A new order of philosophers is appearing; I venture to name them "tempters." This is their nature—they want to remain a puzzle.
+**43\.** Will they be new friends of "truth"? Likely, but not dogmatists. Their truth must not be truth for everyone—that is the secret wish of all past dogmatism.
+> **Quote:** "My opinion is MY opinion: another person has not easily a right to it."
+Good is no longer good when your neighbor says it. How could there be a "common good"? That which is common is always of little value. In the end:
+> **Quote:** "everything rare for the rare."
+The great for the great, abysses for the profound, delicacies for the refined.
+**44\.** Do I need to say they will be free, *very* free spirits? But not merely free spirits—something more, higher, different. I feel obliged to sweep away the stupid prejudice obscuring "free spirit." In Europe and America, the name is misused by narrow, shackled spirits—the exact opposite of our intentions. They are levelers: fast-talking slaves of democratic taste, men without solitude, superficial, seeing all misery in old social forms. They want the universal, green-meadow happiness of the herd: security, comfort, and the alleviation of life for everyone. Their anthems: "Equality of Rights" and "Sympathy for All Sufferers." They would abolish suffering.
+We, their opposites, believe man grew vigorously under opposite conditions: increased danger, oppression, secrecy, all that is wicked, terrible, tyrannical, predatory. We believe harshness serves elevation as much as its opposite. We are their polar extremists.
+Is it any wonder we "free spirits" are not communicative? That we don't reveal what a spirit can free itself from? As for "Beyond Good and Evil"—we are not "free-thinkers" or whatever these advocates of "modern ideas" call themselves. Having been at home in many spirit-realms; having escaped dark corners of prejudice; full of malice against seductions of honors, money, positions; grateful for hardship and illness that free us from rules; curious to a fault; investigators to cruelty; ready for any adventure; hidden ones under mantles of light; misers of overstuffed drawers; sometimes scarecrows—and it is necessary, as we are friends of SOLITUDE, of our own deepest midnight and midday solitude—such are we, free spirits! And perhaps you are also something of this kind, you coming ones? You NEW philosophers?
 ## CHAPTER III. THE RELIGIOUS MOOD
+**45\.** The human soul and its limits, the range of inner experiences reached until now, the heights, depths, and distances of these experiences, the entire history of the soul and its still untapped possibilities: this is the hunting ground for a born psychologist and lover of the "big hunt." But how often he must say in despair: "A single individual! Alas, only a single individual! And this great forest, this virgin forest!" He wishes for hundreds of assistants and well-trained hounds to drive his prey together. In vain: again and again he discovers, bitterly, how difficult it is to find assistants for what excites his curiosity. The problem with sending scholars into new and dangerous hunting grounds, where courage, shrewdness, and subtlety are required, is that they become useless just when the "BIG hunt" begins. It is precisely then that they lose their keen eye and sharp scent. To sense and determine what kind of history the problem of KNOWLEDGE AND CONSCIENCE has had in the souls of religious people, one would need an experience as profound, wounded, and immense as Pascal's intellectual conscience. Even then, one would need that vast atmosphere of clear, cynical spirituality that could oversee, organize, and effectively define this mass of dangerous experiences from above. But who could do such a service! And who would have time to wait for such servants! They appear too rarely; they are highly improbable at any time. Eventually, one must do everything ONESELF in order to know anything—which means one has MUCH to do! But a curiosity like mine is, once and for all, the most pleasant of vices—forgive me! I mean to say that the love of truth has its reward in heaven, and already here on earth.
+. The human soul and its limits, the range of man's inner experiences
+hitherto attained, the heights, depths, and distances of these
+experiences, the entire history of the soul UP TO THE PRESENT TIME,
+and its still unexhausted possibilities: this is the preordained
+hunting-domain for a born psychologist and lover of a "big hunt". But
+how often must he say despairingly to himself: "A single individual!
+alas, only a single individual! and this great forest, this virgin
+forest!" So he would like to have some hundreds of hunting assistants,
+and fine trained hounds, that he could send into the history of the
+human soul, to drive HIS game together. In vain: again and again he
+experiences, profoundly and bitterly, how difficult it is to find
+assistants and dogs for all the things that directly excite his
+curiosity. The evil of sending scholars into new and dangerous
+hunting-domains, where courage, sagacity, and subtlety in every sense
+are required, is that they are no longer serviceable just when the "BIG
+hunt," and also the great danger commences,--it is precisely then that
+they lose their keen eye and nose. In order, for instance, to divine and
+determine what sort of history the problem of KNOWLEDGE AND CONSCIENCE
+has hitherto had in the souls of homines religiosi, a person would
+perhaps himself have to possess as profound, as bruised, as immense an
+experience as the intellectual conscience of Pascal; and then he would
+still require that wide-spread heaven of clear, wicked spirituality,
+which, from above, would be able to oversee, arrange, and effectively
+formulize this mass of dangerous and painful experiences.--But who
+could do me this service! And who would have time to wait for such
+servants!--they evidently appear too rarely, they are so improbable at
+all times! Eventually one must do everything ONESELF in order to know
+something; which means that one has MUCH to do!--But a curiosity like
+mine is once for all the most agreeable of vices--pardon me! I mean to
+say that the love of truth has its reward in heaven, and already upon
+earth.
+**46\.** Faith, as early Christianity desired it—and achieved it in the midst of a skeptical southern world with centuries of struggle between philosophical schools and the Roman education in tolerance—this faith is NOT that sincere, austere slave-faith by which Luther, Cromwell, or other northern barbarians remained attached to their God. It is much more like Pascal's faith, which terrifyingly resembles a continuous suicide of reason—a tough, persistent reason that cannot be killed at once. From the beginning, Christian faith has been a sacrifice: the sacrifice of all freedom, pride, and self-confidence of spirit; it is simultaneously subjection, self-derision, and self-mutilation. There is cruelty and religious "Phoenicianism" in this faith, adapted to a tender, multifaceted, and fastidious conscience. It assumes that the subjection of the spirit is indescribably PAINFUL, and that all the history and habits of such a spirit resist the *absurdissimum*, in the form of which 'faith' comes to it. Modern people, with their dullness toward Christian terminology, no longer sense the terrifying superlative concept that the paradox of a certain formula implied to ancient taste.
+. Faith, such as early Christianity desired, and not infrequently
+achieved in the midst of a skeptical and southernly free-spirited world,
+which had centuries of struggle between philosophical schools behind
+it and in it, counting besides the education in tolerance which
+the Imperium Romanum gave--this faith is NOT that sincere, austere
+slave-faith by which perhaps a Luther or a Cromwell, or some other
+northern barbarian of the spirit remained attached to his God and
+Christianity, it is much rather the faith of Pascal, which resembles in
+a terrible manner a continuous suicide of reason--a tough, long-lived,
+worm-like reason, which is not to be slain at once and with a single
+blow. The Christian faith from the beginning, is sacrifice the sacrifice
+of all freedom, all pride, all self-confidence of spirit, it is at
+the same time subjection, self-derision, and self-mutilation. There is
+cruelty and religious Phoenicianism in this faith, which is adapted to a
+tender, many-sided, and very fastidious conscience, it takes for granted
+that the subjection of the spirit is indescribably PAINFUL, that all the
+past and all the habits of such a spirit resist the absurdissimum, in
+the form of which "faith" comes to it. Modern men, with their obtuseness
+as regards all Christian nomenclature, have no longer the sense for the
+terribly superlative conception which was implied to an antique taste by
+the paradox of the formula, "God on the Cross". Hitherto there had never
+and nowhere been such boldness in inversion, nor anything at once so
+dreadful, questioning, and questionable as this formula: it promised a
+transvaluation of all ancient values--It was the Orient, the PROFOUND
+Orient, it was the Oriental slave who thus took revenge on Rome and its
+noble, light-minded toleration, on the Roman "Catholicism" of non-faith,
+and it was always not the faith, but the freedom from the faith, the
+half-stoical and smiling indifference to the seriousness of the faith,
+which made the slaves indignant at their masters and revolt against
+them. "Enlightenment" causes revolt, for the slave desires the
+unconditioned, he understands nothing but the tyrannous, even in morals,
+he loves as he hates, without NUANCE, to the very depths, to the point
+of pain, to the point of sickness--his many HIDDEN sufferings make
+him revolt against the noble taste which seems to DENY suffering. The
+skepticism with regard to suffering, fundamentally only an attitude of
+aristocratic morality, was not the least of the causes, also, of the
+last great slave-insurrection which began with the French Revolution.
+> **Quote:** "God on the Cross."
+. Wherever the religious neurosis has appeared on the earth so far,
+we find it connected with three dangerous prescriptions as to regimen:
+solitude, fasting, and sexual abstinence--but without its being possible
+to determine with certainty which is cause and which is effect, or IF
+any relation at all of cause and effect exists there. This latter doubt
+is justified by the fact that one of the most regular symptoms among
+savage as well as among civilized peoples is the most sudden and
+excessive sensuality, which then with equal suddenness transforms into
+penitential paroxysms, world-renunciation, and will-renunciation, both
+symptoms perhaps explainable as disguised epilepsy? But nowhere is it
+MORE obligatory to put aside explanations around no other type has there
+grown such a mass of absurdity and superstition, no other type seems to
+have been more interesting to men and even to philosophers--perhaps it
+is time to become just a little indifferent here, to learn caution, or,
+better still, to look AWAY, TO GO AWAY--Yet in the background of the
+most recent philosophy, that of Schopenhauer, we find almost as the
+problem in itself, this terrible note of interrogation of the religious
+crisis and awakening. How is the negation of will POSSIBLE? how is the
+saint possible?--that seems to have been the very question with which
+Schopenhauer made a start and became a philosopher. And thus it was a
+genuine Schopenhauerian consequence, that his most convinced adherent
+(perhaps also his last, as far as Germany is concerned), namely, Richard
+Wagner, should bring his own life-work to an end just here, and should
+finally put that terrible and eternal type upon the stage as Kundry,
+type vecu, and as it loved and lived, at the very time that the
+mad-doctors in almost all European countries had an opportunity to study
+the type close at hand, wherever the religious neurosis--or as I call
+it, "the religious mood"--made its latest epidemical outbreak and
+display as the "Salvation Army"--If it be a question, however, as to
+what has been so extremely interesting to men of all sorts in all ages,
+and even to philosophers, in the whole phenomenon of the saint, it
+is undoubtedly the appearance of the miraculous therein--namely, the
+immediate SUCCESSION OF OPPOSITES, of states of the soul regarded as
+morally antithetical: it was believed here to be self-evident that
+a "bad man" was all at once turned into a "saint," a good man. The
+hitherto existing psychology was wrecked at this point, is it not
+possible it may have happened principally because psychology had placed
+itself under the dominion of morals, because it BELIEVED in oppositions
+of moral values, and saw, read, and INTERPRETED these oppositions
+into the text and facts of the case? What? "Miracle" only an error of
+interpretation? A lack of philology?
+Until then, there had never been such boldness in inversion, nor anything as dreadful and questionable as this formula: it promised a transvaluation of all ancient values. It was the Orient—the DEEP Orient; the Oriental slave taking revenge on Rome and its noble, light-hearted tolerance, on Roman "Catholicism" of non-belief. It was never faith itself, but freedom from faith—the half-stoic, smiling indifference to faith's seriousness—that made slaves indignant at their masters and drove them to revolt. "Enlightenment" causes revolt, for the slave desires the absolute; he understands nothing but tyranny, even in morals. He loves as he hates, without nuance, to the very depths, to pain, to sickness. His many HIDDEN sufferings make him revolt against the noble taste that seems to DENY suffering. This skepticism regarding suffering, fundamentally an attitude of aristocratic morality, was also a major cause of the last great slave insurrection: the French Revolution.
+. It seems that the Latin races are far more deeply attached to their
+Catholicism than we Northerners are to Christianity generally, and
+that consequently unbelief in Catholic countries means something quite
+different from what it does among Protestants--namely, a sort of revolt
+against the spirit of the race, while with us it is rather a return to
+the spirit (or non-spirit) of the race.
+**47\.** Wherever the religious neurosis has appeared on earth, we find it connected to three dangerous prescriptions: solitude, fasting, and sexual abstinence. Yet it is impossible to determine which is cause and which effect, or if any causal relationship exists. This doubt is justified by the fact that among both primitive and civilized peoples, a sudden and excessive sensuality regularly transforms into paroxysms of penance and renunciation of the world. Could both symptoms be disguised epilepsy? But nowhere is it more necessary to set aside explanations. No type has been surrounded by such absurdity and superstition; none seems more interesting to men and philosophers. Perhaps it is time to become indifferent, to learn caution, or to look AWAY, to GO AWAY. Yet in the background of Schopenhauer's philosophy, we find this terrible question mark of the religious crisis as the core problem itself. How is the denial of the will POSSIBLE? How is the philosopher possible? This seems to have been the question with which Schopenhauer began. And so, it was a Schopenhauerian consequence that his most convinced follower, Richard Wagner, should end his work here. He finally put that terrible type on stage as Kundry—a lived type—at the very time psychiatrists in almost all European countries could study the type wherever the religious neurosis, or "the religious mood," made its latest epidemic appearance as the "Salvation Army." Yet if we ask what has been so interesting about saints to all people and philosophers, it is undoubtedly the appearance of the miraculous—the immediate SUCCESSION OF OPPOSITES, of states regarded as morally contradictory. It was believed self-evident that a "bad man" suddenly turned "saint." Psychology until now has failed here because it placed itself under morality's thumb. It believed in the opposition of moral values and interpreted these oppositions into the facts. What if "miracles" are only errors of interpretation? A lack of careful reading?
+We Northerners undoubtedly derive our origin from barbarous races, even
+as regards our talents for religion--we have POOR talents for it. One
+may make an exception in the case of the Celts, who have theretofore
+furnished also the best soil for Christian infection in the North: the
+Christian ideal blossomed forth in France as much as ever the pale sun
+of the north would allow it. How strangely pious for our taste are still
+these later French skeptics, whenever there is any Celtic blood in their
+origin! How Catholic, how un-German does Auguste Comte's Sociology
+seem to us, with the Roman logic of its instincts! How Jesuitical, that
+amiable and shrewd cicerone of Port Royal, Sainte-Beuve, in spite of all
+his hostility to Jesuits! And even Ernest Renan: how inaccessible to
+us Northerners does the language of such a Renan appear, in whom
+every instant the merest touch of religious thrill throws his refined
+voluptuous and comfortably couching soul off its balance! Let us repeat
+after him these fine sentences--and what wickedness and haughtiness is
+immediately aroused by way of answer in our probably less beautiful but
+harder souls, that is to say, in our more German souls!--"DISONS DONC
+HARDIMENT QUE LA RELIGION EST UN PRODUIT DE L'HOMME NORMAL, QUE L'HOMME
+EST LE PLUS DANS LE VRAI QUANT IL EST LE PLUS RELIGIEUX ET LE PLUS
+ASSURE D'UNE DESTINEE INFINIE.... C'EST QUAND IL EST BON QU'IL VEUT QUE
+LA VIRTU CORRESPONDE A UN ORDER ETERNAL, C'EST QUAND IL CONTEMPLE LES
+CHOSES D'UNE MANIERE DESINTERESSEE QU'IL TROUVE LA MORT REVOLTANTE ET
+ABSURDE. COMMENT NE PAS SUPPOSER QUE C'EST DANS CES MOMENTS-LA, QUE
+L'HOMME VOIT LE MIEUX?"... These sentences are so extremely ANTIPODAL
+to my ears and habits of thought, that in my first impulse of rage
+on finding them, I wrote on the margin, "LA NIAISERIE RELIGIEUSE PAR
+EXCELLENCE!"--until in my later rage I even took a fancy to them, these
+sentences with their truth absolutely inverted! It is so nice and such a
+distinction to have one's own antipodes!
+**48\.** The Latin races are far more deeply attached to their Catholicism than we Northerners are to Christianity. Consequently, unbelief in Catholic countries means something quite different than among Protestants; it is a revolt against the spirit of the race, whereas with us it is more a return to the spirit (or lack of spirit) of the race. We Northerners come from barbarian stock, even regarding our talent for religion—we have POOR talent for it. One might except the Celts, who provided the best soil for Christian infection in the North: the Christian ideal blossomed in France as much as the pale northern sun allowed. How strangely pious these later French skeptics seem to us whenever Celtic blood runs in their ancestry! How Catholic, how un-German Auguste Comte's Sociology seems, with its Roman logic! How Jesuitical is Sainte-Beuve, guide of Port Royal, despite his hostility to the Jesuits! And Ernest Renan: how inaccessible is the language of a man like Renan, in whom the slightest religious thrill throws his refined, sensual, comfortable soul off balance! Let us repeat these fine sentences after him—and notice what wickedness and arrogance are immediately provoked in our probably less beautiful but harder, more German souls:
+. That which is so astonishing in the religious life of the ancient
+Greeks is the irrestrainable stream of GRATITUDE which it pours
+forth--it is a very superior kind of man who takes SUCH an attitude
+towards nature and life.--Later on, when the populace got the upper hand
+in Greece, FEAR became rampant also in religion; and Christianity was
+preparing itself.
+> **Quote:** "DISONS DONC HARDIMENT QUE LA RELIGION EST UN PRODUIT DE L'HOMME NORMAL, QUE L'HOMME EST LE PLUS DANS LE VRAI QUANT IL EST LE PLUS RELIGIEUX ET LE PLUS ASSURE D'UNE DESTINEE INFINIE.... C'EST QUAND IL EST BON QU'IL VEUT QUE LA VIRTU CORRESPONDE A UN ORDER ETERNAL, C'EST QUAND IL CONTEMPLE LES CHOSES D'UNE MANIERE DESINTERESSEE QU'IL TROUVE LA MORT REVOLTANTE ET ABSURDE. COMMENT NE PAS SUPPOSER QUE C'EST DANS CES MOMENTS-LA, QUE L'HOMME VOIT LE MIEUX?"
+. The passion for God: there are churlish, honest-hearted, and
+importunate kinds of it, like that of Luther--the whole of Protestantism
+lacks the southern DELICATEZZA. There is an Oriental exaltation of the
+mind in it, like that of an undeservedly favoured or elevated slave, as
+in the case of St. Augustine, for instance, who lacks in an offensive
+manner, all nobility in bearing and desires. There is a feminine
+tenderness and sensuality in it, which modestly and unconsciously longs
+for a UNIO MYSTICA ET PHYSICA, as in the case of Madame de Guyon. In
+many cases it appears, curiously enough, as the disguise of a girl's
+or youth's puberty; here and there even as the hysteria of an old maid,
+also as her last ambition. The Church has frequently canonized the woman
+in such a case.
+These sentences are so opposite to my ears and habits that in my first rage upon finding them, I wrote in the margin: "LA NIAISERIE RELIGIEUSE PAR EXCELLENCE!"—until later, I even grew fond of them, these sentences with their truth absolutely inverted! It is so pleasant and such a mark of distinction to have one's own opposite!
+. The mightiest men have hitherto always bowed reverently before
+the saint, as the enigma of self-subjugation and utter voluntary
+privation--why did they thus bow? They divined in him--and as it were
+behind the questionableness of his frail and wretched appearance--the
+superior force which wished to test itself by such a subjugation; the
+strength of will, in which they recognized their own strength and
+love of power, and knew how to honour it: they honoured something
+in themselves when they honoured the saint. In addition to this, the
+contemplation of the saint suggested to them a suspicion: such an
+enormity of self-negation and anti-naturalness will not have been
+coveted for nothing--they have said, inquiringly. There is perhaps a
+reason for it, some very great danger, about which the ascetic might
+wish to be more accurately informed through his secret interlocutors and
+visitors? In a word, the mighty ones of the world learned to have a new
+fear before him, they divined a new power, a strange, still unconquered
+enemy:--it was the "Will to Power" which obliged them to halt before the
+saint. They had to question him.
+**49\.** What is astonishing about the ancient Greeks' religious life is the uncontrollable stream of GRATITUDE it pours forth—it is a very superior type of human who takes SUCH an attitude toward nature and life. Later, when common people gained the upper hand, FEAR became rampant in religion as well; and Christianity was preparing itself.
+. In the Jewish "Old Testament," the book of divine justice, there are
+men, things, and sayings on such an immense scale, that Greek and Indian
+literature has nothing to compare with it. One stands with fear and
+reverence before those stupendous remains of what man was formerly, and
+one has sad thoughts about old Asia and its little out-pushed peninsula
+Europe, which would like, by all means, to figure before Asia as the
+"Progress of Mankind." To be sure, he who is himself only a slender,
+tame house-animal, and knows only the wants of a house-animal (like
+our cultured people of today, including the Christians of "cultured"
+Christianity), need neither be amazed nor even sad amid those ruins--the
+taste for the Old Testament is a touchstone with respect to "great" and
+"small": perhaps he will find that the New Testament, the book of grace,
+still appeals more to his heart (there is much of the odour of the
+genuine, tender, stupid beadsman and petty soul in it). To have bound
+up this New Testament (a kind of ROCOCO of taste in every respect) along
+with the Old Testament into one book, as the "Bible," as "The Book in
+Itself," is perhaps the greatest audacity and "sin against the Spirit"
+which literary Europe has upon its conscience.
+**50\.** The passion for God has crude, honest, intrusive kinds, like Luther's—the whole of Protestantism lacks the southern *delicatezza*. There is Oriental exaltation in it, like an undeservedly favored slave, as in St. Augustine, who offensively lacks nobility. There is feminine tenderness and sensuality, modestly and unconsciously longing for a UNIO MYSTICA ET PHYSICA, as in the case of Madame de Guyon. In many cases it appears as the disguise of puberty; here and there as the hysteria of an old maid, or her final ambition. The Church has frequently canonized such women.
+. Why Atheism nowadays? "The father" in God is thoroughly refuted;
+equally so "the judge," "the rewarder." Also his "free will": he does
+not hear--and even if he did, he would not know how to help. The worst
+is that he seems incapable of communicating himself clearly; is he
+uncertain?--This is what I have made out (by questioning and listening
+at a variety of conversations) to be the cause of the decline of
+European theism; it appears to me that though the religious instinct is
+in vigorous growth,--it rejects the theistic satisfaction with profound
+distrust.
+**51\.** The mightiest men have always bowed reverently before the saint, seeing him as the enigma of self-conquest and total voluntary deprivation. Why did they bow? They sensed in him a superior force testing itself through subjection. They recognized in his strength of will their own strength and love of power, and knew how to honor it: they honored something in themselves. Additionally, the sight of the saint gave them a suspicion: such enormity of self-denial would not be sought for nothing. They asked: Is there perhaps a reason, some great danger about which the ascetic wants to be informed through his secret visitors? In a word, the powerful learned a new fear before him; they sensed a new power, a strange, unconquered enemy.
+. What does all modern philosophy mainly do? Since Descartes--and
+indeed more in defiance of him than on the basis of his procedure--an
+ATTENTAT has been made on the part of all philosophers on the old
+conception of the soul, under the guise of a criticism of the subject
+and predicate conception--that is to say, an ATTENTAT on the
+fundamental presupposition of Christian doctrine. Modern philosophy,
+as epistemological skepticism, is secretly or openly ANTI-CHRISTIAN,
+although (for keener ears, be it said) by no means anti-religious.
+Formerly, in effect, one believed in "the soul" as one believed in
+grammar and the grammatical subject: one said, "I" is the condition,
+"think" is the predicate and is conditioned--to think is an activity for
+which one MUST suppose a subject as cause. The attempt was then made,
+with marvelous tenacity and subtlety, to see if one could not get out
+of this net,--to see if the opposite was not perhaps true: "think" the
+condition, and "I" the conditioned; "I," therefore, only a synthesis
+which has been MADE by thinking itself. KANT really wished to prove
+that, starting from the subject, the subject could not be proved--nor
+the object either: the possibility of an APPARENT EXISTENCE of the
+subject, and therefore of "the soul," may not always have been strange
+to him,--the thought which once had an immense power on earth as the
+Vedanta philosophy.
+> **Quote:** "Will to Power"
+. There is a great ladder of religious cruelty, with many rounds; but
+three of these are the most important. Once on a time men sacrificed
+human beings to their God, and perhaps just those they loved the
+best--to this category belong the firstling sacrifices of all primitive
+religions, and also the sacrifice of the Emperor Tiberius in the
+Mithra-Grotto on the Island of Capri, that most terrible of all Roman
+anachronisms. Then, during the moral epoch of mankind, they sacrificed
+to their God the strongest instincts they possessed, their "nature";
+THIS festal joy shines in the cruel glances of ascetics and
+"anti-natural" fanatics. Finally, what still remained to be sacrificed?
+Was it not necessary in the end for men to sacrifice everything
+comforting, holy, healing, all hope, all faith in hidden harmonies, in
+future blessedness and justice? Was it not necessary to sacrifice God
+himself, and out of cruelty to themselves to worship stone, stupidity,
+gravity, fate, nothingness? To sacrifice God for nothingness--this
+paradoxical mystery of the ultimate cruelty has been reserved for the
+rising generation; we all know something thereof already.
+It was this that forced them to stop before the saint. They had to question him.
+. Whoever, like myself, prompted by some enigmatical desire, has long
+endeavoured to go to the bottom of the question of pessimism and free it
+from the half-Christian, half-German narrowness and stupidity in which
+it has finally presented itself to this century, namely, in the form of
+Schopenhauer's philosophy; whoever, with an Asiatic and super-Asiatic
+eye, has actually looked inside, and into the most world-renouncing of
+all possible modes of thought--beyond good and evil, and no longer
+like Buddha and Schopenhauer, under the dominion and delusion of
+morality,--whoever has done this, has perhaps just thereby, without
+really desiring it, opened his eyes to behold the opposite ideal: the
+ideal of the most world-approving, exuberant, and vivacious man, who has
+not only learnt to compromise and arrange with that which was and
+is, but wishes to have it again AS IT WAS AND IS, for all eternity,
+insatiably calling out da capo, not only to himself, but to the whole
+piece and play; and not only the play, but actually to him who requires
+the play--and makes it necessary; because he always requires
+himself anew--and makes himself necessary.--What? And this would not
+be--circulus vitiosus deus?
+**52\.** In the Jewish "Old Testament," the book of divine justice, there are people, things, and sayings on such an immense scale that Greek and Indian literature cannot compare. One stands with fear and reverence before those stupendous remains of what man once was, with sad thoughts about old Asia and its little peninsula Europe, which wants to present itself as the "Progress of Mankind." Anyone merely a slender, tame house-pet, knowing only a house-pet's needs (like our "cultured" people today, including Christians of "cultured" Christianity), need be neither amazed nor sad among those ruins. A taste for the Old Testament is a touchstone for "great" and "small." Perhaps such a person will find the New Testament, the book of grace, more appealing (it is full of the scent of the sincere, tender, petty soul). To bind this New Testament—a stylistic rococo in every respect—together with the Old Testament into one book as "The Bible," as "The Book," is perhaps the greatest audacity and most significant
+. The distance, and as it were the space around man, grows with the
+strength of his intellectual vision and insight: his world becomes
+profounder; new stars, new enigmas, and notions are ever coming into
+view. Perhaps everything on which the intellectual eye has exercised
+its acuteness and profundity has just been an occasion for its exercise,
+something of a game, something for children and childish minds. Perhaps
+the most solemn conceptions that have caused the most fighting and
+suffering, the conceptions "God" and "sin," will one day seem to us of
+no more importance than a child's plaything or a child's pain seems to
+an old man;--and perhaps another plaything and another pain will then
+be necessary once more for "the old man"--always childish enough, an
+eternal child!
+> **Quote:** "sin against the Spirit"
+. Has it been observed to what extent outward idleness, or
+semi-idleness, is necessary to a real religious life (alike for its
+favourite microscopic labour of self-examination, and for its soft
+placidity called "prayer," the state of perpetual readiness for the
+"coming of God"), I mean the idleness with a good conscience, the
+idleness of olden times and of blood, to which the aristocratic
+sentiment that work is DISHONOURING--that it vulgarizes body and
+soul--is not quite unfamiliar? And that consequently the modern, noisy,
+time-engrossing, conceited, foolishly proud laboriousness educates
+and prepares for "unbelief" more than anything else? Among these, for
+instance, who are at present living apart from religion in Germany, I
+find "free-thinkers" of diversified species and origin, but above all
+a majority of those in whom laboriousness from generation to generation
+has dissolved the religious instincts; so that they no longer know what
+purpose religions serve, and only note their existence in the world
+with a kind of dull astonishment. They feel themselves already fully
+occupied, these good people, be it by their business or by their
+pleasures, not to mention the "Fatherland," and the newspapers, and
+their "family duties"; it seems that they have no time whatever left
+for religion; and above all, it is not obvious to them whether it is a
+question of a new business or a new pleasure--for it is impossible, they
+say to themselves, that people should go to church merely to spoil
+their tempers. They are by no means enemies of religious customs;
+should certain circumstances, State affairs perhaps, require their
+participation in such customs, they do what is required, as so many
+things are done--with a patient and unassuming seriousness, and without
+much curiosity or discomfort;--they live too much apart and outside
+to feel even the necessity for a FOR or AGAINST in such matters. Among
+those indifferent persons may be reckoned nowadays the majority of
+German Protestants of the middle classes, especially in the great
+laborious centres of trade and commerce; also the majority of laborious
+scholars, and the entire University personnel (with the exception of
+the theologians, whose existence and possibility there always gives
+psychologists new and more subtle puzzles to solve). On the part of
+pious, or merely church-going people, there is seldom any idea of HOW
+MUCH good-will, one might say arbitrary will, is now necessary for a
+German scholar to take the problem of religion seriously; his whole
+profession (and as I have said, his whole workmanlike laboriousness, to
+which he is compelled by his modern conscience) inclines him to a
+lofty and almost charitable serenity as regards religion, with which is
+occasionally mingled a slight disdain for the "uncleanliness" of spirit
+which he takes for granted wherever any one still professes to belong
+to the Church. It is only with the help of history (NOT through his own
+personal experience, therefore) that the scholar succeeds in bringing
+himself to a respectful seriousness, and to a certain timid deference
+in presence of religions; but even when his sentiments have reached the
+stage of gratitude towards them, he has not personally advanced one
+step nearer to that which still maintains itself as Church or as piety;
+perhaps even the contrary. The practical indifference to religious
+matters in the midst of which he has been born and brought up, usually
+sublimates itself in his case into circumspection and cleanliness, which
+shuns contact with religious men and things; and it may be just the
+depth of his tolerance and humanity which prompts him to avoid the
+delicate trouble which tolerance itself brings with it.--Every age has
+its own divine type of naivete, for the discovery of which other ages
+may envy it: and how much naivete--adorable, childlike, and boundlessly
+foolish naivete is involved in this belief of the scholar in
+his superiority, in the good conscience of his tolerance, in the
+unsuspecting, simple certainty with which his instinct treats the
+religious man as a lower and less valuable type, beyond, before, and
+ABOVE which he himself has developed--he, the little arrogant dwarf
+and mob-man, the sedulously alert, head-and-hand drudge of "ideas," of
+"modern ideas"!
+which literary Europe has on its conscience.
+. Whoever has seen deeply into the world has doubtless divined what
+wisdom there is in the fact that men are superficial. It is their
+preservative instinct which teaches them to be flighty, lightsome, and
+false. Here and there one finds a passionate and exaggerated adoration
+of "pure forms" in philosophers as well as in artists: it is not to be
+doubted that whoever has NEED of the cult of the superficial to that
+extent, has at one time or another made an unlucky dive BENEATH it.
+Perhaps there is even an order of rank with respect to those burnt
+children, the born artists who find the enjoyment of life only in trying
+to FALSIFY its image (as if taking wearisome revenge on it), one might
+guess to what degree life has disgusted them, by the extent to which
+they wish to see its image falsified, attenuated, ultrified, and
+deified,--one might reckon the homines religiosi among the artists, as
+their HIGHEST rank. It is the profound, suspicious fear of an incurable
+pessimism which compels whole centuries to fasten their teeth into a
+religious interpretation of existence: the fear of the instinct which
+divines that truth might be attained TOO soon, before man has become
+strong enough, hard enough, artist enough.... Piety, the "Life in God,"
+regarded in this light, would appear as the most elaborate and
+ultimate product of the FEAR of truth, as artist-adoration
+and artist-intoxication in presence of the most logical of all
+falsifications, as the will to the inversion of truth, to untruth at
+any price. Perhaps there has hitherto been no more effective means of
+beautifying man than piety, by means of it man can become so artful, so
+superficial, so iridescent, and so good, that his appearance no longer
+offends.
+**53\.** Why atheism today? "The father" in God is thoroughly refuted; so are "the judge" and "the rewarder." Likewise, his "free will" is gone: he does not hear—and even if he did, he would not know how to help. The worst is that he seems incapable of communicating clearly; is he unsure of himself? This is what I have concluded from listening to conversations to be the cause of European theism's decline. It appears that although the religious instinct grows vigorously, it rejects the theistic answer with profound distrust.
+. To love mankind FOR GOD'S SAKE--this has so far been the noblest and
+remotest sentiment to which mankind has attained. That love to mankind,
+without any redeeming intention in the background, is only an ADDITIONAL
+folly and brutishness, that the inclination to this love has first to
+get its proportion, its delicacy, its gram of salt and sprinkling
+of ambergris from a higher inclination--whoever first perceived
+and "experienced" this, however his tongue may have stammered as it
+attempted to express such a delicate matter, let him for all time be
+holy and respected, as the man who has so far flown highest and gone
+astray in the finest fashion!
+**54\.** What does all modern philosophy mainly do? Since Descartes—and more in defiance of him than from his method—an ATTENTAT has been made on the part of all philosophers on the old conception of the soul under the guise of critiquing the subject-predicate relationship. This is an ATTENTAT on the fundamental presupposition of Christian doctrine. Modern philosophy, as epistemological skepticism, is secretly or openly ANTI-CHRISTIAN, though (for sharper ears) it is by no means anti-religious. Formerly, people believed in "the soul" as they believed in grammar: they said "I" is the condition and "think" the predicate—thinking is an activity requiring a subject as cause. Then, with marvelous persistence, they tried to escape this net—to see if the opposite was true: "thinking" is the condition and "I" the conditioned; "I" is only a synthesis created by thinking. KANT really wanted to prove that, starting from the subject, the subject could not be proven—nor the object. The possibility of the subject—and therefore "the soul"—having only an APPARENT EXISTENCE may not have been foreign to him; this was a thought that once had immense power as the Vedanta philosophy.
+. The philosopher, as WE free spirits understand him--as the man of
+the greatest responsibility, who has the conscience for the general
+development of mankind,--will use religion for his disciplining and
+educating work, just as he will use the contemporary political
+and economic conditions. The selecting and disciplining
+influence--destructive, as well as creative and fashioning--which can be
+exercised by means of religion is manifold and varied, according to the
+sort of people placed under its spell and protection. For those who are
+strong and independent, destined and trained to command, in whom the
+judgment and skill of a ruling race is incorporated, religion is
+an additional means for overcoming resistance in the exercise of
+authority--as a bond which binds rulers and subjects in common,
+betraying and surrendering to the former the conscience of the latter,
+their inmost heart, which would fain escape obedience. And in the
+case of the unique natures of noble origin, if by virtue of superior
+spirituality they should incline to a more retired and contemplative
+life, reserving to themselves only the more refined forms of government
+(over chosen disciples or members of an order), religion itself may
+be used as a means for obtaining peace from the noise and trouble of
+managing GROSSER affairs, and for securing immunity from the UNAVOIDABLE
+filth of all political agitation. The Brahmins, for instance, understood
+this fact. With the help of a religious organization, they secured to
+themselves the power of nominating kings for the people, while their
+sentiments prompted them to keep apart and outside, as men with a higher
+and super-regal mission. At the same time religion gives inducement and
+opportunity to some of the subjects to qualify themselves for future
+ruling and commanding the slowly ascending ranks and classes, in which,
+through fortunate marriage customs, volitional power and delight in
+self-control are on the increase. To them religion offers sufficient
+incentives and temptations to aspire to higher intellectuality, and to
+experience the sentiments of authoritative self-control, of silence, and
+of solitude. Asceticism and Puritanism are almost indispensable means of
+educating and ennobling a race which seeks to rise above its hereditary
+baseness and work itself upwards to future supremacy. And finally, to
+ordinary men, to the majority of the people, who exist for service and
+general utility, and are only so far entitled to exist, religion gives
+invaluable contentedness with their lot and condition, peace of heart,
+ennoblement of obedience, additional social happiness and sympathy,
+with something of transfiguration and embellishment, something of
+justification of all the commonplaceness, all the meanness, all
+the semi-animal poverty of their souls. Religion, together with the
+religious significance of life, sheds sunshine over such perpetually
+harassed men, and makes even their own aspect endurable to them, it
+operates upon them as the Epicurean philosophy usually operates upon
+sufferers of a higher order, in a refreshing and refining manner,
+almost TURNING suffering TO ACCOUNT, and in the end even hallowing and
+vindicating it. There is perhaps nothing so admirable in Christianity
+and Buddhism as their art of teaching even the lowest to elevate
+themselves by piety to a seemingly higher order of things, and thereby
+to retain their satisfaction with the actual world in which they find it
+difficult enough to live--this very difficulty being necessary.
+**55\.** There is a great ladder of religious cruelty with many rungs, but three are most important. Once, men sacrificed human beings to their God, perhaps those they loved best—the firstborn sacrifices of primitive religions belong here, as does Tiberius's sacrifice in the Mithraic Grotto on Capri, that most terrible Roman anachronism. Then, during mankind's moral epoch, they sacrificed their strongest instincts, their "nature"; THIS festive joy shines in the cruel eyes of ascetics and "anti-natural" fanatics. Finally, what remained to be sacrificed? Was it not necessary in the end to sacrifice everything comforting, holy, and healing—all hope, faith in hidden harmonies, future bliss and justice? Was it not necessary to sacrifice God himself, and worship stone, stupidity, gravity, fate, nothingness? To sacrifice God for nothingness—this paradoxical mystery of ultimate cruelty has been reserved for the coming generation; we all know something of it already.
+. To be sure--to make also the bad counter-reckoning against such
+religions, and to bring to light their secret dangers--the cost is
+always excessive and terrible when religions do NOT operate as an
+educational and disciplinary medium in the hands of the philosopher, but
+rule voluntarily and PARAMOUNTLY, when they wish to be the final end,
+and not a means along with other means. Among men, as among all other
+animals, there is a surplus of defective, diseased, degenerating,
+infirm, and necessarily suffering individuals; the successful cases,
+among men also, are always the exception; and in view of the fact that
+man is THE ANIMAL NOT YET PROPERLY ADAPTED TO HIS ENVIRONMENT, the rare
+exception. But worse still. The higher the type a man represents, the
+greater is the improbability that he will SUCCEED; the accidental, the
+law of irrationality in the general constitution of mankind, manifests
+itself most terribly in its destructive effect on the higher orders of
+men, the conditions of whose lives are delicate, diverse, and difficult
+to determine. What, then, is the attitude of the two greatest religions
+above-mentioned to the SURPLUS of failures in life? They endeavour
+to preserve and keep alive whatever can be preserved; in fact, as the
+religions FOR SUFFERERS, they take the part of these upon principle;
+they are always in favour of those who suffer from life as from a
+disease, and they would fain treat every other experience of life as
+false and impossible. However highly we may esteem this indulgent and
+preservative care (inasmuch as in applying to others, it has applied,
+and applies also to the highest and usually the most suffering type of
+man), the hitherto PARAMOUNT religions--to give a general appreciation
+of them--are among the principal causes which have kept the type of
+"man" upon a lower level--they have preserved too much THAT WHICH SHOULD
+HAVE PERISHED. One has to thank them for invaluable services; and who is
+sufficiently rich in gratitude not to feel poor at the contemplation
+of all that the "spiritual men" of Christianity have done for Europe
+hitherto! But when they had given comfort to the sufferers, courage to
+the oppressed and despairing, a staff and support to the helpless,
+and when they had allured from society into convents and spiritual
+penitentiaries the broken-hearted and distracted: what else had they
+to do in order to work systematically in that fashion, and with a good
+conscience, for the preservation of all the sick and suffering, which
+means, in deed and in truth, to work for the DETERIORATION OF THE
+EUROPEAN RACE? To REVERSE all estimates of value--THAT is what they
+had to do! And to shatter the strong, to spoil great hopes, to cast
+suspicion on the delight in beauty, to break down everything autonomous,
+manly, conquering, and imperious--all instincts which are natural to the
+highest and most successful type of "man"--into uncertainty, distress
+of conscience, and self-destruction; forsooth, to invert all love of the
+earthly and of supremacy over the earth, into hatred of the earth and
+earthly things--THAT is the task the Church imposed on itself, and
+was obliged to impose, until, according to its standard of value,
+"unworldliness," "unsensuousness," and "higher man" fused into one
+sentiment. If one could observe the strangely painful, equally coarse
+and refined comedy of European Christianity with the derisive and
+impartial eye of an Epicurean god, I should think one would never cease
+marvelling and laughing; does it not actually seem that some single will
+has ruled over Europe for eighteen centuries in order to make a SUBLIME
+ABORTION of man? He, however, who, with opposite requirements (no longer
+Epicurean) and with some divine hammer in his hand, could approach this
+almost voluntary degeneration and stunting of mankind, as exemplified in
+the European Christian (Pascal, for instance), would he not have to
+cry aloud with rage, pity, and horror: "Oh, you bunglers, presumptuous
+pitiful bunglers, what have you done! Was that a work for your hands?
+How you have hacked and botched my finest stone! What have you presumed
+to do!"--I should say that Christianity has hitherto been the most
+portentous of presumptions. Men, not great enough, nor hard enough,
+to be entitled as artists to take part in fashioning MAN; men,
+not sufficiently strong and far-sighted to ALLOW, with sublime
+self-constraint, the obvious law of the thousandfold failures and
+perishings to prevail; men, not sufficiently noble to see the radically
+different grades of rank and intervals of rank that separate man from
+man:--SUCH men, with their "equality before God," have hitherto swayed
+the destiny of Europe; until at last a dwarfed, almost ludicrous species
+has been produced, a gregarious animal, something obliging, sickly,
+mediocre, the European of the present day.
+**56\.** Whoever, driven by enigmatic desire, has long endeavored to get to the bottom of pessimism and free it from the half-Christian, half-German narrowness in which it appears in this century—namely, as Schopenhauer's philosophy; whoever, with an Asian and more than Asian eye, has looked inside the most world-denying of all ways of thinking—beyond good and evil, no longer under morality's authority and delusion—has perhaps, without even wanting to, opened his eyes to the opposite ideal:
+> **Quote:** "the ideal of the most world-approving, exuberant, and vivacious man, who has not only learnt to compromise and arrange with that which was and is, but wishes to have it again AS IT WAS AND IS, for all eternity, insatiably calling out da capo, not only to himself, but to the whole piece and play; and not only the play, but actually to him who requires the play—and makes it necessary; because he always requires himself anew—and makes himself necessary."
+What? And would this not be— > **Quote:** circulus vitiosus deus  ?
+**57\.** The distance and space surrounding man grows with the strength of his intellectual vision: his world becomes deeper; new stars, enigmas, and notions constantly appear. Perhaps everything on which the intellectual eye has practiced its sharpness has been merely an occasion for exercise—a game for children and childish minds. Perhaps the most solemn concepts that have caused the most fighting and suffering—"God" and "sin"—will one day seem no more important than a child's toy or pain seems to an old man; and perhaps another toy and pain will then be necessary for "the old man"—always childish enough, an eternal child!
+**58\.** Has it been noticed how much external idleness, or semi-idleness, is necessary for a true religious life? I mean both for its microscopic work of self-examination, and for its soft tranquility called "prayer," that state of perpetual readiness for the "coming of God." I am referring to idleness with a good conscience—the idleness of tradition and ancestry, familiar with the aristocratic sentiment that work dishonors, vulgarizing body and soul. Consequently, does modern, noisy, time-consuming, conceited, foolishly proud industriousness educate and prepare one for "unbelief" more than anything else? Among those currently living apart from religion in Germany, I find "free-thinkers" of various types; but above all, a majority in whom generations of industriousness have dissolved the religious instincts, so they no longer know religions' purpose and only notice them with dull astonishment. These good people feel fully occupied by business, pleasures, "Fatherland," newspapers, and "family duties"; they have no time for religion. It isn't clear whether it would be a new business or pleasure—for it is impossible, they tell themselves, that people go to church merely to ruin their moods. They are not enemies of religious customs; if circumstances require participation, they do what is asked with patient seriousness, without much curiosity. They live too far outside these matters to feel even the need for a "for" or "against." Among these indifferent people today we can count the majority of German middle-class Protestants, especially in busy commercial centers; also most industrious scholars and university faculty (except theologians, whose existence always gives psychologists new puzzles). Pious people seldom realize how much goodwill—or rather, arbitrary will—is now required for a German scholar to take religion seriously. His whole profession (and his worker-like industriousness, to which modern conscience compels him) inclines him to a lofty serenity toward religion, occasionally mixed with slight disdain for the "spiritual impurity" he assumes in anyone still claiming to belong to the Church. It is only through history—not personal experience—that the scholar reaches respectful seriousness toward religions. But even when his feelings reach gratitude, he has not moved one step closer to what maintains itself as Church or piety; perhaps even the contrary. The practical indifference in which he was born and raised usually evolves into cautious cleanliness avoiding contact with religious people and things; and it may be the very depth of his tolerance that prompts him to avoid the delicate trouble tolerance brings. Every age has its divine type of naivety; and how much naivety—adorable, childlike, boundlessly foolish naivety—is in this scholar's belief in his superiority! How much in the good conscience of his tolerance, the unsuspecting certainty with which his instinct treats the religious man as a lower, less valuable type, beyond which he himself has developed—he, the little arrogant dwarf and mob-man, the diligently alert, head-and-hand drudge of "ideas," of "modern ideas"!
+**59\.** Whoever has seen deeply into the world has guessed what wisdom there is in human superficiality. It is their instinct for self-preservation that teaches them to be flighty, lighthearted, and false. One finds a passionate adoration of "pure forms" in philosophers and artists; there is no doubt that whoever needs such a cult of the superficial has, at some point, made an unfortunate dive beneath it. Perhaps there is a rank order among these "burnt children," the born artists who find life's enjoyment only in falsifying its image (as if taking weary revenge on it). One might guess how much life has disgusted them by how much they wish its image falsified, thinned, refined, deified. One might even count the *homines religiosi* among artists, as their highest rank. It is the profound, suspicious fear of incurable pessimism that forces centuries to sink their teeth into a religious interpretation of existence: the fear of an instinct that senses truth might be reached too soon, before man has become strong enough, hard enough, enough of an artist. Piety, the "Life in God," viewed this way, appears as the most elaborate final product of the fear of truth—as artist-adoration and artist-intoxication before the most logical of falsifications, as the will to invert truth, to seek untruth at any price.
+> **Quote:** "Perhaps there has hitherto been no more effective means of beautifying man than piety, by means of it man can become so artful, so superficial, so iridescent, and so good, that his appearance no longer offends."
+**60\.** To love mankind for God's sake—this has so far been the noblest and most remote sentiment mankind has reached. That love for mankind without underlying redeeming intention is only additional folly and brutishness; that this love must first get its proportion, delicacy, grain of salt and sprinkle of ambergris from a higher inclination—whoever first perceived and experienced this, however his tongue stumbled in expressing such a delicate matter, let him be holy and respected forever as the man who has flown highest and gone astray in the finest fashion!
+**61\.** The philosopher, as we free spirits understand him—the man of greatest responsibility, possessing conscience for mankind's overall development—will use religion for his work of discipline and education, as he uses political and economic conditions. The selective and disciplining influence—destructive and creative—that can be exercised through religion is manifold, depending on the types placed under its spell. For those strong and independent, trained to command, religion is an additional tool for overcoming resistance in authority—a bond uniting rulers and subjects, surrendering the latter's conscience to the former. For unique natures of noble origin inclined toward a retired, contemplative life, religion may be used to obtain peace from cruder affairs and immunity from political filth. The Brahmins understood this: with religious organization, they secured power to nominate kings while keeping themselves apart, with a higher mission. For subjects qualifying themselves for future rule among slowly ascending classes, religion offers motivation to aspire to higher intellectuality and experience feelings of authoritative self-control, silence, and solitude. Asceticism and Puritanism are almost indispensable for educating a race seeking to rise above hereditary baseness. Finally, for ordinary men—the majority existing for service and utility—religion provides invaluable contentment with their lot, peace of heart, ennobling of obedience, additional happiness and sympathy, transfiguration and decoration, justification for all commonplaceness and meanness. Perhaps nothing is so admirable in Christianity and Buddhism as their art of teaching even the lowest to elevate themselves through piety to a seemingly higher order, thereby maintaining satisfaction with the actual world where they find it difficult enough to live—a difficulty that is itself necessary.
+**62\.** To also make the negative accounting against such religions and reveal their secret dangers—the cost is always excessive when religions do not function as an educational tool in the philosopher's hands, but rule as paramount authority; when they want to be the final goal rather than a means. Among humans, as among all animals, there is an excess of defective, diseased, degenerating, infirm, and necessarily suffering individuals; the successful are always the exception—and given that man is the animal not yet properly adapted to his environment, they are the rare exception. Worse: the higher the type a man represents, the more improbable his success. The accidental, the law of irrationality in humanity's makeup, shows itself terribly in its destructive effect on higher men, whose living conditions are delicate, diverse, and difficult. What is the attitude of the two greatest religions toward this excess of failures? They endeavor to preserve whatever can be preserved; as religions for sufferers, they take the side of the weak as principle. They favor those who suffer from life as from disease, and would treat every other life-experience as false. However highly we may value this indulgent care (since in applying it to others, it also applied to the highest and most suffering type), the religions dominant until now are among the primary causes that have kept the type "man" on a lower level—they preserved too much that should have perished. We must thank them for invaluable services; who is grateful enough not to feel poor when contemplating what Christianity's "spiritual men" have done for Europe? But when they gave comfort to the suffering, courage to the oppressed, support to the helpless, lured the broken-hearted into convents—what else did they have to do to work systematically for the preservation of all sick and suffering? This means, in truth, to work for the deterioration of the European race.
+> **Quote:** "To REVERSE all estimates of value—THAT is what they had to do! And to shatter the strong, to spoil great hopes, to cast suspicion on delight in beauty, to break down everything autonomous, manly, conquering, and imperious—all instincts natural to the highest type of "man"—into uncertainty, distress of conscience, and self-destruction; to invert all love of the earthly and supremacy over the earth, into hatred of the earth and earthly things—THAT is the task the Church imposed on itself, and was obliged to impose, until, according to its standard, "unworldliness," "unsensuousness," and "higher man" fused into one sentiment."
+If one could observe the strangely painful, equally coarse and refined comedy of European Christianity with the mocking, impartial eye of an Epicurean god, I think one would never stop marvelling and laughing. Does it not seem that a single will has ruled Europe for eighteen centuries to make a sublime abortion of man? However, he who, with opposite requirements and a divine hammer, could approach this almost voluntary degeneration and stunting of mankind, as seen in the European Christian (Pascal, for instance)—would he not cry out with rage, pity, and horror: "Oh, you bunglers, presumptuous pitiful bunglers, what have you done! Was that a work for your hands? How you have hacked my finest stone! What have you dared!" Christianity has so far been the most ominous of arrogances. Men not great enough, nor hard enough, to be entitled as artists to shape man; men not strong enough to allow, with sublime self-restraint, the obvious law of thousandfold failures to prevail; men not noble enough to see the radically different grades and distances separating man from man: such men, with their "equality before God," have swayed Europe's destiny, until at last
+> **Quote:** "a dwarfed, almost ludicrous species has been produced, a gregarious animal, something obliging, sickly, mediocre, the European of the present day."
 ## CHAPTER IV. APOPHTHEGMS AND INTERLUDES
+**63\.** A dedicated teacher takes things seriously—even himself—only in relation to his students.
+. He who is a thorough teacher takes things seriously--and even
+himself--only in relation to his pupils.
+**64\.** "Knowledge for its own sake"—that is the final trap set by morality: it entangles us completely in morals once again.
+. "Knowledge for its own sake"--that is the last snare laid by
+morality: we are thereby completely entangled in morals once more.
+**65\.** The appeal of knowledge would be small if there weren't so much shame to overcome on the path to reaching it.
+. The charm of knowledge would be small, were it not so much shame has
+to be overcome on the way to it.
+A. We are most dishonest toward our God: he is not allowed to sin.
+A. We are most dishonourable towards our God: he is not PERMITTED to
+sin.
+**66\.** Letting oneself be degraded, robbed, deceived, exploited might be the modesty of a God among men.
+. The tendency of a person to allow himself to be degraded, robbed,
+deceived, and exploited might be the diffidence of a God among men.
+**67\.** To love only one person is barbarism, because it is practiced at the expense of everyone else. This includes love for God!
+. Love to one only is a barbarity, for it is exercised at the expense
+of all others. Love to God also!
+**68\.**
+. "I did that," says my memory. "I could not have done that," says my
+pride, and remains inexorable. Eventually--the memory yields.
+> **Quote:** "I did that," says my memory. "I could not have done that," says my pride, and remains inexorable. Eventually--the memory yields.
+. One has regarded life carelessly, if one has failed to see the hand
+that--kills with leniency.
+**69\.** Only the careless miss the hand that kills with leniency.
+. If a man has character, he has also his typical experience, which
+always recurs.
+**70\.** If a man has character, he also has a typical experience that keeps recurring.
+. THE SAGE AS ASTRONOMER.--So long as thou feelest the stars as an
+"above thee," thou lackest the eye of the discerning one.
+**71\.** THE SAGE AS ASTRONOMER.—As long as you feel the stars are 'above you,' you lack the eye of the discerning one.
+. It is not the strength, but the duration of great sentiments that
+makes great men.
+**72\.** It is not the intensity, but the duration of great feelings that makes people great.
+. He who attains his ideal, precisely thereby surpasses it.
+**73\.** Whoever achieves their ideal, by that very act, surpasses it.
+A. Many a peacock hides his tail from every eye--and calls it his
+pride.
+A. Many a peacock hides its tail from everyone—and calls it pride.
+. A man of genius is unbearable, unless he possess at least two things
+besides: gratitude and purity.
+**74\.** A man of genius is unbearable unless he possesses at least two other things: gratitude and purity.
+. The degree and nature of a man's sensuality extends to the highest
+altitudes of his spirit.
+**75\.** The nature and intensity of a person's sexuality reaches into the highest peaks of their spirit.
+. Under peaceful conditions the militant man attacks himself.
+**76\.** Under peaceful conditions, the warlike man attacks himself.
+. With his principles a man seeks either to dominate, or justify,
+or honour, or reproach, or conceal his habits: two men with the same
+principles probably seek fundamentally different ends therewith.
+**77\.** A man uses principles to dominate, justify, honor, criticize, or hide his habits: two men with the same principles likely pursue different goals.
+. He who despises himself, nevertheless esteems himself thereby, as a
+despiser.
+**78\.** Whoever despises themselves still respects themselves as a self-despiser.
+. A soul which knows that it is loved, but does not itself love,
+betrays its sediment: its dregs come up.
+**79\.** A soul that knows it is loved, but does not love in return, reveals its sediment: the dregs rise to the surface.
+. A thing that is explained ceases to concern us--What did the God
+mean who gave the advice, "Know thyself!" Did it perhaps imply "Cease to
+be concerned about thyself! become objective!"--And Socrates?--And the
+"scientific man"?
+**80\.** Once a thing is explained, it stops concerning us. What did the God mean by "Know thyself!"? Perhaps: "Stop concerning yourself! Become impartial!" And Socrates? The "man of science"?
+. It is terrible to die of thirst at sea. Is it necessary that you
+should so salt your truth that it will no longer--quench thirst?
+**81\.** It is terrible to die of thirst at sea. Is it necessary for you to salt your truth so much that it no longer quenches thirst?
+. "Sympathy for all"--would be harshness and tyranny for THEE, my good
+neighbour.
+**82\.** "Sympathy for everyone" would be harshness and tyranny for you, my dear neighbor.
+. INSTINCT--When the house is on fire one forgets even the
+dinner--Yes, but one recovers it from among the ashes.
+**83\.** INSTINCT—When the house burns, one forgets dinner—but recovers it from the ashes later.
+. Woman learns how to hate in proportion as she--forgets how to charm.
+**84\.** A woman learns how to hate in proportion to how much she forgets how to charm.
+. The same emotions are in man and woman, but in different TEMPO, on
+that account man and woman never cease to misunderstand each other.
+**85\.** Men and women share emotions but at different tempos, so they perpetually misunderstand each other.
+. In the background of all their personal vanity, women themselves
+have still their impersonal scorn--for "woman".
+**86\.** Behind all their personal vanity, women still harbor an impersonal contempt—for "woman."
+. FETTERED HEART, FREE SPIRIT--When one firmly fetters one's heart
+and keeps it prisoner, one can allow one's spirit many liberties: I said
+this once before But people do not believe it when I say so, unless they
+know it already.
+**87\.** FETTERED HEART, FREE SPIRIT—Chaining your heart allows your spirit many freedoms. I've said this before, but people don't believe it unless they already know it.
+. One begins to distrust very clever persons when they become
+embarrassed.
+**88\.** One begins to distrust very clever people when they become embarrassed.
+. Dreadful experiences raise the question whether he who experiences
+them is not something dreadful also.
+**89\.** Horrific experiences raise the question of whether the person experiencing them isn't something horrific themselves.
+. Heavy, melancholy men turn lighter, and come temporarily to their
+surface, precisely by that which makes others heavy--by hatred and love.
+**90\.** Melancholy people are lightened by what weighs others down: hatred and love.
+. So cold, so icy, that one burns one's finger at the touch of him!
+Every hand that lays hold of him shrinks back!--And for that very reason
+many think him red-hot.
+**91\.** So cold, so icy, that you burn your fingers touching him! Every hand that grabs him recoils—and for that reason, many think he is red-hot.
+. Who has not, at one time or another--sacrificed himself for the sake
+of his good name?
+**92\.** Who hasn't, at one time or another, sacrificed themselves for the sake of their reputation?
+. In affability there is no hatred of men, but precisely on that
+account a great deal too much contempt of men.
+**93\.** Friendliness lacks hatred of people, but for that very reason contains too much contempt for them.
+. The maturity of man--that means, to have reacquired the seriousness
+that one had as a child at play.
+**94\.**
+. To be ashamed of one's immorality is a step on the ladder at the end
+of which one is ashamed also of one's morality.
+> **Quote:** The maturity of man--that means, to have reacquired the seriousness that one had as a child at play.
+. One should part from life as Ulysses parted from Nausicaa--blessing
+it rather than in love with it.
+**95\.** Being ashamed of immorality is a step toward being ashamed of morality as well.
+. What? A great man? I always see merely the play-actor of his own
+ideal.
+**96\.** One should leave life as Odysseus left Nausicaa—blessing it rather than being in love with it.
+. When one trains one's conscience, it kisses one while it bites.
+**97\.** What? A great man? I only ever see the actor playing his own ideal.
+. THE DISAPPOINTED ONE SPEAKS--"I listened for the echo and I heard
+only praise."
+**98\.** When you train your conscience, it kisses you while it bites.
+. We all feign to ourselves that we are simpler than we are, we thus
+relax ourselves away from our fellows.
+**99\.** THE DISAPPOINTED ONE SPEAKS—"I listened for the echo, and I heard only praise."
+. A discerning one might easily regard himself at present as the
+animalization of God.
+**100\.** We pretend to ourselves that we are simpler than we are; in this way, we rest from our fellow human beings.
+. Discovering reciprocal love should really disenchant the lover with
+regard to the beloved. "What! She is modest enough to love even you? Or
+stupid enough? Or--or---"
+**101\.** A person who sees clearly might easily view himself today as the animalization of God.
+. THE DANGER IN HAPPINESS.--"Everything now turns out best for me, I
+now love every fate:--who would like to be my fate?"
+**102\.** Discovering mutual love should really disillusion the lover regarding the beloved. "What? She is humble enough to love even you? Or stupid enough? Or—or—"
+. Not their love of humanity, but the impotence of their love,
+prevents the Christians of today--burning us.
+**103\.** THE DANGER IN HAPPINESS.—"Everything is turning out perfectly for me now, I love every fate: who wants to be my fate?"
+. The pia fraus is still more repugnant to the taste (the "piety")
+of the free spirit (the "pious man of knowledge") than the impia fraus.
+Hence the profound lack of judgment, in comparison with the Church,
+characteristic of the type "free spirit"--as ITS non-freedom.
+**104\.** Not their love of humanity, but the weakness of their love, prevents today's Christians from burning us.
+. By means of music the very passions enjoy themselves.
+**105\.** The pious fraud (*pia fraus*) offends the free spirit's "piety" more than the impious fraud (*impia fraus*). This explains the free spirit's profound lack of judgment versus the Church: their own lack of freedom.
+. A sign of strong character, when once the resolution has been
+taken, to shut the ear even to the best counter-arguments. Occasionally,
+therefore, a will to stupidity.
+**106\.** Through music, the passions themselves find enjoyment.
+. There is no such thing as moral phenomena, but only a moral
+interpretation of phenomena.
+**107\.** Strong character closes its ears to the best counter-arguments after a decision; occasionally this requires a will to stupidity.
+. The criminal is often enough not equal to his deed: he extenuates
+and maligns it.
+**108\.**
+. The advocates of a criminal are seldom artists enough to turn the
+beautiful terribleness of the deed to the advantage of the doer.
+> **Quote:** There is no such thing as moral phenomena, but only a moral interpretation of phenomena.
+. Our vanity is most difficult to wound just when our pride has been
+wounded.
+**109\.** The criminal is often not equal to his deed: he makes excuses for it and speaks ill of it.
+. To him who feels himself preordained to contemplation and not to
+belief, all believers are too noisy and obtrusive; he guards against
+them.
+**110\.** A criminal's lawyers are rarely artistic enough to turn the deed's beautiful terror to the doer's advantage.
+. "You want to prepossess him in your favour? Then you must be
+embarrassed before him."
+**111\.** Our vanity is hardest to wound precisely when our pride has already been hurt.
+. The immense expectation with regard to sexual love, and the coyness
+in this expectation, spoils all the perspectives of women at the outset.
+**112\.** To the person destined for contemplation rather than belief, all believers seem too noisy and intrusive; he keeps his distance.
+. Where there is neither love nor hatred in the game, woman's play is
+mediocre.
+**113\.** "You want to win him over? Then you must feel embarrassed in his presence."
+. The great epochs of our life are at the points when we gain courage
+to rebaptize our badness as the best in us.
+**114\.** The massive expectation and shyness within sexual love ruins a woman's perspective from the start.
+. The will to overcome an emotion, is ultimately only the will of
+another, or of several other, emotions.
+**115\.** When neither love nor hate is involved, a woman's performance is mediocre.
+. There is an innocence of admiration: it is possessed by him to whom
+it has not yet occurred that he himself may be admired some day.
+**116\.** The great eras of our lives occur when we find the courage to rename our faults as our best qualities.
+. Our loathing of dirt may be so great as to prevent our cleaning
+ourselves--"justifying" ourselves.
+**117\.** The will to overcome an emotion is ultimately only the will of another emotion, or several others.
+. Sensuality often forces the growth of love too much, so that its
+root remains weak, and is easily torn up.
+**118\.** There is an innocence in admiration: it belongs to those who haven't yet realized they might be admired.
+. It is a curious thing that God learned Greek when he wished to turn
+author--and that he did not learn it better.
+**119\.** Our disgust for filth can be so great that it prevents us from cleaning—or "justifying"—ourselves.
+. To rejoice on account of praise is in many cases merely politeness
+of heart--and the very opposite of vanity of spirit.
+**120\.** Sexuality often forces love to grow too quickly, so its roots remain weak and are easily pulled up.
+. Even concubinage has been corrupted--by marriage.
+**121\.**
+. He who exults at the stake, does not triumph over pain, but because
+of the fact that he does not feel pain where he expected it. A parable.
+> **Quote:** It is a curious thing that God learned Greek when he wished to turn author—and that he did not learn it better.
+. When we have to change an opinion about any one, we charge heavily
+to his account the inconvenience he thereby causes us.
+**122\.** Joy in praise is often just kindness of heart—the opposite of spiritual vanity.
+. A nation is a detour of nature to arrive at six or seven great
+men.--Yes, and then to get round them.
+**123\.** Even living together has been ruined—by marriage.
+. In the eyes of all true women science is hostile to the sense of
+shame. They feel as if one wished to peep under their skin with it--or
+worse still! under their dress and finery.
+**124\.** Someone who rejoices at the stake isn't triumphing over pain, but rather over the fact that they don't feel pain where they expected it. A parable.
+. The more abstract the truth you wish to teach, the more must you
+allure the senses to it.
+**125\.** When we have to change our opinion about someone, we hold them strictly accountable for the inconvenience they cause us.
+. The devil has the most extensive perspectives for God; on that
+account he keeps so far away from him:--the devil, in effect, as the
+oldest friend of knowledge.
+**126\.** A nation is nature’s detour to produce six or seven great men—yes, and then to bypass them.
+. What a person IS begins to betray itself when his talent
+decreases,--when he ceases to show what he CAN do. Talent is also an
+adornment; an adornment is also a concealment.
+**127\.** To all true women, science is an enemy of modesty—it seems to peek under their skin, or worse, under their clothes and jewelry.
+. The sexes deceive themselves about each other: the reason is that
+in reality they honour and love only themselves (or their own ideal, to
+express it more agreeably). Thus man wishes woman to be peaceable: but
+in fact woman is ESSENTIALLY unpeaceable, like the cat, however well she
+may have assumed the peaceable demeanour.
+**128\.** The more abstract the truth you want to teach, the more you must appeal to the senses.
+. One is punished best for one's virtues.
+**129\.** The devil has the broadest perspective on God; thus he keeps his distance—he is knowledge's oldest friend.
+. He who cannot find the way to HIS ideal, lives more frivolously and
+shamelessly than the man without an ideal.
+**130\.** Who a person *is* starts to reveal itself when their talent fades—when they stop showing what they *can* do. Talent is also an ornament; and an ornament is also a disguise.
+. From the senses originate all trustworthiness, all good conscience,
+all evidence of truth.
+**131\.** The sexes deceive each other because they only honor themselves (or their ideal). A man wants a woman peaceful, but woman is essentially unpeaceable, like a cat, however well she acts the part.
+. Pharisaism is not a deterioration of the good man; a considerable
+part of it is rather an essential condition of being good.
+**132\.** One is punished most severely for one's virtues.
+. The one seeks an accoucheur for his thoughts, the other seeks some
+one whom he can assist: a good conversation thus originates.
+**133\.** Those who can't find their ideal live more recklessly than those without one.
+. In intercourse with scholars and artists one readily makes mistakes
+of opposite kinds: in a remarkable scholar one not infrequently finds
+a mediocre man; and often, even in a mediocre artist, one finds a very
+remarkable man.
+**134\.** All reliability, all good conscience, and all evidence of truth come from the senses.
+. We do the same when awake as when dreaming: we only invent and
+imagine him with whom we have intercourse--and forget it immediately.
+**135\.** Pharisaism isn't corruption of the good; much of it is essential to being good.
+. In revenge and in love woman is more barbarous than man.
+**136\.** One person looks for a midwife for their thoughts, the other looks for someone they can help: this is how a good conversation begins.
+. ADVICE AS A RIDDLE.--"If the band is not to break, bite it
+first--secure to make!"
+**137\.** With scholars and artists, we err oppositely: remarkable scholars often hide mediocre men; mediocre artists often conceal remarkable men.
+. The belly is the reason why man does not so readily take himself
+for a God.
+**138\.** Awake or dreaming, we invent the person we interact with—then immediately forget.
+. The chastest utterance I ever heard: "Dans le veritable amour c'est
+l'ame qui enveloppe le corps."
+**139\.** In revenge and in love, woman is more ruthless than man.
+. Our vanity would like what we do best to pass precisely for what is
+most difficult to us.--Concerning the origin of many systems of morals.
+**140\.** ADVICE AS A RIDDLE.—"If the bond is not to break, bite it first—to make it secure!"
+. When a woman has scholarly inclinations there is generally
+something wrong with her sexual nature. Barrenness itself conduces to a
+certain virility of taste; man, indeed, if I may say so, is "the barren
+animal."
+**141\.** The belly is the reason why man does not so readily take himself for a God.
+. Comparing man and woman generally, one may say that woman would
+not have the genius for adornment, if she had not the instinct for the
+SECONDARY role.
+**142\.** The most modest statement I ever heard: "In true love, it is the soul that envelops the body" (*Dans le véritable amour c'est l'âme qui enveloppe le corps*).
+. He who fights with monsters should be careful lest he thereby
+become a monster. And if thou gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will
+also gaze into thee.
+**143\.** Our vanity wants our best acts to seem most difficult—explaining many moral systems.
+. From old Florentine novels--moreover, from life: Buona femmina e
+mala femmina vuol bastone.--Sacchetti, Nov. 86.
+**144\.** Academic interests in a woman usually signal sexual dysfunction. Infertility leads to masculine tastes; man is, after all, "the sterile animal."
+. To seduce their neighbour to a favourable opinion, and afterwards
+to believe implicitly in this opinion of their neighbour--who can do
+this conjuring trick so well as women?
+**145\.** Women's genius for decoration stems from their instinct for a secondary role.
+. That which an age considers evil is usually an unseasonable echo of
+what was formerly considered good--the atavism of an old ideal.
+**146\.**
+. Around the hero everything becomes a tragedy; around the
+demigod everything becomes a satyr-play; and around God everything
+becomes--what? perhaps a "world"?
+> **Quote:** He who fights with monsters should be careful lest he thereby become a monster. And if thou gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will also gaze into thee.
+. It is not enough to possess a talent: one must also have your
+permission to possess it;--eh, my friends?
+**147\.** From old Florentine novels—moreover, from life: *Buona femmina e mala femmina vuol bastone.*—Sacchetti, Nov. 86.
+. "Where there is the tree of knowledge, there is always Paradise":
+so say the most ancient and the most modern serpents.
+**148\.** Who can better trick a neighbor into esteeming them, then believe that esteem, than women?
+. What is done out of love always takes place beyond good and evil.
+**149\.** What one era calls evil is usually an outdated echo of an old ideal once considered good.
+. Objection, evasion, joyous distrust, and love of irony are signs of
+health; everything absolute belongs to pathology.
+**150\.** Around the hero, everything turns into tragedy; around the demigod, everything becomes a farcical play; and around God, everything becomes—what? Perhaps a "world"?
+. The sense of the tragic increases and declines with sensuousness.
+**151\.** It’s not enough to have a talent: one must also have your permission to have it—right, my friends?
+. Insanity in individuals is something rare--but in groups, parties,
+nations, and epochs it is the rule.
+**152\.**
+. The thought of suicide is a great consolation: by means of it one
+gets successfully through many a bad night.
+> **Quote:** "Where there is the tree of knowledge, there is always Paradise": so say the most ancient and the most modern serpents.
+. Not only our reason, but also our conscience, truckles to our
+strongest impulse--the tyrant in us.
+**153\.**
+. One MUST repay good and ill; but why just to the person who did us
+good or ill?
+> **Quote:** What is done out of love always takes place beyond good and evil.
+. One no longer loves one's knowledge sufficiently after one has
+communicated it.
+**154\.** Objection, evasion, cheerful distrust, and love of irony signal health; the absolute belongs to pathology.
+. Poets act shamelessly towards their experiences: they exploit them.
+**155\.** The feeling for tragedy rises and falls with sensuality.
+. "Our fellow-creature is not our neighbour, but our neighbour's
+neighbour":--so thinks every nation.
+**156\.**
+. Love brings to light the noble and hidden qualities of a lover--his
+rare and exceptional traits: it is thus liable to be deceptive as to his
+normal character.
+> **Quote:** Insanity in individuals is something rare—but in groups, parties, nations, and epochs it is the rule.
+. Jesus said to his Jews: "The law was for servants;--love God as I
+love him, as his Son! What have we Sons of God to do with morals!"
+**157\.**
+. IN SIGHT OF EVERY PARTY.--A shepherd has always need of a
+bell-wether--or he has himself to be a wether occasionally.
+> **Quote:** The thought of suicide is a great consolation: by means of it one gets successfully through many a bad night.
+. One may indeed lie with the mouth; but with the accompanying
+grimace one nevertheless tells the truth.
+**158\.** Both reason and conscience submit to our strongest impulse—the inner tyrant.
+. To vigorous men intimacy is a matter of shame--and something
+precious.
+**159\.** One *must* repay good and evil; but why specifically to the person who did them to us?
+. Christianity gave Eros poison to drink; he did not die of it,
+certainly, but degenerated to Vice.
+**160\.** Once shared, knowledge is no longer loved enough.
+. To talk much about oneself may also be a means of concealing
+oneself.
+**161\.** Poets are shameless with their experiences: they exploit them.
+. In praise there is more obtrusiveness than in blame.
+**162\.** "Our fellow creature is not our neighbor, but our neighbor's neighbor"—so thinks every nation.
+. Pity has an almost ludicrous effect on a man of knowledge, like
+tender hands on a Cyclops.
+**163\.** Love reveals a lover's noble, hidden qualities, and thus deceives about his normal character.
+. One occasionally embraces some one or other, out of love to mankind
+(because one cannot embrace all); but this is what one must never
+confess to the individual.
+**164\.** Jesus said to his people: "The law was for servants; love God as I love him, as his Son! What do we Sons of God have to do with morality!"
+. One does not hate as long as one disesteems, but only when one
+esteems equal or superior.
+**165\.** IN VIEW OF EVERY PARTY.—A shepherd always needs a lead sheep—or he has to act like one himself occasionally.
+. Ye Utilitarians--ye, too, love the UTILE only as a VEHICLE for
+your inclinations,--ye, too, really find the noise of its wheels
+insupportable!
+**166\.** The mouth may lie, but the face still tells truth.
+. One loves ultimately one's desires, not the thing desired.
+**167\.** To strong men, intimacy is shameful—and precious.
+. The vanity of others is only counter to our taste when it is
+counter to our vanity.
+**168\.** Christianity gave Eros poison to drink; he didn't die, but degenerated into Vice.
+. With regard to what "truthfulness" is, perhaps nobody has ever been
+sufficiently truthful.
+**169\.** Talking much about oneself can also hide oneself.
+. One does not believe in the follies of clever men: what a
+forfeiture of the rights of man!
+**170\.** There is more intrusiveness in praise than in blame.
+. The consequences of our actions seize us by the forelock, very
+indifferent to the fact that we have meanwhile "reformed."
+**171\.** To a man of knowledge, pity feels almost ridiculous, like tender hands on a Cyclops.
+. There is an innocence in lying which is the sign of good faith in a
+cause.
+**172\.** We sometimes embrace one out of love for humanity, but must never admit it.
+. It is inhuman to bless when one is being cursed.
+**173\.** We don't hate those we look down on, only those we see as equal or superior.
+. The familiarity of superiors embitters one, because it may not be
+returned.
+**174\.** You Utilitarians also love the useful only as a vehicle for your preferences—and find its noise unbearable!
+. "I am affected, not because you have deceived me, but because I can
+no longer believe in you."
+**175\.** In the end, one loves their desires, not the thing they desire.
+. There is a haughtiness of kindness which has the appearance of
+wickedness.
+**176\.** Others' vanity offends only when it clashes with our own.
+. "I dislike him."--Why?--"I am not a match for him."--Did any one
+ever answer so?
+**177\.** Perhaps no one has been truthful enough about what "truthfulness" is.
+**178\.** People don't believe clever men can be foolish: what a violation of human rights!
+**179\.** The consequences of our actions seize us by the forelock, very indifferent to the fact that we have meanwhile 'reformed.'
+**180\.** An innocence in lying signals good faith in a cause.
+**181\.** It is inhuman to bless someone while they are cursing you.
+**182\.** The familiarity of superiors is bitter because it cannot be returned.
+**183\.** "I am upset, not because you lied to me, but because I can no longer believe you."
+**184\.** Some arrogant kindness looks like wickedness.
+**185\.** "I don't like him."—Why?—"I'm not a match for him."—Has anyone ever answered like that?
 ## CHAPTER V. THE NATURAL HISTORY OF MORALS
+**186\.** Modern European moral feelings are as subtle as the "Science of Morals" is coarse-fingered. That term is arrogant; the only proper task now is collecting material and surveying the vast domain of delicate value-distinctions—preparing for a *Theory of Moral Types*. Philosophers, pedantic and ridiculous, demanded more: they sought to *provide a basis* for morality, treating it as something "given." How far from their clumsy pride was the real problem—describing diverse moralities—that they never glimpsed because they knew only their own environment, class, church, or *Zeitgeist*. They never compared *many* moralities.
+. The moral sentiment in Europe at present is perhaps as subtle,
+belated, diverse, sensitive, and refined, as the "Science of Morals"
+belonging thereto is recent, initial, awkward, and coarse-fingered:--an
+interesting contrast, which sometimes becomes incarnate and obvious
+in the very person of a moralist. Indeed, the expression, "Science
+of Morals" is, in respect to what is designated thereby, far too
+presumptuous and counter to GOOD taste,--which is always a foretaste of
+more modest expressions. One ought to avow with the utmost fairness WHAT
+is still necessary here for a long time, WHAT is alone proper for the
+present: namely, the collection of material, the comprehensive survey
+and classification of an immense domain of delicate sentiments of worth,
+and distinctions of worth, which live, grow, propagate, and perish--and
+perhaps attempts to give a clear idea of the recurring and more common
+forms of these living crystallizations--as preparation for a THEORY OF
+TYPES of morality. To be sure, people have not hitherto been so modest.
+All the philosophers, with a pedantic and ridiculous seriousness,
+demanded of themselves something very much higher, more pretentious, and
+ceremonious, when they concerned themselves with morality as a science:
+they wanted to GIVE A BASIC to morality--and every philosopher hitherto
+has believed that he has given it a basis; morality itself, however, has
+been regarded as something "given." How far from their awkward pride
+was the seemingly insignificant problem--left in dust and decay--of a
+description of forms of morality, notwithstanding that the finest hands
+and senses could hardly be fine enough for it! It was precisely owing to
+moral philosophers' knowing the moral facts imperfectly, in an arbitrary
+epitome, or an accidental abridgement--perhaps as the morality of
+their environment, their position, their church, their Zeitgeist, their
+climate and zone--it was precisely because they were badly instructed
+with regard to nations, eras, and past ages, and were by no means eager
+to know about these matters, that they did not even come in sight of the
+real problems of morals--problems which only disclose themselves by
+a comparison of MANY kinds of morality. In every "Science of Morals"
+hitherto, strange as it may sound, the problem of morality itself
+has been OMITTED: there has been no suspicion that there was anything
+problematic there! That which philosophers called "giving a basis to
+morality," and endeavoured to realize, has, when seen in a right light,
+proved merely a learned form of good FAITH in prevailing morality, a new
+means of its EXPRESSION, consequently just a matter-of-fact within the
+sphere of a definite morality, yea, in its ultimate motive, a sort of
+denial that it is LAWFUL for this morality to be called in question--and
+in any case the reverse of the testing, analyzing, doubting, and
+vivisecting of this very faith. Hear, for instance, with what
+innocence--almost worthy of honour--Schopenhauer represents his own
+task, and draw your conclusions concerning the scientificness of a
+"Science" whose latest master still talks in the strain of children and
+old wives: "The principle," he says (page 136 of the Grundprobleme der
+Ethik), [Footnote: Pages 54-55 of Schopenhauer's Basis of Morality,
+translated by Arthur B. Bullock, M.A. (1903).] "the axiom about the
+purport of which all moralists are PRACTICALLY agreed: neminem laede,
+immo omnes quantum potes juva--is REALLY the proposition which all moral
+teachers strive to establish, ... the REAL basis of ethics which
+has been sought, like the philosopher's stone, for centuries."--The
+difficulty of establishing the proposition referred to may indeed be
+great--it is well known that Schopenhauer also was unsuccessful in his
+efforts; and whoever has thoroughly realized how absurdly false and
+sentimental this proposition is, in a world whose essence is Will
+to Power, may be reminded that Schopenhauer, although a pessimist,
+ACTUALLY--played the flute... daily after dinner: one may read about
+the matter in his biography. A question by the way: a pessimist, a
+repudiator of God and of the world, who MAKES A HALT at morality--who
+assents to morality, and plays the flute to laede-neminem morals, what?
+Is that really--a pessimist?
+> **Quote:** "In every 'Science of Morals' hitherto, strange as it may sound, the problem of morality itself has been OMITTED: there has been no suspicion that there was anything problematic there!"
+. Apart from the value of such assertions as "there is a categorical
+imperative in us," one can always ask: What does such an assertion
+indicate about him who makes it? There are systems of morals which are
+meant to justify their author in the eyes of other people; other systems
+of morals are meant to tranquilize him, and make him self-satisfied;
+with other systems he wants to crucify and humble himself, with others
+he wishes to take revenge, with others to conceal himself, with others
+to glorify himself and gave superiority and distinction,--this system of
+morals helps its author to forget, that system makes him, or something
+of him, forgotten, many a moralist would like to exercise power and
+creative arbitrariness over mankind, many another, perhaps, Kant
+especially, gives us to understand by his morals that "what is estimable
+in me, is that I know how to obey--and with you it SHALL not be
+otherwise than with me!" In short, systems of morals are only a
+SIGN-LANGUAGE OF THE EMOTIONS.
+What philosophers called "providing a basis" was merely scholarly faith in prevailing morality—a new way of *expressing* it, not questioning it. Listen to Schopenhauer's honorable innocence: "The principle... *neminem laede, immo omnes quantum potes juva*—harm no one; rather, help everyone as much as you can—is *really* the proposition which all moral teachers strive to establish... the *real* basis of ethics." Anyone realizing how absurdly false this is in a world whose essence is *Will to Power* might recall that Schopenhauer, pessimist though he was, *actually* played the flute daily after dinner. A pessimist who stops at morality and plays flute to "harm-no-one" ethics—what is he? Is that really a pessimist?
+. In contrast to laisser-aller, every system of morals is a sort of
+tyranny against "nature" and also against "reason", that is, however, no
+objection, unless one should again decree by some system of morals, that
+all kinds of tyranny and unreasonableness are unlawful What is
+essential and invaluable in every system of morals, is that it is a
+long constraint. In order to understand Stoicism, or Port Royal,
+or Puritanism, one should remember the constraint under which every
+language has attained to strength and freedom--the metrical constraint,
+the tyranny of rhyme and rhythm. How much trouble have the poets and
+orators of every nation given themselves!--not excepting some of
+the prose writers of today, in whose ear dwells an inexorable
+conscientiousness--"for the sake of a folly," as utilitarian bunglers
+say, and thereby deem themselves wise--"from submission to arbitrary
+laws," as the anarchists say, and thereby fancy themselves "free," even
+free-spirited. The singular fact remains, however, that everything
+of the nature of freedom, elegance, boldness, dance, and masterly
+certainty, which exists or has existed, whether it be in thought itself,
+or in administration, or in speaking and persuading, in art just as in
+conduct, has only developed by means of the tyranny of such arbitrary
+law, and in all seriousness, it is not at all improbable that precisely
+this is "nature" and "natural"--and not laisser-aller! Every artist
+knows how different from the state of letting himself go, is his
+"most natural" condition, the free arranging, locating, disposing,
+and constructing in the moments of "inspiration"--and how strictly and
+delicately he then obeys a thousand laws, which, by their very rigidness
+and precision, defy all formulation by means of ideas (even the most
+stable idea has, in comparison therewith, something floating, manifold,
+and ambiguous in it). The essential thing "in heaven and in earth" is,
+apparently (to repeat it once more), that there should be long OBEDIENCE
+in the same direction, there thereby results, and has always resulted in
+the long run, something which has made life worth living; for instance,
+virtue, art, music, dancing, reason, spirituality--anything whatever
+that is transfiguring, refined, foolish, or divine. The long bondage of
+the spirit, the distrustful constraint in the communicability of
+ideas, the discipline which the thinker imposed on himself to think
+in accordance with the rules of a church or a court, or conformable
+to Aristotelian premises, the persistent spiritual will to interpret
+everything that happened according to a Christian scheme, and in every
+occurrence to rediscover and justify the Christian God:--all this
+violence, arbitrariness, severity, dreadfulness, and unreasonableness,
+has proved itself the disciplinary means whereby the European spirit has
+attained its strength, its remorseless curiosity and subtle mobility;
+granted also that much irrecoverable strength and spirit had to be
+stifled, suffocated, and spoilt in the process (for here, as everywhere,
+"nature" shows herself as she is, in all her extravagant and INDIFFERENT
+magnificence, which is shocking, but nevertheless noble). That
+for centuries European thinkers only thought in order to prove
+something--nowadays, on the contrary, we are suspicious of every thinker
+who "wishes to prove something"--that it was always settled beforehand
+what WAS TO BE the result of their strictest thinking, as it was perhaps
+in the Asiatic astrology of former times, or as it is still at the
+present day in the innocent, Christian-moral explanation of immediate
+personal events "for the glory of God," or "for the good of the
+soul":--this tyranny, this arbitrariness, this severe and magnificent
+stupidity, has EDUCATED the spirit; slavery, both in the coarser and
+the finer sense, is apparently an indispensable means even of spiritual
+education and discipline. One may look at every system of morals in this
+light: it is "nature" therein which teaches to hate the laisser-aller,
+the too great freedom, and implants the need for limited horizons, for
+immediate duties--it teaches the NARROWING OF PERSPECTIVES, and thus, in
+a certain sense, that stupidity is a condition of life and development.
+"Thou must obey some one, and for a long time; OTHERWISE thou wilt come
+to grief, and lose all respect for thyself"--this seems to me to be the
+moral imperative of nature, which is certainly neither "categorical,"
+as old Kant wished (consequently the "otherwise"), nor does it address
+itself to the individual (what does nature care for the individual!),
+but to nations, races, ages, and ranks; above all, however, to the
+animal "man" generally, to MANKIND.
+**187\.** What does a claim like "there is a categorical imperative in us" reveal about its author? Some moral systems justify their authors to others; others soothe or self-satisfy. Some crucify, some revenge, some forget. Many moralists want power over mankind; Kant especially suggests: "What is respectable in me is that I know how to obey—and for you it *shall* be no different!"
+. Industrious races find it a great hardship to be idle: it was a
+master stroke of ENGLISH instinct to hallow and begloom Sunday to such
+an extent that the Englishman unconsciously hankers for his week--and
+work-day again:--as a kind of cleverly devised, cleverly intercalated
+FAST, such as is also frequently found in the ancient world (although,
+as is appropriate in southern nations, not precisely with respect
+to work). Many kinds of fasts are necessary; and wherever powerful
+influences and habits prevail, legislators have to see that intercalary
+days are appointed, on which such impulses are fettered, and learn to
+hunger anew. Viewed from a higher standpoint, whole generations and
+epochs, when they show themselves infected with any moral fanaticism,
+seem like those intercalated periods of restraint and fasting, during
+which an impulse learns to humble and submit itself--at the same time
+also to PURIFY and SHARPEN itself; certain philosophical sects likewise
+admit of a similar interpretation (for instance, the Stoa, in the midst
+of Hellenic culture, with the atmosphere rank and overcharged with
+Aphrodisiacal odours).--Here also is a hint for the explanation of the
+paradox, why it was precisely in the most Christian period of European
+history, and in general only under the pressure of Christian sentiments,
+that the sexual impulse sublimated into love (amour-passion).
+> **Quote:** "In short, systems of morals are only a SIGN-LANGUAGE OF THE EMOTIONS."
+. There is something in the morality of Plato which does not really
+belong to Plato, but which only appears in his philosophy, one might
+say, in spite of him: namely, Socratism, for which he himself was
+too noble. "No one desires to injure himself, hence all evil is done
+unwittingly. The evil man inflicts injury on himself; he would not do
+so, however, if he knew that evil is evil. The evil man, therefore, is
+only evil through error; if one free him from error one will necessarily
+make him--good."--This mode of reasoning savours of the POPULACE, who
+perceive only the unpleasant consequences of evil-doing, and practically
+judge that "it is STUPID to do wrong"; while they accept "good" as
+identical with "useful and pleasant," without further thought. As
+regards every system of utilitarianism, one may at once assume that it
+has the same origin, and follow the scent: one will seldom err.--Plato
+did all he could to interpret something refined and noble into the
+tenets of his teacher, and above all to interpret himself into them--he,
+the most daring of all interpreters, who lifted the entire Socrates out
+of the street, as a popular theme and song, to exhibit him in endless
+and impossible modifications--namely, in all his own disguises and
+multiplicities. In jest, and in Homeric language as well, what is the
+Platonic Socrates, if not--[Greek words inserted here.]
+**188\.** Every moral system tyrannizes "nature" and "reason," but that is no objection. What is essential is long-term constraint. To understand Stoicism or Puritanism, remember how language gained strength through the tyranny of rhyme and rhythm. Poets labored "for the sake of folly," yet freedom, elegance, boldness—all developed through such arbitrary laws. The artist, even in "inspiration," obeys a thousand laws that defy formulation.
+. The old theological problem of "Faith" and "Knowledge," or more
+plainly, of instinct and reason--the question whether, in respect to the
+valuation of things, instinct deserves more authority than rationality,
+which wants to appreciate and act according to motives, according to
+a "Why," that is to say, in conformity to purpose and utility--it
+is always the old moral problem that first appeared in the person of
+Socrates, and had divided men's minds long before Christianity. Socrates
+himself, following, of course, the taste of his talent--that of a
+surpassing dialectician--took first the side of reason; and, in fact,
+what did he do all his life but laugh at the awkward incapacity of the
+noble Athenians, who were men of instinct, like all noble men, and could
+never give satisfactory answers concerning the motives of their actions?
+In the end, however, though silently and secretly, he laughed also
+at himself: with his finer conscience and introspection, he found
+in himself the same difficulty and incapacity. "But why"--he said
+to himself--"should one on that account separate oneself from the
+instincts! One must set them right, and the reason ALSO--one must follow
+the instincts, but at the same time persuade the reason to support them
+with good arguments." This was the real FALSENESS of that great and
+mysterious ironist; he brought his conscience up to the point that he
+was satisfied with a kind of self-outwitting: in fact, he perceived
+the irrationality in the moral judgment.--Plato, more innocent in such
+matters, and without the craftiness of the plebeian, wished to prove to
+himself, at the expenditure of all his strength--the greatest strength
+a philosopher had ever expended--that reason and instinct lead
+spontaneously to one goal, to the good, to "God"; and since Plato, all
+theologians and philosophers have followed the same path--which means
+that in matters of morality, instinct (or as Christians call it,
+"Faith," or as I call it, "the herd") has hitherto triumphed. Unless
+one should make an exception in the case of Descartes, the father of
+rationalism (and consequently the grandfather of the Revolution), who
+recognized only the authority of reason: but reason is only a tool, and
+Descartes was superficial.
+> **Quote:** "The essential thing 'in heaven and in earth' is, apparently (to repeat it once more), that there should be long OBEDIENCE in the same direction, there thereby results, and has always resulted in the long run, something which has made life worth living; for instance, virtue, art, music, dancing, reason, spirituality—anything whatever that is transfiguring, refined, foolish, or divine."
+. Whoever has followed the history of a single science, finds in
+its development a clue to the understanding of the oldest and commonest
+processes of all "knowledge and cognizance": there, as here, the
+premature hypotheses, the fictions, the good stupid will to "belief,"
+and the lack of distrust and patience are first developed--our senses
+learn late, and never learn completely, to be subtle, reliable, and
+cautious organs of knowledge. Our eyes find it easier on a given
+occasion to produce a picture already often produced, than to seize upon
+the divergence and novelty of an impression: the latter requires more
+force, more "morality." It is difficult and painful for the ear to
+listen to anything new; we hear strange music badly. When we hear
+another language spoken, we involuntarily attempt to form the sounds
+into words with which we are more familiar and conversant--it was thus,
+for example, that the Germans modified the spoken word ARCUBALISTA into
+ARMBRUST (cross-bow). Our senses are also hostile and averse to the
+new; and generally, even in the "simplest" processes of sensation, the
+emotions DOMINATE--such as fear, love, hatred, and the passive emotion
+of indolence.--As little as a reader nowadays reads all the single words
+(not to speak of syllables) of a page--he rather takes about five out
+of every twenty words at random, and "guesses" the probably appropriate
+sense to them--just as little do we see a tree correctly and completely
+in respect to its leaves, branches, colour, and shape; we find it so
+much easier to fancy the chance of a tree. Even in the midst of the
+most remarkable experiences, we still do just the same; we fabricate the
+greater part of the experience, and can hardly be made to contemplate
+any event, EXCEPT as "inventors" thereof. All this goes to prove
+that from our fundamental nature and from remote ages we have
+been--ACCUSTOMED TO LYING. Or, to express it more politely and
+hypocritically, in short, more pleasantly--one is much more of an artist
+than one is aware of.--In an animated conversation, I often see the face
+of the person with whom I am speaking so clearly and sharply defined
+before me, according to the thought he expresses, or which I believe to
+be evoked in his mind, that the degree of distinctness far exceeds the
+STRENGTH of my visual faculty--the delicacy of the play of the muscles
+and of the expression of the eyes MUST therefore be imagined by me.
+Probably the person put on quite a different expression, or none at all.
+The spirit's long bondage—thinking under church or court rules, interpreting everything through a Christian scheme—this violence educated the European spirit. Slavery, literal or refined, is indispensable for discipline. Every moral system teaches hatred of *laisser-faire*, implants need for limited horizons, and narrows perspectives. "You must obey someone, and for a long time; *otherwise* you will come to grief"—this is nature's imperative, addressing not individuals but nations, races, and mankind.
+. Quidquid luce fuit, tenebris agit: but also contrariwise. What we
+experience in dreams, provided we experience it often, pertains at
+last just as much to the general belongings of our soul as anything
+"actually" experienced; by virtue thereof we are richer or poorer, we
+have a requirement more or less, and finally, in broad daylight, and
+even in the brightest moments of our waking life, we are ruled to some
+extent by the nature of our dreams. Supposing that someone has often
+flown in his dreams, and that at last, as soon as he dreams, he is
+conscious of the power and art of flying as his privilege and his
+peculiarly enviable happiness; such a person, who believes that on the
+slightest impulse, he can actualize all sorts of curves and angles, who
+knows the sensation of a certain divine levity, an "upwards"
+without effort or constraint, a "downwards" without descending
+or lowering--without TROUBLE!--how could the man with such
+dream-experiences and dream-habits fail to find "happiness" differently
+coloured and defined, even in his waking hours! How could he fail--to
+long DIFFERENTLY for happiness? "Flight," such as is described by poets,
+must, when compared with his own "flying," be far too earthly, muscular,
+violent, far too "troublesome" for him.
+**189\.** Industrious races find idleness difficult. The English made Sunday so holy and gloomy that the Englishman longs for his workweek—a clever *fast*. Where powerful impulses prevail, legislators must appoint "intercalary days" when such impulses are restrained. Entire epochs infected with moral fanaticism appear as these fasting periods. The sexual impulse only sublimated into "romantic love" during the most Christian period, under Christian pressure.
+. The difference among men does not manifest itself only in the
+difference of their lists of desirable things--in their regarding
+different good things as worth striving for, and being disagreed as to
+the greater or less value, the order of rank, of the commonly recognized
+desirable things:--it manifests itself much more in what they regard as
+actually HAVING and POSSESSING a desirable thing. As regards a woman,
+for instance, the control over her body and her sexual gratification
+serves as an amply sufficient sign of ownership and possession to the
+more modest man; another with a more suspicious and ambitious thirst for
+possession, sees the "questionableness," the mere apparentness of such
+ownership, and wishes to have finer tests in order to know especially
+whether the woman not only gives herself to him, but also gives up for
+his sake what she has or would like to have--only THEN does he look upon
+her as "possessed." A third, however, has not even here got to the limit
+of his distrust and his desire for possession: he asks himself whether
+the woman, when she gives up everything for him, does not perhaps do
+so for a phantom of him; he wishes first to be thoroughly, indeed,
+profoundly well known; in order to be loved at all he ventures to let
+himself be found out. Only then does he feel the beloved one fully in
+his possession, when she no longer deceives herself about him, when
+she loves him just as much for the sake of his devilry and concealed
+insatiability, as for his goodness, patience, and spirituality. One
+man would like to possess a nation, and he finds all the higher arts of
+Cagliostro and Catalina suitable for his purpose. Another, with a more
+refined thirst for possession, says to himself: "One may not deceive
+where one desires to possess"--he is irritated and impatient at the idea
+that a mask of him should rule in the hearts of the people: "I must,
+therefore, MAKE myself known, and first of all learn to know myself!"
+Among helpful and charitable people, one almost always finds the awkward
+craftiness which first gets up suitably him who has to be helped, as
+though, for instance, he should "merit" help, seek just THEIR help, and
+would show himself deeply grateful, attached, and subservient to them
+for all help. With these conceits, they take control of the needy as a
+property, just as in general they are charitable and helpful out of a
+desire for property. One finds them jealous when they are crossed or
+forestalled in their charity. Parents involuntarily make something like
+themselves out of their children--they call that "education"; no mother
+doubts at the bottom of her heart that the child she has borne is
+thereby her property, no father hesitates about his right to HIS OWN
+ideas and notions of worth. Indeed, in former times fathers deemed it
+right to use their discretion concerning the life or death of the newly
+born (as among the ancient Germans). And like the father, so also do the
+teacher, the class, the priest, and the prince still see in every new
+individual an unobjectionable opportunity for a new possession. The
+consequence is...
+**190\.** In Plato's morality, Socratism appears despite Plato's nobility. "No one wants to harm himself, therefore all evil is unintentional. The evil man hurts himself; he wouldn't if he knew evil was evil. Thus the evil man errs; free him from error, and you make him good." This reeks of the *common people*, who see only unpleasant consequences. Plato, most daring interpreter, took Socrates off the street like a popular tune for endless variations: *Plato in front, Plato behind, and a Chimera in the middle*.
+. The Jews--a people "born for slavery," as Tacitus and the whole
+ancient world say of them; "the chosen people among the nations," as
+they themselves say and believe--the Jews performed the miracle of the
+inversion of valuations, by means of which life on earth obtained a new
+and dangerous charm for a couple of millenniums. Their prophets fused
+into one the expressions "rich," "godless," "wicked," "violent,"
+"sensual," and for the first time coined the word "world" as a term of
+reproach. In this inversion of valuations (in which is also included
+the use of the word "poor" as synonymous with "saint" and "friend") the
+significance of the Jewish people is to be found; it is with THEM that
+the SLAVE-INSURRECTION IN MORALS commences.
+**191\.** The old problem of "Faith" and "Knowledge"—instinct vs reason—is the same moral problem Socrates first posed. Socrates, supreme logician, mocked noble Athenians who couldn't explain their instinctive actions. Yet he also laughed at himself: with his refined conscience, he found the same incapacity. "But why abandon instincts? Set them right, and reason *also*—follow instincts but persuade reason with good arguments." This was his true *dishonesty*: he recognized moral judgment's irrationality but sanctioned self-deception. Plato, more innocent, wanted to prove reason and instinct spontaneously lead to the same goal: the good, "God." Since Plato, instinct (or "Faith," or "the herd") has triumphed. Descartes, father of rationalism and grandfather of the Revolution, recognized only reason—but reason is only a tool, and Descartes was superficial.
+. It is to be INFERRED that there are countless dark bodies near the
+sun--such as we shall never see. Among ourselves, this is an allegory;
+and the psychologist of morals reads the whole star-writing merely as an
+allegorical and symbolic language in which much may be unexpressed.
+**192\.** The history of any science shows premature hypotheses, foolish will to "believe," lack of skepticism. Our senses never become completely reliable. Eyes reproduce familiar pictures rather than grasp what is new; ears hear unfamiliar music poorly. We try to shape foreign language sounds into familiar words—Germans turned *arcubalista* into *Armbrust*. Emotions dominate sensations: fear, love, hatred, laziness. We don't see a tree completely; we imagine a generic tree. In conversation, I often see faces with impossible detail, imagining muscle-play and eye-expression that likely wasn't there. We are *accustomed to lying*—or more politely, more an artist than we realize.
+. The beast of prey and the man of prey (for instance, Caesar Borgia)
+are fundamentally misunderstood, "nature" is misunderstood, so long as
+one seeks a "morbidness" in the constitution of these healthiest of
+all tropical monsters and growths, or even an innate "hell" in them--as
+almost all moralists have done hitherto. Does it not seem that there is
+a hatred of the virgin forest and of the tropics among moralists? And
+that the "tropical man" must be discredited at all costs, whether
+as disease and deterioration of mankind, or as his own hell and
+self-torture? And why? In favour of the "temperate zones"? In favour
+of the temperate men? The "moral"? The mediocre?--This for the chapter:
+"Morals as Timidity."
+**193\.** *Quidquid luce fuit, tenebris agit*: What happens in dreams eventually belongs to our soul as much as "actual" experience. A man who dreams of flying, conscious of that divine lightness—"upward" without effort, "downward" without sinking—will find waking happiness colored differently. "Flight" as poets describe it would seem too heavy.
+. All the systems of morals which address themselves with a view to
+their "happiness," as it is called--what else are they but suggestions
+for behaviour adapted to the degree of DANGER from themselves in which
+the individuals live; recipes for their passions, their good and bad
+propensities, insofar as such have the Will to Power and would like
+to play the master; small and great expediencies and elaborations,
+permeated with the musty odour of old family medicines and old-wife
+wisdom; all of them grotesque and absurd in their form--because
+they address themselves to "all," because they generalize where
+generalization is not authorized; all of them speaking unconditionally,
+and taking themselves unconditionally; all of them flavoured not merely
+with one grain of salt, but rather endurable only, and sometimes even
+seductive, when they are over-spiced and begin to smell dangerously,
+especially of "the other world." That is all of little value when
+estimated intellectually, and is far from being "science," much less
+"wisdom"; but, repeated once more, and three times repeated, it is
+expediency, expediency, expediency, mixed with stupidity, stupidity,
+stupidity--whether it be the indifference and statuesque coldness
+towards the heated folly of the emotions, which the Stoics advised and
+fostered; or the no-more-laughing and no-more-weeping of Spinoza, the
+destruction of the emotions by their analysis and vivisection, which he
+recommended so naively; or the lowering of the emotions to an innocent
+mean at which they may be satisfied, the Aristotelianism of morals;
+or even morality as the enjoyment of the emotions in a voluntary
+attenuation and spiritualization by the symbolism of art, perhaps as
+music, or as love of God, and of mankind for God's sake--for in religion
+the passions are once more enfranchised, provided that...; or, finally,
+even the complaisant and wanton surrender to the emotions, as has
+been taught by Hafis and Goethe, the bold letting-go of the reins, the
+spiritual and corporeal licentia morum in the exceptional cases of
+wise old codgers and drunkards, with whom it "no longer has much
+danger."--This also for the chapter: "Morals as Timidity."
+**194\.** People differ not just in what they desire, but in what they consider "having" it. A simple man finds control over a woman's body sufficient possession. A more suspicious man demands she give up everything for him. A third wants to be thoroughly known, even in his devilry—only then does he possess her. One man possesses a nation through manipulation; another demands to be truly known: "I must learn to know myself!" Among charitable people, one finds cunning that first molds recipients—making them merit *their* help and show gratitude. Parents turn children into themselves, calling it "education." Teachers, classes, priests, princes see every new individual as property. The consequence is...
+. Inasmuch as in all ages, as long as mankind has existed, there have
+also been human herds (family alliances, communities, tribes, peoples,
+states, churches), and always a great number who obey in proportion
+to the small number who command--in view, therefore, of the fact that
+obedience has been most practiced and fostered among mankind hitherto,
+one may reasonably suppose that, generally speaking, the need thereof is
+now innate in every one, as a kind of FORMAL CONSCIENCE which gives
+the command "Thou shalt unconditionally do something, unconditionally
+refrain from something", in short, "Thou shalt". This need tries to
+satisfy itself and to fill its form with a content, according to its
+strength, impatience, and eagerness, it at once seizes as an omnivorous
+appetite with little selection, and accepts whatever is shouted into
+its ear by all sorts of commanders--parents, teachers, laws, class
+prejudices, or public opinion. The extraordinary limitation of human
+development, the hesitation, protractedness, frequent retrogression, and
+turning thereof, is attributable to the fact that the herd-instinct of
+obedience is transmitted best, and at the cost of the art of command. If
+one imagine this instinct increasing to its greatest extent, commanders
+and independent individuals will finally be lacking altogether, or they
+will suffer inwardly from a bad conscience, and will have to impose
+a deception on themselves in the first place in order to be able to
+command just as if they also were only obeying. This condition of things
+actually exists in Europe at present--I call it the moral hypocrisy of
+the commanding class. They know no other way of protecting themselves
+from their bad conscience than by playing the role of executors of older
+and higher orders (of predecessors, of the constitution, of justice, of
+the law, or of God himself), or they even justify themselves by maxims
+from the current opinions of the herd, as "first servants of their
+people," or "instruments of the public weal". On the other hand, the
+gregarious European man nowadays assumes an air as if he were the only
+kind of man that is allowable, he glorifies his qualities, such as
+public spirit, kindness, deference, industry, temperance, modesty,
+indulgence, sympathy, by virtue of which he is gentle, endurable, and
+useful to the herd, as the peculiarly human virtues. In cases, however,
+where it is believed that the leader and bell-wether cannot be dispensed
+with, attempt after attempt is made nowadays to replace commanders
+by the summing together of clever gregarious men all representative
+constitutions, for example, are of this origin. In spite of all, what a
+blessing, what a deliverance from a weight becoming unendurable, is the
+appearance of an absolute ruler for these gregarious Europeans--of this
+fact the effect of the appearance of Napoleon was the last great proof
+the history of the influence of Napoleon is almost the history of
+the higher happiness to which the entire century has attained in its
+worthiest individuals and periods.
+**195\.** The Jews—"born for slavery" to Tacitus, yet "chosen people" to themselves—performed the miracle of inverting values. Their prophets fused "rich," "godless," "wicked," "violent," "sensual" into one, first using "world" as reproach. This inversion makes their historical significance.
+. The man of an age of dissolution which mixes the races with
+one another, who has the inheritance of a diversified descent in his
+body--that is to say, contrary, and often not only contrary, instincts
+and standards of value, which struggle with one another and are seldom
+at peace--such a man of late culture and broken lights, will, on an
+average, be a weak man. His fundamental desire is that the war which is
+IN HIM should come to an end; happiness appears to him in the character
+of a soothing medicine and mode of thought (for instance, Epicurean
+or Christian); it is above all things the happiness of repose, of
+undisturbedness, of repletion, of final unity--it is the "Sabbath of
+Sabbaths," to use the expression of the holy rhetorician, St. Augustine,
+who was himself such a man.--Should, however, the contrariety and
+conflict in such natures operate as an ADDITIONAL incentive and stimulus
+to life--and if, on the other hand, in addition to their powerful and
+irreconcilable instincts, they have also inherited and indoctrinated
+into them a proper mastery and subtlety for carrying on the conflict
+with themselves (that is to say, the faculty of self-control and
+self-deception), there then arise those marvelously incomprehensible and
+inexplicable beings, those enigmatical men, predestined for conquering
+and circumventing others, the finest examples of which are Alcibiades
+and Caesar (with whom I should like to associate the FIRST of Europeans
+according to my taste, the Hohenstaufen, Frederick the Second), and
+among artists, perhaps Leonardo da Vinci. They appear precisely in the
+same periods when that weaker type, with its longing for repose, comes
+to the front; the two types are complementary to each other, and spring
+from the same causes.
+> **Quote:** "it is with THEM that the SLAVE-INSURRECTION IN MORALS commences."
+. As long as the utility which determines moral estimates is only
+gregarious utility, as long as the preservation of the community is only
+kept in view, and the immoral is sought precisely and exclusively in
+what seems dangerous to the maintenance of the community, there can be
+no "morality of love to one's neighbour." Granted even that there is
+already a little constant exercise of consideration, sympathy, fairness,
+gentleness, and mutual assistance, granted that even in this condition
+of society all those instincts are already active which are latterly
+distinguished by honourable names as "virtues," and eventually almost
+coincide with the conception "morality": in that period they do not
+as yet belong to the domain of moral valuations--they are still
+ULTRA-MORAL. A sympathetic action, for instance, is neither called good
+nor bad, moral nor immoral, in the best period of the Romans; and should
+it be praised, a sort of resentful disdain is compatible with this
+praise, even at the best, directly the sympathetic action is compared
+with one which contributes to the welfare of the whole, to the RES
+PUBLICA. After all, "love to our neighbour" is always a secondary
+matter, partly conventional and arbitrarily manifested in relation to
+our FEAR OF OUR NEIGHBOUR. After the fabric of society seems on the
+whole established and secured against external dangers, it is this
+fear of our neighbour which again creates new perspectives of moral
+valuation. Certain strong and dangerous instincts, such as the love of
+enterprise, foolhardiness, revengefulness, astuteness, rapacity, and
+love of power, which up till then had not only to be honoured from the
+point of view of general utility--under other names, of course, than
+those here given--but had to be fostered and cultivated (because they
+were perpetually required in the common danger against the common
+enemies), are now felt in their dangerousness to be doubly strong--when
+the outlets for them are lacking--and are gradually branded as immoral
+and given over to calumny. The contrary instincts and inclinations now
+attain to moral honour, the gregarious instinct gradually draws its
+conclusions. How much or how little dangerousness to the community or
+to equality is contained in an opinion, a condition, an emotion, a
+disposition, or an endowment--that is now the moral perspective, here
+again fear is the mother of morals. It is by the loftiest and strongest
+instincts, when they break out passionately and carry the individual
+far above and beyond the average, and the low level of the gregarious
+conscience, that the self-reliance of the community is destroyed, its
+belief in itself, its backbone, as it were, breaks, consequently these
+very instincts will be most branded and defamed. The lofty independent
+spirituality, the will to stand alone, and even the cogent reason, are
+felt to be dangers, everything that elevates the individual above the
+herd, and is a source of fear to the neighbour, is henceforth called
+EVIL, the tolerant, unassuming, self-adapting, self-equalizing
+disposition, the MEDIOCRITY of desires, attains to moral distinction and
+honour. Finally, under very peaceful circumstances, there is always
+less opportunity and necessity for training the feelings to severity
+and rigour, and now every form of severity, even in justice, begins
+to disturb the conscience, a lofty and rigorous nobleness and
+self-responsibility almost offends, and awakens distrust, "the lamb,"
+and still more "the sheep," wins respect. There is a point of diseased
+mellowness and effeminacy in the history of society, at which society
+itself takes the part of him who injures it, the part of the CRIMINAL,
+and does so, in fact, seriously and honestly. To punish, appears to it
+to be somehow unfair--it is certain that the idea of "punishment" and
+"the obligation to punish" are then painful and alarming to people. "Is
+it not sufficient if the criminal be rendered HARMLESS? Why should we
+still punish? Punishment itself is terrible!"--with these questions
+gregarious morality, the morality of fear, draws its ultimate
+conclusion. If one could at all do away with danger, the cause of fear,
+one would have done away with this morality at the same time, it
+would no longer be necessary, it WOULD NOT CONSIDER ITSELF any longer
+necessary!--Whoever examines the conscience of the present-day European,
+will always elicit the same imperative from its thousand moral folds
+and hidden recesses, the imperative of the timidity of the herd "we wish
+that some time or other there may be NOTHING MORE TO FEAR!" Some time
+or other--the will and the way THERETO is nowadays called "progress" all
+over Europe.
+**196\.** Countless dark bodies orbit the sun unseen. The psychologist of morals reads the celestial script as symbolic language where much remains unsaid.
+. Let us at once say again what we have already said a hundred
+times, for people's ears nowadays are unwilling to hear such truths--OUR
+truths. We know well enough how offensive it sounds when any one
+plainly, and without metaphor, counts man among the animals, but it will
+be accounted to us almost a CRIME, that it is precisely in respect to
+men of "modern ideas" that we have constantly applied the terms "herd,"
+"herd-instincts," and such like expressions. What avail is it? We cannot
+do otherwise, for it is precisely here that our new insight is. We
+have found that in all the principal moral judgments, Europe has become
+unanimous, including likewise the countries where European influence
+prevails in Europe people evidently KNOW what Socrates thought he
+did not know, and what the famous serpent of old once promised to
+teach--they "know" today what is good and evil. It must then sound hard
+and be distasteful to the ear, when we always insist that that which
+here thinks it knows, that which here glorifies itself with praise
+and blame, and calls itself good, is the instinct of the herding human
+animal, the instinct which has come and is ever coming more and more
+to the front, to preponderance and supremacy over other instincts,
+according to the increasing physiological approximation and resemblance
+of which it is the symptom. MORALITY IN EUROPE AT PRESENT IS
+HERDING-ANIMAL MORALITY, and therefore, as we understand the matter,
+only one kind of human morality, beside which, before which, and after
+which many other moralities, and above all HIGHER moralities, are or
+should be possible. Against such a "possibility," against such a "should
+be," however, this morality defends itself with all its strength, it
+says obstinately and inexorably "I am morality itself and nothing else
+is morality!" Indeed, with the help of a religion which has humoured
+and flattered the sublimest desires of the herding-animal, things have
+reached such a point that we always find a more visible expression of
+this morality even in political and social arrangements: the DEMOCRATIC
+movement is the inheritance of the Christian movement. That its TEMPO,
+however, is much too slow and sleepy for the more impatient ones, for
+those who are sick and distracted by the herding-instinct, is indicated
+by the increasingly furious howling, and always less disguised
+teeth-gnashing of the anarchist dogs, who are now roving through the
+highways of European culture. Apparently in opposition to the peacefully
+industrious democrats and Revolution-ideologues, and still more so
+to the awkward philosophasters and fraternity-visionaries who call
+themselves Socialists and want a "free society," those are really at one
+with them all in their thorough and instinctive hostility to every form
+of society other than that of the AUTONOMOUS herd (to the extent even of
+repudiating the notions "master" and "servant"--ni dieu ni maitre, says
+a socialist formula); at one in their tenacious opposition to every
+special claim, every special right and privilege (this means ultimately
+opposition to EVERY right, for when all are equal, no one needs "rights"
+any longer); at one in their distrust of punitive justice (as though it
+were a violation of the weak, unfair to the NECESSARY consequences of
+all former society); but equally at one in their religion of sympathy,
+in their compassion for all that feels, lives, and suffers (down to the
+very animals, up even to "God"--the extravagance of "sympathy for
+God" belongs to a democratic age); altogether at one in the cry and
+impatience of their sympathy, in their deadly hatred of suffering
+generally, in their almost feminine incapacity for witnessing it or
+ALLOWING it; at one in their involuntary beglooming and heart-softening,
+under the spell of which Europe seems to be threatened with a new
+Buddhism; at one in their belief in the morality of MUTUAL sympathy, as
+though it were morality in itself, the climax, the ATTAINED climax of
+mankind, the sole hope of the future, the consolation of the present,
+the great discharge from all the obligations of the past; altogether at
+one in their belief in the community as the DELIVERER, in the herd, and
+therefore in "themselves."
+**197\.** The predator and "man of prey" (Cesare Borgia) are misunderstood as long as moralists seek "pathology" in these healthiest tropical growths. Do moralists hate the jungle? Must the "tropical man" be discredited as disease or torment? In favor of the temperate, mediocre, moral? This belongs to "Morals as Timidity."
+. We, who hold a different belief--we, who regard the democratic
+movement, not only as a degenerating form of political organization, but
+as equivalent to a degenerating, a waning type of man, as involving his
+mediocrising and depreciation: where have WE to fix our hopes? In
+NEW PHILOSOPHERS--there is no other alternative: in minds strong and
+original enough to initiate opposite estimates of value, to transvalue
+and invert "eternal valuations"; in forerunners, in men of the future,
+who in the present shall fix the constraints and fasten the knots which
+will compel millenniums to take NEW paths. To teach man the future
+of humanity as his WILL, as depending on human will, and to make
+preparation for vast hazardous enterprises and collective attempts in
+rearing and educating, in order thereby to put an end to the frightful
+rule of folly and chance which has hitherto gone by the name of
+"history" (the folly of the "greatest number" is only its last
+form)--for that purpose a new type of philosopher and commander will
+some time or other be needed, at the very idea of which everything that
+has existed in the way of occult, terrible, and benevolent beings might
+look pale and dwarfed. The image of such leaders hovers before OUR
+eyes:--is it lawful for me to say it aloud, ye free spirits? The
+conditions which one would partly have to create and partly utilize for
+their genesis; the presumptive methods and tests by virtue of which
+a soul should grow up to such an elevation and power as to feel a
+CONSTRAINT to these tasks; a transvaluation of values, under the new
+pressure and hammer of which a conscience should be steeled and a heart
+transformed into brass, so as to bear the weight of such responsibility;
+and on the other hand the necessity for such leaders, the dreadful
+danger that they might be lacking, or miscarry and degenerate:--these
+are OUR real anxieties and glooms, ye know it well, ye free spirits!
+these are the heavy distant thoughts and storms which sweep across the
+heaven of OUR life. There are few pains so grievous as to have seen,
+divined, or experienced how an exceptional man has missed his way and
+deteriorated; but he who has the rare eye for the universal danger
+of "man" himself DETERIORATING, he who like us has recognized the
+extraordinary fortuitousness which has hitherto played its game in
+respect to the future of mankind--a game in which neither the hand, nor
+even a "finger of God" has participated!--he who divines the fate that
+is hidden under the idiotic unwariness and blind confidence of
+"modern ideas," and still more under the whole of Christo-European
+morality--suffers from an anguish with which no other is to be compared.
+He sees at a glance all that could still BE MADE OUT OF MAN through
+a favourable accumulation and augmentation of human powers and
+arrangements; he knows with all the knowledge of his conviction how
+unexhausted man still is for the greatest possibilities, and how often
+in the past the type man has stood in presence of mysterious decisions
+and new paths:--he knows still better from his painfulest recollections
+on what wretched obstacles promising developments of the highest rank
+have hitherto usually gone to pieces, broken down, sunk, and become
+contemptible. The UNIVERSAL DEGENERACY OF MANKIND to the level of
+the "man of the future"--as idealized by the socialistic fools and
+shallow-pates--this degeneracy and dwarfing of man to an absolutely
+gregarious animal (or as they call it, to a man of "free society"),
+this brutalizing of man into a pigmy with equal rights and claims, is
+undoubtedly POSSIBLE! He who has thought out this possibility to its
+ultimate conclusion knows ANOTHER loathing unknown to the rest of
+mankind--and perhaps also a new MISSION!
+**198\.** Moral systems addressing "happiness" are recipes for behavior, tailored to how much danger individuals face from their passions. They generalize where generalization is forbidden, speaking in absolute terms. They are expediency, expediency, expediency, mixed with stupidity, stupidity, stupidity—whether Stoic indifference, Spinoza's "no more laughing and no more weeping," Aristotelian moderation, religious passion, or Hafez's and Goethe's indulgent surrender. This too belongs to "Morals as Timidity."
+**199\.** Since herds existed, obedience has been most practiced—perhaps now innate as a formal conscience: "Thou shalt." This need grabs whatever content commanders shout into it. Human development's limitation comes from herd obedience transmitted at the expense of commanding. If this instinct peaks, commanders vanish or suffer bad conscience. This is Europe today: the moral hypocrisy of rulers who play executors of older orders. The modern European "herd man" glorifies gentle, useful qualities—public spirit, kindness, industry, modesty. Where leaders are needed, we aggregate clever herd men (representative governments). What a blessing is an absolute ruler! Napoleon's effect proved this.
+**200\.** A man of mixed race in an age of dissolution carries conflicting instincts. He is weak; his fundamental desire is for the war within him to end. Happiness appears as rest, undisturbedness, final unity—the "Sabbath of Sabbaths." But if this conflict acts as stimulus, and he inherits mastery to conduct this internal war (self-control, self-deception), then enigmatic men arise, the finest examples of which are Alcibiades and Caesar (with whom I should like to associate Frederick II, the first of Europeans according to my taste), and among artists, perhaps Leonardo da Vinci. They complement the weaker type; both spring from the same causes.
+**201\.** While utility means herd utility and community preservation, there is no "morality of love for one's neighbor." Consideration, sympathy, fairness are *ultra-moral*. In Rome's peak, sympathy was neither good nor bad, and was disdained compared to public welfare. Once society seems secure, fear of neighbors creates new valuations. Powerful instincts—enterprise, revenge, cunning, greed—had been useful but now, lacking outlets, become doubly dangerous and are branded immoral. The herd instinct draws conclusions: what threatens community or equality becomes immoral. A high, independent spirituality, will to solitude, powerful reason—everything elevating the individual above the herd becomes *evil*. Mediocrity attains moral honor. In peaceful conditions, severity disturbs conscience; the "lamb" wins respect. Society sides with criminals; punishment seems unfair.
+> **Quote:** "Is it not sufficient if the criminal be rendered HARMLESS? Why should we still punish? Punishment itself is terrible!"
+The herd morality imperative emerges: 'We wish someday there may be *nothing left to fear*!' This 'someday' is called 'progress.'
+**202\.** We must repeat: classifying man among animals offends modern ears, yet we apply "herd" to people of "modern ideas." Europe is unanimous in moral judgments, including where European influence prevails. Europe "knows" good and evil. What believes it knows, glorifying itself with praise and blame, is the herding animal's instinct—dominant over other instincts as physiological similarity grows.
+> **Quote:** "MORALITY IN EUROPE AT PRESENT IS HERDING-ANIMAL MORALITY"
+This is only one kind of morality; many others, especially *higher* moralities, are possible. But this morality defends itself: "I am morality itself, and nothing else is!" With Christianity's help, this appears in political systems:
+> **Quote:** "the DEMOCRATIC movement is the inheritance of the Christian movement."
+Its pace is too slow for impatient anarchists, who share the same deep hostility toward any non-autonomous-herd society. They reject "master" and "servant"—*ni dieu ni maître*. They oppose all special claims and rights, distrust punitive justice, worship sympathy, hate suffering, and believe in community as savior—in the herd, and therefore in "themselves."
+**203\.** We, who see democratic movement as declining man, reduced to mediocrity—where do *we* place hope? In *new philosophers*. We need minds strong enough to transvalue "eternal valuations," to teach that humanity's future depends on human will, preparing for vast breeding and education enterprises, ending chance's rule in "history." For this, a new type of philosopher-commander is needed; all previous spirits would seem pale beside him.
+The image hovers before our eyes. What conditions would create such men? What tests would steel a conscience and heart to brass for such responsibility? This is our real anxiety, you free spirits—the heavy thoughts sweeping across our life's sky.
+Few pains match seeing an exceptional man deteriorate. But he who sees *man himself* deteriorating, who recognizes the randomness—in which no 'finger of God' has participated—playing with humanity's future, who senses the fate under modern ideas and Christian-European morality—he suffers incomparable anguish. He sees what could be made of man, knows how unexhausted human possibilities are, and from painful memory, what obstacles shatter promising developments. The universal degeneracy toward the socialist "man of the future," this shrinking to a pygmy with equal rights, is *possible*! Whoever thinks this through knows a *disgust* unknown to others—and perhaps a new *mission*!
 ## CHAPTER VI. WE SCHOLARS
+**204\.** I protest the injurious shift in rank between science and philosophy—at the risk of moralizing or, as Balzac put it, 'showing one’s wounds' (*montrer ses plaies*). One needs unfortunate experience to speak on this rank, lest we speak of color like the blind, or against science like women and artists who sigh, "Ah, this dreadful science! It always finds things out!"
+. At the risk that moralizing may also reveal itself here as that
+which it has always been--namely, resolutely MONTRER SES PLAIES,
+according to Balzac--I would venture to protest against an improper and
+injurious alteration of rank, which quite unnoticed, and as if with the
+best conscience, threatens nowadays to establish itself in the relations
+of science and philosophy. I mean to say that one must have the right
+out of one's own EXPERIENCE--experience, as it seems to me, always
+implies unfortunate experience?--to treat of such an important question
+of rank, so as not to speak of colour like the blind, or AGAINST science
+like women and artists ("Ah! this dreadful science!" sigh their instinct
+and their shame, "it always FINDS THINGS OUT!"). The declaration of
+independence of the scientific man, his emancipation from philosophy,
+is one of the subtler after-effects of democratic organization and
+disorganization: the self-glorification and self-conceitedness of
+the learned man is now everywhere in full bloom, and in its best
+springtime--which does not mean to imply that in this case self-praise
+smells sweet. Here also the instinct of the populace cries, "Freedom
+from all masters!" and after science has, with the happiest results,
+resisted theology, whose "hand-maid" it had been too long, it now
+proposes in its wantonness and indiscretion to lay down laws for
+philosophy, and in its turn to play the "master"--what am I saying!
+to play the PHILOSOPHER on its own account. My memory--the memory of
+a scientific man, if you please!--teems with the naivetes of insolence
+which I have heard about philosophy and philosophers from young
+naturalists and old physicians (not to mention the most cultured and
+most conceited of all learned men, the philologists and schoolmasters,
+who are both the one and the other by profession). On one occasion it
+was the specialist and the Jack Horner who instinctively stood on the
+defensive against all synthetic tasks and capabilities; at another time
+it was the industrious worker who had got a scent of OTIUM and refined
+luxuriousness in the internal economy of the philosopher, and felt
+himself aggrieved and belittled thereby. On another occasion it was the
+colour-blindness of the utilitarian, who sees nothing in philosophy but
+a series of REFUTED systems, and an extravagant expenditure which "does
+nobody any good". At another time the fear of disguised mysticism and of
+the boundary-adjustment of knowledge became conspicuous, at another
+time the disregard of individual philosophers, which had involuntarily
+extended to disregard of philosophy generally. In fine, I found most
+frequently, behind the proud disdain of philosophy in young scholars,
+the evil after-effect of some particular philosopher, to whom on the
+whole obedience had been foresworn, without, however, the spell of his
+scornful estimates of other philosophers having been got rid of--the
+result being a general ill-will to all philosophy. (Such seems to
+me, for instance, the after-effect of Schopenhauer on the most modern
+Germany: by his unintelligent rage against Hegel, he has succeeded in
+severing the whole of the last generation of Germans from its connection
+with German culture, which culture, all things considered, has been
+an elevation and a divining refinement of the HISTORICAL SENSE, but
+precisely at this point Schopenhauer himself was poor, irreceptive,
+and un-German to the extent of ingeniousness.) On the whole, speaking
+generally, it may just have been the humanness, all-too-humanness of the
+modern philosophers themselves, in short, their contemptibleness, which
+has injured most radically the reverence for philosophy and opened the
+doors to the instinct of the populace. Let it but be acknowledged to
+what an extent our modern world diverges from the whole style of the
+world of Heraclitus, Plato, Empedocles, and whatever else all the royal
+and magnificent anchorites of the spirit were called, and with what
+justice an honest man of science MAY feel himself of a better family and
+origin, in view of such representatives of philosophy, who, owing to
+the fashion of the present day, are just as much aloft as they are down
+below--in Germany, for instance, the two lions of Berlin, the anarchist
+Eugen Duhring and the amalgamist Eduard von Hartmann. It is especially
+the sight of those hotch-potch philosophers, who call themselves
+"realists," or "positivists," which is calculated to implant a
+dangerous distrust in the soul of a young and ambitious scholar those
+philosophers, at the best, are themselves but scholars and specialists,
+that is very evident! All of them are persons who have been vanquished
+and BROUGHT BACK AGAIN under the dominion of science, who at one time
+or another claimed more from themselves, without having a right to the
+"more" and its responsibility--and who now, creditably, rancorously, and
+vindictively, represent in word and deed, DISBELIEF in the master-task
+and supremacy of philosophy After all, how could it be otherwise?
+Science flourishes nowadays and has the good conscience clearly visible
+on its countenance, while that to which the entire modern philosophy has
+gradually sunk, the remnant of philosophy of the present day, excites
+distrust and displeasure, if not scorn and pity Philosophy reduced to
+a "theory of knowledge," no more in fact than a diffident science of
+epochs and doctrine of forbearance a philosophy that never even
+gets beyond the threshold, and rigorously DENIES itself the right
+to enter--that is philosophy in its last throes, an end, an agony,
+something that awakens pity. How could such a philosophy--RULE!
+The scientist's declaration of independence from philosophy is a subtle after-effect of democracy. After resisting theology, science now arrogantly proposes to lay down laws for philosophy—to play the philosopher itself.
+. The dangers that beset the evolution of the philosopher are, in
+fact, so manifold nowadays, that one might doubt whether this fruit
+could still come to maturity. The extent and towering structure of the
+sciences have increased enormously, and therewith also the probability
+that the philosopher will grow tired even as a learner, or will attach
+himself somewhere and "specialize" so that he will no longer attain to
+his elevation, that is to say, to his superspection, his circumspection,
+and his DESPECTION. Or he gets aloft too late, when the best of his
+maturity and strength is past, or when he is impaired, coarsened, and
+deteriorated, so that his view, his general estimate of things, is no
+longer of much importance. It is perhaps just the refinement of his
+intellectual conscience that makes him hesitate and linger on the
+way, he dreads the temptation to become a dilettante, a millepede, a
+milleantenna, he knows too well that as a discerner, one who has lost
+his self-respect no longer commands, no longer LEADS, unless he should
+aspire to become a great play-actor, a philosophical Cagliostro and
+spiritual rat-catcher--in short, a misleader. This is in the last
+instance a question of taste, if it has not really been a question of
+conscience. To double once more the philosopher's difficulties, there is
+also the fact that he demands from himself a verdict, a Yea or Nay, not
+concerning science, but concerning life and the worth of life--he learns
+unwillingly to believe that it is his right and even his duty to obtain
+this verdict, and he has to seek his way to the right and the belief
+only through the most extensive (perhaps disturbing and destroying)
+experiences, often hesitating, doubting, and dumbfounded. In fact, the
+philosopher has long been mistaken and confused by the multitude, either
+with the scientific man and ideal scholar, or with the religiously
+elevated, desensualized, desecularized visionary and God-intoxicated
+man; and even yet when one hears anybody praised, because he lives
+"wisely," or "as a philosopher," it hardly means anything more than
+"prudently and apart." Wisdom: that seems to the populace to be a kind
+of flight, a means and artifice for withdrawing successfully from a
+bad game; but the GENUINE philosopher--does it not seem so to US,
+my friends?--lives "unphilosophically" and "unwisely," above all,
+IMPRUDENTLY, and feels the obligation and burden of a hundred attempts
+and temptations of life--he risks HIMSELF constantly, he plays THIS bad
+game.
+My memory teems with the insolence I've heard from young naturalists, old physicians, linguists, and schoolmasters. The specialist defends against comprehensive tasks; the worker resents the philosopher's leisure; the utilitarian sees only waste; others fear mysticism or extend disdain for individual philosophers to philosophy itself. Behind young scholars' proud disdain often lurks the bad influence of some particular philosopher they've sworn off but not escaped—as with Schopenhauer's effect on modern Germany, severing it from its cultural-historical sense.
+. In relation to the genius, that is to say, a being who either
+ENGENDERS or PRODUCES--both words understood in their fullest sense--the
+man of learning, the scientific average man, has always something of
+the old maid about him; for, like her, he is not conversant with the two
+principal functions of man. To both, of course, to the scholar and
+to the old maid, one concedes respectability, as if by way of
+indemnification--in these cases one emphasizes the respectability--and
+yet, in the compulsion of this concession, one has the same admixture
+of vexation. Let us examine more closely: what is the scientific man?
+Firstly, a commonplace type of man, with commonplace virtues: that is
+to say, a non-ruling, non-authoritative, and non-self-sufficient type
+of man; he possesses industry, patient adaptableness to rank and file,
+equability and moderation in capacity and requirement; he has the
+instinct for people like himself, and for that which they require--for
+instance: the portion of independence and green meadow without which
+there is no rest from labour, the claim to honour and consideration
+(which first and foremost presupposes recognition and recognisability),
+the sunshine of a good name, the perpetual ratification of his value and
+usefulness, with which the inward DISTRUST which lies at the bottom of
+the heart of all dependent men and gregarious animals, has again and
+again to be overcome. The learned man, as is appropriate, has also
+maladies and faults of an ignoble kind: he is full of petty envy, and
+has a lynx-eye for the weak points in those natures to whose elevations
+he cannot attain. He is confiding, yet only as one who lets himself go,
+but does not FLOW; and precisely before the man of the great current he
+stands all the colder and more reserved--his eye is then like a smooth
+and irresponsive lake, which is no longer moved by rapture or sympathy.
+The worst and most dangerous thing of which a scholar is capable results
+from the instinct of mediocrity of his type, from the Jesuitism of
+mediocrity, which labours instinctively for the destruction of
+the exceptional man, and endeavours to break--or still better, to
+relax--every bent bow To relax, of course, with consideration, and
+naturally with an indulgent hand--to RELAX with confiding sympathy
+that is the real art of Jesuitism, which has always understood how to
+introduce itself as the religion of sympathy.
+But the doors were opened by modern philosophers' own "all-too-humanness," their contemptibility. Consider how far we are from Heraclitus, Plato, Empedocles—those royal hermits of spirit. Today's philosophers, fashionable and feeble, stand above and below; in Germany, the "lions" of Berlin: anarchist Dühring and compiler Hartmann.
+. However gratefully one may welcome the OBJECTIVE spirit--and
+who has not been sick to death of all subjectivity and its confounded
+IPSISIMOSITY!--in the end, however, one must learn caution even with
+regard to one's gratitude, and put a stop to the exaggeration with
+which the unselfing and depersonalizing of the spirit has recently been
+celebrated, as if it were the goal in itself, as if it were salvation
+and glorification--as is especially accustomed to happen in the
+pessimist school, which has also in its turn good reasons for paying the
+highest honours to "disinterested knowledge" The objective man, who no
+longer curses and scolds like the pessimist, the IDEAL man of learning
+in whom the scientific instinct blossoms forth fully after a thousand
+complete and partial failures, is assuredly one of the most costly
+instruments that exist, but his place is in the hand of one who is more
+powerful He is only an instrument, we may say, he is a MIRROR--he is no
+"purpose in himself" The objective man is in truth a mirror accustomed
+to prostration before everything that wants to be known, with such
+desires only as knowing or "reflecting" implies--he waits until
+something comes, and then expands himself sensitively, so that even the
+light footsteps and gliding-past of spiritual beings may not be lost on
+his surface and film Whatever "personality" he still possesses seems to
+him accidental, arbitrary, or still oftener, disturbing, so much has he
+come to regard himself as the passage and reflection of outside forms
+and events He calls up the recollection of "himself" with an effort,
+and not infrequently wrongly, he readily confounds himself with other
+persons, he makes mistakes with regard to his own needs, and here only
+is he unrefined and negligent Perhaps he is troubled about the health,
+or the pettiness and confined atmosphere of wife and friend, or the lack
+of companions and society--indeed, he sets himself to reflect on his
+suffering, but in vain! His thoughts already rove away to the MORE
+GENERAL case, and tomorrow he knows as little as he knew yesterday how
+to help himself He does not now take himself seriously and devote time
+to himself he is serene, NOT from lack of trouble, but from lack
+of capacity for grasping and dealing with HIS trouble The habitual
+complaisance with respect to all objects and experiences, the radiant
+and impartial hospitality with which he receives everything that
+comes his way, his habit of inconsiderate good-nature, of dangerous
+indifference as to Yea and Nay: alas! there are enough of cases in which
+he has to atone for these virtues of his!--and as man generally, he
+becomes far too easily the CAPUT MORTUUM of such virtues. Should one
+wish love or hatred from him--I mean love and hatred as God, woman, and
+animal understand them--he will do what he can, and furnish what he can.
+But one must not be surprised if it should not be much--if he should
+show himself just at this point to be false, fragile, questionable, and
+deteriorated. His love is constrained, his hatred is artificial, and
+rather UN TOUR DE FORCE, a slight ostentation and exaggeration. He is
+only genuine so far as he can be objective; only in his serene totality
+is he still "nature" and "natural." His mirroring and eternally
+self-polishing soul no longer knows how to affirm, no longer how to
+deny; he does not command; neither does he destroy. "JE NE MEPRISE
+PRESQUE RIEN"--he says, with Leibniz: let us not overlook nor undervalue
+the PRESQUE! Neither is he a model man; he does not go in advance of any
+one, nor after, either; he places himself generally too far off to have
+any reason for espousing the cause of either good or evil. If he has
+been so long confounded with the PHILOSOPHER, with the Caesarian trainer
+and dictator of civilization, he has had far too much honour, and what
+is more essential in him has been overlooked--he is an instrument,
+something of a slave, though certainly the sublimest sort of slave, but
+nothing in himself--PRESQUE RIEN! The objective man is an instrument,
+a costly, easily injured, easily tarnished measuring instrument and
+mirroring apparatus, which is to be taken care of and respected; but he
+is no goal, not outgoing nor upgoing, no complementary man in whom the
+REST of existence justifies itself, no termination--and still less a
+commencement, an engendering, or primary cause, nothing hardy, powerful,
+self-centred, that wants to be master; but rather only a soft, inflated,
+delicate, movable potter's-form, that must wait for some kind of content
+and frame to "shape" itself thereto--for the most part a man without
+frame and content, a "selfless" man. Consequently, also, nothing for
+women, IN PARENTHESI.
+The "mish-mash" philosophers calling themselves realists or positivists are merely scholars defeated and returned to science's dominion, representing disbelief in philosophy's mastery. Science flourishes with clear conscience while modern philosophy—reduced to a "theory of knowledge," never crossing thresholds, denying itself entry—excites only pity. How could such philosophy rule?
+. When a philosopher nowadays makes known that he is not a skeptic--I
+hope that has been gathered from the foregoing description of the
+objective spirit?--people all hear it impatiently; they regard him on
+that account with some apprehension, they would like to ask so many,
+many questions... indeed among timid hearers, of whom there are now so
+many, he is henceforth said to be dangerous. With his repudiation of
+skepticism, it seems to them as if they heard some evil-threatening
+sound in the distance, as if a new kind of explosive were being tried
+somewhere, a dynamite of the spirit, perhaps a newly discovered Russian
+NIHILINE, a pessimism BONAE VOLUNTATIS, that not only denies, means
+denial, but--dreadful thought! PRACTISES denial. Against this kind of
+"good-will"--a will to the veritable, actual negation of life--there is,
+as is generally acknowledged nowadays, no better soporific and sedative
+than skepticism, the mild, pleasing, lulling poppy of skepticism;
+and Hamlet himself is now prescribed by the doctors of the day as an
+antidote to the "spirit," and its underground noises. "Are not our ears
+already full of bad sounds?" say the skeptics, as lovers of repose, and
+almost as a kind of safety police; "this subterranean Nay is terrible!
+Be still, ye pessimistic moles!" The skeptic, in effect, that delicate
+creature, is far too easily frightened; his conscience is schooled so
+as to start at every Nay, and even at that sharp, decided Yea, and feels
+something like a bite thereby. Yea! and Nay!--they seem to him opposed
+to morality; he loves, on the contrary, to make a festival to his virtue
+by a noble aloofness, while perhaps he says with Montaigne: "What do I
+know?" Or with Socrates: "I know that I know nothing." Or: "Here I do
+not trust myself, no door is open to me." Or: "Even if the door were
+open, why should I enter immediately?" Or: "What is the use of any hasty
+hypotheses? It might quite well be in good taste to make no hypotheses
+at all. Are you absolutely obliged to straighten at once what is
+crooked? to stuff every hole with some kind of oakum? Is there not time
+enough for that? Has not the time leisure? Oh, ye demons, can ye not
+at all WAIT? The uncertain also has its charms, the Sphinx, too, is a
+Circe, and Circe, too, was a philosopher."--Thus does a skeptic console
+himself; and in truth he needs some consolation. For skepticism is
+the most spiritual expression of a certain many-sided physiological
+temperament, which in ordinary language is called nervous debility and
+sickliness; it arises whenever races or classes which have been long
+separated, decisively and suddenly blend with one another. In the new
+generation, which has inherited as it were different standards and
+valuations in its blood, everything is disquiet, derangement, doubt, and
+tentativeness; the best powers operate restrictively, the very virtues
+prevent each other growing and becoming strong, equilibrium, ballast,
+and perpendicular stability are lacking in body and soul. That, however,
+which is most diseased and degenerated in such nondescripts is the
+WILL; they are no longer familiar with independence of decision, or
+the courageous feeling of pleasure in willing--they are doubtful of the
+"freedom of the will" even in their dreams Our present-day Europe,
+the scene of a senseless, precipitate attempt at a radical blending of
+classes, and CONSEQUENTLY of races, is therefore skeptical in all its
+heights and depths, sometimes exhibiting the mobile skepticism which
+springs impatiently and wantonly from branch to branch, sometimes with
+gloomy aspect, like a cloud over-charged with interrogative signs--and
+often sick unto death of its will! Paralysis of will, where do we not
+find this cripple sitting nowadays! And yet how bedecked oftentimes' How
+seductively ornamented! There are the finest gala dresses and disguises
+for this disease, and that, for instance, most of what places itself
+nowadays in the show-cases as "objectiveness," "the scientific spirit,"
+"L'ART POUR L'ART," and "pure voluntary knowledge," is only decked-out
+skepticism and paralysis of will--I am ready to answer for this
+diagnosis of the European disease--The disease of the will is diffused
+unequally over Europe, it is worst and most varied where civilization
+has longest prevailed, it decreases according as "the barbarian"
+still--or again--asserts his claims under the loose drapery of Western
+culture It is therefore in the France of today, as can be readily
+disclosed and comprehended, that the will is most infirm, and France,
+which has always had a masterly aptitude for converting even the
+portentous crises of its spirit into something charming and seductive,
+now manifests emphatically its intellectual ascendancy over Europe,
+by being the school and exhibition of all the charms of skepticism The
+power to will and to persist, moreover, in a resolution, is already
+somewhat stronger in Germany, and again in the North of Germany it
+is stronger than in Central Germany, it is considerably stronger in
+England, Spain, and Corsica, associated with phlegm in the former and
+with hard skulls in the latter--not to mention Italy, which is too young
+yet to know what it wants, and must first show whether it can exercise
+will, but it is strongest and most surprising of all in that immense
+middle empire where Europe as it were flows back to Asia--namely, in
+Russia There the power to will has been long stored up and accumulated,
+there the will--uncertain whether to be negative or affirmative--waits
+threateningly to be discharged (to borrow their pet phrase from our
+physicists) Perhaps not only Indian wars and complications in Asia would
+be necessary to free Europe from its greatest danger, but also internal
+subversion, the shattering of the empire into small states, and above
+all the introduction of parliamentary imbecility, together with the
+obligation of every one to read his newspaper at breakfast I do not
+say this as one who desires it, in my heart I should rather prefer the
+contrary--I mean such an increase in the threatening attitude of
+Russia, that Europe would have to make up its mind to become equally
+threatening--namely, TO ACQUIRE ONE WILL, by means of a new caste to
+rule over the Continent, a persistent, dreadful will of its own, that
+can set its aims thousands of years ahead; so that the long spun-out
+comedy of its petty-statism, and its dynastic as well as its democratic
+many-willed-ness, might finally be brought to a close. The time for
+petty politics is past; the next century will bring the struggle for the
+dominion of the world--the COMPULSION to great politics.
+> **Quote:** "Philosophy reduced to a 'theory of knowledge,' no more in fact than a diffident science of epochs and doctrine of forbearance a philosophy that never even gets beyond the threshold, and rigorously DENIES itself the right to enter—that is philosophy in its last throes, an end, an agony, something that awakens pity. How could such a philosophy—RULE!"
+. As to how far the new warlike age on which we Europeans have
+evidently entered may perhaps favour the growth of another and stronger
+kind of skepticism, I should like to express myself preliminarily
+merely by a parable, which the lovers of German history will already
+understand. That unscrupulous enthusiast for big, handsome grenadiers
+(who, as King of Prussia, brought into being a military and skeptical
+genius--and therewith, in reality, the new and now triumphantly emerged
+type of German), the problematic, crazy father of Frederick the Great,
+had on one point the very knack and lucky grasp of the genius: he knew
+what was then lacking in Germany, the want of which was a hundred times
+more alarming and serious than any lack of culture and social form--his
+ill-will to the young Frederick resulted from the anxiety of a profound
+instinct. MEN WERE LACKING; and he suspected, to his bitterest regret,
+that his own son was not man enough. There, however, he deceived
+himself; but who would not have deceived himself in his place? He saw
+his son lapsed to atheism, to the ESPRIT, to the pleasant frivolity of
+clever Frenchmen--he saw in the background the great bloodsucker, the
+spider skepticism; he suspected the incurable wretchedness of a heart no
+longer hard enough either for evil or good, and of a broken will that no
+longer commands, is no longer ABLE to command. Meanwhile, however,
+there grew up in his son that new kind of harder and more dangerous
+skepticism--who knows TO WHAT EXTENT it was encouraged just by
+his father's hatred and the icy melancholy of a will condemned to
+solitude?--the skepticism of daring manliness, which is closely related
+to the genius for war and conquest, and made its first entrance into
+Germany in the person of the great Frederick. This skepticism despises
+and nevertheless grasps; it undermines and takes possession; it does
+not believe, but it does not thereby lose itself; it gives the spirit a
+dangerous liberty, but it keeps strict guard over the heart. It is the
+GERMAN form of skepticism, which, as a continued Fredericianism, risen
+to the highest spirituality, has kept Europe for a considerable time
+under the dominion of the German spirit and its critical and historical
+distrust Owing to the insuperably strong and tough masculine character
+of the great German philologists and historical critics (who,
+rightly estimated, were also all of them artists of destruction
+and dissolution), a NEW conception of the German spirit gradually
+established itself--in spite of all Romanticism in music and
+philosophy--in which the leaning towards masculine skepticism was
+decidedly prominent whether, for instance, as fearlessness of gaze, as
+courage and sternness of the dissecting hand, or as resolute will to
+dangerous voyages of discovery, to spiritualized North Pole expeditions
+under barren and dangerous skies. There may be good grounds for it when
+warm-blooded and superficial humanitarians cross themselves before this
+spirit, CET ESPRIT FATALISTE, IRONIQUE, MEPHISTOPHELIQUE, as Michelet
+calls it, not without a shudder. But if one would realize how
+characteristic is this fear of the "man" in the German spirit which
+awakened Europe out of its "dogmatic slumber," let us call to mind the
+former conception which had to be overcome by this new one--and that
+it is not so very long ago that a masculinized woman could dare, with
+unbridled presumption, to recommend the Germans to the interest of
+Europe as gentle, good-hearted, weak-willed, and poetical fools.
+Finally, let us only understand profoundly enough Napoleon's
+astonishment when he saw Goethe it reveals what had been regarded for
+centuries as the "German spirit" "VOILA UN HOMME!"--that was as much as
+to say "But this is a MAN! And I only expected to see a German!"
+**205\.** The philosopher's evolution faces such dangers one might doubt the fruit can mature. The sciences' towering scope makes the philosopher tire while learning, or attach himself and specialize—never reaching his proper elevation: his superspection, circumspection, and despection. Or he reaches it too late, coarsened and diminished.
+. Supposing, then, that in the picture of the philosophers of the
+future, some trait suggests the question whether they must not perhaps
+be skeptics in the last-mentioned sense, something in them would only be
+designated thereby--and not they themselves. With equal right they might
+call themselves critics, and assuredly they will be men of experiments.
+By the name with which I ventured to baptize them, I have already
+expressly emphasized their attempting and their love of attempting is
+this because, as critics in body and soul, they will love to make use
+of experiments in a new, and perhaps wider and more dangerous sense? In
+their passion for knowledge, will they have to go further in daring and
+painful attempts than the sensitive and pampered taste of a democratic
+century can approve of?--There is no doubt these coming ones will be
+least able to dispense with the serious and not unscrupulous qualities
+which distinguish the critic from the skeptic I mean the certainty as to
+standards of worth, the conscious employment of a unity of method,
+the wary courage, the standing-alone, and the capacity for
+self-responsibility, indeed, they will avow among themselves a DELIGHT
+in denial and dissection, and a certain considerate cruelty, which knows
+how to handle the knife surely and deftly, even when the heart bleeds
+They will be STERNER (and perhaps not always towards themselves only)
+than humane people may desire, they will not deal with the "truth" in
+order that it may "please" them, or "elevate" and "inspire" them--they
+will rather have little faith in "TRUTH" bringing with it such revels
+for the feelings. They will smile, those rigorous spirits, when any one
+says in their presence "That thought elevates me, why should it not be
+true?" or "That work enchants me, why should it not be beautiful?" or
+"That artist enlarges me, why should he not be great?" Perhaps they
+will not only have a smile, but a genuine disgust for all that is thus
+rapturous, idealistic, feminine, and hermaphroditic, and if any one
+could look into their inmost hearts, he would not easily find therein
+the intention to reconcile "Christian sentiments" with "antique taste,"
+or even with "modern parliamentarism" (the kind of reconciliation
+necessarily found even among philosophers in our very uncertain and
+consequently very conciliatory century). Critical discipline, and every
+habit that conduces to purity and rigour in intellectual matters,
+will not only be demanded from themselves by these philosophers of
+the future, they may even make a display thereof as their special
+adornment--nevertheless they will not want to be called critics on that
+account. It will seem to them no small indignity to philosophy to
+have it decreed, as is so welcome nowadays, that "philosophy itself is
+criticism and critical science--and nothing else whatever!" Though this
+estimate of philosophy may enjoy the approval of all the Positivists of
+France and Germany (and possibly it even flattered the heart and taste
+of KANT: let us call to mind the titles of his principal works), our new
+philosophers will say, notwithstanding, that critics are instruments of
+the philosopher, and just on that account, as instruments, they are
+far from being philosophers themselves! Even the great Chinaman of
+Konigsberg was only a great critic.
+Perhaps his refined intellectual conscience makes him hesitate, dreading dilettantism. He knows a knowledge-seeker who has lost self-respect no longer commands—unless he becomes a philosophical fraud. Ultimately, he must render a verdict on life and value, learning this right only through extensive, disturbing experiences.
+. I insist upon it that people finally cease confounding
+philosophical workers, and in general scientific men, with
+philosophers--that precisely here one should strictly give "each his
+own," and not give those far too much, these far too little. It may
+be necessary for the education of the real philosopher that he himself
+should have once stood upon all those steps upon which his servants,
+the scientific workers of philosophy, remain standing, and MUST remain
+standing he himself must perhaps have been critic, and dogmatist,
+and historian, and besides, poet, and collector, and traveler, and
+riddle-reader, and moralist, and seer, and "free spirit," and almost
+everything, in order to traverse the whole range of human values
+and estimations, and that he may BE ABLE with a variety of eyes and
+consciences to look from a height to any distance, from a depth up
+to any height, from a nook into any expanse. But all these are only
+preliminary conditions for his task; this task itself demands something
+else--it requires him TO CREATE VALUES. The philosophical workers, after
+the excellent pattern of Kant and Hegel, have to fix and formalize some
+great existing body of valuations--that is to say, former DETERMINATIONS
+OF VALUE, creations of value, which have become prevalent, and are for
+a time called "truths"--whether in the domain of the LOGICAL, the
+POLITICAL (moral), or the ARTISTIC. It is for these investigators to
+make whatever has happened and been esteemed hitherto, conspicuous,
+conceivable, intelligible, and manageable, to shorten everything long,
+even "time" itself, and to SUBJUGATE the entire past: an immense and
+wonderful task, in the carrying out of which all refined pride, all
+tenacious will, can surely find satisfaction. THE REAL PHILOSOPHERS,
+HOWEVER, ARE COMMANDERS AND LAW-GIVERS; they say: "Thus SHALL it be!"
+They determine first the Whither and the Why of mankind, and thereby
+set aside the previous labour of all philosophical workers, and all
+subjugators of the past--they grasp at the future with a creative
+hand, and whatever is and was, becomes for them thereby a means, an
+instrument, and a hammer. Their "knowing" is CREATING, their creating
+is a law-giving, their will to truth is--WILL TO POWER.--Are there at
+present such philosophers? Have there ever been such philosophers? MUST
+there not be such philosophers some day? ...
+The public long confused philosophers with scientists or religious visionaries. Even now, "living wisely" means merely "prudently and apart"—wisdom as flight from a bad game.
+. It is always more obvious to me that the philosopher, as a man
+INDISPENSABLE for the morrow and the day after the morrow, has ever
+found himself, and HAS BEEN OBLIGED to find himself, in contradiction
+to the day in which he lives; his enemy has always been the ideal of his
+day. Hitherto all those extraordinary furtherers of humanity whom one
+calls philosophers--who rarely regarded themselves as lovers of wisdom,
+but rather as disagreeable fools and dangerous interrogators--have found
+their mission, their hard, involuntary, imperative mission (in the end,
+however, the greatness of their mission), in being the bad conscience of
+their age. In putting the vivisector's knife to the breast of the very
+VIRTUES OF THEIR AGE, they have betrayed their own secret; it has been
+for the sake of a NEW greatness of man, a new untrodden path to
+his aggrandizement. They have always disclosed how much hypocrisy,
+indolence, self-indulgence, and self-neglect, how much falsehood was
+concealed under the most venerated types of contemporary morality, how
+much virtue was OUTLIVED, they have always said "We must remove hence to
+where YOU are least at home" In the face of a world of "modern ideas,"
+which would like to confine every one in a corner, in a "specialty," a
+philosopher, if there could be philosophers nowadays, would be compelled
+to place the greatness of man, the conception of "greatness," precisely
+in his comprehensiveness and multifariousness, in his all-roundness, he
+would even determine worth and rank according to the amount and variety
+of that which a man could bear and take upon himself, according to the
+EXTENT to which a man could stretch his responsibility Nowadays the
+taste and virtue of the age weaken and attenuate the will, nothing is
+so adapted to the spirit of the age as weakness of will consequently, in
+the ideal of the philosopher, strength of will, sternness, and capacity
+for prolonged resolution, must specially be included in the conception
+of "greatness", with as good a right as the opposite doctrine, with its
+ideal of a silly, renouncing, humble, selfless humanity, was suited to
+an opposite age--such as the sixteenth century, which suffered from its
+accumulated energy of will, and from the wildest torrents and floods
+of selfishness In the time of Socrates, among men only of worn-out
+instincts, old conservative Athenians who let themselves go--"for the
+sake of happiness," as they said, for the sake of pleasure, as their
+conduct indicated--and who had continually on their lips the old pompous
+words to which they had long forfeited the right by the life they led,
+IRONY was perhaps necessary for greatness of soul, the wicked Socratic
+assurance of the old physician and plebeian, who cut ruthlessly into his
+own flesh, as into the flesh and heart of the "noble," with a look that
+said plainly enough "Do not dissemble before me! here--we are equal!"
+At present, on the contrary, when throughout Europe the herding-animal
+alone attains to honours, and dispenses honours, when "equality of
+right" can too readily be transformed into equality in wrong--I mean to
+say into general war against everything rare, strange, and privileged,
+against the higher man, the higher soul, the higher duty, the higher
+responsibility, the creative plenipotence and lordliness--at present
+it belongs to the conception of "greatness" to be noble, to wish to be
+apart, to be capable of being different, to stand alone, to have to live
+by personal initiative, and the philosopher will betray something of his
+own ideal when he asserts "He shall be the greatest who can be the most
+solitary, the most concealed, the most divergent, the man beyond good
+and evil, the master of his virtues, and of super-abundance of will;
+precisely this shall be called GREATNESS: as diversified as can be
+entire, as ample as can be full." And to ask once more the question: Is
+greatness POSSIBLE--nowadays?
+> **Quote:** "the GENUINE philosopher—does it not seem so to US, my friends?—lives 'unphilosophically' and 'unwisely,' above all, IMPRUDENTLY, and feels the obligation and burden of a hundred attempts and temptations of life—he risks HIMSELF constantly, he plays THIS bad game."
+. It is difficult to learn what a philosopher is, because it cannot
+be taught: one must "know" it by experience--or one should have the
+pride NOT to know it. The fact that at present people all talk of things
+of which they CANNOT have any experience, is true more especially
+and unfortunately as concerns the philosopher and philosophical
+matters:--the very few know them, are permitted to know them, and
+all popular ideas about them are false. Thus, for instance, the truly
+philosophical combination of a bold, exuberant spirituality which runs
+at presto pace, and a dialectic rigour and necessity which makes no
+false step, is unknown to most thinkers and scholars from their own
+experience, and therefore, should any one speak of it in their
+presence, it is incredible to them. They conceive of every necessity as
+troublesome, as a painful compulsory obedience and state of constraint;
+thinking itself is regarded by them as something slow and hesitating,
+almost as a trouble, and often enough as "worthy of the SWEAT of the
+noble"--but not at all as something easy and divine, closely related
+to dancing and exuberance! "To think" and to take a matter "seriously,"
+"arduously"--that is one and the same thing to them; such only has been
+their "experience."--Artists have here perhaps a finer intuition; they
+who know only too well that precisely when they no longer do anything
+"arbitrarily," and everything of necessity, their feeling of freedom,
+of subtlety, of power, of creatively fixing, disposing, and shaping,
+reaches its climax--in short, that necessity and "freedom of will" are
+then the same thing with them. There is, in fine, a gradation of rank
+in psychical states, to which the gradation of rank in the problems
+corresponds; and the highest problems repel ruthlessly every one who
+ventures too near them, without being predestined for their solution
+by the loftiness and power of his spirituality. Of what use is it for
+nimble, everyday intellects, or clumsy, honest mechanics and empiricists
+to press, in their plebeian ambition, close to such problems, and as
+it were into this "holy of holies"--as so often happens nowadays! But
+coarse feet must never tread upon such carpets: this is provided for in
+the primary law of things; the doors remain closed to those intruders,
+though they may dash and break their heads thereon. People have always
+to be born to a high station, or, more definitely, they have to be BRED
+for it: a person has only a right to philosophy--taking the word in
+its higher significance--in virtue of his descent; the ancestors, the
+"blood," decide here also. Many generations must have prepared the way
+for the coming of the philosopher; each of his virtues must have been
+separately acquired, nurtured, transmitted, and embodied; not only the
+bold, easy, delicate course and current of his thoughts, but above all
+the readiness for great responsibilities, the majesty of ruling glance
+and contemning look, the feeling of separation from the multitude with
+their duties and virtues, the kindly patronage and defense of whatever
+is misunderstood and calumniated, be it God or devil, the delight and
+practice of supreme justice, the art of commanding, the amplitude of
+will, the lingering eye which rarely admires, rarely looks up, rarely
+loves....
+**206\.** The man of learning has something of the "old maid" about him—unfamiliar with humanity's principal functions. He is commonplace: non-ruling, industrious, moderate, with an instinct for his own kind and their needs (independence, honor, reassurance).
+He is full of petty envy, with a sharp eye for weaknesses in natures he cannot reach. Before the man of "great current," he stands cold—his eye a smooth lake unmoved by rapture.
+His worst capability comes from his instinct for mediocrity: the "Jesuitism of mediocrity" that instinctively destroys the exceptional, relaxing every drawn bow with considerate sympathy—the true art of this religion of pity.
+**207\.** We must welcome the objective spirit—who hasn't been sick to death of subjectivity and its confounded ipsisimosity!—yet learn caution. We must stop celebrating "un-selfing" as if it were salvation.
+The objective man, the ideal scholar in whom scientific instinct blossoms, is a precious instrument—but only an instrument, a mirror. He prostrates himself before all that wants to be known, waiting to reflect. Whatever personality he possesses seems accidental or disturbing; he recalls himself only with effort, easily confusing himself with others. He does not command or destroy.
+"Je ne méprise presque rien," he says with Leibniz—let us not overlook that *presque*! He is no model man, walking ahead or behind. He places himself too far off to take sides between good and evil. Confused with the philosopher, he has been given too much honor.
+> **Quote:** "The objective man is an instrument, a costly, easily injured, easily tarnished measuring instrument and mirroring apparatus, which is to be taken care of and respected; but he is no goal, no outgoing nor upgoing, no complementary man in whom the REST of existence justifies itself, no termination—and still less a commencement, an engendering, or primary cause, nothing hardy, powerful, self-centred, that wants to be master; but rather only a soft, inflated, delicate, movable potter's-form, that must wait for some kind of content and frame to 'shape' itself thereto—for the most part a man without frame and content, a 'selfless' man."
+Consequently, he is also nothing for women, *in parenthesi*.
+**208\.** When a philosopher declares he is not a skeptic, people listen with apprehension, as if hearing a distant threat—a new spiritual explosive, a Russian nihiline, a *pessimism bonae voluntatis* (of good will) that not only means denial but—dreadful thought!—practices it. Against this, skepticism is the best sedative: mild, pleasing, lulling poppy. Even Hamlet is prescribed as antidote.
+The skeptic consoles himself: "What do I know?" (Montaigne), "I know that I know nothing" (Socrates), "Why hasty hypotheses?" He needs consolation, for skepticism is the spiritual expression of nervous exhaustion—arising wherever long-separated races or classes blend. In the new generation, everything is restlessness, disorder, doubt. Most diseased is the *will*.
+Today's Europe, stage for mindless blending, is skeptical through and through. The will's disease is most severe where civilization has lasted longest—France, which turns crises into charm, now asserts intellectual dominance by showcasing skepticism. The power to will is stronger in Germany, stronger still in England. But it is strongest in Russia, where will has stored itself for ages, waiting threateningly to discharge.
+Perhaps Europe needs internal upheaval—breaking the empire, parliamentary imbecility—to free itself from this danger. My heart prefers the opposite: a terrifying increase in Russia's threat that forces Europe to acquire a single will, a new ruling caste with persistent, terrifying will that can set goals millennia ahead—ending the comedy of petty-state politics.
+> **Quote:** "The time for petty politics is past; the next century will bring the struggle for the dominion of the world—the COMPULSION to great politics."
+**209\.** Our new warlike era favors a stronger skepticism. Frederick the Great's father, fearing his son wasn't man enough, saw atheism, French shallowness, the spider of skepticism. But a harder skepticism grew in the son—the skepticism of daring masculinity, linked to genius for war and conquest. It despises yet takes hold; undermines yet possesses; gives spirit dangerous freedom while keeping heart under strict control.
+Thanks to German philologists and historical critics—artists of destruction—a new concept of German spirit took hold: masculine skepticism, *esprit fataliste, ironique, méphistophélique*. It overcame the image of Germans as poetic fools and woke Europe from dogmatic slumber. Napoleon meeting Goethe revealed what had been seen for centuries: "VOILA UN HOMME!"
+**210\.** If future philosophers are skeptics, that describes only one aspect. They will be critics and experimenters, loving to attempt in broader, more dangerous ways. They will need certainty regarding standards, conscious method, cautious courage, independence, self-responsibility. They will delight in denial and dissection, in deliberate cruelty with the knife—even when the heart bleeds.
+They will not deal with truth to please or elevate; they will have little faith that truth brings such highs. They will feel disgust for everything ecstatic, idealistic, feminine, blurred. They will not reconcile "Christian sentiments" with "classical taste" or "modern parliamentarianism." Critical discipline will be their badge of honor, yet they will not want to be called critics—critics are merely instruments. Even the "great Chinaman of Königsberg" was only a great critic.
+**211\.** Stop confusing philosophical workers with philosophers—give each his due. The true philosopher must have stood where his servants stand, must have been critic, dogmatist, historian, poet, collector, traveler, riddle-solver, moralist, seer, free spirit—must traverse the entire range of human values with many eyes. But this is only preliminary.
+The task itself demands he *create values*. Workers, following Kant and Hegel, fix and formalize existing valuations—making them conspicuous, intelligible, manageable. But the real philosophers are COMMANDERS AND LAW-GIVERS: they determine the "Where to" and "Why" of humanity, reaching for the future with creative hand.
+> **Quote:** "Their 'knowing' is CREATING, their creating is a law-giving, their will to truth is—WILL TO POWER."
+> **Quote:** "THE REAL PHILOSOPHERS, HOWEVER, ARE COMMANDERS AND LAW-GIVERS; they say: 'Thus SHALL it be!'"
+Are there such philosophers today? Have there ever been? *Must* there not be such philosophers some day?
+**212\.** The philosopher has always been forced into contradiction with his day; his enemy has been his age's ideal. Philosophers have been the bad conscience of their age, vivisecting its virtues to reveal hypocrisy, laziness, self-indulgence—seeking new greatness.
+Today, when herd animals attain honors and "equality of rights" becomes war against everything rare and higher, the philosopher must find greatness in comprehensiveness and diversity. He must value according to how much variety one can endure, how far one can stretch responsibility. Since modern taste weakens will, his ideal must include strength of will, sternness, long-term resolve—unlike the sixteenth century, which suffered excess willpower.
+In Socrates' exhausted Athens, irony was necessary greatness. Today, greatness requires being the most solitary, concealed, divergent—beyond good and evil, master of virtues, superabundant in will.
+> **Quote:** "He shall be the greatest who can be the most solitary, the most concealed, the most divergent, the man beyond good and evil, the master of his virtues, and of super-abundance of will; precisely this shall be called GREATNESS: as diversified as can be entire, as ample as can be full."
+Is greatness possible—today?
+**213\.** Philosophy cannot be taught—one must "know" it through experience, or have pride *not* to know it. Few have experienced the philosophical combination: bold, exuberant spirituality at presto pace with dialectical rigor that never trips. Most see thinking as slow and burdensome, 'worthy of the sweat of the noble'—not as something easy, divine, and akin to dancing.
+There is a hierarchy of problems that repels the unfit. One must be born or *bred* for philosophy—ancestry and "blood" decide. Many generations must prepare the way; each virtue must be acquired, nurtured, passed down: the bold, delicate flow of thought; readiness for great responsibilities; commanding gaze and disdain; separation from the crowd; protection of the misunderstood; supreme justice; art of commanding; vastness of will; the steady eye that rarely admires, looks up, or loves...
 ## CHAPTER VII. OUR VIRTUES
+**214\.** OUR Virtues?—It is likely that we, too, still have virtues, though naturally not those straightforward, massive virtues for which we respect our grandfathers—while keeping them at a distance. We Europeans of the day after tomorrow, first generation of the twentieth century—with all our dangerous curiosity, our complexity and art of disguise, our refined and seemingly softened cruelty—if we must have virtues, they will be those that have come to terms with our most secret inclinations and urgent needs. Well then, let us look for them in our labyrinths! Is there anything finer than to SEARCH for one's own virtues? Is it not almost the same as BELIEVING in one's own virtues? But this "believing in one's own virtues"—is it not practically what used to be called one's "good conscience," that long, respectable pigtail of an idea which our grandfathers wore behind their heads, and often enough behind their intellects as well? It seems, therefore, that however little we imagine ourselves old-fashioned, in one thing we are nevertheless worthy grandchildren: we last Europeans with good consciences still wear that pigtail. Ah! if you only knew how soon—so very soon—things will be different!
+. OUR Virtues?--It is probable that we, too, have still our virtues,
+although naturally they are not those sincere and massive virtues on
+account of which we hold our grandfathers in esteem and also at a little
+distance from us. We Europeans of the day after tomorrow, we firstlings
+of the twentieth century--with all our dangerous curiosity, our
+multifariousness and art of disguising, our mellow and seemingly
+sweetened cruelty in sense and spirit--we shall presumably, IF we must
+have virtues, have those only which have come to agreement with our most
+secret and heartfelt inclinations, with our most ardent requirements:
+well, then, let us look for them in our labyrinths!--where, as we know,
+so many things lose themselves, so many things get quite lost! And is
+there anything finer than to SEARCH for one's own virtues? Is it not
+almost to BELIEVE in one's own virtues? But this "believing in one's
+own virtues"--is it not practically the same as what was formerly called
+one's "good conscience," that long, respectable pigtail of an idea,
+which our grandfathers used to hang behind their heads, and often enough
+also behind their understandings? It seems, therefore, that however
+little we may imagine ourselves to be old-fashioned and grandfatherly
+respectable in other respects, in one thing we are nevertheless the
+worthy grandchildren of our grandfathers, we last Europeans with good
+consciences: we also still wear their pigtail.--Ah! if you only knew how
+soon, so very soon--it will be different!
+**215\.** Just as in the starry heavens there are sometimes two suns that determine a planet's path; and as suns of different colors shine around one planet, now red, now green, then flooding it with a mixture: so we modern men, owing to our complicated "firmament," are determined by DIFFERENT moralities; our actions shine alternately in different colors and are seldom clear-cut—often multicolored.
+. As in the stellar firmament there are sometimes two suns which
+determine the path of one planet, and in certain cases suns of different
+colours shine around a single planet, now with red light, now with
+green, and then simultaneously illumine and flood it with motley
+colours: so we modern men, owing to the complicated mechanism of our
+"firmament," are determined by DIFFERENT moralities; our actions shine
+alternately in different colours, and are seldom unequivocal--and there
+are often cases, also, in which our actions are MOTLEY-COLOURED.
+**216\.** To love one's enemies? This has been well learned: it happens constantly today. Indeed, something higher occurs: we learn to DESPISE when we love, and precisely when we love best. All this happens unconsciously, without noise, with the shame and secrecy of goodness, which forbids pompous words and the formulas of virtue. Morality as a public attitude—that is contrary to our taste nowadays. This is ALSO progress, just as it was progress for our fathers when religion as a public attitude finally became contrary to their taste, including the Voltaire-like bitterness against religion. It is the music in our conscience, the dance in our spirit, with which Puritan chants, moral sermons, and self-righteousness simply do not harmonize.
+. To love one's enemies? I think that has been well learnt: it takes
+place thousands of times at present on a large and small scale; indeed,
+at times the higher and sublimer thing takes place:--we learn to DESPISE
+when we love, and precisely when we love best; all of it, however,
+unconsciously, without noise, without ostentation, with the shame and
+secrecy of goodness, which forbids the utterance of the pompous word
+and the formula of virtue. Morality as attitude--is opposed to our taste
+nowadays. This is ALSO an advance, as it was an advance in our fathers
+that religion as an attitude finally became opposed to their taste,
+including the enmity and Voltairean bitterness against religion (and all
+that formerly belonged to freethinker-pantomime). It is the music in our
+conscience, the dance in our spirit, to which Puritan litanies, moral
+sermons, and goody-goodness won't chime.
+**217\.** Let us be careful with those who place great importance on being credited with moral tact! They never forgive us if they have once made a mistake in our presence (or even regarding us)—they inevitably become our instinctive slanderers, even when they remain our "friends."
+. Let us be careful in dealing with those who attach great importance
+to being credited with moral tact and subtlety in moral discernment!
+They never forgive us if they have once made a mistake BEFORE us
+(or even with REGARD to us)--they inevitably become our instinctive
+calumniators and detractors, even when they still remain our
+"friends."--Blessed are the forgetful: for they "get the better" even of
+their blunders.
+> **Quote:** "Blessed are the forgetful: for they 'get the better' even of their blunders."
+. The psychologists of France--and where else are there still
+psychologists nowadays?--have never yet exhausted their bitter and
+manifold enjoyment of the betise bourgeoise, just as though... in
+short, they betray something thereby. Flaubert, for instance, the honest
+citizen of Rouen, neither saw, heard, nor tasted anything else in the
+end; it was his mode of self-torment and refined cruelty. As this is
+growing wearisome, I would now recommend for a change something else
+for a pleasure--namely, the unconscious astuteness with which good, fat,
+honest mediocrity always behaves towards loftier spirits and the tasks
+they have to perform, the subtle, barbed, Jesuitical astuteness, which
+is a thousand times subtler than the taste and understanding of the
+middle-class in its best moments--subtler even than the understanding of
+its victims:--a repeated proof that "instinct" is the most intelligent
+of all kinds of intelligence which have hitherto been discovered. In
+short, you psychologists, study the philosophy of the "rule" in its
+struggle with the "exception": there you have a spectacle fit for Gods
+and godlike malignity! Or, in plainer words, practise vivisection on
+"good people," on the "homo bonae voluntatis," ON YOURSELVES!
+**218\.** The psychologists of France—and where else are there still psychologists?—have not yet exhausted their bitter enjoyment of "middle-class stupidity," just as though... they betray something by it. Flaubert, for instance, the honest citizen of Rouen, neither saw, heard, nor tasted anything else in the end; it was his way of self-torment and refined cruelty. As this grows tedious, I now recommend a different pleasure: the unconscious cleverness with which good, fat, honest mediocrity always behaves toward higher spirits and their tasks; that subtle, barbed, Jesuitical cleverness a thousand times more subtle than the middle class's best understanding—subtler even than its victims'. This proves that "instinct" is the most intelligent form of intelligence. Study the philosophy of the "rule" in its struggle with the "exception": spectacle fit for gods and godlike malignity! Or, more plainly, practice vivisection on "good people," on the "man of good will," ON YOURSELVES!
+. The practice of judging and condemning morally, is the favourite
+revenge of the intellectually shallow on those who are less so, it is
+also a kind of indemnity for their being badly endowed by nature,
+and finally, it is an opportunity for acquiring spirit and BECOMING
+subtle--malice spiritualises. They are glad in their inmost heart that
+there is a standard according to which those who are over-endowed with
+intellectual goods and privileges, are equal to them, they contend for
+the "equality of all before God," and almost NEED the belief in God for
+this purpose. It is among them that the most powerful antagonists of
+atheism are found. If any one were to say to them "A lofty spirituality
+is beyond all comparison with the honesty and respectability of a merely
+moral man"--it would make them furious, I shall take care not to say
+so. I would rather flatter them with my theory that lofty spirituality
+itself exists only as the ultimate product of moral qualities, that it
+is a synthesis of all qualities attributed to the "merely moral" man,
+after they have been acquired singly through long training and practice,
+perhaps during a whole series of generations, that lofty spirituality
+is precisely the spiritualising of justice, and the beneficent severity
+which knows that it is authorized to maintain GRADATIONS OF RANK in the
+world, even among things--and not only among men.
+**219\.** The practice of judging and condemning morally is the favorite revenge of the intellectually shallow on those less so; it is also compensation for being poorly endowed, and an opportunity to acquire spirit and BECOME subtle—
+. Now that the praise of the "disinterested person" is so popular
+one must--probably not without some danger--get an idea of WHAT people
+actually take an interest in, and what are the things generally which
+fundamentally and profoundly concern ordinary men--including the
+cultured, even the learned, and perhaps philosophers also, if
+appearances do not deceive. The fact thereby becomes obvious that the
+greater part of what interests and charms higher natures, and more
+refined and fastidious tastes, seems absolutely "uninteresting" to
+the average man--if, notwithstanding, he perceive devotion to these
+interests, he calls it desinteresse, and wonders how it is possible to
+act "disinterestedly." There have been philosophers who could give this
+popular astonishment a seductive and mystical, other-worldly expression
+(perhaps because they did not know the higher nature by experience?),
+instead of stating the naked and candidly reasonable truth that
+"disinterested" action is very interesting and "interested" action,
+provided that... "And love?"--What! Even an action for love's sake
+shall be "unegoistic"? But you fools--! "And the praise of the
+self-sacrificer?"--But whoever has really offered sacrifice knows that
+he wanted and obtained something for it--perhaps something from himself
+for something from himself; that he relinquished here in order to have
+more there, perhaps in general to be more, or even feel himself "more."
+But this is a realm of questions and answers in which a more fastidious
+spirit does not like to stay: for here truth has to stifle her yawns so
+much when she is obliged to answer. And after all, truth is a woman; one
+must not use force with her.
+> **Quote:** "malice spiritualises."
+. "It sometimes happens," said a moralistic pedant and
+trifle-retailer, "that I honour and respect an unselfish man: not,
+however, because he is unselfish, but because I think he has a right to
+be useful to another man at his own expense. In short, the question
+is always who HE is, and who THE OTHER is. For instance, in a person
+created and destined for command, self-denial and modest retirement,
+instead of being virtues, would be the waste of virtues: so it seems
+to me. Every system of unegoistic morality which takes itself
+unconditionally and appeals to every one, not only sins against good
+taste, but is also an incentive to sins of omission, an ADDITIONAL
+seduction under the mask of philanthropy--and precisely a seduction and
+injury to the higher, rarer, and more privileged types of men. Moral
+systems must be compelled first of all to bow before the GRADATIONS OF
+RANK; their presumption must be driven home to their conscience--until
+they thoroughly understand at last that it is IMMORAL to say that 'what
+is right for one is proper for another.'"--So said my moralistic pedant
+and bonhomme. Did he perhaps deserve to be laughed at when he thus
+exhorted systems of morals to practise morality? But one should not be
+too much in the right if one wishes to have the laughers on ONE'S OWN
+side; a grain of wrong pertains even to good taste.
+Deep down, they are glad there is a standard making the intellectually gifted equal to them; they fight for "equality before God" and almost NEED belief in God. Among them are found the most powerful opponents of atheism. If anyone said, "Lofty spirituality is beyond comparison with the honesty of a merely moral man," they would be furious; I shall not say so. I would rather flatter them: lofty spirituality exists only as the final product of moral qualities, a synthesis of all those qualities attributed to the "merely moral" man after long training, perhaps over generations. It is precisely the spiritualizing of justice and benevolent severity that knows it is authorized to maintain GRADATIONS OF RANK in the world, even among things—and not only among men.
+. Wherever sympathy (fellow-suffering) is preached nowadays--and,
+if I gather rightly, no other religion is any longer preached--let the
+psychologist have his ears open through all the vanity, through all the
+noise which is natural to these preachers (as to all preachers), he will
+hear a hoarse, groaning, genuine note of SELF-CONTEMPT. It belongs
+to the overshadowing and uglifying of Europe, which has been on
+the increase for a century (the first symptoms of which are already
+specified documentarily in a thoughtful letter of Galiani to Madame
+d'Epinay)--IF IT IS NOT REALLY THE CAUSE THEREOF! The man of
+"modern ideas," the conceited ape, is excessively dissatisfied with
+himself--this is perfectly certain. He suffers, and his vanity wants him
+only "to suffer with his fellows."
+**220\.** Now that praise of the "disinterested person" is so popular, one must—probably not without danger—consider WHAT people actually take interest in, what concerns ordinary men fundamentally—including the cultured, the learned, perhaps even philosophers. It becomes obvious that what interests higher natures seems absolutely "uninteresting" to the average person. If nonetheless he perceives devotion to these interests, he calls it "disinterestedness" and wonders how one can act "unselfishly." Some philosophers gave this astonishment a mystical expression (perhaps because they did not know higher nature by experience?), instead of stating the naked truth: "unselfish" action is actually very interesting and "interested" action, provided that... "And love?"—What! Even an action for love's sake is supposed to be "unegoistic"? But you fools—! "And the praise of the self-sacrificer?"—But whoever has really sacrificed knows that he wanted something for it—perhaps something from himself for something else in himself; that he gave up something here to have more there, perhaps in general to be more, or even to feel himself "more." But this is a realm where a more refined spirit does not like to linger; truth here must stifle her yawns.
+. The hybrid European--a tolerably ugly plebeian, taken all in
+all--absolutely requires a costume: he needs history as a storeroom
+of costumes. To be sure, he notices that none of the costumes fit him
+properly--he changes and changes. Let us look at the nineteenth century
+with respect to these hasty preferences and changes in its masquerades
+of style, and also with respect to its moments of desperation on account
+of "nothing suiting" us. It is in vain to get ourselves up as romantic,
+or classical, or Christian, or Florentine, or barocco, or "national,"
+in moribus et artibus: it does not "clothe us"! But the "spirit,"
+especially the "historical spirit," profits even by this desperation:
+once and again a new sample of the past or of the foreign is tested,
+put on, taken off, packed up, and above all studied--we are the first
+studious age in puncto of "costumes," I mean as concerns morals,
+articles of belief, artistic tastes, and religions; we are prepared as
+no other age has ever been for a carnival in the grand style, for the
+most spiritual festival--laughter and arrogance, for the transcendental
+height of supreme folly and Aristophanic ridicule of the world. Perhaps
+we are still discovering the domain of our invention just here, the
+domain where even we can still be original, probably as parodists of
+the world's history and as God's Merry-Andrews,--perhaps, though nothing
+else of the present have a future, our laughter itself may have a
+future!
+> **Quote:** "And after all, truth is a woman; one must not use force with her."
+. The historical sense (or the capacity for divining quickly
+the order of rank of the valuations according to which a people, a
+community, or an individual has lived, the "divining instinct" for the
+relationships of these valuations, for the relation of the authority
+of the valuations to the authority of the operating forces),--this
+historical sense, which we Europeans claim as our specialty, has come
+to us in the train of the enchanting and mad semi-barbarity into which
+Europe has been plunged by the democratic mingling of classes and
+races--it is only the nineteenth century that has recognized this
+faculty as its sixth sense. Owing to this mingling, the past of every
+form and mode of life, and of cultures which were formerly closely
+contiguous and superimposed on one another, flows forth into us "modern
+souls"; our instincts now run back in all directions, we ourselves are
+a kind of chaos: in the end, as we have said, the spirit perceives its
+advantage therein. By means of our semi-barbarity in body and in desire,
+we have secret access everywhere, such as a noble age never had; we have
+access above all to the labyrinth of imperfect civilizations, and to
+every form of semi-barbarity that has at any time existed on earth; and
+in so far as the most considerable part of human civilization hitherto
+has just been semi-barbarity, the "historical sense" implies almost the
+sense and instinct for everything, the taste and tongue for everything:
+whereby it immediately proves itself to be an IGNOBLE sense. For
+instance, we enjoy Homer once more: it is perhaps our happiest
+acquisition that we know how to appreciate Homer, whom men of
+distinguished culture (as the French of the seventeenth century, like
+Saint-Evremond, who reproached him for his ESPRIT VASTE, and even
+Voltaire, the last echo of the century) cannot and could not so easily
+appropriate--whom they scarcely permitted themselves to enjoy. The very
+decided Yea and Nay of their palate, their promptly ready disgust, their
+hesitating reluctance with regard to everything strange, their horror of
+the bad taste even of lively curiosity, and in general the averseness of
+every distinguished and self-sufficing culture to avow a new desire,
+a dissatisfaction with its own condition, or an admiration of what is
+strange: all this determines and disposes them unfavourably even towards
+the best things of the world which are not their property or could not
+become their prey--and no faculty is more unintelligible to such men
+than just this historical sense, with its truckling, plebeian
+curiosity. The case is not different with Shakespeare, that marvelous
+Spanish-Moorish-Saxon synthesis of taste, over whom an ancient Athenian
+of the circle of AEschylus would have half-killed himself with laughter
+or irritation: but we--accept precisely this wild motleyness, this
+medley of the most delicate, the most coarse, and the most artificial,
+with a secret confidence and cordiality; we enjoy it as a refinement
+of art reserved expressly for us, and allow ourselves to be as little
+disturbed by the repulsive fumes and the proximity of the English
+populace in which Shakespeare's art and taste lives, as perhaps on
+the Chiaja of Naples, where, with all our senses awake, we go our way,
+enchanted and voluntarily, in spite of the drain-odour of the lower
+quarters of the town. That as men of the "historical sense" we have
+our virtues, is not to be disputed:--we are unpretentious, unselfish,
+modest, brave, habituated to self-control and self-renunciation, very
+grateful, very patient, very complaisant--but with all this we are
+perhaps not very "tasteful." Let us finally confess it, that what is
+most difficult for us men of the "historical sense" to grasp, feel,
+taste, and love, what finds us fundamentally prejudiced and almost
+hostile, is precisely the perfection and ultimate maturity in every
+culture and art, the essentially noble in works and men, their moment
+of smooth sea and halcyon self-sufficiency, the goldenness and coldness
+which all things show that have perfected themselves. Perhaps our great
+virtue of the historical sense is in necessary contrast to GOOD taste,
+at least to the very bad taste; and we can only evoke in ourselves
+imperfectly, hesitatingly, and with compulsion the small, short, and
+happy godsends and glorifications of human life as they shine here and
+there: those moments and marvelous experiences when a great power has
+voluntarily come to a halt before the boundless and infinite,--when a
+super-abundance of refined delight has been enjoyed by a sudden checking
+and petrifying, by standing firmly and planting oneself fixedly on still
+trembling ground. PROPORTIONATENESS is strange to us, let us confess it
+to ourselves; our itching is really the itching for the infinite, the
+immeasurable. Like the rider on his forward panting horse, we let the
+reins fall before the infinite, we modern men, we semi-barbarians--and
+are only in OUR highest bliss when we--ARE IN MOST DANGER.
+**221\.** "It sometimes happens," said a moralizing pedant, "that I honor an unselfish man: not because he is unselfish, but because he has a right to be useful to another at his own expense. In short, the question is always who HE is, and who THE OTHER is. In a person created for command, self-denial and modest retirement, instead of virtues, would be the waste of virtues. Any system of unegoistic morality that takes itself unconditionally sins against good taste and tempts the higher, rarer types to omission—it is a temptation and injury to them. Moral systems must bow before GRADATIONS OF RANK; their arrogance must be brought home—until they understand it is IMMORAL to say 'what is right for one is proper for another.'" So said my pedant. Did he deserve laughter when urging morality to practice morality? But one shouldn't be too much in the right if one wishes laughers on ONE'S OWN side; a grain of wrong is part of good taste.
+. Whether it be hedonism, pessimism, utilitarianism, or eudaemonism,
+all those modes of thinking which measure the worth of things according
+to PLEASURE and PAIN, that is, according to accompanying circumstances
+and secondary considerations, are plausible modes of thought and
+naivetes, which every one conscious of CREATIVE powers and an artist's
+conscience will look down upon with scorn, though not without sympathy.
+Sympathy for you!--to be sure, that is not sympathy as you understand
+it: it is not sympathy for social "distress," for "society" with its
+sick and misfortuned, for the hereditarily vicious and defective who lie
+on the ground around us; still less is it sympathy for the grumbling,
+vexed, revolutionary slave-classes who strive after power--they call it
+"freedom." OUR sympathy is a loftier and further-sighted sympathy:--we
+see how MAN dwarfs himself, how YOU dwarf him! and there are moments
+when we view YOUR sympathy with an indescribable anguish, when we resist
+it,--when we regard your seriousness as more dangerous than any kind
+of levity. You want, if possible--and there is not a more foolish "if
+possible"--TO DO AWAY WITH SUFFERING; and we?--it really seems that WE
+would rather have it increased and made worse than it has ever been!
+Well-being, as you understand it--is certainly not a goal; it seems
+to us an END; a condition which at once renders man ludicrous and
+contemptible--and makes his destruction DESIRABLE! The discipline
+of suffering, of GREAT suffering--know ye not that it is only THIS
+discipline that has produced all the elevations of humanity hitherto?
+The tension of soul in misfortune which communicates to it its energy,
+its shuddering in view of rack and ruin, its inventiveness and bravery
+in undergoing, enduring, interpreting, and exploiting misfortune, and
+whatever depth, mystery, disguise, spirit, artifice, or greatness has
+been bestowed upon the soul--has it not been bestowed through suffering,
+through the discipline of great suffering? In man CREATURE and CREATOR
+are united: in man there is not only matter, shred, excess, clay, mire,
+folly, chaos; but there is also the creator, the sculptor, the hardness
+of the hammer, the divinity of the spectator, and the seventh day--do
+ye understand this contrast? And that YOUR sympathy for the "creature
+in man" applies to that which has to be fashioned, bruised, forged,
+stretched, roasted, annealed, refined--to that which must necessarily
+SUFFER, and IS MEANT to suffer? And our sympathy--do ye not understand
+what our REVERSE sympathy applies to, when it resists your sympathy as
+the worst of all pampering and enervation?--So it is sympathy AGAINST
+sympathy!--But to repeat it once more, there are higher problems than
+the problems of pleasure and pain and sympathy; and all systems of
+philosophy which deal only with these are naivetes.
+**222\.** Wherever sympathy (pity) is preached nowadays—and, if I understand correctly, no other religion is preached anymore—let the psychologist listen. Through all the vanity and noise natural to these preachers, he will hear a hoarse, groaning note of SELF-CONTEMPT. It belongs to the darkening of Europe, documented a century ago in Galiani's letter to Madame d'Epinay—IF IT IS NOT THE CAUSE! The man of "modern ideas," that conceited ape, is excessively dissatisfied with himself—this is certain. He suffers, and his vanity wants him only "to suffer with his fellows."
+. WE IMMORALISTS.--This world with which WE are concerned, in which
+we have to fear and love, this almost invisible, inaudible world of
+delicate command and delicate obedience, a world of "almost" in every
+respect, captious, insidious, sharp, and tender--yes, it is well
+protected from clumsy spectators and familiar curiosity! We are
+woven into a strong net and garment of duties, and CANNOT disengage
+ourselves--precisely here, we are "men of duty," even we! Occasionally,
+it is true, we dance in our "chains" and betwixt our "swords"; it
+is none the less true that more often we gnash our teeth under the
+circumstances, and are impatient at the secret hardship of our lot. But
+do what we will, fools and appearances say of us: "These are men WITHOUT
+duty,"--we have always fools and appearances against us!
+**223\.** The hybrid European—a rather ugly commoner—absolutely requires a costume: he needs history as a storeroom of costumes. He notices none fit properly—he changes and changes. The nineteenth century shows this desperation: romantic, classical, Christian, Florentine, Baroque, "national"—nothing "clothes" us! But the "spirit," especially the "historical spirit," profits from this desperation: time and again, a new sample of past or foreign is tested, put on, taken off, packed away, studied—we are the first studious age of "costumes," regarding morals, beliefs, tastes, religions. We are prepared as never before for a carnival in the grand style, for the most spiritual festival—laughter and arrogance, transcendental folly, Aristophanic mockery. Perhaps we are still discovering our invention here, where we can be original: as parodists of world history and God's jesters—perhaps, if nothing else of the present has a future, our laughter may!
+. Honesty, granting that it is the virtue of which we cannot rid
+ourselves, we free spirits--well, we will labour at it with all our
+perversity and love, and not tire of "perfecting" ourselves in OUR
+virtue, which alone remains: may its glance some day overspread like
+a gilded, blue, mocking twilight this aging civilization with its dull
+gloomy seriousness! And if, nevertheless, our honesty should one day
+grow weary, and sigh, and stretch its limbs, and find us too hard, and
+would fain have it pleasanter, easier, and gentler, like an agreeable
+vice, let us remain HARD, we latest Stoics, and let us send to its
+help whatever devilry we have in us:--our disgust at the clumsy
+and undefined, our "NITIMUR IN VETITUM," our love of adventure,
+our sharpened and fastidious curiosity, our most subtle, disguised,
+intellectual Will to Power and universal conquest, which rambles and
+roves avidiously around all the realms of the future--let us go with all
+our "devils" to the help of our "God"! It is probable that people will
+misunderstand and mistake us on that account: what does it matter! They
+will say: "Their 'honesty'--that is their devilry, and nothing else!"
+What does it matter! And even if they were right--have not all Gods
+hitherto been such sanctified, re-baptized devils? And after all, what
+do we know of ourselves? And what the spirit that leads us wants TO BE
+CALLED? (It is a question of names.) And how many spirits we harbour?
+Our honesty, we free spirits--let us be careful lest it become our
+vanity, our ornament and ostentation, our limitation, our stupidity!
+Every virtue inclines to stupidity, every stupidity to virtue; "stupid
+to the point of sanctity," they say in Russia,--let us be careful lest
+out of pure honesty we eventually become saints and bores! Is not life
+a hundred times too short for us--to bore ourselves? One would have to
+believe in eternal life in order to...
+**224\.** The historical sense—the capacity for quickly sensing the rank of values by which a people, community, or individual lived; the "divining instinct" for these relationships—this specialty of Europeans came to us from the democratic mixing of classes and races, that enchanting, mad semi-barbarism. Only the nineteenth century recognized it as its sixth sense. Because of this mixing, the past of every form of life and culture—formerly strictly separated—now flows into us "modern souls." Our instincts run back in all directions; we ourselves are chaos. In the end, the spirit sees its advantage here. Through our semi-barbarism, we have secret access everywhere, especially to the labyrinth of imperfect civilizations. Since most civilization has been semi-barbarism, the "historical sense" implies an instinct for everything, a taste for everything—immediately proving itself an IGNOBLE sense. We enjoy Homer again; perhaps our happiest acquisition is knowing how to appreciate Homer, whom refined culture (like the French seventeenth century) could not so easily appropriate—scarcely allowing themselves to enjoy him. Their decisive "Yes" and "No," ready disgust, reluctance toward anything strange, horror of bad taste, aversion to admitting new desire or admiration for what is strange—all made them unfavorable even to the best things not their property. No faculty is more incomprehensible to them than this historical sense with its submissive, common curiosity. It is no different with Shakespeare, that Spanish-Moorish-Saxon synthesis, at whom an Athenian from Aeschylus's circle would have died of laughter. But we accept this wild mixture with secret confidence; we are as little disturbed by the repulsive fumes and proximity of English masses in which Shakespeare lives as by the sewer-smell of Naples' lower quarters, where we walk enchanted and by choice. That we have virtues as men of "historical sense" cannot be disputed: we are unpretentious, unselfish, modest, brave, self-controlled, grateful, patient, accommodating—but perhaps not very "tasteful." Let us admit what we cannot grasp, feel, taste, or love—what leaves us prejudiced and hostile—is precisely perfection and maturity in culture and art, the essentially noble, the moment of smooth seas and peaceful self-sufficiency, the goldenness and coldness of perfected things. Perhaps our great virtue stands in necessary contrast to GOOD taste. We can only evoke imperfectly those brief, happy gifts when great power halts before the boundless—when refined delight is enjoyed by sudden stopping, standing firm on trembling ground. PROPORTIONALITY is foreign to us; our itch is for the infinite. Like a rider on a forward-panting horse, we let the reins fall before the infinite, we modern men, we semi-barbarians—and are only in OUR highest bliss when we ARE IN MOST DANGER.
+. I hope to be forgiven for discovering that all moral philosophy
+hitherto has been tedious and has belonged to the soporific
+appliances--and that "virtue," in my opinion, has been MORE injured
+by the TEDIOUSNESS of its advocates than by anything else; at the same
+time, however, I would not wish to overlook their general usefulness. It
+is desirable that as few people as possible should reflect upon morals,
+and consequently it is very desirable that morals should not some day
+become interesting! But let us not be afraid! Things still remain today
+as they have always been: I see no one in Europe who has (or DISCLOSES)
+an idea of the fact that philosophizing concerning morals might be
+conducted in a dangerous, captious, and ensnaring manner--that CALAMITY
+might be involved therein. Observe, for example, the indefatigable,
+inevitable English utilitarians: how ponderously and respectably they
+stalk on, stalk along (a Homeric metaphor expresses it better) in the
+footsteps of Bentham, just as he had already stalked in the footsteps of
+the respectable Helvetius! (no, he was not a dangerous man, Helvetius,
+CE SENATEUR POCOCURANTE, to use an expression of Galiani). No new
+thought, nothing of the nature of a finer turning or better expression
+of an old thought, not even a proper history of what has been previously
+thought on the subject: an IMPOSSIBLE literature, taking it all in all,
+unless one knows how to leaven it with some mischief. In effect, the
+old English vice called CANT, which is MORAL TARTUFFISM, has insinuated
+itself also into these moralists (whom one must certainly read with an
+eye to their motives if one MUST read them), concealed this time under
+the new form of the scientific spirit; moreover, there is not absent
+from them a secret struggle with the pangs of conscience, from which a
+race of former Puritans must naturally suffer, in all their scientific
+tinkering with morals. (Is not a moralist the opposite of a Puritan?
+That is to say, as a thinker who regards morality as questionable,
+as worthy of interrogation, in short, as a problem? Is moralizing
+not-immoral?) In the end, they all want English morality to be
+recognized as authoritative, inasmuch as mankind, or the "general
+utility," or "the happiness of the greatest number,"--no! the happiness
+of ENGLAND, will be best served thereby. They would like, by all means,
+to convince themselves that the striving after English happiness, I
+mean after COMFORT and FASHION (and in the highest instance, a seat in
+Parliament), is at the same time the true path of virtue; in fact, that
+in so far as there has been virtue in the world hitherto, it has
+just consisted in such striving. Not one of those ponderous,
+conscience-stricken herding-animals (who undertake to advocate the
+cause of egoism as conducive to the general welfare) wants to have
+any knowledge or inkling of the facts that the "general welfare" is
+no ideal, no goal, no notion that can be at all grasped, but is only a
+nostrum,--that what is fair to one MAY NOT at all be fair to another,
+that the requirement of one morality for all is really a detriment to
+higher men, in short, that there is a DISTINCTION OF RANK between man
+and man, and consequently between morality and morality. They are an
+unassuming and fundamentally mediocre species of men, these utilitarian
+Englishmen, and, as already remarked, in so far as they are tedious, one
+cannot think highly enough of their utility. One ought even to ENCOURAGE
+them, as has been partially attempted in the following rhymes:--
+**225\.** Hedonism, pessimism, utilitarianism, eudaemonism—all those ways of thinking that measure worth by PLEASURE and PAIN, by secondary circumstances—are superficial modes of thought and naiveties. Anyone conscious of CREATIVE powers and artistic conscience will scorn them, though not without sympathy. Sympathy for you!—but not for social "distress," the sick and unfortunate, the grumbling revolutionary slave-classes striving after what they call "freedom." OUR sympathy is loftier: we see how MAN diminishes himself, how YOU diminish him! There are moments when we view YOUR sympathy with indescribable anguish, regarding your seriousness as more dangerous than lightheartedness. You want, if possible—and there is no more foolish "if possible"—TO DO AWAY WITH SUFFERING; and we? It seems WE would rather have it increased! Well-being, as you understand it, is not a goal; it is an END that makes man laughable and contemptible—and makes his destruction DESIRABLE!
+    Hail, ye worthies, barrow-wheeling,
+    "Longer--better," aye revealing,
+> **Quote:** "The discipline of suffering, of GREAT suffering—know ye not that it is only THIS discipline that has produced all the elevations of humanity hitherto?"
+    Stiffer aye in head and knee;
+    Unenraptured, never jesting,
+    Mediocre everlasting,
+The tension of soul in misfortune gives it energy, shuddering before ruin, inventiveness and bravery in undergoing, enduring, interpreting, exploiting misfortune—whatever depth, mystery, disguise, spirit, artifice, or greatness has been given to the soul—has it not come through suffering, through the discipline of great suffering? In man, CREATURE and CREATOR are united: not only matter, fragment, excess, clay, folly, chaos—but also creator, sculptor, hardness of hammer, divinity of spectator, seventh day—do you grasp this? That your sympathy for the "creature in man" applies to what must be shaped, bruised, forged, stretched, roasted, tempered, refined—what must suffer? That our reverse sympathy resists yours as pampering and weakening? It is sympathy against sympathy! But to repeat: there are higher problems than pleasure, pain, and sympathy; all philosophies dealing only in these are naive.
+    SANS GENIE ET SANS ESPRIT!
+**226\.** We immoralists—this world we fear and love, this almost invisible, inaudible world of delicate command and obedience, a world of "almost" in every respect, fussy, insidious, sharp, tender—is well protected from clumsy spectators! We are woven into a strong net and garment of duties, and cannot free ourselves—precisely here, we are "men of duty," even us! Occasionally we dance in our "chains" and between our "swords"; more often we gnash our teeth at the secret hardship of our lot. But do what we will, fools say: "These are men without duty"—we always have fools against us!
+**227\.** Honesty, granting it is the virtue we cannot rid ourselves of, we free spirits—well, we will labor at it with all our perversity and love, not tiring of "perfecting" ourselves in our remaining virtue: may its gaze one day spread over this aging civilization, with its dull seriousness, like a gilded, blue, mocking twilight! And if our honesty should grow weary, sigh, stretch, find us too hard, and prefer things pleasanter, like an agreeable vice, let us remain hard, we latest Stoics, and send to its aid whatever devilry we have: our disgust at the clumsy and undefined, our "NITIMUR IN VETITUM," our love of adventure, our sharpened curiosity, our subtle, disguised, intellectual Will to Power and universal conquest, roaming all future realms—let us go with all our "devils" to help our "God"! People will misunderstand: they will say, "Their 'honesty'—that is their devilry!" What does it matter! And even if right—have not all Gods been sanctified, re-baptized devils? What do we know of ourselves? What does the spirit leading us want to be called? (A question of names.) How many spirits do we harbor? Our honesty—let us be careful lest it become our vanity, our ornament, our limitation, our stupidity!
+. In these later ages, which may be proud of their humanity, there
+still remains so much fear, so much SUPERSTITION of the fear, of the
+"cruel wild beast," the mastering of which constitutes the very pride of
+these humaner ages--that even obvious truths, as if by the agreement
+of centuries, have long remained unuttered, because they have the
+appearance of helping the finally slain wild beast back to life again.
+I perhaps risk something when I allow such a truth to escape; let
+others capture it again and give it so much "milk of pious sentiment"
+[FOOTNOTE: An expression from Schiller's William Tell, Act IV, Scene
+.] to drink, that it will lie down quiet and forgotten, in its old
+corner.--One ought to learn anew about cruelty, and open one's eyes;
+one ought at last to learn impatience, in order that such immodest
+gross errors--as, for instance, have been fostered by ancient and
+modern philosophers with regard to tragedy--may no longer wander about
+virtuously and boldly. Almost everything that we call "higher culture"
+is based upon the spiritualising and intensifying of CRUELTY--this is
+my thesis; the "wild beast" has not been slain at all, it lives, it
+flourishes, it has only been--transfigured. That which constitutes the
+painful delight of tragedy is cruelty; that which operates agreeably in
+so-called tragic sympathy, and at the basis even of everything sublime,
+up to the highest and most delicate thrills of metaphysics, obtains its
+sweetness solely from the intermingled ingredient of cruelty. What the
+Roman enjoys in the arena, the Christian in the ecstasies of the cross,
+the Spaniard at the sight of the faggot and stake, or of the bull-fight,
+the present-day Japanese who presses his way to the tragedy, the workman
+of the Parisian suburbs who has a homesickness for bloody revolutions,
+the Wagnerienne who, with unhinged will, "undergoes" the performance of
+"Tristan and Isolde"--what all these enjoy, and strive with mysterious
+ardour to drink in, is the philtre of the great Circe "cruelty." Here,
+to be sure, we must put aside entirely the blundering psychology of
+former times, which could only teach with regard to cruelty that
+it originated at the sight of the suffering of OTHERS: there is an
+abundant, super-abundant enjoyment even in one's own suffering, in
+causing one's own suffering--and wherever man has allowed himself to be
+persuaded to self-denial in the RELIGIOUS sense, or to self-mutilation,
+as among the Phoenicians and ascetics, or in general, to
+desensualisation, decarnalisation, and contrition, to Puritanical
+repentance-spasms, to vivisection of conscience and to Pascal-like
+SACRIFIZIA DELL' INTELLETO, he is secretly allured and impelled
+forwards by his cruelty, by the dangerous thrill of cruelty TOWARDS
+HIMSELF.--Finally, let us consider that even the seeker of knowledge
+operates as an artist and glorifier of cruelty, in that he compels his
+spirit to perceive AGAINST its own inclination, and often enough against
+the wishes of his heart:--he forces it to say Nay, where he would like
+to affirm, love, and adore; indeed, every instance of taking a thing
+profoundly and fundamentally, is a violation, an intentional injuring
+of the fundamental will of the spirit, which instinctively aims at
+appearance and superficiality,--even in every desire for knowledge there
+is a drop of cruelty.
+> **Quote:** "Every virtue inclines to stupidity, every stupidity to virtue"
+. Perhaps what I have said here about a "fundamental will of the
+spirit" may not be understood without further details; I may be allowed
+a word of explanation.--That imperious something which is popularly
+called "the spirit," wishes to be master internally and externally,
+and to feel itself master; it has the will of a multiplicity for a
+simplicity, a binding, taming, imperious, and essentially ruling will.
+Its requirements and capacities here, are the same as those assigned by
+physiologists to everything that lives, grows, and multiplies. The power
+of the spirit to appropriate foreign elements reveals itself in a strong
+tendency to assimilate the new to the old, to simplify the manifold,
+to overlook or repudiate the absolutely contradictory; just as it
+arbitrarily re-underlines, makes prominent, and falsifies for itself
+certain traits and lines in the foreign elements, in every portion of
+the "outside world." Its object thereby is the incorporation of new
+"experiences," the assortment of new things in the old arrangements--in
+short, growth; or more properly, the FEELING of growth, the feeling of
+increased power--is its object. This same will has at its service an
+apparently opposed impulse of the spirit, a suddenly adopted preference
+of ignorance, of arbitrary shutting out, a closing of windows, an inner
+denial of this or that, a prohibition to approach, a sort of defensive
+attitude against much that is knowable, a contentment with obscurity,
+with the shutting-in horizon, an acceptance and approval of ignorance:
+as that which is all necessary according to the degree of its
+appropriating power, its "digestive power," to speak figuratively (and
+in fact "the spirit" resembles a stomach more than anything else). Here
+also belong an occasional propensity of the spirit to let itself be
+deceived (perhaps with a waggish suspicion that it is NOT so and so,
+but is only allowed to pass as such), a delight in uncertainty and
+ambiguity, an exulting enjoyment of arbitrary, out-of-the-way narrowness
+and mystery, of the too-near, of the foreground, of the magnified,
+the diminished, the misshapen, the beautified--an enjoyment of the
+arbitrariness of all these manifestations of power. Finally, in this
+connection, there is the not unscrupulous readiness of the spirit to
+deceive other spirits and dissemble before them--the constant pressing
+and straining of a creating, shaping, changeable power: the spirit
+enjoys therein its craftiness and its variety of disguises, it enjoys
+also its feeling of security therein--it is precisely by its Protean
+arts that it is best protected and concealed!--COUNTER TO this
+propensity for appearance, for simplification, for a disguise, for a
+cloak, in short, for an outside--for every outside is a cloak--there
+operates the sublime tendency of the man of knowledge, which takes, and
+INSISTS on taking things profoundly, variously, and thoroughly; as a
+kind of cruelty of the intellectual conscience and taste, which every
+courageous thinker will acknowledge in himself, provided, as it ought
+to be, that he has sharpened and hardened his eye sufficiently long for
+introspection, and is accustomed to severe discipline and even severe
+words. He will say: "There is something cruel in the tendency of my
+spirit": let the virtuous and amiable try to convince him that it is not
+so! In fact, it would sound nicer, if, instead of our cruelty, perhaps
+our "extravagant honesty" were talked about, whispered about, and
+glorified--we free, VERY free spirits--and some day perhaps SUCH will
+actually be our--posthumous glory! Meanwhile--for there is plenty of
+time until then--we should be least inclined to deck ourselves out in
+such florid and fringed moral verbiage; our whole former work has
+just made us sick of this taste and its sprightly exuberance. They are
+beautiful, glistening, jingling, festive words: honesty, love of truth,
+love of wisdom, sacrifice for knowledge, heroism of the truthful--there
+is something in them that makes one's heart swell with pride. But we
+anchorites and marmots have long ago persuaded ourselves in all the
+secrecy of an anchorite's conscience, that this worthy parade of
+verbiage also belongs to the old false adornment, frippery, and
+gold-dust of unconscious human vanity, and that even under such
+flattering colour and repainting, the terrible original text HOMO NATURA
+must again be recognized. In effect, to translate man back again into
+nature; to master the many vain and visionary interpretations and
+subordinate meanings which have hitherto been scratched and daubed over
+the eternal original text, HOMO NATURA; to bring it about that man shall
+henceforth stand before man as he now, hardened by the discipline
+of science, stands before the OTHER forms of nature, with fearless
+Oedipus-eyes, and stopped Ulysses-ears, deaf to the enticements of old
+metaphysical bird-catchers, who have piped to him far too long: "Thou
+art more! thou art higher! thou hast a different origin!"--this may be
+a strange and foolish task, but that it is a TASK, who can deny! Why did
+we choose it, this foolish task? Or, to put the question differently:
+"Why knowledge at all?" Every one will ask us about this. And thus
+pressed, we, who have asked ourselves the question a hundred times, have
+not found and cannot find any better answer....
+As they say in Russia, "stupid to the point of holiness"—let us be careful lest out of pure honesty we become saints and bores! Is life not a hundred times too short for us to bore ourselves? One would have to believe in eternal life...
+. Learning alters us, it does what all nourishment does that does not
+merely "conserve"--as the physiologist knows. But at the bottom of our
+souls, quite "down below," there is certainly something unteachable,
+a granite of spiritual fate, of predetermined decision and answer to
+predetermined, chosen questions. In each cardinal problem there speaks
+an unchangeable "I am this"; a thinker cannot learn anew about man and
+woman, for instance, but can only learn fully--he can only follow to the
+end what is "fixed" about them in himself. Occasionally we find certain
+solutions of problems which make strong beliefs for us; perhaps they
+are henceforth called "convictions." Later on--one sees in them only
+footsteps to self-knowledge, guide-posts to the problem which we
+ourselves ARE--or more correctly to the great stupidity which we embody,
+our spiritual fate, the UNTEACHABLE in us, quite "down below."--In view
+of this liberal compliment which I have just paid myself, permission
+will perhaps be more readily allowed me to utter some truths about
+"woman as she is," provided that it is known at the outset how literally
+they are merely--MY truths.
+**228\.** I hope to be forgiven for discovering all moral philosophy has been tedious—a sedative—and that "virtue" has been more injured by the tediousness of its advocates than by anything else. Yet I wouldn't overlook their usefulness. It is desirable that few reflect on morals; consequently, morals should not become interesting! But let us not fear! Things remain as always: I see no one in Europe who grasps that moral philosophizing might be dangerous, deceptive, ensnaring—that disaster might be involved. Observe the tireless English utilitarians: how ponderously they march (as Homer might say) in Bentham's footsteps, as he marched in Helvetius's! (No, Helvetius was not dangerous, that indifferent senator, as Galiani said). No new thought, no refined twist, no proper history: an impossible literature, unless spiced with mischief. In effect, the old English vice "cant"—moral hypocrisy—has insinuated itself into these moralists (whom one must read for motives), now under the scientific spirit; moreover, they suffer a secret struggle with conscience, as former Puritans must in their scientific tinkering. (Is a moralist not a Puritan's opposite? A thinker who regards morality as questionable, as a problem? Is moralizing not immoral?) In the end, they want English morality recognized as authoritative, for mankind, "general utility," "greatest number's happiness"—no! England's happiness. They'd like to convince themselves that striving for English happiness—comfort and fashion (and at best, a seat in Parliament)—is virtue's true path; that all_virtue has consisted in such striving. Not one of those ponderous herd animals (advocating egoism for general welfare) wants to know that "general welfare" is no ideal, no goal, no graspable notion, but only a medicine.
+. Woman wishes to be independent, and therefore she begins to
+enlighten men about "woman as she is"--THIS is one of the worst
+developments of the general UGLIFYING of Europe. For what must these
+clumsy attempts of feminine scientificality and self-exposure bring
+to light! Woman has so much cause for shame; in woman there is so
+much pedantry, superficiality, schoolmasterliness, petty presumption,
+unbridledness, and indiscretion concealed--study only woman's behaviour
+towards children!--which has really been best restrained and dominated
+hitherto by the FEAR of man. Alas, if ever the "eternally tedious in
+woman"--she has plenty of it!--is allowed to venture forth! if she
+begins radically and on principle to unlearn her wisdom and art-of
+charming, of playing, of frightening away sorrow, of alleviating and
+taking easily; if she forgets her delicate aptitude for agreeable
+desires! Female voices are already raised, which, by Saint Aristophanes!
+make one afraid:--with medical explicitness it is stated in a
+threatening manner what woman first and last REQUIRES from man. Is
+it not in the very worst taste that woman thus sets herself up to be
+scientific? Enlightenment hitherto has fortunately been men's affair,
+men's gift--we remained therewith "among ourselves"; and in the end,
+in view of all that women write about "woman," we may well have
+considerable doubt as to whether woman really DESIRES enlightenment
+about herself--and CAN desire it. If woman does not thereby seek a new
+ORNAMENT for herself--I believe ornamentation belongs to the eternally
+feminine?--why, then, she wishes to make herself feared: perhaps she
+thereby wishes to get the mastery. But she does not want truth--what
+does woman care for truth? From the very first, nothing is more foreign,
+more repugnant, or more hostile to woman than truth--her great art is
+falsehood, her chief concern is appearance and beauty. Let us confess
+it, we men: we honour and love this very art and this very instinct in
+woman: we who have the hard task, and for our recreation gladly seek the
+company of beings under whose hands, glances, and delicate follies, our
+seriousness, our gravity, and profundity appear almost like follies to
+us. Finally, I ask the question: Did a woman herself ever acknowledge
+profundity in a woman's mind, or justice in a woman's heart? And is it
+not true that on the whole "woman" has hitherto been most despised by
+woman herself, and not at all by us?--We men desire that woman should
+not continue to compromise herself by enlightening us; just as it was
+man's care and the consideration for woman, when the church decreed:
+mulier taceat in ecclesia. It was to the benefit of woman when Napoleon
+gave the too eloquent Madame de Stael to understand: mulier taceat in
+politicis!--and in my opinion, he is a true friend of woman who calls
+out to women today: mulier taceat de mulierel.
+> **Quote:** "the requirement of one morality for all is really a detriment to higher men, in short, that there is a DISTINCTION OF RANK between man and man, and consequently between morality and morality."
+. It betrays corruption of the instincts--apart from the fact that
+it betrays bad taste--when a woman refers to Madame Roland, or Madame de
+Stael, or Monsieur George Sand, as though something were proved thereby
+in favour of "woman as she is." Among men, these are the three comical
+women as they are--nothing more!--and just the best involuntary
+counter-arguments against feminine emancipation and autonomy.
+They are unassuming, mediocre men, these utilitarian Englishmen, and as remarked, insofar as they are tedious, one cannot think highly enough of their utility. One ought to encourage them, as partially attempted in these rhymes:
+. Stupidity in the kitchen; woman as cook; the terrible
+thoughtlessness with which the feeding of the family and the master of
+the house is managed! Woman does not understand what food means, and she
+insists on being cook! If woman had been a thinking creature, she should
+certainly, as cook for thousands of years, have discovered the most
+important physiological facts, and should likewise have got possession
+of the healing art! Through bad female cooks--through the entire lack
+of reason in the kitchen--the development of mankind has been longest
+retarded and most interfered with: even today matters are very little
+better. A word to High School girls.
+Hail, you worthies, wheeling your barrows,
+. There are turns and casts of fancy, there are sentences, little
+handfuls of words, in which a whole culture, a whole society suddenly
+crystallises itself. Among these is the incidental remark of Madame de
+Lambert to her son: "MON AMI, NE VOUS PERMETTEZ JAMAIS QUE DES FOLIES,
+QUI VOUS FERONT GRAND PLAISIR"--the motherliest and wisest remark, by
+the way, that was ever addressed to a son.
+"Longer—better," always revealing,
+. I have no doubt that every noble woman will oppose what Dante and
+Goethe believed about woman--the former when he sang, "ELLA GUARDAVA
+SUSO, ED IO IN LEI," and the latter when he interpreted it, "the
+eternally feminine draws us ALOFT"; for THIS is just what she believes
+of the eternally masculine.
+Ever stiffer in head and knee;
+.
+Never thrilled, never joking,
+SEVEN APOPHTHEGMS FOR WOMEN
+Forever mediocre,
+How the longest ennui flees, When a man comes to our knees!
+WITHOUT GENIUS AND WITHOUT SPIRIT!
+Age, alas! and science staid, Furnish even weak virtue aid.
+**229\.** In these later ages, proud of their humanity, there remains so much fear, so much superstition about the "cruel wild beast"—mastering which constitutes these ages' pride—that obvious truths, as if by centuries' agreement, have remained unuttered, lest they revive the slain beast. I perhaps risk something allowing such truth to escape; let others capture it and feed it "milk of pious sentiment" (as Schiller said) until it lies quiet. One must relearn cruelty and open one's eyes; learn impatience, so immodest errors—like those philosophers fostered about tragedy—wander no more.
+Sombre garb and silence meet: Dress for every dame--discreet.
+> **Quote:** "Almost everything that we call 'higher culture' is based upon the spiritualising and intensifying of CRUELTY--this is my thesis"
+Whom I thank when in my bliss? God!--and my good tailoress!
+The "wild beast" is not killed; it lives, flourishes, has only been—transformed. The painful delight of tragedy is cruelty; so-called tragic sympathy and everything sublime, up to metaphysics' highest thrills, obtains sweetness solely from cruelty. Romans in the arena, Christians at the cross, Spaniards at the pyre or bullfight, modern Japanese in theaters, Parisian suburb workers nostalgic for bloody revolutions, Wagnerians "undergoing" *Tristan*—all drink the potion of great Circe: "cruelty." We must set aside the blundering psychology that taught cruelty originates in others' suffering: there is abundant enjoyment even in one's own suffering. Wherever man embraces religious self-denial, self-mutilation (Phoenicians, ascetics), flesh-rejection, contrition, Puritanical repentance, conscience-vivisection, Pascal-like intellect sacrifice, he is allured by cruelty—by the dangerous thrill of cruelty toward himself. Finally, the seeker of knowledge operates as artist and glorifier of cruelty, compelling his spirit to perceive against its inclination, forcing it to say "No" where he'd affirm, love, adore. Every profound grasping is a violation, an intentional injuring of the spirit's fundamental will, which instinctively aims at appearance; even in every desire for knowledge, there is cruelty.
+Young, a flower-decked cavern home; Old, a dragon thence doth roam.
+**230\.** Perhaps what I said about a "fundamental will of the spirit" needs explanation. That imperious "spirit" wishes mastery internally and externally; it has a will that seeks to turn multiplicity into simplicity—a binding, taming, commanding will. Its requirements match those physiologists assign to all that lives, grows, multiplies. The spirit's power to absorb foreign elements reveals itself in its tendency to assimilate new into old, simplify the complex, overlook contradictions; it arbitrarily re-emphasizes, highlights, falsifies traits in foreign elements. Its object: incorporation of new "experiences," sorting new things into old arrangements—growth, or rather the feeling of growth, the feeling of increased power. This same will has an apparently opposed impulse: a sudden preference for ignorance, arbitrary shutting out, closing windows, denying this or that, contentment with obscurity, narrow horizons, acceptance of ignorance—all necessary according to its "digestive power" (the spirit resembles a stomach). This belongs also an occasional propensity to be deceived (perhaps suspecting things are not as they seem), a delight in uncertainty, ambiguity, arbitrary narrowness and mystery—enjoyment of the too-near, foreground, magnified, diminished, misshapen, beautified. Finally, the shameless readiness to deceive other spirits, hide before them—the constant pressure of a creating, shaping, changeable power: the spirit enjoys its craftiness, its disguises, its security—it is through its Protean arts it is best protected! Counter to this propensity for appearance, simplification, disguise, for a cloak—every outside is a cloak—operates the sublime tendency of the man of knowledge, who takes things profoundly, in all their variety and thoroughness. This is a cruelty of intellectual conscience and taste, which every courageous thinker acknowledges, provided he has sharpened his eye through introspection and is accustomed to severe discipline. He will say: "There is something cruel in my spirit's tendency": let the virtuous try to convince him otherwise! It would sound nicer if, instead of our cruelty, people glorified our "extravagant honesty"—we free, very free spirits—and perhaps that will be our posthumous glory! Meanwhile—we should be least inclined to deck ourselves in such florid moral verbiage; our work has made us sick of this taste. Those beautiful words—honesty, love of truth, love of wisdom, sacrifice for knowledge, heroism of the truthful—make one's heart swell. But we hermits have long persuaded ourselves, in our conscience's secrecy, that this parade belongs to the old false decoration, frippery, shimmering dust of unconscious vanity, so that even under flattering color, the terrifying original text **HOMO NATURA** can be recognized. The task: translate humanity back into nature; master the vain, idealistic interpretations scribbled over the eternal original text, **HOMO NATURA**. We must ensure man stands before man as he now, toughened by science, stands before other nature—with Oedipus's fearless eyes and Odysseus's plugged ears, deaf to old metaphysical charlatans' lures:
+Noble title, leg that's fine, Man as well: Oh, were HE mine!
+> **Quote:** "Thou art more! thou art higher! thou hast a different origin!"
+Speech in brief and sense in mass--Slippery for the jenny-ass!
+This may be a strange, foolish task, but who can deny it is a **TASK**! Why choose it? Or differently put: "Why seek knowledge at all?" Everyone will ask. Pressured thus, we, who have asked ourselves this a hundred times, have found no better answer...
+A. Woman has hitherto been treated by men like birds, which, losing
+their way, have come down among them from an elevation: as something
+delicate, fragile, wild, strange, sweet, and animating--but as something
+also which must be cooped up to prevent it flying away.
+**231\.**
+. To be mistaken in the fundamental problem of "man and woman," to
+deny here the profoundest antagonism and the necessity for an eternally
+hostile tension, to dream here perhaps of equal rights, equal
+training, equal claims and obligations: that is a TYPICAL sign of
+shallow-mindedness; and a thinker who has proved himself shallow at
+this dangerous spot--shallow in instinct!--may generally be regarded as
+suspicious, nay more, as betrayed, as discovered; he will probably prove
+too "short" for all fundamental questions of life, future as well as
+present, and will be unable to descend into ANY of the depths. On the
+other hand, a man who has depth of spirit as well as of desires, and
+has also the depth of benevolence which is capable of severity and
+harshness, and easily confounded with them, can only think of woman as
+ORIENTALS do: he must conceive of her as a possession, as confinable
+property, as a being predestined for service and accomplishing her
+mission therein--he must take his stand in this matter upon the immense
+rationality of Asia, upon the superiority of the instinct of Asia, as
+the Greeks did formerly; those best heirs and scholars of Asia--who,
+as is well known, with their INCREASING culture and amplitude of power,
+from Homer to the time of Pericles, became gradually STRICTER towards
+woman, in short, more Oriental. HOW necessary, HOW logical, even HOW
+humanely desirable this was, let us consider for ourselves!
+> **Quote:** "Learning alters us, it does what all nourishment does that does not merely 'conserve'—as the physiologist knows."
+. The weaker sex has in no previous age been treated with so
+much respect by men as at present--this belongs to the tendency and
+fundamental taste of democracy, in the same way as disrespectfulness to
+old age--what wonder is it that abuse should be immediately made of
+this respect? They want more, they learn to make claims, the tribute
+of respect is at last felt to be well-nigh galling; rivalry for rights,
+indeed actual strife itself, would be preferred: in a word, woman is
+losing modesty. And let us immediately add that she is also losing
+taste. She is unlearning to FEAR man: but the woman who "unlearns to
+fear" sacrifices her most womanly instincts. That woman should venture
+forward when the fear-inspiring quality in man--or more definitely,
+the MAN in man--is no longer either desired or fully developed, is
+reasonable enough and also intelligible enough; what is more difficult
+to understand is that precisely thereby--woman deteriorates. This is
+what is happening nowadays: let us not deceive ourselves about it!
+Wherever the industrial spirit has triumphed over the military
+and aristocratic spirit, woman strives for the economic and legal
+independence of a clerk: "woman as clerkess" is inscribed on the portal
+of the modern society which is in course of formation. While she
+thus appropriates new rights, aspires to be "master," and inscribes
+"progress" of woman on her flags and banners, the very opposite realises
+itself with terrible obviousness: WOMAN RETROGRADES. Since the French
+Revolution the influence of woman in Europe has DECLINED in proportion
+as she has increased her rights and claims; and the "emancipation of
+woman," insofar as it is desired and demanded by women themselves (and
+not only by masculine shallow-pates), thus proves to be a remarkable
+symptom of the increased weakening and deadening of the most womanly
+instincts. There is STUPIDITY in this movement, an almost masculine
+stupidity, of which a well-reared woman--who is always a sensible
+woman--might be heartily ashamed. To lose the intuition as to the ground
+upon which she can most surely achieve victory; to neglect exercise in
+the use of her proper weapons; to let-herself-go before man, perhaps
+even "to the book," where formerly she kept herself in control and in
+refined, artful humility; to neutralize with her virtuous audacity man's
+faith in a VEILED, fundamentally different ideal in woman, something
+eternally, necessarily feminine; to emphatically and loquaciously
+dissuade man from the idea that woman must be preserved, cared for,
+protected, and indulged, like some delicate, strangely wild, and
+often pleasant domestic animal; the clumsy and indignant collection of
+everything of the nature of servitude and bondage which the position of
+woman in the hitherto existing order of society has entailed and still
+entails (as though slavery were a counter-argument, and not rather a
+condition of every higher culture, of every elevation of culture):--what
+does all this betoken, if not a disintegration of womanly instincts,
+a defeminising? Certainly, there are enough of idiotic friends and
+corrupters of woman among the learned asses of the masculine sex, who
+advise woman to defeminize herself in this manner, and to imitate
+all the stupidities from which "man" in Europe, European "manliness,"
+suffers,--who would like to lower woman to "general culture," indeed
+even to newspaper reading and meddling with politics. Here and there
+they wish even to make women into free spirits and literary workers: as
+though a woman without piety would not be something perfectly obnoxious
+or ludicrous to a profound and godless man;--almost everywhere her
+nerves are being ruined by the most morbid and dangerous kind of music
+(our latest German music), and she is daily being made more hysterical
+and more incapable of fulfilling her first and last function, that of
+bearing robust children. They wish to "cultivate" her in general still
+more, and intend, as they say, to make the "weaker sex" STRONG by
+culture: as if history did not teach in the most emphatic manner that
+the "cultivating" of mankind and his weakening--that is to say, the
+weakening, dissipating, and languishing of his FORCE OF WILL--have
+always kept pace with one another, and that the most powerful and
+influential women in the world (and lastly, the mother of Napoleon)
+had just to thank their force of will--and not their schoolmasters--for
+their power and ascendancy over men. That which inspires respect
+in woman, and often enough fear also, is her NATURE, which is more
+"natural" than that of man, her genuine, carnivora-like, cunning
+flexibility, her tiger-claws beneath the glove, her NAIVETE in egoism,
+her untrainableness and innate wildness, the incomprehensibleness,
+extent, and deviation of her desires and virtues. That which, in spite
+of fear, excites one's sympathy for the dangerous and beautiful cat,
+"woman," is that she seems more afflicted, more vulnerable, more
+necessitous of love, and more condemned to disillusionment than any
+other creature. Fear and sympathy it is with these feelings that man has
+hitherto stood in the presence of woman, always with one foot already in
+tragedy, which rends while it delights--What? And all that is now to
+be at an end? And the DISENCHANTMENT of woman is in progress? The
+tediousness of woman is slowly evolving? Oh Europe! Europe! We know
+the horned animal which was always most attractive to thee, from which
+danger is ever again threatening thee! Thy old fable might once more
+become "history"--an immense stupidity might once again overmaster
+thee and carry thee away! And no God concealed beneath it--no! only an
+"idea," a "modern idea"!
+But deep "down below" in our souls is something unteachable, a granite of spiritual fate, of predetermined decision and answer to predetermined, chosen questions. In every fundamental problem speaks an unchangeable "I am this"; a thinker cannot learn something entirely new about man and woman, but can only learn more fully—follow to the end what is "fixed" about them within himself. Occasionally we find solutions that become strong beliefs; later we call them "convictions." Still later we see them as footsteps toward self-knowledge, guideposts to the problem we ourselves **ARE**—or more correctly, to the great stupidity we embody, our spiritual fate, the **UNTEACHABLE** within us, deep "down below." In view of this generous compliment, perhaps I may utter some truths about "woman as she is," provided it is understood they are merely—**MY** truths.
+**232\.** Woman wishes to be independent, therefore she begins "enlightening" men about "woman as she is"—**THIS** is one of the worst developments in Europe's general **UGLIFICATION**. For what must these clumsy attempts at feminine scholarship bring to light! Woman has so much reason for shame; in her, so much pedantry, superficiality, schoolmasterishness, petty arrogance, indiscretion—just study her behavior toward children!—which fear of man has best restrained. Alas, if ever the "eternal boredom in woman" ventures out! If she begins radically to unlearn her art of charming, playing, making things light; if she forgets her delicate talent for agreeable desires! Female voices are already raised which, by Saint Aristophanes, make one afraid! With medical precision, it is stated what woman **REQUIRES** from man. Is this not in the worst taste? Enlightenment until now has fortunately been male—we remained "among ourselves." Considering all women write about "woman," we may doubt whether woman really **DESIRES** enlightenment about herself—or if she even **CAN** desire it. If she does not seek a new **ORNAMENT**—and ornamentation is part of the eternal feminine—then perhaps she seeks mastery. But she does not want truth—what does woman care for truth? Nothing has been more foreign, repugnant, hostile to woman than truth—her great art is falsehood, her chief concern appearance and beauty. Let us confess it, we men: we honor and love this very art and instinct in woman. We, who have the hard task, gladly seek recreation with beings whose glances make our seriousness appear folly. Finally: has woman ever acknowledged depth in woman's mind, or justice in woman's heart? Is it not true that "woman" has been most despised by woman herself, not by us? We men desire woman not compromise herself by "enlightening" us; just as it was man's care when the church decreed: *mulier taceat in ecclesia*. It was for woman's benefit when Napoleon told the eloquent Madame de Staël: *mulier taceat in politicis!*—and he is a true friend of woman who today calls: *mulier taceat de muliere!*
+**233\.** It betrays corrupt instincts—and bad taste—when women cite Madame Roland, Madame de Staël, or George Sand, as though they proved something for "woman." Among men, these are merely three comical women—nothing more!—the best involuntary arguments against feminine emancipation.
+**234\.** Stupidity in the kitchen; woman as cook; the terrible thoughtlessness with which family feeding is managed! Woman does not understand food, yet insists on cooking! If woman were a thinking creature, she would have discovered, as cook for millennia, the most important physiological facts and mastered healing! Bad female cooks—the total lack of reason in kitchens—have retarded mankind's development longer than anything, and even today matters are little better. A word to high-school girls.
+**235\.** There are phrases and fancies, sentences and handfuls of words, in which a whole culture crystallizes. Among them is Madame de Lambert's remark to her son: "*Mon ami, ne vous permettez jamais que des folies, qui vous feront grand plaisir*"—the most motherly, wisest remark ever addressed a son.
+**236\.** I have no doubt every noble woman opposes Dante and Goethe on woman—Dante when he sang "*Ella guardava suso, ed io in lei*," and Goethe when he interpreted this as:
+> **Quote:** "the eternally feminine draws us ALOFT"
+For **THIS** is exactly what she believes about the eternally masculine.
+**237\.** **SEVEN APOPHTHEGMS FOR WOMEN**
+How the longest boredom flies, when a man falls for our eyes!
+Age, alas, and science grave, help the virtue we would save.
+Sober dress and silence meet: clothes for every dame—discreet.
+Whom to thank for all my bliss? God!—and my good seamstress!
+Young, a flowered cave to roam; old, a dragon guards the home.
+Noble title, leg so fine, and a man: Oh, were he mine!
+Brief in speech but sense in mass—slippery for the female ass!
+A. Woman has been treated like birds that, having lost their way, descend from great heights: delicate, fragile, wild, strange, sweet, soul-stirring—but also something to cage.
+**238\.** To be mistaken about "man and woman," to deny their profound antagonism and eternally hostile tension, perhaps dreaming of equal rights, training, claims—that is **TYPICAL** shallow-mindedness. A thinker shallow here—shallow in instinct!—may be regarded as suspicious, or better, exposed. He will likely prove too "short" for life's fundamental questions, unable to descend into **ANY** depths. Conversely, a man of spiritual and desirous depth, whose benevolence includes severity (easily confused with it), can only think of woman as **ORIENTALS** do: as possession, property to be confined, a being predestined for service, finding her mission there. He must stand on Asia's immense rationality, on Asia's instinctive superiority, as the Greeks did. They were Asia's best heirs and students, and with their **INCREASING** culture and power—from Homer to Pericles—they became gradually **STRICTER** toward women: more Oriental. How necessary, logical, even humanely desirable!
+**239\.** The weaker sex has never been treated with such respect—part of democracy's trend, like disrespect for old age. Is it any wonder this respect is abused? They want more, learn to demand; respect eventually feels insulting; they'd prefer rivalry or conflict. Woman is losing modesty. And, let us add, losing taste. She unlearns how to **FEAR** man; but woman who "unlearns fear" sacrifices her most womanly instincts. That woman ventures forward when man's fear-inspiring quality— **MAN** himself—is no longer desired, is understandable. More difficult to understand: precisely because of this, woman deteriorates. This is happening now; let us not deceive ourselves! Where the industrial spirit triumphs over military and aristocratic, woman strives for clerk's independence: "woman as clerk" is inscribed on modern society's gates. While claiming new rights, aspiring to "mastery," writing "progress" on banners, the opposite becomes obvious: **WOMAN IS RETROGRADING**. Since the French Revolution, woman's influence has **DECLINED** proportionally to her increased rights; "emancipation," as desired by women themselves (not just shallow men), proves a symptom of weakening womanly instincts. There is **STUPIDITY** here, almost masculine, of which a well-bred woman might be ashamed. To lose intuition for her surest victory ground; neglect training in her proper weapons; "let herself go" before man, perhaps becoming "bookish," where once she maintained refined, artful humility; to talk man out of his belief in a **VEILED**, fundamentally different, eternally feminine ideal; to loudly persuade him woman need not be preserved, protected, indulged like a delicate domestic animal—what is this but disintegration of instincts, defeminization? Clumsily collecting every servitude woman's position entailed (as though slavery argued against higher culture, not enabled it)—what is this but lost essence? Certainly, enough idiotic friends and corrupters exist among male "learned asses," advising woman to defeminize, imitating European "manliness's" stupidities. They'd lower woman to "general culture," newspaper reading, political meddling. Some even want women as "free spirits" and writers—as if a woman without piety wouldn't be obnoxious to a profound, godless man! Almost everywhere, morbid, dangerous music (our latest German kind) ruins her nerves, making her daily more hysterical, more incapable of her primary function: bearing robust children. They'd "cultivate" her more, make the "weaker sex" **STRONG** through culture—as if history didn't teach emphatically that mankind's "cultivation" and its weakening—its **FORCE OF WILL'S** weakening—always progressed together. The world's most powerful women (most recently, Napoleon's mother) owed power to will, not schoolmasters. What inspires respect, often fear, in woman is her **NATURE**, more "natural" than man's: her genuine, predatory, flexible cunning; tiger-claws beneath the glove, her naiveté in egoism, her untrainableness and innate wildness; incomprehensible desire scope. Fear and sympathy: with these man has faced woman, one foot already in tragedy, which tears apart even as it delights. What? Is all this to end? Is **DISENCHANTMENT** of woman in progress? Is woman's boredom evolving? Oh Europe! Europe! We know the horned animal always most attractive to you, the constant danger! Your old fable might become "history"—immense stupidity might master you again! And no God hides beneath it—no! Only an "idea," a "modern idea"!
 ## CHAPTER VIII. PEOPLES AND COUNTRIES
+**240\.** I heard Wagner’s overture to *Die Meistersinger* again. It is magnificent, lush, late-era art that takes pride in assuming two centuries of music still alive to be understood. It is to the credit of Germans that such pride wasn't misplaced! What flavors and forces are mixed into it! At one moment ancient; another foreign, bitter, too modern. As arbitrary as pompously traditional; frequently mischievous, often rough and coarse. It possesses fire and courage, yet also the loose, dull-colored skin of fruit that ripens too late.
+. I HEARD, once again for the first time, Richard Wagner's overture
+to the Mastersinger: it is a piece of magnificent, gorgeous, heavy,
+latter-day art, which has the pride to presuppose two centuries of music
+as still living, in order that it may be understood:--it is an honour
+to Germans that such a pride did not miscalculate! What flavours
+and forces, what seasons and climes do we not find mingled in it! It
+impresses us at one time as ancient, at another time as foreign, bitter,
+and too modern, it is as arbitrary as it is pompously traditional, it
+is not infrequently roguish, still oftener rough and coarse--it has fire
+and courage, and at the same time the loose, dun-coloured skin of fruits
+which ripen too late. It flows broad and full: and suddenly there is a
+moment of inexplicable hesitation, like a gap that opens between cause
+and effect, an oppression that makes us dream, almost a nightmare; but
+already it broadens and widens anew, the old stream of delight--the most
+manifold delight,--of old and new happiness; including ESPECIALLY
+the joy of the artist in himself, which he refuses to conceal, his
+astonished, happy cognizance of his mastery of the expedients here
+employed, the new, newly acquired, imperfectly tested expedients of art
+which he apparently betrays to us. All in all, however, no beauty, no
+South, nothing of the delicate southern clearness of the sky, nothing
+of grace, no dance, hardly a will to logic; a certain clumsiness even,
+which is also emphasized, as though the artist wished to say to us: "It
+is part of my intention"; a cumbersome drapery, something arbitrarily
+barbaric and ceremonious, a flirring of learned and venerable conceits
+and witticisms; something German in the best and worst sense of
+the word, something in the German style, manifold, formless, and
+inexhaustible; a certain German potency and super-plenitude of
+soul, which is not afraid to hide itself under the RAFFINEMENTS of
+decadence--which, perhaps, feels itself most at ease there; a real,
+genuine token of the German soul, which is at the same time young and
+aged, too ripe and yet still too rich in futurity. This kind of music
+expresses best what I think of the Germans: they belong to the day
+before yesterday and the day after tomorrow--THEY HAVE AS YET NO TODAY.
+It flows broad and full, then suddenly hesitates inexplicably—like a gap opening between cause and effect, an oppression that makes us dream, almost a nightmare. But then it swells again, that old stream of delight—a multifaceted delight of old and new happiness, especially the artist’s own joy in himself, which he refuses to hide: his surprised, happy awareness of his mastery over the techniques used here—the new, imperfectly tested methods he reveals. On the whole, however, there is no beauty, no Mediterranean spirit, no delicate southern clarity of sky, no grace, no dance, hardly any drive toward logic. There is even a certain clumsiness deliberately emphasized, as if the artist were saying: "This is intentional." It features heavy drapery, something arbitrarily barbaric and formal, a fluttering of learned and venerable conceits. It is something German in the best and worst senses—multifaceted, formless, inexhaustible. It shows a German power and overabundance of soul that isn't afraid to hide within decadence’s refinements—perhaps it feels most at home there. It is a true symbol of the German soul, simultaneously young and aged, too ripe and yet still rich with future.
+. We "good Europeans," we also have hours when we allow ourselves a
+warm-hearted patriotism, a plunge and relapse into old loves and narrow
+views--I have just given an example of it--hours of national excitement,
+of patriotic anguish, and all other sorts of old-fashioned floods of
+sentiment. Duller spirits may perhaps only get done with what confines
+its operations in us to hours and plays itself out in hours--in a
+considerable time: some in half a year, others in half a lifetime,
+according to the speed and strength with which they digest and "change
+their material." Indeed, I could think of sluggish, hesitating races,
+which even in our rapidly moving Europe, would require half a century
+ere they could surmount such atavistic attacks of patriotism and
+soil-attachment, and return once more to reason, that is to say, to
+"good Europeanism." And while digressing on this possibility, I
+happen to become an ear-witness of a conversation between two old
+patriots--they were evidently both hard of hearing and consequently
+spoke all the louder. "HE has as much, and knows as much, philosophy as
+a peasant or a corps-student," said the one--"he is still innocent. But
+what does that matter nowadays! It is the age of the masses: they lie on
+their belly before everything that is massive. And so also in politicis.
+A statesman who rears up for them a new Tower of Babel, some monstrosity
+of empire and power, they call 'great'--what does it matter that we more
+prudent and conservative ones do not meanwhile give up the old belief
+that it is only the great thought that gives greatness to an action or
+affair. Supposing a statesman were to bring his people into the position
+of being obliged henceforth to practise 'high politics,' for which they
+were by nature badly endowed and prepared, so that they would have
+to sacrifice their old and reliable virtues, out of love to a new and
+doubtful mediocrity;--supposing a statesman were to condemn his people
+generally to 'practise politics,' when they have hitherto had something
+better to do and think about, and when in the depths of their souls
+they have been unable to free themselves from a prudent loathing of
+the restlessness, emptiness, and noisy wranglings of the essentially
+politics-practising nations;--supposing such a statesman were to
+stimulate the slumbering passions and avidities of his people, were to
+make a stigma out of their former diffidence and delight in aloofness,
+an offence out of their exoticism and hidden permanency, were to
+depreciate their most radical proclivities, subvert their consciences,
+make their minds narrow, and their tastes 'national'--what! a statesman
+who should do all this, which his people would have to do penance for
+throughout their whole future, if they had a future, such a statesman
+would be GREAT, would he?"--"Undoubtedly!" replied the other old patriot
+vehemently, "otherwise he COULD NOT have done it! It was mad perhaps to
+wish such a thing! But perhaps everything great has been just as mad
+at its commencement!"--"Misuse of words!" cried his interlocutor,
+contradictorily--"strong! strong! Strong and mad! NOT great!"--The old
+men had obviously become heated as they thus shouted their "truths" in
+each other's faces, but I, in my happiness and apartness, considered how
+soon a stronger one may become master of the strong, and also that
+there is a compensation for the intellectual superficialising of a
+nation--namely, in the deepening of another.
+> "This kind of music expresses best what I think of the Germans: they belong to the day before yesterday and the day after tomorrow—THEY HAVE AS YET NO TODAY."
+. Whether we call it "civilization," or "humanising," or "progress,"
+which now distinguishes the European, whether we call it simply, without
+praise or blame, by the political formula the DEMOCRATIC movement in
+Europe--behind all the moral and political foregrounds pointed to by
+such formulas, an immense PHYSIOLOGICAL PROCESS goes on, which is ever
+extending the process of the assimilation of Europeans, their
+increasing detachment from the conditions under which, climatically and
+hereditarily, united races originate, their increasing independence of
+every definite milieu, that for centuries would fain inscribe itself
+with equal demands on soul and body,--that is to say, the slow emergence
+of an essentially SUPER-NATIONAL and nomadic species of man, who
+possesses, physiologically speaking, a maximum of the art and power
+of adaptation as his typical distinction. This process of the EVOLVING
+EUROPEAN, which can be retarded in its TEMPO by great relapses, but
+will perhaps just gain and grow thereby in vehemence and depth--the
+still-raging storm and stress of "national sentiment" pertains to it,
+and also the anarchism which is appearing at present--this process
+will probably arrive at results on which its naive propagators and
+panegyrists, the apostles of "modern ideas," would least care to reckon.
+The same new conditions under which on an average a levelling and
+mediocrising of man will take place--a useful, industrious, variously
+serviceable, and clever gregarious man--are in the highest degree
+suitable to give rise to exceptional men of the most dangerous and
+attractive qualities. For, while the capacity for adaptation, which is
+every day trying changing conditions, and begins a new work with every
+generation, almost with every decade, makes the POWERFULNESS of the type
+impossible; while the collective impression of such future Europeans
+will probably be that of numerous, talkative, weak-willed, and very
+handy workmen who REQUIRE a master, a commander, as they require their
+daily bread; while, therefore, the democratising of Europe will tend to
+the production of a type prepared for SLAVERY in the most subtle
+sense of the term: the STRONG man will necessarily in individual and
+exceptional cases, become stronger and richer than he has perhaps ever
+been before--owing to the unprejudicedness of his schooling, owing to
+the immense variety of practice, art, and disguise. I meant to say
+that the democratising of Europe is at the same time an involuntary
+arrangement for the rearing of TYRANTS--taking the word in all its
+meanings, even in its most spiritual sense.
+**241\.** We “good Europeans” also have moments where we allow ourselves warm-hearted patriotism, a relapse into old loves and narrow perspectives—I’ve just given an example. These are hours of national excitement, patriotic anxiety, and other old-fashioned floods of sentiment. Duller spirits might take long to get through what occupies us only hours: some need half a year, others half a lifetime, depending on how quickly they digest and "process their material."
+. I hear with pleasure that our sun is moving rapidly towards the
+constellation Hercules: and I hope that the men on this earth will do
+like the sun. And we foremost, we good Europeans!
+I could imagine sluggish races who, even in our fast-moving Europe, would need half a century to overcome such primitive patriotism and return to reason—that is, to being "good Europeans." Pondering this, I overheard two old patriots, both hard of hearing, shouting. "HE has as much philosophy as a peasant or fraternity student," said one. "He is still innocent. But what does that matter today? This is the age of the masses; they bow before everything massive. And it's the same in politics. A statesman who builds them a new Tower of Babel—some monstrosity of empire and power—they call 'great.' What does it matter that cautious, conservative men still believe only a great thought gives greatness to an action? Suppose a statesman forces his people into 'high politics' for which they're ill-equipped, sacrificing old virtues for new mediocrity. Suppose he condemns them to 'practice politics' when they previously had better things to do and think about, and when in their souls they couldn't free themselves from a sensible loathing for the restlessness, emptiness, and noisy bickering of naturally political nations. Suppose he stirs up sleeping passions, making a stigma out of former modesty, an offense out of uniqueness, devaluing deepest inclinations, subverting consciences, narrowing minds, making tastes 'national.' What! A statesman who did all this, which his people would suffer for throughout their entire future—if they had one—would such a statesman be GREAT?" "Undoubtedly!" the other replied vehemently. "Otherwise he COULD NOT have done it! Perhaps it was mad to want such! But perhaps everything great was just as mad at its beginning!" "You're misusing words!" cried the first. "Strong! Strong! Strong and mad! But NOT great!" The old men shouted their "truths" in each other's faces, but I, in my happiness and apartness, considered how soon a stronger might become master of the strong, and that there is compensation for one nation's intellectual shallowing—namely, another's deepening.
+. There was a time when it was customary to call Germans "deep"
+by way of distinction; but now that the most successful type of new
+Germanism is covetous of quite other honours, and perhaps misses
+"smartness" in all that has depth, it is almost opportune and patriotic
+to doubt whether we did not formerly deceive ourselves with that
+commendation: in short, whether German depth is not at bottom something
+different and worse--and something from which, thank God, we are on the
+point of successfully ridding ourselves. Let us try, then, to relearn
+with regard to German depth; the only thing necessary for the purpose is
+a little vivisection of the German soul.--The German soul is above all
+manifold, varied in its source, aggregated and super-imposed, rather
+than actually built: this is owing to its origin. A German who would
+embolden himself to assert: "Two souls, alas, dwell in my breast," would
+make a bad guess at the truth, or, more correctly, he would come far
+short of the truth about the number of souls. As a people made up of
+the most extraordinary mixing and mingling of races, perhaps even with a
+preponderance of the pre-Aryan element as the "people of the centre" in
+every sense of the term, the Germans are more intangible, more ample,
+more contradictory, more unknown, more incalculable, more surprising,
+and even more terrifying than other peoples are to themselves:--they
+escape DEFINITION, and are thereby alone the despair of the French. It
+IS characteristic of the Germans that the question: "What is German?"
+never dies out among them. Kotzebue certainly knew his Germans well
+enough: "We are known," they cried jubilantly to him--but Sand also
+thought he knew them. Jean Paul knew what he was doing when he declared
+himself incensed at Fichte's lying but patriotic flatteries and
+exaggerations,--but it is probable that Goethe thought differently about
+Germans from Jean Paul, even though he acknowledged him to be right with
+regard to Fichte. It is a question what Goethe really thought about the
+Germans?--But about many things around him he never spoke explicitly,
+and all his life he knew how to keep an astute silence--probably he
+had good reason for it. It is certain that it was not the "Wars of
+Independence" that made him look up more joyfully, any more than it was
+the French Revolution,--the event on account of which he RECONSTRUCTED
+his "Faust," and indeed the whole problem of "man," was the appearance
+of Napoleon. There are words of Goethe in which he condemns with
+impatient severity, as from a foreign land, that which Germans take a
+pride in, he once defined the famous German turn of mind as "Indulgence
+towards its own and others' weaknesses." Was he wrong? it is
+characteristic of Germans that one is seldom entirely wrong about them.
+The German soul has passages and galleries in it, there are caves,
+hiding-places, and dungeons therein, its disorder has much of the charm
+of the mysterious, the German is well acquainted with the bypaths to
+chaos. And as everything loves its symbol, so the German loves the
+clouds and all that is obscure, evolving, crepuscular, damp, and
+shrouded, it seems to him that everything uncertain, undeveloped,
+self-displacing, and growing is "deep". The German himself does not
+EXIST, he is BECOMING, he is "developing himself". "Development" is
+therefore the essentially German discovery and hit in the great domain
+of philosophical formulas,--a ruling idea, which, together with German
+beer and German music, is labouring to Germanise all Europe. Foreigners
+are astonished and attracted by the riddles which the conflicting nature
+at the basis of the German soul propounds to them (riddles which
+Hegel systematised and Richard Wagner has in the end set to music).
+"Good-natured and spiteful"--such a juxtaposition, preposterous in the
+case of every other people, is unfortunately only too often justified
+in Germany one has only to live for a while among Swabians to know this!
+The clumsiness of the German scholar and his social distastefulness
+agree alarmingly well with his physical rope-dancing and nimble
+boldness, of which all the Gods have learnt to be afraid. If any one
+wishes to see the "German soul" demonstrated ad oculos, let him
+only look at German taste, at German arts and manners what boorish
+indifference to "taste"! How the noblest and the commonest stand there
+in juxtaposition! How disorderly and how rich is the whole constitution
+of this soul! The German DRAGS at his soul, he drags at everything he
+experiences. He digests his events badly; he never gets "done"
+with them; and German depth is often only a difficult, hesitating
+"digestion." And just as all chronic invalids, all dyspeptics like what
+is convenient, so the German loves "frankness" and "honesty"; it is
+so CONVENIENT to be frank and honest!--This confidingness, this
+complaisance, this showing-the-cards of German HONESTY, is probably the
+most dangerous and most successful disguise which the German is up to
+nowadays: it is his proper Mephistophelean art; with this he can "still
+achieve much"! The German lets himself go, and thereby gazes with
+faithful, blue, empty German eyes--and other countries immediately
+confound him with his dressing-gown!--I meant to say that, let "German
+depth" be what it will--among ourselves alone we perhaps take the
+liberty to laugh at it--we shall do well to continue henceforth to
+honour its appearance and good name, and not barter away too cheaply our
+old reputation as a people of depth for Prussian "smartness," and
+Berlin wit and sand. It is wise for a people to pose, and LET itself
+be regarded, as profound, clumsy, good-natured, honest, and foolish: it
+might even be--profound to do so! Finally, we should do honour to
+our name--we are not called the "TIUSCHE VOLK" (deceptive people) for
+nothing....
+**242\.** Whether we call it "civilization," "humanizing," "progress," or simply—the democratic movement in Europe: behind all moral and political façades these formulas point to, a massive physiological process is taking place. This process constantly expands European assimilation, increasing detachment from the climatic and hereditary conditions in which united races originate, making Europeans increasingly independent of any specific environment that, for centuries, tried to impose the same demands on soul and body. This is the slow emergence of a super-national, nomadic human species whose defining trait is a maximum capacity for adaptation. This process can be slowed by major setbacks but might gain intensity and depth from them—the ongoing storm of "national sentiment" and the rise of anarchism are part of this. It will likely lead to results that its naive promoters, the "apostles of modern ideas," would least expect. The same new conditions that, on average, will level and mediocritize man—creating a useful, hardworking, multi-talented, clever herd-animal—are perfectly suited to produce exceptional individuals of the most dangerous and attractive qualities. While adaptation's capacity, trying changing conditions daily and starting anew with every generation, makes a powerful, stable type impossible; while the overall impression of these future Europeans will likely be a talkative, weak-willed, useful workforce who *require* a master as they require daily bread; while democratization will tend toward producing a type prepared for slavery in the most subtle sense: the *strong* man will, in individual cases, necessarily become stronger and richer than ever, thanks to his lack of prejudice, wide-ranging experience, and skill in art and disguise.
+. The "good old" time is past, it sang itself out in Mozart--how
+happy are WE that his ROCOCO still speaks to us, that his "good
+company," his tender enthusiasm, his childish delight in the Chinese and
+its flourishes, his courtesy of heart, his longing for the elegant, the
+amorous, the tripping, the tearful, and his belief in the South, can
+still appeal to SOMETHING LEFT in us! Ah, some time or other it will be
+over with it!--but who can doubt that it will be over still sooner with
+the intelligence and taste for Beethoven! For he was only the last echo
+of a break and transition in style, and NOT, like Mozart, the last echo
+of a great European taste which had existed for centuries. Beethoven
+is the intermediate event between an old mellow soul that is constantly
+breaking down, and a future over-young soul that is always COMING;
+there is spread over his music the twilight of eternal loss and eternal
+extravagant hope,--the same light in which Europe was bathed when it
+dreamed with Rousseau, when it danced round the Tree of Liberty of the
+Revolution, and finally almost fell down in adoration before Napoleon.
+But how rapidly does THIS very sentiment now pale, how difficult
+nowadays is even the APPREHENSION of this sentiment, how strangely does
+the language of Rousseau, Schiller, Shelley, and Byron sound to our ear,
+in whom COLLECTIVELY the same fate of Europe was able to SPEAK, which
+knew how to SING in Beethoven!--Whatever German music came afterwards,
+belongs to Romanticism, that is to say, to a movement which,
+historically considered, was still shorter, more fleeting, and more
+superficial than that great interlude, the transition of Europe from
+Rousseau to Napoleon, and to the rise of democracy. Weber--but what do
+WE care nowadays for "Freischutz" and "Oberon"! Or Marschner's "Hans
+Heiling" and "Vampyre"! Or even Wagner's "Tannhauser"! That is extinct,
+although not yet forgotten music. This whole music of Romanticism,
+besides, was not noble enough, was not musical enough, to maintain its
+position anywhere but in the theatre and before the masses; from the
+beginning it was second-rate music, which was little thought of by
+genuine musicians. It was different with Felix Mendelssohn, that halcyon
+master, who, on account of his lighter, purer, happier soul, quickly
+acquired admiration, and was equally quickly forgotten: as the beautiful
+EPISODE of German music. But with regard to Robert Schumann, who took
+things seriously, and has been taken seriously from the first--he
+was the last that founded a school,--do we not now regard it as a
+satisfaction, a relief, a deliverance, that this very Romanticism
+of Schumann's has been surmounted? Schumann, fleeing into the "Saxon
+Switzerland" of his soul, with a half Werther-like, half Jean-Paul-like
+nature (assuredly not like Beethoven! assuredly not like Byron!)--his
+MANFRED music is a mistake and a misunderstanding to the extent of
+injustice; Schumann, with his taste, which was fundamentally a PETTY
+taste (that is to say, a dangerous propensity--doubly dangerous among
+Germans--for quiet lyricism and intoxication of the feelings), going
+constantly apart, timidly withdrawing and retiring, a noble weakling who
+revelled in nothing but anonymous joy and sorrow, from the beginning
+a sort of girl and NOLI ME TANGERE--this Schumann was already merely a
+GERMAN event in music, and no longer a European event, as Beethoven had
+been, as in a still greater degree Mozart had been; with Schumann German
+music was threatened with its greatest danger, that of LOSING THE VOICE
+FOR THE SOUL OF EUROPE and sinking into a merely national affair.
+> "I meant to say that the democratising of Europe is at the same time an involuntary arrangement for the rearing of TYRANTS—taking the word in all its meanings, even in its most spiritual sense."
+. What a torture are books written in German to a reader who has a
+THIRD ear! How indignantly he stands beside the slowly turning swamp
+of sounds without tune and rhythms without dance, which Germans call
+a "book"! And even the German who READS books! How lazily, how
+reluctantly, how badly he reads! How many Germans know, and consider it
+obligatory to know, that there is ART in every good sentence--art which
+must be divined, if the sentence is to be understood! If there is a
+misunderstanding about its TEMPO, for instance, the sentence itself
+is misunderstood! That one must not be doubtful about the
+rhythm-determining syllables, that one should feel the breaking of the
+too-rigid symmetry as intentional and as a charm, that one should lend a
+fine and patient ear to every STACCATO and every RUBATO, that one should
+divine the sense in the sequence of the vowels and diphthongs, and how
+delicately and richly they can be tinted and retinted in the order of
+their arrangement--who among book-reading Germans is complaisant enough
+to recognize such duties and requirements, and to listen to so much art
+and intention in language? After all, one just "has no ear for it";
+and so the most marked contrasts of style are not heard, and the most
+delicate artistry is as it were SQUANDERED on the deaf.--These were my
+thoughts when I noticed how clumsily and unintuitively two masters in
+the art of prose-writing have been confounded: one, whose words drop
+down hesitatingly and coldly, as from the roof of a damp cave--he counts
+on their dull sound and echo; and another who manipulates his language
+like a flexible sword, and from his arm down into his toes feels the
+dangerous bliss of the quivering, over-sharp blade, which wishes to
+bite, hiss, and cut.
+**243\.** I hear with pleasure that our sun is moving rapidly toward the constellation Hercules, and I hope that humans on this earth will follow the sun's lead. And we first of all, we good Europeans!
+. How little the German style has to do with harmony and with the
+ear, is shown by the fact that precisely our good musicians themselves
+write badly. The German does not read aloud, he does not read for the
+ear, but only with his eyes; he has put his ears away in the drawer for
+the time. In antiquity when a man read--which was seldom enough--he read
+something to himself, and in a loud voice; they were surprised when
+any one read silently, and sought secretly the reason of it. In a
+loud voice: that is to say, with all the swellings, inflections, and
+variations of key and changes of TEMPO, in which the ancient PUBLIC
+world took delight. The laws of the written style were then the same
+as those of the spoken style; and these laws depended partly on the
+surprising development and refined requirements of the ear and larynx;
+partly on the strength, endurance, and power of the ancient lungs. In
+the ancient sense, a period is above all a physiological whole, inasmuch
+as it is comprised in one breath. Such periods as occur in Demosthenes
+and Cicero, swelling twice and sinking twice, and all in one breath,
+were pleasures to the men of ANTIQUITY, who knew by their own schooling
+how to appreciate the virtue therein, the rareness and the difficulty
+in the deliverance of such a period;--WE have really no right to the
+BIG period, we modern men, who are short of breath in every sense! Those
+ancients, indeed, were all of them dilettanti in speaking, consequently
+connoisseurs, consequently critics--they thus brought their orators to
+the highest pitch; in the same manner as in the last century, when all
+Italian ladies and gentlemen knew how to sing, the virtuosoship of song
+(and with it also the art of melody) reached its elevation. In Germany,
+however (until quite recently when a kind of platform eloquence began
+shyly and awkwardly enough to flutter its young wings), there was
+properly speaking only one kind of public and APPROXIMATELY artistical
+discourse--that delivered from the pulpit. The preacher was the only one
+in Germany who knew the weight of a syllable or a word, in what manner a
+sentence strikes, springs, rushes, flows, and comes to a close; he alone
+had a conscience in his ears, often enough a bad conscience: for reasons
+are not lacking why proficiency in oratory should be especially seldom
+attained by a German, or almost always too late. The masterpiece of
+German prose is therefore with good reason the masterpiece of its
+greatest preacher: the BIBLE has hitherto been the best German
+book. Compared with Luther's Bible, almost everything else is merely
+"literature"--something which has not grown in Germany, and therefore
+has not taken and does not take root in German hearts, as the Bible has
+done.
+**244\.** There was a time when we called Germans "deep." But now that the most successful "new Germanism" craves entirely different honors, it is almost patriotic to wonder if we deceived ourselves with that praise. Is German depth fundamentally something worse—something we are successfully ridding ourselves of? Let’s dissect the German soul. It is above all multifaceted, varied in origin, layered rather than built—due to its history. A German claiming "Two souls, alas, dwell in my breast" would guess poorly, falling far short of the actual number. As a people of extraordinary racial mixture—perhaps even a pre-Aryan majority—and as "people of the center" in every sense, Germans are more elusive, expansive, contradictory, unknown, unpredictable, surprising, and terrifying than others are to themselves. They escape definition, and for that reason are the despair of the French.
+. There are two kinds of geniuses: one which above all engenders and
+seeks to engender, and another which willingly lets itself be fructified
+and brings forth. And similarly, among the gifted nations, there are
+those on whom the woman's problem of pregnancy has devolved, and the
+secret task of forming, maturing, and perfecting--the Greeks, for
+instance, were a nation of this kind, and so are the French; and others
+which have to fructify and become the cause of new modes of life--like
+the Jews, the Romans, and, in all modesty be it asked: like the
+Germans?--nations tortured and enraptured by unknown fevers and
+irresistibly forced out of themselves, amorous and longing for
+foreign races (for such as "let themselves be fructified"), and withal
+imperious, like everything conscious of being full of generative force,
+and consequently empowered "by the grace of God." These two kinds of
+geniuses seek each other like man and woman; but they also misunderstand
+each other--like man and woman.
+It is characteristic that the question "What is German?" never dies. Kotzebue knew Germans: "We are known," they cried. Sand thought he knew them. Jean Paul rightly raged against Fichte’s lying flatteries. Goethe's view differed, though he agreed about Fichte. What did Goethe think? He never spoke explicitly, maintaining clever silence—likely for good reason. Not the "Wars of Liberation" nor the French Revolution made him hopeful. The event that made him rethink *Faust*, indeed the whole problem of "man," was Napoleon. Goethe condemned with impatient severity—speaking as if from abroad—things Germans take pride in. He defined the famous German mindset as "tolerance toward its own and others' weaknesses." Was he wrong? It’s typical that one is rarely entirely wrong about Germans.
+. Every nation has its own "Tartuffery," and calls that its
+virtue.--One does not know--cannot know, the best that is in one.
+The German soul has passages, galleries, caves, hiding places, dungeons; its disorder has much of the mysterious’s charm. The German is well-acquainted with the backroads to chaos.
+. What Europe owes to the Jews?--Many things, good and bad, and above
+all one thing of the nature both of the best and the worst: the grand
+style in morality, the fearfulness and majesty of infinite demands, of
+infinite significations, the whole Romanticism and sublimity of moral
+questionableness--and consequently just the most attractive, ensnaring,
+and exquisite element in those iridescences and allurements to life,
+in the aftersheen of which the sky of our European culture, its evening
+sky, now glows--perhaps glows out. For this, we artists among the
+spectators and philosophers, are--grateful to the Jews.
+> "the German loves the clouds and all that is obscure, evolving, crepuscular, damp, and shrouded, it seems to him that everything uncertain, undeveloped, self-displacing, and growing is 'deep'."
+. It must be taken into the bargain, if various clouds and
+disturbances--in short, slight attacks of stupidity--pass over the
+spirit of a people that suffers and WANTS to suffer from national
+nervous fever and political ambition: for instance, among present-day
+Germans there is alternately the anti-French folly, the anti-Semitic
+folly, the anti-Polish folly, the Christian-romantic folly, the
+Wagnerian folly, the Teutonic folly, the Prussian folly (just look at
+those poor historians, the Sybels and Treitschkes, and their closely
+bandaged heads), and whatever else these little obscurations of the
+German spirit and conscience may be called. May it be forgiven me that
+I, too, when on a short daring sojourn on very infected ground, did not
+remain wholly exempt from the disease, but like every one else, began
+to entertain thoughts about matters which did not concern me--the first
+symptom of political infection. About the Jews, for instance, listen
+to the following:--I have never yet met a German who was favourably
+inclined to the Jews; and however decided the repudiation of actual
+anti-Semitism may be on the part of all prudent and political men, this
+prudence and policy is not perhaps directed against the nature of the
+sentiment itself, but only against its dangerous excess, and especially
+against the distasteful and infamous expression of this excess of
+sentiment;--on this point we must not deceive ourselves. That Germany
+has amply SUFFICIENT Jews, that the German stomach, the German blood,
+has difficulty (and will long have difficulty) in disposing only of this
+quantity of "Jew"--as the Italian, the Frenchman, and the Englishman
+have done by means of a stronger digestion:--that is the unmistakable
+declaration and language of a general instinct, to which one must listen
+and according to which one must act. "Let no more Jews come in! And shut
+the doors, especially towards the East (also towards Austria)!"--thus
+commands the instinct of a people whose nature is still feeble and
+uncertain, so that it could be easily wiped out, easily extinguished, by
+a stronger race. The Jews, however, are beyond all doubt the strongest,
+toughest, and purest race at present living in Europe, they know how
+to succeed even under the worst conditions (in fact better than under
+favourable ones), by means of virtues of some sort, which one would like
+nowadays to label as vices--owing above all to a resolute faith which
+does not need to be ashamed before "modern ideas", they alter only,
+WHEN they do alter, in the same way that the Russian Empire makes
+its conquest--as an empire that has plenty of time and is not of
+yesterday--namely, according to the principle, "as slowly as possible"!
+A thinker who has the future of Europe at heart, will, in all his
+perspectives concerning the future, calculate upon the Jews, as he
+will calculate upon the Russians, as above all the surest and likeliest
+factors in the great play and battle of forces. That which is at present
+called a "nation" in Europe, and is really rather a RES FACTA than NATA
+(indeed, sometimes confusingly similar to a RES FICTA ET PICTA), is in
+every case something evolving, young, easily displaced, and not yet
+a race, much less such a race AERE PERENNUS, as the Jews are such
+"nations" should most carefully avoid all hot-headed rivalry and
+hostility! It is certain that the Jews, if they desired--or if they
+were driven to it, as the anti-Semites seem to wish--COULD now have the
+ascendancy, nay, literally the supremacy, over Europe, that they are NOT
+working and planning for that end is equally certain. Meanwhile, they
+rather wish and desire, even somewhat importunely, to be insorbed and
+absorbed by Europe, they long to be finally settled, authorized, and
+respected somewhere, and wish to put an end to the nomadic life, to the
+"wandering Jew",--and one should certainly take account of this impulse
+and tendency, and MAKE ADVANCES to it (it possibly betokens a mitigation
+of the Jewish instincts) for which purpose it would perhaps be useful
+and fair to banish the anti-Semitic bawlers out of the country. One
+should make advances with all prudence, and with selection, pretty much
+as the English nobility do It stands to reason that the more powerful
+and strongly marked types of new Germanism could enter into relation
+with the Jews with the least hesitation, for instance, the nobleman
+officer from the Prussian border it would be interesting in many ways
+to see whether the genius for money and patience (and especially some
+intellect and intellectuality--sadly lacking in the place referred to)
+could not in addition be annexed and trained to the hereditary art of
+commanding and obeying--for both of which the country in question has
+now a classic reputation But here it is expedient to break off my festal
+discourse and my sprightly Teutonomania for I have already reached my
+SERIOUS TOPIC, the "European problem," as I understand it, the rearing
+of a new ruling caste for Europe.
+The German himself does not *exist*; he is *becoming*; he is "developing himself." "Development" is therefore the essentially German discovery and success in philosophical formulas—a dominant idea which, with German beer and music, works to "Germanize" Europe. Foreigners are astonished by the riddles the German soul presents (riddles Hegel organized and Wagner set to music). "Good-natured and spiteful"—such a combination, absurd in others, is justified too often in Germany; you need only live among Swabians to see it. The clumsiness of the German scholar and his social awkwardness fit alarmingly with his mental acrobatics and nimble boldness, which taught even gods to fear. To see the "German soul," look at German arts and manners—what boorish indifference to "taste"! How noblest and most common sit side by side! How disorganized and rich the whole structure is! The German drags at his soul; he drags at everything he experiences. He digests events poorly; he never gets "done" with them. German depth is often just difficult, hesitant "digestion." And as all invalids with poor digestion like what is convenient, the German loves "frankness" and "honesty"; it is so *convenient* to be frank! This openness, eagerness to please, this "showing one's cards" of German honesty, is probably the most dangerous and successful disguise the German uses; it is his devilish art. With this, he can "still achieve much"! The German lets himself go, gazing with faithful, blue, empty German eyes—and other countries immediately mistake him for his bathrobe! Whatever "German depth" may be—among ourselves we may laugh at it—we would do well to honor its appearance and reputation. We shouldn't trade our old reputation for depth too cheaply for Prussian 'smartness,' and Berlin wit and sand. It is wise for a nation to present itself as profound, clumsy, good-natured, honest, and foolish; it might even be profound to do so! We should live up to our name—we aren't called the "TIUSCHE VOLK" (the deceptive people) for nothing.
+. They are not a philosophical race--the English: Bacon represents an
+ATTACK on the philosophical spirit generally, Hobbes, Hume, and Locke,
+an abasement, and a depreciation of the idea of a "philosopher" for more
+than a century. It was AGAINST Hume that Kant uprose and raised himself;
+it was Locke of whom Schelling RIGHTLY said, "JE MEPRISE LOCKE"; in the
+struggle against the English mechanical stultification of the world,
+Hegel and Schopenhauer (along with Goethe) were of one accord; the
+two hostile brother-geniuses in philosophy, who pushed in different
+directions towards the opposite poles of German thought, and thereby
+wronged each other as only brothers will do.--What is lacking in
+England, and has always been lacking, that half-actor and rhetorician
+knew well enough, the absurd muddle-head, Carlyle, who sought to conceal
+under passionate grimaces what he knew about himself: namely, what was
+LACKING in Carlyle--real POWER of intellect, real DEPTH of intellectual
+perception, in short, philosophy. It is characteristic of such an
+unphilosophical race to hold on firmly to Christianity--they NEED its
+discipline for "moralizing" and humanizing. The Englishman, more gloomy,
+sensual, headstrong, and brutal than the German--is for that very
+reason, as the baser of the two, also the most pious: he has all the
+MORE NEED of Christianity. To finer nostrils, this English Christianity
+itself has still a characteristic English taint of spleen and alcoholic
+excess, for which, owing to good reasons, it is used as an antidote--the
+finer poison to neutralize the coarser: a finer form of poisoning is
+in fact a step in advance with coarse-mannered people, a step towards
+spiritualization. The English coarseness and rustic demureness is still
+most satisfactorily disguised by Christian pantomime, and by praying
+and psalm-singing (or, more correctly, it is thereby explained and
+differently expressed); and for the herd of drunkards and rakes who
+formerly learned moral grunting under the influence of Methodism (and
+more recently as the "Salvation Army"), a penitential fit may really be
+the relatively highest manifestation of "humanity" to which they can
+be elevated: so much may reasonably be admitted. That, however, which
+offends even in the humanest Englishman is his lack of music, to speak
+figuratively (and also literally): he has neither rhythm nor dance in
+the movements of his soul and body; indeed, not even the desire for
+rhythm and dance, for "music." Listen to him speaking; look at the most
+beautiful Englishwoman WALKING--in no country on earth are there more
+beautiful doves and swans; finally, listen to them singing! But I ask
+too much...
+**245\.** The "good old days" are over; they sang their final note in Mozart. How happy we are that his Rococo still speaks to us—that his "good company," tender enthusiasm, childlike delight in Chinese-style ornamentation, courtesy of heart, longing for the elegant, amorous, playful, and sentimental, and belief in the Mediterranean South still appeals to something in us! Ah, that too will end! But who doubts that understanding and taste for Beethoven will end sooner? For Beethoven was only the final echo of a stylistic break, not like Mozart the final echo of a great European taste lasting centuries. Beethoven stands between an old, mellow soul constantly crumbling and a future, overly young soul constantly arriving. His music is covered in twilight of eternal loss and eternal, extravagant hope—the same light that bathed Europe when it dreamed with Rousseau, danced around the Revolution’s Tree of Liberty, and finally almost worshipped Napoleon. But how quickly this sentiment fades! How difficult today even to grasp it! How strange Rousseau, Schiller, Shelley, and Byron sound—writers through whom Europe’s collective fate spoke, the same fate that knew how to *sing* in Beethoven! Whatever German music came later belongs to Romanticism—a movement historically shorter, more fleeting, more superficial than that great interlude, Europe’s transition from Rousseau to Napoleon and democracy. Weber—but what do we care today about *Der Freischütz* or *Oberon*! Or Marschner’s *Hans Heiling* and *The Vampyre*! Or Wagner’s *Tannhäuser*! That music is extinct, though not yet forgotten. Besides, all Romantic music was not noble enough, not musical enough, to hold ground anywhere but in theater and before masses; from the start it was second-rate music that real musicians didn't respect. It was different with Felix Mendelssohn, that serene master who, because of his lighter, purer, happier soul, was quickly admired and just as quickly forgotten—a beautiful episode. But Robert Schumann, who took things seriously and was taken seriously from the start? He was the last to found a school. Don't we feel satisfaction, relief, liberation that Schumann's Romanticism has been overcome? Schumann, retreating into the "Saxon Switzerland" of his soul, with a nature halfway between Goethe’s Werther and Jean Paul (certainly not like Beethoven! certainly not like Byron!)—his *Manfred* music is a mistake and injustice. Schumann, with taste fundamentally petty (a dangerous German tendency toward quiet lyricism and emotional intoxication), constantly pulling away, timidly withdrawing and retiring—a noble weakling who reveled only in anonymous joy and sorrow, a sensitive "don't-touch-me" type from the start. This Schumann was already merely a *German* event in music, no longer European like Beethoven, or even more, Mozart. With Schumann, German music faced its greatest danger: losing the voice for Europe’s soul and sinking into a purely national affair.
+. There are truths which are best recognized by mediocre minds,
+because they are best adapted for them, there are truths which only
+possess charms and seductive power for mediocre spirits:--one is pushed
+to this probably unpleasant conclusion, now that the influence of
+respectable but mediocre Englishmen--I may mention Darwin, John
+Stuart Mill, and Herbert Spencer--begins to gain the ascendancy in the
+middle-class region of European taste. Indeed, who could doubt that it
+is a useful thing for SUCH minds to have the ascendancy for a time? It
+would be an error to consider the highly developed and independently
+soaring minds as specially qualified for determining and collecting many
+little common facts, and deducing conclusions from them; as exceptions,
+they are rather from the first in no very favourable position towards
+those who are "the rules." After all, they have more to do than merely
+to perceive:--in effect, they have to BE something new, they have to
+SIGNIFY something new, they have to REPRESENT new values! The gulf
+between knowledge and capacity is perhaps greater, and also more
+mysterious, than one thinks: the capable man in the grand style, the
+creator, will possibly have to be an ignorant person;--while on the
+other hand, for scientific discoveries like those of Darwin, a certain
+narrowness, aridity, and industrious carefulness (in short, something
+English) may not be unfavourable for arriving at them.--Finally, let
+it not be forgotten that the English, with their profound mediocrity,
+brought about once before a general depression of European intelligence.
+**246\.** What a torture books written in German are to a reader with a "third ear"! How indignantly he stands beside the slowly turning swamp of sounds without melody and rhythms without dance, which Germans call a "book"! How lazily, reluctantly, poorly the German reads! How many Germans know—or even consider it a duty—that there is *art* in every good sentence, art that must be intuitively felt if the sentence is to be understood? If one misses its *tempo*, the sentence is itself misunderstood! One must not be uncertain about syllables that determine rhythm; one should feel breaking an overly rigid symmetry as intentional and charming. One should offer a keen, patient ear to every *staccato* and *rubato*, and perceive meaning in vowels and diphthongs—how delicately they can be colored by arrangement. Who among book-reading Germans is gracious enough to recognize such duties? After all, they "have no ear for it," so the most striking contrasts of style go unheard, and the finest artistry is squandered on the deaf. These were my thoughts when I noticed how clumsily two masters of prose have been confused: one whose words drop hesitantly and coldly, as if from a damp cave's ceiling—he relies on dull sound and echo; and another who handles language like a flexible sword, feeling from arm to toe the dangerous thrill of the quivering, razor-sharp blade that longs to bite, hiss, and cut.
+What is called "modern ideas," or "the ideas of the eighteenth century,"
+or "French ideas"--that, consequently, against which the GERMAN mind
+rose up with profound disgust--is of English origin, there is no doubt
+about it. The French were only the apes and actors of these ideas, their
+best soldiers, and likewise, alas! their first and profoundest VICTIMS;
+for owing to the diabolical Anglomania of "modern ideas," the AME
+FRANCAIS has in the end become so thin and emaciated, that at present
+one recalls its sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, its profound,
+passionate strength, its inventive excellency, almost with disbelief.
+One must, however, maintain this verdict of historical justice in
+a determined manner, and defend it against present prejudices and
+appearances: the European NOBLESSE--of sentiment, taste, and manners,
+taking the word in every high sense--is the work and invention of
+FRANCE; the European ignobleness, the plebeianism of modern ideas--is
+ENGLAND'S work and invention.
+**247\.** Just how little German style has to do with harmony and ear is proven by the fact that even our best musicians write poorly. The German does not read aloud; he reads not for the ear but only with his eyes, ears tucked away in a drawer. In ancient times, when a man read—which was rare—he read to himself loudly. People were surprised when anyone read silently and secretly looked for why. Reading loudly meant using all the swells, inflections, variations of key, and tempo changes that antiquity delighted in. The rules of written style were those of spoken style; they depended partly on the incredible development and refined needs of ear and throat, partly on the strength, endurance, and power of ancient lungs. In the ancient sense, a long sentence—a "period"—is above all a physiological whole contained within one breath. Sentences like those in Demosthenes or Cicero, swelling twice and sinking twice in one breath, were joy to antiquity. Through their training, they knew how to appreciate the virtue and difficulty in delivering such a sequence.
+. Even at present France is still the seat of the most intellectual
+and refined culture of Europe, it is still the high school of taste; but
+one must know how to find this "France of taste." He who belongs to it
+keeps himself well concealed:--they may be a small number in whom it
+lives and is embodied, besides perhaps being men who do not stand upon
+the strongest legs, in part fatalists, hypochondriacs, invalids, in
+part persons over-indulged, over-refined, such as have the AMBITION to
+conceal themselves.
+> "We modern men, who are short of breath in every sense, have no real right to the long, grand sentence!"
+They have all something in common: they keep their ears closed in
+presence of the delirious folly and noisy spouting of the democratic
+BOURGEOIS. In fact, a besotted and brutalized France at present sprawls
+in the foreground--it recently celebrated a veritable orgy of bad taste,
+and at the same time of self-admiration, at the funeral of Victor Hugo.
+There is also something else common to them: a predilection to resist
+intellectual Germanizing--and a still greater inability to do so!
+In this France of intellect, which is also a France of pessimism,
+Schopenhauer has perhaps become more at home, and more indigenous than
+he has ever been in Germany; not to speak of Heinrich Heine, who has
+long ago been re-incarnated in the more refined and fastidious lyrists
+of Paris; or of Hegel, who at present, in the form of Taine--the FIRST
+of living historians--exercises an almost tyrannical influence. As
+regards Richard Wagner, however, the more French music learns to
+adapt itself to the actual needs of the AME MODERNE, the more will it
+"Wagnerite"; one can safely predict that beforehand,--it is already
+taking place sufficiently! There are, however, three things which the
+French can still boast of with pride as their heritage and possession,
+and as indelible tokens of their ancient intellectual superiority
+in Europe, in spite of all voluntary or involuntary Germanizing and
+vulgarizing of taste. FIRSTLY, the capacity for artistic emotion, for
+devotion to "form," for which the expression, L'ART POUR L'ART, along
+with numerous others, has been invented:--such capacity has not been
+lacking in France for three centuries; and owing to its reverence for
+the "small number," it has again and again made a sort of chamber
+music of literature possible, which is sought for in vain elsewhere
+in Europe.--The SECOND thing whereby the French can lay claim to
+a superiority over Europe is their ancient, many-sided, MORALISTIC
+culture, owing to which one finds on an average, even in the petty
+ROMANCIERS of the newspapers and chance BOULEVARDIERS DE PARIS, a
+psychological sensitiveness and curiosity, of which, for example, one
+has no conception (to say nothing of the thing itself!) in Germany.
+The Germans lack a couple of centuries of the moralistic work requisite
+thereto, which, as we have said, France has not grudged: those who call
+the Germans "naive" on that account give them commendation for a defect.
+(As the opposite of the German inexperience and innocence IN VOLUPTATE
+PSYCHOLOGICA, which is not too remotely associated with the tediousness
+of German intercourse,--and as the most successful expression of
+genuine French curiosity and inventive talent in this domain of delicate
+thrills, Henri Beyle may be noted; that remarkable anticipatory and
+forerunning man, who, with a Napoleonic TEMPO, traversed HIS Europe,
+in fact, several centuries of the European soul, as a surveyor and
+discoverer thereof:--it has required two generations to OVERTAKE him
+one way or other, to divine long afterwards some of the riddles
+that perplexed and enraptured him--this strange Epicurean and man of
+interrogation, the last great psychologist of France).--There is yet
+a THIRD claim to superiority: in the French character there is a
+successful half-way synthesis of the North and South, which makes them
+comprehend many things, and enjoins upon them other things, which an
+Englishman can never comprehend. Their temperament, turned alternately
+to and from the South, in which from time to time the Provencal and
+Ligurian blood froths over, preserves them from the dreadful, northern
+grey-in-grey, from sunless conceptual-spectrism and from poverty of
+blood--our GERMAN infirmity of taste, for the excessive prevalence
+of which at the present moment, blood and iron, that is to say "high
+politics," has with great resolution been prescribed (according to
+a dangerous healing art, which bids me wait and wait, but not yet
+hope).--There is also still in France a pre-understanding and
+ready welcome for those rarer and rarely gratified men, who are too
+comprehensive to find satisfaction in any kind of fatherlandism, and
+know how to love the South when in the North and the North when in the
+South--the born Midlanders, the "good Europeans." For them BIZET
+has made music, this latest genius, who has seen a new beauty and
+seduction,--who has discovered a piece of the SOUTH IN MUSIC.
+Those ancients were enthusiasts of speaking, therefore connoisseurs and critics; they pushed orators to the highest level. Similarly, in the eighteenth century, when all Italian ladies and gentlemen knew how to sing, virtuosity of song (and with it melody's art) reached its peak. In Germany, however (until recently, when a kind of public eloquence began shyly testing its wings), there was really only one kind of public and roughly artistic discourse: the sermon. The preacher alone understood the weight of a syllable, how a sentence strikes, leaps, rushes, flows, concludes. He alone had conscience in his ears—often guilty—for Germans rarely achieve proficiency in oratory.
+. I hold that many precautions should be taken against German music.
+Suppose a person loves the South as I love it--as a great school
+of recovery for the most spiritual and the most sensuous ills, as a
+boundless solar profusion and effulgence which o'erspreads a sovereign
+existence believing in itself--well, such a person will learn to be
+somewhat on his guard against German music, because, in injuring his
+taste anew, it will also injure his health anew. Such a Southerner, a
+Southerner not by origin but by BELIEF, if he should dream of the future
+of music, must also dream of it being freed from the influence of the
+North; and must have in his ears the prelude to a deeper, mightier, and
+perhaps more perverse and mysterious music, a super-German music, which
+does not fade, pale, and die away, as all German music does, at the
+sight of the blue, wanton sea and the Mediterranean clearness of sky--a
+super-European music, which holds its own even in presence of the brown
+sunsets of the desert, whose soul is akin to the palm-tree, and can be
+at home and can roam with big, beautiful, lonely beasts of prey... I
+could imagine a music of which the rarest charm would be that it knew
+nothing more of good and evil; only that here and there perhaps some
+sailor's home-sickness, some golden shadows and tender weaknesses might
+sweep lightly over it; an art which, from the far distance, would see
+the colours of a sinking and almost incomprehensible MORAL world fleeing
+towards it, and would be hospitable enough and profound enough to
+receive such belated fugitives.
+> "The masterpiece of German prose is therefore the masterpiece of its greatest preacher: the Bible has until now been the best German book."
+. Owing to the morbid estrangement which the nationality-craze has
+induced and still induces among the nations of Europe, owing also to the
+short-sighted and hasty-handed politicians, who with the help of this
+craze, are at present in power, and do not suspect to what extent the
+disintegrating policy they pursue must necessarily be only an interlude
+policy--owing to all this and much else that is altogether unmentionable
+at present, the most unmistakable signs that EUROPE WISHES TO BE ONE,
+are now overlooked, or arbitrarily and falsely misinterpreted. With all
+the more profound and large-minded men of this century, the real general
+tendency of the mysterious labour of their souls was to prepare the way
+for that new SYNTHESIS, and tentatively to anticipate the European of
+the future; only in their simulations, or in their weaker moments, in
+old age perhaps, did they belong to the "fatherlands"--they only rested
+from themselves when they became "patriots." I think of such men as
+Napoleon, Goethe, Beethoven, Stendhal, Heinrich Heine, Schopenhauer: it
+must not be taken amiss if I also count Richard Wagner among them, about
+whom one must not let oneself be deceived by his own misunderstandings
+(geniuses like him have seldom the right to understand themselves),
+still less, of course, by the unseemly noise with which he is now
+resisted and opposed in France: the fact remains, nevertheless, that
+Richard Wagner and the LATER FRENCH ROMANTICISM of the forties, are
+most closely and intimately related to one another. They are akin,
+fundamentally akin, in all the heights and depths of their requirements;
+it is Europe, the ONE Europe, whose soul presses urgently and longingly,
+outwards and upwards, in their multifarious and boisterous art--whither?
+into a new light? towards a new sun? But who would attempt to express
+accurately what all these masters of new modes of speech could not
+express distinctly? It is certain that the same storm and stress
+tormented them, that they SOUGHT in the same manner, these last great
+seekers! All of them steeped in literature to their eyes and ears--the
+first artists of universal literary culture--for the most part even
+themselves writers, poets, intermediaries and blenders of the arts and
+the senses (Wagner, as musician is reckoned among painters, as poet
+among musicians, as artist generally among actors); all of them fanatics
+for EXPRESSION "at any cost"--I specially mention Delacroix, the nearest
+related to Wagner; all of them great discoverers in the realm of the
+sublime, also of the loathsome and dreadful, still greater discoverers
+in effect, in display, in the art of the show-shop; all of them talented
+far beyond their genius, out and out VIRTUOSI, with mysterious accesses
+to all that seduces, allures, constrains, and upsets; born enemies of
+logic and of the straight line, hankering after the strange, the
+exotic, the monstrous, the crooked, and the self-contradictory; as men,
+Tantaluses of the will, plebeian parvenus, who knew themselves to be
+incapable of a noble TEMPO or of a LENTO in life and action--think
+of Balzac, for instance,--unrestrained workers, almost destroying
+themselves by work; antinomians and rebels in manners, ambitious and
+insatiable, without equilibrium and enjoyment; all of them finally
+shattering and sinking down at the Christian cross (and with right
+and reason, for who of them would have been sufficiently profound and
+sufficiently original for an ANTI-CHRISTIAN philosophy?);--on the
+whole, a boldly daring, splendidly overbearing, high-flying, and
+aloft-up-dragging class of higher men, who had first to teach their
+century--and it is the century of the MASSES--the conception "higher
+man."... Let the German friends of Richard Wagner advise together as to
+whether there is anything purely German in the Wagnerian art, or whether
+its distinction does not consist precisely in coming from SUPER-GERMAN
+sources and impulses: in which connection it may not be underrated
+how indispensable Paris was to the development of his type, which the
+strength of his instincts made him long to visit at the most
+decisive time--and how the whole style of his proceedings, of his
+self-apostolate, could only perfect itself in sight of the French
+socialistic original. On a more subtle comparison it will perhaps be
+found, to the honour of Richard Wagner's German nature, that he has
+acted in everything with more strength, daring, severity, and elevation
+than a nineteenth-century Frenchman could have done--owing to the
+circumstance that we Germans are as yet nearer to barbarism than the
+French;--perhaps even the most remarkable creation of Richard Wagner is
+not only at present, but for ever inaccessible, incomprehensible, and
+inimitable to the whole latter-day Latin race: the figure of Siegfried,
+that VERY FREE man, who is probably far too free, too hard, too
+cheerful, too healthy, too ANTI-CATHOLIC for the taste of old and mellow
+civilized nations. He may even have been a sin against Romanticism, this
+anti-Latin Siegfried: well, Wagner atoned amply for this sin in his old
+sad days, when--anticipating a taste which has meanwhile passed into
+politics--he began, with the religious vehemence peculiar to him, to
+preach, at least, THE WAY TO ROME, if not to walk therein.--That
+these last words may not be misunderstood, I will call to my aid a few
+powerful rhymes, which will even betray to less delicate ears what I
+mean--what I mean COUNTER TO the "last Wagner" and his Parsifal music:--
+Compared to Luther’s Bible, almost everything else is merely "literature"—something that hasn't grown in Germany and therefore hasn't taken root in German hearts.
+German body, this self-lacerating? Is ours this priestly hand-dilation,
+This incense-fuming exaltation? Is ours this faltering, falling,
+shambling, This quite uncertain ding-dong-dangling? This sly
+nun-ogling, Ave-hour-bell ringing, This wholly false enraptured
+heaven-o'erspringing?--Is this our mode?--Think well!--ye still wait for
+admission--For what ye hear is ROME--ROME'S FAITH BY INTUITION!
+**248\.**
+> **Quote:** "There are two kinds of geniuses: one which above all engenders and seeks to engender, and another which willingly lets itself be fructified and brings forth."
+Similarly, among gifted nations, some have the feminine task of pregnancy—the secret work of forming, maturing, and perfecting. The Greeks, for instance, as are the French. Others must fertilize and become the cause of new life—like the Jews, the Romans, and if I may ask modestly, the Germans? These are nations tortured and enraptured by unknown fevers, irresistibly forced out of themselves, enamored of foreign races (those who "let themselves be fertilized"), yet also commanding, like everything conscious of its generative power and thus empowered "by God's grace." These two kinds of genius seek each other like man and woman; but they also misunderstand each other—like man and woman.
+**249\.**
+> "Every nation has its own 'Tartuffery,' and calls that its virtue."
+**250\.** What does Europe owe the Jews? Many things, good and bad, but above all one thing both best and worst: the grand style in morality, the dread and majesty of infinite demands, the entire Romanticism and sublimity of moral ambiguity. Consequently, they provided the most attractive, ensnaring, exquisite elements in those shimmering allurements to life, in whose afterglow the sky of our European culture—its evening sky—now glows or is fading. For this, we artists among spectators and philosophers are grateful to the Jews.
+**251\.** We must accept it as part of the bargain if various clouds and disturbances—brief fits of stupidity—pass over the spirit of a people who suffer and *want* to suffer from nationalist fever and political ambition. Among modern Germans, there are alternating fits of anti-French, anti-Semitic, anti-Polish, Christian-romantic, Wagnerian, Teutonic, Prussian folly (just look at those poor historians, the Sybels and Treitschkes, with their heads so tightly bandaged), and whatever else these temporary obscurations of the German spirit and conscience might be called. May I be forgiven if I, too, during a brief stay on very infected ground, did not remain entirely exempt from the disease, but like everyone else began dwelling on matters that didn't concern me—the first symptom of political infection. Concerning the Jews: I have never yet met a German favorably inclined toward them. However much prudent, political men may reject actual anti-Semitism, this prudence is perhaps directed not against the feeling itself, but only against its dangerous excess and shameful expression; we must not deceive ourselves. That Germany has more than enough Jews, and that German stomach and blood have difficulty (and will for long) processing even this amount of "Jew"—as Italians, French, and English have done through stronger digestion—is the clear message of a general instinct to which we must listen and act. "Let no more Jews in! Lock the doors, especially toward the East (and Austria)!"—so commands the instinct of a people whose nature is still weak and uncertain, such that it could easily be erased or extinguished by a stronger race.
+The Jews, however, are without doubt the strongest, toughest, purest race living in Europe. They know how to succeed even under the worst conditions (better than under favorable ones) through virtues some today would label vices—thanks above all to a resolute faith that has no need to feel ashamed before "modern ideas." They change only *when* they change, like the Russian Empire makes conquests—an empire with plenty of time not built yesterday—according to the principle of "as slowly as possible." A thinker who cares about Europe's future will account for the Jews just as for the Russians, as the surest factors in the great struggle for power. What is currently called a "nation" in Europe is really something *made* rather than *born* (sometimes confusingly similar to something faked); in every case, it is something evolving, young, easily shifted, not yet a race—much less a race "more enduring than bronze" like the Jews. Such "nations" should avoid hot-headed rivalry and hostility! It is certain that the Jews, if they wanted—or if forced, as anti-Semites wish—could now have dominance over Europe. That they are *not* working for this is equally certain. Meanwhile, they instead wish insistently to be integrated by Europe; they long to be finally settled, authorized, respected somewhere, to end their nomadic life as "wandering Jew." One should take note of this impulse (as it possibly indicates a softening of Jewish instincts); for this purpose, it might be useful and fair to banish anti-Semitic loudmouths from the country. One should proceed with caution and selection, like the English nobility. Thus the more powerful types of the new German spirit could enter relations with Jews with least hesitation—for example, the noble officer from the Prussian border. It would be interesting to see whether genius for money and patience (and especially intellect and sophistication—sadly lacking there) could be added to the hereditary art of commanding and obeying, for which that area now has classic reputation. But here I end my celebratory speech and playful "Teutonomania," for I've reached my serious topic: the "European problem" as I understand it—the development of a new ruling class for Europe.
+**252\.** The English are not a philosophical race. Bacon represents an attack on the philosophical spirit; Hobbes, Hume, and Locke represent a degradation of the "philosopher" for over a century. It was against Hume that Kant rose; it was Locke of whom Schelling said, "I despise Locke." In the struggle against English mechanical numbing of the world, Hegel and Schopenhauer (with Goethe) were allied—the two hostile brother-geniuses who pushed German thought toward opposite poles, thereby wronging each other as only brothers can. What is lacking in England was known to that half-actor Carlyle, who tried to hide self-knowledge under passionate grimaces: namely what was lacking in himself—real intellectual power, real depth of insight; in short, philosophy. It is characteristic of such an unphilosophical race to cling firmly to Christianity; they *need* its discipline for "moralizing" and humanizing. The Englishman—more gloomy, sensual, stubborn, brutal than the German—is for that very reason, as the baser, also more pious; he has more need for Christianity. To finer nostrils, this English Christianity still has a scent of gloom and alcoholic excess, used as antidote—the finer poison to neutralize the coarser. A refined form of poisoning is actually a step forward for coarse people, a step toward spiritualization. English coarseness is still most effectively disguised by Christian pantomime, praying and psalm-singing. For crowds of drunks who once learned to "grunt" morally under Methodism (and more recently as "Salvation Army"), a fit of repentance may be the highest manifestation of "humanity" they can reach; that much can be admitted. However, what offends even in the most humane Englishman is his lack of music, figuratively and literally: he has neither rhythm nor dance in soul or body; indeed he doesn't even have *desire* for rhythm and dance—for "music." Listen to him speak; look at the most beautiful Englishwoman walk—no country has more beautiful doves; finally, listen to them sing! But I ask too much...
+**253\.** There are truths best recognized by mediocre minds because they suit them; truths whose charm and seductive power exist only for mediocre spirits. One is pushed to this perhaps unpleasant conclusion now that the influence of respectable but mediocre Englishmen—Darwin, John Stuart Mill, Herbert Spencer—dominates the middle-class region of European taste. Who could doubt it useful for *such* minds to lead for a time? It would be a mistake to think highly developed, independently soaring minds are especially qualified for determining and collecting many small, common facts and drawing conclusions from them; as exceptions, they start at a disadvantage compared to those representing "the rules." After all, they have more to do than observe: they must BE something new, SIGNIFY something new, REPRESENT new values! The gap between knowledge and capacity is perhaps greater than one thinks. The man of grand capability, the creator, may need to be ignorant—while on the other hand, for scientific discoveries like Darwin’s, a certain narrowness, aridity, and industrious diligence (in short, something English) may be helpful. Finally, let us not forget that the English, with their profound mediocrity, once before caused a general decline in European intelligence. What we call "modern ideas," "eighteenth-century ideas," "French ideas"—which the GERMAN mind rose against with profound disgust—are undoubtedly English. The French were merely imitators and actors, best soldiers, and unfortunately first and most profound VICTIMS. For through disastrous "Anglomania," the *âme française* has become so thin that today one recalls its sixteenth and seventeenth centuries—its deep, passionate strength and inventive brilliance—with almost total disbelief. One must firmly uphold this verdict of historical justice against current prejudices:
+> "The European NOBLESSE—of sentiment, taste, and manners in every high sense—is the work and invention of FRANCE; the European ignobleness, the plebeianism of modern ideas—is ENGLAND'S work."
+**254\.** Even today, France remains the seat of Europe’s most intellectual, refined culture, the supreme school of taste; but one must know where to find this "France of taste." Those belonging to it keep hidden: they’re few, embodying culture. Perhaps not most robust—maybe fatalists, hypochondriacs, invalids; perhaps over-pampered, refined people who have AMBITION to remain concealed. They all close their ears to the delirious folly and noisy posturing of the democratic BOURGEOIS. Indeed, a dull, brutalized France currently occupies the spotlight—it recently celebrated an orgy of bad taste and self-congratulation at Victor Hugo's funeral. They also share a desire to resist intellectual Germanization—and greater inability to do so! In this France of intellect, which is also a France of pessimism, Schopenhauer has perhaps become more native than in Germany; not to mention Heinrich Heine, long ago reincarnated in Paris’s refined poets; or Hegel, who today through Taine—the GREATEST living historian—exerts an almost tyrannical influence. As for Richard Wagner, the more French music learns to adapt to the *âme moderne*'s actual needs, the more "Wagnerian" it will become; one can safely predict—it is already happening clearly!
+There are three things the French can still boast with pride as their heritage—indelible marks of ancient intellectual superiority despite all Germanizing and vulgarizing of taste. FIRST, capacity for artistic emotion, devotion to "form," for which *L'ART POUR L'ART* was invented. Such capacity hasn't been missing in France for three centuries; because of reverence for the "select few," it has repeatedly made a "chamber music" of literature possible, absent elsewhere. SECOND, their ancient, multifaceted MORALISTIC culture. One finds on average, even in newspaper novelists or random Paris socialites, a psychological sensitivity and curiosity of which Germans have no concept (to say nothing of the skill!). Germans lack the two centuries of moralistic labor France has provided; those calling Germans "naive" because of this praise them for a defect. (As opposite of German inexperience in *voluptate psychologica*—tied to boredom of German social interaction—and as most successful expression of genuine French curiosity, Henri Beyle may be noted. He was a remarkable, forward-looking man who, with Napoleonic TEMPO, crossed HIS Europe—several centuries of the European soul—as surveyor and discoverer. It took two generations to catch up, to solve riddles that preoccupied him—this strange Epicurean and inquirer, France's last great psychologist.)
+THIRD: in the French character, a successful midpoint synthesis of North and South allows them to understand many things and compels them to do others that an Englishman can never comprehend. Their temperament, shifting between North and South—where Provençal and Ligurian blood boils over—protects them from dreadful northern 'gray-on-gray,' from sunless conceptual-spectrism and from poverty of blood. This is our GERMAN failure of taste, for which "high politics"—blood and iron—has been prescribed (a dangerous medical art that tells me to wait, but not yet to hope). Even now in France, there is instinctive understanding and welcome for rare men too broad-minded to find fulfillment in "fatherlandism." These know how to love South while in North and North while in South—the born "Midlanders," the "good Europeans." It was for them Bizet composed—this latest genius who saw a new beauty and seduction, who discovered a piece of the SOUTH IN MUSIC.
+**255\.** I believe we should take precautions against German music. Suppose someone loves the South as I do—as a great school of recovery for the most spiritual and sensory illnesses, as boundless solar abundance and brilliance covering a sovereign existence that believes in itself. Such a person will learn to guard against German music, because by damaging his taste again, it will damage his health again. Such a Southerner—not by birth but CONVICTION—if he dreams of music's future, must dream of it liberated from Northern influence. He must hear a prelude to a deeper, more powerful, perhaps more perverse and mysterious music; a super-German music that doesn't fade, pale, die away when confronted with blue, playful sea and Mediterranean clarity of sky. He dreams of super-European music that holds its own even before brown desert sunsets, whose soul is akin to the palm tree, and can feel at home among large, beautiful, lonely beasts of prey...
+> "I could imagine a music whose rarest charm would be that it knew nothing more of good and evil; only that here and there perhaps some sailor's home-sickness, some golden shadows and tender weaknesses might sweep lightly over it; an art which, from the far distance, would see the colours of a sinking and almost incomprehensible MORAL world fleeing toward it, and would be hospitable enough and profound enough to receive such belated fugitives."
+**256\.** Because of the morbid estrangement that nationalist obsession has caused among European nations—and because of short-sighted, impulsive politicians now empowered by this craze, not realizing their divisive policies are a temporary interlude—the most unmistakable signs that EUROPE WISHES TO BE ONE are now overlooked or misinterpreted. In all this century’s profound, broad-minded men, the real underlying tendency of their souls’ mysterious labor was to prepare the way for that new SYNTHESIS, and tentatively anticipate the future European. Only in pretenses, or weaker moments—perhaps old age—did they belong to "fatherlands"; they only rested from themselves when they became "patriots." I think of Napoleon, Goethe, Beethoven, Stendhal, Heinrich Heine, Schopenhauer. One must not be deceived by Wagner’s own misunderstandings (geniuses rarely have the right to understand themselves), and even less by the unseemly noise with which he is now resisted in France. The fact remains that Richard Wagner and the LATER FRENCH ROMANTICISM of the 1840s are very closely related. They are fundamentally similar in all heights and depths of their needs; it is the SINGLE Europe whose soul presses urgently upward and outward in their diverse, boisterous art—but toward what? Toward a new light? A new sun?
+But who could express accurately what these masters of new ways of speaking could not express clearly themselves? It is certain that the same "storm and stress" tormented them, that they SEARCHED in the same way—these last great seekers! All were soaked in literature to eyes and ears—the first artists of universal literary culture. For the most part they were writers themselves: poets, intermediaries, blenders of arts and senses. (Wagner, as musician, ranks among painters; as poet among musicians; as artist among actors). All were fanatics of EXPRESSION "at any cost"—I mention Delacroix, Wagner's closest relative. All were great discoverers in the sublime realm, but also the loathsome and dreadful; even greater discoverers of spectacle, effect, the display-window's art. All were talented far beyond actual genius—absolute VIRTUOSOS with mysterious access to everything that seduces, lures, compels, overwhelms. They were born enemies of logic and straight line, craving strange, exotic, monstrous, crooked, self-contradictory. As men, they were "Tantaluses of the will," plebeian climbers who knew themselves incapable of noble TEMPO or LENTO in life and action—think Balzac—unrestrained workers, almost destroying themselves through labor. They were rebels against tradition, ambitious, insatiable, lacking balance and true enjoyment. Finally, all collapsed before the Christian cross (with good reason, for which of them was deep enough for an ANTI-CHRISTIAN philosophy?). On the whole, they were a daring, magnificently arrogant, high-flying class of higher men, who first had to teach their century—the century of the MASSES—the concept of "higher man."
+Let German Wagner friends consider whether anything purely German exists in Wagnerian art, or whether its distinction doesn't lie precisely in SUPER-GERMAN sources. One shouldn't underestimate how indispensable Paris was to his development; his instincts drove him there at his most decisive moment. His style of self-promotion could only reach perfection by observing the French socialist original. On subtler comparison, perhaps it will be found—to Wagner’s German credit—that he acted with more strength, daring, severity, elevation than a nineteenth-century Frenchman could, because we Germans are still closer to barbarism. Perhaps even Wagner’s most remarkable creation is now and forever inaccessible and inimitable to the entire modern Latin race: Siegfried, that TRULY FREE man, probably too free, hard, cheerful, healthy, and ANTI-CATHOLIC for old civilized nations. He may have been a sin against Romanticism, this anti-Latin Siegfried; well, Wagner atoned in his sad final days when—anticipating a taste that has since moved into politics—he began, with characteristic religious intensity, to preach THE WAY TO ROME, though he did not walk it.
+So these last words are not misunderstood, I use powerful rhymes that reveal even to insensitive ears what I mean—what I mean AS AN OPPOSING VIEW to "late Wagner" and his *Parsifal* music:
+Is this our way?
+From a German heart came this distressed wailing?
+From a German body, this self-mutilation?
+Is this priestly hand-waving ours?
+This exaltation through clouds of incense?
+Is this ours, this faltering, falling, stumbling,
+This uncertain swinging like a bell?
+This sly nun-ogling and Ave Maria ringing?
+This false, ecstatic leap into heaven?
+Is this our way? Think carefully! You wait outside—
+For what you hear is ROME—ROME’S FAITH BY INTUITION!
 ## CHAPTER IX. WHAT IS NOBLE?
+**257\.** Every elevation of the type 'man' has been the work of aristocratic society—which believes in hierarchy and rank, requiring slavery. Without **pathos of distance**—born of class difference, the ruling caste's habit of looking down on subordinates, their constant practice of command—that mysterious pathos could never arise: the longing for ever-widening distance within the soul, the development of higher, rarer states. This is the "self-surmounting of man," to use a moral phrase beyond morality.
+. EVERY elevation of the type "man," has hitherto been the work of an
+aristocratic society and so it will always be--a society believing in
+a long scale of gradations of rank and differences of worth among human
+beings, and requiring slavery in some form or other. Without the PATHOS
+OF DISTANCE, such as grows out of the incarnated difference of classes,
+out of the constant out-looking and down-looking of the ruling caste on
+subordinates and instruments, and out of their equally constant
+practice of obeying and commanding, of keeping down and keeping at a
+distance--that other more mysterious pathos could never have arisen, the
+longing for an ever new widening of distance within the soul itself,
+the formation of ever higher, rarer, further, more extended, more
+comprehensive states, in short, just the elevation of the type "man,"
+the continued "self-surmounting of man," to use a moral formula in
+a supermoral sense. To be sure, one must not resign oneself to
+any humanitarian illusions about the history of the origin of an
+aristocratic society (that is to say, of the preliminary condition for
+the elevation of the type "man"): the truth is hard. Let us acknowledge
+unprejudicedly how every higher civilization hitherto has ORIGINATED!
+Men with a still natural nature, barbarians in every terrible sense of
+the word, men of prey, still in possession of unbroken strength of will
+and desire for power, threw themselves upon weaker, more moral, more
+peaceful races (perhaps trading or cattle-rearing communities), or upon
+old mellow civilizations in which the final vital force was flickering
+out in brilliant fireworks of wit and depravity. At the commencement,
+the noble caste was always the barbarian caste: their superiority did
+not consist first of all in their physical, but in their psychical
+power--they were more COMPLETE men (which at every point also implies
+the same as "more complete beasts").
+The truth about aristocracy's origins is harsh. Every higher civilization began when men still close to nature—barbarians in every sense, predatory men with unbroken will and lust for power—flung themselves upon weaker, more moral races. The noble caste was always the barbarian caste: their superiority lay not in physical strength, but in psychological power—they were more complete human beings (which also means "more complete beasts").
+. Corruption--as the indication that anarchy threatens to break out
+among the instincts, and that the foundation of the emotions, called
+"life," is convulsed--is something radically different according to
+the organization in which it manifests itself. When, for instance, an
+aristocracy like that of France at the beginning of the Revolution,
+flung away its privileges with sublime disgust and sacrificed itself
+to an excess of its moral sentiments, it was corruption:--it was really
+only the closing act of the corruption which had existed for centuries,
+by virtue of which that aristocracy had abdicated step by step its
+lordly prerogatives and lowered itself to a FUNCTION of royalty (in
+the end even to its decoration and parade-dress). The essential thing,
+however, in a good and healthy aristocracy is that it should not regard
+itself as a function either of the kingship or the commonwealth, but
+as the SIGNIFICANCE and highest justification thereof--that it should
+therefore accept with a good conscience the sacrifice of a legion
+of individuals, who, FOR ITS SAKE, must be suppressed and reduced to
+imperfect men, to slaves and instruments. Its fundamental belief must
+be precisely that society is NOT allowed to exist for its own sake, but
+only as a foundation and scaffolding, by means of which a select class
+of beings may be able to elevate themselves to their higher duties, and
+in general to a higher EXISTENCE: like those sun-seeking climbing plants
+in Java--they are called Sipo Matador,--which encircle an oak so
+long and so often with their arms, until at last, high above it, but
+supported by it, they can unfold their tops in the open light, and
+exhibit their happiness.
+**258\.** Corruption signifies anarchy among instincts. It differs radically by organization. When the French aristocracy threw away privileges with sublime disgust, that was corruption—the final act of a centuries-long process of surrendering lordly rights, reducing itself to mere function of the monarchy, eventually mere decoration.
+. To refrain mutually from injury, from violence, from exploitation,
+and put one's will on a par with that of others: this may result in a
+certain rough sense in good conduct among individuals when the necessary
+conditions are given (namely, the actual similarity of the individuals
+in amount of force and degree of worth, and their co-relation within one
+organization). As soon, however, as one wished to take this principle
+more generally, and if possible even as the FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLE OF
+SOCIETY, it would immediately disclose what it really is--namely, a Will
+to the DENIAL of life, a principle of dissolution and decay. Here one
+must think profoundly to the very basis and resist all sentimental
+weakness: life itself is ESSENTIALLY appropriation, injury, conquest
+of the strange and weak, suppression, severity, obtrusion of
+peculiar forms, incorporation, and at the least, putting it mildest,
+exploitation;--but why should one for ever use precisely these words
+on which for ages a disparaging purpose has been stamped? Even the
+organization within which, as was previously supposed, the
+individuals treat each other as equal--it takes place in every
+healthy aristocracy--must itself, if it be a living and not a dying
+organization, do all that towards other bodies, which the individuals
+within it refrain from doing to each other it will have to be the
+incarnated Will to Power, it will endeavour to grow, to gain ground,
+attract to itself and acquire ascendancy--not owing to any morality or
+immorality, but because it LIVES, and because life IS precisely Will to
+Power. On no point, however, is the ordinary consciousness of Europeans
+more unwilling to be corrected than on this matter, people now rave
+everywhere, even under the guise of science, about coming conditions of
+society in which "the exploiting character" is to be absent--that sounds
+to my ears as if they promised to invent a mode of life which should
+refrain from all organic functions. "Exploitation" does not belong to a
+depraved, or imperfect and primitive society it belongs to the nature of
+the living being as a primary organic function, it is a consequence
+of the intrinsic Will to Power, which is precisely the Will to
+Life--Granting that as a theory this is a novelty--as a reality it is
+the FUNDAMENTAL FACT of all history let us be so far honest towards
+ourselves!
+The mark of healthy aristocracy is not seeing itself as state function but as its meaning and justification. It accepts with clear conscience the sacrifice of countless individuals who must be suppressed and reduced to slaves and tools. Its belief: society exists not for its own sake but as scaffolding for a select few to rise higher—like Java's Sipo Matador vine that wraps an oak until it can unfold its leaves above, displaying happiness in open light.
+. In a tour through the many finer and coarser moralities which have
+hitherto prevailed or still prevail on the earth, I found certain traits
+recurring regularly together, and connected with one another, until
+finally two primary types revealed themselves to me, and a radical
+distinction was brought to light. There is MASTER-MORALITY and
+SLAVE-MORALITY,--I would at once add, however, that in all higher and
+mixed civilizations, there are also attempts at the reconciliation of
+the two moralities, but one finds still oftener the confusion and
+mutual misunderstanding of them, indeed sometimes their close
+juxtaposition--even in the same man, within one soul. The distinctions
+of moral values have either originated in a ruling caste, pleasantly
+conscious of being different from the ruled--or among the ruled class,
+the slaves and dependents of all sorts. In the first case, when it is
+the rulers who determine the conception "good," it is the exalted, proud
+disposition which is regarded as the distinguishing feature, and that
+which determines the order of rank. The noble type of man separates
+from himself the beings in whom the opposite of this exalted, proud
+disposition displays itself he despises them. Let it at once be noted
+that in this first kind of morality the antithesis "good" and "bad"
+means practically the same as "noble" and "despicable",--the antithesis
+"good" and "EVIL" is of a different origin. The cowardly, the timid, the
+insignificant, and those thinking merely of narrow utility are despised;
+moreover, also, the distrustful, with their constrained glances, the
+self-abasing, the dog-like kind of men who let themselves be abused,
+the mendicant flatterers, and above all the liars:--it is a fundamental
+belief of all aristocrats that the common people are untruthful. "We
+truthful ones"--the nobility in ancient Greece called themselves. It is
+obvious that everywhere the designations of moral value were at first
+applied to MEN; and were only derivatively and at a later period applied
+to ACTIONS; it is a gross mistake, therefore, when historians of morals
+start with questions like, "Why have sympathetic actions been praised?"
+The noble type of man regards HIMSELF as a determiner of values; he
+does not require to be approved of; he passes the judgment: "What is
+injurious to me is injurious in itself;" he knows that it is he himself
+only who confers honour on things; he is a CREATOR OF VALUES. He
+honours whatever he recognizes in himself: such morality equals
+self-glorification. In the foreground there is the feeling of plenitude,
+of power, which seeks to overflow, the happiness of high tension, the
+consciousness of a wealth which would fain give and bestow:--the noble
+man also helps the unfortunate, but not--or scarcely--out of pity, but
+rather from an impulse generated by the super-abundance of power. The
+noble man honours in himself the powerful one, him also who has power
+over himself, who knows how to speak and how to keep silence, who
+takes pleasure in subjecting himself to severity and hardness, and has
+reverence for all that is severe and hard. "Wotan placed a hard heart in
+my breast," says an old Scandinavian Saga: it is thus rightly expressed
+from the soul of a proud Viking. Such a type of man is even proud of not
+being made for sympathy; the hero of the Saga therefore adds warningly:
+"He who has not a hard heart when young, will never have one." The noble
+and brave who think thus are the furthest removed from the morality
+which sees precisely in sympathy, or in acting for the good of others,
+or in DESINTERESSEMENT, the characteristic of the moral; faith
+in oneself, pride in oneself, a radical enmity and irony towards
+"selflessness," belong as definitely to noble morality, as do a careless
+scorn and precaution in presence of sympathy and the "warm heart."--It
+is the powerful who KNOW how to honour, it is their art, their domain
+for invention. The profound reverence for age and for tradition--all law
+rests on this double reverence,--the belief and prejudice in favour of
+ancestors and unfavourable to newcomers, is typical in the morality of
+the powerful; and if, reversely, men of "modern ideas" believe almost
+instinctively in "progress" and the "future," and are more and more
+lacking in respect for old age, the ignoble origin of these "ideas" has
+complacently betrayed itself thereby. A morality of the ruling class,
+however, is more especially foreign and irritating to present-day taste
+in the sternness of its principle that one has duties only to one's
+equals; that one may act towards beings of a lower rank, towards all
+that is foreign, just as seems good to one, or "as the heart desires,"
+and in any case "beyond good and evil": it is here that sympathy and
+similar sentiments can have a place. The ability and obligation to
+exercise prolonged gratitude and prolonged revenge--both only within the
+circle of equals,--artfulness in retaliation, RAFFINEMENT of the idea
+in friendship, a certain necessity to have enemies (as outlets for the
+emotions of envy, quarrelsomeness, arrogance--in fact, in order to be
+a good FRIEND): all these are typical characteristics of the noble
+morality, which, as has been pointed out, is not the morality of "modern
+ideas," and is therefore at present difficult to realize, and also to
+unearth and disclose.--It is otherwise with the second type of morality,
+SLAVE-MORALITY. Supposing that the abused, the oppressed, the suffering,
+the unemancipated, the weary, and those uncertain of themselves should
+moralize, what will be the common element in their moral estimates?
+Probably a pessimistic suspicion with regard to the entire situation of
+man will find expression, perhaps a condemnation of man, together with
+his situation. The slave has an unfavourable eye for the virtues of the
+powerful; he has a skepticism and distrust, a REFINEMENT of distrust of
+everything "good" that is there honoured--he would fain persuade himself
+that the very happiness there is not genuine. On the other hand, THOSE
+qualities which serve to alleviate the existence of sufferers are
+brought into prominence and flooded with light; it is here that
+sympathy, the kind, helping hand, the warm heart, patience, diligence,
+humility, and friendliness attain to honour; for here these are the most
+useful qualities, and almost the only means of supporting the burden of
+existence. Slave-morality is essentially the morality of utility.
+Here is the seat of the origin of the famous antithesis "good" and
+"evil":--power and dangerousness are assumed to reside in the evil,
+a certain dreadfulness, subtlety, and strength, which do not admit of
+being despised. According to slave-morality, therefore, the "evil" man
+arouses fear; according to master-morality, it is precisely the "good"
+man who arouses fear and seeks to arouse it, while the bad man is
+regarded as the despicable being. The contrast attains its maximum when,
+in accordance with the logical consequences of slave-morality, a shade
+of depreciation--it may be slight and well-intentioned--at last attaches
+itself to the "good" man of this morality; because, according to the
+servile mode of thought, the good man must in any case be the SAFE
+man: he is good-natured, easily deceived, perhaps a little stupid, un
+bonhomme. Everywhere that slave-morality gains the ascendancy, language
+shows a tendency to approximate the significations of the words "good"
+and "stupid."--A last fundamental difference: the desire for FREEDOM,
+the instinct for happiness and the refinements of the feeling of liberty
+belong as necessarily to slave-morals and morality, as artifice and
+enthusiasm in reverence and devotion are the regular symptoms of an
+aristocratic mode of thinking and estimating.--Hence we can understand
+without further detail why love AS A PASSION--it is our European
+specialty--must absolutely be of noble origin; as is well known, its
+invention is due to the Provencal poet-cavaliers, those brilliant,
+ingenious men of the "gai saber," to whom Europe owes so much, and
+almost owes itself.
+**259\.** To mutually refrain from injury, violence, and exploitation can produce rough good manners between equals—provided they are truly similar in power. But as soon as one tries to make this a fundamental principle of society, it reveals its nature: a Will to deny life, a principle of disintegration. We must think to the core, resisting sentiment:
+. Vanity is one of the things which are perhaps most difficult for
+a noble man to understand: he will be tempted to deny it, where another
+kind of man thinks he sees it self-evidently. The problem for him is
+to represent to his mind beings who seek to arouse a good opinion of
+themselves which they themselves do not possess--and consequently also
+do not "deserve,"--and who yet BELIEVE in this good opinion
+afterwards. This seems to him on the one hand such bad taste and so
+self-disrespectful, and on the other hand so grotesquely unreasonable,
+that he would like to consider vanity an exception, and is doubtful
+about it in most cases when it is spoken of. He will say, for
+instance: "I may be mistaken about my value, and on the other hand
+may nevertheless demand that my value should be acknowledged by others
+precisely as I rate it:--that, however, is not vanity (but self-conceit,
+or, in most cases, that which is called 'humility,' and also
+'modesty')." Or he will even say: "For many reasons I can delight in
+the good opinion of others, perhaps because I love and honour them,
+and rejoice in all their joys, perhaps also because their good opinion
+endorses and strengthens my belief in my own good opinion, perhaps
+because the good opinion of others, even in cases where I do not share
+it, is useful to me, or gives promise of usefulness:--all this, however,
+is not vanity." The man of noble character must first bring it home
+forcibly to his mind, especially with the aid of history, that, from
+time immemorial, in all social strata in any way dependent, the ordinary
+man WAS only that which he PASSED FOR:--not being at all accustomed to
+fix values, he did not assign even to himself any other value than that
+which his master assigned to him (it is the peculiar RIGHT OF MASTERS to
+create values). It may be looked upon as the result of an extraordinary
+atavism, that the ordinary man, even at present, is still always WAITING
+for an opinion about himself, and then instinctively submitting himself
+to it; yet by no means only to a "good" opinion, but also to a bad
+and unjust one (think, for instance, of the greater part of the
+self-appreciations and self-depreciations which believing women learn
+from their confessors, and which in general the believing Christian
+learns from his Church). In fact, conformably to the slow rise of the
+democratic social order (and its cause, the blending of the blood
+of masters and slaves), the originally noble and rare impulse of
+the masters to assign a value to themselves and to "think well" of
+themselves, will now be more and more encouraged and extended; but
+it has at all times an older, ampler, and more radically ingrained
+propensity opposed to it--and in the phenomenon of "vanity" this older
+propensity overmasters the younger. The vain person rejoices over EVERY
+good opinion which he hears about himself (quite apart from the point
+of view of its usefulness, and equally regardless of its truth or
+falsehood), just as he suffers from every bad opinion: for he subjects
+himself to both, he feels himself subjected to both, by that oldest
+instinct of subjection which breaks forth in him.--It is "the slave"
+in the vain man's blood, the remains of the slave's craftiness--and how
+much of the "slave" is still left in woman, for instance!--which
+seeks to SEDUCE to good opinions of itself; it is the slave, too, who
+immediately afterwards falls prostrate himself before these opinions, as
+though he had not called them forth.--And to repeat it again: vanity is
+an atavism.
+> **Quote:** "Life itself is ESSENTIALLY appropriation, injury, conquest of the strange and weak, suppression, severity, obtrusion of peculiar forms, incorporation, and at the least, putting it mildest, exploitation."
+. A SPECIES originates, and a type becomes established and strong in
+the long struggle with essentially constant UNFAVOURABLE conditions. On
+the other hand, it is known by the experience of breeders that species
+which receive super-abundant nourishment, and in general a surplus of
+protection and care, immediately tend in the most marked way to develop
+variations, and are fertile in prodigies and monstrosities (also in
+monstrous vices). Now look at an aristocratic commonwealth, say
+an ancient Greek polis, or Venice, as a voluntary or involuntary
+contrivance for the purpose of REARING human beings; there are there men
+beside one another, thrown upon their own resources, who want to make
+their species prevail, chiefly because they MUST prevail, or else
+run the terrible danger of being exterminated. The favour, the
+super-abundance, the protection are there lacking under which variations
+are fostered; the species needs itself as species, as something which,
+precisely by virtue of its hardness, its uniformity, and simplicity of
+structure, can in general prevail and make itself permanent in
+constant struggle with its neighbours, or with rebellious or
+rebellion-threatening vassals. The most varied experience teaches it
+what are the qualities to which it principally owes the fact that
+it still exists, in spite of all Gods and men, and has hitherto been
+victorious: these qualities it calls virtues, and these virtues alone
+it develops to maturity. It does so with severity, indeed it desires
+severity; every aristocratic morality is intolerant in the education
+of youth, in the control of women, in the marriage customs, in the
+relations of old and young, in the penal laws (which have an eye only
+for the degenerating): it counts intolerance itself among the virtues,
+under the name of "justice." A type with few, but very marked features,
+a species of severe, warlike, wisely silent, reserved, and reticent
+men (and as such, with the most delicate sensibility for the charm and
+nuances of society) is thus established, unaffected by the vicissitudes
+of generations; the constant struggle with uniform UNFAVOURABLE
+conditions is, as already remarked, the cause of a type becoming
+stable and hard. Finally, however, a happy state of things results, the
+enormous tension is relaxed; there are perhaps no more enemies among the
+neighbouring peoples, and the means of life, even of the enjoyment
+of life, are present in superabundance. With one stroke the bond and
+constraint of the old discipline severs: it is no longer regarded as
+necessary, as a condition of existence--if it would continue, it can
+only do so as a form of LUXURY, as an archaizing TASTE. Variations,
+whether they be deviations (into the higher, finer, and rarer), or
+deteriorations and monstrosities, appear suddenly on the scene in the
+greatest exuberance and splendour; the individual dares to be individual
+and detach himself. At this turning-point of history there manifest
+themselves, side by side, and often mixed and entangled together, a
+magnificent, manifold, virgin-forest-like up-growth and up-striving, a
+kind of TROPICAL TEMPO in the rivalry of growth, and an extraordinary
+decay and self-destruction, owing to the savagely opposing and seemingly
+exploding egoisms, which strive with one another "for sun and light,"
+and can no longer assign any limit, restraint, or forbearance for
+themselves by means of the hitherto existing morality. It was this
+morality itself which piled up the strength so enormously, which bent
+the bow in so threatening a manner:--it is now "out of date," it is
+getting "out of date." The dangerous and disquieting point has been
+reached when the greater, more manifold, more comprehensive life IS
+LIVED BEYOND the old morality; the "individual" stands out, and is
+obliged to have recourse to his own law-giving, his own arts and
+artifices for self-preservation, self-elevation, and self-deliverance.
+Nothing but new "Whys," nothing but new "Hows," no common formulas any
+longer, misunderstanding and disregard in league with each other, decay,
+deterioration, and the loftiest desires frightfully entangled, the
+genius of the race overflowing from all the cornucopias of good and bad,
+a portentous simultaneousness of Spring and Autumn, full of new charms
+and mysteries peculiar to the fresh, still inexhausted, still unwearied
+corruption. Danger is again present, the mother of morality, great
+danger; this time shifted into the individual, into the neighbour and
+friend, into the street, into their own child, into their own heart,
+into all the most personal and secret recesses of their desires and
+volitions. What will the moral philosophers who appear at this time have
+to preach? They discover, these sharp onlookers and loafers, that the
+end is quickly approaching, that everything around them decays and
+produces decay, that nothing will endure until the day after tomorrow,
+except one species of man, the incurably MEDIOCRE. The mediocre alone
+have a prospect of continuing and propagating themselves--they will
+be the men of the future, the sole survivors; "be like them! become
+mediocre!" is now the only morality which has still a significance,
+which still obtains a hearing.--But it is difficult to preach this
+morality of mediocrity! it can never avow what it is and what it
+desires! it has to talk of moderation and dignity and duty and brotherly
+love--it will have difficulty IN CONCEALING ITS IRONY!
+Even the organization where individuals treat each other as equals must, if living, do to other bodies what its members refrain from doing to one another. It must be the embodied Will to Power, striving to grow and dominate—not from morality, but because life is Will to Power.
+. There is an INSTINCT FOR RANK, which more than anything else is
+already the sign of a HIGH rank; there is a DELIGHT in the NUANCES
+of reverence which leads one to infer noble origin and habits. The
+refinement, goodness, and loftiness of a soul are put to a perilous test
+when something passes by that is of the highest rank, but is not
+yet protected by the awe of authority from obtrusive touches and
+incivilities: something that goes its way like a living touchstone,
+undistinguished, undiscovered, and tentative, perhaps voluntarily veiled
+and disguised. He whose task and practice it is to investigate souls,
+will avail himself of many varieties of this very art to determine the
+ultimate value of a soul, the unalterable, innate order of rank to which
+it belongs: he will test it by its INSTINCT FOR REVERENCE. DIFFERENCE
+ENGENDRE HAINE: the vulgarity of many a nature spurts up suddenly like
+dirty water, when any holy vessel, any jewel from closed shrines, any
+book bearing the marks of great destiny, is brought before it; while
+on the other hand, there is an involuntary silence, a hesitation of the
+eye, a cessation of all gestures, by which it is indicated that a soul
+FEELS the nearness of what is worthiest of respect. The way in which, on
+the whole, the reverence for the BIBLE has hitherto been maintained
+in Europe, is perhaps the best example of discipline and refinement of
+manners which Europe owes to Christianity: books of such profoundness
+and supreme significance require for their protection an external
+tyranny of authority, in order to acquire the PERIOD of thousands of
+years which is necessary to exhaust and unriddle them. Much has been
+achieved when the sentiment has been at last instilled into the masses
+(the shallow-pates and the boobies of every kind) that they are not
+allowed to touch everything, that there are holy experiences before
+which they must take off their shoes and keep away the unclean hand--it
+is almost their highest advance towards humanity. On the contrary, in
+the so-called cultured classes, the believers in "modern ideas," nothing
+is perhaps so repulsive as their lack of shame, the easy insolence of
+eye and hand with which they touch, taste, and finger everything; and it
+is possible that even yet there is more RELATIVE nobility of taste, and
+more tact for reverence among the people, among the lower classes of
+the people, especially among peasants, than among the newspaper-reading
+DEMIMONDE of intellect, the cultured class.
+Everywhere today, even under science's guise, people rave about a future without "exploitation"—as if they could invent life without organic functions.
+. It cannot be effaced from a man's soul what his ancestors have
+preferably and most constantly done: whether they were perhaps diligent
+economizers attached to a desk and a cash-box, modest and citizen-like
+in their desires, modest also in their virtues; or whether they were
+accustomed to commanding from morning till night, fond of rude pleasures
+and probably of still ruder duties and responsibilities; or whether,
+finally, at one time or another, they have sacrificed old privileges of
+birth and possession, in order to live wholly for their faith--for their
+"God,"--as men of an inexorable and sensitive conscience, which blushes
+at every compromise. It is quite impossible for a man NOT to have
+the qualities and predilections of his parents and ancestors in his
+constitution, whatever appearances may suggest to the contrary. This is
+the problem of race. Granted that one knows something of the parents,
+it is admissible to draw a conclusion about the child: any kind
+of offensive incontinence, any kind of sordid envy, or of clumsy
+self-vaunting--the three things which together have constituted the
+genuine plebeian type in all times--such must pass over to the child, as
+surely as bad blood; and with the help of the best education and culture
+one will only succeed in DECEIVING with regard to such heredity.--And
+what else does education and culture try to do nowadays! In our very
+democratic, or rather, very plebeian age, "education" and "culture" MUST
+be essentially the art of deceiving--deceiving with regard to origin,
+with regard to the inherited plebeianism in body and soul. An educator
+who nowadays preached truthfulness above everything else, and called out
+constantly to his pupils: "Be true! Be natural! Show yourselves as you
+are!"--even such a virtuous and sincere ass would learn in a short time
+to have recourse to the FURCA of Horace, NATURAM EXPELLERE: with what
+results? "Plebeianism" USQUE RECURRET. [FOOTNOTE: Horace's "Epistles,"
+I. x. 24.]
+> **Quote:** "Exploitation does not belong to a depraved or primitive society: it belongs to the nature of the living being as a primary organic function; it is a consequence of the intrinsic Will to Power, which is precisely the Will to Life."
+. At the risk of displeasing innocent ears, I submit that egoism
+belongs to the essence of a noble soul, I mean the unalterable belief
+that to a being such as "we," other beings must naturally be in
+subjection, and have to sacrifice themselves. The noble soul accepts the
+fact of his egoism without question, and also without consciousness of
+harshness, constraint, or arbitrariness therein, but rather as something
+that may have its basis in the primary law of things:--if he sought a
+designation for it he would say: "It is justice itself." He acknowledges
+under certain circumstances, which made him hesitate at first, that
+there are other equally privileged ones; as soon as he has settled this
+question of rank, he moves among those equals and equally privileged
+ones with the same assurance, as regards modesty and delicate respect,
+which he enjoys in intercourse with himself--in accordance with an
+innate heavenly mechanism which all the stars understand. It is an
+ADDITIONAL instance of his egoism, this artfulness and self-limitation
+in intercourse with his equals--every star is a similar egoist; he
+honours HIMSELF in them, and in the rights which he concedes to them, he
+has no doubt that the exchange of honours and rights, as the ESSENCE of
+all intercourse, belongs also to the natural condition of things. The
+noble soul gives as he takes, prompted by the passionate and sensitive
+instinct of requital, which is at the root of his nature. The notion of
+"favour" has, INTER PARES, neither significance nor good repute; there
+may be a sublime way of letting gifts as it were light upon one from
+above, and of drinking them thirstily like dew-drops; but for those
+arts and displays the noble soul has no aptitude. His egoism hinders him
+here: in general, he looks "aloft" unwillingly--he looks either FORWARD,
+horizontally and deliberately, or downwards--HE KNOWS THAT HE IS ON A
+HEIGHT.
+As reality, this is the fundamental fact of all history. Let us be honest with ourselves!
+. "One can only truly esteem him who does not LOOK OUT FOR
+himself."--Goethe to Rath Schlosser.
+**260\.** Surveying the moralities that have existed, I found two primary types: master-morality and slave-morality. In higher civilizations they appear confused, side-by-side in the same soul.
+. The Chinese have a proverb which mothers even teach their children:
+"SIAO-SIN" ("MAKE THY HEART SMALL"). This is the essentially fundamental
+tendency in latter-day civilizations. I have no doubt that an ancient
+Greek, also, would first of all remark the self-dwarfing in us Europeans
+of today--in this respect alone we should immediately be "distasteful"
+to him.
+Moral values originate either in a ruling caste, conscious of its difference, or among the ruled—slaves and dependents. When rulers determine "good," it is the exalted, proud character that defines rank. The noble distances himself from the opposite: he despises the cowardly, timid, insignificant, those of narrow utility, the self-abasing, the dog-like, the flatterers, above all the liars. All aristocrats believe common people are untruthful—"We truthful ones," the ancient Greek nobility called themselves.
+. What, after all, is ignobleness?--Words are vocal symbols for
+ideas; ideas, however, are more or less definite mental symbols
+for frequently returning and concurring sensations, for groups of
+sensations. It is not sufficient to use the same words in order to
+understand one another: we must also employ the same words for the same
+kind of internal experiences, we must in the end have experiences IN
+COMMON. On this account the people of one nation understand one another
+better than those belonging to different nations, even when they use
+the same language; or rather, when people have lived long together under
+similar conditions (of climate, soil, danger, requirement, toil) there
+ORIGINATES therefrom an entity that "understands itself"--namely, a
+nation. In all souls a like number of frequently recurring experiences
+have gained the upper hand over those occurring more rarely: about
+these matters people understand one another rapidly and always more
+rapidly--the history of language is the history of a process of
+abbreviation; on the basis of this quick comprehension people always
+unite closer and closer. The greater the danger, the greater is the
+need of agreeing quickly and readily about what is necessary; not to
+misunderstand one another in danger--that is what cannot at all be
+dispensed with in intercourse. Also in all loves and friendships one has
+the experience that nothing of the kind continues when the discovery
+has been made that in using the same words, one of the two parties has
+feelings, thoughts, intuitions, wishes, or fears different from those of
+the other. (The fear of the "eternal misunderstanding": that is the good
+genius which so often keeps persons of different sexes from too
+hasty attachments, to which sense and heart prompt them--and NOT some
+Schopenhauerian "genius of the species"!) Whichever groups of sensations
+within a soul awaken most readily, begin to speak, and give the word of
+command--these decide as to the general order of rank of its values, and
+determine ultimately its list of desirable things. A man's estimates of
+value betray something of the STRUCTURE of his soul, and wherein it
+sees its conditions of life, its intrinsic needs. Supposing now that
+necessity has from all time drawn together only such men as could
+express similar requirements and similar experiences by similar symbols,
+it results on the whole that the easy COMMUNICABILITY of need,
+which implies ultimately the undergoing only of average and COMMON
+experiences, must have been the most potent of all the forces which
+have hitherto operated upon mankind. The more similar, the more ordinary
+people, have always had and are still having the advantage; the more
+select, more refined, more unique, and difficultly comprehensible, are
+liable to stand alone; they succumb to accidents in their isolation, and
+seldom propagate themselves. One must appeal to immense opposing forces,
+in order to thwart this natural, all-too-natural PROGRESSUS IN SIMILE,
+the evolution of man to the similar, the ordinary, the average, the
+gregarious--to the IGNOBLE--!
+Moral designations were first applied to people, then actions—a mistake historians make when asking "Why praise sympathy?"
+. The more a psychologist--a born, an unavoidable psychologist
+and soul-diviner--turns his attention to the more select cases and
+individuals, the greater is his danger of being suffocated by sympathy:
+he NEEDS sternness and cheerfulness more than any other man. For
+the corruption, the ruination of higher men, of the more unusually
+constituted souls, is in fact, the rule: it is dreadful to have such a
+rule always before one's eyes. The manifold torment of the psychologist
+who has discovered this ruination, who discovers once, and then
+discovers ALMOST repeatedly throughout all history, this universal
+inner "desperateness" of higher men, this eternal "too late!" in every
+sense--may perhaps one day be the cause of his turning with
+bitterness against his own lot, and of his making an attempt at
+self-destruction--of his "going to ruin" himself. One may perceive
+in almost every psychologist a tell-tale inclination for delightful
+intercourse with commonplace and well-ordered men; the fact is thereby
+disclosed that he always requires healing, that he needs a sort
+of flight and forgetfulness, away from what his insight and
+incisiveness--from what his "business"--has laid upon his conscience.
+The fear of his memory is peculiar to him. He is easily silenced by the
+judgment of others; he hears with unmoved countenance how people honour,
+admire, love, and glorify, where he has PERCEIVED--or he even conceals
+his silence by expressly assenting to some plausible opinion. Perhaps
+the paradox of his situation becomes so dreadful that, precisely
+where he has learnt GREAT SYMPATHY, together with great CONTEMPT, the
+multitude, the educated, and the visionaries, have on their part learnt
+great reverence--reverence for "great men" and marvelous animals, for
+the sake of whom one blesses and honours the fatherland, the earth, the
+dignity of mankind, and one's own self, to whom one points the young,
+and in view of whom one educates them. And who knows but in all great
+instances hitherto just the same happened: that the multitude worshipped
+a God, and that the "God" was only a poor sacrificial animal! SUCCESS
+has always been the greatest liar--and the "work" itself is a success;
+the great statesman, the conqueror, the discoverer, are disguised in
+their creations until they are unrecognizable; the "work" of the artist,
+of the philosopher, only invents him who has created it, is REPUTED
+to have created it; the "great men," as they are reverenced, are poor
+little fictions composed afterwards; in the world of historical values
+spurious coinage PREVAILS. Those great poets, for example, such as
+Byron, Musset, Poe, Leopardi, Kleist, Gogol (I do not venture to mention
+much greater names, but I have them in my mind), as they now appear, and
+were perhaps obliged to be: men of the moment, enthusiastic, sensuous,
+and childish, light-minded and impulsive in their trust and distrust;
+with souls in which usually some flaw has to be concealed; often taking
+revenge with their works for an internal defilement, often seeking
+forgetfulness in their soaring from a too true memory, often lost in
+the mud and almost in love with it, until they become like the
+Will-o'-the-Wisps around the swamps, and PRETEND TO BE stars--the people
+then call them idealists,--often struggling with protracted disgust,
+with an ever-reappearing phantom of disbelief, which makes them cold,
+and obliges them to languish for GLORIA and devour "faith as it is"
+out of the hands of intoxicated adulators:--what a TORMENT these great
+artists are and the so-called higher men in general, to him who has once
+found them out! It is thus conceivable that it is just from woman--who
+is clairvoyant in the world of suffering, and also unfortunately eager
+to help and save to an extent far beyond her powers--that THEY have
+learnt so readily those outbreaks of boundless devoted SYMPATHY, which
+the multitude, above all the reverent multitude, do not understand,
+and overwhelm with prying and self-gratifying interpretations. This
+sympathizing invariably deceives itself as to its power; woman would
+like to believe that love can do EVERYTHING--it is the SUPERSTITION
+peculiar to her. Alas, he who knows the heart finds out how poor,
+helpless, pretentious, and blundering even the best and deepest love
+is--he finds that it rather DESTROYS than saves!--It is possible that
+under the holy fable and travesty of the life of Jesus there is hidden
+one of the most painful cases of the martyrdom of KNOWLEDGE ABOUT LOVE:
+the martyrdom of the most innocent and most craving heart, that
+never had enough of any human love, that DEMANDED love, that demanded
+inexorably and frantically to be loved and nothing else, with terrible
+outbursts against those who refused him their love; the story of a poor
+soul insatiated and insatiable in love, that had to invent hell to send
+thither those who WOULD NOT love him--and that at last, enlightened
+about human love, had to invent a God who is entire love, entire
+CAPACITY for love--who takes pity on human love, because it is so
+paltry, so ignorant! He who has such sentiments, he who has such
+KNOWLEDGE about love--SEEKS for death!--But why should one deal with
+such painful matters? Provided, of course, that one is not obliged to do
+so.
+> **Quote:** "The noble type regards HIMSELF as determiner of values; he does not require approval; he judges: 'What is injurious to me is injurious in itself'; he confers honor; he is a CREATOR OF VALUES."
+. The intellectual haughtiness and loathing of every man who has
+suffered deeply--it almost determines the order of rank HOW deeply men
+can suffer--the chilling certainty, with which he is thoroughly imbued
+and coloured, that by virtue of his suffering he KNOWS MORE than the
+shrewdest and wisest can ever know, that he has been familiar with,
+and "at home" in, many distant, dreadful worlds of which "YOU know
+nothing"!--this silent intellectual haughtiness of the sufferer, this
+pride of the elect of knowledge, of the "initiated," of the almost
+sacrificed, finds all forms of disguise necessary to protect itself from
+contact with officious and sympathizing hands, and in general from all
+that is not its equal in suffering. Profound suffering makes noble:
+it separates.--One of the most refined forms of disguise is Epicurism,
+along with a certain ostentatious boldness of taste, which takes
+suffering lightly, and puts itself on the defensive against all that
+is sorrowful and profound. They are "gay men" who make use of gaiety,
+because they are misunderstood on account of it--they WISH to be
+misunderstood. There are "scientific minds" who make use of science,
+because it gives a gay appearance, and because scientificness leads to
+the conclusion that a person is superficial--they WISH to mislead to a
+false conclusion. There are free insolent minds which would fain conceal
+and deny that they are broken, proud, incurable hearts (the cynicism of
+Hamlet--the case of Galiani); and occasionally folly itself is the mask
+of an unfortunate OVER-ASSURED knowledge.--From which it follows that it
+is the part of a more refined humanity to have reverence "for the mask,"
+and not to make use of psychology and curiosity in the wrong place.
+He honors what he recognizes in himself: self-glorification. In the foreground is the feeling of fullness seeking to overflow, happiness of high tension, wealth that wants to give. The noble helps the unfortunate not from pity, but from superabundant power. He honors the powerful within himself—he who has power over himself, knows when to speak and be silent, takes pleasure in being severe with himself, reveres severity. "Wotan placed a hard heart in my breast," says an old saga—the soul of a proud Viking.
+. That which separates two men most profoundly is a different sense
+and grade of purity. What does it matter about all their honesty and
+reciprocal usefulness, what does it matter about all their mutual
+good-will: the fact still remains--they "cannot smell each other!" The
+highest instinct for purity places him who is affected with it in the
+most extraordinary and dangerous isolation, as a saint: for it is just
+holiness--the highest spiritualization of the instinct in question. Any
+kind of cognizance of an indescribable excess in the joy of the bath,
+any kind of ardour or thirst which perpetually impels the soul out
+of night into the morning, and out of gloom, out of "affliction" into
+clearness, brightness, depth, and refinement:--just as much as such a
+tendency DISTINGUISHES--it is a noble tendency--it also SEPARATES.--The
+pity of the saint is pity for the FILTH of the human, all-too-human.
+And there are grades and heights where pity itself is regarded by him as
+impurity, as filth.
+He is proud of not being made for sympathy. The hero warns: "He who does not have a hard heart when young will never have one." Noble morality scorns selflessness, warm-heartedness. It is the powerful who know how to honor. Reverence for age and tradition marks the powerful; belief in "progress" reveals ignoble origins.
+. Signs of nobility: never to think of lowering our duties to the
+rank of duties for everybody; to be unwilling to renounce or to share
+our responsibilities; to count our prerogatives, and the exercise of
+them, among our DUTIES.
+In slave-morality, the abused create values expressing pessimism about humanity. The slave eye is unfavorable to powerful virtues; he suspects everything "good" there. He highlights qualities that ease suffering: sympathy, helping hand, warm heart, patience, diligence, humility, friendliness—these are useful, almost the only way to endure existence. Slave-morality is morality of utility. Here originates "good vs evil." Power and danger reside in "evil"; the "good" man inspires fear in master-morality, the "evil" in slave-morality.
+. A man who strives after great things, looks upon every one whom
+he encounters on his way either as a means of advance, or a delay and
+hindrance--or as a temporary resting-place. His peculiar lofty BOUNTY
+to his fellow-men is only possible when he attains his elevation and
+dominates. Impatience, and the consciousness of being always condemned
+to comedy up to that time--for even strife is a comedy, and conceals the
+end, as every means does--spoil all intercourse for him; this kind of
+man is acquainted with solitude, and what is most poisonous in it.
+When slave-morality dominates, language makes "good" and "stupid" similar. The desire for freedom belongs to slave-morality as naturally as reverence belongs to aristocracy. Thus love as passion—our European specialty—must be of noble origin, invented by Provençal poet-knights.
+. THE PROBLEM OF THOSE WHO WAIT.--Happy chances are necessary, and
+many incalculable elements, in order that a higher man in whom the
+solution of a problem is dormant, may yet take action, or "break forth,"
+as one might say--at the right moment. On an average it DOES NOT happen;
+and in all corners of the earth there are waiting ones sitting who
+hardly know to what extent they are waiting, and still less that they
+wait in vain. Occasionally, too, the waking call comes too late--the
+chance which gives "permission" to take action--when their best youth,
+and strength for action have been used up in sitting still; and how many
+a one, just as he "sprang up," has found with horror that his limbs are
+benumbed and his spirits are now too heavy! "It is too late," he has
+said to himself--and has become self-distrustful and henceforth for ever
+useless.--In the domain of genius, may not the "Raphael without
+hands" (taking the expression in its widest sense) perhaps not be the
+exception, but the rule?--Perhaps genius is by no means so rare: but
+rather the five hundred HANDS which it requires in order to tyrannize
+over the [GREEK INSERTED HERE], "the right time"--in order to take
+chance by the forelock!
+**261\.** Vanity is hardest for a noble person to grasp. He cannot imagine those who create a good opinion of themselves they don't hold, then believe it themselves. This seems in bad taste, lacking self-respect, grotesquely irrational. He calls it self-conceit or humility.
+. He who does not WISH to see the height of a man, looks all the
+more sharply at what is low in him, and in the foreground--and thereby
+betrays himself.
+The noble must consult history: since time immemorial, the ordinary person in dependent classes was only what he was *thought* to be. Unaccustomed to setting values, he assigned himself none but what his master gave (it is masters' right to create values). Even today, the ordinary person waits for an opinion and submits to it—good or bad. Religious women learn self-evaluation from confessors; Christians from their Church.
+. In all kinds of injury and loss the lower and coarser soul is
+better off than the nobler soul: the dangers of the latter must be
+greater, the probability that it will come to grief and perish is in
+fact immense, considering the multiplicity of the conditions of its
+existence.--In a lizard a finger grows again which has been lost; not so
+in man.--
+As democratic order rises (from mixing master and slave blood), the noble impulse to assign one's own value is encouraged, yet faces an older, stronger tendency. In vanity, this older tendency overcomes the younger. The vain rejoice at *every* good opinion, suffer from every bad one, submitting through ancient instinct of subjection. It is "the slave" in his blood—still strong in women—that seduces others to good opinions, then bows before them. Vanity is regression to ancestral type.
+. It is too bad! Always the old story! When a man has finished
+building his house, he finds that he has learnt unawares something
+which he OUGHT absolutely to have known before he--began to build. The
+eternal, fatal "Too late!" The melancholia of everything COMPLETED--!
+**262\.** A species becomes strong through long struggle with unfavorable conditions. Breeders know that species receiving excessive nourishment and protection immediately develop variations and monstrosities. Consider an aristocratic community—ancient Greek city-state or Venice—as a breeding mechanism. There, people live side-by-side, forced to rely on themselves, wanting their type to prevail because they *must* or be wiped out. They lack abundance and protection that encourage variation. The species needs itself *as* species—hard, uniform, simple—to prevail in constant struggle. Experience teaches which qualities ensure survival: these it calls virtues. It cultivates them with severity. Every aristocratic morality is intolerant in education, control of women, marriage customs, penal laws. It counts intolerance itself as virtue—"justice."
+.--Wanderer, who art thou? I see thee follow thy path without scorn,
+without love, with unfathomable eyes, wet and sad as a plummet which has
+returned to the light insatiated out of every depth--what did it seek
+down there?--with a bosom that never sighs, with lips that conceal their
+loathing, with a hand which only slowly grasps: who art thou? what
+hast thou done? Rest thee here: this place has hospitality for every
+one--refresh thyself! And whoever thou art, what is it that now pleases
+thee? What will serve to refresh thee? Only name it, whatever I have
+I offer thee! "To refresh me? To refresh me? Oh, thou prying one,
+what sayest thou! But give me, I pray thee---" What? what? Speak out!
+"Another mask! A second mask!"
+A type emerges: severe, warlike, wisely silent, reserved, reticent (with delicate sensitivity for social nuance). Eventually favorable conditions arrive—no enemies, abundance. The old discipline's bonds sever; it persists only as luxury, outdated taste. Variations appear abundantly: higher, finer forms or deteriorations. The individual dares to stand apart. At this turning point appears a jungle-like growth—a TROPICAL TEMPO in competition for growth—alongside extraordinary decay. The bow morality pulled so tight is now "out of date." The dangerous point is reached where greater life IS LIVED BEYOND old morality. The "individual" stands out, forced to his own law-giving, arts, strategies. New "Whys" and "Hows" appear, no common formulas. Misunderstanding and disregard tangle decay and highest desires.
+. Men of profound sadness betray themselves when they are happy: they
+have a mode of seizing upon happiness as though they would choke and
+strangle it, out of jealousy--ah, they know only too well that it will
+flee from them!
+The genius overflows—Spring and Autumn simultaneously—full of new charms in this unwearied corruption. Danger returns, mother of morality—now shifted into the individual, the neighbor, the street, the child, the heart. What will moral philosophers preach? These idlers see that everything decays, nothing lasts—except one species: the incurably MEDIOCRE.
+. "Bad! Bad! What? Does he not--go back?" Yes! But you misunderstand
+him when you complain about it. He goes back like every one who is about
+to make a great spring.
+> **Quote:** "The mediocre alone have a prospect of continuing and propagating themselves—they will be the men of the future, the sole survivors; 'be like them! become mediocre!' is now the only morality which has still a significance."
+.--"Will people believe it of me? But I insist that they believe it
+of me: I have always thought very unsatisfactorily of myself and about
+myself, only in very rare cases, only compulsorily, always without
+delight in 'the subject,' ready to digress from 'myself,' and always
+without faith in the result, owing to an unconquerable distrust of the
+POSSIBILITY of self-knowledge, which has led me so far as to feel a
+CONTRADICTIO IN ADJECTO even in the idea of 'direct knowledge' which
+theorists allow themselves:--this matter of fact is almost the most
+certain thing I know about myself. There must be a sort of repugnance
+in me to BELIEVE anything definite about myself.--Is there perhaps
+some enigma therein? Probably; but fortunately nothing for my own
+teeth.--Perhaps it betrays the species to which I belong?--but not to
+myself, as is sufficiently agreeable to me."
+But preaching mediocrity is difficult! It must talk of moderation, dignity, duty, brotherly love—concealing its irony!
+.--"But what has happened to you?"--"I do not know," he said,
+hesitatingly; "perhaps the Harpies have flown over my table."--It
+sometimes happens nowadays that a gentle, sober, retiring man becomes
+suddenly mad, breaks the plates, upsets the table, shrieks, raves,
+and shocks everybody--and finally withdraws, ashamed, and raging at
+himself--whither? for what purpose? To famish apart? To suffocate with
+his memories?--To him who has the desires of a lofty and dainty soul,
+and only seldom finds his table laid and his food prepared, the danger
+will always be great--nowadays, however, it is extraordinarily so.
+Thrown into the midst of a noisy and plebeian age, with which he does
+not like to eat out of the same dish, he may readily perish of hunger
+and thirst--or, should he nevertheless finally "fall to," of sudden
+nausea.--We have probably all sat at tables to which we did not belong;
+and precisely the most spiritual of us, who are most difficult to
+nourish, know the dangerous DYSPEPSIA which originates from a sudden
+insight and disillusionment about our food and our messmates--the
+AFTER-DINNER NAUSEA.
+**263\.** An INSTINCT FOR RANK is the sign of HIGH rank; DELIGHT in reverence's nuances suggests noble origin. A soul's refinement is tested when something of highest rank passes by, unrecognized—a living touchstone. Anyone who studies souls uses this art to determine ultimate value—the unalterable, innate hierarchy. He tests by INSTINCT FOR REVERENCE.
+. If one wishes to praise at all, it is a delicate and at the
+same time a noble self-control, to praise only where one DOES NOT
+agree--otherwise in fact one would praise oneself, which is contrary
+to good taste:--a self-control, to be sure, which offers excellent
+opportunity and provocation to constant MISUNDERSTANDING. To be able to
+allow oneself this veritable luxury of taste and morality, one must
+not live among intellectual imbeciles, but rather among men whose
+misunderstandings and mistakes amuse by their refinement--or one will
+have to pay dearly for it!--"He praises me, THEREFORE he acknowledges me
+to be right"--this asinine method of inference spoils half of the life
+of us recluses, for it brings the asses into our neighbourhood and
+friendship.
+> **Quote:** "DIFFERENCE ENGENDRE HAINE: the vulgarity of many a nature spurts up like dirty water when any holy vessel, any jewel from closed shrines, any book bearing marks of great destiny, is brought before it."
+. To live in a vast and proud tranquility; always beyond... To have,
+or not to have, one's emotions, one's For and Against, according to
+choice; to lower oneself to them for hours; to SEAT oneself on them as
+upon horses, and often as upon asses:--for one must know how to make
+use of their stupidity as well as of their fire. To conserve one's
+three hundred foregrounds; also one's black spectacles: for there are
+circumstances when nobody must look into our eyes, still less into our
+"motives." And to choose for company that roguish and cheerful vice,
+politeness. And to remain master of one's four virtues, courage,
+insight, sympathy, and solitude. For solitude is a virtue with us, as
+a sublime bent and bias to purity, which divines that in the contact of
+man and man--"in society"--it must be unavoidably impure. All society
+makes one somehow, somewhere, or sometime--"commonplace."
+Involuntary silence, hesitation, stillness indicates a soul FEELS the presence of something worthy. Europe's reverence for the BIBLE is perhaps Christianity's best discipline. Books of such depth require authority's external tyranny for protection, needing thousands of years to be understood. It achieves much when masses learn not to touch everything, to keep dirty hands from holy experiences—their highest step toward humanity. Conversely, "modern ideas" believers show repulsive shamelessness, touching everything with easy insolence. Perhaps even now, more nobility of taste exists among peasants than among newspaper-reading intellectuals.
+. The greatest events and thoughts--the greatest thoughts, however,
+are the greatest events--are longest in being comprehended: the
+generations which are contemporary with them do not EXPERIENCE such
+events--they live past them. Something happens there as in the realm of
+stars. The light of the furthest stars is longest in reaching man; and
+before it has arrived man DENIES--that there are stars there. "How
+many centuries does a mind require to be understood?"--that is also a
+standard, one also makes a gradation of rank and an etiquette therewith,
+such as is necessary for mind and for star.
+**264\.** A man cannot erase what his ancestors did most consistently. Whether diligent savers at desk and cashbox, modest middle-class; or accustomed to commanding, fond of rough pleasures and duties; or sacrificing privileges to live for faith, for "God," as people of relentless conscience—he carries their qualities. This is lineage. Offensive lack of self-control, sordid envy, clumsy self-promotion—the three marks of the common person—pass to children as surely as bad blood. Even the best education only DECEIVES others about such heredity. In our democratic age, "education" and "culture" MUST be art of deception—concealing inherited commonness in body and soul. An educator preaching truthfulness would learn he would have to resort to the pitchfork of Horace to drive out nature, yet commonness always returns.
+. "Here is the prospect free, the mind exalted." [FOOTNOTE: Goethe's
+"Faust," Part II, Act V. The words of Dr. Marianus.]--But there is a
+reverse kind of man, who is also upon a height, and has also a free
+prospect--but looks DOWNWARDS.
+**265\.**
+. What is noble? What does the word "noble" still mean for us
+nowadays? How does the noble man betray himself, how is he recognized
+under this heavy overcast sky of the commencing plebeianism, by which
+everything is rendered opaque and leaden?--It is not his actions which
+establish his claim--actions are always ambiguous, always inscrutable;
+neither is it his "works." One finds nowadays among artists and scholars
+plenty of those who betray by their works that a profound longing for
+nobleness impels them; but this very NEED of nobleness is radically
+different from the needs of the noble soul itself, and is in fact the
+eloquent and dangerous sign of the lack thereof. It is not the works,
+but the BELIEF which is here decisive and determines the order of
+rank--to employ once more an old religious formula with a new and deeper
+meaning--it is some fundamental certainty which a noble soul has about
+itself, something which is not to be sought, is not to be found, and
+perhaps, also, is not to be lost.--THE NOBLE SOUL HAS REVERENCE FOR
+ITSELF.--
+> **Quote:** "At the risk of displeasing innocent ears, I submit that egoism belongs to the essence of a noble soul, I mean the unalterable belief that to a being such as 'we,' other beings must naturally be in subjection, and have to sacrifice themselves."
+. There are men who are unavoidably intellectual, let them turn
+and twist themselves as they will, and hold their hands before their
+treacherous eyes--as though the hand were not a betrayer; it always
+comes out at last that they have something which they hide--namely,
+intellect. One of the subtlest means of deceiving, at least as long as
+possible, and of successfully representing oneself to be stupider
+than one really is--which in everyday life is often as desirable as
+an umbrella,--is called ENTHUSIASM, including what belongs to it, for
+instance, virtue. For as Galiani said, who was obliged to know it: VERTU
+EST ENTHOUSIASME.
+The noble soul accepts this without question, not as harsh but as fundamental law. He would call it "justice itself." He acknowledges others' equal privileges, then moves among equals with assurance, modesty, delicate respect—following innate logic that the stars understand. This refinement with equals is another egoism—every star is egoist. He honors HIMSELF in them, certain that exchanging honors is social interaction's ESSENCE, the natural order. Among PEERS, "favor" has no meaning. His egoism prevents looking "up"—he looks FORWARD or down. HE KNOWS HE IS ON A HEIGHT.
+. In the writings of a recluse one always hears something of the echo
+of the wilderness, something of the murmuring tones and timid vigilance
+of solitude; in his strongest words, even in his cry itself, there
+sounds a new and more dangerous kind of silence, of concealment. He who
+has sat day and night, from year's end to year's end, alone with his
+soul in familiar discord and discourse, he who has become a cave-bear,
+or a treasure-seeker, or a treasure-guardian and dragon in his cave--it
+may be a labyrinth, but can also be a gold-mine--his ideas themselves
+eventually acquire a twilight-colour of their own, and an odour, as much
+of the depth as of the mould, something uncommunicative and repulsive,
+which blows chilly upon every passer-by. The recluse does not believe
+that a philosopher--supposing that a philosopher has always in the first
+place been a recluse--ever expressed his actual and ultimate opinions in
+books: are not books written precisely to hide what is in us?--indeed,
+he will doubt whether a philosopher CAN have "ultimate and actual"
+opinions at all; whether behind every cave in him there is not, and must
+necessarily be, a still deeper cave: an ampler, stranger, richer
+world beyond the surface, an abyss behind every bottom, beneath every
+"foundation." Every philosophy is a foreground philosophy--this is a
+recluse's verdict: "There is something arbitrary in the fact that the
+PHILOSOPHER came to a stand here, took a retrospect, and looked around;
+that he HERE laid his spade aside and did not dig any deeper--there
+is also something suspicious in it." Every philosophy also CONCEALS a
+philosophy; every opinion is also a LURKING-PLACE, every word is also a
+MASK.
+**266\.**
+. Every deep thinker is more afraid of being understood than of being
+misunderstood. The latter perhaps wounds his vanity; but the former
+wounds his heart, his sympathy, which always says: "Ah, why would you
+also have as hard a time of it as I have?"
+> **Quote:** "One can only truly esteem him who does not LOOK OUT FOR himself."
+. Man, a COMPLEX, mendacious, artful, and inscrutable animal, uncanny
+to the other animals by his artifice and sagacity, rather than by his
+strength, has invented the good conscience in order finally to enjoy his
+soul as something SIMPLE; and the whole of morality is a long, audacious
+falsification, by virtue of which generally enjoyment at the sight of
+the soul becomes possible. From this point of view there is perhaps much
+more in the conception of "art" than is generally believed.
+—Goethe to Rath Schlosser.
+. A philosopher: that is a man who constantly experiences, sees,
+hears, suspects, hopes, and dreams extraordinary things; who is struck
+by his own thoughts as if they came from the outside, from above and
+below, as a species of events and lightning-flashes PECULIAR TO HIM; who
+is perhaps himself a storm pregnant with new lightnings; a portentous
+man, around whom there is always rumbling and mumbling and gaping and
+something uncanny going on. A philosopher: alas, a being who often
+runs away from himself, is often afraid of himself--but whose curiosity
+always makes him "come to himself" again.
+**267\.** The Chinese proverb "SIAO-SIN" ("MAKE YOUR HEART SMALL") is the fundamental trend in modern civilizations. An ancient Greek would notice this self-dwarfing in us Europeans—we would be "distasteful" to him.
+. A man who says: "I like that, I take it for my own, and mean to
+guard and protect it from every one"; a man who can conduct a case,
+carry out a resolution, remain true to an opinion, keep hold of a woman,
+punish and overthrow insolence; a man who has his indignation and his
+sword, and to whom the weak, the suffering, the oppressed, and even the
+animals willingly submit and naturally belong; in short, a man who is a
+MASTER by nature--when such a man has sympathy, well! THAT sympathy has
+value! But of what account is the sympathy of those who suffer! Or of
+those even who preach sympathy! There is nowadays, throughout almost the
+whole of Europe, a sickly irritability and sensitiveness towards pain,
+and also a repulsive irrestrainableness in complaining, an effeminizing,
+which, with the aid of religion and philosophical nonsense, seeks
+to deck itself out as something superior--there is a regular cult of
+suffering. The UNMANLINESS of that which is called "sympathy" by such
+groups of visionaries, is always, I believe, the first thing that
+strikes the eye.--One must resolutely and radically taboo this latest
+form of bad taste; and finally I wish people to put the good amulet,
+"GAI SABER" ("gay science," in ordinary language), on heart and neck, as
+a protection against it.
+**268\.** What is commonness? Words are vocal symbols for ideas; ideas are mental symbols for recurring sensations. We must have experiences IN COMMON. Living long under similar conditions (climate, soil, danger, necessity, labor) creates a nation that "understands itself." In its souls, frequent experiences dominate rare ones. People understand each other quickly here—language is abbreviation. The greater the danger, the greater the need to agree quickly. In all loves and friendships, nothing lasts once it is discovered that, despite using the same words, one has different feelings, thoughts, intuitions. (Fear of "eternal misunderstanding" prevents hasty attachments, not Schopenhauer's "genius of the species"!) Whichever sensations wake most easily decide values and desires. A man's values reveal his soul's STRUCTURE and needs. The easy COMMUNICABILITY of need—the experiencing only COMMON things—has been mankind's most powerful force. More similar, ordinary people have always had advantage. The refined, unique, difficult stand alone; they fall victim to accidents, rarely reproduce. Immense opposing forces must thwart this natural PROGRESS TOWARD SIMILARITY—the evolution toward the herd-like, the IGNOBLE!
+. THE OLYMPIAN VICE.--Despite the philosopher who, as a genuine
+Englishman, tried to bring laughter into bad repute in all thinking
+minds--"Laughing is a bad infirmity of human nature, which every
+thinking mind will strive to overcome" (Hobbes),--I would even
+allow myself to rank philosophers according to the quality of their
+laughing--up to those who are capable of GOLDEN laughter. And supposing
+that Gods also philosophize, which I am strongly inclined to believe,
+owing to many reasons--I have no doubt that they also know how to laugh
+thereby in an overman-like and new fashion--and at the expense of all
+serious things! Gods are fond of ridicule: it seems that they cannot
+refrain from laughter even in holy matters.
+**269\.** The psychologist—a born reader of souls—risks suffocation by sympathy when focusing on exceptional cases. For the corruption of higher men is the rule. This discovery's torment may turn him bitter against his fate. Almost every psychologist shows preference for interaction with commonplace men; he needs healing, escape from what his insight has placed on his conscience. He fears his memory, is silenced by others' judgment, listens blankly as people honor where he has SEEN truth.
+. The genius of the heart, as that great mysterious one possesses
+it, the tempter-god and born rat-catcher of consciences, whose voice can
+descend into the nether-world of every soul, who neither speaks a word
+nor casts a glance in which there may not be some motive or touch
+of allurement, to whose perfection it pertains that he knows how to
+appear,--not as he is, but in a guise which acts as an ADDITIONAL
+constraint on his followers to press ever closer to him, to follow him
+more cordially and thoroughly;--the genius of the heart, which imposes
+silence and attention on everything loud and self-conceited, which
+smoothes rough souls and makes them taste a new longing--to lie placid
+as a mirror, that the deep heavens may be reflected in them;--the genius
+of the heart, which teaches the clumsy and too hasty hand to hesitate,
+and to grasp more delicately; which scents the hidden and forgotten
+treasure, the drop of goodness and sweet spirituality under thick dark
+ice, and is a divining-rod for every grain of gold, long buried and
+imprisoned in mud and sand; the genius of the heart, from contact with
+which every one goes away richer; not favoured or surprised, not as
+though gratified and oppressed by the good things of others; but richer
+in himself, newer than before, broken up, blown upon, and sounded by a
+thawing wind; more uncertain, perhaps, more delicate, more fragile, more
+bruised, but full of hopes which as yet lack names, full of a new will
+and current, full of a new ill-will and counter-current... but what am I
+doing, my friends? Of whom am I talking to you? Have I forgotten myself
+so far that I have not even told you his name? Unless it be that you
+have already divined of your own accord who this questionable God
+and spirit is, that wishes to be PRAISED in such a manner? For, as it
+happens to every one who from childhood onward has always been on his
+legs, and in foreign lands, I have also encountered on my path many
+strange and dangerous spirits; above all, however, and again and again,
+the one of whom I have just spoken: in fact, no less a personage than
+the God DIONYSUS, the great equivocator and tempter, to whom, as you
+know, I once offered in all secrecy and reverence my first-fruits--the
+last, as it seems to me, who has offered a SACRIFICE to him, for I
+have found no one who could understand what I was then doing. In
+the meantime, however, I have learned much, far too much, about the
+philosophy of this God, and, as I said, from mouth to mouth--I, the last
+disciple and initiate of the God Dionysus: and perhaps I might at last
+begin to give you, my friends, as far as I am allowed, a little taste of
+this philosophy? In a hushed voice, as is but seemly: for it has to do
+with much that is secret, new, strange, wonderful, and uncanny. The
+very fact that Dionysus is a philosopher, and that therefore Gods also
+philosophize, seems to me a novelty which is not unensnaring, and might
+perhaps arouse suspicion precisely among philosophers;--among you, my
+friends, there is less to be said against it, except that it comes too
+late and not at the right time; for, as it has been disclosed to me, you
+are loth nowadays to believe in God and gods. It may happen, too, that
+in the frankness of my story I must go further than is agreeable to the
+strict usages of your ears? Certainly the God in question went further,
+very much further, in such dialogues, and was always many paces ahead of
+me... Indeed, if it were allowed, I should have to give him, according
+to human usage, fine ceremonious tides of lustre and merit, I should
+have to extol his courage as investigator and discoverer, his fearless
+honesty, truthfulness, and love of wisdom. But such a God does not know
+what to do with all that respectable trumpery and pomp. "Keep that," he
+would say, "for thyself and those like thee, and whoever else require
+it! I--have no reason to cover my nakedness!" One suspects that this
+kind of divinity and philosopher perhaps lacks shame?--He once said:
+"Under certain circumstances I love mankind"--and referred thereby to
+Ariadne, who was present; "in my opinion man is an agreeable, brave,
+inventive animal, that has not his equal upon earth, he makes his way
+even through all labyrinths. I like man, and often think how I can
+still further advance him, and make him stronger, more evil, and more
+profound."--"Stronger, more evil, and more profound?" I asked in horror.
+"Yes," he said again, "stronger, more evil, and more profound; also more
+beautiful"--and thereby the tempter-god smiled with his halcyon smile,
+as though he had just paid some charming compliment. One here sees at
+once that it is not only shame that this divinity lacks;--and in general
+there are good grounds for supposing that in some things the Gods could
+all of them come to us men for instruction. We men are--more human.--
+The paradox becomes terrible: where he learned GREAT SYMPATHY combined with CONTEMPT, the public learned reverence—for "great men" whose sake blesses country and humanity. The crowd worships a God who is only a poor sacrificial animal. SUCCESS is the greatest liar; the "work" invents its creator. Historical values circulate counterfeit currency. Consider poets like Byron, Musset, Poe, Leopardi, Kleist, Gogol. As they appear now: men of the moment, enthusiastic, sensual, childish, reckless in trust and distrust; souls with flaws to hide, using works for revenge or forgetfulness, lost in the mud and almost in love with it, until they become like will-o'-the-wisps around a swamp and PRETEND to be stars—called idealists. They struggle with disgust, phantom disbelief, craving GLORY.
+. Alas! what are you, after all, my written and painted thoughts! Not
+long ago you were so variegated, young and malicious, so full of thorns
+and secret spices, that you made me sneeze and laugh--and now? You
+have already doffed your novelty, and some of you, I fear, are ready
+to become truths, so immortal do they look, so pathetically honest, so
+tedious! And was it ever otherwise? What then do we write and paint,
+we mandarins with Chinese brush, we immortalisers of things which LEND
+themselves to writing, what are we alone capable of painting? Alas, only
+that which is just about to fade and begins to lose its odour! Alas,
+only exhausted and departing storms and belated yellow sentiments! Alas,
+only birds strayed and fatigued by flight, which now let themselves be
+captured with the hand--with OUR hand! We immortalize what cannot live
+and fly much longer, things only which are exhausted and mellow! And it
+is only for your AFTERNOON, you, my written and painted thoughts, for
+which alone I have colours, many colours, perhaps, many variegated
+softenings, and fifty yellows and browns and greens and reds;--but
+nobody will divine thereby how ye looked in your morning, you sudden
+sparks and marvels of my solitude, you, my old, beloved--EVIL thoughts!
+Such artists torment those who see through them. They learn boundless SYMPATHY from women—intuitive in suffering, eager to help beyond power. The public smothers this with interpretations. Women believe love can do EVERYTHING—her superstition. But love DESTROYS more than it saves! Perhaps under Christ's myth hides one of history's most painful martyrdoms: the most innocent heart, insatiable for love, demanding it frantically, inventing hell for the unloving, finally inventing a God of total love, pitying human love's pathetic ignorance. He who KNOWS this seeks death!
+**270\.**
+> **Quote:** "Profound suffering makes noble: it separates."
+The psychologist's pride: he KNOWS more than any clever person, having lived in distant, terrifying worlds you know nothing of. One refined disguise is Epicureanism, treating suffering lightly to be misunderstood. "Cheerful people" want misunderstanding. "Scientific minds" use science to seem superficial. Free minds hide broken hearts. Even foolishness masks over-confident knowledge. Respecting "the mask" is part of refined humanity.
+**271\.** What separates people most is different sense and degree of purity. Honesty and goodwill cannot overcome it—they "cannot stand the smell of each other!" Highest purity isolates like a saint, for holiness is spiritualization of that instinct. Awareness of joy in the "bath," passion that drives soul from night to morning, distinguishes—and separates. The saint pities the *filth* of the all-too-human. At certain heights, pity is itself impurity.
+**272\.** Signs of nobility: never lowering our duties to universal ones; unwilling to share responsibilities; counting privileges among our *duties*.
+**273\.** A man striving for greatness sees everyone as means, delay, or resting place. His high-minded *generosity* appears only at his height. Impatience and awareness of performing a role until then ruin social interaction. He knows solitude and its poison.
+**274\.** Lucky breaks are necessary for higher men in whom solutions lie dormant. On average, they *don't* act at the right moment. In every corner sit those waiting, hardly knowing they wait in vain. Often the wake-up call comes too late—when youth and strength are exhausted. Horror strikes when they "jump up" to find limbs numb, spirit too heavy. "It is too late," they say, becoming self-doubting, useless. In genius's realm, is the "handless Raphael" the rule? Perhaps genius isn't rare, but rather the five hundred *hands* needed to seize *kairos*—the right time!
+**275\.** He who won't see greatness looks sharply at the low and obvious—revealing his own character.
+**276\.** In injury or loss, the lower soul is better off than the noble. The latter requires complex conditions to exist, thus perishes more easily. A lizard regrows a finger; a human cannot.
+**277\.** It’s a shame! When a man finishes his house, he learns what he should have known before building. Eternal "Too late!" Melancholy of the *finished*!
+**278\.** —Wanderer, who are you? Following your path without scorn or love, unfathomable eyes, as wet and sad as a plummet that has returned from the depths insatiated—what did you seek down there? Chest that never sighs, lips hiding disgust, hand reaching slowly: who are you? Rest here, refresh yourself! Whatever you need, I offer! "To refresh me? Oh you inquisitive one! Give me—" What? Speak! "Another mask! A second mask!"
+**279\.** Deeply sad people reveal themselves in happiness: they grab it as if to choke it, knowing it will flee.
+**280\.** "Bad! Is he...going back?" Yes! But you misunderstand—he returns like one about to leap.
+**281\.** —"Will people believe this? I insist they do: I always thought poorly of myself, only under pressure, without pleasure in 'the subject,' ready to drift from 'myself,' without faith in result, from unconquerable distrust of self-knowledge's possibility—feeling contradiction in 'direct knowledge.' This is almost the most certain thing I know. A reluctance to believe anything definite about myself. A riddle? Probably—but not one I must crack. Perhaps it reveals my species—but not to me, which is pleasant."
+**282\.** —"But what happened?"—"I don't know. Perhaps Harpies flew over my table." Sometimes a gentle, sober man suddenly goes mad, breaks plates, flips tables, shocks everyone—then retreats ashamed, furious—where? To starve alone? Suffocate on memories? For those with noble desires who rarely find their table set, danger is always great—but today extremely so. Thrown into a noisy, common age unwilling to share meals, he may die of hunger or, if he finally "digs in," of sudden nausea. We have all sat at wrong tables; the most spiritual, hardest to nourish, know dangerous indigestion from insight about food and companions—the *after-dinner nausea*.
+**283\.** To praise only where one *doesn't* agree is delicate self-control—otherwise one praises oneself, in bad taste. This luxury requires living among those whose misunderstandings are refined, not among intellectual idiots who will ruin you! "He praises me, therefore I'm right"—this stupid logic ruins recluses' lives, bringing fools into their circles.
+**284\.** To live in vast, proud tranquility; to have emotions by choice; to *mount* them like horses or donkeys, using their stupidity and energy. To maintain one's three hundred foregrounds; also one's black spectacles, for there are times when no one should look into our eyes. To choose politeness as playful vice. To master four virtues: courage, insight, sympathy, solitude—for solitude is sublime drive toward purity, sensing that society makes one "commonplace."
+**285\.** The greatest events and thoughts—and greatest thoughts *are* greatest events—take longest to understand. The generation living with them doesn't *experience* them; they live past them. Like starlight: the furthest stars' light takes longest to arrive, and before it does, people deny their existence. "How many centuries does a mind need to be understood?"—a standard creating hierarchy and etiquette, as necessary for minds as stars.
+**286\.**
+> **Quote:** "Here the view is free, the spirit elevated."
+—But the opposite type is also on height and has free view—yet looks *downward*.
+**287\.** What is noble? How does the noble person reveal himself under this sky of commonness? Not through actions—actions are ambiguous. Not through "works." Many artists and scholars show deep longing for nobility, but this *need* is fundamentally different from the noble soul's needs, and is eloquent sign of its *absence*.
+It is BELIEF that is decisive, determining rank—some fundamental certainty a noble soul has about itself, not sought, not found, perhaps not losable.
+> **Quote:** "THE NOBLE SOUL HAS REVERENCE FOR ITSELF."
+**288\.** Some men are inevitably intellectual, however they twist and turn or hide their betraying eyes. One subtlest deception—pretending to be stupider than one is, as desirable as an umbrella—is ENTHUSIASM, including virtue. As Galiani knew: *VERTU EST ENTHOUSIASME*.
+**289\.** A hermit's writing always hears wilderness echoes, timid vigilance of solitude. Even his cry contains new, dangerous silence, concealment. He who sits alone with his soul for years, cave-bear or treasure-guard, eventually his ideas acquire twilight color, depth's scent—uncommunicative and chilling. No philosopher expresses final opinions in books; books hide what is within. Behind every cave is deeper cave; beyond every bottom, abyss. Every philosophy is foreground philosophy—the hermit's verdict: "Something arbitrary in the fact that PHILOSOPHER stopped here; something suspicious."
+> **Quote:** "Every philosophy also CONCEALS a philosophy; every opinion is also a LURKING-PLACE, every word is also a MASK."
+**290\.**
+> **Quote:** "Every deep thinker is more afraid of being understood than of being misunderstood."
+The latter wounds vanity; the former wounds heart and empathy: "Why would you have as hard a time as I?"
+**291\.** Man—a COMPLEX, artful, inscrutable animal—invented good conscience to enjoy his soul as SIMPLE. All morality is long, bold falsification enabling this enjoyment. Perhaps "art" means more than believed.
+**292\.** A philosopher: a man who experiences, sees, suspects, hopes extraordinary things; struck by his thoughts as if from outside, from above and below, as events and lightning; perhaps himself storm pregnant with new lightnings. A being who runs from himself, afraid—yet curiosity always makes him "come to" again.
+**293\.** A MASTER by nature—who can argue, decide, hold opinion, hold woman, punish insolence; to whom weak, suffering, animals submit—when *he* has sympathy, that sympathy has value! But what does sufferers' sympathy matter? Throughout Europe, sickly irritability toward pain, a cult of suffering, dresses weakness as superiority. One must ban this bad taste; wear "GAI SABER" ("the gay science") as amulet.
+**294\.** THE OLYMPIAN VICE.—Despite Hobbes, who called laughter humanity's infirmity, I rank philosophers by laughter quality—up to GOLDEN laughter. If Gods philosophize (as I believe), they laugh superhumanly, at expense of all serious things! Gods love ridicule; they cannot help laughing even in holy matters.
+**295\.** The genius of heart—tempter-god and rat-catcher of consciences—whose voice descends into every soul's underworld, whose every glance contains allure; who forces silence on the loud, smooths rough souls, teaches clumsy hands delicacy; scents hidden treasure under ice, divines gold buried in mud; from whose contact everyone leaves richer, newer, opened, thawed—whom am I describing? I have forgotten his name. Unless you've guessed: it is DIONYSUS, great ambiguous tempter, to whom I once offered my first works—perhaps the last sacrifice, for I found none who understood. I have learned much from his own mouth—I, last disciple of Dionysus. I might give you taste of this philosophy, hushed: it concerns much secret, new, strange.
+That Dionysus philosophizes, that Gods philosophize, seems novelty seductive to philosophers. You friends may object it comes too late, wrong time—you disbelieve in Gods now. Perhaps I go further than your ears find comfortable. Certainly the God went further, always steps ahead.
+If allowed, I would give him grand titles—praise his courage, honesty, love of wisdom. But such a God doesn't know what to do with respectable trash. "Keep that for yourself," he would say. "I have no reason to cover my nakedness!" One suspects this divinity lacks shame.
+He once said: "Under certain circumstances I love mankind," referring to Ariadne. "Man is agreeable, brave, inventive, finds way through all labyrinths. I like man, and think how to advance him, make him stronger, more evil, more profound."—"More evil?" I asked in horror. "Yes," he smiled serenely, "stronger, more evil, more profound; also more beautiful." One sees this God lacks shame—and perhaps Gods could learn from humans, who are more human.
+**296\.** Alas! What are you, my written and painted thoughts! Recently colorful, young, malicious, thorny, secret-spiced, making me sneeze and laugh—and now? You've lost novelty; some ready to become truths, looking immortal, pathetically honest, tedious! Was it ever different? What do we mandarins with Chinese brushes immortalize? Alas, only what fades, exhausted storms, late yellowing emotions, tired birds that let themselves be caught—by OUR hand! We immortalize what cannot fly much longer, exhausted and overripe! It is only for AFTERNOON, you my written thoughts, that I have colors—many shades, yellows and browns and greens and reds; but none guess how you looked in MORNING, you sudden sparks of solitude—you old, beloved, EVIL thoughts!

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