{"collection":"philosophy-ethics","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_39955/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_39955","id":"gutenberg_39955","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/39955","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Ethics","Prejudices"],"text":"Friedrich Nietzsche\n\n                             The Dawn of Day\n\n                              Translated by\n\n                          John McFarland Kennedy\n\nAuthor of \u201cThe Quintessence of Nietzsche\u201d, \u201cReligions and Philosophers of\n                                the East\u201d\n\n    There are many dawns which have yet to shed their light.\u2014RIG-VEDA.\n\n                                 New York\n\n                          The MacMillan Company\n\n                                   1911\n\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n\nIntroduction.\nAuthor\u2019s Preface.\nBook I.\nBook II.\nBook III.\nBook IV.\nBook V.\nFootnotes\n\n\n\n\n\n\nINTRODUCTION.\n\n\nWhen Nietzsche called his book _The Dawn of Day_, he was far from giving\nit a merely fanciful title to attract the attention of that large section\nof the public which judges books by their titles rather than by their\ncontents. _The Dawn of Day_ represents, figuratively, the dawn of\nNietzsche\u2019s own philosophy. Hitherto he had been considerably influenced\nin his outlook, if not in his actual thoughts, by Schopenhauer, Wagner,\nand perhaps also Comte. _Human, all-too-Human_, belongs to a period of\ntransition. After his rupture with Bayreuth, Nietzsche is, in both parts\nof that work, trying to stand on his own legs, and to regain his spiritual\nfreedom; he is feeling his way to his own philosophy. _The Dawn of Day_,\nwritten in 1881 under the invigorating influence of a Genoese spring, is\nthe dawn of this new Nietzsche. \u201cWith this book I open my campaign against\nmorality,\u201d he himself said later in his autobiography, the _Ecce Homo_.\n\nJust as in the case of the books written in his prime\u2014_The Joyful Wisdom_,\n_Zarathustra_, _Beyond Good and Evil_, and _The Genealogy of Morals_\u2014we\ncannot fail to be impressed in this work by Nietzsche\u2019s deep psychological\ninsight, the insight that showed him to be a powerful judge of men and\nthings unequalled in the nineteenth or, perhaps, any other century. One\nexample of this is seen in his searching analysis of the Apostle Paul\n(Aphorism 68), in which the soul of the \u201cFirst Christian\u201d is ruthlessly\nand realistically laid bare to us. Nietzsche\u2019s summing-up of the Founder\nof Christianity\u2014for of course, as is now generally recognised, it was\nPaul, and not Christ, who founded the Christian Church\u2014has not yet called\nforth those bitter attacks from theologians that might have been expected,\nthough one reason for this apparent neglect is no doubt that the portrait\nis so true, and in these circumstances silence is certainly golden on the\npart of defenders of the faith, who are otherwise, as a rule, loquacious\nenough. Nor has the taunt in Aphorism 84 elicited an answer from the\nquarter whither it was directed; and the \u201cfree\u201d (not to say dishonest)\ninterpretation of the Bible by Christian scholars and theologians, which\nis still proceeding merrily, is now being turned to Nietzsche\u2019s own\nwritings. For the philosopher\u2019s works are now being \u201cexplained away\u201d by\nGerman theologians in a most na\u00efve and daring fashion, and with an ability\nwhich has no doubt been acquired as the result of centuries of skilful\ninterpretation of the Holy Writ.\n\nNor are professional theologians the only ones who have failed to answer\nNietzsche; for in other than religious matters the majority of savants\nhave not succeeded in plumbing his depths. There is, for example, the\nquestion of race. Ten years ago, twenty years after the publication of\n_The Dawn of Day_, Nietzsche\u2019s countrymen enthusiastically hailed a book\nwhich has recently been translated into English, Chamberlain\u2019s\n_Foundations of __ the Nineteenth Century_. In this book the Teutons are\nsaid to be superior to all the other peoples in the world, the reason\ngiven being that they have kept their race pure. It is due to this purity\nof race that they have produced so many great men; for every \u201cgood\u201d man in\nhistory is a Teuton, and every bad man something else. Considerable skill\nis exhibited by the author in filching from his opponents the Latins their\nbest trump cards, and likewise _the_ trump card, Jesus Christ, from the\nJews; for Jesus Christ, according to Chamberlain\u2019s very plausible\nargument, was not a Jew but an Aryan, _i.e._ a member of that great family\nof which the Teutons are a branch.\n\nWhat would Nietzsche have said to this legerdemain? He has constantly\npointed out that the Teutons are so far from being a pure race that they\nhave, on the contrary, done everything in their power to ruin even the\nidea of a pure race for ever. For the Teutons, through their Reformation\nand their Puritan revolt in England, and the philosophies developed by the\ndemocracies that necessarily followed, were the spiritual forbears of the\nFrench Revolution and of the Socialistic r\u00e9gime under which we are\nbeginning to suffer nowadays. Thus this noble race has left nothing undone\nto blot out the last remnant of race in Europe, and it even stands in the\nway of the creation of a new race. And with such a record in history the\nGermans write books, eulogising themselves as the salt of the earth, the\npeople of peoples, the race of races, while in truth they are nothing else\nthan _nouveaux-riches_ endeavouring to draw up a decent pedigree for\nthemselves. We know that honesty is not a prerequisite of such pedigrees,\nand that patriotism may be considered as a good excuse even for a wrong\npedigree; but the race-pandemonium that followed the publication of Mr.\nChamberlain\u2019s book in Germany was really a very unwise proceeding in view\nof the false and misleading document produced. What, it may be asked\nagain, would Nietzsche have said if he had heard his countrymen screaming\nodes to their own glory as the \u201cflower of Europe\u201d? He would assuredly have\ndismissed their exalted pretensions with a good-natured smile; for his\nstudy of history had shown him that even slaves must have their saturnalia\nnow and then. But as to his philosophical answer there can be no doubt;\nfor in Aphorism 272 of _The Dawn of Day_ there is a single sentence which\ncompletely refutes the view of modern racemongers like Chamberlain and his\nfollowers: \u201cIt is probable,\u201d we read, \u201cthat there are no pure races, but\nonly races which have become purified, and even these are extremely rare.\u201d\nThere are even stronger expressions to be met with in \u201cPeoples and\nCountries\u201d (Aphorism 20; see the _Genealogy of Morals_, p. 226): \u201cWhat\nquagmires and mendacity must there be about if it is possible, in the\nmodern European hotch-potch, to raise the question of \u2018race\u2019!\u201d and again,\nin Aphorism 21: \u201cMaxim\u2014to associate with no man who takes any part in the\nmendacious race-swindle.\u201d\n\nA man like Nietzsche, who makes so little impression upon mankind in\ngeneral, is certainly not, as some people have thought and openly said, a\npublic danger, so the guardians of the State need not be uneasy. There is\nlittle danger of Nietzsche\u2019s revolutionising either the masses or the\nclasses; for, as Goethe used to say, \u201cSeulement celui qui ressemble le\npeuple, l\u2019\u00e9meut.\u201d Nietzsche\u2019s voice has as yet hardly been lifted in this\ncountry; and, until it is fully heard, both masses and classes will calmly\nproceed on their way to the extremes of democracy and anarchy, as they now\nappear to be doing. Anarchy, though, may be too strong a word; for there\nis some doubt whether, throughout Europe and America at all events, the\npeople are not now too weak even for anarchy. A revolt is a sign of\nstrength in a slave; but our modern slaves have no strength left.\n\nIn the meantime, however, it will have become clear that Nietzsche tried\nto stop this threatening degradation of the human race, that he\nendeavoured to supplant the morality of altruism\u2014the cause of this\ndegradation\u2014by another, a super-Christian morality, and that he has\nsucceeded in this aim, if not where the masses and the classes are\nconcerned, at any rate in the case of that small minority of thinkers to\nwhich he really wished to appeal. And this minority is naturally grateful\nto the philosopher for having supplied them with a morality which enables\nthem to be \u201cgood\u201d without being fools\u2014an unpleasant combination which,\nunfortunately, the Nazarene morality is seldom able to avoid. This\nNazarene morality has doubtless its own merits, and its \u201cgood\u201d and \u201cevil\u201d\nin many cases coincide with ours; but common sense and certain\nintellectual qualities are not too highly appreciated in the table of\nChristian values (see, for instance, 1 Cor. iii. 19), whence it will be\nobserved that the enlightenment of a Christian is not always quite equal\nto his otherwise excellent intentions. We Nietzschians, however, must show\nthat patience to them which they always pretend to show to their\nopponents. Nietzsche himself, indeed, recommends this in Aphorism 103 of\nthis book, an aphorism which is almost too well known to need repetition;\nfor it likewise disproves the grotesque though widely circulated\nsupposition that all kinds of immorality would be indulged in under the\nsway of the \u201cImmoralistic\u201d philosopher:\n\n\u201cI should not, of course, deny\u2014unless I were a fool\u2014that many actions\nwhich are called immoral should be avoided and resisted; and in the same\nway that many which are called moral should be performed and encouraged;\nbut I hold that in both cases these actions should be performed from\nmotives other than those which have prevailed up to the present time. We\nmust learn anew in order that at last, perhaps very late in the day, we\nmay be able to do something more: feel anew.\u201d\n\nIn regard to the translation itself\u2014which owes a good deal to many\nexcellent suggestions made by Mr. Thomas Common\u2014it adheres, as a rule,\nclosely to the German text; and in only two or three instances has a\nslightly freer rendering been adopted in order to make the sense quite\nclear. There are one or two cases in which a punning or double meaning\ncould not be adequately rendered in English: _e.g._ Aphorism 50, where the\nGerman word \u201cRausch\u201d means both \u201cintoxication\u201d and also \u201celation\u201d (_i.e._\nthe exalted feelings of the religious fanatic). Again, we have \u201cEinleid,\u201d\n\u201cEinleidigkeit,\u201d in Aphorism 63\u2014words which do not quite correspond to\npity, compassion, or fellow-feeling, and which, indeed, are not yet known\nto German lexicographers. A literal translation, \u201cone-feeling,\u201d would be\nalmost meaningless. What is actually signified is that both sufferer and\nsympathiser have nerves and feelings in common: an experience which\nSchopenhauer, as Nietzsche rightly points out, mistook for compassion or\npity (\u201cMitleid\u201d), and which lacked a word, even in German, until the later\npsychologist coined \u201cEinleid.\u201d Again, in Aphorism 554 we have a play upon\nthe words \u201cVorschritt\u201d (leading, guidance) and \u201cFortschritt\u201d (progress).\n\nAll these, however, are trifling matters in comparison with the substance\nof the book, and they are of more interest to philologists than to\npsychologists. It is for psychologists that this book was written; and\nsuch minds, somewhat rare in our time, may read in it with much profit.\n\nJ. M. Kennedy.\n\nLONDON, _September_ 1911.\n\n\n\n\n\nAUTHOR\u2019S PREFACE.\n\n\nIn this book we find a \u201csubterrestrial\u201d at work, digging, mining,\nundermining. You can see him, always provided that you have eyes for such\ndeep work,\u2014how he makes his way slowly, cautiously, gently but surely,\nwithout showing signs of the weariness that usually accompanies a long\nprivation of light and air. He might even be called happy, despite his\nlabours in the dark. Does it not seem as if some faith were leading him\non, some solace recompensing him for his toil? Or that he himself desires\na long period of darkness, an unintelligible, hidden, enigmatic something,\nknowing as he does that he will in time have his own morning, his own\nredemption, his own rosy dawn?\u2014Yea, verily he will return: ask him not\nwhat he seeketh in the depths; for he himself will tell you, this apparent\nTrophonius and subterrestrial, whensoever he once again becomes man. One\neasily unlearns how to hold one\u2019s tongue when one has for so long been a\nmole, and all alone, like him.\u2014\n\n\n\n\n2.\n\n\nIndeed, my indulgent friends, I will tell you\u2014here, in this late\npreface,(1) which might easily have become an obituary or a funeral\noration\u2014what I sought in the depths below: for I have come back, and\u2014I\nhave escaped. Think not that I will urge you to run the same perilous\nrisk! or that I will urge you on even to the same solitude! For whoever\nproceeds on his own path meets nobody: this is the feature of one\u2019s \u201cown\npath.\u201d No one comes to help him in his task: he must face everything quite\nalone\u2014danger, bad luck, wickedness, foul weather. He goes his own way;\nand, as is only right, meets with bitterness and occasional irritation\nbecause he pursues this \u201cown way\u201d of his: for instance, the knowledge that\nnot even his friends can guess who he is and whither he is going, and that\nthey ask themselves now and then: \u201cWell? Is he really moving at all? Has\nhe still ... a path before him?\u201d\u2014At that time I had undertaken something\nwhich could not have been done by everybody: I went down into the deepest\ndepths; I tunnelled to the very bottom; I started to investigate and\nunearth an old _faith_ which for thousands of years we philosophers used\nto build on as the safest of all foundations\u2014which we built on again and\nagain although every previous structure fell in: I began to undermine our\n_faith in morals_. But ye do not understand me?\u2014\n\n\n\n\n3.\n\n\nSo far it is on Good and Evil that we have meditated least profoundly:\nthis was always too dangerous a subject. Conscience, a good reputation,\nhell, and at times even the police, have not allowed and do not allow of\nimpartiality; in the presence of morality, as before all authority, we\n_must_ not even think, much less speak: here we must obey! Ever since the\nbeginning of the world, no authority has permitted itself to be made the\nsubject of criticism; and to criticise morals\u2014to look upon morality as a\nproblem, as problematic\u2014what! was that not\u2014_is_ that not\u2014immoral?\u2014But\nmorality has at its disposal not only every means of intimidation\nwherewith to keep itself free from critical hands and instruments of\ntorture: its security lies rather in a certain art of enchantment, in\nwhich it is a past master\u2014it knows how to \u201cenrapture.\u201d It can often\nparalyse the critical will with a single look, or even seduce it to\nitself: yea, there are even cases where morality can turn the critical\nwill against itself; so that then, like the scorpion, it thrusts the sting\ninto its own body. Morality has for ages been an expert in all kinds of\ndevilry in the art of convincing: even at the present day there is no\norator who would not turn to it for assistance (only hearken to our\nanarchists, for instance: how morally they speak when they would fain\nconvince! In the end they even call themselves \u201cthe good and the just\u201d).\nMorality has shown herself to be the greatest mistress of seduction ever\nsince men began to discourse and persuade on earth\u2014and, what concerns us\nphilosophers even more, she is the veritable _Circe of philosophers_. For,\nto what is it due that, from Plato onwards, all the philosophic architects\nin Europe have built in vain? that everything which they themselves\nhonestly believed to be _aere perennius_ threatens to subside or is\nalready laid in ruins? Oh, how wrong is the answer which, even in our own\nday, rolls glibly off the tongue when this question is asked: \u201cBecause\nthey have all neglected the prerequisite, the examination of the\nfoundation, a critique of all reason\u201d\u2014that fatal answer made by Kant, who\nhas certainly not thereby attracted us modern philosophers to firmer and\nless treacherous ground! (and, one may ask apropos of this, was it not\nrather strange to demand that an instrument should criticise its own value\nand effectiveness? that the intellect itself should \u201crecognise\u201d its own\nworth, power, and limits? was it not even just a little ridiculous?) The\nright answer would rather have been, that all philosophers, including Kant\nhimself were building under the seductive influence of morality\u2014that they\naimed at certainty and \u201ctruth\u201d only in appearance; but that in reality\ntheir attention was directed towards \u201c_majestic moral edifices_,\u201d to use\nonce more Kant\u2019s innocent mode of expression, who deems it his \u201cless\nbrilliant, but not undeserving\u201d task and work \u201cto level the ground and\nprepare a solid foundation for the erection of those majestic moral\nedifices\u201d (_Critique of Pure Reason_, ii. 257). Alas! He did not succeed\nin his aim, quite the contrary\u2014as we must acknowledge to-day. With this\nexalted aim, Kant was merely a true son of his century, which more than\nany other may justly be called the century of exaltation: and this he\nfortunately continued to be in respect to the more valuable side of this\ncentury (with that solid piece of sensuality, for example, which he\nintroduced into his theory of knowledge). He, too, had been bitten by the\nmoral tarantula, Rousseau; he, too, felt weighing on his soul that moral\nfanaticism of which another disciple of Rousseau\u2019s, Robespierre, felt and\nproclaimed himself to be the executor: _de fonder sur la terre l\u2019empire de\nla sagesse, de la justice, et de la vertu_. (Speech of June 4th, 1794.) On\nthe other hand, with such a French fanaticism in his heart, no one could\nhave cultivated it in a less French, more deep, more thorough and more\nGerman manner\u2014if the word German is still permissible in this sense\u2014than\nKant did: in order to make room for _his_ \u201cmoral kingdom,\u201d he found\nhimself compelled to add to it an indemonstrable world, a logical\n\u201cbeyond\u201d\u2014that was why he required his critique of pure reason! In other\nwords, _he would not have wanted it_, if he had not deemed one thing to be\nmore important than all the others: to render his moral kingdom\nunassailable by\u2014or, better still, invisible to, reason,\u2014for he felt too\nstrongly the vulnerability of a moral order of things in the face of\nreason. For, when confronted with nature and history, when confronted with\nthe ingrained _immorality_ of nature and history, Kant was, like all good\nGermans from the earliest times, a pessimist: he believed in morality, not\nbecause it is demonstrated through nature and history, but despite its\nbeing steadily contradicted by them. To understand this \u201cdespite,\u201d we\nshould perhaps recall a somewhat similar trait in Luther, that other great\npessimist, who once urged it upon his friends with true Lutheran audacity:\n\u201cIf we could conceive by reason alone how that God who shows so much wrath\nand malignity could be merciful and just, what use should we have for\nfaith?\u201d For, from the earliest times, nothing has ever made a deeper\nimpression upon the German soul, nothing has ever \u201ctempted\u201d it more, than\nthat deduction, the most dangerous of all, which for every true Latin is a\nsin against the intellect: _credo quia absurdum est_.\u2014With it German logic\nenters for the first time into the history of Christian dogma; but even\nto-day, a thousand years later, we Germans of the present, late Germans in\nevery way, catch the scent of truth, a _possibility_ of truth, at the back\nof the famous fundamental principle of dialectics with which Hegel secured\nthe victory of the German spirit over Europe\u2014\u201ccontradiction moves the\nworld; all things contradict themselves.\u201d We are pessimists\u2014even in logic.\n\n\n\n\n4.\n\n\nBut logical judgments are not the deepest and most fundamental to which\nthe daring of our suspicion descends: the confidence in reason which is\ninseparable from the validity of these judgments, is, as confidence, a\n_moral_ phenomenon ... perhaps German pessimism has yet to take its last\nstep? Perhaps it has once more to draw up its \u201ccredo\u201d opposite its\n\u201cabsurdum\u201d in a terrible manner? And if this book is pessimistic even in\nregard to morals, even above the confidence in morals\u2014should it not be a\nGerman book for that very reason? For, in fact, it represents a\ncontradiction, and one which it does not fear: in it confidence in morals\nis retracted\u2014but why? Out of _morality_! Or how shall we call that which\ntakes place in it\u2014in _us_? for our taste inclines to the employment of\nmore modest phrases. But there is no doubt that to us likewise there\nspeaketh a \u201cthou shalt\u201d; we likewise obey a strict law which is set above\nus\u2014and this is the last cry of morals which is still audible to us, which\nwe too must _live_: here, if anywhere, are we still _men of conscience_,\nbecause, to put the matter in plain words, we will not return to that\nwhich we look upon as decayed, outlived, and superseded, we will not\nreturn to something \u201cunworthy of belief,\u201d whether it be called God,\nvirtue, truth, justice, love of one\u2019s neighbour, or what not; we will not\npermit ourselves to open up a lying path to old ideals; we are thoroughly\nand unalterably opposed to anything that would intercede and mingle with\nus; opposed to all forms of present-day faith and Christianity; opposed to\nthe lukewarmness of all romanticism and fatherlandism; opposed also to the\nartistic sense of enjoyment and lack of principle which would fain make us\nworship where we no longer believe\u2014for we are artists\u2014opposed, in short,\nto all this European feminism (or idealism, if this term be thought\npreferable) which everlastingly \u201cdraws upward,\u201d and which in consequence\neverlastingly \u201clowers\u201d and \u201cdegrades.\u201d Yet, being men of _this_\nconscience, we feel that we are related to that German uprightness and\npiety which dates back thousands of years, although we immoralists and\natheists may be the late and uncertain offspring of these virtues\u2014yea, we\neven consider ourselves, in a certain respect, as their heirs, the\nexecutors of their inmost will: a pessimistic will, as I have already\npointed out, which is not afraid to deny itself, because it denies itself\nwith _joy_! In us is consummated, if you desire a formula\u2014_the\nautosuppression of morals_.\n\n\n\n\n5.\n\n\nBut, after all, why must we proclaim so loudly and with such intensity\nwhat we are, what we want, and what we do not want? Let us look at this\nmore calmly and wisely; from a higher and more distant point of view. Let\nus proclaim it, as if among ourselves, in so low a tone that all the world\nfails to hear it and _us_! Above all, however, let us say it _slowly_....\nThis preface comes late, but not too late: what, after all, do five or six\nyears matter? Such a book, and such a problem, are in no hurry; besides,\nwe are friends of the _lento_, I and my book. I have not been a\nphilologist in vain\u2014perhaps I am one yet: a teacher of slow reading. I\neven come to write slowly. At present it is not only my habit, but even my\ntaste\u2014a perverted taste, maybe\u2014to write nothing but what will drive to\ndespair every one who is \u201cin a hurry.\u201d For philology is that venerable art\nwhich exacts from its followers one thing above all\u2014to step to one side,\nto leave themselves spare moments, to grow silent, to become slow\u2014the\nleisurely art of the goldsmith applied to language: an art which must\ncarry out slow, fine work, and attains nothing if not _lento_. For this\nvery reason philology is now more desirable than ever before; for this\nvery reason it is the highest attraction and incitement in an age of\n\u201cwork\u201d: that is to say, of haste, of unseemly and immoderate hurry-skurry,\nwhich is intent upon \u201cgetting things done\u201d at once, even every book,\nwhether old or new. Philology itself, perhaps, will not \u201cget things done\u201d\nso hurriedly: it teaches how to read _well_: _i.e._ slowly, profoundly,\nattentively, prudently, with inner thoughts, with the mental doors ajar,\nwith delicate fingers and eyes ... my patient friends, this book appeals\nonly to perfect readers and philologists: _learn_ to read me well!\n\nRUTA, NEAR GENOA,\n\n_Autumn_, 1886.\n\n\n\n\n\nBOOK I.\n\n\n\n\n1.\n\n\nSUBSEQUENT JUDGMENT.\u2014All things that endure for a long time are little by\nlittle so greatly permeated by reason that their origin in unreason\nbecomes improbable. Does not almost every exact statement of an origin\nstrike us as paradoxical and sacrilegious? Indeed, does not the true\nhistorian constantly contradict?\n\n\n\n\n2.\n\n\nPREJUDICE OF THE LEARNED.\u2014Savants are quite correct in maintaining the\nproposition that men in all ages believed that they _knew_ what was good\nand evil, praiseworthy and blamable. But it is a prejudice of the learned\nto say _that we now know it better_ than any other age.\n\n\n\n\n3.\n\n\nA TIME FOR EVERYTHING.\u2014When man assigned a sex to all things, he did not\nbelieve that he was merely playing; but he thought, on the contrary, that\nhe had acquired a profound insight:\u2014it was only at a much later period,\nand then only partly, that he acknowledged the enormity of his error. In\nthe same way, man has attributed a moral relationship to everything that\nexists, throwing the cloak of _ethical significance_ over the world\u2019s\nshoulders. One day all that will be of just as much value, and no more, as\nthe amount of belief existing to-day in the masculinity or femininity of\nthe sun.(2)\n\n\n\n\n4.\n\n\nAGAINST THE FANCIFUL DISHARMONY OF THE SPHERES.\u2014We must once more sweep\nout of the world all this _false_ grandeur, for it is contrary to the\njustice that all things about us may claim. And for this reason we must\nnot see or wish the world to be more disharmonic than it is!\n\n\n\n\n5.\n\n\nBE THANKFUL!\u2014The most important result of the past efforts of humanity is\nthat we need no longer go about in continual fear of wild beasts,\nbarbarians, gods, and our own dreams.\n\n\n\n\n6.\n\n\nTHE JUGGLER AND HIS COUNTERPART.\u2014That which is wonderful in science is\ncontrary to that which is wonderful in the art of the juggler. For the\nlatter would wish to make us believe that we see a very simple causality,\nwhere, in reality, an exceedingly complex causality is in operation.\nScience, on the other hand, forces us to give up our belief in the simple\ncausality exactly where everything looks so easily comprehensible and we\nare merely the victims of appearances. The simplest things are _very\n_\u201ccomplicated\u201d\u2014we can never be sufficiently astonished at them!\n\n\n\n\n7.\n\n\nRECONCEIVING OUR FEELING OF SPACE.\u2014Is it real or imaginary things which\nhave built up the greater proportion of man\u2019s happiness? It is certain, at\nall events, that the extent of the distance between the highest point of\nhappiness and the lowest point of unhappiness has been established only\nwith the help of imaginary things. As a consequence, _this_ kind of a\nconception of space is always, under the influence of science, becoming\nsmaller and smaller: in the same way as science has taught us, and is\nstill teaching us, to look upon the earth as small\u2014yea, to look upon the\nentire solar system as a mere point.\n\n\n\n\n8.\n\n\nTRANSFIGURATION.\u2014Perplexed sufferers, confused dreamers, the hysterically\necstatic\u2014here we have the three classes into which Raphael divided\nmankind. We no longer consider the world in this light\u2014and Raphael himself\ndare not do so: his own eyes would show him a new transfiguration.\n\n\n\n\n9.\n\n\nCONCEPTION OF THE MORALITY OF CUSTOM.\u2014In comparison with the mode of life\nwhich prevailed among men for thousands of years, we men of the present\nday are living in a very immoral age: the power of custom has been\nweakened to a remarkable degree, and the sense of morality is so refined\nand elevated that we might almost describe it as volatilised. That is why\nwe late comers experience such difficulty in obtaining a fundamental\nconception of the origin of morality: and even if we do obtain it, our\nwords of explanation stick in our throats, so coarse would they sound if\nwe uttered them! or to so great an extent would they seem to be a slander\nupon morality! Thus, for example, the fundamental clause: morality is\nnothing else (and, above all, nothing more) than obedience to customs, of\nwhatsoever nature they may be. But customs are simply the traditional way\nof acting and valuing. Where there is no tradition there is no morality;\nand the less life is governed by tradition, the narrower the circle of\nmorality. The free man is immoral, because it is his _will_ to depend upon\nhimself and not upon tradition: in all the primitive states of humanity\n\u201cevil\u201d is equivalent to \u201cindividual,\u201d \u201cfree,\u201d \u201carbitrary,\u201d \u201cunaccustomed,\u201d\n\u201cunforeseen,\u201d \u201cincalculable.\u201d In such primitive conditions, always\nmeasured by this standard, any action performed\u2014_not_ because tradition\ncommands it, but for other reasons (_e.g._ on account of its individual\nutility), even for the same reasons as had been formerly established by\ncustom\u2014is termed immoral, and is felt to be so even by the very man who\nperforms it, for it has not been done out of obedience to the tradition.\n\nWhat is tradition? A higher authority, which is obeyed, not because it\ncommands what is useful to us, but merely because it commands. And in what\nway can this feeling for tradition be distinguished from a general feeling\nof fear? It is the fear of a higher intelligence which commands, the fear\nof an incomprehensible power, of something that is more than\npersonal\u2014there is _superstition_ in this fear. In primitive times the\ndomain of morality included education and hygienics, marriage, medicine,\nagriculture, war, speech and silence, the relationship between man and\nman, and between man and the gods\u2014morality required that a man should\nobserve her prescriptions without thinking of _himself_ as individual.\nEverything, therefore, was originally custom, and whoever wished to raise\nhimself above it, had first of all to make himself a kind of lawgiver and\nmedicine-man, a sort of demi-god\u2014in other words, he had to create customs,\na dangerous and fearful thing to do!\u2014Who is the most moral man? On the one\nhand, he who most frequently obeys the law: _e.g._ he who, like the\nBrahmins, carries a consciousness of the law about with him wherever he\nmay go, and introduces it into the smallest divisions of time, continually\nexercising his mind in finding opportunities for obeying the law. On the\nother hand, he who obeys the law in the most difficult cases. The most\nmoral man is he who makes the greatest _sacrifices_ to morality; but what\nare the greatest sacrifices? In answering this question several different\nkinds of morality will be developed: but the distinction between the\nmorality of the _most frequent obedience_ and the morality of the _most\ndifficult obedience_ is of the greatest importance. Let us not be deceived\nas to the motives of that moral law which requires, as an indication of\nmorality, obedience to custom in the most difficult cases! Self-conquest\nis required, not by reason of its useful consequences for the individual;\nbut that custom and tradition may appear to be dominant, in spite of all\nindividual counter desires and advantages. The individual shall sacrifice\nhimself\u2014so demands the morality of custom.\n\nOn the other hand, those moralists who, like the followers of Socrates,\nrecommend self-control and sobriety to the _individual_ as his greatest\npossible advantage and the key to his greatest personal happiness, are\n_exceptions_\u2014and if we ourselves do not think so, this is simply due to\nour having been brought up under their influence. They all take a new\npath, and thereby bring down upon themselves the utmost disapproval of all\nthe representatives of the morality of custom. They sever their connection\nwith the community, as immoralists, and are, in the fullest sense of the\nword, evil ones. In the same way, every Christian who \u201csought, above all\nthings, his _own_ salvation,\u201d must have seemed evil to a virtuous Roman of\nthe old school. Wherever a community exists, and consequently also a\nmorality of custom, the feeling prevails that any punishment for the\nviolation of a custom is inflicted, above all, on the community: this\npunishment is a supernatural punishment, the manifestations and limits of\nwhich are so difficult to understand, and are investigated with such\nsuperstitious fear. The community can compel any one member of it to make\ngood, either to an individual or to the community itself, any ill\nconsequences which may have followed upon such a member\u2019s action. It can\nalso call down a sort of vengeance upon the head of the individual by\nendeavouring to show that, as the result of his action, a storm of divine\nanger has burst over the community,\u2014but, above all, it regards the guilt\nof the individual more particularly as _its own_ guilt, and bears the\npunishment of the isolated individual as its own punishment\u2014\u201cMorals,\u201d they\nbewail in their innermost heart, \u201cmorals have grown lax, if such deeds as\nthese are possible.\u201d And every individual action, every individual mode of\nthinking, causes dread. It is impossible to determine how much the more\nselect, rare, and original minds must have suffered in the course of time\nby being considered as evil and dangerous, _yea, because they even looked\nupon themselves as such_. Under the dominating influence of the morality\nof custom, originality of every kind came to acquire a bad conscience; and\neven now the sky of the best minds seems to be more overcast by this\nthought than it need be.\n\n\n\n\n10.\n\n\nCOUNTER-MOTION BETWEEN THE SENSE OF MORALITY AND THE SENSE OF\nCAUSALITY.\u2014As the sense of causality increases, so does the extent of the\ndomain of morality decrease: for every time one has been able to grasp the\nnecessary effects, and to conceive them as distinct from all incidentals\nand chance possibilities (_post hoc_), one has, at the same time,\ndestroyed an enormous number of _imaginary causalities_, which had\nhitherto been believed in as the basis of morals\u2014the real world is much\nsmaller than the world of our imagination\u2014and each time also one casts\naway a certain amount of one\u2019s anxiousness and coercion, and some of our\nreverence for the authority of custom is lost: morality in general\nundergoes a diminution. He who, on the other hand, wishes to increase it\nmust know how to prevent results from becoming controllable.\n\n\n\n\n11.\n\n\nMORALS AND MEDICINES OF THE PEOPLE.\u2014Every one is continuously occupied in\nbringing more or less influence to bear upon the morals which prevail in a\ncommunity: most of the people bring forward example after example to show\nthe _alleged relationship between cause and effect_, guilt and punishment,\nthus upholding it as well founded and adding to the belief in it. A few\nmake new observations upon the actions and their consequences, drawing\nconclusions therefrom and laying down laws; a smaller number raise\nobjections and allow belief in these things to become weakened.\u2014But they\nare all alike in the crude and _unscientific_ manner in which they set\nabout their work: if it is a question of objections to a law, or examples\nor observations of it, or of its proof, confirmation, expression or\nrefutation, we always find the material and method entirely valueless, as\nvalueless as the material and form of all popular medicine. Popular\nmedicines and popular morals are closely related, and should not be\nconsidered and valued, as is still customary, in so different a way: both\nare most dangerous and make-believe sciences.\n\n\n\n\n12.\n\n\nCONSEQUENCE AS ADJUVANT CAUSE.\u2014Formerly the consequences of an action were\nconsidered, not as the result of that action, but a voluntary\nadjuvant\u2014_i.e._ on the part of God. Can a greater confusion be imagined?\nEntirely different practices and means have to be brought into use for\nactions and effects!\n\n\n\n\n13.\n\n\nTOWARDS THE NEW EDUCATION OF MANKIND.\u2014Help us, all ye who are\nwell-disposed and willing to assist, lend your aid in the endeavour to do\naway with that conception of punishment which has swept over the whole\nworld! No weed more harmful than this! It is not only to the consequences\nof our actions that this conception has been applied\u2014and how horrible and\nsenseless it is to confuse cause and effect with cause and punishment!\u2014but\nworse has followed: the pure accidentality of events has been robbed of\nits innocence by this execrable manner of interpreting conception of\npunishment. Yea, they have even pushed their folly to such extremes that\nthey would have us look upon existence itself as a punishment\u2014from which\nit would appear that the education of mankind had hitherto been confided\nto cranky gaolers and hangmen.\n\n\n\n\n14.\n\n\nTHE SIGNIFICATION OF MADNESS IN THE HISTORY OF MORALITY.\u2014If, despite that\nformidable pressure of the \u201cmorality of custom,\u201d under which all human\ncommunities lived\u2014thousands of years before our own era, and during our\nown era up to the present day (we ourselves are dwelling in the small\nworld of exceptions, and, as it were, in an evil zone):\u2014if, I say, in\nspite of all this, new and divergent ideas, valuations, and impulses have\nmade their appearance time after time, this state of things has been\nbrought about only with the assistance of a dreadful associate: it was\ninsanity almost everywhere that paved the way for the new thought and cast\noff the spell of an old custom and superstition. Do ye understand why this\nhad to be done through insanity? by something which is in both voice and\nappearance as horrifying and incalculable as the demoniac whims of wind\nand sea, and consequently calling for like dread and respect? by something\nbearing upon it the signs of entire lack of consciousness as clearly as\nthe convulsions and foam of the epileptic, which appeared to typify the\ninsane person as the mask and speaking-trumpet of some divine being? by\nsomething that inspired even the bearer of the new thought with awe and\nfear of himself, and that, suppressing all remorse, drove him on to become\nits prophet and martyr?\u2014Well, in our own time, we continually hear the\nstatement reiterated that genius is tinctured with madness instead of good\nsense. Men of earlier ages were far more inclined to believe that,\nwherever traces of insanity showed themselves, a certain proportion of\ngenius and wisdom was likewise present\u2014something \u201cdivine,\u201d as they\nwhispered to one another. More than this, they expressed their opinions on\nthe point with sufficient emphasis. \u201cAll the greatest benefits of Greece\nhave sprung from madness,\u201d said Plato, setting on record the opinion of\nthe entire ancient world. Let us take a step further: all those superior\nmen, who felt themselves irresistibly urged on to throw off the yoke of\nsome morality or other, had no other resource\u2014_if they were not really\nmad_\u2014than to feign madness, or actually to become insane. And this holds\ngood for innovators in every department of life, and not only in religion\nand politics. Even the reformer of the poetic metre was forced to justify\nhimself by means of madness. (Thus even down to gentler ages madness\nremained a kind of convention in poets, of which Solon, for instance, took\nadvantage when urging the Athenians to reconquer Salamis.)\u2014\u201cHow can one\nmake one\u2019s self mad when one is not mad and dare not feign to be so?\u201d\nAlmost all the eminent men of antiquity have given themselves up to this\ndreadful mode of reasoning: a secret doctrine of artifices and dietetic\njugglery grew up around this subject and was handed down from generation\nto generation, together with the feeling of the innocence, even sanctity,\nof such plans and meditations. The means of becoming a medicine-man among\nthe Indians, a saint among Christians of the Middle Ages, an angecok among\nGreenlanders, a Pagee among Brazilians, are the same in essence: senseless\nfasting, continual abstention from sexual intercourse, isolation in a\nwilderness, ascending a mountain or a pillar, \u201csitting on an aged willow\nthat looks out upon a lake,\u201d and thinking of absolutely nothing but what\nmay give rise to ecstasy or mental derangements.\n\nWho would dare to glance at the desert of the bitterest and most\nsuperfluous agonies of spirit, in which probably the most productive men\nof all ages have pined away? Who could listen to the sighs of those lonely\nand troubled minds: \u201cO ye heavenly powers, grant me madness! Madness, that\nI at length may believe in myself! Vouchsafe delirium and convulsions,\nsudden flashes of light and periods of darkness; frighten me with such\nshivering and feverishness as no mortal ever experienced before, with\nclanging noises and haunting spectres; let me growl and whine and creep\nabout like a beast, if only I can come to believe in myself! I am devoured\nby doubt. I have slain the law, and I now dread the law as a living person\ndreads a corpse. If I am not _above_ the law, I am the most abandoned of\nwretches. Whence cometh this new spirit that dwelleth within me but from\nyou? Prove to me, then, that I am one of you\u2014nothing but madness will\nprove it to me.\u201d And only too often does such a fervour attain its object:\nat the very time when Christianity was giving the greatest proof of its\nfertility in the production of saints and martyrs, believing that it was\nthus proving itself, Jerusalem contained large lunatic asylums for\nshipwrecked saints, for those whose last spark of good sense had been\nquenched by the floods of insanity.\n\n\n\n\n15.\n\n\nTHE MOST ANCIENT MEANS OF SOLACE.\u2014First stage: In every misfortune or\ndiscomfort man sees something for which he must make somebody else suffer,\nno matter who\u2014in this way he finds out the amount of power still remaining\nto him; and this consoles him. Second stage: In every misfortune or\ndiscomfort, man sees a punishment, _i.e._ an expiation of guilt and the\nmeans by which he may get rid of the malicious enchantment of a real or\napparent wrong. When he perceives the _advantage_ which misfortune bring\nwith it, he believes he need no longer make another person suffer for\nit\u2014he gives up this kind of satisfaction, because he now has another.\n\n\n\n\n16.\n\n\nFIRST PRINCIPLE OF CIVILISATION.\u2014Among savage tribes there is a certain\ncategory of customs which appear to aim at nothing but custom. They\ntherefore lay down strict, and, on the whole, superfluous regulations\n(_e.g._ the rules of the Kamchadales, which forbid snow to be scraped off\nthe boots with a knife, coal to be stuck on the point of a knife, or a\npiece of iron to be put into the fire\u2014and death to be the portion of every\none who shall act contrariwise!) Yet these laws serve to keep people\ncontinually reminded of the custom, and the imperative necessity on their\nparts to conform to it: and all this in support of the great principle\nwhich stands at the beginning of all civilisation: any custom is better\nthan none.\n\n\n\n\n17.\n\n\nGOODNESS AND MALIGNITY.\u2014At first men imposed their own personalities on\nNature: everywhere they saw themselves and their like, _i.e._ their own\nevil and capricious temperaments, hidden, as it were, behind clouds,\nthunder-storms, wild beasts, trees, and plants: it was then that they\ndeclared Nature was evil. Afterwards there came a time, that of Rousseau,\nwhen they sought to distinguish themselves from Nature: they were so tired\nof each other that they wished to have separate little hiding-places where\nman and his misery could not penetrate: then they invented \u201cnature is\ngood.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n18.\n\n\nTHE MORALITY OF VOLUNTARY SUFFERING.\u2014What is the highest enjoyment for men\nliving in a state of war in a small community, the existence of which is\ncontinually threatened, and the morality of which is the strictest\npossible? _i.e._ for souls which are vigorous, vindictive, malicious, full\nof suspicion, ready to face the direst events, hardened by privation and\nmorality? The enjoyment of cruelty: just as, in such souls and in such\ncircumstances, it would be regarded as a virtue to be ingenious and\ninsatiable in cruelty. Such a community would find its delight in\nperforming cruel deeds, casting aside, for once, the gloom of constant\nanxiety and precaution. Cruelty is one of the most ancient enjoyments at\ntheir festivities. As a consequence it is believed that the gods likewise\nare pleased by the sight of cruelty and rejoice at it\u2014and in this way the\nbelief is spread that _voluntary suffering_, self-chosen martyrdom, has a\nhigh signification and value of its own. In the community custom gradually\nbrings about a practice in conformity with this belief: henceforward\npeople become more suspicious of all exuberant well-being, and more\nconfident as they find themselves in a state of great pain; they think\nthat the gods may be unfavourable to them on account of happiness, and\nfavourable on account of pain\u2014not compassionate! For compassion is looked\nupon with contempt, and unworthy of a strong and awe-inspiring soul\u2014but\nagreeable to them, because the sight of human suffering put these gods\ninto good humour and makes them feel powerful, and a cruel mind revels in\nthe sensation of power. It was thus that the \u201cmost moral man\u201d of the\ncommunity was considered as such by virtue of his frequent suffering,\nprivation, laborious existence, and cruel mortification\u2014not, to repeat it\nagain and again, as a means of discipline or self-control or a desire for\nindividual happiness\u2014but a a virtue which renders the evil gods\nwell-disposed towards the community, a virtue which continually wafts up\nto them the odour of an expiatory sacrifice. All those intellectual\nleaders of the nations who reached the point of being able to stir up the\nsluggish though prolific mire of their customs had to possess this factor\nof voluntary martyrdom as well as insanity in order to obtain\nbelief\u2014especially, and above all, as is always the case, belief in\nthemselves! The more their minds followed new paths, and were consequently\ntormented by pricks of conscience, the more cruelly they battled against\ntheir own flesh, their own desires, and their own health\u2014as if they were\noffering the gods a compensation in pleasure, lest these gods should wax\nwroth at the neglect of ancient customs and the setting up of new aims.\n\nLet no one be too hasty in thinking that we have now entirely freed\nourselves from such a logic of feeling! Let the most heroic souls among us\nquestion themselves on this very point. The least step forward in the\ndomain of free thought and individual life has been achieved in all ages\nto the accompaniment of physical and intellectual tortures: and not only\nthe mere step forward, no! but every form of movement and change has\nrendered necessary innumerable martyrs, throughout the entire course of\nthousands of years which sought their paths and laid down their\nfoundation-stones, years, however, which we do not think of when we speak\nabout \u201cworld-history,\u201d that ridiculously small division of mankind\u2019s\nexistence. And even in this so-called world-history, which in the main is\nmerely a great deal of noise about the latest novelties, there is no more\nimportant theme than the old, old tragedy of the martyrs _who tried to\nmove the mire_. Nothing has been more dearly bought than the minute\nportion of human reason and feeling of liberty upon which we now pride\nourselves. But it is this very pride which makes it almost impossible for\nus to-day to be conscious of that enormous lapse of time, preceding the\nperiod of \u201cworld-history\u201d when \u201cmorality of custom\u201d held the field, and to\nconsider this lapse of time as _the real and decisive epoch that\nestablished the character of mankind_: an epoch when suffering was\nconsidered as a virtue, cruelty as a virtue, hypocrisy as a virtue,\nrevenge as a virtue, and the denial of the reason as a virtue, whereas, on\nthe other hand, well-being was regarded as a danger, longing for knowledge\nas a danger, peace as a danger, compassion as a danger: an epoch when\nbeing pitied was looked upon as an insult, work as an insult, madness as a\ndivine attribute, and every kind of change as immoral and pregnant with\nruin! You imagine that all this has changed, and that humanity must\nlikewise have changed its character? Oh, ye poor psychologists, learn to\nknow yourselves better!\n\n\n\n\n19.\n\n\nMORALITY AND STUPEFACTION.\u2014Custom represents the experiences of men of\nearlier times in regard to what they considered as useful and harmful; but\nthe _feeling of custom_ (morality) does not relate to these feelings as\nsuch, but to the age, the sanctity, and the unquestioned authority of the\ncustom. Hence this feeling hinders our acquiring new experiences and\namending morals: _i.e._ morality is opposed to the formation of new and\nbetter morals: it stupefies.\n\n\n\n\n20.\n\n\nFREE-DOERS AND FREE-THINKERS.\u2014Compared with free-thinkers, free-doers are\nat a disadvantage, because it is evident that men suffer more from the\nconsequences of actions than of thoughts. If we remember, however, that\nboth seek their own satisfaction, and that free-thinkers have already\nfound their satisfaction in reflection upon and utterance of forbidden\nthings, there is no difference in the motives; but in respect of the\nconsequences the issue will be decided against the free-thinker, provided\nthat it be not judged from the most superficial and vulgar external\nappearance, _i.e._ not as every one would judge it. We must make up for a\ngood deal of the calumny with which men have covered all those who have,\nby their actions, broken away from the authority of some custom\u2014they are\ngenerally called criminals. Every one who has hitherto overthrown a law of\nestablished morality has always at first been considered as a _wicked\nman_: but when it was afterwards found impossible to re-establish the law,\nand people gradually became accustomed to the change, the epithet was\nchanged by slow degrees. History deals almost exclusively with these\n_wicked men_, who later on came to be recognised as _good men_.\n\n\n\n\n21.\n\n\n\u201cFULFILMENT OF THE LAW.\u201d\u2014In cases where the observance of a moral precept\nhas led to different consequence from that expected and promised, and does\nnot bestow upon the moral man the happiness he had hoped for, but leads\nrather to misfortune and misery, the conscientious and timid man has\nalways his excuse ready: \u201cSomething was lacking in the proper _carrying\nout_ of the law.\u201d If the worst comes to the worst, a deeply-suffering and\ndown-trodden humanity will even decree: \u201cIt is impossible to carry out the\nprecept faithfully: we are too weak and sinful, and, in the depths of our\nsoul, incapable of morality: consequently we have no claim to happiness\nand success. Moral precepts and promises have been given for better beings\nthan ourselves.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n22.\n\n\nWORKS AND FAITH.\u2014Protestant teachers are still spreading the fundamental\nerror that faith only is of consequence, and that works must follow\nnaturally upon faith. This doctrine is certainly not true, but it is so\nseductive in appearance that it has succeeded in fascinating quite other\nintellects than that of Luther (_e.g._ the minds of Socrates and Plato):\nthough the plain evidence and experience of our daily life prove the\ncontrary. The most assured knowledge and faith cannot give us either the\nstrength or the dexterity required for action, or the practice in that\nsubtle and complicated mechanism which is a prerequisite for anything to\nbe changed from an idea into action. Then, I say, let us first and\nforemost have works! and this means practice! practice! practice! The\nnecessary faith will come later\u2014be certain of that!\n\n\n\n\n23.\n\n\nIN WHAT RESPECT WE ARE MOST SUBTLE.\u2014By the fact that, for thousands of\nyears, _things_ (nature, tools, property of all kinds) were thought to be\nalive and to possess souls, and able to hinder and interfere with the\ndesigns of man, the feeling of impotence among men has become greater and\nmore frequent than it need have been: for one had to secure one\u2019s things\nlike men and beasts, by means of force, compulsion, flattery, treaties,\nsacrifices\u2014and it is here that we may find the origin of the greater\nnumber of superstitious customs, _i.e._ of an important, _perhaps\nparamount_, and nevertheless wasted and useless division of mankind\u2019s\nactivity!\u2014But since the feeling of impotence and fear was so strong, and\nfor such a length of time in a state of constant stimulation, the feeling\nof _power_ in man has been developed in so subtle a manner that, in this\nrespect, he can compare favourably with the most delicately-adjusted\nbalance. This feeling has become his strongest propensity: and the means\nhe discovered for creating it form almost the entire history of culture.\n\n\n\n\n24.\n\n\nTHE PROOF OF A PRECEPT.\u2014The worth or worthlessness of a recipe\u2014that for\nbaking bread, for example\u2014is proved, generally speaking, by the result\nexpected coming to pass or not, provided, of course, that the directions\ngiven have been carefully followed. The case is different, however, when\nwe come to deal with moral precepts, for here the results cannot be\nascertained, interpreted, and divined. These precepts, indeed, are based\nupon hypotheses of but little scientific value, the proof or refutation of\nwhich by means of results is impossible:\u2014but in former ages, when all\nscience was crude and primitive, and when a matter was _taken for granted_\non the smallest evidence, then the worth or worthlessness of a moral\nrecipe was determined as we now determine any other precept: by reference\nto the results. If the natives of Alaska believe in a command which says:\n\u201cThou shalt not throw a bone into the fire or give it to a dog,\u201d this will\nbe proved by the warning: \u201cIf thou dost thou wilt have no luck when\nhunting.\u201d Yet, in one sense or another, it almost invariably happens that\none has \u201cno luck when hunting.\u201d It is no easy matter to _refute_ the worth\nof the precept in this way, the more so as it is the community, and not\nthe individual, which is regarded as the bearer of the punishment; and,\nagain, some occurrence is almost certain to happen which seems to prove\nthe rule.\n\n\n\n\n25.\n\n\nCUSTOMS AND BEAUTY.\u2014In justice to custom it must not be overlooked that,\nin the case of all those who conform to it whole-heartedly from the very\nstart, the organs of attack and defence, both physical and intellectual,\nbegin to waste away; _i.e._ these individuals gradually become more\nbeautiful! For it is the exercise of these organs and their corresponding\nfeelings that brings about ugliness and helps to preserve it. It is for\nthis reason that the old baboon is uglier than the young one, and that the\nyoung female baboon most closely resembles man, and is hence the most\nhandsome.\u2014Let us draw from this our own conclusions as to the origin of\nfemale beauty!\n\n\n\n\n26.\n\n\nANIMALS AND MORALS.\u2014The rules insisted upon in polite society, such, for\nexample, as the avoidance of everything ridiculous, fantastic,\npresumptuous; the suppression of one\u2019s virtues just as much as of one\u2019s\nmost violent desires, the instant bringing of one\u2019s self down to the\ngeneral level, submitting one\u2019s self to etiquette and self-depreciation:\nall this, generally speaking, is to be found, as a social morality, even\nin the lowest scale of the animal world\u2014and it is only in this low scale\nthat we see the innermost plan of all these amiable precautionary\nregulations: one wishes to escape from one\u2019s pursuers and to be aided in\nthe search for plunder. Hence animals learn to control and to disguise\nthemselves to such an extent that some of them can even adapt the colour\nof their bodies to that of their surroundings (by means of what is known\nas the \u201cchromatic function\u201d). Others can simulate death, or adopt the\nforms and colours of other animals, or of sand, leaves, moss, or fungi\n(known to English naturalists as \u201cmimicry\u201d).\n\nIt is in this way that an individual conceals himself behind the\nuniversality of the generic term \u201cman\u201d or \u201csociety,\u201d or adapts and\nattaches himself to princes, castes, political parties, current opinions\nof the time, or his surroundings: and we may easily find the animal\nequivalent of all those subtle means of making ourselves happy, thankful,\npowerful, and fascinating. Even that sense of truth, which is at bottom\nmerely the sense of security, is possessed by man in common with the\nanimals: we do not wish to be deceived by others or by ourselves; we hear\nwith some suspicion the promptings of our own passions, we control\nourselves and remain on the watch against ourselves. Now, the animal does\nall this as well as man; and in the animal likewise self-control\noriginates in the sense of reality (prudence). In the same way, the animal\nobserves the effects it exercises on the imagination of other beasts: it\nthus learns to view itself from their position, to consider itself\n\u201cobjectively\u201d; it has its own degree of self-knowledge. The animal judges\nthe movements of its friends and foes, it learns their peculiarities by\nheart and acts accordingly: it gives up, once and for all, the struggle\nagainst individual animals of certain species, and it likewise recognises,\nin the approach of certain varieties, whether their intentions are\nagreeable and peaceful. The beginnings of justice, like those of wisdom\u2014in\nshort, everything which we know as the _Socratic virtues_\u2014are of an\n_animal_ nature: a consequence of those instincts which teach us to search\nfor food and to avoid our enemies. If we remember that the higher man has\nmerely raised and refined himself in the _quality_ of his food and in the\nconception of what is contrary to his nature, it may not be going too far\nto describe the entire moral phenomenon as of an animal origin.\n\n\n\n\n27.\n\n\nTHE VALUE OF THE BELIEF IN SUPERHUMAN PASSIONS.\u2014The institution of\nmarriage stubbornly upholds the belief that love, although a passion, is\nnevertheless capable of duration as such, yea, that lasting, lifelong love\nmay be taken as a general rule. By means of the tenacity of a noble\nbelief, in spite of such frequent and almost customary refutations\u2014thereby\nbecoming a _pia fraus_\u2014marriage has elevated love to a higher rank. Every\ninstitution which has conceded to a passion the _belief in the duration of\nthe latter_, and responsibility for this duration, in spite of the nature\nof the passion itself, has raised the passion to a higher level: and he\nwho is thenceforth seized with such a passion does not, as formerly, think\nhimself lowered in the estimation of others or brought into danger on that\naccount, but on the contrary believes himself to be raised, both in the\nopinion of himself and of his equals. Let us recall institutions and\ncustoms which, out of the fiery devotion of a moment, have created eternal\nfidelity; out of the pleasure of anger, eternal vengeance; out of despair,\neternal mourning; out of a single hasty word, eternal obligation. A great\ndeal of hypocrisy and falsehood came into the world as the result of such\ntransformations; but each time, too, at the cost of such disadvantages, a\nnew and _superhuman_ conception which elevates mankind.\n\n\n\n\n28.\n\n\nSTATE OF MIND AS ARGUMENT.\u2014Whence arises within us a cheerful readiness\nfor action?\u2014such is the question which has greatly occupied the attention\nof men. The most ancient answer, and one which we still hear, is: God is\nthe cause; in this way He gives us to understand that He approves of our\nactions. When, in former ages, people consulted the oracles, they did so\nthat they might return home strengthened by this cheerful readiness; and\nevery one answered the doubts which came to him, if alternative actions\nsuggested themselves, by saying: \u201cI shall do whatever brings about that\nfeeling.\u201d They did not decide, in other words, for what was most\nreasonable, but upon some plan the conception of which imbued the soul\nwith courage and hope. A cheerful outlook was placed in the scales as an\nargument and proved to be heavier than reasonableness; for the state of\nmind was interpreted in a superstitious manner as the action of a god who\npromises success; and who, by this argument, lets his reason speak as the\nhighest reasonableness. Now, let the consequences of such a prejudice be\nconsidered when shrewd men, thirsting for power, availed themselves of\nit\u2014and still do so! \u201cBring about the right state of mind!\u201d\u2014in this way you\ncan do without all arguments and overcome every objection!\n\n\n\n\n29.\n\n\nACTORS OF VIRTUE AND SIN.\u2014Among the ancients who became celebrated for\ntheir virtue there were many, it would seem, _who acted to themselves_,\nespecially the Greeks, who, being actors by nature, must have acted quite\nunconsciously, seeing no reason why they should not do so. In addition,\nevery one was striving to outdo some one else\u2019s virtue with his own, so\nwhy should they not have made use of every artifice to show off their\nvirtues, especially among themselves, if only for the sake of practice! Of\nwhat use was a virtue which one could not display, and which did not know\nhow to display itself!\u2014Christianity put an end to the career of these\nactors of virtue; instead it devised the disgusting ostentation and\nparading of sins: it brought into the world a state of _mendacious\nsinfulness_ (even at the present day this is considered as _bon ton_ among\northodox Christians).\n\n\n\n\n30.\n\n\nREFINED CRUELTY AS VIRTUE.\u2014Here we have a morality which is based entirely\nupon our thirst for distinction\u2014do not therefore entertain too high an\nopinion of it! Indeed, we may well ask what kind of an impulse it is, and\nwhat is its fundamental signification? It is sought, by our appearance, to\ngrieve our neighbour, to arouse his envy, and to awaken his feelings of\nimpotence and degradation; we endeavour to make him taste the bitterness\nof his fate by dropping a little of _our_ honey on his tongue, and, while\nconferring this supposed benefit on him, looking sharply and triumphantly\ninto his eyes.\n\nBehold such a man, now become humble, and perfect in his humility\u2014and seek\nthose for whom, through his humility, he has for a long time been\npreparing a torture; for you are sure to find them! Here is another man\nwho shows mercy towards animals, and is admired for doing so\u2014but there are\ncertain people on whom he wishes to vent his cruelty by this very means.\nLook at that great artist: the pleasure he enjoyed beforehand in\nconceiving the envy of the rivals he had outstripped, refused to let his\npowers lie dormant until he became a great man\u2014how many bitter moments in\nthe souls of other men has he asked for as payment for his own greatness!\nThe nun\u2019s chastity: with what threatening eyes she looks into the faces of\nother women who live differently from her! what a vindictive joy shines in\nthose eyes! The theme is short, and its variations, though they might well\nbe innumerable, could not easily become tiresome\u2014for it is still too\nparadoxical a novelty, and almost a painful one, to affirm that the\nmorality of distinction is nothing, at bottom, but joy in refined cruelty.\nWhen I say \u201cat bottom,\u201d I mean here, every time in the first generation.\nFor, when the habit of some distinguished action becomes _hereditary_, its\nroot, so to speak, is not transmitted, but only its fruits (for only\nfeelings, and not thoughts, can become hereditary): and, if we presuppose\nthat this root is not reintroduced by education, in the second generation\nthe joy in the cruelty is no longer felt: but only pleasure in the habit\nas such. _This_ joy, however, is the first degree of the \u201cgood.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n31.\n\n\nPRIDE IN SPIRIT.\u2014The pride of man, which strives to oppose the theory of\nour own descent from animals and establishes a wide gulf between nature\nand man himself\u2014this pride is founded upon a prejudice as to what the mind\nis; and this prejudice is relatively recent. In the long prehistorical\nperiod of humanity it was supposed that the mind was everywhere, and men\ndid not look upon it as a particular characteristic of their own. Since,\non the contrary, everything spiritual (including all impulses,\nmaliciousness, and inclinations) was regarded as common property, and\nconsequently accessible to everybody, primitive mankind was not ashamed of\nbeing descended from animals or trees (the noble races thought themselves\nhonoured by such legends), and saw in the spiritual that which unites us\nwith nature, and not that which severs us from her. Thus man was brought\nup in modesty\u2014and this likewise was the result of a prejudice.\n\n\n\n\n32.\n\n\nTHE BRAKE.\u2014To suffer morally, and then to learn afterwards that this kind\nof suffering was founded upon an error, shocks us. For there is a unique\nconsolation in acknowledging, by our suffering, a \u201cdeeper world of truth\u201d\nthan any other world, and we would much rather suffer and feel ourselves\nabove reality by doing so (through the feeling that, in this way, we\napproach nearer to that \u201cdeeper world of truth\u201d), than live without\nsuffering and hence without this feeling of the sublime. Thus it is pride,\nand the habitual fashion of satisfying it, which opposes this new\ninterpretation of morality. What power, then, must we bring into operation\nto get rid of this brake? Greater pride? A new pride?\n\n\n\n\n33.\n\n\nTHE CONTEMPT OF CAUSES, CONSEQUENCES, AND REALITY.\u2014Those unfortunate\noccurrences which take place at times in the community, such as sudden\nstorms, bad harvests, or plagues, lead members of the community to suspect\nthat offences against custom have been committed, or that new customs must\nbe invented to appease a new demoniac power and caprice. Suspicion and\nreasoning of this kind, however, evade an inquiry into the real and\nnatural causes, and take the demoniac cause for granted. This is one\nsource of the hereditary perversion of the human intellect; and the other\none follows in its train, for, proceeding on the same principle, people\npaid much less attention to the real and natural consequences of an action\nthan to the supernatural consequences (the so-called punishments and\nmercies of the Divinity). It is commanded, for instance, that certain\nbaths are to be taken at certain times: and the baths are taken, not for\nthe sake of cleanliness, but because the command has been made. We are not\ntaught to avoid the real consequences of dirt, but merely the supposed\ndispleasure of the gods because a bath has been omitted. Under the\npressure of superstitious fear, people began to suspect that these\nablutions were of much greater importance than they seemed; they ascribed\ninner and supplementary meanings to them, gradually lost their sense of\nand pleasure in reality, and finally reality is considered as valuable\n_only to the extent that it is a symbol._ Hence a man who is under the\ninfluence of the morality of custom comes to despise causes first of all,\nsecondly consequences, and thirdly reality, and weaves all his higher\nfeelings (reverence, sublimity, pride, gratitude, love) _into an imaginary\nworld_: the so-called higher world. And even to-day we can see the\nconsequences of this: wherever, and in whatever fashion, man\u2019s feelings\nare raised, that imaginary world is in evidence. It is sad to have to say\nit; but for the time being _all higher sentiments_ must be looked upon\nwith suspicion by the man of science, to so great an extent are they\nintermingled with illusion and extravagance. Not that they need\nnecessarily be suspected _per se_ and for ever; but there is no doubt\nthat, of all the gradual _purifications_ which await humanity, the\npurification of the higher feelings will be one of the slowest.\n\n\n\n\n34.\n\n\nMORAL FEELINGS AND CONCEPTIONS.\u2014It is clear that moral feelings are\ntransmitted in such a way that children perceive in adults violent\npredilections and aversions for certain actions, and then, like born apes,\nimitate such likes and dislikes. Later on in life, when they are\nthoroughly permeated by these acquired and well-practised feelings, they\nthink it a matter of propriety and decorum to provide a kind of\njustification for these predilections and aversions. These\n\u201cjustifications,\u201d however, are in no way connected with the origin or the\ndegree of the feeling: people simply accommodate themselves to the rule\nthat, as rational beings, they must give reasons for their pros and cons,\nreasons which must be assignable and acceptable into the bargain. Up to\nthis extent the history of the moral feelings is entirely different from\nthe history of moral conceptions. The first-mentioned are powerful\n_before_ the action, and the latter especially after it, in view of the\nnecessity for making one\u2019s self clear in regard to them.\n\n\n\n\n35.\n\n\nFEELINGS AND THEIR DESCENT FROM JUDGMENTS.\u2014\u201cTrust in your feelings!\u201d But\nfeelings comprise nothing final, original; feelings are based upon the\njudgments and valuations which are transmitted to us in the shape of\nfeelings (inclinations, dislikes). The inspiration which springs from a\nfeeling is the grandchild of a judgment\u2014often an erroneous judgment!\u2014and\ncertainly not one\u2019s own judgment! Trusting in our feelings simply means\nobeying our grandfather and grandmother more than the gods within\n_ourselves_: our reason and experience.\n\n\n\n\n36.\n\n\nA FOOLISH PIETY, WITH _ARRI\u00c8RE-PENS\u00c9ES_.\u2014What! the inventors of ancient\ncivilisations, the first makers of tools and tape lines, the first\nbuilders of vehicles, ships, and houses, the first observers of the laws\nof the heavens and the multiplication tables\u2014is it contended that they\nwere entirely different from the inventors and observers of our own time,\nand superior to them? And that the first slow steps forward were of a\nvalue which has not been equalled by the discoveries we have made with all\nour travels and circumnavigations of the earth? It is the voice of\nprejudice that speaks thus, and argues in this way to depreciate the\nimportance of the modern mind. And yet it is plain to be seen that, in\nformer times, hazard was the greatest of all discoverers and observers and\nthe benevolent prompter of these ingenious ancients, and that, in the case\nof the most insignificant invention now made, a greater intellect,\ndiscipline, and scientific imagination are required than formerly existed\nthroughout long ages.\n\n\n\n\n37.\n\n\nWRONG CONCLUSIONS FROM USEFULNESS.\u2014When we have demonstrated the highest\nutility of a thing, we have nevertheless made no progress towards an\nexplanation of its origin; in other words, we can never explain, by mere\nutility, the necessity of existence. But precisely the contrary opinion\nhas been maintained up to the present time, even in the domain of the most\nexact science. In astronomy, for example, have we not heard it stated that\nthe (supposed) usefulness of the system of satellites\u2014(replacing the light\nwhich is diminished in intensity by the greater distance of the sun, in\norder that the inhabitants of the various celestial bodies should not want\nfor light)\u2014was the final object of this system and explained its origin?\nWhich may remind us of the conclusions of Christopher Columbus The earth\nhas been created for man, ergo, if there are countries, they must be\ninhabited. \u201cIs it probable that the sun would throw his rays on nothing,\nand that the nocturnal vigils of the stars should be wasted upon\nuntravelled seas and unpeopled countries?\u201d\n\n\n\n\n38.\n\n\nIMPULSES TRANSFORMED BY MORAL JUDGMENTS.\u2014The same impulse, under the\nimpression of the blame cast upon it by custom, develops into the painful\nfeeling of cowardice, or else the pleasurable feeling of _humility_, in\ncase a morality, like that of Christianity, has taken it to its heart and\ncalled it _good_. In other words, this instinct will fall under the\ninfluence of either a good conscience or a bad one! In itself, _like every\ninstinct_, it does not possess either this or indeed any other moral\ncharacter and name, or even a definite accompanying feeling of pleasure or\ndispleasure; it does not acquire all these qualities as its second nature\nuntil it comes into contact with impulses which have already been baptized\nas good and evil, or has been recognised as the attribute of beings\nalready weighed and valued by the people from a moral point of view. Thus\nthe ancient conception of envy differed entirely from ours. Hesiod reckons\nit among the qualities of the _good_, benevolent Eris, and it was not\nconsidered as offensive to attribute some kind of envy even to the gods.\nThis is easy to understand in a state of things inspired mainly by\nemulation, but emulation was looked upon as good, and valued accordingly.\n\nThe Greeks were likewise different from us in the value they set upon\nhope: they conceived it as blind and deceitful. Hesiod in one of his poems\nhas made a strong reference to it\u2014a reference so strong, indeed, that no\nmodern commentator has quite understood it; for it runs contrary to the\nmodern mind, which has learnt from Christianity to look upon hope as a\nvirtue. Among the Greeks, on the other hand, the portal leading to a\nknowledge of the future seemed only partly closed, and, in innumerable\ninstances, it was impressed upon them as a religious obligation to inquire\ninto the future, in those cases where we remain satisfied with hope. It\nthus came about that the Greeks, thanks to their oracles and seers, held\nhope in small esteem, and even lowered it to the level of an evil and a\ndanger.\n\nThe Jews, again, took a different view of anger from that held by us, and\nsanctified it: hence they have placed the sombre majesty of the wrathful\nman at an elevation so high that a European cannot conceive it. They\nmoulded their wrathful and holy Jehovah after the images of their wrathful\nand holy prophets. Compared with them, all the Europeans who have\nexhibited the greatest wrath are, so to speak, only second-hand creatures.\n\n\n\n\n39.\n\n\nTHE PREJUDICE CONCERNING \u201cPURE SPIRIT.\u201d\u2014Wherever the doctrine of _pure\nspirituality_ has prevailed, its excesses have resulted in the destruction\nof the tone of the nerves: it taught that the body should be despised,\nneglected, or tormented, and that, on account of his impulses, man himself\nshould be tortured and regarded with contempt. It gave rise to gloomy,\nstrained, and downcast souls\u2014who, besides, thought they knew the reason of\ntheir misery and how it might possibly be relieved! \u201cIt _must_ be in the\nbody! For it still _thrives_ too well!\u201d\u2014such was their conclusion, whilst\nthe fact was that the body, through its agonies, protested time after time\nagainst this never-ending mockery. Finally, a universal and chronic\nhyper-nervousness seized upon those virtuous representatives of the pure\nspirit: they learned to recognise joy only in the shape of ecstasies and\nother preliminary symptoms of insanity\u2014and their system reached its climax\nwhen it came to look upon ecstasy as the highest aim of life, and as the\nstandard by which all earthly things must be _condemned_.\n\n\n\n\n40.\n\n\nMEDITATIONS UPON OBSERVANCES.\u2014Numerous moral precepts, carelessly drawn\nfrom a single event, quickly became incomprehensible; it was as difficult\na matter to deduce their intentions with any degree of certainty as it was\nto recognise the punishment which was to follow the breaking of the rule.\nDoubts were even held regarding the order of the ceremonies; but, while\npeople guessed at random about such matters, the object of their\ninvestigations increased in importance, it was precisely the greatest\nabsurdity of an observance that developed into a holy of holies. Let us\nnot think too little of the energy wasted by man in this regard throughout\nthousands of years, and least of all of the effects of such _meditations\nupon observances_! Here we find ourselves on the wide training-ground of\nthe intellect\u2014not only do religions develop and continue to increase\nwithin its boundaries: but here also is the venerable, though dreadful,\nprimeval world of science; here grow up the poet, the thinker, the\nphysician, the lawgiver. The dread of the unintelligible, which, in an\nambiguous fashion, demanded ceremonies from us, gradually assumed the\ncharm of the intricate, and where man could not unravel he learnt to\ncreate.\n\n\n\n\n41.\n\n\nTO DETERMINE THE VALUE OF THE _VITA CONTEMPLATIVA_.\u2014Let us not forget, as\nmen leading a contemplative life, what kind of evil and misfortunes have\novertaken the men of the _vita activa_ as the result of contemplation\u2014in\nshort, what sort of contra-account the _vita activa_ has to offer _us_, if\nwe exhibit too much boastfulness before it with respect to our good deeds.\nIt would show us, in the first place, those so-called religious natures,\nwho predominate among the lovers of contemplation and consequently\nrepresent their commonest type. They have at all times acted in such a\nmanner as to render life difficult to practical men, and tried to make\nthem disgusted with it, if possible: to darken the sky, to obliterate the\nsun, to cast suspicion upon joy, to depreciate hope, to paralyse the\nactive hand\u2014all this they knew how to do, just as, for miserable times and\nfeelings, they had their consolations, alms, blessings, and benedictions.\nIn the second place, it can show us the artists, a species of men leading\nthe _vita contemplativa_, rarer than the religious element, but still\noften to be met with. As beings, these people are usually intolerable,\ncapricious, jealous, violent, quarrelsome: this, however, must be deduced\nfrom the joyous and exalting effects of their works.\n\nThirdly, we have the philosophers, men who unite religious and artistic\nqualities, combined, however, with a third element, namely, dialectics and\nthe love of controversy. They are the authors of evil in the same sense as\nthe religious men and artists, in addition to which they have wearied many\nof their fellow-men with their passion for dialectics, though their number\nhas always been very small. Fourthly, the thinkers and scientific workers.\nThey but rarely strove after effects, and contented themselves with\nsilently sticking to their own groove. Thus they brought about little envy\nand discomfort, and often, as objects of mockery and derision, they\nserved, without wishing to do so, to make life easier for the men of the\n_vita activa_. Lastly, science ended by becoming of much advantage to all;\nand if, _on account of this utility_, many of the men who were destined\nfor the _vita activa_ are now slowly making their way along the road to\nscience in the sweat of their brow, and not without brain-racking and\nmaledictions, this is not the fault of the crowd of thinkers and\nscientific workers: it is \u201cself-wrought pain.\u201d(3)\n\n\n\n\n42.\n\n\nORIGIN OF THE _VITA CONTEMPLATIVA_.\u2014During barbarous ages, when\npessimistic judgments held sway over men and the world, the individual, in\nthe consciousness of his full power, always endeavoured to act in\nconformity with such judgments, that is to say, he put his ideas into\naction by means of hunting, robbery, surprise attacks, brutality, and\nmurder: including the weaker forms of such acts, as far as they are\ntolerated within the community. When his strength declines, however, and\nhe feels tired, ill, melancholy, or satiated\u2014consequently becoming\ntemporarily void of wishes or desires\u2014he is a relatively better man, that\nis to say, less dangerous; and his pessimistic ideas will now discharge\nthemselves only in words and reflections\u2014upon his companions, for example,\nor his wife, his life, his gods,\u2014his judgments will be _evil_ ones. In\nthis frame of mind he develops into a thinker and prophet, or he adds to\nhis superstitions and invents new observances, or mocks his enemies.\nWhatever he may devise, however, all the productions of his brain will\nnecessarily reflect his frame of mind, such as the increase of fear and\nweariness, and the lower value he attributes to action and enjoyment. The\nsubstance of these productions must correspond to the substance of these\npoetic, thoughtful, and priestly moods; the evil judgment must be supreme.\n\nIn later years, all those who acted continuously as this man did in those\nspecial circumstances\u2014_i.e._ those who gave out pessimistic judgments, and\nlived a melancholy life, poor in action\u2014were called poets, thinkers,\npriests, or \u201cmedicine-men.\u201d The general body of men would have liked to\ndisregard such people, because they were not active enough, and to turn\nthem out of the community; but there was a certain risk in doing so: these\ninactive men had found out and were following the tracks of superstition\nand divine power, and no one doubted that they had unknown means of power\nat their disposal. This was the value which was set upon _the ancient race\nof contemplative natures_\u2014despised as they were in just the same degree as\nthey were not dreaded! In such a masked form, in such an ambiguous aspect,\nwith an evil heart and often with a troubled head, did Contemplation make\nits first appearance on earth: both weak and terrible at the same time,\ndespised in secret, and covered in public with every mark of superstitious\nveneration. Here, as always, we must say: _pudenda origo_!\n\n\n\n\n43.\n\n\nHOW MANY FORCES MUST NOW BE UNITED IN A THINKER.\u2014To rise superior to\nconsiderations of the senses, to raise one\u2019s self to abstract\ncontemplations: this is what was formerly regarded as _elevation_; but now\nit is not practicable for us to share the same feelings. Luxuriating in\nthe most shadowy images of words and things; playing with those invisible,\ninaudible, imperceptible beings, was considered as existence in another\nand _higher_ world, a world that sprang from the deep contempt felt for\nthe world which was perceptible to the senses, this seductive and wicked\nworld of ours. \u201cThese _abstracta_ no longer mislead us, but they may lead\nus\u201d\u2014with such words men soared aloft. It was not the _substance_ of these\nintellectual sports, but the sports themselves, which was looked upon as\n\u201cthe higher thing\u201d in the primeval ages of science. Hence we have Plato\u2019s\nadmiration for dialectics, and his enthusiastic belief in the necessary\nrelationship of dialectics to the good man who has risen superior to the\nconsiderations of his senses. It was not only knowledge that was\ndiscovered little by little, but also the different means of acquiring it,\nthe conditions and operations which precede knowledge in man. And it\nalways seemed as if the newly-discovered operation or the\nnewly-experienced condition were not a means of acquiring knowledge, but\nwas even the substance, goal, and sum-total of everything that was worth\nknowing. What does the thinker require?\u2014imagination, inspiration,\nabstraction, spirituality, invention, presentiment, induction, dialectics,\ndeduction, criticism, ability to collect materials, an impersonal mode of\nthinking, contemplation, comprehensiveness, and lastly, but not least,\njustice, and love for everything that exists\u2014but each one of these means\nwas at one time considered, in the history of the _vita contemplativa_, as\na goal and final purpose, and they all secured for their inventors that\nperfect happiness which fills the human soul when its final purpose dawns\nupon it.\n\n\n\n\n44.\n\n\nORIGIN AND MEANING.\u2014Why does this thought come into my mind again and\nagain, always in more and more vivid colours?\u2014that, in former times,\ninvestigators, in the course of their search for the origin of things,\nalways thought that they found something which would be of the highest\nimportance for all kinds of action and judgment: yea, that they even\ninvariably postulated that the salvation of mankind depended upon _insight\ninto the origin of things_\u2014whereas now, on the other hand, the more we\nexamine into origins, the less do they concern our interests: on the\ncontrary, all the valuations and interestedness which we have placed upon\nthings begin to lose their meaning, the more we retrogress where knowledge\nis concerned and approach the things themselves. _The origin becomes of\nless significance in proportion as we acquire insight into it_; whilst\nthings nearest to ourselves, around and within us, gradually begin to\nmanifest their wealth of colours, beauties, enigmas, and diversity of\nmeaning, of which earlier humanity never dreamed. In former ages thinkers\nused to move furiously about, like wild animals in cages, steadily glaring\nat the bars which hemmed them in, and at times springing up against them\nin a vain endeavour to break through them: and happy indeed was he who\ncould look through a gap to the outer world and could fancy that he saw\nsomething of what lay beyond and afar off.\n\n\n\n\n45.\n\n\nA TRAGIC TERMINATION TO KNOWLEDGE.\u2014Of all the means of exaltation, human\nsacrifices have at times done most to elevate man. And perhaps the one\npowerful thought\u2014the idea of _self-sacrificing humanity_\u2014might be made to\nprevail over every other aspiration, and thus to prove the victor over\neven the most victorious. But to whom should the sacrifice be made? We may\nalready swear that, if ever the constellation of such an idea appeared on\nthe horizon, the knowledge of truth would remain the single but enormous\nobject with which a sacrifice of such a nature would be\ncommensurate\u2014because no sacrifice is too great for it. In the meantime the\nproblem has never been expounded as to how far humanity, considered as a\nwhole, could take steps to encourage the advancement of knowledge; and\neven less as to what thirst for knowledge could impel humanity to the\npoint of sacrificing itself with the light of an anticipated wisdom in its\neyes. When, perhaps, with a view to the advancement of knowledge, we are\nable to enter into communication with the inhabitants of other stars, and\nwhen, during thousands of years, wisdom will have been carried from star\nto star, the enthusiasm of knowledge may rise to such a dizzy height!\n\n\n\n\n46.\n\n\nDOUBT IN DOUBT.\u2014\u201cWhat a good pillow doubt is for a well-balanced head!\u201d\nThis saying of Montaigne always made Pascal angry, for nobody ever wanted\na good pillow so much as he did. Whatever was the matter with him?\n\n\n\n\n47.\n\n\nWORDS BLOCK UP OUR PATH.\u2014Wherever primitive men put down a word, they\nthought they had made a discovery. How different the case really was!\u2014they\nhad come upon a problem, and, while they thought they had solved it, they\nhad in reality placed an obstacle in the way of its solution. Now, with\nevery new piece of knowledge, we stumble over petrified words and\nmummified conceptions, and would rather break a leg than a word in doing\nso.\n\n\n\n\n48.\n\n\n\u201cKNOW THYSELF\u201d IS THE WHOLE OF SCIENCE.\u2014Only when man shall have acquired\na knowledge of all things will he be able to know himself. For things are\nbut the boundaries of man.\n\n\n\n\n49.\n\n\nTHE NEW FUNDAMENTAL FEELING: OUR FINAL CORRUPTIBILITY.\u2014In former times\npeople sought to show the feeling of man\u2019s greatness by pointing to his\ndivine descent. This, however, has now become a forbidden path, for the\nape stands at its entrance, and likewise other fearsome animals, showing\ntheir teeth in a knowing fashion, as if to say, No further this way! Hence\npeople now try the opposite direction: the road along which humanity is\nproceeding shall stand as an indication of their greatness and their\nrelationship to God. But alas! this, too, is useless! At the far end of\nthis path stands the funeral urn of the last man and grave-digger (with\nthe inscription, _Nihil humani a me alienum puto_). To whatever height\nmankind may have developed\u2014and perhaps in the end it will not be so high\nas when they began!\u2014there is as little prospect of their attaining to a\nhigher order as there is for the ant and the earwig to enter into kinship\nwith God and eternity at the end of their career on earth. What is to come\nwill drag behind it that which has passed: why should any little star, or\neven any little species on that star, form an exception to that eternal\ndrama? Away with such sentimentalities!\n\n\n\n\n50.\n\n\nBELIEF IN INEBRIATION.\u2014Those men who have moments of sublime ecstasy, and\nwho, on ordinary occasions, on account of the contrast and the excessive\nwearing away of their nervous forces, usually feel miserable and desolate,\ncome to consider such moments as the true manifestation of their real\nselves, of their \u201cego,\u201d and their misery and dejection, on the other hand,\nas the _effect of the _\u201cnon-ego\u201d. This is why they think of their\nenvironment, the age in which they live, and the whole world in which they\nhave their being, with feelings of vindictiveness. This intoxication\nappears to them as their true life, their actual ego; and everywhere else\nthey see only those who strive to oppose and prevent this intoxication,\nwhether of an intellectual, moral, religious, or artistic nature.\n\nHumanity owes no small part of its evils to these fantastic enthusiasts;\nfor they are the insatiable sowers of the weed of discontent with one\u2019s\nself and one\u2019s neighbour, of contempt for the world and the age, and,\nabove all, of world-lassitude. An entire hell of criminals could not,\nperhaps, bring about such unfortunate and far-reaching consequences, such\nheavy and disquieting effects that corrupt earth and sky, as are brought\nabout by that \u201cnoble\u201d little community of unbridled, fantastic, half-mad\npeople\u2014of geniuses, too\u2014who cannot control themselves, or experience any\ninward joy, until they have lost themselves completely: while, on the\nother hand, the criminal often gives a proof of his admirable\nself-control, sacrifice, and wisdom, and thus maintains these qualities in\nthose who fear him. Through him life\u2019s sky may at times seem overcast and\nthreatening, but the atmosphere ever remains brisk and\nvigorous.\u2014Furthermore, these enthusiasts bring their entire strength to\nbear on the task of imbuing mankind with belief in inebriation as in life\nitself: a dreadful belief! As savages are now quickly corrupted and ruined\nby \u201cfire-water,\u201d so likewise has mankind in general been slowly though\nthoroughly corrupted by these spiritual \u201cfire-waters\u201d of intoxicating\nfeelings and by those who keep alive the craving for them. It may yet be\nruined thereby.\n\n\n\n\n51.\n\n\nSUCH AS WE STILL ARE.\u2014\u201cLet us be indulgent to the great one-eyed!\u201d said\nStuart Mill, as if it were necessary to ask for indulgence when we are\nwilling to believe and almost to worship them. I say: Let us be indulgent\ntowards the two-eyed, both great and small; for, _such as we are now_, we\nshall never rise beyond indulgence!\n\n\n\n\n52.\n\n\nWHERE ARE THE NEW PHYSICIANS OF THE SOUL?\u2014It is the means of consolation\nwhich have stamped life with that fundamental melancholy character in\nwhich we now believe: the worst disease of mankind has arisen from the\nstruggle against diseases, and apparent remedies have in the long run\nbrought about worse conditions than those which it was intended to remove\nby their use. Men, in their ignorance, used to believe that the stupefying\nand intoxicating means, which appeared to act immediately, the so-called\n\u201cconsolations,\u201d were the true healing powers: they even failed to observe\nthat they had often to pay for their immediate relief by a general and\nprofound deterioration in health, that the sick ones had to suffer from\nthe after-effects of the intoxication, then from the absence of the\nintoxication, and, later on, from a feeling of disquietude, depression,\nnervous starts, and ill-health. Again, men whose illness had advanced to a\ncertain extent never recovered from it\u2014those physicians of the soul,\nuniversally believed in and worshipped as they were, took care of that.\n\nIt has been justly said of Schopenhauer that he was one who again took the\nsufferings of humanity seriously: where is the man who will at length take\nthe antidotes against these sufferings seriously, and who will pillory the\nunheard-of quackery with which men, even up to our own age, and in the\nmost sublime nomenclature, have been wont to treat the illnesses of their\nsouls?\n\n\n\n\n53.\n\n\nABUSE OF THE CONSCIENTIOUS ONES.\u2014It is the conscientious, and not the\nunscrupulous, who have suffered so greatly from exhortations to penitence\nand the fear of hell, especially if they happened to be men of\nimagination. In other words, a gloom has been cast over the lives of those\nwho had the greatest need of cheerfulness and agreeable images\u2014not only\nfor the sake of their own consolation and recovery from themselves, but\nthat humanity itself might take delight in them and absorb a ray of their\nbeauty. Alas, how much superfluous cruelty and torment have been brought\nabout by those religions which invented sin! and by those men who, by\nmeans of such religions, desired to reach the highest enjoyment of their\npower!\n\n\n\n\n54.\n\n\nTHOUGHTS ON DISEASE.\u2014To soothe the imagination of the patient, in order\nthat he may at least no longer keep on thinking about his illness, and\nthus suffer more from such thoughts than from the complaint itself, which\nhas been the case hitherto\u2014that, it seems to me, is something! and it is\nby no means a trifle! And now do ye understand our task?\n\n\n\n\n55.\n\n\nTHE \u201cWAYS.\u201d\u2014So-called \u201cshort cuts\u201d have always led humanity to run great\nrisks: on hearing the \u201cglad tidings\u201d that a \u201cshort cut\u201d had been found,\nthey always left the straight path\u2014_and lost their way_.\n\n\n\n\n56.\n\n\nTHE APOSTATE OF THE FREE SPIRIT.\u2014Is there any one, then, who seriously\ndislikes pious people who hold formally to their belief? Do we not, on the\ncontrary, regard them with silent esteem and pleasure, deeply regretting\nat the same time that these excellent people do not share our own\nfeelings? But whence arises that sudden, profound, and unreasonable\ndislike for the man who, having at one time possessed freedom of spirit,\nfinally becomes a \u201cbeliever\u201d? In thinking of him we involuntarily\nexperience the sensation of having beheld some loathsome spectacle, which\nwe must quickly efface from our recollection. Should we not turn our backs\nupon even the most venerated man if we entertained the least suspicion of\nhim in this regard? Not, indeed, from a moral point of view, but because\nof sudden disgust and horror! Whence comes this sharpness of feeling?\nPerhaps we shall be given to understand that, at bottom, we are not quite\ncertain of our own selves? Or that, early in life, we build round\nourselves hedges of the most pointed contempt, in order that, when old age\nmakes us weak and forgetful, we may not feel inclined to brush our own\ncontempt away from us?\n\nNow, speaking frankly, this suspicion is quite erroneous, and whoever\nforms it knows nothing of what agitates and determines the free spirit:\nhow little, to him, does the _changing_ of an opinion seem contemptible\n_per se_! On the contrary, how highly he prizes the _ability_ to change an\nopinion as a rare and valuable distinction, especially if he can retain it\nfar into old age! And his pride (not his pusillanimity) even reaches so\nhigh as to be able to pluck the fruits of the _spernere se sperni_ and the\n_spernere se ipsum_: without his being troubled by the sensation of fear\nof vain and easy-going men. Furthermore, the doctrine of the innocence of\nall opinions appears to him to be as certain as the doctrine of the\ninnocence of all actions: how could he act as judge and hangman before the\napostate of intellectual liberty! On the contrary, the sight of such a\nperson would disgust him as much as the sight of a nauseous illness\ndisgusts the physician: the physical repulsion caused by everything\nspongy, soft, and suppurating momentarily overcomes reason and the desire\nto help. Hence our goodwill is overcome by the conception of the monstrous\ndishonesty which must have gained the upper hand in the apostate from the\nfree spirit: by the conception of a general gnawing which is eating its\nway down even to the framework of the character.\n\n\n\n\n57.\n\n\nOTHER FEARS, OTHER SAFETIES.\u2014Christianity overspread life with a new and\nunlimited _insecurity_, thereby creating new safeties, enjoyments and\nrecreations, and new valuations of all things. Our own century denies the\nexistence of this insecurity, and does so with a good conscience, yet it\nclings to the old habit of Christian certainties, enjoyments, recreations,\nand valuations!\u2014even in its noblest arts and philosophies. How feeble and\nworn out must all this now seem, how imperfect and clumsy, how arbitrarily\nfanatical, and, above all, how uncertain: now that its horrible contrast\nhas been taken away\u2014the ever-present fear of the Christian for his\n_eternal_ salvation!\n\n\n\n\n58.\n\n\nCHRISTIANITY AND THE EMOTIONS.\u2014In Christianity we may see a great popular\nprotest against philosophy: the reasoning of the sages of antiquity had\nwithdrawn men from the influence of the emotions, but Christianity would\nfain give men their emotions back again. With this aim in view, it denies\nany moral value to virtue such as philosophers understood it\u2014as a victory\nof the reason over the passions\u2014generally condemns every kind of goodness,\nand calls upon the passions to manifest themselves in their full power and\nglory: as _love_ of God, _fear_ of God, fanatic _belief_ in God, blind\n_hope_ in God.\n\n\n\n\n59.\n\n\nERROR AS A CORDIAL.\u2014Let people say what they will, it is nevertheless\ncertain that it was the aim of Christianity to deliver mankind from the\nyoke of moral engagements by indicating what it believed to be the\n_shortest way to perfection_: exactly in the same manner as a few\nphilosophers thought they could dispense with tedious and laborious\ndialectics, and the collection of strictly-proved facts, and point out a\nroyal road to truth. It was an error in both cases, but nevertheless a\ngreat cordial for those who were worn out and despairing in the\nwilderness.\n\n\n\n\n60.\n\n\nALL SPIRIT FINALLY BECOMES VISIBLE.\u2014Christianity has assimilated the\nentire spirituality of an incalculable number of men who were by nature\nsubmissive, all those enthusiasts of humiliation and reverence, both\nrefined and coarse. It has in this way freed itself from its own original\nrustic coarseness\u2014of which we are vividly reminded when we look at the\noldest image of St. Peter the Apostle\u2014and has become a very intellectual\nreligion, with thousands of wrinkles, _arri\u00e8re-pens\u00e9es_, and masks on its\nface. It has made European humanity more clever, and not only cunning from\na theological standpoint. By the spirit which it has thus given to\nEuropean humanity\u2014in conjunction with the power of abnegation, and very\noften in conjunction with the profound conviction and loyalty of that\nabnegation\u2014it has perhaps chiselled and shaped the most subtle\nindividualities which have ever existed in human society: the\nindividualities of the higher ranks of the Catholic clergy, especially\nwhen these priests have sprung from a noble family, and have brought to\ntheir work, from the very beginning, the innate grace of gesture, the\ndominating glance of the eye, and beautiful hands and feet. Here the human\nface acquires that spiritualisation brought about by the continual ebb and\nflow of two kinds of happiness (the feeling of power and the feeling of\nsubmission) after a carefully-planned manner of living has conquered the\nbeast in man. Here an activity, which consists in blessing, forgiving\nsins, and representing the Almighty, ever keeps alive in the soul, _and\neven in the body_, the consciousness of a supreme mission; here we find\nthat noble contempt concerning the perishable nature of the body, of\nwell-being, and of happiness, peculiar to born soldiers: their _pride_\nlies in obedience, a distinctly aristocratic trait; their excuse and their\nidealism arise from the enormous impossibility of their task. The\nsurpassing beauty and subtleties of these princes of the Church have\nalways proved to the people the truth of the Church; a momentary\nbrutalisation of the clergy (such as came about in Luther\u2019s time) always\ntended to encourage the contrary belief. And would it be maintained that\nthis result of beauty and human subtlety, shown in harmony of figure,\nintellect, and task, would come to an end with religions? and that nothing\nhigher could be obtained, or even conceived?\n\n\n\n\n61.\n\n\nTHE NEEDFUL SACRIFICE.\u2014Those earnest, able, and just men of profound\nfeelings, who are still Christians at heart, owe it to themselves to make\none attempt to live for a certain space of time without Christianity! they\nowe it _to their faith_ that they should thus for once take up their abode\n\u201cin the wilderness\u201d\u2014if for no other reason than that of being able to\npronounce on the question as to whether Christianity is needful. So far,\nhowever, they have confined themselves to their own narrow domain and\ninsulted every one who happened to be outside of it: yea, they even become\nhighly irritated when it is suggested to them that beyond this little\ndomain of theirs lies the great world, and that Christianity is, after\nall, only a corner of it! No; your evidence on the question will be\nvalueless until you have lived year after year without Christianity, and\nwith the inmost desire to continue to exist without it: until, indeed, you\nhave withdrawn far, far away from it. It is not when your nostalgia urges\nyou back again, but when your judgment, based on a strict comparison,\ndrives you back, that your homecoming has any significance!\u2014Men of coming\ngenerations will deal in this manner with all the valuations of the past;\nthey must be voluntarily _lived_ over again, together with their\ncontraries, in order that such men may finally acquire the right of\nshifting them.\n\n\n\n\n62.\n\n\nON THE ORIGIN OF RELIGIONS.\u2014How can any one regard his own opinion of\nthings as a revelation? This is the problem of the formation of religions:\nthere has always been some man in whom this phenomenon was possible. A\npostulate is that such a man already believed in revelations. Suddenly,\nhowever, a new idea occurs to him one day, _his_ idea; and the entire\nblessedness of a great personal hypothesis, which embraces all existence\nand the whole world, penetrates with such force into his conscience that\nhe dare not think himself the creator of such blessedness, and he\ntherefore attributes to his God the cause of this new idea and likewise\nthe cause of the cause, believing it to be the revelation of his God. How\ncould a man be the author of so great a happiness? ask his pessimistic\ndoubts. But other levers are secretly at work: an opinion may be\nstrengthened by one\u2019s self if it be considered as a revelation; and in\nthis way all its hypothetic nature is removed; the matter is set beyond\ncriticism and even beyond doubt: it is sanctified. It is true that, in\nthis way, a man lowers himself to playing the r\u00f4le of \u201cmouthpiece,\u201d but\nhis thought will end by being victorious as a divine thought\u2014the feeling\nof finally gaining the victory conquers the feeling of degradation. There\nis also another feeling in the background: if a man raises his products\nabove himself, and thus apparently detracts from his own worth, there\nnevertheless remains a kind of joyfulness, paternal love, and paternal\npride, which compensates man\u2014more than compensates man\u2014for everything.\n\n\n\n\n63.\n\n\nHATRED OF ONE\u2019S NEIGHBOUR.\u2014Supposing that we felt towards our neighbour as\nhe does himself\u2014Schopenhauer calls this compassion, though it would be\nmore correct to call it auto-passion, fellow-feeling\u2014we should be\ncompelled to hate him, if, like Pascal, he thought himself hateful. And\nthis was probably the general feeling of Pascal regarding mankind, and\nalso that of ancient Christianity, which, under Nero, was \u201cconvicted\u201d of\n_odium generis humani_, as Tacitus has recorded.\n\n\n\n\n64.\n\n\nTHE BROKEN-HEARTED ONES.\u2014Christianity has the instinct of a hunter for\nfinding out all those who may by hook or by crook be driven to\ndespair\u2014only a very small number of men can be brought to this despair.\nChristianity lies in wait for such as those, and pursues them. Pascal made\nan attempt to find out whether it was not possible, with the help of the\nvery subtlest knowledge, to drive everybody into despair. He failed: to\nhis second despair.\n\n\n\n\n65.\n\n\nBRAHMINISM AND CHRISTIANITY.\u2014There are certain precepts for obtaining a\nconsciousness of power: on the one hand, for those who already know how to\ncontrol themselves, and who are therefore already quite used to the\nfeeling of power; and, on the other hand, for those who cannot control\nthemselves. Brahminism has given its care to the former type of man;\nChristianity to the latter.\n\n\n\n\n66.\n\n\nTHE FACULTY OF VISION.\u2014During the whole of the Middle Ages it was believed\nthat the real distinguishing trait of higher men was the faculty of having\nvisions\u2014that is to say, of having a grave mental trouble. And, in fact,\nthe rules of life of all the higher natures of the Middle Ages (the\nreligiosi) were drawn up with the object of making man capable of vision!\nLittle wonder, then, that the exaggerated esteem for these half-mad\nfanatics, so-called men of genius, has continued even to our own days.\n\u201cThey have seen things that others do not see\u201d\u2014no doubt! and this fact\nshould inspire us with caution where they are concerned, and not with\nbelief!\n\n\n\n\n67.\n\n\nTHE PRICE OF BELIEVERS.\u2014He who sets such a value on being believed in has\nto promise heaven in recompense for this belief: and every one, even a\nthief on the Cross, must have suffered from a terrible doubt and\nexperienced crucifixion in every form: otherwise he would not buy his\nfollowers so dearly.\n\n\n\n\n68.\n\n\nTHE FIRST CHRISTIAN.\u2014The whole world still believes in the literary career\nof the \u201cHoly Ghost,\u201d or is still influenced by the effects of this belief:\nwhen we look into our Bibles we do so for the purpose of \u201cedifying\nourselves,\u201d to find a few words of comfort for our misery, be it great or\nsmall\u2014in short, we read ourselves into it and out of it. But who\u2014apart\nfrom a few learned men\u2014know that it likewise records the history of one of\nthe most ambitious and importunate souls that ever existed, of a mind full\nof superstition and cunning: the history of the Apostle Paul?\nNevertheless, without this singular history, without the tribulations and\npassions of such a mind, and of such a soul, there would have been no\nChristian kingdom; we should have scarcely have even heard of a little\nJewish sect, the founder of which died on the Cross. It is true that, if\nthis history had been understood in time, if we had read, _really read_,\nthe writings of St. Paul, not as the revelations of the \u201cHoly Ghost,\u201d but\nwith honest and independent minds, oblivious of all our personal\ntroubles\u2014there were no such readers for fifteen centuries\u2014it would have\nbeen all up with Christianity long ago: so searchingly do these writings\nof the Jewish Pascal lay bare the origins of Christianity, just as the\nFrench Pascal let us see its destiny and how it will ultimately perish.\nThat the ship of Christianity threw overboard no inconsiderable part of\nits Jewish ballast, that it was able to sail into the waters of the\nheathen and actually did do so: this is due to the history of one single\nman, this apostle who was so greatly troubled in mind and so worthy of\npity, but who was also very disagreeable to himself and to others.\n\nThis man suffered from a fixed idea, or rather a fixed question, an\never-present and ever-burning question: what was the _meaning_ of the\nJewish Law? and, more especially, _the fulfilment of this Law_? In his\nyouth he had done his best to satisfy it, thirsting as he did for that\nhighest distinction which the Jews could imagine\u2014this people, which raised\nthe imagination of moral loftiness to a greater elevation than any other\npeople, and which alone succeeded in uniting the conception of a holy God\nwith the idea of sin considered as an offence against this holiness. St.\nPaul became at once the fanatic defender and guard-of-honour of this God\nand His Law. Ceaselessly battling against and lying in wait for all\ntransgressors of this Law and those who presumed to doubt it, he was\npitiless and cruel towards all evil-doers, whom he would fain have\npunished in the most rigorous fashion possible.\n\nNow, however, he was aware in his own person of the fact that such a man\nas himself\u2014violent, sensual, melancholy, and malicious in his\nhatred\u2014_could_ not fulfil the Law; and furthermore, what seemed strangest\nof all to him, he saw that his boundless craving for power was continually\nprovoked to break it, and that he could not help yielding to this impulse.\nWas it really \u201cthe flesh\u201d which made him a trespasser time and again? Was\nit not rather, as it afterwards occurred to him, the Law itself, which\ncontinually showed itself to be impossible to fulfil, and seduced men into\ntransgression with an irresistible charm? But at that time he had not\nthought of this means of escape. As he suggests here and there, he had\nmany things on his conscience\u2014hatred, murder, sorcery, idolatry,\ndebauchery, drunkenness, and orgiastic revelry,\u2014and to however great an\nextent he tried to soothe his conscience, and, even more, his desire for\npower, by the extreme fanaticism of his worship for and defence of the\nLaw, there were times when the thought struck him: \u201cIt is all in vain! The\nanguish of the unfulfilled Law cannot be overcome.\u201d Luther must have\nexperienced similar feelings, when, in his cloister, he endeavoured to\nbecome the ideal man of his imagination; and, as Luther one day began to\nhate the ecclesiastical ideal, and the Pope, and the saints, and the whole\nclergy, with a hatred which was all the more deadly as he could not avow\nit even to himself, an analogous feeling took possession of St. Paul. The\nLaw was the Cross on which he felt himself crucified. How he hated it!\nWhat a grudge he owed it! How he began to look round on all sides to find\na means for its total annihilation, that he might no longer be obliged to\nfulfil it himself! And at last a liberating thought, together with a\nvision\u2014which was only to be expected in the case of an epileptic like\nhimself\u2014flashed into his mind: to him, the stern upholder of the Law\u2014who,\nin his innermost heart, was tired to death of it\u2014there appeared on the\nlonely path that Christ, with the divine effulgence on His countenance,\nand Paul heard the words: \u201cWhy persecutest thou Me?\u201d\n\nWhat actually took place, then, was this: his mind was suddenly\nenlightened, and he said to himself: \u201cIt is unreasonable to persecute this\nJesus Christ! Here is my means of escape, here is my complete vengeance,\nhere and nowhere else have I the destroyer of the Law in my hands!\u201d The\nsufferer from anguished pride felt himself restored to health all at once,\nhis moral despair disappeared in the air; for morality itself was blown\naway, annihilated\u2014that is to say, _fulfilled_, there on the Cross! Up to\nthat time that ignominious death had seemed to him to be the principal\nargument against the \u201cMessiahship\u201d proclaimed by the followers of the new\ndoctrine: but what if it were necessary for doing away with the Law? The\nenormous consequences of this thought, of this solution of the enigma,\ndanced before his eyes, and he at once became the happiest of men. The\ndestiny of the Jews, yea, of all mankind, seemed to him to be intertwined\nwith this instantaneous flash of enlightenment: he held the thought of\nthoughts, the key of keys, the light of lights; history would henceforth\nrevolve round him! For from that time forward he would be the apostle of\nthe _annihilation of the Law_! To be dead to sin\u2014that meant to be dead to\nthe Law also; to be in the flesh\u2014that meant to be under the Law! To be one\nwith Christ\u2014that meant to have become, like Him, the destroyer of the Law;\nto be dead with Him\u2014that meant likewise to be dead to the Law. Even if it\nwere still possible to sin, it would not at any rate be possible to sin\nagainst the Law: \u201cI am above the Law,\u201d thinks Paul; adding, \u201cIf I were now\nto acknowledge the Law again and to submit to it, I should make Christ an\naccomplice in the sin\u201d; for the Law was there for the purpose of producing\nsin and setting it in the foreground, as an emetic produces sickness. God\ncould not have decided upon the death of Christ had it been possible to\nfulfil the Law without it; henceforth, not only are all sins expiated, but\nsin itself is abolished; henceforth the Law is dead; henceforth \u201cthe\nflesh\u201d in which it dwelt is dead\u2014or at all events dying, gradually wasting\naway. To live for a short time longer amid this decay!\u2014this is the\nChristian\u2019s fate, until the time when, having become one with Christ, he\narises with Him, sharing with Christ the divine glory, and becoming, like\nChrist, a \u201cSon of God.\u201d Then Paul\u2019s exaltation was at its height, and with\nit the importunity of his soul\u2014the thought of union with Christ made him\nlose all shame, all submission, all constraint, and his ungovernable\nambition was shown to be revelling in the expectation of divine glories.\n\nSuch was the first Christian, the inventor of Christianity! before him\nthere were only a few Jewish sectaries.\n\n\n\n\n69.\n\n\nINIMITABLE.\u2014There is an enormous strain and distance between envy and\nfriendship, between self-contempt and pride: the Greek lived in the\nformer, the Christian in the latter.\n\n\n\n\n70.\n\n\nTHE USE OF A COARSE INTELLECT.\u2014The Christian Church is an encyclop\u00e6dia of\nprimitive cults and views of the most varied origin; and is, in\nconsequence, well adapted to missionary work: in former times she\ncould\u2014and still does\u2014go wherever she would, and in doing so always found\nsomething resembling herself, to which she could assimilate herself and\ngradually substitute her own spirit for it. It is not to what is Christian\nin her usages, but to what is universally pagan in them, that we have to\nattribute the development of this universal religion. Her thoughts, which\nhave their origin at once in the Judaic and in the Hellenic spirit, were\nable from the very beginning to raise themselves above the exclusiveness\nand subtleties of races and nations, as above prejudices. Although we may\nadmire the power which makes even the most difficult things coalesce, we\nmust nevertheless not overlook the contemptible qualities of this\npower\u2014the astonishing coarseness and narrowness of the Church\u2019s intellect\nwhen it was in process of formation, a coarseness which permitted it to\naccommodate itself to any diet, and to digest contradictions like pebbles.\n\n\n\n\n71.\n\n\nTHE CHRISTIAN VENGEANCE AGAINST ROME.\u2014Perhaps nothing is more fatiguing\nthan the sight of a continual conqueror: for more than two hundred years\nthe world had seen Rome overcoming one nation after another, the circle\nwas closed, all future seemed to be at an end, everything was done with a\nview to its lasting for all time\u2014yea, when the Empire built anything it\nwas erected with a view to being _aere perennius_. We, who know only the\n\u201cmelancholy of ruins,\u201d can scarcely understand that totally different\n_melancholy of eternal buildings_, from which men endeavoured to save\nthemselves as best they could\u2014with the light-hearted fancy of a Horace,\nfor example. Others sought different consolations for the weariness which\nwas closely akin to despair, against the deadening knowledge that from\nhenceforth all progress of thought and heart would be hopeless, that the\nhuge spider sat everywhere and mercilessly continued to drink all the\nblood within its reach, no matter where it might spring forth. This mute,\ncentury-old hatred of the wearied spectators against Rome, wherever Rome\u2019s\ndomination extended, was at length vented in Christianity, which united\nRome, \u201cthe world,\u201d and \u201csin\u201d into a single conception. The Christians took\ntheir revenge on Rome by proclaiming the immediate and sudden destruction\nof the world; by once more introducing a future\u2014for Rome had been able to\ntransform everything into the history of its _own_ past and present\u2014a\nfuture in which Rome was no longer the most important factor; and by\ndreaming of the last judgment\u2014while the crucified Jew, as the symbol of\nsalvation, was the greatest derision on the superb Roman pr\u00e6tors in the\nprovinces; for now they seemed to be only the symbols of ruin and a\n\u201cworld\u201d ready to perish.\n\n\n\n\n72.\n\n\nTHE \u201cLIFE AFTER DEATH.\u201d\u2014Christianity found the idea of punishment in hell\nin the entire Roman Empire: for the numerous mystic cults have hatched\nthis idea with particular satisfaction as being the most fecund egg of\ntheir power. Epicurus thought he could do nothing better for his followers\nthan to tear this belief up by the roots: his triumph found its finest\necho in the mouth of one of his disciples, the Roman Lucretius, a poet of\na gloomy, though afterwards enlightened, temperament. Alas! his triumph\nhad come too soon: Christianity took under its special protection this\nbelief in subterranean horrors, which was already beginning to die away in\nthe minds of men; and that was clever of it. For, without this audacious\nleap into the most complete paganism, how could it have proved itself\nvictorious over the popularity of Mithras and Isis? In this way it managed\nto bring timorous folk over to its side\u2014the most enthusiastic adherents of\na new faith! The Jews, being a people which, like the Greeks, and even in\na greater degree than the Greeks, loved and still love life, had not\ncultivated that idea to any great extent: the thought of final death as\nthe punishment of the sinner, death without resurrection as an extreme\nmenace: this was sufficient to impress these peculiar men, who did not\nwish to get rid of their bodies, but hoped, with their refined Egypticism,\nto preserve them for ever. (A Jewish martyr, about whom we may read in the\nSecond Book of the Maccabees, would not think of giving up his intestines,\nwhich had been torn out: he wanted to have them at the resurrection: quite\na Jewish characteristic!)\n\nThoughts of eternal damnation were far from the minds of the early\nChristians: they thought they were _delivered_ from death, and awaited a\ntransformation from day to day, but not death. (What a curious effect the\nfirst death must have produced on these expectant people! How many\ndifferent feelings must have been mingled together\u2014astonishment,\nexultation, doubt, shame, and passion! Verily, a subject worthy of a great\nartist!) St. Paul could say nothing better in praise of his Saviour than\nthat he had opened the gates of immortality to everybody\u2014he did not\nbelieve in the resurrection of those who had not been saved: more than\nthis, by reason of his doctrine of the impossibility of carrying out the\nLaw, and of death considered as a consequence of sin, he even suspected\nthat, up to that time, no one had become immortal (or at all events only a\nvery few, solely owing to special grace and not to any merits of their\nown): it was only in his time that immortality had begun to open its\ngates\u2014and only a few of the elect would finally gain admittance, as the\npride of the elect cannot help saying.\n\nIn other places, where the impulse towards life was not so strong as among\nthe Jews and the Christian Jews, and where the prospect of immortality did\nnot appear to be more valuable than the prospect of a final death, that\npagan, yet not altogether un-Jewish addition of Hell became a very useful\ntool in the hands of the missionaries: then arose the new doctrine that\neven the sinners and the unsaved are immortal, the doctrine of eternal\ndamnation, which was more powerful than the idea of a _final death_, which\nthereafter began to fade away. It was science alone which could overcome\nthis idea, at the same time brushing aside all other ideas about death and\nan after-life. We are poorer in one particular: the \u201clife after death\u201d has\nno further interest for us! an indescribable blessing, which is as yet too\nrecent to be considered as such throughout the world. And Epicurus is once\nmore triumphant.\n\n\n\n\n73.\n\n\nFOR THE \u201cTRUTH\u201d!\u2014\u201cThe truth of Christianity was attested by the virtuous\nlives of the Christians, their firmness in suffering, their unshakable\nbelief and above all by the spread and increase of the faith in spite of\nall calamities.\u201d\u2014That\u2019s how you talk even now. The more\u2019s the pity. Learn,\nthen, that all this proves nothing either in favour of truth or against\nit; that truth must be demonstrated differently from conscientiousness,\nand that the latter is in no respect whatever an argument in favour of the\nformer.\n\n\n\n\n74.\n\n\nA CHRISTIAN _ARRI\u00c8RE-PENS\u00c9E_.\u2014Would not this have been a general\nreservation among Christians of the first century: \u201cIt is better to\npersuade ourselves into the belief that we are guilty rather than that we\nare innocent; for it is impossible to ascertain the disposition of so\npowerful a judge\u2014but it is to be feared that he is looking out only for\nthose who are conscious of guilt. Bearing in mind his great power, it is\nmore likely that he will pardon a guilty person than admit that any one is\ninnocent, in his presence.\u201d This was the feeling of poor provincial folk\nin the presence of the Roman pr\u00e6tor: \u201cHe is too proud for us to dare to be\ninnocent.\u201d And may not this very sentiment have made its influence felt\nwhen the Christians endeavoured to picture to themselves the aspect of the\nSupreme Judge?\n\n\n\n\n75.\n\n\nNEITHER EUROPEAN NOR NOBLE.\u2014There is something Oriental and feminine in\nChristianity, and this is shown in the thought, \u201cWhom the Lord loveth, He\nchasteneth\u201d; for women in the Orient consider castigations and the strict\nseclusion of their persons from the world as a sign of their husband\u2019s\nlove, and complain if these signs of love cease.\n\n\n\n\n76.\n\n\nIF YOU THINK IT EVIL, YOU MAKE IT EVIL.\u2014The passions become evil and\nmalignant when regarded with evil and malignant eyes. It is in this way\nthat Christianity has succeeded in transforming Eros and Aphrodite\u2014sublime\npowers, capable of idealisation\u2014into hellish genii and phantom goblins, by\nmeans of the pangs which every sexual impulse was made to raise in the\nconscience of the believers. Is it not a dreadful thing to transform\nnecessary and regular sensations into a source of inward misery, and thus\narbitrarily to render interior misery necessary and regular _in the case\nof every man_! Furthermore, this misery remains secret with the result\nthat it is all the more deeply rooted, for it is not all men who have the\ncourage, which Shakespeare shows in his sonnets, of making public their\nChristian gloom on this point.\n\nMust a feeling, then, always be called evil against which we are forced to\nstruggle, which we must restrain even within certain limits, or, in given\ncases, banish entirely from our minds? Is it not the habit of vulgar souls\nalways to call an _enemy_ evil! and must we call Eros an enemy? The sexual\nfeelings, like the feelings of pity and adoration, possess the particular\ncharacteristic that, in their case, one being gratifies another by the\npleasure he enjoys\u2014it is but rarely that we meet with such a benevolent\narrangement in nature. And yet we calumniate and corrupt it all by our bad\nconscience! We connect the procreation of man with a bad conscience!\n\nBut the outcome of this diabolisation of Eros is a mere farce: the \u201cdemon\u201d\nEros becomes an object of greater interest to mankind than all the angels\nand saints put together, thanks to the mysterious Mumbo-Jumboism of the\nChurch in all things erotic: it is due to the Church that love stories,\neven in our own time, have become the one common interest which appeals to\nall classes of people\u2014with an exaggeration which would be incomprehensible\nto antiquity, and which will not fail to provoke roars of laughter in\ncoming generations. All our poetising and thinking, from the highest to\nthe lowest, is marked, and more than marked, by the exaggerated importance\nbestowed upon the love story as the principal item of our existence.\nPosterity may perhaps, on this account, come to the conclusion that its\nentire legacy of Christian culture is tainted with narrowness and\ninsanity.\n\n\n\n\n77.\n\n\nTHE TORTURES OF THE SOUL.\u2014The whole world raises a shout of horror at the\npresent day if one man presumes to torture the body of another: the\nindignation against such a being bursts forth almost spontaneously. Nay;\nwe tremble even at the very thought of torture being inflicted on a man or\nan animal, and we undergo unspeakable misery when we hear of such an act\nhaving been accomplished. But the same feeling is experienced in a very\nmuch lesser degree and extent when it is a question of the tortures of the\nsoul and the dreadfulness of their infliction. Christianity has introduced\nsuch tortures on an unprecedented scale, and still continues to preach\nthis kind of martyrdom\u2014yea, it even complains innocently of backsliding\nand indifference when it meets with a state of soul which is free from\nsuch agonies. From all this it now results that humanity, in the face of\nspiritual racks, tortures of the mind, and instruments of punishment,\nbehaves even to-day with the same awesome patience and indecision which it\nexhibited in former times in the presence of the cruelties practised on\nthe bodies of men or animals. Hell has certainly not remained merely an\nempty sound; and a new kind of pity has been devised to correspond to the\nnewly-created fears of hell\u2014a horrible and ponderous compassion, hitherto\nunknown; with people \u201cirrevocably condemned to hell,\u201d as, for example, the\nStony Guest gave Don Juan to understand, and which, during the Christian\nera, should often have made the very stones weep.\n\nPlutarch presents us with a gloomy picture of the state of mind of a\nsuperstitious man in pagan times: but this picture pales when compared\nwith that of a Christian of the Middle Ages, who _supposes_ that nothing\ncan save him from \u201ctorments everlasting.\u201d Dreadful omens appear to him:\nperhaps he sees a stork holding a snake in his beak and hesitating to\nswallow it. Or all nature suddenly becomes pale; or bright, fiery colours\nappear across the surface of the earth. Or the ghosts of his dead\nrelations approach him, with features showing traces of dreadful\nsufferings. Or the dark walls of the room in which the man is sleeping are\nsuddenly lighted up, and there, amidst a yellow flame, he perceives\ninstruments of torture and a motley horde of snakes and devils.\nChristianity has surely turned this world of ours into a fearful\nhabitation by raising the crucifix in all parts and thereby proclaiming\nthe earth to be a place \u201cwhere the just man is tortured to death!\u201d And\nwhen the ardour of some great preacher for once disclosed to the public\nthe secret sufferings of the individual, the agonies of the lonely souls,\nwhen, for example, Whitefield preached \u201clike a dying man to the dying,\u201d\nnow bitterly weeping, now violently stamping his feet, speaking\npassionately, in abrupt and incisive tones, without fearing to turn the\nwhole force of his attack upon any one individual present, excluding him\nfrom the assembly with excessive harshness\u2014then indeed did it seem as if\nthe earth were being transformed into a \u201cfield of evil.\u201d The huge crowds\nwere then seen to act as if seized with a sudden attack of madness: many\nwere in fits of anguish; others lay unconscious and motionless; others,\nagain, trembled or rent the air with their piercing shrieks. Everywhere\nthere was a loud breathing, as of half-choked people who were gasping for\nthe breath of life. \u201cIndeed,\u201d said an eye-witness once, \u201calmost all the\nnoises appeared to come from people who were dying in the bitterest\nagony.\u201d\n\nLet us never forget that it was Christianity which first turned the\ndeath-bed into a bed of agony, and that, by the scenes which took place\nthere, and the terrifying sounds which were made possible there for the\nfirst time, it has poisoned the senses and the blood of innumerable\nwitnesses and their children. Imagine the ordinary man who can never\nefface the recollection of words like these: \u201cOh, eternity! Would that I\nhad no soul! Would that I had never been born! My soul is damned, damned;\nlost for ever! Six days ago you might have helped me. But now all is over.\nI belong to the devil, and with him I will go down to hell. Break, break,\nye poor hearts of stone! Ye will not break? What more can be done for\nhearts of stone? I am damned that ye may be saved! There he is! Yea; there\nhe is! Come, good devil! Come!\u201d\n\n\n\n\n78.\n\n\nAVENGING JUSTICE.\u2014Misfortune and guilt: these two things have been put on\none scale by Christianity; so that, when the misfortune which follows a\nfault is a serious one, this fault is always judged accordingly to be a\nvery heinous one. But this was not the valuation of antiquity, and that is\nwhy Greek tragedy\u2014in which misfortune and punishment are discussed at\nlength, and yet in another sense\u2014forms part of the great liberators of the\nmind to an extent which even the ancients themselves could not realise.\nThey remained ingenuous enough not to set up an \u201cadequate relation\u201d\nbetween guilt and misfortune. The guilt of their tragic heroes is, indeed,\nthe little pebble that makes them stumble, and on which account they\nsometimes happen to break an arm or knock out an eye. Upon this the\nfeeling of antiquity made the comment, \u201cWell, he should have gone his way\nwith more caution and less pride.\u201d It was reserved for Christianity,\nhowever, to say: \u201cHere we have a great misfortune, and behind this great\nmisfortune there must lie a great fault, an equally _serious fault_,\nthough we cannot clearly see it! If, wretched man, you do not feel it, it\nis because your heart is hardened\u2014and worse than this will happen to you!\u201d\n\nBesides this, antiquity could point to examples of real misfortunes,\nmisfortunes that were pure and innocent; it was only with the advent of\nChristianity that all punishment became well-merited punishment: in\naddition to this it renders the imagination of the sufferer still more\nsuffering, so that the victim, in the midst of his distress, is seized\nwith the feeling that he has been morally reproved and cast away. Poor\nhumanity! The Greeks had a special word to stand for the feeling of\nindignation which was experienced at the misfortune of another: among\nChristian peoples this feeling was prohibited and was not permitted to\ndevelop; hence the reason why they have no name for this _more virile_\nbrother of pity.\n\n\n\n\n79.\n\n\nA PROPOSAL.\u2014If, according to the arguments of Pascal and Christianity, our\nego is always hateful, how can we permit and suppose other people, whether\nGod or men, to love it? It would be contrary to all good principles to let\nourselves be loved when we know very well that we deserve nothing but\nhatred\u2014not to speak of other repugnant feelings. \u201cBut this is the very\nKingdom of Grace.\u201d Then you look upon your love for your neighbour as a\ngrace? Your pity as a grace? Well, then, if you can do all this, there is\nno reason why you should not go a step further: love yourselves through\ngrace, and then you will no longer find your God necessary, and the entire\ndrama of the Fall and Redemption of mankind will reach its last act in\nyourselves!\n\n\n\n\n80.\n\n\nTHE COMPASSIONATE CHRISTIAN.\u2014A Christian\u2019s compassion in the presence of\nhis neighbour\u2019s suffering has another side to it: viz. his profound\nsuspicion of all the joy of his neighbour, of his neighbour\u2019s joy in\neverything that he wills and is able to do.\n\n\n\n\n81.\n\n\nTHE SAINT\u2019S HUMANITY.\u2014A saint had fallen into the company of believers,\nand could no longer stand their continually expressed hatred for sin. At\nlast he said to them: \u201cGod created all things, except sin: therefore it is\nno wonder that He does not like it. But man has created sin, and why,\nthen, should he disown this only child of his merely because it is not\nregarded with a friendly eye by God, its grandfather? Is that human?\nHonour to whom honour is due\u2014but one\u2019s heart and duty must speak, above\nall, in favour of the child\u2014and only in the second place for the honour of\nthe grandfather!\u201d\n\n\n\n\n82.\n\n\nTHE THEOLOGICAL ATTACK.\u2014\u201cYou must arrange that with yourself; for your\nlife is at stake!\u201d\u2014Luther it is who suddenly springs upon us with these\nwords and imagines that we feel the knife at our throats. But we throw him\noff with the words of one higher and more considerate than he: \u201cWe need\nform no opinion in regard to this or that matter, and thus save our souls\nfrom trouble. For, by their very nature, the things themselves cannot\ncompel us to express an opinion.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n83.\n\n\nPOOR HUMANITY!\u2014A single drop of blood too much or too little in the brain\nmay render our life unspeakably miserable and difficult, and we may suffer\nmore from this single drop of blood than Prometheus from his vulture. But\nthe worst is when we do not know that this drop is causing our\nsufferings\u2014and we think it is \u201cthe devil!\u201d Or \u201csin!\u201d\n\n\n\n\n84.\n\n\nTHE PHILOLOGY OF CHRISTIANITY.\u2014How little Christianity cultivates the\nsense of honesty can be inferred from the character of the writings of its\nlearned men. They set out their conjectures as audaciously as if they were\ndogmas, and are but seldom at a disadvantage in regard to the\ninterpretation of Scripture. Their continual cry is: \u201cI am right, for it\nis written\u201d\u2014and then follows an explanation so shameless and capricious\nthat a philologist, when he hears it, must stand stock-still between anger\nand laughter, asking himself again and again: Is it possible? Is it\nhonest? Is it even decent?\n\nIt is only those who never\u2014or always\u2014attend church that underestimate the\ndishonesty with which this subject is still dealt in Protestant pulpits;\nin what a clumsy fashion the preacher takes advantage of his security from\ninterruption; how the Bible is pinched and squeezed; and how the people\nare made acquainted with every form of _the art of false reading_.\n\nWhen all is said and done, however, what can be expected from the effects\nof a religion which, during the centuries when it was being firmly\nestablished, enacted that huge philological farce concerning the Old\nTestament? I refer to that attempt to tear the Old Testament from the\nhands of the Jews under the pretext that it contained only Christian\ndoctrines and _belonged_ to the Christians as the true people of Israel,\nwhile the Jews had merely arrogated it to themselves without authority.\nThis was followed by a mania of would-be interpretation and falsification,\nwhich could not under any circumstances have been allied with a good\nconscience. However strongly Jewish savants protested, it was everywhere\nsedulously asserted that the Old Testament alluded everywhere to Christ,\nand nothing but Christ, more especially His Cross, and thus, wherever\nreference was made to wood, a rod, a ladder, a twig, a tree, a willow, or\na staff, such a reference could not but be a prophecy relating to the wood\nof the Cross: even the setting-up of the Unicorn and the Brazen Serpent,\neven Moses stretching forth his hands in prayer\u2014yea, the very spits on\nwhich the Easter lambs were roasted: all these were allusions to the\nCross, and, as it were, preludes to it! Did any one who kept on asserting\nthese things ever _believe_ in them? Let it not be forgotten that the\nChurch did not shrink from putting interpolations in the text of the\nSeptuagint (_e.g._ Ps. xcvi. 10), in order that she might later on make\nuse of these interpolated passages as Christian prophecies. They were\nengaged in a struggle, and thought of their foes rather than of honesty.\n\n\n\n\n85.\n\n\nSUBTLETY IN PENURY.\u2014Take care not to laugh at the mythology of the Greeks\nmerely because it so little resembles your own profound metaphysics! You\nshould admire a people who checked their quick intellect at this point,\nand for a long time afterwards had tact enough to avoid the danger of\nscholasticism and hair-splitting superstition.\n\n\n\n\n86.\n\n\nTHE CHRISTIAN INTERPRETERS OF THE BODY.\u2014Whatever originates in the\nstomach, the intestines, the beating of the heart, the nerves, the bile,\nthe seed\u2014all those indispositions, debilities, irritations, and the whole\ncontingency of that machine about which we know so little\u2014a Christian like\nPascal considers it all as a moral and religious phenomenon, asking\nhimself whether God or the devil, good or evil, salvation or damnation, is\nthe cause. Alas for the unfortunate interpreter! How he must distort and\nworry his system! How he must distort and worry himself in order to gain\nhis point!\n\n\n\n\n87.\n\n\nTHE MORAL MIRACLE.\u2014In the domain of morality, Christianity knows of\nnothing but the miracle; the sudden change in all valuations, the sudden\nrenouncement of all habits, the sudden and irresistible predilection for\nnew things and persons. Christianity looks upon this phenomenon as the\nwork of God, and calls it the act of regeneration, thus giving it a unique\nand incomparable value. Everything else which is called morality, and\nwhich bears no relation to this miracle, becomes in consequence a matter\nof indifference to the Christian, and indeed, so far as it is a feeling of\nwell-being and pride, an object of fear. The canon of virtue, of the\nfulfilled law, is established in the New Testament, but in such a way as\nto be the canon of _impossible virtue_: men who still aspire to moral\nperfections must come to understand, in the face of this canon, that they\nare further and further _removed_ from their aim; they must _despair_ of\nvirtue, and end by throwing themselves at the feet of the Merciful One.\n\nIt is only in reaching a conclusion like this that moral efforts on the\npart of the Christian can still be regarded as possessing any value: the\ncondition that these efforts shall always remain sterile, painful, and\nmelancholy is therefore indispensable; and it is in this way that those\nefforts could still avail to bring about that moment of ecstasy when man\nexperiences the \u201coverflow of grace\u201d and the moral miracle. This struggle\nfor morality is, however, not _necessary_; for it is by no means uncommon\nfor this miracle to happen to the sinner at the very moment when he is, so\nto speak, wallowing in the mire of sin: yea, the leap from the deepest and\nmost abandoned sinfulness into its contrary seems easier, and, as a clear\nproof of the miracle, even more desirable.\n\nWhat, for the rest, may be the signification of such a sudden,\nunreasonable, and irresistible revolution, such a change from the depths\nof misery into the heights of happiness? (might it be a disguised\nepilepsy?) This should at all events be considered by alienists, who have\nfrequent opportunities of observing similar \u201cmiracles\u201d\u2014for example, the\nmania of murder or suicide. The relatively \u201cmore pleasant consequences\u201d in\nthe case of the Christian make no important difference.\n\n\n\n\n88.\n\n\nLUTHER, THE GREAT BENEFACTOR.\u2014Luther\u2019s most important result is the\nsuspicion which he awakened against the saints and the entire Christian\n_vita contemplativa_; only since his day has an un-Christian _vita\ncontemplativa_ again become possible in Europe, only since then has\ncontempt for laymen and worldly activity ceased. Luther continued to be an\nhonest miner\u2019s son even after he had been shut up in a monastery, and\nthere, for lack of other depths and \u201cborings,\u201d he descended into himself,\nand bored terrifying and dark passages through his own depths\u2014finally\ncoming to recognise that an introspective and saintly life was impossible\nto him, and that his innate \u201cactivity\u201d in body and soul would end by being\nhis ruin. For a long time, too long, indeed, he endeavoured to find the\nway to holiness through castigations; but at length he made up his mind,\nand said to himself: \u201cThere is no real _vita contemplativa_! We have been\ndeceived. The saints were no better than the rest of us.\u201d This was truly a\nrustic way of gaining one\u2019s case; but for the Germans of that period it\nwas the only proper way. How edified they felt when they could read in\ntheir Lutheran catechism: \u201cApart from the Ten Commandments there is no\nwork which could find favour in the eyes of God\u2014these much-boasted\nspiritual works of the saints are purely imaginary!\u201d\n\n\n\n\n89.\n\n\nDOUBT AS SIN.\u2014Christianity has done all it possibly could to draw a circle\nround itself, and has even gone so far as to declare doubt itself to be a\nsin. We are to be precipitated into faith by a miracle, without the help\nof reason, after which we are to float in it as the clearest and least\nequivocal of elements\u2014a mere glance at some solid ground, the thought that\nwe exist for some purpose other than floating, the least movement of our\namphibious nature: all this is a sin! Let it be noted that, following this\ndecision, the proofs and demonstration of the faith, and all meditations\nupon its origin, are prohibited as sinful. Christianity wants blindness\nand frenzy and an eternal swan-song above the waves under which reason has\nbeen drowned!\n\n\n\n\n90.\n\n\nEGOISM _VERSUS_ EGOISM.\u2014How many are there who still come to the\nconclusion: \u201cLife would be intolerable were there no God!\u201d Or, as is said\nin idealistic circles: \u201cLife would be intolerable if its ethical\nsignification were lacking.\u201d Hence there must be a God\u2014or an ethical\nsignification of existence! In reality the case stands thus: He who is\naccustomed to conceptions of this sort does not desire a life without\nthem, hence these conceptions are necessary for him and his\npreservation\u2014but what a presumption it is to assert that everything\nnecessary for my preservation must exist _in reality_! As if my\npreservation were really necessary! What if others held the contrary\nopinion? if they did not care to live under the conditions of these two\narticles of faith, and did not regard life as worth living if they were\nrealised!\u2014And that is the present position of affairs.\n\n\n\n\n91.\n\n\nTHE HONESTY OF GOD.\u2014An omniscient and omnipotent God who does not even\ntake care that His intentions shall be understood by His creatures\u2014could\nHe be a God of goodness? A God, who, for thousands of years, has permitted\ninnumerable doubts and scruples to continue unchecked as if they were of\nno importance in the salvation of mankind, and who, nevertheless,\nannounces the most dreadful consequences for any one who mistakes his\ntruth? Would he not be a cruel god if, being himself in possession of the\ntruth, he could calmly contemplate mankind, in a state of miserable\ntorment, worrying its mind as to what was truth?\n\nPerhaps, however, he really is a God of goodness, and was unable to\nexpress Himself more clearly? Perhaps he lacked intelligence enough for\nthis? Or eloquence? All the worse! For in such a case he may have been\ndeceived himself in regard to what he calls his \u201ctruth,\u201d and may not be\nfar from being another \u201cpoor, deceived devil!\u201d Must he not therefore\nexperience all the torments of hell at seeing His creatures suffering so\nmuch here below\u2014and even more, suffering through all eternity\u2014when he\nhimself can neither advise nor help them, except as a deaf and dumb\nperson, who makes all kinds of equivocal signs when his child or his dog\nis threatened with the most fearful danger? A distressed believer who\nargues thus might be pardoned if his pity for the suffering God were\ngreater than his pity for his \u201cneighbours\u201d; for they are his neighbours no\nlonger if that most solitary and primeval being is also the greatest\nsufferer and stands most in need of consolation.\n\nEvery religion shows some traits of the fact that it owes its origin to a\nstate of human intellectuality which was as yet too young and immature:\nthey all make light of the necessity for speaking the truth: as yet they\nknow nothing of the _duty of God_, the duty of being clear and truthful in\nHis communications with men. No one was more eloquent than Pascal in\nspeaking of the \u201chidden God\u201d and the reasons why He had to keep Himself\nhidden, all of which indicates clearly enough that Pascal himself could\nnever make his mind easy on this point: but he speaks with such confidence\nthat one is led to imagine that he must have been let into the secret at\nsome time or other. He seemed to have some idea that the _deus\nabsconditus_ bore a few slight traces of immorality; and he felt too much\nashamed and afraid of acknowledging this to himself: consequently, like a\nman who is afraid, he spoke as loudly as he could.\n\n\n\n\n92.\n\n\nAT THE DEATH-BED OF CHRISTIANITY.\u2014All truly active men now do without\ninward Christianity, and the most moderate and thoughtful men of the\nintellectual middle classes possess only a kind of modified Christianity;\nthat is, a peculiarly simplified Christianity. A God who, in his love,\nordains everything so that it may be best for us, a God who gives us our\nvirtue and our happiness and then takes them away from us, so that\neverything at length goes on smoothly and there is no reason left why we\nshould take life ill or grumble about it: in short, resignation and\nmodesty raised to the rank of divinities\u2014that is the best and most\nlifelike remnant of Christianity now left to us. It must be remembered,\nhowever, that in this way Christianity has developed into a soft\n_moralism_: instead of \u201cGod, freedom, and immortality,\u201d we have now a kind\nof benevolence and honest sentiments, and the belief that, in the entire\nuniverse, benevolence and honest sentiments will finally prevail: this is\nthe euthanasia of Christianity.\n\n\n\n\n93.\n\n\nWHAT IS TRUTH?\u2014Who will not be pleased with the conclusions which the\nfaithful take such delight in coming to?\u2014\u201cScience cannot be true; for it\ndenies God. Hence it does not come from God; and consequently it cannot be\ntrue\u2014for God is truth.\u201d It is not the deduction but the premise which is\nfallacious. What if God were not exactly truth, and if this were proved?\nAnd if he were instead the vanity, the desire for power, the ambitions,\nthe fear, and the enraptured and terrified folly of mankind?\n\n\n\n\n94.\n\n\nREMEDY FOR THE DISPLEASED.\u2014Even Paul already believed that some sacrifice\nwas necessary to take away the deep displeasure which God experienced\nconcerning sin: and ever since then Christians have never ceased to vent\nthe ill-humour which they felt with themselves upon some victim or\nanother\u2014whether it was \u201cthe world,\u201d or \u201chistory,\u201d or \u201creason,\u201d or joy, or\nthe tranquillity of other men\u2014something good, no matter what, had to die\nfor _their_ sins (even if only _in effigie_)!\n\n\n\n\n95.\n\n\nTHE HISTORICAL REFUTATION AS THE DECISIVE ONE.\u2014Formerly it was sought to\nprove that there was no God\u2014now it is shown how the belief that a God\nexisted could have _originated_, and by what means this belief gained\nauthority and importance: in this way the counterproof that there is no\nGod becomes unnecessary and superfluous.\u2014In former times, when the\n\u201cevidences of the existence of God\u201d which had been brought forward were\nrefuted, a doubt still remained, viz. whether better proofs could not be\nfound than those which had just been refuted: at that time the atheists\ndid not understand the art of making a _tabula rasa_.\n\n\n\n\n96.\n\n\n\u201cIN HOC SIGNO VINCES.\u201d\u2014To whatever degree of progress Europe may have\nattained in other respects, where religious affairs are concerned it has\nnot yet reached the liberal na\u00efvet\u00e9 of the ancient Brahmins, which proves\nthat, in India, four thousand years ago, people meditated more profoundly\nand transmitted to their descendants more pleasure in meditating than is\nthe case in our own days. For those Brahmins believed in the first place\nthat the priests were more powerful than the gods, and in the second place\nthat it was observances which constituted the power of the priests: as a\nresult of which their poets were never tired of glorifying those\nobservances (prayers, ceremonies, sacrifices, chants, improvised melodies)\nas the real dispensers of all benefits. Although a certain amount of\nsuperstition and poetry was mingled with all this, the principles were\n_true_! A step further, and the gods were cast aside\u2014which Europe likewise\nwill have to do before very long! One more step further, and priests and\nintermediaries could also be dispensed with\u2014and then Buddha, the teacher\nof the religion of self-redemption, appeared. How far Europe is still\nremoved from this degree of culture! When at length all the customs and\nobservances, upon which rests the power of gods, priests, and saviours,\nshall have been destroyed, when as a consequence morality, in the old\nsense, will be dead, then there will come ... yea, what will come then?\nBut let us refrain from speculating; let us rather make certain that\nEurope will retrieve that which, in India, amidst this people of thinkers,\nwas carried out thousands of years ago as a commandment of thought!\n\nScattered among the different nations of Europe there are now from ten to\ntwenty millions of men who no longer \u201cbelieve in God\u201d\u2014is it too much to\nask that they should give each other some indication or password? As soon\nas they recognise each other in this way, they will also make themselves\nknown to each other; and they will immediately become a power in Europe,\nand, happily, a power _among_ the nations! among the classes! between rich\nand poor! between those who command, and those who obey! between the most\nrestless and the most tranquil, tranquillising people!\n\n\n\n\n\nBOOK II.\n\n\n\n\n97.\n\n\nONE BECOMES MORAL\u2014but not because one is moral! Submission to morals may\nbe due to slavishness or vanity, egoism or resignation, dismal fanaticism\nor thoughtlessness. It may, again, be an act of despair, such as\nsubmission to the authority of a ruler; but there is nothing moral about\nit _per se_.\n\n\n\n\n98.\n\n\nALTERATIONS IN MORALS.\u2014Morals are constantly undergoing changes and\ntransformations, occasioned by successful crimes. (To these, for example,\nbelong all innovations in moral judgments.)\n\n\n\n\n99.\n\n\nWHEREIN WE ARE ALL IRRATIONAL.\u2014We still continue to draw conclusions from\njudgments which we consider as false, or doctrines in which we no longer\nbelieve,\u2014through our feelings.\n\n\n\n\n100.\n\n\nAWAKING FROM A DREAM.\u2014Noble and wise men once upon a time believed in the\nmusic of the spheres; there are still noble and wise men who believe in\n\u201cthe moral significance of existence,\u201d but there will come a day when this\nmusic of the spheres also will no longer be audible to them. They will\nawake and perceive that their ears have been dreaming.\n\n\n\n\n101.\n\n\nOPEN TO DOUBT.\u2014To accept a belief simply because it is customary implies\nthat one is dishonest, cowardly, and lazy.\u2014Must dishonesty, cowardice, and\nlaziness, therefore, be the primary conditions of morality?\n\n\n\n\n102.\n\n\nTHE MOST ANCIENT MORAL JUDGMENTS.\u2014What attitude do we assume towards the\nacts of our neighbour?\u2014In the first place, we consider how they may\nbenefit ourselves\u2014we see them only in this light. It is this effect which\nwe regard as the intention of the acts,\u2014and in the end we come to look\nupon these intentions of our neighbour as permanent qualities in him, and\nwe call him, for example, \u201ca dangerous man.\u201d Triple error! Triple and most\nancient mistake! Perhaps this inheritance comes to us from the animals and\ntheir faculty of judgment! Must not the origin of all morality be sought\nin these detestable narrow-minded conclusions: \u201cWhatever injures me is\nevil (something injurious in itself), whatever benefits me is good\n(beneficial and profitable in itself), whatever injures me once or several\ntimes is hostile _per se_; whatever benefits me once or several times is\nfriendly _per se_.\u201d _O pudenda origo!_ Is not this equivalent to\ninterpreting the contemptible, occasional, and often merely accidental\nrelations of another person to us as his primary and most essential\nqualities, and affirming that towards himself and every one else he is\nonly capable of such actions as we ourselves have experienced at his hands\nonce or several times! And is not this thorough folly based upon the most\nimmodest of all mental reservations: namely, that we ourselves must be the\nstandard of what is good, since we determine good and evil?\n\n\n\n\n103.\n\n\nTHERE ARE TWO CLASSES OF PEOPLE WHO DENY MORALITY.\u2014To deny morality may\nmean, in the first place, to deny the moral inducements which, men\npretend, have urged them on to their actions,\u2014which is equivalent to\nsaying that morality merely consists of words and forms, part of that\ncoarse and subtle deceit (especially self-deceit) which is characteristic\nof mankind, and perhaps more especially of those men who are celebrated\nfor their virtues. In the second place, it may mean our denying that moral\njudgments are founded on truths. It is admitted in such a case that these\njudgments are, in fact, the motives of the actions, but that in this way\nit is really errors as the basis of all moral judgments which urge men on\nto their moral actions. This is my point of view; but I should be far from\ndenying that in very many cases a subtle suspicion in accordance with the\nformer point of view\u2014_i.e._ in the spirit of La Rochefoucauld\u2014is also\njustifiable, and in any case of a high general utility.\u2014Therefore I deny\nmorality in the same way as I deny alchemy, _i.e._ I deny its hypotheses;\nbut I do not deny that there have been alchemists who believed in these\nhypotheses and based their actions upon them. I also deny immorality\u2014not\nthat innumerable people feel immoral, but that there is any true reason\nwhy they should feel so. I should not, of course, deny\u2014unless I were a\nfool\u2014that many actions which are called immoral should be avoided and\nresisted; and in the same way that many which are called moral should be\nperformed and encouraged; but I hold that in both cases these actions\nshould be performed from motives other than those which have prevailed up\nto the present time. We must learn anew in order that at last, perhaps\nvery late in the day, we may be able to do something more: feel anew.\n\n\n\n\n104.\n\n\nOUR VALUATIONS.\u2014All actions may be referred back to valuations, and all\nvaluations are either one\u2019s own or adopted, the latter being by far the\nmore numerous. Why do we adopt them? Through fear, _i.e._ we think it more\nadvisable to pretend that they are our own, and so well do we accustom\nourselves to do so that it at last becomes second nature to us. A\nvaluation of our own, which is the appreciation of a thing in accordance\nwith the pleasure or displeasure it causes us and no one else, is\nsomething very rare indeed!\u2014But must not our valuation of our\nneighbour\u2014which is prompted by the motive that we adopt his valuation in\nmost cases\u2014proceed from ourselves and by our own decision? Of course, but\nthen we come to these decisions during our childhood, and seldom change\nthem. We often remain during our whole lifetime the dupes of our childish\nand accustomed judgments in our manner of judging our fellow-men (their\nminds, rank, morality, character, and reprehensibility), and we find it\nnecessary to subscribe to their valuations.\n\n\n\n\n105.\n\n\nPSEUDO-EGOISM.\u2014The great majority of people, whatever they may think and\nsay about their \u201cegoism,\u201d do nothing for their ego all their life long,\nbut only for a phantom of this ego which has been formed in regard to them\nby their friends and communicated to them. As a consequence, they all live\nin a haze of impersonal and half-personal opinions and of arbitrary and,\nas it were, poetic valuations: the one always in the head of another, and\nthis head, again, in the head of somebody else\u2014a queer world of phantoms\nwhich manages to give itself a rational appearance! This haze of opinions\nand habits grows in extent and lives almost independently of the people it\nsurrounds; it is it which gives rise to the immense effect of general\njudgments on \u201cman\u201d\u2014all those men, who do not know themselves, believe in a\nbloodless abstraction which they call \u201cman,\u201d _i.e._ in a fiction; and\nevery change caused in this abstraction by the judgments of powerful\nindividualities (such as princes and philosophers) produces an\nextraordinary and irrational effect on the great majority,\u2014for the simple\nreason that not a single individual in this haze can oppose a real ego, an\nego which is accessible to and fathomed by himself, to the universal pale\nfiction, which he could thereby destroy.\n\n\n\n\n106.\n\n\nAGAINST DEFINITIONS OF MORAL AIMS.\u2014On all sides we now hear the aim of\nmorals defined as the preservation and advancement of humanity; but this\nis merely the expression of a wish to have a formula and nothing more.\nPreservation wherein? advancement whither? These are questions which must\nat once be asked. Is not the most essential point, the answer to this\n_wherein?_ and _whither?_ left out of the formula? What results therefrom,\nso far as our own actions and duties are concerned, which is not already\ntacitly and instinctively understood? Can we sufficiently understand from\nthis formula whether we must prolong as far as possible the existence of\nthe human race, or bring about the greatest possible disanimalisation of\nman? How different the means, _i.e._ the practical morals, would have to\nbe in the two cases! Supposing that the greatest possible rationality were\ngiven to mankind, this certainly would not guarantee the longest possible\nexistence for them! Or supposing that their \u201cgreatest happiness\u201d was\nthought to be the answer to the questions put, do we thereby mean the\nhighest degree of happiness which a few individuals might attain, or an\nincalculable, though finally attainable, average state of happiness for\nall? And why should morality be the way to it? Has not morality,\nconsidered as a whole, opened up so many sources of displeasure as to lead\nus to think that man up to the present, with every new refinement of\nmorality, has become more and more discontented with himself, with his\nneighbour, and with his own lot? Has not the most moral of men hitherto\nbelieved that the only justifiable state of mankind in the face of morals\nis that of the deepest misery?\n\n\n\n\n107.\n\n\nOUR RIGHT TO OUR FOLLY.\u2014How must we act? Why must we act? So far as the\ncoarse and immediate needs of the individual are concerned, it is easy to\nanswer these questions, but the more we enter upon the more important and\nmore subtle domains of action, the more does the problem become uncertain\nand the more arbitrary its solution. An arbitrary decision, however, is\nthe very thing that must be excluded here,\u2014thus commands the authority of\nmorals: an obscure uneasiness and awe must relentlessly guide man in those\nvery actions the objects and means of which he cannot at once perceive.\nThis authority of morals undermines our thinking faculty in regard to\nthose things concerning which it might be dangerous to think wrongly,\u2014it\nis in this way, at all events, that morality usually justifies itself to\nits accusers. Wrong in this place means dangerous; but dangerous to whom?\nIt is not, as a rule, the danger of the doer of the action which the\nsupporters of authoritative morals have in view, but their own danger; the\nloss which their power and influence might undergo if the right to act\naccording to their own greater or lesser reason, however wilfully and\nfoolishly, were accorded to all men. They on their part make unhesitating\nuse of their right to arbitrariness and folly,\u2014they even command in cases\nwhere it is hardly possible, or at all events very difficult, to answer\nthe questions, \u201cHow must they act, why must they act?\u201d And if the reason\nof mankind grows with such extraordinary slowness that it was often\npossible to deny its growth during the whole course of humanity, what is\nmore to blame for this than this solemn presence, even omnipresence, of\nmoral commands, which do not even permit the individual question of how\nand why to be asked at all? Have we not been educated precisely in such a\nway as to make us feel pathetic, and thus to obscure our vision at the\nvery time when our reason should be able to see as clearly and calmly as\npossible\u2014_i.e._ in all higher and more important circumstances?\n\n\n\n\n108.\n\n\nSOME THESES.\u2014We should not give the individual, in so far as he desires\nhis own happiness, any precepts or recommendations as to the road leading\nto happiness; for individual happiness arises from particular laws that\nare unknown to anybody, and such a man will only be hindered or obstructed\nby recommendations which come to him from outside sources. Those precepts\nwhich are called moral are in reality directed against individuals, and do\nnot by any means make for the happiness of such individuals. The\nrelationship of these precepts to the \"happiness and well-being of\nmankind\" is equally slight, for it is quite impossible to assign a\ndefinite conception to these words, and still less can they be employed as\nguiding stars on the dark sea of moral aspirations. It is a prejudice to\nthink that morality is more favourable to the development of the reason\nthan immorality. It is erroneous to suppose that the unconscious aim in\nthe development of every conscious being (namely, animal, man, humanity,\netc.) is its \u201cgreatest happiness\u201d: on the contrary, there is a particular\nand incomparable happiness to be attained at every stage of our\ndevelopment, one that is neither high nor low, but quite an individual\nhappiness. Evolution does not make happiness its goal; it aims merely at\nevolution, and nothing else. It is only if humanity had a universally\nrecognised goal that we could propose to do this or that: for the time\nbeing there is no such goal. It follows that the pretensions of morality\nshould not be brought into any relationship with mankind: this would be\nmerely childish and irrational. It is quite another thing to recommend a\ngoal to mankind: this goal would then be something that would depend upon\nour own will and pleasure. Provided that mankind in general agreed to\nadopt such a goal, it could then impose a moral law upon itself, a law\nwhich would, at all events, be imposed by their own free will. Up to now,\nhowever, the moral law has had to be placed above our own free will:\nstrictly speaking, men did not wish to impose this law upon themselves;\nthey wished to take it from somewhere, to discover it, or to let\nthemselves be commanded by it from somewhere.\n\n\n\n\n109.\n\n\nSELF-CONTROL AND MODERATION, AND THEIR FINAL MOTIVE.\u2014I find not more than\nsix essentially different methods for combating the vehemence of an\nimpulse. First of all, we may avoid the occasion for satisfying the\nimpulse, weakening and mortifying it by refraining from satisfying it for\nlong and ever-lengthening periods. Secondly, we may impose a severe and\nregular order upon ourselves in regard to the satisfying of our appetites.\nBy thus regulating the impulse and limiting its ebb and flow to fixed\nperiods, we may obtain intervals in which it ceases to disturb us; and by\nbeginning in this way we may perhaps be able to pass on to the first\nmethod. In the third place, we may deliberately give ourselves over to an\nunrestrained and unbounded gratification of the impulse in order that we\nmay become disgusted with it, and to obtain by means of this very disgust\na command over the impulse: provided, of course, that we do not imitate\nthe rider who rides his horse to death and breaks his own neck in doing\nso. For this, unhappily, is generally the outcome of the application of\nthis third method.\n\nIn the fourth place, there is an intellectual trick, which consists in\nassociating the idea of the gratification so firmly with some painful\nthought, that after a little practice the thought of gratification is\nitself immediately felt as a very painful one. (For example, when the\nChristian accustoms himself to think of the presence and scorn of the\ndevil in the course of sensual enjoyment, or everlasting punishment in\nhell for revenge by murder; or even merely of the contempt which he will\nmeet with from those of his fellow-men whom he most respects, if he steals\na sum of money, or if a man has often checked an intense desire for\nsuicide by thinking of the grief and self-reproaches of his relations and\nfriends, and has thus succeeded in balancing himself upon the edge of\nlife: for, after some practice, these ideas follow one another in his mind\nlike cause and effect.) Among instances of this kind may be mentioned the\ncases of Lord Byron and Napoleon, in whom the pride of man revolted and\ntook offence at the preponderance of one particular passion over the\ncollective attitude and order of reason. From this arises the habit and\njoy of tyrannising over the craving and making it, as it were, gnash its\nteeth. \u201cI will not be a slave of any appetite,\u201d wrote Byron in his diary.\nIn the fifth place, we may bring about a dislocation of our powers by\nimposing upon ourselves a particularly difficult and fatiguing task, or by\ndeliberately submitting to some new charm and pleasure in order thus to\nturn our thoughts and physical powers into other channels. It comes to the\nsame thing if we temporarily favour another impulse by affording it\nnumerous opportunities of gratification, and thus rendering it the\nsquanderer of the power which would otherwise be commandeered, so to\nspeak, by the tyrannical impulse. A few, perhaps, will be able to restrain\nthe particular passion which aspires to domination by granting their other\nknown passions a temporary encouragement and license in order that they\nmay devour the food which the tyrant wishes for himself alone.\n\nIn the sixth and last place, the man who can stand it, and thinks it\nreasonable to weaken and subdue his entire physical and psychical\norganisation, likewise, of course, attains the goal of weakening a single\nviolent instinct; as, for example, those who starve their sensuality and\nat the same time their vigour, and often destroy their reason into the\nbargain, such as the ascetics.\u2014Hence, shunning the opportunities,\nregulating the impulse, bringing about satiety and disgust in the impulse,\nassociating a painful idea (such as that of discredit, disgust, or\noffended pride), then the dislocation of one\u2019s forces, and finally general\ndebility and exhaustion: these are the six methods. But the will to combat\nthe violence of a craving is beyond our power, equally with the method we\nadopt and the success we may have in applying it. In all this process our\nintellect is rather merely the blind instrument of another rival craving,\nwhether it be the impulse to repose, or the fear of disgrace and other\nevil consequences, or love. While \u201cwe\u201d thus imagine that we are\ncomplaining of the violence of an impulse, it is at bottom merely one\nimpulse which is complaining of another, _i.e._ the perception of the\nviolent suffering which is being caused us presupposes that there is\nanother equally or more violent impulse, and that a struggle is impending\nin which our intellect must take part.\n\n\n\n\n110.\n\n\nTHAT WHICH OPPOSES.\u2014We may observe the following process in ourselves, and\nI should like it to be often observed and confirmed. There arises in us\nthe scent of a kind of pleasure hitherto unknown to us, and consequently a\nnew craving. Now, the question is, What opposes itself to this craving? If\nit be things and considerations of a common kind, or people whom we hold\nin no very high esteem, the aim of the new craving assumes the appearance\nof a \u201cnoble, good, praiseworthy feeling, and one worthy of sacrifice\u201d: all\nthe moral dispositions which have been inherited will adopt it and will\nadd it to the number of those aims which we consider as moral\u2014and now we\nimagine that we are no longer striving after a pleasure, but after a\nmorality, which greatly increases our confidence in our aspirations.\n\n\n\n\n111.\n\n\nTO THE ADMIRERS OF OBJECTIVENESS.\u2014He who, as a child, has observed in his\nparents and acquaintances in the midst of whom he has grown up, certain\nvaried and strong feelings, with but little subtle discernment and\ninclination for intellectual justice, and has therefore employed his best\npowers and his most precious time in imitating these feelings, will\nobserve in himself when he arrives at years of discretion that every new\nthing or man he meets with excites in him either sympathy or aversion,\nenvy or contempt. Under the domination of this experience, which he is\npowerless to shake off, he admires neutrality of feeling or \u201cobjectivity\u201d\nas an extraordinary thing, as something connected with genius or a very\nrare morality, and he cannot believe that even this neutrality is merely\nthe product of education and habit.\n\n\n\n\n112.\n\n\nON THE NATURAL HISTORY OF DUTY AND RIGHT.\u2014Our duties are the claims which\nothers have upon us. How did they acquire these claims? By the fact that\nthey considered us as capable of making and holding agreements and\ncontracts, by assuming that we were their like and equals, and by\nconsequently entrusting something to us, bringing us up, educating us, and\nsupporting us. We do our duty, _i.e._ we justify that conception of our\npower for the sake of which all these things were done for us. We return\nthem in proportion as they were meted out to us. It is thus our pride that\norders us to do our duty\u2014we desire to re-establish our own independence by\nopposing to that which others have done for us something that we do for\nthem, for in that way the others invade our sphere of power, and would for\never have a hand in it if we did not make reprisals by means of \u201cduty,\u201d\nand thus encroach upon their power. The rights of others can only have\nregard to that which lies within our power; it would be unreasonable on\ntheir part to require something from us which does not belong to us. To\nput the matter more accurately, their rights can only relate to what they\nimagine to be in our power, provided that it is something that we\nourselves consider as being in our power. The same error may easily occur\non either side. The feeling of duty depends upon our having the same\nbelief in regard to the extent of our power as other people have, _i.e._\nthat we can promise certain things and undertake to do them freely (\u201cfree\nwill\u201d).\n\nMy rights consist of that part of my power which others have not only\nconceded to me, but which they wish to maintain for me. Why do they do it?\nOn the one hand they are actuated by wisdom, fear and prudence: whether\nthey expect something similar from us (the protection of their rights),\nwhether they consider a struggle with us as dangerous or inopportune, or\nwhether they see a disadvantage to themselves in every diminution of our\npower, since in that case we should be ill adapted for an alliance with\nthem against a hostile third power. On the other hand rights are granted\nby donations and cessions. In this latter case, the other people have not\nonly enough power, but more than enough, so that they can give up a\nportion and guarantee it to the person to whom they give it: whereby they\npresuppose a certain restricted sense of power in the person upon whom\nthey have bestowed the gift. In this way rights arise: recognised and\nguaranteed degrees of power. When the relations of powers to one another\nare materially changed, rights disappear and new ones are formed, as is\ndemonstrated by the constant flux and reflux of the rights of nations.\nWhen our power diminishes to any great extent, the feelings of those who\nhitherto guaranteed it undergo some change: they consider whether they\nshall once again restore us to our former possession, and if they do not\nsee their way to do this they deny our \u201crights\u201d from that time forward. In\nthe same way, if our power increases to a considerable extent the feelings\nof those who previously recognised it, and whose recognition we no longer\nrequire, likewise change: they will then try to reduce our power to its\nformer dimensions, and they will endeavour to interfere in our affairs,\njustifying their interference by an appeal to their \u201cduty.\u201d But this is\nmerely useless word-quibbling. Where right prevails, a certain state and\ndegree of power is maintained, and all attempts at its augmentation and\ndiminution are resisted. The right of others is the concession of our\nfeeling of power to the feeling of power in these others. Whenever our\npower shows itself to be thoroughly shattered and broken, our rights\ncease: on the other hand, when we have become very much stronger, the\nrights of others cease in our minds to be what we have hitherto admitted\nthem to be. The man who aims at being just, therefore, must keep a\nconstant lookout for the changes in the indicator of the scales in order\nthat he may properly estimate the degrees of power and right which, with\nthe customary transitoriness of human things, retain their equilibrium for\nonly a short time and in most cases continue to rise and fall. As a\nconsequence it is thus very difficult to be \u201cjust,\u201d and requires much\nexperience, good intentions, and an unusually large amount of good sense.\n\n\n\n\n113.\n\n\nSTRIVING FOR DISTINCTION.\u2014When we strive after distinction we must\nceaselessly keep our eyes fixed on our neighbour and endeavour to\nascertain what his feelings are; but the sympathy and knowledge which are\nnecessary to satisfy this desire are far from being inspired by\nharmlessness, compassion, or kindness. On the contrary, we wish to\nperceive or find out in what way our neighbour suffers from us, either\ninternally or externally, how he loses control over himself and yields to\nthe impression which our hand or even our mere appearance makes on him.\nEven when he who aspires to distinction makes or wishes to make a joyful,\nelevating, or cheerful impression, he does not enjoy this success in that\nhe rejoices, exalts, or cheers his neighbour, but in that he leaves his\nimpress on the latter\u2019s soul, changing its form and dominating it\naccording to his will. The desire for distinction is the desire to subject\none\u2019s neighbour, even if it be merely in an indirect fashion, one only\nfelt or even only dreamt of. There is a long series of stages in this\nsecretly-desired will to subdue, and a very complete record of them would\nperhaps almost be like an excellent history of culture from the early\ndistortions of barbarism down to the caricatures of modern over-refinement\nand sickly idealism.\n\nThis desire for distinction entails upon our neighbour\u2014to indicate only a\nfew rungs of the long ladder\u2014torture first of all, followed by blows, then\nterror, anxious surprise, wonder, envy, admiration, elevation, pleasure,\njoy, laughter, derision, mockery, sneers, scourging and self-inflicted\ntorture. There at the very top of the ladder stands the ascetic and\nmartyr, who himself experiences the utmost satisfaction, because he\ninflicts on himself, as a result of his desire for distinction, that pain\nwhich his opposite, the barbarian on the first rung of the ladder,\ninflicts upon those others, upon whom and before whom he wishes to\ndistinguish himself. The triumph of the ascetic over himself, his\nintrospective glance, which beholds a man split up into a sufferer and a\nspectator, and which henceforth never looks at the outside world but to\ngather from it, as it were, wood for his own funeral pyre: this final\ntragedy of the desire for distinction which shows us only one person who,\nso to speak, is consumed internally\u2014that is an end worthy of the\nbeginning: in both cases there is an inexpressible happiness at the sight\nof torture; indeed, happiness considered as a feeling of power developed\nto the utmost, has perhaps never reached a higher pitch of perfection on\nearth than in the souls of superstitious ascetics. This is expressed by\nthe Brahmins in the story of King Visvamitra, who obtained so much\nstrength by thousands of years of penance that he undertook to construct a\nnew heaven. I believe that in the entire category of inward experiences\nthe people of our time are mere novices and clumsy guessers who \u201ctry to\nhave a shot at it\u201d: four thousand years ago much more was known about\nthese execrable refinements of self-enjoyment. Perhaps at that time the\ncreation of the world was imagined by some Hindu dreamer to have been an\nascetic operation which a god took upon himself! Perhaps this god may have\nwished to join himself to a mobile nature as an instrument of torture in\norder thus to feel his happiness and power doubled! And even supposing him\nto have been a god of love: what a delight it would have been for him to\ncreate a suffering mankind in order that he himself might suffer divinely\nand super-humanly from the sight of the continual torture of his\ncreatures, and thus to tyrannise over himself! And, again, supposing him\nto have been not only a god of love, but also a god of holiness, we can\nscarcely conceive the ecstasies of this divine ascetic while creating sins\nand sinners and eternal punishment, and an immense place of eternal\ntorture below his throne where there is a continual weeping and wailing\nand gnashing of teeth!\n\nIt is not by any means impossible that the soul of a St. Paul, a Dante, or\na Calvin, and people like them, may once have penetrated into the\nterrifying secrets of such voluptuousness of power, and in view of such\nsouls we may well ask whether the circle of this desire for distinction\nhas come to a close with the ascetic. Might it not be possible for the\ncourse of this circle to be traversed a second time, by uniting the\nfundamental idea of the ascetic, and at the same time that of a\ncompassionate Deity? In other words, pain would be given to others in\norder that pain might be given to one\u2019s self, so that in this way one\ncould triumph over one\u2019s self and one\u2019s pity to enjoy the extreme\nvoluptuousness of power.\u2014Forgive me these digressions, which come to my\nmind when I think of all the possibilities in the vast domain of psychical\ndebaucheries to which one may be led by the desire for power!\n\n\n\n\n114.\n\n\nON THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE SUFFERER.\u2014The state of sick men who have suffered\nlong and terribly from the torture inflicted upon them by their illness,\nand whose reason has nevertheless not been in any way affected, is not\nwithout a certain amount of value in our search for knowledge\u2014quite apart\nfrom the intellectual benefits which follow upon every profound solitude\nand every sudden and justified liberation from duties and habits. The man\nwho suffers severely looks forth with terrible calmness from his state of\nsuffering upon outside things: all those little lying enchantments, by\nwhich things are usually surrounded when seen through the eye of a healthy\nperson, have vanished from the sufferer; his own life even lies there\nbefore him, stripped of all bloom and colour. If by chance it has happened\nthat up to then he has lived in some kind of dangerous fantasy, this\nextreme disenchantment through pain is the means, and possibly the only\nmeans, of extricating him from it. (It is possible that this is what\nhappened to the Founder of Christianity when suspended from the Cross; for\nthe bitterest words ever pronounced, \u201cMy God, My God, why hast Thou\nforsaken Me?\u201d if understood in their deepest sense, as they ought to be\nunderstood, contain the evidence of a complete disillusionment and\nenlightenment in regard to the deceptions of life: in that moment of\nsupreme suffering Christ obtained a clear insight into Himself, just as in\nthe poet\u2019s narrative did the poor dying Don Quixote.)\n\nThe formidable tension of the intellect that wishes to hold its own\nagainst pain shows everything that one now looks upon in a new light, and\nthe inexpressible charm of this new light is often powerful enough to\nwithstand all the seductiveness of suicide and to make the continuation of\nlife seem very desirable to the sufferer. His mind scornfully turns to the\nwarm and comfortable dream-world in which the healthy man moves about\nthoughtlessly, and he thinks with contempt of the noblest and most\ncherished illusions in which he formerly indulged. He experiences delight\nin conjuring up this contempt as if from the depths of hell, and thus\ninflicting the bitterest sufferings upon his soul: it is by this\ncounterpoise that he bears up against physical suffering\u2014he feels that\nsuch a counterpoise is now essential! In one terrible moment of\nclear-sightedness he says to himself, \u201cBe for once thine own accuser and\nhangman; for once regard thy suffering as a punishment which thou hast\ninflicted on thyself! Enjoy thy superiority as a judge: better still,\nenjoy thine own will and pleasure, thy tyrannical arbitrariness! Raise\nthyself above thy life as above thy suffering, and look down into the\ndepth of reason and unreason!\u201d\n\nOur pride revolts as it never did before, it experiences an incomparable\ncharm in defending life against such a tyrant as suffering and against all\nthe insinuations of this tyrant, who would fain urge us to give evidence\nagainst life,\u2014we are taking the part of life in the face of this tyrant.\nIn this state of mind we take up a bitter stand against all pessimism in\norder that it may not appear to be a consequence of our condition, and\nthus humiliate us as conquered ones. The charm of being just in our\njudgments was also never greater than now; for now this justice is a\ntriumph over ourselves and over so irritated a state of mind that\nunfairness of judgment might be excused,\u2014but we will not be excused, it is\nnow, if ever, that we wish to show that we need no excuse. We pass through\ndownright orgies of pride.\n\nAnd now appears the first ray of relief, of recovery, and one of its first\neffects is that we turn against the preponderance of our pride: we call\nourselves foolish and vain, as if we had undergone some unique experience.\nWe humiliate ungratefully this all-powerful pride, the aid of which\nenabled us to endure the pain we suffered, and we call vehemently for some\nantidote for this pride: we wish to become strangers to ourselves and to\nbe freed from our own person after pain has forcibly made us personal too\nlong. \u201cAway with this pride,\u201d we cry, \u201cit was only another illness and\nconvulsion!\u201d Once more we look longingly at men and nature and recollect\nwith a sorrowful smile that now since the veil has fallen we regard many\nthings concerning them in a new and different light,\u2014but we are refreshed\nby once more seeing the softened lights of life, and emerge from that\nfearfully dispassionate daylight in which we as sufferers saw things and\nthrough things. We do not get angry when we see the charms of health\nresume their play, and we contemplate the sight as if transformed, gently\nand still fatigued. In this state we cannot listen to music without\nweeping.\n\n\n\n\n115.\n\n\nTHE SO-CALLED \u201cEGO.\u201d\u2014Language and the prejudices upon which language is\nbased very often act as obstacles in our paths when we proceed to explore\ninternal phenomena and impulses: as one example, we may instance the fact\nthat there are only words to express the superlative degrees of these\nphenomena and impulses. Now, it is our habit no longer to observe\naccurately when words fail us, since it is difficult in such cases to\nthink with precision: in former times, even, people involuntarily came to\nthe conclusion that where the domain of words ceased, the domain of\nexistence ceased also. Wrath, hatred, love, pity, desire, recognition,\njoy, pain: all these are names indicating extreme conditions; the milder\nand middle stages, and even more particularly the ever active lower\nstages, escape our attention, and yet it is they which weave the warp and\nwoof of our character and destiny. It often happens that these extreme\noutbursts\u2014and even the most moderate pleasure or displeasure of which we\nare actually conscious, whether in partaking of food or listening to a\nsound, is possibly, if properly estimated, merely an extreme\noutburst,\u2014destroy the texture and are then violent exceptions, in most\ncases the consequences of some congestions,\u2014and how easily as such can\nthey mislead the observer! as indeed they mislead the person acting! We\nare all of us not what we appear to be according to the conditions for\nwhich alone we have consciousness and words, and consequently praise and\nblame. We fail to recognise ourselves after these coarse outbursts which\nare known to ourselves alone, we draw conclusions from data where the\nexceptions prove stronger than the rules; we misinterpret ourselves in\nreading our own ego\u2019s pronouncements, which appeared to be so clear. But\nour opinion of ourselves, this so-called ego which we have arrived at by\nthis wrong method, contributes henceforth to form our character and\ndestiny.\n\n\n\n\n116.\n\n\nTHE UNKNOWN WORLD OF THE \u201cSUBJECT.\u201d\u2014What men have found it so difficult to\nunderstand from the most ancient times down to the present day is their\nignorance in regard to themselves, not merely with respect to good and\nevil, but something even more essential. The oldest of illusions lives on,\nnamely, that we know, and know precisely in each case, how human action is\noriginated. Not only \u201cGod who looks into the heart,\u201d not only the man who\nacts and reflects upon his action, but everybody does not doubt that he\nunderstands the phenomena of action in every one else. \u201cI know what I want\nand what I have done, I am free and responsible for my act, and I make\nothers responsible for their acts; I can mention by its name every moral\npossibility and every internal movement which precedes an act,\u2014ye may act\nas ye will, I understand myself and I understand you all!\u201d Such was what\nevery one thought once upon a time, and almost every one thinks so even\nnow. Socrates and Plato, who in this matter were great sceptics and\nadmirable innovators, were nevertheless intensely credulous in regard to\nthat fatal prejudice, that profound error, which holds that \u201cThe right\nknowledge must necessarily be followed by the right action.\u201d In holding\nthis principle they were still the heirs of the universal folly and\npresumption that knowledge exists concerning the essence of an action.\n\n\u201cIt would indeed be dreadful if the comprehension of the essence of a\nright action were not followed by that right action itself\u201d\u2014this was the\nonly manner in which these great men thought it necessary to demonstrate\nthis idea, the contrary seemed to them to be inconceivable and mad; and\nnevertheless this contrary corresponds to the naked reality which has been\ndemonstrated daily and hourly from time immemorial. Is it not a \u201cdreadful\u201d\ntruth that all that we know about an act is never sufficient to accomplish\nit, that the bridge connecting the knowledge of the act with the act\nitself has never yet been built? Acts are never what they appear to us to\nbe. We have taken great pains to learn that external things are not as\nthey appear to us.\u2014Well! It is the same with internal phenomena. All moral\nacts are in reality \u201csomething different,\u201d\u2014we cannot say anything more\nabout them, and all acts are essentially unknown to us. The general\nbelief, however, has been and still is quite the contrary: the most\nancient realism is against us: up to the present humanity has thought, \u201cAn\naction is what it appears to be.\u201d (In re-reading these words a very\nexpressive passage from Schopenhauer occurs to me, and I will quote it as\na proof that he, too, without the slightest scruple, continued to adhere\nto this moral realism: \u201cEach one of us is in reality a competent and\nperfect moral judge, knowing exactly good and evil, made holy by loving\ngood and despising evil,\u2014such is every one of us in so far as the acts of\nothers and not his own are under consideration, and when he has merely to\napprove or disapprove, whilst the burden of the performance of the acts is\nborne by other shoulders. Every one is therefore justified in occupying as\nconfessor the place of God.\u201d)\n\n\n\n\n117.\n\n\nIN PRISON.\u2014My eye, whether it be keen or weak, can only see a certain\ndistance, and it is within this space that I live and move: this horizon\nis my immediate fate, greater or lesser, from which I cannot escape. Thus,\na concentric circle is drawn round every being, which has a centre and is\npeculiar to himself. In the same way our ear encloses us in a small space,\nand so likewise does our touch. We measure the world by these horizons\nwithin which our senses confine each of us within prison walls. We say\nthat this is near and that is far distant, that this is large and that is\nsmall, that one thing is hard and another soft; and this appreciation of\nthings we call sensation\u2014but it is all an error _per se_! According to the\nnumber of events and emotions which it is on an average possible for us to\nexperience in a given space of time, we measure our lives; we call them\nshort or long, rich or poor, full or empty; and according to the average\nof human life we estimate that of other beings,\u2014and all this is an error\n_per se_!\n\nIf we had eyes a hundred times more piercing to examine the things that\nsurround us, men would seem to us to be enormously tall; we can even\nimagine organs by means of which men would appear to us to be of\nimmeasurable stature. On the other hand, certain organs could be so formed\nas to permit us to view entire solar systems as if they were contracted\nand brought close together like a single cell: and to beings of an inverse\norder a single cell of the human body could be made to appear in its\nconstruction, movement, and harmony as if it were a solar system in\nitself. The habits of our senses have wrapped us up in a tissue of lying\nsensations which in their turn lie at the base of all our judgments and\nour \u201cknowledge,\u201d\u2014there are no means of exit or escape to the real world!\nWe are like spiders in our own webs, and, whatever we may catch in them,\nit will only be something that our web is capable of catching.\n\n\n\n\n118.\n\n\nWHAT IS OUR NEIGHBOUR?\u2014What do we conceive of our neighbour except his\nlimits: I mean that whereby he, as it were, engraves and stamps himself in\nand upon us? We can understand nothing of him except the changes which\ntake place upon our own person and of which he is the cause, what we know\nof him is like a hollow, modelled space. We impute to him the feelings\nwhich his acts arouse in us, and thus give him a wrong and inverted\npositivity. We form him after our knowledge of ourselves into a satellite\nof our own system, and if he shines upon us, or grows dark, and we in any\ncase are the ultimate cause of his doing so, we nevertheless still believe\nthe contrary! O world of phantoms in which we live! O world so perverted,\ntopsy-turvy and empty, and yet dreamt of as full and upright!\n\n\n\n\n119.\n\n\nEXPERIENCE AND INVENTION.\u2014To however high a degree a man can attain to\nknowledge of himself, nothing can be more incomplete than the conception\nwhich he forms of the instincts constituting his individuality. He can\nscarcely name the more common instincts: their number and force, their\nflux and reflux, their action and counteraction, and, above all, the laws\nof their nutrition, remain absolutely unknown to him. This nutrition,\ntherefore, becomes a work of chance: the daily experiences of our lives\nthrow their prey now to this instinct and now to that, and the instincts\ngradually seize upon it; but the ebb and flow of these experiences does\nnot stand in any rational relationship to the nutritive needs of the total\nnumber of the instincts. Two things, then, must always happen: some\ncravings will be neglected and starved to death, while others will be\noverfed. Every moment in the life of man causes some polypous arms of his\nbeing to grow and others to wither away, in accordance with the nutriment\nwhich that moment may or may not bring with it. Our experiences, as I have\nalready said, are all in this sense means of nutriment, but scattered\nabout with a careless hand and without discrimination between the hungry\nand the overfed. As a consequence of this accidental nutrition of each\nparticular part, the polypus in its complete development will be something\njust as fortuitous as its growth.\n\nTo put this more clearly: let us suppose that an instinct or craving has\nreached that point when it demands gratification,\u2014either the exercise of\nits power or the discharge of it, or the filling up of a vacuum (all this\nis metaphorical language),\u2014then it will examine every event that occurs in\nthe course of the day to ascertain how it can be utilised with the object\nof fulfilling its aim: whether the man runs or rests, or is angry, or\nreads or speaks or fights or rejoices, the unsatiated instinct watches, as\nit were, every condition into which the man enters, and, as a rule, if it\nfinds nothing for itself it must wait, still unsatisfied. After a little\nwhile it becomes feeble, and at the end of a few days or a few months, if\nit has not been satisfied, it will wither away like a plant which has not\nbeen watered. This cruelty of chance would perhaps be more conspicuous if\nall the cravings were as vehement in their demands as hunger, which\nrefuses to be satisfied with imaginary dishes; but the great majority of\nour instincts, especially those which are called moral, are thus easily\nsatisfied,\u2014if it be permitted to suppose that our dreams serve as\ncompensation to a certain extent for the accidental absence of \u201cnutriment\u201d\nduring the day. Why was last night\u2019s dream full of tenderness and tears,\nthat of the night before amusing and gay, and the previous one adventurous\nand engaged in some continual obscure search? How does it come about that\nin this dream I enjoy indescribable beauties of music, and in that one I\nsoar and fly upwards with the delight of an eagle to the most distant\nheights?\n\nThese inventions in which our instincts of tenderness, merriment, or\nadventurousness, or our desire for music and mountains, can have free play\nand scope\u2014and every one can recall striking instances\u2014are interpretations\nof our nervous irritations during sleep, very free and arbitrary\ninterpretations of the movements of our blood and intestines, and the\npressure of our arm and the bed coverings, or the sound of a church bell,\nthe weathercocks, the moths, and so on. That this text, which on the whole\nis very much the same for one night as another, is so differently\ncommented upon, that our creative reason imagines such different causes\nfor the nervous irritations of one day as compared with another, may be\nexplained by the fact that the prompter of this reason was different\nto-day from yesterday\u2014another instinct or craving wished to be satisfied,\nto show itself, to exercise itself and be refreshed and discharged: this\nparticular one being at its height to-day and another one being at its\nheight last night. Real life has not the freedom of interpretation\npossessed by dream life; it is less poetic and less unrestrained\u2014but is it\nnecessary for me to show that our instincts, when we are awake, likewise\nmerely interpret our nervous irritations and determine their \u201ccauses\u201d in\naccordance with their requirements? that there is no really essential\ndifference between waking and dreaming! that even in comparing different\ndegrees of culture, the freedom of the conscious interpretation of the one\nis not in any way inferior to the freedom in dreams of the other! that our\nmoral judgments and valuations are only images and fantasies concerning\nphysiological processes unknown to us, a kind of habitual language to\ndescribe certain nervous irritations? that all our so-called consciousness\nis a more or less fantastic commentary of an unknown text, one which is\nperhaps unknowable but yet felt?\n\nConsider some insignificant occurrence. Let us suppose that some day as we\npass along a public street we see some one laughing at us. In accordance\nwith whatever craving has reached its culminating point within us at that\nmoment, this incident will have this or that signification for us; and it\nwill be a very different occurrence in accordance with the class of men to\nwhich we belong. One man will take it like a drop of rain, another will\nshake it off like a fly, a third person will try to pick a quarrel on\naccount of it, a fourth will examine his garments to see if there is\nanything about them likely to cause laughter, and a fifth will in\nconsequence think about what is ridiculous _per se_, a sixth will be\npleased at having involuntarily contributed to add a ray of sunshine and\nmirth to the world,\u2014in all these cases some craving is gratified, whether\nanger, combativeness, meditation, or benevolence. This instinct, whatever\nit may be, has seized upon that incident as its prey: why that particular\none? Because, hungry and thirsty, it was lying in ambush.\n\nNot long ago at 11 o\u2019clock in the morning a man suddenly collapsed and\nfell down in front of me as if struck by lightning. All the women who were\nnear at once gave utterance to cries of horror, while I set the man on his\nfeet again and waited until he recovered his speech. During this time no\nmuscle of my face moved and I experienced no sensation of fear or pity; I\nsimply did what was most urgent and reasonable and calmly proceeded on my\nway. Supposing some one had told me on the previous evening that at 11\no\u2019clock on the following day a man would fall down in front of me like\nthis, I should have suffered all kinds of agonies in the interval, lying\nawake all night, and at the decisive moment should also perhaps have\nfallen down like the man instead of helping him; for in the meantime all\nthe imaginable cravings within me would have had leisure to conceive and\nto comment upon this incident. What are our experiences, then? Much more\nwhat we attribute to them than what they really are. Or should we perhaps\nsay that nothing is contained in them? that experiences in themselves are\nmerely works of fancy?\n\n\n\n\n120.\n\n\nTO TRANQUILLISE THE SCEPTIC.\u2014\u201cI don\u2019t know at all what I am doing. I don\u2019t\nknow in the least what I ought to do!\u201d\u2014You are right, but be sure of this:\nyou are being done at every moment! Mankind has at all times mistaken the\nactive for the passive: it is its eternal grammatical blunder.\n\n\n\n\n121.\n\n\nCAUSE AND EFFECT.\u2014On this mirror\u2014and our intellect is a mirror\u2014something\nis going on that indicates regularity: a certain thing is each time\nfollowed by another certain thing. When we perceive this and wish to give\nit a name, we call it cause and effect,\u2014fools that we are! as if in this\nwe had understood or could understand anything! For, of course, we have\nseen nothing but the images of causes and effects, and it is just this\nfigurativeness which renders it impossible for us to see a more\nsubstantial relation than that of sequence!\n\n\n\n\n122.\n\n\nTHE PURPOSES IN NATURE.\u2014Any impartial investigator who examines the\nhistory of the eye and its form in the lower creatures, and sees how the\nvisual organ was slowly developed, cannot help recognising that sight was\nnot the first purpose of the eye, but probably only asserted itself when\npure hazard had contributed to bring together the apparatus. One single\nexample of this kind, and the \u201cfinal purposes\u201d fall from our eyes like\nscales.\n\n\n\n\n123.\n\n\nREASON.\u2014How did reason come into the world? As is only proper, in an\nirrational manner; by accident. We shall have to guess at this accident as\na riddle.\n\n\n\n\n124.\n\n\nWHAT IS VOLITION?\u2014We laugh at a man who, stepping out of his room at the\nvery minute when the sun is rising, says, \u201cIt is my _will_ that the sun\nshall rise\u201d; or at him who, unable to stop a wheel, says, \u201cI _wish_ it to\nroll\u201d; or, again, at him who, thrown in a wrestling match, says, \u201cHere I\nlie, but here I _wish_ to lie.\u201d But, joking apart, do we not act like one\nof these three persons whenever we use the expression \u201cI wish\u201d?\n\n\n\n\n125.\n\n\nON THE DOMAIN OF FREEDOM.\u2014We can _think_ many more things than we can do\nand experience\u2014_i.e._ our faculty of thinking is superficial and is\nsatisfied with what lies on the surface, it does not even perceive this\nsurface. If our intellect were strictly developed in proportion to our\npower, and our exercise of this power, the primary principle of our\nthinking would be that we can understand only that which we are able to\ndo\u2014if, indeed, there is any understanding at all. The thirsty man is\nwithout water, but the creations of his imagination continually bring the\nimage of water to his sight, as if nothing could be more easily procured.\nThe superficial and easily satisfied character of the intellect cannot\nunderstand real need, and thus feels itself superior. It is proud of being\nable to do more, to run faster, and to reach the goal almost within the\ntwinkling of an eye: and in this way the domain of thought, when\ncontrasted with the domain of action, volition, and experience, appears to\nbe the domain of liberty, while, as I have already stated, it is nothing\nbut the domain of superficiality and self-sufficiency.\n\n\n\n\n126.\n\n\nFORGETFULNESS.\u2014It has never yet been proved that there is such a thing as\nforgetfulness: all that we know is that we have no power over\nrecollection. In the meantime we have filled up this gap in our power with\nthe word \u201cforgetfulness,\u201d exactly as if it were another faculty added to\nour list. But, after all, what is within our power? If that word fills up\na gap in our power, might not the other words be found capable of filling\nup a gap in the knowledge which we possess of our power?\n\n\n\n\n127.\n\n\nFOR A DEFINITE PURPOSE.\u2014Of all human actions probably the least understood\nare those which are carried out for a definite purpose, because they have\nalways been regarded as the most intelligible and commonplace to our\nintellect. The great problems can be picked up in the highways and byways.\n\n\n\n\n128.\n\n\nDREAMING AND RESPONSIBILITY.\u2014You would wish to be responsible for\neverything except your dreams! What miserable weakness, what lack of\nlogical courage! Nothing contains more of your own work than your dreams!\nNothing belongs to you so much! Substance, form, duration, actor,\nspectator\u2014in these comedies you act as your complete selves! And yet it is\njust here that you are afraid and ashamed of yourselves, and even Oedipus,\nthe wise Oedipus, derived consolation from the thought that we cannot be\nblamed for what we dream. From this I must conclude that the great\nmajority of men must have some dreadful dreams to reproach themselves\nwith. If it were otherwise, to how great an extent would these nocturnal\nfictions have been exploited in the interests of man\u2019s pride! Need I add\nthat the wise Oedipus was right, that we are really not responsible for\nour dreams any more than for our waking hours, and that the doctrine of\nfree will has as its parents man\u2019s pride and sense of power! Perhaps I say\nthis too often; but that does not prove that it is not true.\n\n\n\n\n129.\n\n\nTHE ALLEGED COMBAT OF MOTIVES.\u2014People speak of the \u201ccombat of motives,\u201d\nbut they designate by this expression that which is not a combat of\nmotives at all. What I mean is that, in our meditative consciousness, the\nconsequences of different actions which we think we are able to carry out\npresent themselves successively, one after the other, and we compare these\nconsequences in our mind. We think we have come to a decision concerning\nan action after we have established to our own satisfaction that the\nconsequences of this action will be favourable. Before we arrive at this\nconclusion, however, we often seriously worry because of the great\ndifficulties we experience in guessing what the consequences are likely to\nbe, and in seeing them in their full importance, without exception\u2014and,\nafter all this, we must reckon up any fortuitous elements that are likely\nto arise. Then comes the chief difficulty: all the consequences which we\nhave with such difficulty determined one by one must be weighed on some\nscales against each other; and it only too often comes about that, owing\nto the difference in the quality of all the conceivable consequences, both\nscales and weights are lacking for this casuistry of advantage.\n\nEven supposing, however, that in this case we are able to overcome the\ndifficulty, and that mere hazard has placed in our scales results which\npermit of a mutual balance, we have now, in the idea of the consequences\nof a particular action, a motive for performing this very action, but only\none motive! When we have finally decided to act, however, we are fairly\noften influenced by another order of motives than those of the \u201cimage of\nthe consequences.\u201d What brings this about may be the habitual working of\nour inner machinery, or some little encouragement on the part of a person\nwhom we fear or honour or love, or the love of comfort which prefers to do\nthat which lies nearest; or some stirring of the imagination provoked at\nthe decisive moment by some event of trifling importance; or some physical\ninfluence which manifests itself quite unexpectedly; a mere whim brings it\nabout; or the outburst of a passion which, as it accidentally happens, is\nready to burst forth\u2014in a word, motives operate which we do not understand\nvery well, or which we do not understand at all, and which we can never\nbalance against one another in advance.\n\nIt is probable that a contest is going on among these motives too, a\ndriving backwards and forwards, a rising and lowering of the parts, and it\nis this which would be the real \u201ccontest of motives,\u201d something quite\ninvisible and unknown to us. I have calculated the consequences and the\nsuccesses, and in doing so have set a very necessary motive in the line of\ncombat with the other motives,\u2014but I am as little able to draw up this\nbattle line as to see it: the battle itself is hidden from my sight, as\nlikewise is the victory, as victory; for I certainly come to know what I\nshall finally do, but I cannot know what motive has in the end proved to\nbe the victor. Nevertheless, we are decidedly not in the habit of taking\nall these unconscious phenomena into account, and we generally conceive of\nthe preliminary stages of an action only so far as they are conscious:\nthus we mistake the combat of the motives for a comparison of the possible\nconsequences of different actions,\u2014a mistake that brings with it most\nimportant consequences, and consequences that are most fatal to the\ndevelopment of morals.\n\n\n\n\n130.\n\n\nAIMS? WILL?\u2014We have accustomed ourselves to believe in two kingdoms, the\ndomain of purposes and volition, and the domain of chance. In this latter\ndomain everything is done senselessly, there is a continual going to and\nfro without any one being able to say why or wherefore. We stand in awe of\nthis powerful realm of the great cosmic stupidity, for in most instances\nwe learn to know it when it falls down upon the other world, that of aims\nand intentions, like a slate from a roof, always overwhelming some\nbeautiful purpose of ours.\n\nThis belief in these two kingdoms arises from ancient romanticism and\nlegend: we clever dwarfs, with all our will and aims, are interfered with,\nknocked down, and very often crushed to death by those ultra-stupid\ngiants, the accidents,\u2014but in spite of this we should not like to be\ndeprived of the fearful poetry of their proximity, for these monsters very\noften make their appearance when life in the spider\u2019s web of definite aims\nhas become too tiresome or too anxious for us, and they sometimes bring\nabout a divine diversion when their hands for once tear the whole web in\npieces,\u2014not that these irrational beings ever intend to do what they do,\nor even observe it. But their coarse and bony hands rend our web as if it\nwere thin air.\n\nMoira was the name given by the Greeks to this realm of the incalculable\nand of sublime and eternal limitedness; and they set it round their gods\nlike a horizon beyond which they could neither see nor act,\u2014with that\nsecret defiance of the gods which one meets with in different nations; the\ngods are worshipped, but a final trump card is held in readiness to play\nagainst them. As instances of this we may recollect that the Indians and\nthe Persians, who conceived all their gods as having to depend upon the\nsacrifices of mortals, so that if it came to the worst the mortals could,\nat least, let the gods die of starvation; or the gods of the stubborn and\nmelancholy Scandinavians, who enjoyed a quiet revenge in the thought that\na twilight of the gods was to come as some compensation for the perpetual\nfear which their evil gods caused them. The case of Christianity was very\ndifferent, for its essential feelings were not those of the Indians,\nPersians, Greeks, or Scandinavians. Christianity commanded its disciples\nto worship in the dust the spirit of power, and to kiss the very dust. It\ngave the world to understand that this omnipotent \u201crealm of stupidity\u201d was\nnot so stupid as it seemed, and that we, on the contrary, were stupid when\nwe could not perceive that behind this realm stood God Himself: He who,\nalthough fond of dark, crooked and wonderful ways, at last brought\neverything to a \u201cglorious end.\u201d This new myth of God, who had hitherto\nbeen mistaken for a race of giants or Moira, and who was now Himself the\nspinner and weaver of webs and purposes even more subtle than those of our\nown intellect\u2014so subtle, indeed, that they appear to be incomprehensible\nand even unreasonable\u2014this myth was so bold a transformation and so daring\na paradox that the over-refined ancient world could not resist it, however\nextravagant and contradictory the thing seemed: for, let it be said in\nconfidence, there was a contradiction in it,\u2014if our intellect cannot\ndivine the intellect and aims of God, how did it divine this quality of\nits intellect and this quality of God\u2019s intellect?\n\nIn more modern times, indeed, the doubt has increased as to whether the\nslate that falls from the roof is really thrown by \u201cDivine love,\u201d and\nmankind again harks back to the old romance of giants and dwarfs. Let us\nlearn then, for it is time we did so, that even in our supposed separate\ndomain of aims and reason the giants likewise rule. And our aims and\nreason are not dwarfs, but giants. And our own webs are just as often and\nas clumsily rent by ourselves as by the slate. And not everything is\npurpose that is called purpose, and still less is everything will that is\ncalled will. And if you come to the conclusion, \u201cThen there is only one\ndomain, that of stupidity and hazard?\u201d it must be added that possibly\nthere is only one domain, possibly there is neither will nor aim, and we\nmay only have imagined these things. Those iron hands of necessity that\nshake the dice-box of chance continue their game indefinitely: hence, it\nmust happen that certain throws perfectly resemble every degree of\nappropriateness and good sense. It may be that our own voluntary acts and\npurposes are merely such throws, and that we are too circumscribed and\nvain to conceive our extremely circumscribed state! that we ourselves\nshake the dice-box with iron hands, and do nothing in our most deliberate\nactions but play the game of necessity. Possibly! To rise beyond this\n\u201cpossibly\u201d we should indeed have been guests in the Underworld, playing at\ndice and betting with Proserpine at the table of the goddess herself.\n\n\n\n\n131.\n\n\nMORAL FASHIONS.\u2014How moral judgments as a whole have changed! The greatest\nmarvels of the morality of antiquity, such as Epictetus, knew nothing of\nthe glorification, now so common, of the spirit of sacrifice, of living\nfor others: after the fashion of morality now prevailing we should really\ncall them immoral; for they fought with all their strength for their own\nego and against all sympathy for others, especially for the sufferings and\nmoral imperfections of others. Perhaps they would reply to us by saying,\n\u201cIf you feel yourselves to be such dull and ugly people, by all means\nthink of others more than yourselves. You will be quite right in doing\nso!\u201d\n\n\n\n\n132.\n\n\nTHE LAST ECHOES OF CHRISTIANITY IN MORALS.\u2014\u201cOn n\u2019est bon que par la piti\u00e9:\nil faut donc qu\u2019il y ait quelque piti\u00e9 dans tous nos sentiments\u201d\u2014so says\nmorality nowadays. And how does this come about? The fact that the man who\nperforms social, sympathetic, disinterested, and benevolent actions is now\nconsidered as the moral man: this is perhaps the most general effect, the\nmost complete transformation, that Christianity has produced in Europe;\nperhaps in spite of itself, and not by any means because this was part of\nits essential doctrine. But this was the residuum of those Christian\nfeelings that prevailed at the time when the contrary and thoroughly\nselfish faith in the \u201cone thing needful,\u201d the absolute importance of\neternal and personal salvation, together with the dogmas upon which this\nbelief had rested, were gradually receding, and when the auxiliary beliefs\nin \u201clove\u201d and \u201clove of one\u2019s neighbour,\u201d harmonising with the\nextraordinary practice of charity by the Church, were thereby coming to\nthe front. The more people gradually became separated from the dogmas, the\nmore did they seek some sort of justification for this separation in a\ncult of the love of humanity: not to fall short in this respect of the\nChristian ideal, but to excel it if possible, was the secret stimulus of\nall the French free-thinkers from Voltaire to Auguste Comte; and this\nlatter with his famous moral formula \u201cvivre pour autrui\u201d has indeed\nout-christianised even Christianity!\n\nIt was Schopenhauer in Germany and John Stuart Mill in England who were\nthe means of bringing into the greatest prominence this doctrine of\nsympathetic affections and of pity or utility to others as a principle of\naction; but these men themselves were only echoes. From about the time of\nthe French Revolution these doctrines have manifested themselves in\nvarious places with enormous force. Since then they have shown themselves\nin their coarsest as well has their most subtle form, and all Socialistic\nprinciples have almost involuntarily taken their stand on the common\nground of this doctrine. At the present time there is perhaps no more\nwidely spread prejudice than that of thinking that we know what really and\ntruly constitutes morality. Every one now seems to learn with satisfaction\nthat society is beginning to adapt the individual to the general needs,\nand that it is at the same time the happiness and sacrifice of each one to\nconsider himself as a useful member and instrument of the whole. They have\nstill, however, doubts as to the form in which this whole is to be looked\nfor, whether in a state already existing, or in one which has yet to be\nestablished, or in a nation, or in an international brotherhood, or in new\nand small economic communities. On this point there is still much\nreflection, doubt, struggling, excitement, and passion; but it is pleasant\nand wonderful to observe the unanimity with which the \u201cego\u201d is called upon\nto practice self-denial, until, in the form of adaptation to the whole, it\nonce again secures its own fixed sphere of rights and duties,\u2014until,\nindeed, it has become something quite new and different. Nothing else is\nbeing attempted, whether admitted or not, than the complete\ntransformation, even the weakening and suppression of the individual: the\nsupporters of the majority never tire of enumerating and anathematising\nall that is bad, hostile, lavish, expensive, and luxurious in the form of\nindividual existence that has hitherto prevailed; they hope that society\nmay be administered in a cheaper, less dangerous, more uniform, and more\nharmonious way when nothing is left but large corporations and their\nmembers. All that is considered as good which in any way corresponds to\nthis desire for grouping men into one particular society, and to the minor\ncravings which necessarily accompany this desire,\u2014this is the chief moral\ncurrent of our time; sympathy and social feelings are working hand in\nglove. (Kant is still outside of this movement: he expressly teaches that\nwe should be insensible to the sufferings of others if our benevolence is\nto have any moral value,\u2014a doctrine which Schopenhauer, very angrily, as\nmay easily be imagined, described as the Kantian absurdity.)\n\n\n\n\n133.\n\n\n\u201cNO LONGER THINKING OF ONE\u2019S SELF.\u201d\u2014Let us seriously consider why we\nshould jump into the water to rescue some one who has just fallen in\nbefore our eyes, although we may have no particular sympathy for him. We\ndo it for pity\u2019s sake; no one thinks now but of his neighbour,\u2014so says\nthoughtlessness. Why do we experience grief and uneasiness when we see\nsome one spit blood, although we may be really ill-disposed towards him\nand wish him no good? Out of pity; we have ceased to think of\nourselves,\u2014so says thoughtlessness again. The truth is that in our pity\u2014I\nmean by this what we erroneously call \u201cpity\u201d\u2014we no longer think\nconsciously of ourselves, but quite unconsciously, exactly as when\nslipping we unconsciously make the best counter-motions possible in order\nto recover our balance, and in doing so clearly use all our intelligence.\nA mishap to another offends us; it would bring our impotence, or perhaps\nour cowardice, into strong relief if we could do nothing to help him; or\nin itself it would give rise to a diminution of our honour in the eyes of\nothers and of ourselves. Or again, accidents that happen to others act as\nfinger-posts to point out our own danger, and even as indications of human\nperil and frailty they can produce a painful effect upon us. We shake off\nthis kind of pain and offence, and balance it by an act of pity behind\nwhich may be hidden a subtle form of self-defence or even revenge. That at\nbottom we strongly think of ourselves may easily be divined from the\ndecision that we arrive at in all cases where we can avoid the sight of\nthose who are suffering or starving or wailing. We make up our minds not\nto avoid such people when we can approach them as powerful and helpful\nones, when we can safely reckon upon their applause, or wish to feel the\ncontrast of our own happiness, or, again, when we hope to get rid of our\nown boredom. It is misleading to call the suffering that we experience at\nsuch a sight, and which may be of a very different kind, commiseration.\nFor in all cases it is a suffering from which the suffering person before\nus is free: it is our own suffering, just as his suffering is his own. It\nis thus only this personal feeling of misery that we get rid of by acts of\ncompassion. Nevertheless, we never act thus from one single motive: as it\nis certain that we wish to free ourselves from suffering thereby, it is\nalso certain that by the same action we yield to an impulse of pleasure.\nPleasure arises at the sight of a contrast to our own condition, at the\nknowledge that we should be able to help if only we wished to do so, at\nthe thought of the praise and gratitude which we should gain if we did\nhelp, at the very act of helping, in so far as this might prove successful\n(and because something which is gradually seen to be successful gives\npleasure to the doer); but even more particularly at the feeling that our\nintervention brings to an end some deplorable injustice,\u2014even the outburst\nof one\u2019s indignation is invigorating.\n\nAll this, including even things still more subtle, comprises \u201cpity.\u201d How\nclumsily with this one word does language fall foul of such a complex and\npolyphonous organism! That pity, on the other hand, is identical with the\nsuffering the sight of which brings it about, or that it has a\nparticularly subtle and penetrating comprehension of it: this is in\ncontradiction to experience, and he who has glorified pity under these two\nheads lacked sufficient experience in the domain of morals. That is why I\nam seized with some doubts when reading of the incredible things\nattributed by Schopenhauer to pity. It is obvious that he thereby wished\nto make us believe in the great novelty he brought forward, viz., that\npity\u2014the pity which he observed so superficially and described so\nbadly\u2014was the source of all and every past and future moral action,\u2014and\nall this precisely because of those faculties which he had begun by\nattributing to it.\n\nWhat is it in the end that distinguishes men without pity from men who are\nreally compassionate? In particular, to give merely an approximate\nindication, they have not the sensitive feeling for fear, the subtle\nfaculty for perceiving danger: nor yet is their vanity so easily wounded\nif something happens which they might have been able to prevent,\u2014the\ncaution of their pride commands them not to interfere uselessly with the\naffairs of others; they even act on the belief that every one should help\nhimself and play his own cards. Again, in most cases they are more\nhabituated to bearing pain than compassionate men, and it does not seem at\nall unjust to them that others should suffer, since they themselves have\nsuffered. Lastly, the state of soft-heartedness is as painful to them as\nis the state of stoical impassability to compassionate men: they have only\ndisdainful words for sensitive hearts, as they think that such a state of\nfeeling is dangerous to their own manliness and calm bravery,\u2014they conceal\ntheir tears from others and wipe them off, angry with themselves. They\nbelong to a different type of egoists from the compassionate men,\u2014but to\ncall them, in a distinct sense, evil and the compassionate ones good, is\nmerely a moral fashion which has had its innings, just as the reverse\nfashion had also its innings, and a long innings, too.\n\n\n\n\n134.\n\n\nTO WHAT EXTENT WE MUST BEWARE OF PITY.\u2014Pity, in so far as it actually\ngives rise to suffering\u2014and this must be our only point of view here\u2014is a\nweakness, like every other indulgence in an injurious emotion. It\nincreases suffering throughout the world, and although here and there a\ncertain amount of suffering may be indirectly diminished or removed\naltogether as a consequence of pity, we must not bring forward these\noccasional consequences, which are on the whole insignificant, to justify\nthe nature of pity which, as has already been stated, is prejudicial.\nSupposing that it prevailed, even if only for one day, it would bring\nhumanity to utter ruin. In itself the nature of pity is no better than\nthat of any other craving; it is only where it is called for and\npraised\u2014and this happens when people do not understand what is injurious\nin it, but find in it a sort of joy\u2014that a good conscience becomes\nattached to it; it is only then that we willingly yield to it, and do not\nshrink from acknowledging it. In other circumstances where it is\nunderstood to be dangerous, it is looked upon as a weakness; or, as in the\ncase of the Greeks, as an unhealthy periodical emotion the danger of which\nmight be removed by temporary and voluntary discharges. If a man were to\nundertake the experiment of deliberately devoting his attention to the\nopportunities afforded by practical life for the exercise of pity, and\nwere over and over again to picture in his own mind the misery he might\nmeet with in his immediate surroundings, he would inevitably become\nmelancholy and ill. If, however, he wished in any sense of the word to\nserve humanity as a physician, he would have to take many precautions with\nrespect to this feeling, as otherwise it would paralyse him at all\ncritical moments, undermine the foundations of his knowledge, and unnerve\nhis helpful and delicate hand.\n\n\n\n\n135.\n\n\nAROUSING PITY.\u2014Among savages men think with a moral shudder of the\npossibility of becoming an object of pity, for such a state they regard as\ndeprived of all virtue. Pitying is equivalent to despising: they do not\nwant to see a contemptible being suffer, for this would afford them no\nenjoyment. On the other hand, to behold one of their enemies suffering,\nsome one whom they look upon as their equal in pride, but whom torture\ncannot induce to give up his pride, and in general to see some one suffer\nwho refuses to lower himself by appealing for pity\u2014which would in their\neyes be the most profound and shameful humiliation\u2014this is the very joy of\njoys. Such a spectacle excites the deepest admiration in the soul of the\nsavage, and he ends by killing such a brave man when it is in his power,\nafterwards according funeral honours to the unbending one. If he had\ngroaned, however; if his countenance had lost its expression of calm\ndisdain; if he had shown himself to be contemptible,\u2014well, in such a case\nhe might have been allowed to live like a dog: he would no longer have\naroused the pride of the spectator, and pity would have taken the place of\nadmiration.\n\n\n\n\n136.\n\n\nHAPPINESS IN PITY.\u2014If, as is the case among the Hindus, we decree the end\nand aim of all intellectual activity to be the knowledge of human misery,\nand if for generation after generation this dreadful resolution be\nsteadily adhered to, pity in the eyes of such men of hereditary pessimism\ncomes to have a new value as a preserver of life, something that helps to\nmake existence endurable, although it may seem worthy of being rejected\nwith horror and disgust. Pity becomes an antidote to suicide, a sentiment\nwhich brings pleasure with it and enables us to taste superiority in small\ndoses. It gives some diversion to our minds, makes our hearts full,\nbanishes fear and lethargy, and incites us to speak, to complain, or to\nact: it is a relative happiness when compared with the misery of the\nknowledge that hampers the individual on every side, bewilders him, and\ntakes away his breath. Happiness, however, no matter of what nature it may\nbe, gives us air and light and freedom of movement.\n\n\n\n\n137.\n\n\nWHY DOUBLE THE \u201cEGO\u201d?\u2014To view our own experiences in the same light as we\nare in the habit of looking at those of others is very comforting and an\nadvisable medicine. On the other hand, to look upon the experiences of\nothers and adopt them as if they were our own\u2014which is called for by the\nphilosophy of pity\u2014would ruin us in a very short time: let us only make\nthe experiment without trying to imagine it any longer! The first maxim\nis, in addition, undoubtedly more in accordance with reason and goodwill\ntowards reason; for we estimate more objectively the value and\nsignificance of an event when it happens to others,\u2014the value, for\ninstance, of a death, loss of money or slander. But pity, taking as its\nprinciple of action the injunction, \u201cSuffer the misfortune of another as\nmuch as he himself,\u201d would lead the point of view of the ego with all its\nexaggerations and deviations to become the point of view of the other\nperson, the sympathiser: so that we should have to suffer at the same time\nfrom our own ego and the other\u2019s ego. In this way we would voluntarily\noverload ourselves with a double irrationality, instead of making the\nburden of our own as light as possible.\n\n\n\n\n138.\n\n\nBECOMING MORE TENDER.\u2014Whenever we love some one and venerate and admire\nhim, and afterwards come to perceive that he is suffering\u2014which always\ncauses us the utmost astonishment, since we cannot but feel that the\nhappiness we derive from him must flow from a superabundant source of\npersonal happiness\u2014our feelings of love, veneration, and admiration are\nessentially changed: they become more tender; that is, the gap that\nseparates us seems to be bridged over and there appears to be an approach\nto equality. It now seems possible to give him something in return, whilst\nwe had previously imagined him as being altogether above our gratitude.\nOur ability to requite him for what we have received from him arouses in\nus feelings of much joy and pleasure. We endeavour to ascertain what can\nbest calm the grief of our friend, and we give it to him; if he wishes for\nkind words, looks, attentions, services, or presents, we give them; but,\nabove all, if he would like to see us suffering from the sight of his\nsuffering, we pretend to suffer, for all this secures for us the enjoyment\nof active gratitude, which is equivalent in a way to good-natured revenge.\nIf he wants none of these things, and refuses to accept them from us, we\ndepart from him chilled and sad, almost mortified; it appears to us as if\nour gratitude had been declined, and on this point of honour even the best\nof men is still somewhat touchy. It results from all this that even in the\nbest case there is something humiliating in suffering, and something\nelevating and superior in sympathy,\u2014a fact which will keep the two\nfeelings apart for ever and ever.\n\n\n\n\n139.\n\n\nHIGHER IN NAME ONLY.\u2014You say that the morality of pity is a higher\nmorality than that of stoicism? Prove it! But take care not to measure the\n\u201chigher\u201d and \u201clower\u201d degrees of morality once more by moral yardsticks;\nfor there are no absolute morals. So take your yardstick from somewhere\nelse, and be on your guard!\n\n\n\n\n140.\n\n\nPRAISE AND BLAME.\u2014When a war has come to an unsuccessful conclusion we try\nto find the man who is to blame for the war; when it comes to a successful\nconclusion we praise the man who is responsible for it. In all\nunsuccessful cases attempts are made to blame somebody, for non-success\ngives rise to dejection, against which the single possible remedy is\ninvoluntarily applied; a new incitement of the sense of power; and this\nincitement is found in the condemnation of the \u201cguilty\u201d one. This guilty\none is not perhaps the scapegoat of the faults of others; he is merely the\nvictim of the feeble, humiliated, and depressed people who wish to prove\nupon some one that they have not yet lost all their power. Even\nself-condemnation after a defeat may be the means of restoring the feeling\nof power.\n\nOn the other hand, glorification of the originator is often but an equally\nblind result of another instinct that demands its victim,\u2014and in this case\nthe sacrifice appears to be sweet and attractive even for the victim. This\nhappens when the feeling of power is satiated in a nation or a society by\nso great and fascinating a success that a weariness of victory supervenes\nand pride wishes to be discharged: a feeling of self-sacrifice is aroused\nand looks for its object. Thus, whether we are blamed or praised we\nmerely, as a rule, provide opportunities for the gratification of others,\nand are only too often caught up and whirled away for our neighbours to\ndischarge upon us their accumulated feelings of praise or blame. In both\ncases we confer a benefit upon them for which we deserve no credit and\nthey no thanks.\n\n\n\n\n141.\n\n\nMORE BEAUTIFUL BUT LESS VALUABLE.\u2014Picturesque morality: such is the\nmorality of those passions characterised by sudden outbursts, abrupt\ntransitions; pathetic, impressive, dreadful, and solemn attitudes and\ngestures. It is the semi-savage stage of morality: never let us be tempted\nto set it on a higher plane merely on account of its \u00e6sthetic charms.\n\n\n\n\n142.\n\n\nSYMPATHY.\u2014In order to understand our neighbour, that is, in order to\nreproduce his sentiments in ourselves, we often, no doubt, plumb the cause\nof his feelings, as, for example, by asking ourselves, Why is he sad? in\norder that we may become sad ourselves for the same reason. But we much\nmore frequently neglect to act thus, and we produce these feelings in\nourselves in accordance with the _effects_ which they exhibit in the\nperson we are studying,\u2014by imitating in our own body the expression of his\neyes, his voice, his gait, his attitude (or, at any rate, the likeness of\nthese things in words, pictures, and music), or we may at least endeavour\nto mimic the action of his muscles and nervous system. A like feeling will\nthen spring up in us as the result of an old association of movements and\nsentiments which has been trained to run backwards and forwards. We have\ndeveloped to a very high pitch this knack of sounding the feelings of\nothers, and when we are in the presence of any one else we bring this\nfaculty of ours into play almost involuntarily,\u2014let the inquirer observe\nthe animation of a woman\u2019s countenance and notice how it vibrates and\nquivers with animation as the result of the continual imitation and\nreflection of what is going on around her.\n\nIt is music, however, more than anything else that shows us what\npast-masters we are in the rapid and subtle divination of feelings and\nsympathy; for even if music is only the imitation of an imitation of\nfeelings, nevertheless, despite its distance and vagueness, it often\nenables us to participate in those feelings, so that we become sad without\nany reason for feeling so, like the fools that we are, merely because we\nhear certain sounds and rhythms that somehow or other remind us of the\nintonation and the movements, or perhaps even only of the behaviour, of\nsorrowful people. It is related of a certain Danish king that he was\nwrought up to such a pitch of warlike enthusiasm by the song of a minstrel\nthat he sprang to his feet and killed five persons of his assembled court:\nthere was neither war nor enemy; there was rather the exact opposite; yet\nthe power of the retrospective inference from a feeling to the cause of it\nwas sufficiently strong in this king to overpower both his observation and\nhis reason. Such, however, is almost invariably the effect of music\n(provided that it thrills us), and we have no need of such paradoxical\ninstances to recognise this,\u2014the state of feeling into which music\ntransports us is almost always in contradiction to the appearance of our\nactual state, and of our reasoning power which recognises this actual\nstate and its causes.\n\nIf we inquire how it happened that this imitation of the feelings of\nothers has become so common, there will be no doubt as to the answer: man\nbeing the most timid of all beings because of his subtle and delicate\nnature has been made familiar through his timidity with this sympathy for,\nand rapid comprehension of, the feelings of others, even of animals. For\ncentury after century he saw danger in everything that was unfamiliar to\nhim, in anything that happened to be alive, and whenever the spectacle of\nsuch things and creatures came before his eyes he imitated their features\nand attitude, drawing at the same time his own conclusion as to the nature\nof the evil intentions they concealed. This interpretation of all\nmovements and all facial characteristics in the sense of intentions, man\nhas even brought to bear on things inanimate,\u2014urged on as he was by the\nillusion that there was nothing inanimate. I believe that this is the\norigin of everything that we now call a feeling for nature, that sensation\nof joy which men experience at the sight of the sky, the fields, the\nrocks, the forests, the storms, the stars, the landscapes, and spring:\nwithout our old habits of fear which forced us to suspect behind\neverything a kind of second and more recondite sense, we should now\nexperience no delight in nature, in the same way as men and animals do not\ncause us to rejoice if we have not first been deterred by that source of\nall understanding, namely, fear. For joy and agreeable surprise, and\nfinally the feeling of ridicule, are the younger children of sympathy, and\nthe much younger brothers and sisters of fear. The faculty of rapid\nperception, which is based on the faculty of rapid dissimulation,\ndecreases in proud and autocratic men and nations, as they are less timid;\nbut, on the other hand, every category of understanding and dissimulation\nis well known to timid peoples, and among them is to be found the real\nhome of imitative arts and superior intelligence.\n\nWhen, proceeding from the theory of sympathy such as I have just outlined,\nI turn my attention to the theory, now so popular and almost sacrosanct,\nof a mystical process by means of which pity blends two beings into one,\nand thus permits them immediately to understand one another, when I\nrecollect that even so clear a brain as Schopenhauer\u2019s delighted in such\nfantastic nonsense, and that he in his turn transplanted this delight into\nother lucid and semi-lucid brains, I feel unlimited astonishment and\ncompassion. How great must be the pleasure we experience in this senseless\ntomfoolery! How near must even a sane man be to insanity as soon as he\nlistens to his own secret intellectual desires!\u2014Why did Schopenhauer\nreally feel so grateful, so profoundly indebted to Kant? He revealed on\none occasion the undoubted answer to this question. Some one had spoken of\nthe way in which the _qualitias occulta_ of Kant\u2019s Categorical Imperative\nmight be got rid of, so that the theory itself might be rendered\nintelligible. Whereupon Schopenhauer gave utterance to the following\noutburst: \u201cAn intelligible Categorical Imperative! Preposterous idea!\nStygian darkness! God forbid that it should ever become intelligible! The\nfact that there is actually something unintelligible, that this misery of\nthe understanding and its conceptions is limited, conditional, final, and\ndeceptive,\u2014this is beyond question Kant\u2019s great gift.\u201d Let any one\nconsider whether a man can be in possession of a desire to gain an insight\ninto moral things when he feels himself comforted from the start by a\nbelief in the inconceivableness of these things! one who still honestly\nbelieves in illuminations from above, in magic, in ghostly appearances,\nand in the metaphysical ugliness of the toad!\n\n\n\n\n143.\n\n\nWOE TO US IF THIS IMPULSE SHOULD RAGE!\u2014Supposing that the impulse towards\ndevotion and care for others (\u201csympathetic affection\u201d) were doubly as\nstrong as it now is, life on earth could not be endured. Let it only be\nconsidered how many foolish things every one of us does day by day and\nhour by hour, merely out of solicitude and devotion for himself, and how\nunbearable he seems in doing so: and what then would it be like if we were\nto become for other people the object of the stupidities and importunities\nwith which up to the present they have only tormented themselves! Should\nwe not then take precipitately to our heels as soon as one of our\nneighbours came towards us? And would it not be necessary to overwhelm\nthis sympathetic affection with the abuse that we now reserve for egoism?\n\n\n\n\n144.\n\n\nCLOSING OUR EARS TO THE COMPLAINTS OF OTHERS.\u2014When we let our sky be\nclouded by the complaints and suffering of other mortals, who must bear\nthe consequences of such gloom? No doubt those other mortals, in addition\nto all their other burdens! If we are merely to be the echoes of their\ncomplaints, we cannot accord them either help or comfort; nor can we do so\nif we were continually keeping our ears open to listen to them,\u2014unless we\nhave learnt the art of the Olympians, who, instead of trying to make\nthemselves unhappy, endeavoured to feel edified by the misfortunes of\nmankind. But this is something too Olympian for us, although, in our\nenjoyment of tragedy, we have already taken a step towards this ideal\ndivine cannibalism.\n\n\n\n\n145.\n\n\n\u201cUNEGOISTIC.\u201d\u2014This man is empty and wishes to be filled, that one is\nover-full and wishes to be emptied: both of them feel themselves urged on\nto look for an individual who can help them. And this phenomenon,\ninterpreted in a higher sense, is in both cases known by the same name,\n\u201clove.\u201d Well? and could this love be something unegoistic?\n\n\n\n\n146.\n\n\nLOOKING BEYOND OUR NEIGHBOUR.\u2014What? Ought the nature of true morality to\nconsist for us in fixing our eyes upon the most direct and immediate\nconsequences of our action for other people, and in our coming to a\ndecision accordingly? This is only a narrow and bourgeois morality, even\nthough it may be a morality: but it seems to me that it would be more\nsuperior and liberal to look beyond these immediate consequences for our\nneighbour in order to encourage more distant purposes, even at the risk of\nmaking others suffer,\u2014as, for example, by encouraging the spirit of\nknowledge in spite of the certainty that our free-thought will have the\ninstant effect of plunging others into doubt, grief, and even worse\nafflictions. Have we not at least the right to treat our neighbour as we\ntreat ourselves? And if, where we are concerned, we do not think in such a\nnarrow and bourgeois fashion of immediate consequences and sufferings, why\nshould we be compelled to act thus in regard to our neighbour? Supposing\nthat we felt ready to sacrifice ourselves, what is there to prevent us\nfrom sacrificing our neighbour together with ourselves,\u2014just as States and\nSovereigns have hitherto sacrificed one citizen to the others, \u201cfor the\nsake of the general interest,\u201d as they say?\n\nWe too, however, have general interests, perhaps even more general than\ntheirs: so why may we not sacrifice a few individuals of this generation\nfor the benefit of generations to come? so that their affliction, anxiety,\ndespair, blunders, and misery may be deemed essential because a new plough\nis to break up the ground and render it fertile for all. Finally, we\ncommunicate the disposition to our neighbour by which he is enabled to\nfeel himself a victim: we persuade him to carry out the task for which we\nemploy him. Are we then devoid of all pity? If, however, we wish to\nachieve a victory over ourselves beyond our pity, is not this a higher and\nmore liberal attitude and disposition than that in which we only feel safe\nafter having ascertained whether an action benefits or harms our\nneighbour? On the contrary, it is by means of such sacrifice\u2014including the\nsacrifice of ourselves, as well as of our neighbours\u2014that we should\nstrengthen and elevate the general sense of human power, even supposing\nthat we attain nothing more than this. But even this itself would be a\npositive increase of happiness. Then, if even this ... but not a word\nmore! You have understood me at a glance.\n\n\n\n\n147.\n\n\nTHE CAUSE OF \u201cALTRUISM.\u201d\u2014Men have on the whole spoken of love with so much\nemphasis and adoration because they have hitherto always had so little of\nit, and have never yet been satiated with this food: in this way it became\ntheir ambrosia. If a poet wished to show universal benevolence in the\nimage of a Utopia, he would certainly have to describe an agonising and\nridiculous state of things, the like of which was never seen on\nearth,\u2014every one would be surrounded, importuned, and sighed for, not as\nat present, by one lover, but by thousands, by everybody indeed, as the\nresult of an irresistible craving which would then be as vehemently\ninsulted and cursed as selfishness has been by men of past ages. The poets\nof this new condition of things, if they had sufficient leisure to write,\nwould be dreaming of nothing but the blissful and loveless past, the\ndivine selfishness of yore, and the wonderful possibilities in former\ntimes of remaining alone, not being run after by one\u2019s friends, and of\neven being hated and despised\u2014or any other odious expressions which the\nbeautiful animal world in which we live chooses to coin.\n\n\n\n\n148.\n\n\nLOOKING FAR AHEAD.\u2014If, in accordance with the present definition, only\nthose actions are moral which are done for the sake of others, and for\ntheir sake only, then there are no moral actions at all! If, in accordance\nwith another definition, only those actions are moral which spring from\nour own free will, then there are no moral actions in this case either!\nWhat is it, then, that we designate thus, which certainly exists and\nwishes as a consequence to be explained? It is the result of a few\nintellectual blunders; and supposing that we were able to free ourselves\nfrom these errors, what would then become of \u201cmoral actions\u201d? It is due to\nthese errors that we have up to the present attributed to certain actions\na value superior to what was theirs in reality: we separated them from\n\u201cegoistic\u201d and \u201cnon-free\u201d actions. When we now set them once more in the\nlatter categories, as we must do, we certainly reduce their value (their\nown estimate of value) even below its reasonable level, because \u201cegoistic\u201d\nand \u201cnon-free\u201d actions have up to the present been under-valued owing to\nthat alleged profound and essential difference.\n\nIn future, then, will these very actions be less frequently performed,\nsince they will be less highly esteemed? Inevitably! Or at all events for\na fairly long time, as long as the scale of valuations remains under the\nreacting influence of former mistakes! But we make some return for this by\ngiving back to men their good courage for the carrying out of actions that\nare now reputed to be selfish, and thus restore their value,\u2014we relieve\nmen\u2019s bad consciences! and as up to the present egoistic actions have been\nby far the most frequent, and will be so to all eternity, we free the\nwhole conception of these actions and of life from its evil appearance!\nThis is a very high and important result. When men no longer believe\nthemselves to be evil, they cease to be so.\n\n\n\n\n\nBOOK III.\n\n\n\n\n149.\n\n\nLITTLE UNCONVENTIONAL ACTIONS ARE NECESSARY!\u2014To act occasionally in\nmatters of custom against our own better judgments; to yield in practice\nwhile reserving our own intellectual liberty; to behave like everybody\nelse and thus to show ourselves amiable and considerate to all, to\ncompensate them, as it were, even if only to some extent, for our\nunconventional opinions\u2014all this among many tolerably liberal-minded men\nis looked upon not only as permissible but even as \u201chonourable,\u201d \u201chumane,\u201d\n\u201ctolerant,\u201d and \u201cunpedantic,\u201d or whatever fine words may be used to lull\nto sleep the intellectual conscience. So, for example, one man, although\nhe may be an atheist, has his infant baptized in the usual Christian\nfashion; another goes through his period of military service, though he\nmay severely condemn all hatred between nations; and a third runs into the\nChurch with a girl because she comes from a religious family, and makes\nhis vows to a priest without feeling ashamed of it. \u201cIt is of no\nimportance if one of us does what every one else does and has done\u201d\u2014so\nsays ignorant prejudice! What a profound mistake! For nothing is of\ngreater importance than that a powerful, long-established, and irrational\ncustom should be once again confirmed by the act of some one who is\nrecognised as rational. In this way the proceeding is thought to be\nsanctioned by reason itself! All honour to your opinions! but little\nunconventional actions are of still greater value.\n\n\n\n\n150.\n\n\nTHE HAZARD OF MARRIAGES.\u2014If I were a god, and a benevolent god, the\nmarriages of men would cause me more displeasure than anything else. An\nindividual can make very great progress within the seventy years of his\nlife\u2014yea, even within thirty years: such progress, indeed, as to surprise\neven the gods! But when we then see him exposing the inheritance and\nlegacy of his struggles and victories, the laurel crown of his humanity,\non the first convenient peg where any female may pick it to pieces for\nhim; when we observe how well he can acquire and how little he is capable\nof preserving his acquisitions, and how he does not even dream that by\nprocreation he might prepare a still more victorious life,\u2014we then,\nindeed, become impatient and say, \u201cNothing can in the end result from\nhumanity, individuals are wasted, for all rationality of a great advance\nof humanity is rendered impossible by the hazard of marriages: let us\ncease from being the assiduous spectators and fools of this aimless\ndrama!\u201d It was in this mood that the gods of Epicurus withdrew long ago to\ntheir divine seclusion and felicity: they were tired of men and their love\naffairs.\n\n\n\n\n151.\n\n\nHERE ARE NEW IDEALS TO INVENT.\u2014At a time when a man is in love he should\nnot be allowed to come to a decision about his life and to determine once\nand for all the character of his society on account of a whim. We ought\npublicly to declare invalid the vows of lovers, and to refuse them\npermission to marry: and this because we should treat marriage itself much\nmore seriously, so that in cases where it is now contracted it would not\nusually be allowed in future! Are not the majority of marriages such that\nwe should not care to have them witnessed by a third party? And yet this\nthird party is scarcely ever lacking\u2014the child\u2014and he is more than a\nwitness; he is the whipping-boy and scapegoat.\n\n\n\n\n152.\n\n\nFORMULA OF OATH.\u2014\u201cIf I am now telling a lie I am no longer an honourable\nman, and every one may say so to my face.\u201d I recommend this formula in\nplace of the present judicial oath and its customary invocation to the\nDeity: it is stronger. There is no reason why even religious men should\noppose it; for as soon as the customary oath no longer serves, all the\nreligious people will have to turn to their catechism, which says, \u201cThou\nshalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n153.\n\n\nTHE MALCONTENT.\u2014He is one of the brave old warriors: angry with\ncivilisation because he believes that its object is to make all good\nthings\u2014honour, rewards, and fair women\u2014accessible even to cowards.\n\n\n\n\n154.\n\n\nCONSOLATION AMID PERILS.\u2014The Greeks, in the course of a life that was\nalways surrounded by great dangers and cataclysms, endeavoured to find in\nmeditation and knowledge a kind of security of feeling, a last _refugium_.\nWe, who live in a much more secure state, have introduced danger into\nmeditation and knowledge, and it is in life itself that we endeavour to\nfind repose, a refuge from danger.\n\n\n\n\n155.\n\n\nEXTINCT SCEPTICISM.\u2014Hazardous enterprises are rarer in modern times than\nin antiquity and in the Middle Ages, probably because modern times have no\nmore belief in omens, oracles, stars, and soothsayers. In other words, we\nhave become incapable of believing in a future which is reserved for us,\nas the ancients did, who\u2014in contradistinction to ourselves\u2014were much less\nsceptical regarding that which is to be than that which is.\n\n\n\n\n156.\n\n\nEVIL THROUGH EXUBERANCE.\u2014\u201cOh, that we should not feel too happy!\u201d\u2014such was\nthe secret fear of the Greeks in their best age. _That_ is why they\npreached moderation to themselves. And we?\n\n\n\n\n157.\n\n\nTHE WORSHIP OF NATURAL SOUNDS.\u2014What signification can we find in the fact\nthat our culture is not only indulgent to the manifestations of grief,\nsuch as tears, complaints, reproaches, and attitudes of rage and humility,\nbut even approves them and reckons them among the most noble and essential\nthings?\u2014while, on the other hand, the spirit of ancient philosophy looked\ndown upon them with contempt, without admitting their necessity in any\nway. Let us remember how Plato\u2014who was by no means one of the most inhuman\nof the philosophers\u2014speaks of the Philoctetus of the tragic stage. Is it\npossible that our modern culture is wanting in \u201cphilosophy\u201d? or, in\naccordance with the valuations of those old philosophers, do we perhaps\nall form part of the \u201cmob\u201d?\n\n\n\n\n158.\n\n\nTHE CLIMATE FOR FLATTERY.\u2014In our day flatterers should no longer be sought\nat the courts of kings, since these have all acquired a taste for\nmilitarism, which cannot tolerate flattery. But this flower even now often\ngrows in abundance in the neighbourhood of bankers and artists.\n\n\n\n\n159.\n\n\nTHE REVIVERS.\u2014Vain men value a fragment of the past more highly from the\nmoment when they are able to revive it in their imagination (especially if\nit is difficult to do so), they would even like if possible to raise it\nfrom the dead. Since, however, the number of vain people is always very\nlarge, the danger presented by historical studies, if an entire epoch\ndevotes its attention to them, is by no means small: too great an amount\nof strength is then wasted on all sorts of imaginable resurrections. The\nentire movement of romanticism is perhaps best understood from this point\nof view.\n\n\n\n\n160.\n\n\nVAIN, GREEDY, AND NOT VERY WISE.\u2014Your desires are greater than your\nunderstanding, and your vanity is even greater than your desires,\u2014to\npeople of your type a great deal of Christian practice and a little\nSchopenhauerian theory may be strongly recommended.\n\n\n\n\n161.\n\n\nBEAUTY CORRESPONDING TO THE AGE.\u2014If our sculptors, painters, and musicians\nwish to catch the significance of the age, they should represent beauty as\nbloated, gigantic, and nervous: just as the Greeks, under the influence of\ntheir morality of moderation, saw and represented beauty in the Apollo di\nBelvedere. We should, indeed, call him ugly! But the pedantic\n\u201cclassicists\u201d have deprived us of all our honesty!\n\n\n\n\n162.\n\n\nTHE IRONY OF THE PRESENT TIME.\u2014At the present day it is the habit of\nEuropeans to treat all matters of great importance with irony, because, as\nthe result of our activity in their service, we have no time to take them\nseriously.\n\n\n\n\n163.\n\n\nAGAINST ROUSSEAU.\u2014If it is true that there is something contemptible about\nour civilisation, we have two alternatives: of concluding with Rousseau\nthat, \u201cThis despicable civilisation is to blame for our bad morality,\u201d or\nto infer, contrary to Rousseau\u2019s view, that \u201cOur good morality is to blame\nfor this contemptible civilisation. Our social conceptions of good and\nevil, weak and effeminate as they are, and their enormous influence over\nboth body and soul, have had the effect of weakening all bodies and souls\nand of crushing all unprejudiced, independent, and self-reliant men, the\nreal pillars of a strong civilisation: wherever we still find the evil\nmorality to-day, we see the last crumbling ruins of these pillars.\u201d Thus\nlet paradox be opposed by paradox! It is quite impossible for the truth to\nlie with both sides: and can we say, indeed, that it lies with either?\nDecide for yourself.\n\n\n\n\n164.\n\n\nPERHAPS PREMATURE.\u2014It would seem at the present time that, under many\ndifferent and misleading names, and often with a great want of clearness,\nthose who do not feel themselves attached to morals and to established\nlaws are taking the first initial steps to organise themselves, and thus\nto create a right for themselves; whilst hitherto, as criminals,\nfree-thinkers, immoral men and miscreants, they have lived beyond the pale\nof the law, under the bane of outlawry and bad conscience, corrupted and\ncorrupting. On the whole, we should consider this as right and proper,\nalthough it may result in insecurity for the coming century and compel\nevery one to bear arms.\u2014There is thereby a counterforce which continually\nreminds us that there is no exclusively moral-making morality, and that a\nmorality which asserts itself to the exclusion of all other morality\ndestroys too much sound strength and is too dearly bought by mankind. The\nnon-conventional and deviating people, who are so often productive and\ninventive, must no longer be sacrificed: it must never again be considered\nas a disgrace to depart from morality either in actions or thought; many\nnew experiments must be made upon life and society, and the world must be\nrelieved from a huge weight of bad conscience. These general aims must be\nrecognised and encouraged by all those upright people who are seeking\ntruth.\n\n\n\n\n165.\n\n\nA MORALITY WHICH DOES NOT BORE ONE.\u2014The principal moral commandments which\na nation permits its teachers to emphasise again and again stand in\nrelation to its chief defects, and that is why it does not find them\ntiresome. The Greeks, who so often failed to employ moderation, coolness,\nfair-mindedness, and rationality in general, turned a willing ear to the\nfour Socratic virtues,\u2014they stood in such need of them, and yet had so\nlittle talent for them!\n\n\n\n\n166.\n\n\nAT THE PARTING OF THE WAYS.\u2014Shame! You wish to form part of a system in\nwhich you must be a wheel, fully and completely, or risk being crushed by\nwheels! where it is understood that each one will be that which his\nsuperiors make of him! where the seeking for \u201cconnections\u201d will form part\nof one\u2019s natural duties! where no one feels himself offended when he has\nhis attention drawn to some one with the remark, \u201cHe may be useful to you\nsome time\u201d; where people do not feel ashamed of paying a visit to ask for\nsomebody\u2019s intercession, and where they do not even suspect that by such a\nvoluntary submission to these morals, they are once and for all stamped as\nthe common pottery of nature, which others can employ or break up of their\nfree will without feeling in any way responsible for doing so,\u2014just as if\none were to say, \u201cPeople of my type will never be lacking, therefore, do\nwhat you will with me! Do not stand on ceremony!\u201d\n\n\n\n\n167.\n\n\nUNCONDITIONAL HOMAGE.\u2014When I think of the most read German philosopher,\nthe most popular German musician, and the most distinguished German\nstatesman, I cannot but acknowledge that life is now rendered unusually\narduous for these Germans, this nation of unconditional sentiments, and\nthat, too, by their own great men. We see three magnificent spectacles\nspread out before us: on each occasion there is a river rushing along in\nthe bed which it has made for itself, and even so agitated that one thinks\nat times it intends to flow uphill. And yet, however we might admire\nSchopenhauer, who would not, all things considered, like to have other\nopinions than his? Who in all greater and smaller things would now share\nthe opinions of Richard Wagner, although there may be truth in the view\nexpressed by some one: viz. that wherever Wagner gave or took offence some\nproblem lay hidden,\u2014which, however, he did not unearth for us. And,\nfinally, how many are there who would be willing and eager to agree with\nBismarck, if only he could always agree with himself, or were even to show\nsome signs of doing so for the future! It is true that it is by no means\nastonishing to find statesmen without principles, but with dominant\ninstincts; a versatile mind, actuated by these dominant and violent\ninstincts, and hence without principles\u2014these qualities are looked upon as\nreasonable and natural in a statesman. But, alas, this has up to the\npresent been so un-German; as un-German as the fuss made about music and\nthe discord and bad temper excited around the person of the musician; or\nas un-German as the new and extraordinary position taken up by\nSchopenhauer: he did not feel himself to be either above things or on his\nknees before them\u2014one or other of these alternatives might still have been\nGerman\u2014but he assumed an attitude against things! How incredible and\ndisagreeable! to range one\u2019s self with things and nevertheless be their\nadversary, and finally the adversary of one\u2019s self,\u2014what can the\nunconditional admirer do with such an example? And what, again, can he do\nwith three such examples who cannot keep the peace towards one another!\nHere we see Schopenhauer as the antagonist of Wagner\u2019s music, Wagner\nattacking Bismarck\u2019s politics, and Bismarck attacking Wagnerism and\nSchopenhauerism. What remains for us to do? Where shall we flee with our\nthirst for wholesale hero-worship! Would it not be possible to choose from\nthe music of the musician a few hundred bars of good music which appealed\nto the heart, and which we should like to take to heart because they are\ninspired by the heart,\u2014could we not stand aside with this small piece of\nplunder, and forget the rest? And could we not make a similar compromise\nas regards the philosopher and the statesman,\u2014select, take to heart, and\nin particular forget the rest?\n\nYes, if only forgetfulness were not so difficult! There was once a very\nproud man who would never on any account accept anything, good or evil,\nfrom others,\u2014from any one, indeed, but himself. When he wanted to forget,\nhowever, he could not bestow this gift upon himself, and was three times\ncompelled to conjure up the spirits. They came, listened to his desire,\nand said at last, \u201cThis is the only thing it is not in our power to give!\u201d\nCould not the Germans take warning by this experience of Manfred? Why,\nthen, should the spirits be conjured up? It is useless. We never forget\nwhat we endeavour to forget. And how great would be the \u201cbalance\u201d which we\nshould have to forget if we wished henceforth to continue wholesale\nadmirers of these three great men! It would therefore be far more\nadvisable to profit by the excellent opportunity offered us to try\nsomething new, _i.e._ to advance in the spirit of honesty towards\nourselves and become, instead of a nation of credulous repetition and of\nbitter and blind animosity, a people of conditional assent and benevolent\nopposition. We must come to learn in the first place, however, that\nunconditional homage to people is something rather ridiculous, that a\nchange of view on this point would not discredit even Germans, and that\nthere is a profound and memorable saying: \u201cCe qui importe, ce ne sont\npoint les personnes: mais les choses.\u201d This saying is like the man who\nuttered it\u2014great, honest, simple, and silent,\u2014just like Carnot, the\nsoldier and Republican. But may I at the present time speak thus to\nGermans of a Frenchman, and a Republican into the bargain? Perhaps not:\nperhaps I must not even recall what Niebuhr in his time dared to say to\nthe Germans: that no one had made such an impression of true greatness\nupon him as Carnot.\n\n\n\n\n168.\n\n\nA MODEL.\u2014What do I like about Thucydides, and how does it come that I\nesteem him more highly than Plato? He exhibits the most wide-spread and\nartless pleasure in everything typical in men and events, and finds that\neach type is possessed of a certain quantity of good sense: it is this\ngood sense which he seeks to discover. He likewise exhibits a larger\namount of practical justice than Plato; he never reviles or belittles\nthose men whom he dislikes or who have in any way injured him in the\ncourse of his life. On the contrary: while seeing only types, he\nintroduces something noble and additional into all things and persons; for\nwhat could posterity, to which he dedicates his work, do with things not\ntypical! Thus this culture of the disinterested knowledge of the world\nattains in him, the poet-thinker, a final marvellous bloom,\u2014this culture\nwhich has its poet in Sophocles, its statesman in Pericles, its doctor in\nHippocrates, and its natural philosopher in Democritus: this culture which\ndeserves to be called by the name of its teachers, the Sophists, and\nwhich, unhappily, from the moment of its baptism at once begins to grow\npale and incomprehensible to us,\u2014for henceforward we suspect that this\nculture, which was combated by Plato and all the Socratic schools, must\nhave been very immoral! The truth of this matter is so complicated and\nentangled that we feel unwilling to unravel it: so let the old error\n(_error veritate simplicior_) run its old course.\n\n\n\n\n169.\n\n\nTHE GREEK GENIUS FOREIGN TO US.\u2014Oriental or modern, Asiatic or European:\ncompared with the ancient Greeks, everything is characterised by enormity\nof size and by the revelling in great masses as the expression of the\nsublime, whilst in Paestum, Pompeii, and Athens we are astonished, when\ncontemplating Greek architecture, to see with what small masses the Greeks\nwere able to express the sublime, and how they loved to express it thus.\nIn the same way, how simple were the Greeks in the idea which they formed\nof themselves! How far we surpass them in the knowledge of man! Again, how\nfull of labyrinths would our souls and our conceptions of our souls appear\nin comparison with theirs! If we had to venture upon an architecture after\nthe style of our own souls\u2014(we are too cowardly for that!)\u2014a labyrinth\nwould have to be our model. That music which is peculiar to us, and which\nreally expresses us, lets this be clearly seen! (for in music men let\nthemselves go, because they think there is no one who can see them hiding\nbehind their music).\n\n\n\n\n170.\n\n\nANOTHER POINT OF VIEW.\u2014How we babble about the Greeks! What do we\nunderstand of their art, the soul of which was the passion for naked\nmasculine beauty! It was only by starting therefrom that they appreciated\nfeminine beauty. For the latter they had thus a perspective quite\ndifferent from ours. It was the same in regard to their love for women:\ntheir worship was of a different kind, and so also was their contempt.\n\n\n\n\n171.\n\n\nTHE FOOD OF THE MODERN MAN.\u2014He has learned to digest many things; nay,\nalmost everything; it is his ambition to do so. He would, however, be\nreally of a higher order if he did not understand this so well: _homo\npamphagus_ is not the finest type of the human race. We live between a\npast which had a more wayward and deranged taste than we, and a future\nwhich will possibly have a more select taste,\u2014we live too much midway.\n\n\n\n\n172.\n\n\nTRAGEDY AND MUSIC.\u2014Men of essentially warlike disposition, such, for\nexample, as the ancient Greeks in the time of \u00c6schylus, are difficult to\nrouse, and when pity once triumphs over their hardness they are seized as\nby a kind of giddiness or a \u201cdemoniacal power,\u201d\u2014they feel themselves\noverpowered and thrilled by a religious horror. After this they become\nsceptical about their condition; but as long as they are in it they enjoy\nthe charm of being, as it were, outside themselves, and the delight of the\nmarvellous mixed with the bitterest gall of suffering: this is the proper\nkind of drink for fighting men,\u2014something rare, dangerous, and\nbitter-sweet, which does not often fall to one\u2019s lot.\n\nTragedy appeals to souls who feel pity in this way, to those fierce and\nwarlike souls which are difficult to overcome, whether by fear or pity,\nbut which lose nothing by being softened from time to time. Of what use,\nhowever, is tragedy to those who are as open to the \u201csympathetic\naffections\u201d as the sails of a ship to the wind! When at the time of Plato\nthe Athenians had become more softened and sensitive, oh, how far they\nwere still removed from the gushing emotions of the inhabitants of our\nmodern towns and villages! And yet even then the philosophers were\nbeginning to complain of the injurious nature of tragedy. An epoch full of\ndanger such as that now beginning, in which bravery and manliness are\nrising in value, will perhaps again harden souls to such an extent that\nthey will once more stand in need of tragic poets: but in the meantime\nthese are somewhat superfluous, to put it mildly. For music, too, a better\nage may be approaching (it will certainly be a more evil age!) when\nartists will have to make their music appeal to strongly individual\nbeings, beings which will have become hard and which will be dominated by\nthe gloomy earnestness of their own passion; but of what use is music to\nthe little souls of the present age which is fast passing away, souls that\nare too unsteady, ill-developed, half-personal, inquisitive, and covetous\nof everything?\n\n\n\n\n173.\n\n\nTHE FLATTERERS OF WORK.\u2014In the glorification of \u201cwork\u201d and the\nnever-ceasing talk about the \u201cblessing of labour,\u201d I see the same secret\n_arri\u00e8re-pens\u00e9e_ as I do in the praise bestowed on impersonal acts of a\ngeneral interest, viz. a fear of everything individual. For at the sight\nof work\u2014that is to say, severe toil from morning till night\u2014we have the\nfeeling that it is the best police, viz. that it holds every one in check\nand effectively hinders the development of reason, of greed, and of desire\nfor independence. For work uses up an extraordinary proportion of nervous\nforce, withdrawing it from reflection, meditation, dreams, cares, love,\nand hatred; it dangles unimportant aims before the eyes of the worker and\naffords easy and regular gratification. Thus it happens that a society\nwhere work is continually being performed will enjoy greater security, and\nit is security which is now venerated as the supreme deity.\u2014And now,\nhorror of horrors! it is the \u201cworkman\u201d himself who has become dangerous;\nthe whole world is swarming with \u201cdangerous individuals,\u201d and behind them\nfollows the danger of dangers\u2014_the_ individuum!\n\n\n\n\n174.\n\n\nTHE MORAL FASHION OF A COMMERCIAL COMMUNITY.\u2014Behind the principle of the\npresent moral fashion: \u201cMoral actions are actions performed out of\nsympathy for others,\u201d I see the social instinct of fear, which thus\nassumes an intellectual disguise: this instinct sets forth as its supreme,\nmost important, and most immediate principle that life shall be relieved\nof all the dangerous characteristics which it possessed in former times,\nand that every one must help with all his strength towards the attainment\nof this end. It is for that reason that only those actions which keep in\nview the general security and the feeling of security of society are\ncalled \u201cgood.\u201d How little joy must men now have in themselves when such a\ntyranny of fear prescribes their supreme moral law, if they make no\nobjection when commanded to turn their eyes from themselves and to look\naside from themselves! And yet at the same time they have lynx eyes for\nall distress and suffering elsewhere! Are we not, then, with this gigantic\nintention of ours of smoothing down every sharp edge and corner in life,\nutilising the best means of turning mankind into sand! Small, soft, round,\ninfinite sand! Is that your ideal, ye harbingers of the \u201csympathetic\naffections\u201d? In the meantime even the question remains unanswered whether\nwe are of more use to our neighbour in running immediately and continually\nto his help,\u2014which for the most part can only be done in a very\nsuperficial way, as otherwise it would become a tyrannical meddling and\nchanging,\u2014or by transforming ourselves into something which our neighbour\ncan look upon with pleasure,\u2014something, for example, which may be compared\nto a beautiful, quiet, and secluded garden, protected by high walls\nagainst storms and the dust of the roads, but likewise with a hospitable\ngate.\n\n\n\n\n175.\n\n\nFUNDAMENTAL BASIS OF A CULTURE OF TRADERS.\u2014We have now an opportunity of\nwatching the manifold growth of the culture of a society of which commerce\nis the soul, just as personal rivalry was the soul of culture among the\nancient Greeks, and war, conquest, and law among the ancient Romans. The\ntradesman is able to value everything without producing it, and to value\nit according to the requirements of the consumer rather than his own\npersonal needs. \u201cHow many and what class of people will consume this?\u201d is\nhis question of questions. Hence, he instinctively and incessantly employs\nthis mode of valuation and applies it to everything, including the\nproductions of art and science, and of thinkers, scholars, artists,\nstatesmen, nations, political parties, and even entire ages: with respect\nto everything produced or created he inquires into the supply and demand\nin order to estimate for himself the value of a thing. This, when once it\nhas been made the principle of an entire culture, worked out to its most\nminute and subtle details, and imposed upon every kind of will and\nknowledge, this is what you men of the coming century will be proud of,\u2014if\nthe prophets of the commercial classes are right in putting that century\ninto your possession! But I have little belief in these prophets. _Credat\nJud\u00e6us Apella_\u2014to speak with Horace.\n\n\n\n\n176.\n\n\nTHE CRITICISM OF OUR ANCESTORS.\u2014Why should we now endure the truth, even\nabout the most recent past? Because there is now always a new generation\nwhich feels itself in contradiction to the past and enjoys in this\ncriticism the first-fruits of its sense of power. In former times the new\ngeneration, on the contrary, wished to base itself on the old and began to\nfeel conscious of its power, not only in accepting the opinions of its\nancestors but, if possible, taking them even more seriously. To criticise\nancestral authority was in former times a vice; but at the present time\nour idealists begin by making it their starting-point.\n\n\n\n\n177.\n\n\nTO LEARN SOLITUDE.\u2014O ye poor fellows in the great centres of the world\u2019s\npolitics, ye young and talented men, who, urged on by ambition, think it\nyour duty to propound your opinion of every event of the day,\u2014for\nsomething is always happening,\u2014who, by thus making a noise and raising a\ncloud of dust, mistake yourselves for the rolling chariot of history; who,\nbecause ye always listen, always suit the moment when ye can put in your\nword or two, thereby lose all real productiveness. Whatever may be your\ndesire to accomplish great deeds, the deep silence of pregnancy never\ncomes to you! The event of the day sweeps you along like straws before the\nwind whilst ye lie under the illusion that ye are chasing the event,\u2014poor\nfellows! If a man wishes to act the hero on the stage he must not think of\nforming part of the chorus; he should not even know how the chorus is made\nup.\n\n\n\n\n178.\n\n\nDAILY WEAR AND TEAR.\u2014These young men are lacking neither in character, nor\ntalent, nor zeal, but they have never had sufficient time to choose their\nown path; they have, on the contrary, been habituated from the most tender\nage to have their path pointed out to them. At the time when they were\nripe enough to be sent into the \u201cdesert,\u201d something else was done with\nthem. They were turned to account, estranged from themselves, and brought\nup in such a way that they became accustomed to be worn out by their daily\ntoil. This was imposed on them as a duty, and now they cannot do without\nit; they would not wish it to be otherwise. The only thing that cannot be\nrefused to these poor beasts of burden is their \u201cholidays\u201d\u2014such is the\nname they give to this ideal of leisure in an overworked century;\n\u201cholidays,\u201d in which they may for once be idle, idiotic, and childish to\ntheir heart\u2019s content.\n\n\n\n\n179.\n\n\nAS LITTLE STATE AS POSSIBLE!\u2014All political and economic matters are not of\nsuch great value that they ought to be dealt with by the most talented\nminds: such a waste of intellect is at bottom worse than any state of\ndistress. These matters are, and ever will be, the province of smaller\nminds, and others than the smaller minds should not be at the service of\nthis workshop: it would be better to let the machinery work itself to\npieces again! But as matters stand at the present time, when not only do\nall people believe that they must know all about it day by day, but wish\nlikewise to be always busy about it, and in so doing neglect their own\nwork, it is a great and ridiculous mistake. The price that has to be paid\nfor the \u201cpublic safety\u201d is far too high, and, what is maddest of all, we\neffect the very opposite of \u201cpublic safety\u201d a fact which our own dear\ncentury has undertaken to prove, as if this had never been proved before!\nTo make society secure against thieves and fire, and to render it\nthoroughly fit for all kinds of trade and traffic, and to transform the\nState in a good and evil sense into a kind of Providence\u2014these aims are\nlow, mediocre, and not by any means indispensable; and we should not seek\nto attain them by the aid of the highest means and instruments which\nexist\u2014means which we should reserve precisely for our highest and rarest\naims! Our epoch, however much it may babble about economy, is a\nspendthrift: it wastes intellect, the most precious thing of all.\n\n\n\n\n180.\n\n\nWARS.\u2014The great wars of our own day are the outcome of historical study.\n\n\n\n\n181.\n\n\nGOVERNING.\u2014Some people govern because of their passion for governing;\nothers in order that they may not be governed,\u2014the latter choose it as the\nlesser of two evils.\n\n\n\n\n182.\n\n\nROUGH AND READY CONSISTENCY.\u2014People say of a man with great respect, \u201cHe\nis a character\u201d\u2014that is, when he exhibits a rough and ready consistency,\nwhen it is evident even to the dullest eye. But, whenever a more subtle\nand profound intellect sets itself up and shows consistency in a higher\nmanner, the spectators deny the existence of any character. That is why\ncunning statesmen usually act their comedy under the cloak of a kind of\nrough and ready consistency.\n\n\n\n\n183.\n\n\nTHE OLD AND THE YOUNG.\u2014\u201cThere is something immoral about Parliaments,\u201d\u2014so\nmany people still think,\u2014\u201cfor in them views even against the Government\nmay be expressed.\u201d\u2014\u201cWe should always adopt that view of a subject which\nour gracious Lord commands,\u201d\u2014this is the eleventh commandment in many an\nhonest old head, especially in Northern Germany. We laugh at it as an\nout-of-date fashion, but in former times it was the moral law itself.\nPerhaps we shall again some day laugh at that which is now considered as\nmoral by a generation brought up under a parliamentary r\u00e9gime, namely, the\npolicy of placing one\u2019s party before one\u2019s own wisdom, and of answering\nevery question concerning the public welfare in such a way as to fill the\nsails of the party with a favourable gust of wind. \u201cWe must take that view\nof a subject which the position of our party calls for\u201d\u2014such would be the\ncanon. In the service of such morals we may now behold every kind of\nsacrifice, even martyrdom and conquest over one\u2019s self.\n\n\n\n\n184.\n\n\nTHE STATE AS A PRODUCTION OF ANARCHISTS.\u2014In countries inhabited by\ntractable men there are always a few backsliders and intractable people.\nFor the present the latter have joined the Socialists more than any other\nparty. If it should happen that these people once come to have the making\nof the laws, they may be relied upon to impose iron chains upon\nthemselves, and to practise a dreadful discipline,\u2014they know themselves!\nand they will endure these harsh laws with the knowledge that they\nthemselves have imposed them\u2014the feeling of power and of this particular\npower will be too recent among them and too attractive for them not to\nsuffer anything for its sake.\n\n\n\n\n185.\n\n\nBEGGARS.\u2014Beggars ought to be suppressed; because we get angry both when we\nhelp them and when we do not.\n\n\n\n\n186.\n\n\nBUSINESS MEN.\u2014Your business is your greatest prejudice, it binds you to\nyour locality, your society and your tastes. Diligent in business but lazy\nin thought, satisfied with your paltriness and with the cloak of duty\nconcealing this contentment: thus you live, and thus you like your\nchildren to be.\n\n\n\n\n187.\n\n\nA POSSIBLE FUTURE.\u2014Is it impossible for us to imagine a social state in\nwhich the criminal will publicly denounce himself and dictate his own\npunishment, in the proud feeling that he is thus honouring the law which\nhe himself has made, that he is exercising his power, the power of a\nlawmaker, in thus punishing himself? He may offend for once, but by his\nown voluntary punishment he raises himself above his offence, and not only\nexpiates it by his frankness, greatness, and calmness, but adds to it a\npublic benefit.\u2014Such would be the criminal of a possible future, a\ncriminal who would, it is true, presuppose a future legislation based upon\nthis fundamental idea: \u201cI yield in great things as well as in small only\nto the law which I myself have made.\u201d How many experiments must yet be\nmade! How many futures have yet to dawn upon mankind!\n\n\n\n\n188.\n\n\nSTIMULANTS AND FOOD.\u2014Nations are deceived so often because they are always\nlooking for a deceiver, _i.e._ a stimulating wine for their senses. When\nthey can only have this wine they are glad to put up even with inferior\nbread. Intoxication is to them more than nutriment\u2014this is the bait with\nwhich they always let themselves be caught! What, to them, are men chosen\nfrom among themselves\u2014although they may be the most expert specialists\u2014as\ncompared with the brilliant conquerors, or ancient and magnificent\nprincely houses! In order that he may inspire them with faith, the\ndemagogue must at least exhibit to them a prospect of conquest and\nsplendour. People will always obey, and even do more than obey, provided\nthat they can become intoxicated in doing so. We may not even offer them\nrepose and pleasure without this laurel crown and its maddening influence.\n\nThis vulgar taste which ascribes greater importance to intoxication than\nnutrition did not by any means originate in the lower ranks of the\npopulation: it was, on the contrary, transplanted there, and on this\nbackward soil it grows in great abundance, whilst its real origin must be\nsought amongst the highest intellects, where it flourished for thousands\nof years. The people is the last virgin soil upon which this brilliant\nweed can grow. Well, then, is it really to the people that we should\nentrust politics in order that they may thereby have their daily\nintoxication?\n\n\n\n\n189.\n\n\nHIGH POLITICS.\u2014Whatever may be the influence in high politics of\nutilitarianism and the vanity of individuals and nations, the sharpest\nspur which urges them onwards is their need for the feeling of power\u2014a\nneed which rises not only in the souls of princes and rulers, but also\ngushes forth from time to time from inexhaustible sources in the people.\nThe time comes again and again when the masses are ready to stake their\nlives and their fortunes, their consciences and their virtue, in order\nthat they may secure that highest of all enjoyments and rule as a\nvictorious, tyrannical, and arbitrary nation over other nations (or at all\nevents think that they do).\n\nOn occasions such as these, feelings of prodigality, sacrifice, hope,\nconfidence, extraordinary audacity, and enthusiasm will burst forth so\nabundantly that a sovereign who is ambitious or far-sighted will be able\nto seize the opportunity for making war, counting upon the good conscience\nof his people to hide his injustice. Great conquerors have always given\nutterance to the pathetic language of virtue; they have always been\nsurrounded by crowds of people who felt themselves, as it were, in a state\nof exaltation and would listen to none but the most elevated oratory. The\nstrange madness of moral judgments! When man experiences the sensation of\npower he feels and calls himself good; and at exactly the same time the\nothers who have to endure his power call him evil!\u2014Hesiod, in his fable of\nthe epochs of man, has twice in succession depicted the same epoch, that\nof the heroes of Homer, and has thus made two epochs out of one: to those\nwho lived under the terrible iron heel of those adventurous despots, or\nhad heard their ancestors speak of them, the epoch appeared to be evil;\nbut the descendants of those chivalric races worshipped it as the \u201cgood\nold times,\u201d and as an almost ideally blissful age. The poet could thus not\nhelp doing what he did,\u2014his audience probably included the descendants of\nboth races.\n\n\n\n\n190.\n\n\nFORMER GERMAN CULTURE.\u2014When the Germans began to interest other European\nnations, which is not so very long ago, it was owing to a culture which\nthey no longer possess to-day, and which they have indeed shaken off with\na blind ardour, as if it had been some disease; and yet they have not been\nable to replace it by anything better than political and national lunacy.\nThey have in this way succeeded in becoming even more interesting to other\nnations than they were formerly through their culture: and may that\nsatisfy them! It is nevertheless undeniable that this German culture has\nfooled Europeans, and that it did not deserve the interest shown in it,\nand much less the imitation and emulation displayed by other nations in\ntrying to rival it.\n\nLet us look back for a moment upon Schiller, Wilhelm von Humboldt,\nSchleiermacher, Hegel, and Schelling; let us read their correspondence and\nmingle for a time with the large circle of their followers: what have they\nin common, what characteristics have they, that fill us, as we are now,\npartly with a feeling of nausea and partly with pitiful and touching\nemotions? First and foremost, the passion for appearing at all costs to be\nmorally exalted, and then the desire for giving utterance to brilliant,\nfeeble, and inconsequential remarks, together with their fixed purpose of\nlooking upon everything (characters, passions, times, customs) as\nbeautiful\u2014\u201cbeautiful,\u201d alas, in accordance with a bad and vague taste,\nwhich nevertheless pretended to be of Hellenic origin. We behold in these\npeople a weak, good-natured, and glistening idealism, which, above all,\nwished to exhibit noble attitudes and noble voices, something at once\npresumptuous and inoffensive, and animated by a cordial aversion to \u201ccold\u201d\nor \u201cdry\u201d reality\u2014as also to anatomy, complete passions, and every kind of\nphilosophical continence and scepticism, but especially towards the\nknowledge of nature in so far as it was impossible to use it as religious\nsymbolism.\n\nGoethe, in his own characteristic fashion, observed from afar these\nmovements of German culture: placing himself beyond their influence,\ngently remonstrating, silent, more and more confirmed in his own better\ncourse. A little later, and Schopenhauer also was an observer of these\nmovements\u2014a great deal of the world and devilry of the world had again\nbeen revealed to him, and he spoke of it both roughly and\nenthusiastically, for there is a certain beauty in this devilry! And what\nwas it, then, that really seduced the foreigners and prevented them from\nviewing this movement as did Goethe and Schopenhauer, or, better, from\nignoring it altogether? It was that faint lustre, that inexplicable\nstarlight which formed a mysterious halo around this culture. The\nforeigners said to themselves: \u201cThis is all very very remote from us; our\nsight, hearing, understanding, enjoyment, and powers of valuations are\nlost here, but in spite of that there may be some stars! There may be\nsomething in it! Is it possible that the Germans have quietly discovered\nsome corner of heaven and settled there? We must try to come nearer to\nthese Germans.\u201d So they did begin to come nearer to the Germans, while not\nso very long afterwards the Germans put themselves to some trouble to get\nrid of this starlight halo: they knew only too well that they had not been\nin heaven, but only in a cloud!\n\n\n\n\n191.\n\n\nBETTER MEN.\u2014They tell me that our art is meant for the men of the present\nday, these greedy, unsatisfied, undisciplined, disgusted, and harassed\nspirits, and that it exhibits to them a picture of happiness, exaltation,\nand unworldliness beside that of their own brutality, so that for once\nthey may forget and breathe freely; nay, perhaps find that they may derive\nsome encouragement towards flight and conversion from that oblivion. Poor\nartists, with such a public as this; half of whose thoughts require the\nattention of a priest, and the other half the attention of an alienist!\nHow much happier was Corneille\u2014\u201cOur great Corneille!\u201d as Madame de S\u00e9vign\u00e9\nexclaimed, with the accent of a woman in the presence of a whole man,\u2014how\nfar superior was his audience, which he could please with pictures of\nchivalric virtues, strict duty, generous devotion, and heroic self-denial!\nHow differently did he and they love existence, not as coming from blind\nand confused \u201cwill,\u201d which we curse because we cannot destroy it; but\nloving existence as a place, so to speak, where greatness joined with\nhumanity is possible, and where even the greatest restraint of form, such\nas submission to the caprice of priests and princes, could not suppress\neither the pride, chivalric feeling, the grace or the intellect of\nindividuals, but could, on the contrary, be felt as a charm and incentive,\nas a welcome contrast to innate self-glorification and distinction and the\ninherited power of volition and passion.\n\n\n\n\n192.\n\n\nTHE DESIRE FOR PERFECT OPPONENTS.\u2014It cannot be denied that the French have\nbeen the most Christian nation in the world, not because the devotion of\nmasses in France has been greater than elsewhere, but because those\nChristian ideals which are most difficult to realise have become\nincarnated here instead of merely remaining fancies, intentions, or\nimperfect beginnings. Take Pascal, for example, the greatest of all\nChristians in his combination of ardour, intellect, and honesty, and\nconsider what elements had to be combined in his case! Take F\u00e9nelon, the\nmost perfect and attractive embodiment of ecclesiastical culture in all\nits power: a sublime golden mean of whom a historian would be tempted to\nprove the impossibility, whilst in reality he was merely the perfection of\nsomething exceedingly difficult and improbable. Take Madame de Guyon among\nher companions, the French Quietists: and everything that the eloquence\nand ardour of the Apostle Paul has endeavoured to divine with regard to\nthe Christian\u2019s state of semi-divinity, this most sublime, loving, silent,\nand ecstatic state is seen verified in her, without, however, that Jewish\nobtrusiveness that Paul showed towards God\u2014due in the case of Madame de\nGuyon to the real old French artlessness in words and gestures,\nartlessness at once womanly, subtle, and distinguished. Consider, again,\nthe founder of the Trappists\u2014the last person who really took seriously the\nascetic ideal of Christianity, not because he was an exception among\nFrenchmen, but because he was a true Frenchman: for up to our own day his\ngloomy organisation has not been able to acclimatise itself and to\nprosper, except among Frenchmen; and it has followed them into Alsace and\nAlgeria.\n\nLet us not forget the Huguenots, either: that combination of a martial and\nindustrial spirit, refined manners and Christian severity, has never been\nmore beautifully exhibited. And it was at Port Royal that the great\nChristian erudition beheld its last era of prosperity; and in France more\nthan anywhere else great men know how to prosper. Though not at all\nsuperficial, a great Frenchman has always his apparent superficiality;\u2014he\nhas, so to speak, a natural skin for his real contents and depth,\u2014while,\non the other hand, the depth of a great German is generally, as it were,\nclosed up in an ugly-shaped box, like an elixir, which, by means of a hard\nand curious covering, endeavours to preserve itself from the light of day\nand the touch of thoughtless hands. And now let us endeavour to find out\nwhy a people like the French, so prolific in perfect types of Christians,\nlikewise necessarily brought forth the perfect contrary types, those of\nunchristian free-thought! The French free-thinker, in his own inward\nbeing, had to fight against truly great men, and not, like the\nfree-thinkers of other nations, merely against dogmas and sublime\nabortions.\n\n\n\n\n193.\n\n\n_ESPRIT_ AND MORALS.\u2014The German, who possesses the secret of knowing how\nto be tedious in spite of wit, knowledge, and feeling, and who has\nhabituated himself to consider tediousness as moral, is in dread in the\npresence of French _esprit_ lest it should tear out the eyes of\nmorality\u2014but a dread mingled with \u201cfascination,\u201d like that experienced by\nthe little bird in the presence of the rattlesnake. Amongst all the\ncelebrated Germans none possessed more _esprit_ than Hegel, but he also\nhad that great German dread of it which brought about his peculiar and\ndefective style. For the nature of this style resembles a kernel, which is\nwrapped up so many times in an outer covering that it can scarcely peep\nthrough, now and then glancing forth bashfully and inquisitively, like\n\u201cyoung women peeping through their veils,\u201d to use the words of that old\nwoman-hater, \u00c6schylus. This kernel, however, is a witty though often\nimpertinent joke on intellectual subjects, a subtle and daring combination\nof words, such as is necessary in a society of thinkers as gilding for a\nscientific pill\u2014but, enveloped as it is in an almost impenetrable cover,\nit exhibits itself as the most abstruse science, and likewise as the worst\npossible moral tediousness. Here the Germans had a permissible form of\n_esprit_ and they revelled in it with such boundless delight that even\nSchopenhauer\u2019s unusually fine understanding could not grasp it\u2014during the\nwhole of his life he thundered against the spectacle that the Germans\noffered to him, but he could never explain it.\n\n\n\n\n194.\n\n\nVANITY OF THE TEACHERS OF MORALS.\u2014The relatively small success which\nteachers of morals have met with may be explained by the fact that they\nwanted too much at once, _i.e._ they were too ambitious and too fond of\nlaying down precepts for everybody. In other words, they were beating the\nair and making speeches to animals in order to turn them into men; what\nwonder, then, that the animals thought this tedious! We should rather\nchoose limited circles and endeavour to find and promote morals for them:\nfor instance, we should make speeches to wolves with the object of turning\nthem into dogs; but, above all, the greatest success will remain for the\nman who does not seek to educate either everybody or certain limited\ncircles, but only one single individual, and who cannot be turned to the\nright or left from his straight purpose. The last century was superior to\nours precisely because it possessed so many individually educated men, as\nwell as educators in the same proportion, who had made this their life\u2019s\ntask, and who with this task were dignified not only in their own eyes but\nin those of all the remaining \u201cgood society.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n195.\n\n\nTHE SO-CALLED CLASSICAL EDUCATION.\u2014Alas! we discover that our life is\nconsecrated to knowledge and that we should throw it away, nay, that we\nshould even have to throw it away if this consecration did not protect us\nfrom ourselves: we repeat this couplet, and not without deep emotion:\n\n\n    Thee, Fate, I follow, though I fain would not,\n    And yet I must, with many a sigh and groan!\n\n\nAnd then, in looking backwards over the course of our lives, we discover\nthat there is one thing that cannot be restored to us: the wasted period\nof our youth, when our teachers did not utilise these ardent and eager\nyears to lead us to the knowledge of things, but merely to this so-called\n\u201cclassical education\u201d! Only think of this wasted youth, when we were\ninoculated clumsily and painfully with an imperfect knowledge of the\nGreeks and Romans as well as of their languages, contrary to the highest\nprinciple of all culture, which holds that we should not give food except\nto those who hunger for it! Think of that period of our lives when we had\nmathematics and physics forced down our throats, instead of being first of\nall made acquainted with the despair of ignorance, instead of having our\nlittle daily life, our activities, and everything occurring in our houses,\nour workshops, in the sky, and in nature, split up into thousands of\nproblems, painful, humiliating and irritating problems\u2014and thus having our\ncuriosity made acquainted with the fact that we first of all require a\nmathematical and mechanical knowledge before we can be allowed to rejoice\nin the absolute logic of this knowledge! If we had only been imbued with\nreverence for those branches of science, if we had only been made to\ntremble with emotion\u2014were it only for once\u2014at the struggles, the defeats,\nand the renewed combats of those great men, of the martyrdom which is the\nhistory of pure science! But, on the contrary, we were allowed to develop\na certain contempt for those sciences in favour of historical training,\nformal education(4) and \u201cclassicism.\u201d\n\nAnd we allowed ourselves to be so easily deceived! Formal education! Might\nwe not have pointed to the best teachers at our high schools and asked\nlaughingly, \u201cWhere then do they keep their formal education? and, if it is\nwanting in them, how can they teach it?\u201d And classicism! Did we get any of\nthat instruction which the ancients used to impart to their youth? Did we\nlearn to speak or to write like them? Did we ceaselessly exercise\nourselves in that duel of speech, dialectic? Did we learn to move as\nbeautifully and proudly as they did, and to excel as they did in\nwrestling, throwing, and boxing? Did we learn anything of that practical\nasceticism of all the Greek philosophers? Did we receive any training in a\nsingle ancient virtue, and in the way in which the ancients were trained\nin it? Was not all meditation upon morals wanting in our education?\u2014And\nhow much more the only possible criticism on the subject of morality,\nthose courageous and earnest attempts to live according to this or that\nmorality! Did our teachers ever stir up a feeling in us which the ancients\nvalued more highly than moderns? Did they in the spirit of the ancients\nindicate to us the divisions of the day and of life, and those aims by\nwhich the lives of the ancients were guided? Did we learn the ancient\nlanguages as we now learn the modern ones, viz. that we might speak them\nfluently and well? Nowhere can we find a real proficiency or any new\nfaculty as the result of those toilsome years! only the knowledge of what\nmen had learnt and were able to do in past ages!\n\nAnd what knowledge! Nothing becomes clearer to me year by year than the\nfact that the entire Greek and ancient mode of life, however simple and\nevident it must seem to our eyes, is in truth very difficult to\nunderstand, and even scarcely accessible, and that the customary ease with\nwhich we babble about the ancients is either giddy levity or the old\nhereditary conceit of our thoughtlessness. We are deceived by words and\nideas which appear to resemble our own, but behind them there is always\nconcealed a feeling which must be strange, incomprehensible, or painful to\nour modern conceptions. And these are realms in which boys are allowed to\nroam about! Enough: we roamed about them in our childhood, and there we\nbecame seized with an almost ineradicable antipathy for all antiquity, the\nantipathy arising from an intimacy which was apparently too great! For so\ngreat is the conceit of our classical teachers, who would almost make it\nappear that they had gained full control over the ancients, that they pass\non this conceit to their pupils, together with the suspicion that such a\npossession is of little use for making people happy, but is good enough\nfor honest, foolish old book-worms. \u201cLet them brood over their treasure:\nit is well worthy of them!\u201d\u2014It is with this unexpressed thought that we\ncompleted our classical education. It can\u2019t be changed now\u2014for us, at all\nevents! But let us not think of ourselves alone!\n\n\n\n\n196.\n\n\nTHE MOST PERSONAL QUESTIONS OF TRUTH.\u2014What am I really doing, and what do\nI mean by doing it? That is the question of truth which is not taught\nunder our present system of education, and consequently not asked, because\nthere is no time for it. On the other hand, we have always time and\ninclination for talking nonsense with children, rather than telling them\nthe truth; for flattering women who will later on be mothers, rather than\ntelling them the truth; and for speaking with young men about their future\nand their pleasures, rather than about the truth!\n\nBut what, after all, are seventy years!\u2014Time passes, and they soon come to\nan end; it matters as little to us as it does to the wave to know how and\nwhither it is rolling! No, it might even be wisdom not to know it.\n\n\u201cAgreed; but it shows a want of pride not even to inquire into the matter;\nour culture does not tend to make people proud.\u201d\n\n\u201cSo much the better!\u201d\n\n\u201cIs it really?\u201d\n\n\n\n\n197.\n\n\nENMITY OF THE GERMANS TOWARDS ENLIGHTENMENT.\u2014Let us consider the\ncontributions which in the first half of this century the Germans made to\ngeneral culture by their intellectual work. In the first place, let us\ntake the German philosophers: they went back to the first and oldest stage\nof speculation, for they were content with conceptions instead of\nexplanations, like the thinkers of dreamy epochs\u2014a pre-scientific type of\nphilosophy was thus revived by them. Secondly, we have the German\nhistorians and romanticists: their efforts on the whole aimed at restoring\nto the place of honour certain old and primitive sentiments, especially\nChristianity, the \u201csoul of the people,\u201d folk-lore, folk-speech,\nmedi\u00e6valism, Oriental asceticism, and Hinduism. In the third place, there\nare the natural philosophers who fought against the spirit of Newton and\nVoltaire, and, like Goethe and Schopenhauer, endeavoured to re-establish\nthe idea of a deified or diabolised nature, and of its absolute ethical\nand symbolical meaning. The main general tendency of the Germans was\ndirected against enlightenment and against those social revolutions which\nwere stupidly mistaken for the consequences of enlightenment: the piety\ntowards everything that existed tried to become piety towards everything\nthat had ever existed, only in order that heart and mind might be\npermitted to fill themselves and gush forth again, thus leaving no space\nfor future and novel aims. The cult of feeling took the place of the cult\nof reason, and the German musicians, as the best exponents of all that is\ninvisible, enthusiastic, legendary, and passionate, showed themselves more\nsuccessful in building up the new temple than all the other artists in\nwords and thoughts.\n\nIf, in considering these details, we have taken into account the fact that\nmany good things were said and investigated, and that many things have\nsince then been more fairly judged than on any previous occasion, there\nyet remains to be said of the whole that it was a general danger, and one\nby no means small, to set knowledge altogether below feeling under the\nappearance of an entire and definitive acquaintance with the past\u2014and, to\nuse that expression of Kant, who thus defined his own particular task\u2014\u201cTo\nmake way again for belief by fixing the limits of knowledge.\u201d Let us once\nmore breathe freely, the hour of this danger is past! And yet, strange to\nsay, the very spirits which these Germans conjured up with such eloquence\nhave at length become the most dangerous for the intentions of those who\ndid conjure them up: history, the comprehension of origin and development,\nsympathy with the past, the new passion for feeling and knowledge, after\nthey had been for a long time at the service of this obscure exalted and\nretrograde spirit, have once more assumed another nature, and are now\nsoaring with outstretched wings above the heads of those who once upon a\ntime conjured them forth, as new and stronger genii of that very\nenlightenment to combat which they had been resuscitated. It is this\nenlightenment which we have now to carry forward,\u2014caring nothing for the\nfact that there has been and still is \u201ca great revolution,\u201d and again a\ngreat \u201creaction\u201d against it: these are but playful crests of foam when\ncompared with the truly great current on which we float, and want to\nfloat.\n\n\n\n\n198.\n\n\nASSIGNING PRESTIGE TO ONE\u2019S COUNTRY.\u2014It is the men of culture who\ndetermine the rank of their country, and they are characterised by an\ninnumerable number of great inward experiences, which they have digested\nand can now value justly. In France and Italy this fell to the lot of the\nnobility; in Germany, where up to now the nobility has been, as a rule,\ncomposed of men who had not much intellect to boast about (perhaps this\nwill soon cease to be the case), it was the task of the priests, the\nschool teachers and their descendants.\n\n\n\n\n199.\n\n\nWE ARE NOBLER.\u2014Fidelity, generosity, concern for one\u2019s good reputation:\nthese three qualities, combined in one sentiment, we call noble,\ndistinguished, aristocratic; and in this respect we excel the Greeks. We\ndo not wish to give this up at any cost under the pretext that the ancient\nobjects of these virtues have rightly fallen in esteem, but we wish\ncautiously to substitute new objects for these most precious and\nhereditary impulses. To understand why the sentiments of the noblest\nGreeks must be considered as inferior and scarcely respectable in the\npresent age, where we are still under the influence of the chivalric and\nfeudal nobility, we must recall the words of consolation to which Ulysses\ngave utterance in the midst of the most humiliating situations, \u201cBear with\nit, my dear heart, bear with it! Thou hast borne with many more swinish\nthings(5) than these!\u201d As an instance of this mythical example, consider\nalso the tale of that Athenian officer, who, when threatened with a stick\nby another officer in the presence of the entire general staff, shook off\nhis disgrace with the words, \u201cStrike, but listen to me.\u201d (This was\nThemistocles, that ingenious Ulysses of the classical epoch, who was just\nthe man at the moment of disgrace to address to his \u201cdear heart\u201d that\nverse of comfort and affliction.)\n\nThe Greeks were far from making light of life and death because of an\ninsult, as we, influenced by a hereditary spirit of chivalric\nadventurousness and self-devotion, are in the habit of doing; or from\nlooking for opportunities of honourably risking life and death, as in\nduels; or from valuing the preservation of an unstained name (honour) more\nthan the acquirement of an evil reputation, when the latter was compatible\nwith glory and the feeling of power; or from remaining faithful to the\nprejudices and the articles of faith of a caste, when these could prevent\nthem from becoming tyrants. For this is the ignoble secret of the good\nGreek aristocrat: out of sheer jealousy he treats every one of the members\nof his caste as being on an equal footing with himself, but he is ready at\nevery moment to spring like a tiger on his prey\u2014despotism. What matter\nlies, murders, treason, or the betrayal of his native city to him! Justice\nwas an extremely difficult matter for people of this kind to\nunderstand\u2014nay, justice was almost something incredible. \u201cThe just man\u201d\nwas to the Greeks what \u201cthe saint\u201d was to the Christians. When Socrates,\nhowever, laid down the axiom, \u201cThe most virtuous man is the happiest,\u201d\nthey could not trust their ears; they thought they had heard a madman\nspeaking. For, as a picture of the happiest man, every nobleman had in his\nmind the cheeky audacity and devilry of the tyrant who sacrifices\neverything and every one to his own exuberance and pleasure. Among people\nwhose imagination secretly raved about such happiness, the worship of the\nState could not, of course, have been too deeply implanted\u2014but I think\nthat men whose desire for power does not rage so blindly as that of the\nGreek noblemen no longer stand in need of such idolatry of the State, by\nmeans of which, in past ages, such a passion was kept within due bounds.\n\n\n\n\n200.\n\n\nENDURANCE OF POVERTY.\u2014There is one great advantage in noble extraction: it\nmakes us endure poverty better.\n\n\n\n\n201.\n\n\nTHE FUTURE OF THE NOBILITY.\u2014The bearing of the aristocratic classes shows\nthat, in all the members of their body the consciousness of power is\ncontinually playing its fascinating game. Thus people of aristocratic\nhabits, men or women, never sink worn out into a chair; when every one\nelse makes himself comfortable, as in a train, for example, they avoid\nreclining at their ease; they do not appear to get tired after standing at\nCourt for hours at a stretch; they do not furnish their houses in a\ncomfortable manner, but in such a way as to produce the impression of\nsomething grand and imposing, as if they had to serve as a residence for\ngreater and taller beings; they reply to a provoking speech with dignity\nand clearness of mind, and not as if scandalised, crushed, shamed, or out\nof breath in the plebeian fashion. As the aristocrat is able to preserve\nthe appearance of being possessed of a superior physical force which never\nleaves him, he likewise wishes by his aspect of constant serenity and\ncivility of disposition, even in the most trying circumstances, to convey\nthe impression that his mind and soul are equal to all dangers and\nsurprises. A noble culture may resemble, so far as passions are concerned,\neither a horseman who takes pleasure in making his proud and fiery animal\ntrot in the Spanish fashion,\u2014we have only to recollect the age of Louis\nXIV.,\u2014or like the rider who feels his horse dart away with him like the\nelemental forces, to such a degree that both horse and rider come near\nlosing their heads, but, owing to the enjoyment of the delight, do keep\nvery clear heads: in both these cases this aristocratic culture breathes\npower, and if very often in its customs only the appearance of the feeling\nof power is required, nevertheless the real sense of superiority continues\nconstantly to increase as the result of the impression which this display\nmakes upon those who are not aristocrats.\n\nThis indisputable happiness of aristocratic culture, based as it is on the\nfeeling of superiority, is now beginning to rise to ever higher levels;\nfor now, thanks to the free spirits, it is henceforth permissible and not\ndishonourable for people who have been born and reared in aristocratic\ncircles to enter the domain of knowledge, where they may secure more\nintellectual consecrations and learn chivalric services even higher than\nthose of former times, and where they may look up to that ideal of\nvictorious wisdom which as yet no age has been able to set before itself\nwith so good a conscience as the period which is about to dawn. Lastly,\nwhat is to be the occupation of the nobility in the future if it becomes\nmore evident from day to day that it is less and less indecorus to take\nany part in politics?\n\n\n\n\n202.\n\n\nTHE CARE OF THE HEALTH.\u2014We have scarcely begun to devote any attention to\nthe physiology of criminals, and yet we have already reached the\ninevitable conclusion that between criminals and madmen there is no really\nessential difference: _if we suppose that the current moral fashion of\nthinking is a healthy way of thinking_. No belief, however, is nowadays\nmore firmly believed in than this one, so we should not therefore shrink\nfrom drawing the inevitable conclusion and treating the criminal like a\nlunatic\u2014above all, not with haughty pitifulness, but with medical skill\nand good will. He may perhaps be in need of a change of air, a change of\nsociety, or temporary absence: perhaps of solitude and new\noccupations\u2014very well! He may perhaps feel that it would be to his\nadvantage to live under surveillance for a short time in order thus to\nobtain protection from himself and from a troublesome tyrannical\nimpulse\u2014very well! We should make clear to him the possibility and the\nmeans of curing him (the extermination, transformation, and sublimation of\nthese impulses), and also, in the worst cases, the improbability of a\ncure; and we should offer to the incurable criminal, who has become a\nuseless burden to himself, the opportunity of committing suicide. While\nholding this in reserve as an extreme measure of relief, we should neglect\nnothing which would tend above all to restore to the criminal his good\ncourage and freedom of spirit; we should free his soul from all remorse,\nas if it were something unclean, and show him how he may atone for a wrong\nwhich he may have done some one by benefiting some one else, perhaps the\ncommunity at large, in such way that he might even do more than balance\nhis previous offence.\n\nAll this must be done with the greatest tact! The criminal must, above\nall, remain anonymous or adopt an assumed name, changing his place of\nresidence frequently, so that his reputation and future life may suffer as\nlittle as possible. At the present time it is true that the man who has\nbeen injured, apart altogether from the manner in which this injury might\nbe redressed, wishes for revenge in addition, and applies to the courts\nthat he may obtain it\u2014and this is why our dreadful penal laws are still in\nforce: Justice, as it were, holding up a pair of shopkeeper\u2019s scales and\nendeavouring to balance the guilt by punishment; but can we not take a\nstep beyond this? Would it not be a great relief to the general sentiment\nof life if, while getting rid of our belief in guilt, we could also get\nrid of our old craving for vengeance, and gradually come to believe that\nit is a refined wisdom for happy men to bless their enemies and to do good\nto those who have offended them, exactly in accordance with the spirit of\nChristian teaching! Let us free the world from this idea of sin, and take\ncare to cast out with it the idea of punishment. May these monstrous ideas\nhenceforth live banished far from the abodes of men\u2014if, indeed, they must\nlive at all, and do not perish from disgust with themselves.\n\nLet us not forget also, however, that the injury caused to society and to\nthe individual by the criminal is of the same species as that caused by\nthe sick: for the sick spread cares and ill-humour; they are\nnon-productive, consume the earnings of others, and at the same time\nrequire attendance, doctors, and support, and they really live on the time\nand strength of the healthy. In spite of this, however, we should\ndesignate as inhuman any one who, for this reason, would wish to wreak\nvengeance on the sick. In past ages, indeed, this was actually done: in\nprimitive conditions of society, and even now among certain savage\npeoples, the sick man is treated as a criminal and as a danger to the\ncommunity, and it is believed that he is the resting-place of certain\ndemoniacal beings who have entered into his body as the result of some\noffence he has committed\u2014those ages and peoples hold that the sick are the\nguilty!\n\nAnd what of ourselves? Are we not yet ripe for the contrary conception?\nShall we not be allowed to say, \u201cThe guilty are the sick\u201d? No; the hour\nfor that has not yet come. We still lack, above all, those physicians who\nhave learnt something from what we have hitherto called practical morals\nand have transformed it into the art and science of healing. We still lack\nthat intense interest in those things which some day perhaps may seem not\nunlike the \u201cstorm and stress\u201d of those old religious ecstasies. The\nChurches have not yet come into the possession of those who look after our\nhealth; the study of the body and of dietary are not yet amongst the\nobligatory subjects taught in our primary and secondary schools; there are\nas yet no quiet associations of those people who are pledged to one\nanother to do without the help of law courts, and who renounce the\npunishment and vengeance now meted out to those who have offended against\nsociety. No thinker has as yet been daring enough to determine the health\nof society, and of the individuals who compose it, by the number of\nparasites which it can support; and no statesman has yet been found to use\nthe ploughshare in the spirit of that generous and tender saying, \u201cIf thou\nwilt till the land, till it with the plough; then the bird and the wolf,\nwalking behind thy plough, will rejoice in thee\u2014all creatures will rejoice\nin thee.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n203.\n\n\nAGAINST BAD DIET.\u2014Fie upon the meals which people nowadays eat in hotels\nand everywhere else where the well-off classes of society live! Even when\neminent men of science meet together their tables groan under the weight\nof the dishes, in accordance with the principle of the bankers: the\nprinciple of too many dishes and too much to eat. The result of this is\nthat dinners are prepared with a view to their mere appearance rather than\nthe consequences that may follow from eating them, and that stimulating\ndrinks are required to help in driving away the heaviness in the stomach\nand in the brain. Fie on the dissoluteness and extreme nervousness which\nmust follow upon all this! Fie upon the dreams that such repasts bring!\nFie upon the arts and books which must be the desert of such meals!\nDespite all the efforts of such people their acts will taste of pepper and\nill-temper, or general weariness! (The wealthy classes in England stand in\ngreat need of their Christianity in order to be able to endure their bad\ndigestions and their headaches.) Finally, to mention not only the\ndisgusting but also the more pleasant side of the matter, these people are\nby no means mere gluttons: our century and its spirit of activity has more\npower over the limbs than the belly. What then is the meaning of these\nbanquets? They represent! What in Heaven\u2019s name do they represent?\nRank?\u2014no, money! There is no rank now! We are all \u201cindividuals\u201d! but money\nnow stands for power, glory, pre-eminence, dignity, and influence; money\nat the present time acts as a greater or lesser moral prejudice for a man\nin proportion to the amount he may possess. Nobody wishes to hide it under\na bushel or display it in heaps on a table: hence money must have some\nrepresentative which can be put on the table\u2014so behold our banquets!\n\n\n\n\n204.\n\n\nDAN\u00c6 AND THE GOD OF GOLD.\u2014Whence arises this excessive impatience in our\nday which turns men into criminals even in circumstances which would be\nmore likely to bring about the contrary tendency? What induces one man to\nuse false weights, another to set his house on fire after having insured\nit for more than its value, a third to take part in counterfeiting, while\nthree-fourths of our upper classes indulge in legalised fraud, and suffer\nfrom the pangs of conscience that follow speculation and dealings on the\nStock Exchange: what gives rise to all this? It is not real want,\u2014for\ntheir existence is by no means precarious; perhaps they have even enough\nto eat and drink without worrying,\u2014but they are urged on day and night by\na terrible impatience at seeing their wealth pile up so slowly, and by an\nequally terrible longing and love for these heaps of gold. In this\nimpatience and love, however, we see re-appear once more that fanaticism\nof the desire for power which was stimulated in former times by the belief\nthat we were in the possession of truth, a fanaticism which bore such\nbeautiful names that we could dare to be inhuman with a good conscience\n(burning Jews, heretics, and good books, and exterminating entire cultures\nsuperior to ours, such as those of Peru and Mexico). The means of this\ndesire for power are changed in our day, but the same volcano is still\nsmouldering, impatience and intemperate love call for their victims, and\nwhat was once done \u201cfor the love of God\u201d is now done for the love of\nmoney, _i.e._ for the love of that which at present affords us the highest\nfeeling of power and a good conscience.\n\n\n\n\n205.\n\n\nTHE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.\u2014One of the spectacles which the next century will\ninvite us to witness is the decision regarding the fate of the European\nJews. It is quite obvious now that they have cast their die and crossed\ntheir Rubicon: the only thing that remains for them is either to become\nmasters of Europe or to lose Europe, as they once centuries ago lost\nEgypt, where they were confronted with similar alternatives. In Europe,\nhowever, they have gone through a schooling of eighteen centuries such as\nno other nation has ever undergone, and the experiences of this dreadful\ntime of probation have benefited not only the Jewish community but, even\nto a greater extent, the individual. As a consequence of this, the\nresourcefulness of the modern Jews, both in mind and soul, is\nextraordinary. Amongst all the inhabitants of Europe it is the Jews least\nof all who try to escape from any deep distress by recourse to drink or to\nsuicide, as other less gifted people are so prone to do. Every Jew can\nfind in the history of his own family and of his ancestors a long record\nof instances of the greatest coolness and perseverance amid difficulties\nand dreadful situations, an artful cunning in fighting with misfortune and\nhazard. And above all it is their bravery under the cloak of wretched\nsubmission, their heroic _spernere se sperni_ that surpasses the virtues\nof all the saints.\n\nPeople wished to make them contemptible by treating them contemptibly for\nnearly twenty centuries, and refusing them access to all honourable\npositions and dignities, and by pushing them further down into the meaner\ntrades\u2014and under this process indeed they have not become any cleaner. But\ncontemptible? They have never ceased for a moment from believing\nthemselves qualified for the very highest functions, nor have the virtues\nof the suffering ever ceased to adorn them. Their manner of honouring\ntheir parents and children, the rationality of their marriages and\nmarriage customs, distinguishes them amongst all Europeans. Besides this,\nthey have been able to create for themselves a sense of power and eternal\nvengeance from the very trades that were left to them (or to which they\nwere abandoned). Even in palliation of their usury we cannot help saying\nthat, without this occasional pleasant and useful torture inflicted on\ntheir scorners, they would have experienced difficulty in preserving their\nself-respect for so long. For our self-respect depends upon our ability to\nmake reprisals in both good and evil things. Nevertheless, their revenge\nnever urges them on too far, for they all have that liberty of mind, and\neven of soul, produced in men by frequent changes of place, climate, and\ncustoms of neighbours and oppressors, they possess by far the greatest\nexperience in all human intercourse, and even in their passions they\nexercise the caution which this experience has developed in them. They are\nso certain of their intellectual versatility and shrewdness that they\nnever, even when reduced to the direst straits, have to earn their bread\nby manual labour as common workmen, porters, or farm hands. In their\nmanners we can still see that they have never been inspired by chivalric\nand noble feelings, or that their bodies have ever been girt with fine\nweapons: a certain obtrusiveness alternates with a submissiveness which is\noften tender and almost always painful.\n\nNow, however, that they unavoidably inter-marry more and more year after\nyear with the noblest blood of Europe, they will soon have a considerable\nheritage of good intellectual and physical manners, so that in another\nhundred years they will have a sufficiently noble aspect not to render\nthemselves, as masters, ridiculous to those whom they will have subdued.\nAnd this is important! and therefore a settlement of the question is still\npremature. They themselves know very well that the conquest of Europe or\nany act of violence is not to be thought of; but they also know that some\nday or other Europe may, like a ripe fruit, fall into their hands, if they\ndo not clutch at it too eagerly. In the meantime, it is necessary for them\nto distinguish themselves in all departments of European distinction and\nto stand in the front rank: until they shall have advanced so far as to\ndetermine themselves what distinction shall mean. Then they will be called\nthe pioneers and guides of the Europeans whose modesty they will no longer\noffend.\n\nAnd then where shall an outlet be found for this abundant wealth of great\nimpressions accumulated during such an extended period and representing\nJewish history for every Jewish family, this wealth of passions, virtues,\nresolutions, resignations, struggles, and conquests of all kinds\u2014where can\nit find an outlet but in great intellectual men and works! On the day when\nthe Jews will be able to exhibit to us as their own work such jewels and\ngolden vessels as no European nation, with its shorter and less profound\nexperience, can or could produce, when Israel shall have changed its\neternal vengeance into an eternal benediction for Europe: then that\nseventh day will once more appear when old Jehovah may rejoice in Himself,\nin His creation, in His chosen people\u2014and all, all of us, will rejoice\nwith Him!\n\n\n\n\n206.\n\n\nTHE IMPOSSIBLE CLASS.\u2014Poverty, cheerfulness, and independence\u2014it is\npossible to find these three qualities combined in one individual;\npoverty, cheerfulness, and slavery\u2014this is likewise a possible\ncombination: and I can say nothing better to the workmen who serve as\nfactory slaves; presuming that it does not appear to them altogether to be\na shameful thing to be utilised as they are, as the screws of a machine\nand the stopgaps, as it were, of the human spirit of invention. Fie on the\nthought that merely by means of higher wages the essential part of their\nmisery, _i.e._ their impersonal enslavement, might be removed! Fie, that\nwe should allow ourselves to be convinced that, by an increase of this\nimpersonality within the mechanical working of a new society, the disgrace\nof slavery could be changed into a virtue! Fie, that there should be a\nregular price at which a man should cease to be a personality and become a\nscrew instead! Are you accomplices in the present madness of nations which\ndesire above all to produce as much as possible, and to be as rich as\npossible? Would it not be your duty to present a counter-claim to them,\nand to show them what large sums of internal value are wasted in the\npursuit of such an external object?\n\nBut where is your internal value when you no longer know what it is to\nbreathe freely; when you have scarcely any command over your own selves,\nand often feel disgusted with yourselves as with some stale food; when you\nzealously study the newspapers and look enviously at your wealthy\nneighbour, made covetous by the rapid rise and fall of power, money, and\nopinions; when you no longer believe in a philosophy in rags, or in the\nfreedom of spirit of a man who has few needs; when a voluntary and idyllic\npoverty without profession or marriage, such as should suit the more\nintellectual ones among you, has become for you an object of derision? On\nthe other hand, the piping of the Socialistic rat-catchers who wish to\ninspire you with foolish hopes is continually sounding in your ears: they\ntell you to be ready and nothing further, ready from this day to the next,\nso that you wait and wait for something to come from outside, though\nliving in all other respects as you lived before\u2014until this waiting is at\nlength changed into hunger and thirst and fever and madness, and the clay\nof the _bestia triumphans_ at last dawns in all its glory. Every one of\nyou should on the contrary say to himself: \u201cIt would be better to emigrate\nand endeavour to become a master in new and savage countries, and\nespecially to become master over myself, changing my place of abode\nwhenever the least sign of slavery threatens me, endeavouring to avoid\nneither adventure nor war, and, if things come to the worst, holding\nmyself ready to die: anything rather than continuing in this state of\ndisgraceful thraldom, this bitterness, malice and rebelliousness!\u201d This\nwould be the proper spirit: the workmen in Europe ought to make it clear\nthat their position as a class has become a human impossibility, and not\nmerely, as they at present maintain, the result of some hard and aimless\narrangement of society. They should bring about an age of great swarming\nforth from the European beehive such as has never yet been seen,\nprotesting by this voluntary and huge migration against machines and\ncapital and the alternatives that now threaten them either of becoming\nslaves of the State or slaves of some revolutionary party.\n\nMay Europe be freed from one-fourth of her inhabitants! Both she and they\nwill experience a sensation of relief. It is only far in the distance, in\nthe undertaking of vast colonisations, that we shall be able to observe\nhow much rationality, fairness, and healthy suspicion mother Europe has\nincorporated in her sons\u2014these sons who could no longer endure life in the\nhome of the dull old woman, always running the danger of becoming as\nbad-tempered, irritable, and pleasure-seeking as she herself. The European\nvirtues will travel along with these workmen far beyond the boundaries of\nEurope; and those very qualities which on their native soil had begun to\ndegenerate into a dangerous discontent and criminal inclinations will,\nwhen abroad, be transformed into a beautiful, savage naturalness and will\nbe called heroism; so that at last a purer air would again be wafted over\nthis old, over-populated, and brooding Europe of ours. What would it\nmatter if there was a scarcity of \u201chands\u201d? Perhaps people would then\nrecollect that they had accustomed themselves to many wants merely because\nit was easy to gratify them\u2014it would be sufficient to unlearn some of\nthese wants! Perhaps also Chinamen would be called in, and these would\nbring with them their modes of living and thinking, which would be found\nvery suitable for industrious ants. They would also perhaps help to imbue\nthis fretful and restless Europe with some of their Asiatic calmness and\ncontemplation, and\u2014what is perhaps most needful of all\u2014their Asiatic\nstability.\n\n\n\n\n207.\n\n\nTHE ATTITUDE OF THE GERMANS TO MORALITY.\u2014A German is capable of great\nthings, but he is unlikely to accomplish them, for he obeys whenever he\ncan, as suits a naturally lazy intellect. If he is ever in the dangerous\nsituation of having to stand alone and cast aside his sloth, when he finds\nit no longer possible to disappear like a cipher in a number (in which\nrespect he is far inferior to a Frenchman or an Englishman), he shows his\ntrue strength: then he becomes dangerous, evil, deep, and audacious, and\nexhibits to the light of day that wealth of latent energy which he had\npreviously carried hidden in himself, and in which no one, not even\nhimself, had ever believed. When in such a case a German obeys himself\u2014it\nis very exceptional for him to do so\u2014he does so with the same heaviness,\ninflexibility, and endurance with which he obeys his prince and performs\nhis official duties: so that, as I have said, he is then capable of great\nthings which bear no relation to the \u201cweak disposition\u201d he attributes to\nhimself.\n\nAs a rule, however, he is afraid of depending upon himself alone, he is\nafraid of taking the initiative: that is why Germany uses up so many\nofficials and so much ink. Light-heartedness is a stranger to the German;\nhe is too timid for it: but in entirely new situations which rouse him\nfrom his torpor he exhibits an almost frivolous spirit\u2014he then delights in\nthe novelty of his new position as if it were some intoxicating drink, and\nhe is, as we know, quite a connoisseur in intoxication. It thus happens\nthat the German of the present day is almost always frivolous in politics,\nthough even here he has the advantage and prejudice of thoroughness and\nseriousness; and, although he may take full advantage of these qualities\nin negotiations with other political powers, he nevertheless rejoices\ninwardly at being able for once in his life to feel enthusiastic and\ncapricious, to show his fondness for innovations, and to change persons,\nparties, and hopes as if they were masks. Those learned German scholars,\nwho hitherto have been considered as the most German of Germans, were and\nperhaps still are as good as the German soldiers on account of their\nprofound and almost childish inclination to obey in all external things,\nand on account of being often compelled to stand alone in science and to\nanswer for many things: if they can only preserve their proud, simple, and\npatient disposition, and their freedom from political madness at those\ntimes when the wind changes, we may yet expect great things from them\u2014such\nas they are or such as they were, they are the embryonic stage of\nsomething higher.\n\nSo far the advantages and disadvantages of the Germans, including even\ntheir learned men, have been that they were more given to superstition and\nshowed greater eagerness to believe than any of the other nations; their\nvices are, and always have been, their drunkenness and suicidal\ninclinations (the latter a proof of the clumsiness of their intellect,\nwhich is easily tempted to throw away the reins). Their danger is to be\nsought in everything that binds down the faculties of reason and unchains\nthe passions (as, for example, the excessive use of music and spirits),\nfor the German passion acts contrarily to its own advantage, and is as\nself-destructive as the passions of the drunkard. Indeed, German\nenthusiasm is worth less than that of other nations, for it is barren.\nWhen a German ever did anything great it was done at a time of danger, or\nwhen his courage was high, with his teeth firmly set and his prudence on\nthe alert, and often enough in a fit of generosity.\u2014Intercourse with these\nGermans is indeed advisable, for almost every one of them has something to\ngive, if we can only understand how to make him find it, or rather recover\nit (for he is very untidy in storing away his knowledge).\n\nWell: when people of this type occupy themselves with morals, what\nprecisely will be the morality that will satisfy them? In the first place,\nthey will wish to see idealised in their morals their sincere instinct for\nobedience. \u201cMan must have something which he can implicitly obey\u201d\u2014this is\na German sentiment, a German deduction; it is the basis of all German\nmoral teaching. How different is the impression, however, when we compare\nthis with the entire morality of the ancient world! All those Greek\nthinkers, however varied they may appear to us, seem to resemble, as\nmoralists, the gymnastic teacher who encourages his pupils by saying,\n\u201cCome, follow me! Submit to my discipline! Then perhaps you may carry off\nthe prize from all the other Greeks.\u201d Personal distinction: such was the\nvirtue of antiquity. Submission, obedience, whether public or private:\nsuch is German virtue. Long before Kant set forth his doctrine of the\nCategorical Imperative, Luther, actuated by the same impulse, said that\nthere surely must be a being in whom man could trust implicitly\u2014it was his\nproof of the existence of God; it was his wish, coarser and more popular\nthan that of Kant, that people should implicitly obey a person and not an\nidea, and Kant also finally took his roundabout route through morals\nmerely that he might secure obedience for the person. This is indeed the\nworship of the German, the more so as there is now less worship left in\nhis religion.\n\nThe Greeks and Romans had other opinions on these matters, and would have\nlaughed at such \u201cthere must be a being\u201d: it is part of the boldness of\ntheir Southern nature to take up a stand against \u201cimplicit belief,\u201d and to\nretain in their inmost heart a trace of scepticism against all and every\none, whether God, man, or idea. The thinker of antiquity went even\nfurther, and said _nil admirari_: in this phrase he saw reflected all\nphilosophy. A German, Schopenhauer, goes so far in the contrary direction\nas to say: _admirari id est philosophari_. But what if, as happens now and\nthen, the German should attain to that state of mind which would enable\nhim to perform great things? if the hour of exception comes, the hour of\ndisobedience? I do not think Schopenhauer is right in saying that the\nsingle advantage the Germans have over other nations is that there are\nmore atheists among them than elsewhere; but I do know this: whenever the\nGerman reaches the state in which he is capable of great things, he\ninvariably raises himself above morals! And why should he not? Now he has\nsomething new to do, viz. to command\u2014either himself or others! But this\nGerman morality of his has not taught him how to command! Commanding has\nbeen forgotten in it.\n\n\n\n\n\nBOOK IV.\n\n\n\n\n208.\n\n\nA QUESTION OF CONSCIENCE.\u2014\u201cNow, _in summa_, tell me what this new thing is\nthat you want.\u201d\u2014\u201cWe no longer wish causes to be sinners and effects to be\nexecutioners.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n209.\n\n\nTHE UTILITY OF THE STRICTEST THEORIES.\u2014People are indulgent towards a\nman\u2019s moral weaknesses, and in this connection they use a coarse sieve,\nprovided that he always professes to hold the most strict moral theories.\nOn the other hand, the lives of free-thinking moralists have always been\nexamined closely through a microscope, in the tacit belief that an error\nin their lives would be the best argument against their disagreeable\nknowledge.(6)\n\n\n\n\n210.\n\n\nTHE \u201cTHING IN ITSELF.\u201d\u2014We used to ask formerly: What is the ridiculous?\u2014as\nif there were something above and beyond ourselves that possessed the\nquality of provoking laughter, and we exhausted ourselves in trying to\nguess what it was (a theologian even held that it might be \u201cthe _na\u00efvet\u00e9_\nof sin\u201d). At the present time we ask: What is laughter? how does it arise?\nWe have considered the point, and finally reached the conclusion that\nthere is nothing which is good, beautiful, sublime, or evil in itself; but\nrather that there are conditions of soul which lead us to attribute such\nqualities to things outside ourselves and in us. We have taken back their\npredicates from things; or we have at all events recollected that we have\nmerely lent the things these predicates. Let us be careful that this\ninsight does not cause us to lose the faculty of lending, and that we do\nnot become at the same time wealthier and more avaricious.\n\n\n\n\n211.\n\n\nTO THOSE WHO DREAM OF IMMORTALITY.\u2014So you desire the everlasting\nperpetuity of this beautiful consciousness of yourselves? Is it not\nshameful? Do you forget all those other things which would in their turn\nhave to support _you_ for all eternity, just as they have borne with you\nup to the present with more than Christian patience? Or do you think that\nyou can inspire them with an eternally pleasant feeling towards yourself?\nA single immortal man on earth would imbue everyone around him with such a\ndisgust for him that a general epidemic of murder and suicide would be\nbrought about. And yet, ye petty dwellers on earth, with your narrow\nconceptions of a few thousand little minutes of time, ye would wish to be\nan everlasting burden on this everlasting universal existence! Could\nanything be more impertinent? After all, however, let us be indulgent\ntowards a being of seventy years: he has not been able to exercise his\nimagination in conceiving his own \u201ceternal tediousness\u201d\u2014he had not time\nenough for that!\n\n\n\n\n212.\n\n\nWHEREIN WE KNOW OURSELVES.\u2014As soon as one animal sees another it mentally\ncompares itself with it; and men of uncivilised ages did the same. The\nconsequence is that almost all men come to know themselves only as regards\ntheir defensive and offensive faculties.\n\n\n\n\n213.\n\n\nMEN WHOSE LIVES HAVE BEEN FAILURES.\u2014Some men are built of such stuff that\nsociety is at liberty to do what it likes with them\u2014they will do well in\nany case, and will not have to complain of having failed in life. Other\nmen are formed of such peculiar material\u2014it need not be a particularly\nnoble one, but simply rarer\u2014that they are sure to fare ill except in one\nsingle instance: when they can live according to their own designs,\u2014in all\nother cases the injury has to be borne by society. For everything that\nseems to the individual to be a wasted or blighted life, his entire burden\nof discouragement, powerlessness, sickness, irritation, covetousness, is\nattributed by him to society\u2014and thus a heavy, vitiated atmosphere is\ngradually formed round society, or, in the most favourable cases, a\nthundercloud.\n\n\n\n\n214.\n\n\nWHAT INDULGENCE!\u2014You suffer, and call upon us to be indulgent towards you,\neven when in your suffering you are unjust towards things and men! But\nwhat does our indulgence matter! You, however, should take greater\nprecautions for your own sake! That\u2019s a nice way of compensating yourself\nfor your sufferings, by imposing still further suffering on your own\njudgment! Your own revenge recoils upon yourselves when you start reviling\nsomething: you dim your own eyes in this way, and not the eyes of others;\nyou accustom yourself to looking at things in the wrong way, and with a\nsquint.\n\n\n\n\n215.\n\n\nTHE MORALITY OF VICTIMS.\u2014\u201cEnthusiastic sacrifice,\u201d \u201cself-immolation\u201d\u2014these\nare the catch-words of your morality, and I willingly believe that you, as\nyou say, \u201cmean it honestly\u201d: but I know you better than you know\nyourselves, if your \u201chonesty\u201d is capable of going arm in arm with such a\nmorality. You look down from the heights of this morality upon that other\nsober morality which calls for self-control, severity, and obedience; you\neven go so far as to call it egoistic\u2014and you are indeed frank towards\nyourselves in saying that it displeases you\u2014it must displease you! For, in\nsacrificing and immolating yourselves with such enthusiasm, you delight in\nthe intoxication of the thought that you are now one with the powerful\nbeing, God or man, to whom you are consecrating yourselves: you revel in\nthe feeling of his power, which is again attested by this sacrifice.\n\nIn reality, however, you only _appear_ to sacrifice yourselves; for your\nimagination turns you into gods and you enjoy yourselves as such. Judged\nfrom the point of view of this enjoyment, how poor and feeble must that\nother \u201cegoistic\u201d morality of obedience, duty, and reason seem to you: it\nis displeasing to you because in this instance true self-sacrifice and\nself-surrender are called for, without the victim thinking himself to be\ntransformed into a god, as you do. In a word, you want intoxication and\nexcess, and this morality which you despise takes up a stand against\nintoxication and excess\u2014no wonder it causes you some displeasure!\n\n\n\n\n216.\n\n\nEVIL PEOPLE AND MUSIC.\u2014Should the full bliss of love, which consists in\nunlimited confidence, ever have fallen to the lot of persons other than\nthose who are profoundly suspicious, evil, and bitter? For such people\nenjoy in this bliss the gigantic, unlooked-for, and incredible _exception_\nof their souls! One day they are seized with that infinite, dreamy\nsensation which is entirely opposed to the remainder of their private and\npublic life, like a delicious enigma, full of golden splendour, and\nimpossible to be described by mere words or similes. Implicit confidence\nmakes them speechless\u2014there is even a species of suffering and heaviness\nin this blissful silence; and this is why souls that are overcome with\nhappiness generally feel more grateful to music than others and better\nones do: for they see and hear through music, as through a coloured mist,\ntheir love becoming, as it were, more distant, more touching, and less\nheavy. Music is the only means that such people have of observing their\nextraordinary condition and of becoming aware of its presence with a\nfeeling of estrangement and relief. When the sound of music reaches the\nears of every lover he thinks: \u201cIt speaks of me, it speaks in my stead; it\nknows everything!\u201d\n\n\n\n\n217.\n\n\nTHE ARTIST.\u2014The Germans wish to be transported by the artist into a state\nof dreamy passion; by his aid the Italians wish to rest from their real\npassions; the French wish him to give them an opportunity of showing their\njudgment and of making speeches. So let us be just!\n\n\n\n\n218.\n\n\nTO DEAL LIKE AN ARTIST WITH ONE\u2019S WEAKNESSES.\u2014If we must positively have\nweaknesses and come in the end to look upon them as laws beyond ourselves,\nI wish that everybody may be possessed of as much artistic capacity as\nwill enable him to set off his virtues by means of his weaknesses, and to\nmake us, through his weaknesses, desirous of acquiring his virtues: a\npower which great musicians have possessed in quite an exceptional degree.\nHow frequently do we notice in Beethoven\u2019s music a coarse, dogmatic, and\nimpatient tone; in Mozart, the joviality of an honest man, whose heart and\nmind have not overmuch to give us; in Richard Wagner, an abrupt and\naggressive restlessness, in the midst of which, just as the most patient\nlistener is on the point of losing his temper, the composer regains his\npowers, and likewise the others. Through their very weaknesses, these\nmusicians have created in us an ardent desire for their virtues, and have\ngiven us a palate which is ten times more sensitive to every note of this\ntuneful intellect, tuneful beauty, and tuneful goodness.\n\n\n\n\n219.\n\n\nDECEIT IN HUMILIATION.\u2014By your foolishness you have done a great wrong to\nyour neighbour and destroyed his happiness irretrievably\u2014and then, having\novercome your vanity, you humble yourself before him, surrender your\nfoolishness to his contempt, and fancy that, after this difficult scene,\nwhich is an exceedingly painful one for you, everything has been set\nright, that your own voluntary loss of honour compensates your neighbour\nfor the injury you have done to his happiness. With this feeling you take\nyour leave comforted, believing that your virtue has been re-established.\n\nYour neighbour, however, suffers as intensely as before. He finds nothing\nto comfort him in the fact that you have been irrational and have told him\nso: on the contrary, he remembers the painful appearance you presented to\nhim when you were disparaging yourself in his presence\u2014it is as if another\nwound had been inflicted on him. He does not think of revenging himself,\nhowever; and cannot conceive how a proper balance can be struck between\nyou and him. In point of fact, you have been acting that scene for\nyourself and before yourself: you invited a witness to be present, not on\nhis account, but on your own\u2014don\u2019t deceive yourself!\n\n\n\n\n220.\n\n\nDIGNITY AND TIMIDITY.\u2014Ceremonies, official robes and court dresses, grave\ncountenances, solemn aspects, the slow pace, involved speech\u2014everything,\nin short, known as dignity\u2014are all pretences adopted by those who are\ntimid at heart: they wish to make themselves feared (themselves or the\nthings they represent). The fearless (_i.e._ originally those who\nnaturally inspire others with awe) have no need of dignity and ceremonies:\nthey bring into repute\u2014or, still more, into ill-repute\u2014honesty and\nstraightforward words and bearing, as characteristics of their\nself-confident awefulness.\n\n\n\n\n221.\n\n\nTHE MORALITY OF SACRIFICE.\u2014The morality which is measured by the spirit of\nsacrifice is that of a semi-civilised state of society. Reason in this\ninstance gains a hard-fought and bloody victory within the soul; for there\nare powerful contrary instincts to be overcome. This cannot be brought\nabout without the cruelty which the sacrifices to cannibal gods demand.\n\n\n\n\n222.\n\n\nWHERE FANATICISM IS TO BE DESIRED.\u2014Phlegmatic natures can be rendered\nenthusiastic only by being fanaticised.\n\n\n\n\n223.\n\n\nTHE DREADED EYE.\u2014Nothing is dreaded more by artists, poets, and writers\nthan the eye which sees through their little deceptions and subsequently\nnotices how often they have stopped at the boundary where the paths branch\noff either to innocent delight in themselves or to the straining after\neffect; the eye which checks them when they try to sell little things\ndear, or when they try to exalt and adorn without being exalted\nthemselves; the eye which, despite all the artifices of their art, sees\nthe thought as it first presented itself to them, perhaps as a charming\nvision of light, perhaps also, however, as a theft from the whole world,\nor as an everyday conception which they had to expand, contract, colour,\nwrap up, and spice, in order to make something out of it, instead of the\nthought making something out of them.\u2014Oh, this eye, which sees in your\nwork all your restlessness, inquisitiveness, and covetousness, your\nimitation and exaggeration (which is only envious imitation) which knows\nboth your blush of shame and your skill in concealing it from others and\ninterpreting it to yourselves!\n\n\n\n\n224.\n\n\nTHE \u201cEDIFYING\u201d ELEMENT IN OUR NEIGHBOUR\u2019S MISFORTUNE.\u2014He is in distress,\nand straightway the \u201ccompassionate\u201d ones come to him and depict his\nmisfortune to him. At last they go away again, satisfied and elevated,\nafter having gloated over the unhappy man\u2019s misfortune and their own, and\nspent a pleasant Sunday afternoon.\n\n\n\n\n225.\n\n\nTO BE QUICKLY DESPISED.\u2014A man who speaks a great deal, and speaks quickly,\nsoon sinks exceedingly low in our estimation, even when he speaks\nrationally\u2014not only to the extent that he annoys us personally, but far\nlower. For we conjecture how great a burden he has already proved to many\nother people, and we thus add to the discomfort which he causes us all the\ncontempt which we presume he has caused to others.\n\n\n\n\n226.\n\n\nRELATIONS WITH CELEBRITIES.\u2014_A._ But why do you shun this great man?\u2014_B._\nI should not like to misunderstand him. Our defects are incompatible with\none another: I am short-sighted and suspicious, and he wears his false\ndiamonds as willingly as his real ones.\n\n\n\n\n227.\n\n\nTHE CHAIN-WEARERS.\u2014Beware of all those intellects which are bound in\nchains! clever women, for example, who have been banished by fate to\nnarrow and dull surroundings, amid which they grow old. True, there they\nlie in the sun, apparently lazy and half-blind; but at every unknown step,\nat everything unexpected, they start up to bite: they revenge themselves\non everything that has escaped their kennel.\n\n\n\n\n228.\n\n\nREVENGE IN PRAISE.\u2014Here we have a written page which is covered with\npraise, and you call it flat; but when you find out that revenge is\nconcealed in this praise you will find it almost too subtle, and you will\nexperience a great deal of pleasure in its numerous delicate and bold\nstrokes and similes. It is not the man himself, but his revenge, which is\nso subtle, rich, and ingenious: he himself is scarcely aware of it.\n\n\n\n\n229.\n\n\nPRIDE.\u2014Ah, not one of you knows the feeling of the tortured man after he\nhas been put to the torture, when he is being carried back to his cell,\nand his secret with him!\u2014he still holds it in a stubborn and tenacious\ngrip. What know ye of the exultation of human pride?\n\n\n\n\n230.\n\n\n\u201cUTILITARIAN.\u201d\u2014At the present time men\u2019s sentiments on moral things run in\nsuch labyrinthic paths that, while we demonstrate morality to one man by\nvirtue of its utility, we refute it to another on account of this utility.\n\n\n\n\n231.\n\n\nON GERMAN VIRTUE.\u2014How degenerate in its taste, how servile to dignities,\nranks, uniforms, pomp, and splendour must a nation have been, when it\nbegan to consider the simple as the bad, the simple man (_schlicht_) as\nthe bad man (_schlecht_)! We should always oppose the moral bumptiousness\nof the Germans with this one little word \u201cbad,\u201d and nothing else.\n\n\n\n\n232.\n\n\nFROM A DISPUTE.\u2014_A._ Friend, you have talked yourself hoarse.\u2014_B._ Then I\nam refuted, so let\u2019s drop the subject.\n\n\n\n\n233.\n\n\nTHE \u201cCONSCIENTIOUS\u201d ONES.\u2014Have you noticed the kind of men who attach the\ngreatest value to the most scrupulous conscientiousness? Those who are\nconscious of many mean and petty sentiments, who are anxiously thinking of\nand about themselves, are afraid of others, and are desirous of concealing\ntheir inmost feelings as far as possible. They endeavour to impose upon\nthemselves by means of this strict conscientiousness and rigorousness of\nduty, and by the stern and harsh impression which others, especially their\ninferiors, cannot fail to receive of them.\n\n\n\n\n234.\n\n\nDREAD OF FAME.\u2014_A._ The endeavour to avoid one\u2019s renown, the intentional\noffending of one\u2019s panegyrists, the dislike of hearing opinions about\none\u2019s self, and all through fear of renown: instances like these are to be\nmet with; they actually exist\u2014believe it or not!\u2014_B._ They are found, no\ndoubt! They exist! A little patience, Sir Arrogance!\n\n\n\n\n235.\n\n\nREFUSING THANKS.\u2014We are perfectly justified in refusing a request, but it\nis never right to refuse thanks\u2014or, what comes to the same thing, to\naccept them coldly and conventionally. This gives deep offence\u2014and why?\n\n\n\n\n236.\n\n\nPUNISHMENT.\u2014A strange thing, this punishment of ours! It does not purify\nthe criminal; it is not a form of expiation; but, on the contrary, it is\neven more defiling than the crime itself.\n\n\n\n\n237.\n\n\nPARTY GRIEVANCES.\u2014In almost every party there is a ridiculous, but\nnevertheless somewhat dangerous grievance. The sufferers from it are those\nwho have long been the faithful and honourable upholders of the doctrine\npropagated by the party, and who suddenly remark that one day a much\nstronger figure than themselves has got the ear of the public. How can\nthey bear being reduced to silence? So they raise their voices, sometimes\nchanging their notes.\n\n\n\n\n238.\n\n\nSTRIVING FOR GENTLENESS.\u2014When a vigorous nature has not an inclination\ntowards cruelty, and is not always preoccupied with itself; it\ninvoluntarily strives after gentleness\u2014this is its distinctive\ncharacteristic. Weak natures, on the other hand, have a tendency towards\nharsh judgments\u2014they associate themselves with the heroes of the contempt\nof mankind, the religious or philosophical traducers of existence, or they\ntake up their position behind strict habits and punctilious \u201ccallings\u201d: in\nthis way they seek to give themselves a character and a kind of strength.\nThis is likewise done quite involuntarily.\n\n\n\n\n239.\n\n\nA HINT TO MORALISTS.\u2014Our musicians have made a great discovery. They have\nfound out that interesting ugliness is possible even in their art; this is\nwhy they throw themselves with such enthusiastic intoxication into this\nocean of ugliness, and never before has it been so easy to make music. It\nis only now that we have got the general, dark-coloured background, upon\nwhich every luminous ray of fine music, however faint, seems tinged with\ngolden emerald lustre; it is only now that we dare to inspire our audience\nwith feelings of impetuosity and indignation, taking away their breath, so\nto speak, in order that we may afterwards, in an interval of restful\nharmony, inspire them with a feeling of bliss which will be to the general\nadvantage of a proper appreciation of music.\n\nWe have discovered the contrast: it is only now that the strongest effects\nare possible\u2014and cheap. No one bothers any more about good music. But you\nmust hurry up! When any art has once made this discovery, it has but a\nshort space of time to live.\u2014Oh, if only our thinkers could probe into the\ndepths of the souls of our musicians when listening to their music! How\nlong we must wait until we again have an opportunity of surprising the\ninward man in the very act of his evil doing, and his innocence of this\nact! For our musicians have not the slightest suspicion that it is their\nown history, the history of the disfigurement of the soul, which they are\ntransposing into music. In former times a good musician was almost forced\nby the exigencies of his art to become a good man\u2014and now!\n\n\n\n\n240.\n\n\nTHE MORALITY OF THE STAGE.\u2014The man who imagines that the effect of\nShakespeare\u2019s plays is a moral one, and that the sight of Macbeth\nirresistibly induces us to shun the evil of ambition, is mistaken, and he\nis mistaken once more if he believes that Shakespeare himself thought so.\nHe who is truly obsessed by an ardent ambition takes delight in beholding\nthis picture of himself; and when the hero is driven to destruction by his\npassion, this is the most pungent spice in the hot drink of this delight.\nDid the poet feel this in another way? How royally and with how little of\nthe knave in him does his ambitious hero run his course from the moment of\nhis great crime! It is only from this moment that he becomes\n\u201cdemoniacally\u201d attractive, and that he encourages similar natures to\nimitate him.\u2014There is something demoniacal here: something which is in\nrevolt against advantage and life, in favour of a thought and an impulse.\nDo you think that Tristan and Isolde are warnings against adultery, merely\nbecause adultery has resulted in the death of both of them? This would be\nturning poets upside down, these poets who, especially Shakespeare, are in\nlove with the passions in themselves, and not less so with the readiness\nfor death which they give rise to: this mood in which the heart no more\nclings to life than a drop of water does to the glass. It is not the guilt\nand its pernicious consequences which interests these poets\u2014Shakespeare as\nlittle as Sophocles (in the _Ajax_, _Philoctetes_, _\u0152dipus_)\u2014however easy\nit might have been in the cases just mentioned to make the guilt the lever\nof the play, it was carefully avoided by the poets.\n\nIn the same way the tragic poet by his images of life does not wish to set\nus against life. On the contrary, he exclaims; \u201cIt is the charm of charms,\nthis exciting, changing, and dangerous existence of ours, so often gloomy\nand so often bathed in sun! Life is an adventure\u2014whichever side you may\ntake in life it will always retain this character!\u201d\u2014Thus speaks the poet\nof a restless and vigorous age, an age which is almost intoxicated and\nstupefied by its superabundance of blood and energy, in an age more evil\nthan our own: and this is why it is necessary for us to adapt and\naccommodate ourselves first to the purpose of a Shakespearian play, that\nis, by misunderstanding it.\n\n\n\n\n241.\n\n\nFEAR AND INTELLIGENCE.\u2014If that which is now expressly maintained is true,\nviz. that the cause of the black pigment of the skin must not be sought in\nlight, might this phenomenon perhaps be the ultimate effect of frequent\nfits of passion accumulated for century after century (and an afflux of\nblood under the skin)? while in other and more intelligent races the\nequally frequent spasms of fear and blanching may have resulted in the\nwhite colour of the skin?\u2014For the degree of timidity is the standard by\nwhich the intelligence may be measured; and the fact that men give\nthemselves up to blind anger is an indication that their animal nature is\nstill near the surface, and is longing for an opportunity to make its\npresence felt once more. Thus a brownish-grey would probably be the\nprimitive colour of man\u2014something of the ape and the bear, as is only\nproper.\n\n\n\n\n242.\n\n\nINDEPENDENCE.\u2014Independence (which in its weakest form is called \u201cfreedom\nof thought\u201d) is the type of resignation which the tyrannical man ends by\naccepting\u2014he who for a long time had been looking for something to govern,\nbut without finding anything except himself.\n\n\n\n\n243.\n\n\nTHE TWO COURSES.\u2014When we endeavour to examine the mirror in itself we\ndiscover in the end that we can detect nothing there but the things which\nit reflects. If we wish to grasp the things reflected we touch nothing in\nthe end but the mirror.\u2014This is the general history of knowledge.\n\n\n\n\n244.\n\n\nDELIGHT IN REALITY.\u2014Our present inclination to take delight in reality\u2014for\nalmost every one of us possesses it\u2014can only be explained by the fact that\nwe have taken delight in the unreal for such a long time that we have got\ntired of it. This inclination in its present form, without choice and\nwithout refinement, is not without danger\u2014its least danger is its want of\ntaste.\n\n\n\n\n245.\n\n\nTHE SUBTLETY OF THE FEELING OF POWER.\u2014Napoleon was greatly mortified at\nthe fact that he could not speak well, and he did not deceive himself in\nthis respect: but his thirst for power, which never despised the slightest\nopportunity of showing itself, and which was still more subtle than his\nsubtle intellect, led him to speak even worse than he might have done. It\nwas in this way that he revenged himself upon his own mortification (he\nwas jealous of all his emotions because they possessed power) in order to\nenjoy his autocratic pleasure.\n\nHe enjoyed this pleasure a second time in respect to the ears and judgment\nof his audience, as if it were good enough for them to be addressed in\nthis way. He even secretly enjoyed the thought of bewildering their\njudgment and good taste by the thunder and lightning of his highest\nauthority\u2014that authority which lies in the union of power and genius\u2014while\nboth his judgment and his good taste held fast proudly and indifferently\nto the truth that he did not speak well.\u2014Napoleon, as the complete and\nfully developed type of a single instinct, belongs to ancient humanity,\nwhose characteristic\u2014the simple construction and ingenious development and\nrealisation of a single motive or a small number of motives\u2014may be easily\nenough recognised.\n\n\n\n\n246.\n\n\nARISTOTLE AND MARRIAGE.\u2014Insanity makes its appearance in the children of\ngreat geniuses, and stupidity in those of the most virtuous\u2014so says\nAristotle. Did he mean by this to invite exceptional men to marry?\n\n\n\n\n247.\n\n\nTHE ORIGIN OF A BAD TEMPERAMENT.\u2014Injustice and instability in the minds of\ncertain men, their disordered and immoderate manner, are the ultimate\nconsequences of the innumerable logical inexactitudes, superficialities,\nand hasty conclusions of which their ancestors have been guilty. Men of a\ngood temperament, on the other hand, are descended from solid and\nmeditative races which have set a high value upon reason\u2014whether for\npraiseworthy or evil purposes is of no great importance.\n\n\n\n\n248.\n\n\nDISSIMULATION AS A DUTY.\u2014Kindness has been best developed by the long\ndissimulation which endeavoured to appear as kindness: wherever great\npower existed the necessity for dissimulation of this nature was\nrecognised\u2014it inspires security and confidence, and multiplies the actual\nsum of our physical power. Falsehood, if not actually the mother, is at\nall events the nurse of kindness. In the same way, honesty has been\nbrought to maturity by the need for a semblance of honesty and integrity:\nin hereditary aristocracies. The persistent exercise of such a\ndissimulation ends by bringing about the actual nature of the thing\nitself: the dissimulation in the long run suppresses itself, and organs\nand instincts are the unexpected fruits in this garden of hypocrisy.\n\n\n\n\n249.\n\n\nWHO, THEN, IS EVER ALONE.\u2014The faint-hearted wretch does not know what it\nmeans to be lonely. An enemy is always prowling in his tracks. Oh, for the\nman who could give us the history of that subtle feeling called\nloneliness!\n\n\n\n\n250.\n\n\nNIGHT AND MUSIC.\u2014It was only at night time, and in the semi-obscurity of\ndark forests and caverns, that the ear, the organ of fear, was able to\ndevelop itself so well, in accordance with the mode of living of the\ntimid\u2014that is, the longest human epoch which has ever yet existed: when it\nis clear daylight the ear is less necessary. Hence the character of music,\nwhich is an art of night and twilight.\n\n\n\n\n251.\n\n\nSTOICAL.\u2014The Stoic experiences a certain sense of cheerfulness when he\nfeels oppressed by the ceremonial which he has prescribed for himself: he\nenjoys himself then as a ruler.\n\n\n\n\n252.\n\n\nCONSIDER.\u2014The man who is being punished is no longer he who has done the\ndeed. He is always the scapegoat.\n\n\n\n\n253.\n\n\nAPPEARANCE.\u2014Alas! what must be best and most resolutely proved is\nappearance itself; for only too many people lack eyes to observe it. But\nit is so tiresome!\n\n\n\n\n254.\n\n\nTHOSE WHO ANTICIPATE.\u2014What distinguishes poetic natures, but is also a\ndanger for them, is their imagination, which exhausts itself in advance:\nwhich anticipates what will happen or what may happen, which enjoys and\nsuffers in advance, and which at the final moment of the event or the\naction is already fatigued. Lord Byron, who was only too familiar with\nthis, wrote in his diary: \u201cIf ever I have a son he shall choose a very\nprosaic profession\u2014that of a lawyer or a pirate.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n255.\n\n\nCONVERSATION ON MUSIC.\u2014\n\n_A._ What do you say to that music?\n\n_B._ It has overpowered me, I can say nothing about it. Listen! there it\nis beginning again.\n\n_A._ All the better! This time let us do our best to overpower it. Will\nyou allow me to add a few words to this music? and also to show you a\ndrama which perhaps at your first hearing you did not wish to observe?\n\n_B._ Very well, I have two ears and even more if necessary; move up closer\nto me.\n\n_A._ We have not yet heard what he wishes to say to us, up to the present\nhe has only promised to say something\u2014something as yet unheard, so he\ngives us to understand by his gestures, for they are gestures. How he\nbeckons! How he raises himself up! How he gesticulates! and now the moment\nof supreme tension seems to have come to him: two more fanfares, and he\nwill present us with his superb and splendidly-adorned theme, rattling, as\nit were, with precious stones.\n\nIs it a handsome woman? or a beautiful horse? Enough, he looks about him\nas if enraptured, for he must assemble looks of rapture. It is only now\nthat his theme quite pleases him: it is only now that he becomes inventive\nand risks new and audacious features. How he forces out his theme! Ah,\ntake care!\u2014he not only understands how to adorn, but also how to gloss it\nover! Yes, he knows what the colour of health is, and he knows how to make\nit up,\u2014he is more subtle in his self-consciousness than I thought. And now\nhe is convinced that he has convinced his hearers; he sets off his\nimpromptus as if they were the most important things under the sun: he\npoints to his theme with an insolent finger as if it were too good for\nthis world.\u2014Ah, how distrustful he is! He is afraid we may get tired!\u2014that\nis why he buries his melody in sweet notes.\u2014Now he even appeals to our\ncoarser senses that he may excite us and thus get us once again into his\npower. Listen to him as he conjures up the elementary force of tempestuous\nand thundering rhythms!\n\nAnd now that he sees that these things have captivated our attention,\nstrangle us, and almost overwhelm us, he once again ventures to introduce\nhis theme amidst this play of the elements in order to convince us,\nconfused and agitated as we are, that our confusion and agitation are the\neffects of his miraculous theme. And from now onwards his hearers believe\nin him: as soon as the theme is heard once more they are reminded of its\nthrilling elementary effects. The theme profits by this recollection\u2014now\nit has become demoniacal! What a connoisseur of the soul he is! He gains\ncommand over us by all the artifices of the popular orator. But the music\nhas stopped again.\n\n_B._ And I am glad of it; for I could no longer bear listening to your\nobservations! I should prefer ten times over to let myself be deceived to\nknowing the truth once after your version.\n\n_A._ That is just what I wished to hear from you. The best people now are\njust like you: you are quite content to let yourselves be deceived. You\ncome here with coarse, lustful ears, and you do not bring with you your\nconscience of the art of listening. On the way here you have cast away\nyour intellectual honesty, and thus you corrupt both art and artists.\nWhenever you applaud and cheer you have in your hands the conscience of\nthe artists\u2014and woe to art if they get to know that you cannot distinguish\nbetween innocent and guilty music! I do not indeed refer to \u201cgood\u201d and\n\u201cbad\u201d music\u2014we meet with both in the two kinds of music mentioned! but I\ncall innocent music that which thinks only of itself and believes only in\nitself, and which on account of itself has forgotten the world at\nlarge\u2014this spontaneous expression of the most profound solitude which\nspeaks of itself and with itself, and has entirely forgotten that there\nare listeners, effects, misunderstandings and failures in the world\noutside. In short, the music which we have just heard is precisely of this\nrare and noble type; and everything I said about it was a fable\u2014pardon my\nlittle trick if you will!\n\n_B._ Oh, then you like _this_ music, too? In that case many sins shall be\nforgiven you!\n\n\n\n\n256.\n\n\nTHE HAPPINESS OF THE EVIL ONES.\u2014These silent, gloomy, and evil men possess\na peculiar something which you cannot dispute with them\u2014an uncommon and\nstrange enjoyment in the _dolce far niente_; a sunset and evening rest,\nsuch as none can enjoy but a heart which has been too often devoured,\nlacerated, and poisoned by the passions.\n\n\n\n\n257.\n\n\nWORDS PRESENT IN OUR MINDS.\u2014We always express our thoughts with those\nwords which lie nearest to hand. Or rather, if I may reveal my full\nsuspicion; at every moment we have only the particular thought for the\nwords that are present in our minds.\n\n\n\n\n258.\n\n\nFLATTERING THE DOG.\u2014You have only to stroke this dog\u2019s coat once, and he\nimmediately splutters and gives off sparks like any other flatterer\u2014and he\nis witty in his own way. Why should we not endure him thus?\n\n\n\n\n259.\n\n\nTHE QUONDAM PANEGYRIST.\u2014\u201cHe has now become silent now in regard to me,\nalthough he knows the truth and could tell it; but it would sound like\nvengeance\u2014and he values truth so highly, this honourable man!\u201d\n\n\n\n\n260.\n\n\nTHE AMULET OF DEPENDENT MEN.\u2014He who is unavoidably dependent upon some\nmaster ought to possess something by which he can inspire his master with\nfear, and keep him in check: integrity, for example, or probity, or an\nevil tongue.\n\n\n\n\n261.\n\n\nWHY SO SUBLIME!\u2014Oh, I know them well this breed of animals! Certainly it\npleases them better to walk on two legs \u201clike a god\u201d\u2014but it pleases me\nbetter when they fall back on their four feet. This is incomparably more\nnatural for them!\n\n\n\n\n262.\n\n\nTHE DEMON OF POWER.\u2014Neither necessity nor desire, but the love of power,\nis the demon of mankind. You may give men everything possible\u2014health,\nfood, shelter, enjoyment\u2014but they are and remain unhappy and capricious,\nfor the demon waits and waits; and must be satisfied. Let everything else\nbe taken away from men, and let this demon be satisfied, and then they\nwill nearly be happy\u2014as happy as men and demons can be; but why do I\nrepeat this? Luther has already said it, and better than I have done, in\nthe verses:\n\n\n    \u201cAnd though they take our life,\n    Goods, honour, children, wife,\n    Yet is their profit small,\n    These things shall vanish all,\n    The Kingdom it remaineth.\u201d\n\n\nThe Kingdom! there it is again!(7)\n\n\n\n\n263.\n\n\nCONTRADICTION INCARNATE AND ANIMATED.\u2014There is a physiological\ncontradiction in what is called genius: genius possesses on the one hand a\ngreat deal of savage disorder and involuntary movement, and on the other\nhand a great deal of superior activity in this movement. Joined to this a\ngenius possesses a mirror which reflects the two movements beside one\nanother, and within one another, but often opposed to one another. Genius\nin consequence of this sight is often unhappy, and if it feels its\ngreatest happiness in creating, it is because it forgets that precisely\nthen, with the highest determinate activity, it does something fantastic\nand irrational (such is all art) and cannot help doing it.\n\n\n\n\n264.\n\n\nDECEIVING ONE\u2019S SELF.\u2014Envious men with a discriminating intuition\nendeavour not to become too closely acquainted with their rivals in order\nthat they may feel themselves superior to them.\n\n\n\n\n265.\n\n\nTHERE IS A TIME FOR THE THEATRE.\u2014When the imagination of a people begins\nto diminish, there arises the desire to have its legends represented on\nthe stage: it then tolerates the coarse substitutes for imagination. In\nthe age of the epic rhapsodist, however, the theatre itself, and the actor\ndressed up as a hero, form an obstacle in the path of the imagination\ninstead of acting as wings for it\u2014too near, too definite, too heavy, and\nwith too little of dreamland and the flights of birds about them.\n\n\n\n\n266.\n\n\nWITHOUT CHARM.\u2014He lacks charm and knows it. Ah, how skilful he is in\nmasking this defect! He does it by a strict virtue, gloomy looks, and\nacquired distrust of all men, and of existence itself; by coarse jests, by\ncontempt for a more refined manner of living, by pathos and pretensions,\nand by a cynical philosophy\u2014yea, he has even developed into a character\nthrough the continual knowledge of his deficiency.\n\n\n\n\n267.\n\n\nWHY SO PROUD?\u2014A noble character is distinguished from a vulgar one by the\nfact that the latter has not at ready command a certain number of habits\nand points of view like the former: fate willed that they should not be\nhis either by inheritance or by education.\n\n\n\n\n268.\n\n\nTHE ORATOR\u2019S SCYLLA AND CHARYBDIS.\u2014How difficult it was in Athens to speak\nin such a way as to win over the hearers to one\u2019s cause without repelling\nthem at the same time by the form in which one\u2019s speech was cast, or\nwithdrawing their attention from the cause itself by this form! How\ndifficult it still is to write thus in France!\n\n\n\n\n269.\n\n\nSICK PEOPLE AND ART.\u2014For all kinds of sadness and misery of soul we should\nfirst of all try a change of diet and severe manual labour; but in such\ncases men are in the habit of having recourse to mental intoxicants, to\nart for example\u2014which is both to their own detriment and that of art! Can\nyou not see that when you call for art as sick people you make the artists\nthemselves sick?\n\n\n\n\n270.\n\n\nAPPARENT TOLERATION.\u2014Those are good, benevolent, and rational words on and\nin favour of science, but, alas! I see behind these words your toleration\nof science. In a corner of your inmost mind you think, in spite of all you\nsay, that _it is not necessary for you_, that it shows magnanimity on your\npart to admit and even to advocate it, more especially as science on its\npart does not exhibit this magnanimity in regard to your opinion! Do you\nknow that you have no right whatever to exercise this toleration? that\nthis condescension of yours is an even coarser disparagement of science\nthan any of that open scorn which a presumptuous priest or artist might\nallow himself to indulge in towards science? What is lacking in you is a\nstrong sense for everything that is true and actual, you do not feel\ngrieved and worried to find that science is in contradiction to your own\nsentiments, you are unacquainted with that intense desire for knowledge\nruling over you like a law, you do not feel a duty in the need of being\npresent with your own eyes wherever knowledge exists, and to let nothing\nthat is \u201cknown\u201d escape you. You do not know that which you are treating\nwith such toleration! and it is only because you do not know it that you\ncan succeed in adopting such a gracious attitude towards it. You,\nforsooth, would look upon science with hatred and fanaticism if it for\nonce cast its shining and illuminating glance upon you! What does it\nmatter to us, then, if you do exhibit toleration\u2014and towards a phantom!\nand not even towards us!\u2014and what do we matter!\n\n\n\n\n271.\n\n\nFESTIVE MOODS.\u2014It is exactly those men who aspire most ardently towards\npower who feel it indescribably agreeable to be overpowered! to sink\nsuddenly and deeply into a feeling as into a whirlpool! To suffer the\nreins to be snatched out of their hand, and to watch a movement which\ntakes them they know not where! Whatever or whoever may be the person or\nthing that renders us this service, it is nevertheless a great service: we\nare so happy and breathless, and feel around us an exceptional silence, as\nif we were in the most central bowels of the earth. To be for once\nentirely powerless! the plaything of the elementary forces of nature!\nThere is a restfulness in this happiness, a casting away of the great\nburden, a descent without fatigue, as if one had been given up to the\nblind force of gravity.\n\nThis is the dream of the mountain climber, who, although he sees his goal\nfar above him, nevertheless falls asleep on the way from utter exhaustion,\nand dreams of the happiness of the contrast\u2014this effortless rolling down\nhill. I describe happiness as I imagine it to be in our present-day\nsociety, the badgered, ambitious society of Europe and America. Now and\nthen they _wish_ to fall back into impotence\u2014this enjoyment is offered\nthem by wars, arts, religions, and geniuses. When a man has temporarily\nabandoned himself to a momentary impression which devours and crushes\neverything\u2014and this is the modern festive mood\u2014he afterwards becomes\nfreer, colder, more refreshed, and more strict, and again strives\ntirelessly after the contrary of all this: power.\n\n\n\n\n272.\n\n\nTHE PURIFICATION OF RACES.\u2014It is probable that there are no pure races,\nbut only races which have become purified, and even these are extremely\nrare.(8) We more often meet with crossed races, among whom, together with\nthe defects in the harmony of the bodily forms (for example when the eyes\ndo not accord with the mouth) we necessarily always find defects of\nharmony in habits and appreciations. (Livingstone heard some one say, \u201cGod\ncreated white and black men, but the devil created the half-castes.\u201d)\n\nCrossed races are always at the same time crossed cultures and crossed\nmoralities: they are, as a rule, more evil, cruel, and restless. Purity is\nthe final result of innumerable adjustments, absorptions, and\neliminations; and progress towards purity in a race is shown by the fact\nthat the latent strength in the race is more and more restricted to a few\nspecial functions, whilst it formerly had to carry out too many and often\ncontradictory things. Such a restriction will always have the appearance\nof an impoverishment, and must be judged with prudence and moderation. In\nthe long run, however, when the process of purification has come to a\nsuccessful termination, all those forces which were formerly wasted in the\nstruggle between the disharmonious qualities are at the disposal of the\norganism as a whole, and this is why purified races have always become\nstronger and more beautiful.\u2014The Greeks may serve us as a model of a\npurified race and culture!\u2014and it is to be hoped that some day a pure\nEuropean race and culture may arise.\n\n\n\n\n273.\n\n\nPRAISE.\u2014Here is some one who, you perceive, wishes to praise you: you bite\nyour lips and brace up your heart: Oh, that _that_ cup might go hence! But\nit does not, it comes! let us therefore drink the sweet impudence of the\npanegyrist, let us overcome the disgust and profound contempt that we feel\nfor the innermost substance of his praise, let us assume a look of\nthankful joy\u2014for he wished to make himself agreeable to us! And now that\nit is all over we know that he feels greatly exalted; he has been\nvictorious over us. Yes, and also over himself, the villain!\u2014for it was no\neasy matter for him to wring this praise from himself.\n\n\n\n\n274.\n\n\nTHE RIGHTS AND PRIVILEGES OF MAN.\u2014We human beings are the only creatures\nwho, when things do not go well with us, can blot ourselves out like a\nclumsy sentence,\u2014whether we do so out of honour for humanity or pity for\nit, or on account of the aversion we feel towards ourselves.\n\n\n\n\n275.\n\n\nTHE TRANSFORMED BEING.\u2014Now he becomes virtuous; but only for the sake of\nhurting others by being so. Don\u2019t pay so much attention to him.\n\n\n\n\n276.\n\n\nHOW OFTEN! HOW UNEXPECTED!\u2014How may married men have some morning awakened\nto the fact that their young wife is dull, although she thinks quite the\ncontrary! not to speak of those wives whose flesh is willing but whose\nintellect is weak!\n\n\n\n\n277.\n\n\nWARM AND COLD VIRTUES.\u2014Courage is sometimes the consequence of cold and\nunshaken resolution, and at other times of a fiery and reckless \u00e9lan. For\nthese two kinds of courage there is only the one name!\u2014but how different,\nnevertheless, are cold virtues and warm virtues! and the man would be a\nfool who could suppose that \u201cgoodness\u201d could only be brought about by\nwarmth, and no less a fool he who would only attribute it to cold. The\ntruth is that mankind has found both warm and cold courage very useful,\nyet not often enough to prevent it from setting them both in the category\nof precious stones.\n\n\n\n\n278.\n\n\nTHE GRACIOUS MEMORY.\u2014A man of high rank will do well to develop a gracious\nmemory, that is, to note all the good qualities of people and remember\nthem particularly; for in this way he holds them in an agreeable\ndependence. A man may also act in this way towards himself: whether or not\nhe has a gracious memory determines in the end the superiority,\ngentleness, or distrust with which he observes his own inclinations and\nintentions, and finally even the nature of these inclinations and\nintentions.\n\n\n\n\n279.\n\n\nWHEREIN WE BECOME ARTISTS.\u2014He who makes an idol of some one endeavours to\njustify himself in his own eyes by idealising this person: in other words,\nhe becomes an artist that he may have a clear conscience. When he suffers\nhe does not suffer from his ignorance, but from the lie he has told\nhimself to make himself ignorant. The inmost misery and desire of such a\nman\u2014and all passionate lovers are included in this category\u2014cannot be\nexhausted by normal means.\n\n\n\n\n280.\n\n\nCHILDLIKE.\u2014Those who live like children\u2014those who have not to struggle for\ntheir daily bread, and do not think that their actions have any ultimate\nsignification\u2014remain childlike.\n\n\n\n\n281.\n\n\nOUR EGO DESIRES EVERYTHING.\u2014It would seem as if men in general were only\ninspired by the desire to possess: languages at least would permit of this\nsupposition, for they view past actions from the standpoint that we have\nbeen put in possession of something\u2014\u201cI _have_ spoken, struggled,\nconquered\u201d\u2014as if to say, I am now in possession of my word, my struggle,\nmy victory. How greedy man appears in this light! he cannot even let the\npast escape him: he even wishes to _have_ it still!\n\n\n\n\n282.\n\n\nDANGER IN BEAUTY.\u2014This woman is beautiful and intelligent: alas, how much\nmore intelligent she would have become if she had not been beautiful!\n\n\n\n\n283.\n\n\nDOMESTIC AND MENTAL PEACE.\u2014Our habitual mood depends upon the mood in\nwhich we maintain our habitual entourage.\n\n\n\n\n284.\n\n\nNEW THINGS AS OLD ONES.\u2014Many people seem irritated when something new is\ntold them: they feel the ascendancy which the news has given to the person\nwho has learnt it first.\n\n\n\n\n285.\n\n\nWHAT ARE THE LIMITS OF THE EGO.\u2014The majority of people take under their\nprotection, as it were, something that they know, as if the fact of\nknowing it was sufficient in itself to make it their property. The\nacquisitiveness of the egoistic feeling has no limits: Great men speak as\nif they had behind them the whole of time, and had placed themselves at\nthe head of this enormous host; and good women boast of the beauty of\ntheir children, their clothes, their dog, their physician, or their native\ntown, but the only thing they dare not say is, \u201cI am all that.\u201d _Chi non\nha non \u00e8_\u2014as they say in Italy.\n\n\n\n\n286.\n\n\nDOMESTIC ANIMALS, PETS AND THE LIKE.\u2014Could there be anything more\nrepugnant than the sentimentality which is shown to plants and animals\u2014and\nthis on the part of a creature who from the very beginning has made such\nravages among them as their most ferocious enemy,\u2014and who ends by even\nclaiming affectionate feelings from his weakened and mutilated victims!\nBefore this kind of \u201cnature\u201d man must above all be serious, if he is any\nsort of a thinking being.\n\n\n\n\n287.\n\n\nTWO FRIENDS.\u2014They were friends once, but now they have ceased to be so,\nand both of them broke off the friendship at the same time, the one\nbecause he believed himself to be too greatly misunderstood, and the other\nbecause he thought he was known too intimately\u2014and both were wrong! For\nneither of them knew himself well enough.\n\n\n\n\n288.\n\n\nTHE COMEDY OF THE NOBLE SOULS.\u2014Those who cannot succeed in exhibiting a\nnoble and cordial familiarity endeavour to let the nobleness of their\nnature be seen by their exercise of reserve and strictness, and a certain\ncontempt for familiarity, as if their strong sense of confidence were\nashamed to show itself.\n\n\n\n\n289.\n\n\nWHERE WE MAY SAY NOTHING AGAINST VIRTUE.\u2014Among cowards it is thought bad\nform to say anything against bravery, for any expression of this kind\nwould give rise to some contempt; and unfeeling people are irritated when\nanything is said against pity.(9)\n\n\n\n\n290.\n\n\nA WASTE.\u2014We find that with irritable and abrupt people their first words\nand actions generally afford no indication of their actual character\u2014they\nare prompted by circumstances, and are to some extent simply reproductions\nof the spirit of these circumstances. Because, however, as the words have\nbeen uttered and the deeds done, the subsequent words and deeds,\nindicating the real nature of such people, have often to be used to\nreconcile, amend, or extinguish the former.\n\n\n\n\n291.\n\n\nARROGANCE.\u2014Arrogance is an artificial and simulated pride; but it is\nprecisely the essential nature of pride to be incapable of artifice,\nsimulation, or hypocrisy\u2014and thus arrogance is the hypocrisy of the\nincapacity for hypocrisy, a very difficult thing, and one which is a\nfailure in most cases. But if we suppose that, as most frequently happens,\nthe presumptuous person betrays himself, then a treble annoyance falls to\nhis lot: people are angry with him because he has endeavoured to deceive\nthem, and because he wished to show himself superior to them, and finally\nthey laugh at him because he failed in both these endeavours. How\nearnestly, therefore, should we dissuade our fellow-men from arrogance!\n\n\n\n\n292.\n\n\nA SPECIES OF MISCONCEPTION.\u2014When we hear somebody speak it is often\nsufficient for his pronunciation of a single consonant (the letter r, for\nexample) to fill us with doubts as to the honesty of his feelings: we are\nnot accustomed to this particular pronunciation, and should have to make\nit ourselves as it were arbitrarily\u2014it sounds \u201cforced\u201d to us. This is the\ndomain of the greatest possible misconception: and it is the same with the\nstyle of a writer who has certain habits which are not the habits of\neverybody. His \u201cartlessness\u201d is felt as such only by himself, and\nprecisely in regard to that which he himself feels to be \u201cforced\u201d (because\nhe has yielded in this matter to the prevailing fashion and to so called\n\u201cgood taste\u201d), he may perhaps give pleasure and inspire confidence.\n\n\n\n\n293.\n\n\nTHANKFUL.\u2014One superfluous grain of gratitude and piety makes one suffer as\nfrom a vice\u2014in spite of all one\u2019s independence and honesty one begins to\nhave a bad conscience.\n\n\n\n\n294.\n\n\nSAINTS.\u2014It is the most sensual men who find it necessary to avoid women\nand to torture their bodies.\n\n\n\n\n295.\n\n\nTHE SUBTLETY OF SERVING.\u2014One of the most subtle tasks in the great art of\nserving is that of serving a more than usually ambitious man, who, indeed,\nis excessively egoistic in all things, but is entirely adverse to being\nthought so (this is part of his ambition). He requires that everything\nshall be according to his own will and humour, yet in such a way as to\ngive him the appearance of always having sacrificed himself, and of rarely\ndesiring anything for himself alone.\n\n\n\n\n296.\n\n\nDUELLING.\u2014I think it a great advantage, said some one, to be able to fight\na duel\u2014if, of course, it is absolutely necessary; for I have at all times\nbrave companions about me. The duel is the last means of thoroughly\nhonourable suicide left to us; but it is unfortunately a circuitous means,\nand not even a certain one.\n\n\n\n\n297.\n\n\nPERNICIOUS.\u2014A young man can be most surely corrupted when he is taught to\nvalue the like-minded more highly than the differently minded.\n\n\n\n\n298.\n\n\nHERO-WORSHIP AND ITS FANATICS.\u2014The fanatic of an ideal that possesses\nflesh and blood is right as a rule so long as he assumes a negative\nattitude, and he is terrible in his negation: he knows what he denies as\nwell as he knows himself, for the simple reason that he comes thence, that\nhe feels at home there, and that he has always the secret fear of being\nforced to return there some day. He therefore wishes to make his return\nimpossible by the manner of his negation. As soon as he begins to affirm,\nhowever, he partly shuts his eyes and begins to idealise (frequently\nmerely for the sake of annoying those who have stayed at home). We might\nsay that there was something artistic about this\u2014agreed, but there is also\nsomething dishonest about it.\n\nThe idealist of a person imagines this person to be so far from him that\nhe can no longer see him distinctly, and then he travesties that which he\ncan just perceive into something \u201cbeautiful\u201d\u2014that is to say, symmetrical,\nvaguely outlined, uncertain. Since he wishes to worship from afar that\nideal which floats on high in the distance, he finds it essential to build\na temple for the object of his worship as a protection from the _profanum\nvulgus_. He brings into this temple for the object of his worship all the\nvenerable and sanctified objects which he still possesses, so that his\nideal may benefit by their charm, and that, nourished in this way, it may\ngrow more and more divine. In the end he really succeeds in forming his\nGod, but, alas for him! there is some one who knows how all this has been\ndone, viz. his intellectual conscience; and there is also some one who,\nquite unconsciously, begins to protest against these things, viz. the\ndeified one himself, who, in consequence of all this worship, praise, and\nincense, now becomes completely unbearable and shows himself in the most\nobvious and dreadful manner to be non-divine, and only too human.\n\nIn a case like this there is only one means of escape left for such a\nfanatic; he patiently suffers himself and his fellows to be maltreated,\nand interprets all this misery _in maiorem dei gloriam_ by a new kind of\nself-deceit and noble falsehood. He takes up a stand against himself, and\nin doing so experiences, as an interpreter and ill-treated person,\nsomething like martyrdom\u2014and in this way he climbs to the height of his\nconceit. Men of this kind to be found, for example, in the entourage of\nNapoleon: indeed, perhaps it may have been he who inspired the soul of his\ncentury with that romantic prostration in the presence of the \u201cgenius\u201d and\nthe \u201chero,\u201d which was so foreign to the spirit of rationalism of the\nnineteenth century\u2014a man about whom even Byron was not ashamed to say that\nhe was a \u201cworm compared with such a being.\u201d (The formul\u00e6 of this\nprostration have been discovered by Thomas Carlyle, that arrogant old\nmuddle-head and grumbler, who spent his long life in trying to romanticise\nthe common sense of his Englishmen: but in vain!)\n\n\n\n\n299.\n\n\nTHE APPEARANCE OF HEROISM.\u2014Throwing ourselves in the midst of our enemies\nmay be a sign of cowardice.\n\n\n\n\n300.\n\n\nCONDESCENDING TOWARDS THE FLATTERER.\u2014It is the ultimate prudence of\ninsatiably ambitious men not only to conceal their contempt for man which\nthe sight of flatterers causes them: but also to appear even condescending\nto them, like a God who can be nothing if not condescending.\n\n\n\n\n301.\n\n\n\u201cSTRENGTH OF CHARACTER.\u201d\u2014\u201cWhat I have said once I will do\u201d\u2014This manner of\nthinking is believed to indicate great strength of character. How many\nactions are accomplished, not because they have been selected as being the\nmost rational, but because at the moment when we thought of them they\ninfluenced our ambition and vanity by some means or another, so that we do\nnot stop until we have blindly carried them out. Thus they strengthen in\nus our belief in our character and our good conscience, in short our\nstrength; whilst the choice of the most rational acts possible brings\nabout a certain amount of scepticism towards ourselves, and thus\nencourages a sense of weakness in us.\n\n\n\n\n302.\n\n\nONCE, TWICE, AND THRICE TRUE.\u2014Men lie unspeakably and often, but they do\nnot think about it afterwards, and generally do not believe in it.\n\n\n\n\n303.\n\n\nTHE PASTIME OF THE PSYCHOLOGIST.\u2014He thinks he knows me, and fancies\nhimself to be subtle and important when he has any kind of relations with\nme; and I take care not to undeceive him. For in such a case I should\nsuffer for it, while now he wishes me well because I arouse in him a\nfeeling of conscious superiority.\u2014There is another, who fears that I think\nI know him, and feels a sense of inferiority at this. As a result he\nbehaves in a timid and vacillating manner, in my presence, and endeavours\nto mislead me in regard to himself so that he may regain an ascendancy\nover me.\n\n\n\n\n304.\n\n\nTHE DESTROYERS OF THE WORLD.\u2014When some men fail to accomplish what they\ndesire to do they exclaim angrily, \u201cMay the whole world perish!\u201d This\nodious feeling is the height of envy which reasons thus: because I cannot\nhave one thing the whole world in general must have nothing! the whole\nworld shall not exist!\n\n\n\n\n305.\n\n\nGREED.\u2014When we set out to buy something our greed increases with the\ncheapness of the object\u2014Why? Is it because the small differences in price\nmake up the little eye of greed?\n\n\n\n\n306.\n\n\nTHE GREEK IDEAL.\u2014What did the Greeks admire in Ulysses? Above all his\ncapacity for lying and for taking a shrewd and dreadful revenge, his being\nequal to circumstances, his appearing to be nobler than the noblest when\nnecessary, his ability to be everything he desired, his heroic\npertinacity, having all means within his command, possessing genius\u2014the\ngenius of Ulysses is an object of the admiration of the gods, they smile\nwhen they think of it\u2014all this is the Greek ideal! What is most remarkable\nabout it is that the contradiction between seeming and being was not felt\nin any way, and that as a consequence it could not be morally estimated.\nWere there ever such accomplished actors?\n\n\n\n\n307.\n\n\nFACTA! YES, FACTA FICTA!\u2014The historian need not concern himself with\nevents which have actually happened, but only those which are supposed to\nhave happened; for none but the latter have produced an effect. The same\nremark applies to the imaginary heroes. His theme\u2014this so-called\nworld-history\u2014what is it but opinions on imaginary actions and their\nimaginary motives, which in their turn give rise to opinions and actions\nthe reality of which, however, is at once evaporated, and is only\neffective as vapour,\u2014a continual generating and impregnating of phantoms\nabove the dense mists of unfathomable reality. All historians record\nthings which have never existed, except in imagination.\n\n\n\n\n308.\n\n\nNOT TO UNDERSTAND TRADE IS NOBLE.\u2014To sell one\u2019s virtue only at the highest\nprice, or even to carry on usury with it as a teacher, a civil servant, or\nan artist, for instance, brings genius and talent down to the level of the\ncommon tradesman. We must be careful not to be clever with our wisdom!\n\n\n\n\n309.\n\n\nFEAR AND LOVE.\u2014The general knowledge of mankind has been furthered to a\ngreater extent by fear than by love; for fear endeavours to find out who\nthe other is, what he can do, and what he wants: it would be dangerous and\nprejudicial to be deceived on this point. On the other hand, love is\ninduced by its secret craving to discover as many beautiful qualities as\npossible in the loved object, or to raise this loved object as high as\npossible: it is a joy and an advantage to love to be deceived in this\nway\u2014and this is why it does it.\n\n\n\n\n310.\n\n\nGOOD-NATURED PEOPLE.\u2014Good-natured people have acquired their character\nfrom the continual fear of foreign attacks in which their ancestors\nlived,\u2014these ancestors, who were in the habit of mitigating and\ntranquillising, humbling themselves, preventing, distracting, flattering,\nand apologising, concealing their grief and anger, and preserving an\nunruffled countenance,\u2014and they ultimately bequeathed all this delicate\nand well-formed mechanism to their children and grandchildren. These\nlatter, thanks to their more favourable lot, did not experience this\nfeeling of dread, but they nevertheless continue in the same groove.\n\n\n\n\n311.\n\n\nTHE SO-CALLED SOUL.\u2014The sum-total of those internal movements which come\nnaturally to men, and which they can consequently set in motion readily\nand gracefully, is called the soul\u2014men are looked upon as void of soul\nwhen they let it be seen that their inward emotions are difficult and\npainful to them.\n\n\n\n\n312.\n\n\nTHE FORGETFUL ONES.\u2014In outbursts of passion and the delusions of dreams\nand madness, man rediscovers his own primitive history, and that of\nhumanity: animality and its savage grimaces. For once his memory stretches\nback into the past, while his civilised condition is developed from the\nforgetfulness of these primitive experiences, that is to say, from the\nfailing of this memory. He who, as a forgetful man of a higher nature, has\nalways remained aloof from these things, does not understand men\u2014but it is\nan advantage if from time to time there are individuals who do not\nunderstand men, individuals who are, so to speak, created from the divine\nseed and born of reason.\n\n\n\n\n313.\n\n\nTHE FRIEND WHOM WE WANT NO LONGER.\u2014That friend whose hopes we cannot\nsatisfy we should prefer to have as an enemy.\n\n\n\n\n314.\n\n\nIN THE SOCIETY OF THINKERS.\u2014In the midst of the ocean of becoming we\nadventurers and birds of passage wake up on an island no larger than a\nsmall boat, and here we look round us for a moment with as much haste and\ncuriosity as possible; for how quickly may some gale blow us away or some\nwave sweep over the little island and leave nothing of us remaining! Here,\nhowever, upon this little piece of ground we meet with other birds of\npassage and hear of still earlier ones,\u2014and thus we live together for one\nprecious minute of recognition and divining, amid the cheerful fluttering\nof wings and joyful chirping, and then adventure in spirit far out on the\nocean, feeling no less proud than the ocean itself.\n\n\n\n\n315.\n\n\nPARTING WITH SOMETHING.\u2014To give up some of our property, or to waive a\nright, gives pleasure when it denotes great wealth. Generosity may be\nplaced in this category.\n\n\n\n\n316.\n\n\nWEAK SECTS.\u2014Those sects which feel that they will always remain weak hunt\nup a few intelligent individual adherents, wishing to make up in quality\nwhat they lack in quantity. This gives rise to no little danger for\nintelligent minds.\n\n\n\n\n317.\n\n\nTHE JUDGMENT OF THE EVENING.\u2014The man who meditates upon his day\u2019s and\nlife\u2019s work when he has reached the end of his journey and feels weary,\ngenerally arrives at a melancholy conclusion; but this is not the fault of\nthe day or his life, but of weariness.\u2014In the midst of creative work we do\nnot take time, as a rule, to meditate upon life and existence, nor yet in\nthe midst of our pleasures: but if by a chance this did happen once we\nshould no longer believe him to be right who waited for the seventh day\nand for repose to find everything that exists very beautiful.\u2014He had\nmissed the right moment.\n\n\n\n\n318.\n\n\nBEWARE OF SYSTEMISERS!\u2014There is a certain amount of comedy about\nsystemisers: in trying to complete a system and to round off its horizon\nthey have to try to let their weaker qualities appear in the same style as\ntheir stronger ones.\u2014They wish to represent complete and uniformly strong\nnatures.\n\n\n\n\n319.\n\n\nHOSPITALITY.\u2014The object of hospitality is to paralyse all hostile feeling\nin a stranger. When we cease to look upon strangers as enemies,\nhospitality diminishes; it flourishes so long as its evil presupposition\ndoes.\n\n\n\n\n320.\n\n\nTHE WEATHER.\u2014An exceptional and uncertain state of the weather makes men\nsuspicious even of one another: at the same time they come to like\ninnovations, for they must diverge from their accustomed habits. This is\nwhy despots like those countries where the weather is moral.\n\n\n\n\n321.\n\n\nDANGER IN INNOCENCE.\u2014Innocent people become easy victims in all\ncircumstances because their lack of knowledge prevents them from\ndistinguishing between moderation and excess, and from being betimes on\ntheir guard against themselves. It is as a result of this that innocent,\nthat is, ignorant young women become accustomed to the frequent enjoyment\nof sexual intercourse, and feel the want of it very much in later years\nwhen their husbands fall ill or grow prematurely old. It is on account of\nthis harmless and orthodox conception, as if frequent sexual intercourse\nwere right and proper, that they come to experience a need which\nafterwards exposes them to the severest tribulations, and even worse.\n\nConsidering the matter, however, from a higher and more general point of\nview, whoever loves a man or a thing without knowing him or it, falls a\nprey to something which he would not love if he could see it. In all cases\nwhere experience, precautions, and prudent steps are required, it is the\ninnocent man who will be most thoroughly corrupted, for he has to drink\nwith closed eyes the dregs and most secret poison of everything put before\nhim. Let us consider the procedure of all princes, churches, sects,\nparties, and corporations: Is not the innocent man always used as the\nsweetest bait for the most dangerous and wicked traps?\u2014just as Ulysses\navailed himself of the services of the innocent Neoptolemos to cheat the\nold and infirm anchorite and ogre of Lemnos out of his bow and arrows.\nChristianity, with its contempt for the world, has made ignorance a\nvirtue\u2014innocence, perhaps because the most frequent result of this\ninnocence is precisely, as I have indicated above, guilt, the sense of\nguilt, and despair: In other words, a virtue which leads to Heaven by the\ncircuitous route of Hell; for only then can the gloomy propyl\u00e6a of\nChristian salvation be thrown open, and only then is the promise of a\nposthumous second innocence effective. This is one of the finest\ninventions of Christianity!\n\n\n\n\n322.\n\n\nLIVING WITHOUT A DOCTOR WHEN POSSIBLE.\u2014It seems to me that a sick man\nlives more carelessly when he is under medical observation than when he\nattends to his own health. In the first case it suffices for him to obey\nstrictly all his Doctor\u2019s prescriptions; but in the second case he gives\nmore attention to the ultimate object of these prescriptions, namely, his\nhealth; he observes much more, and submits himself to a more severe\ndiscipline than the directions of his physician would compel him to do.\n\nAll rules have this effect: they distract our attention from the\nfundamental aim of the rule, and make us more thoughtless. But to what\nheights of immoderation and destruction would men have risen if ever they\nhad completely and honestly left everything to the Godhead as to their\nphysician, and acted in accordance with the words \u201cas God will\u201d!\n\n\n\n\n323.\n\n\nTHE DARKENING OF THE HEAVENS.\u2014Do you know the vengeance of those timid\npeople who behave in society just as if they had stolen their limbs? The\nvengeance of the humble, Christian-like souls who just manage to slink\nquietly through the world? The vengeance of those who always judge\nhastily, and are as hastily said to be in the wrong? The vengeance of all\nclasses of drunkards, for whom the morning is always the most miserable\npart of the day? and also of all kinds of invalids and sick and depressed\npeople who have no longer the courage to become healthy?\n\nThe number of these petty vengeful people, and, even more, the number of\ntheir petty acts of revenge, is incalculable. The air around us is\ncontinually whizzing with the discharged arrows of their malignity, so\nthat the sun and the sky of their lives become darkened thereby,\u2014and,\nalas! not only theirs, but more often ours and other men\u2019s: and this is\nworse than the frequent wounds which they make on our skins and hearts. Do\nwe not occasionally deny the existence of the sun and sky merely because\nwe have not seen them for so long?\u2014Well then, solitude! because of this,\nsolitude!\n\n\n\n\n324.\n\n\nTHE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE ACTOR.\u2014It is the blissful illusion of all great\nactors to imagine that the historical personages whom they are\nrepresenting were really in the same state of mind as they themselves are\nwhen interpreting them\u2014but in this they are very much mistaken. Their\npowers of imitation and divination, which they would fain exhibit as a\nclairvoyant faculty, penetrate only far enough to explain gestures,\naccent, and looks, and in general anything exterior: that is, they can\ngrasp the shadow of the soul of a great hero, statesman, or warrior, or of\nan ambitious, jealous, or desperate person\u2014they penetrate fairly near to\nthe soul, but they never reach the inmost spirit of the man they are\nimitating.\n\nIt would, indeed, be a fine thing to discover that instead of thinkers,\npsychologists, or experts we required nothing but clairvoyant actors to\nthrow light upon the essence of any condition. Let us never forget,\nwhenever such pretensions are heard, that the actor is nothing but an\nideal ape\u2014so much of an ape is he, indeed, that he is not capable of\nbelieving in the \u201cessence\u201d or in the \u201cessential\u201d: everything becomes for\nhim merely performance, intonation, attitude, stage, scenery, and public.\n\n\n\n\n325.\n\n\nLIVING AND BELIEVING APART.\u2014The means of becoming the prophet and\nwonder-worker of one\u2019s age are the same to-day as in former times: one\nmust live apart, with little knowledge, some ideas, and a great deal of\npresumption\u2014we then finish by believing that mankind cannot do without us,\nbecause it is clear that we can do without it. When we are inspired with\nthis belief we find faith. Finally, a piece of advice to him who needs it\n(it was given to Wesley by Boehler, his spiritual teacher): \u201cPreach faith\nuntil you have it; then you will preach it because you have it!\u201d\n\n\n\n\n326.\n\n\nKNOWING OUR CIRCUMSTANCES.\u2014We may estimate our powers, but not our power.\nNot only do circumstances conceal it from us and show it to us time about,\nbut they even exaggerate or diminish it. We must consider ourselves as\nvariable quantities whose productive capacity may in favourable\ncircumstances reach the greatest possible heights: we must therefore\nreflect upon these circumstances, and spare no pains in studying them.\n\n\n\n\n327.\n\n\nA FABLE.\u2014The Don Juan of knowledge\u2014no philosopher or poet has yet\nsucceeded in discovering him. He is wanting in love for the things he\nrecognises, but he possesses wit, a lust for the hunting after knowledge,\nand the intrigues in connection with it, and he finds enjoyment in all\nthese, even up to the highest and most distant stars of knowledge\u2014until at\nlast there is nothing left for him to pursue but the absolutely injurious\nside of knowledge, just as the drunkard who ends by drinking absinthe and\naquafortis. That is why last of all he feels a longing for hell, for this\nis the final knowledge which seduces him. Perhaps even this would\ndisappoint him, as all things do which one knows! and then he would have\nto stand still for all eternity, a victim to eternal deception, and\ntransformed into his enemy, the Stony Guest, who longs for an evening meal\nof knowledge which will never more fall to his share! for the whole world\nof things will not have another mouthful left to offer to these hungry\nmen.\n\n\n\n\n328.\n\n\nWHAT IDEALISTIC THEORIES DISCLOSE.\u2014We are most certain to find idealistic\ntheories among unscrupulously practical men; for such men stand in need of\nthe lustre of these theories for the sake of their reputation. They adopt\nthem instinctively without by any means feeling hypocritical in doing\nso\u2014no more hypocritical than Englishmen with their Christianity and their\nSabbath-keeping. On the other hand, contemplative natures who have to keep\nthemselves on the guard against all kinds of fantasies and who dread to be\nreputed as enthusiasts, are only to be satisfied with hard realistic\ntheories: they take possession of them under the same instinctive\ncompulsion without thereby losing their honesty.\n\n\n\n\n329.\n\n\nTHE CALUMNIATORS OF CHEERFULNESS.\u2014People who have been deeply wounded by\nthe disappointments of life look with suspicion upon all cheerfulness as\nif it were something childish and puerile, and revealed a lack of common\nsense that moves them to pity and tenderness, such as one would experience\nwhen seeing a dying child caressing his toys on his death-bed. Such men\nappear to see hidden graves under every rose; rejoicings, tumult, and\ncheerful music appear to them to be the voluntary illusions of a man who\nis dangerously ill and yet wishes to take a momentary draught from the\nintoxicating cup of life. But this judgment about cheerfulness is merely\nthe reflection of the latter on the dark background of weariness and\nill-health: in itself it is something touching, irrational, and pitiable,\neven childlike and puerile, but connected with that second childhood which\nfollows in the train of old age, and is the harbinger of death.\n\n\n\n\n330.\n\n\nNOT YET ENOUGH!\u2014It is not sufficient to prove a case, we must also tempt\nor raise men to it: hence the wise man must learn to convey his wisdom;\nand often in such a manner that it may sound like foolishness!\n\n\n\n\n331.\n\n\nRIGHT AND LIMITS.\u2014Asceticism is the proper mode of thinking for those who\nmust extirpate their carnal instincts, because these are ferocious\nbeasts,\u2014but only for such people!\n\n\n\n\n332.\n\n\nTHE BOMBASTIC STYLE.\u2014An artist who does not wish to put his elevated\nfeelings into a work and thus unburden himself, but who rather wishes to\nimpart these feelings of elevation to others, becomes pompous, and his\nstyle becomes the bombastic style.\n\n\n\n\n333.\n\n\n\u201cHUMANITY.\u201d\u2014We do not consider animals as moral beings. But do you think\nthat animals consider us as moral beings? An animal which had the power of\nspeech once said: \u201cHumanity is a prejudice from which we animals at least\ndo not suffer.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n334.\n\n\nTHE CHARITABLE MAN.\u2014The charitable man gratifies a need of his own inward\nfeelings when doing good. The stronger this need is the less does such a\nman try to put himself in the place of those who serve the purpose of\ngratifying his desire: he becomes indelicate and sometimes even offensive.\n(This remark applies to the benevolence and charity of the Jews, which, as\nis well known, is somewhat more effusive than that of other peoples.)(10)\n\n\n\n\n335.\n\n\nTHAT LOVE MAY BE FELT AS LOVE.\u2014We must be honest towards ourselves, and\nmust know ourselves very well indeed, to be able to practise upon others\nthat humane dissimulation known as love and kindness.\n\n\n\n\n336.\n\n\nWHAT ARE WE CAPABLE OF?\u2014A man who had been tormented all day by his wicked\nand malicious son slew him in the evening, and then with a sigh of relief\nsaid to the other members of his family: \u201cWell now we can sleep in peace.\u201d\nWho knows what circumstances might drive us to!\n\n\n\n\n337.\n\n\n\u201cNATURAL.\u201d\u2014To be natural, at least in his deficiencies, is perhaps the\nlast praise that can be bestowed upon an artificial artist, who is in\nother respects theatrical and half genuine. Such a man will for this very\nreason boldly parade his deficiencies.\n\n\n\n\n338.\n\n\nCONSCIENCE-SUBSTITUTE.\u2014One man is another\u2019s conscience: and this is\nespecially important when the other has none else.\n\n\n\n\n339.\n\n\nTHE TRANSFORMATION OF DUTIES.\u2014When our duties cease to be difficult of\naccomplishment, and after long practice become changed into agreeable\ndelights and needs, then the rights of others to whom our duties (though\nnow our inclinations) refer change into something else: that is, they\nbecome the occasion of pleasant feelings for us. Henceforth the \u201cother,\u201d\nby virtue of his rights, becomes an object of love to us instead of an\nobject of reverence and awe as formerly. It is our own pleasure we seek\nwhen we recognise and maintain the extent of his power. When the Quietists\nno longer felt their Christian faith as a burden, and experienced their\ndelight only in God, they took the motto: \u201cDo all to the glory of God.\u201d\nWhatever they performed henceforth in this sense was no longer a\nsacrifice, it was as much as to say, \u201cEverything for the sake of our\npleasure.\u201d To demand that duty should be always rather burdensome, as Kant\ndoes, is to demand that it shall never develop into a habit or custom.\nThere is a small residue of ascetic cruelty in this demand.\n\n\n\n\n340.\n\n\nAPPEARANCES ARE AGAINST THE HISTORIAN.\u2014It is a sufficiently demonstrated\nfact that human beings come from the womb; nevertheless when children grow\nup and stand by the side of their mother this hypothesis appears very\nabsurd\u2014all appearances are against it.\n\n\n\n\n341.\n\n\nTHE ADVANTAGE OF IGNORANCE.\u2014Some one has said that in his childhood he\nexperienced such a contempt for the caprices and whims of a melancholy\ntemperament that, until he had grown up and had become a middle-aged man,\nhe did not know what his own temperament was like: it was precisely a\nmelancholy temperament. He declared that this was the best of all possible\nkinds of ignorance.\n\n\n\n\n342.\n\n\nDO NOT BE DECEIVED!\u2014Yes, he examined the matter from every side and you\nthink him to be a man of profound knowledge. But he only wishes to lower\nthe price\u2014he wants to buy it!\n\n\n\n\n343.\n\n\nA MORAL PRETENCE.\u2014You refuse to be dissatisfied with yourselves or to\nsuffer from yourselves, and this you call your moral tendency! Very well;\nanother may perhaps call it your cowardice! One thing, however, is\ncertain, and that is that you will never take a trip round the world (and\nyou yourselves are this world), and you will always remain in yourselves\nan accident and a clod on the face of the earth! Do you fancy that we who\nhold different views from you are merely exposing ourselves out of pure\nfolly to the journey through our own deserts, swamps, and glaciers, and\nthat we are voluntarily choosing grief and disgust with ourselves, like\nthe Stylites?\n\n\n\n\n344.\n\n\nSUBTLETY IN MISTAKES.\u2014If Homer, as they say, sometimes nodded, he was\nwiser than all the artists of sleepless ambition. We must allow admirers\nto stop for a time and take breath by letting them find fault now and\nthen; for nobody can bear an uninterruptedly brilliant and untiring\nexcellence\u2014and instead of doing good such a master would merely become a\ntaskmaster, whom we hate while he precedes us.\n\n\n\n\n345.\n\n\nOUR HAPPINESS IS NOT AN ARGUMENT EITHER PRO OR CON.\u2014Many men are only\ncapable of a small share of happiness: and it is not an argument against\ntheir wisdom if this wisdom is unable to afford them a greater degree of\nhappiness, any more than it is an argument against medical skill that many\npeople are incurable, and others always ailing. May every one have the\ngood fortune to discover the conception of existence which will enable him\nto realise _his_ greatest share of happiness! though this will not\nnecessarily prevent his life from being miserable and not worth envying.\n\n\n\n\n346.\n\n\nTHE ENEMIES OF WOMEN.\u2014\u201cWoman is our enemy\u201d\u2014The man who speaks to men in\nthis way exhibits an unbridled lust which not only hates itself but also\nits means.\n\n\n\n\n347.\n\n\nTHE SCHOOL OF THE ORATOR.\u2014When a man has kept silence for a whole year he\nlearns to stop chattering, and to discourse instead. The Pythagoreans were\nthe best statesmen of their age.\n\n\n\n\n348.\n\n\nTHE FEELING OF POWER.\u2014Note the distinction: the man who wishes to acquire\nthe feeling of power seizes upon any means, and looks upon nothing as too\npetty which can foster this feeling. He who already possesses power,\nhowever, has grown fastidious and refined in his tastes; few things can be\nfound to satisfy him.\n\n\n\n\n349.\n\n\nNOT SO VERY IMPORTANT.\u2014When we are present at a death-bed there regularly\narises in us a thought that we immediately suppress from a false sense of\npropriety: the thought that the act of dying is less important than the\ncustomary veneration of it would wish us to believe, and that the dying\nman has probably lost in his life things which were more important than he\nis now about to lose by his death. In this case the end is certainly not\nthe goal.\n\n\n\n\n350.\n\n\nTHE BEST WAY TO PROMISE.\u2014When a man makes a promise it is not merely the\nword that promises, but what lies unexpressed behind the word. Words\nindeed weaken a promise by discharging and using up a power which forms\npart of that power which promises. Therefore shake hands when making a\npromise, but put your finger on your lips\u2014in this way you will make the\nsafest promises.\n\n\n\n\n351.\n\n\nGENERALLY MISUNDERSTOOD.\u2014In conversation we sometimes observe people\nendeavouring to set a trap in which to catch others\u2014not out of\nevil-mindedness, as one might suppose, but from delight in their own\nshrewdness. Others again prepare a joke so that some one else may utter\nit, they tie the knot so that others may undo it: not out of goodwill, as\nmight be supposed, but from wickedness, and their contempt for coarse\nintellects.\n\n\n\n\n352.\n\n\nCENTRE.\u2014The feeling, \u201cI am the centre of the world,\u201d forcibly comes to us\nwhen we are unexpectedly overtaken by disgrace: we then feel as if we were\nstanding dazed in the midst of a surge, and dazzled by the glance of one\nenormous eye which gazes down upon us from all sides and looks us through\nand through.\n\n\n\n\n353.\n\n\nFREEDOM OF SPEECH.\u2014\u201cThe truth must be told, even if the world should be\nshivered in fragments\u201d\u2014so cries the eminent and grandiloquent Fichte.\u2014Yes,\ncertainly; but we must have it first.\u2014What he really means, however, is\nthat each man should speak his mind, even if everything were to be turned\nupside down. This point, however, is open to dispute.\n\n\n\n\n354.\n\n\nTHE COURAGE FOR SUFFERING.\u2014Such as we now are, we are capable of bearing a\ntolerable amount of displeasure, and our stomach is suited to such\nindigestible food. If we were deprived of it, indeed, we should perhaps\nthink the banquet of life insipid; and if it were not for our willingness\nto suffer pain we should have to let too many pleasures escape us!\n\n\n\n\n355.\n\n\nADMIRERS.\u2014The man who admires up to the point that he would be ready to\ncrucify any one who did not admire, must be reckoned among the\nexecutioners of his party\u2014beware of shaking hands with him, even when he\nbelongs to your own side.\n\n\n\n\n356.\n\n\nTHE EFFECT OF HAPPINESS.\u2014The first effect of happiness is the feeling of\npower, and this feeling longs to manifest itself, whether towards\nourselves or other men, or towards ideas and imaginary beings. Its most\ncommon modes of manifestation are making presents, derision, and\ndestruction\u2014all three being due to a common fundamental instinct.\n\n\n\n\n357.\n\n\nMORAL MOSQUITOES.\u2014Those moralists who are lacking in the love of\nknowledge, and who are only acquainted with the pleasure of giving pain,\nhave the spirit and tediousness of provincials. Their pastime, as cruel as\nit is lamentable, is to observe their neighbour with the greatest possible\ncloseness, and, unperceived, to place a pin in such position that he\ncannot help pricking himself with it. Such men have preserved something of\nthe wickedness of schoolboys, who cannot amuse themselves without hunting\nand torturing either the living or the dead.\n\n\n\n\n358.\n\n\nREASONS AND THEIR UNREASON.\u2014You feel a dislike for him, and adduce\ninnumerable reasons for this dislike, but I only believe in your dislike\nand not in your reasons! You flatter yourself by adducing as a rational\nconclusion, both to yourself and to me, that which happens to be merely a\nmatter of instinct.\n\n\n\n\n359.\n\n\nAPPROVING OF SOMETHING.\u2014We approve of marriage in the first place because\nwe are not yet acquainted with it, in the second place because we have\naccustomed ourselves to it, and in the third place because we have\ncontracted it\u2014that is to say, in most cases. And yet nothing has been\nproved thereby in favour of the value of marriage in general.\n\n\n\n\n360.\n\n\nNO UTILITARIANS.\u2014\u201cPower which has greatly suffered both in deed and in\nthought is better than powerlessness which only meets with kind\ntreatment\u201d\u2014such was the Greek way of thinking. In other words, the feeling\nof power was prized more highly by them than any mere utility or fair\nrenown.\n\n\n\n\n361.\n\n\nUGLY IN APPEARANCE.\u2014Moderation appears to itself to be quite beautiful: it\nis unaware of the fact that in the eyes of the immoderate it seems coarse\nand insipid, and consequently ugly.\n\n\n\n\n362.\n\n\nDIFFERENT IN THEIR HATRED.\u2014There are men who do not begin to hate until\nthey feel weak and tired: in other respects they are fair-minded and\nsuperior. Others only begin to hate when they see an opportunity for\nrevenge: in other respects they carefully avoid both secret and open\nwrath, and overlook it whenever there is any occasion for it.\n\n\n\n\n363.\n\n\nMEN OF CHANCE.\u2014It is pure hazard which plays the essential part in every\ninvention, but most men do not meet with this hazard.\n\n\n\n\n364.\n\n\nCHOICE OF ENVIRONMENT.\u2014We should beware of living in an environment where\nwe are neither able to maintain a dignified silence nor to express our\nloftier thoughts, so that only our complaints and needs and the whole\nstory of our misery are left to be told. We thus become dissatisfied with\nourselves and with our surroundings, and to the discomfort which brings\nabout our complaints we add the vexation which we feel at always being in\nthe position of grumblers. But we should, on the contrary, live in a place\nwhere we should be ashamed to speak of ourselves and where it would not be\nnecessary to do so.\u2014Who, however, thinks of such things, or of the choice\nin such things? We talk about our \u201cfate,\u201d brace up our shoulders, and\nsigh, \u201cUnfortunate Atlas that I am!\u201d\n\n\n\n\n365.\n\n\nVANITY.\u2014Vanity is the dread of appearing to be original. Hence it is a\nlack of pride, but not necessarily a lack of originality.\n\n\n\n\n366.\n\n\nTHE CRIMINAL\u2019S GRIEF.\u2014The criminal who has been found out does not suffer\nbecause of the crime he has committed, but because of the shame and\nannoyance caused him either by some blunder which he has made or by being\ndeprived of his habitual element; and keen discernment is necessary to\ndistinguish such cases. Every one who has had much experience of prisons\nand reformatories is astonished at the rare instances of really genuine\n\u201cremorse,\u201d and still more so at the longing shown to return to the old\nwicked and beloved crime.\n\n\n\n\n367.\n\n\nALWAYS APPEARING HAPPY.\u2014When, in the Greece of the third century,\nphilosophy had become a matter of public emulation, there were not a few\nphilosophers who became happy through the thought that others who lived\naccording to different principles, and suffered from them, could not but\nfeel envious of their happiness. They thought they could refute these\nother people with their happiness better than anything else, and to\nachieve this object they were content to appear to be always happy; but,\nfollowing this practice, they were obliged to become happy in the long\nrun! This, for example, was the case of the cynics.\n\n\n\n\n368.\n\n\nTHE CAUSE OF MUCH MISUNDERSTANDING.\u2014The morality of increasing nervous\nforce is joyful and restless; the morality of diminishing nervous force,\ntowards evening, or in invalids and old people, is passive, calm, patient,\nand melancholy, and not rarely even gloomy. In accordance with what we may\npossess of one or other of these moralities, we do not understand that\nwhich we lack, and we often interpret it in others as immorality and\nweakness.\n\n\n\n\n369.\n\n\nRAISING ONE\u2019S SELF ABOVE ONE\u2019S OWN LOWNESS.\u2014\u201cProud\u201d fellows they are\nindeed, those who, in order to establish a sense of their own dignity and\nimportance, stand in need of other people whom they may tyrannise and\noppress\u2014those whose powerlessness and cowardice permits some one to make\nsublime and furious gestures in their presence with impunity, so that they\nrequire the baseness of their surroundings to raise themselves for one\nshort moment above their own baseness!\u2014For this purpose one man requires a\ndog, another a friend, a third a wife, a fourth a party, a fifth, again,\none very rarely to be met with, a whole age.\n\n\n\n\n370.\n\n\nTO WHAT EXTENT THE THINKER LOVES HIS ENEMY.\u2014Make it a rule never to\nwithhold or conceal from yourself anything that may be thought against\nyour own thoughts. Vow it! This is the essential requirement of honest\nthinking. You must undertake such a campaign against yourself every day. A\nvictory and a conquered position are no longer your concern, but that of\ntruth\u2014and your defeat also is no longer your concern!\n\n\n\n\n371.\n\n\nTHE EVIL OF STRENGTH.\u2014Violence as the outcome of passion, for example, of\nrage, must be understood from the physiological point of view as an\nattempt to avoid an imminent fit of suffocation. Innumerable acts arising\nfrom animal spirits and vented upon others are simply outlets for getting\nrid of sudden congestion by a violent muscular exertion: and perhaps the\nentire \u201cevil of strength\u201d must be considered from this point of view.\n(This evil of strength wounds others unintentionally\u2014it must find an\noutlet somewhere; while the evil of weakness wishes to wound and to see\nsigns of suffering.)\n\n\n\n\n372.\n\n\nTO THE CREDIT OF THE CONNOISSEUR.\u2014As soon as some one who is no\nconnoisseur begins to pose as a judge we should remonstrate, whether it is\na male or female whipper-snapper. Enthusiasm or delight in a thing or a\nhuman being is not an argument; neither is repugnance or hatred.\n\n\n\n\n373.\n\n\nTREACHEROUS BLAME.\u2014\u201cHe has no knowledge of men\u201d means in the mouth of some\n\u201cHe does not know what baseness is\u201d; and in the mouths of others, \u201cHe does\nnot know the exception and knows only too well what baseness means.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n374.\n\n\nTHE VALUE OF SACRIFICE.\u2014The more the rights of states and princes are\nquestioned as to their right to sacrifice the individual (for example, in\nthe administration of justice, conscription, etc.), the more will the\nvalue of self-sacrifice rise.\n\n\n\n\n375.\n\n\nSPEAKING TOO DISTINCTLY.\u2014There are several reasons why we articulate our\nwords too distinctly: in the first place, from distrust of ourselves when\nusing a new and unpractised language; secondly, when we distrust others on\naccount of their stupidity or their slowness of comprehension. The same\nremark applies to intellectual matters: our communications are sometimes\ntoo distinct, too painful, because if it were otherwise those to whom we\ncommunicate our ideas would not understand us. Consequently the perfect\nand easy style is only permissible when addressing a perfect audience.\n\n\n\n\n376.\n\n\nPLENTY OF SLEEP.\u2014What can we do to arouse ourselves when we are weary and\ntired of our ego? Some recommend the gambling table, others Christianity,\nand others again electricity. But the best remedy, my dear hypochondriac,\nis, and always will be, plenty of sleep in both the literal and figurative\nsense of the word. Thus another morning will at length dawn upon us. The\nknack of worldly wisdom is to find the proper time for applying this\nremedy in both its forms.\n\n\n\n\n377.\n\n\nWHAT WE MAY CONCLUDE FROM FANTASTIC IDEALS.\u2014Where our deficiencies are,\nthere also is our enthusiasm. The enthusiastic principle \u201clove your\nenemies\u201d had to be invented by the Jews, the best haters that ever\nexisted; and the finest glorifications of chastity have been written by\nthose who in their youth led dissolute and licentious lives.\n\n\n\n\n378.\n\n\nCLEAN HANDS AND CLEAN WALLS.\u2014Do not paint the picture either of God or the\ndevil on your walls: for in so doing you will spoil your walls as well as\nyour surroundings.(11)\n\n\n\n\n379.\n\n\nPROBABLE AND IMPROBABLE.\u2014A woman secretly loved a man, raised him far\nabove her, and said to herself hundreds of times in her inmost heart, \u201cIf\na man like that were to love me, I should look upon it as a condescension\nbefore which I should have to humble myself in the dust.\u201d\u2014And the man\nentertained the same feelings towards the woman, and in his inmost heart\nhe felt the very same thought. When at last both their tongues were\nloosened, and they had communicated their most secret thoughts to one\nanother, a deep and meditative silence ensued. Then the woman said in a\ncold voice: \u201cThe thing is quite clear! We are neither of us that which we\nloved! If you are what you say you are, and nothing more, then I have\nhumbled myself in vain and loved you; the demon misled me as well as you.\u201d\nThis very probable story never happens\u2014and why doesn\u2019t it?\n\n\n\n\n380.\n\n\nTESTED ADVICE.\u2014Of all the means of consolation there is none so\nefficacious for him who has need of it as the declaration that in his case\nno consolation can be given. This implies such a distinction that the\nafflicted person will at once raise his head again.\n\n\n\n\n381.\n\n\nKNOWING ONE\u2019S \u201cINDIVIDUALITY\u201d.\u2014We too often forget that in the eyes of\nstrangers who see us for the first time we are quite different beings from\nwhat we consider ourselves to be\u2014in most cases we exhibit nothing more\nthan one particular characteristic which catches the eye of the stranger,\nand determines the impression we make on him. Thus the most peaceful and\nfair-minded man, if only he has a big moustache, may, as it were, repose\nin the shade of this moustache; for ordinary eyes will merely see in him\nthe accessory of a big moustache, that is to say, a military, irascible,\nand occasionally violent character, and will act accordingly.\n\n\n\n\n382.\n\n\nGARDENERS AND GARDENS.\u2014Wet dreary days, loneliness, and unkind words give\nrise within us to conclusions like fungi; some morning we find that they\nhave grown up in front of us we know not whence, and there they scowl at\nus, sullen and morose. Woe to the thinker who instead of being the\ngardener of his plants, is merely the soil from which they spring.\n\n\n\n\n383.\n\n\nTHE COMEDY OF PITY.\u2014However much we may feel for an unhappy friend of\nours, we always act with a certain amount of insincerity in his presence:\nwe refrain from telling him everything we think, and how we think it, with\nall the circumspection of a doctor standing by the bedside of a patient\nwho is seriously ill.\n\n\n\n\n384.\n\n\nCURIOUS SAINTS.\u2014There are pusillanimous people who have a bad opinion of\neverything that is best in their works, and who at the same time interpret\nand comment upon them badly: but also, by a kind of revenge, they\nentertain a bad opinion of the sympathy of others, and do not believe in\nsympathy at all; they are ashamed to appear to be carried away from\nthemselves, and feel a defiant comfort in appearing or becoming\nridiculous.\u2014States of soul like these are to be found in melancholy\nartists.\n\n\n\n\n385.\n\n\nVAIN PEOPLE.\u2014We are like shop-windows, where we ourselves are constantly\narranging, concealing, or setting in the foreground those supposed\nqualities which others attribute to us\u2014in order to deceive _ourselves_.\n\n\n\n\n386.\n\n\nPATHETIC AND NA\u00cfVE.\u2014It may be a very vulgar habit to let no opportunity\nslip of assuming a pathetic air for the sake of the enjoyment to be\nexperienced in imagining the spectator striking his breast and feeling\nhimself to be small and miserable. Consequently it may also be the\nindication of a noble mind to make fun of pathetic situations, and to\nbehave in an undignified manner in them. The old, warlike nobility of\nFrance possessed that kind of distinction and delicacy.\n\n\n\n\n387.\n\n\nA REFLECTION BEFORE MARRIAGE.\u2014Supposing she loved me, what a burden she\nwould be to me in the long run! and supposing that she did not love me,\nwhat a much greater burden she would be to me in the long run! We have to\nchoose between two different kinds of burdens; therefore let us marry.\n\n\n\n\n388.\n\n\nRASCALITY WITH A GOOD CONSCIENCE.\u2014It is exceedingly annoying to be cheated\nin small bargains in certain countries,\u2014in the Tyrol, for\nexample,\u2014because, in addition to the bad bargain, we are compelled to\naccept the evil countenance and coarse greediness of the man who has\ncheated us, together with his bad conscience and his hostile feeling\nagainst us. At Venice, on the other hand, the cheater is highly delighted\nat his successful fraud, and is not in the least angry with the man he has\ncheated\u2014nay, he is even inclined to show him some kindness, and above all\nto have a hearty laugh with him if he likes.\u2014In short, one must possess\nwit and a good conscience in order to be a knave, and this will almost\nreconcile the cheated one with the cheat.(12)\n\n\n\n\n389.\n\n\nRATHER TOO AWKWARD.\u2014Good people who are too awkward to be polite and\namiable promptly endeavour to return an act of politeness by an important\nservice, or by a contribution beyond their power. It is touching to see\nthem timidly producing their gold coins when others have offered them\ntheir gilded coppers!\n\n\n\n\n390.\n\n\nHIDING ONE\u2019S INTELLIGENCE.\u2014When we surprise some one in the act of hiding\nhis intelligence from us we call him evil: the more so if we suspect that\nit is his civility and benevolence which have induced him to do so.\n\n\n\n\n391.\n\n\nTHE EVIL MOMENT.\u2014Lively dispositions only lie for a moment: after this\nthey have deceived themselves, and are convinced and honest.\n\n\n\n\n392.\n\n\nTHE CONDITION OF POLITENESS.\u2014Politeness is a very good thing, and really\none of the four chief virtues (although the last), but in order that it\nmay not result in our becoming tiresome to one another the person with\nwhom I have to deal must be either one degree more or less polite than\nI\u2014otherwise we should never get on, and the ointment would not only anoint\nus, but would cement us together.\n\n\n\n\n393.\n\n\nDANGEROUS VIRTUES.\u2014\u201cHe forgets nothing, but forgives everything\u201d\u2014wherefore\nhe shall be doubly detested, for he causes us double shame by his memory\nand his magnanimity.\n\n\n\n\n394.\n\n\nWITHOUT VANITY.\u2014Passionate people think little of what others may think;\ntheir state of mind raises them above vanity.\n\n\n\n\n395.\n\n\nCONTEMPLATION.\u2014In some thinkers the contemplative state peculiar to a\nthinker is always the consequence of a state of fear, in others always of\ndesire. In the former, contemplation thus seems allied to the feeling of\nsecurity, in the latter to the feeling of surfeit\u2014in other words, the\nformer are spirited in their mood, the latter over-satiated and neutral.\n\n\n\n\n396.\n\n\nHUNTING.\u2014The one is hunting for agreeable truths, the other for\ndisagreeable ones. But even the former takes greater pleasure in the hunt\nthan in the booty.\n\n\n\n\n397.\n\n\nEDUCATION.\u2014Education is a continuation of procreation, and very often a\nkind of supplementary varnishing of it.\n\n\n\n\n398.\n\n\nHOW TO RECOGNISE THE CHOLERIC.\u2014Of two persons who are struggling together,\nor who love and admire one another, the more choleric will always be at a\ndisadvantage. The same remark applies to two nations.\n\n\n\n\n399.\n\n\nSELF-EXCUSE.\u2014Many men have the best possible right to act in this or that\nway; but as soon as they begin to excuse their actions we no longer\nbelieve that they are right\u2014and we are mistaken.\n\n\n\n\n400.\n\n\nMORAL PAMPERING.\u2014There are tender, moral natures who are ashamed of all\ntheir successes and feel remorse after every failure.\n\n\n\n\n401.\n\n\nDANGEROUS UNLEARNING.\u2014We begin by unlearning to love others, and end by\nfinding nothing lovable in ourselves.\n\n\n\n\n402.\n\n\nANOTHER FORM OF TOLERATION.\u2014\u201cTo remain a minute too long on red-hot coals\nand to be burnt a little does no harm either to men or to chestnuts. The\nslight bitterness and hardness makes the kernel all the sweeter.\u201d\u2014Yes,\nthis is your opinion, you who enjoy the taste! You sublime cannibals!\n\n\n\n\n403.\n\n\nDIFFERENT PRIDE.\u2014Women turn pale at the thought that their lover may not\nbe worthy of them; Men turn pale at the thought that they may not be\nworthy of the women they love. I speak of perfect women, perfect men. Such\nmen, who are self-reliant and conscious of power at ordinary times, grow\ndiffident and doubtful of themselves when under the influence of a strong\npassion. Such women, on the other hand, though always looking upon\nthemselves as the weak and devoted sex, become proud and conscious of\ntheir power in the great exception of passion,\u2014they ask: \u201cWho then is\nworthy of me?\u201d\n\n\n\n\n404.\n\n\nWHEN WE SELDOM DO JUSTICE.\u2014Certain men are unable to feel enthusiasm for a\ngreat and good cause without committing a great injustice in some other\nquarter: this is _their_ kind of morality.\n\n\n\n\n405.\n\n\nLUXURY.\u2014The love of luxury is rooted in the depths of a man\u2019s heart: it\nshows that the superfluous and immoderate is the sea wherein his soul\nprefers to float.\n\n\n\n\n406.\n\n\nTO IMMORTALISE.\u2014Let him who wishes to kill his opponent first consider\nwhether by doing so he will not immortalise him in himself.\n\n\n\n\n407.\n\n\nAGAINST OUR CHARACTER.\u2014If the truth which we have to utter goes against\nour character\u2014as very often happens\u2014we behave as if we had uttered a\nclumsy falsehood, and thus rouse suspicion.\n\n\n\n\n408.\n\n\nWHERE A GREAT DEAL OF GENTLENESS IS NEEDED.\u2014Many natures have only the\nchoice of being either public evil-doers or secret sorrow-bearers.\n\n\n\n\n409.\n\n\nILLNESS.\u2014Among illness are to be reckoned the premature approach of old\nage, ugliness, and pessimistic opinions\u2014three things that always go\ntogether.\n\n\n\n\n410.\n\n\nTIMID PEOPLE.\u2014It is the awkward and timid people who easily become\nmurderers: they do not understand slight but sufficient means of defence\nor revenge, and their hatred, owing to their lack of intelligence and\npresence of mind, can conceive of no other expedient than destruction.\n\n\n\n\n411.\n\n\nWITHOUT HATRED.\u2014You wish to bid farewell to your passion? Very well, but\ndo so without hatred against it! Otherwise you have a second passion.\u2014The\nsoul of the Christian who has freed himself from sin is generally ruined\nafterwards by the hatred for sin. Just look at the faces of the great\nChristians! they are the faces of great haters.\n\n\n\n\n412.\n\n\nINGENIOUS AND NARROW-MINDED.\u2014He can appreciate nothing beyond himself, and\nwhen he wishes to appreciate other people he must always begin by\ntransforming them into himself. In this, however, he is ingenious.\n\n\n\n\n413.\n\n\nPRIVATE AND PUBLIC ACCUSERS.\u2014Watch closely the accuser and inquirer,\u2014for\nhe reveals his true character; and it is not rare for this to be a worse\ncharacter than that of the victim whose crime he is investigating. The\naccuser believes in all innocence that the opponent of a crime and\ncriminal must be by nature of good character, or at least must appear as\nsuch\u2014and this is why he lets himself go, that is to say, he drops his\nmask.\n\n\n\n\n414.\n\n\nVOLUNTARY BLINDNESS.\u2014There is a kind of enthusiastic and extreme devotion\nto a person or a party which reveals that in our inmost hearts we feel\nourselves superior to this person or party, and for this reason we feel\nindignant with ourselves. We blind ourselves, as it were, of our own free\nwill to punish our eyes for having seen too much.\n\n\n\n\n415.\n\n\n_REMEDIUM AMORIS._\u2014That old radical remedy for love is now in most cases\nas effective as it always was: love in return.\n\n\n\n\n416.\n\n\nWHERE IS OUR WORST ENEMY?\u2014He who can look after his own affairs well, and\nknows that he can do so, is as a rule conciliatory towards his adversary.\nBut to believe that we have right on our side, and to know that we are\nincapable of defending it\u2014this gives rise to a fierce and implacable\nhatred against the opponent of our cause. Let every one judge accordingly\nwhere his worst enemies are to be sought.\n\n\n\n\n417.\n\n\nTHE LIMITS OF ALL HUMILITY.\u2014Many men may certainly have attained that\nhumility which says _credo quia absurdum est_, and sacrifices its reason;\nbut, so far as I know, not one has attained to that humility which after\nall is only one step further, and which says _creda quia absurdus sum_.\n\n\n\n\n418.\n\n\nACTING THE TRUTH.\u2014Many a man is truthful, not because he would be ashamed\nto exhibit hypocritical feelings, but because he would not succeed very\nwell in inducing others to believe in his hypocrisy. In a word, he has no\nconfidence in his talent as an actor, and therefore prefers honestly to\nact the truth.\n\n\n\n\n419.\n\n\nCOURAGE IN A PARTY.\u2014The poor sheep say to their bell-wether: \u201cOnly lead\nus, and we shall never lack courage to follow you.\u201d But the poor\nbell-wether thinks in his heart: \u201cOnly follow me, and I shall never lack\ncourage to lead you.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n420.\n\n\nCUNNING OF THE VICTIM.\u2014What a sad cunning there is in the wish to deceive\nourselves with respect to the person for whom we have sacrificed\nourselves, when we give him an opportunity in which he must appear to us\nas we should wish him to be!\n\n\n\n\n421.\n\n\nTHROUGH OTHERS.\u2014There are men who do not wish to be seen except through\nthe eyes of others: a wish which implies a great deal of wisdom.\n\n\n\n\n422.\n\n\nMAKING OTHERS HAPPY.\u2014Why is the fact of our making others happy more\ngratifying to us than all other pleasures?\u2014Because in so doing we gratify\nfifty cravings at one time. Taken separately they would, perhaps, be very\nsmall pleasures; but when put into one hand, that hand will be fuller than\never before\u2014and the heart also.\n\n\n\n\n\nBOOK V.\n\n\n\n\n423.\n\n\nIN THE GREAT SILENCE.\u2014Here is the sea, here may we forget the town. It is\ntrue that its bells are still ringing the Angelus\u2014that solemn and foolish\nyet sweet sound at the junction between day and night,\u2014but one moment\nmore! now all is silent. Yonder lies the ocean, pale and brilliant; it\ncannot speak. The sky is glistening with its eternal mute evening hues,\nred, yellow, and green: it cannot speak. The small cliffs and rocks which\nstretch out into the sea as if each one of them were endeavouring to find\nthe loneliest spot\u2014they too are dumb. Beautiful and awful indeed is this\nvast silence, which so suddenly overcomes us and makes our heart swell.\n\nAlas! what deceit lies in this dumb beauty! How well could it speak, and\nhow evilly, too, if it wished! Its tongue, tied up and fastened, and its\nface of suffering happiness\u2014all this is but malice, mocking at your\nsympathy: be it so! I do not feel ashamed to be the plaything of such\npowers! but I pity thee, oh nature, because thou must be silent, even\nthough it be only malice that binds thy tongue: nay, I pity thee for the\nsake of thy malice!\n\nAlas! the silence deepens, and once again my heart swells within me: it is\nstartled by a fresh truth\u2014it, too, is dumb; it likewise sneers when the\nmouth calls out something to this beauty; it also enjoys the sweet malice\nof its silence. I come to hate speaking; yea, even thinking. Behind every\nword I utter do I not hear the laughter of error, imagination, and\ninsanity? Must I not laugh at my pity and mock my own mockery? Oh sea, oh\nevening, ye are bad teachers! Ye teach man how to cease to be a man. Is he\nto give himself up to you? Shall he become as you now are, pale,\nbrilliant, dumb, immense, reposing calmly upon himself?\u2014exalted above\nhimself?\n\n\n\n\n424.\n\n\nFOR WHOM THE TRUTH EXISTS.\u2014Up to the present time errors have been the\npower most fruitful in consolations: we now expect the same effects from\naccepted truths, and we have been waiting rather too long for them. What\nif these truths could not give us this consolation we are looking for?\nWould that be an argument against them? What have these truths in common\nwith the sick condition of suffering and degenerate men that they should\nbe useful to them? It is, of course, no proof against the truth of a plant\nwhen it is clearly established that it does not contribute in any way to\nthe recovery of sick people. Formerly, however, people were so convinced\nthat man was the ultimate end of nature that they believed that knowledge\ncould reveal nothing that was not beneficial and useful to man\u2014nay, there\ncould not, should not be, any other things in existence.\n\nPerhaps all this leads to the conclusion that truth as an entity and a\ncoherent whole exists only for those natures who, like Aristotle, are at\nonce powerful and harmless, joyous and peaceful: just as none but these\nwould be in a position to seek such truths; for the others seek remedies\nfor themselves\u2014however proud they may be of their intellect and its\nfreedom, they do not seek truth. Hence it comes about that these others\ntake no real joy in science, but reproach it for its coldness, dryness,\nand inhumanity. This is the judgment of sick people about the games of the\nhealthy.\u2014Even the Greek gods were unable to administer consolation; and\nwhen at length the entire Greek world fell ill, this was a reason for the\ndestruction of such gods.\n\n\n\n\n425.\n\n\nWE GODS IN EXILE.\u2014Owing to errors regarding their descent, their\nuniqueness, their mission, and by claims based upon these errors, men have\nagain and again \u201csurpassed themselves\u201d; but through these same errors the\nworld has been filled with unspeakable suffering, mutual persecution,\nsuspicion, misunderstanding, and an even greater amount of individual\nmisery. Men have become suffering creatures in consequence of their\nmorals, and the sum-total of what they have obtained by those morals is\nsimply the feeling that they are far too good and great for this world,\nand that they are enjoying merely a transitory existence on it. As yet the\n\u201cproud sufferer\u201d is the highest type of mankind.\n\n\n\n\n426.\n\n\nTHE COLOUR-BLINDNESS OF THINKERS.\u2014How differently from us the Greeks must\nhave viewed nature, since, as we cannot help admitting, they were quite\ncolour-blind in regard to blue and green, believing the former to be a\ndeeper brown, and the latter to be yellow. Thus, for instance, they used\nthe same word to describe the colour of dark hair, of the corn-flower, and\nthe southern sea; and again they employed exactly the same expression for\nthe colour of the greenest herbs, the human skin, honey, and yellow\nraisins: whence it follows that their greatest painters reproduced the\nworld they lived in only in black, white, red, and yellow. How different\nand how much nearer to mankind, therefore, must nature have seemed to\nthem, since in their eyes the tints of mankind predominated also in\nnature, and nature was, as it were, floating in the coloured ether of\nhumanity! (blue and green more than anything else dehumanise nature). It\nis this defect which developed the playful facility that characterised the\nGreeks of seeing the phenomena of nature as gods and demi-gods\u2014that is to\nsay, as human forms.\n\nLet this, however, merely serve as a simile for another supposition. Every\nthinker paints his world and the things that surround him in fewer colours\nthan really exist, and he is blind to individual colours. This is\nsomething more than a mere deficiency. Thanks to this nearer approach and\nsimplification, he imagines he sees in things those harmonies of colours\nwhich possess a great charm, and may greatly enrich nature. Perhaps,\nindeed, it was in this way that men first learnt to take delight in\nviewing existence, owing to its being first of all presented to them in\none or two shades, and consequently harmonised. They practised these few\nshades, so to speak, before they could pass on to any more. And even now\ncertain individuals endeavour to get rid of a partial colour-blindness\nthat they may obtain a richer faculty of sight and discernment, in the\ncourse of which they find that they not only discover new pleasures, but\nare also obliged to lose and give up some of their former ones.\n\n\n\n\n427.\n\n\nTHE EMBELLISHMENT OF SCIENCE.\u2014In the same way that the feeling that\n\u201cnature is ugly, wild, tedious\u2014we must embellish it (_embellir la\nnature_)\u201d\u2014brought about rococo horticulture, so does the view that\n\u201cscience is ugly, difficult, dry, dreary and weary, we must embellish it,\u201d\ninvariably gives rise to something called philosophy. This philosophy sets\nout to do what all art and poetry endeavour to do, viz., giving amusement\nabove all else; but it wishes to do this, in conformity with its\nhereditary pride, in a higher and more sublime fashion before an audience\nof superior intellects. It is no small ambition to create for these\nintellects a kind of horticulture, the principal charm of which\u2014like that\nof the usual gardening\u2014is to bring about an optical illusion (by means of\ntemples, perspective, grottos, winding walks, and waterfalls, to speak in\nsimiles), exhibiting science in a condensed form and in all kinds of\nstrange and unexpected illuminations, infusing into it as much indecision,\nirrationality, and dreaminess as will enable us to walk about in it \u201cas in\nsavage nature,\u201d but without trouble and boredom.\n\nThose who are possessed of this ambition even dream of making religion\nsuperfluous\u2014religion, which among men of former times served as the\nhighest kind of entertainment. All this is now running its course, and\nwill one day attain its highest tide. Even now hostile voices are being\nraised against philosophy, exclaiming: \u201cReturn to science, to nature, and\nthe naturalness of science!\u201d and thus an age may begin which may discover\nthe most powerful beauty precisely in the \u201csavage and ugly\u201d domains of\nscience, just as it is only since the time of Rousseau that we have\ndiscovered the sense for the beauty of high mountains and deserts.\n\n\n\n\n428.\n\n\nTWO KINDS OF MORALISTS.\u2014To see a law of nature for the first time, and to\nsee it whole (for example, the law of gravity or the reflection of light\nand sound), and afterwards to explain such a law, are two different things\nand concern different classes of minds. In the same way, those moralists\nwho observe and exhibit human laws and habits\u2014moralists with\ndiscriminating ears, noses, and eyes\u2014differ entirely from those who\ninterpret their observations. These latter must above all be inventive,\nand must possess an imagination untrammelled by sagacity and knowledge.\n\n\n\n\n429.\n\n\nTHE NEW PASSION.\u2014Why do we fear and dread a possible return to barbarism?\nIs it because it would make people less happy than they are now? Certainly\nnot! the barbarians of all ages possessed more happiness than we do: let\nus not deceive ourselves on this point!\u2014but our impulse towards knowledge\nis too widely developed to allow us to value happiness without knowledge,\nor the happiness of a strong and fixed delusion: it is painful to us even\nto imagine such a state of things! Our restless pursuit of discoveries and\ndivinations has become for us as attractive and indispensable as hapless\nlove to the lover, which on no account would he exchange for\nindifference,\u2014nay, perhaps we, too, are hapless lovers! Knowledge within\nus has developed into a passion, which does not shrink from any sacrifice,\nand at bottom fears nothing but its own extinction. We sincerely believe\nthat all humanity, weighed down as it is by the burden of this passion,\nare bound to feel more exalted and comforted than formerly, when they had\nnot yet overcome the longing for the coarser satisfaction which\naccompanies barbarism.\n\nIt may be that mankind may perish eventually from this passion for\nknowledge!\u2014but even that does not daunt us. Did Christianity ever shrink\nfrom a similar thought? Are not love and death brother and sister? Yes, we\ndetest barbarism,\u2014we all prefer that humanity should perish rather than\nthat knowledge should enter into a stage of retrogression. And, finally,\nif mankind does not perish through some passion it will perish through\nsome weakness: which would we prefer? This is the main question. Do we\nwish its end to be in fire and light, or in the sands?\n\n\n\n\n430.\n\n\nLIKEWISE HEROIC.\u2014To do things of the worst possible odour, things of which\nwe scarcely dare to speak, but which are nevertheless useful and\nnecessary, is also heroic. The Greeks were not ashamed of numbering even\nthe cleansing of a stable among the great tasks of Hercules.\n\n\n\n\n431.\n\n\nTHE OPINIONS OF OPPONENTS.\u2014In order to measure the natural subtlety or\nweakness of even the cleverest heads, we must consider the manner in which\nthey take up and reproduce the opinions of their adversaries, for the\nnatural measure of any intellect is thereby revealed. The perfect sage\ninvoluntarily idealises his opponent and frees his inconsistencies from\nall defects and accidentalities: he only takes up arms against him when he\nhas thus turned his opponent into a god with shining weapons.\n\n\n\n\n432.\n\n\nINVESTIGATOR AND ATTEMPTER.\u2014There is no exclusive method of knowing in\nscience. We must deal with things tentatively, treating them by turns\nharshly or justly, passionately or coldly. One investigator deals with\nthings like a policeman, another like a confessor, and yet a third like an\ninquisitive traveller. We force something from them now by sympathy and\nnow by violence: the one is urged onward and led to see clearly by the\nveneration which the secrets of the things inspire in him, and the other\nagain by the indiscretion and malice met with in the explanation of these\nsecrets. We investigators, like all conquerors, explorers, navigators, and\nadventurers, are men of a daring morality, and we must put up with our\nliability to be in the main looked upon as evil.\n\n\n\n\n433.\n\n\nSEEING WITH NEW EYES.\u2014Presuming that by the term \u201cbeauty in art\u201d is always\nimplied the imitation of something that is happy\u2014and this I consider to be\ntrue\u2014according as an age or a people or a great autocratic individuality\nrepresents happiness: what then is disclosed by the so-called realism of\nour modern artists in regard to the happiness of our epoch? It is\nundoubtedly its type of beauty which we now understand most easily and\nenjoy best of any. As a consequence, we are induced to believe that this\nhappiness which is now peculiar to us is based on realism, on the sharpest\npossible senses, and on the true conception of the actual\u2014that is to say,\nnot upon reality, but upon what we know of reality. The results of science\nhave already gained so much in depth and extent that the artists of our\ncentury have involuntarily become the glorifiers of scientific \u201cblessings\u201d\n_per se_.\n\n\n\n\n434.\n\n\nINTERCESSION.\u2014Unpretentious regions are subjects for great landscape\npainters; remarkable and rare regions for inferior painters: for the great\nthings of nature and humanity must intercede in favour of their little,\nmediocre, and vain admirers\u2014whereas the great man intercedes in favour of\nunassuming things.\n\n\n\n\n435.\n\n\nNOT TO PERISH UNNOTICED.\u2014It is not only once but continuously that our\nexcellence and greatness are constantly crumbling away; the weeds that\ngrow among everything and cling to everything ruin all that is great in\nus\u2014the wretchedness of our surroundings, which we always try to overlook\nand which is before our eyes at every hour of the day, the innumerable\nlittle roots of mean and petty feelings which we allow to grow up all\nabout us, in our office, among our companions, or our daily labours. If we\npermit these small weeds to escape our notice we shall perish through them\nunnoticed!\u2014And, if you must perish, then do so immediately and suddenly;\nfor in that case you will perhaps leave proud ruins behind you! and not,\nas is now to be feared, merely molehills, covered with grass and\nweeds\u2014these petty and miserable conquerors, as humble as ever, and too\nwretched even to triumph.\n\n\n\n\n436.\n\n\nCASUISTIC.\u2014We are confronted with a very bitter and painful dilemma, for\nthe solution of which not every one\u2019s bravery and character are equal:\nwhen, as passengers on board a steamer, we discover that the captain and\nthe helmsman are making dangerous mistakes, and that we are their\nsuperiors in nautical science\u2014and then we ask ourselves: \u201cWhat would\nhappen if we organised a mutiny against them, and made them both\nprisoners? Is it not our duty to do so in view of our superiority? and\nwould not they in their turn be justified in putting us in irons for\nencouraging disobedience?\u201d\n\nThis is a simile for higher and worse situations; and the final question\nto be decided is, What guarantees our superiority and our faith in\nourselves in such a case? Success? but in order to do that we must do the\nvery thing in which all the danger lies\u2014not only dangerous for ourselves,\nbut also for the ship.\n\n\n\n\n437.\n\n\nPRIVILEGES.\u2014The man who really owns himself, that is to say, he who has\nfinally conquered himself, regards it as his own right to punish, to\npardon, or to pity himself: he need not concede this privilege to any one,\nthough he may freely bestow it upon some one else\u2014a friend, for\nexample\u2014but he knows that in doing this he is conferring a right, and that\nrights can only be conferred by one who is in full possession of power.\n\n\n\n\n438.\n\n\nMAN AND THINGS.\u2014Why does the man not see the things? He himself is in the\nway: he conceals the things.\n\n\n\n\n439.\n\n\nCHARACTERISTICS OF HAPPINESS.\u2014There are two things common to all\nsensations of happiness: a profusion of feelings, accompanied by animal\nspirits, so that, like the fishes, we feel ourselves to be in our element\nand play about in it. Good Christians will understand what Christian\nexuberance means.\n\n\n\n\n440.\n\n\nNEVER RENOUNCE.\u2014Renouncing the world without knowing it, like a nun,\nresults in a fruitless and perhaps melancholy solitude. This has nothing\nin common with the solitude of the _vita contemplativa_ of the thinker:\nwhen he chooses this form of solitude he wishes to renounce nothing; but\nhe would on the contrary regard it as a renunciation, a melancholy\ndestruction of his own self, if he were obliged to continue in the _vita\npractica_. He forgoes this latter because he knows it, because he knows\nhimself. So he jumps into _his_ water, and thus gains _his_ cheerfulness.\n\n\n\n\n441.\n\n\nWHY THE NEAREST THINGS BECOME EVER MORE DISTANT FOR US.\u2014The more we give\nup our minds to all that has been and will be, the paler will become that\nwhich actually is. When we live with the dead and participate in their\ndeath, what are our \u201cneighbours\u201d to us? We grow lonelier simply because\nthe entire flood of humanity is surging round about us. The fire that\nburns within us, and glows for all that is human, is continually\nincreasing\u2014and hence we look upon everything that surrounds us as if it\nhad become more indifferent, more shadowy,\u2014but our cold glance is\noffensive.\n\n\n\n\n442.\n\n\nTHE RULE.\u2014\u201cThe rule always appears to me to be more interesting than the\nexception\u201d\u2014whoever thinks thus has made considerable progress in\nknowledge, and is one of the initiated.\n\n\n\n\n443.\n\n\nON EDUCATION.\u2014I have gradually come to see daylight in regard to the most\ngeneral defect in our methods of education and training: nobody learns,\nnobody teaches, nobody wishes, to endure solitude.\n\n\n\n\n444.\n\n\nSURPRISE AT RESISTANCE.\u2014Because we have reached the point of being able to\nsee through a thing we believe that henceforth it can offer us no further\nresistance\u2014and then we are surprised to find that we can see through it\nand yet cannot penetrate through it. This is the same kind of foolishness\nand surprise as that of the fly on a pane of glass.\n\n\n\n\n445.\n\n\nWHERE THE NOBLEST ARE MISTAKEN.\u2014We give some one at length our dearest and\nmost valued possession, and then love has nothing more to give: but the\nrecipient of the gift will certainly not consider it as his dearest\npossession, and will consequently be wanting in that full and complete\ngratitude which we expect from him.\n\n\n\n\n446.\n\n\nHIERARCHY.\u2014First and foremost, there are the superficial thinkers, and\nsecondly the profound thinkers\u2014such as dive into the depths of a\nthing,\u2014thirdly, the thorough thinkers, who get to the bottom of a\nthing\u2014which is of much greater importance than merely diving into its\ndepths,\u2014and, finally, those who leap head foremost into the marsh: though\nthis must not be looked upon as indicating either depth or thoroughness!\nthese are the lovers of obscurity.(13)\n\n\n\n\n447.\n\n\nMASTER AND PUPIL.\u2014By cautioning his pupils against himself the teacher\nshows his humanity.\n\n\n\n\n448.\n\n\nHONOURING REALITY.\u2014How can we look at this exulting multitude without\ntears and acquiescence? at one time we thought little of the object of\ntheir exultation, and we should still think so if we ourselves had not\ncome through a similar experience. And what may these experiences lead us\nto! what are our opinions! In order that we may not lose ourselves and our\nreason we must fly from experiences. It was thus that Plato fled from\nactuality, and wished to contemplate things only in their pale mental\nconcepts: he was full of sensitiveness, and knew how easily the waves of\nthis sensitiveness would drown his reason.\u2014Must the sage therefore say, \u201cI\nwill honour reality, but I will at the same time turn my back to it\nbecause I know and dread it?\u201d Ought he to behave as certain African tribes\ndo in the presence of their sovereign, whom they approach backwards, thus\nshowing their reverence at the same time as their dread?\n\n\n\n\n449.\n\n\nWHERE ARE THE POOR IN SPIRIT?\u2014Oh, how greatly it goes against my grain to\nimpose my own thoughts upon others! How I rejoice over every mood and\nsecret change within me as the result of which the thoughts of others are\nvictorious over my own! but from time to time I enjoy an even greater\nsatisfaction, when I am allowed to give away my intellectual possessions,\nlike the confessor sitting in his box and anxiously awaiting the arrival\nof some distressed person who stands in need of consolation, and will be\nonly too glad to relate the full misery of his thoughts so that the\nlistener\u2019s hand and heart will once again be filled, and the troubled soul\neased! Not only has the confessor no desire for renown: he would fain shun\ngratitude as well, for it is obtrusive, and does not stand in awe of\nsolitude or silence.\n\nBut to live without a name, and even to be slightly sneered at; too\nobscure to arouse envy or enmity; with a head free from fever, a handful\nof knowledge, and a pocketful of experience; a physician, as it were, of\nthe poor in spirit, helping this one or that one whose head is troubled\nwith opinions, without the latter perceiving who has actually helped him!\nwithout any desire to appear to be in the right in the presence of his\npatient, or to carry off a victory. To speak to him in such a way that,\nafter a short and almost imperceptible hint or objection, the listener may\nfind out for himself what is right and proudly walk away! To be like an\nobscure and unknown inn which turns no one away who is in need, but which\nis afterwards forgotten and laughed at! To be without any advantages over\nothers\u2014neither possessing better food nor purer air, nor a more cheerful\nmind\u2014but always to be giving away, returning, communicating, and becoming\npoorer! To know how to be humble in order to be accessible to many people\nand humiliating to none! To take a great deal of injustice on his\nshoulders and creep through the cracks and crannies of all kinds of\nerrors, in order that we may reach many obscure souls on their secret\npaths! ever in possession of some kind of love, and some kind of egoism\nand self-enjoyment! in possession of power, and yet at the same time\nhidden and resigned! constantly basking in the sunshine and sweetness of\ngrace, and yet knowing that quite near to us stands the ladder leading to\nthe sublime!\u2014that would be life! that would indeed be a reason for a long\nlife!\n\n\n\n\n450.\n\n\nTHE TEMPTATIONS OF KNOWLEDGE.\u2014A glance through the gate of science acts\nupon passionate spirits as the charm of charms: they will probably become\ndreamers, or in the most favourable cases poets, so great is their desire\nfor the happiness of the man who can discern. Does it not enter into all\nyour senses, this note of sweet temptation by which science has announced\nits joyful message in a thousand ways, and in the thousand and first way,\nthe noblest of all, \u201cBegone, illusion! for then \u2018Woe is me\u2019 also vanished,\nand with it woe itself is gone\u201d (Marcus Aurelius).\n\n\n\n\n451.\n\n\nFOR WHOM A COURT JESTER IS NEEDFUL.\u2014Those who are very beautiful, very\ngood, and very powerful scarcely ever learn the full and naked truth about\nanything,\u2014for in their presence we involuntarily lie a little, because we\nfeel their influence, and in view of this influence convey a truth in the\nform of an adaptation (by falsifying the shades and degrees of facts, by\nomitting or adding details, and withholding that which is insusceptible of\nadaptation). If, however, in spite of all this, people of this description\ninsist upon hearing the truth, they must keep a court jester\u2014a being with\nthe madman\u2019s privilege of being unable to adapt himself.\n\n\n\n\n452.\n\n\nIMPATIENCE.\u2014There is a certain degree of impatience in men of thought and\naction, which in cases of failure at once drives them to the opposite\ncamp, induces them to take a great interest in it, and to give themselves\nup to new undertakings\u2014until here again the slowness of their success\ndrives them away. Thus they rove about, like so many reckless adventurers,\nthrough the practices of many kingdoms and natures; and in the end, as the\nresult of their wide knowledge of men and things, acquired by their\nunheard of travel and practice, and with a certain moderation of their\ncraving, they become powerful practical men. Hence a defect in character\nmay become the school of genius.\n\n\n\n\n453.\n\n\nA MORAL INTERREGNUM.\u2014Who is now in a position to describe that which will\none day supplant moral feelings and judgments!\u2014however certain we may be\nthat these are founded on error, and that the building erected upon such\nfoundations cannot be repaired: their obligation must gradually diminish\nfrom day to day, in so far as the obligation of reason does not diminish!\nTo carry out the task of re-establishing the laws of life and action is\nstill beyond the power of our sciences of physiology and medicine, society\nand solitude: though it is only from them that we can borrow the\nfoundation-stones of new ideals (but not the ideals themselves). Thus we\nlive a preliminary or after existence, according to our tastes and\ntalents, and the best we can do in this interregnum is to be as much as\npossible our own \u201c_reges_,\u201d and to establish small experimental states. We\nare experiments: if we want to be so!\n\n\n\n\n454.\n\n\nA DIGRESSION.\u2014A book like this is not intended to be read through at once,\nor to be read aloud. It is intended more particularly for reference,\nespecially on our walks and travels: we must take it up and put it down\nagain after a short reading, and, more especially, we ought not to be\namongst our usual surroundings.\n\n\n\n\n455.\n\n\nTHE PRIMARY NATURE.\u2014As we are now brought up, we begin by acquiring a\nsecondary nature, and we possess it when the world calls us mature, of\nage, efficient. A few have sufficient of the serpent about them to cast\nthis skin some day, when their primary nature has come to maturity under\nit. But in the majority of people the germ of it withers away.\n\n\n\n\n456.\n\n\nA VIRTUE IN PROCESS OF BECOMING.\u2014Such assertions and promises as those of\nthe ancient philosophers on the unity of virtue and felicity, or that of\nChristianity, \u201cSeek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and\nall these things shall be added unto you,\u201d have never been made with\nabsolute sincerity, but always without a bad conscience nevertheless.\nPeople were in the habit of boldly laying down principles\u2014which they\nwished to be true\u2014exactly as if they were truth itself, in spite of all\nappearances to the contrary, and in doing this they felt neither religious\nnor moral compunction; for it was _in honorem maiorem_ of virtue or of God\nthat one had gone beyond truth, without, however, any selfish intention!\n\nMany good people still act up to this degree of truthfulness: when they\nfeel unselfish they think it permissible to treat truth more lightly. Let\nit be remembered that the word honesty is neither to be found among the\nSocratic nor the Christian virtues: it is one of our most recent virtues,\nnot yet quite mature, frequently misconstrued and misunderstood, scarcely\nconscious of itself\u2014something in embryo, which we may either promote or\ncheck according to our inclination.\n\n\n\n\n457.\n\n\nFINAL TACITURNITY.\u2014There are some men who fare like the digger after\nhidden treasures: they quite accidentally discover the carefully-preserved\nsecrets of another\u2019s soul, and as a result come into the possession of\nknowledge which it is often a heavy burden to bear. In certain\ncircumstances we may know the living and the dead, and sound their inmost\nthoughts to such an extent that it becomes painful to us to speak to\nothers about them: at every word we utter we are afraid of being\nindiscreet.\u2014I can easily imagine a sudden silence on the part of the\nwisest historian.\n\n\n\n\n458.\n\n\nTHE GREAT PRIZE.\u2014There is a very rare thing, but a very delightful one,\nviz. the man with a nobly-formed intellect who possesses at the same time\nthe character and inclinations, and even meets with the experiences,\nsuited to such an intellect.\n\n\n\n\n459.\n\n\nTHE MAGNANIMITY OF THE THINKER.\u2014Both Rousseau and Schopenhauer were proud\nenough to inscribe upon their lives the motto, _Vitam impendere vero_. And\nhow they both must have suffered in their pride because they could not\nsucceed in _verum impendere vit\u00e6!_\u2014_verum_, such as each of them\nunderstood it,\u2014when their lives ran side by side with their knowledge like\nan uncouth bass which is not in tune with the melody.\n\nKnowledge, however, would be in a bad way if it were measured out to every\nthinker only in proportion as it can be adapted to his own person. And\nthinkers would be in a bad way if their vanity were so great that they\ncould only endure such an adaptation, for the noblest virtue of a great\nthinker is his magnanimity, which urges him on in his search for knowledge\nto sacrifice himself and his life unshrinkingly, often shamefacedly, and\noften with sublime scorn, and smiling.\n\n\n\n\n460.\n\n\nUTILISING OUR HOURS OF DANGER.\u2014Those men and conditions whose every\nmovement may mean danger to our possessions, honour, and life or death,\nand to those most dear to us, we shall naturally learn to know thoroughly.\nTiberius, for instance, must have meditated much more deeply on the\ncharacter and methods of government of the Emperor Augustus, and must have\nknown far more about them than even the wisest historian.\n\nAt the present day we all live, relatively speaking, in a security which\nis much too great to make us true psychologists: some survey their\nfellow-men as a hobby, others out of ennui, and others again merely from\nhabit; but never to the extent they would do if they were told \u201cDiscern or\nperish!\u201d As long as truths do not cut us to the quick we assume an\nattitude of contempt towards them: they still appear to us too much like\nthe \u201cwinged dreams,\u201d as if we could or could not have them at our\ndiscretion, as if we could likewise be aroused from these truths as from a\ndream!\n\n\n\n\n461.\n\n\n_HIC RHODUS, HIC SALTA._\u2014Our music, which can and must change into\neverything, because like the demon of the sea, it has no character of its\nown: this music in former times devoted its attention to the Christian\nsavant, and transposed his ideals into sounds: why cannot it likewise find\nthose brighter, more cheerful, and universal sounds which correspond to\nthe ideal thinker?\u2014a music which could rock itself at ease in the vast\nfloating vaults of the soul? So far our music has been so great and so\ngood; nothing seemed impossible to its powers. May it therefore prove\npossible to create these three sensations at one time: sublimity, deep and\nwarm light, and rapture of the greatest possible consistency!\n\n\n\n\n462.\n\n\nSLOW CURES.\u2014Chronic illnesses of the soul, like those of the body, are\nvery rarely due to one gross offence against physical and mental reason,\nbut as a general rule they arise from innumerable and petty negligences of\na minor order.\u2014A man, for example, whose breathing becomes a trifle weaker\nevery day, and whose lungs, by inhaling too little air, are deprived of\ntheir proper amount of exercise, will end by being struck down by some\nchronic disease of the lungs. The only remedy for cases like these is a\ncountless number of minor exercises of a contrary tendency\u2014making it a\nrule, for example, to take a long and deep breath every quarter of an\nhour, lying flat on the ground if possible. For this purpose a clock which\nstrikes the quarters should be chosen as a lifelong companion.\n\nAll these remedies are slow and trifling; but yet the man who wishes to\ncure his soul will carefully consider a change, even in his least\nimportant habits. Many a man will utter a cold and angry word to his\nsurroundings ten times a day without thinking about it, and he will forget\nthat after a few years it will have become a regular habit with him to put\nhis surroundings out of temper ten times a day. But he can also acquire\nthe habit of doing good to them ten times.\n\n\n\n\n463.\n\n\nON THE SEVENTH DAY.\u2014\u201cYou praise this as my creation? but I have only put\naside what was a burden to me! my soul is above the vanity of\ncreators.\u2014You praise this as my resignation? but I have only stripped\nmyself of what had become burdensome! My soul is above the vanity of the\nresigned ones!\u201d\n\n\n\n\n464.\n\n\nTHE DONOR\u2019S MODESTY.\u2014There is such a want of generosity in always posing\nas the donor and benefactor, and showing one\u2019s face when doing so! But to\ngive and bestow, and at the same time to conceal one\u2019s name and favour! or\nnot to have a name at all, like nature, in whom this fact is more\nrefreshing to us than anything else\u2014here at last we no more meet with the\ngiver and bestower, no more with a \u201cgracious countenance.\u201d\u2014It is true that\nyou have now forfeited even this comfort, for you have placed a God in\nthis nature\u2014and now everything is once again fettered and oppressed! Well?\nare we never to have the right of remaining alone with ourselves? are we\nalways to be watched, guarded, surrounded by leading strings and gifts? If\nthere is always some one round about us, the best part of courage and\nkindness will ever remain impossible of attainment in this world. Are we\nnot tempted to fly to hell before this continual obtrusiveness of heaven,\nthis inevitable supernatural neighbour? Never mind, it was only a dream;\nlet us wake up!\n\n\n\n\n465.\n\n\nAT A MEETING.\u2014\n\n_A._ What are you looking at? you have been standing here for a very long\ntime.\n\n_B._ Always the new and the old over again! the helplessness of a thing\nurges me on to plunge into it so deeply that I end by penetrating to its\ndeepest depths, and perceive that in reality it is not worth so very much.\nAt the end of all experiences of this kind we meet with a kind of sorrow\nand stupor. I experience this on a small scale several times a day.\n\n\n\n\n466.\n\n\nA LOSS OF RENOWN.\u2014What an advantage it is to be able to speak as a\nstranger to mankind! When they take away our anonymity, and make us\nfamous, the gods deprive us of \u201chalf our virtue.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n467.\n\n\nDOUBLY PATIENT.\u2014\u201cBy doing this you will hurt many people.\u201d\u2014I know that,\nand I also know that I shall have to suffer for it doubly: in the first\nplace out of pity for their suffering, and secondly from the revenge they\nwill take on me. But in spite of this I cannot help doing what I do.\n\n\n\n\n468.\n\n\nTHE KINGDOM OF BEAUTY IS GREATER.\u2014We move about in nature, cunning and\ncheerful, in order that we may surprise everything in the beauty peculiar\nto it; we make an effort, whether in sunshine or under a stormy sky, to\nsee a distant part of the coast with its rocks, bays, and olive and pine\ntrees under an aspect in which it achieves its perfection and\nconsummation. Thus also we should walk about among men as their\ndiscoverers and explorers, meting out to them good and evil in order that\nwe may unveil the peculiar beauty which is seen with some in the sunshine,\nin others under thunder-clouds, or with others again only in twilight and\nunder a rainy sky.\n\nAre we then forbidden to enjoy the evil man like some savage landscape\nwhich possesses its own bold and daring lines and luminous effects, while\nthis same man, so long as he behaves well, and in conformity with the law,\nappears to us to be an error of drawing, and a mere caricature which\noffends us like a defect in nature?\u2014Yes, this is forbidden: for as yet we\nhave only been permitted to seek beauty in anything that is morally\ngood,\u2014and this is sufficient to explain why we have found so little and\nhave been compelled to look for beauty without either flesh or bones!\u2014in\nthe same way as evil men are familiar with innumerable kinds of happiness\nwhich the virtuous never dream of, we may also find among them innumerable\ntypes of beauty, many of them as yet undiscovered.\n\n\n\n\n469.\n\n\nTHE INHUMANITY OF THE SAGE.\u2014The heavy and grinding progress of the sage,\nwho in the words of the Buddhist song, \u201cWanders lonely like the\nrhinoceros,\u201d now and again stands in need of proofs of a conciliatory and\nsoftened humanity, and not only proofs of those accelerated steps, those\npolite and sociable witticisms; not only of humour and a certain\nself-mockery, but likewise of contradictions and occasional returns to the\npredominating inconsistencies. In order that he may not resemble the heavy\nroller that rolls along like fate, the sage who wishes to teach must take\nadvantage of his defects, and utilise them for his own adornment; and when\nsaying \u201cdespise me\u201d he will implore permission to be the advocate of a\npresumptuous truth.\n\nThis sage wishes to lead you to the mountains, and he will perhaps\nendanger your life: therefore as the price of his enjoyment he willingly\nauthorises you to take your revenge either before or afterwards on such a\nguide. Do you remember what thoughts came into your head when he once led\nyou to a gloomy cavern over a slippery path? Your distrustful heart beat\nrapidly, and said inwardly, \u201cThis guide might surely do something better\nthan crawl about here! he is one of those idle people who are full of\ncuriosity\u2014is it not doing him too much honour to appear to attach any\nvalue at all to him by following him?\u201d\n\n\n\n\n470.\n\n\nMANY AT THE BANQUET.\u2014How happy we are when we are fed like the birds by\nthe hand of some one who throws them their crumbs without examining them\ntoo closely, or inquiring into their worthiness! To live like a bird which\ncomes and flies away, and does not carry its name on its beak! I take\ngreat pleasure in satisfying my appetite at the banquet of the many.\n\n\n\n\n471.\n\n\nANOTHER TYPE OF LOVE FOR ONE\u2019S NEIGHBOUR.\u2014Everything that is agitated,\nnoisy, fitful, and nervous forms a contrast to the great passion which,\nglowing in the heart of man like a quiet and gloomy flame, and gathering\nabout it all that is flaming and ardent, gives to man the appearance of\ncoldness and indifference, and stamps a certain impassiveness on his\nfeatures. Such men are occasionally capable of showing their love for\ntheir neighbour, but this love is different from that of sociable people\nwho are anxious to please. It is a mild, contemplative, and calm\namiability: these people, as it were, look out of the windows of the\ncastle which serves them as a stronghold, and consequently as a prison;\nfor the outlook into the far distance, the open air, and a different world\nis so pleasant for them!\n\n\n\n\n472.\n\n\nNOT JUSTIFYING ONESELF.\u2014\n\n_A._ But why are you not willing to justify yourself?\n\n_B._ I could do it in this instance, as in dozens of others; but I despise\nthe pleasure which lies in justification, for all that matters little to\nme, and I would rather bear a stained reputation than give those petty\nfolks the spiteful pleasure of saying, \u201cHe takes these things very\nseriously.\u201d This is not true. Perhaps I ought to have more consideration\nfor myself, and look upon it as a duty to rectify erroneous opinions about\nmyself\u2014I am too indifferent and too indolent regarding myself, and\nconsequently also regarding everything that is brought about through my\nagency.\n\n\n\n\n473.\n\n\nWHERE TO BUILD ONE\u2019S HOUSE.\u2014If you feel great and productive in solitude,\nsociety will belittle and isolate you, and _vice versa_. A powerful\nmildness such as that of a father:\u2014wherever this feeling takes possession\nof you, _there_ build your house, whether in the midst of the multitude,\nor on some silent spot. _Ubi pater sum, ibi patria._(14)\n\n\n\n\n474.\n\n\nTHE ONLY MEANS.\u2014\u201cDialectic is the only means of reaching the divine\nessence, and penetrating behind the veil of appearance.\u201d This declaration\nof Plato in regard to dialectic is as solemn and passionate as that of\nSchopenhauer in regard to the contrary of dialectic\u2014and both are wrong.\nFor that to which they wish to point out the way to us does not exist.\u2014And\nso far have not all the great passions of mankind been passions for\nsomething non-existent?\u2014and all their ceremonies\u2014ceremonies for something\nnon-existent also?\n\n\n\n\n475.\n\n\nBECOMING HEAVY.\u2014You know him not; whatever weights he may attach to\nhimself he will nevertheless be able to raise them all with him. But you,\njudging from the weak flapping of your own wings, come to the conclusion\nthat he wishes to remain below, merely because he does burden himself with\nthose weights.\n\n\n\n\n476.\n\n\nAT THE HARVEST THANKSGIVING OF THE INTELLECT.\u2014There is a daily increase\nand accumulation of experiences, events, opinions upon these experiences\nand events, and dreams upon these opinions\u2014a boundless and delightful\ndisplay of wealth! its aspect dazzles the eyes: I can no longer understand\nhow the poor in spirit can be called blessed! Occasionally, however, I\nenvy them when I am tired: for the superintendence of such vast wealth is\nno easy task, and its weight frequently crushes all happiness.\u2014Alas, if\nonly the mere sight of it were sufficient! If only we could be misers of\nour knowledge!\n\n\n\n\n477.\n\n\nFREED FROM SCEPTICISM.\u2014\n\n_A._ Some men emerge from a general moral scepticism bad-tempered and\nfeeble, corroded, worm-eaten, and even partly consumed\u2014but I on the other\nhand, more courageous and healthier than ever, and with my instincts\nconquered once more. Where a strong wind blows, where the waves are\nrolling angrily, and where more than usual danger is to be faced, there I\nfeel happy. I did not become a worm, although I often had to work and dig\nlike a worm.\n\n_B._ You have just ceased to be a sceptic; for you deny!\n\n_A._ And in doing so I have learnt to say yea again.\n\n\n\n\n478.\n\n\nLET US PASS BY.\u2014Spare him! Leave him in his solitude! Do you wish to crush\nhim down entirely? He became cracked like a glass into which some hot\nliquid was poured suddenly\u2014and he was such a precious glass!\n\n\n\n\n479.\n\n\nLOVE AND TRUTHFULNESS.\u2014Through our love we have become dire offenders\nagainst truth, and even habitual dissimulators and thieves, who give out\nmore things as true than seem to us to be true. On this account the\nthinker must from time to time drive away those whom he loves (not\nnecessarily those who love him), so that they may show their sting and\nwickedness, and cease to tempt him. Consequently the kindness of the\nthinker will have its waning and waxing moon.\n\n\n\n\n480.\n\n\nINEVITABLE.\u2014No matter what your experience may be, any one who does not\nfeel well disposed towards you will find in this experience some pretext\nfor disparaging you! You may undergo the greatest possible revolutions of\nmind and knowledge, and at length, with the melancholy smile of the\nconvalescent, you may be able to step out into freedom and bright\nstillness, and yet some one will say: \u201cThis fellow looks upon his illness\nas an argument, and takes his impotence to be a proof of the impotence of\nall others\u2014he is vain enough to fall ill that he may feel the superiority\nof the sufferer.\u201d And again, if somebody were to break the chains that\nbound him down, and wounded himself severely in doing so, some one else\nwould point at him mockingly and cry: \u201cHow awkward he is! there is a man\nwho had got accustomed to his chains, and yet he is fool enough to burst\nthem asunder!\u201d\n\n\n\n\n481.\n\n\nTWO GERMANS.\u2014If we compare Kant and Schopenhauer with Plato, Spinoza,\nPascal, Rousseau, and Goethe, with reference to their souls and not their\nintellects, we shall see that the two first-named thinkers are at a\ndisadvantage: their thoughts do not constitute a passionate history of\ntheir souls\u2014we are not led to expect in them romance, crises,\ncatastrophies, or death struggles. Their thinking is not at the same time\nthe involuntary biography of a soul, but in the case of Kant merely of a\nhead; and in the case of Schopenhauer again merely the description and\nreflection of a character (\u201cthe invariable\u201d) and the pleasure which this\nreflection causes, that is to say, the pleasure of meeting with an\nintellect of the first order.\n\nKant, when he shimmers through his thoughts, appears to us as an honest\nand honourable man in the best sense of the words, but likewise as an\ninsignificant one: he is wanting in breadth and power; he had not come\nthrough many experiences, and his method of working did not allow him\nsufficient time to undergo experiences. Of course, in speaking of\nexperiences, I do not refer to the ordinary external events of life, but\nto those fatalities and convulsions which occur in the course of the most\nsolitary and quiet life which has some leisure and glows with the passion\nfor thinking. Schopenhauer has at all events one advantage over him; for\nhe at least was distinguished by a certain fierce ugliness of disposition,\nwhich showed itself in hatred, desire, vanity, and suspicion: he was of a\nrather more ferocious disposition, and had both time and leisure to\nindulge this ferocity. But he lacked \u201cdevelopment,\u201d which was also wanting\nin his range of thought: he had no \u201chistory.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n482.\n\n\nSEEKING ONE\u2019S COMPANY.\u2014Are we then looking for too much when we seek the\ncompany of men who have grown mild, agreeable to the taste, and nutritive,\nlike chestnuts which have been put into the fire and taken out just at the\nright moment? Of men who expect little from life, and prefer to accept\nthis little as a present rather than as a merit of their own, as if it\nwere carried to them by birds and bees? Of men who are too proud ever to\nfeel themselves rewarded, and too serious in their passion for knowledge\nand honesty to have time for or pleasure in fame? Such men we should call\nphilosophers; but they themselves will always find some more modest\ndesignation.\n\n\n\n\n483.\n\n\nSATIATED WITH MANKIND.\u2014\n\n_A._ Seek for knowledge! Yes! but always as a man! What? must I always be\na spectator of the same comedy, and always play a part in the same comedy,\nwithout ever being able to observe things with other eyes than those? and\nyet there may be countless types of beings whose organs are better adapted\nfor knowledge than ours! At the end of all their searching for knowledge\nwhat will men at length come to know? Their organs! which perhaps is as\nmuch as to say: the impossibility of knowledge! misery and disgust!\n\n_B._ This is a bad attack you have\u2014reason is attacking you! to-morrow,\nhowever, you will again be in the midst of knowledge, and hence of\nirrationality\u2014that is to say, delighted about all that is human. Let us go\nto the sea!\n\n\n\n\n484.\n\n\nGOING OUR OWN WAY.\u2014When we take the decisive step, and make up our minds\nto follow our own path, a secret is suddenly revealed to us: it is clear\nthat all those who had hitherto been friendly to us and on intimate terms\nwith us judged themselves to be superior to us, and are offended now. The\nbest among them are indulgent, and are content to wait patiently until we\nonce more find the \u201cright path\u201d\u2014they know it, apparently. Others make fun\nof us, and pretend that we have been seized with a temporary attack of\nmild insanity, or spitefully point out some seducer. The more malicious\nsay we are vain fools, and do their best to blacken our motives; while the\nworst of all see in us their greatest enemy, some one who is thirsting for\nrevenge after many years of dependence,\u2014and are afraid of us. What, then,\nare we to do? My own opinion is that we should begin our sovereignty by\npromising to all our acquaintances in advance a whole year\u2019s amnesty for\nsins of every kind.\n\n\n\n\n485.\n\n\nFAR-OFF PERSPECTIVES.\u2014\n\n_A._ But why this solitude?\n\n_B._ I am not angry with anybody. But when I am alone it seems to me that\nI can see my friends in a clearer and rosier light than when I am with\nthem; and when I loved and felt music best I lived far from it. It would\nseem that I must have distant perspectives in order that I may think well\nof things.\n\n\n\n\n486.\n\n\nGOLD AND HUNGER.\u2014Here and there we meet with a man who changes into gold\neverything that he touches. But some fine evil day he will discover that\nhe himself must starve through this gift of his. Everything around him is\nbrilliant, superb, and unapproachable in its ideal beauty, and now he\neagerly longs for things which it is impossible for him to turn into\ngold\u2014and how intense is this longing! like that of a starving man for a\nmeal! Query: What will he seize?\n\n\n\n\n487.\n\n\nSHAME.\u2014Look at that noble steed pawing the ground, snorting, longing for a\nride, and loving its accustomed rider\u2014but, shameful to relate, the rider\ncannot mount to-day, he is tired.\u2014Such is the shame felt by the weary\nthinker in the presence of his own philosophy!\n\n\n\n\n488.\n\n\nAGAINST THE WASTE OF LOVE.\u2014Do we not blush when we surprise ourselves in a\nstate of violent aversion? Well, then, we should also blush when we find\nourselves possessed of strong affections on account of the injustice\ncontained in them. More: there are people who feel their hearts weighed\ndown and oppressed when some one gives them the benefit of his love and\nsympathy to the extent that he deprives others of a share. The tone of his\nvoice reveals to us the fact that we have been specially selected and\npreferred! but, alas! I am not thankful for being thus selected: I\nexperience within myself a certain feeling of resentment against him who\nwishes to distinguish me in this way\u2014he shall not love me at the expense\nof others! I shall always try to look after myself and to endure myself,\nand my heart is often filled to overflowing, and with some reason. To such\na man nothing ought to be given of which others stand so greatly in need.\n\n\n\n\n489.\n\n\nFRIENDS IN NEED.\u2014We may occasionally remark that one of our friends\nsympathises with another more than with us. His delicacy is troubled\nthereby, and his selfishness is not equal to the task of breaking down his\nfeelings of affection: in such a case we should facilitate the separation\nfor him, and estrange him in some way in order to widen the distance\nbetween us.\u2014This is also necessary when we fall into a habit of thinking\nwhich might be detrimental to him: our affection for him should induce us\nto ease his conscience in separating himself from us by means of some\ninjustice which we voluntarily take upon ourselves.\n\n\n\n\n490.\n\n\nTHOSE PETTY TRUTHS.\u2014\u201cYou know all that, but you have never lived through\nit\u2014so I will not accept your evidence. Those \u2018petty truths\u2019\u2014you deem them\npetty because you have not paid for them with your blood!\u201d\u2014But are they\nreally great, simply because they have been bought at so high a price? and\nblood is always too high a price!\u2014\u201cDo you really think so? How stingy you\nare with your blood!\u201d\n\n\n\n\n491.\n\n\nSOLITUDE, THEREFORE!\u2014\n\n_A._ So you wish to go back to your desert?\n\n_B._ I am not a quick thinker; I must wait for myself a long time\u2014it is\nalways later and later before the water from the fountain of my own ego\nspurts forth, and I have often to go thirsty longer than suits my\npatience. That is why I retire into solitude in order that I may not have\nto drink from the common cisterns. When I live in the midst of the\nmultitude my life is like theirs, and I do not think like myself; but\nafter some time it always seems to me as if the multitude wished to banish\nme from myself and to rob me of my soul. Then I get angry with all these\npeople, and afraid of them; and I must have the desert to become well\ndisposed again.\n\n\n\n\n492.\n\n\nUNDER THE SOUTH WIND.\u2014\n\n_A._ I can no longer understand myself! It was only yesterday that I felt\nmyself so tempestuous and ardent, and at the same time so warm and sunny\nand exceptionally bright! but to-day! Now everything is calm, wide,\noppressive, and dark like the lagoon at Venice. I wish for nothing, and\ndraw a deep breath, and yet I feel inwardly indignant at this \u201cwish for\nnothing\u201d\u2014so the waves rise and fall in the ocean of my melancholy.\n\n_B._ You describe a petty, agreeable illness. The next wind from the\nnorth-east will blow it away.\n\n_A._ Why so?\n\n\n\n\n493.\n\n\nON ONE\u2019S OWN TREE.\u2014\n\n_A._ No thinker\u2019s thoughts give me so much pleasure as my own: this, of\ncourse, proves nothing in favour of their value; but I should be foolish\nto neglect fruits which are tasteful to me only because they happen to\ngrow on my own tree!\u2014and I was once such a fool.\n\n_B._ Others have the contrary feeling: which likewise proves nothing in\nfavour of their thoughts, nor yet is it any argument against their value.\n\n\n\n\n494.\n\n\nTHE LAST ARGUMENT OF THE BRAVE MAN.\u2014There are snakes in this little clump\nof trees.\u2014Very well, I will rush into the thicket and kill them.\u2014But by\ndoing that you will run the risk of falling a victim to them, and not they\nto you.\u2014But what do I matter?\n\n\n\n\n495.\n\n\nOUR TEACHERS.\u2014During our period of youth we select our teachers and guides\nfrom our own times, and from those circles which we happen to meet with:\nwe have the thoughtless conviction that the present age must have teachers\nwho will suit us better than any others, and that we are sure to find them\nwithout having to look very far. Later on we find that we have to pay a\nheavy penalty for this childishness: we have to expiate our teachers in\nourselves, and then perhaps we begin to look for the proper guides. We\nlook for them throughout the whole world, including even present and past\nages\u2014but perhaps it may be too late, and at the worst we discover that\nthey lived when we were young\u2014and that at that time we lost our\nopportunity.\n\n\n\n\n496.\n\n\nTHE EVIL PRINCIPLE.\u2014Plato has marvellously described how the philosophic\nthinker must necessarily be regarded as the essence of depravity in the\nmidst of every existing society: for as the critic of all its morals he is\nnaturally the antagonist of the moral man, and, unless he succeeds in\nbecoming the legislator of new morals, he lives long in the memory of men\nas an instance of the \u201cevil principle.\u201d From this we may judge to how\ngreat an extent the city of Athens, although fairly liberal and fond of\ninnovations, abused the reputation of Plato during his lifetime. What\nwonder then that he\u2014who, as he has himself recorded, had the \u201cpolitical\ninstinct\u201d in his body\u2014made three different attempts in Sicily, where at\nthat time a united Mediterranean Greek State appeared to be in process of\nformation?\n\nIt was in this State, and with its assistance, that Plato thought he could\ndo for the Greeks what Mohammed did for the Arabs several centuries later:\nviz. establishing both minor and more important customs, and especially\nregulating the daily life of every man. His ideas were quite practicable\njust as certainly as those of Mohammed were practicable; for even much\nmore incredible ideas, those of Christianity, proved themselves to be\npracticable! a few hazards less and a few hazards more\u2014and then the world\nwould have witnessed the Platonisation of Southern Europe; and, if we\nsuppose that this state of things had continued to our own days, we should\nprobably be worshipping Plato now as the \u201cgood principle.\u201d But he was\nunsuccessful, and so his traditional character remains that of a dreamer\nand a Utopian\u2014stronger epithets than these passed away with ancient\nAthens.\n\n\n\n\n497.\n\n\nTHE PURIFYING EYE.\u2014We have the best reason for speaking of \u201cgenius\u201d in\nmen\u2014for example, Plato, Spinoza, and Goethe\u2014whose minds appear to be but\nloosely linked to their character and temperament, like winged beings\nwhich easily separate themselves from them, and then rise far above them.\nOn the other hand, those who never succeeded in cutting themselves loose\nfrom their temperament, and who knew how to give to it the most\nintellectual, lofty, and at times even cosmic expression (Schopenhauer,\nfor instance) have always been very fond of speaking about their genius.\n\nThese geniuses could not rise above themselves, but they believed that,\nfly where they would, they would always find and recover themselves\u2014this\nis their \u201cgreatness,\u201d and this can be greatness!\u2014The others who are\nentitled to this name possess the pure and purifying eye which does not\nseem to have sprung out of their temperament and character, but separately\nfrom them, and generally in contradiction to them, and looks out upon the\nworld as on a God whom it loves. But even people like these do not come\ninto possession of such an eye all at once: they require practice and a\npreliminary school of sight, and he who is really fortunate will at the\nright moment also fall in with a teacher of pure sight.\n\n\n\n\n498.\n\n\nNEVER DEMAND!\u2014You do not know him! it is true that he easily and readily\nsubmits both to men and things, and that he is kind to both\u2014his only wish\nis to be left in peace\u2014but only in so far as men and things do not\n_demand_ his submission. Any demand makes him proud, bashful, and warlike.\n\n\n\n\n499.\n\n\nTHE EVIL ONE.\u2014\u201cOnly the solitary are evil!\u201d\u2014thus spake Diderot, and\nRousseau at once felt deeply offended. Thus he proved that Diderot was\nright. Indeed, in society, or amid social life, every evil instinct is\ncompelled to restrain itself, to assume so many masks, and to press itself\nso often into the Procrustean bed of virtue, that we are quite justified\nin speaking of the martyrdom of the evil man. In solitude, however, all\nthis disappears. The evil man is still more evil in solitude\u2014and\nconsequently for him whose eye sees only a drama everywhere he is also\nmore beautiful.\n\n\n\n\n500.\n\n\nAGAINST THE GRAIN.\u2014A thinker may for years at a time force himself to\nthink against the grain: that is, not to pursue the thoughts that spring\nup within him, but, instead, those which he is compelled to follow by the\nexigencies of his office, an established division of time, or any\narbitrary duty which he may find it necessary to fulfil. In the long run,\nhowever, he will fall ill; for this apparently moral self-command will\ndestroy his nervous system as thoroughly and completely as regular\ndebauchery.\n\n\n\n\n501.\n\n\nMORTAL SOULS.\u2014Where knowledge is concerned perhaps the most useful\nconquest that has ever been made is the abandonment of the belief in the\nimmortality of the soul. Humanity is henceforth at liberty to wait: men\nneed no longer be in a hurry to swallow badly-tested ideas as they had to\ndo in former times. For in those times the salvation of this poor\n\u201cimmortal soul\u201d depended upon the extent of the knowledge which could be\nacquired in the course of a short existence: decisions had to be reached\nfrom one day to another, and \u201cknowledge\u201d was a matter of dreadful\nimportance!\n\nNow we have acquired good courage for errors, experiments, and the\nprovisional acceptance of ideas\u2014all this is not so very important!\u2014and for\nthis very reason individuals and whole races may now face tasks so vast in\nextent that in former years they would have looked like madness, and\ndefiance of heaven and hell. Now we have the right to experiment upon\nourselves! Yes, men have the right to do so! the greatest sacrifices have\nnot yet been offered up to knowledge\u2014nay, in earlier periods it would have\nbeen sacrilege, and a sacrifice of our eternal salvation, even to surmise\nsuch ideas as now precede our actions.\n\n\n\n\n502.\n\n\nONE WORD FOR THREE DIFFERENT CONDITIONS.\u2014When in a state of passion one\nman will be forced to let loose the savage, dreadful, unbearable animal.\nAnother when under the influence of passion will raise himself to a high,\nnoble, and lofty demeanour, in comparison with which his usual self\nappears petty. A third, whose whole person is permeated with nobility of\nfeeling, has also the most noble storm and stress: and in this state he\nrepresents Nature in her state of savageness and beauty, and stands only\none degree lower than Nature in her periods of greatness and serenity,\nwhich he usually represents. It is while in this state of passion,\nhowever, that men understand him better, and venerate him more highly at\nthese moments\u2014for then he is one step nearer and more akin to them. They\nfeel at once delighted and horrified at such a sight and call it\u2014divine.\n\n\n\n\n503.\n\n\nFRIENDSHIP.\u2014The objection to a philosophic life that it renders us useless\nto our friends would never have arisen in a modern mind: it belongs rather\nto classical antiquity. Antiquity knew the stronger bonds of friendship,\nmeditated upon it, and almost took it to the grave with it. This is the\nadvantage it has over us: we, on the other hand, can point to our\nidealisation of sexual love. All the great excellencies of ancient\nhumanity owed their stability to the fact that man was standing side by\nside with man, and that no woman was allowed to put forward the claim of\nbeing the nearest and highest, nay even sole object of his love, as the\nfeeling of passion would teach. Perhaps our trees do not grow so high now\nowing to the ivy and the vines that cling round them.\n\n\n\n\n504.\n\n\nRECONCILIATION.\u2014Should it then be the task of philosophy to reconcile what\nthe child has learnt with what the man has come to recognise? Should\nphilosophy be the task of young men because they stand midway between\nchild and man and possess intermediate necessities? It would almost appear\nto be so if you consider at what ages of their life philosophers are now\nin the habit of setting forth their conceptions: at a time when it is too\nlate for faith and too early for knowledge.\n\n\n\n\n505.\n\n\nPRACTICAL PEOPLE.\u2014We thinkers have the right of deciding good taste in all\nthings, and if necessary of decreeing it. The practical people finally\nreceive it from us: their dependence upon us is incredibly great, and is\none of the most ridiculous spectacles in the world, little though they\nthemselves know it and however proudly they like to carp at us unpractical\npeople. Nay, they would even go so far as to belittle their practical life\nif we should show a tendency to despise it\u2014whereto at times we might be\nurged on by a slightly vindictive feeling.\n\n\n\n\n506.\n\n\nTHE NECESSARY DESICCATION OF EVERYTHING GOOD.\u2014What! must we conceive of a\nwork exactly in the spirit of the age that has produced it? but we\nexperience greater delight and surprise, and get more information out of\nit when we do not conceive it in this spirit! Have you not remarked that\nevery new and good work, so long as it is exposed to the damp air of its\nown age is least valuable\u2014just because it still has about it all the odour\nof the market, of opposition, of modern ideas, and of all that is\ntransient from day to day? Later on, however, it dries up, its \u201cactuality\u201d\ndies away: and then only does it obtain its deep lustre and its\nperfume\u2014and also, if it is destined for it, the calm eye of eternity.\n\n\n\n\n507.\n\n\nAGAINST THE TYRANNY OF TRUTH.\u2014Even if we were mad enough to consider all\nour opinions as truth, we should nevertheless not wish them alone to\nexist. I cannot see why we should ask for an autocracy and omnipotence of\ntruth: it is sufficient for me to know that it is a great power. Truth,\nhowever, must meet with opposition and be able to fight, and we must be\nable to rest from it at times in falsehood\u2014otherwise truth will grow\ntiresome, powerless, and insipid, and will render us equally so.\n\n\n\n\n508.\n\n\nNOT TO TAKE A THING PATHETICALLY.\u2014What we do to benefit ourselves should\nnot bring us in any moral praise, either from others or from ourselves,\nand the same remark applies to those things which we do to please\nourselves. It is looked upon as _bon ton_ among superior men to refrain\nfrom taking things pathetically in such cases, and to refrain from all\npathetic feelings: the man who has accustomed himself to this has\nretrieved his _na\u00efvet\u00e9_.\n\n\n\n\n509.\n\n\nTHE THIRD EYE.\u2014What! You are still in need of the theatre! are you still\nso young? Be wise, and seek tragedy and comedy where they are better\nacted, and where the incidents are more interesting, and the actors more\neager. It is indeed by no means easy to be merely a spectator in these\ncases\u2014but learn! and then, amid all difficult or painful situations, you\nwill have a little gate leading to joy and refuge, even when your passions\nattack you. Open your stage eye, that big third eye of yours, which looks\nout into the world through the other two.\n\n\n\n\n510.\n\n\nESCAPING FROM ONE\u2019S VIRTUES.\u2014Of what account is a thinker who does not\nknow how to escape from his own virtues occasionally! Surely a thinker\nshould be more than \u201ca moral being\u201d!\n\n\n\n\n511.\n\n\nTHE TEMPTRESS.\u2014Honesty is the great temptress of all fanatics.(15) What\nseemed to tempt Luther in the guise of the devil or a beautiful woman, and\nfrom which he defended himself in that uncouth way of his, was probably\nnothing but honesty, and perhaps in a few rarer cases even truth.\n\n\n\n\n512.\n\n\nBOLD TOWARDS THINGS.\u2014The man who, in accordance with his character, is\nconsiderate and timid towards persons, but is courageous and bold towards\nthings, is afraid of new and closer acquaintances, and limits his old ones\nin order that he may thus make his incognito and his inconsiderateness\ncoincide with truth.\n\n\n\n\n513.\n\n\nLIMITS AND BEAUTY.\u2014Are you looking for men with a fine culture? Then you\nwill have to be satisfied with restricted views and sights, exactly as\nwhen you are looking for fine countries.\u2014There are, of course, such\npanoramic men: they are like panoramic regions, instructive and\nmarvellous: but not beautiful.\n\n\n\n\n514.\n\n\nTO THE STRONGER.\u2014Ye stronger and arrogant intellects, we ask you for only\none thing: throw no further burdens upon our shoulders, but take some of\nour burdens upon your own, since ye are stronger! but ye delight in doing\nthe exact contrary: for ye wish to soar, so that we must carry your burden\nin addition to our own\u2014we must crawl!\n\n\n\n\n515.\n\n\nTHE INCREASE OF BEAUTY.\u2014Why has beauty increased by the progress of\ncivilisation? because the three occasions for ugliness appear ever more\nrarely among civilised men: first, the wildest outbursts of ecstasy;\nsecondly, extreme bodily exertion, and, thirdly, the necessity of inducing\nfear by one\u2019s very sight and presence\u2014a matter which is so frequent and of\nso great importance in the lower and more dangerous stages of culture that\nit even lays down the proper gestures and ceremonials and makes ugliness a\nduty.\n\n\n\n\n516.\n\n\nNOT TO IMBUE OUR NEIGHBOURS WITH OUR OWN DEMON.\u2014Let us in our age continue\nto hold the belief that benevolence and beneficence are the\ncharacteristics of a good man; but let us not fail to add \u201cprovided that\nin the first place he exhibits his benevolence and beneficence towards\nhimself.\u201d For if he acts otherwise\u2014that is to say, if he shuns, hates, or\ninjures himself\u2014he is certainly not a good man. He then merely saves\nhimself through others: and let these others take care that they do not\ncome to grief through him, however well disposed he may appear to be to\nthem!\u2014but to shun and hate one\u2019s own ego, and to live in and for others,\nthis has up to the present, with as much thoughtlessness as conviction,\nbeen looked upon as \u201cunselfish,\u201d and consequently as \u201cgood.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n517.\n\n\nTEMPTING INTO LOVE.\u2014We ought to fear a man who hates himself; for we are\nliable to become the victims of his anger and revenge. Let us therefore\ntry to tempt him into self-love.\n\n\n\n\n518.\n\n\nRESIGNATION.\u2014What is resignation? It is the most comfortable position of a\npatient, who, after having suffered a long time from tormenting pains in\norder to find it, at last became tired\u2014and then found it.\n\n\n\n\n519.\n\n\nDECEPTION.\u2014When you wish to act you must close the door upon doubt, said a\nman of action.\u2014And are you not afraid of being deceived in doing so?\nreplied the man of a contemplative mind.\n\n\n\n\n520.\n\n\nETERNAL OBSEQUIES.\u2014Both within and beyond the confines of history we might\nimagine that we were listening to a continual funeral oration: we have\nburied, and are still burying, all that we have loved best, our thoughts,\nand our hopes, receiving in exchange pride, _gloria mundi_\u2014that is, the\npomp of the graveside speech. It is thus that everything is made good!\nEven at the present time the funeral orator remains the greatest public\nbenefactor.\n\n\n\n\n521.\n\n\nEXCEPTIONAL VANITY.\u2014Yonder man possesses one great quality which serves as\na consolation for him: his look passes with contempt over the remainder of\nhis being, and almost his entire character is included in this. But he\nrecovers from himself when, as it were, he approaches his sanctuary;\nalready the road leading to it appears to him to be an ascent on broad\nsoft steps\u2014and yet, ye cruel ones, ye call him vain on this account!\n\n\n\n\n522.\n\n\nWISDOM WITHOUT EARS.\u2014To hear every day what is said about us, or even to\nendeavour to discover what people think of us, will in the end kill even\nthe strongest man. Our neighbours permit us to live only that they may\nexercise a daily claim upon us! They certainly would not tolerate us if we\nwished to claim rights over them, and still less if we wished to be right!\nIn short, let us offer up a sacrifice to the general peace, let us not\nlisten when they speak of us, when they praise us, blame us, wish for us,\nor hope for us\u2014nay, let us not even think of it.\n\n\n\n\n523.\n\n\nA QUESTION OF PENETRATION.\u2014When we are confronted with any manifestation\nwhich some one has permitted us to see, we may ask: what is it meant to\nconceal? What is it meant to draw our attention from? What prejudices does\nit seek to raise? and again, how far does the subtlety of the\ndissimulation go? and in what respect is the man mistaken?\n\n\n\n\n524.\n\n\nTHE JEALOUSY OF THE LONELY ONES.\u2014This is the difference between sociable\nand solitary natures, provided that both possess an intellect: the former\nare satisfied, or nearly satisfied, with almost anything whatever; from\nthe moment that their minds have discovered a communicable and happy\nversion of it they will be reconciled even with the devil himself! But the\nlonely souls have their silent rapture, and their speechless agony about a\nthing: they hate the ingenious and brilliant display of their inmost\nproblems as much as they dislike to see the women they love too loudly\ndressed\u2014they watch her mournfully in such a case, as if they were just\nbeginning to suspect that she was desirous of pleasing others. This is the\njealousy which all lonely thinkers and passionate dreamers exhibit with\nregard to the _esprit_.\n\n\n\n\n525.\n\n\nTHE EFFECT OF PRAISE.\u2014Some people become modest when highly praised,\nothers insolent.\n\n\n\n\n526.\n\n\nUNWILLING TO BE A SYMBOL.\u2014I sympathise with princes: they are not at\nliberty to discard their high rank even for a short time, and thus they\ncome to know people only from the very uncomfortable position of constant\ndissimulation\u2014their continual compulsion to represent something actually\nends by making solemn ciphers of them.\u2014Such is the fate of all those who\ndeem it their duty to be symbols.\n\n\n\n\n527.\n\n\nTHE HIDDEN MEN.\u2014Have you never come across those people who check and\nrestrain even their enraptured hearts, and who would rather become mute\nthan lose the modesty of moderation? and have you never met those\nembarrassing, and yet so often good-natured people who do not wish to be\nrecognised, and who time and again efface the tracks they have made in the\nsand? and who even deceive others as well as themselves in order to remain\nobscure and hidden?\n\n\n\n\n528.\n\n\nUNUSUAL FORBEARANCE.\u2014It is often no small indication of kindness to be\nunwilling to criticise some one, and even to refuse to think of him.\n\n\n\n\n529.\n\n\nHOW MEN AND NATIONS GAIN LUSTRE.\u2014How many really individual actions are\nleft undone merely because before performing them we perceive or suspect\nthat they will be misunderstood!\u2014those actions, for example, which have\nsome intrinsic value, both in good and evil. The more highly an age or a\nnation values its individuals, therefore, and the more right and\nascendancy we accord them, the more will actions of this kind venture to\nmake themselves known,\u2014and thus in the long run a lustre of honesty, of\ngenuineness in good and evil, will spread over entire ages and nations, so\nthat they\u2014the Greeks, for example\u2014like certain stars, will continue to\nshed light for thousands of years after their sinking.\n\n\n\n\n530.\n\n\nDIGRESSIONS OF THE THINKER.\u2014The course of thought in certain men is strict\nand inflexibly bold. At times it is even cruel towards such men, although\nconsidered individually they may be gentle and pliable. With well-meaning\nhesitation they will turn the matter ten times over in their heads, but\nwill at length continue their strict course. They are like streams that\nwind their way past solitary hermitages: there are places in their course\nwhere the stream plays hide and seek with itself, and indulges in short\nidylls with islets, trees, grottos, and cascades\u2014and then it rushes ahead\nonce more, passes by the rocks, and forces its way through the hardest\nstones.\n\n\n\n\n531.\n\n\nDIFFERENT FEELINGS TOWARDS ART.\u2014From the time when we begin to live as a\nhermit, consuming and consumed, our only company being deep and prolific\nthoughts, we expect from art either nothing more, or else something quite\ndifferent from what we formerly expected\u2014in a word, we change our taste.\nFor in former times we wished to penetrate for a moment by means of art\ninto the element in which we are now living permanently: at that time we\ndreamt ourselves into the rapture of a possession which we now actually\npossess. Indeed, flinging away from us for the time being what we now\nhave, and imagining ourselves to be poor, or to be a child, a beggar, or a\nfool, may now at times fill us with delight.\n\n\n\n\n532.\n\n\n\u201cLOVE EQUALISES.\u201d\u2014Love wishes to spare the other to whom it devotes itself\nany feeling of strangeness: as a consequence it is permeated with disguise\nand simulation; it keeps on deceiving continuously, and feigns an equality\nwhich in reality does not exist. And all this is done so instinctively\nthat women who love deny this simulation and constant tender trickery, and\nhave even the audacity to assert that love equalises (in other words that\nit performs a miracle)!\n\nThis phenomenon is a simple matter if one of the two permits himself or\nherself to be loved, and does not deem it necessary to feign, but leaves\nthis to the other. No drama, however, could offer a more intricate and\nconfused instance than when both persons are passionately in love with one\nanother; for in this case both are anxious to surrender and to endeavour\nto conform to the other, and finally they are both at a loss to know what\nto imitate and what to feign. The beautiful madness of this spectacle is\ntoo good for this world, and too subtle for human eyes.\n\n\n\n\n533.\n\n\nWE BEGINNERS.\u2014How many things does an actor see and divine when he watches\nanother on the stage! He notices at once when a muscle fails in some\ngesture; he can distinguish those little artificial tricks which are so\ncalmly practised separately before the mirror, and are not in conformity\nwith the whole; he feels when the actor is surprised on the stage by his\nown invention, and when he spoils it amid this surprise.\u2014How differently,\nagain, does a painter look at some one who happens to be moving before\nhim! He will see a great deal that does not actually exist in order to\ncomplete the actual appearance of the person, and to give it its full\neffect. In his mind he attempts several different illuminations of the\nsame object, and divides the whole by an additional contrast.\u2014Oh, that we\nnow possessed the eyes of such an actor and such a painter for the\nprovince of the human soul!\n\n\n\n\n534.\n\n\nSMALL DOSES.\u2014If we wish a change to be as deep and radical as possible, we\nmust apply the remedy in minute doses, but unremittingly for long periods.\nWhat great action can be performed all at once? Let us therefore be\ncareful not to exchange violently and precipitately the moral conditions\nwith which we are familiar for a new valuation of things,\u2014nay, we may even\nwish to continue living in the old way for a long time to come, until\nprobably at some very remote period we become aware of the fact that the\nnew valuation has made itself the predominating power within us, and that\nits minute doses to which we must henceforth become accustomed have set up\na new nature within us.\u2014We now also begin to understand that the last\nattempt at a great change of valuations\u2014that which concerned itself with\npolitical affairs (the \u201cgreat revolution\u201d)\u2014was nothing more than a\npathetic and sanguinary piece of quackery which, by means of sudden\ncrises, was able to inspire a credulous Europe with the hope of a sudden\nrecovery, and has therefore made all political invalids impatient and\ndangerous up to this very moment.\n\n\n\n\n535.\n\n\nTRUTH REQUIRES POWER.\u2014Truth in itself is no power at all, in spite of all\nthat flattering rationalists are in the habit of saying to the contrary.\nTruth must either attract power to its side, or else side with power, for\notherwise it will perish again and again. This has already been\nsufficiently demonstrated, and more than sufficiently!\n\n\n\n\n536.\n\n\nTHE THUMBSCREW.\u2014It is disgusting to observe with what cruelty every one\ncharges his two or three private virtues to the account of others who may\nperhaps not possess them, and whom he torments and worries with them. Let\nus therefore deal humanely with the \u201csense of honesty,\u201d although we may\npossess in it a thumbscrew with which we can worry to death all these\npresumptuous egoists who even yet wish to impose their own beliefs upon\nthe whole world\u2014we have tried this thumbscrew on ourselves!\n\n\n\n\n537.\n\n\nMASTERY.\u2014We have reached mastery when we neither mistake nor hesitate in\nthe achievement.\n\n\n\n\n538.\n\n\nTHE MORAL INSANITY OF GENIUS.\u2014In a certain category of great intellects we\nmay observe a painful and partly horrible spectacle: in their most\nproductive moments their flights aloft and into the far distance appear to\nbe out of harmony with their general constitution and to exceed their\npower in one way or another, so that each time there remains a deficiency,\nand also in the long run a defectiveness in the entire machinery, which\nlatter is manifested among those highly intellectual natures by various\nkinds of moral and intellectual symptoms more regularly than by conditions\nof bodily distress.\n\nThus those incomprehensible characteristics of their nature\u2014all their\ntimidity, vanity, hatefulness, envy, their narrow and narrowing\ndisposition\u2014and that too personal and awkward element in natures like\nthose of Rousseau and Schopenhauer, may very well be the consequences of a\nperiodical attack of heart disease; and this in its turn may be the result\nof a nervous complaint, and this latter the consequence of \u2014\u2014(16)\n\nSo long as genius dwells within us we are full of audacity, yea, almost\nmad, and heedless of health, life, and honour; we fly through the day as\nfree and swift as an eagle, and in the darkness we feel as confident as an\nowl.\u2014But let genius once leave us and we are instantly overcome by a\nfeeling of the most profound despondency: we can no longer understand\nourselves; we suffer from everything that we experience and do not\nexperience; we feel as if we were in the midst of shelterless rocks with\nthe tempest raging round us, and we are at the same time like pitiful\nchildish souls, afraid of a rustle or a shadow.\u2014Three-fourths of all the\nevil committed in the world is due to timidity; and this is above all a\nphysiological process.\n\n\n\n\n539.\n\n\nDO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU WANT?\u2014Have you never been troubled by the fear that\nyou might not be at all fitted for recognising what is true? by the fear\nthat your senses might be too dull, and even your delicacy of sight far\ntoo blunt? If you could only perceive, even once, to what extent your\nvolition dominates your sight! How, for example, you wished yesterday to\nsee more than some one else, while to-day you wish to see it differently!\nand how from the start you were anxious to see something which would be in\nconformity with or in opposition to anything that people thought they had\nobserved up to the present. Oh, those shameful cravings! How often you\nkeep your eyes open for what is efficacious, for what is soothing, just\nbecause you happen to be tired at the moment! Always full of secret\npredeterminations of what truth should be like, so that you\u2014you,\nforsooth!\u2014might accept it! or do you think that to-day, because you are as\nfrozen and dry as a bright winter morning, and because nothing is weighing\non your mind, you have better eyesight! Are not ardour and enthusiasm\nnecessary to do justice to the creations of thought?\u2014and this indeed is\nwhat is called sight! as if you could treat matters of thought any\ndifferently from the manner in which you treat men. In all relations with\nthought there is the same morality, the same honesty of purpose, the same\n_arri\u00e8re-pens\u00e9e_, the same slackness, the same faint-heartedness\u2014your\nwhole lovable and hateful self! Your physical exhaustion will lend the\nthings pale colours whilst your feverishness will turn them into monsters!\nDoes not your morning show the things in a different light from the\nevening? Are you not afraid of finding in the cave of all knowledge your\nown phantom, the veil in which truth is wrapped up and hidden from your\nsight? Is it not a dreadful comedy in which you so thoughtlessly wish to\ntake part?\n\n\n\n\n540.\n\n\nLEARNING.\u2014Michelangelo considered Raphael\u2019s genius as having been acquired\nby study, and upon his own as a natural gift: learning as opposed to\ntalent; though this is mere pedantry, with all due respect to the great\npedant himself. For what is talent but a name for an older piece of\nlearning, experience, exercise, appropriation, and incorporation, perhaps\nas far back as the times of our ancestors, or even earlier! And again: he\nwho learns forms his own talents, only learning is not such an easy matter\nand depends not only upon our willingness, but also upon our being able to\nlearn at all.\n\nJealousy often prevents this in an artist, or that pride which, when it\nexperiences any strange feeling, at once assumes an attitude of defence\ninstead of an attitude of scholarly receptiveness. Raphael, like Goethe,\nlacked this pride, on which account they were great learners, and not\nmerely the exploiters of those quarries which had been formed by the\nmanifold genealogy of their forefathers. Raphael vanishes before our eyes\nas a learner in the midst of that assimilation of what his great rival\ncalled _his_ \u201cnature\u201d: this noblest of all thieves daily carried off a\nportion of it; but before he had appropriated all the genius of\nMichelangelo he died\u2014and the final series of his works, because it is the\nbeginning of a new plan of study, is less perfect and good, for the simple\nreason that the great student was interrupted by death in the midst of his\nmost difficult task, and took away with him that justifying and final goal\nwhich he had in view.\n\n\n\n\n541.\n\n\nHOW WE SHOULD TURN TO STONE.\u2014By slowly, very, very slowly, becoming hard\nlike a precious stone, and at last lie still, a joy to all eternity.\n\n\n\n\n542.\n\n\nTHE PHILOSOPHER AND OLD AGE.\u2014It is not wise to permit evening to act as a\njudge of the day; for only too often in this case weariness becomes the\njudge of success and good will. We should also take the greatest\nprecautions in regard to everything connected with old age and its\njudgment upon life, more especially since old age, like the evening, is\nfond of assuming a new and charming morality, and knows well enough how to\nhumiliate the day by the glow of the evening skies, twilight and a\npeaceful and wistful silence. The reverence which we feel for an old man,\nespecially if he is an old thinker and sage, easily blinds us to the\ndeterioration of his intellect, and it is always necessary to bring to\nlight the hidden symptoms of such a deterioration and lassitude, that is\nto say, to uncover the physiological phenomenon which is still concealed\nbehind the old man\u2019s moral judgments and prejudices, in case we should be\ndeceived by our veneration for him, and do something to the disadvantage\nof knowledge. For it is not seldom that the illusion of a great moral\nrenovation and regeneration takes possession of the old man. Basing his\nviews upon this, he then proceeds to express his opinions on the work and\ndevelopment of his life as if he had only then for the first time become\nclearsighted\u2014and nevertheless it is not wisdom, but fatigue, which prompts\nhis present state of well-being and his positive judgments.\n\nThe most dangerous indication of this weariness is above all the belief in\ngenius, which as a rule only arises in great and semi-great men of\nintellect at this period of their lives: the belief in an exceptional\nposition, and exceptional rights. The thinker who thus believes himself to\nbe inspired by genius henceforth deems it permissible for him to take\nthings more easily, and takes advantage of his position as a genius to\ndecree rather than to prove. It is probable, however, that the need felt\nby the weary intellect for alleviation is the main source of this\nbelief\u2014it precedes it in time, though appearances may indicate the\ncontrary.\n\nAt this time too, as the result of the love which all weary and old people\nfeel for enjoyment, such men as those I am speaking of wish to enjoy the\nresults of their thinking instead of again testing them and scattering the\nseeds abroad once more. This leads them to make their thoughts palatable\nand enjoyable, and to take away their dryness, coldness, and want of\nflavour; and thus it comes about that the old thinker apparently raises\nhimself above his life\u2019s work, while in reality he spoils it by infusing\ninto it a certain amount of fantasy, sweetness, flavour, poetic mists, and\nmystic lights. This is how Plato ended, as did also that great and honest\nFrenchman, Auguste Comte, who, as a conqueror of the exact sciences,\ncannot be matched either among the Germans or the Englishmen of this\ncentury.\n\nThere is a third symptom of fatigue: that ambition which actuated the\ngreat thinker when he was young, and which could not then find anything to\nsatisfy it, has also grown old, and, like one that has no more time to\nlose, it begins to snatch at the coarser and more immediate means of its\ngratification, means which are peculiar to active, dominating, violent,\nand conquering dispositions. From this time onwards the thinker wishes to\nfound institutions which shall bear his name, instead of erecting mere\nbrain-structures. What are now to him the ethereal victories and honours\nto be met with in the realm of proofs and refutations, or the perpetuation\nof his fame in books, or the thrill of exultation in the soul of the\nreader? But the institution, on the other hand, is a temple, as he well\nknows\u2014a temple of stone, a durable edifice, which will keep its god alive\nwith more certainty than the sacrifices of rare and tender souls.(17)\n\nPerhaps, too, at this period of his life the old thinker will for the\nfirst time meet with that love which is fitted for a god rather than for a\nhuman being, and his whole nature becomes softened and sweetened in the\nrays of such a sun, like fruit in autumn. Yes, he grows more divine and\nbeautiful, this great old man,\u2014and nevertheless it is old age and\nweariness which permit him to ripen in this way, to grow more silent, and\nto repose in the luminous adulation of a woman. Now it is all up with his\nformer desire\u2014a desire which was superior even to his own ego\u2014for real\ndisciples, followers who would carry on his thought, that is, true\nopponents. This desire arose from his hitherto undiminished energy, the\nconscious pride he felt in being able at any time to become an opponent\nhimself,\u2014nay, even the deadly enemy of his own doctrine,\u2014but now his\ndesire is for resolute partisans, unwavering comrades, auxiliary forces,\nheralds, a pompous train of followers. He is now no longer able to bear\nthat dreadful isolation in which every intellect that advances beyond the\nothers is compelled to live. From this time forward he surrounds himself\nwith objects of veneration, companionship, tenderness, and love; but he\nalso wishes to enjoy the privileges of all religious people, and to\nworship what he venerates most highly in his little community\u2014he will even\ngo as far as to invent a religion for the purpose of having a community.\n\nThus lives the wise old man, and in living thus he falls almost\nimperceptibly into such a deplorable proximity to priestly and poetic\nextravagances that it is difficult to recollect all his wise and severe\nperiod of youth, the former rigid morality of his mind, and his truly\nvirile dread of fancies and misplaced enthusiasm. When he was formerly in\nthe habit of comparing himself with the older thinkers, he did so merely\nthat he might measure his weakness against their strength, and that he\nmight become colder and more audacious towards himself; but now he only\nmakes this comparison to intoxicate himself with his own delusions.\nFormerly he looked forward with confidence to future thinkers, and he even\ntook a delight in imagining himself to be cast into the shade by their\nbrighter light. Now, however, he is mortified to think that he cannot be\nthe last: he endeavours to discover some way of imposing upon mankind,\ntogether with the inheritance which he is leaving to them, a restriction\nof sovereign thinking. He fears and reviles the pride and the love of\nfreedom of individual minds: after him no one must allow his intellect to\ngovern with absolute unrestriction: he himself wishes to remain for ever\nthe bulwark on which the waves of ideas may break\u2014these are his secret\nwishes, and perhaps, indeed, they are not always secret.\n\nThe hard fact upon which such wishes are based, however, is that he\nhimself has come to a halt before his teaching, and has set up his\nboundary stone, his \u201cthus far and no farther.\u201d In canonising himself he\nhas drawn up his own death warrant: from now on his mind cannot develop\nfurther. His race is run; the hour-hand stops. Whenever a great thinker\ntries to make himself a lasting institution for posterity, we may readily\nsuppose that he has passed the climax of his powers, and is very tired,\nvery near the setting of his sun.\n\n\n\n\n543.\n\n\nWE MUST NOT MAKE PASSION AN ARGUMENT FOR TRUTH.\u2014Oh, you kind-hearted and\neven noble enthusiasts, I know you! You wish to seem right in our eyes as\nwell as in your own, but especially in your own!\u2014and an irritable and\nsubtle evil conscience so often spurs you on against your very enthusiasm!\nHow ingenious you then become in deceiving your conscience, and lulling it\nto sleep! How you hate honest, simple, and clean souls; how you avoid\ntheir innocent glances! That better knowledge whose representatives they\nare, and whose voice you hear only too distinctly within yourselves when\nit questions your belief,\u2014how you try to cast suspicion upon it as a bad\nhabit, as a disease of the age, as the neglect and infection of your own\nintellectual health! It drives you on to hate even criticism, science,\nreason! You must falsify history to make it testify in your favour; you\nmust deny virtues in case they should obscure those of your own idols and\nideals.\n\nColoured images where arguments are needed! Ardour and power of\nexpression! Silver mists! Ambrosian nights! well do you know how to\nenlighten and to darken\u2014to darken by means of light! and indeed when your\npassion can no longer be kept within bounds the moment comes when you say\nto yourselves, \u201cNow I have won for myself a good conscience, now I am\nexalted, courageous, self-denying, magnanimous; now I am honest!\u201d How you\nlong for these moments when your passion will confer upon you full and\nabsolute rights, and also, as it were, innocence. How happy you are when\nengaged in battle and inspired with ecstasy or courage, when you are\nelated beyond yourself, when gnawing doubt has left you, and when you can\neven decree: \u201cAny man who is not in ecstasy as we are cannot by any chance\nknow what or where truth is.\u201d How you long to meet with those who share\nyour belief in this state\u2014which is a state of intellectual depravity\u2014and\nto set your own fire alight with their flames! Oh, for your martyrdom,\nyour victory of the sanctified lie! Must you really inflict so much pain\nupon yourselves?\u2014_Must_ you?\n\n\n\n\n544.\n\n\nHOW PHILOSOPHY IS NOW PRACTISED.\u2014I can see quite well that our\nphilosophising youths, women, and artists require from philosophy exactly\nthe opposite of what the Greeks derived from it. What does he who does not\nhear the continual exultation that resounds through every speech and\ncounter-argument in a Platonic dialogue, this exultation over the new\ninvention of rational thinking, know about Plato or about ancient\nphilosophy? At that time souls were filled with enthusiasm when they gave\nthemselves up to the severe and sober sport of ideas, generalisations,\nrefutations,\u2014that enthusiasm which perhaps those old, great, severe, and\nprudent contrapuntists in music have also known. At that time the Greek\npalate still possessed that older and formerly omnipotent taste: and by\nthe side of this taste their new taste appeared to be enveloped in so much\ncharm that the divine art of dialectic was sung by hesitating voices as if\nits followers were intoxicated with the frenzy of love. That old form of\nthinking, however, was thought within the bounds of morality, and for it\nnothing existed but fixed judgments and established facts, and it had no\nreasons but those of authority. Thinking, therefore, was simply a matter\nof repetition, and all the enjoyment of speech and dialogue could only lie\nin their form.\n\nWherever the substance of a thing is looked upon as eternal and\nuniversally approved, there is only one great charm, the charm of variable\nforms, that is, of fashion. Even in the poets ever since the time of\nHomer, and later on in the case of the sculptors, the Greeks did not enjoy\noriginality, but its contrary. It was Socrates who discovered another\ncharm, that of cause and effect, of reason and sequence, and we moderns\nhave become so used to it, and have been brought up to the necessity of\nlogic that we look upon it as the normal taste, and as such it cannot but\nbe repugnant to ardent and presumptuous people. Such people are pleased by\nwhatever stands out boldly from the normal: their more subtle ambition\nleads them to believe only too readily that they are exceptional souls,\nnot dialectic and rational beings, but, let us say, \u201cintuitive\u201d beings\ngifted with an \u201cinner sense,\u201d or with a certain \u201cintellectual perception.\u201d\nAbove all, however, they wish to be \u201cartistic natures\u201d with a genius in\ntheir heads, and a demon in their bodies, and consequently with special\nrights in this world and in the world to come\u2014especially the divine\nprivilege of being incomprehensible.\n\nAnd people like these are \u201cgoing in for\u201d philosophy nowadays! I fear they\nwill discover one day that they have made a mistake\u2014what they are looking\nfor is religion!\n\n\n\n\n545.\n\n\nBUT WE DO NOT BELIEVE YOU.\u2014You would fain pass for psychologists, but we\nshall not allow it! Are we not to notice that you pretend to be more\nexperienced, profound, passionate, and perfect than you actually are?\u2014just\nas we notice in yonder painter that there is a trifling presumptuousness\nin his manner of wielding the brush, and in yonder musician that he brings\nforward his theme with the desire to make it appear superior to what it\nreally is. Have you experienced history within yourselves, commotions,\nearthquakes, long and profound sadness, and sudden flashes of happiness?\nHave you acted foolishly with great and little fools? Have you really\nundergone the delusions and woe of the good people? and also the woe and\nthe peculiar happiness of the most evil? Then you may speak to me of\nmorality, but not otherwise!\n\n\n\n\n546.\n\n\nSLAVE AND IDEALIST.\u2014The followers of Epictetus would doubtless not be to\nthe taste of those who are now striving after the ideal. The constant\ntension of his being, the indefatigable inward glance, the prudent and\nreserved incommunicativeness of his eye whenever it happens to gaze upon\nthe outer world, and above all, his silence or laconic speech: all these\nare characteristics of the strictest fortitude,\u2014and what would our\nidealists, who above all else are desirous of expansion, care for this?\nBut in spite of all this the Stoic is not fanatical. He detests the\ndisplay and boasting of our idealists: his pride, however great it may be,\nis not eager to disturb others. It permits of a certain gentle approach,\nand has no desire to spoil anybody\u2019s good humour\u2014nay, it can even smile. A\ngreat deal of ancient humanity is to be seen exemplified in this ideal.\nThe most excellent feature about it, however, is that the thinker is\ncompletely free from the fear of God, strictly believes in reason, and is\nno preacher of penitence.\n\nEpictetus was a slave: his ideal man is without any particular rank, and\nmay exist in any grade of society, but above all he is to be sought in the\ndeepest and lowest social classes, as the silent and self-sufficient man\nin the midst of a general state of servitude, a man who defends himself\nalone against the outer world, and is constantly living in a state of the\nhighest fortitude. He is distinguished from the Christian especially,\nbecause the latter lives in hope in the promise of \u201cunspeakable glory,\u201d\npermits presents to be made to him, and expects and accepts the best\nthings from divine love and grace, and not from himself. Epictetus, on the\nother hand, neither hopes nor allows his best treasure to be given him\u2014he\npossesses it already, holds it bravely in his hand, and defies the world\nto take it away from him. Christianity was devised for another class of\nancient slaves, for those who had a weak will and weak reason\u2014that is to\nsay, for the majority of slaves.\n\n\n\n\n547.\n\n\nTHE TYRANTS OF THE INTELLECT.\u2014The progress of science is at the present\ntime no longer hindered by the purely accidental fact that man attains to\nabout seventy years, which was the case far too long. In former times\npeople wished to master the entire extent of knowledge within this period,\nand all the methods of knowledge were valued according to this general\ndesire. Minor questions and individual experiments were looked upon as\nunworthy of notice: people wanted to take the shortest path under the\nimpression that, since everything in this world seemed to be arranged with\na view to man\u2019s needs, even the acquirement of knowledge was regulated in\nview of the limits of human life.\n\nTo solve everything at a single stroke, with one word\u2014this was the secret\ndesire; and the task was represented in the symbol of the Gordian knot or\nthe egg of Columbus. No one doubted that it was possible to reach the goal\nof knowledge after the manner of Alexander or Columbus, and to settle all\nquestions with one answer. \u201cThere is a mystery to be solved,\u201d seemed to be\nthe aim of life in the eyes of the philosopher: it was necessary in the\nfirst place to find out what this enigma was, and to condense the problem\nof the world into the simplest enigmatical formula possible. The boundless\nambition and delight of being the \u201cunraveller of the world\u201d charmed the\ndreams of many a thinker: nothing seemed to him worth troubling about in\nthis world but the means of bringing everything to a satisfactory\nconclusion. Philosophy thus became a kind of supreme struggle for the\ntyrannical sway over the intellect, and no one doubted that such a\ntyrannical domination was reserved for some very happy, subtle, ingenious,\nbold, and powerful person\u2014a single individual!\u2014and many (the last was\nSchopenhauer) fancied themselves to be this privileged person.\n\nFrom this it follows that, on the whole, science has up to the present\nremained in a rather backward state owing to the moral narrow-mindedness\nof its disciples, and that henceforth it will have to be pursued from a\nhigher and more generous motive. \u201cWhat do I matter?\u201d is written over the\ndoor of the thinker of the future.\n\n\n\n\n548.\n\n\nVICTORY OVER POWER.\u2014If we consider all that has been venerated up to the\npresent as \u201csuperhuman intellect\u201d or \u201cgenius,\u201d we must come to the sad\nconclusion that, considered as a whole, the intellectuality of mankind\nmust have been extremely low and poor: so little mind has hitherto been\nnecessary in order to feel at once considerably superior to all this! Alas\nfor the cheap glory of \u201cgenius\u201d! How quickly has it been raised to the\nthrone, and its worship grown into a custom! We still fall on our knees\nbefore power\u2014according to the old custom of slaves\u2014and nevertheless, when\nthe degree of venerability comes to be determined, only the degree of\nreason in the power will be the deciding factor. We must find out, indeed,\nto how great an extent power has been overcome by something higher, which\nit now obeys as a tool and instrument.\n\nAs yet, however, there have been too few eyes for such investigations:\neven in the majority of cases the mere valuation of genius has almost been\nlooked upon as blasphemy. And thus perhaps everything that is most\nbeautiful still takes place in the midst of darkness and vanishes in\nendless night almost as soon as it has made its appearance,\u2014I refer to the\nspectacle of that power which a genius does not lay out upon works, but\nupon himself as a work, that is, his own self-control, the purifying of\nhis own imagination, the order and selection in his inspirations and\ntasks. The great man ever remains invisible in the greatest thing that\nclaims worship, like some distant star: his victory over power remains\nwithout witnesses, and hence also without songs and singers. The hierarchy\nof the great men in all the past history of the human race has not yet\nbeen determined.\n\n\n\n\n549.\n\n\nFLIGHT FROM ONE\u2019S SELF.\u2014Those sufferers from intellectual spasms who are\nimpatient towards themselves and look upon themselves with a gloomy\neye\u2014such as Byron or Alfred de Musset\u2014and who, in everything that they do,\nresemble runaway horses, and from their own works derive only a transient\njoy and an ardent passion which almost bursts their veins, followed by\nsterility and disenchantment\u2014how are they able to bear up! They would fain\nattain to something \u201cbeyond themselves.\u201d If we happen to be Christians,\nand are seized by such a desire as this, we strive to reach God and to\nbecome one with Him; if we are a Shakespeare we shall be glad to perish in\nimages of a passionate life; if we are like Byron we long for actions,\nbecause these detach us from ourselves to an even greater extent than\nthoughts, feelings, and works.\n\nAnd should the desire for performing great deeds really be at bottom\nnothing but a flight from our own selves?\u2014as Pascal would ask us. And\nindeed this assertion might be proved by considering the most noble\nrepresentations of this desire for action: in this respect let us\nremember, bringing the knowledge of an alienist to our aid, that four of\nthe greatest men of all ages who were possessed of this lust for action\nwere epileptics\u2014Alexander the Great, C\u00e6sar, Mohammed, and Napoleon; and\nByron likewise was subject to the same complaint.\n\n\n\n\n550.\n\n\nKNOWLEDGE AND BEAUTY.\u2014If men, as they are still in the habit of doing,\nreserve their veneration and feelings of happiness for works of fancy and\nimagination, we should not be surprised if they feel chilled and\ndispleased by the contrary of fancy and imagination. The rapture which\narises from even the smallest, sure, and definite step in advance into\ninsight, and which our present state of science yields to so many in such\nabundance\u2014this rapture is in the meantime not believed in by all those who\nare in the habit of feeling enraptured only when they leave reality\naltogether and plunge into the depths of vague appearance\u2014romanticism.\nThese people look upon reality as ugly, but they entirely overlook the\nfact that the knowledge of even the ugliest reality is beautiful, and that\nthe man who can discern much and often is in the end very far from\nconsidering as ugly the main items of that reality, the discovery of which\nhas always inspired him with the feeling of happiness.\n\nIs there anything \u201cbeautiful in itself\u201d? The happiness of those who can\nrecognise augments the beauty of the world, bathing everything that exists\nin a sunnier light: discernment not only envelops all things in its own\nbeauty, but in the long run permeates the things themselves with its\nbeauty\u2014may ages to come bear witness to the truth of this statement! In\nthe meantime let us recall an old experience: two men so thoroughly\ndifferent in every respect as Plato and Aristotle were agreed in regard to\nwhat constituted superior happiness\u2014not merely their own and that of men\nin general, but happiness in itself, even the happiness of the gods. They\nfound this happiness to lie in knowledge, in the activity of a well\npractised and inventive understanding (not in \u201cintuition\u201d like the German\ntheologians and semi-theologians; not in visions, like the mystics; and\nnot in work, like the merely practical men). Similar opinions were\nexpressed by Descartes and Spinoza. What great delight must all these men\nhave felt in knowledge! and how great was the danger that their honesty\nmight give way, and that they themselves might become panegyrists of\nthings!\n\n\n\n\n551.\n\n\nFUTURE VIRTUES.\u2014How has it come about that, the more intelligible the\nworld has become, the more all kinds of ceremonies have diminished? Was\nfear so frequently the fundamental basis of that awe which overcame us at\nthe sight of anything hitherto unknown and mysterious, and which taught us\nto fall upon our knees before the unintelligible, and to beg for mercy?\nAnd has the world, perhaps, through the very fact that we have grown less\ntimid, lost some of the charms it formerly had for us? Is it not possible\nthat our own dignity and stateliness, our formidable character, has\ndecreased together with our spirit of dread? Perhaps we value the world\nand ourselves less highly since we have begun to think more boldly about\nit and ourselves? Perhaps there will come a moment in the future when this\ncourageous spirit of thinking will have reached such a point that it will\nfeel itself soaring in supreme pride, far above men and things\u2014when the\nwise man, being also the boldest, will see himself and even more\nparticularly existence, the lowest of all beneath himself?\n\nThis type of courage, which is not far removed from excessive generosity,\nhas been lacking in humanity up to the present.\u2014Oh, that our poets might\nonce again become what they once were: seers, telling us something about\nwhat might possibly happen! now that what is real and what is past are\nbeing ever more and more taken from them, and must continue to be taken\nfrom them\u2014for the time of innocent counterfeiting is at an end! Let them\ntry to enable us to anticipate future virtues, or virtues that will never\nbe found on earth, although they may exist somewhere in the\nworld!\u2014purple-glowing constellations and whole Milky Ways of the\nbeautiful! Where are ye, ye astronomers of the ideal?\n\n\n\n\n552.\n\n\nIDEAL SELFISHNESS.\u2014Is there a more sacred state than that of pregnancy? To\nperform every one of our actions in the silent conviction that in one way\nor another it will be to the benefit of that which is being generated\nwithin us\u2014that it must augment its mysterious value, the very thought of\nwhich fills us with rapture? At such a time we refrain from many things\nwithout having to force ourselves to do so: we suppress the angry word, we\ngrasp the hand forgivingly; our child must be born from all that is best\nand gentlest. We shun our own harshness and brusqueness in case it should\ninstil a drop of unhappiness into the cup of the beloved unknown.\nEverything is veiled, ominous; we know nothing about what is going on, but\nsimply wait and try to be prepared. During this time, too, we experience a\npure and purifying feeling of profound irresponsibility, similar to that\nfelt by a spectator before a drawn curtain; _it_ is growing, _it_ is\ncoming to light; we have nothing to do with determining its value, or the\nhour of its arrival. We are thrown back altogether upon indirect,\nbeneficent and defensive influences. \u201cSomething greater than we are is\ngrowing here\u201d\u2014such is our most secret hope: we prepare everything with a\nview to his birth and prosperity\u2014not merely everything that is useful, but\nalso the noblest gifts of our souls.\n\nWe should, and can, live under the influence of such a blessed\ninspiration! Whether what we are looking forward to is a thought or a\ndeed, our relationship to every essential achievement is none other than\nthat of pregnancy, and all our vainglorious boasting about \u201cwilling\u201d and\n\u201ccreating\u201d should be cast to the winds! True and ideal selfishness\nconsists in always watching over and restraining the soul, so that our\nproductiveness may come to a beautiful termination. Thus in this indirect\nmanner we must provide for and watch over the good of all; and the frame\nof mind, the mood in which we live, is a kind of soothing oil which\nspreads far around us on the restless souls.\u2014Still, these pregnant ones\nare funny people! let us therefore dare to be funny also, and not reproach\nothers if they must be the same. And even when this phenomenon becomes\ndangerous and evil we must not show less respect to that which is\ngenerating within us or others than ordinary worldly justice, which does\nnot allow the judge or the hangman to interfere with a pregnant woman.\n\n\n\n\n553.\n\n\nCIRCUITOUS ROUTES.\u2014Where does all this philosophy mean to end with its\ncircuitous routes? Does it do more than transpose into reason, so to\nspeak, a continuous and strong impulse\u2014a craving for a mild sun, a bright\nand bracing atmosphere, southern plants, sea breezes, short meals of meat,\neggs, and fruit, hot water to drink, quiet walks for days at a time,\nlittle talking, rare and cautious reading, living alone, pure, simple, and\nalmost soldier-like habits\u2014a craving, in short, for all things which are\nsuited to my own personal taste? a philosophy which is in the main the\ninstinct for a personal regimen\u2014an instinct that longs for my air, my\nheight, my temperature, and my kind of health, and takes the circuitous\nroute of my head to persuade me to it!\n\nThere are many other and certainly more lofty philosophies, and not only\nsuch as are more gloomy and pretentious than mine\u2014and are they perhaps,\ntaking them as a whole, nothing but intellectual circuitous routes of the\nsame kind of personal impulses?\u2014In the meantime I look with a new eye upon\nthe mysterious and solitary flight of a butterfly high on the rocky banks\nof the lake where so many plants are growing: there it flies hither and\nthither, heedless of the fact that its life will last only one more day,\nand that the night will be too cold for its winged fragility. For it, too,\na philosophy might be found, though it might not be my own.\n\n\n\n\n554.\n\n\nLEADING.(18)\u2014When we praise progress we only praise the movement and those\nwho do not let us remain on the same spot, and in the circumstances this\nis certainly something, especially if we live among Egyptians. In\nchangeable Europe, however, where movement is \u201cunderstood,\u201d to use their\nown expression, \u201cas a matter of course\u201d\u2014alas, if _we_ only understood\nsomething about it too!\u2014I praise leaders and forerunners: that is to say,\nthose who always leave themselves behind, and do not care in the least\nwhether any one is following them or not. \u201cWherever I halt I find myself\nalone: why should I halt! the desert is still so wide!\u201d\u2014such is the\nsentiment of the true leader.\n\n\n\n\n555.\n\n\nTHE LEAST IMPORTANT ARE SUFFICIENT.\u2014We ought to avoid events when we know\nthat even the least important of them frequently enough leave a strong\nimpression upon us\u2014and these we cannot avoid.\u2014The thinker must possess an\napproximate canon of all the things he still wishes to experience.\n\n\n\n\n556.\n\n\nTHE FOUR VIRTUES.\u2014Honest towards ourselves, and to all and everything\nfriendly to us; brave in the face of our enemy; generous towards the\nvanquished; polite at all times: such do the four cardinal virtues wish us\nto be.\n\n\n\n\n557.\n\n\nMARCHING AGAINST AN ENEMY.\u2014How pleasant is the sound of even bad music and\nbad motives when we are setting out to march against an enemy!\n\n\n\n\n558.\n\n\nNOT CONCEALING ONE\u2019S VIRTUES.\u2014I love those men who are as transparent as\nwater, and who, to use Pope\u2019s expression, hide not from view the turbid\nbottom of their stream. Even they, however, possess a certain vanity,\nthough of a rare and more sublimated kind: some of them would wish us to\nsee nothing but the mud, and to take no notice of the clearness of the\nwater which enables us to look right to the bottom. No less a man than\nGautama Buddha has imagined the vanity of these few in the formula, \u201cLet\nyour sins appear before men, and conceal your virtues.\u201d But this would\nexhibit a disagreeable spectacle to the world\u2014it would be a sin against\ngood taste.\n\n\n\n\n559.\n\n\n\"NOTHING IN EXCESS!\"\u2014How often is the individual recommended to set up a\ngoal which it is beyond his power to reach, in order that he may at least\nattain that which lies within the scope of his abilities and most\nstrenuous efforts! Is it really so desirable, however, that he should do\nso? Do not the best men who try to act according to this doctrine,\ntogether with their best deeds, necessarily assume a somewhat exaggerated\nand distorted appearance on account of their excessive tension? and in the\nfuture will not a grey mist of failure envelop the world, owing to the\nfact that we may see everywhere struggling athletes and tremendous\ngestures, but nowhere a conqueror crowned with the laurel, and rejoicing\nin his victory?\n\n\n\n\n560.\n\n\nWHAT WE ARE FREE TO DO.\u2014We can act as the gardeners of our impulses,\nand\u2014which few people know\u2014we may cultivate the seeds of anger, pity,\nvanity, or excessive brooding, and make these things fecund and\nproductive, just as we can train a beautiful plant to grow along\ntrellis-work. We may do this with the good or bad taste of a gardener, and\nas it were, in the French, English, Dutch, or Chinese style. We may let\nnature take its own course, only trimming and embellishing a little here\nand there; and finally, without any knowledge or consideration, we may\neven allow the plants to spring up in accordance with their own natural\ngrowth and limitations, and fight out their battle among themselves,\u2014nay,\nwe can even take delight in such chaos, though we may possibly have a hard\ntime with it! All this is at our option: but how many know that it is? Do\nnot the majority of people believe in themselves as complete and perfect\nfacts? and have not the great philosophers set their seal on this\nprejudice through their doctrine of the unchangeability of character?\n\n\n\n\n561.\n\n\nLETTING OUR HAPPINESS ALSO SHINE.\u2014In the same way as painters are unable\nto reproduce the deep brilliant hue of the natural sky, and are compelled\nto use all the colours they require for their landscapes a few shades\ndeeper than nature has made them\u2014just as they, by means of this trick,\nsucceed in approaching the brilliancy and harmony of nature\u2019s own hues, so\nalso must poets and philosophers, for whom the luminous rays of happiness\nare inaccessible, endeavour to find an expedient. By picturing all things\na shade or two darker than they really are, their light, in which they\nexcel, will produce almost exactly the same effect as the sunlight, and\nwill resemble the light of true happiness.\u2014The pessimist, on the other\nhand, who paints all things in the blackest and most sombre hues, only\nmakes use of bright flames, lightning, celestial glories, and everything\nthat possesses a glaring, dazzling power, and bewilders our eyes: to him\nlight only serves the purpose of increasing the horror, and of making us\nlook upon things as being more dreadful than they really are.\n\n\n\n\n562.\n\n\nTHE SETTLED AND THE FREE.\u2014It is only in the Underworld that we catch a\nglimpse of that gloomy background of all that bliss of adventure which\nforms an everlasting halo around Ulysses and his like, rivalling the\neternal phosphorescence of the sea,\u2014that background which we can never\nforget: the mother of Ulysses died of grief and yearning for her child.\nThe one is driven on from place to place, and the heart of the other, the\ntender stay-at-home friend, breaks through it\u2014so it always is. Affliction\nbreaks the hearts of those who live to see that those whom they love best\nare deserting their former views and faith,\u2014it is a tragedy brought about\nby the free spirits,\u2014a tragedy which, indeed, occasionally comes to their\nown knowledge. Then, perhaps, they too, like Ulysses, will be forced to\ndescend among the dead to get rid of their sorrow and to relieve their\naffliction.\n\n\n\n\n563.\n\n\nTHE ILLUSION OF THE MORAL ORDER OF THE UNIVERSE.\u2014There is no \u201ceternal\njustice\u201d which requires that every fault shall be atoned and paid for,\u2014the\nbelief that such a justice existed was a terrible delusion, and useful\nonly to a limited extent; just as it is also a delusion that everything is\nguilt which is felt as such. It is not the things themselves, but the\nopinions about things that do not exist, which have been such a source of\ntrouble to mankind.\n\n\n\n\n564.\n\n\nBY THE SIDE OF EXPERIENCE.\u2014Even great intellects have only a hand-breadth\nexperience\u2014in the immediate proximity of this experience their reflection\nceases, and its place is taken by unlimited vacuity and stupidity.\n\n\n\n\n565.\n\n\nDIGNITY AND IGNORANCE.\u2014Wherever we understand we become amiable, happy,\nand ingenious; and when we have learnt enough, and have trained our eyes\nand ears, our souls show greater plasticity and charm. We understand so\nlittle, however, and are so insufficiently informed, that it rarely\nhappens that we seize upon a thing and make ourselves lovable at the same\ntime,\u2014on the contrary we pass through cities, nature, and history with\nstiffness and indifference, at the same time taking a pride in our stiff\nand indifferent attitude, as if it were simply due to superiority. Thus\nour ignorance and our mediocre desire for knowledge understand quite well\nhow to assume a mask of dignity and character.\n\n\n\n\n566.\n\n\nLIVING CHEAPLY.\u2014The cheapest and most innocent mode of life is that of the\nthinker; for, to mention at once its most important feature, he has the\ngreatest need of those very things which others neglect and look upon with\ncontempt. In the second place he is easily pleased and has no desire for\nany expensive pleasures. His task is not difficult, but, so to speak,\nsouthern; his days and nights are not wasted by remorse; he moves, eats,\ndrinks, and sleeps in a manner suited to his intellect, in order that it\nmay grow calmer, stronger, and clearer. Again, he takes pleasure in his\nbody and has no reason to fear it; he does not require society, except\nfrom time to time in order that he may afterwards go back to his solitude\nwith even greater delight. He seeks and finds in the dead compensation for\nthe living, and can even replace his friends in this way\u2014viz., by seeking\nout among the dead the best who have ever lived.\u2014Let us consider whether\nit is not the contrary desires and habits which have made the life of man\nexpensive, and as a consequence difficult and often unbearable. In another\nsense, however, the thinker\u2019s life is certainly the most expensive, for\nnothing is too good for him; and it would be an intolerable privation for\nhim to be deprived of the best.\n\n\n\n\n567.\n\n\nIN THE FIELD.\u2014\u201cWe should take things more cheerfully than they deserve;\nespecially because for a very long time we have taken them more seriously\nthan they deserved.\u201d So speak the brave soldiers of knowledge.\n\n\n\n\n568.\n\n\nPOET AND BIRD.\u2014The bird Ph\u0153nix showed the poet a glowing scroll which was\nbeing gradually consumed in the flames. \u201cBe not alarmed,\u201d said the bird,\n\u201cit is your work! It does not contain the spirit of the age, and to a\nstill less extent the spirit of those who are against the age: so it must\nbe burnt. But that is a good sign. There is many a dawn of day.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n569.\n\n\nTO THE LONELY ONES.\u2014If we do not respect the honour of others in our\nsoliloquies as well as in what we say publicly, we are not gentlemen.\n\n\n\n\n570.\n\n\nLOSSES.\u2014There are some losses which communicate to the soul a sublimity in\nwhich it ceases from wailing, and wanders about silently, as if in the\nshade of some high and dark cypresses.\n\n\n\n\n571.\n\n\nTHE BATTLE-FIELD DISPENSARY OF THE SOUL.\u2014What is the most efficacious\nremedy?\u2014Victory.\n\n\n\n\n572.\n\n\nLIFE SHALL COMFORT US.\u2014If, like the thinker, we live habitually amid the\ngreat current of ideas and feelings, and even our dreams follow this\ncurrent, we expect comfort and peacefulness from life, while others wish\nto rest from life when they give themselves up to meditation.\n\n\n\n\n573.\n\n\nCASTING ONE\u2019S SKIN.\u2014The snake that cannot cast its skin perishes. So too\nwith those minds which are prevented from changing their views: they cease\nto be minds.\n\n\n\n\n574.\n\n\nNEVER FORGET!\u2014The higher we soar the smaller we appear to those who cannot\nfly.\n\n\n\n\n575.\n\n\nWE AERONAUTS OF THE INTELLECT.\u2014All those daring birds that soar far and\never farther into space, will somewhere or other be certain to find\nthemselves unable to continue their flight, and they will perch on a mast\nor some narrow ledge\u2014and will be grateful even for this miserable\naccommodation! But who could conclude from this that there was not an\nendless free space stretching far in front of them, and that they had\nflown as far as they possibly could? In the end, however, all our great\nteachers and predecessors have come to a standstill, and it is by no means\nin the noblest or most graceful attitude that their weariness has brought\nthem to a pause: the same thing will happen to you and me! but what does\nthis matter to either of us? _Other birds will fly farther!_ Our minds and\nhopes vie with them far out and on high; they rise far above our heads and\nour failures, and from this height they look far into the distant horizon\nand see hundreds of birds much more powerful than we are, striving whither\nwe ourselves have also striven, and where all is sea, sea, and nothing but\nsea!\n\nAnd where, then, are we aiming at? Do we wish to cross the sea? whither\ndoes this over-powering passion urge us, this passion which we value more\nhighly than any other delight? Why do we fly precisely in this direction,\nwhere all the suns of humanity have hitherto set? Is it possible that\npeople may one day say of us that we also steered westward, hoping to\nreach India\u2014but that it was our fate to be wrecked on the infinite? Or, my\nbrethren? or\u2014?\n\n\n\n\n\n\nFOOTNOTES\n\n\n    1 The book was first published in 1881, the preface being added to the\n      second edition, 1886.\u2014TR.\n\n    2 This refers, of course, to the different genders of the nouns in\n      other languages. In German, for example, the sun is feminine, and in\n      French masculine.\u2014TR.\n\n    3 M. Henri Albert points out that this refers to a line of Paul\n      Gerhardt\u2019s well-known song: \u201cBefiel du deine Wege.\u201d TR.\n\n    4 \u201cFormal education\u201d is the name given in Germany to those branches of\n      learning which tend to develop the logical faculties, as opposed to\n      \u201cmaterial\u201d education which deals with the acquisition of facts and\n      all kinds of \u201cuseful\u201d knowledge.\u2014TR.\n\n    5 The reference is to the _Odyssey_, XX. 18: \u201c\u03a4\u03ad\u03c4\u03bb\u03b1\u03b8\u03b9 \u03b4\u03ae, \u03ba\u03c1\u03b1\u03b4\u03af\u03b7; \u03ba\u03b1\u1f76\n      \u03ba\u03cd\u03bd\u03c4\u03b5\u03c1\u03bf\u03bd \u1f04\u03bb\u03bb\u03bf \u03c0\u03bf\u03c4\u1fbd \u1f14\u03c4\u03bb\u03b7\u03c2...\u201d etc. \u039a\u03cd\u03bd\u03c4\u03b5\u03c1\u03bf\u03c2, from \u03ba\u03cd\u03c9\u03bd, \u201ca dog,\u201d lit.\n      more dog-like, _i.e._ shameless, horrible, audacious.\u2014TR.\n\n    6 If this aphorism seems obscure, the reader may take Tolstoi as an\n      example of the first class and Nietzsche as an example of the\n      second. Tolstoi\u2019s inconsistencies are generally glossed over,\n      because he professed the customary moral theories of the age, while\n      Nietzsche has had to endure the most searching criticism because he\n      did not. In Nietzsche\u2019s case, however, the scrutiny has been in\n      vain; for, having no unworkable Christian theories to uphold, unlike\n      Tolstoi, Nietzsche\u2019s life is not a series of compromises. The career\n      of the great pagan philosopher was, in essence, much more saintly\n      than that of the great Christian. How different from Tolstoi, too,\n      was that noble Christian, Pascal, who, from the inevitable clash of\n      his creed and his nature, died at thirty-eight, while his weaker\n      epigone lived in the fulness of his fame until he was over\n      eighty!\u2014TR.\n\n    7 A hit at the German Empire, which Nietzsche always despised, since\n      it led to the utter extinction of the old German spirit. \u201cKingdom\u201d\n      (in \u201cKingdom of God\u201d) and \u201cEmpire\u201d are both represented by the one\n      German word _Reich_.\u2014TR.\n\n    8 This sentence is a complete refutation of a book which caused so\n      much stir in Germany about a decade ago, and in England quite\n      recently, Chamberlain\u2019s _Nineteenth Century_, in which a purely\n      imaginary Teutonic race is held up as the Chosen People of the\n      world. Nietzsche says elsewhere, \u201cPeoples and Countries,\u201d aphorism\n      21, \u201cAssociate with no man who takes part in the mendacious\n      race-swindle.\u201d\u2014TR.\n\n    9 The fiercest protests against Nietzsche\u2019s teaching even now come\n      from the \u201cunfeeling people.\u201d Hence the difficulty\u2014now happily\n      past\u2014of introducing him into Anglo-Saxon countries.\u2014TR.\n\n   10 The German Jews are well known for their charity, by means of which\n      they probably wish to prove that they are not so bad as the\n      Anti-Semites paint them.\u2014TR.\n\n   11 That is, do not speak either of God or the devil. The German proverb\n      runs: \u201cMan soll den Teufel nicht an die Wand malen, sonst kommt\n      er.\u201d\u2014TR.\n\n   12 The case of that other witty Venetian, Casanova.\u2014TR.\n\n   13 The play upon the words _gr\u00fcndlich_ (thorough) thinkers, and\n      _Untergr\u00fcndlichen_ (lit. those underground) cannot be rendered in\n      English.\u2014TR.\n\n   14 A variation of the well-known proverb, _Ubi bene, ibi patria_.\u2014TR.\n\n   15 Hence the violence of all fanatics, who do not wish to shout down\n      the outer world so much as to shout down their own inner enemy, viz.\n      truth.\u2014TR.\n\n   16 This omission is in the original.\u2014TR.\n\n   17 This, of course, refers to Richard Wagner, as does also the\n      following paragraph.\u2014TR.\n\n   18 The play upon the words _Vorschritt_ (leading) and _Fortschritt_\n      (progress) cannot be rendered in English.\u2014TR.","title":"The Dawn of Day","tradition":"philosophy-ethics","translated_text":null,"word_count":95237}