,,the ,,philosophy ,,of    ,,friedrich  
,,nietzsche        ,,by ,h4 ,l4         
,,mencken          ,i shall be told1 ,i 
suppose1 that my philosophy is          
comfortless--because ,i speak the truth2
 and people prefer to      believe that 
everything the ,lord made is good4 ,if  
you are      one such1 go to the        
priests1 and leave philosophers in      
peace6                                  
,arthur ,schopenhauer4    ,third        
,edition    ,,boston    ,,luce ,,and    
,,company    #aiac          ,,preface   
,,to ,,the ,,third ,,edition      ,when 
this attempt to summarize and interpret 
the principal ideas of  ,friedrich      
,wilhelm ,nietzsche was first published1
 in the early part of  #aijh1 several of
 his most important books were yet to be
 translated  into ,english and the      
existing commentaries were either       
fragmentary  and confusing or frankly   
addressed to the specialist in          
philosophy4  ,it was in an effort to    
make ,nietzsche comprehensible to the   

general  reader1 at sea in ,german and  
unfamiliar with the technicalities of   
the seminaries1 that the work was       
undertaken4 ,it soon appeared that  a   
considerable public had awaited that    
effort1 for the first edition  was      
quickly exhausted and there was an      
immediate demand for a special  edition 
in ,england4 ,the larger ,american      
edition which followed has  since gone  
the way of its predecessor1 and so the  
opportunity offers  for a general       
revision1 eliminating certain errors in 
the first draft  and introducing facts  
and opinions brought forward by the     
publication  of ,dr4 ,oscar ,levy's     
admirable complete edition of ,nietzsche
 in ,english  and by the appearance of  
several new and informative biographical
  studies1 and a large number of        
discussions and criticisms4 ,the whole  
of  the section upon ,nietzsche's       
intellectual origins has been rewritten1
  as has been the section on his        
critics1 and new matter has been added  

to the biographical chapters4 ,in       
addition1 the middle portion of the     
book has been carefully revised1 and a  
final chapter upon the study of         
,nietzsche1 far more extensive than the 
original bibliographical note1  has been
 appended4 ,the effect of these changes1
 it is believed1 has  been to increase  
the usefulness of the book1 not only to 
the reader  who will go no further1 but 
also to the reader who plans to proceed 
to  ,nietzsche's own writings and to the
 arguments of his principal critics  and
 defenders4    ,that ,nietzsche has been
 making progress of late goes without   
saying4  ,no reader of current          
literature1 nor even of current         
periodicals1 can  have failed to notice 
the increasing pressure of his ideas4   
,when his  name was first heard in      
,england and ,america1 toward the end of
 the  nineties1 he suffered much by the 
fact that few of his advocates had  been
 at any pains to understand him4 ,thus  
misrepresented1 he took on  the aspect  

of an horrific intellectual hobgoblin1  
half ,baknin and half  ,byron1 a        
sacrilegious and sinister fellow1 the   
father of all the wilder  ribaldries of 
the day4 ,in brief1 like ,ibsen before  
him1 he had to bear  many a burden that 
was not his4 ,but in the course of time 
the truth  about him gradually          
precipitated itself from this cloud of  
unordered  enthusiasm1 and his principal
 ideas began to show themselves clearly4
  ,then the discovery was made that the 
report of them had been far more        
appalling than the substance4 ,some of  
them1 indeed1 had already slipped  into 
respectable society in disguise1 as the 
original inspirations  of lesser sages1 
and others1 on examination1 turned out  
to be quite  harmless1 and even         
comforting4 ,the worst that could be    
said of most of  them was that they     
stood in somewhat violent opposition to 
the common  platitudes1 that they were a
 bit vociferous in denying this planet  
to  be the best of all possible worlds4 

,heresy1 of course1 but falling1        
fortunately enough1 upon ears fast      
growing attuned to heretical music4     
,the old order now had fewer to defend  
it than in days gone by4 ,the  feeling  
that it must yield to something better1 
that contentment must  give way to      
striving and struggle1 that any change  
was better than no  change at all--this 
feeling was abroad in the world4 ,and if
 the program  of change that ,nietzsche 
offered was startling at first hearing1 
it  was at least no more startling than 
the programs offered by other           
reformers4 ,thus he got his day in court
 at last and thus he won the  serious   
attention of open-minded and reflective 
folk4    ,not1 of course1 that          
,nietzsche threatens1 today or in the   
near future1  to make a grand conquest  
of ,christendom1 as ,paul conquered1 or 
the  unknown ,father of ,republics4 ,far
 from it1 indeed4 ,filtered through  the
 comic sieve of a ,shaw or              
sentimentalized by a ,roosevelt1 some   

of his ideas show a considerable        
popularity1 but in their original  state
 they are not likely to inflame         
millions4 ,broadly viewed1 they  stand  
in direct opposition to every dream that
 soothes the slumber of  mankind in the 
mass1 and therefore mankind in the mass 
must needs be  suspicious of them1 at   
least for years to come4 ,they are      
pre-eminently  for the man who is not of
 the mass1 for the man whose head is    
lifted1  however little1 above the      
common level4 ,they justify the success 
of  that man1 as ,christianity justifies
 the failure of the man below4 ,and  so 
they give no promise of winning the race
 in general from its old  idols1 despite
 the fact that the pull of natural laws 
and of elemental  appetites is on their 
side4 ,but inasmuch as an idea1 to make 
itself  felt in the world1 need not     
convert the many who serve and wait but 
only the few who rule1 it must be       
manifest that the ,nietzschean creed1   
in the long run1 gives promise of       

exercising a very real influence  upon  
human thought4 ,reduced to a single     
phrase1 it may be called  a counterblast
 to sentimentality--and it is precisely 
by breaking  down sentimentality1 with  
its fondness for moribund gods1 that    
human  progress is made4 ,if ,nietzsche 
had left no other vital message to  his 
time1 he would have at least forced and 
deserved a hearing for  his warning that
 ,christianity is a theory for those who
 distrust and  despair of their         
strength1 and not for those who hope and
 fight on4    ,to plat his principal    
ideas for the reader puzzled by         
conflicting  reports of them1 to prepare
 the way for an orderly and profitable  
reading of his own books--such is the   
purpose of the present volume4  ,the    
works of ,nietzsche1 as they have been  
done into ,english1 fill  eighteen      
volumes as large as this one1 and the   
best available account  of his life     
would make three or four more4 ,but it  
is sincerely to be  hoped that the      

student1 once he has learned the main   
paths through  this extensive country1  
will proceed to a diligent and thorough 
exploration4 ,of all modern philosophers
 ,nietzsche is the least dull4  ,he was 
undoubtedly the greatest ,german prose  
writer of his generation1  and even when
 one reads him through the ,english veil
 it is impossible  to escape the charm  
and color of his phrases and the        
pyrotechnic  brilliance of his thinking4
    ,,mencken4    ,,baltimore1          
,november1 #aiac4        ,,contents     
,,nietzsche ,,the ,,man           ,i4   
,,boyhood ,,and ,,youth #c      ,,ii4   
,,the ,,beginnings ,,of ,,the           
,,philosopher #af     ,,iii4 ,,blazing  
,a ,,new ,,path #bg      ,,iv4 ,,the    
,,prophet ,,of ,,the ,,superman #dj     
,v4 ,,the ,,philosopher ,,and ,,the     
,,man #ej      ,,nietzsche ,,the        
,,philosopher         ,i4 ,,dionysus vs4
 ,,apollo #fc      ,,ii4 ,,the ,,origin 
,,of ,,morality #gd     ,,iii4 ,,beyond 
,,good ,,and ,,evil #hh      ,,iv4 ,,the

 ,,superman #ajj       ,v4 ,,eternal    
,,recurrence #aag      ,,vi4            
,,christianity #abf     ,,vii4 ,,truth  
#adg    ,,viii4 ,,civilization #afb     
,,ix4 ,,women ,,and ,,marriage #agd     
,x4 ,,government #aib      ,,xi4 ,,crime
 ,,and ,,punishment #bjh     ,,xii4     
,,education #baf    ,,xiii4 ,,sundry    
,,ideas #bbf     ,,xiv4 ,,nietzsche vs4 
,,wagner #bdb      ,,nietzsche ,,the    
,,prophet         ,i4 ,,nietzsche',s    
,,origins #bee      ,,ii4 ,,nietzsche   
,,and ,,his ,,critics #bfh    ,,how ,,to
 ,,study ,,nietzsche #bij    ,,index    
#big          ,,nietzsche ,,the ,,man   
,,friedrich ,,nietzsche          ,i     
,,boyhood ,,and ,,youth      ,friedrich 
,nietzsche was a preacher's son1 brought
 up in the fear of  the ,lord4 ,it is   
the ideal training for sham-smashers and
 freethinkers4  ,let a boy of alert1    
restless intelligence come to early     
manhood in an  atmosphere of strong     
faith1 wherein doubts are blasphemies   
and inquiry  is a crime1 and rebellion  

is certain to appear with his beard4 ,so
  long as his mind feels itself puny    
beside the overwhelming pomp and        
circumstance of parental authority1 he  
will remain docile and even  pious4 ,but
 so soon as he begins to see authority  
as something ever  finite1 variable and 
all-too-human--when he begins to realize
 that his  father and his mother1 in the
 last analysis1 are mere human beings1  
and fallible like himself--then he will 
fly precipitately toward the            
intellectual wailing places1 to think   
his own thoughts in his own way  and to 
worship his own gods beneath the open   
sky4    ,as a child ,nietzsche was holy2
 as a man he was the symbol and         
embodiment of all unholiness4 ,at nine  
he was already versed in the  lore of   
the reverend doctors1 and the pulpit1 to
 his happy mother--a  preacher's        
daughter as well as a preacher's        
wife--seemed his logical  and lofty     
goal2 at thirty he was chief among those
 who held that all  pulpits should be   

torn down and fashioned into bludgeons1 
to beat out  the silly brains of        
theologians4    ,the awakening came to  
him when he made his first venture away 
from the  maternal apron-string and     
fireside3 when1 as a boy of ten1 he     
learned  that there were many1 many men 
in the world and that these men were of 
many minds4 ,with the clash of authority
 came the end of authority4 ,if  ,a4 was
 right1 ,b4 was wrong--and ,b4 had a    
disquieting habit of standing  for one's
 mother1 one's grandmother or the holy  
prophets4 ,here was the  beginning of   
intelligence in the boy--the beginning  
of that weighing  and choosing faculty  
which seems to give man at once his     
sense of  mastery and his feeling of    
helplessness4 ,the old notion that doubt
 was  a crime crept away4 ,there        
remained in its place the new notion    
that  the only real crime in the        
world--the only unmanly1 unspeakable and
  unforgivable offense against the      
race--was unreasoning belief4 ,thus the 

orthodoxy of the ,nietzsche home turned 
upon and devoured itself4    ,the       
philosopher of the superman was born on 
,october #aeth1 #ahdd1 at  ,rcken1 a    
small town in the ,prussian province of 
,saxony4 ,his father1  ,karl ,ludwig    
,nietzsche1 was a country pastor of the 
,lutheran ,church  and a man of eminence
 in the countryside4 ,but he was more   
than a mere  rural worthy1 with an      
outlook limited by the fringe of trees  
on the  horizon1 for in his time he had 
seen something of the great world and   
had even played his humble part in it4  
,years before his son ,friedrich  was   
born he had been tutor to the children  
of the ,duke of ,altenburg4  ,the duke  
was fond of him and took him1 now and   
then1 on memorable  and eventful        
journeys to ,berlin1 where that         
turbulent monarch1 ,king  ,friedrich    
,wilhelm ,,iv1 kept a tinsel court and  
made fast progress from  imbecility to  
acute dementia4 ,the king met the young 
tutor and found  him a clever and       

agreeable person1 with excellent        
opinions regarding  all those things    
whereon monarchs are wont to differ with
 mobs4 ,when  the children of the duke  
became sufficiently saturated with      
learning1  the work of ,pastor          
,nietzsche at ,altenburg was done and he
 journeyed to  ,berlin to face weary    
days in the anterooms of ecclesiastical 
magnates  and jobbers of places4 ,the   
king1 hearing by chance of his presence 
and  remembering him pleasantly1 ordered
 that he be given without delay a       
vicarage worthy of his talents4 ,so he  
was sent to ,rcken1 and there1  when a  
son was born to him1 he called the boy  
,friedrich ,wilhelm1 as a  graceful     
compliment to his royal patron and      
admirer4    ,there were two other       
children in the house4 ,one was a boy1  
,josef1 who  was named after the ,duke  
of ,altenburg1 and died in infancy in   
#ahej4  ,the other was a girl1 ,therese 
,elisabeth ,alexandra1 who became in    
after  years her brother's housekeeper1 

guardian angel and biographer4 ,her     
three names were those of the three     
noble children her father had  grounded 
in the humanities4 ,elisabeth--who      
married toward middle age  and is best  
known as ,frau ,frster-,nietzsche--tells
 us practically all  that we know about 
the ,nietzsche family and the private   
life of its  distinguished son4#a ,the  
clan came out of ,poland1 like so many  
other  families of ,eastern ,germany1 at
 the time of the sad1 vain wars4 ,legend
  maintains that it was noble in its day
 and ,nietzsche himself liked to  think 
so4 ,the name1 says ,elisabeth1 was     
originally ,nietzschy4 ,germany  is a   
great nation1 ,nietzsche would say1 only
 because its people  have so much       
,polish blood in their veins4444 ,i am  
proud of my ,polish  descent4 ,i        
remember that in former times a ,polish 
noble1 by his simple  veto1 could       
overturn the resolution of a popular    
assembly4 ,there were  giants in ,poland
 in the time of my forefathers4 ,he     

wrote a tract  with the ,french title   
,l',origine de la famille de ,nietzsche 
and  presented the manuscript to his    
sister1 as a document to be treasured   
and held sacred4 ,she tells us that he  
was fond of maintaining that the        
,nietzsches had suffered greatly and    
fallen from vast grandeur for their     
opinions1 religious and political4 ,he  
had no proof of this1 but it  pleased   
him to think so4    ,pastor ,nietzsche  
was thrown from his horse in #ahdh and  
died1 after  a lingering illness1 on    
,july #bhth1 #ahdi1 when ,friedrich was 
barely  five years old4 ,frau ,nietzsche
 then moved her little family to        
,naumburg-on-the-,saale--a ,christian1  
conservative1 loyal city4 ,the          
household consisted of the mother1 the  
two children1 their paternal            
grandmother and two maiden aunts--the   
sisters of the dead pastor4 ,the        
grandmother was something of a          
bluestocking and had been1 in her day1 a
  member of that queer circle of        

intellectuals and amateurs which raged  
and roared around ,goethe at ,weimar4   
,but that was in the long ago1  before  
she dreamed of becoming the wife of one 
preacher and the mother  of another4 ,in
 the year '#ej she was well of all such 
youthful fancies  and there was no doubt
 of the divine revelations beneath her  
pious  roof4 ,prayers began the day and 
ended the day4 ,it was a house of holy  
women1 with something of a convent's    
placidity and quiet exaltation4  ,little
 ,friedrich was the idol in the shrine4 
,it was the hope of all  that he would  
grow up into a man inimitably noble and 
impossibly good4    ,pampered thus1 the 
boy shrank from the touch of the world's
 rough  hand4 ,his sister tells us that 
he disliked the bad little boys of the  
neighborhood1 who robbed bird's nests1  
raided orchards and played at  soldiers4
 ,there appeared in him a quaint        
fastidiousness which went  counter to   
the dearest ideals of the healthy young 
male4 ,his school  fellows1 in derision1

 called him the little pastor and took  
delight  in waylaying him and venting   
upon him their grotesque and barbarous  
humor4 ,he liked flowers and books and  
music and when he went abroad  it was   
for solitary walks4 ,he could recite and
 sing and he knew the  ,bible so well   
that he was able to dispute about its   
mysteries4 ,as ,i  think of him1 said an
 old school-mate years afterward1 ,i am 
forced  irresistibly into a thought of  
the #ab-year-old ,jesus in the ,temple4 
,the serious introspective child1 with  
his dignified politeness1 says  his     
sister1 seemed so strange to other boys 
that friendly advances  from either side
 were out of the question4    ,there is 
a picture of the boy in all the glory of
 his first long-tailed  coat4 ,his      
trousers stop above his shoe-tops1 his  
hair is long and his  legs seem mere    
airy filaments4 ,as one gazes upon the  
likeness one can  almost smell the soap 
that scoured that high1 shiny brow and  
those  thin1 white cheeks4 ,the race of 

such seraphic boys has died out in  the 
world4 ,gone are their slick1 plastered 
locks and their translucent  ears6 ,gone
 are their ruffled cuffs and their      
spouting of the golden  text6           
,nietzsche wrote verses before he was   
ten3 pious1 plaintive verses that       
scanned well and showed rhymes and      
metaphors made respectable by ages  of  
honorable employment4 ,his maiden       
effort1 so far as we know1 was an  elegy
 entitled ,the ,grave of ,my ,father4   
,later on he became aware of  material  
things and sang the praises of rose and 
sunset4 ,he played the  piano1 too1 and 
knew his ,beethoven well1 from the      
snares for the left  hand in ,fr ,elise 
to the raging tumults of the ,c minor   
symphony4  ,one ,sunday--it was         
,ascension day--he went to the village  
church and  heard the choir sing the    
,hallelujah ,chorus from ,the ,messiah4 
,here was  music that benumbed the      
senses and soothed the soul and1 boy as 
he was1  he felt its supreme beauty4    

,that night he covered pages of ruled   
paper  with impossible pot-hooks4 ,he1  
too1 would write music6    ,later on the
 difficulties of thorough-bass1 as it   
was taught in the  abysmal ,german      
text-books of the time1 somewhat        
dampened his ardor1  but more than once 
during his youth he thought seriously of
 becoming a  musician4 ,his first really
 ambitious composition was a piano pice 
called ,mondschein auf der              
,pussta--,moonlight on the ,pussta--the 
pussta being the flat ,bohemian prairie4
 ,the family circle was  delighted with 
this maiden opus1 and we may conjure up 
a picture  of little ,friedrich playing 
it of a quiet evening at home1 while    
mother1 grandmother1 sister and aunts   
gathered round and marvelled  at his    
genius4 ,in later life he wrote songs   
and sonatas1 and--if an  enemy is to be 
believed--an opera in the grand manner4 
,his sister1 in  her biography1 prints  
some samples of his music4 ,candor      
compels the  admission that it is even  

worse than it sounds4    ,nietzsche1 at 
this time1 still seemed like piety on a 
monument1 but  as much as he revered his
 elders and as much as he relied upon   
their  infallibility1 there were yet    
problems which assailed him and gave him
  disquiet4 ,when he did not walk and   
think alone1 his sister was his         
companion1 and to her he opened his     
heart1 as one might to a sexless1       
impersonal confessor4 ,in her presence1 
indeed1 he really thought aloud1  and   
this remained his habit until the end of
 his life4 ,his mind1  awakening1       
wandered beyond the little world hedged 
about by doting and  complacent women4  
,until he entered the gymnasium--that   
great weighing  place of ,german        
brains--he shrank from open revolt1 and 
even from the  thought of it1 but he    
could not help dwelling upon the        
mysteries that  rose before him4 ,there 
were things upon which the scriptures1  
search  them as he might1 seemed to     
throw no light1 and of which mothers and

  grandmothers and maiden aunts did not 
discourse4 ,one day1 says  ,elisabeth1  
when he was yet very young1 he said to  
me3 ',you mustn't  expect me to believe 
those silly stories about storks        
bringing babies4  ,man is a mammal and a
 mammal must get his own children for   
himself4'  ,every child1 perhaps1       
ponders such problems1 but in the vast  
majority  knowledge must wait until it  
may enter fortuitously and from without4
  ,nietzsche did not belong to the      
majority4 ,to him ideas were ever things
  to be sought out eagerly1 to be       
weighed calmly1 to be tried in the      
fire4 ,for weal or for woe1 the         
cornerstones of his faith were brought  
forth1 with sweat and pain1 from the    
quarry of his own mind4    ,nietzsche   
went to various village schools--public 
and private--until  he was ten1         
dutifully trudging away each morning    
with knapsack and  lunch-basket4 ,he    
kissed his mother at the gate when he   
departed and  she was waiting for him1  

with another kiss1 when he returned4 ,as
  happiness goes1 his was probably a    
happy childhood4 ,the fierce joy of     
boyish combat--of fighting1 of robbing1 
of slaying--was never his1 but  to a    
child so athirst for knowledge1 each    
fresh discovery--about the  sayings of  
,luther1 the lions of ,africa1 the      
properties of an inverted               
fraction--must have brought its thrill4 
,but as he came to the last year  of his
 first decade1 unanswerable questions   
brought their discontent  and           
disquiet--as they do to all of us4      
,there is a feeling of oppression  and  
poignant pain in facing problems that   
defy solution and facts that  refuse to 
fit into ordered chains4 ,it is only    
when mastery follows  that the fine     
stimulation of conscious efficiency     
drowns out all moody  vapors4    ,when  
,nietzsche went to the gymnasium his    
whole world was overturned4  ,here boys 
were no longer mute and hollow vessels1 
to be stuffed with  predigested         

learning1 but human beings whose        
approach to separate  entity was        
recognized4 ,it was possible to ask     
questions and to argue  moot points1 and
 teaching became less the administration
 of a necessary  medicine and more the  
sharing of a delightful meal4 ,your     
,german  school-master is commonly a    
martinet1 and his birch is never idle1  
but  he has the saving grace of loving  
his trade and of readily recognizing    
true diligence in his pupils4 ,history  
does not record the name of  the        
pedagogue who taught ,nietzsche at the  
,naumburg gymnasium1 but he  must have  
been one who ill deserved his oblivion4 
,he fed the eager1  inquiring mind of   
his little student and made a new boy of
 him4 ,the  old unhealthy1 uncanny      
embodiment of a fond household's        
impossible  dreams became more likeable 
and more human4 ,his exclusiveness and  
fastidiousness were native and          
ineradicable1 perhaps1 for they remained
  with him1 in some degree1 his whole   

life long1 but his thirst for  knowledge
 and yearning for disputation soon led  
him to the discovery  that there were   
other boys worth cultivating3 other boys
 whose  thoughts1 like his own1 rose    
above misdemeanor and horse-play4 ,with 
two  such he formed a quick friendship1 
and they were destined to influence  him
 greatly to the end of his youth4 ,they 
organized a club for mutual  culture1   
gave it the sonorous name of ,der       
litterarischen ,vereinigung  ,germania  
7,the ,german ,literary ,association7   
and drew up an elaborate  scheme of     
study4 ,once a week there was a meeting1
 at which each of  the three submitted  
an essay or a musical composition to the
 critical  scrutiny of the others4 ,they
 waded out into the deep water4 ,one    
week  they discussed ,the ,infancy of   
,nations1 and after that1 ,the ,dmonic  
,element in ,music1 ,napoleon ,,iii and 
,fatalism in ,history4 ,despite  its    
praiseworthy earnestness1 this program  
causes a smile--and so does  the        

transformation of the retiring and      
well-scrubbed little ,nietzsche  we have
 been observing into the long1 gaunt    
,nietzsche of #ad1 with a  yearning for 
the companionship of his fellows1 and a 
voice beginning  to grow comically harsh
 and deep1 and a mind awhirl with       
unutterable  things4    ,nietzsche was a
 brilliant and spectacular pupil and    
soon won a  scholarship at ,pforta1 a   
famous and ancient preparatory academy  
not far  away4 ,pforta1 in those days1  
was of a dignity comparable to ,eton's  
or  ,harrow's4 ,it was a great school1  
but tradition overpowered it4 ,violent  
combats between amateur sages were not  
encouraged3 it was a place for          
gentlemen to acquire ,euclid and the    
languages in a decent1 gentlemanly  way1
 and not an arena for gawky country     
philosophers to prance about  in4 ,but  
,nietzsche1 by this time1 had already   
become a frank rebel and  delighted in  
elaborating and controverting the       
doctrines of the learned  doctors4 ,he  

drew up a series of epigrams under the  
head of ,ideen  and thought so well of  
them that he sent them home1 to astonish
 and  alarm his mother4 ,some of them   
exhibited a quite remarkable faculty    
for pithy utterance--as1 for example1   
,war begets poverty and poverty  begets 
peace--while others were merely opaque  
renderings of thoughts  half formed4 ,he
 began to believe in his own mental     
cunning1 with a  sincerity which never  
left him1 and1 as a triumphant proof of 
it1 he  drew up a series of syllogisms  
designed to make homesickness wither and
  die4 ,thus he wrestled with life's    
problems as his boy's eyes saw them4    
,all this was good training for the     
philosopher1 but to the ,pforta         
professors it gave disquiet4 ,nietzsche 
became a bit too sure of himself  and a 
bit too arrogant for discipline4 ,it    
seemed to him a waste of time  to       
wrestle with the studies that every     
oafish baron's son and future  guardsman
 sought to master4 ,he neglected        

mathematics and gave himself  up to the 
hair-splitting of the ,eleatics and the 
,pythagoreans1 the  ,sophists and the   
,skeptics4 ,he pronounced his high curse
 and anathema  upon geography and would 
have none of it4 ,the result was that   
when he  went up for final examination  
he writhed and floundered miserably and 
came within an ace of being set down for
 further and more diligent  labor with  
his books4 ,only his remarkable mastery 
of the ,german  language and his vast   
knowledge of ,christian doctrine--a     
legacy from  his pious childhood--saved 
him4 ,the old ,nietzsche--the shrinking 
mother's darling of ,naumburg--was now  
but a memory4 ,the ,nietzsche that  went
 up to ,bonn was a young man with a     
touch of cynicism and one not  a little 
disposed to pit his sneer against the   
jurisprudence of the  world3 a young man
 with a swagger1 a budding moustache and
 a head full  of violently novel ideas  
about everything under the sun4         
,nietzsche entered ,bonn in ,october1   

#ahfd1 when he was just #bj years old4  
,he was enrolled as a student of        
philology and theology1 but the latter  
was a mere concession to family faith   
and tradition1 made grudgingly1  and    
after the first semester1 the reverend  
doctors of exegetics knew  him no more4 
,at the start he thought the university 
a delightful place  and its people      
charming4 ,the classrooms and beer      
gardens were full  of young ,germans    
like himself1 who debated the doings of 
,bismarck1  composed eulogies of        
,darwin1 sang ,rabelaisian songs in bad 
,latin1  kept dogs1 wore ribbons on     
their walking sticks1 fought duels1 and 
drank unlimited steins of pale beer4 ,in
 the youth of every man there  comes    
over him a sudden yearning to be a good 
fellow3 to be ,bill or  ,jim to         
multitudes1 and to go down into legend  
with ,sir ,john ,falstaff  and ,tom     
,jones4 ,this melancholy madness seized 
upon ,nietzsche during  his first year  
at ,bonn4 ,he frequented the theatres   

and posed as a  connoisseur of opera    
bouffe1 malt liquor and the female form 
divine4  ,he went upon students' walking
 tours and carved his name upon the     
mutilated tables of country inns4 ,he   
joined a student corps1 bought him  a   
little cap and set up shop as a devil of
 a fellow4 ,his mother was  not poor1   
but she could not afford the outlays    
that these ambitious  enterprises       
required4 ,friedrich overdrew his       
allowance and the good  woman1 no doubt1
 wept about it1 as mothers will1 and    
wondered that  learning came so dear4   
,but the inevitable reaction followed4  
,nietzsche was not designed  by nature  
for a hero of pot-houses and duelling   
sheds4 ,the old  fastidiousness asserted
 itself--that queer1 unhealthy          
fastidiousness  which1 in his childhood1
 had set him apart from other boys1 and 
was  destined1 all his life long1 to    
make him shrink from too intimate       
contact with his fellow-men4 ,the touch 
of the crowd disgusted him3 he  had an  

almost insane fear of demeaning himself4
 ,all of this feeling had  been obscured
 for awhile1 by the strange charm of new
 delights and new  companions1 but in   
the end1 the gloomy spinner of fancies  
triumphed  over the university buck4    
,nietzsche resigned from his student    
corps1  burned his walking sticks1      
foreswore smoking and roistering1 and   
bade  farewell to ,johann ,strauss and  
,offenbach forever4 ,the days of his    
youth--of his carefree1 merry           
gamboling--were over4 ,hereafter he was 
all solemnity and all seriousness4      
,from these early experiences1 says his 
sister1 there remained with  him a      
life-long aversion to smoking1          
beer-drinking and the whole             
biergemthlichkeit4 ,he maintained that  
people who drank beer and  smoked pipes 
were absolutely incapable of            
understanding him4 ,such  people1 he    
thought1 lacked the delicacy and        
clearness of perception  necessary to   
grasp profound and subtle problems4     

#a ,das ,leben ,friedrich ,nietzsche's1 
#c vols4 ,leipsic1 #ahie-g-i4           
,,ii      ,,the ,,beginnings ,,of ,,the 
,,philosopher      ,at ,bonn ,nietzsche 
became a student of ,ritschl1 the famous
  philologist1#a and when ,ritschl left 
,bonn for ,leipsic1 ,nietzsche  followed
 him4 ,all traces of the good fellow had
 disappeared and the  student that      
remained was not unlike those sophomores
 of medieval  ,toulouse who rose from   
bed at #d o'clock1 and having prayed to 
,god1  went at #e o'clock to their      
studies1 their big books under their    
arms1  their inkhorns and candles in    
their hands4 ,between teacher and pupil 
there grew up a bond of strong          
friendship4 ,nietzsche was taken1 too1  
under the wing of motherly old ,frau    
,ritschl1 who invited him to her        
afternoons of coffee and cinnamon cake  
and to her evening soires1  where he met
 the great men of the university world  
and the eminent  strangers who came and 
went4 ,to ,ritschl the future           

philosopher owed  many things1 indeed1  
including his sound knowledge of the    
ancients1 his  first 7and last7         
university appointment and his meeting  
with ,richard  ,wagner4 ,nietzsche      
always looked back upon these days with 
pleasure and  there was ever a warm spot
 in his heart for the kindly old        
professor  who led him up to grace4     
,two years or more were thus spent1 and 
then1 in the latter part of  #ahfg1     
,nietzsche began his term of compulsory 
military service in the  fourth regiment
 of ,prussian field artillery4 ,he had  
hoped to escape  because he was         
near-sighted and the only son of a      
widow1 but a watchful  oberst-lieutenant
 found loopholes in the law and so      
ensnared him4  ,he seems to have been   
some sort of officer1 for a photograph  
of the  period shows him with epaulets  
and a sword4 ,but lieutenant or         
sergeant1  soldiering was scarcely his  
forte1 and he cut a sorry figure on a   
horse4 ,after a few months of unwilling 

service1 in fact1 he had a  riding      
accident and came near dying as his     
father had died before him4  ,as it was 
he wrenched his breast muscles so badly 
that he was condemned  by a medical     
survey and discharged from the army4    
,during his long convalescence he busied
 himself with philological  studies and 
began his first serious professional    
work--essays on the  ,theogony of       
,hesiod1 the sources of ,diogenes       
,lartius and the eternal  strife between
 ,hesiod and ,homer4 ,he also made an   
index to an elaborate  collection of    
,german historical fragments and        
performed odd tasks  of like sort for   
various professors4 ,in ,october1 #ahfh1
 he returned  to ,leipsic--not as an    
undergraduate1 but as a special student4
 ,this  change was advantageous1 for it 
gave him greater freedom of action and  
protected him from that student bonhomie
 he had learned to despise4  ,again old 
,ritschl was his teacher and friend and 
again ,frau ,ritschl  welcomed him to   

her salon and gave him of her good      
counsel and her  excellent coffee4      
,meanwhile there had occurred something 
that was destined to direct and  color  
the whole stream of his life4 ,this was 
his discovery of ,arthur  ,schopenhauer4
 ,in the #fj's1 it would appear1 the    
great pessimist was  still scarcely more
 than a name in the ,german             
universities1 which1 for  all their     
later heterodoxy1 clung long to their   
ancient first causes4  ,nietzsche knew  
nothing of him1 and in the seminaries of
 ,leipsic not a  soul maintained him4   
,of ,kant and of ,hegel there was talk  
unlimited1 and  of ,lotze and ,fichte   
there were riotous disputations that    
roared and  raged about the class-room  
of ,fechner1 then the university        
professor  of philosophy4 ,but of       
,schopenhauer nothing was heard1 and so1
 when  ,nietzsche1 rambling through an  
old ,leipsic bookshop1 happened upon a  
second-hand copy of ,die ,welt als      
,wille und ,vorstellung#b a new  world  

came floating into his view4 ,this was  
in #ahfe4    ,i took the book to my     
lodgings1 he said years afterward1 and  
flung myself on a sofa and read and read
 and read4 ,it seemed as if             
,schopenhauer were addressing me        
personally4 ,i felt his enthusiasm and  
seemed to see him before me4 ,every line
 cried aloud for renunciation1  denial1 
resignation6    ,so much for the first  
flush of the ecstasy of discovery4 ,that
 ,nietzsche  entirely agreed with       
everything in the book1 even in his     
wildest  transports of admiration1 is   
rather doubtful4 ,he was but #ba--the   
age of  great passions and great        
romance--and he was athirst for some    
writing  that would solve the problems  
left unanswered by the accepted sages1  
but it is probable that when he shouted 
the ,schopenhauer manifesto  loudest he 
read into the text wild variations of   
his own4 ,the premises  of the pessimist
 gave credit and order to thoughts that 
had been rising  up in his own mind2 but

 the conclusions1 if he subscribed to   
them at  all1 led him far afield4 ,no   
doubt he was like one of those fantastic
  messiahs of new cults who search the  
scriptures for testimony--and  find it4 
,late in life1 when he was accused of   
inconsistency in first  deifying        
,schopenhauer and then damning him1 he  
made this defense1 and  despite the     
derisive sneers of his enemies1 it      
seemed a fairly good one4               
,schopenhauer's argument1 to put it     
briefly1 was that the will to           
exist--the primary instinct of life--was
 the eternal first cause of all  human  
actions1 motives and ideas4 ,the old    
philosophers of ,christendom  had       
regarded intelligence as the superior of
 instinct4 ,some of them  thought that  
an intelligent god ruled the universe   
and that nothing  happened without his  
knowledge and desire4 ,others believed  
that man was  a free agent1 that        
whatever he did was the result of his   
own thought  and choice1 and that it was

 right1 in consequence1 to condemn him  
to hell for his sins and to exalt him to
 heaven for any goodness he  might      
chance to show4 ,schopenhauer turned all
 this completely about4  ,intelligence1 
he said1 was not the source of will1 but
 its effect4 ,when  life first appeared 
upon earth1 it had but one aim and      
object3 that of  perpetuating itself4   
,this instinct1 he said1 was still at   
the bottom  of every function of all    
living beings4 ,intelligence grew out of
 the  fact that mankind1 in the course  
of ages1 began to notice that certain   
manifestations of the will to live were 
followed by certain invariable  results4
 ,this capacity of perceiving was       
followed by a capacity for  remembering1
 which in turn produced a capacity for  
anticipating4 ,an  intelligent man1 said
 ,schopenhauer1 was merely one who      
remembered  so many facts 7the result   
either of personal experience or of the 
transmitted experience of others7 that  
he could separate them into  groups and 

observe their relationship1 one to the  
other1 and hazard a  close guess as to  
their future effects3 i4e4 could reason 
about them4    ,going further1          
,schopenhauer pointed out that this will
 to exist1 this  instinct to preserve   
and protect life1 this old ,adam1 was to
 blame for  the unpleasant things of    
life as well as for the good            
things--that  it produced avarice1      
hatred and murder just as well as       
industry1  resourcefulness and          
courage--that it led men to seek means  
of killing  one another as well as means
 of tilling the earth and procuring food
  and raiment4 ,he showed1 yet further1 
that its bad effects were a great  deal 
more numerous than its good effects and 
so accounted for the  fact--which many  
men before him had observed--that life1 
at best1 held  more of sorrow than of   
joy4#c    ,the will-to-live1 argued     
,schopenhauer1 was responsible for all  
this4  ,pain1 he believed1 would always 
outweigh pleasure in this sad old  world

 until men ceased to want to live--until
 no one desired food or  drink or house 
or wife or money4 ,to put it more       
briefly1 he held that  true happiness   
would be impossible until mankind had   
killed will  with will1 which is to say1
 until the will-to-live was willed out  
of  existence4 ,therefore the happiest  
man was the one who had come nearest    
this end--the man who had killed all the
 more obvious human desires1  hopes and 
aspirations--the solitary ascetic--the  
monk in his cell--the  soaring1 starving
 poet--the cloud-enshrouded philosopher4
    ,nietzsche very soon diverged from  
this conclusion4 ,he believed1 with     
,schopenhauer1 that human life1 at best1
 was often an infliction and a  torture1
 but in his very first book he showed   
that he admired1 not the  ascetic who   
tried to escape from the wear and tear  
of life altogether1  but the proud1     
stiff-necked hero who held his balance  
in the face of  both seductive pleasure 
and staggering pain2 who cultivated     

within  himself a sublime indifference1 
so that happiness and misery1 to him1   
became mere words1 and no catastrophe1  
human or superhuman1 could  affright or 
daunt him4#d    ,it is obvious that     
there is a considerable difference      
between these  ideas1 for all their     
similarity in origin and for all        
,nietzsche's  youthful worship of       
,schopenhauer4 ,nietzsche1 in fact1 was 
so enamoured  by the honesty and        
originality of what may be called the   
data of  ,schopenhauer's philosophy that
 he took the philosophy itself rather   
on trust and did not begin to inquire   
into it closely or to compare  it       
carefully with his own ideas until after
 he had committed himself  in a most    
embarrassing fashion4 ,the same         
phenomena is no curiosity in  religion1 
science or politics4    ,before a       
realization of these differences quite  
dawned upon ,nietzsche  he was busied   
with other affairs4 ,in #ahfi1 when he  
was barely #be1 he  was appointed1 upon 

,ritschl's recommendation1 to the chair 
of classical  philology at the          
,university of ,basel1 in ,switzerland1 
an ancient  stronghold of ,lutheran     
theology4 ,he had no degree1 but the    
,university  of ,leipsic promptly made  
him a doctor of philosophy1 without     
thesis  or examination1 and on ,april   
#acth he left the old home at ,naumburg 
to  assume his duties4 ,thus passed that
 pious household4 ,the grandmother  had 
died long before--in #ahef--;and one of 
the maiden aunts had preceded  her to   
the grave by a year4 ,the other1 long   
ill1 had followed in #ahfg4  ,but       
,nietzsche's mother lived until #ahig1  
though gradually estranged  from him by 
his opinions1 and his sister1 as we     
know1 survived him4    ,nietzsche was   
officially professor of philology1 but  
he also became  teacher of ,greek in the
 pedagogium attached to the ,university4
  ,he worked like a ,trojan and mixed   
,schopenhauer and ,hesiod in his        
class-room discourses upon the origin of

 ,greek verbs and other such  dull      
subjects4 ,but it is not recorded that  
he made a very profound  impression1    
except upon a relatively small circle4  
,his learning was  abysmal1 but he was  
far too impatient and unsympathetic to  
be a  good teacher4 ,his classes1 in    
fact1 were never large1 except in the   
pedagogium4 ,this1 however1 may have    
been partly due to the fact that  in    
#ahfi1 as in later years1 there were    
comparatively few persons  impractical  
enough to spend their days and nights in
 the study of  philology4    ,in #ahgj  
came the ,franco-,prussian war and      
,nietzsche decided to go to  the front4 
,despite his hatred of all the cant of  
cheap patriotism and  his pious         
thankfulness that he was a ,pole and not
 a ,german1 he was at  bottom a good    
citizen and perfectly willing to suffer 
and bleed for his  country4 ,but        
unluckily he had taken out ,swiss       
naturalization papers in  order to be   
able to accept his appointment at       

,basel1 and so1 as the  subject of a    
neutral state1 he had to go to the war1 
not as a warrior1  but as a hospital    
steward4    ,even as it was1 ,nietzsche 
came near giving his life to ,germany4  
,he was  not strong physically--he had  
suffered from severe headaches as far   
back as #ahfb--;and his hard work at    
,basel had further weakened him4 ,on    
the battlefields of ,france he grew ill4
 ,diphtheria and what seems to  have    
been cholera morbus attacked him and    
when he finally reached home  again he  
was a neurasthenic wreck4 ,ever         
thereafter his life was one  long       
struggle against disease4 ,he suffered  
from migraine1 that most  terrible      
disease of the nerves1 and chronic      
catarrh of the stomach made  him a      
dyspeptic4 ,unable to eat or sleep1 he  
resorted to narcotics1 and  according to
 his sister1 he continued their use     
throughout his life4  ,he wanted to get 
well quickly1 she says1 and so took     
double doses4  ,nietzsche1 indeed1 was a

 slave to drugs1 and more than once in  
after  life1 long before insanity       
finally ended his career1 he gave       
evidence  of it4    ,despite his illness
 he insisted upon resuming work1 but    
during the  following winter he was     
obliged to take a vacation in ,italy4   
,meanwhile  he had delivered lectures to
 his classes on the ,greek drama and two
  of these he revised and published1 in 
#ahgb1 as his first book1 ,die  ,geburt 
der ,tragdie 7,the ,birth of ,tragedy74 
,engelmann1 the great  ,leipsic         
publisher1 declined it1 but ,fritsch1 of
 the same city1 put it  into type4#e    
,this book greatly pleased his friends1 
but the old-line  philologists of the   
time thought it wild and extravagant1   
and it almost  cost ,nietzsche his      
professorship4 ,students were advised to
 keep away  from him1 and during the    
winter of #ahgb-c1 it is said1 he had no
 pupils  at all4    ,nevertheless the   
book1 for all its iconoclasm1 was an    
event4 ,it sounded  ,nietzsche's first1 

faint battle-cry and put the question   
mark behind  many tilings that seemed   
honorable and holy in philology4 ,most  
of  the philologists of that time were  
,german savants of the comic-paper      
sort1 and their lives were spent in     
wondering why one ,greek poet made  the 
name of a certain plant masculine while 
another made it feminine4  ,nietzsche1  
passing over such scholastic futilities1
 burrowed down  into the heart of ,greek
 literature4 ,why1 he asked himself1 did
 the  ,greeks take pleasure in          
witnessing representations of bitter1   
hopeless  conflicts1 and how did this   
form of entertainment arise among them8 
,later on1 his conclusions will be given
 at length1 but in this place it  may be
 well to sketch them in outline1 because
 of the bearing they have  upon his     
later work1 and even upon the trend of  
his life4    ,in ancient ,greece1 he    
pointed out at the start1 ,apollo was   
the god of  art--of life as it was      
recorded and interpreted--and ,bacchus  

,dionysus  was the god of life          
itself--of eating1 drinking and making  
merry1 of  dancing and roistering1 of   
everything that made men acutely        
conscious  of the vitality and will     
within them4 ,the difference between the
 things  they represented has been well 
set forth in certain homely verses      
addressed by ,rudyard ,kipling to       
,admiral ,robley ,d4 ,evans1 ,u4 ,s4    
,n43        ,zogbaum draws with a pencil
        ,and ,i do things with a pen1   
,but you sit up in a conning tower1     
,bossing eight hundred men4        ,to  
him that hath shall be given        ,and
 that's why these books are sent        
,to the man who has lived more stories  
,than ,zogbaum or ,i could invent4      
,here we have the plain distinction3    
,zogbaum and ,kipling are apollonic1    
while ,evans is dionysian4 ,epic poetry1
 sculpture1 painting and  story-telling 
are apollonic3 they represent1 not life 
itself1 but some  one man's visualized  
idea of life4 ,but dancing1 great deeds 

and1 in  some cases1 music1 are         
dionysian3 they are part and parcel of  
life as  some actual human being1 or    
collection of human beings1 is living   
it4    ,nietzsche maintained that ,greek
 art was at first apollonic1 but that   
eventually there appeared a dionysian   
influence--the fruit1 perhaps1  of      
contact with primitive1 barbarous       
peoples4 ,ever afterward there  was     
constant conflict between them and this 
conflict was the essence  of ,greek     
tragedy4 ,as ,sarcey tells us1 a play1  
to hold our attention1  must depict some
 sort of battle1 between man and man or 
idea and idea4  ,in the melodrama of    
today the battle is between hero and    
villain2 in  the ancient ,greek tragedy 
it was between ,apollo and ,dionysus1   
between  the life contemplative and the 
life strenuous1 between law and outlaw1 
between the devil and the seraphim4     
,nietzsche1 as we shall see1 afterward  
applied this distinction in  morals and 
life as well as in art4 ,he called      

himself a dionysian and  the crowning   
volume of his system of philosophy1     
which he had barely  started when       
insanity overtook him1 was to have been 
called ,dionysus4      #a ,friedrich    
,wilhelm ,ritschl 7#ahjf-ahgf71 the     
foremost philologist  of modern times4  
,he became a professor of classical     
literature and  rhetoric in #ahci and   
founded the science of historical       
literary  criticism1 as we know it      
today4    #b ,arthur ,schopenhauer      
7#aghh-ahfj7 published this book1 his   
magnum  opus1 at ,leipsic in #ahai4 ,it 
has been translated into ,english as    
,the  ,world as ,will and ,idea and has 
appeared in many editions4    #c        
,schopenhauer 7,nachtrge fr ,lehre vom  
,leiden der ,welt7 puts the  argument   
thus3 ,pleasure is never as pleasant as 
we expect it to be and  pain is always  
more painful4 ,the pain in the world    
always outweighs the  pleasure4 ,if you 
don't believe it1 compare the respective
 feelings of  two animals1 one of which 

is eating the other4    #d ,later on1 in
 ,menschliches allzu ,menschliches1     
,,ii1 ,nietzsche  argued that the       
ascetic was either a coward1 who feared 
the temptations  of pleasure and the    
agonies of pain1 or an exhausted        
worldling who had  become satiated with 
life4    #e ,begun in #ahfi1 this maiden
 work was dedicated to ,richard ,wagner4
  ,at ,wagner's suggestion ,nietzsche   
eliminated a great deal of matter in    
the original draft4 ,the full title was 
,the ,birth of ,tragedy from the        
,spirit of ,music1 but this was changed1
 in #ahhf1 when a third edition  was    
printed1 to ,the ,birth of ,tragedy1 or 
,hellenism and ,pessimism4  ,nietzsche  
then also added a long preface1 entitled
 ,an ,attempt at  ,self-,criticism4 ,the
 material originally excluded was       
published in  #ahif4          ,,iii     
,,blazing ,a ,,new ,,path        ,having
 given birth1 in this theory of ,greek  
tragedy1 to an idea which1  whatever its
 defects otherwise1 was at least        

original1 understandable  and workable1 
,nietzsche began to be conscious1 as it 
were1 of his own  intellect--or1 in his 
sister's phrase1 to understand what a   
great man  he was4 ,during his first    
years at ,basel he had cut quite a      
figure in  academic society1 for he was 
an excellent musician1 he enjoyed       
dancing  and he had plenty of pretty    
things to say to the ladies4 ,but as his
  ideas clarified and he found himself  
more and more in conflict with the      
pundits about him1 he withdrew within   
himself1 and in the end he had  few     
friends save ,richard and ,cosima       
,wagner1 who lived at ,tribschen1  not  
far away4 ,to one of his turn of mind1  
indeed1 the atmosphere of  the college  
town was bound to grow oppressive soon  
or late4 ,acutely  aware of his own     
superiority1 he showed no patience with 
the unctuous  complacency of dons and   
dignitaries1 and so he became embroiled 
in  various conflicts1 and even his     
admirers among his colleagues seldom    

ventured upon friendly advances4        
,there are critics who see in all this  
proof that ,nietzsche showed signs  of  
insanity from early manhood1 but as a   
matter of fact it was his  abnormally   
accurate vision and not a vision gone   
awry1 that made him  stand so aloof from
 his fellows4 ,in the vast majority of  
those about  him he saw the coarse metal
 of sham and pretense beneath the showy 
gilding of learning4 ,he had before him1
 at close range1 a good many  of the    
great men of his time--the intellectuals
 whose word was law  in the schools4 ,he
 saw them on parade and he saw them in  
their shirt  sleeves4 ,what wonder that 
he lost all false reverence for them and
  began to estimate them in terms1 not  
of their dignity and reputation1  but of
 their actual credibility and worth8 ,it
 was inevitable that he  should compare 
his own ideas to theirs1 and it was     
inevitable that he  should perceive the 
difference between his own fanatical    
striving for  the truth and the easy    

dependence upon precedent and formula   
which lay  beneath their booming        
bombast4 ,thus there arose in him a     
fiery loathing  for all authority1 and a
 firm belief that his own opinion       
regarding any  matter to which he had   
given thought was as sound1 at the      
least1 as any  other man's4 ,thenceforth
 the assertive ich began to besprinkle  
his  discourse and his pages4 ,i condemn
 ,christianity4 ,i have given to        
mankind4444 ,i was never yet modest4444 
,i think4444 ,i say4444 ,i  do4444 ,thus
 he hurled his javelin at authority     
until the end4    ,to those about him1  
perhaps1 ,nietzsche seemed wild and     
impossible1 but  it is not recorded that
 any one ever looked upon him as        
ridiculous4  ,his high brow1 bared by   
the way in which he brushed his hair2   
his  keen eyes1 with their monstrous    
overhanging brows1 and his immense1     
untrimmed moustache gave him an air of  
alarming earnestness4 ,beside the       
pedagogues about him--with their        

well-barbered1 professorial beards1     
their bald heads and their learned      
spectacles--he seemed like some         
incomprehensible foreigner4 ,the exotic 
air he bore delighted him and he        
cultivated it assiduously4 ,he regarded 
himself as a ,polish grandee set  down  
by an unkind fate among ,german         
shopkeepers1 and it gave him vast       
pleasure when the hotel porters and     
street beggars1 deceived by his         
disorderly faade1 called him ,the       
,polack4    ,thus he lived and had his  
being4 ,the inquisitive boy of old      
,naumburg1  the impudent youth of       
,pforta and the academic free lance of  
,bonn and  ,leipsic had become merged   
into a man sure of himself and          
contemptuous  of all whose search for   
the truth was hampered or hedged about  
by  any respect for statute or          
precedent4 ,he saw that the philosophers
  and sages of the day1 in many of their
 most gorgeous flights of  logic1       
started from false premises1 and he     

observed the fact that  certain of the  
dominant moral1 political and social    
maxims of the  time were mere           
foolishness4 ,it struck him1 too1 that  
all of this  faulty ratiocination--all  
of this assumption of outworn doctrines 
and  dependence upon exploded           
creeds--was not confined to the         
confessedly  orthodox4 ,there was       
fallacy no less disgusting in the other 
camp4 ,the  professed apostles of revolt
 were becoming as bad as the old        
crusaders  and apologists4    ,nietzsche
 harbored a fevered yearning to call all
 of these false  prophets to book and to
 reduce their fine axioms to absurdity4 
,accordingly1 he planned a series of    
twenty-four pamphlets and decided  to   
call them ,unzeitgemsse ,betrachtungen  
which may be translated as  ,inopportune
 ,speculations1 or more clearly1 ,essays
 in ,sham-,smashing4  ,in looking about 
for a head to smash in essay number one1
 his eye1  naturally enough1 alighted   
upon that of ,david ,strauss1 the       

favorite  philosopher and fashionable   
iconoclast of the day4 ,strauss had been
 a  preacher but had renounced the cloth
 and set up shop as a critic of         
,christianity4#a ,he had labored with   
good intentions1 no doubt1 but the  net 
result of all his smug agnosticism was  
that his disciples were as              
self-satisfied1 bigoted and prejudiced  
in the garb of agnostics as they  had   
been before as ,christians4 ,nietzsche's
 clear eye saw this and in  the first of
 his little pamphlets1 ,david ,strauss1 
der ,bekenner und  der ,schriftsteller  
7,david ,strauss1 the ,confessor and the
 ,writer71  he bore down upon ,strauss' 
bourgeoise pseudo-skepticism most       
savagely4 ,this was in #ahgc4           
,strauss1 he said1 utterly evades the   
question1 ,what is the meaning  of life8
 ,he had an opportunity to show courage1
 to turn his back  upon the             
,philistines1 and to boldly deduce a new
 morality from that  constant warfare   
which destroys all but the fittest1 but 

to do this  would have required a love  
of truth infinitely higher than that    
which  spends itself in violent         
invectives against parsons1 miracles and
 the  historical humbug of the          
resurrection4 ,strauss had no such      
courage4  ,had he worked out the        
,darwinian doctrine to its last decimal 
he would  have had the ,philistines     
against him to a man4 ,as it is1 they   
are with  him4 ,he has wasted his time  
in combatting ,christianity's           
nonessentials4  ,for the idea at the    
bottom of it he has proposed no         
substitute4 ,in  consequence1 his       
philosophy is stale4#b    ,as a         
distinguished critic has pointed out1   
,nietzsche's attack was  notable1 not   
only for its keen analysis and ruthless 
honesty1 but also  for its courage4 ,it 
required no little bravery1 three years 
after  ,sedan1 to tell the ,germans that
 the new culture which constituted their
  pride was rotten1 and that1 unless it 
were purified in the fire of  absolute  

truth1 it might one day wreck their     
civilization4    ,in the year following 
,nietzsche returned to the attack with a
 criticism  of history1 which was then  
the fashionable science of the ,german  
universities1 on account1 chiefly1 of   
its usefulness in exploding  the myths  
of ,christianity4 ,he called his essay  
,vom ,nutzen und  ,nachtheil der        
,historie fr das ,leben 7,on the ,good  
and ,bad ,effects  of ,history upon     
,human ,life7 and in it he took issue   
with the reigning  pedagogues and       
professors of the day4 ,there was much  
hard thinking  and no little good       
writing in this essay and it made its   
mark4 ,the  mere study of history1      
argued ,nietzsche1 unless some definite 
notion  regarding the destiny of man    
were kept ever in mind1 was misleading  
and confusing4 ,there was great danger  
in assuming that everything  which      
happened was part of some divine and    
mysterious plan for the  ultimate       
attainment of perfection4 ,as a matter  

of fact1 many historical  events were   
meaningless1 and this was particularly  
true of those  expressions of           
governments1 public opinion and         
majorities which  historians were prone 
to accentuate4 ,to ,nietzsche the ideas 
and doings  of peoples seemed infinitely
 less important than the ideas and      
doings  of exceptional individuals4 ,to 
put it more simply1 he believed that    
one man1 ,hannibal1 was of vastly more  
importance to the world than all  the   
other ,carthaginians of his time taken  
together4 ,herein we have a             
reappearance of ,dionysus and a         
foreshadowing of the herrenmoral and    
superman of later days4    ,nietzsche's 
next essay was devoted to ,schopenhauer 
and was printed  in #ahgd4 ,he called it
 ,schopenhauer als ,erzieher            
7,schopenhauer  as a ,teacher7 and in it
 he laid his burnt offering upon the    
altar  of the great pessimist1 who was  
destined to remain his hero1 if no      
longer his god1 until the end4          

,nietzsche was already beginning to read
  rebellious ideas of his own into ,the 
,world as ,will and ,idea1 but in  two  
things--the theory of will and the      
impulse toward truth--he and            
,schopenhauer were ever as one4 ,he     
preached a holy war upon all those      
influences which had made the apostle of
 pessimism1 in his life-time1  an       
unheard outcast4 ,he raged against the  
narrowness of university  schools of    
philosophy and denounced all            
governmental interference  in           
speculation--whether it were expressed  
crudely1 by inquisitorial  laws and the 
,index1 or softly and insidiously1 by   
the bribery of  comfortable berths and  
public honors4    ,experience teaches   
us1 he said1 that nothing stands so much
 in the  way of developing great        
philosophers as the custom of supporting
 bad  ones in state universities4444 ,it
 is the popular theory that the posts   
given to the latter make them 'free' to 
do original work2 as a matter  of fact1 

the effect is quite the contrary4444 ,no
 state would ever dare  to patronize    
such men as ,plato and ,schopenhauer4   
,and why8 ,because the  state is always 
afraid of them4444 ,it seems to me that 
there is need  for a higher tribunal    
outside the universities to critically  
examine  the doctrines they teach4 ,as  
soon as philosophers are willing to     
resign  their salaries1 they will       
constitute such a tribunal4 ,without pay
 and  without honors1 it will be able to
 free itself from the prejudices  of the
 age4 ,like ,schopenhauer1 it will be   
the judge of the so-called  culture     
around it4#c    ,years later ,nietzsche 
denied that1 in this essay1 he committed
 himself  irretrievably to the whole    
philosophy of ,schopenhauer and a fair  
reading bears him out4 ,he was not      
defending ,schopenhauer's doctrine  of  
renunciation1 but merely asking that he 
be given a hearing4 ,he was  pleading   
the case of foes as well as of friends3 
all he asked was that  the forum be     

opened to every man who had something   
new to say4    ,nietzsche regarded      
,schopenhauer as a king among           
philosophers because  he shook himself  
entirely free of the dominant thought of
 his time4 ,in  an age marked1 beyond   
everything1 by humanity's rising        
reliance upon  human reason1 he sought  
to show that reason was a puny offshoot 
of  an irresistible natural law--the law
 of self-preservation4 ,nietzsche       
admired the man's courage and agreed    
with him in his insistence that  this   
law was at the bottom of all sentient   
activity1 but he was never  a subscriber
 to ,schopenhauer's surrender and       
despair4 ,from the very  start1 indeed1 
he was a prophet of defiance1 and herein
 his divergence  from ,schopenhauer was 
infinite4 ,as his knowledge broadened   
and his  scope widened1 he expanded and 
developed his philosophy1 and often he  
found it necessary to modify it in      
detail4 ,but that he ever turned  upon  
himself in fundamentals is untrue4      

,nietzsche at #dj and ,nietzsche  at #be
 were essentially the same4 ,the germ of
 practically all his  writings lies in  
his first book--nay1 it is to be found  
further back3  in the wild speculations 
of his youth4    ,the fourth of the     
,unzeitgemsse ,betrachtungen 7and the   
last1 for  the original design of the   
series was not carried out7 was ,richard
  ,wagner in ,bayreuth4#d ,this was     
published in #ahgf and neither it  nor  
the general subject of ,nietzsche's     
relations with ,wagner need be          
considered here4 ,in a subsequent       
chapter the whole matter will be        
discussed4 ,for the present1 it is      
sufficient to say that ,nietzsche met   
,wagner through the medium of ,ritschl's
 wife2 that they became fast  friends2  
that ,nietzsche hailed the composer as a
 hero sent to make the  drama an epitome
 of the life unfettered and unbounded1  
of life defiant  and joyful2 that       
,wagner1 after starting from the        
,schopenhauer base1  travelled toward   

,st4 ,francis rather than toward        
,dionysus1 and that  ,nietzsche1 after  
vain expostulations1 read the author of 
,parsifal  out of meeting and pronounced
 him anathema4 ,it was all a case of    
misunderstanding4 ,wagner was an artist1
 and not a philosopher4 ,right or       
wrong1 ,christianity was beautiful1 and 
as a thing of beauty it called  aloud to
 him4 ,to ,nietzsche beauty seemed a    
mere phase of truth4    ,it was during  
this period of preliminary skirmishing  
that ,nietzsche's  ultimate philosophy  
began to formulate itself4 ,he saw      
clearly that  there was something       
radically wrong with the ,german culture
 of the  day--that many things esteemed 
right and holy were1 in reality1        
unspeakable1 and that many things under 
the ban of church and state  were far   
from wrong in themselves4 ,he saw1 too1 
that there had grown  up a false logic  
and that its taint was upon the whole of
 contemporary  thought4 ,men maintained 
propositions plainly erroneous and      

excused  themselves by the plea that    
ideals were greater than actualities4   
,the  race was subscribing to one thing 
and practicing another4 ,christianity   
was official1 but not a single real     
,christian was to be found in all       
,christendom4 ,thousands bowed down to  
men and ideas that they despised  and   
denounced things that every sane man    
knew were necessary and  inevitable4    
,the result was a flavor of dishonesty  
and hypocrisy in all  human affairs4 ,in
 the abstract the laws--of the church1  
the state and  society--were looked upon
 as impeccable1 but every man1 in so far
 as  they bore upon him personally1     
tried his best to evade them4    ,other 
philosophers1 in ,germany and elsewhere1
 had made the same  observation and     
there was in progress a grand           
assault-at-arms upon  old ideas4 ,huxley
 and ,spencer1 in ,england1 were        
laboring hard in the  vineyard planted  
by ,darwin2 ,ibsen1 in ,norway1 was     
preparing for his  epoch-making         

life-work1 and in far ,america ,andrew  
,d4 ,white and others  were battling to 
free education from the bonds of        
theology4 ,thus it  will be seen that1  
at the start1 ,nietzsche was no more a  
pioneer than  any one of a dozen other  
men4 ,some of these other men1 indeed1  
were  far better equipped for the fray  
than he1 and their services1 for a  long
 while1 seemed a great deal more        
important4 ,but it was his good         
fortune1 before his working days were   
over1 to press the conflict much        
further afield than the others4         
,beginning where they ended1 he fought  
his way into the very citadel of the    
enemy4    ,his attack upon              
,christianity1 which is described at    
length later on1  well exemplifies this 
uncompromising thoroughness4 ,nietzsche 
saw  that the same plan would have to be
 pursued in examining all other         
concepts--religious1 political or       
social4 ,it would be necessary to pass  
over surface symptoms and go to the     

heart of things3 to tunnel down  deep   
into ideas2 to trace out their history  
and seek out their origins4  ,there were
 no willing hands to help him in this3  
it was1 in a sense1  a work new to the  
world4 ,in consequence ,nietzsche       
perceived that he  would have to go     
slowly and that it would be needful to  
make every step  plain4 ,it was out of  
the question to expect encouragement3 if
 the task  attracted notice at all1 this
 notice would probably take the form of 
blundering opposition4 ,but ,nietzsche  
began his clearing and his road  cutting
 with a light heart4 ,the men of his day
 might call him accursed1  but in time  
his honesty would shame all denial4     
,this was his attitude  always3 he felt 
that neglect and opprobrium were all in 
his day's work  and he used to say that 
if ever the generality of men endorsed  
any idea  that he had advanced he would 
be convinced at once that he had made an
  error4    ,in his preliminary         
path-finding ,nietzsche concerned       

himself much with  the history of       
specific ideas4 ,he showed how the thing
 which was a sin  in one age became the 
virtue of the next4 ,he attacked hope1  
faith and  charity in this way1 and he  
made excursions into nearly every field 
of human thought--from art to primary   
education4 ,all of this occupied  the   
first half of the #gj's4 ,nietzsche was 
in indifferent health and  his labors   
tired him so greatly that he thought    
more than once of  giving up his post at
 ,basel1 with its dull round of         
lecturing and  quizzing4 ,but his       
private means at this time were not     
great enough  to enable him to surrender
 his salary and so he had to hold on4   
,he  thought1 too1 of going to ,vienna  
to study the natural sciences so that   
he might attain the wide and certain    
knowledge possessed by ,spencer1  but   
the same considerations forced him to   
abandon the plan4 ,he spent  his winters
 teaching and investigating and his     
summers at various                      

watering-places--from ,tribschen1 in    
,switzerland1 where the ,wagners were   
his hosts1 to ,sorrento1 in ,italy4     
,at ,sorrento he happened to take       
lodgings in a house which also          
sheltered ,dr4 ,paul ,re1 the author of 
,psychological ,observations1  ,the     
,origin of ,moral ,feelings1 and other  
metaphysical works4 ,that  ,re gave him 
great assistance he acknowledged himself
 in later years1  but that his ideas    
were1 in any sense1 due to this chance  
meeting 7as  ,max ,nordau would have us 
believe7 is out of the question1 for1 as
 we  have seen1 they were already pretty
 clear in his mind a long while  before4
 ,but ,re widened his outlook a great   
deal1 it is evident1  and undoubtedly   
made him acquainted with the ,english   
naturalists  who had sprung up as spores
 of ,darwin1 and with a number of great 
,frenchmen--,montaigne1                 
,larochefoucauld1 ,la ,bruyre1          
,fontenelle1  ,vauvenargues and         
,chamfort4    ,nietzsche had been       

setting down his thoughts and           
conclusions in the  form of brief       
memoranda and as he grew better         
acquainted with the  ,french            
philosophers1 many of whom published    
their works as collections  of          
aphorisms1 he decided to employ that    
form himself4 ,thus he began to  arrange
 the notes which were to be given to the
 world as ,menschliches  allzu          
,menschliches 7,human1 ,all-too ,human74
 ,in #ahgf he got leave  from ,basel and
 gave his whole time to the work4       
,during the winter of  #ahgf-g1 with the
 aid of a disciple named ,bernhard ,cron
 7better known as  ,peter ,gast7 he     
prepared the first volume for the press4
 ,nietzsche was  well aware that it     
would make a sensation and while it was 
being set up  his courage apparently    
forsook him and he suggested to his     
publisher  that it be sent forth        
anonymously4 ,but the latter would not  
hear of it  and so the first part left  
the press in #ahgh4    ,as the author   

had expected1 the book provoked a fine  
frenzy of horror  among the pious4 ,the 
first title chosen for it1 ,die         
,pflugschar  7,the ,plowshare71 and the 
one finally selected1 ,human1 ,all-too  
,human1 indicate that it was an attempt 
to examine the underside of  human      
ideas4 ,in it ,nietzsche challenged the 
whole of current morality4  ,he showed  
that moral ideas were not divine1 but   
human1 and that1 like  all things human1
 they were subject to change4 ,he showed
 that good  and evil were but relative  
terms1 and that it was impossible to    
say1  finally and absolutely1 that a    
certain action was right and another    
wrong4 ,he applied the acid of critical 
analysis to a hundred and one  specific 
ideas1 and his general conclusion1 to   
put it briefly1 was that  no human being
 had a right1 in any way or form1 to    
judge or direct the  actions of any     
other being4 ,herein we have1 in a few  
words1 that gospel  of individualism    
which all our sages preach today4#e     

,nietzsche sent a copy of the book to   
,wagner and the great composer was  so  
appalled that he was speechless4 ,even  
the author's devoted sister1  who       
worshipped him as an intellectual god1  
was unable to follow him4  ,germany1 in 
general1 pronounced the work a          
conglomeration of crazy  fantasies and  
wild absurdities--and ,nietzsche smiled 
with satisfaction4  ,in #ahgi he        
published the second volume1 to which he
 gave the sub-title  of ,vermischte     
,meinungen und ,sprche 7,miscellaneous  
,opinions and  ,aphorisms7 and shortly  
thereafter he finally resigned his chair
 at  ,basel4 ,the third part of the book
 appeared in #ahhj as ,der ,wanderer    
und sein ,schatten 7,the ,wanderer and  
,his ,shadow74 ,the three volumes  were 
published as two in #ahhf as            
,menschliches allzu ,menschliches  with 
the explanatory sub-title1 ,ein ,buch fr
 ,freie ,geister 7,a ,book  for ,free   
,spirits74      #a ,david ,friedrich    
,strauss 7#ahjh-gd7 sprang into fame    

with his ,das  ,leben ,jesu1 #ahce      
7,eng4 tr4 by ,george ,eliot1 #ahdf71   
but the book which  served as           
,nietzsche's target was ,der alte und   
der neue ,glaube 7,the  ,old ,faith and 
the ,new71 #ahgb4    #b ,david ,strauss1
 der ,bekenner und der ,schriftsteller1 
#g4    #c ,schopenhauer als ,erzieher1  
#h4    #d ,according to ,nietzsche's    
original plan the series was to have    
included pamphlets on ,literature and   
the ,press1 ,art and ,painters1  ,the   
,higher ,education1 ,german and         
,counter-,german1 ,war and the  ,nation1
 ,the ,teacher1 ,religion1 ,society and 
,trade1 ,society and  ,natural ,science1
 and ,the ,city1 with an epilogue       
entitled ,the ,way to  ,freedom4    #e  
,it must be remembered1 in considering  
all of ,nietzsche's writings1  that when
 he spoke of a human being1 he meant a  
being of the higher  sort--i4e4 one     
capable of clear reasoning4 ,he regarded
 the drudge  class1 which is obviously  
unable to think for itself1 as unworthy 

of  consideration4 ,its highest mission1
 he believed1 was to serve and  obey the
 master class4 ,but he held that there  
should be no artificial  barriers to the
 rise of an individual born to the      
drudge class who  showed an accidental  
capacity for independent reasoning4     
,such an  individual1 he believed1      
should be admitted1 ipso facto1 to the  
master class4 ,naturally enough1 he held
 to the converse too4 ,vide the  chapter
 on ,civilization4          ,,iv        
,,the ,,prophet ,,of ,,the ,,superman   
,nietzsche spent the winter of #ahgi-hj 
at ,naumburg1 his old home4 ,during  the
 ensuing year he was very ill1 indeed1  
and for awhile he believed  that he had 
but a short while to live4 ,like all    
such invalids he  devoted a great deal  
of time to observing and discussing his 
condition4  ,he became1 indeed1 a       
hypochondriac of the first water and    
began to take  a sort of melancholy     
pleasure in his infirmities4 ,he sought 
relief  at all the baths and cures of   

,europe3 he took hot baths1 cold baths1 
salt-water baths and mud baths4 ,every  
new form of pseudo-therapy found  him in
 its freshman class4 ,to owners of      
sanatoria and to inventors of  novel    
styles of massage1 irrigation1 sweating 
and feeding he was a joy  unlimited4    
,but he grew worse instead of better4   
,after #ahhj1 his life was a wandering  
one4 ,his sister1 after her  marriage1  
went to ,paraguay for a while1 and      
during her absence  ,nietzsche made his 
progress from the mountains to the sea1 
and then  back to the mountains again4  
,he gave up his professorship that he   
might  spend his winters in ,italy and  
his summers in the ,engadine4 ,in the   
face of all this suffering and          
travelling about1 close application1 of 
course1 was out of the question4 ,so he 
contented himself with working  whenever
 and however his headaches1 his doctors 
and the railway  time-tables would      
permit--on hotel verandas1 in           
cure-houses and in  the woods4 ,he would

 take long1 solitary walks and struggle 
with his  problems by the way4 ,he      
swallowed more and more pills2 he       
imbibed  mineral waters by the gallon2  
he grew more and more moody and         
ungenial4  ,one of his favorite haunts1 
in the winter time1 was a verdant little
  neck of land that jutted out into     
,lake ,maggiore4 ,there he could think  
and dream undisturbed4 ,one day1 when he
 found that some one had placed  a      
rustic bench on the diminutive          
peninsula1 that passersby might rest1   
he was greatly incensed4    ,nietzsche  
would make brief notes of his thoughts  
during his daylight  rambles1 and in the
 evenings would polish and expand them4 
,as we have  seen1 his early books were 
sent to the printer as mere collections 
of  aphorisms1 without effort at        
continuity4 ,sometimes a dozen subjects 
are  considered in two pages1 and then  
again1 there is occasionally a little   
essay of three or four pages4 ,nietzsche
 chose this form because it had  been   

used by the ,french philosophers he     
admired1 and because it well  suited the
 methods of work that a pain-racked     
frame imposed upon him4    ,he was ever 
in great fear that some of his precious 
ideas would be lost  to posterity--that 
death1 the ever-threatening1 would rob  
him of his  rightful immortality and the
 world of his stupendous wisdom--and so 
he  made efforts1 several times1 to     
engage an amanuensis capable of jotting 
down1 after the fashion of ,johnson's   
,boswell1 the chance phrases that  fell 
from his lips4 ,his sister was too busy 
to undertake the task3  whenever she was
 with him her whole time was employed in
 guarding him  from lion-hunters1       
scrutinizing his daily fare and deftly  
inveigling  him into answering his      
letters1 brushing his clothes and       
getting his  hair cut4 ,finally1 ,paul  
,re and another friend1 ,frulein von    
,meysenbug1  brought to his notice a    
young ,russian woman1 ,mlle4 ,lou       
,salom1 who  professed vast interest in 

his work and offered to help him4 ,but  
this  arrangement quickly ended in      
disaster1 for ,nietzsche fell in love   
with  the girl--she was only #bj--;and  
pursued her over half of ,europe when   
she  fled4 ,to add to the humors of the 
situation ,re fell in love with her     
too1 and the two friends thus became    
foes and there was even some talk  of a 
duel4 ,mlle4 ,salom1 however1 went to   
,re1 and with his aid she  later wrote a
 book about ,nietzsche4#a ,frau         
,frster-,nietzsche sneers  at that book1
 but the fact is not to be forgotten    
that she was very  jealous of ,mlle4    
,salom1 and gave constant proof of it by
 unfriendly  word and act4 ,in the end1 
the latter married one ,prof4 ,andreas  
and  settled down in ,gttingen4         
,early in #ahha ,nietzsche published    
,morgenrte 7,the ,dawn of  ,day74 ,it   
was begun at ,venice in #ahhj and       
continued at ,marienbad1  ,lago         
,maggiore and ,genoa4 ,it was1 in a     
broad way1 a continuation of            

,menschliches allzu ,menschliches4 ,it  
dealt with an infinite variety  of      
subjects1 from matrimony to             
,christianity1 and from education to    
,german patriotism4 ,to all the test of 
fundamental truth was applied3 of       
everything ,nietzsche asked1 not1 ,is it
 respectable or lawful8 but1 ,is  it    
essentially true8 ,these early works1 at
 best1 were mere note-books4  ,nietzsche
 saw that the ground would have to be   
plowed1 that people  would have to grow 
accustomed to the idea of questioning   
high and holy  things1 before a new     
system of philosophy would be           
understandable or  possible4 ,in        
,menschliches allzu ,menschliches and in
 ,morgenrte  he undertook this          
preparatory cultivation4    ,the book   
which followed1 ,die frhliche           
,wissenschaft 7,the ,joyful  ,science7  
continued the same task4 ,the first     
edition contained four  parts and was   
published in #ahhb4 ,in #ahhg a fifth   
part was added4  ,nietzsche had now     

completed his plowing and was ready to  
sow his crop4  ,he had demonstrated1 by 
practical examples1 that moral ideas    
were  vulnerable1 and that the ,ten     
,commandments might be debated4 ,going  
further1 he had adduced excellent       
historical evidence against the         
absolute truth of various current       
conceptions of right and wrong1 and  had
 traced a number of moral ideas back to 
decidedly lowly sources4 ,his  work so  
far had been entirely destructive and he
 had scarcely ventured  to hint at his  
plans for a reconstruction of the scheme
 of things4  ,as he himself says1 he    
spent the four years between #ahgh and  
#ahhb in  preparing the way for his     
later work4    ,i descended1 he says1   
into the lowest depths1 ,i searched to  
the  bottom1 ,i examined and pried into 
an old faith on which1 for thousands  of
 years1 philosophers had built as upon a
 secure foundation4 ,the old  structures
 came tumbling down about me4 ,i        
undermined our old faith in  morals4#b  

,this labor accomplished1 ,nietzsche was
 ready to set forth his own  notion of  
the end and aim of existence4 ,he had   
shown that the old  morality was like an
 apple rotten at the core--that the     
,christian  ideal of humility made      
mankind weak and miserable2 that many   
institutions regarded with superstitious
 reverence1 as the direct  result of    
commands from the creator 7such1 for    
instance1 as the family1  the church and
 the state71 were mere products of man's
 all-too-human  cupidity1 cowardice1    
stupidity and yearning for ease4 ,he had
 turned  the searchlight of truth upon  
patriotism1 charity and self-sacrifice4 
,he had shown that many things held to  
be utterly and unquestionably  good or  
bad by modern civilization were once    
given quite different  values--that the 
ancient ,greeks considered hope a sign  
of weakness1 and  mercy the attribute of
 a fool1 and that the ,jews1 in their   
royal days1  looked upon wrath1 not as a
 sin1 but as a virtue--and in general he

 had  demonstrated1 by countless        
instances and arguments1 that all       
notions of  good and evil were mutable  
and that no man could ever say1 with    
utter  certainty1 that one thing was    
right and another wrong4    ,the ground 
was now cleared for the work of         
reconstruction and the first  structure 
that ,nietzsche reared was ,also sprach 
,zarathustra 7,thus  ,spake ,zoroaster74
 ,this book1 to which he gave the       
sub-title of ,ein  ,buch fr ,alle und   
,keinen 7,a book for all and none71 took
 the form  of a fantastic1 half-poetical
 half-philosophical rhapsody4 ,nietzsche
  had been delving into oriental        
mysticism and from the law-giver of the 
ancient ,persians he borrowed the name  
of his hero--,zoroaster4 ,but there  was
 no further resemblance between the two1
 and no likeness whatever  between      
,nietzsche's philosophy and that of the 
,persians4    ,the ,zoroaster of the    
book is a sage who lives remote from    
mankind1  and with no attendants but a  

snake and an eagle4 ,the book is in four
  parts and all are made up of          
discourses by ,zoroaster4 ,these        
discourses  are delivered to various    
audiences during the prophet's          
occasional  wanderings and at the       
conferences he holds with various       
disciples in  the cave that he calls    
home4 ,they are decidedly oriental in   
form and  recall the manner and         
phraseology of the biblical rhapsodists4
 ,toward  the end ,nietzsche throws all 
restraint to the winds and indulges to  
his  heart's content in the rare and    
exhilarating sport of blasphemy4 ,there 
is a sort of parody of the last supper  
and ,zoroaster's backsliding  disciples 
engage in the grotesque and indecent    
worship of a jackass4  ,wagner and other
 enemies of the author appear1 thinly   
veiled1 as  ridiculous buffoons4    ,in 
his discourses ,zoroaster voices the    
,nietzschean idea of the  superman--the 
idea that has come to be associated with
 ,nietzsche more  than any other4 ,later

 on1 it will be set forth in detail4    
,for the  present1 suffice it to say    
that it is the natural child of the     
notions  put forward in ,nietzsche's    
first book1 ,the ,birth of ,tragedy1 and
 that  it binds his entire life work    
together into one consistent1 harmonious
  whole4 ,the first part of ,also sprach
 ,zarathustra was published in  #ahhc1  
the second part following in the same   
year1 and the third part  was printed in
 #ahhd4 ,the last part was privately    
circulated among the  author's friends  
in #ahhe1 but was not given to the      
public until #ahib1  when the entire    
work was printed in one volume4 ,as     
showing ,nietzsche's  wandering life1 it
 may be recorded that the book was      
conceived in the  ,engadine and written 
in ,genoa1 ,sils ,maria1 ,nice and      
,mentone4    ,jenseits von ,gut und ,bse
 7,beyond ,good and ,evil7 appeared  in 
#ahhf4 ,in this book ,nietzsche         
elaborated and systematized his         
criticism of morals1 and undertook to   

show why he considered modern           
civilization degrading4 ,here he finally
 formulated his definitions of          
master-morality and slave-morality1 and 
showed how ,christianity was            
necessarily the idea of a race oppressed
 and helpless1 and eager to  escape the 
lash of its masters4    ,zur ,genealogie
 der ,moral 7,the ,genealogy of         
,morals71 which  appeared in #ahhg1     
developed these propositions still      
further4 ,in it  there was also a       
partial return to ,nietzsche's earlier  
manner1 with  its merciless analysis of 
moral concepts4 ,in #ahhh ,nietzsche    
published  a most vitriolic attack upon 
,wagner1 under the title of ,der ,fall  
,wagner 7,the ,case of ,wagner71 the    
burden of which was the author's        
discovery that the composer1 starting1  
with him1 from ,schopenhauer's          
premises1 had ended1 not with the       
superman1 but with the ,man on the      
cross4 ,gtzendmmerung 7,the ,twilight of
 the ,idols7 a sort of  parody of       

,wagner's ,gtterdmmerung 7,the ,twilight
 of the ,gods7  followed in #ahhi4      
,nietzsche contra ,wagner 7,nietzsche   
versus  ,wagner7 was printed the same   
year4 ,it was made up of extracts from  
the  philosopher's early works1 and was 
designed to prove that1 contrary to  the
 allegations of his enemies1 he had not 
veered completely about in  his attitude
 toward ,wagner4    ,meanwhile1 despite 
the fact that his health was fast       
declining and he  was approaching the   
verge of insanity1 ,nietzsche made plans
 for a great  four volume work that was 
to sum up his philosophy and stand      
forever as  his magnum opus4 ,the four  
volumes1 as he planned them1 were to    
bear  the following titles3    #a4 ,der 
,antichrist3 ,versuch einer ,kritik des 
,christenthums 7,the  ,anti-,christ3 an 
,attempt at a ,criticism of             
,christianity74    #b4 ,der freie       
,geist3 ,kritik der ,philosophie als    
einer nihilistischen  ,bewegung 7,the   
,free ,spirit3 a ,criticism of          

,philosophy as a ,nihilistic            
,movement74    #c4 ,der ,immoralist3    
,kritik der verhngnissvollsten ,art von 
,unwissenheit1 der ,moral 7,the         
,immoralist3 a ,criticism of ,that      
,fatal  ,species of ,ignorance1         
,morality74    #d4 ,dionysus1           
,philosophie der ewigen ,wiederkunft    
7,dionysus1 the  ,philosophy of ,eternal
 ,recurrence74    ,this work was to be  
published under the general title of    
,der ,wille  zur ,macht3 ,versuch einer 
,umwerthung aller ,werthe 7,the ,will to
 ,power3  an ,attempt at a              
,transvaluation of all ,values71 but    
,nietzsche got no  further than the     
first book1 ,der ,antichrist and a mass 
of rough  notes for the others4 ,der    
,antichrist probably the most brilliant 
piece of writing that ,germany had seen 
in half a century1 was written  at great
 speed between ,september #crd and      
,september #cjth1 #ahhh1 but it  was not
 published until #ahie1 six years after 
the philosopher had laid  down his work 

forever4    ,during that same year ,c4  
,g4 ,naumann1 the ,leipsic publisher1   
began the  issue of a definite edition  
of all his writings1 in fifteen volumes1
  under the editorial direction of ,frau
 ,frster-,nietzsche1 ,dr4 ,fritz        
,koegel1 ,peter ,gast and ,e4 von der   
,hellen4 ,in this edition his notes  for
 ,der ,wille zur ,macht and his early   
philological essays were  included4 ,the
 notes are of great interest to the     
serious student of  ,nietzsche1 for they
 show how some of his ideas changed with
 the years  and point out the probable  
structure of his final system1 but the  
general reader will find them chaotic1  
and often incomprehensible4  ,in        
,october1 #ahhh1 but three months before
 his breakdown1 he began a  critical    
autobiography with the title of ,ecce   
,homo1 and it was  completed in three   
weeks4 ,it is an extremely frank and    
entertaining  book1 with such chapter   
headings as ,why ,i am so ,wise1 ,why ,i
 ,write  ,such ,excellent ,books and    

,why ,i am a ,fatality4 ,in it          
,nietzsche sets  forth his private      
convictions regarding a great many      
things1 from  cooking to climates1 and  
discusses each of his books in detail4  
,ecce  ,homo was not printed until      
#aijh1 when it appeared at ,leipsic in a
  limited edition of #abej copies4      
,in ,january1 #ahhi1 at ,turin1 where he
 was living alone in very humble        
quarters1 ,nietzsche suddenly became    
hopelessly insane4 ,his friends got     
news of it from his own hand4 ,i am     
,ferdinand de ,lesseps1 he wrote to     
,prof4 ,burckhardt of ,basel4 ,to       
,cosima ,wagner3 ,ariadne1 ,i love you6 
,to ,georg ,brandes1 the ,danish critic1
 he sent a telegram signed ,the         
,crucified4 ,franz ,overbeck1 an old    
,basel friend1 at once set out for      
,turin1 and there he found ,nietzsche   
thumping the piano with his elbows  and 
singing wild songs4 ,overbeck brought   
him back to ,basel and he was  confined 
in a private asylum1 where his general  

health greatly improved  and hopes were 
entertained of his recovery4 ,but he    
never got well  enough to be left alone1
 and so his old mother1 with whom he had
 been  on bad terms for years1 took him 
back to ,naumburg4 ,when1 in #ahic1 his 
sister ,elizabeth returned from         
,paraguay1 where her husband had died1  
he was well enough to meet her at the   
railroad station4 ,four years  later1   
when their mother died1 ,elizabeth      
removed him to ,weimar1 where  she      
bought a villa called ,silberblick      
7,silver ,view7 in the suburbs4  ,this  
villa had a garden overlooking the hills
 and the lazy river ,ilm1  and a wide1  
sheltered veranda for the invalid's     
couch4 ,there he would  sit day after   
day1 receiving old friends but saying   
little4 ,his mind  never became clear   
enough for him to resume work1 or even  
to read4 ,he  had to grope for words1   
slowly and painfully1 and he retained   
only a  cloudy memory of his own books4 
,his chief delight was in music and he  

was always glad when someone came who   
could play the piano for him4    ,there 
is something poignantly pathetic in the 
picture of this  valiant fighter--this  
arrogant ja-sager--this foe of men1 gods
 and  devils--being nursed and coddled  
like a little child4 ,his old fierce    
pride and courage disappeared and he    
became docile and gentle4 ,you  and ,i1 
my sister--we are happy6 he would say1  
and then his hand  would slip out from  
his coverings and clasp that of the     
tender and  faithful ,lisbeth4 ,once she
 mentioned ,wagner to him4 ,den habe ich
 sehr  geliebt6 he said4 ,all his old   
fighting spirit was gone4 ,he remembered
  only the glad days and the dreams of  
his youth4    ,nietzsche died at ,weimar
 on ,august #be1 #aijj1 the immediate   
cause of  death being pneumonia4 ,his   
ashes are buried in the little village  
of  ,rcken1 his birthplace4      #a     
,friedrich ,nietzsche in seinen ,werken2
 ,vienna1 #ahid4    #b ,preface to      
,morgenrte1  #b2 autumn1 #ahhf4         

,v      ,,the ,,philosopher ,,and ,,the 
,,man      ,my brother1 says ,frau      
,frster-,nietzsche1 in her biography1   
was  stockily and broadly built and was 
anything but thin4 ,he had a rather     
dark1 healthy1 ruddy complexion4 ,in all
 things he was tidy and orderly1  in    
speech he was soft-spoken1 and in       
general1 he was inclined to be  serene  
under all circumstances4 ,all in all1 he
 was the very antithesis  of a nervous  
man4    ,in the fall of #ahhh1 he said  
of himself1 in a reminiscent memorandum3
  ',my blood moves slowly4 ,a doctor who
 treated me a long while for what  was  
at first diagnosed as a nervous         
affection said3 ,no1 your trouble       
cannot be in your nerves4 ,i myself am  
much more nervous than you4'444    ,my  
brother1 both before and after his long 
illness seized him1 was  a believer in  
natural methods of healing4 ,he took    
cold baths1 rubbed  down every morning  
and was quite faithful in continuing    
light1 bed-room  gymnastics4    ,at one 

time1 she says1 ,nietzsche became a     
violent vegetarian and  afflicted his   
friends with the ancient vegetarian     
horror of making a  sarcophagus of one's
 stomach4 ,it seems surprising that a   
man so quick  to perceive errors1 saw   
none in the silly argument that1 because
 an  ape's organs are designed for a    
vegetarian diet1 a man's are so planned 
also4 ,an acquaintance with elementary  
anatomy and physiology would  have shown
 him the absurdity of this1 but         
apparently he knew little  about the    
human body1 despite his uncanny skill at
 unearthing the  secrets of the human   
mind4 ,nietzsche had read ,emerson in   
his youth1  and those ,emersonian seeds 
which have come to full flower in the   
,united ,states as the so-called ,new   
,thought movement--with ,christian      
,science1 osteopathy1 mental telepathy1 
occultism1 pseudo-psychology and  that  
grand lodge of credulous comiques1 the  
,society for ,psychical  ,research1 as  
its final blossoms--all of this probably

 made its mark on  the philosopher of   
the superman1 too4    ,frau             
,frster-,nietzsche1 in her biography1   
seeks to prove the impossible  thesis   
that her brother1 despite his constant  
illness1 was ever  well-balanced in     
mind4 ,it is but fair to charge that her
 own evidence  is against her4 ,from his
 youth onward1 ,nietzsche was           
undoubtedly a  neurasthenic1 and after  
the ,franco-,prussian war he was a      
constant  sufferer from all sorts of    
terrible ills--some imaginary1 no doubt1
  but others real enough4 ,in many ways1
 his own account of his symptoms        
recalls vividly the long catalogue of   
aches and pains given by ,herbert       
,spencer in his autobiography4 ,spencer 
had queer pains in his head and  so did 
,nietzsche4 ,spencer roved about all his
 life in search of health  and so did   
,nietzsche4 ,spencer's working hours    
were limited and so were  ,nietzsche's4 
,the latter tells us himself that1 in a 
single year1 #ahgh1  he was disabled    

#aah days by headaches and pains in the 
eyes4    ,dr4 ,gould1 the prophet of    
eye-strain1 would have us believe that  
both of these great philosophers        
suffered because they had read too  much
 during adolescence4 ,it is more likely1
 however1 that each was  the victim of  
some definite organic malady1 and       
perhaps of more  than one4 ,in          
,nietzsche's case things were constantly
 made worse by  his fondness for        
self-medication1 that vice of fools4    
,preparatory to  his service as a       
hospital steward in #ahgj he had        
attended a brief  course of first-aid   
lectures at the military hospital at    
,erlangen1  and thereafter he regarded  
himself as a finished pathologist and   
was  forever taking his own doses4 ,the 
amount of medicine he thus swallowed    
was truly appalling1 and the only way he
 could break his appetite for  one drug 
was by acquiring an appetite for        
another4 ,chloral1 however1  was his    
favorite1 and toward the end he took it 

daily and in staggering  quantities4    
,meanwhile1 his mental disturbances grew
 more and more visible4 ,at  times he   
would be highly excited and exalted1    
denouncing his foes1 and  proclaiming   
his own genius4 ,this was his state when
 his friends were  finally forced to put
 him under restraint4 ,at other times he
 would show  symptoms of melancholia--a 
feeling of isolation and friendlessness1
  a great sadness1 a foreboding of      
death4 ,the hostility with which his    
books were received gave sharpness and  
plausibility to this mood1 and  it      
pursued him through many a despairing   
day4    ,an animal1 when it is sick1 he 
wrote to ,baron von ,seydlitz1 in       
#ahhh1 slinks away to some dark cavern1 
and so1 too1 does the bte  philosophe4  
,i am alone--absurdly alone--and in my  
unflinching and  toilsome struggle      
against all that men have hitherto held 
sacred and  venerable1 ,i have become a 
sort of dark cavern myself--something   
hidden  and mysterious1 which is not to 

be explored4444 ,but the mood vanished  
as the words were penned1 and the       
defiant dionysian roared his  challenge 
at his foes4 ,it is not impossible1 he  
said1 that ,i am the  greatest          
philosopher of the century--perhaps even
 more than that6 ,i may  be the decisive
 and fateful link between two thousand  
centuries6#a    ,max ,nordau#b says that
 ,nietzsche was crazy from birth1 but   
the facts  do not bear him out4 ,it is  
much more reasonable to hold that the   
philosopher came into the world a sound 
and healthy animal1 and that it         
remained for overstudy in his youth1    
over-work and over drugging later  on1  
exposure on the battle field1 functional
 disorders and constant and  violent    
strife to undermine and eventually      
overthrow his intellect4    ,but if we  
admit the indisputable fact that        
,nietzsche died a madman  and the       
equally indisputable fact that his      
insanity was not sudden1  but           
progressive1 we by no means read him out

 of court as a thinker4 ,a  man's       
reasoning is to be judged1 not by his   
physical condition1 but  by its own     
ingenuity and accuracy4 ,if a raving    
maniac says that twice  two make four1  
it is just as true as it would be if    
,pope ,pius ,x or  any other undoubtedly
 sane man were to maintain it4 ,judged  
in this  way ,nietzsche's philosophy is 
very far from insane4 ,later on we shall
  consider it as a workable system1 and 
point out its apparent truths and       
apparent errors1 but in no place        
7saving1 perhaps1 one7 is his argument  
to be dismissed as the phantasm of a    
lunatic4    ,nietzsche's sister says    
that1 in the practical affairs of life1 
the  philosopher was absurdly           
impractical4 ,he cared nothing for money
 and  during the better part of his life
 had little need to do so4 ,his  mother1
 for a country pastor's widow1 was      
well-to-do1 and when he was  twenty-five
 his professorship at ,basel brought him
 #c1jjj francs a  year4 ,at ,basel1 in  

the late sixties1 #c1jjj francs was the 
income of an  independent1 not to say   
opulent man4 ,nietzsche was a bachelor  
and lived  very simply4 ,it was only    
upon books and music and travel that he 
was  extravagant4    ,after two years'  
service at ,basel1 the university       
authorities raised  his wage to #d1jjj  
francs1 and in #ahgi1 when ill health   
forced him to  resign1 they gave him a  
pension of #c1jjj francs a year4        
,besides that1  he inherited #cj1jjj    
marks from one of his aunts1 and so1    
altogether1 he  had an income of #ijj or
 #a1jjj a year--the sum which ,herbert  
,spencer  regarded1 all his life1 as an 
insurance of perfect tranquillity and   
happiness4    ,nietzsche's passion and  
dissipation1 throughout his life1 was   
music4  ,in all his books musical terms 
and figures of speech are constantly    
encountered4 ,he played the piano very  
well1 indeed1 and was especially  fond  
of performing transcriptions of the     
,wagner opera scores4 ,my three         

solaces1 he wrote home from ,leipsic1   
are ,schopenhauer's philosophy1         
,schumann's music and solitary walks4   
,in his late youth1 ,wagner  engrossed  
him1 but his sympathies were broad      
enough to include ,bach1  ,schubert and 
,mendelssohn4 ,his admiration for the   
last named1 in fact1  helped to alienate
 him from ,wagner1 who regarded the     
,mendelssohn scheme  of things as       
unspeakable4    ,nietzsche's own        
compositions were decidedly heavy and   
scholastic4  ,he was a skillful         
harmonist and contrapuntalist1 but his  
musical  ideas lacked life4 ,into the   
simplest songs he introduced harsh and  
far-fetched modulations4 ,the music of  
,richard ,strauss1 who professes  to be 
his disciple and has found inspiration  
in his ,also sprach  ,zarathustra would 
have delighted him4 ,strauss has        
achieved the  uncanny feat of writing in
 two keys at once4 ,such an effort would
 have  enlisted ,nietzsche's keen       
interest4    ,all the same1 his music   

was not a mere creature of the study and
  of rules1 and we have evidence that he
 was frequently inspired  to composition
 by bursts of strong emotion4 ,on his   
way to the  ,franco-,prussian war1 he   
wrote a patriotic song1 words and music1
  on the train4 ,he called it ,adieu6 ,i
 ,must ,go6 and arranged it for  men's  
chorus1 a capella4 ,it would be worth   
while to hear a ,german  mnnerchor1 with
 its high1 beery tenors1 and ponderous  
basses1 sing  this curious composition4 
,certainly no more grotesque music was  
ever  put on paper by mortal man4       
,much has been written by various       
commentators about the strange charm  of
 ,nietzsche's prose style4 ,he was1     
indeed1 a master of the ,german         
language1 but this mastery was not      
inborn4 ,like ,spencer he made a        
deliberate effort1 early in life1 to    
acquire ease and force in writing4  ,his
 success was far greater than           
,spencer's4 ,toward the end--in ,der    
,antichrist1 for instance--he attained a

 degree of powerful and  convincing     
utterance almost comparable to          
,huxley's4 ,but his style never         
exhibited quite that wonderful air of   
clearness1 of utter certainty1  of      
inevitableness which makes the ,lay     
,sermons so tremendously  impressive4   
,nietzsche was ever nearer to ,carlyle  
than to ,addison4 ,his  style1 says a   
writer in the ,athenum1 is a shower of  
sparks1 which  scatter1 like fireworks1 
all over the sky4    ,my sense for form1
 says ,nietzsche himself1 awakened on my
 coming in  contact with ,sallust4      
,later on he studied the great ,french  
stylists1  particularly                 
,larochefoucauld1 and learned much from 
them4 ,he became a  master of the       
aphorism and the epigram1 and this      
skill1 very naturally1  led him to      
descend1 now and then1 to mere violence 
and invective4  ,he called his opponents
 all sorts of harsh names--liar1        
swindler1  counterfeiter1 ox1 ass1 snake
 and thief4 ,whatever he had to say1 he 

hammered in with gigantic blows1 and to 
the accompaniment of fearsome  bellowing
 and grimacing4 ,nervous1 vivid and     
picturesques1 full of  fire and a       
splendid vitality1 says one critic1 his 
style flashed and  coruscated like a    
glowing flame1 and had a sort of        
dithyrambic movement  that at times     
recalls the swing of the ,pindaric odes4
 ,naturally1 this  very abandon made his
 poetry formless and grotesque4 ,he     
scorned  metres and rhymes and raged on 
in sheer savagery4 ,reading his verses  
one is forced irresistibly into the     
thought that they should be printed  in 
varied fonts of type and in a dozen     
brilliant inks4    ,nietzsche never     
married1 but he was by no means a       
misogynist4 ,his  sister tells us1      
indeed1 that he made a formal proposal  
of marriage to  a young ,dutch woman1   
,frulein ,tr----1 at ,geneva in #ahgf1  
and the story  of his melodramatic      
affair with ,mlle4 ,lou ,salom1 six     
years later1 was  briefly rehearsed in  

the last chapter4 ,there were also other
 women in  his life1 early and late1 and
 certain scandal-mongers do not hesitate
  to accuse him of a passion for ,cosima
 ,wagner1 apparently on the ground  that
 he wrote to her1 in his last mad days1 
,ariadne1 ,i love thee6 ,but  his       
intentions were seldom serious4 ,even   
when he pursued ,mlle4 ,salom  from     
,rome to ,leipsic and quarrelled with   
his sister about her1 and  threatened   
poor ,re with fire-arms1 there is good  
reason to believe  that he shied at bell
 and book4 ,his proposal1 in brief1 was 
rather one  of a free union than one of 
marriage4 ,for the rest1 he kept safely 
to  impossible flirtations4 ,during all 
his wanderings he was much petted  by   
the belles of pump room and hotel       
parlor1 not only because he was a       
mysterious and romantic looking fellow1 
but also because his philosophy  was    
thought to be blasphemous and indecent1 
particularly by those  who knew nothing 
about it4 ,but the fair admirers he     

singled out were  either securely       
married or hopelessly antique4 ,for me  
to marry1 he  soliloquized in #ahhg1    
would probably be sheer asininity4      
,there are sentimental critics who hold 
that ,nietzsche's utter lack  of        
geniality was due to his lack of a wife4
 ,a good woman--alike  beautiful and    
sensible--would have rescued him1 they  
say1 from his  gloomy fancies4 ,he would
 have expanded and mellowed in the      
sunshine of  her smiles1 and children   
would have civilized him4 ,the defect in
 this  theory lies in the fact that     
philosophers do not seem to flourish    
amid  scenes of connubial joy4 ,high    
thinking1 it would appear1 presupposes  
boarding house fare and hall bed-rooms4 
,spinoza1 munching his solitary  herring
 up his desolate backstairs1 makes a    
picture that pains us1  perhaps1 but it 
must be admitted that it also satisfies 
our sense  of eternal fitness4 ,a       
married ,spinoza1 with two sons at      
college1  another managing the family   

lens business1 a daughter busy with her 
trousseau and a wife growing querulous  
and fat--the vision1 alas1 is           
preposterous1 outrageous and impossible6
 ,we must think of philosophers  as     
beings alone but not lonesome4 ,a       
married ,schopenhauer or ,kant or       
,nietzsche would be unthinkable4        
,that a venture into matrimony might    
have somewhat modified ,nietzsche's     
view of womankind is not at all         
improbable1 but that this change would  
have been in the direction of greater   
accuracy does not follow4 ,he  would    
have been either a ridiculously         
henpecked slave or a violent  domestic  
tyrant4 ,as a bachelor he was           
comparatively well-to-do1 but  with a   
wife and children his thousand a year   
would have meant genteel  beggary4 ,his 
sister had her own income and her own   
affairs4 ,when he  needed her1 she was  
ever at his side1 but when his working  
fits were  upon him--when he felt       
efficient and self-sufficient--she      

discreetly  disappeared4 ,a wife's      
constant presence1 day in and day out1  
would have  irritated him beyond measure
 or reduced him to a state of compliance
  and sloth4 ,nietzsche himself sought  
to show1 in more than one place1  that a
 man whose whole existence was colored  
by one woman would  inevitably acquire  
some trace of her feminine outlook1 and 
so lose his  own sure vision4 ,the ideal
 state for a philosopher1 indeed1 is    
celibacy  tempered by polygamy4 ,he must
 study women1 but he must be free1 when 
he pleases1 to close his note book and  
go away and digest its contents  with an
 open mind4    ,toward the end of his   
life1 when increasing illness made him  
helpless1  ,nietzsche's faithful sister 
took the place of wife and mother in his
  clouding world4 ,she made a home for  
him and she sat by and watched  him4    
,they talked for hours--,nietzsche      
propped up with pillows1 his old        
ruddiness faded into a deathly white1   
and his ,niagara of a moustache  showing

 dark against his pallid skin4 ,they    
talked of ,naumburg and the  days of    
long ago and the fiery prophet of the   
superman became simple  ,brother ,fritz4
 ,we are apt to forget that a great man 
is thus not only  great1 but also a man3
 that a philosopher1 in a life time1    
spends less  hours pondering the destiny
 of the race than he gives over to      
wondering  if it will rain tomorrow and 
to meditating upon the toughness of     
steaks1 the dustiness of roads1 the     
stuffiness of railway coaches and  the  
brigandage of gas companies4            
,nietzsche's sister was the only human  
being that ever saw him  intimately1 as 
a wife might have seen him4 ,her        
affection for him  was perfect and her  
influence over him perfect1 too4 ,love  
and  understanding1 faith and           
gentleness--these are the things which  
make  women the angels of joyous        
illusion4 ,lisbeth1 the calm and        
trusting1  had all in boundless         
richness4 ,there was1 indeed1 something 

noble1  and almost holy in the eagerness
 with which she sought her brother's    
comfort and peace of mind during his    
days of stress and storm1 and  magnified
 his virtues after he was gone4      #a 
,thomas ,common3 ,nietzsche as ,critic1 
,philosopher1 ,poet and  ,prophet2      
,london1 #aija1 p4 #ed4    #b           
,degeneration2 ,eng4 tr43 ,new ,york1   
#ahie2 pp4 #dae-dga4                    
,,nietzsche ,,the ,,philosopher         
,i        ,,dionysus ,,versus ,,apollo  
,in one of the preceding chapters       
,nietzsche's theory of ,greek tragedy   
was given in outline and its dependence 
upon the data of ,schopenhauer's        
philosophy was indicated4 ,it is now in 
order to examine this theory  a bit more
 closely and to trace out its origin and
 development with  greater dwelling upon
 detail4 ,in itself it is of interest   
only as a  step forward in the art of   
literary criticism1 but in its influence
  upon ,nietzsche's ultimate inquiries  
it has colored1 to a measurable  extent1

 the whole stream of modern thought4    
,schopenhauer laid down1 as his cardinal
 principle1 it will be recalled1  the   
idea that1 in all the complex whirlpool 
of phenomena we call  human life1 the   
mere will to survive is at the bottom of
 everything1  and that intelligence1    
despite its seeming kingship in         
civilization1  is nothing more1 after   
all1 than a secondary manifestation of  
this  primary will4 ,in certain purely  
artificial situations1 it may seem to   
us that reason stands alone 7as when1   
for example1 we essay to solve  an      
abstract problem in mathematics71 but in
 everything growing out of  our         
relations as human beings1 one to the   
other1 the old instinct of              
race-and-self-preservation is plainly   
discernible4 ,all of our acts1  when    
they are not based obviously and        
directly upon our yearning to eat  and  
take our ease and beget our kind1 are   
founded upon our desire to  appear      
superior1 in some way or other1 to our  

fellow men about us1 and  this desire   
for superiority1 reduced to its lowest  
terms1 is merely  a desire to face the  
struggle for existence--to eat and      
beget--under  more favorable conditions 
than those the world accords the average
 man4  ,happiness is the feeling that   
power increases--that resistance is     
being overcome4#a    ,nietzsche went to 
,basel firmly convinced that these      
fundamental ideas  of ,schopenhauer were
 profoundly true1 though he soon essayed
 to make an  amendment to them4 ,this   
amendment consisted in changing         
,schopenhauer's  will to live into will 
to power4 ,that which does not live1 he 
argued1 cannot exercise a will to live1 
and when a thing is already  in         
existence1 how can it strive after      
existence8 ,nietzsche voiced the        
argument many times1 but its vacuity is 
apparent upon brief inspection4  ,he    
started out1 in fact1 with an incredibly
 clumsy misinterpretation  of           
,schopenhauer's phrase4 ,the philosopher

 of pessimism1 when he said  will to    
live obviously meant1 not will to begin 
living1 but will to  continue living4   
,now1 this will to continue living1 if  
we are to accept  words at their usual  
meaning1 is plainly identical1 in every 
respect1  with ,nietzsche's will to     
power4 ,therefore1 ,nietzsche's         
amendment was  nothing more than the    
coinage of a new phrase to express an   
old idea4  ,the unity of the two        
philosophers and the identity of the two
 phrases  are proved a thousand times by
 ,nietzsche's own discourses4 ,like     
,schopenhauer he believed that all human
 ideas were the direct products  of the 
unconscious and unceasing effort of all 
living creatures to  remain alive4 ,like
 ,schopenhauer he believed that abstract
 ideas1 in  man1 arose out of concrete  
ideas1 and that the latter arose out of 
experience1 which1 in turn1 was nothing 
more or less than an ordered            
remembrance of the results following an 
endless series of endeavors to  meet the

 conditions of existence and so survive4
 ,like ,schopenhauer1  he believed that 
the criminal laws1 the poetry1 the      
cookery and the  religion of a race were
 alike expressions of this unconscious  
groping  for the line of least          
resistance4    ,as a philologist1       
,nietzsche's interest1 very naturally1  
was fixed upon  the literature of       
,greece and ,rome1 and so it was but    
natural that his  first tests of        
,schopenhauer's doctrines should be made
 in that field4  ,some time before this1
 he had asked himself 7as many another  
man had  asked before him7 why it was   
that the ancient ,greeks1 who were an   
efficient and vigorous people1 living in
 a green and sunny land1 should  so     
delight in gloomy tragedies4 ,one would 
fancy that a ,greek1 when  he set out to
 spend a pleasant afternoon1 would seek 
entertainment  that was frivolous and   
gay4 ,but instead1 he often preferred to
 see  one of the plays of ,thespis1     
schylus1 ,phrynichus or ,pratinus1 in   

which the heroes fought hopeless battles
 with fate and died miserably1  in      
wretchedness and despair4 ,nietzsche    
concluded that the ,greeks  had this    
liking for tragedy because it seemed to 
them to set forth1  truthfully and      
understandably1 the conditions of life  
as they found  it3 that it appeared to  
them as a reasonable and accurate       
picture  of human existence4 ,the gods  
ordered the drama on the real stage of  
the world2 the dramatist ordered the    
drama on the mimic stage of the         
theatre--and the latter attained        
credibility and verisimilitude in       
proportion as it approached an exact    
imitation or reproduction of the        
former4 ,nietzsche saw that this quality
 of realism was the essence of  all     
stage plays4 ,only insofar as the       
dramatist1 he said1 coalesces  with the 
primordial dramatist of the world1 does 
he reach the true  function of his      
craft4#b ,man posits himself as the     
standard4444 ,a  race cannot do         

otherwise than thus acquiesce in        
itself4#c ,in other  words1 man is      
interested in nothing whatever that has 
no bearing upon  his own fate3 he       
himself is his own hero4 ,thus the      
ancient ,greeks were  fond of tragedy   
because it reflected their life in      
miniature4 ,in the  mighty warriors who 
stalked the boards and defied the gods  
each ,greek  recognized himself4 ,in the
 conflicts on the stage he saw replicas 
of  that titanic conflict which seemed  
to him to be the eternal essence of     
human existence4    ,but why did the    
,greeks regard life as a conflict8 ,in  
seeking an answer  to this ,nietzsche   
studied the growth of their civilization
 and of  their race ideas4 ,these race  
ideas1 as among all other peoples1 were 
visualized and crystallized in the      
qualities1 virtues and opinions         
attributed to the racial gods4          
,therefore1 ,nietzsche undertook an     
inquiry into the nature of the gods set 
up by the ,greeks1 and  particularly    

into the nature of the two gods who     
controlled the general  scheme of ,greek
 life1 and1 in consequence1 of ,greek   
art1--for art1 as  we have seen1 is     
nothing more or less than a race's view 
or opinion of  itself1 i4e4 an          
expression of the things it sees and the
 conclusions it  draws when it observes 
and considers itself4 ,these gods were  
,apollo  and ,dionysus4    ,apollo1     
according to the ,greeks1 was the       
inventor of music1 poetry and  oratory1 
and as such1 became the god of all art4 
,under his beneficent  sway the ,greeks 
became a race of artists and acquired   
all the  refinement and culture that    
this implies4 ,but the art that he      
taught  them was essentially            
contemplative and subjective4 ,it       
depicted1 not so  much things as they   
were1 as things as they had been4 ,thus 
it became  a mere record1 and as such1  
exhibited repose as its chief quality4  
,whether it were expressed as sculpture1
 architecture1 painting or epic  poetry1

 this element of repose1 or of action   
translated into repose1  was uppermost4 
,a painting of a man running1 no matter 
how vividly it  suggests the vitality   
and activity of the runner1 is itself a 
thing  inert and lifeless4              
,architecture1 no matter how much its   
curves suggest  motion and its hard     
lines the strength which may be         
translated into  energy1 is itself a    
thing immovable4 ,poetry1 so long as it 
takes the  form of the epic and is thus 
merely a chronicle of past actions1 is  
as  lifeless1 at bottom1 as a tax list4 
,the ,greeks1 during ,apollo's reign as 
god of art1 thus turned art into  a mere
 inert fossil or record--a record either
 of human life itself or  of the        
emotions which the vicissitudes of life 
arouse in the spectator4  ,this notion  
of art was reflected in their whole     
civilization4 ,they  became singers of  
songs and weavers of metaphysical webs  
rather than  doers of deeds1 and the man
 who could carve a flower was more      

honored  among them than the man who    
could grow one4 ,in brief1 they began to
  degenerate and go stale4 ,great men   
and great ideas grew few4 ,they were  on
 the downward road4    ,what they       
needed1 of course1 was the shock of     
contact with some  barbarous1 primitive 
people--an infusion of good red blood   
from some  race that was still fighting 
for its daily bread and had had no time 
to grow contemplative and retrospective 
and fat4 ,this infusion of red  blood   
came in good time1 but instead of coming
 from without 7as it did  years         
afterward in ,rome1 when the ,goths     
swooped down from the ,north71  it came 
from within4 ,that is to say1 there was 
no actual invasion of  barbarian hordes1
 but merely an auto-reversion to simpler
 and more  primitive ideas1 which fanned
 the dormant energy of the ,greeks into 
flame and so allowed them to accomplish 
their own salvation4 ,this  impulse came
 in the form of a sudden craze for a new
 god--,bacchus  ,dionysus4    ,bacchus  

was a rude1 boisterous fellow and the   
very antithesis of the  quiet1          
contemplative ,apollo4 ,we remember him 
today merely as the god of  wine1 but in
 his time he stood1 not only for        
drinking and carousing1  but also for a 
whole system of art and a whole notion  
of civilization4  ,apollo represented   
the life meditative2 ,bacchus ,dionysus 
represented  the life strenuous4 ,the   
one favored those forms of art by which 
human  existence is halted and embalmed 
in some lifeless medium--sculpture1     
architecture1 painting or epic poetry4  
,the other was the god of life  in      
process of actual being1 and so stood   
for those forms of art which  are not   
mere records or reflections of past     
existence1 but brief  snatches of       
present existence itself--dancing1      
singing1 music and the  drama4    ,it   
will be seen that this barbarous        
invasion of the new god and his  minions
 made a profound change in the whole of 
,greek culture4 ,instead  of devoting   

their time to writing epics1 praising   
the laws1 splitting  philosophical hairs
 and hewing dead marble1 the ,greeks    
began to  question all things made and  
ordained and to indulge in riotous and  
gorgeous orgies1 in which thousands of  
maidens danced and hundreds of  poets   
chanted songs of love and war1 and      
musicians vied with cooks  and vintners 
to make a grand delirium of joy4 ,the   
result was that the  entire outlook of  
the ,greeks1 upon history1 upon morality
 and upon  human life1 was changed4     
,once a people of lofty introspection   
and  elegant repose1 they became a race 
of violent activity and strong          
emotions4 ,they began to devote         
themselves1 not to writing down the     
praises of existence as they had found  
it1 but to the task of improving  life  
and of widening the scope of present and
 future human activity and  the bounds  
of possible human happiness4#d    ,but  
in time there came a reaction and       
,apollo once more triumphed4 ,he        

reigned for awhile1 unsteadily and      
uncertainly1 and then1 again1 the       
pendulum swung to the other side4 ,thus 
the ,greeks swayed from one  god to the 
other4 ,during ,apollo's periods of     
ascendancy they were  contemplative and 
imaginative1 and man1 to them1 seemed to
 reach his  loftiest heights when he was
 most the historian4 ,but when ,dionysus
 was  their best-beloved1 they bubbled  
over with the joy of life1 and man      
seemed1 not an historian1 but a maker of
 history--not an artist1 but  a work of 
art4 ,in the end1 they verged toward a  
safe middle ground  and began to weigh1 
with cool and calm1 the ideas           
represented by the  two gods4 ,when they
 had done so1 they came to the          
conclusion that it  was not well to give
 themselves unreservedly to either4 ,to 
attain  the highest happiness1 they     
decided1 humanity required a dash of    
both4 ,there was need in the world for  
dionysians1 to give vitality an  outlet 
and life a purpose1 and there was need1 

too1 for apollonians1  to build life's  
monuments and read its lessons4 ,they   
found that true  civilization meant     
constant conflict between the           
two--between the  dreamer and the man of
 action1 between the artist who builds  
temples  and the soldier who burns them 
down1 between the priest and policeman  
who insist upon the permanence of laws  
and customs as they are and the         
criminal and reformer and conqueror who 
insist that they be changed4    ,when   
they had learned this lesson1 the       
,greeks began to soar to heights  of    
culture and civilization that1 in the   
past1 had been utterly beyond  them1 and
 so long as they maintained the balance 
between ,apollo  and ,dionysus they     
continued to advance4 ,but now and      
again1 one god  or the other grew       
stronger1 and then there was a halt4    
,when ,apollo  had the upper hand1      
,greece became too contemplative and too
 placid4  ,when ,dionysus was the       
victor1 ,greece became wild and         

thoughtless  and careless of the desires
 of others1 and so turned a bit toward  
barbarism4 ,this seesawing continued for
 a long while1 but ,apollo was  the     
final victor--if victor he may be       
called4 ,in the eternal struggle  for   
existence ,greece became a mere         
looker-on4 ,her highest honors went  to 
,socrates1 a man who tried to reduce all
 life to syllogisms4 ,her  favorite sons
 were rhetoricians1 dialecticians and   
philosophical  cobweb-spinners4 ,she    
placed ideas above deeds4 ,and in the   
end1 as all  students of history know1  
the state that once ruled the world     
descended  to senility and decay1 and   
dionysians from without overran it1 and 
it  perished in anarchy and carnage4    
,but with this we have nothing to do4   
,nietzsche noticed that tragedy was most
 popular in ,greece during  the best    
days of the country's culture1 when     
,apollo and ,dionysus  were properly    
balanced1 one against the other4 ,this  
ideal balancing  between the two gods   

was the result1 he concluded1 not of    
conscious1  but of unconscious impulses4
 ,that is to say1 the ,greeks did not   
call  parliaments and discuss the       
matter1 as they might have discussed a  
question of taxes1 but acted entirely in
 obedience to their racial  instinct4   
,this instinct--this will to live or    
desire for power--led  them to feel1    
without putting it into words1 or even1 
for awhile1  into definite thoughts1    
that they were happiest and safest and  
most  vigorous1 and so best able to     
preserve their national existence1 when 
they kept to the golden mean4 ,they     
didn't reason it out2 they merely  felt 
it4    ,but as ,schopenhauer shows us1  
instinct1 long exercised1 means         
experience1 and the memory of           
experience1 in the end1 crystallizes    
into  what we call intelligence or      
reason4 ,thus the unconscious ,greek    
feeling  that the golden mean best      
served the race1 finally took the form  
of  an idea3 i4e4 that human life was an

 endless conflict between two  forces1  
or impulses4 ,these1 as the ,greeks saw 
them1 were the dionysian  impulse to    
destroy1 to burn the candle1 to use up  
life2 and the  apollonian impulse to    
preserve4 ,seeing life in this light1 it
 was but  natural that the ,greeks      
should try to exhibit it in the same    
light on  their stage4 ,and so their    
tragedies were invariably founded upon  
some  deadly and unending               
conflict--usually between a human hero  
and the  gods4 ,in a word1 they made    
their stage plays set forth life as they
 saw  it and found it1 for1 like all    
other human beings1 at all times and    
everywhere1 they were more interested in
 life as they found it than in  anything
 else on the earth below or in the vasty
 void above4    ,when ,nietzsche had    
worked out this theory of ,greek tragedy
 and of ,greek  life1 he set out1 at    
once1 to apply it to modern             
civilization1 to see  if it could       
explain certain ideas of the present as 

satisfactorily as  it had explained one 
great idea of the past4 ,he found that  
it could3  that men were still torn     
between the apollonian impulse to       
conform and  moralize and the dionysian 
impulse to exploit and explore4 ,he     
found  that all mankind might be divided
 into two classes3 the apollonians who  
stood for permanence and the dionysians 
who stood for change4 ,it was  the aim  
of the former to live in strict         
obedience to certain invariable  rules1 
which found expression as religion1 law 
and morality4 ,it was the  aim of the   
latter to live under the most favorable 
conditions possible2  to adapt          
themselves to changing circumstances1   
and to avoid the snares  of artificial1 
permanent rules4    ,nietzsche believed 
that an ideal human society would be one
 in which  these two classes of men were
 evenly balanced--in which a vast1      
inert1 religious1 moral slave class     
stood beneath a small1 alert1           
iconoclastic1 immoral1 progressive      

master class4 ,he held that this  master
 class--this aristocracy of             
efficiency--should regard the slave     
class as all men now regard the tribe of
 domestic beasts3 as an order  of       
servitors to be exploited and turned to 
account4 ,the aristocracy  of ,europe1  
though it sought to do this with respect
 to the workers  of ,europe1 seemed to  
him to fail miserably1 because it was   
itself  lacking in true efficiency4     
,instead of practising a magnificent    
opportunism and so adapting itself to   
changing conditions1 it stood  for      
formalism and permanence4 ,its fetish   
was property in land and the  worship of
 this fetish had got it into such a rut 
that it was becoming  less and less     
fitted to survive1 and was1 indeed1 fast
 sinking into  helpless parasitism4 ,its
 whole color and complexion were        
essentially  apollonic4#e    ,therefore 
,nietzsche preached the gospel of       
,dionysus1 that a new  aristocracy of   
efficiency might take the place of this 

old aristocracy  of memories and        
inherited glories4 ,he believed that it 
was only in  this way that mankind could
 hope to forge ahead4 ,he believed that 
there was need in the world for a class 
freed from the handicap of law  and     
morality1 a class acutely adaptable and 
immoral2 a class bent on  achieving1 not
 the equality of all men1 but the       
production1 at the top1  of the         
superman4      #a ,der ,antichrist1  #b4
    #b ,die ,geburt der ,tragdie1  #e4  
#c ,gtzendmmerung ix1  #ai4    #d ,this 
enrichment of consciousness among the   
,greeks 444 showed  itself first in the 
development of lyric poetry1 in which   
the gradual  transition from the        
expression of universal religious and   
political  feeling to that which is     
personal and individual formed a typical
  process4 ,dr4 ,wilhelm ,windelband1 ,a
 ,history of ,ancient ,philosophy1  tr4 
by ,h4 ,e4 ,cushman2 p4 #ah2 ,new ,york1
 #aija4    #e ,vide the chapter on      
,civilization4          ,,ii      ,,the 

,,origin ,,of ,,morality      ,it may be
 urged with some reason1 by those who   
have read the preceding  chapter        
carefully1 that the ,nietzschean        
argument1 so far1 has served  only to   
bring us face to face with a serious    
contradiction4 ,we have  been asked to  
believe that all human impulses are     
merely expressions  of the primary      
instinct to preserve life by meeting the
 changing  conditions of existence1 and 
in the same breath we have been asked to
  believe1 too1 that the apollonian     
idea--which1 like all other ideas1  must
 necessarily be a result of this        
instinct--destroys adaptability  and so 
tends to make life extra hazardous and  
difficult and progress  impossible4     
,here we have our contradiction3 the    
will to live is  achieving1 not life1   
but death4 ,how are we to explain it    
away8 ,how  are we to account for the   
fact that the apollonian idea at the    
bottom  of ,christian morality1 for     
example1 despite its origin in the will 

to live1 has an obvious tendency to     
combat free progress8 ,how are we  to   
account for the fact that the church1   
which is based upon this  ,christian    
morality1 is1 always has been and ever  
will be a bitter and  implacable foe of 
good health1 intellectual freedom1      
self-defense and  every other essential 
factor of efficiency8    ,nietzsche     
answers this by pointing out that an    
idea1 while undoubtedly  an effect or   
expression of the primary life instinct1
 is by no means  identical with it4 ,the
 latter manifests itself in widely      
different acts  as conditions change3 it
 is necessarily opportunistic and       
variable4  ,the former1 on the contrary1
 has a tendency to survive unchanged1   
even  after its truth is transformed    
into falsity4 ,that is to say1 an idea  
which arises from a true and healthy    
instinct may survive long after  this   
instinct itself1 in consequence of the  
changing conditions of  existence1 has  
disappeared and given place to an       

instinct diametrically  opposite4 ,this 
survival of ideas we call morality4 ,by 
its operation the  human race is        
frequently saddled with the notions of  
generations long  dead and forgotten4   
,thus we modern ,christians still       
subscribe to the  apollonian morality of
 the ancient ,jews--our moral           
forebears--despite  the fact that their 
ideas were evolved under conditions     
vastly  different from those which      
confront us today4 ,thus the expressions
 of  the life instinct1 by obtaining an 
artificial and unnatural permanence1    
turn upon the instinct itself and defeat
 its beneficent purpose4 ,thus  our     
contradiction is explained4    ,to make 
this rather complicated reasoning more  
clear it is necessary  to follow        
,nietzsche through the devious twists   
and windings of his  exhaustive inquiry 
into the origin of moral codes4 ,in     
making this  inquiry he tried to rid    
himself of all considerations of        
authority  and reverence1 just as a     

surgeon1 in performing a difficult and  
painful operation1 tries to rid himself 
of all sympathy and emotion4  ,adopting 
this plan1 he found that a code of      
morals was nothing more  than a system  
of customs1 laws and ideas which had its
 origin in the  instinctive desire of   
some definite race to live under        
conditions which  best subserved its own
 welfare4 ,the morality of the          
,egyptians1 he  found1 was one thing1   
and the morality of the ,goths was      
another4 ,the  reason for the difference
 lay in the fact that the environment of
 the  ,egyptians--the climate of their  
land1 the nature of their food supply   
and the characteristics of the peoples  
surrounding them--differed  from the    
environment of the ,goths4 ,the morality
 of each race was1 in  brief1 its       
consensus of instinct1 and once having  
formulated it and  found it good1 each  
sought to give it force and permanence4 
,this was  accomplished by putting it   
into the mouths of the gods4 ,what was  

once  a mere expression of instinct thus
 became the mandate of a divine         
law-giver4 ,what was once a mere attempt
 to meet imminent--and usually          
temporary--conditions of existence1 thus
 became a code of rules to be  obeyed   
forever1 no matter how much these       
conditions of existence might  change4  
,wherefore1 ,nietzsche concluded that   
the chief characteristic of  a moral    
system was its tendency to perpetuate   
itself unchanged1 and to  destroy all   
who questioned it or denied it4#a       
,nietzsche saw that practically all     
members of a given race1 including  the 
great majority of those who violated    
these rules1 were influenced  into      
believing them--or at least into        
professing to believe  them--utterly and
 unchangeably correct1 and that it was  
the main  function of all religions to  
enforce and support them by making them 
appear as laws laid down1 at the        
beginning of the world1 by the lord  of 
the universe himself1 or at some later  

period1 by his son1 messiah  or         
spokesman4 ,morality1 he said1 not only 
commands innumerable  terrible means for
 preventing critical hands being laid   
upon her3 her  security depends still   
more upon a sort of enchantment at which
 she is  phenomenally skilled4 ,that is 
to say1 she knows how to enrapture4     
,she appeals to the emotions2 her glance
 paralyzes the reason and  the will4444 
,ever since there has been talking and  
persuading on  earth1 she has been the  
supreme mistress of seduction4#b ,thus a
  double wall is put up against the     
continued testing1 selection and        
criticism of values4 ,on one hand is    
revelation1 and on the other1           
veneration and tradition4 ,the authority
 of the law is based upon two           
assumptions--first1 that ,god gave it1  
and secondly1 that the wise  men of the 
past obeyed it4#c ,nietzsche came to the
 conclusion that  this universal        
tendency to submit to moral codes--this 
unreasonable1  emotional faith in the   

invariable truth of moral               
regulations--was  a curse to the human  
race and the chief cause of its         
degeneration1  inefficiency and         
unhappiness4 ,and then he threw down the
 gauntlet by  denying that an           
ever-present deity had anything to do   
with framing such  codes and by         
endeavoring to prove that1 far from     
being eternally true1  they commonly    
became false with the passing of the    
years4 ,starting out  as expressions of 
the primary life-instinct's effort to   
adapt some  individual or race to       
certain given conditions of existence1  
they took  no account of the fact that  
these conditions were constantly        
changing1  and that the thing which was 
advantageous at one time and to one race
  was frequently injurious at some other
 time and to another race4    ,this     
reduction of all morality to mere       
expressions of expedience  engaged the  
philosopher during what he calls his    
tunneling period4 ,to  exhibit his      

precise method of tunneling let us      
examine1 for example1  a moral idea     
which is found in the code of every     
civilized country4  ,this is the notion 
that there is something inherently and  
fundamentally  wrong in the act of      
taking human life4 ,we have good reason 
to believe  that murder was as much a   
crime #e1jjj years ago as it is today   
and that  it took rank at the head of   
all conceivable outrages against        
humankind  at the very dawn of          
civilization4 ,and why8 ,simply because 
the man  who took his neighbor's life   
made the life of everyone else in his   
neighborhood precarious and             
uncomfortable4 ,it was plain that what  
he  had done once he could do again1 and
 so the peace and security of the  whole
 district were broken4    ,now1 it is   
apparent that the average human being   
desires peace and  security beyond all  
things1 because it is only when he has  
them that  he may satisfy his will to   
live--by procuring food and shelter for 

himself and by becoming the father of   
children4 ,he is ill-fitted to  fight   
for his existence2 the mere business of 
living and begetting  his kind consumes 
all of his energies3 the world1 as a    
world1 as  ,horace ,greeley said1 barely
 makes a living4 ,therefore1 it came to 
be recognized at the very beginning of  
civilization1 that the man  who killed  
other men was a foe to those conditions 
which the average  man had to seek in   
order to exist--to peace and order and  
quiet and  security4 ,out of this grew  
the doctrine that it was immoral to     
commit  murder1 and as soon as mankind  
became imaginative enough to invent     
personal gods1 this doctrine was put    
into their mouths and so attained  the  
force and authority of divine wisdom4   
,in some such manner1 said  ,nietzsche1 
the majority of our present moral       
concepts were evolved4 ,at  the start   
they were mere echoes of a protest      
against actions which made  existence   
difficult and so outraged and opposed   

the will to live4    ,as a rule1 said   
,nietzsche1 such familiar protests as   
that against  murder1 which laid down   
the maxim that the community had rights 
superior to those of the individual1    
were voiced by the weak1 who found  it  
difficult to protect themselves1 as     
individuals1 against the strong4  ,one  
strong man1 perhaps1 was more than a    
match1 in the struggle for  existence1  
for ten weak men and so the latter were 
at a disadvantage4  ,but fortunately for
 them they could overcome this by       
combination1 for  they were always in an
 overwhelming majority1 numerically1 and
 in  consequence they were stronger1    
taken together1 than the phalanx of  the
 strong4 ,thus it gradually became      
possible for them to enforce the  rules 
that they laid down for their own       
protection--which rules always  operated
 against the wishes--and1 as an obvious 
corollary1 against the  best interests  
of--the strong4#d ,when the time arrived
 for fashioning  religious systems1     

these rules were credited to the gods1  
and again the  weak triumphed4 ,thus the
 desire of the weak among the world's   
early  races of men1 to protect their   
crops and wives against the forays of   
the strong1 by general laws and divine  
decrees instead of by each man  fighting
 for his own1 has come down to us in the
 form of the ,christian  commandments3  
,thou shalt not steal4444 ,thou shalt   
not covet thy  neighbor's house4444     
,thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's    
wife1 nor his  manservant1 nor his      
maidservant1 nor his ox1 nor his ass1   
nor anything  that is thy neighbor's4   
,nietzsche shows that the device of     
putting man-made rules of morality  into
 the mouths of the gods--a device       
practiced by every nation in            
history--has vastly increased the       
respectability and force of all  moral  
ideas4 ,this is well exhibited by the   
fact that1 even today and  among        
thinking men1 offenses which happen to  
be included in the scope  of the ,ten   

,commandments1 either actually or by    
interpretation1 are  regarded with a    
horror which seldom1 if ever1 attaches  
to offenses  obviously defined and      
delimited by merely human agencies4     
,thus1 theft  is everywhere looked upon 
as dishonorable1 but cheating at        
elections1  which is fully as dangerous 
to the body politic1 is commonly        
pardoned  by public opinion as a normal 
consequence of enthusiasm1 and in some  
quarters is even regarded as an evidence
 of courage1 not to say of a  high and  
noble sense of gratitude and honor4     
,nietzsche does not deny that human     
beings have a right to construct  moral 
codes for themselves1 and neither does  
he deny that they are  justified1 from  
their immediate standpoint1 at least1 in
 giving these  codes the authority and  
force of divine commands4 ,but he points
 out  that this procedure is bound to   
cause trouble in the long run1 for the  
reason that divine commands are fixed   
and invariable1 and do not change  as   

fast as the instincts and needs of the  
race4 ,suppose1 for instance1  that all 
acts of ,parliament and ,congress were  
declared to be the  will of ,god1 and   
that1 as a natural consequence1 the     
power to repeal  or modify them were    
abandoned4 ,it is apparent that the     
world would  outgrow them as fast as it 
does today1 but it is also apparent that
 the  notion that they were infallible  
would paralyze and block all efforts1   
by atheistic reformers1 to overturn or  
amend them4 ,as a result1 the  ,british 
and ,american people would be compelled 
to live in obedience to  rules which1 on
 their very face1 would often seem      
illogical and absurd4    ,yet the same  
thing happens to notions of morality4   
,they are devised1 at  the start1 as    
measures of expediency1 and then given  
divine sanction in  order to lend them  
authority4 ,in the course of time1      
perhaps1 the race  outgrows them1 but   
none the less1 they continue in         
force--at least so  long as the old gods

 are worshipped4 ,thus human laws become
 divine--and  inhuman4 ,thus morality   
itself becomes immoral4 ,thus the old   
instinct  whereby society differentiates
 between good things and bad1 grows     
muddled and uncertain1 and the          
fundamental purpose of morality--that   
of producing a workable scheme of       
living--is defeated4 ,thereafter it  is 
next to impossible to distinguish       
between the laws that are still  useful 
and those that have outlived their      
usefulness1 and the man who  makes the  
attempt--the philosopher who endeavors  
to show humanity  how it is condemning  
as bad a thing that1 in itself1 is now  
good1 or  exalting as good a thing that1
 for all its former goodness1 is now    
bad--this man is damned as a heretic and
 anarchist1 and according as  fortune   
serves him1 is burned at the stake or   
merely read out of the  human race4#e   
,nietzsche found that all existing moral
 ideas might be divided into  two broad 
classes1 corresponding to the two broad 

varieties of human  beings--the masters 
and the slaves4 ,every man is either a  
master or  a slave1 and the same is true
 of every race4 ,either it rules some   
other race or it is itself ruled by some
 other race4 ,it is impossible  to think
 of a man or of a people as being       
utterly isolated1 and even  were this   
last possible1 it is obvious that the   
community would be  divided into those  
who ruled and those who obeyed4 ,the    
masters are  strong and are capable of  
doing as they please2 the slaves are    
weak  and must obtain whatever rights   
they crave by deceiving1 cajoling or    
collectively intimidating their masters4
 ,now1 since all moral codes1  as we    
have seen1 are merely collections of the
 rules laid down by some  definite group
 of human beings for their comfort and  
protection1 it is  evident that the     
morality of the master class has for its
 main object  the preservation of the   
authority and kingship of that class1   
while  the morality of the slave class  

seeks to make slavery as bearable as    
possible and to exalt and dignify those 
things in which the slave can  hope to  
become the apparent equal or superior of
 his master4    ,the civilization which 
existed in ,europe before the dawn of   
,christianity was a culture based upon  
master-morality1 and so we find  that   
the theologians and moralists of those  
days esteemed a certain  action as right
 only when it plainly subserved the best
 interests of  strong1 resourceful men4 
,the ideal man of that time was not a   
meek and  lowly sufferer1 bearing his   
cross uncomplainingly1 but an alert1    
proud  and combative being who knew his 
rights and dared maintain them4 ,in     
consequence we find that in many ancient
 languages1 the words good  and         
aristocratic were synonymous4 ,whatever 
served to make a man a                  
nobleman--cunning1 wealth1 physical     
strength1 eagerness to resent and       
punish injuries--was considered         
virtuous1 praiseworthy and moral1#f  and

 on the other hand1 whatever tended to  
make a man sink to the level  of the    
great masses--humility1 lack of         
ambition1 modest desires1 lavish        
liberality and a spirit of ready        
forgiveness--was regarded as immoral    
and wrong4    ,among these master races1
 says ,nietzsche1 the antithesis 'good  
and  bad' signified practically the same
 as 'noble and contemptible6' ,the      
despised ones were the cowards1 the     
timid1 the insignificant1 the           
self-abasing--the dog-species of men who
 allowed themselves to be  misused--the 
flatterers and1 above all1 the liars4   
,it is a fundamental  belief of all true
 aristocrats that the common people are 
deceitful4  ',we true ones1' the ancient
 ,greek nobles called themselves4    ,it
 is obvious that the designations of    
moral worth were at first  applied to   
individual men1 and not to actions or   
ideas in the abstract4  ,the master type
 of man regards himself as a sufficient 
judge of worth4  ,he does not seek      

approval3 his own feelings determine his
 conduct4  ',what is injurious to me1'  
he reasons1 'is injurious in itself4'   
,this  type of man honors whatever      
qualities he recognizes in himself3 his 
morality is self-glorification4 ,he has 
a feeling of plentitude and  power and  
the happiness of high tension4 ,he helps
 the unfortunate1  perhaps1 but it is   
not out of sympathy4 ,the impulse1 when 
it comes  at all1 rises out of his      
superabundance of power--his thirst to  
function4 ,he honors his own power1 and 
he knows how to keep it in hand4  ,he   
joyfully exercises strictness and       
severity over himself and he  reverences
 all that is strict and severe4 ',wotan 
has put a hard heart  in my breast1'    
says an old ,scandinavian saga4 ,there  
could be no better  expression of the   
spirit of a proud viking4444    ,the    
morality of the master class is         
irritating to the taste of the  present 
day because of its fundamental principle
 that a man has  obligations only to his

 equals2 that he may act to all of lower
 rank  and to all that are foreign as he
 pleases4444 ,the man of the master     
class has a capacity for prolonged      
gratitude and prolonged revenge1  but it
 is only among his equals4 ,he has1 too1
 great resourcefulness  in retaliation2 
great capacity for friendship1 and a    
strong need for  enemies1 that there may
 be an outlet for his envy1             
quarrelsomeness and  arrogance1 and that
 by spending these passions in this     
manner1 he may  be gentle towards his   
friends4#g    ,by this ancient          
herrenmoral1 or master-morality1        
,napoleon ,bonaparte  would have been   
esteemed a god and the ,man of ,sorrows 
an enemy to  society4 ,it was the       
ethical scheme1 indeed1 of peoples who  
were sure  of themselves and who had no 
need to make terms with rivals or to    
seek  the good will or forbearance of   
anyone4 ,in its light1 such things as   
mercy and charity seemed pernicious and 
immoral1 because they meant  a transfer 

of power from strong men1 whose proper  
business it was to  grow stronger and   
stronger1 to weak men1 whose proper     
business it was  to serve the strong4   
,in a word1 this master-morality was the
 morality  of peoples who knew1 by      
experience1 that it was pleasant to rule
 and  be strong4 ,they knew that the    
nobleman was to be envied and the slave 
to be despised1 and so they came to     
believe that everything which  helped to
 make a man noble was good and          
everything which helped to  make him a  
slave was evil4 ,the idea of nobility   
and the idea of good  were expressed by 
the same word1 and this verbal identity 
survives in  the ,english language      
today1 despite the fact that our present
 system  of morality1 as we shall see1  
differs vastly from that of the ancient 
master races4    ,in opposition to this 
master-morality of the strong1 healthy  
nations  there was the sklavmoral1 or   
slave-morality1 of the weak nations4    
,the ,jews of the four or five centuries

 preceding the birth of ,christ         
belonged to the latter class4 ,compared 
to the races around them1 they  were    
weak and helpless4 ,it was out of the   
question for them to conquer  the       
,greeks or ,romans and it was equally   
impossible for them to force  their     
laws1 their customs or their religion   
upon their neighbors on  other sides4   
,they were1 indeed1 in the position of  
an army surrounded  by a horde of       
irresistible enemies4 ,the general of   
such an army1 with  the instinct of     
self-preservation strong within him1    
does not attempt  to cut his way out4   
,instead he tries to make the best terms
 he can1 and  if the leader of the enemy
 insists upon making him and his        
vanquished  force prisoners1 he         
endeavors to obtain concessions which   
will make  this imprisonment as bearable
 as possible4 ,the strong man's object  
is  to take as much as he can from his  
victim2 the weak man's is to save as    
much as he can from his conqueror4      

,the fruit of this yearning of weak     
nations to preserve as much of their    
national unity as possible is the thing 
,nietzsche calls slave-morality4  ,its  
first and foremost purpose is to        
discourage1 and if possible1 blot  out1 
all those traits and actions which are  
apt to excite the ire1 the  envy1 or the
 cupidity of the menacing enemies round 
about4 ,revenge1  pride and ambition are
 condemned as evils4 ,humility1         
forgiveness1  contentment and           
resignation are esteemed virtues4 ,the  
moral man  is the man who has lost all  
desire to triumph and exult over his    
fellow-men--the man of mercy1 of        
charity1 of self-sacrifice4    ,the     
impotence which does not retaliate for  
injuries1 says ,nietzsche1  is falsified
 into 'goodness2' timorous abjectness   
becomes 'humility2'  subjection to those
 one hates is called 'obedience1' and   
the one who  desires and commands this  
impotence1 abjectness and subjection is 
called ,god4 ,the inoffensiveness of the

 weak1 their cowardice 7of which  they  
have ample store72 their standing at the
 door1 their unavoidable  time-serving  
and waiting--all these things get good  
names4 ,the  inability to get revenge is
 translated into an unwillingness to get
  revenge1 and becomes forgiveness1 a   
virtue4    ,they are wretched--these    
mutterers and forgers--but they say that
  their wretchedness is of ,god's       
choosing and even call it a distinction 
that he confers upon them4 ,the dogs    
which are liked best1 they say1  are    
beaten most4 ,their wretchedness is a   
test1 a preparation1 a                  
schooling--something which will be paid 
for1 one day1 in happiness4  ,they call 
that 'bliss4'#h    ,by the laws of this 
slave-morality the immoral man is he who
 seeks  power and eminence and          
riches--the millionaire1 the robber1 the
  fighter1 the schemer4 ,the act of     
acquiring property by conquest--which   
is looked upon as a matter of course by 
master-morality--becomes a  crime and is

 called theft4 ,the act of mating in    
obedience to natural  impulses1 without 
considering the desire of others1       
becomes adultery2  the quite natural act
 of destroying one's enemies becomes    
murder4      #a ,,ii ,thess4 ,,ii1 #ae3 
,hold the tradition which ye have been  
taught4  ,eusebius ,pamphilus3 ,those   
things which are written believe2 those 
things which are not written1 neither   
think upon nor inquire after4  ,st4     
,austin3 ,whatever ye hear from the holy
 scriptures let it favor  well with you2
 whatever is without them refuse4 ,see  
also ,st4 ,basil1  ,tertullian and every
 other professional moralist since1 down
 to ,john  ,alexander ,dowie and        
,emperor ,william of ,germany4    #b    
,morgenrte1 preface1  #c4    #c ,der    
,antichrist1  #eg4    #d ,the fact that 
the state is founded1 not upon a        
mysterious social  impulse in man1 but  
upon each individual's regard for his   
own  interest1 was first pointed out by 
,thomas ,hobbes 7#aehh-afgi71 in his    

argument against ,aristotle and         
,grotius4    #e ,the risk of such       
idol-smashing is well set forth at      
length by ,g4  ,bernard ,shaw in the    
preface to ,the ,quintessence of        
,ibsenism2 ,london1  #aijd4    #f ,henry
 ,bradley1 in a lecture at the ,london  
,institution1 in ,jan #aijg1  showed    
that this was true of the ancient       
,britons1 as is demonstrated by  their  
liking for bestowing such names as ,wolf
 and ,bear upon themselves4  ,it was    
true1 also1 of the ,north ,american     
,indians and of all primitive  races    
conscious of their efficiency4    #g    
,jenseits von ,gut und ,bse1  #bfj4     
#h ,zur ,genealogie der ,moral1 ,i1     
#ad4          ,,iii      ,,beyond ,,good
 ,,and ,,evil      ,despite the divine  
authority which gives permanence to all 
moral codes1  this permanence is        
constantly opposed by the changing      
conditions  of existence1 and very often
 the opposition is successful4 ,the     
slave-morality of the ancient ,jews has 

come down to us1 with its  outlines     
little changed1 as ideal ,christianity1 
but such tenacious  persistence of a    
moral scheme is comparatively rare4 ,as 
a general  rule1 in truth1 races change 
their gods very much oftener than we    
have changed ours1 and have less faith  
than we in the independence of          
intelligence4 ,in consequence they      
constantly revamp and modify their      
moral concepts4 ,the same process of    
evolution affects even our own  code1   
despite the extraordinary tendency to   
permanence just noted4 ,our  scheme of  
things1 in its fundamentals1 has        
persisted for #b1ejj years1  but in     
matters of detail it is constantly in a 
state of flux4 ,we still  call ourselves
 ,christians1 but we have evolved many  
moral ideas that  are not to be found in
 the scriptures and we have sometimes   
denied  others that are plainly there4  
,indeed1 as will be shown later on1 the 
beatitudes would have wiped us from the 
face of the earth centuries ago  had not

 our forefathers devised means of       
circumventing them without  openly      
questioning them4 ,our progress has been
 made1 not as a result  of our moral    
code1 but as a result of our success in 
dodging its  inevitable blight4    ,all 
morality1 in fact1 is colored and       
modified by opportunism1 even  when its 
basic principles are held sacred and    
kept more or less intact4  ,the thing   
that is a sin in one age becomes a      
virtue in the next4 ,the  ancient       
,persians1 who were ,zoroastrians1      
regarded murder and suicide1  under any 
circumstances1 as crimes4 ,the modern   
,persians1 who are  ,mohammedans1 think 
that ferocity and foolhardiness are     
virtues4 ,the  ancient ,japanese1 to    
whom the state appeared more important  
than the  man1 threw themselves joyously
 upon the spears of the state's enemies4
  ,the modern ,japanese1 who are        
fledgling individualists1 armor their   
ships with nickel steel and fight on    
land from behind bastions of earth  and 

masonry4 ,and in the same way the moral 
ideas that have grown out  of           
,christianity1 and even some of its     
important original doctrines1  are being
 constantly modified and revised1       
despite the persistence of  the         
fundamental notion of self-sacrifice at 
the bottom of them4 ,in  ,dr4 ,andrew   
,d4 ,white's monumental treatise ,on the
 ,warfare of ,science  with ,theology in
 ,christendom there are ten thousand    
proofs of it4  ,things that were crimes 
in the middle ages are quite respectable
 at  present4 ,actions that are         
punishable by excommunication and       
ostracism  in ,catholic ,spain today1   
are sufficient to make a man honorable  
in  freethinking ,england4 ,in ,france1 
where the church once stood above  the  
king1 it is now stripped of all rights  
not inherent in the most                
inconsequential social club4 ,in        
,germany it is a penal offense to poke  
fun at the head of the state2 in the    
,united ,states it is looked upon  by   

many as an evidence of independence and 
patriotism4 ,in some of the  ,american  
states a violation of the seventh       
commandment1 in any form1  is a felony2 
in ,maryland1 it is1 in one form1 a mere
 misdemeanor1 and  another form1 no     
crime at all4    ,many lands did ,i see1
 says ,zarathustra1 and many peoples1   
and so ,i  discovered the good and bad  
of many peoples4444 ,much that was      
regarded  as good by one people was held
 in scorn and contempt by another4 ,i   
found many things called bad here and   
adorned with purple honors  there4444 ,a
 catalogue of blessings is posted up for
 every people4 ,lo6  it is the catalogue
 of their triumphs--the voice of their  
will to  power6444 ,whatever enables    
them to rule and conquer and dazzle1 to 
the  dismay and envy of their neighbors1
 is regarded by them as the summit1  the
 head1 the standard of all things4444   
,verily1 men have made for  themselves  
all their good and bad4 ,verily they did
 not find it so3 it  did not come to    

them as a voice from heaven4444 ,it is  
only through  valuing that there comes  
value4#a    ,to proceed from the        
concrete to the general1 and to risk a  
repetition1  it is evident that all     
morality1 as ,nietzsche pointed out1 is 
nothing  more than an expression of     
expediency4#b ,a thing is called wrong  
solely because a definite group of      
people1 at some specific stage of  their
 career1 have found it injurious to     
them4 ,the fact that they have          
discovered grounds for condemning it in 
some pronunciamento of their  god       
signifies nothing1 for the reason that  
the god of a people is never  anything  
more than a reflection of their ideas   
for the time being4 ,as  ,prof4 ,otto   
,pfleiderer has shown1#c ,jesus ,christ 
was a product of his  age1 mentally and 
spiritually as well as physically4 ,had 
there been  no ,jewish theology before  
him1 he could not have sought or        
obtained  recognition as a messiah1 and 
the doctrines that he expressed--had  he

 ever expressed them at all--would have 
fallen upon unheeding and               
uncomprehending ears4    ,therefore it  
is plain that the ,ten ,commandments are
 no more immortal  and immutable1 in the
 last analysis1 than the acts of        
,parliament4  ,they have lasted longer1 
it is true1 and they will probably      
continue  in force for many years1 but  
this permanence is only relative4       
,fundamentally they are merely          
expressions of expedience1 like the     
rules of some great game1 and it is     
easily conceivable that there may  arise
 upon the earth1 at some future day1 a  
race to whom they will  appear          
injurious1 unreasonable and utterly     
immoral4 ,the time may  come1 indeed1   
when we will prefer the ,memorabilia of 
,socrates to the  ,bible4#d             
,admitting this1 we must admit the      
inevitable corollary that morality  in  
the absolute sense has nothing to do    
with truth1 and that it is1  in fact1   
truth's exact antithesis4 ,absolute     

truth necessarily implies  eternal      
truth4 ,the statement that a man and a  
woman are unlike was true  on the day   
the first man and woman walked the earth
 and it will be true  so long as there  
are men and women4 ,such a statement    
approaches very  near our ideal of an   
absolute truth4 ,but the theory that    
humility is  a virtue is not an absolute
 truth1 for while it was undoubtedly    
true  in ancient ,judea1 it was not true
 in ancient ,greece and is debatable1   
to say the least1 in modern ,europe and 
,america4 ,the ,western ,catholic       
,church1 despite its extraordinarily    
successful efforts at permanence1  has  
given us innumerable proofs that laws1  
in the long run1 always turn  upon      
themselves4 ,the popes were infallible  
when they held that the  earth was flat 
and they were infallible when they      
decided that it was  round--and so we   
reach a palpable absurdity4 ,therefore1 
we may lay it  down as an axiom that    
morality1 in itself1 is the enemy of    

truth1 and  that1 for at least half of  
the time1 by the mathematical doctrine  
of  probabilities1 it is necessarily    
untrue4    ,if this is so1 why should   
any man bother about moral rules and    
regulations8 ,why should any man conform
 to laws formulated by a people  whose  
outlook on the universe probably        
differed diametrically from  his own8   
,why should any man obey a regulation   
which is denounced1 by  his             
common-sense1 as a hodge-podge of       
absurdities1 and why should he  model   
his whole life upon ideals invented to  
serve the temporary needs  of a         
forgotten race of some past age8 ,these 
questions ,nietzsche asked  himself4    
,his conclusion was a complete rejection
 of all fixed codes of  morality1 and   
with them of all gods1 messiahs1        
prophets1 saints1 popes1  bishops1      
priests1 and rulers4    ,the proper     
thing for a man to do1 he decided1 was  
to formulate his  own morality as he    
progressed from lower to higher things4 

,he should  reject the old conceptions  
of good and evil and substitute for them
 the  human valuations1 good and bad4   
,in a word1 he should put behind him    
the morality invented by some dead race 
to make its own progress easy  and      
pleasant1 and credited to some man-made 
god to give it authority1  and put in   
the place of this a workable personal   
morality based upon  his own power of   
distinguishing between the things which 
benefit him  and the things which injure
 him4 ,he should 7to make the idea      
clearer7  judge a given action solely by
 its effect upon his own welfare2 his   
own  desire or will to live2 and that of
 his children after him4 ,all notions   
of sin and virtue should be banished    
from his mind4 ,he should weigh         
everything in the scales of individual  
expedience4    ,such a frank wielding of
 a razor-edged sword in the struggle for
  existence is frowned upon by our      
,jewish slave-morality4 ,we are taught  
to believe that the only true happiness 

lies in self-effacement2 that  it is    
wrong to profit by the misfortune or    
weakness of another4 ,but  against this 
,nietzsche brings the undeniable answer 
that all life1 no  matter how much we   
idealize it1 is1 at bottom1 nothing more
 or less  than exploitation4 ,the gain  
of one man is inevitably the loss of    
some  other man4 ,that the emperor may  
die of a surfeit the peasant must die   
of starvation4 ,among human beings1 as  
well as among the bacilli in the        
hanging drop and the lions in the       
jungle1 there is ever in progress  this 
ancient struggle for existence4 ,it is  
waged decently1 perhaps1 but  it is none
 the less savage and unmerciful1 and the
 devil always takes  the hindmost4      
,life1 says ,nietzsche1 is essentially  
the appropriation1 the injury1  the     
vanquishing of the unadapted and weak4  
,its object is to obtrude  its own forms
 and insure its own unobstructed        
functioning4 ,even an  organization     
whose individuals forbear in their      

dealings with one  another 7a healthy   
aristocracy1 for example7 must1 if it   
would live  and not die1 act hostilely  
toward all other organizations4 ,it must
  endeavor to gain ground1 to obtain    
advantages1 to acquire ascendancy4  ,and
 this is not because it is immoral1 but 
because it lives1 and all  life is will 
to power4#e    ,nietzsche argues from   
this that it is absurd to put the stigma
 of evil  upon the mere symptoms of the 
great struggle4 ,in itself1 he says1  an
 act of injury1 violation1 exploitation 
or annihilation cannot be  wrong1 for   
life operates1 essentially and          
fundamentally1 by injuring1  violating1 
exploiting and annihilating1 and cannot 
even be conceived  of out of this       
character4 ,one must admit1 indeed1     
that1 from the  highest biological      
standpoint1 conditions under which the  
so-called  rights of others are         
recognized must ever be regarded as     
exceptional  conditions--that is to say1
 as partial restrictions of the         

instinctive  power-seeking will-to-live 
of the individual1 made to satisfy the  
more powerful will-to-live of the mass4 
,thus small units of power are          
sacrificed to create large units of     
power4 ,to regard the rights of  others 
as being inherent in them1 and not as   
mere compromises for the  benefit of the
 mass-unit1 would be to enunciate a     
principle hostile to  life itself4#f    
,nietzsche holds that the rights of an  
individual may be divided into  two     
classes3 those things he is able to do  
despite the opposition of  his fellow   
men1 and those things he is enabled to  
do by the grace and  permission of his  
fellow men4 ,the second class of rights 
may be divided  again into two groups3  
those granted through fear and          
foresight1 and  those granted as free   
gifts4 ,but how do fear and foresight   
operate  to make one man concede rights 
to another man8 ,it is easy enough to   
discern two ways4 ,in the first place1  
the grantor may fear the risks  of a    

combat with the grantee1 and so give him
 what he wants without  a struggle4 ,in 
the second place1 the grantor1 while    
confident of  his ability to overcome   
the grantee1 may forbear because he sees
 in  the struggle a certain diminution  
of strength on both sides1 and in       
consequence1 an impaired capacity for   
joining forces in effective  opposition 
to some hostile third power4    ,and now
 for the rights obtained under the      
second head--by bestowal and            
concession4 ,in this case1 says         
,nietzsche1 one man or race has enough  
power1 and more than enough1 to be able 
to bestow some of it on another  man or 
race4#g ,the king appoints one subject  
viceroy of a province1  and so gives him
 almost regal power1 and makes another  
cup-bearer and  so gives him a perpetual
 right to bear the royal cup4 ,when the 
power  of the grantee1 through his      
inefficiency1 decreases1 the grantor    
either restores it to him or takes it   
away from him altogether4 ,when  the    

power of the grantee1 on the contrary1  
increases1 the grantor1 in  alarm1      
commonly seeks to undermine it and      
encroach upon it4 ,when the  power of   
the grantee remains at a level for a    
considerable time1 his  rights become   
vested and he begins to believe that    
they are inherent  in him--that they    
constitute a gift from the gods and are 
beyond the  will and disposal of his    
fellow men4 ,as ,nietzsche points out1  
this last  happens comparatively seldom4
 ,more often1 the grantor himself begins
  to lose power and so comes into       
conflict with the grantee1 and not      
infrequently they exchange places4      
,national rights1 says ,nietzsche1      
demonstrate this fact by their constant 
lapse and regenesis4#h    ,nietzsche    
believed that a realization of all this 
would greatly benefit  the human race1  
by ridding it of some of its most costly
 delusions4 ,he  held that so long as it
 sought to make the struggle for        
existence a  parlor game1 with rules    

laid down by some blundering god--that  
so long  as it regarded its ideas of    
morality1 its aspirations and its hopes 
as notions implanted by the creator in  
the mind of ,father ,adam--that  so long
 as it insisted upon calling things by  
fanciful names and upon  frowning down  
all effort to reach the ultimate        
verities--that just  so long its        
progress would be fitful and slow4 ,it  
was morality that  burned the books of  
the ancient sages1 and morality that    
halted the  free inquiry of the ,golden 
,age and substituted for it the         
credulous  imbecility of the ,age of    
,faith4 ,it was a fixed moral code and a
 fixed  theology which robbed the human 
race of a thousand years by wasting     
them upon alchemy1 heretic-burning1     
witchcraft and sacerdotalism4           
,nietzsche called himself an immoralist4
 ,he believed that all progress         
depended upon the truth and that the    
truth could not prevail while  men yet  
enmeshed themselves in a web of         

gratuitous and senseless laws  fashioned
 by their own hands4 ,he was fond of    
picturing the ideal  immoralist as a    
magnificent blond beast--innocent of    
virtue and  sin and knowing only good   
and bad4 ,instead of a god to guide     
him1 with commandments and the fear of  
hell1 this immoralist would  have his   
own instincts and intelligence4 ,instead
 of doing a given  thing because the    
church called it a virtue or the current
 moral code  required it1 he would do it
 because he knew that it would benefit  
him  or his descendants after him4      
,instead of refraining from a given     
action  because the church denounced it 
as a sin and the law as a crime1 he     
would avoid it only if he were convinced
 that the action itself1 or its         
consequences1 might work him or his an  
injury4    ,such a man1 were he set down
 in the world today1 would bear an      
outward resemblance1 perhaps1 to the    
most pious and virtuous of his          
fellow-citizens1 but it is apparent that

 his life would have more of  truth in  
it and less of hypocrisy and cant and   
pretense than theirs4  ,he would obey   
the laws of the land frankly and solely 
because he was  afraid of incurring     
their penalties1 and for no other       
reason1 and he  would not try to delude 
his neighbors and himself into believing
 that  he saw anything sacred in them4  
,he would have no need of a god to teach
  him the difference between right and  
wrong and no need of priests to  remind 
him of this god's teachings4 ,he would  
look upon the woes and  ills of life as 
inevitable and necessary results of     
life's conflict1  and he would make no  
effort to read into them the wrath of a 
peevish  and irrational deity at his own
 or his ancestors' sins4 ,his mind would
  be absolutely free of thoughts of sin 
and hell1 and in consequence1 he  would 
be vastly happier than the majority of  
persons about him4 ,all  in all1 he     
would be a powerful influence for truth 
in his community1  and as such1 would   

occupy himself with the most noble and  
sublime  task possible to mere human    
beings3 the overthrow of superstition   
and  unreasoning faith1 with their long 
train of fears1 horrors1 doubts1        
frauds1 injustice and suffering4#i      
,under an ideal government--which       
,herbert ,spencer defines as a          
government in which the number of laws  
has reached an irreducible              
minimum--such a man would prosper a     
great deal more than the  priest-ridden1
 creed-barnacled masses about him4#aj   
,in a state wherein  communistic        
society1 with its levelling usages and  
customs1 had  ceased to exist1 and      
wherein each individual of the master   
class was  permitted to live his life as
 much as possible in accordance with his
  own notions of good and bad1 such a   
man would stand forth from the herd  in 
proportion as his instincts were more   
nearly healthy and infallible  than the 
instincts of the herd4 ,ideal anarchy1  
in brief1 would insure  the success of  

those men who were wisest mentally and  
strongest  physically1 and the race     
would make rapid progress4    ,it is    
evident that the communistic and        
socialistic forms of government  at     
present in fashion in the world oppose  
such a consummation as often  as they   
facilitate it4 ,civilization1 as we know
 it1 makes more paupers  than           
millionaires1 and more cripples than    
,sandows4 ,its most conspicuous         
products1 the church and the king1 stand
 unalterably opposed to all  progress4  
,like the frog of the fable1 which      
essayed to climb out of a  well1 it     
slips back quite as often as it goes    
ahead4    ,and for these reasons        
,nietzsche was an anarchist--in the true
 meaning  of that much-bespattered      
word--just as ,herbert ,spencer and     
,arthur  ,schopenhauer were anarchists  
before him4      #a ,also sprach        
,zarathustra ,i4    #b ,the word mos1   
from signifying what is customary1 has  
come to  signify what is right4 ,sir    

,wm4 ,markby3 ,elements of ,law         
,considered  with ,reference to ,general
 ,principles of ,jurisprudence3 pp4     
#aah1 #eth  ed41 ,london1 #ahif4    #c  
,in his masterly treatise1 ,christian   
,origins1 tr4 by ,david ,a4  ,huebsch3  
,new ,york1 #aijf4    #d ,menschliches  
allzu ,menschliches ,,iii4    #e        
,jenseits von ,gut und ,bse  #bei4    #f
 ,zur ,genealogie der ,moral ,,ii1  #aa4
    #g ,morgenrte1  #aab4    #h         
,morgenrte1  #aab4    #i ,it is my      
experience1 said ,thomas ,h4 ,huxley1   
that1 aside from a  few human           
affections1 the only thing that gives   
lasting and untainted  pleasure in the  
world1 is the pursuit of truth and the  
destruction of  error4 ,see ,the ,life  
and ,letters of ,t4 ,h4 ,huxley1 by     
,leonard ,huxley2  ,london1 #aijj4      
#aj ,read the suicide tables and see how
 many despairing men1 hope  less of     
keeping their homes together1 pay with  
their lives the toil  imposed upon them 
by squanderers of the public money4     

,helen ,mathers  in ,p4 ,t4 ,o41 ,feb4  
#i #aijg1 p4 #ahj4 ,this is one of      
,tolstoi's chief  arguments against all 
government4          ,,iv      ,,the    
,,superman      ,no doubt the reader who
 has followed the argument in the       
preceding  chapters will have happened1 
before now1 upon the thought that       
,nietzsche's chain of reasoning1 so far1
 still has a gap in it4 ,we have  seen  
how he started by investigating ,greek  
art in the light of the                 
,schopenhauerean philosophy1 how this   
led him to look into morality1 how  he  
revealed the origin of morality in      
transitory manifestations of the  will  
to power1 and how he came to the        
conclusion that it was best for  a man  
to reject all ready-made moral ideas and
 to so order his life  that his every   
action would be undertaken with some    
notion of making  it subserve his own   
welfare or that of his children or      
children's  children4 ,but a gap remains
 and it may be expressed in the         

question3  ,how is a man to define and  
determine his own welfare and that of   
the  race after him8    ,here1 indeed1  
our dionysian immoralist is confronted  
by a very serious  problem1 and         
,nietzsche himself well understood its  
seriousness4 ,unless  we have in mind   
some definite ideal of happiness and    
some definite  goal of progress we had  
better sing the doxology and dismiss our
  congregation4 ,christianity has such  
an ideal and such a goal4 ,the one  is a
 ,christ-like life on earth and the     
other is a place at the right  hand of  
,jehovah in the hereafter4              
,mohammedanism1 a tinsel form of        
,christianity1 paints pictures of the   
same sort4 ,buddhism holds out the      
tempting bait of a race set free from   
the thrall of earthly desires1  with an 
eternity of blissful nothingness4#a ,the
 other oriental faiths  lead in the same
 direction and ,schopenhauer1 in his    
philosophy1 laid  down the doctrine that
 humanity would attain perfect happiness

 only  when it had overcome its instinct
 of self-preservation--that is to  say1 
when it had ceased to desire to live4   
,even ,christian ,science--that  most   
grotesque child of credulous faith and  
incredible denial--offers  us the double
 ideal of a mortal life entirely free   
from mortal pain and  a harp in the     
heavenly band for all eternity4    ,what
 had ,nietzsche to offer in place of    
these things8 ,by what standard  was his
 immoralist to separate the good--or    
beneficial--things of the  world from   
the bad--or damaging--things8 ,and what 
was the goal that the  philosopher had  
in mind for his immoralist8 ,the answer 
to the first  question is to be found in
 ,nietzsche's definition of the terms   
good  and bad4 ,all that elevates the   
sense of power1 the will to power1  and 
power itself--this is how he defined    
good4 ,all that proceeds  from          
weakness--this is how he defined bad4   
,happiness1 he held1 is  the feeling    
that power increases--that resistance is

 being overcome4  ,i preach not         
contentedness1 he said1 but more power2 
not peace1 but  war2 not virtue1 but    
efficiency4 ,the weak and defective must
 go to the  wall3 that is the first     
principle of the dionysian charity4 ,and
 we must  help them to go4#b    ,to put 
it more simply1 ,nietzsche offers the   
gospel of prudent and  intelligent      
selfishness1 of absolute and utter      
individualism4 ,one  must learn1 sang   
,zarathustra1 how to love oneself1 with 
a whole and  hearty love1 that one may  
find life with oneself endurable1 and   
not go  gadding about4 ,this gadding    
about is familiar3 it is called loving  
one's neighbor4'#c ,his ideal was an    
aristocracy which regarded the          
proletariat merely as a conglomeration  
of draft animals made to be  driven1    
enslaved and exploited4 ,a good and     
healthy aristocracy1  he said1 must     
acquiesce1 with a good conscience1 in   
the sacrifice  of a legion of           
individuals1 who1 for its benefit1 must 

be reduced  to slaves and tools4 ,the   
masses have no right to exist on their  
own  account3 their sole excuse for     
living lies in their usefulness as a    
sort of superstructure or scaffolding1  
upon which a more select race  of beings
 may be elevated4#d ,rejecting all      
permanent rules of good  and evil and   
all notions of brotherhood1 ,nietzsche  
held that the  aristocratic             
individualist--and it was to the        
aristocrat only that he  gave1          
unreservedly1 the name of human         
being--must seek every possible         
opportunity to increase and exalt his   
own sense of efficiency1 of  success1 of
 mastery1 of power4 ,whatever tended to 
impair him1 or to  decrease his         
efficiency1 was bad4 ,whatever tended to
 increase it--at  no matter what cost to
 others--was good4 ,there must be a     
complete  surrender to the law of       
natural selection--that invariable      
natural law  which ordains that the fit 
shall survive and the unfit shall       

perish4  ,all growth must occur at the  
top4 ,the strong must grow stronger1 and
  that they may do so1 they must waste  
no strength in the vain task of  trying 
to lift up the weak4    ,the reader may 
interrupt here with the question we     
encountered at the  start3 how is the   
dionysian individualist to know whether 
a given  action will benefit him or     
injure him8 ,the answer1 of course1 lies
  in the obvious fact that1 in every    
healthy man1 instinct supplies a  very  
reliable guide1 and that1 when instinct 
fails or is uncertain1  experiment must 
solve the problem4 ,as a general thing1 
nothing is more  patent than the feeling
 of power--the sense of efficiency1 of  
capacity1  of mastery4 ,every man is    
constantly and unconsciously measuring  
himself  with his neighbors1 and so     
becoming acutely aware of those things  
in  which he is their superior4 ,let two
 men clash in the stock market and  it  
becomes instantly apparent that one is  
richer1 or more resourceful  or more    

cunning than the other4 ,let two men run
 after an omnibus and  it becomes       
instantly apparent that one is swifter  
than the other4 ,let  two men come      
together as rivals in love1 war1        
drinking or holiness1  and one is bound 
to feel that he has bested the other4   
,such contests  are infinite in variety 
and in number1 and all life1 in fact1 is
 made  up of them4 ,therefore1 it is    
plain that every man is conscious of his
  power1 and aware of it when this power
 is successfully exerted against  some  
other man4 ,in such exertions1 argues   
,nietzsche1 lies happiness1  and so his 
prescription for happiness consists in  
unrestrained  yielding to the will to   
power4 ,that all men worth discussing so
 yield1  despite the moral demand for   
humility1 is so plain that it scarcely  
needs statement4 ,it is the desire to   
attain and manifest efficiency  and     
superiority which makes one man explore 
the wilds of ,africa and  another pile  
up vast wealth and another write books  

of philosophy and  another submit to    
pain and mutilation in the prize ring4  
,it is this  yearning which makes men   
take chances and risk their lives and   
limbs  for glory4 ,everybody knows1     
indeed1 that in the absence of such a   
primordial and universal emulation the  
world would stand still and  the race   
would die4 ,nietzsche asks nothing more 
than that the fact be  openly recognized
 and admitted2 that every man yield to  
the yearning  unashamed1 without        
hypocrisy and without wasteful efforts  
to feed and  satisfy the yearning of    
other men at the expense of his own4    
,it is evident1 of course1 that the     
feeling of superiority has a  complement
 in the feeling of inferiority4 ,every  
man1 in other words1  sees himself1 in  
respect to some talent possessed in     
common by himself  and a rival1 in one  
of three ways3 he knows that he is      
superior1 he  knows that he is inferior1
 or he is in doubt4 ,in the first case1 
says  ,nietzsche1 the thing for him to  

do is to make his superiority still     
greater by yielding to its stimulation3 
to make the gap between himself  and his
 rival wider and wider4 ,in the second  
case1 the thing for him to  do is to try
 to make the gap smaller3 to lift       
himself up or to pull his  rival down   
until they are equal or the old         
disproportion is reversed4  ,in the     
third case1 it is his duty to plunge    
into a contest and risk  his all upon   
the cast of the die4 ,i do not exhort   
you to peace1  says ,zarathustra1 but to
 victory6#e ,if victory comes not1 let  
it  be defeat1 death and                
annihilation--but1 in any event1 let    
there be a  fair fight4 ,without this   
constant strife--this constant          
testing--this  constant elimination of  
the unfit--there can be no progress4 ,as
  the smaller surrenders himself to the 
greater1 so the greater must  surrender 
himself to the will to power and stake  
life upon the issue4  ,it is the mission
 of the greatest to run risk and        

danger--to cast dice  with death4#f     
,power1 in a word1 is never infinite3 it
 is always  becoming4    ,practically   
and in plain language1 what does all    
this mean8 ,simply that  ,nietzsche     
preaches a mighty crusade against all   
those ethical ideas  which teach a man  
to sacrifice himself for the theoretical
 good of his  inferiors4 ,a culture     
which tends to equalize1 he says1 is    
necessarily  a culture which tends to   
rob the strong and so drag them down1   
for the  strong cannot give of their    
strength to the weak without decreasing 
their store4 ,there must be an unending 
effort to widen the gap2 there  must be 
a constant search for advantage1 an     
infinite alertness4 ,the  strong man    
must rid himself of all idea that it is 
disgraceful to yield  to his acute and  
ever present yearning for still more    
strength4 ,there  must be an abandonment
 of the old slave-morality and a        
transvaluation  of moral values4 ,the   
will to power must be emancipated from  

the bonds  of that system of ethics     
which brands it with infamy1 and so     
makes the  one all-powerful instinct of 
every sentient creature loathsome and   
abominable4    ,it is only the          
under-dog1 he says1 that believes in    
equality4 ,it  is only the groveling and
 inefficient mob that seeks to reduce   
all  humanity to one dead level1 for it 
is only the mob that would gain  by such
 leveling4 ',there are no higher men1'  
says the crowd in the  market place4    
',we are all equal2 man is man2 in the  
presence of ,god  we are all equal6' ,in
 the presence of ,god1 indeed6 ,but ,i  
tell you  that ,god is dead6 ,so        
thunders ,zarathustra4#g ,that is to    
say1 our  idea of brotherhood is part of
 the mob-morality of the ancient ,jews1 
who evolved it out of their own         
helplessness and credited it to their   
god4 ,we have inherited their morality  
with their god and so we find  it       
difficult--in the mass--to rid ourselves
 of their point of view4  ,nietzsche    

himself rejected utterly the ,judaic god
 and he believed that  the great        
majority of intelligent men of his time 
were of his mind4  ,that he was not far 
wrong in this assumption is evident to  
everyone4  ,at the present time1 indeed1
 it is next to impossible to find a sane
  man in all the world who believes in  
the actual existence of the  deity      
described in the old testament4 ,all    
theology is now an effort  to explain   
away this god4 ,therefore1 argues       
,nietzsche1 it is useless  to profess an
 insincere concurrence in a theistic    
idea at which our  common sense revolts1
 and ridiculous to maintain the         
inviolability of  an ethical scheme     
grounded upon this idea4    ,it may be  
urged here that1 even if the god of     
,judea is dead1 the idea  of brotherhood
 still fives1 and that1 as a matter of  
fact1 it is an  idea inherent in the    
nature of man1 and one that owes nothing
 to the  rejected supernaturalism which 
once fortified and enforced it4 ,that   

is to say1 it may be argued that the    
impulse to self-sacrifice and  mutual   
help is itself an instinct4 ,the answer 
to this lies in the very  patent fact   
that it is not4 ,nothing1 indeed1 is    
more apparent than the  essential       
selfishness of man4 ,in so far as they  
are able to defy or  evade the moral    
code without shame or damage1 the strong
 always exploit  the weak4 ,the rich man
 puts up the price of the necessities of
 life  and so makes himself richer and  
the poor poorer4 ,the emperor combats   
democracy4 ,the political boss opposes  
the will of the people for his  own     
advantage4 ,the inventor patents his    
inventions and so increases  his        
relative superiority to the common run  
of men4 ,the ecclesiastic  leaves a     
small parish for a larger one--because  
the pay is better  or the field offers  
wider opportunities1 i4e4 gives him a   
better  chance to save souls and so     
increases his feeling of efficiency4    
,the  philanthropist gives away millions

 because the giving visualizes and      
makes evident to all men his virtue and 
power4 ,it is ever the same  in this    
weary old world3 every slave would be a 
master if he could4  ,therefore1 why    
deny it8 ,why make it a crime to do what
 every man's  instincts prompt him to   
do8 ,why call it a sin to do what every 
man  does1 insofar as he can8 ,the man  
who throws away his money or cripples   
himself with drink1 or turns away from  
his opportunities--we call him a        
lunatic or a fool4 ,and yet1 wherein    
does he differ from the ideal holy  man 
of our slave-morality--the holy man who 
tortures himself1 neglects  his body1   
starves his mind and reduces himself to 
parasitism1 that the  weak1 the useless 
and unfit may have1 through his         
ministrations1 some  measure of ease8   
,such is the argument of the dionysian  
philosophy4 ,it  is an argument for the 
actual facts of existence--however      
unrighteous  and ugly those facts may   
be4    ,that the lifting up of the weak1

 in the long run1 is an unprofitable    
and useless business is evident on very 
brief reflection4 ,philanthropy1        
considered largely1 is inevitably a     
failure4 ,now and then we may  transform
 an individual pauper or drunkard into a
 useful1 producing  citizen1 but this   
happens very seldom4 ,nothing is more   
patent1 indeed1  than the fact that     
charity merely converts the unfit--who1 
in the  course of nature1 would soon die
 out and so cease to encumber the       
earth--into parasites--who live on      
indefinitely1 a nuisance and a  burden  
to their betters4 ,the reformed drunkard
 always goes back to  his cups3         
drunkardness1 as every physician knows1 
is as essentially  incurable as         
congenital insanity4 ,and it is the same
 with poverty4  ,we may help a pauper to
 survive by giving him food and drink1  
but we  cannot thereby make an efficient
 man of him--we cannot rid him of the   
unfitness which made him a pauper4      
,there are1 of course1 exceptions  to   

this1 as to other rules1 but the        
validity of the rule itself will  not be
 questioned by any observant man4 ,it   
goes unquestioned1 indeed1  by those who
 preach the doctrine of charity the     
loudest4 ,they know  it would be absurd 
to argue that helping the unfit is      
profitable to  the race1 and so they    
fall back1 soon or late1 upon the       
argument that  charity is ordained of   
,god and that the impulse to it is      
implanted  in every decent man4         
,nietzsche flatly denies this4 ,charity1
 he says1  is a man-made idea1 with     
which the gods have nothing to do4 ,its 
sole  effect is to maintain the useless 
at the expense of the strong4 ,in the   
mass1 the helped can never hope to      
discharge in full their debt to the     
helpers4 ,the result upon the race is   
thus retrogression4    ,and now for our 
second question4 ,what was the goal     
,nietzsche had in  mind for his         
immoralist8 ,what was to be the final   
outcome of his  overturning of all      

morality8 ,did he believe the human race
 would  progress until men became gods  
and controlled the sun and stars as they
  now control the flow of great rivers8 
,or did he believe that the end  of it  
all would be annihilation8 ,after the   
publication of ,nietzsche's  earlier    
books1 with their ruthless tearing down 
of the old morality1  these questions   
were asked by critics innumerable in all
 the countries  of ,europe4 ,the        
philosopher was laughed at as a crazy   
iconoclast who  destroyed without       
rebuilding4 ,he was called a visionary  
and a lunatic1  and it was reported and 
believed that he had no answer3 that his
  philosophy was doomed to bear itself  
to the earth1 like an arch without  a   
keystone4 ,but in ,april1 #ahhc1 he     
began the publication of ,also  sprach  
,zarathustra and therein his reply was  
written large4    ,i teach you1 cries   
,zarathustra1 the superman6 ,man is     
something that  shall be surpassed4     
,what1 to man1 is the ape8 ,a joke or a 

shame4 ,man  shall be the same to the   
superman3 a joke or shame4444 ,man is a 
bridge  connecting ape and superman4444 
,the superman will be the final flower  
and ultimate expression of the earth4 ,i
 conjure you to be faithful to  the     
earth 444 to cease looking beyond the   
stars for your hopes and  rewards4 ,you 
must sacrifice yourself to the earth    
that one day it may  bring forth the    
superman4#h    ,here we hearken unto the
 materialist1 the empiricist1 the monist
 par  excellence4 ,and herein we        
perceive dimly the outlines of the      
superman4  ,he will be rid of all       
delusions that hamper and oppress the   
will to  power4 ,he will be perfect in  
body and perfect in mind4 ,he will know 
everything worth knowing and have       
strength and skill and cunning to       
defend himself against any conceivable  
foe4 ,because the prospect of  victory  
will feed his will to power he will     
delight in combat1 and  his increasing  
capacity for combat will decrease his   

sensitiveness  to pain4 ,conscious of   
his efficiency1 he will be happy2 having
 no  illusions regarding a heaven and a 
hell1 he will be content4 ,he will  see 
life as something pleasant--something to
 be faced gladly and with  a laugh4 ,he 
will say yes alike to its pleasures and 
to its ills4 ,rid  of the notion that   
there is anything filthy in living--that
 the flesh  is abominable#i and life an 
affliction#aj--;he will grow better and 
better fitted to meet the conditions of 
actual existence4 ,he will be  scornful1
 merciless and supremely fit4 ,he will  
be set free from man's  fear of gods and
 of laws1 just as man has been set free 
from the ape's  fear of lions and of    
open places4    ,to put it simply1 the  
superman's thesis will be this3 that he 
has been  put into the world without his
 consent1 that he must live in the      
world1  that he owes nothing to the     
other people there1 and that he knows   
nothing whatever of existence beyond the
 grave4 ,therefore1 it will be  his     

effort to attain the highest possible   
measure of satisfaction for  the only   
unmistakable and genuinely healthy      
instinct within him3 the  yearning to   
live--to attain power--to meet and      
overcome the influences  which would    
weaken or destroy him4 ,keep yourselves 
up1 my brethren1  cautions ,zarathustra1
 learn to keep yourselves up6 ,the sea  
is stormy  and many seek to keep afloat 
by your aid4 ,the sea is stormy and all 
are  overboard4 ,well1 cheer up and save
 yourselves1 ye old seamen6444 ,what  is
 your fatherland8 ,the land wherein your
 children will dwell4444 ,thus  does    
your love to these remote ones speak3   
',disregard your neighbors6  ,man is    
something to be surpassed6' ,surpass    
yourself at the expense  of your        
neighbor4 ,what you cannot seize1 let no
 man give you4444  ,let him who can     
command1 obey6#aa ,the idea1 by this    
time1 should be  plain4 ,the superman1  
in the struggle for existence1 asks and 
gives  no quarter4 ,he believes that it 

is the destiny of sentient beings to    
progress upward1 and he is willing to   
sacrifice himself that his race  may do 
so4 ,but his sacrifice must benefit1 not
 his neighbor--not the  man who should  
and must look out for himself--but the  
generations yet  unborn4    ,it must be 
borne in mind that the superman will    
make a broad  distinction between       
instinct and passion--that he will not  
mistake the  complex thing we call love1
 with its costly and constant hurricanes
 of  emotion1 for the instinct of       
reproduction--that he will not mistake  
mere anger for war--that he will not    
mistake patriotism1 with all its        
absurdities and illusions1 for the      
homing instinct4 ,the superman1 in      
brief1 will know how to renounce as well
 as how to possess1 but his             
renunciation will be the child1 not of  
faith or of charity1 but of  expediency4
 ,will nothing beyond your capacity1    
says ,zarathustra4  ,demand nothing of  
yourself that is beyond achievement6444 

,the higher  a thing is1 the less often 
does it succeed4 ,be of good cheer6     
,what  matter6 ,learn to laugh at       
yourselves6444 ,suppose you have failed8
 ,has  not the future gained by your    
failure8#ab ,the superman1 as ,nietzsche
  was fond of putting it1 must play at  
dice with death4 ,he must have  ever in 
mind no other goal but the good of the  
generations after him4  ,he must be     
willing to battle with his fellows1 as  
with illusions1 that  those who came    
after may not be afflicted by these     
enemies4 ,he must be  supremely unmoral 
and unscrupulous4 ,his must be the      
gospel of eternal  defiance4            
,nietzsche1 it will be observed1 was    
unable to give any very definite        
picture of this proud1 heaven-kissing   
superman4 ,it is only in  ,zarathustra's
 preachments to the higher man1 a sort  
of bridge between  man and superman1    
that we may discern the philosophy of   
the latter4 ,on  one occasion ,nietzsche
 penned a passage which seemed to       

compare the  superman to the great blond
 beasts which ranged ,europe in the days
  of the mammoth1 and from this fact    
many commentators have drawn the        
conclusion that he had in mind a mere   
two-legged brute1 with none of  the     
higher traits that we now speak of as   
distinctly human4 ,but1 as a  matter of 
fact1 he harbored no such idea4 ,in     
another place1 wherein he  speaks of    
three metamorphoses of the race1 under  
the allegorical names  of the camel1 the
 lion and the child1 he makes this      
plain4 ,the camel1  a hopeless beast of 
burden1 is man4 ,but when the camel goes
 into the  solitary desert1 it throws   
off its burden and becomes a lion4 ,that
 is  to say1 the heavy and hampering    
load of artificial dead-weight called   
morality is cast aside and the instinct 
to live--or1 as ,nietzsche  insists upon
 regarding it1 the will to power--is    
given free rein4  ,the lion is the      
higher man--the intermediate stage      
between man and  superman4 ,the latter  

appears neither as camel nor lion1 but  
as a little  child4 ,he knows a little  
child's peace4 ,he has a little child's 
calm4  ,like a babe in utero he is      
ideally adapted to his environment4     
,zarathustra sees man like a camel      
kneeling down to be heavy laden4  ,what 
are his burdens8 ,one is to humiliate   
oneself4 ,another is  to love those who 
despise us4 ,in the desert comes the    
first  metamorphosis1 and the thou shalt
 of the camel becomes the ,i will  of   
the lion4 ,and what is the mission of   
the lion8 ,to create for  itself freedom
 for new creating4 ,after the lion comes
 the child4 ,it  is innocence and       
oblivion1 a new starting1 a play1 a     
wheel rolling by  itself1 a prime motor1
 a holy asserting4 ,the thought here is 
cast in  the heightened language of     
mystic poetry1 but its meaning1 ,i take 
it1  is not lost4#ac    ,nietzsche1 even
 more than ,schopenhauer1 recognized the
 fact that great  mental progress--in   
the sense that mental progress means an 

increased  capacity for grappling with  
the conditions of existence--necessarily
  has to depend upon physical           
efficiency4 ,in exceptional cases a     
great  mind may inhabit a diseased body1
 but it is obvious that this is not  the
 rule4 ,a nation in which the average   
man had but one hand and the  duration  
of life was but #bj years could not hope
 to cope with even the  weakest nation  
of modern ,europe4 ,so it is plain that 
the first step in  the improvement of   
the race must be the improvement of the 
body4 ,jesus  ,christ gave expression to
 this need by healing the sick1 and the 
chief  end and aim of all modern science
 is that of making life more and more   
bearable4 ,every labor-saving machine   
ever invented by man has no other       
purpose than that of saving bodily wear 
and tear4 ,every religion aims  to      
rescue man from the racking fear of hell
 and the strain of trying  to solve the 
great problems of existence for himself4
 ,every scheme of  government that we   

know is1 at bottom1 a mere device for   
protecting  human beings from injury and
 death4    ,thus it will be seen that   
,nietzsche's program of progress does   
not  differ from other programs quite so
 much as1 at first sight1 it may  seem  
to do4 ,he laid down the principle that1
 before anything else could  be         
accomplished1 we must have first looked 
to the human machine4 ,as  we have seen1
 the intellect is a mere symptom of the 
will to live4  ,therefore whatever      
removes obstacles to the free exercise  
of this will  to live1 necessarily      
promotes and increases intelligence4 ,a 
race that  was never incapacitated by   
illness would be better fitted than any 
other race for any conceivable          
intellectual pursuit3 from making money 
to conjugating ,greek verbs4 ,nietzsche 
merely states this obvious fact  in an  
unaccustomed form4    ,his superman is  
to give his will to live--or will to    
power1 as you  please--perfect freedom4 
,as a result1 those individuals in whom 

this  instinct most accurately meets the
 conditions of life on earth will       
survive1 and in their offspring1 by     
natural laws1 the instinct itself  will 
become more and more accurate4 ,that is 
to say1 there will appear  in future    
generations individuals in whom this    
instinct will tend more  and more to    
order the performance of acts of        
positive benefit and to  forbid the     
performance of acts likely to result in 
injury4 ,this injury1  it is plain1 may 
take the form of unsatisfied wants as   
well as of  broken skulls4 ,therefore1  
the man--or superman--in whom the       
instinct  reaches perfection will       
unconsciously steer clear of all the    
things  which harass and batter mankind 
today--exhausting self-denials as well  
as exhausting passions4 ,whatever seems 
likely to benefit him1 he will  do2     
whatever seems likely to injure him he  
will avoid4 ,when he is in  doubt1 he   
will dare--and accept defeat or victory 
with equal calm4  ,his attitude1 in     

brief1 will be that of a being who faces
 life as he  finds it1 defiantly and    
unafraid--who knows how to fight and how
 to  forbear--who sees things as they   
actually are1 and not as they might or  
should be1 and so wastes no energy      
yearning for the moon or in butting  his
 head against stone walls4 ,this new    
table1 ,o my brethren1 ,i put  over you3
 ,be hard6#ad    ,such was the goal that
 ,nietzsche held before the human race4 
,other  philosophers before him had     
attempted the same thing4 ,schopenhauer 
had  put forward his idea of a race that
 had found happiness in putting  away   
its desire to live4 ,comte had seen a   
vision of a race whose every  member    
sought the good of all4 ,the            
humanitarians of all countries  had     
drawn pictures of ,utopias peopled by   
beings who had outgrown all  human      
instincts--who had outgrown the one     
fundamental1 unquenchable  and eternal  
instinct of every living thing3 the     
desire to conquer1 to  live1 to remain  

alive4 ,nietzsche cast out all these    
fine ideals as  essentially impossible4 
,man was of the earth1 earthy1 and his  
heavens  and hells were creatures of his
 own vaporings4 ,only after he had      
ceased  dreaming of them and thrown off 
his crushing burden of transcendental   
morality--only thus and then could he   
hope to rise out of the slough of       
despond in which he wallowed4      #a   
,nirvana is a cessation of striving for 
individual existence--that  is1 after   
death4 ,see ,dictionary of ,philosophy  
and ,psychology1 vol4  ,,ii1 pp4 #agh2  
,new ,york1 #aijb4    #b ,der           
,antichrist1  #b4    #c ,also sprach    
,zarathustra1 ,,iii4    #d ,jenseits von
 ,gut und ,bse1  #beh4    #e ,also      
sprach ,zarathustra1 ,i4    #f ,also    
sprach ,zarathustra1 ,,ii4    #g ,also  
sprach ,zarathustra1 ,,iv4    #h ,also  
sprach ,zarathustra1 ,i4    #i          
,galatians ,v1 #ai1 #bj1 #ba4    #aj    
,job ,v1 #g2 ,,xiv1 #a2 ,ecclesiastes   
,i1 #a4    #aa ,also sprach             

,zarathustra1 ,i4    #ab ,also sprach   
,zarathustra1 ,,iv4    #ac ,also sprach 
,zarathustra1 ,i4    #ad ,also sprach   
,zarathustra1 ,,iii4          ,v        
,,eternal ,,recurrence      ,in the     
superman ,nietzsche showed the world a  
conceivable and possible  goal for all  
human effort4 ,but there still remained 
a problem and it  was this3 ,when the   
superman at last appears on earth1 what 
then8 ,will  there be another           
super-superman to follow and a          
super-supersuperman  after that8 ,in the
 end1 will man become the equal of the  
creator of the  universe1 whoever or    
whatever ,he may be8 ,or will a period  
of decline  come after1 with a return   
down the long line1 through the superman
 to  man again1 and then on to the      
anthropoid ape1 to the lower mammals1 to
  the asexual cell1 and1 finally1 to    
mere inert matter1 gas1 ether and  empty
 space8    ,nietzsche answered these    
questions by offering the theory that   
the  universe moves in regular cycles   

and that all which is now happening  on 
earth1 and in all the stars1 to the     
uttermost1 will be repeated1  again and 
again1 throughout eternity4 ,in other   
words1 he dreamed of a  cosmic year1    
corresponding1 in some fashion1 to the  
terrestrial year4  ,man1 who has sprung 
from the elements1 will rise into       
superman1 and  perhaps infinitely       
beyond1 and then1 in the end1 by        
catastrophe or slow  decline1 he will be
 resolved into the primary elements     
again1 and the  whole process will begin
 anew4    ,this notion1 it must be      
admitted1 was not original with         
,nietzsche and  it would have been      
better for his philosophy and for his   
repute as an  intelligent thinker had he
 never sought to elucidate it4 ,in his  
early  essay on history he first        
mentioned it and there he credited it to
 its  probable inventors--the           
,pythagoreans4#a ,it was their belief   
that1  whenever the heavenly bodies all 
returned to certain fixed relative      

positions1 the whole history of the     
universe began anew4 ,the idea  seemed  
to fascinate ,nietzsche1 in whom1       
despite his worship of the  actual1     
there was an ever-evident strain of     
mysticism1 and he referred  to it often 
in his later books4 ,the pure horror of 
it--of the notion  that all the world's 
suffering would have to be repeated     
again and  again1 that men would have to
 die over and over again for all        
infinity1  that there was no stopping   
place or final goal--the horror of all  
this  appealed powerfully to his        
imagination4 ,frau ,andreas-,salom tells
 us  that he spoke of it only in a low  
voice and with every sign of the        
profoundest emotion and there is reason 
to believe that1 at one time1  he       
thought there might be some confirmation
 of it in the atomic theory1  and that  
his desire to go to ,vienna to study the
 natural sciences  was prompted by a    
wish to investigate this notion4        
,finally he became  convinced that there

 was no ground for such a belief in any 
of the  known facts of science1 and     
after that1 we are told1 his shuddering 
horror left him4    ,it was then        
possible for him to deal with the       
doctrine of eternal  recurrence as a    
mere philosophical speculation1 without 
the  uncomfortable reality of a         
demonstrated scientific fact1 and       
thereafter  he spent much time          
considering it4 ,in ,also sprach        
,zarathustra he  puts it into the brain 
of his prophet-hero1 and shows how it   
well-nigh  drove the latter mad4    ,i  
will come back1 muses ,zarathustra1 with
 this sun1 with this earth1  with this  
eagle1 with this serpent--not for a new 
life or a better  life1 but to the same 
life ,i am now leading4 ,i will come    
back unto this  same old life1 in the   
greatest things and in the smallest1 in 
order to  teach once more the eternal   
recurrence of all things4#b    ,in the  
end1 ,nietzsche turned this fantastic   
idea into a device for  exalting his    

superman4 ,the superman is one who      
realizes that all of  his struggles will
 be in vain1 and that1 in future cycles1
 he will  have to go through them over  
and over again4 ,yet he has attained    
such  a superhuman immunity to all      
emotion--to all ideas of pleasure and   
pain--that the prospect does not daunt  
him4 ,despite its horror1 he  faces it  
unafraid4 ,it is all a part of life1 and
 in consequence it is  good4 ,he has    
learned to agree to everything that     
exists--even to the  ghastly necessity  
for living again and again4 ,in a word1 
he does not  fear an endless series of  
lives1 because life1 to him1 has lost   
all the  terrors which a merely human   
man sees in it4    ,let us not only     
endure the inevitable1 says ,nietzsche1 
and still  less hide it from ourselves3 
let us love it6    ,as ,vernon ,lee     
7,miss ,violet ,paget7#c has pointed    
out1 this idea is  scarcely to be       
distinguished from the fundamental tenet
 of stoicism4  ,miss ,paget also says   

that it bears a close family resemblance
 to that  denial of pain which forms the
 basis of ,christian ,science1 but this 
is  not true1 for a vast difference     
exists between a mere denial of pain    
and a willingness to admit it1 face it1 
and triumph over it4 ,but the  notion   
appears1 in endless guises1 in many     
philosophies and ,goethe  voiced it1    
after a fashion1 in his maxim1          
,entbehren sollst du 7,man  must do     
without74 ,the idea of eternal          
recurrence gives point1 again1  to a    
familiar anecdote4 ,this concerns a     
joker who goes to an inn1 eats  his fill
 and then says to the innkeeper3 ,you   
and ,i will be here again  in a million 
years3 let me pay you then4 ,very well1 
replies the  quick-witted innkeeper1 but
 first pay me for the beefsteak you ate 
the  last time you were here--a million 
years ago4    ,despite ,nietzsche's     
conclusion that the known facts of      
existence do  not bear it out1 and the  
essential impossibility of discussing it

 to  profit1 the doctrine of eternal    
recurrence is by no means unthinkable4  
,the celestial cycle put forward1 as an 
hypothesis1 by modern  astronomy--the   
progression1 that is1 from gas to molten
 fluid1 from  fluid to solid1 and from  
solid1 by catastrophe1 back to gas      
again--is  easily conceivable1 and it is
 easily conceivable1 too1 that the      
earth1  which has passed through an     
uninhabitable state into a habitable    
state1  may one day become uninhabitable
 again1 and so keep seesawing back and  
forth through all eternity4    ,but what
 will be the effect of eternal          
recurrence upon the superman8  ,the     
tragedy of it1 as we have seen1 will    
merely serve to make him  heroic4 ,he   
will defy the universe and say yes to   
life4 ,putting aside  all thought of    
conscious existence beyond the grave1 he
 will seek to  live as nearly as        
possible in exact accordance with those 
laws laid  down for the evolution of    
sentient beings on earth when the cosmos

 was  first set spinning4 ,but how will 
he know when he has attained this  end8 
,how will he avoid going mad with doubts
 about his own knowledge8  ,nietzsche   
gave much thought1 first and last1 to   
this epistemological  problem1 and at   
different times he leaned toward        
different schools1  but his writing1    
taken as a whole1 indicates that the    
fruit of his  meditations was a         
thorough-going empiricism4 ,the         
superman1 indeed1 is  an empiricist who 
differs from ,bacon only in the         
infinitely greater  range of his        
observation and experiment4 ,he learns  
by bitter experience  and he generalizes
 from this knowledge4 ,an utter and     
unquestioning  materialist1 he knows    
nothing of mind except as a function of 
body4  ,to him speculation seems vain   
and foolish3 his concern is ever with   
imminent affairs4 ,that is to say1 he   
believes a thing to be true when  his   
eyes1 his ears1 his nose and his hands  
tell him it is true4 ,and in  this he   

will be at one with all those men who   
are admittedly above the  mass today4   
,reject empiricism and you reject at one
 stroke1 the whole  sum of human        
knowledge4    ,when a man stubs his toe1
 for example1 the facts that the injured
  member swells and that it hurts most  
frightfully appear to him as  absolute  
certainties4 ,if we deny that he        
actually knows these things  and        
maintain that the spectacle of the      
swelling and the sensation of  pain are 
mere creatures of his mind1 we cast     
adrift from all order and  common-sense 
in the universe and go sailing upon a   
stormy sea of crazy  metaphysics and    
senseless contradictions4 ,there are    
many things that  we do not know1 and in
 the nature of things1 never can know4  
,we do not  know why phosphorus has a   
tendency to combine with oxygen1 but the
  fact that it has we do know--and if we
 try to deny we do know it1  we must    
deny that we are sentient beings1 and in
 consequence1 must  regard life and the 

universe as mere illusions4 ,no man with
 a sound  mind makes any such denial4   
,the things about us are real1 just as  
our  feeling that we are alive is       
real4#d    ,from this it must be plain  
that the superman will have the same    
guides  that we have1 viz43 his         
instincts and senses4 ,but in him they  
will be  more accurate and more acute   
than in us1 because the whole tendency  
of his scheme of things will be to      
fortify and develop them4#e ,if  any    
race of ,europe devoted a century to    
exercising its right arms1  its         
descendants1 in the century following1  
would have right arms like  piston-rods4
 ,in the same way1 the superman1 by     
subordinating everything  else to his   
instinct to live1 will make it evolve   
into something very  accurate and       
efficient4 ,his whole concern1 in brief1
 will be to live  as long as possible   
and so to avoid as much as possible all 
of those  things which shorten life--by 
injuring the body from without or by    

using up energy within4 ,as a result he 
will cease all effort to learn  why the 
world exists and will devote himself to 
acquiring knowledge  how it exists4     
,this knowledge how will be within his  
capacity even  more than it is within   
our capacity today4 ,our senses1 as we  
have  seen1 have given us absolute      
knowledge that stubbing the toe results 
in swelling and pain4 ,the superman's   
developed senses will give him  absolute
 knowledge about everything that exists 
on earth4 ,he will know  exactly how a  
tubercle bacillus attacks the lung      
tissue1 he will know  exactly how the   
blood fights the bacillus1 and he will  
know exactly  how to interfere in this  
battle in such a manner that the blood  
shall  be invariably victorious4 ,in a  
word1 he will be the possessor of exact 
and complete knowledge regarding the    
working of all the benign and  malignant
 forces in the world about him1 but he  
will not bother himself  about insoluble
 problems4 ,he will waste no time       

speculating as to why  tubercle bacilli 
were sent into the world3 his instinct  
to live will be  satisfied by his       
success in stamping them out4    ,the   
ideal superman then is merely a man in  
whom instinct works without             
interference--a man who feels that it is
 right to live and that the  only       
knowledge worth while is that which     
makes life longer and more  bearable4   
,the superman's instinct for life is so 
strong that its mere  exercise satisfies
 him1 and so makes him happy4 ,he       
doesn't bother  about the unknown void  
beyond the grave3 it is sufficient for  
him to  know that he is alive and that  
being alive is pleasant4 ,he is1 in the 
highest sense1 a utilitarian1 and he    
believes to the letter in ,auguste      
,comte's#f dictum that the only thing   
living beings can ever hope to          
accomplish on earth is to adapt         
themselves perfectly to the natural     
forces around them--to the winds and the
 rain1 the hills and the sea1  the      

thunderbolt and the germ of disease4    
,i am a dionysian6 cries ,nietzsche4 ,i 
am an immoralist6 ,he means  simply that
 his ideal is a being capable of facing 
the horrors of life  unafraid1 of       
meeting great enemies and slaying them1 
of gazing down  upon the earth in pride 
and scorn1 of making his own way and    
bearing  his own burdens4 ,in the       
profane folk-philosophy of every healthy
 and  vigorous people1 we find some     
trace of this dionysian idea4 ,let us so
  live day by day1 says a distinguished 
,american statesman1 that we can  look  
any man in the eye and tell him to go to
 hell6 ,we get a subtle  sort of joy out
 of this saying because it voices our   
racial advance  toward individualism and
 away from servility and oppression4 ,we
 believe  in freedom1 in toleration1 in 
moral anarchy4 ,we have put this notion 
into innumerable homely forms4          
,things have come to a hell of a pass   
,when a man can't wallop his own        
jackass6    ,so we phrase it4 ,the      

superman1 did he stalk the earth1 would 
say the  same thing4      #a ,pythagoras
 7,b4,c4 #egj8-ejj87 was a ,greek who   
brought the doctrine of  the            
transmigration of souls from ,asia      
,minor to ,greece4 ,in ,magna ,graecia  
he founded a mystical brotherhood1 half 
political party and half school  of     
philosophy4 ,it survived him for many   
years and its members revered  him as   
the sage of sages4 ,he was a bitter foe 
to democracy and took  part in wars     
against its spread4    #b ,also sprach  
,zarathustra1 ,,iii4    #c ,north       
,american ,review1 ,dec41 #aijd4    #d  
,vide the chapter on ,truth4    #e ,it  
is very evident1 ,i take it1 that the   
principal function of  all science is   
the widening of our perceptions4 ,the   
chief argument  for idealism used to be 
the axiom that our power of perception  
was  necessarily limited and that it    
would be limited forever4 ,this may  be 
true still1 but it is now apparent that 
these limits are being  indefinitely    

extended1 and may be extended1 in       
future1 almost  infinitely4 ,a thousand 
years ago1 if any one had laid down the 
thesis that malaria was caused by minute
 animals1 he would have been  dismissed 
as a lunatic1 because it was evident    
that no one could see  these animals1   
and it was evident1 too--that is to say1
 the scientists  of that time held it to
 be evident--that this inability to see 
them  would never be removed1 because   
the human eye would always remain       
substantially as it was4 ,but now we    
know that the microscope may  increase  
the eye's power of perception a         
thousandfold4 ,when we consider  the    
fact that the spectroscope has enabled  
us to make a chemical  analysis of the  
sun1 that the telephone has enabled us  
to hear #b1jjj  miles and that the      
x-rays have enabled us to see through   
flesh and  bone1 we must admit without  
reservation1 that our power of          
perception1  at some future day1 may be 
infinite4 ,and if we admit this we must 

admit  the essential possibility of the 
superman4    #f ,cours de philosophie   
positive1 tr4 by ,helen ,martineau2     
,london1  #ahec4          ,,vi          
,,christianity      ,nietzsche's        
astonishingly keen and fearless         
criticism of ,christianity  has probably
 sent forth wider ripples than any other
 stone he ever  heaved into the pool of 
philistine contentment4 ,he opened his  
attack in  ,menschliches allzu          
,menschliches1 the first book of his    
maturity1  and he was still at it1 in   
full fuming and fury1 in ,der           
,antichrist1  the last thing he was     
destined to write4 ,the closing chapter 
of ,der  ,antichrist--his swan          
song--contains his famous phillipic1    
beginning  ,i condemn4 ,it recalls      
,zola's j'accuse letter in the ,dreyfus 
case1  but it is infinitely more        
sweeping and infinitely more uproarious 
and  daring4    ,i condemn              
,christianity1 it begins4 ,i bring      
against it the most  terrible of        

accusations that ever an accuser put    
into words4 ,it is  to me the greatest  
of all imaginable corruptions4444 ,it   
has left  nothing untouched by its      
depravity4 ,it has made a worthlessness 
out  of every value1 a lie out of every 
truth1 a sin out of everything          
straightforward1 healthy and honest4    
,let anyone dare to speak to me of  its 
humanitarian blessings6 ,to do away with
 pain and woe is contrary  to its       
principles4 ,it lives by pain and woe3  
it has created pain and  woe in order to
 perpetuate itself4 ,it invented the    
idea of original  sin4#a ,it invented   
'the equality of souls before           
,god'--that cover  for all the rancour  
of the useless and base4444 ,it has bred
 the art  of self-violation--repugnance 
and contempt for all good and cleanly   
instincts4444 ,parasitism is its praxis4
 ,it combats all good red-blood1  all   
love and all hope for life1 with its    
anmic ideal of holiness4 ,it  sets up   
'the other world' as a negation of every

 reality4 ,the cross is  the rallying   
post for a conspiracy against health1   
beauty1 well-being1  courage1 intellect1
 benevolence--against life itself4444   
,this eternal accusation ,i shall write 
upon all walls3 ,i call  ,christianity  
the one great curse1 the one great      
intrinsic depravity1444  for which no   
expedient is sufficiently poisonous1    
secret1 subterranean1  mean6 ,i call it 
the one immortal shame and blemish upon 
the human  race6#b    ,so much for the  
philosopher's vociferous hurrah at the  
close of his  argument4 ,in the argument
 itself it is apparent that his         
indictment of  ,christianity contains   
two chief counts4 ,the first is the     
allegation  that it is essentially      
untrue and unreasonable1 and the second 
is  the theory that it is degrading4    
,the first of these counts is not       
unfamiliar to the students of religious 
history4 ,it was first voiced by  that  
high priest who rent his clothes and    
cried ,what need have we of  any further

 witnesses8 ,ye have heard the          
blasphemy4#c ,it was voiced  again by   
the ,romans who threw converts to the   
lions1 and after the long  silence of   
the middle ages1 it was piped forth     
again by ,voltaire1 ,hume1  the         
encyclopedists and ,paine4 ,after the   
philosophers and scientists  who        
culminated in ,darwin had rescued reason
 for all time from the  transcendental  
nonsense of the cobweb-spinners and     
metaphysicians1  ,huxley came to the    
front with his terrific heavy artillery 
and those  who still maintained that    
,christianity was historically          
true--,gladstone  and the rest of the   
forlorn hope--were mowed down4 ,david   
,strauss1  ,lessing1 ,eichhorn1         
,michaelis1 ,bauer1 ,meyer1 ,ritschl1#d 
,pfleiderer and  a host of others joined
 in the chorus and in ,nietzsche's early
 manhood  the battle was practically    
won4 ,by #ahhj no reasonable man        
actually  believed that there were      
devils in the swine1 and it was already 

possible to deny the physical           
resurrection and still maintain a place 
in respectable society4 ,today a literal
 faith in the gospel narrative  is      
confined to ecclesiastical              
reactionaries1 pious old ladies and men 
about to be hanged4    ,therefore1      
,nietzsche did not spend much time      
examining the historical  credibility of
 ,christianity4 ,he did not try to      
prove1 like ,huxley1  that the witnesses
 to the resurrection were superstitious 
peasants and  hysterical women1 nor did 
he seek to show1 like ,huxley again1    
that  ,christ might have been taken down
 from the cross before he was dead4  ,he
 was intensely interested in all such   
inquiries1 but he saw that1  in the last
 analysis1 they left a multitude of     
problems unsolved4 ,the  solution of    
these unsolved problems was the task    
that he took unto  himself4 ,tunneling  
down1 in his characteristic way1 into   
the very  foundations of the faith1 he  
endeavored to prove that it was based   

upon  contradictions and absurdities2   
that its dogmas were illogical and its  
precepts unworkable2 and that its       
cardinal principles presupposed  the    
acceptance of propositions which1 to the
 normal human mind1 were  essentially   
unthinkable4 ,this tunneling occupied   
much of ,nietzsche's  energy in         
,menschliches allzu ,menschliches1 and  
he returned to  it again and again1 in  
all of the other books that preceded    
,der  ,antichrist4 ,his method of       
working may be best exhibited by a few  
concrete examples4    ,prayer1 for      
instance1 is an exceedingly important   
feature of ,christian  worship and any  
form of worship in which it had no place
 would be  necessarily unchristian4#e   
,but upon what theory is prayer based8  
,examining the matter from all sides you
 will have to conclude that it  is      
reasonable only upon two assumptions3   
first1 that it is possible to  change   
the infallible will and opinion of the  
deity1 and secondly1 that  the          

petitioner is capable of judging what he
 needs4 ,now1 ,christianity  maintains1 
as one of its main dogmas1 that the     
deity is omniscient  and all-wise1#f    
and1 as another fundamental doctrine1   
that human  beings are absolutely unable
 to solve their problems without        
heavenly  aid#g i4e4 that the deity     
necessarily knows what is best for any  
given man better than that man can ever 
hope to know it himself4  ,therefore1   
,christianity1 in ordaining prayer1     
orders1 as a condition of  inclusion in 
its communion1 an act which it holds to 
be useless4 ,this  contradiction1 argues
 ,nietzsche1 cannot be explained away in
 terms  comprehensible to the human     
intelligence4    ,again ,christianity   
holds that man is a mere creature of the
 deity's  will1 and yet insists that the
 individual be judged and punished for  
his acts4 ,in other words1 it tries to  
carry free will on one shoulder  and    
determinism on the other1 and its       
doctors and sages have themselves  shown

 that they recognize the absurdity of   
this by their constant1 but  futile     
efforts to decide which of the two shall
 be abandoned4 ,this  contradiction is a
 legacy from ,judaism1 and              
,mohammedanism suffers  from it1 too4   
,those sects which have sought to remove
 it by an entire  acceptance of         
determinism--under the name of          
predestination1 fatalism1  or what      
not--have become bogged in hopeless     
morasses of unreason and  dogmatism4 ,it
 is a cardinal doctrine of              
,presbyterianism1 for instance1  that by
 the decree of ,god1 for the            
manifestation of his glory1 some  men   
and angels are predestinated unto       
everlasting life and others             
foreordained to everlasting death 444   
without any foresight of faith  or good 
works1 or perseverance in either of     
them1 or any other thing  in the        
creature1 as conditions4444#h ,in other 
words1 no matter  how faithfully one man
 tries to follow in the footsteps of    

,christ1  he may go to hell1 and no     
matter how impiously another sins1 he   
may  be foreordained for heaven4 ,that  
such a belief makes all religion1  faith
 and morality absurd is apparent4 ,that 
it is1 at bottom1 utterly  unthinkable  
to a reasoning being is also plain4     
,nietzsche devoted a great deal of time 
during his first period of  activity to 
similar examinations of ,christian ideas
 and he did a great  deal to supplement 
the historical investigations of those  
,english and  ,german savants whose     
ruthless exposure of fictions and frauds
 gave  birth to what we now call the    
higher criticism4 ,but his chief service
  was neither in the field of historical
 criticism nor in that of the  criticism
 of dogmas4 ,toward the end of his life 
he left the business of  examining      
biblical sources to the archeologists   
and historians1 whose  equipment for the
 task was necessarily greater than his  
own1 and the  business of reducing      
,christian logic to contradiction and   

absurdity to  the logicians4            
,thereafter1 his own work took him a    
step further down  and in the end he got
 to the very bottom of the subject4 ,the
 answer of  the theologians had been    
that1 even if you denied the miracles1  
the  gospels1 the divinity of ,christ   
and his very existence as an actual     
man1 you would have to admit that       
,christianity itself was sufficient     
excuse for its own existence2 that it   
had made the world better and  that it  
provided a workable scheme of life by   
which men could live and  die and rise  
to higher things4 ,this answer1 for     
awhile1 staggered the  agnostics and    
,huxley himself evidently came near     
being convinced that  it was beyond     
rebuttal4#i ,but it only made ,nietzsche
 spring into the  arena more confident  
than ever4 ,very well1 he said1 we will 
argue it  out4 ,you say that            
,christianity has made the world better8
 ,i say that it  has made it worse6 ,you
 say that it is comforting and          

uplifting8 ,i say  that it is cruel and 
degrading6 ,you say that it is the best 
religion  mankind has ever invented8 ,i 
say it is the most dangerous6    ,having
 thus thrown down the gage of battle1   
,nietzsche proceeded to  fight like a   
,tartar1 and it is but common fairness  
to say that1  for a good while1 he bore 
the weight of his opponents' onslaught  
almost unaided4 ,the world was willing  
enough to abandon its belief  in        
,christian supernaturalism and as far   
back as the early #hj's the  dignitaries
 of the ,church of ,england--to employ a
 blunt but expressive  metaphor--had    
begun to get in out of the wet4 ,but the
 pietists still  argued that            
,christianity remained the fairest      
flower of civilization  and that it met 
a real and ever-present human want and  
made mankind  better4 ,to deny this took
 courage of a decidedly unusual         
sort--courage  that was willing to face1
 not only ecclesiastical anathema and   
denunciation1 but also the almost       

automatic opposition of every  so-called
 respectable man4 ,but ,nietzsche1      
whatever his deficiencies  otherwise1   
certainly was not lacking in assurance1 
and so1 when he  came to write ,der     
,antichrist he made his denial          
thunderous and  uncompromising beyond   
expression4 ,no medieval bishop ever    
pronounced  more appalling curses4 ,no  
backwoods evangelist ever laid down the 
law  with more violent eloquence4 ,the  
book is the shortest he ever wrote1  but
 it is by long odds the most compelling4
 ,beginning allegro1 it  proceeds from  
forte1 by an uninterrupted crescendo to 
allegro con  moltissimo molto           
fortissimo4 ,the sentences run into     
mazes of italics1  dashes and asterisks4
 ,it is ,german that one cannot read    
aloud without  roaring and waving one's 
arm4    ,christianity1 says ,nietzsche1 
is the most dangerous system of         
slave-morality the world has ever known4
 ,it has waged a deadly  war against the
 highest type of man4 ,it has put a ban 

on all his  fundamental instincts4 ,it  
has distilled evil out of these         
instincts4  ,it makes the strong and    
efficient man its typical outcast man4  
,it has  taken the part of the weak and 
the low2 it has made an ideal out of    
its antagonism to the very instincts    
which tend to preserve life and         
well-being4444 ,it has taught men to    
regard their highest impulses as        
sinful--as temptations4#aj ,in a word1  
it tends to rob mankind of  all those   
qualities which fit any living organism 
to survive in the  struggle for         
existence4    ,as we shall see later on1
 civilization obscures and even opposes 
this  struggle for existence1 but it is 
in progress all the same1 at all  times 
and under all conditions4 ,every one    
knows1 for instance1 that  one-third of 
the human beings born into the world    
every year die before  they are five    
years old4 ,the reason for this lies in 
the fact that they  are1 in some way or 
other1 less fitted to meet the          

conditions of life  on earth than the   
other two-thirds4 ,the germ of cholera  
infantum is  an enemy to the human race1
 and so long as it continues to exist   
upon  earth it will devote all of its   
activity to attacking human infants  and
 seeking to destroy them4 ,it happens   
that some babies recover from  cholera  
infantum1 while others die of it4 ,this 
is merely another  way of saying that   
the former1 having been born with a     
capacity for  resisting the attack of   
the germ1 or having been given the      
capacity  artificially1 are better      
fitted to survive1 and that the latter1 
being  incapable of making this         
resistance1 are unfit4    ,all life upon
 earth is nothing more than a battle    
with the enemies  of life4 ,a germ is   
such an enemy1 cold is such an enemy1   
lack of  food is such an enemy1 and     
others that may be mentioned are lack of
  water1 ignorance of natural laws1     
armed foes and deficient physical       
strength4 ,the man who is able to get   

all of the food he wants1 and  so can   
nourish his body until it becomes strong
 enough to combat the  germs of disease2
 who gets enough to drink1 who has      
shelter from the  elements1 who has     
devised means for protecting himself    
against the  desires of other men--who  
yearn1 perhaps1 who take for themselves 
some  of the things that he has         
acquired--such a man1 it is obvious1 is 
far  better fitted to live than a man   
who has none of these things4 ,he is    
far better fitted to survive1 in a      
purely physical sense1 because his  body
 is nourished and protected1 and he is  
far better fitted to attain  happiness1 
because most of his powerful wants are  
satisfied4    ,nietzsche maintains that 
,christianity urges a man to make no    
such  efforts to insure his personal    
survival in the struggle for existence4 
,the beatitudes require1 he says1 that1 
instead of trying to do so1 the         
,christian shall devote his energies to 
helping others and shall give  no       

thought to himself4 ,instead of exalting
 himself as much as possible  above the 
common herd and thus raising his chances
 of surviving1 and  those of his        
children1 above those of the average    
man1 he is required  to lift up this    
average man4 ,now1 it is plain that     
every time he  lifts up some one else1  
he must1 at the same time1 decrease his 
own  store1 because his own store is the
 only stock from which he can draw4     
,therefore1 the tendency of the         
,christian philosophy of humility is to 
make men voluntarily throw away their   
own chances of surviving1 which  means  
their own sense of efficiency1 which    
means their own feeling of  increasing  
power1 which means their own happiness4 
,as a substitute for  this natural      
happiness1 ,christianity offers the     
happiness derived from  the belief that 
the deity will help those who make the  
sacrifice and so  restore them to their 
old superiority4 ,this belief1 as       
,nietzsche shows1  is no more borne out 

by known facts than the old belief in   
witches4 ,it  is1 in fact1 proved to be 
an utter absurdity by all human         
experience4    ,i call an animal1 a     
species1 an individual1 depraved1 he    
says1  when it loses its instincts1 when
 it selects1 when it prefers what  is   
injurious to it4444 ,life itself is an  
instinct for growth1 for  continuance1  
for accumulation of forces1 for power3  
where the will  to power is wanting     
there is decline4#aa ,christianity1 he  
says1  squarely opposes this will to    
power in the ,golden ,rule1 the         
cornerstone  of the faith4 ,the man who 
confines his efforts to attain          
superiority  over his fellow men to     
those acts which he would be willing to 
have  them do toward him1 obviously     
abandons all such efforts entirely4  ,to
 put it in another form1 a man can't    
make himself superior to the  race in   
general without making every other man  
in the world1 to that  extent1 his      
inferior4 ,now1 if he follows the       

,golden ,rule1 he must  necessarily     
abandon all efforts to make himself     
superior1 because if  he didn't he would
 be suffering all the time from the pain
 of seeing  other men--whose standpoint 
the ,rule requires him to assume--grow  
inferior4 ,thus his activity is         
restricted to one of two things3        
standing perfectly still or deliberately
 making himself inferior4 ,the  first is
 impossible1 but ,nietzsche shows that  
the latter is not1 and  that1 in point  
of fact1 it is but another way of       
describing the act  of sympathy--one of 
the things ordered by the fundamental   
dogma of  ,christianity4    ,sympathy1  
says ,nietzsche1 consists merely of a   
strong man giving up  some of his       
strength to a weak man4 ,the strong man1
 it is evident1 is  debilitated thereby1
 while the weak man1 very often1 is     
strengthened  but little4 ,if you go to 
a hanging and sympathize with the       
condemned1  it is plain that your mental
 distress1 without helping that         

gentleman1  weakens1 to a perceptible   
degree1 your own mind and body1 just as 
all other powerful emotions weaken them1
 by consuming energy1 and so  you are   
handicapped in the struggle for life to 
the extent of this  weakness4 ,you may  
get a practical proof of it an hour     
later by being  overcome and killed by a
 foot-pad whom you might have been able 
to  conquer1 had you been feeling       
perfectly well1 or by losing money to   
some financial rival for whom1 under    
normal conditions1 you would have  been 
a match2 and then again you may get no  
immediate or tangible  proof of it at   
all4 ,but your organism will have been  
weakened to some  measurable extent1 all
 the same1 and at some time--perhaps on 
your  death bed--this minute drain will 
make itself evident1 though1 of  course1
 you may never know it4    ,sympathy1   
says ,nietzsche1 stands in direct       
antithesis to the tonic  passions which 
elevate the energy of human beings and  
increase their  feeling of efficiency   

and power4 ,it is a depressant4 ,one    
loses force  by sympathizing and any    
loss of force which has been caused by  
other  means--personal suffering1 for   
example--is increased and multiplied  by
 sympathy4 ,suffering itself becomes    
contagious through sympathy and  under  
certain circumstances it may lead to a  
total loss of life4 ,if  a proof of that
 is desired1 consider the case of the   
,nazarene1 whose  sympathy for his      
fellow men brought him1 in the end1 to  
the cross4    ,again1 sympathy thwarts  
the law of development1 of evolution1 of
 the  survival of the fittest4 ,it      
preserves what is ripe for extinction1  
it  works in favor of life's condemned  
ones1 it gives to life itself a  gloomy 
aspect by the number of the             
ill-constituted it maintains in         
life4444 ,it is both a multiplier of    
misery and a conservator of misery4  ,it
 is the principal tool for the          
advancement of decadence4 ,it leads to  
nothingness1 to the negation of all     

those instincts which are at the  basis 
of life4444 ,but one does not say       
'nothingness2' one says instead  'the   
other world' or 'the better life4'444   
,this innocent rhetoric1  out of the    
domain of religio-moral fantasy1 becomes
 far from innocent  when one realizes   
what tendency it conceals3 the tendency 
hostile to  life4#ab    ,the foregoing  
makes it patent that ,nietzsche was a   
thorough-going and  uncompromising      
biological monist4 ,that is to say1 he  
believed that man1  while superior to   
all other animals because of his greater
 development1  was1 after all1 merely an
 animal1 like the rest of them2 that the
  struggle for existence went on among  
human beings exactly as it went  on     
among the lions in the jungle and the   
protozoa in the sea ooze1 and  that the 
law of natural selection ruled all of   
animated nature--mind  and              
matter--alike4 ,indeed1 it is but just  
to credit him with being the  pioneer   
among modern monists of this school1 for

 he stated and defended  the doctrine of
 morphological universality at a time   
when practically  all the evolutionists 
doubted it1 and had pretty well proved  
its truth  some years before ,haeckel   
wrote his ,monism and ,the ,riddle of   
the  ,universe4    ,to understand all of
 this1 it is necessary to go back to    
,darwin and his  first statement of the 
law of natural selection4 ,darwin       
proved1 in ,the  ,origin of the         
,species1 that a great many more        
individuals of any given  species of    
living being are born into the world    
each year than can  possibly survive4   
,those that are best fitted to meet the 
condition of  existence live on2 those  
that are worst fitted die4 ,the result  
is that1  by the influence of heredity1 
the survivors beget a new generation in 
which there is a larger percentage of   
the fit4 ,one might think that  this    
would cause a greater number to survive1
 but inasmuch as the food  and room on  
earth are limited1 a large number must  

always die4 ,but  all the while the half
 or third1 or whatever the percentage   
may be1  which actually do survive      
become more and more fit4 ,in           
consequence1 a  species1 generation     
after generation1 tends to become more  
and more  adapted to meet life's        
vicissitudes1 or1 as the biologists say1
 more  and more adapted to its          
environment4    ,darwin proved that this
 law was true of all the lower animals  
and  showed that it was responsible for 
the evolution of the lower apes  into   
anthropoid apes1 and that it could      
account1 theoretically1 for a  possible 
evolution of anthropoid apes into man4  
,but in ,the ,descent  of ,man he argued
 that the law of natural selection      
ceased when man  became an intelligent  
being4 ,thereafter1 he said1 man's own  
efforts  worked against those of nature4
 ,instead of letting the unfit of his   
race die1 civilization began to protect 
and preserve them4 ,the result  was that
 nature's tendency to make all living   

beings more and more  sturdy was set    
aside by man's own conviction that mere 
sturdiness was  not the thing most to be
 desired4 ,from this ,darwin argued that
 if two  tribes of human beings lived   
side by side1 and if1 in one of them1   
the  unfit were permitted to perish1    
while in the other there were many      
courageous1 sympathetic and faithful    
members1 who were always ready to  warn 
each other of danger1 and to aid and    
defend one another--that in  such a     
case1 the latter tribe would make the   
most progress1 despite its  concerted   
effort to defy a law of nature4         
,darwin's disciples agreed with him in  
this and some of them went to  the      
length of asserting that civilization1  
in its essence1 was nothing  more or    
less than a successful defiance of this 
sort4#ac ,herbert  ,spencer was much    
troubled by the resultant confusion and 
as one critic  puts it1#ad the whole    
drift of his thought appears to be      
inspired  by the question3 how to evade 

and veil the logical consequence of     
evolutionarism for human existence8     
,john ,fiske1 another ,darwinian1       
accepted the situation without such     
disquieting doubt4 ,when humanity  began
 to be evolved1 he said1 an entirely new
 chapter in the history  of the universe
 was opened4 ,henceforth the life of the
 nascent soul  came to be first in      
importance and the bodily life became   
subordinated  to it4#ae ,even ,huxley   
believed that man would have to be      
excepted  from the operation of the law 
of natural selection4 ,the ethical      
progress of society1 he said1 depends1  
not on imitating the cosmic  process and
 still less on running away from it1 but
 in combating it4  ,he saw that it was  
audacious thus to pit man against       
nature1 but he  thought that man was    
sufficiently important to make such an  
attempt  and hoped that the enterprise  
might meet with a certain measure of    
success4#af ,and the other ,darwinians  
agreed with him4#ag    ,as all the best 

critics of philosophy have pointed      
out1#ah any  philosophical system which 
admits such a great contradiction fails 
utterly to furnish workable standards of
 order in the universe1 and so  falls   
short of achieving philosophy's first   
aim4 ,we must either believe  with the  
scholastics that intelligence rules1 or 
we must believe1 with  ,haeckel1 that   
all things happen in obedience to       
invariable natural  laws4 ,we cannot    
believe both4 ,a great many men1 toward 
the beginning  of the #ij's1 began to   
notice this fatal defect in ,darwin's   
idea of  human progress4 ,in #ahia one  
of them pointed out the conclusion      
toward  which it inevitably led4#ai ,if 
we admitted1 he said1 that humanity  had
 set at naught the law of natural       
selection1 we must admit that           
civilization was working against        
nature's efforts to preserve the race1  
and that1 in the end1 humanity would    
perish4 ,to put it more succinctly1  man
 might defy the law of natural selection

 as much as he pleased1 but  he could   
never hope to set it aside4 ,soon or    
late1 he would awaken to  the fact that 
he remained a mere animal1 like the     
rabbit and the worm1  and that1 if he   
permitted his body to degenerate into a 
thing entirely  lacking in strength and 
virility1 not all the intelligence      
conceivable  could save him4            
,nietzsche saw all this clearly as early
 as #ahgg4bj ,he saw that what  passed  
for civilization1 as represented by     
,christianity1 was making  such an      
effort to defy and counteract the law of
 natural selection1  and he came to the 
conclusion that the result would be     
disaster4  ,christianity1 he said1      
ordered that the strong should give part
 of  their strength to the weak1 and so 
tended to weaken the whole race4        
,self-sacrifice1 he said1 was an open   
defiance of nature1 and so were  all the
 other ,christian virtues1 in varying   
degree4 ,he proposed1 then1  that before
 it was too late1 humanity should reject

 ,christianity1 as  the greatest of all 
imaginable corruptions1 and admit freely
 and  fully that the law of natural     
selection was universal and that the    
only  way to make real progress was to  
conform to it4    ,it may be asked here 
how ,nietzsche accounted for the fact   
that humanity  had survived so long--for
 the fact that the majority of men were 
still  physically healthy and that the  
race1 as a whole1 was still fairly      
vigorous4 ,he answered this in two ways4
 ,first1 he denied that the  race was   
maintaining to the full its old vigor4  
,the ,european of the  present1 he said1
 is far below the ,european of the      
,renaissance4 ,it  would be absurd1 he  
pointed out1 to allege that the average 
,german  of #ahhj was as strong and as  
healthy--i4e4 as well fitted to his     
environment--as the blond beast who     
roamed the ,saxon lowlands in  the days 
of the mammoth4 ,it would be equally    
absurd to maintain that  the highest    
product of modern civilization--the     

town-dweller--was as  vigorous and as   
capable of becoming the father of       
healthy children as  the intelligent    
farmer1 whose life was spent in         
approximate accordance  with all the    
more obvious laws of health4            
,nietzsche's second answer was that     
humanity had escaped utter  degeneration
 and destruction because1 despite its   
dominance as a  theory of action1 few   
men actually practiced ,christianity4   
,it was  next to impossible1 he said1 to
 find a single man who1 literally and   
absolutely1 obeyed the teachings of     
,christ4#ba ,there were plenty of  men  
who thought they were doing so1 but all 
of them were yielding in  only a partial
 manner4 ,absolute ,christianity meant  
absolute disregard  of self4 ,it was    
obvious that a man who reached this     
state of mind  would be unable to follow
 any gainful occupation1 and so would   
find  it impossible to preserve his own 
life or the lives of his children4  ,in 
brief1 said ,nietzsche1 an actual and   

utter ,christian would perish  today    
just as ,christ perished1 and so1 in his
 own fate1 would provide a  conclusive  
argument against ,christianity4         
,nietzsche pointed out further that     
everything which makes for the          
preservation of the human race is       
diametrically opposed to the  ,christian
 ideal4 ,thus ,christianity becomes the 
foe of science4 ,the one  argues that   
man should sit still and let ,god reign2
 the other that man  should battle      
against the tortures which fate inflicts
 upon him1 and  try to overcome them and
 grow strong4 ,thus all science is      
unchristian1  because1 in the last      
analysis1 the whole purpose and effort  
of science  is to arm man against loss  
of energy and death1 and thus make him  
self-reliant and unmindful of any duty  
of propitiating the deity4 ,that  this  
antagonism between ,christianity and the
 search1 for truth really  exists has   
been shown in a practical way time and  
again4 ,since the  beginning of the     

,christian era the church has been the  
bitter and  tireless enemy of all       
science1 and this enmity has been due to
 the fact  that every member of the     
priest class has realized that the more 
a man  learned the more he came to      
depend upon his own efforts1 and the    
less  he was given to asking help from  
above4 ,in the ages of faith men prayed 
to the saints when they were ill4 ,today
 they send for a doctor4 ,in the  ages  
of faith battles were begun with        
supplications1 and it was often         
possible to witness the ridiculous      
spectacle of both sides praying to  the 
same ,god4 ,today every sane person     
knows that the victory goes to  the     
wisest generals and largest battalions4 
,nietzsche thus showed1 first1 that     
,christianity 7and all other ethical    
systems having self-sacrifice as their  
basis7 tended to oppose the law  of     
natural selection and so made the race  
weaker2 and secondly1 that  the majority
 of men1 consciously or unconsciously1  

were aware of this1  and so made no     
effort to be absolute ,christians4 ,if  
,christianity were  to become universal1
 he said1 and every man in the world    
were to follow  ,christ's precepts to   
the letter in all the relations of daily
 life1  the race would die out in a     
generation4 ,this being true--and it may
  be observed in passing that no one has
 ever successfully controverted         
it--there follows the converse3 that the
 human race had best abandon  the idea  
of self-sacrifice altogether and submit 
itself to the law of  natural selection4
 ,if this is done1 says ,nietzsche1 the 
result will  be a race of supermen--of  
proud1 strong dionysians--of men who    
will  say yes to the world and will be  
ideally capable of meeting the          
conditions under which life must exist  
on earth4    ,in his efforts to account 
for the origin of ,christianity1        
,nietzsche  was less happy1 and indeed  
came very near the border-line of the   
ridiculous4 ,the faith of modern        

,europe1 he said1 was the result of a   
gigantic effort on the part of the      
ancient ,jews to revenge themselves     
upon their masters4 ,the ,jews were     
helpless and inefficient and thus       
evolved a slave-morality4 ,naturally1 as
 slaves1 they hated their  masters1     
while realizing1 all the while1 the     
unmanliness of the ideals  they         
themselves had to hold to in order to   
survive4 ,so they crucified  ,christ1   
who voiced these same ideals1 and the   
result was that the  outside world1     
which despised the ,jews1 accepted      
,christ as a martyr and  prophet and    
thus swallowed the ,jewish ideals       
without realizing it4 ,in a  word1 the  
,jews detested the slave-morality which 
circumstances thrust  upon them1 and got
 their revenge by foisting it1 in a     
sugar-coated  pill1 upon their masters4 
,it is obvious that this idea is sheer  
lunacy4 ,that the ,jews ever  realized  
the degenerating effect of their own    
slave-morality is  unlikely1 and that   

they should take counsel together and   
plan such  an elaborate and complicated 
revenge1 is impossible4 ,the reader of  
,nietzsche must expect to encounter such
 absurdities now and then4  ,the mad    
,german was ordinarily a most logical   
and orderly thinker1  but sometimes the 
traditional ,german tendency to indulge 
in wild and  imbecile flights of        
speculation cropped up in him4      #a  
,vide the chapter on ,crime and         
,punishment4    #b ,der ,antichrist1    
#fb4    #c ,st4 ,mark ,,xiv1 #fc1 #fd4  
#d ,albrecht ,ritschl 7#ahbb-hi71 who is
 not to be confused with  ,nietzsche's  
teacher at ,bonn and ,leipsic4 ,ritschl 
founded what is  called the ,ritschlian 
movement in theology4 ,this has for its 
object  the abandonment of              
supernaturalism and the defence of      
,christianity as  a mere scheme of      
living4 ,it admits that the miracle     
stories are fables  and even concedes   
that ,christ was not divine1 but        
maintains that his  teachings represent 

the best wisdom of the human race4 ,see 
,denny3  ,studies in ,theology1 ,new    
,york1 #ahid4    #e ,ph4 ,,iv1 #f3 ,be  
careful for nothing2 but in everything  
by prayer and  supplication1 with       
thanksgiving1 let your requests be made 
known to  ,god4    #f ,deut4 ,,xxxii1   
#d3 ,he is the rock1 his work is        
perfect4 ,see also a  hundred similar   
passages in the ,old and ,new           
,testaments4    #g ,isaiah ,,xliv1 #h3  
,now1 ,o ,lord1 thou art our ,father2 we
 are the clay  and thou our potter2 and 
we all are the work of thy hand4    #h  
,the ,constitution of the ,presbyterian 
,church in the ,united ,states1  pp4 #af
 to #bj3 ,philadelphia1 #ahda4    #i ,to
 the end of his days ,huxley believed   
that1 to the average human  being1 even 
of the highest class1 some sort of faith
 would always be  necessary4 ,my work in
 the ,london hospitals1 he said1 taught 
me  that the preacher often does as much
 good as the doctor4 ,it would be       
interesting to show how this notion has 

been abandoned in recent years4  ,the   
trained nurse1 who was unknown in       
,huxley's hospital days1 now takes  the 
place of the confessor1 and as ,dr4     
,osler has shown us in ,science  and    
,immortality1 men die just as           
comfortably as before4    #aj ,der      
,antichrist1  #e4    #aa ,der           
,antichrist1  #f4    #ab ,der           
,antichrist1  #g4    #ac ,alfred        
,russell ,wallace3 ,darwinism1 ,london1 
#ahhi4    #ad ,alexander ,tille1        
introduction to the ,eng4 tr4 of ,the   
,works of  ,friedrich ,nietzsche1 vol4  
,,xi2 ,new ,york1 #ahif4    #ae ,john   
,fiske3 ,the ,destiny of ,man2 ,london1 
#ahhd4    #af ,romanes ,lecture on      
,evolution and ,ethics1 #ahic4    #ag   
,as a matter of fact this dualism still 
lives4 ,thus it was lately  defended by 
a correspondent of the ,new ,york ,sun3 
,if there can be  such a thing as an    
essential difference there surely is one
 between the  animal evolution          
discovered by ,darwin and the           

self-culture1 progress  and spiritual   
aspiration of man4 ,many other writers  
on the subject  take the same position4 
#ah ,see the article on ,monism in the  
,new ,international ,encyclopedia4      
#ai ,a4 ,j4 ,balfour3 ,fragment on      
,progress2 ,london1 #ahia4    #bj ,he   
was a monist1 indeed1 as early as #ahgc1
 at which time he had  apparently not   
yet noticed ,darwin's notion that the   
human race could  successfully defy the 
law of natural selection4 ,the absence  
of any  cardinal distinction between man
 and beast1 he said1 is a doctrine      
which ,i consider true4 7,unzeitgemsse  
,betrachtungen1 ,i1 #ahi47              
,nevertheless1 in a moment of sophistry1
 late in life1 he undertook to          
criticize the law of natural selection  
and even to deny its effects  7vide     
,roving ,expeditions of an ,inopportune 
,philosopher1  #ad1 in  ,the ,twilight  
of the ,idols74 ,it is sufficient to    
say1 in answer1 that  the law itself is 
inassailable and that all of            

,nietzsche's work1 saving  this single  
unaccountable paragraph1 helps support  
it4 ,his frequent  sneers at ,darwin1 in
 other places1 need not be taken too    
seriously4  ,everything ,english1 toward
 the close of his life1 excited his ire1
 but  the fact remains that he was a    
thorough ,darwinian and that1 without   
,darwin's work1 his own philosophy would
 have been impossible4    #ba ,this     
observation is as old as ,montaigne1 who
 said3 ,after all1 the  stoics were     
actually stoical1 but where in all      
,christendom will you  find a           
,christian8          ,,vii      ,,truth 
,at the bottom of all philosophy1 of all
 science and of all thinking1  you will 
find the one all-inclusive question3    
,how is man to tell truth  from error8  
,the ignorant man solves this problem in
 a very simple  manner3 he holds that   
whatever he believes1 he knows2 and that
  whatever he knows is true4 ,this is   
the attitude of all amateur and         
professional theologians1 politicians   

and other numbskulls of that  sort4 ,the
 pious old maid1 for example1 who       
believes in the doctrine of  the        
immaculate conception looks upon her    
faith as proof1 and holds that  all who 
disagree with her will suffer torments  
in hell4 ,opposed to this  childish     
theory of knowledge is the chronic doubt
 of the educated man4  ,he sees daily   
evidence that many things held to be    
true by nine-tenths  of all men are1 in 
reality1 false1 and he is thereby apt to
 acquire a  doubt of everything1        
including his own beliefs4    ,at       
different times in the history of man1  
various methods of solving  or evading  
the riddle have been proposed4 ,in the  
age of faith it was  held that1 by his  
own efforts alone1 man was unable1 even 
partly1 to  distinguish between truth   
and error1 but that he could always go  
for  enlightenment to an infallible     
encyclopedia3 the word of god1 as set   
forth1 through the instrumentality of   
inspired scribes1 in the holy           

scriptures4 ,if these scriptures said   
that a certain proposition was  true1 it
 was true1 and any man who doubted it   
was either a lunatic  or a criminal4#a  
,this doctrine prevailed in ,europe for 
many years and  all who ventured to     
oppose it were in danger of being       
killed1 but in  the course of time the  
number of doubters grew so large that it
 was  inconvenient or impossible to kill
 all of them1 and so1 in the end1  they 
had to be permitted to voice their      
doubts unharmed4    ,the first man of   
this new era to inflict any real damage 
upon the  ancient churchly idea of      
revealed wisdom was ,nicolas of ,cusa1 a
  cardinal of the ,roman ,catholic      
,church1 who lived in the early part of 
the fifteenth century4#b ,despite his   
office and his time1 ,nicolas was  an   
independent and intelligent man1 and it 
became apparent to him1  after long     
reflection1 that mere belief in a thing 
was by no means  a proof of its truth4  
,man1 he decided was prone to err1 but  

in the  worst of his errors1 there was  
always some kernel of truth1 else he    
would revolt against it as              
inconceivable4 ,therefore1 he decided1  
the  best thing for man to do was to    
hold all of his beliefs lightly and to  
reject them whenever they began to      
appear as errors4 ,the real danger1  he 
said1 was not in making mistakes1 but in
 clinging to them after they  were known
 to be mistakes4    ,it seems well nigh 
impossible that a man of ,nicolas' age  
and training  should have reasoned so   
clearly1 but the fact remains that he   
did1 and  that all of modern philosophy 
is built upon the foundations he laid4  
,since his time a great many other      
theories of knowledge have been put     
forward1 but all have worked1 in a sort 
of circle1 back to ,nicolas4  ,it would 
be interesting1 perhaps1 to trace the   
course and history of  these variations 
and denials1 but such an enterprise is  
beyond the  scope of the present        
inquiry4 ,nicolas by no means gave the  

world a  complete and wholly credible   
system of philosophy4 ,until the day of 
his death scholasticism was dominant in 
the world that he knew1 and  it retained
 its old hold upon human thought1 in    
fact1 for nearly two  hundred years     
thereafter4 ,not until ,descartes1 in   
#afai1 made his famous  resolution to   
take nothing for the truth without clear
 knowledge  that it is such1 did        
humanity in general begin to realize1 as
 ,huxley  says1 that there was sanctity 
in doubt4 ,and even ,descartes could not
  shake himself free of the             
supernaturalism and other balderdash    
which  yet colored philosophy4 ,he laid 
down1 for all time1 the emancipating    
doctrine that the profession of belief  
in propositions1 of the truth  of which 
there is no sufficient evidence1 is     
immoral--a doctrine  that might well be 
called the ,magna ,charta of human      
thought#c--;but  it should not be       
forgotten that he also laid down other  
doctrines and  that many of them were   

visionary and silly4 ,the philosophers  
after him  rid their minds of the old   
ideas but slowly and there were frequent
  reversions to the ancient delusion    
that a man's mind is a function of  his 
soul--whatever that may be--and not of  
his body4 ,it was common1  indeed1 for a
 philosopher to set out with sane1      
debatable1 conceivable  ideas--and then 
to go soaring into the idealistic       
clouds4#d ,only in  our own time have   
men come to understand that the ego1 for
 all its  seeming independence1 is      
nothing more than the sum of inherited  
race  experience--that a man's soul1 his
 conscience and his attitude of  mind   
are things he has inherited from his    
ancestors1 just as he has  inherited his
 two eyes1 his ten toes and his firm    
belief in signs1  portents and          
immortality4 ,only in our own time have 
men ceased seeking  a golden key to all 
riddles1 and sat themselves down to     
solve one  riddle at a time4    ,those  
metaphysicians who fared farthest from  

the philosopher of ,cusa  evolved the   
doctrine that1 in themselves1 things    
have no existence at  all1 and that we  
can think of them only in terms of our  
impressions  of them4 ,the color green1 
for example1 may be nothing but a       
delusion1  for all we can possibly know 
of it is that1 under certain conditions1
  our optic nerves experience a         
sensation of greenness4 ,whether this   
sensation of greenness is a mere figment
 of our imagination or the  reflection  
of an actual physical state1 is         
something that we cannot  tell4 ,it is  
impossible1 in a word1 to determine     
whether there are  actual things around 
us1 which produce real impressions upon 
us1 or  whether our idea of these things
 is the mere result of subjective       
impressions or conditions4 ,we know that
 a blow on the eyes may cause us  to see
 a flash of light which does not exist  
and that a nervous person  may feel the 
touch of hands and hear noises which are
 purely imaginary4  ,may it not be      

possible1 also1 that all other          
sensations have their rise  within us   
instead of without1 and that in saying  
that objects give us  impressions we    
have been confusing cause and effect8   
,such is the argument of those          
metaphysicians who doubt1 not only the  
accuracy of human knowledge1 but also   
the very capacity of human beings  to   
acquire knowledge4 ,it is apparent1 on  
brief reflection1 that this  attitude1  
while theoretically admissible1 is      
entirely impracticable1  and that1 as a 
matter of fact1 it gives us no more     
substantial  basis for intelligent      
speculation than the old device of      
referring  all questions to revelation4 
,to say that nothing exists save in the 
imagination of living beings is to say  
that this imagination itself  does not  
exist4 ,this1 of course1 is an          
absurdity1 because every man  is        
absolutely certain that he himself is a 
real thing and that his  mind is a real 
thing1 too1 and capable of thought4 ,in 

place of such  cob-web spinning1 modern 
philosophers--driven to it1 it may be   
said1  in parenthesis1 by the           
scientists--have gone back to the       
doctrine  that1 inasmuch as we can know 
nothing of anything save through the    
impressions it makes upon us1 these     
impressions must be accepted            
provisionally as accurate1 so long as   
they are evidently normal and  harmonize
 one with the other4    ,that is to say1
 our perceptions1 corrected by our      
experience and our  common sense1 must  
serve as guides for us1 and we must     
seize every  opportunity to widen their 
range and increase their accuracy4 ,for 
millions of years they have been        
steadily augmenting our store of        
knowledge4 ,we know1 for instance1 that 
when fire touches us it causes  an      
impression which we call pain and that  
this impression is invariably  the same1
 and always leads to the same results1  
in all normal human  beings4 ,therefore1
 we accept it as an axiom that fire     

causes pain4  ,there are many other     
ideas that may be and have been         
established in the  same manner3 by the 
fact that they are universal among sane 
men4 ,but  there is also a multitude of 
things which produce different          
impressions  upon different men1 and    
here we encounter the problem of        
determining  which of these impressions 
is right and which is wrong4 ,one man1  
observing the rising and setting of the 
sun1 concludes that it is a  ball of    
fire revolving about the earth4 ,another
 man1 in the face of  the same          
phenomena1 concludes that the earth     
revolves around the sun4  ,how1 then1   
are we to determine which of these men  
has drawn the proper  conclusion8    ,as
 a matter of fact1 it is impossible in  
such a case1 to come to any  decision   
which can be accepted as utterly and    
absolutely true4 ,but  all the same the 
scientific empiric method enables us to 
push the  percentage of error nearer and
 nearer to the irreducible minimum4 ,we 

can observe the phenomenon under        
examination from a multitude of sides   
and compare the impression it produces  
with the impressions produced  by       
kindred phenomena regarding which we    
know more4 ,again1 we can put  this     
examination into the hands of men       
specially trained and fitted  for such  
work--men whose conclusions we know1 by 
previous experience1  to be above the   
average of accuracy4 ,and so1 after a   
long time1 we can  formulate some idea  
of the thing under inspection which     
violates few  or none of the other ideas
 held by us4 ,when we have accomplished 
this1  we have come as near to the      
absolute truth as it is possible for    
human  beings to come4    ,i need not   
point out that this method does not     
contemplate a mere  acceptance of the   
majority vote4 ,its actual effect1      
indeed1 is quite  the contrary1 for it  
is only a small minority of human beings
 who may  be said1 with any truth1 to be
 capable of thought4 ,it is probable1   

for  example1 that nine-tenths of the   
people in ,christendom today believe    
that ,friday is an unlucky day1 while   
only the remaining tenth hold that  one 
day is exactly like another4 ,but       
despite this1 it is apparent  that the  
idea of the latter will survive and     
that1 by slow degrees1 it  will be      
forced upon the former4 ,we know that it
 is true1 not because  it is accepted by
 all men or by the majority of men--for1
 as a matter  of fact1 we have seen that
 it isn't--but because we realize that  
the  few who hold to it are best capable
 of distinguishing between actual       
impressions and mere delusions4         
,again1 the scientific method tends to  
increase our knowledge by the  very fact
 that it discourages unreasoning faith4 
,the scientist realizes  that most of   
his so-called facts are probably errors 
and so he is  willing to harbor doubts  
of their truth and to seek for something
  better4 ,like ,socrates he boldly says
 ,i know that ,i am ignorant4 ,he       

realizes1 in fact1 that error1 when it  
is constantly under fire1 is  bound to  
be resolved in the long run into        
something approximating the  truth4 ,as 
,nicolas pointed out #ejj years ago1    
nothing is utterly and  absolutely true 
and nothing is utterly and absolutely   
false4 ,there  is always a germ of truth
 in the worst error1 and there is always
 a  residuum of error in the soundest   
truth4 ,therefore1 an error is fatal    
only when it is hidden from the white   
light of investigation4 ,herein  lies   
the difference between the modern       
scientist and the moralist4 ,the  former
 holds nothing sacred1 not even his own 
axioms2 the latter lays  things down as 
law and then makes it a crime to doubt  
them4    ,it is in this way--by         
submitting every idea to a searching1   
pitiless1  unending examination--that   
the world is increasing its store of    
what  may be called1 for the sake of    
clearness1 absolute knowledge4 ,error   
always precedes truth1 and it is        

extremely probable that the vast        
majority of ideas held by men of        
today--even the sanest and wisest       
men--are delusions1 but with the passing
 of the years our stock of  truth grows 
larger and larger4 ,a conviction1 says  
,nietzsche1 always  has its history--its
 previous forms1 its tentative forms1   
its states of  error4 ,it becomes a     
conviction1 indeed1 only after having   
been not  a conviction1 and then hardly 
a conviction4 ,no doubt falsehood is    
one of these embryonic forms of         
conviction4 ,sometimes only a change  of
 persons is needed to transform one into
 the other4 ,that which1 in  the son1 is
 a conviction1 was1 in the father1 still
 a falsehood4#e  ,the tendency of       
intelligent men1 in a word1 is to       
approach nearer  and nearer the truth1  
by the processes of rejection1 revision 
and  invention4 ,many old ideas are     
rejected by each new generation1 but    
there always remain a few that survive4 
,we no longer believe with  the cave-men

 that the thunder is the voice of an    
angry god and the  lightning the flash  
of his sword1 but we still believe1 as  
they did1  that wood floats upon water1 
that seeds sprout and give forth plants1
  that a roof keeps off the rain and    
that a child1 if it lives long  enough1 
will inevitably grow into a man or a    
woman4 ,such ideas may be  called       
truths4 ,if we deny them we must deny at
 once that the world  exists and that we
 exist ourselves4    ,nietzsche's       
discussion of these problems is so      
abstruse and so much  complicated by    
changes in view that it would be        
impossible to make an  understandable   
summary of it in the space available    
here4 ,in his first  important book1    
,menschliches allzu ,menschliches he    
devoted himself1  in the main1 to       
pointing out errors made in the past1   
without laying  down any very definite  
scheme of thought for the future4 ,in   
the early  stages of human progress1 he 
said1 men made the mistake of regarding 

everything that was momentarily pleasant
 or beneficial as absolutely  and       
eternally true4 ,herein they manifested 
the very familiar human  weakness for   
rash and hasty generalization1 and the  
equally familiar  tendency to render the
 ideas of a given time and place        
perpetual and  permanent by erecting    
them into codes of morality and putting 
them  into the mouths of gods4 ,this1 he
 pointed out1 was harmful1 for a  thing 
might be beneficial to the men of today 
and fatal to the men of  tomorrow4      
,therefore1 he argued that while a      
certain idea's effect was a  good       
criterion1 humanly speaking1 of its     
present or current truth1 it  was       
dangerous to assume that this effect    
would be always the same1 and  that1 in 
consequence1 the idea itself would      
remain true forever4    ,not until the  
days of ,socrates1 said ,nietzsche1 did 
men begin to notice  this difference    
between imminent truth and eternal      
truth4 ,the notion  that such a         

distinction existed made its way very   
slowly1 even after  great teachers began
 to teach it1 but in the end it was     
accepted by  enough men to give it      
genuine weight4 ,since that day         
philosophy and  science1 which were once
 merely different names for the same    
thing1  have signified two separate     
things4 ,it is the object of philosophy 
to analyze happiness1 and by means of   
the knowledge thus gained1 to  devise   
means for safeguarding and increasing   
it4 ,in consequence1 it is  necessary   
for philosophy to generalize--to assume 
that the thing which  makes men happy   
today will make them happy tomorrow4    
,science1 on the  contrary1 concerns    
itself1 not with things of the uncertain
 future1 but  with things of the certain
 present4 ,its object is to examine the 
world  as it exists today1 to uncover as
 many of its secrets as possible1 and   
to study their effect upon human        
happiness4 ,in other words1 philosophy  
first constructs a scheme of happiness  

and then tries to fit the world  to it1 
while science studies the world with no 
other object in view  than the increase 
of knowledge1 and with full confidence  
that1 in the  long run1 this increase of
 knowledge will increase efficiency and 
in  consequence happiness4    ,it is    
evident1 then1 that science1 for all its
 contempt for fixed  schemes of         
happiness1 will eventually accomplish   
with certainty what  philosophy--which  
most commonly swims into the ken of the 
average man  as morality--is now trying 
to do in a manner that is not only crude
  and unreasonable1 but also necessarily
 unsuccessful4 ,in a word1 just  so soon
 as man's store of knowledge grows so   
large that he becomes  complete master  
of the natural forces which work toward 
his undoing1  he will be perfectly      
happy4 ,now1 ,nietzsche believed1 as we 
have seen  in past chapters1 that man's 
instinctive will to power had this same 
complete mastery over his environment as
 its ultimate object1 and so  he        

concluded that the will to power might  
be relied upon to lead man  to the      
truth4 ,that is to say1 he believed that
 there was1 in every  man of the higher 
type 7the only type he thought worth    
discussing7 an  instinctive tendency to 
seek the true as opposed to the false1  
that  this instinct1 as the race        
progressed1 grew more and more accurate1
  and that its growing accuracy         
explained the fact that1 despite the    
opposition of codes of morality and of  
the iron hand of authority1 man         
constantly increased his store of       
knowledge4 ,a thought1 he said1 arose   
in a man without his initiative or      
volition1 and was nothing more or  less 
than an expression of his innate will to
 obtain power over his  environment by  
accurately observing and interpreting   
it4 ,it was just  as reasonable1 he     
said1 to say ,it thinks as to say ,i    
think1#f  because every intelligent     
person knew that a man couldn't control 
his  thoughts4 ,therefore1 the fact that

 these thoughts1 in the long run  and   
considering the human race as a whole1  
tended to uncover more  and more truths 
proved that the will to power1 despite  
the danger of  generalizing from its    
manifestations1 grew more and more      
accurate and  so worked in the direction
 of absolute truth4 ,nietzsche believed 
that  mankind was ever the slave of     
errors1 but he held that the number of  
errors tended to decrease4 ,when1 at    
last1 truth reigned supreme and  there  
were no more errors1 the superman would 
walk the earth4    ,now it is impossible
 for any man to note the workings of the
 will to  power save as it is manifested
 in his own instincts and thoughts1 and 
therefore ,nietzsche1 in his later      
books1 urges that every man should be   
willing1 at all times1 to pit his own   
feelings against the laws laid  down by 
the majority4 ,a man should steer clear 
of rash generalization  from his own    
experience1 but he should be doubly     
careful to steer  clear of the          

generalizations of others4 ,the greatest
 of all dangers  lies in subscribing to 
a thesis without being certain of its   
truth4  ,this not-wishing-to-see what   
one sees 444 is a primary requisite  for
 membership in a party1 in any sense    
whatsoever4 ,therefore1 the  party man  
becomes a liar by necessity4 ,the proper
 attitude for a  human being1 indeed1 is
 chronic dissent and skepticism4        
,zarathustra  is a skeptic4444          
,convictions are prisons4444 ,the       
freedom from every  kind of permanent   
conviction1 the ability to search       
freely1 belong to  strength4444 ,the    
need of a belief1 of something that is  
unconditioned  is a sign of weakness4   
,the man of belief is necessarily a     
dependent  man4444 ,his instinct gives  
the highest honor to self-abnegation4   
,he does not belong to himself1 but to  
the author of the idea he  believes4#g  
,it is only by skepticism1 argues       
,nietzsche1 that we can  hope to make   
any progress4 ,if all men accepted      

without question1 the  dicta of some one
 supreme sage1 it is plain that there   
could be no  further increase of        
knowledge4 ,it is only by constant      
turmoil and  conflict and exchange of   
views that the minute granules of truth 
can  be separated from the vast muck    
heap of superstition and error4 ,fixed  
truths1 in the long run1 are probably   
more dangerous to intelligence  than    
falsehoods4#h    ,this argument1 ,i take
 it1 scarcely needs greater elucidation4
 ,every  intelligent man knows that if  
there had been no brave agnostics to    
defy  the wrath of the church in the    
middle ages1 the whole of ,christendom  
would still wallow in the unspeakably   
foul morass of ignorance which  had its 
center1 during that black time1 in an   
infallible sovereign of  sovereigns4    
,authority1 at all times and everywhere1
 means sloth and  degeneration4 ,it is  
only doubt that creates4 ,it is only the
 minority  that counts4    ,the fact    
that the great majority of human beings 

are utterly incapable  of original      
thought1 and so must1 perforce1 borrow  
their ideas or  submit tamely to some   
authority1 explains ,nietzsche's violent
 loathing  and contempt for the masses4 
,the average1 self-satisfied1           
conservative1  orthodox1 law-abiding    
citizen appeared to him to be a being   
but little  raised above the cattle in  
the barn-yard4 ,so violent was this     
feeling  that every idea accepted by the
 majority excited1 for that very reason1
  his suspicion and opposition4 ,what   
everybody believes1 he once said1  is   
never true4 ,this may seem like a mere  
voicing of brobdingnagian  egotism1 but 
as a matter of fact1 the same view is   
held by every man  who has spent any    
time investigating the history of ideas4
 ,truth1  said ,dr4 ,osler a while ago1 
scarcely ever carries the struggle for  
acceptance at its first appearance4 ,the
 masses are always a century  or two    
behind4 ,they have made a virtue of     
their obtuseness and call  it by various

 fine names3 conservatism1 piety1       
respectability1 faith4  ,the nineteenth 
century witnessed greater human progress
 than all the  centuries before it saw  
or even imagined1 but the majority of   
white men  of today still believe in    
ghosts1 still fear the devil1 still hold
 that  the number #ac is unlucky and    
still picture the deity as a patriarch  
in  a white beard1 surrounded by a choir
 of resplendent amateur musicians4  ,we 
think a thing1 says ,prof4 ,henry       
,sedgwick1 because all other  people    
think so2 or because1 after all1 we do  
think so2 or because we  are told so1   
and think we must think so2 or because  
we once thought so1  and think we still 
think so2 or because1 having thought so1
 we think we  will think so4            
,naturally enough1 ,nietzsche was an    
earnest opponent of the theological     
doctrine of free will4 ,he held1 as we  
have seen1 that every human  act was    
merely the effect of the will to power  
reacting against  environment1 and in   

consequence he had to reject absolutely 
the notion  of volition and             
responsibility4 ,a man1 he argued1 was  
not an object  in vacuo and his acts1   
thoughts1 impulses and motives could not
 be  imagined without imagining some    
cause for them4 ,if this cause came from
  without1 it was clearly beyond his    
control1 and if it came from within  it 
was no less so1 for his whole attitude  
of mind1 his instinctive  habits of     
thoughts1 his very soul1 so-called1 were
 merely attributes  that had been handed
 down to him1 like the shape of his nose
 and the  color of his eyes1 from his   
ancestors4 ,nietzsche held that the idea
  of responsibility was the product and 
not the cause of the idea of            
punishment1 and that the latter was     
nothing more than a manifestation  of   
primitive man's will to power--to       
triumph over his fellows by  making them
 suffer the handicap and humiliation of 
pain4 ,men were  called free1 he said1  
in order that they might be condemned   

and  punished4444 ,when we immoralists  
try to cleanse psychology1 history1     
nature and sociology of these notions1  
we find that our chief enemies  are the 
theologians1 who1 with their            
preposterous idea of 'a moral  order of 
the world1' go on tainting the innocence
 of man's struggle  upward with talk of 
punishment and guilt4 ,christianity is1 
indeed1 a  hangman's metaphysic4#i ,as a
 necessary corollary of this1 ,nietzsche
  denied the existence of any plan in   
the cosmos4 ,like ,haeckel1 he  believed
 that but two things existed--energy and
 matter2 and that all  the phenomena    
which made us conscious of the universe 
were nothing more  than symptoms of the 
constant action of the one upon the     
other4 ,nothing  ever happened without a
 cause1 he said1 and no cause was       
anything  other than the effect of some 
previous cause4 ,the destiny of man1 he 
said1 cannot be disentangled from the   
destiny of everything else in           
existence1 past1 present and future4444 

,we are a part of the whole1 we  exist  
in the whole4444 ,there is nothing which
 could judge1 measure or  condemn our   
being1 for that would be to judge1      
measure and condemn the  whole4444 ,but 
there is nothing outside of the         
whole4444 ,the concept of  ,god has     
hitherto made our existence a crime4444 
,we deny ,god1 we deny  responsibility  
by denying ,god3 it is only thereby that
 we save man4#aj    ,herein1 unluckily1 
,nietzsche fell into the trap which has 
snapped upon  ,haeckel and every other  
supporter of atheistic determinism4 ,he 
denied  that the human will was free and
 argued that every human action was     
inevitable1 and yet he spent his whole  
life trying to convince his  fellow men 
that they should do otherwise than as   
they did in fact4 ,in  a word1 he held  
that they had no control whatever over  
their actions1  and yet1 like ,moses1   
,mohammed and ,st4 ,francis1 he         
thundered at them  uproariously and     
urged them to turn from their errors and

 repent4      #a ,j4 ,w4 ,draper1 ,a    
,history of the ,conflict ,between      
,religion and  ,science2 ,new ,york1    
#ahgd4    #b ,richard ,falckenberg3 ,a  
,history of ,modern ,philosophy1 tr4 by 
,a4 ,c4  ,armstrong1 ,jr42 ,new ,york1  
#ahig2 ,chap4 ,i4    #c ,t4 ,h4 ,huxley3
 ,hume1 preface2 ,london1 #ahgi4    #d  
,comte and ,kant1 for example4    #e    
,der ,antichrist1  #ee4    #f ,jenseits 
von ,gut und ,bse1 ,,vii4    #g ,der    
,antichrist1  #ed4    #h ,menschliches  
allzu ,menschliches1  #dhc4    #i       
,gtzendmmerung1 ,,vi4    #aj            
,gtzendmmerung1 ,,vi4          ,,viii   
,,civilization      ,on the surface1 at 
least1 the civilization of today seems  
to be moving  slowly toward two goals4  
,one is the eternal renunciation of war 
and  the other is universal brotherhood3
 one is peace on earth and the  other is
 good will to men4 ,five hundred years  
ago a statesman's fame  rested frankly  
and solely upon the victories of his    
armies2 today  we profess to measure him

 by his skill at keeping these armies in
  barracks4 ,and in the internal economy
 of all civilized states we find  today 
some pretence at unrestricted and equal 
suffrage4 ,in times past  it was the    
chief concern of all logicians and      
wiseacres to maintain  the proposition  
that ,god reigned4 ,at present1 the     
dominant platitude  of ,christendom--the
 cornerstone of practically every       
political party  and the stock-in-trade 
of every politician--is the proposition 
that the  people rule4    ,nietzsche    
opposed squarely both the demand for    
peace and the demand for  equality1 and 
his opposition was grounded upon two    
arguments4 ,in the  first place1 he     
said1 both demands were rhetorical and  
insincere and  all intelligent men knew 
that neither would ever be fully        
satisfied4  ,in the second place1 he    
said1 it would be ruinous to the race if
 they  were4 ,that is to say1 he        
believed that war was not only          
necessary1 but  also beneficial1 and    

that the natural system of castes was   
not only  beneficent1 but also          
inevitable4 ,in the demand for universal
 peace he  saw only the yearning of the 
weak and useless for protection against 
the righteous exploitation of the useful
 and strong4 ,in the demand  for        
equality he saw only the same thing4    
,both demands1 he argued1  controverted 
and combated that upward tendency which 
finds expression  in the law of natural 
selection4    ,the order of castes1 said
 ,nietzsche1 is the dominating law of   
nature1 against which no merely human   
agency may prevail4 ,in every  healthy  
society there are three broad classes1  
each of which has its  own morality1 its
 own work1 its own notion of perfection 
and its own  sense of mastery4 ,the     
first class comprises those who are     
obviously  superior to the mass         
intellectually2 the second includes     
those whose  eminence is chiefly        
muscular1 and the third is made up of   
the mediocre4  ,the third class1 very   

naturally1 is the most numerous1 but the
 first is  the most powerful4    ,to    
this highest caste belongs the privilege
 of representing beauty1  happiness and 
goodness on earth4444 ,its members      
accept the world as  they find it and   
make the best of it4444 ,they find their
 happiness in  those things which1 to   
lesser men1 would spell ruin--in the    
labyrinth1  in severity toward          
themselves and others1 in effort4 ,their
 delight is  self-governing3 with them  
asceticism becomes naturalness1         
necessity1  instinct4 ,a difficult task 
is regarded by them as a privilege2 to  
play  with burdens which would crush    
others to death is their recreation4    
,they are the most venerable species of 
men4 ,they are the most cheerful1  the  
most amiable4 ,they rule because they   
are what they are4 ,they are  not at    
liberty to be second in rank4    ,the   
second caste includes the guardians and 
keepers of order and  security--the     
warriors1 the nobles1 the king--above   

all1 as the  highest types of warrior1  
the judges and defenders of the law4    
,they  execute the mandates of the first
 caste1 relieving the latter of all     
that is coarse and menial in the work of
 ruling4    ,at the bottom are the      
workers--the men of handicraft1 trade1  
agriculture and the greater part of art 
and science4 ,it is the law of  nature  
that they should be public              
utilities--that they should be wheels   
and functions4 ,the only kind of        
happiness of which they are capable     
makes intelligent machines of them4 ,for
 the mediocre1 it is happiness  to be   
mediocre4 ,in them the mastery of one   
thing--i4e4 specialism--is  an instinct4
    ,it is unworthy of a profound       
intellect to see in mediocrity itself   
an objection4 ,it is1 indeed1 a         
necessity of human existence1 for only  
in the presence of a horde of average   
men is the exceptional man a            
possibility4444    ,whom do ,i hate most
 among the men of today8 ,the socialist 

who  undermines the workingman's healthy
 instincts1 who takes from him his      
feeling of contentedness with his       
existence1 who makes him envious1 who   
teaches him revenge4444 ,there is no    
wrong in unequal rights3 it lies in  the
 vain pretension to equal rights4#a     
,it is obvious from this that ,nietzsche
 was an ardent believer in  aristocracy1
 but it is also obvious that he was not 
a believer in the  thing which passes   
for aristocracy in the world today4 ,the
 nobility of  ,europe belongs1 not to   
his first class1 but to his second      
class4 ,it is  essentially military and 
legal1 for in themselves its members are
 puny  and inefficient1 and it is only  
the force of law that maintains them in 
their inheritance4    ,the fundamental  
doctrine of civilized law1 as we know it
 today1 is the  proposition that what a 
man has once acquired shall belong to   
him and  his heirs forever1 without need
 on his part or theirs to defend it     
personally against predatory rivals4    

,this transfer of the function of       
defense from the individual to the state
 naturally exalts the state's           
professional defenders--that is1 her    
soldiers and judges--and so it is  not  
unnatural to find the members of this   
class1 and their parasites1  in control 
of most of the world's governments and  
in possession of a  large share of the  
world's wealth1 power and honors4#b ,to 
,nietzsche  this seemed grotesquely     
illogical and unfair4 ,he saw that this 
ruling  class expended its entire energy
 in combating experiment and change  and
 that the aristocracy it begot and      
protected--an aristocracy often         
identical1 very naturally1 with         
itself--tended to become more and more  
unfit and helpless and more and more a  
bar to the ready recognition  and       
unrestrained functioning of the only    
true aristocracy--that of  efficiency4  
,nietzsche pointed out that one of the  
essential absurdities of a              
constitutional aristocracy was to be    

found in the fact that it hedged  itself
 about with purely artificial barriers4 
,next only to its desire  to maintain   
itself without actual personal effort   
was its jealous  endeavor to prevent    
accessions to its ranks4 ,nothing1      
indeed1 disgusts  the traditional belted
 earl quite so much as the ennobling of 
some  upstart brewer or iron-master4    
,this exclusiveness1 from ,nietzsche's  
point of view1 seemed ridiculous and    
pernicious1 for a true aristocracy  must
 be ever willing and eager to welcome to
 its ranks--and to enroll  in fact1     
automatically--all who display those    
qualities which make  a man             
extraordinarily fit and efficient4      
,there should always be1 he  said1 a    
free and constant interchange of        
individuals between the three  natural  
castes of men4 ,it should be always     
possible for an abnormally  efficient   
man of the slave class to enter the     
master class1 and1 by  the same token1  
accidental degeneration or incapacity in

 the master  class should be followed by
 swift and merciless reduction to the   
ranks  of slaves4 ,thus1 those          
aristocracies which presented the       
incongruous  spectacle of imbeciles     
being intrusted with the affairs of     
government  seemed to him utterly       
abhorrent1 and those schemes of caste   
which made  a mean birth an offset to   
high intelligence seemed no less so4    
,so long as man's mastery of the forces 
of nature is incomplete1 said           
,nietzsche1 it will be necessary for the
 vast majority of human beings  to spend
 their lives in either supplementing    
those natural forces  which are partly  
under control or in opposing those which
 are still  unleashed4 ,the business of 
tilling the soil1 for example1 is still 
largely a matter of muscular exertion1  
despite the vast improvement  in farm   
implements1 and it will probably remain 
so for centuries to  come4 ,since such  
labor is necessarily mere drudgery1 and 
in consequence  unpleasant1 it is plain 

that it should be given over to men     
whose  realization of its unpleasantness
 is least acute4 ,going further1 it is  
plain that this work will be done with  
less and less revolt and less  and less 
driving1 as we evolve a class whose     
ambition to engage in  more inviting    
pursuits grows smaller and smaller4 ,in 
a word1 the ideal  ploughman is one who 
has no thought of anything higher and   
better than  ploughing4 ,therefore1     
argued ,nietzsche1 the proper           
performance of the  manual labor of the 
world makes it necessary that we have a 
laboring  class1 which means a class    
content to obey without fear or         
question4    ,this doctrine brought down
 upon ,nietzsche's head the pious wrath 
of all the world's humanitarians1 but   
empiric experiment has more  than once  
proved its truth4 ,the history of the   
hopelessly futile and  fatuous effort to
 improve the negroes of the ,southern   
,united ,states by  education affords   
one such proof4 ,it is apparent1 on     

brief reflection1  that the negro1 no   
matter how much he is educated1 must    
remain1 as a  race1 in a condition of   
subservience2 that he must remain the   
inferior  of the stronger and more      
intelligent white man so long as he     
retains  racial differentiation4        
,therefore1 the effort to educate him   
has  awakened in his mind ambitions and 
aspirations which1 in the very  nature  
of things1 must go unrealized1 and so1  
while gaining nothing  whatever         
materially1 he has lost all his old     
contentment1 peace of mind  and         
happiness4 ,indeed1 it is a commonplace 
of observation in the ,united  ,states  
that the educated and refined negro is  
invariably a hopeless1  melancholy1     
embittered and despairing man4          
,nietzsche1 to resume1 regarded it as   
absolutely essential that there  be a   
class of laborers or slaves--his third  
caste--and was of the  opinion that such
 a class would exist upon earth so long 
as the human  race survived4 ,its       

condition1 compared to that of the      
ruling class1  would vary but slightly1 
he thought1 with the progress of the    
years4 ,as  man's mastery of nature     
increased1 the laborer would find his   
task less  and less painful1 but he     
would always remain a fixed distance    
behind  those who ruled him4 ,therefore1
 ,nietzsche1 in his philosophy1 gave no 
thought to the desires and aspirations  
of the laboring class1 because1  as we  
have just seen1 he held that a man could
 not properly belong to  this class     
unless his desires and aspirations were 
so faint or so well  under the control  
of the ruling class that they might be  
neglected4  ,all of the ,nietzschean    
doctrines and ideas apply only to the   
ruling  class4 ,it was at the top1 he   
argued1 that mankind grew4 ,it was only 
in  the ideas of those capable of       
original thought that progress had its  
source4 ,william the ,conqueror was of  
far more importance1 though he was  but 
a single man1 than all the other        

,normans of his generation taken        
together4    ,nietzsche was well aware  
that his first caste was necessarily    
small  in numbers and that there was a  
strong tendency for its members to drop 
out of it and seek ease and peace in the
 castes lower down4 ,life1  he said1 is 
always hardest toward the summit--the   
cold increases1  the responsibility     
increases4#c ,but to the truly efficient
 man  these hardships are but spurs to  
effort4 ,his joy is in combating and  in
 overcoming--in pitting his will to     
power against the laws and  desires of  
the rest of humanity4 ,i do not advise  
you to labor1 says  ,zarathustra1 but to
 fight4 ,i do not advise you to         
compromise and  make peace1 but to      
conquer4 ,let your labor be fighting and
 your peace  victory4444 ,you say that a
 good cause will hallow even war8 ,i    
tell you  that a good war hallows every 
cause4 ,war and courage have done more  
great things than charity4 ,not your    
pity1 but your bravery lifts up  those  

about you4 ,let the little girlies tell 
you that 'good' means  'sweet' and      
'touching4' ,i tell you that 'good'     
means 'brave4'444 ,the  slave rebels    
against hardships and calls his         
rebellion superiority4 ,let  your       
superiority be an acceptance of         
hardships4 ,let your commanding be  an  
obeying4444 ,let your highest thought   
be3 ',man is something to be            
surpassed4'444 ,i do not advise you to  
love your neighbor--the nearest  human  
being4 ,i advise you rather to flee from
 the nearest and love the  furthest     
human being4 ,higher than love to your  
neighbor is love to the  higher man that
 is to come in the future4444 ,propagate
 yourself upward4  ,thus live your life4
 ,what are many years worth8 ,i do not  
spare you4444  ,die at the right time6#d
    ,the average man1 said ,nietzsche1  
is almost entirely lacking in this      
gorgeous1 fatalistic courage and sublime
 egotism4 ,he is ever reluctant  to pit 
his private convictions and yearnings   

against those of the mass  of men4 ,he  
is either afraid to risk the            
consequences of originality or  fearful 
that1 since the majority of his fellows 
disagree with him1 he  must be wrong4   
,therefore1 no matter how strongly an   
unconventional idea  may possess a man1 
he commonly seeks to combat it and      
throttle it1 and  the ability to do this
 with the least possible expenditure of 
effort we  call self-control4 ,the      
average man1 said ,nietzsche1 has the   
power of  self-control well developed1  
and in consequence he seldom contributes
  anything positive to the thought of   
his age and almost never attempts  to   
oppose it4    ,we have seen in the      
preceding chapter that if every man1    
without  exception1 were of this sort1  
all human progress would cease1 because 
the ideas of one generation would be    
handed down unchanged to the  next and  
there would be no effort whatever to    
improve the conditions  of existence by 
the only possible method--constant      

experiment with  new ideas4 ,therefore1 
it follows that the world must depend   
for its  advancement upon those         
revolutionists who1 instead of          
overcoming their  impulse to go counter 
to convention1 give it free rein4 ,of   
such is  ,nietzsche's first caste       
composed4 ,it is plain that among the   
two  lower castes1 courage of this sort 
is regarded1 not as an evidence of      
strength1 but as a proof of weakness4   
,the man who outrages conventions  is a 
man who lacks self-control1 and the     
majority1 by a process we  have examined
 in our consideration of slave-morality1
 has exalted  self-control1 which1 at   
bottom1 is the antithesis of courage1   
into a  place of honor higher than that 
belonging1 by right1 to courage itself4 
,but ,nietzsche pointed out that the act
 of denying or combating accepted  ideas
 is a thing which always tends to       
inspire other acts of the same  sort4   
,it is true enough that a revolutionary 
idea1 so soon as it  replaces an old    

convention and obtains the sanction of  
the majority1  ceases to be             
revolutionary and becomes itself        
conventional1 but all the  same the mere
 fact that it has succeeded gives       
courage to those who  harbor other      
revolutionary ideas and inspires them to
 give these ideas  voice4 ,thus1 it     
happens that courage breeds itself1 and 
that1 in times  of great conflict1 of no
 matter what sort1 the world produces   
more than  an average output of         
originality1 or1 as we more commonly    
denominate  it1 genius4 ,in this manner 
,nietzsche accounted for a fact that had
 been  noticed by many men before him3  
that such tremendous struggles as the   
,french ,revolution and the ,american   
,civil ,war are invariably followed by  
eras of diligent inquiry1 of bold       
overturning of existing institutions    
and of marked progress4 ,people become  
accustomed to unrestrained combat  and  
so the desirability of self-control     
becomes less insistent4    ,nietzsche   

had a vast contempt for what he called  
the green-grazing  happiness of the     
herd4 ,its strong morality and its      
insistence upon  the doctrine that      
whatever is1 is right--that ,god's in   
his heaven2  all's well with the        
world--revolted him4 ,he held that the  
so-called  rights of the masses had no  
justifiable existence1 since everything 
they asserted as a right was an         
assertion1 more or less disguised1 of   
the doctrine that the unfit should      
survive4 ,there are1 he said1 only      
three ways in which the masses appear to
 me to deserve a glance3 first1  as     
blurred copies of their betters1 printed
 on bad paper and from worn  out plates2
 secondly1 as a necessary opposition to 
stimulate the master  class1 and        
thirdly1 as instruments in the hands of 
the master class4  ,further than this ,i
 hand them over to statistics--and the  
devil4#e  ,kant's proposal that the     
morality of every contemplated action be
  tested by the question1 ,suppose      

everyone did as ,i propose to do8       
seemed utterly ridiculous to ,nietzsche 
because he saw that everyone  always    
opposed the very things which meant     
progress2 and ,kant's  corollary that   
the sense of duty contemplated in this  
dictum was the  obligation to act in    
reverence for law1 proved to ,nietzsche 
merely  that both duty and law were     
absurdities4 ,contumely1 he said1 always
  falls upon those who break through    
some custom or convention4 ,such men1   
in fact1 are called criminals4 ,everyone
 who overthrows an existing law  is1 at 
the start1 regarded as a wicked man4    
,long afterward1 when it  is found that 
this law was bad and so cannot be       
re-established1 the  epithet is changed4
 ,all history treats almost exclusively 
of wicked men  who1 in the course of    
time1 have come to be looked upon as    
good men4  ,all progress is the result  
of successful crimes4#f    ,dr4         
,turck1#g ,miss ,paget1 ,m4 ,nordau and 
other critics see in all this  good     

evidence that ,nietzsche was a criminal 
at heart4 ,at the bottom of  all        
philosophies1 says ,miss ,paget1#h there
 is always one supreme idea4  ,sometimes
 it is a conception of nature1 sometimes
 it is a religious  faith and sometimes 
it is a theory of truth4 ,in            
,nietzsche's case it is  my taste4 ,he  
is always irritated3 ,i dislike1 ,i     
hate1 ,i  want to get rid of appear on  
every page of his writings4 ,he delights
  in ruthlessness1 his fellow men       
disgust him1 his physical senses are    
acute1 he has a sick ego4 ,for that     
reason he likes singularity1 the  lonely
 ,alps1 classic literature and ,bizet's 
clear yellow music4  ,turck argues that 
,nietzsche was a criminal because he got
 pleasure out  of things which outraged 
the majority of his fellow men1 and     
,nordau1 in  supporting this idea1 shows
 that it is possible for a man to       
experience  and approve criminal        
impulses and still never act them3 that 
there are  criminals of the chair as    

well as of the dark lantern and sandbag4
 ,the  answer to all of this1 of course1
 is the fact that the same method of    
reasoning would convict every original  
thinker the world has ever known  of    
black felony3 that it would make ,martin
 ,luther a criminal as well  as ,jack   
,sheppard1 ,john the ,baptist as well as
 the ,borgias1 and ,galileo  as well as 
,judas ,iscariot2 that it would justify 
the execution of all  the sublime       
company of heroes who have been done to 
death for their  opinions1 from ,jesus  
,christ down the long line4      #a ,der
 ,antichrist1  #eg4    #b ,in ,the      
,governance of ,england1 7,london3      
#aijd7 ,sidney ,low points  out 7chap4  
,x7 that1 despite the rise of democracy1
 the government of  ,great ,britain is  
still entirely in the hands of the      
landed gentry  and nobility4 ,the       
members of this class plainly owe their 
power to  the military prowess of their 
ancestors1 and their identity with the  
present military and judicial class is  

obvious4 ,the typical ,m4,p41 in  fact1 
also writes ,j4,p4 after his name and   
,capt4 or ,col4 before  it4 ,the        
examples of ,russia1 ,germany1 ,japan1  
,austria1 ,italy1 ,spain and  the       
,latin-,american republics scarcely need
 be mentioned4 ,in ,china the  military1
 judicial and legislative-executive     
functions are always  combined1 and in  
the ,united ,states1 while the military 
branch of the  second caste is          
apparently impotent1 it is plain that   
the balance of  legislative power in    
every state and in the national         
legislature is  held by lawyers1 just as
 the final determination of all laws    
rests with  judges4    #c ,der          
,antichrist1  #ee4    #d ,the quotations
 are from various chapters in the first 
part of  ,also sprach ,zarathustra4     
#e ,vom ,nutzen und ,nachtheil der      
,historie fr das ,leben4    #f          
,morgenrte1  #bj4    #g ,friedrich      
,nietzsche und seine philosophische     
,irrwege1 ,leipsic1  #ahia4    #h ,north

 ,american ,review1 ,dec41 #aijd4       
,,ix      ,,women ,,and ,,marriage      
,nietzsche's faithful sister1 with      
almost comical and essentially  feminine
 disgust1 bewails the fact that1 as a   
very young man1 the  philosopher became 
acquainted with the baleful truths set  
forth in  ,schopenhauer's immortal essay
 ,on ,women4 ,that this daring work     
greatly  influenced him is true1 and    
that he subscribed to its chief         
arguments  all the rest of his days is  
also true1 but it is far from true to   
say  that his view of the fair sex was  
borrowed bodily from ,schopenhauer or   
that he would have written otherwise    
than as he did if ,schopenhauer  had    
never lived4 ,nietzsche's conclusions   
regarding women were the  inevitable    
result1 indeed1 of his own philosophical
 system4 ,it is  impossible to conceive 
a man who held his opinions of morality 
and  society laying down any other      
doctrines of femininity and matrimony   
than those he scattered through his     

books4    ,nietzsche believed that there
 was a radical difference between the   
mind of man and the mind of woman and   
that the two sexes reacted in           
diametrically different ways to those   
stimuli which make up what might  be    
called the clinical picture of human    
society4 ,it is the function of  man1 he
 said1 to wield a sword in humanity's   
battle with everything  that makes life 
on earth painful or precarious4 ,it is  
the function of  woman1 not to fight    
herself1 but to provide fresh warriors  
for the  fray4 ,thus the exercise of the
 will to exist is divided between the   
two3 the man seeking the welfare of the 
race as he actually sees it and  the    
woman seeking the welfare of generations
 yet unborn4 ,of course1 it  is obvious 
that this division is by no means       
clearly marked1 because  the man1 in    
struggling for power over his           
environment1 necessarily  improves the  
conditions under which his children     
live1 and the woman1  working for her   

children1 often benefits herself4 ,but  
all the same the  distinction is a good 
one and empiric observation bears it    
out4 ,as  everyone who has given a      
moment's thought to the subject well    
knows1  a man's first concern in the    
world is to provide food and shelter for
  himself and his family1 while a       
woman's foremost duty is to bear and    
rear children4 ,thus1 said ,nietzsche1  
would ,i have man and woman3 the  one   
fit for warfare1 the other fit for      
giving birth2 and both fit for  dancing 
with head and legs#a--that is to say3   
both capable of doing  their share of   
the race's work1 mental and physical1   
with conscious and  superabundant       
efficiency4    ,nietzsche points out    
that1 in the racial economy1 the place  
of woman  may be compared to that of a  
slave-nation1 while the position of man 
resembles that of a master-nation4 ,we  
have seen how a weak nation1  unable1 on
 account of its weakness1 to satisfy its
 will to survive and  thirst for power  

by forcing its authority upon other     
nations1 turns  to the task of keeping  
these other nations1 as much as         
possible1 from  enforcing their         
authority upon it4 ,realizing that it   
cannot rule1 but  must serve1 it        
endeavors to make the conditions of its 
servitude as  bearable as possible4     
,this effort is commonly made in two    
ways3 first  by ostensibly renouncing   
its desire to rule1 and secondly1 by    
attempts  to inoculate its powerful     
neighbors with its ideas in subterranean
  and round-about ways1 so as to avoid  
arousing their suspicion and            
opposition4 ,it becomes1 in brief1      
humble and cunning1 and with its        
humility as a cloak1 it seeks to pit its
 cunning against the sheer  might of    
those it fears4    ,the position of     
women in the world is much the same4    
,the business  of bearing and rearing   
children is destructive to their        
physical  strength1 and in consequence  
makes it impossible for them to prevail 

by force when their ideas and those of  
men happen to differ4 ,to take  away the
 sting of this incapacity1 they make a  
virtue of it1 and it  becomes modesty1  
humility1 self-sacrifice and fidelity2  
to win in  spite of it they cultivate   
cunning1 which commonly takes the form  
of  hypocrisy1 cajolery1 dissimulation  
and more or less masked appeals to  the 
masculine sexual instinct4 ,all of this 
is so often observed in  every-day life 
that it has become commonplace4 ,a woman
 is physically  unable to force a man to
 do as she desires1 but her very        
inability to  do so becomes a           
sentimental weapon against him1 and her 
blandishments  do the rest4 ,the        
spectacle of a strong man ruled by a    
weak woman is no  rare one certainly1   
and ,samson was neither the first nor   
last giant to  fall before a ,delilah4  
,there is scarcely a household in all   
the world1  in truth1 in which the      
familiar drama is not being acted and   
reacted  day after day4    ,now1 it is  

plain from the foregoing that1 though   
women's business in  the world is of    
such a character that it inevitably     
leads to physical  degeneration1 her    
constant need to overcome the effects of
 this  degeneration by cunning produces 
constant mental activity1 which1 by  the
 law of exercise1 should produce1 in    
turn1 great mental efficiency4  ,this   
conclusion1 in part1 is perfectly       
correct1 for women1 as a sex1  are      
shrewd1 resourceful and acute2 but the  
very fact that they are  always         
concerned with imminent problems and    
that1 in consequence1 they  are         
unaccustomed to dealing with the larger 
riddles of life1 makes  their mental    
attitude essentially petty4 ,this       
explains the circumstance  that despite 
their mental suppleness1 they are not   
genuinely strong  intellectually4       
,indeed1 the very contrary is true4     
,women's constant  thought is1 not to   
lay down broad principles of right and  
wrong2 not to  place the whole world in 

harmony with some great scheme of       
justice2 not  to consider the future of 
nations2 not to make two blades of grass
 grow  where one grew before2 but to    
deceive1 influence1 sway and please men4
  ,normally1 their weakness makes       
masculine protection necessary to their 
existence and to the exercise of their  
overpowering maternal instinct1  and so 
their whole effort is to obtain this    
protection in the easiest  way possible4
 ,the net result is that feminine       
morality is a morality  of opportunism  
and imminent expediency1 and that the   
normal woman has  no respect for1 and   
scarcely any conception of abstract     
truth4 ,thus is  proved the fact noted  
by ,schopenhauer and many other         
observers3 that a  woman seldom         
manifests any true sense of justice or  
of honor4    ,it is unnecessary to set  
forth this idea in greater detail1      
because  everyone is familiar with it   
and proofs of its accuracy are supplied 
in infinite abundance by common         

observation4 ,nietzsche accepted it  as 
demonstrated4 ,when he set out to pursue
 the subject further1 he  rejected      
entirely the ,schopenhauerean corollary 
that man should ever  regard woman as   
his enemy1 and should seek1 by all means
 within his  power1 to escape her       
insidious influence4 ,such a notion     
naturally  outraged the philosopher of  
the superman4 ,he was never an advocate 
of running away3 to all the facts of    
existence he said yes4 ,his  ideal was  
not resignation or flight1 but an       
intelligent defiance and  opposition4   
,therefore1 he argued that man should   
accept woman as a  natural opponent     
arrayed against him for the benevolent  
purpose of  stimulating him to constant 
efficiency4 ,opposition1 he pointed out1
  was a necessary forerunner of         
function1 and in consequence the fact   
that woman spent her entire effort in a 
ceaseless endeavor to undermine  and    
change the will of man1 merely served to
 make this will alert and  strong1 and  

so increased man's capacity for meeting 
and overcoming the  enemies of his      
existence4    ,a man conscious of his   
strength1 observes ,nietzsche1 need have
 no  fear of women4 ,it is only the man 
who finds himself utterly helpless  in  
the face of feminine cajolery that must 
cry1 ,get thee behind me1  ,satan6 and  
flee4 ,it is only the most sensual men1 
he says1 who  have to shun women and    
torture their bodies4 ,the normal1      
healthy man1  despite the strong appeal 
which women make to him by their subtle 
putting forward of the sexual           
idea--visually as dress1 coquetry and   
what not--still keeps a level head4 ,he 
is strong enough to weather the  sexual 
storm4 ,but the man who cannot do this1 
who experiences no normal  reaction in  
the direction of guardedness and caution
 and reason1 must  either abandon       
himself utterly as a helpless slave to  
woman's instinct  of race-preservation1 
and so become a bestial voluptuary1 or  
avoid  temptation altogether and so     

become a celibate4#b    ,there is       
nothing essentially evil in woman's     
effort to combat and  control man's will
 by constantly suggesting the sexual    
idea to him1  because it is necessary1  
for the permanence of the race1 that    
this  idea be presented frequently and  
powerfully4 ,therefore1 the conflict    
between masculine and feminine ideals is
 to be regarded1 not as a  lamentable   
battle1 in which one side is right and  
the other wrong1 but  a convenient means
 of providing that                      
stimulation-by-opposition without  which
 all function1 and in consequence all   
progress1 would cease4 ,the  man who    
regards women as an enemy to be avoided1
 says ,nietzsche1  betrays an unbridled 
lust which loathes not only itself1 but 
also its  means4#c    ,there are1 of    
course1 occasions when the feminine     
influence1 by  its very subtlety1 works 
harm to the higher sort of men4 ,it is  
dangerous for a man to love too         
violently and it is dangerous1 too1  for

 him to be loved too much4' ,the natural
 inclination of women  to a quiet1      
uniform and peaceful existence --that is
 to say1 to a  slave-morality--operates 
adversely to the heroic impulse of the  
masculine free spirit4 ,without being   
aware of it1 women act like a  person   
who would remove stones from the path of
 a mineralogist1 lest  his feet should  
come in contact with them--forgetting   
entirely that he  is faring forth for   
the very purpose of coming in contact   
with them4444  ,the wives of men with   
lofty aspirations cannot resign         
themselves to  seeing their husbands    
suffering1 impoverished and slighted1   
even  though it is apparent that this   
suffering proves1 not only that its     
victim has chosen his attitude aright1  
but also that his aims--some  day1 at   
least--will be realized4 ,women always  
intrigue in secret  against the higher  
souls of their husbands4 ,they seek to  
cheat the  future for the sake of a     
painless and agreeable present4#d ,in   

other  words1 the feminine vision is    
ever limited in range4 ,your typical    
woman  cannot see far ahead2 she cannot 
reason out the ultimate effect of a     
complicated series of causes2 her eye is
 always upon the present or  the very   
near future4 ,thus ,nietzsche reaches1  
by a circuitous route1  a conclusion    
supported by the almost unanimous       
verdict of the entire  masculine sex1 at
 all times and everywhere4    ,nietzsche
 quite agrees with ,schopenhauer 7and   
with nearly everyone  else who has given
 the matter thought7 that the thing we  
call love is  grounded upon physical    
desire1 and that all of those arts of   
dress  and manner in which women excel  
are mere devices for arousing this      
desire in man1 but he points out1 very  
justly1 that a great many other         
considerations also enter into the      
matter4 ,love necessarily presupposes  a
 yearning to mate1 and mating is its    
logical consequence1 but the  human     
imagination has made it more than that4 

,the man in love sees  in his charmer1  
not only an attractive instrument for   
satisfying his  comparatively rare and  
necessarily brief impulses to dalliance1
 but  also a worthy companion1 guide1   
counsellor and friend4 ,the essence of  
love is confidence--confidence in the   
loved one's judgment1 honesty  and      
fidelity and in the persistence of her  
charm4 ,so large do  these              
considerations loom among the higher    
classes of men that they  frequently    
obscure the fundamental sexual impulse  
entirely4 ,it is a  commonplace1 indeed1
 that in the ecstasies of amorous       
idealization1 the  notion of the        
function itself becomes obnoxious4 ,it  
may be impossible  to imagine a man     
loving a woman without having had1 at   
some time1  conscious desire for her1   
but all the same it is undoubtedly true 
that  the wish for marriage is very     
often a wish for close and constant     
association with the one respected1     
admired and trusted rather than a       

yearning for the satisfaction of desire4
    ,all of this admiration1 respect and
 trust1 as we have seen1 may be         
interpreted as confidence1 which1 in    
turn1 is faith4 ,now1 faith is          
essentially unreasonable1 and in the    
great majority of cases1 is  the very   
antithesis of reason4 ,therefore1 a man 
in love commonly  endows the object of  
his affection with merits which1 to the 
eye of  a disinterested person1 she     
obviously lacks4 ,love 444 has a secret 
craving to discover in the loved one as 
many beautiful qualities as  possible   
and to raise her as high as possible4   
,whoever idolizes a  person tries to    
justify himself by idealizing2 and thus 
becomes an  artist 7or self-deceiver7 in
 order to have a clear conscience4      
,again  there is a tendency to illogical
 generalization4 ,everything which      
pleases me once1 or several times1 is   
pleasing of and in itself4 ,the  result 
of this1 of course1 is quick and painful
 disillusion4 ,the loved  one is        

necessarily merely human and when the   
ideal gives way to the  real1 reaction  
necessarily follows4 ,many a married man
 awakens one  morning to the            
consciousness that his wife is far from 
attractive4#e  ,and it is only fair to  
note that the same awakening is probably
 the  bitter portion of most married    
women1 too4    ,in addition1 it is plain
 that the purely physical desire which  
lies  at the bottom of all human love1  
no matter how much sentimental          
considerations may obscure it1 is merely
 a passion and so1 in the very  nature  
of things1 is intermittent and          
evanescent4 ,there are moments  when it 
is overpowering1 but there are hours1   
days1 weeks and months  when it is      
dormant4 ,therefore1 we must conclude   
with ,nietzsche1 that  the thing we call
 love1 whether considered from its      
physical or  psychical aspect1 is       
fragile and short-lived4    ,now1       
inasmuch as marriage1 in the majority of
 cases1 is a permanent  institution 7as 

it is1 according to the theory of our   
moral code1 in  all cases71 it follows  
that1 in order to make the relation     
bearable1  something must arise to take 
the place of love4 ,this something1 as  
we  know1 is ordinarily tolerance1      
respect1 camaraderie1 or a common       
interest in the well-being of the       
matrimonial firm or in the offspring  of
 the marriage4 ,in other words1 the     
discovery that many of the ideal        
qualities seen in the life-companion    
through the rosy glasses of love  do not
 exist is succeeded by a common-sense   
and unsentimental decision  to make the 
best of those real ones which actually  
do exist4    ,from this it is apparent  
that a marriage is most apt to be       
successful  when the qualities imagined 
in the beloved are all1 or nearly all1  
real3 that is to say1 when the          
possibility of disillusion is at an     
irreducible minimum4 ,this occurs       
sometimes by accident1 but ,nietzsche   
points out that such accidents are      

comparatively rare4 ,a man in love1     
indeed1 is the worst possible judge of  
his inamorata's possession  of those    
traits which will make her a            
satisfactory wife1 for1 as we  have     
noted1 he observes her through an ideal 
haze and sees in her  innumerable merits
 which1 to the eye of an unprejudiced   
and accurate  observer1 she does not    
possess4 ,nietzsche1 at different times1
 pointed  out two remedies for this4    
,his first plan proposed that marriages 
for  love be discouraged1 and that we   
endeavor to insure the permanence of    
the relation by putting the selection of
 mates into the hands of third  persons 
likely to be dispassionate and          
far-seeing3 a plan followed  with great 
success1 it may be recalled1 by most    
ancient peoples and in  vogue1 in a more
 or less disguised form1 in many        
,european countries  today4 ,it is      
impossible1 he said1 to found a         
permanent institution  upon an          
idiosyncrasy4 ,marriage1 if it is to    

stand as the bulwark of  civilization1  
cannot be founded upon the temporary and
 unreasonable  thing called love4 ,to   
fulfil its mission1 it must be founded  
upon the  impulse to reproduction1 or   
race permanence2 the impulse to possess 
property 7women and children are        
property72 and the impulse to rule1     
which constantly organizes for itself   
the smallest unit of sovereignty1  the  
family1 and which needs children and    
heirs to maintain1 by physical  force1  
whatever measure of power1 riches and   
influence it attains4    ,nietzsche's   
second proposal was nothing more or less
 than the  institution of trial         
marriage1 which1 when it was proposed   
years  later by an ,american            
sociologist1#f caused all the uproar    
which  invariably rises in the ,united  
,states whenever an attempt is made  to 
seek absolute truth4 ,give us a term1   
said ,zarathustra1 and a  small         
marriage1 that we may see whether we are
 fit for the great  marriage4#g ,the    

idea here1 of course1 is simply this3   
that1 when a  man and a woman find it   
utterly impossible to live in harmony1  
it is  better for them to separate at   
once than to live on together1 making  a
 mock of the institution they profess to
 respect1 and begetting  children who1  
in ,nietzsche's phrase1 cannot be       
regarded other than as  mere scapegoats 
of matrimony4 ,nietzsche saw that this  
notion was so  utterly opposed to all   
current ideals and hypocrisies that it  
would  be useless to argue it1 and so he
 veered toward his first proposal4  ,the
 latter1 despite its violation of one of
 the most sacred illusions  of the      
,anglo-,saxon race1 is by no means a    
mere fantasy of the chair4  ,marriages  
in which love is subordinated to mutual 
fitness and material  considerations are
 the rule in many countries today1 and  
have been so  for thousands of years1   
and if it be urged that1 in ,france1    
their fruit  has been adultery1         
unfruitfulness and degeneration1 it may 

be answered  that1 in ,turkey1 ,japan   
and ,india1 they have become the        
cornerstones of  quite respectable      
civilizations4    ,nietzsche believed   
that the ultimate mission and function  
of human  marriage was the breeding of a
 race of supermen and he saw very       
clearly  that fortuitous pairing would  
never bring this about4 ,thou shalt not 
only propagate thyself1 said            
,zarathustra1 but propagate thyself     
upward4 ,marriage should be the will of 
two to create that which is  greater    
than either4 ,but that which the many   
call marriage--alas6 what  call ,i that8
 ,alas ,i that soul-poverty of two6     
,alas6 that soul-filth  of two6 ,alas6  
that miserable dalliance of two6        
,marriage they call  it--and they say   
that marriages are made in heaven4 ,i   
like them not3  these animals caught in 
heavenly nets4444 ,laugh not at such    
marriages6  ,what child has not reason  
to weep over its parents8 ,it is the old
  argument against haphazard breeding4  

,we select the sires and dams of  our   
race-horses with most elaborate care1   
but the strains that mingle  in our     
children's veins get there by chance4   
,worthy and ripe for  begetting the     
superman this man appeared to me1 but   
when ,i saw his  wife earth seemed a    
madhouse4 ,yea1 ,i wish the earth would 
tremble in  convulsions when such a     
saint and such a goose mate6 ,this one  
fought  for truth like a hero--and then 
took to heart a little dressed-up  lie4 
,he calls it his marriage4 ,that one was
 reserved in intercourse  and chose his 
associates fastidiously--and then       
spoiled his company  forever4 ,he calls 
it his marriage4 ,a third sought for a  
servant with  an angel's virtues4 ,now  
he is the servant of a woman4 ,even the 
most  cunning buys his wife in a sack4#h
    ,as has been noted1 ,nietzsche was  
by no means a declaimer against women4  
,a bachelor himself and constitutionally
 suspicious of all who walked  in       
skirts1 he nevertheless avoided the     

error of damning the whole sex  as a    
dangerous and malignant excrescence upon
 the face of humanity4 ,he  saw that    
woman's mind was the natural complement 
of man's mind2 that  womanly guile was  
as useful1 in its place1 as masculine   
truth2 that  man1 to retain those       
faculties which made him master of the  
earth1  needed a persistent and         
resourceful opponent to stimulate them  
and so  preserve and develop them4 ,so  
long as the institution of the family   
remained a premise in every sociological
 syllogism1 so long as mere             
fruitfulness remained as much a merit   
among intelligent human beings  as it   
was among peasants and cattle--so long1 
he saw1 it would be  necessary for the  
stronger sex to submit to the parasitic 
opportunism  of the weaker4    ,but he  
was far from exalting mere women into   
goddesses1 after the  sentimental       
fashion of those virtuosi of illusion   
who pass for  law-givers in the ,united 
,states1 and particularly in the        

southern  part thereof4 ,chivalry1 with 
its ridiculous denial of obvious facts1 
seemed to him unspeakable and the good  
old sub-,potomac doctrines that  a woman
 who loses her virtue is1 ipso facto1 a 
victim and not a  criminal or particeps 
criminis1 and that a lady1 by virtue of 
being  a lady1 is necessarily a         
reluctant and helpless quarry in the    
hunt  of love--these ancient and        
venerable fallacies would have made him 
laugh4 ,he admitted the great and noble 
part that woman had to play in  the     
world-drama1 but he saw clearly that her
 methods were essentially  deceptive1   
insincere and pernicious1 and so he held
 that she should be  confined to her    
proper role and that any effort she made
 to take a hand  in other matters should
 be regarded with suspicion1 and when   
necessary1  violently opposed4 ,thus    
,nietzsche detested the idea of women's 
suffrage  almost as much as he detested 
the idea of chivalry4 ,the participation
  of women in large affairs1 he argued1 

could lead to but one result3  the      
contamination of the masculine ideals of
 justice1 honor and truth  by the       
feminine ideals of dissimulation1       
equivocation and intrigue4  ,in women1  
he believed1 there was an entire absence
 of that instinctive  liking for a      
square deal and a fair fight which one  
finds in all  men--even the worst4      
,hence1 ,nietzsche believed that1 in his
 dealings with women1 man should  be    
wary and cautious4 ,let men fear women  
when she loveth3 for she  sacrificeth   
all for love and nothing else hath value
 to her4444 ,man  is for woman a means3 
the end is always the child4444 ,two    
things are  wanted by the true man3     
danger and play4 ,therefore he seeketh  
woman as  the most dangerous toy within 
his reach4444 ,thou goest to women8     
,don't  forget thy whip6#i ,this last   
sentence has helped to make ,nietzsche  
a stench in the nostrils of the         
orthodox1 but the context makes his     
argument far more than a mere effort at 

sensational epigram4 ,he is  pointing   
out the utter unscrupulousness which    
lies at the foundation of  the maternal 
instinct3 an unscrupulousness familiar  
to every observer  of humanity4#aj      
,indeed1 it is so potent a factor in the
 affairs of the  world that we have1 by 
our ancient device of labelling the     
inevitable  the good1 exalted it to the 
dignity and estate of a virtue4 ,but all
  the same1 we are instinctively        
conscious of its inherent opposition  to
 truth and justice1 and so our law books
 provide that a woman who  commits a    
crime in her husband's presence is      
presumed to have been led  to it by her 
desire to work what she regards as his  
good1 which means  her desire to retain 
his protection and good will4 ,man's    
happiness  is3 ',i will4' ,woman's      
happiness is3 ',he will4'#aa            
,maternity1 thought ,nietzsche1 was a   
thing even more sublime  than paternity1
 because it produced a more keen sense  
of race  responsibility4 ,is there a    

state more blessed1 he asked1 than that 
of a woman with child8444 ,even worldly 
justice does not allow the  judge and   
hangman to lay hold on her4#ab ,he saw1 
too1 that woman's  insincere            
masochism#ac spurred man to heroic      
efforts and gave vigor  and direction to
 his work by the very fact that it bore 
the outward  aspect of helplessness4 ,he
 saw that the resultant stimulation of  
the  will to power was responsible for  
many of the world's great deeds1  and   
that1 if woman served no other purpose1 
she would still take an  honorable place
 as the most splendid reward--greater   
than honors or  treasures--that humanity
 could bestow upon its victors4 ,the    
winning  of a beautiful and much-sought 
woman1 indeed1 will remain as great an  
incentive to endeavor as the conquest of
 a principality so long as  humanity    
remains substantially as it is today4   
,it is unfortunate that ,nietzsche left 
us no record of his notions  regarding  
the probable future of matrimony as an  

institution4 ,we have  reason to believe
 that he agreed with ,schopenhauer's    
analysis of the  lady1 i4e4 the woman   
elevated to splendid1 but complete      
parasitism4  ,schopenhauer showed that  
this pitiful creature was the product of
  the monogamous ideal1 just as the     
prostitute was the product of the       
monogamous actuality4 ,in the ,united   
,states and ,england1 unfortunately1  it
 is impossible to discuss such matters  
with frankness1 or to apply to  them the
 standards of absolute truth1 on account
 of the absurd axiom  that monogamy is  
ordained of ,god1--with which maxim     
there appears  the equally absurd       
corollary3 that the civilization of a   
people is  to be measured by the degree 
of dependence of its women4 ,luckily for
  posterity this last revolting doctrine
 is fast dying1 though its  decadence is
 scarcely noticed and wholly            
misunderstood4 ,we see about us  that   
women are becoming more and more        
independent and self-sufficient  and    

that1 as individuals1 they have less and
 less need to seek and  retain the good 
will and protection of individual men1  
but we overlook  the fact that this     
tendency is fast undermining the ancient
 theory  that the family is a necessary 
and impeccable institution and that     
without it progress would be impossible4
 ,as a matter of fact1 the idea  of the 
family1 as it exists today1 is based    
entirely upon the idea of  feminine     
helplessness4 ,so soon as women are     
capable of making a living  for         
themselves and their children1 without  
the aid of the fathers of  the latter1  
the old cornerstone of the family--the  
masculine defender  and                 
bread-winner--will find his occupation  
gone1 and it will become  ridiculous to 
force him1 by law or custom1 to         
discharge duties for  which there is no 
longer need4 ,wipe out your masculine   
defender1 and  your feminine            
parasite-haus-frau--and where is your   
family8    ,this tendency is exhibited  

empirically by the rising revolt against
  those fetters which the family idea   
has imposed upon humanity3 by  the      
growing feeling that divorce should be a
 matter of individual  expedience2 by   
the successful war of cosmopolitanism   
upon insularity  and clannishness and   
upon all other costly outgrowths of the 
old idea  that because men are of the   
same blood they must necessarily love   
one another2 and by the increasing      
reluctance among civilized human  beings
 to become parents without some reason  
more logical than the  notion that      
parenthood1 in itself1 is praiseworthy4 
,it seems plain1  in a word1 that so    
soon as any considerable portion of the 
women of  the world become capable of   
doing men's work and of thus earning a  
living for themselves and their children
 without the aid of men1 there  will be 
in full progress a dangerous1 if        
unconscious1 war upon the  institution  
of marriage4 ,it may be urged in reply  
that this will never  happen1 because of

 the fact that women are physically     
unequal to men1  and that in consequence
 of their duty of child-bearing1 they   
will ever  remain so1 but it may be     
answered to this that use will probably 
vastly  increase their physical fitness2
 that science will rob child-bearing  of
 most of its terrors within a           
comparatively few years2 and that the   
woman who seeks to go it alone will have
 only herself and her child to          
maintain1 whereas1 the man of today has 
not only himself and his child1  but    
also the woman4 ,again1 it is plain that
 the economic handicap  of child-bearing
 is greatly overestimated4 ,at most1 the
 business of  maternity makes a woman   
utterly helpless for no longer than     
three  months1 and in the case of a     
woman who has three children1 this means
  nine months in a life time4 ,it is    
entirely probable that alcohol  alone1  
not to speak of other enemies of        
efficiency1 robs the average  man of    
quite that much productive activity     

during his three score years  and ten4  
#a ,also sprach ,zarathustra1 ,,iii4    
#b ,nietzsche saw1 of course 7,the      
,genealogy of ,morals1 ,,iii71 that     
temporary celibacy was frequently       
necessary to men with peculiarly        
difficult and vitiating tasks ahead of  
them4 ,the philosopher who sought  to   
solve world riddles1 he said1 had need  
to steer clear of women1 for  reasons   
which appealed1 with equal force1 to the
 athlete who sought to  perform great   
feats of physical strength4 ,it is      
obvious1 however1 that  this desire to  
escape distraction and drain differs    
vastly from ethical  celibacy4    #c    
,morgenrte1  #cdf4    #d ,menschliches  
allzu ,menschliches1  #dca1 #dcd4    #e 
,all of these quotations are from       
,morgenrte4    #f ,elsie ,clews         
,parsons3 ,the ,family1 ,new ,york1     
#aijf4 ,mrs4 ,parsons is  a doctor of   
philosophy1 a ,hartley house fellow and 
was for six years a  lecturer on        
sociology at ,barnard ,college4    #g   

,also sprach ,zarathustra1 ,,iii4    #h 
,also sprach ,zarathustra1 ,i4    #i    
,also sprach ,zarathustra1 ,i4    #aj   
,until quite recently it was considered 
indecent and indefensible  to mention   
this fact1 despite its obviousness4 ,but
 it is now discussed  freely enough and 
in ,henry ,arthur ,jones' play1 ,the    
,hypocrites1 it is  presented admirably 
in the character of the mother whose    
instinctive  effort to protect her son  
makes her a scoundrel and the son a cad4
    #aa ,also sprach ,zarathustra1 ,i4  
#ab ,morgenrte1  #eeb4    #ac ,prof4    
,dr4 ,r4 von ,krafft ,ebing3 ,masochism 
is 444 a peculiar  perversion 444       
consisting in this1 that the individual 
seized with  it is dominated by the idea
 that he is wholly and unconditionally  
subjected to the will of a person of the
 opposite sex1 who treats him           
imperiously and humiliates and maltreats
 him4          ,x      ,,government     
,like ,spencer before him1 ,nietzsche   
believed1 as we have seen1  that the    

best possible system of government was  
that which least  interfered with the   
desires and enterprises of the efficient
 and  intelligent individual4 ,that is  
to say1 he held that it would be well   
to establish1 among the members of his  
first caste of human beings1  a sort of 
glorified anarchy4 ,each member of this 
caste should be at  liberty to work out 
his own destiny for himself4 ,there     
should be no  laws regulating and       
circumscribing his relations to other   
members of  his caste1 except the       
easily-recognizable and often-changing  
laws of  common interest1 and above all1
 there should be no laws forcing him  to
 submit to1 or even to consider1 the    
wishes and behests of the two  lower    
castes4 ,the higher man1 in a word1     
should admit no responsibility  whatever
 to the lower castes4 ,the lowest of all
 he should look upon  solely as a race  
of slaves bred to work his welfare in   
the most  efficient and uncomplaining   
manner possible1 and the military caste 

should seem to him a race designed only 
to carry out his orders and so  prevent 
the slave caste marching against him4   
,it is plain from this that ,nietzsche  
stood squarely opposed to both of  the  
two schemes of government which1 on the 
surface1 at least1 seem  to prevail in  
the western world today4 ,for the       
monarchial ideal and  for the democratic
 ideal he had the same words of         
contempt4 ,under an  absolute monarchy1 
he believed1 the military or            
law-enforcing caste was  unduly exalted1
 and so its natural tendency to         
permanence was increased  and its       
natural opposition to all experiment and
 progress was made well  nigh           
irresistible4 ,under a communistic      
democracy1 on the other hand1  the      
mistake was made of putting power into  
the hands of the great1  inert herd1    
which was necessarily and inevitably    
ignorant1 credulous1  superstitious1    
corrupt and wrong4 ,the natural tendency
 of this herd1  said ,nietzsche1 was to 

combat change and progress as bitterly  
and as  ceaselessly as the              
military-judicial caste1 and when1 by   
some accident1  it rose out of its rut  
and attempted experiments1 it nearly    
always  made mistakes1 both in its      
premises and its conclusions and so got 
hopelessly bogged in error and          
imbecility4 ,its feeling for truth      
seemed  to him to be almost nil2 its    
mind could never see beneath misleading 
exteriors4 ,in the market place1 said   
,zarathustra1 one convinces by          
gestures1 but real reasons make the     
populace distrustful4#a    ,that this   
natural incompetence of the masses is an
 actual fact was  observed by a hundred 
philosophers before ,nietzsche1 and     
fresh proofs  of it are spread copiously
 before the world every day4 ,wherever  
universal suffrage1 or some close       
approach to it1 is the primary  axiom of
 government1 the thing known in the     
,united ,states as freak  legislation is
 a constant evil4 ,on the statute books 

of the great  majority of ,american     
states there are laws so plainly opposed
 to all  common-sense that they bear an 
air of almost pathetic humor4 ,one      
state legislature1#b in an effort to    
prevent the corrupt employment  of      
insurance funds1 passes laws so         
stringent that1 in the face of  them1 it
 is utterly impossible for an insurance 
company to transact  a profitable       
business4 ,another considers an act     
contravening rights  guaranteed         
specifically by the state and national  
constitutions2#c  yet another#d passes a
 law prohibiting divorce under any      
circumstances  whatever4 ,and the       
spectacle is by no means confined to the
 ,american  states4 ,in the ,australian 
,commonwealth1 mob-rule has burdened the
  statutes with regulations which make  
difficult1 if not impossible1  the      
natural development of the country's    
resources and trade4 ,if1 in  ,england  
and ,germany1 the effect of universal   
suffrage has been less  apparent1 it is 

because in these countries the two upper
 castes have  solved the problem of     
keeping the proletariat1 despite its    
theoretical  sovereignty1 in proper     
leash and bounds4    ,the possibility of
 exercising this control seemed to      
,nietzsche to  be the saving grace of   
all modern forms of government1 just as 
their essential impossibility appeared  
as the saving grace alike of            
,christianity and of communistic        
civilization4 ,in ,england1 as we have  
seen1#e the military-judicial caste1    
despite the ,reform ,act of #ahfg1  has 
retained its old dominance1 and in      
,germany1 despite the occasional        
success of the socialists1 it is always 
possible for the military  aristocracy1 
by appealing to the vanity of the       
bourgeoisie1 to win in  a stand-up      
fight4 ,in ,america1 the proletariat1   
when it is not engaged  in functioning  
in its own extraordinary manner1 is     
commonly the tool1  either of the first 
of ,nietzsche's castes or of the second4

 ,that is to  say1 the average          
legislature has its price1 and this     
price is often  paid by those who       
believe that old laws1 no matter how    
imperfect they  may be1 are better than 
harum-scarum new ones4 ,naturally       
enough1 the  most intelligent and       
efficient of ,americans--members of the 
first  caste--do not often go to a state
 capital with corruption funds and      
openly buy legislation1 but nevertheless
 their influence is frequently  felt4   
,president ,roosevelt1 for one1 has more
 than once forced his  views upon a     
reluctant proletariat and even enlisted 
it under his  banner--as in his advocacy
 of centralization1 a truly dionysian   
idea1  for example--and in the southern 
states the educated white class--which  
there represents1 though in a melancholy
 fashion1 the ,nietzschean first        
caste--has found it easy to take from   
the black masses their very right  to   
vote1 despite the fact that they are    
everywhere in a great majority          

numerically1 and so1 by the theory of   
democracy1 represent whatever  power    
lies in the state4 ,thus it is apparent 
that ,nietzsche's argument  against     
democracy1 like his argument against    
brotherhood1 is based upon  the thesis  
that both are rejected instinctively by 
all those men whose  activity works for 
the progress of the human race4#f    ,it
 is obvious1 of course1 that the sort of
 anarchy preached by  ,nietzsche differs
 vastly from the beery1 collarless      
anarchy preached  by ,herr ,most and his
 unwashed followers4 ,the latter        
contemplates a  suspension of all laws  
in order that the unfit may escape the  
natural  and rightful exploitation of   
the fit1 whereas the former reduces  the
 unfit to de facto slavery and makes    
them subject to the laws  of a master   
class1 which1 in so far as the relations
 of its own  members1 one to the other1 
are concerned1 recognizes no law but    
that  of natural selection4 ,to the     
average ,american or ,englishman the    

very  name of anarchy causes a shudder1 
because it invariably conjures up  a    
picture of a land terrorized by         
low-browed assassins with matted        
beards1 carrying bombs in one hand and  
mugs of beer in the other4 ,but  as a   
matter of fact1 there is no reason      
whatever to believe that1 if  all laws  
were abolished tomorrow1 such swine     
would survive the day4  ,they are       
incompetents under our present          
paternalism and they would be           
incompetents under dionysian anarchy4   
,the only difference between the  two   
states is that the former1 by its laws1 
protects men of this sort1  whereas the 
latter would work their speedy          
annihilation4 ,in a word1  the dionysian
 state would see the triumph1 not of    
drunken loafers1 but  of the very men   
whose efforts are making for progress   
today3 those  strong1 free1             
self-reliant1 resourceful men whose     
capacities are so  much greater than the
 mob's that they are often able to force

 their  ideas upon it despite its       
theoretical right to rule them and its  
actual  endeavor so to do4 ,nietzschean 
anarchy would create an aristocracy of  
efficiency4 ,the strong man--which means
 the intelligent1 ingenious and         
far-seeing man--would acknowledge no    
authority but his own will and no       
morality but his own advantage4 ,as we  
have seen in previous chapters1  this   
would re-establish the law of natural   
selection firmly upon its  disputed     
throne1 and so the strong would grow    
ever stronger and more  efficient1 and  
the weak would grow ever more obedient  
and tractile4    ,it may be well at this
 place to glance briefly at an objection
 that  has been urged against           
,nietzsche's argument by many critics1  
and  particularly by those in the       
socialistic camp4 ,led to it1 no doubt1 
by their too literal acceptance of      
,marx's materialistic conception of     
history1 they have assumed that         
,nietzsche's higher man must necessarily

  belong to the class denominated1 by   
our after-dinner speakers and  leader   
writers1 captains of industry1 and to   
this class alone4  ,that is to say1 they
 have regarded the higher man as        
identical with  the pushing1 grasping   
buccaneer of finance1 because this      
buccaneer  has seemed to them to be the 
only man of today who is truly strong1  
free1 self-reliant and resourceful and  
the only one who actually  acknowledges 
no authority but his own will4 ,as a    
matter of fact1  all of these           
assumptions are in error4 ,for one      
thing1 the captain of  industry is not  
uncommonly the reverse of a dionysian1  
and without  the artificial aid of our  
permanent laws1 he might often perish in
  the struggle for existence4 ,for      
another thing1 it is an obvious fact    
that the men who go most violently      
counter to the view of the herd1  and   
who battle most strenuously to prevail  
against it--our true  criminals and     
transvaluers and breakers of the        

law--are not such men  as ,rockefeller1 
but men such as ,pasteur2 not such men  
as ,morgan and  ,hooley1 but            
sham-smashers and truth-tellers and     
mob-fighters after the  type of ,huxley1
 ,lincoln1 ,bismarck1 ,darwin1 ,virchow1
 ,haeckel1 ,hobbes1  ,macchiavelli1     
,harvey and ,jenner1 the father of      
vaccination4    ,jenner1 to choose one  
from the long list1 was a real          
dionysian1 because  he boldly pitted his
 own opinion against the practically    
unanimous  opinion of all the rest of   
the human race4 ,among those members of 
the ruling class in ,england who came   
after him--those men1 that is1  who made
 vaccination compulsory--the dionysian  
spirit was still more  apparent4 ,the   
masses themselves did not want to be    
vaccinated1 because  they were too      
ignorant to understand the theory of    
inoculation and  too stupid to be much  
impressed by its unvisualized and--for  
years1  at least--impalpable benefits4  
,yet their rulers forced them1 against  

their will1 to bare their arms4 ,and why
 was this done8 ,was it because  the    
ruling class was possessed by a         
boundless love for humanity and  so     
yearned to lavish upon it a wealth of   
,christian devotion8 ,not  at all4 ,the 
real motive of the law makers was to be 
found in two  considerations4 ,in the   
first place1 a proletariat which        
suffered  from epidemics of small-pox   
was a crippled mob whose capacity for   
serving its betters1 in the fields and  
factories of ,england1 was sadly        
decreased4 ,in the second place         
experience proved that when smallpox    
raged in the slums1 it had an unhappy   
habit of stretching out its arms  in the
 direction of mansion and castle1 too4  
,therefore1 the proletariat  was        
vaccinated and small-pox was stamped    
out--not because the ruling  class loved
 the workers1 but because it wanted to  
make them work for  it as continuously  
as possible and to remove or reduce     
their constant  menace to its life and  

welfare4 ,in so far as it took the      
initiative in  these proceedings1 the   
military ruling-class of ,england raised
 itself  to the eminence of ,nietzsche's
 first caste4 ,that ,jenner himself1    
when  he put forward his idea and led   
the military caste to carry it into     
execution1 was an ideal member of the   
first caste1 is plain4 ,the goal  before
 him was fame everlasting--and he gained
 it4    ,i have made this rather long   
digression because the opponents of     
,nietzsche have voiced their error a    
thousand times and have well-nigh       
convinced a great many persons of its   
truth4 ,it is apparent enough1  of      
course1 that a great many men whose     
energy is devoted to the  accumulation  
of money are truly dionysian in their   
methods and aims1  but it is apparent1  
too1 that a great many others are not4  
,nietzsche  himself was well aware of   
the dangers which beset a race          
enthralled  by commercialism1 and he    
sounded his warning against them4       

,trade1  being grounded upon security1  
tends to work for permanence in laws and
  customs1 even after the actual utility
 of these laws and customs is  openly   
questioned4 ,this is shown by the       
persistence of free trade in  ,england  
and of protectionism in the ,united     
,states1 despite the fact  that the     
conditions of existence1 in both        
countries1 have materially  changed     
since the two systems were adopted1 and 
there is now good  ground1 in each1 for 
demanding reform4 ,so it is plain that  
,nietzsche  did not cast his higher man 
in the mold of a mere millionaire4 ,it  
is conceivable that a careful analysis  
might prove ,mr4 ,morgan to be  a       
dionysian1 but it is certain that his   
character as such would not  be grounded
 upon his well-known and oft-repeated   
plea that existing  institutions be     
permitted to remain as they are4    ,yet
 again1 a great many critics of         
,nietzsche mistake his criticism of     
existing governmental institutions for  

an argument in favor of their  immediate
 and violent abolition4 ,when he        
inveighs against monarchy or  democracy1
 for instance1 it is concluded that he  
wants to assassinate  all the existing  
rulers of the world1 overturn all       
existing governments  and put chaos1    
carnage1 rapine and anarchy in their    
place4 ,such a  conclusion1 of course1  
is a grievous error4 ,nietzsche by no   
means  believed that reforms could be   
instituted in a moment or that the      
characters and habits of thought of     
human beings could be altered  by a     
lightning stroke4 ,his whole philosophy1
 in truth1 was based  upon the idea of  
slow evolution1 through infinitely      
laborious and  infinitely protracted    
stages4 ,all he attempted to do was to  
indicate  the errors that were being    
made in his own time and to point out   
the  probable character of the truths   
that would be accepted in the future4   
,he believed that it was only by        
constant skepticism1 criticism and      

opposition that progress could be made1 
and that the greatest of all  dangers   
was inanition4 ,therefore1 when he      
condemned all existing  schemes of      
government1 it meant no more than that  
he regarded them as  based upon         
fundamental errors1 and that he hoped   
and believed that1 in  the course of    
time1 these errors would be observed1   
admitted and swept  away1 to make room  
for other errors measurably less        
dangerous1 and in  the end for truths4  
,such was his mission1 as he conceived  
it3 to attack  error wherever he saw it 
and to proclaim truth whenever he found 
it4  ,it is only by such iconoclasm and 
proselyting that humanity can be        
helped4 ,it is only after a mistake is  
perceived and admitted that it  can be  
rectified4    ,nietzsche's argument for 
the free spirit by no means denies the  
efficacy of co-operation in the struggle
 upward1 but neither does  it support   
that blind fetishism which sees in      
co-operation the sole  instrument of    

human progress4 ,in one of his          
characteristic thumb-nail  notes upon   
evolution he says3 ,the most important  
result of progress in  the past is the  
fact that we no longer live in constant 
fear of wild  beasts1 barbarians1 gods  
and our own dreams4#g ,it may be argued1
 in  reference to this1 that organized  
government is to be thanked for our     
deliverance1 but a moment's thought will
 show the error of the notion4          
,humanity's war upon wild beasts was    
fought and won by individualists1  who  
had in mind no end but their personal   
safety and that of their  children1 and 
the subsequent war upon barbarians would
 have been  impossible1 or at least     
unsuccessful1 had it not been for the   
weapons  invented and employed during   
the older fight against beasts4 ,again1 
it  is apparent that our emancipation   
from the race's old superstitions       
regarding gods and omens has been       
achieved1 not by communal effort1  but  
by individual effort4 ,knowledge and not

 government brought us the  truth that  
made us free4 ,government1 in its very  
essence1 is opposed  to all increase of 
knowledge4 ,its tendency is always      
toward permanence  and against change4  
,it is unthinkable without some accepted
 scheme of  law or morality1 and such   
schemes1 as we have seen1 stand in      
direct  antithesis to every effort to   
find the absolute truth4 ,therefore1 it 
is plain that the progress of humanity1 
far from being the result of            
government1 has been made entirely      
without its aid and in the face of  its 
constant and bitter opposition4 ,the    
code of ,hammurabi1 the laws  of the    
,medes and ,persians1 the ,code         
,napoleon and the ,english common  law  
have retarded the search for the        
ultimate verities almost as much1       
indeed1 as the ,ten ,commandments4      
,nietzsche denies absolutely that there 
is inherent in mankind a  yearning to   
gather into communities4 ,there is1 he  
says1 but one primal  instinct in human 

beings 7as there is in all other        
animals71 and that  is the desire to    
remain alive4 ,all those systems of     
thought which  assume the existence of a
 natural morality are wrong4 ,even the  
tendency to tell the truth1 which seems 
to be inborn in every civilized  white  
man1 is not natural1 for there have     
been--and are today--races  in which it 
is1 to all intents and purposes1        
entirely absent4#h ,and so  it is with  
the so-called social instinct4 ,man1 say
 the communists1 is  a gregarious animal
 and can be happy only in company with  
his fellows1  and in proof of it they   
cite the fact that loneliness is        
everywhere  regarded as painful and     
that1 even among the lower animals1     
there is an  impulse toward association4
 ,the facts set forth in the last       
sentence  are indisputable1 but they by 
no means prove the existence of an      
elemental social feeling sufficiently   
strong to make its satisfaction  an end 
in itself4 ,in other words1 while it is 

plain that men flock  together1 just as 
birds flock together1 it is going too   
far to say  that the mere joy of        
flocking--the mere desire to be with    
others--is  at the bottom of the        
tendency4 ,on the contrary1 it is quite 
possible  to show that men gather in    
communities for the same reason that    
deer  gather in herds3 because each     
individual realizes 7unconsciously1     
perhaps7 that such a combination        
materially aids him in the business of  
self-protection4 ,one deer is no match  
for a lion1 but fifty deer make  him    
impotent4#i    ,nietzsche shows that1   
even after communities are formed1 the  
strong  desire of every individual to   
look out for himself1 regardless of  the
 desires of others1 persists1 and that1 
in every herd there are  strong members 
and weak members4 ,the former1 whenever 
the occasion  arises1 sacrifice the     
latter3 by forcing the heavy1 killing   
drudgery  of the community upon them or 
by putting them1 in time of war1 into   

the forefront of the fray4 ,the result  
is that the weakest are being           
constantly weeded out and the strongest 
are always becoming stronger  and       
stronger4 ,hence1 says ,nietzsche1 the  
first 'state' made its  appearance in   
the form of a terrible tyranny1 a       
violent and unpitying  machine1 which   
kept grinding away until the primary raw
 material1 the  man-ape1 was kneaded and
 fashioned into alert1 efficient man4   
,now1 when a given state becomes        
appreciably more efficient than the     
states about it1 it invariably sets     
about enslaving them4 ,thus larger  and 
larger states are formed1 but always    
there is a ruling master-class  and a   
serving slave-class4 ,this1 says        
,nietzsche1 is the origin of  the state 
on earth1 despite the fantastic theory  
which would found it  upon some general 
agreement among its members4 ,he who can
 command1  he who is a master by nature1
 he who1 in deed and gesture1 behaves   
violently--what need has he for         

agreements8 ,such beings come as fate   
comes1 without reason or pretext4444    
,their work is the instinctive  creation
 of forms3 they are the most unconscious
 of all artists2  wherever they appear1 
something new is at once created--a     
governmental  organism which lives2 in  
which the individual parts and functions
 are  differentiated and brought into   
correlation1 and in which nothing at    
all is tolerable unless some utility    
with respect to the whole is  implanted 
in it4 ,they are innocent of guilt1 of  
responsibility1 of  charity--these born 
rulers4 ,they are ruled by that terrible
 art-egotism  which knows itself to be  
justified by its work1 as the mother    
knows  herself to be justified by her   
child4    ,nietzsche points out that1   
even after nations have attained some   
degree of permanence and have introduced
 ethical concepts into their  relations 
with one another1 they still give       
evidence of that same  primary will to  
power which is responsible1 at bottom1  

for every act  of the individual man4   
,the masses1 in any nation1 he says1 are
 ready  to sacrifice their lives1 their 
goods and chattels1 their consciences   
and their virtue1 to obtain that highest
 of pleasures3 the feeling that  they   
rule1 either in reality or in           
imagination1 over others4 ,on these     
occasions they make virtues of their    
instinctive yearnings1 and so they      
enable an ambitious or wisely provident 
prince to rush into a war with  the good
 conscience of his people as his excuse4
 ,the great conquerors  have always had 
the language of virtue on their lips3   
they have always  had crowds of people  
around them who felt exalted and would  
not listen  to any but the most exalted 
sentiments4444 ,when man feels the sense
  of power1 he feels and calls himself  
good1 and at the same time those  who   
have to endure the weight of his power  
call him evil4 ,such is the  curious    
mutability of moral judgments6444       
,hesiod1 in his fable of the  world's   

ages1 twice pictured the age of the     
,homeric heroes and made  two out of    
one4 ,to those whose ancestors were     
under the iron heel of  the ,homeric    
despots1 it appeared evil2 while to the 
grandchildren of  these despots it      
appeared good4 ,hence the poet had no   
alternative but  to do as he did3 his   
audience was composed of the descendants
 of both  classes4#aj    ,nietzsche saw 
naught but decadence and illusion in    
humanitarianism  and nationalism4 ,to   
profess a love for the masses seemed to 
him to  be ridiculous and to profess a  
love for one race or tribe of men1 in   
preference to all others1 seemed to him 
no less so4 ,thus he denied the         
validity of two ideals which lie at the 
base of all civilized systems  of       
government1 and constitute1 in fact1 the
 very conception of the  state4 ,he     
called himself1 not a ,german1 but a    
good ,european4    ,we good ,europeans1 
he said1 are not ,french enough to 'love
 mankind4'  ,a man must be afflicted by 

an excess of ,gallic eroticism to       
approach  mankind with ardour4 ,mankind6
 ,was there ever a more hideous old     
woman  among all the old women8 ,no1 we 
do not love mankind6444 ,on the other   
hand1 we are not ,german enough to      
advocate nationalism and race-hatred1   
or to take delight in that national     
blood-poisoning which sets up           
quarantines between the nations of      
,europe4 ,we are too unprejudiced  for  
that--too perverse1 too fastidious1 too 
well-informed1 too much  travelled4 ,we 
prefer to live on mountains--apart1     
unseasonable4444 ,we  are too diverse   
and mixed in race to be patriots4 ,we   
are1 in a word1  good ,europeans--the   
rich heirs of millenniums of ,european  
thought4444    ,we rejoice in           
everything1 which like ourselves1 loves 
danger1 war and  adventure--which does  
not make compromises1 nor let itself be 
captured1  conciliated or faced4444 ,we 
ponder over the need of a new order of  
things--even of a new slavery1 for the  

strengthening and elevation of  the     
human race always involves the existence
 of slaves4444#aa    ,the horizon is    
unobstructed4444 ,our ships can start on
 their voyage  once more in the face of 
danger4444 ,the sea--our sea6--lies     
before  us6#ab      #a ,also sprach     
,zarathustra1 ,,iv4    #b ,that of      
,wisconsin at the #aijg session4    #c  
,this has been done1 time and again1 by 
the legislature of every  state in the  
,union1 and the overturning of such     
legislation occupies  part of the time  
of all the state courts of final        
judicature year after  year4    #d ,that
 of ,south ,carolina4    #e ,vide the   
chapter on ,civilization4    #f ,said   
the ,chicago ,tribune1 the best         
all-round newspaper in the  ,united     
,states1 in a leading article1 ,june    
#aj1 #aijg3 ,jeremy ,bentham  speaks of 
'an incoherent and undigested mass of   
law1 shot down1 as  from a rubbish cart1
 upon the heads of the people4' ,this is
 a fairly  accurate summary of the work 

of the average ,american legislature1   
from ,new ,york to ,texas4444 ,bad1     
crude and unnecessary laws make up  a   
large part of the output of every       
session4444 ,roughly speaking1  the     
governor who vetoes the most bills is   
the best governor4 ,when a  governor    
vetoes none the legitimate presumption  
is1 not that the work  of the           
legislature was flawless1 but that he   
was timid1 not daring to  oppose        
ignorant popular sentiment 444 or that  
he had not sense enough  to recognize a 
bad measure when he saw it4    #g       
,morgenrte1  #e4    #h ,the word        
'honesty' is not to be found in the code
 of either the  ,socratic or the        
,christian virtues4 ,it represents a new
 virtue1 not  quite ripened1 frequently 
misunderstood and hardly conscious of   
itself4  ,it is yet something in embryo1
 which we are at liberty either to      
foster  or to check4--,morgenrte1  #def4
    #i ,an excellent discussion of this 
subject1 by ,prof4 ,warner ,fite1 of    

,indiana ,university1 appeared in ,the  
,journal of ,philosophy1 ,psychology    
and ,scientific ,methods of ,july #ah1  
#aijg4 ,prof4 ,fite's article is  called
 ,the ,exaggeration of the ,social1 and 
is a keen and sound  criticism of the   
now popular tendency to regard the      
individual as  the product of society4  
,as he points out1 any consciousness of 
belonging to one group rather than      
another must involve some sense of      
individuality4 ,in other words1         
gregariousness is nothing more than an  
instinctive yearning to profit          
personally by the possibility of putting
  others1 to some measurable extent1 in 
the attitude of slaves4    #aj          
,morgenrte1  #ahi4    #aa ,die frhliche 
,wissenschaft1  #cgg4    #ab ,die       
frhliche ,wissenschaft1  #cdc4          
,,xi      ,,crime ,,and ,,punishment    
,nietzsche says that the thing which    
best differentiates man from the  other 
animals is his capacity for making and  
keeping a promise4 ,that  is to say1 man

 has a trained and efficient memory and 
it enables him  to project an impression
 of today into the future4 ,of the      
millions of  impressions which impinge  
upon his consciousness every day1 he is 
able  to save a chosen number from the  
oblivion of forgetfulness4 ,an animal   
lacks this capacity almost entirely4    
,the things that it remembers are  far  
from numerous and it is devoid of any   
means of reinforcing its  memory4 ,but  
man has such a means and it is commonly 
called conscience4  ,at bottom it is    
based upon the principle that pain is   
always more  enduring than pleasure4    
,therefore1 in order to make an idea    
stay  it must be burned into the memory2
 only that which never ceases to  hurt  
remains fixed4#a ,hence all the world's 
store of tortures and  sacrifices4 ,at  
one time they were nothing more than    
devices to make man  remember his       
pledges to his gods4 ,today they survive
 in the form of  legal punishments1     
which are nothing more1 at bottom1 than 

devices to  make a man remember his     
pledges to his fellow men4    ,from all 
this ,nietzsche argues that our modern  
law is the outgrowth  of the primitive  
idea of barter--of the idea that        
everything has an  equivalent and can be
 paid for--that when a man forgets or   
fails  to discharge an obligation in one
 way he may wipe out his sin by         
discharging it in some other way4 ,the  
earliest relationship that ever         
existed1 he says1 was the relationship  
between buyer and seller1  creditor and 
debtor4 ,on this ground man first stood 
face to face  with man4 ,no stage of    
civilization1 however inferior1 is      
without the  institution of bartering4  
,to fix prices1 to adjust values1 to    
invent  equivalents1 to exchange        
things--all this has to such an extent  
preoccupied the first and earliest      
thought of man1 that it may be said  to 
constitute thinking itself4 ,out of it  
sagacity arose1 and out of  it1 again1  
arose man's first pride--his first      

feeling of superiority  over the animal 
world4 ,perhaps1 our very word man      
7manus7 expresses  something of this4#b 
,man calls himself the being who weighs 
and  measures4#c    ,now besides the    
contract between man and man1 there is  
also a contract  between man and the    
community4 ,the community agrees to give
 the  individual protection and the     
individual promises to pay for it in    
labor and obedience4 ,whenever he fails 
to do so1 he violates his  promise1 and 
the community regards the contract as   
broken4 ,then the  anger of the outraged
 creditor--or community--withdraws its  
protection  from the debtor--or         
law-breaker--and he is laid open to all 
the dangers  and disadvantages of life  
in a state of barbarism4 ,punishment1 at
 this  stage of civilization1 is simply 
the image of a man's normal conduct     
toward a hated1 disarmed and cast-down  
enemy1 who has forfeited not  only all  
claims to protection1 but also all      
claims to mercy4 ,this  accounts for the

 fact that war 7including the           
sacrificial cult of war7  has furnished 
all the forms in which punishment       
appears in history4#d    ,it will be    
observed that this theory grounds all   
ideas of justice and  punishment upon   
ideas of expedience4 ,the primeval      
creditor forced his  debtor to pay      
because he knew that if the latter      
didn't pay he 7the  creditor7 would     
suffer4 ,in itself1 the debtor's effort 
to get something  for nothing was not   
wrong1 because1 as we have seen in      
previous  chapters1 this is the         
ceaseless and unconscious endeavor of   
every  living being1 and is1 in fact1   
the most familiar of all manifestations 
of the primary will to live1 or more    
understandably1 of the will to  acquire 
power over environment4 ,but when the   
machinery of justice  was placed in the 
hands of the state1 there came a        
transvaluation of  values4 ,things that 
were manifestly costly to the state were
 called  wrong1 and the old             

individualistic standards of good and   
bad--i4e4  beneficial and               
harmful--became the standards of good   
and evil--i4e4  right and wrong4    ,in 
this way1 says ,nietzsche1 the original 
purpose of punishment  has become       
obscured and forgotten4 ,starting out as
 a mere means of  adjusting debts1 it   
has become a machine for enforcing moral
 concepts4  ,moral ideas came into the  
world comparatively late1 and it was not
  until man had begun to be a           
speculative being that he invented gods1
  commandments and beatitudes4 ,but the 
institution of punishment was in        
existence from a much earlier day4      
,therefore1 it is apparent that the     
moral idea1--the notion that there is   
such a thing as good and such  a thing  
as evil1--far from being the inspiration
 of punishment1 was  engrafted upon it  
at a comparatively late period4         
,nietzsche says that  man1 in           
considering things as they are today1 is
 very apt to make this  mistake about   

their origins4 ,he is apt to conclude1  
because the human  eye is used for      
seeing1 that it was created for that    
purpose1 whereas  it is obvious that it 
may have been created for some other    
purpose  and that the function of seeing
 may have arisen later on4 ,in the same 
way1 man believes that punishment was   
invented for the purpose of  enforcing  
moral ideas1 whereas1 as a matter of    
fact1 it was originally  an instrument  
of expediency only1 and did not become a
 moral machine  until a code of moral   
laws was evolved4#e    ,to show that the
 institution of punishment itself is    
older than the  ideas which now seem to 
lie at the base of it1 ,nietzsche cites 
the fact  that these ideas themselves   
are constantly varying4 ,that is to say1
 the  aim and purpose of punishment are 
conceived differently by different      
races and individuals4 ,one authority   
calls it a means of rendering  the      
criminal helpless and harmless and so   
preventing further mischief  in future4 

,another says that it is a means of     
inspiring others with  fear of the law  
and its agents4 ,another says that it is
 a device for  destroying the unfit4    
,another holds it to be a fee exacted by
 society  from the evil-doer for        
protecting him against the excesses of  
private  revenge4 ,still another looks  
upon it as society's declaration of war 
against its enemies4 ,yet another says  
that it is a scheme for making  the     
criminal realize his guilt and repent4  
,nietzsche shows that all  of these     
ideas1 while true1 perhaps1 in some     
part1 are fallacies at  bottom4 ,it is  
ridiculous1 for instance1 to believe    
that punishment  makes the law-breaker  
acquire a feeling of guilt and          
sinfulness4 ,he  sees that he was       
indiscreet in committing his crime1 but 
he sees1  too1 that society's method of 
punishing his indiscretion consists in  
committing a crime of the same sort     
against him4 ,in other words1 he  cannot
 hold his own crime a sin without also  

holding his punishment a  sin--which    
leads to an obvious absurdity4 ,as a    
matter of fact1 says  ,nietzsche1       
punishment really does nothing more than
 augment fear1  intensify prudence and  
subjugate the passions4 ,and in so doing
 it  tames man1 but does not make him   
better4 ,if he refrains from crime in   
future1 it is because he has become more
 prudent and not because he has  become 
more moral4 ,if he regrets his crimes of
 the past1 it is because  his           
punishment1 and not his so-called       
conscience1 hurts him4    ,but what1    
then1 is conscience8 ,that there is such
 a thing every  reasonable man knows4   
,but what is its nature and what is its 
origin8 ,if  it is not the regret which 
follows punishment1 what is it8         
,nietzsche  answers that it is nothing  
more than the old will to power1 turned 
inward4 ,in the days of the cave men1 a 
man gave his will to power free         
exercise4 ,any act which increased his  
power over his environment1 no  matter  

how much it damaged other men1 seemed to
 him good4 ,he knew  nothing of         
morality4 ,things appeared to him1 not  
as good or evil1  but as good or        
bad--beneficial or harmful4 ,but when   
civilization was  born1 there arose a   
necessity for controlling and regulating
 this will  power4 ,the individual had  
to submit to the desire of the majority 
and  to conform to nascent codes of     
morality4 ,the result was that his will 
to power1 which once spent itself in    
battles with other individuals1  had to 
be turned upon himself4 ,instead of     
torturing others1 he began  to torture  
his own body and mind4 ,his ancient     
delight in cruelty and  persecution 7a  
characteristic of all healthy animals7  
remained1 but he  could not longer      
satisfy it upon his fellow men and so he
 turned it  upon himself1 and           
straightway became a prey to the feeling
 of guilt1 of  sinfulness1 of           
wrong-doing--with all its attendant     
horrors4    ,now1 one of the first forms

 that this self-torture took was        
primitive  man's accusation against     
himself that he was not properly        
grateful for  the favors of his god4 ,he
 saw that many natural phenomena        
benefited  him1 and he thought that     
these phenomena occurred in direct      
obedience  to the deity's command4      
,therefore1 he regarded himself as the  
debtor of  the deity1 and constantly    
accused himself of neglecting to        
discharge  this debt1 because he felt   
that1 by so accusing1 he would be most  
apt  to discharge it in full1 and thus  
escape the righteous consequences  of   
insufficient payment4 ,this led him to  
make sacrifices--to place  food and     
drink upon his god's altar1 and in the  
end1 to sacrifice much  more valuable   
things1 such1 for instance1 as his first
 born child4  ,the more vivid the idea  
of the deity became and the more        
terrible he  appeared1 the more man     
tried to satisfy and appease him4 ,in   
the early  days1 it was sufficient to   

sacrifice a square meal or a baby4 ,but 
when  ,christianity--with its elaborate 
and certain theology--arose1 it became  
necessary for a man to sacrifice        
himself4    ,thus arose the ,christian  
idea of sin4 ,man began to feel that he 
was  in debt to his creator hopelessly  
and irretrievably1 and that1 like a     
true bankrupt1 he should offer all he   
had in partial payment4 ,so he          
renounced everything that made life on  
earth bearable and desirable and  built 
up an ideal of poverty and suffering4   
,sometimes he hid himself in  a cave and
 lived like an outcast dog--and then he 
was called a saint4  ,sometimes he      
tortured himself with whips and poured  
vinegar into his  wounds--and then he   
was a flagellant of the middle ages4    
,sometimes1  he killed his sexual       
instinct and his inborn desire for      
property and  power--and then he became 
a penniless celibate in a cloister4     
,nietzsche shows that this idea of sin1 
which lies at the bottom of all         

religions1 was and is an absurdity2 that
 nothing1 in itself1 is sinful1  and    
that no man is1 or can be a sinner4 ,if 
we could rid ourselves of  the notion   
that there is a ,god in ,heaven1 to whom
 we owe a debt1 we  would rid ourselves 
of the idea of sin4 ,therefore1 argues  
,nietzsche1  it is evident that         
skepticism1 while it makes no actual    
change in man1  always makes him feel   
better4 ,it makes him lose his fear of  
hell and  his consciousness of sin4 ,it 
rids him of that most horrible          
instrument  of useless1 senseless and   
costly torture--his conscience4         
,atheism1  says ,nietzsche1 will make a 
man innocent4      #a ,zur ,genealogie  
der ,moral1 ,,ii1  #c4    #b ,in the    
ancient ,sanskrit the word from which   
man comes meant to  think1 to weigh1 to 
value1 to reckon1 to estimate4    #c    
,zur ,genealogie der ,moral1 ,,ii1  #h4 
#d ,zur ,genealogie der ,moral1 ,,ii1   
#i4    #e ,a familiar example of this   
superimposition of morality is afforded 

by the history of costume4 ,it is       
commonly assumed that garments were     
originally designed to hide nakedness as
 much as to afford warmth and  adorn the
 person1 whereas1 as a matter of fact1  
the idea of modesty  probably did not   
appear until man had been clothed for   
ages4          ,,xii      ,,education   
,education1 as everyone knows1 has two  
main objects3 to impart  knowledge and  
to implant culture4 ,it is the object of
 a teacher1  first of all1 to bring     
before his pupil as many concrete facts 
about  the universe--the fruit of long  
ages of inquiry and experience--as  the 
latter may be capable of absorbing in   
the time available4 ,after  that1 it is 
the teacher's aim to make his pupil's   
habits of mind sane1  healthy and manly1
 and his whole outlook upon life that of
 a being  conscious of his efficiency   
and eager and able to solve new problems
  as they arise4 ,the educated man1 in a
 word1 is one who knows a great  deal   
more than the average man and is        

constantly increasing his area of       
knowledge1 in a sensible1 orderly       
logical fashion2 one who is wary of     
sophistry and leans automatically and   
almost instinctively toward clear       
thinking4    ,such is the purpose of    
education1 in its ideal aspect4 ,as we  
observe  the science of teaching in     
actual practice1 we find that it often  
fails  utterly to attain this end4 ,the 
concrete facts that a student learns at 
the average school are few and          
unconnected1 and instead of being led   
into habits of independent thinking he  
is trained to accept authority4  ,when  
he takes his degree it is usually no    
more than a sign that he has  joined the
 herd4 ,his opinion of ,napoleon is     
merely a reflection of the  opinion     
expressed in the books he has studied2  
his philosophy of life  is simply the   
philosophy of his teacher--tinctured a  
bit1 perhaps1 by  that of his particular
 youthful idols4 ,he knows how to spell 
a great  many long words and he is      

familiar with the table of logarithms1  
but  in the readiness and accuracy of   
his mental processes he has made        
comparatively little progress4 ,if he   
was illogical and credulous and  a      
respecter of authority as a freshman he 
remains much the same as a  graduate4   
,in consequence1 his usefulness to      
humanity has been increased  but little1
 if at all1 for1 as we have seen in     
previous chapters1 the  only man whose  
life is appreciably more valuable than  
that of a good  cow is the man who      
thinks for himself1 clearly and         
logically1 and lends  some sort of hand1
 during his life-time1 in the eternal   
search for the  ultimate verities4      
,the cause for all this lies1 no doubt1 
in the fact that school  teachers1      
taking them by and large1 are probably  
the most ignorant and  stupid class of  
men in the whole group of mental        
workers4 ,imitativeness  being the      
dominant impulse in youth1 their pupils 
acquire some measure  of their          

stupidity1 and the result is that the   
influence of the whole  teaching tribe  
is against everything included in       
genuine education and  culture4    ,that
 this is true is evident on the surface 
and a moment's analysis  furnishes a    
multitude of additional proofs4 ,for one
 thing1 a teacher1  before he may begin 
work1 must sacrifice whatever           
independence may  survive within him    
upon the altar of authority4 ,he becomes
 a cog in  the school wheel and must    
teach only the things countenanced and  
approved by the powers above him1       
whether those powers be visible in  the 
minister of education1 as in ,germany2  
in the traditions of the  school1 as in 
,england1 or in the private convictions 
of the millionaire  who provides the    
cash1 as in the ,united ,states4 ,as    
,nietzsche points  out1 the schoolman's 
thirst for the truth is always          
conditioned by  his yearning for food   
and drink and a comfortable bed4 ,his   
archetype  is the university            

philosopher1 who accepts the state's    
pay#a and so  surrenders that liberty to
 inquire freely which alone makes       
philosophy  worth while4    ,no state1  
says ,nietzsche1 would ever dare to     
patronize such men as  ,plato and       
,schopenhauer4 ,and why8 ,simply because
 the state is always  afraid of them4   
,they tell the truth4444 ,consequently1 
the man who  submits to be a philosopher
 in the pay of the state must also      
submit  to being looked upon by the     
state as one who has waived his claim to
  pursue the truth into all its         
fastnesses4 ,so long as he holds his    
place1 he must acknowledge something    
still higher than the truth--and  that  
is the state4444    ,the sole criticism 
of a philosophy which is possible and   
the only one  which proves              
anything--namely1 an attempt to live    
according to it--is  never put forward  
in the universities4 ,there the only    
thing one hears  of is a wordy criticism
 of words4 ,and so the youthful mind1   

without  much experience in life1 is    
confronted by fifty verbal systems and  
fifty criticisms of them1 thrown        
together and hopelessly jumbled4 ,what  
demoralization6 ,what a mockery of      
education6 ,it is openly acknowledged1  
in fact1 that the object of education is
 not the acquirement of  learning1 but  
the successful meeting of examinations4 
,no wonder then1  that the examined     
student says to himself ',thank ,god1 ,i
 am not a  philosopher1 but a ,christian
 and a citizen6444'    ,therefore1 ,i   
regard it as necessary to progress that 
we withdraw from  philosophy all        
governmental and academic recognition   
and support4444  ,let philosophers      
spring up naturally1 deny them every    
prospect of  appointment1 tickle them no
 longer with salaries--yea1 persecute   
them6  ,then you will see marvels6 ,they
 will then flee afar and seek a roof    
anywhere4 ,here a parsonage will open   
its doors2 there a schoolhouse4  ,one   
will appear upon the staff of a         

newspaper1 another will write  manuals  
for young ladies' schools4 ,the most    
rational of them will put  his hand to  
the plough and the vainest will seek    
favor at court4 ,thus  we shall get rid 
of bad philosophers4#b    ,the argument 
here is plain enough4 ,the professional 
teacher must  keep to his rut4 ,the     
moment he combats the existing order of 
things  he loses his place4 ,therefore  
he is wary1 and his chief effort is  to 
transmit the words of authority to his  
pupils unchanged4 ,whether  he be a     
philosopher1 properly so-called1 or     
something else matters  not4 ,in a      
medical school wherein ,chauveau's      
theory of immunity was  still maintained
 it would be hazardous for a professor  
of pathology  to teach the theory of    
,ehrlich4 ,in a ,methodist college in   
,indiana it  would be foolhardy to dally
 with the doctrine of apostolic         
succession4  ,everywhere the teacher    
must fashion his teachings according to 
the  creed and regulations of his school

 and he must even submit to  authority  
in such matters as text books and       
pedagogic methods4 ,again1  his very    
work itself makes him an unconscious    
partisan of authority1 as  against free 
inquiry4 ,during the majority of his    
waking hours he is in  close association
 with his pupils1 who are admittedly his
 inferiors1  and so he rapidly acquires 
the familiar1 self-satisfied            
professorial  attitude of mind4 ,other  
forces tend to push him in the same     
direction  and the net result is that   
all his mental processes are based upon 
ideas of authority4 ,he believes and    
teaches a thing1 not because he is      
convinced by free reasoning that it is  
true1 but because it is laid  down as an
 axiom in some book or was laid down at 
some past time1 by  himself4    ,in all 
this1 of course1 ,i am speaking of the  
teacher properly  so-called--of the     
teacher1 that is1 whose sole aim and    
function is  teaching4 ,the university  
professor whose main purpose in life is 

original research and whose pupils are  
confined to graduate students  engaged  
in much the same work1 is scarcely a    
professional teacher1 in  the customary 
meaning of the word4 ,the man ,i have   
been discussing is he  who spends all or
 the greater part of his time in actual 
instruction4  ,whether his work be done 
in a primary school1 a secondary school 
or in  the undergraduate department of a
 college or university does not matter  
,in all that relates to it1 he is       
essentially and almost invariably a     
mere perpetuator of doctrines4 ,in some 
cases1 naturally enough1 these          
doctrines are truths1 but in a great    
many other cases they are errors4  ,an  
examination of the physiology1 history  
and ,english books used in  the public  
schools of ,america will convince anyone
 that the latter  proposition is amply  
true4    ,nietzsche's familiarity with  
these facts is demonstrated by numerous 
passages in his writings4 ,never1 he    
says1 is either real proficiency  or    

genuine ability the result of toilsome  
years at school4 ,the study  of the     
classics1 he says1 can never lead to    
more than a superficial  acquaintance   
with them1 because the very modes of    
thought of the  ancients1 in many cases1
 are unintelligible to men of today4    
,but the  student who has acquired what 
is looked upon in our colleges as a     
mastery of the humanities is acutely    
conscious of his knowledge1 and  so the 
things that he cannot understand are    
ascribed by him to the  dulness1        
ignorance or imbecility of the ancient  
authors4 ,as a result  he harbors a sort
 of sub-conscious contempt for the      
learning they  represent and concludes  
that learning cannot make real men      
happy1 but  is only fit for the futile  
enthusiasm of honest1 poor and foolish  
old  book-worms4    ,nietzsche's own    
notion of an ideal curriculum is        
substantially that of  ,spencer4 ,he    
holds that before anything is put       
forward as a thing worth  teaching it   

should be tested by two questions3 ,is  
it a fact8 and1 ,is  the presentation of
 it likely to make the pupil measurably 
more capable  of discovering other      
facts8 ,in consequences1 he holds the   
old so-called  liberal education in     
abomination1 and argues in favor of a   
system  of instruction based upon the   
inculcation of facts of imminent value  
and designed to instill into the pupil  
orderly and logical habits of  mind and 
a clear and accurate view of the        
universe4 ,the educated man1  as he     
understands the term1 is one who is     
above the mass1 both in his  thirst for 
knowledge and in his capacity for       
differentiating between  truth and its  
reverse4 ,it is obvious that a man who  
has studied biology  and physics1 with  
their insistent dwelling upon           
demonstrable facts1  has proceeded      
further in this direction than the man  
who has studied  ,greek mythology and   
metaphysics1 with their constant trend  
toward  unsupported and gratuitous      

assumption and their essential          
foundation  upon undebatable authority4 
,nietzsche points out1 in his early     
essay upon the study of history1  that  
humanity is much too prone to consider  
itself historically4  ,that is to say1  
there is too much tendency to consider  
man as he  has seemed rather than man as
 he has been--to dwell upon creeds  and 
manifestoes rather than upon individual 
and racial motives1  characters and     
instincts4#c ,the result is that history
 piles up  misleading and useless       
records and draws erroneous conclusions 
from  them4 ,as a science in itself1 it 
bears but three useful aspects--the     
monumental1 the antiquarian and the     
critical4 ,its true monuments are  not  
the constitutions and creeds of the     
past--for these1 as we have  seen1 are  
always artificial and unnatural--but the
 great men of the  past--those fearless 
free spirits who achieved immortality by
 their  courage and success in pitting  
their own instincts against the morality

  of the majority4 ,such men1 he says1  
are the only human beings whose         
existence is of interest to posterity4  
,they live together as timeless         
contemporaries3 they are the landmarks  
along the weary road the human  race has
 traversed4 ,in its antiquarian aspect1 
history affords us proof  that the world
 is progressing1 and so gives the men of
 the present a  definite purpose and    
justifiable enthusiasm4 ,in its critical
 aspect1  history enables us to avoid   
the delusions of the past1 and indicates
 to  us the broad lines of evolution4   
,unless we have in mind some definite   
program of advancement1 he says1 all    
learning is useless4 ,history1  which   
merely accumulates records1 without an  
ideal of humanistic  culture always in  
mind1 is mere pedantry and              
scholasticism4    ,all education1 says  
,nietzsche1 may be regarded as a        
continuation of  the process of         
breeding4#d ,the two have the same      
object3 that of  producing beings       

capable of surviving in the struggle for
 existence4 ,a  great many critics of   
,nietzsche have insisted that since the 
struggle  for existence means a purely  
physical contest1 he is in error1 for   
education does not visibly increase a   
man's chest expansion or his  capacity  
for lifting heavy weights4 ,but it is   
obvious none the less  that a man who   
sees things as they are1 and properly   
estimates the  world about him1 is far  
better fitted to achieve some measure of
  mastery over his environment than the 
man who is a slave to delusions4  ,of   
two men1 one of whom believes that the  
moon is made of green cheese  and that  
it is possible to cure smallpox by      
merely denying that it  exists1 and the 
other of whom harbors no such           
superstitions1 it is  plain that the    
latter is more apt to live long and     
acquire power4    ,a further purpose of 
education is that of affording          
individuals a  means of lifting         
themselves out of the slave class and   

into the master  class4 ,that this      
purpose is accomplished--except         
accidently--by the  brand of education  
ladled out in the colleges of today is  
far from  true4 ,to transform a slave   
into a master we must make him          
intelligent1  self-reliant1 resourceful1
 independent and courageous4 ,it is     
evident  enough1 ,i take it1 that a     
college directed by an ecclesiastic and 
manned by a faculty of asses--a very    
fair1 and even charitable1  picture of  
the average small college in the ,united
 ,states--is not  apt to accomplish this
 transformation very often4 ,indeed1 it 
is a  commonplace observation that a    
truly intelligent youth is aided but    
little by the average college education1
 and that a truly stupid one is  made1  
not less1 but more stupid4 ,the fact    
that many graduates of such             
institutions exhibit dionysian qualities
 in later life merely proves  that they 
are strong enough to weather the blight 
they have suffered4  ,every sane man    

knows that1 after a youth leaves        
college1 he must devote  most of his    
energies during three or four years1 to 
ridding himself  of the fallacies1      
delusions and imbecilities inflicted    
upon him by  messieurs1 his professors4 
,the intelligent man1 in the course of  
his life1 nearly always acquires  a vast
 store of learning1 because his mind is 
constantly active  and receptive1 but   
intelligence and mere learning are by no
 means  synonymous1 despite the popular 
notion that they are4 ,disregarding the 
element of sheer good luck--which is    
necessarily a small factor--it is       
evident that the man who1 in the        
struggle for wealth and power1 seizes  a
 million dollars for himself1 is        
appreciably more intelligent than the   
man who starves4 ,that this achievement1
 which is admittedly difficult1         
requires more intelligence again1 than  
the achievement of mastering the  ,latin
 language1 which presents so few        
difficulties that it is possible  to any

 healthy human being with sufficient    
leisure and patience1 is  also evident4 
,in a word1 the illiterate contractor1  
who says1 ,i seen  and ,i done and yet  
manages to build great bridges and to   
acquire  a great fortune1 is            
immeasurably more vigorous              
intellectually1 and  immeasurably more  
efficient and respectable1 as a man1    
than the college  professor who laughs  
at him and presumes to look down upon   
him4 ,a  man's mental powers are to be  
judged1 not by his ability to accomplish
  things that are possible to every man 
foolish enough to attempt them1  but by 
his capacity for doing things beyond the
 power of other men4  ,education1 as we 
commonly observe it today1 works toward 
the former1  rather than toward the     
latter end4      #a ,nietzsche is       
considering1 of course1 the condition of
 affairs  in ,germany1 where all        
teaching is controlled by the state4    
,but his  arguments apply to other      
countries as well and to teachers of    

other  things besides philosophy4    #b 
,schopenhauer als ,erzieher1  #h4    #c 
,an excellent discussion of this error  
will be found in ,dr4 ,alex4  ,tille's  
introduction to ,william ,haussmann's   
translation of ,zur  ,genealogie der    
,moral1 pp4 xi et seq42 ,london1 #aijg4 
#d ,morgenrte1  #cig4          ,,xiii   
,,sundry ,,ideas      ,death4--,it is   
,schopenhauer's argument in his essay   
,on ,suicide1  that the possibility of  
easy and painless self-destruction is   
the  only thing that constantly and     
considerably ameliorates the horror  of 
human life4 ,suicide is a means of      
escape from the world and its           
tortures--and therefore it is good4 ,it 
is an ever-present refuge for  the weak1
 the weary and the hopeless4 ,it is1 in 
,pliny's phrase1 the  greatest of all   
blessings which ,nature gives to man1   
and one which  even ,god himself lacks1 
for he could not compass his own death1 
if  he willed to die4 ,in all of this   
exaltation of surrender1 of course1     

there is nothing whatever in common with
 the dionysian philosophy of  defiance4 
,nietzsche's teaching is all in the     
other direction4 ,he urges1  not        
surrender1 but battle2 not flight1 but  
war to the end4 ,his curse  falls upon  
those preachers of death who counsel an 
abandonment  of life--whether this      
abandonment be partial1 as in           
asceticism1 or  actual1 as in suicide4  
,and yet ,zarathustra sings the song of 
free  death and says that the higher man
 must learn to die at the right  time4  
,herein an inconsistency appears1 but it
 is on the surface only4  ,schopenhauer 
regards suicide as a means of escape1   
,nietzsche sees in  it a means of good  
riddance4 ,it is time to die1 says      
,zarathustra1  when the purpose of life 
ceases to be attainable--when the       
fighter  breaks his sword arm or falls  
into his enemy's hands4 ,and it is time 
to die1 too1 when the purpose of life is
 attained--when the fighter  triumphs   
and sees before him no more worlds to   

conquer4 ,he who hath  a goal and an    
heir wisheth death to come at the right 
time for goal  and heir4 ,one who has   
waxed too old for victories1 one who is 
yellow and wrinkled1 one with a         
toothless mouth--for such an one  a     
certain and speedy death4 ,the earth has
 no room for cumberers and  pensioners4 
,for them the highest of duties is the  
payment of nature's  debt1 that there   
may be more room for those still able to
 wield a  sword and bear a burden in the
 heat of the day4 ,the best death is    
that  which comes in battle at the      
moment of victory2 the second best is   
death in battle in the hour of defeat4  
,would that a storm came1  sings        
,zarathustra1 to shake from the tree of 
life all those apples  that are putrid  
and gnawed by worms4 ,it is cowardice   
that maketh them  stick to their        
branches--cowardice which makes them    
afraid to die4  ,but there is another   
cowardice which makes men afraid to     
live1 and  this is the cowardice of the 

,schopenhauerean pessimist4 ,nietzsche  
has  no patience with it4 ,to him a too 
early death seems as abominable as a    
death postponed too long4 ,too early    
died that ,jew whom the preachers  of   
slow death revere4 ,would that he had   
remained in the desert and far  away    
from the good and just6 ,perhaps he     
would have learned how to live  and how 
to love the earth--and even how to      
laugh4 ,he died too early4 ,he  himself 
would have revoked his doctrine1 had he 
reached mine age6#a  ,therefore         
,nietzsche pleads for an intelligent    
regulation of death4 ,one  must not die 
too soon and one must not die too late4 
,natural death1  he says1 is destitute  
of rationality4 ,it is really irrational
 death1  for the pitiable substance of  
the shell determines how long the kernel
  shall exist4 ,the pining1 sottish     
prison-warder decides the hour at  which
 his noble prisoner is to die4444 ,the  
enlightened regulation and  control of  
death belongs to the morality of the    

future4 ,at present  religion makes it  
seem immoral1 for religion presupposes  
that when the  time for death comes1    
,god gives the command4#b    ,the       
,attitude at ,death4--,nietzsche rejects
 entirely that pious  belief in signs   
and portents which sees a significance  
in death-bed  confessions and dying     
words4 ,the average man1 he says1 dies  
pretty  much as he has lived1 and in    
this ,dr4 ,osler#c and other unusually  
competent and accurate observers agree  
with him4 ,when the dying man  exhibits 
unusual emotions or expresses ideas out 
of tune with his known  creed1 the      
explanation is to be found in the fact  
that1 toward the time  of death the mind
 commonly gives way and the customary   
processes of  thought are disordered4   
,the way in which a man thinks of death1
 in the  full bloom of his life and     
strength1 is certainly a good index of  
his  general character and habits of    
mind1 but at the hour of death itself   
his attitude is of little importance or 

significance4 ,the exhaustion  of the   
last hours--especially when an old man  
is dying--the irregular  or insufficient
 nourishment of the brain1 the          
occasional spasms of  severe physical   
pain1 the horror and novelty of the     
whole situation1  the atavistic return  
of early impressions and superstitions1 
and the  feeling that death is a thing  
unutterably vast and important and that 
bridges of an awful kind are about to be
 crossed--all of these things  make it  
irrational to accept a man's attitude at
 death as an indication  of his         
character during life4 ,moreover1 it is 
not true that a dying  man is more      
honest than a man in full vigor4 ,on the
 contrary1 almost  every dying man is   
led1 by the solemnity of those at his   
bedside1  and by their restrained or    
flowing torrents of tears1 to conscious 
or  unconscious conceit and             
make-believe4 ,he becomes1 in brief1 an 
actor  in a comedy4444 ,no doubt the    
seriousness with which every dying man  

is  treated has given many a poor devil 
his only moment of real triumph  and    
enjoyment4 ,he is1 ipso facto1 the star 
of the play1 and so he is  indemnified  
for a life of privation and             
subservience4#d    ,the ,origin of      
,philosophy4--,nietzsche believed that  
introspection  and self-analysis1 as    
they were ordinarily manifested1 were   
signs of  disease1 and that the higher  
man and superman would waste little time
  upon them4 ,the first thinkers1 he    
said1 were necessarily sufferers1  for  
it was only suffering that made a man   
think and only disability  that gave him
 leisure to do so4 ,under primitive     
conditions1 he  said1 the individual1   
fully conscious of his power1 is ever   
intent  upon transforming it into       
action4 ,sometimes this action takes the
  form of hunting1 robbery1 ambuscade1  
maltreatment or murder1 and  at other   
times it appears as those feebler       
imitations of these  things which alone 
are countenanced by the community4 ,but 

when the  individual's power            
declines--when he feels fatigued1 ill1  
melancholy  or satiated1 and in         
consequence1 temporarily lacks the      
yearning to  function--he is a          
comparatively better and less dangerous 
man4 ,that  is to say1 he contents      
himself with thinking instead of doing1 
and so  puts into thought and words his 
impressions and feelings regarding  his 
companions1 his wife or his gods4       
,naturally enough1 since his  efficiency
 is lowered and his mood is gloomy his  
judgments are evil  ones4 ,he finds     
fault and ponders revenges4 ,he gloats  
over enemies or  envies his friends4 ,in
 such a state of mind he turns prophet  
and so  adds to his store of            
superstitions or devises new acts of    
devotion  or prophesies the downfall of 
his enemies4 ,whatever he thinks1 his   
thoughts reflect his state of mind3 his 
fear and weariness are more  than       
normal2 his tendency to action and      
enjoyment are less than normal4  ,herein

 we see the genesis of the poetic1      
thoughtful1 priestly mood4  ,evil       
thoughts must rule supreme therein4444  
,in later stages of culture1  there     
arose a caste of poets1 thinkers1       
priests and medicine men who  all acted 
the same as1 in earlier years1          
individuals used to act in  their       
comparatively rare hours of illness and 
depression4 ,these persons  led sad1    
inactive lives and judged               
maliciously4444 ,the masses1 perhaps1   
yearned to turn them out of the         
community1 because they were parasites1 
but in this enterprise there was great  
risk1 because these men were on  terms  
of familiarity with the gods and so     
possessed vast and mysterious  power4   
,thus the most ancient philosophers were
 viewed4 ,the masses  hearkened unto    
them in proportion to the amount of     
dread they inspired4  ,in such a way    
contemplation made its appearance in the
 world1 with an  evil heart and a       
troubled head4 ,it was both weak and    

terrible1 and both  secretly abhorred   
and openly worshipped4444 ,pudenda      
origo6#e    ,priestcraft4--,so long as  
man feels capable of taking care of     
himself  he has no need of priests to   
intercede for him with the deity4       
,efficiency is proverbially identified  
with impiety3 it is only when the  devil
 is sick that the devil a monk would be4
 ,therefore the priest  must be regarded
 as the saviour1 shepherd and advocate  
of the sick4444  ,it is his providence  
to rule over the sufferers4444 ,in order
 that  he may understand them and appeal
 to them he must be sick himself1  and  
to attain this end there is the device  
of asceticism4 ,the purpose  of         
asceticism1 as we have seen1 is to make 
a man voluntarily destroy  his own      
efficiency4 ,but the priest must have a 
certain strength1  nevertheless1 for he 
must inspire both confidence and dread  
in his  charges1 and must be able to    
defend them--against whom8 ,undoubtedly 
against the sound and strong4444 ,he    

must be the natural adversary and       
despiser of all barbarous1 impetuous1   
unbridled1 fierce1 violent1             
beast-of-prey healthiness and power4#f  
,thus he must fashion himself  into a   
new sort of fighter--a new zoological   
terror1 in which the  polar bear1 the   
nimble and cool tiger and the fox are   
blended into a  unity as attractive as  
it is awe-inspiring4 ,he appears in the 
midst  of the strong as the herald and  
mouthpiece of mysterious powers1 with   
the determination to sow upon the soil1 
whenever and wherever possible1  the    
seeds of suffering1 dissension and      
contradiction4444 ,undoubtedly  he      
brings balms and balsams with him1 but  
he must first inflict the  wound1 before
 he may act as physician4444 ,it is only
 the unpleasantness  of disease that is 
combated by him--not the cause1 not the 
disease  itself6 ,he dispenses1 not     
specifics1 but narcotics4 ,he brings    
surcease  from sorrow1 not by showing   
men how to attain the happiness of      

efficiency1 but by teaching them that   
their sufferings have been laid  upon   
them by a god who will one day repay    
them with bliss illimitable4            
,god4--,a god who is omniscient and     
omnipotent and yet neglects  to make his
 wishes and intentions certainly known  
to his  creatures--certainly this is not
 a god of goodness4 ,one who for        
thousands of years has allowed the      
countless scruples and doubts  of men to
 afflict them and yet holds out terrible
 consequences for  involuntary          
errors--certainly this is not a god of  
justice4 ,is he not  a cruel god if he  
knows the truth and yet looks down upon 
millions  miserably searching for it8   
,perhaps he is good1 but is unable to   
communicate with his creatures more     
intelligibly4 ,perhaps he is wanting  in
 intelligence--or in eloquence4 ,so much
 the worse6 ,for1 in that  case1 he may 
be mistaken in what he calls the truth4 
,he may1 indeed1  be a brother to the   
'poor1 duped devils' below him4 ,if so1 

must he not  suffer agonies on seeing   
his creatures1 in their struggle for    
knowledge  of him1 submit to tortures   
for all eternity8 ,must it not strike   
him  with grief to realize that he      
cannot advise them or help them1 except 
by uncertain and ambiguous signs8444    
,all religions bear traces of the  fact 
that they arose during the intellectual 
immaturity of the human  race--before it
 had learned the obligation to speak the
 truth4 ,not one  of them makes it the  
duty of its god to be truthful and      
understandable  in his communications   
with man4#g                             
,self-,control4--,self-control1 says    
,nietzsche1 consists merely in          
combating a given desire with a stronger
 one4 ,thus the yearning to  commit a   
murder may be combated and overcome by  
the yearning to escape  the gallows and 
to retain the name and dignity of a     
law-abiding  citizen4 ,the second       
yearning is as much unconscious and     
instinctive  as the first1 and in the   

battle between them the intellect plays 
but  a small part4 ,in general there are
 but six ways in which a given  craving 
may be overcome4 ,first1 we may avoid   
opportunities for its  gratification and
 so1 by a long disuse1 weaken and       
destroy it4  ,secondly1 we may regulate 
its gratification1 and by thus          
encompassing  its flux and reflux within
 fixed limits1 gain intervals during    
which  it is faint4 ,thirdly1 we may    
intentionally give ourselves over to it 
and so wear it out by excess--provided  
we do not act like the rider  who lets a
 runaway horse gallop itself to death   
and1 in so doing1  breaks his own       
neck1--which unluckily is the rule in   
this method4  ,fourthly1 by an          
intellectual trick1 we may associate    
gratification with  an unpleasant idea1 
as we have associated sexual            
gratification1 for  example1 with the   
idea of indecency4 ,fifthly1 we may find
 a substitute  in some other craving    
that is measurably less dangerous1      

,sixthly1  we may find safety in a      
general war upon all cravings1 good and 
bad  alike1 after the manner of the     
ascetic1 who1 in seeking to destroy his 
sensuality1 at the same time destroys   
his physical strength1 his reason  and1 
not infrequently1 his life4    ,the     
,beautiful4--,man's notion of beauty is 
the fruit of his delight  in his own    
continued existence4 ,whatever makes    
this existence easy1  or is associated1 
in any manner1 with life or vigor1 seems
 to him to  be beautiful4 ,man mirrors  
himself in things4 ,he counts everything
  beautiful which reflects his likeness4
 ,the word 'beautiful' represents  the  
conceit of his species4444 ,nothing is  
truly ugly except the  degenerating man4
 ,but other things are called ugly1 too1
 when they  happen to weaken or trouble 
man4 ,they remind him of impotence1     
deterioration and danger3 in their      
presence he actually suffers a  loss of 
power4 ,therefore he calls them ugly4   
,whenever man is at all  depressed he   

has an intuition of the proximity of    
something 'ugly4'  ,his sense of power1 
his will to power1 his feeling of pride 
and  efficiency--all sink with the ugly 
and rise with the beautiful4  ,the ugly 
is instinctively understood to be a sign
 and symptom of  degeneration4 ,that    
which reminds one1 in the remotest      
degree1 of  degeneracy seems ugly4      
,every indication of exhaustion1        
heaviness1  age1 or lassitude1 every    
constraint--such as cramp or            
paralysis--and  above all1 every odor1  
color or counterfeit of                 
decomposition--though  it may be no more
 than a far-fetched symbol--calls forth 
the idea of  ugliness4 ,aversion is     
thereby excited--man's aversion to the  
decline  of his type4#h ,the phrase art 
for art's sake voices a protest  against
 subordinating art to morality--that is1
 against making it a  device for        
preaching sermons--but as a matter of   
fact1 all art must  praise and glorify  
and so must lay down values4 ,it is the 

function of  the artist1 indeed1 to     
select1 to choose1 to bring into        
prominence4 ,the  very fact that he is  
able to do this makes us call him an    
artist4 ,and  when do we approve his    
choice8 ,only when it agrees with our   
fundamental  instinct--only when it     
exhibits the desirableness of life4     
,therefore  art is the great stimulus to
 life4 ,we cannot conceive it as being  
purposeless or aimless4 ',art for art's 
sake' is a phrase without  meaning4#i   
,liberty4--,the worth of a thing often  
lies1 not in what one attains by  it1   
but in the difficulty one experiences in
 getting it4 ,the struggle  for         
political liberty1 for example1 has done
 more than any other one  thing to      
develop strength1 courage and           
resourcefulness in the human  race1 and 
yet liberty itself1 as we know it today1
 is nothing more or  less than organized
 morality1 and as such1 is necessarily  
degrading and  degenerating4 ,it        
undermines the will to power1 it levels 

the racial  mountains and valleys1 it   
makes man small1 cowardly and           
voluptuous4  ,under political liberty   
the herd-animal always triumphs4 ,but   
the very  fight to attain this          
burdensome equality develops the        
self-reliance  and unconformity which   
stand opposed to it1 and these qualities
 often  persist4 ,warfare1 in brief1    
makes men fit for real1 as opposed to   
political freedom4 ,and what is freedom8
 ,the will to be responsible for  one's 
self4 ,the will to keep that distance   
which separates man from  man4 ,the will
 to become indifferent to hardship1     
severity1 privation  and even to life4  
,the will to sacrifice men to one's     
cause and to  sacrifice one's self1     
too4444 ,the man who is truly free      
tramples under  foot the contemptible   
species of well-being dreamt of by      
shop-keepers1  ,christians1 cows1 women1
 ,englishmen and other democrats4 ,the  
free man  is a warrior4444 ,how is      
freedom to be measured8 ,by the         

resistance  it has to overcome--by the  
effort required to maintain it4 ,we must
  seek the highest type of freemen where
 the highest resistance must be         
constantly overcome3 five paces from    
tyranny1 close to the threshold of      
thraldom4444 ,those peoples who were    
worth something1 who became worth       
something1 never acquired their         
greatness under political liberty4      
,great danger made something of         
them--danger of that sort which first   
teaches us to know our resources1 our   
virtues1 our shields and swords1  our   
genius--which compels us to be          
strong4#aj    ,science--,the object of  
all science is to keep us from drawing  
wrong  inferences--from jumping to      
conclusions4 ,thus it stands utterly    
opposed  to all faith and is essentially
 iconoclastic and skeptical4 ,the       
wonderful in science is the reverse of  
the wonderful in juggling4 ,the  juggler
 tries to make us see a very simple     
relation between things  which1 in point

 of fact1 have no relation at all4 ,the 
scientist1 on  the contrary1 compels us 
to abandon our belief in simple         
casualities  and to see the enormous    
complexity of phenomena4 ,the simplest  
things1  indeed1 are extremely          
complex--a fact which will never cease  
to make us  wonder4 ,the effect of      
science is to show the absurdity of     
attempting  to reach perfect happiness  
and the impossibility of experiencing   
utter  woe4 ,the gulf between the       
highest pitch of happiness and the      
lowest  depth of misery has been created
 by imaginary things4#aa ,that is to    
say1 the heights of religious exaltation
 and the depths of religious  fear and  
trembling are alike creatures of our own
 myth-making4 ,there  is no such thing  
as perfect and infinite bliss in heaven 
and there  is no such thing as eternal  
damnation in hell4 ,hereafter our       
highest  happiness must be less than    
that of the martyrs who saw the heavenly
  gates opening for them1 and our worst 

woe must be less than that of  those    
medieval sinners who died shrieking and 
trembling and with the  scent of        
brimstone in their noses4 ,this space is
 being reduced further  and further by  
science1 just as through science we have
 learned to make  the earth occupy less 
and less space in the universe1 until it
 now  seems infinitely small and our    
whole solar system appears as a mere    
point4#ab    ,the ,jews4--,for the      
,jewish slave-morality which prevails in
 the  western world today1 under the    
label of ,christianity1 ,nietzsche had1 
as we know1 the most violent aversion   
and contempt1 but he saw very  clearly  
that this same morality admirably served
 and fitted the ,jews  themselves2 that 
it had preserved them through long ages 
and against  powerful enemies1 and that 
its very persistence proved alike its   
own  ingenuity and the vitality of its  
inventors as a race4 ,the ,jews1 said   
,nietzsche1 will either become the      
masters of ,europe or lose ,europe1  as 

they once lost ,egypt1 ,and it seems to 
be improbable that they  will lose      
again4 ,in ,europe1 for eighteen        
centuries2 they have passed  through a  
school more terrible than that known to 
any other nation1  and the experiences  
of this time of stress and storm have   
benefited  the individual even more than
 the community4 ,in consequence1 the    
resourcefulness and alertness of the    
modern ,jew are extraordinary4444  ,in  
times of extremity1 the people of       
,israel less often sought refuge  in    
drink or suicide than any other race of 
,europe4 ,today1 every ,jew  finds in   
the history of his forebears a          
voluminous record of coolness  and      
perseverance in terrible                
predicaments--of artful cunning and     
clever  fencing with chance and         
misfortune4 ,the ,jews have hid their   
bravery  under the cloak of             
submissiveness2 their heroism in facing 
contempt  surpasses that of the saints4 
,people tried to make them contemptible 

for twenty centuries by refusing them   
all honors and dignities and  by pushing
 them down into the mean trades4 ,the   
process did not make  them cleaner1     
alas6 but neither did it make them      
contemptible4 ,they  have never ceased  
to believe themselves qualified for the 
highest  of activities4 ,they have never
 failed to show the virtues of all      
suffering peoples4 ,their manner of     
honoring their parents and their        
children and the reasonableness of their
 marriage customs make them  conspicuous
 among ,europeans4 ,besides1 they have  
learned how to derive  a sense of power 
from the very trades forced upon them4  
,we cannot help  observing1 in excuse   
for their usury1 that without this      
pleasant means  of inflicting torture   
upon their oppressors1 they might have  
lost their  self-respect ages ago1 for  
self-respect depends upon being able to 
make reprisals4 ,moreover1 their        
vengeance has never carried them too    
far1 for they have that liberality which

 comes from frequent changes  of place1 
climate1 customs and neighbors4 ,they   
have more experience  of men than any   
other race and even in their passions   
there appears  a caution born of this   
experience4 ,they are so sure of        
themselves  that1 even in their         
bitterest straits1 they never earn their
 bread by  manual labor as common       
workmen1 porters or peasants4444 ,their 
manners1  it may be admitted1 teach us  
that they have never been inspired by   
chivalrous1 noble feelings1 nor their   
bodies girt with beautiful arms3  a     
certain vulgarity always alternates with
 their submissiveness4 ,but  now they   
are intermarrying with the gentlest     
blood of ,europe1 and  in another       
hundred years they will have enough good
 manners to save  them from making      
themselves ridiculous1 as masters1 in   
the sight of  those they have subdued4  
,it was ,nietzsche's belief that the    
,jews  would take the lead before long1 
in the intellectual progress of the     

world4 ,he thought that their training1 
as a race1 fitted them for this         
leadership4 ,where1 he asked1 shall the 
accumulated wealth of great  impressions
 which forms the history of every       
,jewish family--that great  wealth of   
passions1 virtues1 resolutions1         
resignations1 struggles and  victories  
of all sorts--where shall it find an    
outlet1 if not in great  intellectual   
functioning8 ,the ,jews1 he thought1    
would be safe guides  for mankind1 once 
they were set free from their           
slave-morality and all  need of it4     
,then again1 he said1 the old ,god of   
the ,jews may rejoice  in ,himself1 in  
,his creation and in ,his chosen        
people--and all of us  will rejoice with
 ,him4#ac    ,the ,gentleman4--,a       
million sages and diagnosticians1 in all
 ages of  the world1 have sought to     
define the gentleman1 and their         
definitions  have been as varied as     
their own minds4 ,nietzsche's definition
 is based  upon the obvious fact that   

the gentleman is ever a man of more than
  average influence and power1 and the  
further fact that this superiority  is  
admitted by all4 ,the vulgarian may     
boast of his bluff honesty1 but  at     
heart he looks up to the gentleman1 who 
goes through life serene and            
imperturbable4 ,there is in the flatter1
 in truth1 an unmistakable air  of      
fitness and efficiency1 and it is this  
which makes it possible for  him to be  
gentle and to regard those below him    
with tolerance4 ,the  demeanor of       
high-born persons1 says ,nietzsche1     
shows plainly that  in their minds the  
consciousness of power is ever-present4 
,above all  things1 they strive to avoid
 a show of weakness1 whether it takes   
the  form of inefficiency or of a       
too-easy yielding to passion or emotion4
  ,they never sink exhausted into a     
chair4 ,on the train1 when the vulgar   
try to make themselves comfortable1     
these higher folk avoid reclining4      
,they do not seem to get tired after    

hours of standing at court4 ,they  do   
not furnish their houses in a           
comfortable1 but in a spacious and      
dignified manner1 as if they were the   
abodes of a greater and taller  race of 
beings4 ,to a provoking speech1 they    
reply with politeness and               
self-possession--and not as if          
horrified1 crushed1 abashed1 enraged or 
out of breath1 after the manner of      
plebeians4 ,the aristocrat knows how  to
 preserve the appearance of ever-present
 physical strength1 and he  knows1 too1 
how to convey the impression that his   
soul and intellect  are a match to all  
dangers and surprises1 by keeping up an 
unchanging  serenity and civility1 even 
under the most trying circumstances4#ad 
,dreams4--,dreams are symptoms of the   
eternal law of compensation4 ,in  our   
waking hours we develop a countless     
horde of yearnings1 cravings  and       
desires1 and by the very nature of      
things1 the majority of them  must go   
ungratified4 ,the feeling that something

 is wanting1 thus left  within us1 is   
met and satisfied by our imaginary      
functionings during  sleep4 ,that is to 
say1 dreams represent the reaction of   
our yearnings  upon the phenomena       
actually encountered during sleep--the  
motions of  our blood and intestines1   
the pressure of the bedclothes1 the     
sounds of  church-bells1 domestic       
animals1 etc41 and the state of the     
atmosphere4  ,these phenomena are fairly
 constant1 but our dreams vary widely on
  successive nights4 ,therefore1 the    
variable factor is represented by the   
yearnings we harbor as we go to bed4    
,thus1 the man who loves music and  must
 go without it all day1 hears celestial 
harmonies in his sleep4  ,thus the slave
 dreams of soaring like an eagle4 ,thus 
the prisoner  dreams that he is free and
 the sailor that he is safely at home4  
,inasmuch as the number of our conscious
 and unconscious desires1 each  day1 is 
infinite1 there is an infinite variety  
in dreams4 ,but always  the relation set

 forth may be predicated4      #a ,also 
sprach ,zarathustra1 ,i4    #b          
,menschliches allzu ,menschliches1      
,,iii1  #ahe4    #c ,science and        
,immortality1 ,new ,york1 #aijd4    #d  
,menschliches allzu ,menschliches1 ,,ii1
  #hh4    #e ,morgenrte1  #db4    #f    
,zur ,genealogie der ,moral1 ,,iii1 #aa 
to #ag4    #g ,morgenrte1  #ia4    #h   
,gtzendmmerung1 ,,ix1  #ai4    #i       
,gtzendmmerung1 ,,ix1  #bd4    #aj      
,gtzendmmerung1 ,,ix1  #ch4    #aa      
,morgenrte1  #f4    #ab ,morgenrte1  #g4
    #ac ,morgenrte1  #bje4    #ad       
,morgenrte1  #bja4          ,,xiv       
,,nietzsche ,,vs4 ,,wagner              
,nietzsche believed in heroes and1 in   
his youth1 was a hero worshipper4       
,first ,arthur ,schopenhauer's          
bespectacled visage stared from his     
shrine  and after that the place of     
sacredness and honor was held by        
,richard  ,wagner4 ,when the ,wagner of 
the philosopher's dreams turned into a  
,wagner of very prosaic flesh and blood1

 there came a time of doubt and  stress 
and suffering for poor ,nietzsche4 ,but 
he had courage as well as  loyalty1 and 
in the end he dashed his idol to pieces 
and crunched the  bits underfoot4       
,faith1 doubt1 anguish1 disillusion--it 
is not a rare  sequence in this pitiless
 and weary old world4    ,those sapient 
critics who hold that ,nietzsche        
discredited his own  philosophy by      
constantly writing against himself1 find
 their chief  ammunition in his attitude
 toward the composer of ,tristan und    
,isolde ,in the decade from #ahfi to    
#ahgh the philosopher was the king  of  
,german ,wagnerians4 ,in the decade from
 #ahgi to #ahhi1 he was the most        
bitter1 the most violent1 the most      
resourceful and the most effective  of  
,wagner's enemies4 ,on their face these 
things seem to indicate a  complete     
change of front and a careful           
examination bears out the  thought4 ,but
 the same careful examination reveals   
another fact3 that  the change of front 

was made1 not by ,nietzsche1 but by     
,wagner4    ,as we have seen1 the       
philosopher was an ardent musician from 
boyhood and so it was not unnatural that
 he should be among the  first to       
recognize ,wagner's genius4 ,the sheer  
musicianship of the  man overwhelmed him
 and he tells us that from the moment   
the piano  transcription of ,tristan und
 ,isolde was printed he was a           
,wagnerian4  ,the music was bold and    
daring3 it struck out into regions that 
the  ssslich sentimentality of          
,donizetti and ,bellini and the pallid  
classicism of ,beethoven and ,bach had  
never even approached4 ,in ,wagner      
,nietzsche saw a man of colossal        
originality and sublime courage1 who    
thought for himself and had skill at    
making his ideas comprehensible  to     
others4 ,the opera of the past had been 
a mere potpourri of songs1  strung      
together upon a filament of banal       
recitative4 ,the opera of  ,wagner was a
 symmetrical and homogeneous whole1 in  

which the music was  unthinkable without
 the poetry and the poetry impossible   
without the  music4    ,nietzsche1 at   
the time1 was saturated with            
,schopenhauer's brand of  individualism1
 and intensely eager to apply it to     
realities4 ,in ,wagner  he saw a living1
 breathing individualist--a man who     
scorned the laws  and customs of his    
craft and dared to work out his own     
salvation in  his own way4 ,and when    
fate made it possible for him to meet   
,wagner1  he found the composer         
preaching as well as practising         
individualism4  ,in a word1 ,wagner was 
well nigh as enthusiastic a             
,schopenhauerean as  ,nietzsche himself4
 ,his individualism almost touched the  
boundary of  anarchy4 ,he had invented a
 new art of music and he was engaged in 
the  exciting task of smashing the old  
one to make room for it4    ,nietzsche  
met ,wagner in ,leipsic and was invited 
to visit the composer  at his home near 
,tribschen1 a suburb of ,lucerne4 ,he   

accepted1 and  on ,may #ae1 #ahfi1 got  
his first glimpse of that queer         
household in  which the erratic         
,richard1 the ingenious ,cosima and     
little ,siegfried  lived and had their  
being4 ,when he moved to ,basel1 he was 
not far  from ,tribschen and so he fell 
into the habit of going there often  and
 staying long4 ,he came1 indeed1 to     
occupy the position of an  adopted son1 
and spent the ,christmas of #ahfi and   
that of #ahgj under  the ,wagner        
rooftree4 ,this last fact alone is      
sufficient to show the  intimate footing
 upon which he stood4 ,christmas1 among 
the ,germans1  is essentially a family  
festival and mere friends are seldom    
asked to  share its joys4    ,nietzsche 
and ,wagner had long and riotous        
disputations at ,tribschen1  but in all 
things fundamental they agreed4         
,together they accepted  ,schopenhauer's
 data and together they began to diverge
 from his  conclusions4 ,nietzsche saw  
in ,wagner that old dionysian spirit    

which had saved ,greek art4 ,the music  
of the day was colorless and            
coldblooded4 ,a too rigid formalism     
stood in the way of all expression  of  
actual life4 ,wagner proposed to batter 
this formalism to pieces and  ,nietzsche
 was his prophet and claque4    ,it was 
this enthusiasm1 indeed1 which          
determined the plan of ,die  ,geburt der
 ,tragdie4 ,nietzsche had conceived it  
as a mere treatise  upon the philosophy 
of the ,greek drama4 ,his ardor as an   
apostle1  his yearning to convert the   
stolid ,germans1 his wild desire to do  
something practical and effective for   
,wagner1 made him turn it into a  gospel
 of the new art4 ,to him ,wagner was    
,dionysus1 and the whole of  his        
argument against ,apollo was nothing    
more than an argument against           
classicism and for the ,wagnerian       
romanticism4 ,it was a bomb-shell and   
its explosion made ,germany stare1 but  
another--perhaps many more--were  needed
 to shake the foundations of            

philistinism4 ,nietzsche loaded the     
next one carefully and hurled it at him 
who stood at the very head of  that     
self-satisfied conservatism which lay   
upon all ,germany4 ,this  man was ,david
 ,strauss4 ,strauss was the prophet of  
the good-enough4 ,he  taught that       
,german art was sound1 that ,german     
culture was perfect4  ,nietzsche saw in 
him the foe of ,dionysus and made an    
example of him4  ,in every word of that 
scintillating philippic there was a plea
 for the  independence and individualism
 and outlawry that the philosopher saw  
in  ,wagner4#a    ,unluckily the        
disciple here ran ahead of the master   
and before long  ,nietzsche began to    
realize that he and ,wagner were        
drifting apart4  ,so long as they met   
upon the safe ground of ,schopenhauer's 
data1 the  two agreed1 but after        
,nietzsche began to work out his        
inevitable  conclusions1 ,wagner        
abandoned him4 ,to put it plainly1      
,wagner was the  artist before he was   

the philosopher1 and when philosophy    
began to  grow ugly he turned from it   
without regret or qualm of conscience4  
,theoretically1 he saw things as        
,nietzsche saw them1 but as an artist he
  could not afford to be too literal4   
,it was true enough1 perhaps1 that      
self-sacrifice was a medieval           
superstition1 but all the same it made  
effective heroes on the stage4          
,nietzsche was utterly unable1          
throughout his life1 to acknowledge     
anything but hypocrisy or ignorance in  
those who descended to such             
compromises4 ,when he wrote ,richard    
,wagner in ,bayreuth he was  already the
 prey of doubts1 but it is probable that
 he still saw the  ifs and buts in      
,wagner's individualism but dimly4 ,he  
could not  realize1 in brief1 that a    
composer who fought beneath the banner  
of  truth1 against custom and           
convention1 could ever turn aside from  
the battle4 ,wagner agreed with         
,nietzsche1 perhaps1 that ,european     

civilization and its child1 the         
,european art of the day1 were founded  
upon lies1 but he was artist enough to  
see that1 without these lies1  it would 
be impossible to make art understandable
 to the public4 ,so in  his librettos he
 employed all of the old fallacies--that
 love has the  supernatural power of    
making a bad man good1 that one man may 
save the  soul of another1 that humility
 is a virtue4#b    ,it is obvious from  
this1 that the apostate was not         
,nietzsche1 but  ,wagner4 ,nietzsche    
started out in life as a seeker after   
truth1 and  he sought the truth his     
whole life long1 without regarding for  
an  instant the risks and dangers and   
consequences of the quest4 ,wagner1  so 
long as it remained a mere matter of    
philosophical disputation1  was equally 
radical and courageous1 but he saw very 
clearly that it  was necessary to       
compromise with tradition in his operas4
 ,he was an  atheist and a mocker of the
 gods1 but the mystery and beauty of the

  ,roman ,catholic ritual appealed to   
his artistic sense1 and so1 instead  of 
penning an opera in which the hero      
spouted aphorisms by ,huxley1  he wrote 
,parsifal ,and in the same way1 in his  
other music dramas1  he made artistic   
use of all the ancient fallacies and    
devices in  the lumber room of chivalry4
 ,he was1 indeed1 a philosopher in his  
hours of leisure only4 ,when he was at  
work over his music paper1 he  saw that 
,st4 ,ignatius was a far more effective 
and appealing figure  than ,herbert     
,spencer and that the conventional      
notion that marriage  was a union of two
 immortal souls was far more picturesque
 than the  ,schopenhauer-,nietzschean   
idea that it was a mere symptom of the  
primary  will to live4    ,in #ahgf     
,nietzsche began to realize that he had 
left ,wagner far behind  and that       
thereafter he could expect no support   
from the composer4 ,they  had not met   
since #ahgd1 but ,nietzsche went to     
,bayreuth for the first  opera season4  

,a single conversation convinced him    
that his doubts were  well-founded--that
 ,wagner was a mere dionysian of the    
chair and had  no intention of pushing  
the ideas they had discussed to their   
bitter  and revolutionary conclusion4   
,most other men would have seen in this 
nothing more than an evidence of a      
common-sense decision to sacrifice  the 
whole truth for half the truth1 but     
,nietzsche was a rabid hater of         
compromise4 ,to make terms with the     
philistines seemed to him to be even    
worse than joining their ranks4 ,he saw 
in ,wagner only a traitor who  knew the 
truth and yet denied it4    ,nietzsche  
was so much disgusted that he left      
,bayreuth and set out upon  a walking   
tour1 but before the end of the season  
he returned and heard  some of the      
operas4 ,but he was no longer a         
,wagnerian and the music of  the ,ring  
did not delight him4 ,it was impossible1
 indeed1 for him  to separate the music 
from the philosophy set forth in the    

librettos4  ,he believed1 with ,wagner1 
that the two were indissolubly welded1  
and  so1 after awhile1 he came to       
condemn the whole fabric--harmonies and 
melodies as well as heroes and dramatic 
situations4    ,when ,wagner passed out 
of his life ,nietzsche sought to cure   
his  loneliness by hard work and        
,menschliches allzu ,menschliches was   
the  result4 ,he sent a copy of the     
first volume to ,wagner and on the way  
it  crossed a copy of ,parsifal4 ,in    
this circumstance is well exhibited  the
 width of the breach between the two    
men4 ,to ,wagner ,menschliches  allzu   
,menschliches seemed impossibly and     
insanely radical2 to  ,nietzsche        
,parsifal1 with all its exaltation of   
ritualism1 was  unspeakable4 ,neither   
deigned to write to the other1 but we   
have it from  reliable testimony that   
,wagner was disgusted and ,nietzsche's  
sister  tells us how much the           
music-drama of the grail enraged him4   
,a ,german1 when indignation seizes him1

 rises straightway to make a loud  and  
vociferous protest4 ,and so1 although   
,nietzsche retained1 to the end  of his 
life1 a pleasant memory of the happy    
days he spent at ,tribschen  and almost 
his last words voiced his loyal love for
 ,wagner the man1  he conceived it to be
 his sacred duty to combat what he      
regarded as  the treason of ,wagner the 
philosopher4 ,this notion was           
doubtlessly  strengthened by his belief 
that he himself had done much to launch 
,wagner's bark4 ,he had praised1 and now
 it was his duty to blame4 ,he had  been
 enthusiastic at the first task1 and he 
determined to be pitiless  at the       
second4    ,but he hesitated for ten    
years1 because1 as has been said1 he    
could not  kill his affection for       
,wagner1 the man4 ,it takes courage to  
wound one's  nearest and dearest1 and   
,nietzsche1 for all his lack of         
sentiment1 was  still no more than      
human4 ,in the end1 however1 he brought 
himself to  the heroic surgery that     

confronted him1 and the result was ,der 
,fall  ,wagner4 ,in this book all       
friendship and pleasant memories were   
put  aside4 ,wagner was his friend of   
old8 ,very well3 that was a reason for  
him to be all the more exact and all the
 more unpitying4    ,what does a        
philosopher firstly and lastly require  
of himself8 he  asks4 ,to overcome his  
age in himself2 to become timeless6     
,with what1  then1 has he to fight his  
hardest fight8 ,with those              
characteristics and  ideas which most   
plainly stamp him as the child of his   
age4 ,herein we  perceive ,nietzsche's  
fundamental error4 ,deceived by         
,wagner's enthusiasm  for ,schopenhauer 
and his early1 amateurish dabbling in   
philosophy1 he  regarded2 the composer  
as a philosopher4 ,but ,wagner1 of      
course1 was  first of all an artist1 and
 it is the function of an artist1 not to
  reform humanity1 but to depict it as  
he sees it1 or as his age sees          
it--fallacies1 delusions and all4       

,george ,bernard ,shaw1 in his famous   
criticism of ,shakespeare1 shows us how 
the ,bard of ,avon made just such  a    
compromise with the prevailing opinion  
of his time4 ,shakespeare1  he says1 was
 too intelligent a man to regard        
,rosalind as a plausible  woman1 but the
 theatre-goers of his day so regarded   
her and he drew  her to their taste4#c  
,an artist who failed to make such a    
concession  to convention would be an   
artist without an audience4 ,wagner was 
no  ,christian1 but he knew that the    
quest of the holy grail was an idea     
which made a powerful appeal to         
nine-tenths of civilized humanity1  and 
so he turned it into a drama4 ,this was 
not conscious lack of  sincerity1 but   
merely a manifestation of the           
sub-conscious artistic  feeling for     
effectiveness4#d    ,therefore1 it is   
plain that ,nietzsche's whole case      
against ,wagner is  based upon a fallacy
 and that1 in consequence1 it is not to 
be taken  too seriously4 ,it is true    

enough that his book contains some      
remarkably  acute and searching         
observations upon art1 and that1        
granting his  premises1 his general     
conclusions would be correct1 but we are
 by no  means granting his premises4    
,wagner may have been a traitor to his  
philosophy1 but if he had remained loyal
 to it1 his art would have been         
impossible4 ,and in view of the sublime 
beauty of that art we may well  pardon  
him for not keeping the faith4    ,der  
,fall ,wagner caused a horde of stupid  
critics to maintain  that ,nietzsche1   
and not ,wagner1 was the apostate1 and  
that the mad  philosopher had begun to  
argue against himself4 ,as an answer to 
this  ridiculous charge1 ,nietzsche     
published a little book called          
,nietzsche  contra ,wagner4 ,it was made
 up entirely of passages from his       
earlier  books and these proved         
conclusively that1 ever since his       
initial  divergence from ,schopenhauer's
 conclusions1 he had hoed a straight    

row4 ,he was a dionysian in ,die ,geburt
 der ,tragdie and he was a  dionysian   
still in ,also ,sprach ,zarathustra4    
#a ,that ,wagner gave ,nietzsche good   
reason to credit him with these         
qualities is amply proved4 ,i have never
 read anything better than your  book1  
wrote the composer in #ahgb4 ,it is     
masterly4 ,and ,frau ,cosima  and       
,liszt1 who were certainly familiar with
 ,wagner's ideas1 supported             
,nietzsche's assumption1 too4 ,oh1 how  
fine is your book1 wrote the  former1   
how fine and how deep--how deep and how 
keen6 ,liszt sent from  ,prague 7,feb4  
#bi1 #ahgb7 a pompous1 patronizing      
letter4 ,i have read your  book twice1  
he said4 ,in all of this correspondence 
there is no hint  that ,nietzsche had   
misunderstood ,wagner's position or had 
laid down any  propositions from which  
the composer dissented4    #b ,there is 
an interesting discussion of this in    
,james ,huneker's book1  ,mezzotints in 
,modern ,music1 page #bhe et4 seq41 ,new

 ,york1 #ahii4    #c ,see ,george       
,bernard ,shaw3 ,his ,plays2 page #ajb  
et seq41 ,boston1  #aije4    #d         
,wagner's creative instinct gave the lie
 to his theoretical  system3 ,r4 ,a4    
,streatfield1 ,modern ,music and        
,musicians1 p4 #bgb2 ,new  ,york1 #aijf4
          ,,nietzsche ,,the ,,prophet   
,i      ,,nietzsche',s ,,origins        
,the construction of philosophical      
family trees for ,nietzsche has ever    
been one of the favorite pastimes of his
 critics and interpreters4  ,thus ,dr4  
,oscar ,levy1 editor of the ,english    
translation of his works1  makes him the
 heir of ,goethe and ,stendhal1 and the 
culminating figure  of the ,second      
,renaissance launched by the latter1 who
 was the  first man to cry halt to the  
,kantian philosophy which had flooded   
all ,europe4#a ,dr4 ,m4 ,a4 ,mgge agrees
 with this genealogy so far  as it goes1
 but points out that ,nietzsche was also
 the intellectual  descendant of certain
 pre-,socratic ,greeks1 particularly    

,heracleitus1  and of ,spinoza and      
,stirner4#b ,alfred ,fouille1 the       
,frenchman1 is  another who gives him   
,greek blood1 but in seeking his later  
forebears  ,fouille passes over the four
 named by ,levy and ,mgge and puts      
,hobbes1  ,schopenhauer1 ,darwin1       
,rousseau and ,diderot in place of      
them4#c ,again1  ,thomas ,common says   
that perhaps ,nietzsche is most indebted
 to ,chamfort  and ,schopenhauer1 but   
also allows a considerable influence to 
,hobbes1  and endeavors to show how     
,nietzsche carried on1 consciously and  
unconsciously1 certain ideas originating
 with ,darwin and developed by  ,huxley1
 ,spencer and the other evolutionists4#d
 ,dr4 ,alexander ,tille has  written a  
whole volume upon this latter           
relationship4#e ,finally1 ,paul  ,elmer 
,more1 the ,american1 taking the cue    
from ,fouille1 finds the germs  of many 
of ,nietzsche's doctrines in ,hobbes1   
and then proceeds to a  somewhat        
elaborate discussion of the mutations of

 ethical theory during  the past two    
centuries1 showing how ,hume            
superimposed the idea of  sympathy as a 
motive upon ,hobbes' idea of            
self-interest1 and how this  sympathy   
theory prevailed over that of           
self-interest1 and degenerated  into    
sentimentalism1 and so opened the way   
for ,socialism and other such           
delusions1 and how ,nietzsche instituted
 a sort of ,hobbesian revival4#f  ,many 
more speculations of that sort1 some of 
them very ingenious and  some merely    
ingenuous1 might be rehearsed4 ,by one  
critic or another  ,nietzsche has been  
accused of more or less frank borrowings
 from  ,xenophanes1 ,democritus1        
,pythagoras1 ,callicles1 ,parmenides1   
,arcelaus1  ,empedocles1 ,pyrrho1       
,hegesippus1 the ,eleatic ,zeno1        
,machiavelli1 ,comte1  ,montaigne1      
,mandeville1 ,la ,bruyre1 ,fontenelle1  
,voltaire1 ,kant1 ,la  ,rochefoucauld1  
,helvtius1 ,adam ,smith1 ,malthus1      
,butler1 ,blake1 ,proudhon1  ,paul ,re1 

,flaubert1 ,taine1 ,gobineau1 ,renan1   
and even from ,karl  ,marx6--a long     
catalogue of meaningless names1 an      
exhaustive roster  of pathfinders and   
protestants4 ,a ,frenchman1 ,jules de   
,gaultier1 has  devoted a whole book to 
the fascinating subject4#g    ,but if we
 turn from this laborious and often     
irrelevant search for  common ideas and 
parallel passages to the actual facts of
 ,nietzsche's  intellectual development1
 we shall find1 perhaps1 that his       
ancestry  ran in two streams1 the one   
coming down from the ,greeks whom he    
studied as school-boy and undergraduate1
 and the other having its  source in    
,schopenhauer1 the great discovery of   
his early manhood and  the most powerful
 single influence of his life4 ,no need 
to argue the  essentially ,greek color  
of ,nietzsche's apprentice thinking4 ,it
 was1  indeed1 his interest in ,greek   
literature and life that made him a     
philologist by profession1 and the same 
interest that converted him  from a     

philologist into a philosopher4 ,the    
foundation of his system  was laid when 
he arrived at his conception of the     
conflict between  the ,greek gods       
,apollo and ,dionysus1 and all that     
followed belonged  naturally to the     
working out of that idea4 ,but what he  
got from the  ,greeks of his early      
adoration was more than a single idea   
and more  than the body of miscellaneous
 ideas listed by the commentators3 it   
was the ,greek outlook1 the ,greek      
spirit1 the ,greek attitude toward ,god 
and man4 ,in brief1 he ceased to be a   
,german pastor's son1 brought up  in the
 fear of the ,lord1 and became a citizen
 of those gorgeous and  enchanted isles1
 much as ,shelley had before him4 ,the  
sentimentality of  ,christianity dropped
 from him like an old garment2 he stood 
forth1 as  it were1 bare and unashamed1 
a pagan in the springtime of the world1 
a  ja-sager4 ,more than the reading of  
books1 of course1 was needed to  work   
that transformation--the blood that     

leaped had to be blood capable  of      
leaping--but it was out of books that   
the stimulus came1 and the  feeling of  
surety1 and the beginnings of a workable
 philosophy of life4  ,it is not a      
,german that speaks in ,the ,antichrist1
 nor even the ,polish  noble that       
,nietzsche liked to think himself1 but a
 ,greek of the brave  days before       
,socrates1 a spokesman of ,hellenic     
innocence and youth4    ,no doubt it was
 the unmistakably ,greek note in        
,schopenhauer--the  delivery of         
instinct1 so long condemned to the      
ethical dungeons--that  engendered      
,nietzsche's first wild enthusiasm for  
the ,frankfort sage4  ,the atmosphere of
 ,leipsic in #ahfe was heavy with moral 
vapors1 and the  daring dissent of      
,schopenhauer must have seemed to blow  
through it like  a sharp wind from the  
sea4 ,and ,nietzsche1 being young and   
passionate1  was carried away by the    
ecstasy of discovery1 and so accepted   
the whole  ,schopenhauerean philosophy  

without examining it too critically--the
  bitter with the sweet1 its pessimism  
no less than its rebellion4 ,he1  too1  
had to go through the green-sickness of 
youth1 particularly of  ,german youth4  
,the ,greek was yet but half way from   
,naumburg to ,attica1  and he now       
stopped a moment to look backward4      
,every line1 he tells us  somewhere1    
cried out renunciation1 denial1         
resignation4444 ,evidences  of this     
sudden change are still to be found in  
the restless melancholy  of the leaves  
of my diary at that period1 with all    
their useless  self-reproach and their  
desperate gazing upward for recovery and
 for  the transformation of the whole   
spirit of mankind4 ,by drawing all my   
qualities and my aspirations before the 
forum of gloomy self-contempt  ,i became
 bitter1 unjust and unbridled in my     
hatred of myself4 ,i even  practised    
bodily penance4 ,for instance1 ,i forced
 myself for a fortnight  at a stretch to
 go to bed at two o'clock in the morning

 and to rise  punctually at six4 ,but   
not for long4 ,the fortnight of         
self-accusing  and hair-shirts was soon 
over4 ,the green-sickness vanished4#h   
,the  ,greek emerged anew1 more         
,hellenic than ever4 ,and so1 almost    
from the  start1 ,nietzsche rejected    
quite as much of ,schopenhauer as he    
accepted4  ,the ,schopenhauerean premise
 entered into his system--the will to   
live  was destined to become the father1
 in a few years1 of the will to         
power--but the ,schopenhauerean         
conclusion held him no longer than it   
took him to inspect it calmly4 ,thus he 
gained doubly--first1 by the            
acquisition of a definite theory of     
human conduct1 one giving clarity  to   
his own vague feelings1 and secondly1 by
 the reaction against an  abject theory 
of human destiny1 the very antithesis of
 that which rose  within him4    ,and   
yet1 for all his dissent1 for all his   
instinctive revolt against  the         
resignationism which overwhelmed him for

 an hour1 ,nietzsche  nevertheless      
carried away with him1 and kept         
throughout his life1 some  touch of     
,schopenhauer's distrust of the search  
for happiness4 ,nine  years after his   
great discovery we find him quoting and 
approving his  teacher's words3 ,a happy
 life is impossible2 the highest thing  
that  man can aspire to is a heroic     
life4 ,and still later we find him      
thundering against the green-grazing    
happiness of the herd4 ,what is  more1  
he gave his assent later on1 though     
always more by fascination  than by     
conviction1 to the doctrine of eternal  
recurrence1 the most  hopeless idea1    
perhaps1 ever formulated by man4 ,but in
 all this a  certain distinction is to  
be noted3 ,schopenhauer1 despairing of  
the  happy life1 renounced even the     
heroic life1 but ,nietzsche never did   
anything of the sort4 ,on the contrary1 
his whole philosophy is a  protest      
against that very despair4 ,the heroic  
life may not bring  happiness1 and it   

may even fail to bring good1 but at all 
events it  will shine gloriously in the 
light of its own heroism4 ,in brief1    
high endeavor is an end in itself--nay1 
the noblest of all ends4 ,the  higher   
man does not work for a wage1 not even  
for the wage of bliss3  his reward is in
 the struggle1 the danger1 the          
aspiration4 ,as for the  happiness born 
of peace and love1 of prosperity and    
tranquillity1 that  is for shopkeepers1 
women1 ,englishmen and cows4 ,the man   
who seeks  it thereby confesses his     
incapacity for the loftier joys and     
hazards  of the free spirit1 and the man
 who wails because he cannot find it    
thereby confesses his unfitness to live 
in the world4 ,my formula for           
greatness1 said ,nietzsche toward the   
end of his life1 is amor fati  444 not  
only to bear up under necessity1 but to 
love it4 ,thus1  borrowing              
,schopenhauer's pessimism1 he turned it1
 in the end1 into a  defiant and        
irreconcilable optimism--not the slave  

optimism of hope1  with its vain        
courting of gods1 but the master        
optimism of courage4    ,so much for the
 larger of the direct influences upon   
,nietzsche's  thinking4 ,scarcely less  
was the influence of that great         
revolution in  man's view of man1 that  
genuine transvaluation of all values1   
set in  motion by the publication of    
,charles ,darwin's ,the ,origin of      
,species1  in #ahei4 ,in the chapter on 
,christianity ,i have sketched briefly  
the  part that ,nietzsche played in the 
matter1 and have shown how it rested    
squarely upon the parts played by those 
who went before him4 ,he himself  was   
fond of attacking ,darwin1 whom he      
disliked as he disliked all             
,englishmen1 and of denying that he had 
gotten anything of value out  of        
,darwin's work1 but it is not well to   
take such denunciations and  denials too
 seriously4 ,like ,ibsen1 ,nietzsche was
 often an unreliable  witness as to his 
own intellectual obligations4 ,so long  

as he dealt  with ideas his thinking was
 frank and clear1 but when he turned to 
the  human beings behind them1 and      
particularly when he discussed those who
  had presumed to approach the problems 
he undertook to solve himself1  his     
incredible intolerance1 jealousy1       
spitefulness and egomania1 and  his     
savage lust for bitter1 useless and     
unmerciful strife1 combined  to make his
 statements dubious1 and sometimes even 
absurd4 ,thus with  his sneers at       
,darwin and the other evolutionists1    
especially ,spencer4  ,if he did not    
actually follow them1 then he at least  
walked side by  side with them1 and     
every time they cleared another bit of  
the path he  profited by it too4 ,one   
thing1 at all events1 they gave to the  
world  that entered into ,nietzsche's   
final philosophy1 and without which it  
would have stopped short of its ultimate
 development1 and that was the          
conception of man as a mammal4 ,their   
great service to human knowledge  was   

precisely this4 ,they found man a       
loiterer at the gates of heaven1 a      
courtier in the ante-chambers of gods4  
,they brought him back to earth  and    
bade him help himself4    ,meanwhile1   
the reader who cares to go into the     
matter further will  find ,nietzsche    
elbowing other sages in a multitude of  
places4 ,he  himself has testified to   
his debt to ,stendhal 7,marie ,henri    
,beyle71 that  great apologist for      
,napoleon ,bonaparte and exponent of the
 ,napoleonic  philosophy4 ,stendhal1 he 
says1 was one of the happiest accidents 
of  my life4444 ,he is quite priceless1 
with his penetrating psychologist's  eye
 and his grip upon facts1 recalling that
 of the greatest of all  masters of     
facts 7ex ungue ,napoleon--72 and last1 
but not least1  as an honest            
atheist--one of a species rare and hard 
to find in  ,france4444 ,maybe ,i myself
 am jealous of ,stendhal8 ,he took from 
me the  best of atheistic jokes1 that ,i
 might best have made3 'the only excuse 

for ,god is that ,he doesn't exist4'#i  
,of his debt to ,max ,stirner the       
evidence is less clear1 but it has been 
frequently alleged1 and1 as  ,dr4 ,mgge 
says1 quite a literature has grown up   
around the question4  ,stirner's chief  
work1 ,der ,einzige und sein            
,eigentum1#aj was first  published in   
#ahdd1 the year of ,nietzsche's birth1  
and in its strong  plea for the         
emancipation of the individual there are
 many ideas and  even phrases that were 
later voiced by ,nietzsche4 ,dr4 ,mgge  
quotes a  few of them3 ,what is good and
 what is evil8 ,i myself am my own rule1
  and ,i am neither good nor evil4      
,neither word means anything to me4444  
,between the two vicissitudes of victory
 and defeat swings the fate  of the     
struggle--master or slave6444 ,egoism1  
not love1 must decide4  ,others will    
greet the reader of ,stirner's book3 ,as
 long as you believe  in the truth1 you 
do not believe in yourself2 you are a   
servant1 a  religious man4 ,you alone   

are the truth4444 ,whether what ,i think
 and do  is ,christian1 what do ,i care8
 ,whether it is human1 liberal1 humane1 
whether unhuman1 illiberal1 unhumane1   
what do ,i ask about that8 ,if  only it 
accomplishes what ,i want1 if only ,i   
satisfy myself in it1 then  overlay it  
with predicates if you will3 it is all  
one to me4444 ,but1  as ,dr4 ,j4 ,l4    
,walker well says1 in his introduction  
to ,mr4 ,byington's  ,english           
translation1 there is a considerable    
gulf between ,stirner and  ,nietzsche1  
even here4 ,the former's plea is for    
absolute liberty for  all men1 great and
 small4 ,the latter is for liberty only 
in the higher  castes3 the chandala he  
would keep in chains4 ,therefore1 if    
,nietzsche  actually got anything from  
,stirner1 it certainly did not enter    
unchanged into the ultimate structure of
 his system4    ,the other attempts to  
convict him of appropriating ideas come 
to little  more4 ,dr4 ,mgge1 for        
example1 quotes these pre-,nietzschean  

passages  from ,heracleitus3 ,war is    
universal and right1 and by strife all  
things  arise and are made use of 444   
,good and evil are the same4444 ,to me1 
one is worth ten thousand1 if he be the 
best4 ,and ,mr4 ,more quotes  this from 
,hobbes3 ,in the first place1 ,i put    
forth1 for a general  inclination of all
 mankind1 a perpetual and restless      
desire of power  after power1 that      
ceaseth only with death--to which the   
reader may  add1 ,whatsoever is the     
object of any man's appetite or desire1 
that  is it which he for his part       
calleth good 444 for these words of     
good1  evil and contemptible are ever   
used with relation to the person that   
useth them2 there being nothing simply  
and absolutely so2 nor any  common rule 
of good and evil1 to be taken for the   
nature of objects  themselves4#aa ,but  
all these passages prove no more than   
that men of  past ages saw the          
mutability of criteria1 and their origin
 in human  aspiration and striving4 ,not

 only ,heracleitus1 but many other      
,greeks1  voiced that ethical           
scepticism4 ,it was for many years1     
indeed1 one of  the dominant influences 
in ,greek philosophy1 and so1 if        
,nietzsche  is accused of borrowing it1 
that is no more than saying what ,i have
  already said3 that he ate ,greek      
grapes in his youth and became1 to all  
intellectual intents and purposes1 a    
,greek himself4 ,a man must needs  have 
a point of view1 a manner of approach to
 life1 and that point of  view is no    
less authentic when he reaches it       
through his reading and by  the exercise
 of a certain degree of free choice than
 when he accepts  it unthinkingly from  
the folk about him4 ,the service of     
,heracleitus  and the other ,greeks to  
,nietzsche was not that they gave him   
his  philosophy1 but that they made him 
a philosopher4 ,it was the questions    
they asked rather than the answers they 
made that interested and  stimulated    
him1 and if1 at times1 he answered much 

as they had done1  that was only proof  
of his genuine kinship with them4    ,on
 the artistic1 as opposed to the        
analytical side1 ,nietzsche's most      
influential teacher1 perhaps1 was       
,goethe1 the noblest intellectual       
figure of modern ,germany1 the common   
stammvater of all the warring  schools  
of today--in ,nietzsche's own phrase1   
not only a good and  great man1 but a   
culture itself4 ,his writings are full  
of praises  of his hero1 whom he began  
to read as a boy of eight or ten years4 
,his grandmother1 ,frau ,erdmuthe       
,nietzsche1 was a sister to ,dr4        
,krause1  professor of divinity at      
,weimar in ,goethe's day1 and she lived 
in the  town while the poet held his    
court there1 and undoubtedly came into  
contact with him4 ,her mother1 ,frau    
,pastor ,krause1 was probably the       
,muthgen of ,goethe's diary4 ,but       
despite all this1 she thought that      
,faust and ,elective ,affinities were   
not fit for little boys and so  it      

remained for ,judge ,pindar1 the father 
of one of young ,nietzsche's  ,naumburg 
playmates1 to conduct the initiation4#ab
 ,thirty years  afterward1 ,nietzsche   
gratefully acknowledged his debt to     
,herr ,pindar1  and his vastly greater  
debt to ,goethe--a thorough-going       
realist in  the midst of an unreal      
age4444 ,he did not sever himself from  
life1 but  entered into it4 ,undaunted1 
he took as much as possible to          
himself4444  ,what he sought was        
totality4#ac    ,nietzsche was also an  
extravagant admirer of ,heinrich ,heine1
 and  tried to imitate that poet's sweet
 and passionate music4 ,people  will say
 some day1 he declared1 that ,heine and 
,i were the greatest  artists1 by far1  
that ever wrote in ,german1 and that we 
left the best  any mere ,german#ad could
 do an incalculable distance behind     
us4#ae  ,another poet he greatly revered
 was ,friedrich ,hlderlin1 a ,south     
,german rhapsodist of the               
,goethe-,schiller period1 who wrote odes

 in  free rhythms and philosophical     
novels in gorgeous prose1 and died the  
year before ,nietzsche was born1 after  
forty years of insanity4 ,karl          
,joel1#af ,dr4 ,mgge and other critics  
have sought to connect ,nietzsche1      
through ,hlderlin1 with the romantic    
movement in ,germany1 but the  truth is 
that both ,nietzsche and ,hlderlin1 if  
they were romantics  at all1 were of the
 ,greek school rather than the ,german4 
,certainly1  nothing could be further   
from genuine ,german romanticism1 with  
its  sentimentality1 its begging of     
questions and its booming patriotism1   
than the gospel of the superman4 ,what  
,nietzsche undoubtedly got from  the    
romantics was a feeling of ease in the  
,german language1 a disregard  for the  
artificial bonds of the schools1 a sense
 of hospitality to  the gipsy phrase4   
,in brief1 they taught him how to write4
 ,but they  certainly did not teach him 
what to write4    ,even so1 it is       
probable that he was as much influenced 

by certain  ,frenchmen as he ever was by
 ,germans--particularly by ,montaigne1  
,la  ,bruyre1 ,la ,rochefoucauld1       
,fontenelle1 ,vauvenargues and          
,chamfort1 his  constant companions on  
his wanderings4 ,he borrowed from them1 
not only  the somewhat obvious device of
 putting his argument into the form of  
apothegms and epigrams1 but also their  
conception of the dialectic as  one of  
the fine arts--in other words1 their    
striving after style4 ,it  is to a small
 number of ,french authors1 he once     
said1 that ,i return  again and again4  
,i believe only in ,french culture1 and 
regard all that  is called culture      
elsewhere in ,europe1 especially in     
,germany1 as mere  misunderstanding4444 
,the few persons of higher culture that 
,i have met  in ,germany have had       
,french training--above all1 ,frau      
,cosima ,wagner1  by long odds the best 
authority on questions of taste ,i ever 
heard  of4#ag ,this preference carried  
him so far1 indeed1 that he usually     

wrote more like a ,frenchman than like a
 ,german1 toying with words1            
experimenting with their combinations1  
matching them as carefully as  pearls   
for a necklace4 ,nietzsche1 says one    
critic1#ah whether for  good or evil1   
introduced ,romance 7not romantic67     
qualities of terseness  and clearness   
into ,german prose2 it was his endeavor 
to free it from  those elements which he
 described as deutsch und schwer4       
7,german and  heavy47    ,for the rest1 
he denounced ,klopstock1 ,herder1       
,wieland1 ,lessing and  ,schiller1 the  
remaining gods in ,germany's literary   
valhalla1 even more  bitterly than he   
denounced ,kant and ,hegel1 the giants  
of orthodox  ,german philosophy4      #a
 ,the ,revival of ,aristocracy1 ,london1
 #aijf1 pp4 #ad-ei4    #b ,friedrich    
,nietzsche3 ,his ,life and ,work1 ,new  
,york1 #aiji1 pp4  #cae-cbj4    #c      
,nietzsche et l',immoralisme1 ,paris1   
#aijb1 p4 #bid4    #d ,nietzsche as     
,critic1 ,philosopher1 ,poet and        

,prophet1 ,london1 #aija1  pp4 xi-xxiii4
    #e ,von ,darwin bis ,nietzsche1     
,leipsic1 #ahie4    #f ,nietzsche1      
,boston1 #aiab1 pp4 #ah-de4    #g ,de   
,kant  ,nietzsche1 ,paris1 #aijj4    #h 
,nietzsche himself1 in after years1     
viewed this attack humorously1  and was 
wont to say that it was caused1 not by  
,schopenhauer alone1 but  also 7and     
chiefly7 by the bad cooking of ,leipsic4
 ,see ,ecce ,homo1  ,,ii1 i4    #i ,ecce
 ,homo1 ,,ii1 #c4    #aj ,eng4 tr4 by   
,steven ,t4 ,byington1 ,the ,ego and    
,his ,own1 ,new ,york1  #aijg4    #aa   
,the ,leviathan1 ,i1 vi2 ,london1 #afea4
    #ab ,frau ,frster-,nietzsche3 ,the  
,life of ,nietzsche 7,eng4 tr471 ,vol4  
,i1 p4 #ca4    #ac ,gtzendmmerung1 ,,ix1
 #di4    #ad ,heine was a ,jew--and     
,nietzsche1 as we know1 liked to think  
himself  a ,pole4    #ae ,ecce ,homo1   
,,ii1 #d4    #af ,nietzsche und die     
,romantik1 ,jena1 #aije4    #ag ,ecce   
,homo1 ,,ii1 #c4    #ah ,j4 ,g4         
,robertson3 ,a ,history of ,german      

,literature1 ,edinburgh1  #aijb1 pp4    
#faa-fae4          ,,ii      ,,nietzsche
 ,,and ,,his ,,critics      ,let us set 
aside at the start that great host of   
critics whose chief  objection to       
,nietzsche is that he is blasphemous1   
that his philosophy  and his manner     
outrage the piety and prudery of the    
world4 ,of such  sort are the pale      
parsons who arise in suburban pulpits to
 dispose of  him in the half hour       
between the first and second lessons1 as
 their  predecessors of the #gj's and   
#hj's disposed of ,darwin1 ,huxley and  
,spencer4 ,let them read their          
indictments and bring in their verdicts 
and pronounce their bitter sentences6   
,the student of ,nietzsche must         
perceive at once the irrelevance of that
 sort of criticism4 ,it was the         
deliberate effort of the philosopher1   
from the very start of what he  calls   
his tunnelling period1 to provoke and   
deserve the accusation of  sacrilege4   
,in framing his accusations against     

,christian morality he  tried to make   
them1 not only persuasive and just1 but 
also as offensive  as possible4 ,no man 
ever had more belief in the propagandist
 value of a  succs de scandale4 ,he     
tried his best to shock the guardians of
 the  sacred vessels1 to force upon them
 the burdens of an active defense1  to  
bring them out into the open1 to attract
 attention to the combat by             
accentuating its mere fuming and fury4  
,if he succeeded in the effort1  if he  
really outraged ,christendom1 then it is
 certainly absurd to bring  forward that
 deliberate achievement as an exhibit   
against itself4    ,the more pertinent  
and plausible criticisms of ,nietzsche1 
launched  against him in ,europe and    
,america by many industrious foes1 may  
be  reduced for convenience to five     
fundamental propositions1 to wit3    7a7
 ,he was a decadent and a lunatic1 and  
in consequence his  philosophy is not   
worthy of attention4    7b7 ,his        
writings are chaotic and contradictory  

and it is impossible  to find in them   
any connected philosophical system4     
7c7 ,his argument that self-sacrifice   
costs more than it yields1 and  that it 
thus reduces the average fitness of a   
race practising it1 is  contradicted by 
human experience4    7d7 ,the scheme of 
things proposed by him is opposed by    
ideas inherent  in all civilized men4   
7e7 ,even admitting that his criticism  
of ,christian morality is  well-founded1
 he offers nothing in place of it that  
would work as well4    ,it is scarcely  
worth while to linger over the first and
 second of  these propositions4 ,the    
first has been defended most speciously 
by ,max  ,nordau1 in ,degeneration1 a   
book which made as much noise1 when it  
was  first published in #ahic1 as any of
 ,nietzsche's own4 ,nordau's argument   
is based upon a theory of degeneration  
borrowed quite frankly from  ,cesare    
,lombroso1 an ,italian quasi-scientist  
whose modest contributions  to          
psychiatry were offset by many volumes  

of rubbish about spooks1  table-tapping1
 mental telepathy1 spirit photography   
and the alleged  stigmata of criminals  
and men of genius4 ,degeneracy and      
decadence  were terms that filled the   
public imagination in the #hj's and     
#ij's1  and even ,nietzsche himself     
seemed to think1 at times1 that they had
  definite meanings and that his own    
type of mind was degenerate4 ,as        
,nordau defines degeneracy it is a      
morbid deviation from the original      
type--i4e4 from the physical and mental 
norm of the species--and  he lays stress
 upon the fact that by morbid he means  
infirm or  incapable of fulfilling      
normal functions4 ,but straightway he   
begins  to regard any deviation as      
morbid and degenerate1 despite the      
obvious  fact that it may be quite the  
reverse4 ,he says1 for example1 that a  
man  with web toes is a degenerate1 and 
then proceeds to argue elaborately  from
 that premise1 entirely overlooking the 
fact that web toes1 under  easily       

imaginable circumstances1 might be an   
advantage instead of a  handicap1 and   
that1 under the ordinary conditions of  
life1 we are  unable to determine with  
any accuracy whether they are the one   
thing  or the other4 ,so with the       
symptoms of degeneracy that he discovers
 in  ,nietzsche4 ,he shows that         
,nietzsche differed vastly from the     
average1  every-day ,german of his time1
 and even from the average ,german of   
superior culture--that he thought       
differently1 wrote differently1  admired
 different heroes and believed in       
different gods--but he by no  means     
proves thereby that ,nietzsche's        
processes of thought were morbid  or    
infirm1 or that the conclusions he      
reached were invalid a priori4  ,since  
,nordau startled the world with his     
book1 the ,lombrosan theory of          
degeneracy has lost ground among        
psychologists and pathologists1 but it  
is still launched against ,nietzsche by 
an occasional critic1 and so it         

deserves to be noticed4    ,nordau's    
discussion of ,nietzsche's insanity is  
rather more intelligent  than his       
discussion of the philosopher's alleged 
degeneracy1 if only  because his facts  
are less open to dispute1 but here1 too1
 he forgets  that the proof of an idea  
is not to be sought in the soundness of 
the  man fathering it1 but in the       
soundness of the idea itself4 ,one asks 
of  a pudding1 not if the cook who      
offers it is a good woman1 but if the   
pudding itself is good4 ,nordau1 in     
attempting to dispose of ,nietzsche's   
philosophy on the ground that the author
 died a madman1 succeeds only  in piling
 up a mass of uncontroverted but        
irrelevant accusations4 ,he  shows that 
,nietzsche was an utter believer in his 
own wisdom1 that he  had a fondness for 
repeating certain favorite arguments ad 
nauseam1  that he was violently         
impatient of criticism1 that he         
chronically  underestimated the man     
opposed to him1 that he sometimes       

indulged in  blasphemy for the sheer joy
 of shocking folks1 and that he was     
often  hypnotized by the exuberance of  
his own verbosity1 but it must be plain 
that this indictment has its effective  
answer in the fact that it might  be    
found with equal justice against almost 
any revolutionary enthusiast  one       
selected at random--for example1        
,savonarola1 ,tolstoi1 ,luther1  ,ibsen1
 ,garrison1 ,phillips1 ,wilkes1 ,baknin1
 ,marx1 or ,nordau himself4  ,that      
,nietzsche died insane is undoubted1 and
 that his insanity was not  sudden in   
its onset is also plain1 and one may    
even admit frankly that  it is visible1 
here and there1 in his writings1        
particularly those of  his last year or 
two2 but that his principal doctrines1  
the ideas upon  which his fame are      
based1 are the fantasies of a maniac is 
certainly  wholly false4 ,had he sought 
to prove that cows had wings1 it might  
be  fair today to dismiss him as ,nordau
 attempts to dismiss him4 ,but when  he 

essayed to prove that ,christianity     
impeded progress1 he laid down a        
proposition that1 whatever its novelty  
and daring1 was obviously not           
irrational1 and neither was there       
anything irrational in the reasoning    
whereby he supported it4 ,one need go no
 further for proof of this than  the    
fact that multitudes of sane men1 while 
he lived and since his  death1 have     
debated that proposition in all         
seriousness and found a  plentiful food 
for sober thought in ,nietzsche's       
statement and defense  of it4 ,ibsen    
also passed out of life in mental       
darkness1 and so did  ,schumann1 but no 
reasonable critic would seek thereby to 
deny all  intelligibility to ,peer ,gynt
 or to the piano quintet in ,e flat4    
,again1 it is ,nordau who chiefly voices
 the second of the objections  noted at 
the beginning of this chapter1 though   
here many another  self-confessed       
serpent of wisdom follows him4          
,nietzsche1 he says1  tore down without 

building up1 and died without having    
formulated any  workable substitute for 
the ,christian morality he denounced4   
,even to  the reader who has got no     
further into ,nietzsche than the        
preceding  chapters of this book1 the   
absurdity of such a charge must be      
manifest  without argument4 ,no man1    
indeed1 ever left a more comprehensive  
system of ethics1 not even ,comte or    
,herbert ,spencer1 and if it be true    
that he scattered it through a dozen    
books and that he occasionally  modified
 it in some of its details1 it is       
equally true that his  fundamental      
principles were always stated with      
perfect clearness and  that they        
remained substantially unchanged from   
first to last4 ,but  even supposing that
 he had died before he had arranged his 
ideas in a  connected and coherent form1
 and that it had remained for his       
disciples  to deduce and group his final
 conclusions1 and to rid the whole of   
inconsistency--even then it would have  

been possible to study those            
conclusions seriously and to accept them
 for what they were worth4  ,nordau lays
 it down as an axiom that a man cannot  
be a reformer unless  he proposes some  
ready-made and perfectly symmetrical    
scheme of things  to take the place of  
the notions he seeks to overturn1 that  
if he does  not do this he is a mere    
hurler of bricks and shouter of         
blasphemies4  ,but all of us know that  
this is not true4 ,nearly every         
considerable  reform the world knows has
 been accomplished1 not by one man1 but 
by  many men working in series4 ,it     
seldom happens1 indeed1 that the man who
  first points out the necessity for    
change lives long enough to see that    
change accomplished1 or even to define  
its precise manner and terms4           
,nietzsche himself was not the first    
critic of ,christian morality1  nor did 
he so far dispose of the question that  
he left no room for  successors4 ,but he
 made a larger contribution to it than  

any man had  ever made before him1 and  
the ideas he contributed were so acute  
and so  convincing that they must needs 
be taken into account by every critic   
who comes after him4    ,so much for the
 first two arguments against the prophet
 of the  superman4 ,both raise          
immaterial objections and the second    
makes an  allegation that is grotesquely
 untrue4 ,the other three are founded   
upon  sounder logic1 and1 when          
maintained skillfully1 afford more      
reasonable  ground for objecting to the 
,nietzschean system1 either as a whole  
or in  part4 ,it would be interesting1  
perhaps1 to attempt a complete review   
of the literature embodying them1 but   
that would take a great deal  more space
 than is here available1 and so we must 
be content with a  glance at a few      
typical efforts at refutation4 ,one of  
the most familiar  of these appears in  
the argument that the messianic         
obligation of  self-sacrifice1 whatever 
its cost1 has yet yielded the race a    

large  profit--that we are the better   
for our ,christian charity and that  we 
owe it entirely to ,christianity4 ,this 
argument has been best put  forward1    
perhaps1 by ,bennett ,hume1 an          
,englishman4 ,if it were not for        
,christian charity1 says ,mr4 ,hume1    
there would be no hospitals and  asylums
 for the sick and insane1 and in        
consequence1 no concerted and  effective
 effort to make man more healthy and    
efficient4 ,therefore1 he  maintains1 it
 must be admitted that the influence of 
,christianity1 as a  moral system1 has  
been for the good of the race4 ,but this
 argument1 in  inspection1 quickly goes 
to pieces1 and for two reasons4 ,in the 
first  place1 it must be obvious that   
the advantages of preserving the unfit1 
few of whom ever become wholly fit      
again1 are more than dubious2 and  in   
the second place1 it must be plain that 
modern humanitarianism1 in  so far as it
 is scientific and unsentimental and    
hence profitable1 is  so little a purely

 ,christian idea that the ,christian    
church1 even down  to our own time1 has 
actually opposed it4 ,no man1 indeed1   
can read ,dr4  ,andrew ,d4 ,white's     
great history of the warfare between    
science and  the church without carrying
 away the conviction that such great    
boons  as the conquest of smallpox and  
malaria1 the development of surgery1    
the improved treatment of the insane1   
and the general lowering of the  death  
rate have been brought about1 not by the
 maudlin alms-giving of  ,christian     
priests1 but by the intelligent         
meliorism of rebels against  a blind    
faith1 ruthless in their ways and means 
but stupendously  successful in their   
achievement4    ,another critic1 this   
time a ,frenchman1 ,alfred ,fouille by  
name1#a  chooses as his point of attack 
the ,nietzschean doctrine that a        
struggle  is welcome and beneficial to  
the strong1 that intelligent            
self-seeking1  accompanied by a certain 
willingness to take risks1 is the road  

of  progress4 ,a struggle1 argues ,m4   
,fouille1 always means an expenditure   
of strength1 and strength1 when so      
expended1 is further weakened by  the   
opposing strength it arouses and        
stimulates4 ,darwin is summoned  from   
his tomb to substantiate this argument1 
but its exponent seems to  forget 7while
 actually stating it67 the familiar     
physiological axiom1  so often turned to
 by ,darwin1 that strength is one of the
 effects of  use1 and the ,darwinian    
corollary that disuse1 whether produced 
by  organized protection or in some     
other way1 leads inevitably to weakness 
and atrophy4 ,in other words1 the ideal 
strong man of ,m4 ,fouille's  dream is  
one who seeks1 with great enthusiasm1   
the readiest possible  way of ridding   
himself of his strength4    ,nordau1    
,violet ,paget and various other critics
 attack ,nietzsche from  much the same  
side4 ,that is to say1 they endeavor to 
controvert his  criticism of humility   
and self-sacrifice and to show that the 

law of  natural selection1 with its     
insistence that only the fittest shall  
survive1 is insufficient to insure human
 progress4 ,miss ,paget1 for  example1#b
 argues that if there were no belief in 
every man's duty to  yield something to 
his weaker brother the race would soon  
become a herd  of mere wild beasts4 ,she
 sees humility as a sort of brake or    
governor1  placed upon humanity to keep 
it from running amuck4 ,a human being is
  so constituted1 she says1 that he     
necessarily looms in his own view  as   
large as all the rest of the world put  
together4 ,this distortion  of values is
 met with in the consciousness of every 
individual1 and  if there were nothing  
to oppose it1 it would lead to a        
hopeless  conflict between exaggerated  
egos4 ,humility1 says ,miss ,paget1     
tempers  the conflict1 without wholly   
ending it4 ,a man's inherent tendency to
  magnify his own importance and to     
invite death by trying to force that    
view upon others is held in check by the

 idea that it is his duty to  consider  
the welfare of those others4 ,the       
objection to all this is that  the      
picture of humility ,miss ,paget draws  
is not at all a picture of              
self-sacrifice1 of something founded    
upon an unselfish idea of duty1  but a  
picture of highly intelligent egoism4   
,whatever his pharisaical  account of   
his motives1 it must be obvious that her
 ,christian gentleman  is merely a man  
who throws bones to the dogs about him4 
,between such  wise prudence and the    
immolation of the ,beatitudes a wide    
gulf is  fixed4 ,as a matter of fact1   
that prudence is certainly not opposed  
by  ,nietzsche4 ,the higher man of his  
visions is far from a mere brawler4 ,he 
is not afraid of an open fight1 and he  
is never held back by fear of  hurting  
his antagonist1 but he also understands 
that there are times  for truce and     
guile4 ,in brief1 his self-seeking is   
conducted1 not alone  by his fists1 but 
also by his head4 ,he knows when to     

pounce upon his  foes and rivals1 but he
 also knows when to keep them from      
pouncing upon  him4 ,thus ,miss ,paget's
 somewhat elaborate refutation1 though  
it leads  to an undoubtedly sound       
conclusion1 by no means disposes of     
,nietzsche4    ,the other branches of   
the argument that self-sacrifice is     
beneficial  open an endless field of    
debate1 in which the same set of facts  
is  often susceptible of diametrically  
opposite interpretations4 ,we have      
already glanced at the alleged effects  
of ,christian charity upon  progress1   
and observed the enormous difference    
between sentimental  efforts to preserve
 the unfit and intelligent efforts to   
make them fit1  and we have seen how    
practical ,christianity1 whatever its   
theoretical  effects1 has had the actual
 effect of furthering the former and    
hindering the latter4 ,it is often      
argued that there is unfairness  in thus
 burdening the creed with the crimes of 
the church1 but how  the two are to be  

separated is never explained4 ,what     
sounder test of  a creed's essential    
value can we imagine than that of its   
visible  influence upon the men who     
subscribe to it8 ,and what sounder test 
of  its terms than the statement of its 
ordained teachers and interpreters1     
supported by the unanimous approval of  
all who profess it8 ,we are here        
dealing1 let it be remembered1 not with 
esoteric doctrines1 but with  practical 
doctrines--that is to say1 with working 
policies4 ,if the  ,christian ideal of  
charity is to be defended as a working  
policy1 then  it is certainly fair to   
examine it at work4 ,and when that is   
done the  reflective observer is almost 
certain to conclude that it is opposed  
to true progress1 that it acts as a     
sentimental shield to the unfit  without
 helping them in the slightest to shake 
off their unfitness4  ,what is more1 it 
stands contrary to that wise forethought
 which  sacrifices one man today that   
ten may be saved tomorrow4 ,nothing     

could  be more patent1 indeed1 than the 
high cost to humanity of the ,christian 
teaching that it is immoral to seek the 
truth outside the ,word of ,god1  or to 
take thought of an earthly tomorrow1 or 
to draw distinctions in  value between  
beings who all possess souls of         
infinite1 and therefore  of exactly     
equal preciousness4    ,but setting     
aside the doctrine that self-sacrifice  
is a religious  duty1 there remains the 
doctrine that it is a measure of        
expediency1  that when the strong help  
the weak they also help themselves4 ,let
 it  be said at once that this second   
doctrine1 provided only it be applied   
intelligently and without any admixture 
of sentimentality1 is not in  opposition
 to anything in ,nietzsche's philosophy4
 ,on the contrary1  he is at pains to   
point out the value of exploiting the   
inefficient  masses1 and obviously that 
exploitation is impossible without some 
concession to their habits and desires1 
some offer1 however fraudulent1  of a   

quid pro quo--and unprofitable unless   
they can be made to yield  more than    
they absorb4 ,for one thing1 there is   
the business of keeping  the lower      
castes in health4 ,they themselves are  
too ignorant and lazy  to manage it1 and
 therefore it must be managed by their  
betters4 ,when  we appropriate money    
from the public funds to pay for        
vaccinating a  horde of negroes1 we do  
not do it because we have any sympathy  
for them  or because we crave their     
blessings1 but simply because we don't  
want  them to be falling ill of smallpox
 in our kitchens and stables1 to the    
peril of our own health and the neglect 
of our necessary drudgery4#c  ,in so far
 as the negroes have any voice in the   
matter at all1 they  protest against    
vaccination1 for they can't understand  
its theory and  so they see only its    
tyranny1 but we vaccinate them          
nevertheless1  and thus increase their  
mass efficiency in spite of them4 ,it   
costs  something to do the work1 but we 

see a profit in it4 ,here we have a     
good example of self-sacrifice based    
frankly upon expediency1 and  ,nietzsche
 has nothing to say against it4    ,but 
what he does insist upon is that we must
 beware of mixing  sentimentality with  
the business1 that we must keep the idea
 of  expediency clear of any idea of    
altruism4 ,the trouble with the world1  
as he describes it1 is that such a      
corruption almost always takes  place4  
,that is to say1 we too often practise  
charity1 not because it is  worth while1
 but merely because it is pleasant4 ,the
 ,christian ideal1  he says1 knows how  
to enrapture4 ,starting out from the    
safe premise1  approved by human        
experience1 that it is sometimes a      
virtue--i4e41 a  measure of intelligent 
prudence--to help the weak1 we proceed  
to the  illogical conclusion that it is 
always a virtue4 ,hence our wholesale   
coddling of the unfit1 our enormous     
expenditure upon vain schemes of        
amelioration1 our vain efforts to combat

 the laws of nature4 ,we nurse  the     
defective children of the lower classes 
into some appearance of  health1 and    
then turn them out to beget their kind4 
,we parole the  pickpocket1 launch him  
upon society with a tract in his        
hand--and  lose our pocket-books next   
day4 ,we send missionaries to the       
heathen1  build hospitals for them1     
civilize and educate them--and later on 
have  to fight them4 ,we save a pauper  
consumptive today1 on the ostensible    
theory that he is more valuable saved   
than dead--and so open the way  for     
saving his innumerable grandchildren in 
the future4 ,in brief1 our              
self-sacrifice of expediency seldom     
remains undefiled4 ,nine times out  of  
ten a sentimental color quickly         
overcomes it1 and soon or late  there is
 apt to be more sentimentality in it    
than expediency4    ,what is worse1 this
 sentimentalism results in attaching a  
sort of  romantic glamour to its        
objects4 ,just as the ,sunday-school    

teaching  virgin1 beginning by trying to
 save the ,chinese laundryman's soul1   
commonly ends by falling in love with   
him1 so the virtuoso of any  other sort 
of charity commonly ends by endowing its
 beneficiary with  a variety of         
imaginary virtues4 ,sympathy1 by some   
subtle alchemy1 is  converted into a    
sneaking admiration4 ,blessed are the   
poor in spirit  becomes ,blessed are the
 poor4 ,this exaltation of inefficiency1
 it  must be manifest1 is a dangerous   
error4 ,there is1 in fact1 nothing  at  
all honorable about unfitness1          
considered in the mass4 ,on the         
contrary1 it is invariably a symptom of 
actual dishonor--of neglect1  laziness1 
ignorance and depravity--if not         
primarily in the individual  himself1   
then at least in his forebears1 whose   
weakness he carries on4  ,it is highly  
important that this fact should be kept 
in mind by the  human race1 that the    
essential inferiority of the inefficient
 should  be insisted upon1 that the     

penalties of deliberate slackness should
  be swift and merciless4 ,but as it is1
 those penalties are too often  reduced 
to nothing by charity1 while the offense
 they should punish  is elevated to a   
fictitious martyrdom4 ,thus we have     
charity converted  into an instrument of
 debauchery4 ,thus we have it playing   
the part of  an active agent of decay1  
and so increasing the hazards of life on
  earth4 ,we may compare civilized man1 
says ,sir ,ray ,lankester1#d to  a      
successful rebel against nature1 who by 
every step forward renders  himself     
liable to greater and greater penalties4
 ,no need to offer  cases in point4     
,every one of us knows what the ,poor   
,laws of ,england  have accomplished in 
a hundred years--how they have          
multiplied misery  enormously and       
created a caste of professional         
paupers--how they have  seduced that    
caste downward into depths of           
degradation untouched by  any other     
civilized race in history--and how1 by  

hanging the crushing  burden of that    
caste about the necks of the ,english   
people1 they have  helped to weaken and 
sicken the whole stock and to imperil   
the future  of the nation4    ,so much  
for the utility of                      
self-sacrifice--undeniable1 perhaps1 so 
long  as a wise and ruthless foresight  
rules1 but immediately questionable     
when sentimentality enters into the     
matter4 ,there remains the answer  in   
rebuttal that sentimentality1 after all1
 is native to the soul of  man1 that we 
couldn't get rid of it if we tried4     
,herein1 if we look  closely1 we will   
observe tracks of an idea that has      
colored the whole  stream of human      
thought since the dawn of ,western      
philosophy1 and is  accepted today1 as  
irrefutably true1 by all who pound      
pulpits and wave  their arms and call   
upon their fellow men to repent4 ,it has
 clogged  all ethical inquiry for two   
thousand years1 it has been a premise in
  a million moral syllogisms1 it has    

survived the assaults of all the        
iconoclasts that ever lived4 ,it is     
taught in all our schools today and     
lies at the bottom of all our laws1     
prophecies and revelations4 ,it is  the 
foundation and cornerstone1 not only of 
,christianity1 but also of  every other 
compound of theology and morality known 
in the world4 ,and  what is this king of
 all axioms and emperor of all          
fallacies8 ,simply  the idea that there 
are rules of natural morality engraven  
indelibly  upon the hearts of man--that 
all men1 at all times and everywhere1   
have  ever agreed1 do now agree and will
 agree forevermore1 unanimously and     
without reservation1 that certain things
 are right and certain other  things are
 wrong1 that certain things are nice and
 certain other things  are not nice1    
that certain things are pleasing to ,god
 and certain other  things are offensive
 to ,god4    ,in every treatise upon    
,christian ethics and natural theology1 
so  called1 you will find these rules of

 natural morality in the first  chapter4
 ,thomas ,aquinas called them the       
eternal law4 ,even the ,greeks  and     
,romans1 for all their skepticism in    
morals1 had a sneaking belief  in them4 
,aristotle tried to formulate them and  
the ,latin lawyers  constantly assumed  
their existence4 ,most of them are held 
in firm faith  today by all save a small
 minority of the folk of ,christendom4  
,the  most familiar of them1 perhaps1 is
 the rule against murder--the sixth     
commandment4 ,another is the rule       
against the violation of property  in   
goods1 wives and cattle--the eighth and 
tenth commandments4 ,a  third is the    
rule upon which the solidity of the     
family is based1 and  with it the       
solidity of the tribe--the fifth        
commandment4 ,the theory  behind these  
rules is1 not only that they are wise1  
but that they are  innate and           
sempiternal1 that every truly           
enlightened man recognizes  their       
validity intuitively1 and is conscious  

of sin when he breaks  them4 ,to them   
,christianity added an eleventh         
commandment1 a sort of  infinite        
extension of the fifth1 that ye love one
 another#e--;and  in two thousand years 
it has been converted from a novelty    
into a  universality4 ,that is to say1  
its point of definite origin has been   
lost sight of1 and it has been moved    
over into the group of natural  virtues1
 of eternal laws4 ,when ,christ first   
voiced it1 in his  discourse at the     
,last ,supper1 it was so far from       
general acceptance  that he named a     
belief in it as one of the              
distinguishing marks of his  disciples1 
but now our moralists tell us that it is
 in the blood of  all of us1 and that we
 couldn't repudiate it if we would4     
,brotherhood1  indeed1 is the very soul 
of ,christianity1 and the only effort of
 the  pious today is to raise it from a 
universal theory to a universal fact4   
,but the truth is1 of course1 that it is
 not universal at all1 and that  nothing

 in the so-called soul of man prompts   
him to subscribe to it4  ,we cling to it
 today1 not because it is inherent in   
us1 but simply  because it is the moral 
fashion of our age4 ,when the disciples 
first  heard it put into terms1 it      
probably struck them as a revolutionary 
novelty1 and on some dim tomorrow our   
descendants may regard it as an  archaic
 absurdity4 ,in brief1 rules of morality
 are wholly temporal and  temporary1 for
 the good and sufficient reason that    
there is no natural  morality in        
man--and the sentimental rule that the  
strong shall give  of their strength to 
the weak is no exception4 ,there have   
been times in  the history of the race  
when few1 if any intelligent men        
subscribed to  it1 and there are        
thousands of intelligent men who refuse 
to subscribe  to it today1 and no doubt 
there will come a time when those who   
are  against it will once more greatly  
outnumber those who are in favor of  it4
 ,so with all other eternal laws4 ,their

 eternality exists only in  the         
imagination of those who seek to glorify
 them4 ,nietzsche himself  spent his    
best years demonstrating this1 and we   
have seen how he set  about the         
task--how he showed that the good of one
 race and age was  the bad of some other
 race and age--how the natural morality 
of the  ,periclean ,greeks1 for example1
 differed diametrically from the natural
  morality of the captive ,jews4 ,all   
history bears him out4 ,mankind is  ever
 revising and abandoning its inherent   
ideas4 ,we say today that  the human    
mind instinctively revolts against cruel
 punishments1 and yet  a moment's       
reflection recalls the fact that the    
world is1 and always  has been peopled  
by millions to whom cruelty1 not only to
 enemies  but to the weak in general1   
seems and has seemed wholly natural and 
agreeable4 ,we say that man has an      
innate impulse to be fair and  just1 and
 yet it is a commonplace observation    
that multitudes of men1  in the midst of

 our most civilized societies1 have     
little more sense  of justice than so   
many jackals4 ,therefore1 we may safely 
set aside  the argument that a natural  
instinct for sentimental self-sacrifice 
stands as an impassable barrier to      
,nietzsche's dionysian philosophy4      
,there is no such barrier4 ,there is no 
such instinct4 ,it is an idea           
merely--an idea powerful and persistent1
 but still mutable and mortal4          
,certainly1 it is absurd to plead it in 
proof against the one man who  did most 
to establish its mutability4    ,we come
 now to the final argument against      
,nietzsche--the argument1 to  wit1 that1
 even admitting his criticism of        
,christian morality to be  well-founded1
 he offers nothing in place of it that  
would serve the  world as well4 ,the    
principal spokesman of this objection1  
perhaps1  is ,paul ,elmer ,more1 who    
sets it forth at some length in his     
hostile  but very ingenious little study
 of ,nietzsche4#f ,mr4 ,more goes back  

to ,locke to show the growth of the two 
ideas which stand opposed as  ,socialism
 and individualism1 ,christianity and   
,nietzscheism today4 ,so  long1 he says1
 as man believed in revelation1 there   
was no genuine  effort to get at the    
springs of human action1 for every      
impulse that  was ratified by the       
,scriptures was believed to be natural  
and moral1  and every impulse that went 
counter to the ,scriptures was believed 
to be sinful1 even by those who yielded 
to it habitually4 ,but when  that idea  
was cleared away1 there arose a need for
 something to take  its place1 and      
,locke came forward with his theory that
 the notion of  good was founded upon   
sensations of pleasure and that of bad  
upon  sensations of pain4 ,there        
followed ,hume1 with his elaborate      
effort  to prove that sympathy was a    
source of pleasure1 by reason of its    
grateful tickling of the sense of       
virtue1 and so the new conception of    
good finally stood erect1 with one foot 

on frank self-interest and the  other on
 sympathy4 ,mr4 ,more shows how1 during 
the century following1  the importance  
of the second of these factors began to 
be accentuated1  under the influence of 
,rousseau and his followers1 and how1 in
 the end1  the first was forgotten      
almost entirely and there arose a       
non-,christian  sentimentality which was
 worse1 if anything1 than the           
sentimentality  of the ,beatitudes4 ,in 
,england1 ,france and ,germany it       
colored almost the  whole of philosophy1
 literature and politics4 ,stray men1   
true enough1  raised their voices       
against it1 but its sweep was           
irresistible4 ,its  fruits were diverse 
and memorable--the romantic movement in 
,germany1  humanitarianism in ,england1 
the ,kantian note in ethics1 and1 most  
important of all1 ,socialism4    ,that  
this exaltation of sympathy was         
imprudent1 and that its effects1  in our
 own time1 are far from satisfactory1   
,mr4 ,more is disposed  to grant freely4

 ,it is perfectly true1 as ,nietzsche   
argues1 that  humanitarianism has been  
guilty of gross excesses1 that there is 
a  danger that threatens true progress  
in any system of education and          
government which makes the advantage of 
the average rather than the             
distinguished man its chief object4 ,but
 ,mr4 ,more holds that the  danger thus 
inherent in sympathy is matched by a    
danger inherent in  selfishness1 that we
 are no worse off on one horn of ,hume's
 dual ethic  than we should be on the   
other4 ,sympathy unbalanced by          
self-seeking  leads us into maudlin     
futilities and crimes against           
efficiency2  self-seeking unchecked by  
sympathy would lead us into sheer       
savagery4  ,if there is any choice      
between the two1 that choice is probably
 in  favor of sympathy1 for the reason  
that it is happily impossible of        
realization4 ,the most lachrymose of the
 romantics1 in the midst of  their      
sentimentalizing1 were yet careful of   

their own welfare4 ,many of  them1      
indeed1 displayed a quite extraordinary 
egoism1 and there was  some justice in  
,byron's sneer that ,sterne1 for one1   
preferred weeping  over a dead ass to   
relieving the want 7at cost to himself7 
of a living  mother4    ,but in urging  
all this against ,nietzsche1 ,mr4 ,more 
and the other  destructive critics of   
the superman make a serious error1 and  
that  is the error of assuming that     
,nietzsche hoped to abolish ,christian  
morality completely1 that he proposed a 
unanimous desertion of the  idea of     
sympathy for the idea of intelligent    
self-seeking4 ,as a matter  of fact1 he 
had no such hope and made no such       
proposal4 ,nothing was  more firmly     
fixed in his mind1 indeed1 than the     
notion that the vast  majority of men   
would cling indefinitely1 and perhaps   
for all time1  to some system of        
morality more or less resembling the    
,christian  morality of today4 ,not only
 did he have no expectation of winning  

that  majority from its idols1 but he   
bitterly resented any suggestion that   
such a result might follow from his     
work4 ,the whole of his preaching  was  
addressed1 not to men in the mass1 but  
to the small minority of  exceptional   
men--not to those who live by obeying1  
but to those who  live by               
commanding--not to the race as a race1  
but only to its masters4  ,it would seem
 to be impossible that any reader of    
,nietzsche should  overlook this        
important fact1 and yet it is constantly
 overlooked by  most of his critics4    
,they proceed to prove1 elaborately and1
 it must  be said1 quite convincingly1  
that if his transvaluation of values    
were  made by all men1 the world would  
be no better off than it is today1  and 
perhaps a good deal worse1 but all they 
accomplish thereby is to  demolish a    
hobgoblin of straw4 ,nietzsche himself  
sensed the essential  value of ,hume's  
dualism4 ,what he sought to do was not  
to destroy it1  but to restore it1 and1 

restoring it1 to raise it to a state of 
active  conflict--to dignify            
self-interest as sympathy has been      
dignified1  and so to put the two in    
perpetual opposition4 ,he believed that 
the  former was by long odds the safer  
impulse for the higher castes of  men to
 follow1 if only because of its         
obviously closer kinship to the  natural
 laws which make for progress upward1   
but by the same token  he saw that these
 higher castes could gain nothing by    
disturbing the  narcotic contentment of 
the castes lower down4 ,therefore1 he   
was1 to  that extent1 an actual         
apologist for the thing he elsewhere so 
bitterly  attacked4 ,sympathy1          
self-sacrifice1 charity--these ideas    
lulled and  satisfied the chandala1 and 
so he was content to have the chandala  
hold to them4 ,whom do ,i hate most     
among the rabble of today8 ,the         
,socialist who undermines the           
workingman's instincts1 who destroys his
  satisfaction with his insignificant   

existence1 who makes him envious  and   
teaches him revenge4#g ,in brief1       
,nietzsche dreamed no dream of  all     
mankind converted into a race of        
supermen3 the only vision he saw  was   
one of supermen at the top4    ,to make 
an end1 his philosophy was wholly       
aristocratic1 in aim as well  as in     
terms4 ,he believed that superior men1  
by which he meant alert  and restless   
men1 were held in chains by the         
illusions and inertia of  the mass--that
 their impulse to move forward and      
upward1 at whatever  cost to those      
below1 was restrained by false notions  
of duty and  responsibility4 ,it was his
 effort to break down those false       
notions1  to show that the progress of  
the race was more important than the    
comfort of the herd1 to combat and      
destroy the lingering spectre of        
sin--in his own phrase1 to make man     
innocent4 ,but when he said man he      
always meant the higher man1 the man of 
tomorrow1 and not mere men4 ,for  the   

latter he had only contempt3 he sneered 
at their heroes1 at their  ideals1 at   
their definitions of good and evil4     
,there are only three  ways1 he said1 in
 which the masses appear to me to       
deserve a glance3  first1 as blurred    
copies of their betters1 printed on bad 
paper and  from worn-out plates2        
secondly1 as a necessary opposition2 and
 thirdly1  as tools4 ,further than that 
,i hand them over to statistics--and the
  devil4#h 444 ,i am writing for a race 
of men which does not yet exist4  ,i am 
writing for the lords of the earth4#i   
#a ,author of ,nietzsche et             
l',immoralisme and other books4 ,the    
argument discussed appears in an article
 in the ,international ,monthly  for    
,march1 #aija1 pp4 #acd-afe4    #b ,in  
the ,north ,american ,review for ,dec41 
#aijd4    #c ,a more extended treatment 
of this point will be found in ,men vs4 
the ,man1 by ,robert ,rives ,la ,monte  
and the present author3 ,new ,york1     
#aiaj4    #d ,in ,the ,kingdom of ,man1 

,london1 #aijg4    #e ,john ,,xiii1 #cd4
    #f ,nietzsche1 ,boston1 #aiab4      
,reprinted in ,the ,drift of            
,romanticism1  pp4 #adg-aij1 ,boston1   
#aiac4    #g ,der ,antichrist1 #eg4     
#h ,vom ,nutzen und ,nachtheil der      
,historie fr das ,leben1 ,,ix4    #i    
,der ,wille zur ,macht1 #ieh4           
,,how ,,to ,,study ,,nietzsche          
,through the diligence and enthusiasm of
 ,dr4 ,oscar ,levy1 author of ,the      
,revival of ,aristocracy1 a ,german by  
birth but for some time a resident  of  
,london1 the whole canon of ,nietzsche's
 writings is now to be had in  ,english 
translation4 ,so long ago as #ahif a    
complete edition in eleven  volumes was 
projected1 and ,dr4 ,alexander ,tille1  
lecturer on ,german in  the ,university 
of ,glasgow1 and author of ,von ,darwin 
bis ,nietzsche1  was engaged to edit it4
 ,but though it started fairly with a   
volume  including ,the ,case of ,wagner 
and ,the ,antichrist1 and four more     
volumes followed after a year or so1 it 

got no further than that4 ,ten  years   
later came ,dr4 ,levy4 ,he met with     
little encouragement when he  began1 but
 by dint of unfailing perseverance he   
finally gathered about  him a corps of  
competent translators1 made arrangements
 with publishers  in ,great ,britain and
 the ,united ,states1 and got the work  
under way4 ,his  eighteenth and last    
volume was published early in #aiac4    
,these translations1 in the main1 are   
excellent1 and explanatory  prefaces and
 notes are added wherever needed4 ,the  
contents of the  various volumes are as 
follows3    ,i4 ,the ,birth of ,tragedy1
 translated by ,wm4 ,a4 ,haussmann1 ,ph4
 ,d41 with  a biographical introduction 
by ,frau ,frster-,nietzsche1 a portrait 
of  ,nietzsche1 and a facsimile of his  
manuscript4    ,,ii4 ,early ,greek      
,philosophy and ,other ,essays1         
translated by ,maximilian  ,a4 ,mgge1   
,ph4 ,d41 author of ,friedrich          
,nietzsche3 ,his ,life and ,work4       
,contents3 ,the ,greek ,woman1 ,on      

,music and ,words1 ,homer's ,contest1   
,the ,relation of ,schopenhauer's       
,philosophy to a ,german ,culture1      
,philosophy ,during the ,tragic ,age of 
the ,greeks1 and ,on ,truth and         
,falsity in ,their ,ultramoral ,sense4  
,,iii4 ,on the ,future of ,our          
,educational ,institutions and ,homer   
and  ,classical ,philology1 translated  
by ,j4 ,m4 ,kennedy1 author of ,the     
,quintessence of ,nietzsche1 with an    
introduction by the translator4    ,,iv4
 ,thoughts ,out of ,season1 ,i 7,david  
,strauss1 the ,confessor and the        
,writer and ,richard ,wagner in         
,bayreuth71 translated by ,anthony ,m4  
,ludovici1 author of ,nietzsche3 ,his   
,life and ,works1 ,nietzsche and  ,art1 
and ,who is to be ,master of the ,world8
 with an introduction by  ,dr4 ,levy and
 a preface by the translator4    ,v4    
,thoughts ,out of ,season1 ,,ii 7,the   
,use and ,abuse of ,history and         
,schopenhauer as ,educator71 translated 
by ,adrian ,collins1 ,m4 ,a41 with  an  

introduction by the translator4    ,,vi4
 ,human ,all-,too ,human1 ,i1 translated
 by ,helen ,zimmern1 with an            
introduction by ,j4 ,m4 ,kennedy4       
,,vii4 ,human ,all-,too ,human1 ,,ii1   
translated by ,paul ,v4 ,cohn1 ,b4 ,a41 
with  an introduction by the translator4
    ,,viii4 ,the ,case of ,wagner       
7including ,nietzsche contra ,wagner    
and selected aphorisms71 translated by  
,a4 ,m4 ,ludovici1 and ,we              
,philologists1 translated by ,j4 ,m4    
,kennedy1 with prefaces by the          
translators4    ,,ix4 ,the ,dawn of     
,day1 translated by ,j4 ,m4 ,kennedy1   
with an  introduction by the translator4
    ,x4 ,the ,joyful ,wisdom1 translated
 by ,thomas ,common1 author of          
,nietzsche as ,critic1 ,philosopher1    
,poet and ,prophet 7including ,songs  of
 ,prince ,free-as-a-,bird1 translated by
 ,paul ,v4 ,cohn and ,maude ,d4         
,petre74    ,,xi4 ,thus ,spake          
,zarathustra1 translated by ,thomas     
,common1 with an  introduction by ,frau 

,frster-,nietzsche and explanatory notes
 by ,a4 ,m4  ,ludovici4    ,,xii4       
,beyond ,good and ,evil1 translated by  
,helen ,zimmern1 with an  introduction  
by ,thomas ,common4    ,,xiii4 ,the     
,genealogy of ,morals1 translated by    
,horace ,b4 ,samuel1 ,m4  ,a41 and      
,people and ,countries1 translated by   
,j4 ,m4 ,kennedy1 with an  editor's note
 by ,dr4 ,levy4    ,,xiv4 ,the ,will to 
,power1 ,i1 translated by ,a4 ,m4       
,ludovici1 with a  preface by the       
translator4    ,,xv4 ,the ,will to      
,power1 ,,ii1 translated by ,a4 ,m4     
,ludovici1 with a  preface by the       
translator4    ,,xvi4 ,the ,twilight of 
the ,idols 7including ,the ,antichrist1 
,eternal  ,recurrence and explanatory   
notes to ,thus ,spake ,zarathustra71    
translated by ,a4 ,m4 ,ludovici1 with a 
preface by the translator4    ,,xvii4   
,ecce ,homo1 translated by ,a4 ,m4      
,ludovici2 various songs1  epigrams and 
dithyrambs1 translated by ,paul ,v4     
,cohn1 ,herman ,scheffauer1  ,francis   

,bickley and ,dr4 ,g4 ,t4 ,wrench2 and  
the music of ,nietzsche's  ,hymn to     
,life 7words by ,lou ,salom71 with an   
introduction by ,mr4  ,ludovici1 a note 
to the poetry by ,dr4 ,levy1 and a      
reproduction of ,karl  ,donndorf's bust 
of ,nietzsche4    ,,xviii4 ,index4      
,the student who would read ,nietzsche  
had better begin with one of  the       
aphoristic books1 preferably ,the ,dawn 
of ,day4 ,from that let  him proceed to 
,beyond ,good and ,evil1 ,the ,genealogy
 of ,morals and  ,the ,antichrist4 ,he  
will then be ready to understand ,thus  
,spake  ,zarathustra4 ,later on he may  
read ,ecce ,homo and dip into ,the      
,joyful  ,wisdom1 ,human ,all-,too      
,human and ,the ,will to ,power1 as his 
fancy  suggests4 ,the ,wagner pamphlets 
are of more importance to ,wagnerians   
than to students of ,nietzsche's ideas1 
and the early philological and  critical
 essays have lost much of their interest
 by the passage of  time4 ,nietzsche's  
poetry had better be avoided by all who 

cannot read  it in the original ,german4
 ,the ,english translations are mostly  
very  free and seldom satisfactory4     
,of the larger ,nietzschean commentaries
 in ,english the best is  ,friedrich    
,nietzsche3 ,his ,life and ,work1 by ,m4
 ,a4 ,mgge4 ,appended to  it is a       
bibliography of #hej titles--striking   
evidence of the attention  that         
,nietzsche's ideas have gained in the   
world4 ,other books that will  be found 
useful are ,the ,quintessence of        
,nietzsche1 by ,j4 ,m4 ,kennedy2        
,nietzsche3 ,his ,life and ,works1 by   
,anthony ,m4 ,ludovici2 ,the ,gospel  of
 ,superman1 by ,henri ,lichtenberger1   
translated from the ,french by ,j4  ,m4 
,kennedy2 ,the ,philosophy of           
,nietzsche1 by ,georges                 
,chatterton-,hill1  and ,the ,philosophy
 of ,friedrich ,nietzsche1 by ,grace    
,neal ,dolson1 ,ph4  ,d41 this last a   
pioneer work of permanent value4 ,lesser
 studies are  to be found in ,friedrich 
,nietzsche1 by ,a4 ,r4 ,orage2          

,nietzsche as  ,critic1 ,philosopher1   
,poet and ,prophet1 by ,thomas ,common2 
,friedrich  ,nietzsche and ,his ,new    
,gospel1 by ,emily ,s4 ,hamblen1 and    
,nietzsche1  by ,paul ,elmer ,more4     
,interesting discussions of various     
,nietzschean  ideas are in ,the ,revival
 of ,aristocracy1 by ,dr4 ,oscar ,levy2 
,who  is to be ,master of the ,world8 by
 ,a4 ,m4 ,ludovici2 ,on the ,tracks of  
,life1 by ,leo ,g4 ,sera1 translated    
from the ,italian by ,j4 ,m4 ,kennedy2  
,nietzsche and ,art1 by ,a4 ,m4         
,ludovici1 and ,the ,mastery of ,life1  
by  ,g4 ,t4 ,wrench4 ,selections from   
,nietzsche's writings are put together  
under subject headings in ,nietzsche in 
,outline and ,aphorism1 by ,a4  ,r4     
,orage2 ,nietzsche3 ,his ,maxims1 by ,j4
 ,m4 ,kennedy1 and ,the ,gist  of       
,nietzsche1 by ,h4 ,l4 ,mencken4 ,an    
elaborate and invaluable summary  of all
 ,nietzsche's writings1 book by book1 is
 to be found in ,what  ,nietzsche       
,taught1 by ,willard ,h4 ,wright4 ,this 

volume1 the fruit of  very diligent     
labor1 is admirably concise and         
well-ordered4    ,the standard biography
 of ,nietzsche is ,das ,leben ,friedrich
  ,nietzsches by ,frau                  
,frster-,nietzsche1 a large work in     
three volumes4  ,in #aiaa ,frau         
,frster-,nietzsche prepared a shorter   
version and this  has since been done   
into ,english by ,a4 ,m4 ,ludovici1 and 
published in  two volumes1 under the    
title of ,the ,life of ,nietzsche4      
,unluckily1  so devoted a sister was not
 the best person to deal with certain   
episodes in the life of her brother and 
hero4 ,the gaps she left and  the       
ameliorations she attempted are filled  
and corrected in ,the ,life  of         
,friedrich ,nietzsche1 by ,daniel       
,halvy1 translated from the ,french  by 
,j4 ,m4 ,hone1 with an extraordinarily  
brilliant introduction by ,t4 ,m4       
,kettle1 ,m4 ,p4    ,small but          
suggestive studies of ,nietzsche and his
 ideas are to be  found in ,egoists1    

,mezzotints in ,modern ,music1 and ,the 
,pathos  of ,distance1 by ,james        
,huneker2 ,degeneration1 by ,max        
,nordau2  ,affirmations1 by ,havelock   
,ellis2 ,aristocracy and ,evolution1 by 
,w4  ,h4 ,mallock2 ,heretics and        
,orthodoxy1 by ,g4 ,k4 ,chesterton2     
,lectures  and ,essays on ,natural      
,theology1 by ,william ,wallace2        
,heralds of  ,revolt1 by ,william       
,barry1 ,d4 ,d42 ,essays in ,sociology1 
by ,j4 ,m4  ,robertson2 ,the ,larger    
,aspects of ,socialism1 by ,william     
,english  ,walling2 ,three ,modern      
,seers1 by ,mrs4 ,havelock ,ellis2      
,slaves to  ,duty1 by ,j4 ,badcock2 ,in 
,peril of ,change1 by ,c4 ,f4 ,g4       
,masterman2  ,man's ,place in the       
,cosmos1 by ,a4 ,seth ,pringle          
,pattison2 and ,gospels  of ,anarchy1 by
 ,vernon ,lee 7,violet ,paget74 ,george 
,bernard ,shaw's  variations upon       
,nietzschean themes are in ,the         
,revolutionist's  ,handbook1 appended to
 ,man and ,superman4 ,of magazine       

articles dealing  with the prophet of   
the superman there has been no end of   
late4 ,most  of them are worthless1 but 
any bearing the name of ,grace ,neal    
,dolson1  ,thomas ,common1 ,thomas      
,stockham ,baker or ,maude ,d4 ,petre   
may be read  with profit4 ,one of the   
best discussions of ,nietzsche ,i have  
ever  encountered was contributed to the
 ,catholic ,world during ,december1     
#aije1 and ,january1 ,february1 ,march1 
,may and ,june1 #aijf1 by ,miss ,petre4 
,it is to be regretted that these       
excellent papers1 which sought to       
rescue ,nietzsche from the              
misunderstandings of ,christian critics1
 have  not been re-printed in book-form4
        ,,index      ,adieu1 ,i ,must   
,go61 patriotic song  ,amor fati        
,anarchism  ,andreas-,salom1 see ,salom4
  ,antichrist1 ,the--    ,publication of
    ,quotations from    ,style of       
,english translation of  ,apollo--      
,first conception of    ,god of music   
and poetry    ,influence of    ,conflict

 with ,dionysus  ,aquinas1 ,thomas      
,arcelaus  ,aristocracy  ,art for art's 
sake  ,asceticism1 #ba footnote         
,atheism    ,bacchus ,dionysus--        
,first conception of    ,imported into  
,greece    ,god of strenuous life       
,conflict with ,apollo    ,nietzsche a  
,dionysian  ,bad1 definition of         
,badcock1 ,j4  ,baker1 ,thomas ,stockham
  ,balfour1 ,a4 ,j4  ,barry1 ,wm4       
,basel1 ,university of--    ,nietzsche  
appointed prof4    ,lectures on ,greek  
drama    ,in academic society    ,leave 
of absence    ,resigns professorship    
,in asylum at    ,income at  ,beauty1   
the idea of  ,beer1 ,nietzsche's dislike
 of  ,beyle1 ,marie ,henri1 see         
,stendhal4  ,beyond ,good and ,evil--   
,publication of    ,quotations from     
,argument of    ,english translation of 
,beyond-man1 see ,higher man4  ,bible1  
,nietzsche's knowledge of  ,bible1      
quotations from  ,bickley1 ,francis     
,birth of ,tragedy1 ,the--    ,its      
genesis and publication    ,doctrine of 

,quotation from    ,revised    ,english 
translation of  ,bizet's music  ,blake1 
,william  ,blond beast  ,bonn1          
,nietzsche's career at  ,bradley1 ,henry
  ,brandes1 ,georg  ,buddhism           
,burkhardt1 ,prof4  ,butler1 ,samuel    
,callicles  ,castes  ,catholic ,world   
,celibacy  ,chamfort  ,chandala1 see    
,masses4  ,charity  ,chatterton-,hill1  
,georges  ,chesterton1 ,g4 ,k4          
,chivalry  ,chloral1 ,nietzsche's use of
  ,christian ,science  ,christianity--  
,nietzsche's indictment of              
,scientific revolt against    ,its      
dogmas examined    ,free will vs4       
determinism    ,its slave-morality      
,charity    ,opposition to natural      
selection    ,nietzsche's attack on     
self-sacrifice    ,origin of            
,christianity  ,cohn1 ,paul ,v4         
,college1 ,american  ,collins1 ,adrian  
,commercialism  ,common1 ,thomas        
,comte1 ,auguste  ,conscience1 the      
nature of  ,costume  ,cron1 ,bernard1   
see ,gast4  ,crucifixion1 the  ,culture1

 ,german    ,dancing  ,darwin1 ,charles 
,david ,strauss1 the ,confessor and the 
,writer--    ,publication of            
,quotation from    ,english translation 
of    ,see also ,strauss1 ,david4  ,dawn
 of ,day1 ,the--    ,publication of     
,quotations from    ,english translation
 of  ,death--    ,the right to die      
,regulation of    ,attitude at  ,death  
of ,nietzsche  ,decalogue  ,degeneracy1 
,nietzsche's alleged  ,degeneration1    
,nordau's book  ,democracy  ,descartes  
,desire  ,determinism  ,diderot         
,diogenes ,lartius1 early essay on      
,dionysus1 see ,bacchus4  ,dionysus1 the
 ,philosophy of ,eternal ,recurrence1   
plan of proposed book  ,doctor of       
philosophy  ,dolson1 ,grace ,neal       
,donndorf1 ,karl  ,drama1 ,greek        
,draper1 ,j4 ,w4  ,dreams  ,dualism     
,ecce ,homo--    ,publication of        
,quotations from    ,english translation
 of  ,education1 perils of ,state aid   
,egoism1 ,stirner's  ,elective          
,affinities  ,ellis1 ,havelock  ,ellis1 

,mrs4 ,havelock  ,emerson1 ,ralph ,waldo
  ,empedocles  ,encyclopedists1 ,french 
,engadine1 summers in  ,english         
translation of ,nietzsche  ,englishmen  
,eternal recurrence--    ,origin of the 
idea    ,its fascinations for ,nietzsche
    ,effect on superman  ,european1 the 
good  ,eusebius1 ,pamphilius  ,evil1    
definition of2 see also ,bad4           
,falckenberg1 ,richard  ,faust  ,fiske1 
,john  ,fite1 ,warner  ,flaubert1       
,gustav  ,fontenelle                    
,frster-,nietzsche1 ,elisabeth1         
,nietzsche's sister--    ,her biography 
of her brother    ,editor of his works  
,marriage and widowhood    ,relations   
with ,nietzsche  ,fouille1 ,alfred      
,franco-,prussian war1 service in  ,free
 spirit  ,free ,spirit1 ,the1 plan of   
proposed book  ,free will  ,freedom     
,friedrich ,wilhelm ,,iv4    ,gast1     
,peter  ,gaultier1 ,jules de  ,genealogy
 of ,morals1 ,the--    ,publication of  
,quotations from    ,english translation
 of  ,genoa  ,gentleman1 the  ,gobineau 

,god1 the idea of  ,goethe  ,golden     
,rule  ,good1 definition of  ,gould1    
,dr4 ,george ,m4  ,grave of ,my ,father1
 ,the1 early poem  ,greatness1          
definition of  ,greek art1 ,nietzsche's 
theory of  ,greek drama1 early essays on
  ,greek ,philosophy and ,other ,essays 
,greek ,woman1 ,the1 essay  ,greeks1    
influence on ,nietzsche  ,greeley1      
,horace    ,haeckel1 ,ernst  ,halvy1    
,daniel  ,hamblen1 ,emily ,s4           
,happiness1 definitions of  ,happiness1 
unattainable  ,haussmann1 ,william ,a4  
,headaches1 ,nietzsche's  ,hegel        
,hegesippus  ,heine1 ,heinrich  ,hellen1
 ,e4 von der  ,helvtius  ,heracleitus   
,herder  ,herrenmoral1 see              
,master-morality4  ,hesiod  ,higher man 
,history1 function of  ,history1 ,on the
 ,good and ,bad ,effects of upon ,human 
,life--    ,publication of              
,quotations from    ,english translation
 of  ,hobbes1 ,thomas  ,hlderlin1       
,friedrich  ,homer and ,classical       
,philology1 essay  ,hone1 ,j4 ,m4       

,human1 ,all-too ,human--               
,publication of first volume    ,effect 
of upon friends and public              
,quotations from    ,second and third   
volumes    ,english translation of      
,hume1 ,bennett  ,hume1 ,david          
,humility  ,huneker1 ,james  ,huxley1   
,thomas ,h4  ,hymn to ,life             
,hypochondria1 ,nietzsche's    ,ibsen1  
,henrik  ,ideen  ,immoralist1 ,the1 plan
 of proposed book  ,income1 ,nietzsche's
  ,inopportune ,speculations--    ,first
 volume    ,plan of    ,quotation from  
,english translation of  ,insanity1     
,nietzsche's    ,jenner  ,jews  ,joel1  
,karl  ,jones1 ,henry ,arthur  ,joyful  
,science1 ,the--    ,publication of     
,quotation from    ,english translation 
of    ,kant1 ,immanuel  ,kennedy1 ,j4   
,m4  ,kettle1 ,t4 ,m4  ,kipling1        
,rudyard  ,klopstock  ,koegel1 ,fritz   
,krafft-,ebing1 ,r4 von  ,krause1 ,dr41 
,nietzsche's great-uncle  ,krause1      
,frau1 ,nietzsche's great-grandmother   
,la ,bruyre  ,lady1 the  ,la ,monte1    

,robert ,rives  ,lankester1 ,e4 ,ray    
,la ,rochefoucauld  ,law1 origin of     
,legislation1 freak  ,leipsic1 student  
days at  ,lessing  ,levy1 ,oscar        
,liberty1 the worth of  ,lichtenberger1 
,henri  ,liszt1 ,franz  ,litterarischen 
,vereinigung mania1 ,der  ,locke1 ,john 
,lombroso1 ,cesare  ,l',origine de la   
famille de ,nietzsche  ,love1 nature of 
,low1 ,sidney  ,ludovici1 ,anthony ,m4  
,machiavelli  ,maggiore1 ,lake          
,mallock1 ,w4 ,h4  ,malthus  ,mammal1   
man as a  ,man1 meaning of the word     
,mandeville  ,marienbad  ,markby1       
,william  ,marriage1 see ,women4  ,marx1
 ,karl  ,masochism  ,masses1 the        
,masterman1 ,c4 ,f4 ,g4                 
,master-morality  ,maternity  ,mencken1 
,h4 ,l4  ,mentone  ,messiah1 ,the1      
,handel oratorio  ,meysenbug1 ,frulein  
von  ,military service  ,miscellaneous  
,opinions and ,aphorisms  ,mohammedanism
  ,monarchy  ,monism  ,montaigne        
,moonlight on the ,pussta1 composition  
,moral order of the world  ,morality--  

,definitions of    ,expression of       
expedience    ,how it becomes fixed     
,master and slave morality              
,nietzsche's criticism of  ,more1 ,paul 
,elmer  ,mgge1 ,m4 ,a4  ,music1         
,nietzsche's compositions  ,music1      
,nietzsche's love of    ,natural        
morality  ,natural selection1 see       
,struggle for existence4  ,naumann1 ,c4 
,g4  ,naumburg1 ,nietzsche at  ,new     
,thought  ,nice  ,nicholas of ,cusa     
,nietzsche1 ,ermentrude1 ,nietzsche's   
grandmother  ,nietzsche1 ,friedrich     
,wilhelm1 his characteristics--    ,as a
 boy    ,pride in his ,polish descent   
,love of music    ,a brilliant pupil    
,his dislike of biergemthlichkeit       
,drug-taking    ,as a professor         
,method of writing    ,his intolerance  
,personal appearance    ,illnesses      
,insanity    ,literary style    ,women  
,relations to his sister  ,nietzsche1   
,friedrich ,wilhelm1 his life--         
,birth    ,boyhood at ,naumburg         
,first writings    ,at ,pforta          

,matriculates at ,bonn    ,student of   
,ritschl    ,removes to ,leipsic        
,military service    ,first philological
 work    ,discovery of ,schopenhauer    
,takes his degree    ,professor at      
,basel    ,first breakdown    ,publishes
 ,the ,birth of ,tragedy    ,other early
 essays    ,meeting with ,wagner        
,meeting with ,re    ,human1 ,all-too   
,human    ,affair with ,lou ,salom      
,failing health    ,income    ,breakdown
 at ,turin    ,death  ,nietzsche1       
,josef1 ,nietzsche's brother            
,nietzsche1 ,karl ,ludwig1 ,nietzsche's 
father  ,nietzsche1 ,therese ,elisabeth 
,alexandra1 ,nietzsche's sister1    see 
,frster-,nietzsche4  ,nietzsche versus  
,wagner--    ,publication of    ,english
 translation of  ,nietzschy  ,nirvana   
,nobility  ,nordau1 ,max    ,orage1 ,a4 
,r4  ,osler1 ,william  ,overbeck1 ,franz
    ,paganism1 ,nietzsche's  ,paget1    
,violet 7,vernon ,lee7  ,paine1 ,thomas 
,parmenides  ,parsons1 ,elsie ,clews    
,pasteur1 ,louis  ,pattison1 ,a4 ,seth  

,pringle  ,peace1 universal  ,petre1    
,maude ,d4  ,pfleiderer1 ,otto  ,pforta 
,philologists1 ,we1 essay  ,philosophy  
,pindar1 ,judge1 of ,naumburg  ,pleasure
 and pain  ,plowshare1 ,the  ,poetry1   
,nietzsche's  ,polish origin of         
,nietzsche family  ,poor ,laws1 effect  
of ,english  ,prayer  ,predestination   
,priestcraft  ,professor at ,basel      
,progress1 ,nietzsche's program of      
,property rights  ,proudhon  ,pussta    
,pyrrho  ,pythagoras      ,re1 ,paul--  
,nietzsche's meeting with    ,rivals in 
love    ,influence on ,nietzsche        
,renaissance1 ,second  ,richard ,wagner 
in ,bayreuth--    ,publication of       
,english translation of    ,see also    
,wagner4  ,ritschl1 ,albrecht  ,ritschl1
 ,frau  ,ritschl1 ,friedrich ,wilhelm   
,robertson1 ,j4 ,m4  ,rcken  ,romantic  
movement in ,germany  ,roosevelt1       
,theodore  ,rousseau    ,st4 ,austin    
,sallust  ,salom1 ,lou--    ,meeting    
with ,nietzsche    ,book on ,nietzsche  
,marriage    ,nietzsche's affair with   

,hymn to ,life  ,samuel1 ,horace ,b4    
,science1 its aims  ,scheffauer1        
,hermann  ,schiller  ,schooldays at     
,naumburg  ,schopenhauer1 ,arthur--     
,nietzsche's discovery of    ,the       
will-to-live    ,nietzsche's divergence 
,essay on    ,influence on ,nietzsche   
,schopenhauer as a ,teacher--           
,publication of    ,quotations from     
,english translation of  ,schumann1     
,robert  ,self-control  ,sera1 ,leo ,g4 
,seydlitz1 ,baron von  ,shaw1 ,g4       
,bernard  ,silberblick  ,sils ,maria    
,sin1 the ,christian idea of            
,skepticism  ,sklavmoral1 see           
,slave-morality4  ,slave-morality       
,smith1 ,adam  ,social contract         
,socialism  ,socrates  ,sorrento        
,spencer1 ,herbert  ,spinoza  ,state1   
origin of  ,stendhal  ,stirner1 ,max    
,strauss1 ,david ,friedrich    see also 
,david ,strauss1 the ,confessor and the 
,writer4  ,strauss1 ,richard1 #ee4      
,struggle for existence  ,style1        
,nietzsche's ,german  ,suicide          

,superman--    ,described    ,his       
purposes    ,his characteristics        
,sympathy    ,taine  ,teacher1          
,nietzsche as a  ,teachers1 their       
characteristics  ,thoughts ,out of      
,season1 see ,inopportune ,speculations4
  ,tille1 ,alexander  ,tobacco1         
,nietzsche's dislike of  ,tr----1       
,frulein1 ,nietzsche's proposal to      
,tragedy1 its origin  ,tribschen        
,truth--    ,definitions of    ,its     
origin in error    ,the scientific      
method  ,turck1 ,dr4  ,turin1 breakdown 
at  ,twilight of the ,idols1 ,the--     
,publication of    ,quotations from     
,english translation of    ,vauvenarges 
,venice  ,voltaire    ,wagner1 ,the     
,case of--    ,publication of           
,quotation from    ,english translation 
of  ,wagner1 ,cosima  ,wagner1          
,richard--    ,meeting with ,nietzsche  
,nietzsche visits at ,tribschen         
,richard ,wagner in ,bayreuth           
,burlesqued in ,thus ,spake ,zarathustra
    ,the ,case of ,wagner    ,nietzsche 

vs4 ,wagner    ,nietzsche as a          
,wagnerian    ,wagner and ,schopenhauer 
,parsifal    ,bayreuth opening    ,break
 with ,nietzsche    ,nietzsche's last   
words on  ,walker1 ,j4 ,l4  ,wallace1   
,alfred ,russell  ,wallace1 ,william    
,walling1 ,william ,english  ,wanderer  
and ,his ,shadow1 ,the  ,war1 benefits  
of  ,war1 ,heracleitus on  ,weimar      
,white1 ,andrew ,d4  ,wieland  ,wife    
,will-to-live  ,will-to-power           
,will-to-,power1 ,the--    ,plan of     
proposed work    ,notes published       
,quotation from    ,english translation 
of  ,windelband1 ,wilhelm  ,women--     
,nietzsche's personal attitude    ,their
 chief duty    ,their slave-morality    
,sources of their weakness    ,their    
guile    ,man's attitude toward them    
,marriage    ,don't forget thy whip6    
,schopenhauer on    ,the lady  ,wrench1 
,g4 ,t4  ,wright1 ,willard ,h4          
,zarathustra1 ,thus ,spake--            
,publication of    ,plan of             
,quotations from    ,richard ,strauss'  

tone-poem    ,english translation of    
,zeno  ,zimmern1 ,helen  ,zoroaster1 see
 ,zarathustra4