,,ecce ,,homo 7,,nietzsche',s ,,autobiography7 ,,by ,,friedrich ,,nietzsche ,,translated ,,by ,,anthony ,m4 ,,ludovici ,,poetry ,,rendered ,,by ,,paul ,v4 ,,cohn -- ,,francis ,,bickley ,,herman ,,scheffauer -- ,,dr4 ,g4 ,t4 ,,wrench ,,hymn ,,to ,,life 7composed by ,f4 ,,nietzsche7 ,the ,complete ,works of ,friedrich ,nietzsche ,the ,first ,complete and ,authorised ,english ,translation ,edited by ,dr ,oscar ,levy ,volume ,seventeen ,t4,n4 ,,foulis #ac #ae ,,frederick ,,street ,,edinburgh3 ,,and ,,london #aiaa ,,contents ,,translator',s ,,introduction ,,author',s ,,preface ,,why ,i ,,am ,,so ,,wise ,,why ,i ,,am ,,so ,,clever ,,why ,i ,,write ,,such ,,excellent ,,books ,the ,birth of ,tragedy ,thoughts out of ,season ,human1 ,all-too-,human ,the ,dawn of ,day ,the ,joyful ,wisdom ,thus spake ,zarathustra ,beyond ,good and ,evil ,the ,genealogy of ,morals ,the ,twilight of the ,idols ,the ,case of ,wagner ,,why ,i ,,am ,a ,,fatality ,,editorial ,,note ,,to ,,poetry ,,poetry-- ,songs1 ,epigrams1 etc4 ,dionysus-,dithyrambs ,fragments of ,dionysus-,dithyrambs ,,hymn ,,to ,,life1 ,,composed ,,by ,f4 ,,nietzsche ,,translator',s ,,introduction ,ecce ,homo is the last prose work that ,nietzsche wrote4 ,it is true that the pamphlet ,nietzsche contra ,wagner was prepared a month later than the ,autobiography2 but we cannot consider this pamphlet as anything more than a compilation1 seeing that it consists entirely of aphorisms drawn from such previous works as ,joyful ,wisdom1 ,beyond ,good and ,evil1 ,the ,genealogy of ,morals1 etc4 ,coming at the end of a year in which he had produced the ,case of ,wagner1 ,the ,twilight of the ,idols1 and ,the ,antichrist1 ,ecce ,homo is not only a coping-stone worthy of the wonderful creations of that year1 but also a fitting conclusion to his whole life1 in the form of a grand summing up of his character as a man1 his purpose as a reformer1 and his achievement as a thinker4 ,as if half conscious of his approaching spiritual end1 ,nietzsche here bids his friends farewell1 just in the manner in which1 in the ,twilight of the ,idols 7,aph4 #cf1 ,part ix471 he declares that every one should be able to take leave of his circle of relatives and intimates when his time seems to have come--that is to say1 while he is still himself while he still knows what he is about1 and is able to measure his own life and life in general1 and speak of both in a manner which is not vouchsafed to the groaning invalid1 to the man lying on his back1 decrepit and exhausted1 or to the moribund victim of some wasting disease4 ,nietzsche's spiritual death1 like his whole life1 was in singular harmony with his doctrine3 he died suddenly and proudly1--sword in hand4 ,war1 which he--and he alone among all the philosophers of ,christendom--had praised so whole-heartedly1 at last struck him down in the full vigour of his manhood1 and left him a victim on the battlefield--the terrible battlefield of thought1 on which there is no quarter1 and for which no ,geneva ,convention has yet been established or even thought of4 ,to those who know ,nietzsche's life-work1 no apology will be needed for the form and content of this wonderful work4 ,they will know1 at least1 that a man either is1 or is not1 aware of his significance and of the significance of what he has accomplished1 and that if he is aware of it1 then self-realisation1 even of the kind which we find in these pages1 is neither morbid nor suspicious1 but necessary and inevitable4 ,such chapter headings as ,why ,i am so ,wise1 ,why ,i am a ,fatality1 ,why ,i write such ,excellent ,books1--however much they may have disturbed the equanimity1 and objectivity in particular1 of certain ,nietzsche biographers1 can be regarded as pathological only in a democratic age in which people have lost all sense of graduation and rank and in which the virtues of modesty and humility have to be preached far and wide as a corrective against the vulgar pretensions of thousands of wretched nobodies4 ,for little people can be endured only as modest citizens2 or humble ,christians4 ,if1 however1 they demand a like modesty on the part of the truly great2 if they raise their voices against ,nietzsche's lack of the very virtue they so abundantly possess or pretend to possess1 it is time to remind them of ,goethe's famous remark3 ,nur ,lumpe sind bescheiden 7,only nobodies are ever modest74 ,it took ,nietzsche barely three weeks to write this story of his life4 ,begun on the #aeth of ,october #ahhh1 his four-and-fourtieth birthday1 it was finished on the #dth of ,november of the same year1 and1 but for a few trifling modifications and additions1 is just as ,nietzsche left it4 ,it was not published in ,germany until the year #aijh1 eight years after ,nietzsche's death4 ,in a letter dated the #bgth of ,december #ahhh1 addressed to the musical composer ,fuchs1 the author declares the object of the work to be to dispose of all discussion1 doubt1 and inquiry concerning his own personality1 in order to leave the public mind free to consider merely the things for the sake of which he existed 7die ,dinge1 derentwegen ich da bin74 ,and1 true to his intention1 ,nietzsche's honesty in these pages is certainly one of the most remarkable features about them4 ,from the first chapter1 in which he frankly acknowledges the decadent elements within him1 to the last page1 whereon he characterises his mission1 his life-task1 and his achievement1 by means of the one symbol1 ,dionysus versus ,christ1--everything comes straight from the shoulder1 without hesitation1 without fear of consequences1 and1 above all1 without concealment4 ,only in one place does he appear to conceal something1 and then he actually leads one to understand that he is doing so4 ,it is in regard to ,wagner1 the greatest friend of his life4 ,who doubts1 he says1 that ,i1 old artillery-man that ,i am1 would be able if ,i liked to point my heavy guns at ,wagner8--,but he adds3 ,everything decisive in this question ,i kept to myself--,i have loved ,wagner 7p4 #abb74 ,to point1 as many have done1 to the proximity of all ,nietzsche's autumn work of the year #ahhh to his breakdown at the beginning of #ahhi1 and to argue that in all its main features it foretells the catastrophe that is imminent1 seems a little too plausible1 a little too obvious and simple to require refutation4 ,that ,nietzsche really was in a state which in medicine is known as euphoria--that is to say1 that state of highest well-being and capacity which often precedes a complete breakdown1 cannot1 ,i suppose1 be questioned2 for his style1 his penetrating vision1 and his vigour1 reach their zenith in the works written in this autumn of #ahhh2 but the contention that the matter1 the substance1 of these works reveals any signs whatsoever of waning mental health1 or1 as a certain ,french biographer has it1 of an inability to hold himself and his judgments in check1 is best contradicted by the internal evidence itself4 ,to take just a few examples at random1 examine the cold and calculating tone of self-analysis in ,chapter ,i4 of the present work2 consider the reserve and the restraint with which the idea in ,aphorism #g of that chapter is worked out1--not to speak of the restraint and self-mastery in the idea itself1 namely3-- ,to be one's enemy's equal--this is the first condition of an honourable duel4 ,where one despises one cannot wage war4 ,where one commands1 where one sees something beneath one1 one ought not to wage war4 ,my war tactics can be reduced to four principles3 ,first1 ,i attack only things that are triumphant--if necessary ,i wait until they become triumphant4 ,secondly1 ,i attack only those things against which ,i find no allies1 against which ,i stand alone--against which ,i compromise nobody but myself4444 ,thirdly1 ,i never make personal attacks--,i use a personality merely as a magnifying-glass1 by means of which ,i render a general1 but elusive and scarcely noticeable evil1 more apparent4444 ,fourthly1 ,i attack only those things from which all personal differences are excluded1 in which any such thing as a background of disagreeable experiences is lacking4 ,and now notice the gentleness with which1 in ,chapter ,,ii41 ,wagner--the supposed mortal enemy1 the supposed envied rival to ,nietzsche--is treated4 ,are these the words and the thoughts of a man who ,has lost1 or who is losing control8 ,and even if we confine ourselves simply to the substance of this work and put the question--,is it a new ,nietzsche or the old ,nietzsche that we find in these pages8 ,is it the old countenance with which we are familiar1 or are the features distorted1 awry1 disfigured8 ,what will the answer be8 ,obviously there is no new or even deformed ,nietzsche here1 because he is still faithful to the position which he assumed in ,thus spake ,zarathustra1 five years previously1 and is perfectly conscious of this fidelity 7see p4 #ada72 neither can he be even on the verge of any marked change1 because the whole of the third chapter1 in which he reviews his life-work1 is simply a reiteration and a confirmation of his old points of view1 which are here made all the more telling by additional arguments suggested1 no doubt1 by maturer thought4 ,in fact1 if anything at all is new in this work1 it is its cool certainty1 its severe deliberateness1 and its extraordinarily incisive vision1 as shown1 for instance1 in the summing up of the genuine import of the third and fourth essays in the ,thoughts out of ,season 7pp4 #ge-gf1 #hj1 #ha1 #hb71 a summing up which a most critical analysis of the essays in question can but verify4 ,romanticism1 idealism1 ,christianity1 are still scorned and despised2 another outlook1 a nobler1 braver1 and more earthly outlook1 is still upheld and revered2 the great yea to life1 including all that it contains that is terrible and questionable1 is still pronounced in the teeth of pessimists1 nihilists1 anarchists1 ,christians1 and other decadents2 and ,germany1 ,europe's flatland1 is still subjected to the most relentless criticism4 ,if there are any signs of change1 besides those of mere growth1 in this work1 they certainly succeed in eluding the most careful search1 undertaken with a full knowledge of ,nietzsche's former opinions1 and it would be interesting to know precisely where they are found by those writers whom the titles of the chapters1 alone1 seem so radically to have perturbed4 ,but the most striking thing of all1 the miracle1 so to speak1 of this autobiography1 is the absence from it of that loathing1 that suggestion of surfeit1 with which a life such as the one ,nietzsche had led1 would have filled any other man even of power approximate to his own4 ,this anchorite1 who1 in the last years of his life as a healthy human being1 suffered the experience of seeing even his oldest friends1 including ,rhode1 show the most complete indifference to his lot1 this wrestler with ,fate1 for whom recognition1 in the persons of ,brandes1 ,taine1 and ,strindberg1 had come all too late1 and whom even support1 sympathy1 and help1 arriving as it did at last1 through ,deussen and from ,madame de ,salis ,marschlins1 could no longer cheer or comfort1--this was the man who was able notwithstanding to inscribe the device amor fati upon his shield on the very eve of his final collapse as a victim of the unspeakable suffering he had endured4 ,and this final collapse might easily have been foreseen4 ,nietzsche's sensorium1 as his autobiography proves1 was probably the most delicate instrument ever possessed by a human being2 and with this fragile structure--the prerequisite1 by the bye1 of all genius1--his terrible will compelled him to confront the most profound and most recondite problems4 ,we happen to know from another artist and profound thinker1 ,benjamin ,disraeli1 who himself had experienced a dangerous breakdown1 what the consequences precisely are of indulging in excessive activity in the sphere of the spirit1 more particularly when that spirit is highly organised4 ,disraeli says in ,contarini ,fleming 7,part iv4 chap4 v473-- ,i have sometimes half believed1 although the suspicion is mortifying1 that there is only one step between his state who deeply indulges in imaginative meditation1 and insanity2 for ,i well remember that at this period of my life1 when ,i indulged in meditation to a degree that would now be impossible1 and ,i hope unnecessary1 my senses sometimes appeared to be wandering4 ,and artists are the proper judges of artists1--not ,oxford ,dons1 like ,dr4 ,schiller1 who1 in his imprudent attempt at dealing with something for which his pragmatic hands are not sufficiently delicate1 eagerly av-ails himself of popular help in his article on ,nietzsche in the eleventh edition of the ,encyclopedia ,britannica1 and implies the hackneyed and wholly exploded belief that ,nietzsche's philosophy is madness in the making4 ,as ,german philosophies1 however1 are said to go to ,oxford only when they die1 we may1 perhaps1 conclude from this want of appreciation in that quarter1 how very much alive ,nietzsche's doctrine still is4 ,not that ,nietzsche went mad so soon1 but that he went mad so late is the wonder of wonders4 ,considering the extraordinary amount of work he did1 the great task of the transvaluation of all values1 which he actually accomplished1 and the fact that he endured such long years of solitude1 which to him1 the sensitive artist to whom friends were everything1 must have been a terrible hardship1 we can only wonder at his great health1 and can well believe his sister's account of the phenomenal longevity and bodily vigour of his ancestors4 ,no one1 however1 who is initiated1 no one who reads this work with understanding1 will be in need of this introductory note of mine2 for1 to all who know1 these pages must speak for themselves4 ,we are no longer in the nineteenth century4 ,we have learned many things since then1 and if caution is only one of these things1 at least it will prevent us from judging a book such as this one1 with all its apparent pontifical pride and surging self-reliance1 with undue haste1 or with that arrogant assurance with which the ignorance of the humble and the modest has always confronted everything truly great4 ,,anthony ,m4 ,,ludovici4 ,,preface #a ,as it is my intention within a very short time to confront my fellow-men with the very greatest demand that has ever yet been made upon them1 it seems to me above all necessary to declare here who and what ,i am4 ,as a matter of fact1 this ought to be pretty well known already1 for ,i have not held my tongue about myself4 ,but the disparity which obtains between the greatness of my task and the smallness of my contemporaries1 is revealed by the fact that people have neither heard me nor yet seen me4 ,i live on my own self-made credit1 and it is probably only a prejudice to suppose that ,i am alive at all4 ,i do but require to speak to any one of the scholars who come to the ,ober-,engadine in the summer in order to convince myself that ,i am not alive4444 ,under these circumstances1 it is a duty--and one against which my customary reserve1 and to a still greater degree the pride of my instincts1 rebel--to say3 ,listen6 for ,i am such and such a person4 ,for ,heaven's sake do not confound me with any one else6 #b ,i am1 for instance1 in no wise a bogey man1 or moral monster4 ,on the contrary1 ,i am the very opposite in nature to the kind of man that has been honoured hitherto as virtuous4 ,between ourselves1 it seems to me that this is precisely a matter on which ,i may feel proud4 ,i am a disciple of the philosopher ,dionysus1 and ,i would prefer to be even a satyr than a saint4 ,but just read this book6 ,maybe ,i have here succeeded in expressing this contrast in a cheerful and at the same time sympathetic manner--maybe this is the only purpose of the present work4 ,the very last thing ,i should promise to accomplish would be to improve mankind4 ,i do not set up any new idols2 may old idols only learn what it costs to have legs of clay4 ,to overthrow idols 7idols is the name ,i give to all ideals7 is much more like my business4 ,in proportion as an ideal world has been falsely assumed1 reality has been robbed of its value1 its meaning1 and its truthfulness4444 ,the true world and the apparent world--in plain ,english1 the fictitious world and reality4444 ,hitherto the lie of the ideal has been the curse of reality2 by means of it the very source of mankind's instincts has become mendacious and false2 so much so that those values have come to be worshipped which are the exact opposite of the ones which would ensure man's prosperity1 his future1 and his great right to a future4 #c ,he who knows how to breathe in the air of my writings is conscious that it is the air of the heights1 that it is bracing4 ,a man must be built for it1 otherwise the chances are that it will chill him4 ,the ice is near1 the loneliness is terrible--but how serenely everything lies in the sunshine6 how freely one can breathe6 how much1 one feels1 lies beneath one6 ,philosophy1 as ,i have understood it hitherto1 is a voluntary retirement into regions of ice and mountain-peaks--the seeking--out of everything strange and questionable in existence1 everything upon which1 hitherto1 morality has set its ban4 ,through long experience1 derived from such wanderings in forbidden country1 ,i acquired an opinion very different from that which may seem generally desirable1 of the causes which hitherto have led to men's moralising and idealising4 ,the secret history of philosophers1 the psychology of their great names1 was revealed to me4 ,how much truth can a certain mind endure2 how much truth can it dare8--these questions became for me ever more and more the actual test of values4 ,error 7the belief in the ideal7 is not blindness2 error is cowardice4444 ,every conquest1 every step forward in knowledge1 is the outcome of courage1 of hardness towards one's self1 of cleanliness towards one's self4 ,i do not refute ideals2 all ,i do is to draw on my gloves in their presence4444 ,nitimur in vetitum2 with this device my philosophy will one day be victorious2 for that which has hitherto been most stringently forbidden is1 without exception1 ,truth4 #d ,in my lifework1 my ,zarathustra holds a place apart4 ,with it1 ,i gave my fellow-men the greatest gift that has ever been bestowed upon them4 ,this book1 the voice of which speaks out across the ages1 is not only the loftiest book on earth1 literally the book of mountain air1--the whole phenomenon1 mankind1 lies at an incalculable distance beneath it1--but it is also the deepest book1 born of the inmost abundance of truth2 an inexhaustible well1 into which no pitcher can be lowered without coming up again laden with gold and with goodness4 ,here it is not a prophet who speaks1 one of those gruesome hybrids of sickness and ,will to ,power1 whom men call founders of religions4 ,if a man would not do a sad wrong to his wisdom1 he must1 above all give proper heed to the tones--the halcyonic tones--that fall from the lips of ,zarathustra3-- ,the most silent words are harbingers of the storm2 thoughts that come on dove's feet lead the world4 ,the figs fall from the trees2 they are good and sweet1 and1 when they fall1 their red skins are rent4 ,a north wind am ,i unto ripe figs4 ,thus1 like figs1 do these precepts drop down to you1 my friends2 now drink their juice and their sweet pulp4 ,it is autumn all around1 and clear sky1 and afternoon4 ,no fanatic speaks to you here2 this is not a sermon2 no faith is demanded in these pages4 ,from out an infinite treasure of light and well of joy1 drop by drop1 my words fall out--a slow and gentle gait is the cadence of these discourses4 ,such things can reach only the most elect2 it is a rare privilege to be a listener here2 not every one who likes can have ears to hear ,zarathustra4 ,is not ,zarathustra1 because of these things1 a seducer8 444 ,but what1 indeed1 does he himself say1 when for the first time he goes back to his solitude8 ,just the reverse of that which any ,sage1 ,saint1 ,saviour of the world1 and other decadent would say4444 ,not only his words1 but he himself is other than they4 ,alone do ,i now go1 my disciples6 ,get ye also hence1 and alone6 ,thus would ,i have it4 ,verily1 ,i beseech you3 take your leave of me and arm yourselves against ,zarathustra6 ,and better still1 be ashamed of him6 ,maybe he hath deceived you4 ,the knight of knowledge must be able not only to love his enemies1 but also to hate his friends4 ,the man who remaineth a pupil requiteth his teacher but ill4 ,and why would ye not pluck at my wreath8 ,ye honour me2 but what if your reverence should one day break down8 ,take heed1 lest a statue crush you4 ,ye say ye believe in ,zarathustra8 ,but of2 what account is ,zarathustra8 ,ye are my believers3 but of what account are all believers8 ,ye had not yet sought yourselves when ye found me4 ,thus do all believers2 therefore is all believing worth so little4 ,now ,i bid you lose me and find yourselves2 and only when ye have all denied me will ,i come back unto you4 ,,friedrich ,,nietzsche4 ,on this perfect day1 when everything is ripening1 and not only the grapes are getting brown1 a ray of sunshine has fallen on my life3 ,i looked behind me1 ,i looked before me1 and never have ,i seen so many good things all at once4 ,not in vain have ,i buried my four-and-fortieth year to-day2 ,i had the right to bury it--that in it which still had life1 has been saved and is immortal4 ,the first book of the ,transvaluation of all ,values1 ,the ,songs of ,zarathustra1 ,the ,twilight of the ,idols1 my attempt1 to philosophise with the hammer--all these things are the gift of this year1 and even of its last quarter4 ,how could ,i help being thankful to the whole of my life8 ,that is why ,i am now going to tell myself the story of my life4 ,,ecce ,,homo ,,how ,,one ,,becomes ,,what ,,one ,,is ,,why ,i ,,am ,,so ,,wise #a ,the happiness of my existence1 its unique character perhaps1 consists in its fatefulness3 to speak in a riddle1 as my own father ,i am already dead1 as my own mother ,i still live and grow old4 ,this double origin1 taken as it were from the highest and lowest rungs of the ladder of life1 at once a decadent and a beginning1 this1 if anything1 explains that neutrality1 that freedom from partisanship in regard to the general problem of existence1 which perhaps distinguishes me4 ,to the first indications of ascending or of descending life my nostrils are more sensitive than those of any man that has yet lived4 ,in this domain ,i am a master to my backbone--,i know both sides1 for ,i am both sides4 ,my father died in his six-and-thirtieth year3 he was delicate1 lovable1 and morbid1 like one who is preordained to pay simply a flying visit--a gracious reminder of life rather than life itself4 ,in the same year that his life declined mine also declined3 in my six-and-thirtieth year ,i reached the lowest point in my vitality1--,i still lived1 but my eyes could distinguish nothing that lay three paces away from me4 ,at that time--it was the year #ahgi--;,i resigned my professorship at ,ble1 lived through the summer like a shadow in ,st4 ,moritz1 and spent the following winter1 the most sunless of my life1 like a shadow in ,naumburg4 ,this was my lowest ebb4 ,during this period ,i wrote ,the ,wanderer and ,his ,shadow4 ,without a doubt ,i was conversant with shadows then4 ,the winter that followed1 my first winter in ,genoa1 brought forth that sweetness and spirituality which is almost inseparable from extreme poverty of blood and muscle1 in the shape of ,the ,dawn of ,day1 ,the perfect lucidity and cheerfulness1 the intellectual exuberance even1 that this work reflects1 coincides1 in my case1 not only with the most profound physiological weakness1 but also with an excess of suffering4 ,in the midst of the agony of a headache which lasted three days1 accompanied by violent nausea1 ,i was possessed of most singular dialectical clearness1 and in absolutely cold blood ,i then thought out things1 for which1 in my more healthy moments1 ,i am not enough of a climber1 not sufficiently subtle1 not sufficiently cold4 ,my readers perhaps know to what extent ,i consider dialectic a symptom of decadence1 as1 for instance1 in the most famous of all cases--the case of ,socrates4 ,all the morbid disturbances of the intellect1 even that semi-stupor which accompanies fever1 have1 unto this day1 remained completely unknown to me2 and for my first information concerning their nature and frequency1 ,i was obliged to have recourse to the learned works which have been compiled on the subject4 ,my circulation is slow4 ,no one has ever been able to detect fever in me4 ,a doctor who treated me for some time as a nerve patient finally declared3 ,no6 there is nothing wrong with your nerves1 it is simply ,i who am nervous4 ,it has been absolutely impossible to ascertain any local degeneration in me1 nor any organic stomach trouble1 however much ,i may have suffered from profound weakness of the gastric system as the result of general exhaustion4 ,even my eye trouble1 which sometimes approached so parlously near to blindness1 was only an effect and not a cause2 for1 whenever my general vital condition improved1 my power of vision also increased4 ,having admitted all this1 do ,i need to say that ,i am experienced in questions of decadence8 ,i know them inside and out4 ,even that filigree art of prehension and comprehension in general1 that feeling for delicate shades of difference1 that psychology of seeing through brick walls1 and whatever else ,i may be able to do1 was first learnt then1 and is the specific gift of that period during which everything in me was subtilised1--observation itself1 together with all the organs of observation4 ,to look upon healthier concepts and values from the standpoint of the sick1 and conversely to look down upon the secret work of the instincts of decadence from the standpoint of him who is laden and self-reliant with the richness of life--this has been my longest exercise1 my principal experience4 ,if in anything at all1 it was in this that ,i became a master4 ,to-day my hand knows the trick1 ,i now have the knack of reversing perspectives3 the first reason perhaps why a ,transvaluation of all ,values has been possible to me alone4 #b ,for1 apart from the fact that ,i am a decadent1 ,i am also the reverse of such a creature4 ,among other things my proof of this is1 that ,i always instinctively select the proper remedy when my spiritual or bodily health is low2 whereas the decadent1 as such1 invariably chooses those remedies which are bad for him4 ,as a whole ,i was sound1 but in certain details ,i was a decadent4 ,that energy with which ,i sentenced myself to absolute solitude1 and to a severance from all those conditions in life to which ,i had grown accustomed2 my discipline of myself1 and my refusal to allow myself to be pampered1 to be tended hand and foot1 and to be doctored--all this betrays the absolute certainty of my instincts respecting what at that time was most needful to me4 ,i placed myself in my own hands1 ,i restored myself to health3 the first condition of success in such an undertaking1 as every physiologist will admit1 is that at bottom a man should be sound4 ,an intrinsically morbid nature cannot become healthy4 ,on the other hand1 to an intrinsically sound nature1 illness may even constitute a powerful stimulus to life1 to a surplus of life4 ,it is in this light that ,i now regard the long period of illness that ,i endured3 it seemed as if ,i had discovered life afresh1 my own self included4 ,i tasted all good things and even trifles in a way in which it was not easy for others to taste them--out of my ,will to ,health and to ,life ,i made my philosophy4444 ,for this should be thoroughly understood2 it was during those years in which my vitality reached its lowest point that ,i ceased from being a pessimist3 the instinct of self-recovery forbade my holding to a philosophy of poverty and desperation4 ,now1 by what signs are ,nature's lucky strokes recognised among men8 ,they are recognised by the fact that any such lucky stroke gladdens our senses2 that he is carved from one integral block1 which is hard1 sweet1 and fragrant as well4 ,he enjoys that only which is good for him2 his pleasure1 his desire1 ceases when the limits of that which is good for him are overstepped4 ,he divines remedies for injuries2 he knows how to turn serious accidents to his own advantage2 that which does not kill him makes him stronger4 ,he instinctively gathers his material from all he sees1 hears1 and experiences4 ,he is a selective principle2 he rejects much4 ,he is always in his own company1 whether his intercourse be with books1 with men1 or with natural scenery2 he honours the things he chooses1 the things he acknowledges1 the things he trusts4 ,he reacts slowly to all kinds of stimuli1 with that tardiness which long caution and deliberate pride have bred in him--he tests the approaching stimulus2 he would not dream of meeting it half-way4 ,he believes neither in ill-luck nor guilt2 he can digest himself and others2 he knows how to forget--he is strong enough to make everything turn to his own advantage4 ,lo then6 ,i am the very reverse of a decadent1 for he whom ,i have just described is none other than myself4 #c ,this double thread of experiences1 this means of access to two worlds that seem so far asunder1 finds in every detail its counterpart in my own nature--,i am my own complement3 ,i have a second sight1 as well as a first4 ,and perhaps ,i also have a third sight4 ,by the very nature of my origin ,i was allowed an outlook beyond all merely local1 merely national and limited horizons2 it required no effort on my part to be a good ,european4 ,on the other hand1 ,i am perhaps more ,german than modern ,germans--mere ,imperial ,germans--can hope to be1--,i1 the last anti-political ,german4 ,be this as it may1 my ancestors were ,polish noblemen3 it is owing to them that ,i have so much race instinct in my blood--who knows8 perhaps even the liberum veto#a ,when ,i think of the number of times in my travels that ,i have been accosted as a ,pole1 even by ,poles themselves1 and how seldom ,i have been taken for a ,german1 it seems to me as if ,i belonged to those only who have a sprinkling of ,german in them4 ,but my mother1 ,franziska ,oehler1 is at any rate something very ,german2 as is also my paternal grandmother1 ,erdmuthe ,krause4 ,the latter spent the whole of her youth in good old ,weimar1 not without coming into contact with ,goethe's circle4 ,her brother1 ,krause1 the ,professor of ,theology in ,knigsberg1 was called to the post of ,general ,superintendent at ,weimar after ,herder's death4 ,it is not unlikely that her mother1 my great grandmother1 is mentioned in young ,goethe's diary under the name of ,muthgen4 ,she married twice1 and her second husband was ,superintendent ,nietzsche of ,eilenburg4 ,in #ahac1 the year of the great war1 when ,napoleon with his general staff entered ,eilenburg on the #ajth of ,october1 she gave birth to a son4 ,as a daughter of ,saxony she was a great admirer of ,napoleon1 and maybe ,i am so still4 ,my father1 born in #ahac1 died in #ahdi4 ,previous to taking over the pastorship of the parish of ,rcken1 not far from ,ltzen1 he lived for some years at the ,castle of ,altenburg1 where he had charge of the education of the four princesses4 ,his pupils are the ,queen of ,hanover1 the ,grand-,duchess ,constantine1 the ,grand-,duchess of ,oldenburg1 and the ,princess ,theresa of ,saxe-,altenburg4 ,he was full of loyal respect for the ,prussian ,king1 ,frederick ,william the ,fourth1 from whom he obtained his living at ,rcken2 the events of #ahdh saddened him extremely4 ,as ,i was born on the #ae th of ,october1 the birthday of the king above mentioned1 ,i naturally received the ,hohenzollern names of ,frederick ,william4 ,there was at all events one advantage in the choice of this day3 my birthday throughout the whole of my childhood was a day of public rejoicing4 ,i regard it as a great privilege to have had such a father3 it even seems to me that this embraces all that ,i can claim in the matter of privileges--life1 the great yea to life1 excepted4 ,what ,i owe to him above all is this1 that ,i do not need any special intention1 but merely a little patience1 in order involuntarily to enter a world of higher and more delicate things4 ,there ,i am at home1 there alone does my inmost passion become free4 ,the fact that ,i had to pay for this privilege almost with my life1 certainly does not make it a bad bargain4 ,in order to understand even a little of my ,zarathustra1 perhaps a man must be situated and constituted very much as ,i am myself--with one foot beyond the realm of the living4 #d ,i have never understood the art of arousing ill-feeling against myself1--this is also something for which ,i have to thank my incomparable father1--even when it seemed to me highly desirable to do so4 ,however un-,christian it may seem1 ,i do not even bear any ill-feeling towards myself4 ,turn my life about as you may1 you will find but seldom--perhaps indeed only once--any trace of some one's having shown me ill-will4 ,you might perhaps discover1 however1 too many traces of goodwill4444 ,my experiences even with those on whom every other man has burnt his fingers1 speak without exception in their favour2 ,i tame every bear1 ,i can make even clowns behave decently4 ,during the seven years in which ,i taught ,greek to the sixth form of the ,college at ,ble1 ,i never had occasion to administer a punishment2 the laziest youths were diligent in my class4 ,the unexpected has always found me equal to it2 ,i must be unprepared in order to keep my self-command4 ,whatever the instrument was1 even if it were as out of tune as the instrument man can possibly be1--it was only when ,i was ill that ,i could not succeed in making it express something that was worth hearing4 ,and how often have ,i not been told by the instruments themselves1 that they had never before heard their voices express such beautiful things4444 ,this was said to me most delightfully perhaps by that young fellow ,heinrich von ,stein1 who died at such an unpardonably early age1 and who1 after having considerately asked leave to do so1 once appeared in ,sils-,maria for a three days' sojourn1 telling everybody there that it was not for the ,engadine that he had come4 ,this excellent person1 who with all the impetuous simplicity of a young ,prussian nobleman1 had waded deep into the swamp of ,wagnerism 7and into that of ,dbringism#b into the bargain671 seemed almost transformed during these three days by a hurricane of freedom1 like one who has been suddenly raised to his full height and given wings4 ,again and again ,i said to him that this was all owing to the splendid air2 everybody felt the same1--one could not stand #fjjj feet above ,bayreuth for nothing1--but he would not believe me4444 ,be this as it may1 if ,i have been the victim of many a small or even great offence1 it was not will1 and least of all ill-will that actuated the offenders2 but rather1 as ,i have already suggested1 it was goodwill1 the cause of no small amount of mischief in f my life1 about which ,i had to complain4 ,my experience gave me a right to feel suspicious in regard to all so-called unselfish instincts1 in regard to the whole of neighbourly love which is ever ready and waiting with deeds or with advice4 ,to me it seems that these instincts are a sign of weakness1 they are an example of the inability to withstand a stimulus--it is only among decadents that this pity is called a virtue4 ,what ,i reproach the pitiful with is1 that they are too ready to forget shame1 reverence1 and the delicacy of feeling which knows how to keep at a distance2 they do not remember that this gushing pity stinks of the mob1 and that it is next of kin to bad manners--that pitiful hands may be thrust with results fatally destructive into a great destiny1 into a lonely and wounded retirement1 and into the privileges with which great guilt endows one4 ,the overcoming of pity ,i reckon among the noble virtues2 ,in the ,temptation of ,zarathustra ,i have imagined a case1 in which a great cry of distress reaches his ears1 in which pity swoops down upon him like a last sin1 and would make him break faith with himself4 ,to remain one's own master in such circumstances1 to keep the sublimity of one's mission pure in such cases1--pure from the many ignoble and more short-sighted impulses which come into play in so-called unselfish actions1--this is the rub1 the last test perhaps which a ,zarathustra has to undergo--the actual proof of his power4 #e ,in yet another respect ,i am no more than my father over again1 and as it were the continuation of his life after an all-too-early death4 ,like every man who has never been able to meet his equal1 and unto whom the concept retaliation is just as incomprehensible as the notion of equal rights1 ,i have forbidden myself the use of any sort of measure of security or protection--and also1 of course1 of defence and justification--in all cases in which ,i have been made the victim either of trifling or even very great foolishness4 ,my form of retaliation consists in this3 as soon as possible to set a piece of cleverness at the heels of an act of stupidity2 by this means perhaps it may still be possible to overtake it4 ,to speak in a parable3 ,i dispatch a pot of jam in order to get rid of a bitter experience4444 ,let anybody only give me offence1 ,i shall retaliate1 he can be quite sure of that3 before long ,i discover an opportunity of expressing my thanks to the offender 7among other things even for the offence7--or of asking him for something1 which can be more courteous even than giving4 ,it also seems to me that the rudest word1 the rudest letter1 is more good-natured1 more straightforward1 than silence4 ,those--who keep silent are almost always lacking in subtlety and refinement of heart2 silence is an objection1 to swallow a grievance must necessarily produce a bad temper--it even upsets the stomach4 ,all silent people are dyspeptic4 ,you perceive that ,i should not like to see rudeness undervalued2 it is by far the most humane form of contradiction1 and1 in the midst of modern effeminacy1 it is one of our first virtues2 ,if one is sufficiently rich for it1 it may even be a joy to be wrong4 ,if a god were to descend to this earth1 he would have to do nothing but wrong--to take guilt not punishment1 on one's shoulders1 is the first proof of divinity4 #f ,freedom from resentment and the understanding of the nature of resentment--who knows how very much after all ,i am indebted to my long illness for these two things8 ,the problem is not exactly simple3 a man must have experienced both through his strength and through his weakness1 ,if illness and weakness are to be charged with anything at all1 it is with the fact that when they prevail1 the very instinct of recovery1 which is the instinct of defence and of war in man1 becomes decayed4 ,he knows not how to get rid of anything1 how to come to terms with anything1 and how to cast anything behind him4 ,everything wounds him4 ,people and things draw importunately near1 all experiences strike deep1 memory is a gathering wound4 ,to be ill is a sort of resentment in itself4 ,against this resentment the invalid has only one great remedy--,i call it ,russian fatalism1 that fatalism which is free from revolt1 and with which the ,russian soldier1 to whom a campaign proves unbearable1 ultimately lays himself down in the snow4 ,to accept nothing more1 to undertake nothing more1 to absorb nothing more--to cease entirely from reacting4444 ,the tremendous sagacity of this fatalism1 which does not always imply merely the courage for death1 but which in the most dangerous cases may actually constitute a self-preservative measure1 amounts to a reduction of activity in the vital functions1 the slackening down of which is like a sort of will to hibernate4 ,a few steps farther in this direction we find the fakir1 who will sleep for weeks in a tomb4444 ,owing to the fact that one would be used up too quickly if one reacted1 one no longer reacts at all3 this is the principle4 ,and nothing on earth consumes a man more quickly than the passion of resentment4 ,mortification1 morbid susceptibility1 the inability to wreak revenge1 the desire and thirst for revenge1 the concoction of every sort of poison--this is surely the most injurious manner of reacting which could possibly be conceived by exhausted men4 ,it involves a rapid wasting away of nervous energy1 an abnormal increase of detrimental secretions1 as1 for instance1 that of bile into the stomach4 ,to the sick man resentment ought to be more strictly forbidden than anything else--it is his special danger3 unfortunately1 however1 it is also his most natural propensity4 ,this was fully grasped by that profound physiologist ,buddha4 ,his religion1 which it would be better to call a system of hygiene1 in order to avoid confounding it with a creed so wretched as ,christianity1 depended for its effect upon the triumph over resentment3 to make the soul free therefrom was considered the first step towards recovery4 ,not through hostility is hostility put to flight2 through friendship does hostility end3 this stands at the beginning of ,buddha's teaching--this is not a precept of morality1 but of physiology4 ,resentment born of weakness is not more deleterious to anybody than it is to the weak man himself--conversely1 in the case of that man whose nature is fundamentally a rich one1 resentment is a superfluous feeling1 a feeling to remain master of which is almost a proof of riches4 ,those of my readers who know the earnestness-with which my philosophy wages war against the feelings of revenge and rancour1 even to the extent of attacking the doctrine of free will 7my conflict with ,christianity is only a particular instance of it71 will understand why ,i wish to focus attention upon my own personal attitude and the certainty of my practical instincts precisely in this matter4 ,in my moments of decadence ,i forbade myself the indulgence of the above feelings1 because they were harmful2 as soon as my life recovered enough riches and pride1 however1 ,i regarded them again as forbidden1 but this time because they were beneath me4 ,that ,russian fatalism of which ,i have spoken manifested itself in me in such a way that for years ,i held tenaciously to almost insufferable conditions1 places1 habitations1 and companions1 once chance had placed them on my path--it was better than changing them1 than feeling that they could be changed1 than revolting against them4444 ,he who stirred me from this fatalism1 he who violently tried to shake me into consciousness1 seemed to me then a mortal enemy--in point of fact1 there was danger of death each time this was done4 ,to regard one's self as a destiny1 not to wish one's self different--this1 in such circumstances1 is sagacity1 itself4 #g ,war1 on the other hand1 is something different4 ,at heart ,i am a warrior4 ,attacking belongs to my instincts4 ,to be able to be an enemy1 to be an enemy--maybe these things presuppose a strong nature2 in any case all strong natures involve these things4 ,such natures need resistance1 consequently they go in search of obstacles3 the pathos of aggression belongs of necessity to strength as much as the feelings of revenge and of rancour belong to weakness4 ,woman1 for instance1 is revengeful2 her weakness involves this passion1 just as it involves her susceptibility in the presence of other people's suffering4 ,the strength of the aggressor can be measured by the opposition which he needs2 every increase of growth betrays itself by a seeking out of more formidable opponents--or problems3 for a philosopher who is combative challenges even problems to a duel4 ,the task is not to overcome opponents in general1 but only those opponents against whom one has to summon all one's strength1 one's skill1 and one's swordsmanship--in fact1 opponents who are one's equals4444 ,to be one's enemy's equal--this is the first condition of an honourable duel4 ,where one despises1 one cannot wage war4 ,where one commands1 where one sees something beneath one1 one ought not to wage war4 ,my war tactics can be reduced to four principles ,a ,first1 ,i attack only things that are triumphant--if necessary ,i wait until they become triumphant4 ,secondly1 ,i attack only those things against which ,i find no allies1 against which ,i stand alone--against which ,i compromise nobody but myself4444 ,i have not yet taken one single step before the public eye1 which did not compromise me3 that is my criterion of a proper mode of action4 ,thirdly1 ,i never make personal attacks--,i use a personality merely as a magnifying-glass1 by means of which ,i render a general1 but elusive and scarcely noticeable evil1 more apparent4 ,in this way ,i attacked ,david ,strauss1 or rather the success given to a senile book by the cultured classes of ,germany--by this means ,i caught ,german culture red-handed4 ,in this way ,i attacked ,wagner1 or rather the falsity or mongrel instincts of our culture which confounds the super-refined with the strong1 and the effete with the great4 ,fourthly1 ,i attack only those things from which all personal differences are excluded1 in which any such thing as a background of disagreeable experiences is lacking4 ,on the contrary1 attacking is to me a proof of goodwill and1 in certain circumstances1 of gratitude4 ,by means of it1 ,i do honour to a thing1 ,i distinguish a thing2 whether ,i associate my name with that of an institution or a person1 by being against or for either1 is all the same to me4 ,if ,i wage war against ,christianity1 ,i feel justified in doing so1 because in that quarter ,i have met with no fatal experiences and difficulties--the most earnest ,christians have always been kindly disposed to me4 ,i1 personally1 the most essential opponent of ,christianity1 am far from holding the individual responsible for what is the fatality of long ages4 ,may ,i be allowed to hazard a suggestion concerning one last trait in my character1 which in my intercourse with other men has led me into some difficulties8 ,i am gifted with a sense of cleanliness the keenness of which is phenomenal2 so much so1 that ,i can ascertain physiologically--that is to say1 smell--the proximity1 nay1 the inmost core1 the entrails of every human soul4444 ,this sensitiveness of mine is furnished with psychological antenn1 wherewith ,i feel and grasp every secret3 the quality of concealed filth lying at the base of many a human character which may be the inevitable outcome of base blood1 and which education may have veneered1 is revealed to me at the first glance4 ,if my observation has been correct1 such people1 whom my sense of cleanliness rejects1 also become conscious1 on their part1 of the cautiousness to which my loathing prompts me3 and this does not make them any more fragrant4444 ,in keeping with a custom which ,i have long observed1--pure habits and honesty towards myself are among the first conditions of my existence1 ,i would die in unclean surroundings1--,i swim1 bathe1 and splash about1 as it were1 incessantly in water1 in any kind of perfectly transparent and shining element4 ,that is why my relations with my fellows try my patience to no small extent2 my humanity does not consist in the fact that ,i understand the feelings of my fellows1 but that ,i can endure to understand4444 ,my humanity is a perpetual process of self-mastery4 ,but ,i need solitude--that is to say1 recovery1 return to myself1 the breathing of free1 crisp1 bracing air4444 ,the whole of my ,zarathustra is a dithyramb in honour of solitude1 or1 if ,i have been understood1 in honour of purity4 ,thank ,heaven1 it is not in honour of pure foolery6#c ,he who has an eye for colour will call him a diamond4 ,the loathing of mankind1 of the rabble1 was always my greatest danger4444 ,would you hearken to the words spoken by ,zarathustra concerning deliverance from loathing8 ,what forsooth hath come unto me8 ,how did ,i deliver myself from loathing8 ,who hath made mine eye younger8 ,how did ,i soar to the height1 where there are no more rabble sitting about the well8 ,did my very loathing forge me wings and the strength to scent fountains afar off8 ,verily to the loftiest heights did ,i need to fly1 to find once more the spring of joyfulness4 ,oh1 ,i found it1 my brethren6 ,up here1 on the loftiest height1 the spring of joyfulness gusheth forth for me4 ,and there is a life at the well of which no rabble can drink with you4 ,almost too fiercely dost thou rush1 for me1 thou spring of joyfulness6 ,and ofttimes dost thou empty the pitcher again in trying to fill it4 ,and yet must ,i learn to draw near thee more humbly4 ,far too eagerly doth my heart jump to meet thee4 ,my heart1 whereon my summer burneth1 my short1 hot1 melancholy1 over-blessed summer3 how my summer heart yearneth for thy coolness6 ,farewell1 the lingering affliction of my spring6 ,past is the wickedness of my snowflakes in ,june6 ,summer have ,i become entirely1 and summer noontide6 ,a summer in the loftiest heights1 with cold springs and blessed stillness3 oh come1 my friends1 that the stillness may wax even more blessed6 ,for this is our height and our home3 too high and steep is our dwelling for all the unclean and their appetites4 ,do but cast your pure eyes into the well of my joyfulness1 my friends6 ,how could it thus become muddy6 ,it will laugh back at you with its purity4 ,on the tree called ,future do we build our nest3 eagles shall bring food in their beaks unto us lonely ones6 ,verily not the food whereof the unclean might partake4 ,they would think they ate fire and would burn their mouths6 ,verily1 no abodes for the unclean do we here hold in readiness6 ,to their bodies our happiness would seem an ice-cavern1 and to their spirits also6 ,and like strong winds will we live above them1 neighbours to the eagles1 companions of the snow1 and playmates of the sun3 thus do strong winds live4 ,and like a wind shall ,i one day blow amidst them1 and take away their soul's breath with my spirit3 thus my future willeth it4 ,verily1 a strong wind is ,zarathustra to all low lands2 and this is his counsel to his foes and to all those who spit and spew3 ',beware of spitting against the wind6' ,footnote #a3 ,the right which every ,polish deputy1 whether a great or an inferior nobleman1 possessed of forbidding the passing of any measure by the ,diet1 was called in ,poland the liberum veto 7in ,polish nie pozwalam71 and brought all legislation to a standstill4--,,tr4 ,footnote #b3 ,eugen ,dbring is a philosopher and political economist whose general doctrine might be characterised as a sort of abstract ,materialism with an optimistic colouring4--,,tr4 ,footnote #c3 ,this1 of course1 is a reference to ,wagner's ,parsifal4 ,see my note on p4 #if of ,the ,will to ,power vol4 i4--,,tr4 ,,why ,i ,,am ,,so ,,clever #a ,why do ,i know more things than other people8 ,why1 in fact1 am ,i so clever8 ,i have never pondered over questions that are not questions4 ,i have never squandered my strength4 ,of actual religious difficulties1 for instance1 ,i have no experience4 ,i have never known what it is to feel sinful4 ,in the same way ,i completely lack any reliable criterion for ascertaining what constitutes a prick of conscience3 from all accounts a prick of conscience does not seem to be a very estimable thing4444 ,once it was done ,i should hate to leave an action of mine in the lurch2 ,i should prefer completely to omit the evil outcome1 the consequences1 from the problem concerning the value of an action4 ,in the face of evil consequences one is too ready to lose the proper standpoint from which one's deed ought to be considered4 ,a prick of conscience strikes me as a sort of evil eye4 ,something that has failed should be honoured all the more jealously1 precisely because it has failed--this is much more in keeping with my morality4--,god1 the immortality of the soul1 salvation1 a beyond--to all these notions1 even as a child1 ,i never paid any attention whatsoever1 nor did ,i waste any time upon them1--maybe ,i was never naif enough for that8--,i am quite unacquainted with atheism as a result1 and still less as an event in my life3 in me it is inborn1 instinctive4 ,i am too inquisitive1 too incredulous1 too high spirited1 to be satisfied with such a palpably clumsy solution of things4 ,god is a too palpably clumsy solution of things2 a solution which shows a lack of delicacy towards us thinkers--at bottom ,he is really no more than a coarse and rude prohibition of us3 ye shall not think6444 ,i am much more interested in another question1--a question upon which the salvation of humanity depends to a far greater degree than it does upon any piece of theological curiosity3 ,i refer to nutrition4 ,for ordinary purposes1 it may be formulated as follows3 ,how precisely must thou feed thyself in order to attain to thy maximum of power1 or virt in the ,renaissance style1--of virtue free from moralic acid8 ,my experiences in regard to this matter have been as bad as they possibly could be2 ,i am surprised that ,i set myself this question so late in life1 and that it took me so long to draw rational conclusions from my experiences4 ,only the absolute worth-#a lessness of ,german culture--its idealism--can to some extent explain how it was that precisely in this matter ,i was so backward that my ignorance was almost saintly4 ,this culture1 which from first to last teaches one to lose sight of actual things and to hunt after thoroughly problematic and so-called ideal aims1 as1 for instance1 classical culture--as if it were not hopeless from the start to try to unite classical and ,german in one concept4 ,it is even a little comical--try and imagine a classically cultured citizen of ,leipzig6--,indeed1 ,i can say1 that up to a very mature age1 my food was entirely bad--expressed morally1 it was impersonal1 selfless1 altruistic1 to the glory of cooks and all other fellow-,christians4 ,it was through the cooking in vogue at ,leipzig1 for instance1 together with my first study of ,schopenhauer 7#ahfe71 that ,i earnestly renounced my ,will to ,live4 ,to spoil one's stomach by absorbing insufficient nourishment--this problem seemed to my mind solved with admirable felicity by the above-mentioned cookery4 7,it is said that in the year #ahff changes were introduced into this department47 ,but as to ,german cookery in general--what has it not got on its conscience6 ,soup before the meal 7still called alla tedesca in the ,venetian cookery books of the sixteenth century72 meat boiled to shreds1 vegetables cooked with fat and flour2 the degeneration of pastries into paper-weights6 ,and1 if you add thereto the absolutely bestial post-prandial drinking habits of the ancients1 and not alone of the ancient ,germans1 you will understand where ,german intellect took its origin--that is to say1 in sadly disordered intestines4444 ,german intellect is indigestion2 it can assimilate nothing4 ,but even ,english diet1 which in comparison with ,german1 and indeed with ,french alimentation1 seems to me to constitute a return to ,nature1--that is to say1 to cannibalism1--is profoundly opposed to my own instincts4 ,it seems to me to give the intellect heavy feet1 in fact1 ,englishwomen's feet4444 ,the best cooking is that of ,piedmont4 ,alcoholic drinks do not agree with me2 a single glass of wine or beer a day is amply sufficient to turn life into a valley of tears for me2--in ,munich live my antipodes4 ,although ,i admit that this knowledge came to me somewhat late1 it already formed part of my experience even as a child4 ,as a boy ,i believed that the drinking of wine and the smoking of tobacco were at first but the vanities of youths1 and later merely bad habits4 ,maybe the poor wine of ,naumburg was partly responsible for this poor opinion of wine in general4 ,in order to believe that wine was exhilarating1 ,i should have had to be a ,christian--in other words1 ,i should have had to believe in what1 to my mind1 is an absurdity4 ,strange to say1 whereas small quantities of alcohol1 taken with plenty of water1 succeed in making me feel out of sorts1 large quantities turn me almost into a rollicking tar4 ,even as a boy ,i showed my bravado in this respect4 ,to compose a long ,latin essay in one night1 to revise and recopy it1 to aspire with my pen to emulating the exactitude and the terseness of my model1 ,sallust1 and to pour a few very strong grogs over it all--this mode of procedure1 while ,i was a pupil at the venerable old school of ,pforta1 was not in the least out of keeping with my physiology1 nor perhaps with that of ,sallust1 however much it may have been alien to dignified ,pforta4 ,later on1 towards the middle of my life1 ,i grew more and more opposed to alcoholic drinks3 ,i1 an opponent of vegetarianism1 who have experienced what vegetarianism is1--just as ,wagner1 who converted me back to meat1 experienced it1--cannot with sufficient earnestness advise all more spiritual natures to abstain absolutely from alcohol4 ,water answers the purpose4444 ,i have a predilection in favour of those places where in all directions one has opportunities of drinking from running brooks 7,nice1 ,turin1 ,sils74 ,in vino ,veritas3 it seems that here once more ,i am at variance with the rest of the world about the concept ,truth--with me spirit moves on the face of the waters4444 ,here are a few more indications as to my morality4 ,a heavy meal is digested more easily than an inadequate one4 ,the first principle of a good digestion is that the stomach should become active as a whole4 ,a man ought1 therefore1 to know the size of his stomach4 ,for the same reasons all those interminable meals1 which ,i call interrupted sacrificial feasts1 and which are to be had at any table d'hte1 are strongly to be deprecated4 ,nothing should be eaten between meals1 coffee should be given up--coffee makes one gloomy4 ,tea is beneficial only in the morning4 ,it should be taken in small quantities1 but very strong4 ,it may be very harmful1 and indispose you for the whole day1 if it be taken the least bit too weak4 ,everybody has his own standard in this matter1 often between the narrowest and most delicate limits4 ,in an enervating climate tea is not a good beverage with which to start the day3 an hour before taking it an excellent thing is to drink a cup of thick cocoa1 feed from oil4 ,remain seated as little as possible1 put no trust in any thought that is not born in the open1 to the accompaniment of free bodily motion--nor in one in which even the muscles do not celebrate a feast4 ,all prejudices take their origin in the intestines4 ,a sedentary life1 as ,i have already said elsewhere1 is the real sin against the ,holy ,spirit4 #b4 ,to the question of nutrition1 that of locality and climate is next of kin4 ,nobody is so constituted as to be able to live everywhere and anywhere2 and he who has great duties to perform1 which lay claim to all his strength1 has1 in this respect1 a very limited choice4 ,the influence of climate upon the bodily functions1 affecting their acceleration or retardation1 extends so far1 that a blunder in the choice of locality and climate is able not only to alienate a man from his actual duty1 but also to withhold it from him altogether1 so that he never even comes face to face with it4 ,animal vigour never acquires enough strength in him in order to reach that pitch of artistic freedom which makes his own soul whisper to him3 ,i1 alone1 can do that4444 ,ever so slight a tendency to laziness in the intestines1 once it has become a habit1 is quite sufficient to make something mediocre1 something ,german out of a genius2 the climate of ,germany1 alone1 is enough to discourage the strongest and most heroically disposed intestines4 ,the tempo of the body's functions is closely bound up with the agility or the clumsiness of the spirit's feet2 spirit itself is indeed only a form of these organic functions4 ,let anybody make a list of the places in which men of great intellect have been found1 and are still found2 where wit1 subtlety1 and malice constitute happiness2 where genius is almost necessarily at home3 all of them rejoice in exceptionally dry air4 ,paris1 ,provence1 ,florence1 ,jerusalem1 ,athens--these names prove something1 namely3 that genius is conditioned by dry air1 by a pure sky--that is to say1 by rapid organic functions1 by the constant and ever-present possibility of procuring for one's self great and even enormous quantities of strength4 ,i have a certain case in mind in which a man of remarkable intellect and independent spirit became a narrow1 craven specialist and a grumpy old crank1 simply owing to a lack of subtlety in his instinct for climate4 ,and ,i myself might have been an example of the same thing1 if illness had not compelled me to reason1 and to reflect upon reason realistically4 ,now that ,i have learnt through long practice to read the effects of climatic and meteorological influences1 from my own body1 as though from a very delicate and reliable instrument1 and that ,i am able to calculate the change in degrees of atmospheric moisture by means of physiological observations upon myself1 even on so short a journey as that from ,turin to ,milan2 ,i think with horror of the ghastly fact that my whole life1 until the last ten years1--the most perilous years1--has always been spent in the wrong1 and what to me ought to have been the most forbidden1 places4 ,naumburg1 ,pforta1 ,thuringia in general1 ,leipzig1 ,ble1 ,venice--so many ill-starred places for a constitution like mine4 ,if ,i cannot recall one single happy reminiscence of my childhood and youth1 it is nonsense to suppose that so-called moral causes could account for this--as1 for instance1 the incontestable fact that ,i lacked companions that could have satisfied me2 for this fact is the same to-day as it ever was1 and it does not prevent me from being cheerful and brave4 ,but it was ignorance in physiological matters--that confounded ,idealism--that was the real curse of my life4 ,this was the superfluous and foolish element in my existence2 something from which nothing could spring1 and for which there can be no settlement and no compensation4 ,as the outcome of this ,idealism ,i regard all the blunders1 the great aberrations of instinct1 and the modest specialisations which drew me aside from the task of my life2 as1 for instance1 the fact that ,i became a philologist--why not at least a medical man or anything else which might have opened my eyes8 ,my days at ,ble1 the whole of my intellectual routine1 including my daily time-table1 was an absolutely senseless abuse of extraordinary powers1 without the slightest compensation for the strength that ,i spent1 without even a thought of what ,i was squandering and how its place might be filled4 ,i lacked all subtlety in egoism1 all the fostering care of an imperative instinct2 ,i was in a state in which one is ready to regard one's self as anybody's equal1 a state of disinterestedness1 a forgetting of one's distance from others--something1 in short1 for which ,i can never forgive myself4 ,when ,i had well-nigh reached the end of my tether1 simply because ,i had almost reached my end1 ,i began to reflect upon the fundamental absurdity of my life--,idealism4 ,it was illness that first brought me to reason4 #c ,after the choice of nutrition1 the choice of climate and locality1 the third matter concerning which one must not on any account make a blunder1 is the choice of the manner in which one recuperates one's strength4 ,here1 again1 according to the extent to which a spirit is sui generis1 the limits of that which he can allow himself--in other words1 the limits of that which is beneficial to him--become more and more confined4 ,as far as ,i in particular am concerned1 reading in general belongs to my means of recuperation2 consequently it belongs to that which rids me of myself1 to that which enables me to wander in strange sciences and strange souls--to that1 in fact1 about which ,i am no longer in earnest4 ,indeed1 it is while reading that ,i recover from my earnestness4 ,during the time that ,i am deeply absorbed in my work1 no books are found within my reach2 it would never occur to me to allow any one to speak or even to think in my presence4 ,for that is what reading would mean4444 ,has any one ever actually noticed1 that1 during the period of profound tension to which the state of pregnancy condemns not only the mind1 but also1 at bottom1 the whole organism1 accident and every kind of external stimulus acts too acutely and strikes too deep8 ,accident and external stimuli must1 as far as possible1 be avoided3 a sort of walling-of-one's-self-in is one of the primary instinctive precautions of spiritual pregnancy4 ,shall ,i allow a strange thought to steal secretly over the wall8 ,for that is what reading would mean4444 ,the periods of work and fruit-fulness are followed by periods of recuperation3 come hither1 ye delightful1 intellectual1 intelligent books6 ,shall ,i read ,german books8444 ,i must go back six months to catch myself with a book in my hand4 ,what was it8 ,an excellent study by ,victor ,brochard upon the ,greek sceptics1 in which my ,laertiana#a was used to advantage4 ,the sceptics6--the only honourable types among that double-faced and sometimes quintuple-faced throng1 the philosophers64444 ,otherwise ,i almost always take refuge in the same books3 altogether their number is small2 they are books which are precisely my proper fare4 ,it is not perhaps in my nature to read much1 and of all sorts3 a library makes me ill4 ,neither is it my nature to love much or many kinds of things4 ,suspicion or even hostility towards new books is much more akin to my instinctive feeling than toleration1 largeur de cur1 and other forms of neighbour-love4 444 ,it is to a small number of old ,french authors1 that ,i always return again and again2 ,i believe only in ,french culture1 and regard everything else in ,europe which calls itself culture as a misunderstanding4 ,i do not even take the ,german kind into consideration4444 ,the few instances of higher culture with which ,i have met in ,germany were all ,french in their origin4 ,the most striking example of this was ,madame ,cosima ,wagner1 by far the most decisive voice in matters of taste that ,i have ever heard4 ,if ,i do not read1 but literally love ,pascal8 as the most instinctive sacrifice to ,christianity1 killing himself inch by inch1 first bodily1 then spiritually1 according to the terrible consistency of this most appalling form of inhuman cruelty2 if ,i have something of ,montaigne's mischievousness in my soul1 and--who knows8--perhaps also in my body2 if my artist's taste endeavours to defend the names of ,molire1 ,corneille1 and ,racine1 and not without bitterness1 against such a wild genius as ,shakespeare--all this does not prevent me from regarding even the latter-day ,frenchmen also as charming companions4 ,i can think of absolutely no century in history1 in which a netful of more inquisitive and at the same time more subtle psychologists could be drawn up together than in the ,paris of the present day4 ,let me mention a few at random--for their number is by no means small--,paul ,bourget1 ,pierre ,loti1 ,gyp1 ,meilhac1 ,anatole ,france1 ,jules ,lemaitre2 or1 to point to one of strong race1 a genuine ,latin1 of whom ,i am particularly fond1 ,guy de ,maupassant4 ,between ourselves1 ,i prefer this generation even to its masters1 all of whom were corrupted by ,german philosophy 7,taine1 for instance1 by ,hegel1 whom he has to thank for his misunderstanding of great men and great periods74 ,wherever ,germany extends her sway1 she ruins culture4 ,it was the war which first saved the spirit of ,france4444 ,stendhal is one of the happiest accidents of my life--for everything that marks an epoch in it has been brought to me by accident and never by means of a recommendation4 ,he is quite priceless1 with his psychologist's eye1 quick at forestalling and anticipating2 with his grasp of facts1 which is reminiscent of the same art in the greatest of all masters of facts 7ex ungue ,napoleonem72 and1 last but not least1 as an honest atheist--a specimen which is both rare and difficult to discover in ,france--all honour to ,prosper ,mrime6444 ,maybe that ,i am even envious of ,stendhal8 ,he robbed me of the best atheistic joke1 which ,i of all people could have perpetrated3 ,god's only excuse is that ,he does not exist 444 ,i myself have said somewhere--,what has been the greatest objection to ,life hitherto8--,god4444 #d ,it was ,heinrich ,heine who gave me the most perfect idea of what a lyrical poet could be4 ,in vain do ,i search through all the kingdoms of antiquity or of modern times for anything to resemble his sweet and passionate music4 ,he possessed that divine wickedness1 without which perfection itself becomes unthinkable to me1--,i estimate the value of men1 of races1 according to the extent to which they are unable to conceive of a god who has not a dash of the satyr in him4 ,and with what mastery he wields his native tongue6 ,one day it will be said of ,heine and me that we were by far the greatest artists of the ,german language that have ever existed1 and that we left all the efforts that mere ,germans made in this language an incalculable distance behind us4 ,i must be profoundly related to ,byron's ,manfred3 of all the dark abysses in this work ,i found the counterparts in my own soul--at the age of thirteen ,i was ripe for this book4 ,words fail me1 ,i have only a look1 for those who dare to utter the name of ,faust in the presence of ,manfred4 ,the ,germans are incapable of conceiving anything sublime3 for a proof of this1 look at ,schumann6 ,out of anger for this mawkish ,saxon1 ,i once deliberately composed a counter-overture to ,manfred1 of which ,hans von ,blow declared he had never seen the like before on paper3 such compositions amounted to a violation of ,euterpe4 ,when ,i cast about me for my highest formula of ,shakespeare1 ,i find invariably but this one3 that he conceived the type of ,csar4 ,such things a man cannot guess--he either is the thing1 or he is not4 ,the great poet draws his creations only from out of his own reality4 ,this is so to such an extent1 that often after a lapse of time he can no longer endure his own work4444 ,after casting a glance between the pages of my ,zarathustra1 ,i pace my room to and fro for half an hour at a time1 unable to overcome an insufferable fit of tears4 ,i know of no more heartrending reading than ,shakespeare3 how a man must have suffered to be so much in need of playing the clown6 ,is ,hamlet understood8 ,it is not doubt1 but certitude that drives one mad4444 ,but in order to feel this1 one must be profound1 one must be an abyss1 a philosopher4444 ,we all fear the truth4444 ,and1 to make a confession2 ,i feel instinctively certain and convinced that ,lord ,bacon is the originator1 the self-torturer1 of this most sinister kind of literature3 what do ,i care about the miserable gabble of ,american muddlers and blockheads8 ,but the power for the greatest realism in vision is not only compatible with the greatest realism in deeds1 with the monstrous in deeds1 with crime--it actually presupposes the latter4 444 ,we do not know half enough about ,lord ,bacon--the first realist in all the highest acceptation of this word--to be sure of everything he did1 everything he willed1 and everything he experienced in his inmost soul4444 ,let the critics go to hell6 ,suppose ,i had christened my ,zarathustra with a name not my own1--let us say with ,richard ,wagner's name1--the acumen of two thousand years would not have sufficed to guess that the author of ,human1 all-too-,human was the visionary of ,zarathustra4 #e ,as ,i am speaking here of the recreations of my life1 ,i feel ,i must express a word or two of gratitude for that which has refreshed me by far the most heartily and most profoundly4 ,this1 without the slightest doubt1 was my intimate relationship with ,richard ,wagner4 ,all my other relationships with men ,i treat quite lightly2 but ,i would not have the days ,i spent at ,tribschen--those days of confidence1 of cheerfulness1 of sublime flashes1 and of profound moments--blotted from my life at any price4 ,i know not what ,wagner may have been for others2 but no cloud ever darkened our sky4 ,and this brings me back again to ,france1--,i have no arguments against ,wagnerites1 and hoc genus omne who believe that they do honour to ,wagner by believing him to be like themselves2 for such people ,i have only a contemptuous curl of my lip4 ,with a nature like mine1 which is so strange to everything ,teutonic1 that even the presence of a ,german retards my digestion1 my first meeting with ,wagner was the first moment in my life in which ,i breathed freely3 ,i felt him1 ,i honoured him1 as a foreigner1 as the opposite and the incarnate contradiction of all ,german virtues4 ,we who as children breathed the marshy atmosphere of the fifties1 are necessarily pessimists in regard to the concept ,german2 we cannot be anything else than revolutionaries--we can assent to no state of affairs which allows the canting bigot to be at the top4 ,i care not a jot whether this canting bigot acts in different colours to-day1 whether he dresses in scarlet or dons the uniform of a hussar4#b ,very well1 then6 ,wagner was a revolutionary--he fled from the ,germans4444 ,as an artist1 a man has no home in ,europe save in ,paris2 that subtlety of all the five senses which ,wagner's art presupposes1 those fingers that can detect slight gradations1 psychological morbidity--all these things can be found only in ,paris4 ,nowhere else can you meet with this passion for questions of form1 this earnestness in matters of mise-en-scne1 which is the ,parisian earnestness par excellence4 ,in ,germany no one has any idea of the tremendous ambition that fills the heart of a ,parisian artist4 ,the ,german is a good fellow4 ,wagner was by no means a good fellow4444 ,but ,i have already said quite enough on the subject of ,wagner's real nature 7see ,beyond ,good and ,evil1 ,aphorism #bfi71 and about those to whom he is most closely related4 ,he is one of the late ,french romanticists1 that high-soaring and heaven-aspiring band of artists1 like ,delacroix and ,berlioz1 who in their inmost nacres are sick and incurable1 and who are all fanatics of expression1 and virtuosos through and through4444 ,who1 in sooth1 was the first intelligent follower of ,wagner8 ,charles ,baudelaire1 the very man who first understood ,delacroix--that typical decadent1 in whom a whole generation of artists saw their reflection2 he was perhaps the last of them too4444 ,what is it that ,i have never forgiven ,wagner8 ,the fact that he condescended to the ,germans--that he became a ,german ,imperialist4444 ,wherever ,germany spreads1 she ruins culture4 #f ,taking everything into consideration1 ,i could never have survived my youth without ,wagnerian music4 ,for ,i was condemned to the society of ,germans4 ,if a man wish to get rid of a feeling of insufferable oppression1 he has to take to hashish4 ,well1 ,i had to take to ,wagner4 ,wagner is the counter-poison to everything essentially ,german--the fact that he is a poison too1 ,i do not deny4 ,from the moment that ,tristan was arranged for the piano--all honour to you1 ,herr von ,blow6--,i was a ,wagnerite4 ,wagner's previous works seemed beneath me--they were too commonplace1 too ,german4 444 ,but to this day ,i am still seeking for a work which would be a match to ,tristan in dangerous fascination1 and possess the same gruesome and dulcet quality of infinity2 ,i seek among all the arts in vain4 ,all the quaint features of ,leonardo da ,vinci's work lose their charm at the sound of the first bar in ,tristan4 ,this work is without question ,wagner's non plus ultra2 after its creation1 the composition of the ,mastersingers and of the ,ring was a relaxation to him4 ,to become more healthy--this in a nature like ,wagner's amounts to going backwards4 ,the curiosity of the psychologist is so great in me1 that ,i regard it as quite a special privilege to have lived at the right time1 and to have lived precisely among ,germans1 in order to be ripe for this work4 ,the world must indeed be empty for him who has never been unhealthy enough for this infernal voluptuousness3 it is allowable1 it is even imperative1 to employ a mystic formula for this purpose4 ,i suppose ,i know better than any one the prodigious feats of which ,wagner was capable1 the fifty worlds of strange ecstasies to which no one else had wings to soar2 and as ,i am alive to-day and strong enough to turn even the most suspicious and most dangerous things to my own advantage1 and thus to grow stronger1 ,i declare ,wagner to have been the greatest benefactor of my life4 ,the bond which unites us is the fact that we have suffered greater agony1 even at each other's hands1 than most men are able to bear nowadays1 and this will always keep our names associated in the minds of men4 ,for1 just as ,wagner is merely a misunderstanding among ,germans1 so1 in truth1 am ,i1 and ever will be4 ,ye lack two centuries of psychological and artistic discipline1 my dear countrymen6444 ,but ye can never recover the time lost4 #g ,to the most exceptional of my readers ,i should like to say just one word about what ,i really exact from music4 ,it must be cheerful and yet profound1 like an ,october afternoon4 ,it must be original1 exuberant1 and tender1 and like a dainty1 soft woman in roguishness and grace 444 ,i shall never admit that a ,german can understand what music is4 ,those musicians who are called ,german1 the greatest and most famous foremost1 are all foreigners1 either ,slavs1 ,croats1 ,italians1 ,dutchmen--or ,jews2 or else1 like ,heinrich ,schtz1 ,bach1 and ,hndel1 they are ,germans of a strong race which is now extinct4 ,for my own part1 ,i have still enough of the ,pole left in me to let all other music go1 if only ,i can keep ,chopin4 ,for three reasons ,i would except ,wagner's ,siegfried ,idyll1 and perhaps also one or two things of ,liszt1 who excelled all other musicians in the noble tone of his orchestration2 and finally everything that has been produced beyond the ,alps--this side of the ,alps4#c ,i could not possibly dispense with ,rossini1 and still less with my ,southern soul in music1 the work of my ,venetian maestro1 ,pietro ,gasti4 ,and when ,i say beyond the ,alps1 all ,i really mean is ,venice4 ,if ,i try to find a new word for music1 ,i can never find any other than ,venice4 ,i know not how to draw any distinction between tears and music4 ,i do not know how to think either of joy1 or of the south1 without a shudder of fear4 ,on the bridge ,i stood ,lately1 in gloomy night4 ,came a distant song3 ,in golden drops it rolled ,over the glittering rim away4 ,music1 gondolas1 lights-- ,drunk1 swam far forth in the gloom4444 ,a stringed instrument1 my soul1 ,sang1 imperceptibly moved1 ,a gondola song by stealth1 ,gleaming for gaudy blessedness4 --,hearkened any thereto8 #h ,in all these things--in the choice of food1 place1 climate1 and recreation--the instinct of self-preservation is dominant1 and this instinct manifests itself with least ambiguity when it acts as an instinct of defence4 ,to close one's eyes to much1 to seal one's ears to much1 to keep certain things at a distance--this is the first principle of prudence1 the first proof of the fact that a man is not an accident but a necessity4 ,the popular word for this instinct of defence is taste4 ,a man's imperative command is not only to say no in cases where yes would be a sign of disinterestedness1 but also to say no as seldom as possible4 ,one must part with all that which compels one to repeat no1 with ever greater frequency4 ,the rationale of this principle is that all discharges of defensive forces1 however slight they may be1 involve enormous and absolutely superfluous losses when they become regular and habitual4 ,our greatest expenditure of strength is made up of those small and most frequent discharges of it4 ,the act of keeping things off1 of holding them at a distance1 amounts to a discharge of strength1--do not deceive yourselves on this point6--and an expenditure of energy directed at purely negative ends4 ,simply by being compelled to keep constantly on his guard1 a man may grow so weak as to be unable any longer to defend himself4 ,suppose ,i were to step out of my house1 and1 instead of the quiet and aristocratic city of ,turin1 ,i were to find a ,german provincial town1 my instinct would have to brace itself together in order to repel all that which would pour in upon it from this crushed-down and cowardly world4 ,or suppose ,i were to find a large ,german city--that structure of vice in which nothing grows1 but where every single thing1 whether good or bad1 is squeezed in from outside4 ,in such circumstances should ,i not be compelled to become a hedgehog8 ,but to have prickles amounts to a squandering of strength2 they even constitute a twofold luxury1 when1 if we only chose to do so1 we could dispense with them and open our hands instead4444 ,another form of prudence and self-defence consists in trying to react as seldom as possible1 and to keep one's self aloof from those circumstances and conditions wherein one would be condemned1 as it were1 to suspend one's liberty and one's initiative1 and become a mere reacting medium4 ,as an example of this ,i point to the intercourse with books4 ,the scholar who1 in sooth1 does little else than handle books--with the philologist of average attainments their number may amount to two hundred a day--ultimately forgets entirely and completely the capacity of thinking for himself4 ,when he has not a book between his fingers he cannot think4 ,when he thinks1 he responds to a stimulus 7a thought he has read71--finally all he does is to react4 ,the scholar exhausts his whole strength in saying either yes or no to matter which has already been thought out1 or in criticising it--he is no longer capable of thought on his own account4444 ,in him the instinct of self-defence has decayed1 otherwise he would defend himself against books4 ,the scholar is a decadent4 ,with my own eyes ,i have seen gifted1 richly endowed1 and free-spirited natures already read to ruins at thirty1 and mere wax vestas that have to be rubbed before they can give off any sparks--or thoughts4 ,to set to early in the morning1 at the break of day1 in all the fulness and dawn of one's strength1 and to read a book--this ,i call positively vicious6 #i ,at this point ,i can no longer evade a direct answer to the question1 how one becomes what one is4 ,and in giving it1 ,i shall have to touch upon that masterpiece in the art of self-preservation1 which is selfishness4 444 ,granting that one's life-task--the determination and the fate of one's life-task--greatly exceeds the average measure of such things1 nothing more dangerous could be conceived than to come face to face with one's self by the side of this life-task4 ,the fact that one becomes what one is1 presupposes that one has not the remotest suspicion of what one is4 ,from this standpoint even the blunders of one's life have their own meaning and value1 the temporary deviations and aberrations1 the moments of hesitation and of modesty1 the earnestness wasted upon duties which lie outside the actual life-task4 ,in these matters great wisdom1 perhaps even the highest wisdom1 comes into activity3 in these circumstances1 in which nosce teipsum would be the sure road to ruin1 forgetting one's self1 misunderstanding one's self1 belittling one's self1 narrowing one's self1 and making one's self mediocre1 amount to reason itself4 ,expressed morally1 to love one's neighbour and to live for others and for other things may be the means of protection employed to maintain the hardest kind of egoism4 ,this is the exceptional case in which ,i1 contrary to my principle and conviction1 take the side of the altruistic instincts2 for here they are concerned in subserving selfishness and self-discipline4 ,the whole surface of consciousness--for consciousness is a surface--must be kept free from any one of the great imperatives4 ,beware even of every striking word1 of every striking attitude6 ,they are all so many risks which the instinct runs of understanding itself too soon4 ,meanwhile the organising idea1 which is destined to become master1 grows and continues to grow into the depths1--it begins to command1 it leads you slowly back from your deviations and aberrations1 it prepares individual qualities and capacities1 which one day will make themselves felt as indispensable to the whole of your task1--step by step it cultivates all the serviceable faculties1 before it ever whispers a word concerning the dominant task1 the goal1 the object1 and the meaning of it all4 ,looked at from this standpoint my life is simply amazing4 ,for the task of transvaluing values1 more capacities were needful perhaps than could well be found side by side in one individual2 and above all1 antagonistic capacities which had to be free from the mutual strife and destruction which they involve4 ,an order of rank among capacities2 distance2 the art of separating without creating hostility2 to refrain from confounding things2 to keep from reconciling things2 to possess enormous multifariousness and yet to be the reverse of chaos--all this was the first condition1 the long secret work1 and the artistic mastery of my instinct4 ,its superior guardianship manifested itself with such exceeding strength1 that not once did ,i ever dream of what was growing within me--until suddenly all my capacities were ripe1 and one day burst forth in all the perfection of their highest bloom4 ,i cannot remember ever having exerted myself1 ,i can point to no trace of struggle in my life2 ,i am the reverse of a heroic nature4 ,to will something1 to strive after something1 to have an aim or a desire in my mind--,i know none of these things from experience4 ,even at this moment ,i look out upon my future--a broad future6--as upon a calm sea3 no sigh of longing makes a ripple on its surface4 ,i have not the slightest wish that anything should be otherwise than it is3 ,i myself would not be otherwise4444 ,but in this matter ,i have always been the same4 ,i have never had a desire4 ,a man who1 after his four-and-fortieth year1 can say that he has never bothered himself about honours1 women1 or money6--not that they did not come his way4444 ,it was thus that ,i became one day a ,university ,professor--,i had never had the remotest idea of such a thing2 for ,i was scarcely four-and-twenty years of age4 ,in the same way1 two years previously1 ,i had one day become a philologist1 in the sense that my first philological work1 my start in every way1 was expressly obtained by my master ,ritschl for publication in his ,rheinisches ,museum4#d 7,ritschl--and ,i say it in all reverence--was the only genial scholar that ,i have ever met4 ,he possessed that pleasant kind of depravity which distinguishes us ,thuringians1 and which makes even a ,german sympathetic--even in the pursuit of truth we prefer to avail ourselves of roundabout ways4 ,in saying this ,i do not mean to underestimate in any way my ,thuringian brother1 the intelligent ,leopold von ,ranke44447 #aj ,you may be wondering why ,i should actually have related all these trivial and1 according to traditional accounts1 insignificant details to you2 such action can but tell against me1 more particularly if ,i am fated to figure in great causes4 ,to this ,i reply that these trivial matters--diet1 locality1 climate1 and one's mode of recreation1 the whole casuistry of2 self-love--are inconceivably more important than1 all that which has hitherto been held in high esteem6 ,it is precisely in this quarter that we must begin to learn afresh4 ,all those things which mankind has valued with such earnestness heretofore are not even real2 they are mere creations of fancy1 or1 more strictly speaking1 lies born of the evil instincts of diseased and1 in the deepest sense1 noxious natures--all the concepts1 ,god1 soul1 virtue1 sin1 ,beyond1 truth1 eternal life4 444 ,but the greatness of human nature1 its divinity1 was sought for in them4444 ,all questions of politics1 of social order1 of education1 have been falsified1 root and branch1 owing to the fact that the most noxious men have been taken for great men1 and that people were taught to despise the small things1 or rather the fundamental things1 of life4 ,if ,i now choose to compare myself with those creatures who have hitherto been honoured as the first among men1 the difference becomes obvious4 ,i do not reckon the so-called first men even as human beings--for me they are the excrements of mankind1 the products of disease and of the instinct of revenge3 they are so many monsters laden with rottenness1 so many hopeless incurables1 who avenge themselves on life4444 ,i wish to be the opposite of these people3 it is my privilege to have the very sharpest discernment for every sign of healthy instincts4 ,there is no such thing as a morbid trait in me2 even in times of serious illness ,i have never grown morbid1 and you might seek in vain for a trace of fanaticism in my nature4 ,no one can point to any moment of my life in which ,i have assumed either an arrogant or a pathetic attitude4 ,pathetic attitudes are not in keeping with greatness2 he who needs attitudes is false4444 ,beware of all picturesque men6 ,life was easy--in fact easiest--to me1 in those periods when it exacted the heaviest duties from me4 ,whoever could have seen me during the seventy days of this autumn1 when1 without interruption1 ,i did a host of things of the highest rank--things that no man can do nowadays--with a sense of responsibility for all the ages yet to come1 would have noticed no sign of tension in my condition1 but rather a state of overflowing freshness and good cheer4 ,never have ,i eaten with more pleasant sensations1 never has my sleep been better4 ,i know of no other manner of dealing with great tasks1 than as play3 this1 as a sign of greatness1 is an essential prerequisite4 ,the slightest constraint1 a sombre mien1 any hard accent in the voice--all these things are objections to a man1 but how much more to his work6444 ,one must not have nerves4444 ,even to suffer from solitude is an objection--the only thing ,i have always suffered from is multitude4#e ,at an absurdly tender age1 in fact when ,i was seven years old1 ,i already knew that no human speech would ever reach me3 did any one ever see me sad on that account8 ,at present ,i still possess the same affability towards everybody1 ,i am even full of consideration for the lowest3 in all this there is not an atom of haughtiness or of secret contempt4 ,he whom ,i despise soon guesses that he is despised by me3 the very fact of my existence is enough to rouse indignation in all those who have polluted blood in their veins4 ,my formula for greatness in man is6 amor fati3 the fact that a man wishes nothing to be different1 either in front of him or behind him1 or for all eternity4 ,not only must the necessary be borne1 and on no account concealed1--all idealism is falsehood in the face of necessity1--but it must also be loved4444 ,footnote #a3 ,nietzsche1 as is well known1 devoted much time when a student at ,leipzig to the study of three ,greek philosophers1 ,theognis1 ,diogenes ,laertius1 and ,democritus4 ,this study first bore fruit in the case of a paper1 ,zur ,geschichte der ,theognideischen ,spruchsammlung1 which was subsequently published by the most influential journal of classical philology in ,germany4 ,later1 however1 it enabled ,nietzsche to enter for the prize offered by the ,university of ,leipzig for an essay1 ,de fontibus ,diogenis ,laertii4 ,he was successful in gaining the prize1 and the treatise was afterwards published in the ,rheinisches ,museum1 and is still quoted as an authority4 ,it is to this essay1 written when he was twenty-three years of age1 that he here refers4--,,tr4 ,footnote #b3 ,the favourite uniform of the ,german ,emperor1 ,william ,,ii4--,,tr4 ,footnote #c3 ,in the latter years of his life1 ,nietzsche practically made ,italy his home4--,,tr4 ,footnote #d3 ,see note on page #cg4 ,footnote #e3 ,the ,german words are1 ,einsamkeit and ,vielsamkeit4 ,the latter was coined by ,nietzsche4 ,the ,english word multitude should1 therefore1 be understood as signifying multifarious instincts and gifts1 which in ,nietzsche strove for ascendancy and caused him more suffering than any solitude4 ,complexity of this sort1 held in check by a dominant instinct1 as in ,nietzsche's case1 is of course the only possible basis of an artistic nature4--,,tr4 ,,why ,i ,,write ,,such ,,excellent ,,books #a ,i am one thing1 my creations are another4 ,here1 before ,i speak of the books themselves1 ,i shall touch upon the question of the understanding and misunderstanding with which they have met4 ,i shall proceed to do this in as perfunctory a manner as the occasion demands2 for the time has by no means come for this question4 ,my time has not yet come either2 some are born posthumously4 ,one s day institutions will be needed in which men will live and teach1 as ,i understand living and teaching2 maybe1 also1 that by that time1 chairs will be founded and endowed for the interpretation of ,zarathustra4 ,but ,i should regard it as a complete contradiction of myself1 if ,i expected to find ears and eyes for my truths to-day3 the fact that no one listens to me1 that no one knows how to receive at my hands to-day1 is not only comprehensible1 it seems to me quite the proper thing4 ,i do not wish to be mistaken for another--and to this end ,i must not mistake myself4 ,to repeat what ,i have already said1 ,i can point to but few instances of ill-will in my life3 and as for literary ill-will1 ,i could mention scarcely a single example of it4 ,on the other hand1 ,i have met with far too much pure foolery6444 ,it seems to me that to take up one of my books is one of the rarest honours that a man can pay himself--even supposing that he put his shoes from off his feet beforehand1 not to mention boots4444 ,when on one occasion ,dr4 ,heinrich von ,stein honestly complained that he could not understand a word of my ,zarathustra1 ,i said to him that this was just as it should be3 to have understood six sentences in that book--that is to say1 to have lived them--raises a man to a higher level among mortals than modern men can attain4 ,with this feeling of distance how could ,i even wish to be read by the moderns whom ,i know6 ,my triumph is just the opposite of what ,schopenhauer's was--,i say ,non legor1 non legar4--,not that ,i should like to underestimate the pleasure ,i have derived from the innocence with which my works have frequently been contradicted4 ,as late as last summer1 at a time when ,i was attempting1 perhaps by means of my weighty1 all-too-weighty literature1 to throw the rest of literature off its balance1 a certain professor of ,berlin ,university kindly gave me to understand that ,i ought really to make use of a different form3 no one could read such stuff as ,i wrote4--,finally1 it was not ,germany1 but ,switzerland that presented me with the two most extreme cases4 ,an essay on ,beyond ,good and ,evil1 by ,dr4 ,v4 ,widmann in the paper called the ,bund1 under the heading ,nietzsche's ,dangerous ,book1 and a general account of all my works1 from the pen of ,herr ,karl ,spitteler1 also in the ,bund1 constitute a maximum in my life--,i shall not say of what4444 ,the latter treated my ,zarathustra1 for instance as advanced exercises in style1 and expressed the wish that later on ,i might try and attend to the question of substance as well2 ,dr4 ,widmann assured me of his respect for the courage ,i showed in endeavouring to abolish all decent feeling4 ,thanks to a little trick of destiny1 every sentence in these criticisms seemed1 with a consistency that ,i could but admire1 to be an inverted truth4 ,in fact it was most remarkable that all one had to do was to transvalue all values1 in order to hit the nail on the head with regard to me1 instead of striking my head with the nail4444 ,i am more particularly anxious therefore to discover an explanation4 ,after all1 no one can draw more out of things1 books included1 than he already knows4 ,a man has no ears for that to which experience has given him no access4 ,to take an extreme case1 suppose a book contains simply incidents which lie quite outside the range of general or even rare experience--suppose it to be the first language to express a whole series of experiences4 ,in this case nothing it contains will really be heard at all1 and1 thanks to an acoustic delusion1 people will believe that where nothing is heard there is nothing to hear4444 ,this1 at least1 has been my usual experience1 and proves1 if you will1 the originality of my experience4 ,he who thought he had understood something in my work1 had as a rule adjusted something in it to his own image--not infrequently the very opposite of myself1 an idealist1 for instance4 ,he who understood nothing in my work1 would deny that ,i was worth considering at all4--,the word ,superman1 which designates a type of man that would be one of nature's rarest and luckiest strokes1 as opposed to modern men1 to good men1 to ,christians and other ,nihilists1--a word which in the mouth of ,zarathustra1 the annihilator of morality1 acquires a very profound meaning1--is understood almost everywhere1 and with perfect innocence1 in the light of those values to which a flat contradiction was made manifest in the figure of ,zarathustra--that is to say1 as an ideal type1 a higher kind of man1 half saint and half genius4 444 ,other learned cattle have suspected me of ,darwinism on account of this word3 even the hero cult of that great unconscious and involuntary swindler1 ,carlyle1--a cult which ,i repudiated with such roguish malice1--was recognised in my doctrine4 ,once1 when ,i whispered to a man that he would do better ,i to seek for the ,superman in a ,csar ,borgia than in a ,parsifal1 he could not believe his ears4 ,the fact that ,i am quite free from curiosity in regard to criticisms of my books1 more particularly when they appear in newspapers1 will have to be forgiven me4 ,my friends and my publishers know this1 and never speak to me of such things4 ,in one particular case1 ,i once saw all the sins that had been committed against a single book--it was ,beyond ,good and ,evil2 ,i could tell you a nice story about it4 ,is it possible that the ,national-,zeitung--a ,prussian paper 7this comment is for the sake of my foreign readers--for my own part1 ,i beg to state1 ,i read only ,le ,journal des ,dbats7--really and seriously regarded the book as a sign of the times1 or a genuine and typical example of ,tory philosophy1#a for which the ,kreuz-,zeitung had not sufficient courage8444 #b ,this was said for the benefit of ,germans3 for everywhere else ,i have my readers--all of them exceptionally intelligent men1 characters that have won their spurs and that have been reared in high offices and superior duties2 ,i have even real geniuses among my readers4 ,in ,vienna1 in ,st ,petersburg1 in ,stockholm1 in ,copenhagen1 in ,paris1 and ,new ,york--,i have been discovered everywhere3 ,i have not yet been discovered in ,europe's flatland--,germany4444 ,and1 to make a confession1 ,i rejoice much more heartily over those who do not read me1 over those who have neither heard of my name nor of the word philosophy4 ,but whithersoever ,i go1 here in ,turin1 for instance1 every face brightens and softens at the sight of me4 ,a thing that has flattered me more than anything else hitherto1 is the fact that old market-women cannot rest until they have picked out the sweetest of their grapes for me4 ,to this extent must a man be a philosopher4444 ,it is not in vain that the ,poles are considered as the ,french among the ,slavs4 ,a charming ,russian lady will not be mistaken for a single moment concerning my origin4 ,i am not successful at being pompous1 the most ,i can do is to appear embarrassed4444 ,i can think in ,german1 ,i can feel in ,german--,i can do most things2 but this is beyond my powers4444 ,my old master ,ritschl went so far as to declare that ,i planned even my philological treatises after the manner of a ,parisian novelist--that ,i made them absurdly thrilling4 ,in ,paris itself people are surprised at toutes mes audaces et finesses2--the words are ,monsieur ,taine's2--,i fear that even in the highest forms of the dithyramb1 that salt will be found pervading my work which never becomes insipid1 which never becomes ,german--and that is1 wit4444 ,i can do nought else4 ,god help me6 ,amen4--,we all know1 some of us even from experience1 what a long-ears is4 ,well then1 ,i venture to assert that ,i have the smallest ears that have ever been seen4 ,this fact is not without interest to women--it seems to me they feel that ,i understand them better6444 ,i am essentially the anti-ass1 and on this account alone a monster in the world's history--in ,greek1 and not only in ,greek1 ,i am the ,antichrist4 #c ,i am to a great extent aware of my privileges as a writer3 in one or two cases it has even been brought home to me how very much the habitual reading of my works spoils a man's taste4 ,other books simply cannot be endured after mine1 and least of all philosophical ones4 ,it is an incomparable distinction to cross the threshold of this noble and subtle world--in order to do so one must certainly not be a ,german2 it is1 in short1 a distinction which one must have deserved4 ,he1 however1 who is related to me through loftiness of will1 experiences genuine raptures of understanding in my books3 for ,i swoop down from heights into which no bird has ever soared2 ,i know abysses into which no foot has ever slipped4 ,people have told me that it is impossible to lay down a book of mine--that ,i disturb even the night's rest4444 ,there is no prouder or at the same time more subtle kind of books3 they sometimes attain to the highest pinnacle of earthly endeavour1 cynicism2 to capture their thoughts a man must have the tenderest fingers as well as the most intrepid fists4 ,any kind of spiritual decrepitude utterly excludes all intercourse with them--even any kind of dyspepsia3 a man must have no nerves1 but he must have a cheerful belly4 ,not only the poverty of a man's soul and its stuffy air excludes all intercourse with them1 but also1 and to a much greater degree1 cowardice1 uncleanliness1 and secret intestinal revengefulness2 a word from my lips suffices to make the colour of all evil instincts rush into a face4 ,among my acquaintances ,i have a number of experimental subjects1 in whom ,i see depicted all the different1 and instructively different1 reactions which follow upon a perusal of my works4 ,those who will have nothing to do with the contents of my books1 as for instance my so-called friends1 assume an impersonal tone concerning them3 they wish me luck1 and congratulate me for having produced another work2 they also declare that my writings show progress1 because they exhale a more cheerful spirit4444 ,the thoroughly vicious people1 the beautiful souls1 the false from top to toe1 do not know in the least what to do with my books--consequently1 with the beautiful consistency of all beautiful souls1 they regard my work as beneath them4 ,the cattle among my acquaintances1 the mere ,germans1 leave me to understand1 if you please1 that they are not always of my opinion1 though here and there they agree with me4444 ,i have heard this said even about ,zarathustra4 ,feminism1 whether in mankind or in man1 is likewise a barrier to my writings2 with it1 no one could ever enter into this labyrinth of fearless knowledge4 ,to this end1 a man must never have spared himself1 he must have been hard in his habits1 in order to be good-humoured and merry among a host of inexorable truths4 ,when ,i try to picture the character of a perfect reader1 ,i always imagine a monster of courage and curiosity1 as well as of suppleness1 cunning1 and prudence--in short1 a born adventurer and explorer4 ,after all1 ,i could not describe better than ,zarathustra has done unto whom ,i really address myself3 unto whom alone would he reveal his riddle8 ,unto you1 daring explorers and experimenters1 and unto all who have ever embarked beneath cunning sails upon terrible seas2 ,unto you who revel in riddles and in twilight1 whose souls are lured by flutes unto every treacherous abyss3 ,for ye care not to grope your way along a thread with craven fingers2 and where ye are able to guess1 ye hate to argue8 #d ,i will now pass just one or two general remarks about my art of style4 ,to communicate a state an inner tension of pathos by means of signs1 including the tempo of these signs1--that is the meaning of every style2 and in view of the fact that the multiplicity of inner states in me is enormous1 ,i am capable of many kinds of style--in short1 the most multifarious art of style that any man has ever had at his disposal4 ,any style is good which genuinely communicates an inner condition1 which does not blunder over the signs1 over the tempo of the signs1 or over moods--all the laws of phrasing are the outcome of representing moods artistically4 ,good style1 in itself1 is a piece of sheer foolery1 mere idealism1 like beauty in itself1 for instance1 or goodness in itself1 or the thing-in-itself4 ,all this takes for granted1 of course1 that there exist ears that can hear1 and such men as are capable and worthy of a like pathos1 that those are not wanting unto whom one may communicate one's self4 ,meanwhile my ,zarathustra1 for instance1 is still in quest of such people--alas6 he will have to seek a long while yet6 ,a man must be worthy of listening to him4444 ,and1 until that time1 there will be no one who will understand the art that has been squandered in this book4 ,no one has ever existed who has had more novel1 more strange1 and purposely created art forms to fling to the winds4 ,the fact that such things were possible in the ,german language still awaited proof2 formerly1 ,i myself would have denied most emphatically that it was possible4 ,before my time people did not know what could be done with the ,german language--what could be done with language in general4 ,the art of grand rhythm1 of grand style in periods1 for expressing the tremendous fluctuations of sublime and superhuman passion1 was first discovered by me3 with the dithyramb entitled ,the ,seven ,seals1 which constitutes the last discourse of the third part of ,zarathustra1 ,i soared miles above all that which heretofore has been called poetry4 #e ,the fact that the voice which speaks in my works is that of a psychologist who has not his peer1 is perhaps the first conclusion at which a good reader will arrive--a reader such as ,i deserve1 and one who reads me just as the good old philologists used to read their ,horace4 ,those propositions about which all the world is fundamentally agreed--not to speak of fashionable philosophy1 of moralists and other empty-headed and cabbage-brained people--are to me but ingenuous blunders3 for instance1 the belief that altruistic and egoistic2 are opposites1 while all the time the ego itself is merely a supreme swindle1 an ideal4 444 ,there are no such things as egoistic or altruistic actions3 both concepts are psychological nonsense4 ,or the proposition that man pursues happiness2 or the proposition that happiness is the reward of virtue4 444 ,or the proposition that pleasure and pain are opposites4 444 ,morality1 the ,circe of mankind1 has falsified everything psychological1 root and branch--it has demoralised everything1 even to the terribly nonsensical point of calling love unselfish4 ,a man must first be firmly poised1 he must stand securely on his two legs1 otherwise he cannot love at all4 ,this indeed the girls know only too well3 they don't care two pins about unselfish and merely objective men4444 ,may ,i venture to suggest1 incidentally1 that ,i know women8 ,this knowledge is part of my ,dionysian patrimony4 ,who knows8 maybe ,i am the first psychologist of the eternally feminine4 ,women all like me4444 ,but that's an old story3 save1 of course1 the abortions among them1 the emancipated ones1 those who lack the where-withal to have children4 ,thank goodness ,i am not willing to let myself be torn to pieces6 the perfect woman tears you to pieces when she loves you3 ,i know these amiable ,mnads4444 ,oh6 what a dangerous1 creeping1 subterranean little beast of prey she is6 ,and so agreeable withal6 444 ,a little woman1 pursuing her vengeance1 would force open even the iron gates of ,fate itself4 ,woman is incalculably more wicked than man1 she is also cleverer4 ,goodness in a woman is already a sign of degeneration4 ,all cases of beautiful souls in women may be traced to a faulty physiological condition--but ,i go no further1 lest ,i should become medicynical4 ,the struggle for equal rights is even a symptom of disease2 every doctor knows this4 ,the more womanly a woman is1 the more she fights tooth and nail against rights in general3 the natural order of things1 the eternal war between the sexes1 assigns to her by far the foremost rank4 ,have people had ears to hear my definition of love8 ,it is the only definition worthy of a philosopher4 ,love1 in its means1 is war2 in its foundation1 it is the mortal hatred of the sexes4 ,have you heard my reply to the question how a woman can be cured1 saved in fact8--,give her a child6 ,a woman needs children1 man is always only a means1 thus spake ,zarathustra4 ,the emancipation of women1--this is the instinctive hatred of physiologically botched--that is to say1 barren--women for those of their sisters who are well constituted3 the fight against man is always only a means1 a pretext1 a piece of strategy4 ,by trying to rise to ,woman per se1 to ,higher ,woman1 to the ,ideal ,woman1 all they wish to do is to lower the general level of women's rank3 and there are no more certain means to this end than university education1 trousers1 and the rights of voting cattle4 ,truth to tell1 the emancipated are the anarchists in the eternally feminine world1 the physiological mishaps1 the most deep-rooted instinct of whom is revenge4 ,a whole species of the most malicious idealism--which1 by the bye1 also manifests itself in men1 in ,henrik ,ibsen for instance1 that typical old maid--whose object is to poison the clean conscience1 the natural spirit1 of sexual love4444 ,and in order to leave no doubt in your minds in regard to my opinion1 which1 on this matter1 is as honest as it is severe1 ,i will reveal to you one more clause out of my moral code against vice--with the word vice ,i combat every kind of6 opposition to ,nature1 or1 if you prefer fine words1 idealism4 ,the clause reads3 ,preaching of chastity is a public incitement to unnatural practices4 ,all depreciation of the sexual life1 all the sullying of it by means of the concept 'impure1' is the essential crime against ,life--is the essential crime against the ,holy ,spirit of ,life4 ,in order to give you some idea of myself as a psychologist1 let me take this curious piece of psychological analysis out of the book ,beyond ,good and ,evil1 in which it appears4 ,i forbid1 by the bye1 any guessing as to whom ,i am describing in this passage4 ,the genius of the heart1 as that great anchorite possesses it1 the divine tempter and born ,pied ,piper of consciences1 whose voice knows how to sink into the inmost depths of every soul1 who neither utters a word nor casts a glance1 in which some seductive motive or trick does not lie3 a part of whose masterliness is that he understands the art of seeming--not what he is1 but that which will place a fresh constraint upon his followers to press ever more closely upon him1 to follow him ever more enthusiastically and whole-heartedly4444 ,the genius of the heart1 which makes all loud and self-conceited things hold their tongues and lend their ears1 which polishes all rough souls and makes them taste a new longing--to lie placid as a mirror1 that the deep heavens may be reflected in them4444 ,the genius of the heart which teaches the clumsy and too hasty hand to hesitate and grasp more tenderly2 which scents the hidden and forgotten treasure1 the pearl of goodness and sweet spirituality1 beneath thick black ice1 and is a divining rod for every grain of gold1 long buried and imprisoned in heaps of mud and sand4444 ,the genius of the heart1 from contact with which every man goes away richer1 not 'blessed' and overcome1 not as though favoured and crushed by the good things of others2 but richer in himself1 fresher to himself than before1 opened up1 breathed upon and sounded by a thawing wind2 more uncertain1 perhaps1 more delicate1 more fragile1 more bruised2 but full of hopes which as yet lack names1 full of a new will and striving1 full of a new unwillingness and counter-striving4 444 ,footnote #a3 ,junker-,philosophie4 ,the landed proprietors constitute the dominating class in ,prussia1 and it is from this class that all officers and higher officials are drawn4 ,the ,kreuz-,zeitung is the organ of the ,junker party4--,,tr4 ,,the ,,birth ,of ,,tragedy #a ,in order to be fair to the ,birth of ,tragedy 7#ahgb7 it is necessary to forget a few things4 ,it created a sensation and even fascinated by means of its mistakes--by means of its application to ,wagnerism1 as if the latter were the sign of an ascending tendency4 ,on that account alone1 this treatise was an event in ,wagner's life3 thenceforward great hopes surrounded the name of ,wagner4 ,even to this day1 people remind me1 sometimes in the middle of ,parsifal1 that it rests on my conscience if the opinion1 that this movement is of great value to culture1 at length became prevalent ,i have often seen the book quoted as ,the ,second ,birth of ,tragedy from the ,spirit of ,music3 people had ears only for new formul for ,wagner's art1 his object and his mission--and in this way the real hidden value of the book was overlooked4 ,hellenism and ,pessimism--this would have been a less equivocal title1 seeing that the book contains the first attempt at showing how the ,greeks succeeded in disposing3 of pessimism--in what manner they overcame it4 444 ,tragedy itself is the proof of the fact that the ,greeks were not pessimists3 ,schopenhauer blundered here as he blundered in everything else4--,regarded impartially1 ,the ,birth of ,tragedy is a book quite strange to its age3 no one would dream that it was begun in the thunder of the battle of ,wrth4 ,i thought out these problems on cold ,september nights beneath the walls of ,metz1 in the midst of my duties as nurse to the wounded2 it would be easier to think that it was written fifty years earlier4 ,its attitude towards politics is one of indifference1--un-,german1#a as people would say to-day1--it smells offensively of ,hegel2 only in one or two formul is it infected with the bitter odour of corpses which is peculiar to ,schopenhauer4 ,an idea--the antagonism of the two concepts ,dionysian and ,apollonian--is translated into metaphysics2 history itself is depicted as the development of this idea2 in tragedy this antithesis has become unity2 from this standpoint things which theretofore had never been face to face are suddenly confronted1 and understood and illuminated by each other4444 ,opera and revolution1 for instance4444 ,the two decisive innovations in the book are1 first1 the comprehension of the ,dionysian phenomenon among the ,greeks--it provides the first psychological analysis of this phenomenon1 and sees in it the single root of all ,greek art2 and1 secondly1 the comprehension of ,socraticism--,socrates being presented for the first time as the instrument of ,greek dissolution1 as a typical decadent4 ,reason versus ,instinct4 ,reason at any cost1 as a dangerous1 life-undermining force4 ,the whole book is profoundly and politely silent concerning ,christianity3 the latter is neither ,apollonian nor ,dionysian2 it denies all sthetic values1 which are the only values that ,the ,birth of ,tragedy recognises4 ,christianity is most profoundly nihilistic1 whereas in the ,dionysian symbol1 the most extreme limits of a yea-saying attitude to life are attained4 ,in one part of the book the ,christian priesthood is referred to as a perfidious order of goblins1 as subterraneans4 ,this start of mine was remarkable beyond measure4 ,as a confirmation of my inmost personal experience ,i had discovered the only example of this fact that history possesses1--with this ,i was the first to understand the amazing ,dionysian phenomenon4 ,at the same time1 by recognising ,socrates as a decadent1 ,i proved most conclusively that the certainty of my psychological grasp of things ran very little risk at the hands of any sort of moral idiosyncrasy3 to regard morality itself as a symptom of degeneration is an innovation1 a unique event of the first order in the history of knowledge4 ,how high ,i had soared above the pitifully foolish gabble about ,optimism and ,pessimism with my two new doctrines6 ,i was the first to see the actual contrast3 the degenerate instinct which turns upon life with a subterranean lust of vengeance 7,christianity1 ,schopenhauer's philosophy1 and in some respects too even ,plato's philosophy--in short1 the whole of idealism in its typical forms71 as opposed to a formula of the highest yea-saying to life1 born of an abundance and a superabundance of life--a ,i yea-saying free from all reserve1 applying even to suffering1 and guilt1 and all that is questionable and strange in existence4444 ,this last1 most joyous1 most exuberant and exultant yea to life1 is not only the highest1 but also the profoundest conception1 and one which is most strictly confirmed and supported by truth and science4 ,nothing that exists must be suppressed1 nothing can be dispensed with4 ,those aspects of life which ,christians and other ,nihilists reject1 belong to an incalculably higher order in the hierarchy of values1 than that which the instinct of degeneration calls good1 and may call good4 ,in order to understand this1 a certain courage is necessary1 and1 as a prerequisite of this1 a certain superfluity of strength3 for a man can approach only as near to truth as he has the courage to advance--that is to say1 everything depends strictly upon the measure of his strength4 ,knowledge1 and the affirmation of reality1 are just as necessary to the strong man as cowardice1 the flight from reality--in fact1 the ideal--are necessary to the weak inspired by weakness4444 ,these people are not at liberty to know1--decadents stand in need of lies1--it is one of their self-preservative measures4 ,he who not only understands the word ,dionysian1 but understands himself in that term1 does not require any refutation of ,plato1 or of ,christianity1 or of ,schopenhauer--for his nose scents decomposition4 #c ,the extent to which ,i had by means of these doctrines discovered the idea of tragedy1 the ultimate explanation of what the psychology of tragedy is1 ,i discussed finally in ,the ,twilight of the ,idols 7,aph4 #e1 part #aj74444 ,the saying of yea to life1 and even to its weirdest and most difficult problems3 the will to life rejoicing at its own infinite vitality in the sacrifice of its highest types--that is what ,i called ,dionysian1 that is what ,i meant as the bridge to the psychology of the tragic poet4 ,not to cast out terror and pity1 or to purge one's self of dangerous passion by discharging it with vehemence1--this was ,aristotle's#b misunderstanding of it1--but to be far beyond terror and pity and to be the eternal lust of ,becoming itself--that lust which also involves the joy of destruction4 444 ,in this sense ,i have the right to regard myself as the first tragic philosopher--that is to say1 the most extreme antithesis and antipodes of a pessimistic philosopher4 ,before my time no such thing existed as this translation of the ,dionysian phenomenon into philosophic emotion3 tragic wisdom was lacking2 in vain have ,i sought for signs of it even among the great ,greeks in philosophy--those belonging to the two centuries before ,socrates4 ,i still remained a little doubtful about ,heraclitus1 in whose presence1 alone1 ,i felt warmer and more at ease than anywhere else4 ,the yea-saying to the impermanence and annihilation of things1 which is the decisive feature of a ,dionysian philosophy2 the yea-saying to contradiction and war1 the postulation of ,becoming1 together with the radical rejection even of the concept ,being-- in all these things1 at all events1 ,i must recognise him who has come nearest to me in thought hither to4 ,the doctrine of the ,eternal ,recurrence--that is to say1 of the absolute and eternal repetition of all things in periodical cycles--this doctrine of ,zarathustra's might1 it is true1 have been taught before4 ,in any case1 the ,stoics1 who derived nearly all their fundamental ideas from ,heraclitus1 show traces of it4 ,a tremendous hope finds expression in this work4 ,after all1 ,i have absolutely no reason to renounce the hope for a ,dionysian future of music4 ,let us look a century ahead1 and let us suppose that my attempt to destroy two millenniums of hostility to ,nature and of the violation of humanity be crowned with success ,that new party of life-advocates1 which will undertake the greatest of all tasks1 the elevation and perfection of mankind1 as well as the relentless destruction of all degenerate and parasitical elements1 will make that superabundance of life on earth once more possible1 out of which the ,dionysian state will perforce arise again4 ,i promise the advent of a tragic age3 the highest art in the saying of yea to life1 tragedy1 will be born again when mankind has the knowledge of the hardest1 but most necessary of wars1 behind it1 without1 however1 suffering from that knowledge4444 ,a psychologist might add that what ,i heard in ,wagnerian music in my youth and early manhood had nothing whatsoever to do with ,wagner2 that when ,i described ,dionysian music1 ,i described merely what ,i personally had heard--that ,i was compelled instinctively to translate and transfigure everything into the new spirit which filled my breast4 ,a proof of this1 and as strong a proof as you could have1 is my essay1 ,wagner in ,bayreuth3 in all its decisive psychological passages ,i am the only person concerned--without any hesitation you may read my name or the word ,zarathustra wherever the text contains the name of ,wagner4 ,the whole panorama of the dithyrambic artist is the representation of the already existing author of ,zarathustra1 and it is drawn with an abysmal depth which does not even once come into contact with the real ,wagner4 ,wagner himself had a notion of the truth2 he did not recognise himself in the essay4--,in this way1 the idea of ,bayreuth was changed into something which to those who are acquainted with my ,zarathustra will be no riddle--that is to say1 into the ,great ,noon when the highest of the elect will consecrate themselves for the greatest of all duties--who knows8 the vision of a feast which ,i may live to see4444 ,the pathos of the first few pages is universal history2 the look which is discussed on page #ajec of the book1 is the actual look of ,zarathustra2 ,wagner1 ,bayreuth1 the whole of this petty ,german wretchedness1 is a cloud upon which an infinite ,fata ,morgana of the future is reflected4 ,even from the psychological standpoint1 all the decisive traits in my character are introduced into ,wagner's nature--the juxtaposition of the most brilliant and most fatal forces1 a ,will to ,power such as no man has ever possessed--inexorable bravery in matters spiritual1 an unlimited power of learning unaccompanied by depressed powers for action4 ,everything in this essay is a prophecy3 the proximity of the resurrection of the ,greek spirit1 the need of men who will be counter-,alexanders1 who will once more tie the ,gordian knot of ,greek culture1 after it has been cut4 ,listen to the world-historic accent with which the concept sense for the tragic is introduced on page #ahj3 there are little else but world-historic accents in this essay4 ,this is the strangest kind of objectivity that ever existed3 my absolute certainty in regard to what ,i am1 projected itself into any chance reality--truth about myself was voiced from out appalling depths4 ,on pages #agd and #age the style of ,zarathustra is described and foretold with incisive certainty1 and no more magnificent expression will ever be found than that on pages #add-adg for the event for which ,zarathustra stands--that prodigious act of the purification and consecration of mankind4 ,footnote #a3 ,those ,germans who1 like ,nietzsche or ,goethe1 recognised that politics constituted a danger to culture1 and who appreciated the literature of maturer cultures1 such as that of ,france1 are called un-deutsch 7un-,german7 by ,imperialistic ,germans4--,tr4 ,footnote #b3 ,aristotle's ,poetics1 c4 vi4--,tr4 ,footnote #c3 ,this number and those which follow refer to ,thoughts out of ,season1 ,part ,i4 in this edition of ,nietzsche's ,works4--,,tr4 ,,thoughts ,,out ,,of ,,season #a ,the four essays composing the ,thoughts out of ,season are thoroughly warlike in tone4 ,they prove that ,i was no mere dreamer1 that ,i delight in drawing the sword--and perhaps1 also1 that my wrist is dangerously supple4 ,the first onslaught 7#ahgc7 was directed against ,german culture1 upon which ,i looked down even at that time with unmitigated contempt ,without either sense1 substance1 or goal1 it was simply public opinion4 ,there could be no more dangerous misunderstanding than to suppose that ,germany's success at arms proved anything in favour of ,german culture--and still less the triumph of this culture2 over that of ,france4 ,the second essay 7#ahgd7 brings to light that which is dangerous1 that which corrodes and poisons life in our manner of pursuing scientific study3 ,life is diseased1 thanks to this dehumanised piece of clockwork and mechanism1 thanks to the impersonality of the workman1 #a and the false economy of the division of labour4 ,the object1 which is culture1 is lost sight of3 modern scientific activity as a means thereto simply produces barbarism4 ,in this treatise1 the historical sense1 of which this century is so proud1 is for the first time recognised as sickness1 as a typical symptom of decay4 ,in the third and fourth essays1 a sign-post is set up pointing to a higher concept of culture1 to a re-establishment of the notion culture2 and two pictures of the hardest self-love and self-discipline are presented1 two essentially un-modern types1 full of the most sovereign contempt for all that which lay around them and was called ,empire1 ,culture1 ,christianity1 ,bismarck1 and ,success1--these two types were ,schopenhauer and ,wagner1 or1 in a word1 ,nietzsche4444 #b ,of these four attacks1 the first met with extraordinary success4 ,the stir which it created was in every way gorgeous4 ,i had put my finger on the vulnerable spot of a triumphant nation--,i had told it that its victory was not a red-letter day for culture1 but1 perhaps1 something very different4 ,the reply rang out from all sides1 and certainly not only from old friends of ,david ,strauss1 whom ,i had made ridiculous as the type of a ,german ,philistine of ,culture and a man of smug self-content--in short1 as the author of that suburban gospel of his1 called ,the ,old and the ,new ,faith 7the term ,philistine of ,culture passed into the current language of ,germany after the appearance of my book74 ,these old friends1 whose vanity as ,wrtembergians and ,swabians ,i had deeply wounded in regarding their unique animal1 their bird of ,paradise1 as a trifle comic1 replied to me as ingenuously and as grossly as ,i could have wished4 ,the ,prussian replies were smarter2 they contained more ,prussian blue4 ,the most disreputable attitude was assumed by a ,leipzig paper1 the egregious ,grentzboten2 and it cost me some pains to prevent my indignant friends in ,ble from taking action against it4 ,only a few old gentlemen decided in my favour1 and for very diverse and sometimes unaccountable reasons4 ,among them was one1 ,ewald of ,gttingen1 who made it clear that my attack on ,strauss had been deadly4 ,there was also the ,hegelian1 ,bruno ,bauer1 who from that time became one of my most attentive readers4 ,in his later years he liked to refer to me1 when1 for instance1 he wanted to give ,herr von ,treitschke1 the ,prussian ,historiographer1 a hint as to where he could obtain information about the notion ,culture1 of which he 7,herr von ,t47 had completely lost sight4 ,the weightiest and longest notice of my book and its author appeared in ,wrzburg1 and was written by ,professor ,hoffmann1 an old pupil of the philosopher von ,baader4 ,the essays made him foresee a great future for me1 namely1 that of bringing about a sort of crisis and decisive turning-point in the problem of atheism1 of which he recognised in me the most instinctive and most radical advocate4 ,it was atheism that had drawn me to ,schopenhauer4 ,the review which received by far the most attention1 and which excited the most bitterness1 was an extraordinarily powerful and plucky appreciation of my work by ,carl ,hillebrand1 a man who was usually so mild1 and the last humane ,german who knew how to wield a pen4 ,the article appeared in the ,augsburg ,gazette1 and it can be read to-day1 couched in rather more cautious language1 among his collected essays4 ,in it my work was referred to as an event1 as a decisive turning-point1 as the first sign of an awakening1 as an excellent symptom1 and as an actual revival of ,german earnestness and of ,german passion in things spiritual4 ,hillebrand could speak only in the terms of the highest respect1 of the form of my book1 of its consummate taste1 of its perfect tact in discriminating between persons and causes3 he characterised it as the best polemical work in the ,german language1--the best performance in the art of polemics1 which for ,germans is so dangerous and so strongly to be deprecated4 ,besides confirming my standpoint1 he laid even greater stress upon what ,i had dared to say about the deterioration of language in ,germany 7nowadays writers assume the airs of ,purists#a and can no longer even construct a sentence72 sharing my contempt for the literary stars of this nation1 he concluded by expressing his admiration for my courage--that greatest courage of all which places the very favourites of the people in the dock4 444 ,the after-effects of this essay of mine proved invaluable to me in my life4 ,no one has ever tried to meddle with me since4 ,people are silent4 ,in ,germany ,i am treated with gloomy caution3 for years ,i have rejoiced in the privilege of such absolute freedom of speech1 as no one nowadays1 least of all in the ,empire1 has enough liberty to claim4 ,my paradise is in the shadow of my sword4 ,at bottom all ,i had done was to put one of ,stendhal's maxims into practice3 he advises one to make one's entrance into society by means of a duel4 ,and how well ,i had chosen my opponent6--the foremost free-thinker of ,germany4 ,as a matter of fact1 quite a novel kind of free thought found its expression in this way3 up to the present nothing has been more strange and more foreign to my blood than the whole of that ,european and ,american species known as litres penseurs4 ,incorrigible blockheads and clowns of modern ideas that they are1 ,i feel much more profoundly at variance with them than with any one of their adversaries4 ,they also wish to improve mankind1 after their own fashion--that is to say1 in their own image2 against that which ,i stand for and desire1 they would wage an implacable war1 if only they understood it2 the whole gang of them still believe in an ideal4 444 ,i am the first ,immoralist4 #c ,i should not like to say that the last two essays in the ,thoughts out of ,season1 associated with the names of ,schopenhauer and ,wagner respectively1 serve any special purpose in throwing light upon these two cases1 or in formulating their psychological problems4 ,this of course does not apply to a few details4 ,thus1 for instance1 in the second of the two essays1 with a profound certainty of instinct ,i already characterised the elementary factor in ,wagner's nature as a theatrical talent which in all his means and inspirations only draws its final conclusions4 ,at bottom1 my desire in this essay was to do something very different from writing psychology3 an unprecedented educational problem1 a new understanding of self-discipline and self-defence carried to the point of hardness1 a road to greatness and to world-historic duties1 yearned to find expression4 ,roughly speaking1 ,i seized two famous and1 theretofore1 completely undefined types by the forelock1 after the manner in which one seizes opportunities1 simply in order to speak my mind on certain questions1 in order to have a few more formulas1 signs1 and means of expression at my disposal4 ,indeed ,i actually suggest this1 with most unearthly sagacity1 on page #ahc of ,schopenhauer as ,educator4 ,plato made use of ,socrates in the same way--that is to say1 as a cipher for ,plato4 ,now that1 from some distance1 ,i can look back upon the conditions of which these essays are the testimony1 ,i would be loth to deny that they refer simply to me4 ,the essay ,wagner in ,bayreuth is a vision of my own future2 on the other hand1 my most secret history1 my development1 is written down in ,schopenhauer as ,educator4 ,but1 above all1 the vow ,i made ,i ,what ,i am to-day1 the place ,i now hold--at a height from which ,i speak no longer with words but with thunderbolts6--oh1 how far ,i was from all this in those days6 ,but ,i saw the land--,i did not deceive myself for one moment as to the way1 the sea1 the danger--and success6 ,the great calm in promising1 this happy prospect of a future which must not remain only a promise6--,in this book every word has been lived1 profoundly and intimately2 the most painful things are not lacking in it2 it contains words which are positively running with blood4 ,but a wind of great freedom blows over the whole2 even its wounds do not constitute an objection4 ,as to what ,i understand by being a philosopher1--that is to say1 a terrible explosive in the presence of which everything is in danger2 as to how ,i sever my idea of the philosopher by miles from that other idea of him which includes even a ,kant1 not to speak of the academic ruminators and other professors of philosophy1--concerning all these things this essay provides invaluable information1 even granting that at bottom1 it is not ,schopenhauer as ,educator but ,nietzsche as ,educator1 who speaks his sentiments in it4 ,considering that1 in those days1 my trade was that of a scholar1 and perhaps1 also1 that ,i understood my trade1 the piece of austere scholar psychology which suddenly makes its appearance in this essay is not without importance3 it expresses the feeling of distance1 and my profound certainty regarding what was my real life-task1 and what were merely means1 intervals1 and accessory work to me4 ,my wisdom consists in my having been many things1 and in many places1 in order to become one thing--in order to be able to attain to one thing4 ,it was part of my fate to be a scholar for a while4 ,footnote #a3 ,the ,purists constitute a definite body in ,germany1 which is called the ,deutscher ,sprach-,verein4 ,their object is to banish every foreign word from the language1 and they carry this process of ostracism even into the domain of the menu1 where their efforts at rendering the meaning of ,french dishes are extremely comical4 ,strange to say1 their principal organ1 and their other publications1 are by no means free either from solecisms or faults of style1 and it is doubtless to this curious anomaly that ,nietzsche here refers4--,,tr4 ,,human1 ,,all-,,too-,,human #a ,human all-too-,human1 with its two sequels1 is the memorial of a crisis4 ,it is called a book for free spirits3 almost every sentence in it is the expression of a triumph--by means of it ,i purged myself of everything in me which was foreign to my nature4 ,idealism is foreign to me3 the title of the book means3 ,where ye see ideal things ,i see--human1 alas6 all-too-human things6 444 ,i know men better4 ,the word free spirit in this book must not be understood as anything else than a spirit that has become free1 that has once more taken possession of itself4 ,my tone1 the pitch of my voice1 has completely changed2 the book will be thought clever1 cool1 and at times both hard and scornful4 ,a certain spirituality1 of noble taste1 seems to be ever struggling to dominate a passionate torrent at its feet4 ,in this respect there is some sense in the fact that it was the hundredth anniversary of ,voltaire's death that served1 so to speak1 as an excuse for the publication of the book as early as #ahgh4 ,for ,voltaire1 as the opposite of every one who wrote after him1 was above all a grandee of the intellect2 precisely what ,i am also4 ,the name of ,voltaire on one of my writings--that was verily a step forward--in my direction4444 ,looking into this book a little more closely1 you perceive a pitiless spirit who knows all the secret hiding-places in which ideals are wont to skulk--where they find their dungeons1 and1 as it were1 their last refuge4 ,with a torch in my hand1 the light of which is not by any means a flickering one1 ,i illuminate this nether world with beams that cut like blades4 ,it is war1 but war without powder and smoke1 without warlike attitudes1 without pathos and contorted limbs--all these things would still be idealism4 ,one error after the other is quietly laid upon ice2 the ideal is not refuted1--it freezes4 ,here1 for instance1 genius freezes2 round the corner the saint freezes2 under a thick icicle the hero freezes2 and in the end faith itself freezes4 ,so-called conviction and also pity are considerably cooled--and almost everywhere the thing in itself is freezing to death4 #b ,this book was begun during the first musical festival at ,bayreuth2 a feeling of profound strangeness towards everything that surrounded me there1 is one of its first conditions4 ,he who has any notion of the visions which even at that time had flitted across my path1 will be able to guess what ,i felt when one day ,i came to my senses in ,bayreuth4 ,it was just as if ,i had been dreaming4 ,where on earth was ,i8 ,i recognised nothing that ,i saw2 ,i scarcely recognised ,wagner4 ,it was in vain that ,i called up reminiscences4 ,tribschen--remote island of bliss3 not the shadow of a resemblance6 ,the incomparable days devoted to the laying of the first stone1 the small group of the initiated who celebrated them1 and who were far from lacking fingers for the handling of delicate things3 not the shadow of a resemblance6 ,what had happened8--,wagner had been translated into ,german6 ,the ,wagnerite had become master of ,wagner6--,german art6 the ,german master6 ,german beer6444 ,we who know only too well the kind of refined artists and cosmopolitanism in taste1 to which alone ,wagner's art can appeal1 were beside ourselves at the sight of ,wagner bedecked with ,german virtues4 ,i think ,i know the ,wagnerite1 ,i have experienced three generations of them1 from ,brendel of blessed memory1 who confounded ,wagner with ,hegel1 to the idealists of the ,bayreuth ,gazette1 who confound ,wagner with themselves1--,i have been the recipient of every kind of confession about ,wagner1 from beautiful souls4 ,my kingdom for just one intelligent word ,i--,in very truth1 a blood-curdling company6 ,nohl1 ,pohl1 and ,kohl#a and others of their kidney to infinity6 ,there was not a single abortion that was lacking among them--no1 not even the anti-,semite4--,poor ,wagner6 ,into whose hands had he fallen8 ,if only he had gone into a herd of swine6 ,but among ,germans6 ,some day1 for the edification of posterity1 one ought really to have a genuine ,bayreuthian stuffed1 or1 better still1 preserved in spirit1--for it is precisely spirit that is lacking in this quarter1--with this inscription at the foot of the jar3 ,a sample of the spirit whereon the ',german ,empire' was founded4 444 ,but enough6 ,in the middle of the festivities ,i suddenly packed my trunk and left the place for a few weeks1 despite the fact that a charming ,parisian lady sought to comfort me2 ,i excused myself to ,wagner simply by means of a fatalistic telegram4 ,in a little spot called ,klingenbrunn1 deeply buried in the recesses of the ,bohmerwald1 ,i carried my melancholy and my contempt of ,germans about with me like an illness--and1 from time to time1 under the general title of ,the ,plough-share1 ,i wrote a sentence or two down in my note-book1 nothing but severe psychological stuff1 which it is possible may have found its way into ,human1 all-too-,human4 #c ,that which had taken place in me1 then1 was not only a breach with ,wagner--,i was suffering from a general aberration of my instincts1 of which a mere isolated blunder1 whether it were ,wagner or my professorship at ,ble1 was nothing more than a symptom4 ,i was seized with a fit of impatience with myself2 ,i saw that it was high time that ,i should turn my thoughts upon my own lot4 ,in a trice ,i realised1 with appalling clearness1 how much time had already been squandered--how futile and how senseless my whole existence as a philologist appeared by the side of my life-task4 ,i was ashamed of this false modesty4444 ,ten years were behind me1 during which1 to tell the truth1 the nourishment of my spirit had been at a standstill1 during which ,i had added not a single useful fragment to my knowledge1 and had forgotten countless things in the pursuit of a hotch-potch of dry-as-dust scholarship4 ,to crawl with meticulous care and short-sighted eyes through old ,greek metricians--that is what ,i had come to6444 ,moved to pity ,i saw myself quite thin1 quite emaciated3 realities were only too plainly absent from my stock of knowledge1 and what the idealities were worth the devil alone knew6 ,a positively burning thirst overcame me3 and from that time forward ,i have done literally nothing else than study physiology1 medicine1 and natural science--,i even returned to the actual study of history only when my life-task compelled me to4 ,it was at that time1 too1 that ,i first divined the relation between an instinctively repulsive occupation1 a so-called vocation1 which is the last thing to which one is called and that need of lulling a feeling of emptiness and hunger1 by means of an art which is a narcotic--by means of ,wagner's art1 for instance4 ,after looking carefully about me1 ,i have discovered that a large number of young men are all in the same state of distress3 one kind of unnatural practice perforce leads to another4 ,in ,germany1 or rather1 to avoid all ambiguity1 in the ,empire1#b only too many are condemned to determine their choice too soon1 and then to pine away beneath a burden that they can no longer throw off4444 ,such creatures crave for ,wagner as for an opiate1--they are thus able to forget themselves1 to be rid of themselves for a moment4444 ,what am ,i saying6--for five or six hours4 #d ,at this time my instincts turned resolutely against any further yielding or following on my part1 and any further misunderstanding of myself4 ,every kind of life1 the most unfavourable circumstances1 illness1 poverty--anything seemed to me preferable to that undignified selfishness into which ,i had fallen2 in the first place1 thanks to my ignorance and youth1 and in which ,i had afterwards remained owing to laziness--the so-called sense of duty4 ,at this juncture there came to my help1 in a way that ,i cannot sufficiently admire1 and precisely at the right time1 that evil heritage which ,i derive from my father's side of the family1 and which1 at bottom1 is no more than a predisposition to die young4 ,illness slowly liberated me from the toils1 it spared me any sort of sudden breach1 any sort of violent and offensive step4 ,at that time ,i lost not a particle of the good will of others1 but rather added to my store4 ,illness likewise gave me the right completely to reverse my mode of life2 it not only allowed1 it actually commanded1 me to forget2 it bestowed upon me the necessity of lying still1 of having leisure1 of waiting1 and of exercising patience4444 ,but all this means thinking6444 ,the state of my eyes alone put an end to all book-wormishness1 or1 in plain ,english--philology3 ,i was thus delivered from books2 for years ,i ceased from reading1 and this was the greatest boon ,i ever conferred upon myself6 ,that nethermost self1 which was1 as it were1 entombed1 and which had grown dumb because it had been forced to listen perpetually to other selves 7for that is what reading means671 slowly awakened2 at first it was shy and doubtful1 but at last it spoke again ,never have ,i rejoiced more over my condition than during the sickest and most painful moments of my life4 ,you have only to examine ,the ,dawn of ,day1 or1 perhaps1 ,the ,wanderer and his ,shadow1#c in order to understand what this return to myself actually meant3 in itself it was the highest kind of recovery6444 ,my cure was simply the result of it4 #e ,human1 all-too-,human1 this monument of a course of vigorous self-discipline1 by means of which ,i put an abrupt end to all the ,superior ,bunkum1 ,idealism1 ,beautiful ,feelings1 and other effeminacies that had percolated into my being1 was written principally in ,sorrento2 it was finished and given definite shape during a winter at ,ble1 under conditions far less favourable than those in ,sorrento4 ,truth to tell1 it was ,peter ,gast1 at that time a student at the ,university of ,ble1 and a devoted friend of mine1 who was responsible for the book4 ,with my head wrapped in bandages1 and extremely painful1 ,i dictated while he wrote and corrected as he went along--to be accurate1 he was the real composer1 whereas ,i was only the author4 ,when the completed book ultimately reached me1--to the great surprise of the serious invalid ,i then was1--,i sent1 among others1 two copies to ,bayreuth4 ,thanks to a miraculous flash of intelligence on the part of chance1 there reached me precisely at the same time a splendid copy of the ,parsifal text1 with the following inscription from ,wagner's pen3 ,to his dear friend ,friedrich ,nietzsche1 from ,richard ,wagner1 ,ecclesiastical ,councillor4 ,at this crossing of the two books ,i seemed to hear an ominous note4 ,did it not sound as if two swords had crossed8 ,at all events we both felt this was so1 for each of us remained silent4 ,at about this time the first ,bayreuth ,pamphlets appeared3 and ,i then understood the move on my part for which it was high time4 ,incredible6 ,wagner had become pious4 #f ,my attitude to myself at that time 7#ahgf71 and the unearthly certitude with which ,i grasped my life-task and all its world-historic consequences1 is well revealed throughout the book1 but more particularly in one very significant passage1 despite the fact that1 with my instinctive cunning1 ,i once more circumvented the use of the little word ,i1--not however1 this time1 in order to shed world-historic glory on the names of ,schopenhauer and ,wagner1 but on that of another of my friends1 the excellent ,dr4 ,paul ,re--fortunately much too acute a creature to be deceived--others were less subtle4 ,among my readers ,i have a number of hopeless people1 the typical ,german professor for instance1 who can always be recognised from the fact that1 judging from the passage in question1 he feels compelled to regard the whole book as a sort of superior ,realism4 ,as a matter of fact it contradicts five or six of my friend's utterances3 only read the introduction to ,the ,genealogy of ,morals on this question4--,the passage above referred to reads3 ,what1 after all1 is the principal axiom to which the boldest and coldest thinker1 the author of the book ,on the ,origin of ,moral ,sensations 7read ,nietzsche1 the first ,immoralist71 has attained by means of his incisive and decisive analysis of human actions8 ',the moral man1' he says is no nearer to the intelligible 7metaphysical7 world than is the physical man1 for there is no intelligible world4' ,this theory1 hardened and sharpened under the hammer-blow of historical knowledge 7read ,the ,transvaluation of all ,values71 may some time or other1 perhaps in some future period1--#ahij6--serve as the axe which is applied to the root of the 'metaphysical need' of man1--whether more as a blessing than a curse to the general welfare it is not easy to say2 but in any case as a theory with the most important consequences1 at once fruitful and terrible1 and looking into the world with that ,janus-face which all great knowledge possesses4#d ,footnote #a3 ,nohl and ,pohl were both writers on music2 ,kohl1 however1 which literally means cabbage1 is a slang expression1 denoting superior nonsense4--,,tr4 ,footnote #b3 ,needless to say1 ,nietzsche distinguishes between ,bismarckian ,germany and that other ,germany--,austria1 ,switzerland1 and the ,baltic ,provinces--where the ,german language is also spoken4--,,tr4 ,footnote #c3 ,human1 all-too-,human1 ,part ,,ii4 in this edition4--,,tr4 ,footnote #d3 ,human1 all-too-,human1 vol4 i4 ,aph4 #cg4 ,,the ,,dawn ,,of ,,day3 ,,thoughts ,,about ,,morality ,,as ,a ,,prejudice #a ,with this book ,i open my campaign against morality4 ,not that it is at all redolent of powder--you will find quite other and much nicer smells in it1 provided that you have any keenness in your nostrils4 ,there is nothing either of light or of heavy artillery in its composition1 and if its general end be a negative one1 its means are not so--means out of which the end follows like a logical conclusion1 not like a cannon-shot4 ,and if the reader takes leave of this book with a feeling of timid caution in regard to everything which has hitherto been honoured and even worshipped under the name of morality1 it does not alter the fact that there is not one negative word1 not one attack1 and not one single piece of malice in the whole work--on the contrary1 it lies in the sunshine1 smooth and happy1 like a marine animal1 basking in the sun between two rocks4 ,for1 after all1 ,i was this marine animal3 almost every sentence in the book was thought out1 or rather caught1 among that medley of rocks in the neighbourhood of ,genoa1 where ,i lived quite alone1 and exchanged secrets with the ocean4 ,even to this day1 when by chance ,i happen to turn over the leaves of this book1 almost every sentence seems to me like a hook by means of which ,i draw something incomparable out of the depths2 its whole skin quivers with delicate shudders of recollection4 ,this book is conspicuous for no little art in gently catching things which whisk rapidly and silently away1 moments which ,i call godlike lizards--not with the cruelty of that young ,greek god who simply transfixed the poor little beast2 but nevertheless with something pointed--with a pen4 ,there are so many dawns which have not yet shed their light--this ,indian maxim is written over the doorway of this book4 ,where does its author seek that new morning1 that delicate red1 as yet undiscovered1 with which another day--ah6 a whole series of days1 a whole world of new days6--will begin8 ,in the ,transvaluation of all ,values1 in an emancipation from all moral values1 in a saying of yea1 and in an attitude of trust1 to all that which hitherto has been forbidden1 despised1 and damned4 ,this yea-saying book projects its light1 its love1 its tenderness1 over all evil things1 it restores to them their soul1 their clear conscience1 and their superior right and privilege to exist on earth4 ,morality is not assailed1 it simply ceases to be considered4 ,this book closes with the word or8--it is the only book which closes with an or84 #b ,my life-task is to prepare for humanity one supreme moment in which it can come to its senses1 a ,great ,noon in which it will turn its gaze backwards and forwards1 in which it will step from under the yoke of accident and of priests1 and for the first time set the question of the ,why and ,wherefore of humanity as a whole--this life-task naturally follows out of the conviction that mankind does not get on the right road of its own accord1 that it is by no means divinely ruled1 but rather that it is precisely under the cover of its most holy valuations that the instinct of negation1 of corruption1 and of degeneration has held such a seductive sway4 ,the question concerning the origin of moral valuations is therefore a matter of the highest importance to me because it determines the future of mankind4 ,the demand made upon us to believe that everything is really in the best hands1 that a certain book1 the ,bible1 gives us the definite and comforting assurance that there is a ,providence that wisely rules the fate of man1--when translated back into reality amounts simply to this1 namely1 the will to stifle the truth which maintains the reverse of all this1 which is that hitherto man has been in the worst possible hands1 and that he has been governed by the physiologically botched1 the men of cunning and burning revengefulness1 and the so-called saints--those slanderers of the world and traducers of humanity4 ,the definite proof of the fact that the priest 7including the priest in disguise1 the philosopher7 has become master1 not only within a certain limited religious community1 but everywhere1 and that the morality of decadence1 the will to nonentity1 has become morality per se1 is to be found in this3 that altruism is now an absolute value1 and egoism is regarded with hostility everywhere4 ,he who disagrees with me on this point1 ,i regard as infected4 ,but all the world disagrees with me4 ,to a physiologist a like antagonism between values admits of no doubt4 ,if the most insignificant organ within the body neglects1 however slightly1 to assert with absolute certainty its self-preservative powers1 its recuperative claims1 and its egoism1 the whole system degenerates4 ,the physiologist insists upon the removal of degenerated parts1 he denies all fellow-feeling for such parts1 and has not the smallest feeling of pity for them4 ,but the desire of the priest is precisely the degeneration of the whole of mankind2 hence his preservation of that which is degenerate--this is what his dominion costs humanity4 ,what meaning have those lying concepts1 those handmaids of morality1 ,soul1 ,spirit1 ,free will1 ,god1 if their aim is not the physiological ruin of mankind8 ,when earnestness is diverted from the instincts that aim at self-preservation and an increase of bodily energy1 i4e4 at an increase of life2 when anmia is raised to an ideal and the contempt of the body is construed as the salvation of the soul1 what is all this if it is not a recipe for decadence8 ,loss of ballast1 resistance offered to natural instincts1 selflessness1 in fact--this is what has hitherto been known as morality4 ,with ,the ,dawn of ,day ,i first engaged in a struggle against the morality of self-renunciation4 ,,joyful ,,wisdom3 ,,la ,,gaya ,,scienza #a ,dawn of ,day is a yea-saying book1 profound1 but clear and kindly4 ,the same applies once more and in the highest degree to ,la ,gaya ,scienza3 in almost every sentence of this book1 profundity and playfulness go gently hand in hand4 ,a verse which expresses my gratitude for the most wonderful month of ,january which ,i have ever lived--the whole book is a gift--sufficiently reveals the abysmal depths from which wisdom has here become joyful4 ,thou who with cleaving fiery lances ,the stream of my soul from its ice dost free1 ,till with a rush and a roar it advances ,to enter with glorious hoping the sea3 ,brighter to see and purer ever1 ,free in the bonds of thy sweet constraint1-- ,so it praises thy wondrous endeavour1 ,january1 thou beauteous saint6#a ,who can be in any doubt as to what glorious hoping means here1 when he has realised the diamond beauty of the first of ,zarathustra's words as they appear in a glow of light at the close of the fourth book8 ,or when he reads the granite sentences at the end of the third book1 wherein a fate for all times is first given a formula8 ,the songs of ,prince ,free-as-a-,bird1 which1 for the most part1 were written in ,sicily1 remind me quite forcibly of that ,provencal notion of ,gaya ,scienza1 of that union of singer1 knight1 and free spirit1 which distinguishes that wonderfully early culture of the ,provencals from all ambiguous cultures4 ,the last poem of all1 ,to the ,mistral1--an exuberant dance song in which1 if you please1 the new spirit dances freely upon the corpse of morality1--is a perfect ,provenalism4 ,footnote #a3 ,translated for ,joyful ,wisdom by ,paul ,v4 ,cohn4--,,tr4 ,,thus ,,spake ,,zarathustra3 ,a ,,book ,,for ,,all ,,and ,,none #a ,i now wish to relate the history of ,zarathustra4 ,the fundamental idea of the work1 the ,eternal ,recurrence1 the highest formula of a ,yea-saying to life that can ever be attained1 was first conceived in the month of ,august #ahha4 ,i made a note of the idea on a sheet of paper1 with the postscript3 ,six thousand feet beyond man and time4 ,that day ,i happened to be wandering through the woods alongside of the ,lake of ,silvaplana1 and ,i halted not far from ,surlei1 beside a huge rock that towered aloft like a pyramid4 ,it was then that the thought struck me4 ,looking back now1 ,i find that exactly two months before this inspiration ,i had an omen of its coming in the form of a sudden and decisive change in my tastes--more particularly in music4 ,the whole of ,zarathustra might perhaps be classified under the rubric music4 ,at all events1 the essential condition of its production was a second birth within me of the art of hearing4 ,in ,recoaro1 a small mountain resort near ,vicenza1 where ,i spent the spring of #ahha1 ,i and my friend and maestro1 ,peter ,gast--who was also one who had been born again1 discovered that the phnix music hovered over us1 in lighter and brighter plumage than it had ever worn before4 ,if1 therefore1 ,i now calculate from that day forward the sudden production of the book1 under the most unlikely circumstances1 in ,february #ahhc1--the last part1 out of which ,i quoted a few lines in my preface1 was written precisely in the hallowed hour when ,richard ,wagner gave up the ghost in ,venice1--,i come to the conclusion that the period of gestation covered eighteen months4 ,this period of exactly eighteen months1 might suggest1 at least to ,buddhists1 that ,i am in reality a female elephant ,the interval was devoted to the ,gaya ,scienza1 which contains hundreds of indications of the proximity of something unparalleled2 for1 after all1 it shows the beginning of ,zarathustra1 since it presents ,zarathustra's fundamental thought in the last aphorism but one of the fourth book4 ,to this interval also belongs that ,hymn to ,life 7for a mixed choir and orchestra71 the score of which was published in ,leipzig two years ago by ,e4 ,w4 ,fritsch1 and which gave perhaps no slight indication of my spiritual state during this year1 in which the essentially yea-saying pathos1 which ,i call the tragic pathos1 completely filled me heart and limb4 ,one day people will sing it to my memory4 ,the text1 let it be well understood1 as there is some misunderstanding abroad on this point1 is not by me2 it was the astounding inspiration of a young ,russian lady1 ,miss ,lou von ,salome1 with whom ,i was then on friendly terms4 ,he who is in any way able to make some sense of the last words of the poem1 will divine why ,i preferred and admired it3 there is greatness in them4 ,pain is not regarded as an objection to existence3 ,and if thou hast no bliss now left to crown me--,lead on6 ,thou hast thy ,sorrow still4 ,maybe that my music is also great in this passage4 7,the last note of the oboe1 by the bye1 is ,c sharp1 not ,c4 ,the latter is a misprint47 ,during the following winter1 ,i was living on that charmingly peaceful ,gulf of ,rapallo1 not far from ,genoa1 which cuts inland between ,chiavari and ,cape ,porto ,fino4 ,my health was not very good2 the winter was cold and exceptionally rainy2 and the small albergo in which ,i lived was so close to the water that at night my sleep was disturbed if the sea was rough4 ,these circumstances were surely the very reverse of favourable2 and yet1 in spite of it all1 and as if in proof of my belief that everything decisive comes to life in defiance of every obstacle1 it was precisely during this winter and in the midst of these unfavourable circumstances that my ,zarathustra originated4 ,in the morning ,i used to start out in a southerly direction up the glorious road to ,zoagli1 which rises up through a forest of pines and gives one a view far out to sea4 ,in the afternoon1 or as often as my health allowed1 ,i walked round the whole bay from ,santa ,margherita to beyond ,porto ,fino4 ,this spot affected me all the more deeply because it was so dearly loved by the ,emperor ,frederick ,,iii4 ,in the autumn of #ahhf ,i chanced to be there again when he was revisiting this small forgotten world of happiness for the last time4 ,it was on these two roads that all ,zarathustra came to me1 above all1 ,zarathustra himself as a type--,i ought rather to say that it was on these walks that he waylaid me4 #b ,in order to understand this type1 you must first be quite clear concerning its fundamental physiological condition3 this condition is what ,i call great healthiness4 ,in regard to this idea ,i cannot make my meaning more plain or more personal than ,i have done already in one of the last aphorisms 7,no4 #chb7 of the fifth book of the ,gaya ,scienza3 ,we new1 nameless1 and unfathomable creatures1 so reads the passage1 we firstlings of a future still unproved--we who have a new end in view also require new means to that end1 that is to say1 a new healthiness1 a stronger1 keener1 tougher1 bolder1 and merrier healthiness than any that has existed heretofore4 ,he who longs to feel in his own soul the whole range of values and aims that have prevailed on earth until his day1 and to sail round all the coasts of this ideal ',mediterranean ,sea'2 who1 from the adventures of his own inmost experience1 would fain know how it feels to be a conqueror and discoverer of the ideal2--as also how it is with the artist1 the saint1 the legislator1 the sage1 the scholar1 the man of piety and the godlike anchorite of yore2--such a man requires one thing above all for his purpose1 and that is1 great healthiness--such healthiness as he not only possesses1 but also constantly acquires and must acquire1 because he is continually sacrificing it again1 and is compelled to sacrifice it6 ,and now1 therefore1 after having been long on the way1 we ,argonauts of the ideal1 whose pluck is greater than prudence would allow1 and who are often shipwrecked and bruised1 but1 as ,i have said1 healthier than people would like to admit1 dangerously healthy1 and for ever recovering our health--it would seem as if we had before us1 as a reward for all our toils1 a country still undiscovered1 the horizon of which no one has yet seen1 a beyond to every country and every refuge of the ideal that man has ever known1 a world so overflowing with beauty1 strangeness1 doubt1 terror1 and divinity1 that both our curiosity and our lust of possession are frantic with eagerness4 ,alas6 how in the face of such vistas1 and with such burning desire in our conscience and consciousness1 could we still be content with the man of the present day8 ,this is bad indeed2 but1 that we should regard his worthiest aims and hopes with ill-concealed amusement1 or perhaps give them no thought at all1 is inevitable4 ,another ideal now leads us on1 a wonderful1 seductive ideal1 full of danger1 the pursuit of which we should be loath to urge upon any one1 because we are not so ready to acknowledge any one's right to it3 the ideal of a spirit who plays ingenuously 7that is to say1 involuntarily1 and as the outcome of superabundant energy and power7 with everything that1 hitherto1 has been called holy1 good1 inviolable1 and divine2 to whom even the loftiest thing that the people have with reason made their measure of value would be no better than a danger1 a decay1 and an abasement1 or at least a relaxation and temporary forgetfulness of self3 the ideal of a humanly superhuman well-being and goodwill1 which often enough will seem inhuman--as when1 for instance1 it stands beside all past earnestness on earth1 and all past solemnities in hearing1 speech1 tone1 look1 morality1 and duty1 as their most lifelike and unconscious parody--but with which1 nevertheless1 great earnestness perhaps alone begins1 the first note of interrogation is affixed1 the fate of the soul changes1 the hour hand moves1 and tragedy begins4 #c ,has any one at the end of the nineteenth century any distinct notion of what poets of a stronger age understood by the word inspiration8 ,if not1 ,i will describe it4 ,if one had the smallest vestige of superstition left in one1 it would hardly be possible completely to set aside the idea that one is the mere incarnation1 mouthpiece1 or medium of an almighty power4 ,the idea of revelation1 in the sense that something which profoundly convulses and upsets one becomes suddenly visible and audible with indescribable certainty and accuracy--describes the simple fact4 ,one hears--one does not seek2 one takes--one does not ask who gives3 a thought suddenly flashes up like lightning1 it comes with necessity1 without faltering--,i have never had any choice in the matter4 ,there is an ecstasy so great that the immense strain of it is sometimes relaxed by a flood of tears1 during which one's steps now involuntarily rush and anon involuntarily lag4 ,there is the feeling that one is utterly out of hand1 with the very distinct consciousness of an endless number of fine thrills and titillations descending to one's very toes2--there is a depth of happiness in which the most painful and gloomy parts do not act as antitheses to the rest1 but are produced and required as necessary shades of colour in such an overflow of light4 ,there is an instinct for rhythmic relations which embraces a whole world of forms 7length1 the need of a wide-embracing rhythm1 is almost the measure of the force of an inspiration1 a sort of counterpart to its pressure and tension74 ,everything happens quite involuntarily1 as if in a tempestuous outburst of freedom1 of absoluteness1 of power and divinity4 ,the involuntary nature of the figures and similes is the most remarkable thing2 one loses all perception of what is imagery and metaphor2 everything seems to present itself as the readiest1 the truest1 and simplest means of expression4 ,it actually seems1 to use one of ,zarathustra's own phrases1 as if all things came to one1 and offered themselves as similes4 7,here do all things come caressingly to thy discourse and flatter thee1 for they would fain ride upon thy back4 ,on every simile thou ridest here unto every truth4 ,here fly open unto thee all the speech and word shrines of the world1 here would all existence become speech1 here would all ,becoming learn of thee how to speak47 ,this is my experience of inspiration4 ,i do not doubt but that ,i should have to go back thousands of years before ,i could find another who could say to me3 ,it is mine also6 #d ,for a few weeks afterwards ,i lay an invalid in ,genoa4 ,then followed a melancholy spring in ,rome1 where ,i only just managed to live--and this was no easy matter4 ,this city1 which is absolutely unsuited to the poet-author of ,zarathustra1 and for the choice of which ,i was not responsible1 made me inordinately miserable4 ,i tried to leave it4 ,i wanted to go to ,aquila--the opposite of ,rome in every respect1 and actually founded in a spirit of hostility towards that city1 just as ,i also shall found a city some day1 as a memento of an atheist and genuine enemy of the ,church1 a person very closely related to me1 the great ,hohenstaufen1 the ,emperor ,frederick ,,ii4 ,but ,fate lay behind it all3 ,i had to return again to ,rome4 ,in the end ,i was obliged to be satisfied with the ,piazza ,barberini1 after ,i had exerted myself in vain to find an anti-,christian quarter4 ,i fear that on one occasion1 to avoid bad smells as much as possible1 ,i actually inquired at the ,palazzo del ,quirinale whether they could not provide a quiet room for a philosopher4 ,in a chamber high above the ,piazza just mentioned1 from which one obtained a general view of ,rome1 and could hear the fountains plashing far below1 the loneliest of all songs was composed--,the ,night-,song4 ,about this time ,i was obsessed by an unspeakably sad melody1 the refrain of which ,i recognised in the affords1 dead through immortality1 444 ,in the summer1 finding myself once more in the sacred place where the first thought of ,zarathustra flashed like a light across my mind1 ,i conceived the second part4 ,ten days sufficed4 ,neither for the second1 the first1 nor the third part1 have ,i required a day longer4 ,in the ensuing winter1 beneath the halcyon sky of ,nice1 which then for the first time poured its light into my life1 ,i found the third ,zarathustra--and came to the end of my task3 the whole having occupied me scarcely a year4 ,many hidden corners and heights in the country round about ,nice are hallowed for me by moments that ,i can never forget4 ,that decisive chapter1 entitled ,old and ,new ,tables1 was composed during the arduous ascent from the station to ,eza--that wonderful ,moorish village in the rocks4 ,during those moments when my creative energy flowed most plentifully1 my muscular activity was always greatest4 ,the body is inspired3 let us waive the question of soul4 ,i might often have been seen dancing in those days1 and ,i could then walk for seven or eight hours on end over the hills without a suggestion of fatigue4 ,i slept well and laughed a good deal--,i was perfectly robust and patient4 #e ,with the exception of these periods of industry lasting ten days1 the years ,i spent during the production of ,zarathustra1 and thereafter1 were for me years of unparalleled distress4 ,a man pays dearly for being immortal3 to this end he must die many times over during his life4 ,there is such a thing as what ,i call the rancour of greatness3 everything great1 whether a work or a deed1 once it is completed1 turns immediately against its author4 ,the very fact that he is its author makes him weak at this time4 ,he can no longer endure his deed4 ,he can no longer look it full in the face4 ,to have something at one's back which one could never have willed1 something to which the knot of human destiny is attached--and to be forced thenceforward to bear it on one's shoulders6 ,why1 it almost crushes one6 ,the rancour of greatness6 ,a somewhat different experience is the uncanny silence that reigns about one4 ,solitude has seven skins which nothing can penetrate4 ,one goes among men2 one greets friends3 but these things are only new deserts1 the looks of those one meets no longer bear a greeting4 ,at the best one encounters a sort of revolt4 ,this feeling of revolt1 ,i suffered1 in varying degrees of intensity1 at the hands of almost every one who came near me2 it would seem that nothing inflicts a deeper wound than suddenly to make one's distance felt4 ,those noble natures are scarce who know not how to live unless they can revere4 ,a third thing is the absurd susceptibility of the skin to small pin-pricks1 a kind of helplessness in the presence of all small things4 ,this seems to me a necessary outcome of the appalling expenditure of all defensive forces1 which is the first condition of every creative act1 of every act which proceeds from the most intimate1 most secret1 and most concealed recesses of a man's being4 ,the small defensive forces are thus1 as it were1 suspended1 and no fresh energy reaches them4 ,i even think it probable that one does not digest so well1 that one is less willing to move1 and that one is much too open to sensations of coldness and suspicion2 for1 in a large number of cases1 suspicion is merely a blunder in etiology4 ,on one occasion when ,i felt like this ,i became conscious of the proximity of a herd of cows1 some time before ,i could possibly have seen it with my eyes1 simply owing to a return in me of milder and more humane sentiments3 they communicated warmth to me4444 #f ,this work stands alone4 ,do not let us mention the poets in the same breath2 nothing perhaps has ever been produced out of such a superabundance of strength4 ,my concept ,dionysian here became the highest deed2 compared with it everything that other men have done seems poor and limited4 ,the fact that a ,goethe or a ,shakespeare would not for an instant have known how to take breath in this atmosphere of passion and of the heights2 the fact that by the side of ,zarathustra1 ,dante is no more than a believer1 and not one who first creates the truth--that is to say1 not a world-ruling spirit1 a ,fate2 the fact that the poets of the ,veda were priests and not even fit to unfasten ,zarathustra's sandal--all this is the least of things1 and gives no idea of the distance1 of the azure solitude1 in which this work dwells4 ,zarathustra has an eternal right to say3 ,i draw around me circles and holy boundaries4 ,ever fewer are they that mount with me to ever loftier heights4 ,i build me a mountain range of ever holier mountains4 ,if all the spirit and goodness of every great soul were collected together1 the whole could not create a single one of ,zarathustra's discourses4 ,the ladder upon which he rises and descends is of boundless length2 he has seen further1 he has willed further1 and gone further than any other man4 ,there is contradiction in every word that he utters1 this most yea-saying of all spirits4 ,through him all contradictions are bound up into a new unity4 ,the loftiest and the basest powers of human nature1 the sweetest1 the lightest1 and the most terrible1 rush forth from out one spring with everlasting certainty4 ,until his coming no one knew what was height1 or depth1 and still less what was truth4 ,there is not a single passage in this revelation of truth which had already been anticipated and divined by even the greatest among men4 ,before ,zarathustra there was no wisdom1 no probing of the soul1 no art of speech3 in his book1 the most familiar and most vulgar thing utters unheard-of words4 ,the sentence quivers with passion4 ,eloquence has become music4 ,forks of lightning are hurled towards futures of which no one has ever dreamed before4 ,the most powerful use of parables that has yet existed is poor beside it1 and mere child's-play compared with this return of language to the nature of imagery4 ,see how ,zarathustra goes down from the mountain and speaks the kindest words to every one6 ,see with what delicate fingers he touches his very adversaries1 the priests1 and how he suffers with them from themselves6 ,here1 at every moment1 man is overcome1 and the concept ,superman becomes the greatest reality1--out of sight1 almost far away beneath him1 lies all that which heretofore has been called great in man4 ,the halcyonic brightness1 the light feet1 the presence of wickedness and exuberance throughout1 and all that is the essence of the type ,zarathustra1 was never dreamt of before as a prerequisite of greatness4 ,in precisely these limits of space and in this accessibility to opposites ,zarathustra feels himself the highest of all living things3 and when you hear how he defines this highest1 you will give up trying to find his equal4 ,the soul which hath the longest ladder and can step down deepest1 ,the vastest soul that can run and stray and rove furthest in its own domain1 ,the most necessary soul1 that out of desire flingeth itself to chance1 ,the stable soul that plungeth into ,becoming1 the possessing soul that must needs taste of willing and longing1 ,the soul that flyeth from itself1 and over-taketh itself in the widest circle1 ,the wisest soul that folly exhorteth most sweetly1 ,the most self-loving soul1 in whom all things have their rise1 their ebb and flow4 ,but this is the very idea of ,dionysus4 ,another consideration leads to this idea4 ,the psychological problem presented by the type of ,zarathustra is1 how can he1 who in an unprecedented manner says no1 and acts no1 in regard to all that which has been affirmed hitherto1 remain nevertheless a yea-saying spirit8 how can he who bears the heaviest destiny on his shoulders and whose very life-task is a fatality1 yet be the brightest and the most transcendental of spirits--for ,zarathustra is a dancer8 how can he who has the hardest and most terrible grasp of reality1 and who has thought the most abysmal thoughts1 nevertheless avoid conceiving these things as objections to existence1 or even as objections to the eternal recurrence of existence8--how is it that on the contrary he finds reasons for being himself the eternal affirmation of all things1 the tremendous and unlimited saying of ,yea and ,amen8444 ,into every abyss do ,i bear the benediction of my yea to ,life4 444 ,but this1 once more1 is precisely the idea of ,dionysus4 #g ,what language will such a spirit speak1 when he speaks unto his soul8 ,the language of the dithyramb4 ,i am the inventor of the dithyramb4 ,hearken unto the manner in which ,zarathustra speaks to his soul ,before ,sunrise 7iii4 #dh74 ,before my time such emerald joys and divine tenderness had found no tongue4 ,even the profoundest melancholy of such a ,dionysus takes shape as a dithyramb4 ,as an example of this ,i take ,the ,night-,song1--the immortal plaint of one who1 thanks to his superabundance of light and power1 thanks to the sun within him1 is condemned never to love4 ,it is night3 now do all gushing springs raise their voices4 ,and my soul too is a gushing spring4 ,it is night3 now only do all lovers burst into song4 ,and my soul too is the song of a lover4 ,something unquenched and unquenchable is within me1 that would raise its voice4 ,a craving for love is within me1 which itself speaketh the language of love4 ,light am ,i3 would that ,i were night6 ,but this is my loneliness1 that ,i am begirt with light4 ,alas1 why am ,i not dark and like unto the night6 ,how joyfully would ,i then suck at the breasts of light6 ,and even you would ,i bless1 ye twinkling starlets and glow-worms on high6 and be blessed in the gifts of your light4 ,but in mine own light do ,i live1 ever back into myself do ,i drink the flames ,i send forth4 ,i know not the happiness of the hand stretched forth to grasp2 and oft have ,i dreamt that stealing must be more blessed than taking4 ,wretched am ,i that my hand may never rest from giving3 an envious fate is mine that ,i see expectant eyes and nights made bright with longing4 ,oh1 the wretchedness of all them that give6 ,oh1 the clouds that cover the face of my sun6 ,that craving for desire6 that burning hunger at the end of the feast6 ,they take what ,i give them2 but do ,i touch their soul8 ,a gulf is there 'twixt giving and taking2 and the smallest gulf is the last to be bridged4 ,an appetite is born from out my beauty3 would that ,i might do harm to them that ,i fill with light2 would that ,i might rob them of the gifts ,i have given3--thus do ,i thirst for wickedness4 ,to withdraw my hand when their hand is ready stretched forth like the waterfall that wavers1 wavers even in its fall3--thus do ,i thirst for wickedness4 ,for such vengeance doth my fulness yearn3 to such tricks doth my loneliness give birth4 ,my joy in giving died with the deed4 ,by its very fulness did my virtue grow weary of itself4 ,he who giveth risketh to lose his shame2 he that is ever distributing groweth callous in hand and heart therefrom4 ,mine eyes no longer melt into tears at the sight of the suppliant's shame2 my hand hath become too hard to feel the quivering of laden hands4 ,whither have ye fled1 the tears of mine eyes and the bloom of my heart8 ,oh1 the solitude of all givers6 ,oh1 the silence of all beacons6 ,many are the suns that circle in barren space2 to all that is dark do they speak with their light--to me alone are they silent4 ,alas1 this is the hatred of light for that which shineth3 pitiless it runneth its course4 ,unfair in its inmost heart to that which shineth2 cold toward suns1--thus doth every sun go its way4 ,like a tempest do the suns fly over their course3 for such is their way4 ,their own unswerving will do they follow3 that is their coldness4 ,alas1 it is ye alone1 ye creatures of gloom1 ye spirits of the night1 that take your warmth from that which shineth4 ,ye alone suck your milk and comfort from the udders of light4 ,alas1 about me there is ice1 my hand burneth itself against ice6 ,alas1 within me is a thirst that thirsteth for your thirst6 ,it is night3 woe is me1 that ,i must needs be light6 ,and thirst after darkness6 ,and loneliness6 ,it is night3 now doth my longing burst forth like a spring1--for speech do ,i long4 ,it is night3 now do all gushing springs raise their voices4 ,and my soul too is a gushing spring4 ,it is night3 now only do all lovers burst into song4 ,and my soul too is the song of a lover4 #h ,such things have never been written1 never been felt1 never been suffered3 only a ,god1 only ,dionysus suffers in this way4 ,the reply to such a dithyramb on the sun's solitude in light would be ,ariadne4 444 ,who knows1 but ,i1 who ,ariadne is6 ,to all such riddles no one heretofore had ever found an answer2 ,i doubt even whether any one had ever seen a riddle here4 ,one day ,zarathustra severely determines his life-task--and it is also mine4 ,let no one misunderstand its meaning4 ,it's a yea-saying to the point of justifying1 to the point of redeeming even all that is past4 ,i walk among men as among fragments of the future3 of that future which ,i see4 ,and all my creativeness and effort is but this1 that ,i may be able to think and recast all these fragments and riddles and dismal accidents into one piece4 ,and how could ,i bear to be a man1 if man were not also a poet1 a riddle reader1 and a redeemer of chance6 ,to redeem all the past1 and to transform every 'it was' into 'thus would ,i have it'--that alone would be my salvation6 ,in another passage he defines as strictly as possible what to him alone man can be1--not a subject for love nor yet for pity--,zarathustra became master even of his loathing of man3 man is to him a thing unshaped1 raw material1 an ugly stone that needs the sculptor's chisel4 ,no longer to will1 no longer to value1 no longer to create6 ,oh1 that this great weariness may never be mine6 ,even in the lust of knowledge1 ,i feel only the joy of my will to beget and to grow2 and if there be innocence in my knowledge1 it is because my procreative will is in it4 ,away from ,god and gods did this will lure me3 what would there be to create if there were gods8 ,but to man doth it ever drive me anew1 my burning1 creative will4 ,thus driveth it the hammer to the stone4 ,alas1 ye men1 within the stone there sleepeth an image for me1 the image of all my dreams6 ,alas1 that it should have to sleep in the hardest and ugliest stone6 ,now rageth my hammer ruthlessly against its prison4 ,from the stone the fragments fly3 what's that to me8 ,i will finish it3 for a shadow came unto me--the stillest and lightest thing on earth once came unto me6 ,the beauty of the ,superman came unto me as a shadow4 ,alas1 my brethren6 ,what are the--gods to me now8 ,let me call attention to one last point of view4 ,the line in italics is my pretext for this remark4 ,a ,dionysian life-task needs the hardness of the hammer1 and one of its first essentials is without doubt the joy even of destruction4 ,the command1 ,harden yourselves6 and the deep conviction that all creators are hard1 is the really distinctive sign of a ,dionysian nature4 ,,beyond ,,good ,,and ,,evil3 ,,the ,,prelude ,,to ,a ,,philosophy ,,of ,,the ,,future #a ,my work for the years that followed was prescribed as distinctly as possible4 ,now that the yea-saying part of my life-task was accomplished1 there came the turn of the negative portion1 both in word and deed3 the transvaluation of all values that had existed hitherto1 the great war1--the conjuring-up of the day when the fatal outcome of the struggle would be decided4 ,meanwhile1 ,i had slowly to look about me for my peers1 for those who1 out of strength1 would proffer me a helping hand in my work of destruction4 ,from that time onward1 all my writings are so much bait3 maybe ,i understand as much about fishing as most people8 ,if nothing was caught1 it was not ,i who was at fault ,there were no fish to come and bite4 #b ,in all its essential points1 this book 7#ahhf7 is a criticism of modernity1 embracing the modern sciences1 arts1 even politics1 together with certain indications as to a type which would be the reverse of modern man1 or as little like him as possible1 a noble and yea-saying type4 ,in this last respect the book is a school for gentlemen--the term gentleman being understood here in a much more spiritual and radical sense than it has implied hitherto4 ,all those things of which the age is proud1--as1 for instance1 far-famed objectivity1 sympathy with all that suffers1 the historical sense1 with its subjection to foreign tastes1 with its lying-in-the-dust before petits faits1 and the rage for science1--are shown to be the contradiction of the type recommended1 and are regarded as almost ill-bred4 ,if you remember that this book follows upon ,zarathustra1 you may possibly guess to what system of diet it owes its life4 ,the eye which1 owing to tremendous constraint1 has become accustomed to see at a great distance1--,zarathustra is even more far-sighted than the ,tsar1--is here forced to focus sharply that which is close at hand1 the present time1 the things that lie about him4 ,in all the aphorisms and more particularly in the form of this book1 the reader will find the same voluntary turning away from those instincts which made a ,zarathustra a possible feat4 ,refinement in form1 in aspiration1 and in the art of keeping silent1 are its more or less obvious qualities2 psychology is handled with deliberate hardness and cruelty1--the whole book does not contain one single good-natured word4444 ,all this sort of thing refreshes a man4 ,who can guess the kind of recreation that is necessary after such an expenditure of goodness as is to be found in ,zarathustra8 ,from a theological standpoint--now pay ye heed2 for it is but on rare occasions that ,i speak as a theologian--it was ,god ,himself who1 at the end of ,his great work1 coiled ,himself up in the form of a serpent at the foot of the tree of knowledge4 ,it was thus that ,he recovered from being a ,god4444 ,he had made everything too beautiful4444 ,the devil is simply ,god's moment of idleness1 on that seventh day4 ,,the ,,genealogy ,,of ,,morals3 ,a ,,polemic ,the three essays which constitute this genealogy are1 as regards expression1 aspiration1 and the art of the unexpected1 perhaps the most curious things that have ever been written4 ,dionysus1 as you know1 is also the god of darkness4 ,in each case the beginning is calculated to mystify2 it is cool1 scientific1 even ironical1 intentionally thrust to the fore1 intentionally reticent4 ,gradually less calmness prevails2 here and there a flash of lightning defines the horizon2 exceedingly unpleasant truths break upon your ears from out remote distances with a dull1 rumbling sound1--until very soon a fierce tempo is attained in which everything presses forward at a terrible degree of tension4 ,at the end1 in each case1 amid fearful thunderclaps1 a new truth shines out between thick clouds4 ,the truth of the first essays the psychology of ,christianity3 the birth of ,christianity out of the spirit of resentment1 not1 as is supposed1 out of the ,spirit1--in all its essentials1 a counter-movement1 the great insurrection against the dominion of noble values4 ,the second essay contains the psychology of conscience3 this is not1 as you may believe1 the voice of ,god in man2 it is the instinct of cruelty1 which turns inwards once it is unable to discharge itself outwardly4 ,cruelty is here exposed1 for the first time1 as one of the oldest and most indispensable elements in the foundation of culture4 ,the third essay replies to the question as to the origin of the formidable power of the ascetic ideal1 of the priest ideal1 despite the fact that this ideal is essentially detrimental1 that it is a will to nonentity and to decadence4 ,reply3 it flourished not because ,god was active behind the priests1 as is generally believed1 but because it was a faute de mieux--from the fact that hitherto it has been the only ideal and has had no competitors4 ,for man prefers to aspire to nonentity than not to aspire at all4 ,but above all1 until the time of ,zarathustra there was no such thing as a counter-ideal4 ,you have understood my meaning4 ,three decisive overtures on the part of a psychologist to a ,transvaluation of all ,values4--,this book contains the first psychology of the priest4 ,,the ,,twilight ,,of ,,the ,,idols3 ,,how ,,to ,,philosophise ,,with ,,the ,,hammer #a ,this work--which covers scarcely one hundred and fifty pages1 with its cheerful and fateful tone1 like a laughing demon1 and the production of which occupied so few days that ,i hesitate to give their number--is altogether an exception among books3 there is no work more rich in substance1 more independent1 more upsetting--more wicked4 ,if any one should desire to obtain a rapid sketch of how everything1 before my time1 was standing on its head1 he should begin reading me in this book4 ,that which is called ,idols on the title page is simply the old truth that has been believed in hitherto4 ,in plain ,english1 ,the ,twilight of the ,idols means that the old truth is on its last legs4 #b ,there is no reality1 no ideality1 which has not been touched in this book 7touched6 what a cautious euphemism674 ,not only the eternal idols1 but also the youngest--that is to say1 the most senile3 modern ideas1 for instance4 ,a strong wind blows between the trees and in all directions fall the fruit--the truths4 ,there is the waste of an all-too-rich autumn in this book3 you trip over truths4 ,you even crush some to death1 there are too many of them4 ,those things that you can grasp1 however1 are quite unquestionable2 they are irrevocable decrees4 ,i alone have the criterion of truths in my possession4 ,i alone can decide4 ,it would seem as if a second consciousness had grown up in me1 as if the life-will in me had thrown a light upon the downward path along which it has been running throughout the ages4 ,the downward path--hitherto this had been called the road to ,truth4 ,all obscure impulse--darkness and dismay--is at an end1 the good man was precisely he who was least aware of the proper way4#a ,and1 speaking in all earnestness1 no one before me knew the proper way1 the way upwards3 only after my time could men once more find hope1 life-tasks1 and roads mapped out that lead to culture--,i am the joyful harbinger of this culture4 444 ,on this account alone ,i am also a fatality4 #c ,immediately after the completion of the above-named work1 and without letting even one day go by1 ,i tackled the formidable task of the ,transvaluation with a supreme feeling of pride which nothing could equal2 and1 certain at each moment of my immortality1 ,i cut sign after sign upon tablets of brass with the sureness of ,fate4 ,the ,preface came into being on #crd ,september #ahhh4 ,when1 after having written it down1 ,i went out into the open that morning1 ,i was greeted by the most beautiful day ,i had ever seen in the ,upper ,engadine--clear1 glowing with colour1 and presenting all the contrasts and all the intermediary gradations between ice and the south4 ,i left ,sils-,maria only on the #bjth of ,september4 ,i had been forced to delay my departure owing to floods1 and ,i was very soon1 and for some days1 the only visitor in this wonderful spot1 on which my gratitude bestows the gift of an immortal name4 ,after a journey that was full of incidents1 and not without danger to life1--as for instance at ,como1 which was flooded when ,i reached it in the dead of night1--,i got to ,turin on the afternoon of the #ba st4 ,turin is the only suitable place for me1 and it shall be my home henceforward4 ,i took the same lodgings as ,i had occupied in the spring1 #faaa ,via ,carlo ,alberto1 opposite the mighty ,palazzo ,carignano1 in which ,vittorio ,emanuele was born2 and ,i had a view of the ,piazza ,carlo ,alberto and above it across to the hills4 ,without hesitating1 or allowing myself to be disturbed for a single moment1 ,i returned to my work1 only the last quarter of which had still to be written4 ,on the #cjth ,september1 tremendous triumph2 the seventh day2 the leisure of a god on the banks of the ,po4#b ,on the same day1 ,i wrote the ,preface to ,the ,twilight of the ,idols1 the correction of the proofs of which provided me with recreation during the month of ,september4 ,never in my life have ,i experienced such an autumn2 nor had ,i ever imagined that such things were possible on earth--a ,claude ,lorrain extended to infinity1 each day equal to the last in its wild perfection4 ,footnote #a3 ,a witty reference to ,goethe's well-known passage in the ,prologue to ,faust3-- ,a good man1 though in darkness and dismay1 ,may still be conscious of the proper way4 ,the words are spoken by the ,lord4--,,tr4 ,footnote #b3 ,there is a wonderful promenade along the banks of the ,po1 for which ,turin is famous1 and of which ,nietzsche was particularly fond4--,,tr4 ,,the ,,case ,,of ,,wagner3 ,a ,,musician',s ,,problem #a ,in order to do justice to this essay a man ought to suffer from the fate of music as from an open wound4--,from what do ,i suffer when ,i suffer from the fate of music8 ,from the fact that music has lost its world-transfiguring1 yea-saying character--that it is decadent music and no longer the flute of ,dionysus4 ,supposing1 however1 that the fate of music be as dear to man as his own life1 because joy and suffering are alike bound up with it2 then he will find this pamphlet comparatively mild and full of consideration4 ,to be cheerful in such circumstances1 and laugh good-naturedly with others at one's self1--ridendodicere severum#a when the verum dicere would justify every sort of hardness1--is humanity itself4 ,who doubts that ,i1 old artillery-man that ,i am1 would be able if ,i liked to point my heavy guns at ,wagner8--,everything decisive in this question ,i kept to myself--,i have loved ,wagner4--,after all1 an attack upon a more than usually subtle unknown person whom another would not have divined so easily1 lies in the meaning and path of my life-task4 ,oh1 ,i have still quite a number of other unknown persons to unmask besides a ,cagliostro of ,music6 ,above all1 ,i have to direct an attack against the ,german people1 who1 in matters of the spirit1 grow every day more indolent1 poorer in instincts1 and more honest who1 with an appetite for which they are to be envied1 continue to diet themselves on contradictions1 and gulp down ,faith in company with science1 ,christian love together with anti-,semitism1 and the will to power 7to the ,empire71 dished up with the gospel of the humble1 without showing the slightest signs of indigestion4 ,fancy this absence of party-feeling in the presence of opposites6 ,fancy this gastric neutrality and disinterestedness6 ,behold this sense of justice in the ,german palate1 which can grant equal rights to all1--which finds everything tasteful6 ,without a shadow of a doubt the ,germans are idealists4 ,when ,i was last in ,germany1 ,i found ,german taste striving to grant ,wagner and the ,trumpeter of ,sakkingen#b equal rights2 while ,i myself witnessed the attempts of the people of ,leipzig to do honour to one of the most genuine and most ,german of musicians1--using ,german here in the old sense of the word1--a man who was no mere ,german of the ,empire1 the master ,heinrich ,schtz1 by founding a ,liszt ,society1 the object of which was to cultivate and spread artful 7listige#c7 ,church music4 ,without a shadow of doubt the ,germans are idealists4 #b ,but here nothing shall stop me from being rude1 and from telling the ,germans one or two unpleasant home truths3 who else would do it if ,i did not8 ,i refer to their laxity in matters historical4 ,not only have the ,germans entirely lost the breadth of vision which enables one to grasp the course of culture and the values of culture2 not only are they one and all political 7or ,church7 puppets2 but they have also actually put a ban upon this very breadth of vision4 ,a man must first and foremost be ,german1 he must belong to the race2 then only can he pass judgment upon all values and lack of values in history--then only can he establish them4444 ,to be ,german is in itself an argument1 ,germany1 ,germany above all1#d is a principle2 the ,germans stand for the moral order of the universe in history2 compared with the ,roman ,empire1 they are the up-holders of freedom2 compared with the eighteenth century1 they are the restorers of morality1 of the ,categorical ,imperative4 ,there is such a thing as the writing of history according to the lights of ,imperial ,germany2 there is1 ,i fear1 anti-,semitic history--there is also history written with an eye to the ,court1 and ,herr von ,treitschke is not ashamed of himself4 ,quite recently an idiotic opinion in historicis1 an observation of ,vischer the ,swabian sthete1 since happily deceased1 made the round of the ,german newspapers as a truth to which every ,german must assent ,the observation was this3 ,the ,renaissance and the ,reformation only together constitute a whole--the sthetic rebirth1 and the moral rebirth4 ,when ,i listen to such things1 ,i lose all patience1 and ,i feel inclined1 ,i even feel it my duty1 to tell the ,germans1 for once in a way1 all that they have on their conscience4 ,every great crime against culture for the last four centuries lies on their conscience4444 ,and always for the same reason1 always owing to their bottomless cowardice in the face of reality1 which is also cowardice in the face of truth2 always owing to the love of falsehood which has become almost instinctive in them--in short1 idealism4 ,it was the ,germans who caused ,europe to lose the fruits1 the whole meaning of her last period of greatness--the period of the ,renaissance4 ,at a moment when a higher order of values1 values that were noble1 that said yea to life1 and that guaranteed a future1 had succeeded in triumphing over the opposite values1 the values of degeneration1 in the very seat of ,christianity itself1--and even in the hearts of those sitting there1--,luther1 that cursed monk1 not only restored the ,church1 but1 what was a thousand times worse1 restored ,christianity1 and at a time too when it lay defeated4 ,christianity1 the ,denial of the ,will to ,live1 exalted to a religion6 ,luther was an impossible monk who1 thanks to his own impossibility1 attacked the ,church1 and in so doing restored it6 ,catholics would be perfectly justified in celebrating feasts in honour of ,luther1 and in producing festival plays#e in his honour4 ,luther and the rebirth of morality6 ,may all psychology go to the devil6 ,without a shadow of a doubt the ,germans are idealists4 ,on two occasions when1 at the cost of enormous courage and self-control1 an upright1 unequivocal1 and perfectly scientific attitude of mind had been attained1 the ,germans were able to discover back stairs leading down to the old ideal again1 compromises between truth and the ideal1 and1 in short1 formul for the right to reject science and to perpetrate falsehoods4 ,leibniz and ,kant--these two great breaks upon the intellectual honesty of ,europe6 ,finally1 at a moment when there appeared on the bridge that spanned two centuries of decadence1 a superior force of genius and will which was strong enough to consolidate ,europe and to convert it into a political and economic unit1 with the object of ruling the world1 the ,germans1 with their ,wars of ,independence1 robbed ,europe of the significance--the marvellous significance1 of ,napoleon's life4 ,and in so doing they laid on their conscience everything that followed1 everything that exists to-day1--this sickliness and want of reason which is most opposed to culture1 and which is called ,nationalism1--this nvrose nationale from which ,europe is suffering acutely2 this eternal subdivision of ,europe into petty states1 with politics on a municipal scale3 they have robbed ,europe itself of its significance1 of its reason1--and have stuffed it into a cul-de-sac4 ,is there any one except me who knows the way out of this cul-de-sac8 ,does anyone except me know of an aspiration which would be great enough to bind the people of ,europe once more together8 #c ,and after all1 why should ,i not express my suspicions8 ,in my case1 too1 the ,germans will attempt to make a great fate give birth merely to a mouse4 ,up to the present they have compromised themselves with me2 ,i doubt whether the future will improve them4 ,alas6 how happy ,i should be to prove a false prophet in this matter6 ,my natural readers and listeners are already ,russians1 ,scandinavians1 and ,frenchmen--will they always be the same8 ,in the history of knowledge1 ,germans are represented only by doubtful names1 they have been able to produce only unconscious swindlers 7this word applies to ,fichte1 ,schelling1 ,schopenhauer1 ,hegel1 and ,schleiermacher1 just as well as to ,kant or ,leibniz2 they were all mere ,schleiermachers74#f ,the ,germans must not have the honour of seeing the first upright intellect in their history of intellects1 that intellect in which truth ultimately got the better of the fraud of four thousand years1 reckoned as one with the ,german intellect4 ,german intellect is my foul air3 ,i breathe with difficulty in the neighbourhood of this psychological uncleanliness that has now become instinctive--an uncleanliness which in every word and expression betrays a ,german4 ,they have never undergone a seventeenth century of hard self-examination1 as the ,french have1--a ,la ,rochefoucauld1 a ,descartes1 are a thousand times more upright than the very first among ,germans1--the latter have not yet had any psychologists4 ,but psychology is almost the standard of measurement for the cleanliness or uncleanliness of a race4444 ,for if a man is not even clean1 how can he be deep8 ,the ,germans are like women1 you can scarcely ever ,i fathom their depths--they haven't any1 and that's the end of it4 ,thus they cannot even be called shallow4 ,that which is called deep in ,germany1 is precisely this instinctive uncleanliness towards one's self1 of which ,i have just spoken3 people refuse to be clear in regard to their own natures4 ,might ,i be allowed1 perhaps1 to suggest the word ,german as an international epithet denoting this psychological depravity8--,at the moment of writing1 for instance1 the ,german ,emperor is declaring it to be his ,christian duty to liberate the slaves in ,africa2 among us ,europeans1 then1 this would be called simply ,german4 444 ,have the ,germans ever produced even a book that had depth8 ,they are lacking in the mere idea of what constitutes a book4 ,i have known scholars who thought that ,kant was deep4 ,at the ,court of ,prussia ,i fear that ,herr von ,treitschke is regarded as deep4 ,and when ,i happen to praise ,stendhal as a deep psychologist1 ,i have often been compelled1 in the company of ,german ,university ,professors1 to spell his name aloud4 #d ,and why should ,i not proceed to the end8 ,i am fond of clearing the air4 ,it is even part of my ambition to be considered as essentially a despiser of ,germans4 ,i expressed my suspicions of the ,german character even at the age of six-and-twenty 7see ,thoughts out of ,season1 vol4 ii4 pp4 #afd1 #afe71--to my mind the ,germans are impossible4 ,when ,i try to think of the kind of man who is opposed to me in all my instincts1 my mental image takes the form of a ,german4 ,the first thing ,i ask myself when ,i begin analysing a man1 is1 whether he has a feeling for distance in him2 whether he sees rank1 gradation1 and order everywhere between man and man2 whether he makes distinctions2 for this is what constitutes a gentleman4 ,otherwise he belongs hopelessly to that open-hearted1 open-minded--alas6 and always very good-natured species1 la canaille6 ,but the ,germans are canaille--alas6 they are so good-natured6 ,a man lowers himself by frequenting the society of ,germans3 the ,german places every one on an equal footing4 ,with the exception of my intercourse with one or two artists1 and above all with ,richard ,wagner1 ,i cannot say that ,i have spent one pleasant hour with ,germans4 ,suppose1 for one moment1 that the profoundest spirit of all ages were to appear among ,germans1 then one of the saviours of the ,capitol would be sure to arise and declare that his own ugly soul was just as great4 ,i can no longer abide this race with which a man is always in bad company1 which2 has no idea of nuances--woe to me6 ,i am a nuance--and which has not esprit in its feet1 and cannot even walk withal6 ,in short1 the ,germans have no feet at all1 they simply have legs4 ,the ,germans have not the faintest idea of how vulgar they are--but this in itself is the acme of vulgarity1--they are not even ashamed of being merely ,germans4 ,they will have their say in everything1 they regard themselves as fit to decide all questions2 ,i even fear that they have decided about me4 ,my whole life is essentially a proof of this remark4 ,in vain have ,i sought among them for a sign of tact and delicacy towards myself4 ,among ,jews ,i did indeed find it1 but not among ,germans4 ,i am so constituted as to be gentle and kindly to every one1--,i have the right not to draw distinctions1--but this does not prevent my eyes from being open4 ,i except no one1 and least of all my friends1--,i only trust that this has not prejudiced my reputation for humanity among them8 ,there are five or six things which ,i have always made points of honour4 ,albeit1 the truth remains that for many years ,i have considered almost every letter that has reached me as a piece of cynicism4 ,there is more cynicism in an attitude of goodwill towards me than in any sort of hatred4 ,i tell every friend to his face that he has never thought it worth his while to study any one of my writings3 from the slightest hints ,i gather that they do not even know what lies hidden in my books4 ,and with regard even to my ,zarathustra1 which of my friends would have seen more in it than a piece of unwarrantable1 though fortunately harmless1 arrogance8 ,ten years have elapsed1 and no one has yet felt it a duty to his conscience to defend my name against the absurd silence beneath which it has been entombed4 ,it was a foreigner1 a ,dane1 who first showed sufficient keenness of instinct and of courage to do this1 and who protested indignantly against my so-called friends4 ,at what ,german ,university to-day would such lectures on my philosophy be possible1 as those which ,dr4 ,brandes delivered last spring in ,copenhagen1 thus proving once more his right to the title psychologist8 ,for my part1 these things have never caused me any pain2 that which is necessary does not offend me4 ,amor fati is the core of my nature4 ,this1 however1 does not alter the fact that ,i love irony and even world-historic irony4 ,and thus1 about two years before hurling the destructive thunderbolt of the ,transvaluation1 which will send the whole of civilisation into convulsions1 ,i sent my ,case of ,wagner out into the world4 ,the ,germans were given the chance of blundering and immortalising their stupidity once more on my account1 and they still have just enough time to do it in4 ,and have they fallen in with my plans8 ,admirably6 my dear ,germans4 ,allow me to congratulate you4 ,footnote #a3 ,the motto of ,the ,case of ,wagner4--,,tr4 ,footnote #b3 ,an opera by ,nessler which was all the rage in ,germany twenty years ago4--,,tr4 ,footnote #c3 ,unfortunately it is impossible to render this play on the words in ,english4--,,tr4 ,footnote #d3 ,the ,german ,national ,song 7,deutschland1 ,deutschland ber alles74--,,tr4 ,footnote #e3 ,ever since the year #afag such plays have been produced by the ,protestants of ,germany4--,,tr4 ,footnote #f3 ,schleiermacher literally means a weaver or maker of veils4--,,tr4 ,,why ,i ,,am ,a ,,fatality #a ,i know my destiny4 ,there will come a day when my name will recall the memory of something formidable--a crisis the like of which has never been known on earth1 the memory of the most profound clash of consciences1 and the passing of a sentence upon all that which theretofore had been believed1 exacted1 and hallowed4 ,i am not a man1 ,i am dynamite4 ,and with it all there is nought of the founder of a religion in me4 ,religions are matters for the mob2 after coming in contact with a religious man1 ,i always feel that ,i must wash my hands4444 ,i require no believers1 it is my opinion that ,i am too full of malice to believe even in myself2 ,i never address myself to masses4 ,i am horribly frightened that one day ,i shall be pronounced holy4 ,you will understand why ,i publish this book beforehand--it is to prevent people from wronging me4 ,i refuse to be a saint2 ,i would rather be a clown4 ,maybe ,i am a clown4 ,and ,i am notwithstanding1 or rather not notwithstanding1 the mouthpiece of truth2 for nothing more blown-out with falsehood has ever existed1 than a saint4 ,but my truth is terrible3 for hitherto lies have been called truth4 ,the ,transvaluation of all ,values1 this is my formula for mankind's greatest step towards coming to its senses--a step which in me became flesh and genius4 ,my destiny ordained that ,i should be the first decent human being1 and that ,i should feel myself opposed to the falsehood of millenniums4 ,i was the first to discover truth1 and for the simple reason that ,i was the first who became conscious of falsehood as falsehood--that is to say1 ,i smelt it as such4 ,my genius resides in my nostrils4 ,i contradict as no one has contradicted hitherto1 and am nevertheless the reverse of a negative spirit4 ,i am the harbinger of joy1 the like of which has never existed before2 ,i have discovered tasks of such lofty greatness that1 until my time1 no one had any idea of such things4 ,mankind can begin to have fresh hopes1 only now that ,i have lived4 ,thus1 ,i am necessarily a man of ,fate4 ,for when ,truth enters the lists against the falsehood of ages1 shocks are bound to ensue1 and a spell of earthquakes1 followed by the transposition of hills and valleys1 such as the world has never yet imagined even in its dreams4 ,the concept politics then becomes elevated entirely to the sphere of spiritual warfare4 ,all the mighty realms of the ancient order of society are blown into space--for they are all based on falsehood3 there will be wars1 the like of which have never been seen on earth before4 ,only from my time and after me will politics on a large scale exist on earth4 #b ,if you should require a formula for a destiny of this kind that has taken human form1 you will find it in my ,zarathustra4 ,and he who would be a creator in good and evil--verily1 he must first be a destroyer1 and break values into pieces4 ,thus the greatest evil belongeth unto the greatest good3 but this is the creative good4 ,i am by far the most terrible man that has ever existed2 but this does not alter the fact that ,i shall become the most beneficent4 ,i know the joy of annihilation to a degree which is commensurate with my power to annihilate4 ,in both cases ,i obey my ,dionysian nature1 which knows not how to separate the negative deed from the saying of yea4 ,i am the first immoralist1 and in this sense ,i am essentially the annihilator4 #c ,people have never asked me as they should have done1 what the name of ,zarathustra precisely meant in my mouth1 in the mouth of the first immoralist2 for that which distinguishes this ,persian from all others in the past is the very fact that he was the exact reverse of an immoralist4 ,zarathustra was the first to see in the struggle between good and evil the essential wheel in the working of things4 ,the translation of morality into the realm of metaphysics1 as force1 cause1 end-in-itself1 is his work4 ,but the very question suggests its own answer4 ,zarathustra created this most portentous of all errors1--morality2 therefore he must be the first to expose it4 ,not only because he has had longer and greater experience of the subject than any other thinker1--all history is indeed the experimental refutation of the theory of the so-called moral order of things1--but because of the more important fact that ,zarathustra was the most truthful of thinkers4 ,in his teaching alone is truthfulness upheld as the highest virtue--that is to say1 as the reverse of the cowardice of the idealist who takes to his heels at the sight of reality4 ,zarathustra has more pluck in his body than all other thinkers put together4 ,to tell the truth and to aim straight3 that is the first ,persian virtue4 ,have ,i made myself clear8 444 ,the overcoming of morality by itself1 through truthfulness1 the moralist's overcoming of himself in his opposite--in me--that is what the name ,zarathustra means in my mouth4 #d ,in reality two negations are involved in my title ,immoralist4 ,i first of all deny the type of man that has hitherto been regarded as the highest--the good1 the kind1 and the charitable2 and ,i also deny that kind of morality which has become recognised and paramount as morality-in-itself--,i speak of the morality of decadence1 or1 to use a still cruder term1 ,christian morality4 ,i would agree to the second of the two negations being regarded as the more decisive1 for1 reckoned as a whole1 the overestimation of goodness and kindness seems to me already a consequence of decadence1 a symptom of weakness1 and incompatible with any ascending and yea-saying life4 ,negation and annihilation are inseparable from a yea-saying attitude towards life4 ,let me halt for a moment at the question of the psychology of the good man4 ,in order to appraise the value of a certain type of man1 the cost of his maintenance must be calculated1--and the conditions of his existence must be known4 ,the condition of the existence of the good is falsehood3 or1 otherwise expressed1 the refusal at any price to see how reality is actually constituted4 ,the refusal to see that this reality is not so constituted as always to be stimulating beneficent instincts1 and still less1 so as to suffer at all moments the intrusion of ignorant and good-natured hands4 ,to consider distress of all kinds as an objection1 as something which must be done away with1 is the greatest nonsense on earth2 generally speaking1 it is nonsense of the most disastrous sort1 fatal in its stupidity--almost as mad as the will to abolish bad weather1 out of pity for the poor1 so to speak4 ,in the great economy of the whole universe1 the terrors of reality 7in the passions1 in the desires1 in the will to power7 are incalculably more necessary than that form of petty happiness which is called goodness2 it is even needful to practise leniency in order so much as to allow the latter a place at all1 seeing that it is based upon a falsification of the instincts4 ,i shall have an excellent opportunity of showing the incalculably calamitous consequences to the whole of history1 of the credo of optimism1 this monstrous offspring of the homines optimi4 ,zarathustra1#a the first who recognised that the optimist is just as degenerate as the pessimist1 though perhaps more detrimental1 says3 ,good men never speak the truth4 ,false shores and false harbours were ye taught by the good4 ,in the lies of the good were ye born and bred4 ,through the good everything hath become false and crooked from the roots4 ,fortunately the world is not built merely upon those instincts which would secure to the good-natured herd animal his paltry happiness4 ,to desire everybody to become a good man1 a gregarious animal1 a blue-eyed1 benevolent1 beautiful soul1 or--as ,herbert ,spencer wished--a creature of altruism1 would mean robbing existence of its greatest character1 castrating man1 and reducing humanity to a sort of wretched ,chinadom4 ,and this some have tried to do6 ,it is precisely this that men called morality4 ,in this sense ,zarathustra calls the good1 now the last men1 and anon the beginning of the end2 and above all1 he considers them as the most detrimental kind of men1 because they secure their existence at the cost of ,truth and at the cost of the ,future4 ,the good--they cannot create2 they are ever the beginning of the end4 ,they crucify him who writeth new values on new tables2 they sacrifice unto themselves the future2 they crucify the whole future of humanity6 ,the good--they are ever the beginning of the end4 ,and whatever harm the slanderers of the world may do1 the harm of the good is the most calamitous of all harm4 #e ,zarathustra1 as the first psychologist of the good man1 is perforce the friend of the evil man4 ,when a degenerate kind of man has succeeded to the highest rank among the human species1 his position must have been gained at the cost of the reverse type--at the cost of the strong man who is certain of life4 ,when the gregarious animal stands in the glorious rays of the purest virtue1 the exceptional man must be degraded to the rank of the evil4 ,if falsehood insists at all costs on claiming the word truth for its own particular standpoint1 the really truthful man must be sought out among the despised4 ,zarathustra allows of no doubt here2 he says that it was precisely the knowledge of the good1 of the best1 which inspired his absolute horror of men4 ,and it was out of this feeling of repulsion that he grew the wings which allowed him to soar into remote futures4 ,he does not conceal the fact that his type of man is one which is relatively superhuman--especially as opposed to the good man1 and that the good and the just would regard his superman as the devil4 ,ye higher men1 on whom my gaze now falls1 this is the doubt that ye wake in my breast1 and this is my secret laughter3 methinks ye would call my ,superman--the devil6 ,so strange are ye in your souls to all that is great1 that the ,superman would be terrible in your eyes for his goodness4 ,it is from this passage1 and from no other1 that you must set out to understand the goal to which ,zarathustra aspires--the kind of man that he conceives sees reality as it is2 he is strong enough for this--he is not estranged or far removed from it1 he is that reality himself1 in his own nature can be found all the terrible and questionable character of reality3 only thus can man have greatness4 #f ,but ,i have chosen the title of ,immoralist as a surname and as a badge of honour in yet another sense2 ,i am very proud to possess this name which distinguishes me from all the rest of mankind4 ,no one hitherto has felt ,christian morality beneath him2 to that end there were needed height1 a remoteness of vision1 and an abysmal psychological depth1 not believed to be possible hitherto4 ,up to the present ,christian morality has been the ,circe of all thinkers--they stood at her service4 ,what man1 before my time1 had descended into the underground caverns from out of which the poisonous fumes of this ideal--of this slandering of the world--burst forth8 ,what man had even dared to suppose that they were underground caverns8 ,was a single one of the philosophers who preceded me a psychologist at all1 and not the very reverse of a psychologist--that is to say1 a superior swindler1 an ,idealist8 ,before my time there was no psychology4 ,to be the first in this new realm may amount to a curse2 at all events1 it is a fatality3 for one is also the first to despise4 ,my danger is the loathing of mankind4 #g ,have you understood me8 ,that which defines me1 that which makes me stand apart from the whole of the rest of humanity1 is the fact that ,i unmasked ,christian morality4 ,for this reason ,i was in need of a word which conveyed the idea of a challenge to everybody4 ,not to have awakened to these discoveries before1 struck me as being the sign of the greatest uncleanliness that mankind has on its conscience1 as self-deception become instinctive1 as the fundamental will to be blind to every phenomenon1 all causality and all reality2 in fact1 as an almost criminal fraud in psychologicis4 ,blindness in regard to ,christianity is the essence of criminality--for it is the crime against life4 ,ages and peoples1 the first as well as the last1 philosophers and old women1 with the exception of five or six moments in history 7and of myself1 the seventh71 are all alike in this4 ,hitherto the ,christian has been the moral being1 a peerless oddity1 and1 as a moral being1 he was more absurd1 more vain1 more thoughtless1 and a greater disadvantage to himself1 than the greatest despiser of humanity could have deemed possible4 ,christian morality is the most malignant form of all false too the actual ,circe of humanity3 that which has corrupted mankind4 ,it is not error as error which infuriates me at the sight of this spectacle2 it is not the millenniums of absence of goodwill1 of discipline1 of decency1 and of bravery in spiritual things1 which betrays itself in the triumph of ,christianity2 it is rather the absence of nature1 it is the perfectly ghastly fact that anti-nature itself received the highest honours as morality and as law1 and remained suspended over man as the ,categorical ,imperative4 ,fancy blundering in this way1 not as an individual1 not as a people1 but as a whole species6 as humanity6 ,to teach the contempt of all the principal instincts of life2 to posit falsely the existence of a soul1 of a spirit1 in order to be able to defy the body2 to spread the feeling that there is something impure in the very first prerequisite of life--in sex2 to seek the principle of evil in the profound need of growth and expansion--that is to say1 in severe self-love 7the term itself is slanderous72 and conversely to see a higher moral value--but what am ,i talking about8--,i mean the moral value per se1 in the typical signs of decline1 in the antagonism of the instincts1 in selflessness1 in the loss of ballast1 in the suppression of the personal element1 and in love of one's neighbour 7neighbouritis674 ,what6 is humanity itself in a state of degeneration8 ,has it always been in this state8 ,one thing is certain1 that ye are taught only the values of decadence as the highest values4 ,the morality of self-renunciation is essentially the morality of degeneration2 the fact1 ,i am going to the dogs1 is translated into the imperative1 ,ye shall all go to the dogs--and not only into the imperative4 ,this morality of self-renunciation1 which is the only kind of morality that has been taught hitherto1 betrays the will to nonentity--it denies life to the very roots4 ,there still remains the possibility that it is not mankind that is in a state of degeneration1 but only that parasitical kind of man--the priest1 who1 by means of morality and lies1 has climbed up to his position of determinator of values1 who divined in ,christian morality his road to power4 ,and1 to tell the truth1 this is my opinion4 ,the teachers and ,i leaders of mankind--including the theologians--have been1 every one of them1 decadents3 hence their7 transvaluation of all values into a hostility towards2 life2 hence morality4 ,the definition of morality2 ,morality is the idiosyncrasy of decadents1 actuated by a desire to avenge themselves with success upon life4 ,i attach great value to this definition4 #h ,have you understood me8 ,i have not uttered a single word which ,i had not already said five years ago through my mouthpiece ,zarathustra4 ,the unmasking of ,christian morality is an event which unequalled in history1 it is a real catastrophe4 ,the man who throws light upon it is a force majeure1 a fatality2 he breaks the history of man into two4 ,time is reckoned up before him and after him4 ,the lightning flash of truth struck precisely that which theretofore had stood highest3 he who understands what was destroyed by that flash should look to see whether he still holds anything in his hands4 ,everything which until then was called truth1 has been revealed as the most detrimental1 most spiteful1 and most subterranean form of life2 the holy pretext1 which was the improvement of man1 has been recognised as a ruse for draining life of its energy and of its blood4 ,morality conceived as ,vampirism4444 ,the man who unmasks morality has also unmasked the worthlessness of the values in which men either believe or have believed2 he no longer sees anything to be revered in the most venerable man--even in the types of men that have been pronounced holy2 all he can see in them is the most fatal kind of abortions1 fatal1 because they fascinate4 ,the concept ,god was invented as the opposite of the concept life--everything detrimental1 poisonous1 and slanderous1 and all deadly hostility to life1 wad bound together in one horrible unit in ,him4 ,the concepts beyond and true world were invented in order to depreciate the only world that exists--in order that no goal or aim1 no sense or task1 might be left to earthly reality4 ,the concepts soul1 spirit1 and last of all the concept immortal soul1 were invented in order to throw contempt on the body1 in order to make it sick and holy1 in order to cultivate an attitude of appalling levity towards all things in life which deserve to be treated seriously1 i4e4 the questions of nutrition and habitation1 of intellectual diet1 the treatment of the sick1 cleanliness1 and weather4 ,instead of health1 we find the salvation of the soul--that is to say1 a folie circulate fluctuating between convulsions and penitence and the hysteria of redemption4 ,the concept sin1 together with the torture instrument appertaining to it1 which is the concept free will1 was invented in order to confuse and muddle our instincts1 and to render the mistrust of them man's second nature6 ,in the concepts disinterestedness and self-denial1 the actual signs of decadence are to be found4 ,the allurement of that which is detrimental1 the inability to discover one's own advantage and self-destruction1 are made into absolute qualities1 into the duty1 the holiness1 and the divinity of man4 ,finally--to keep the worst to the last--by the notion of the good man1 all that is favoured which is weak1 ill1 botched1 and sick-in-itself1 which ought to be wiped out4 ,the law of selection is thwarted1 an ideal is made out of opposition to the proud1 well-constituted man1 to him who says yea to life1 to him who is certain of the future1 and who guarantees the future--this man is henceforth called the evil one4 ,and all this was believed in as morality6--,ecrasez l'infme6 #i ,have you understood me8 ,dionysus versus ,christ4 ,footnote #a3 ,needless to say this is ,nietzsche1 and no longer the ,persian4--,,tr4 ,,editorial ,,note ,,to ,,poetry ,the editor begs to state that1 contrary to his announcement in the ,editorial ,note to ,the ,joyful ,wisdom1 in which he declared his intention of publishing all of ,nietzsche's poetry1 he has nevertheless withheld certain less important verses from publication4 ,this alteration in his plans is due to his belief that it is an injustice and an indiscretion on the part of posterity to surprise an author1 as it were1 in his nglig1 or1 in plain ,english1 in his shirt-sleeves4 ,authors generally are very sensitive on this point1 and rightly so3 a visit behind the scenes is not precisely to the advantage of the theatre1 and even finished pictures not yet framed are not readily shown by the careful artist4 ,as the ,german edition1 however1 contains nearly all that ,nietzsche left behind1 either in small notebooks or on scraps of paper1 the editor could not well suppress everything that was not prepared for publication by ,nietzsche himself1 more particularly as some of the verses are really very remarkable4 ,he has1 therefore1 made a very plentiful selection from the ,songs and ,epigrams1 nearly all of which are to be found translated here1 and from the ,fragments of the ,dionysus ,dithyrambs1 of which over half have been given4 ,all the complete ,dionysus ,dithyrambs appear in this volume1 save those which are duplicates of verses already translated in the ,fourth ,part of ,zarathustra4 ,these ,dionysus ,dithyrambs were prepared ready for press by ,nietzsche himself4 ,he wrote the final manuscript during the summer of #ahhh in ,sils ,maria2 their actual composition1 however1 belongs to an earlier date4 ,all the verses1 unless otherwise stated1 have been translated by ,mr4 ,paul ,victor ,cohn4 ,,songs1 ,,epigrams1 ,,etc4 ,,songs ,,to ,,melancholy#a ,o ,melancholy1 be not wroth with me ,that ,i this pen should point to praise thee only1 ,and in thy praise1 with head bowed to the knee1 ,squat like a hermit on a tree-stump lonely4 ,thus oft thou saw'st me1--yesterday1 at least1-- ,full in the morning sun and its hot beaming1 ,while1 visioning the carrion of his feast1 ,the hungry vulture valleyward flew screaming4 ,yet didst thou err1 foul bird1 albeit ,i1 ,so like a mummy 'gainst my log lay leaning6 ,thou couldst not see these eyes whose ecstasy ,rolled hither1 thither1 proud and overweening4 ,what though they did not soar unto thine height1 or reached those far-off1 cloud-reared precipices1 ,for that they sank the deeper so they might ,within themselves light ,destiny's abysses4 ,thus oft in sullenness perverse and free1 ,bent hideous like a savage at his altar1 ,there1 ,melancholy1 held ,i thought of thee1 ,a penitent1 though youthful1 with his psalter4 ,so crouched did ,i enjoy the vulture's span1 ,the thunder of the avalanche's paces1 ,thou spakest to me--nor wast false like man1 ,thou spakest1 but with stern and dreadful faces4 ,harsh goddess thou of ,nature wild and stark1 ,mistress1 that com'st with threats to daunt and quell me1 ,to point me out the vulture's airy are ,and laughing avalanches1 to repel me4 ,around us gnashing pants the lust to kill1 ,the torment to win life in all its changes2 ,alluring on some cliff1 abrupt and chill1 ,some flower craves the butterfly that ranges4 ,all this am ,i--shuddering ,i feel it all-- ,o butterfly beguiled1 ,o lonely flower1 ,the vulture and the ice-pent waterfall1 ,the moaning storm--all symbols of thy power1-- ,thou goddess grim before whom deeply bowed1 ,with head on knee1 my lips with pans bursting1 ,i lift a dreadful song and cry aloud ,for ,life1 for ,life1 for ,life--forever thirsting6 ,o vengeful goddess1 be not wroth1 ,i ask1 ,that ,i to mesh thee in my rhymes have striven4 ,he trembles who beholds thine awful mask2 ,he quails to whom thy dread right hand is given4 ,song upon trembling song by starts and fits ,i chant1 in rhythm all my thought unfolding1 ,the black ink flows1 the pointed goose-quill spits1 ,o goddess1 goddess--leave me to my scolding6 ,,after ,a ,,night ,,storm#b ,to-day in misty veils thou hangest dimly1 ,gloomy goddess1 o'er my window-pane4 ,grimly whirl the pallid snow-flakes1 grimly ,roars the swollen brook unto the plain4 ,ah1 by light of haggard levins glaring1 ',neath the untamed thunder's roar and roll1 ',midst the valley's murk wast thou preparing-- ,sorceress6 thy dank and poisoned bowl4 ,shuddering1 ,i heard through midnight breaking ,raptures of thy voice--and howls of pain4 ,saw thy bright orbs gleam1 thy right hand shaking ,with the mace of thunder hurled amain4 ,near my dreary couch ,i heard the crashes ,of thine armoured steps1 heard weapons slam1 ,heard thy brazen chain strike 'gainst the sashes1 ,and thy voice3 ,come6 hearken who ,i am6 ,the immortal ,amazon they call me2 ,all things weak and womanish ,i shun2 ,manly scorn and hate in war enthral me2 ,victress ,i and tigress all in one6 ,where ,i tread there corpses fall before me2 ,from mine eyes the furious torches fly1 ,and my brain thinks poisons4 ,bend1 adore me6 ,worm of ,earth and ,will o' ,wisp--or die6 ,,hymns ,,to ,,friendship 7,two ,fragments7 #a ,goddess ,friendship1 deign to hear the song ,that we sing in friendship's honour6 ,where the eye of friendship glances1 ,filled with all the joy of friendship ,come thou nigh to aid me1 ,rosy dawn in thy gaze and ,in holy hand the faithful pledge of youth eternal4 #b ,morning's past3 the sun of noonday ,scorches with hot ray our heads4 ,let us sit beneath the arbour ,singing songs in praise of friendship4 ,friendship was our life's red dawning1 ,and its sunset red shall be4 ,,the ,,wanderer#c ,all through the night a wanderer walks ,sturdy of stride1 ,with winding vale and sloping height ,e'er at his side4 ,fair is the night3 ,on1 on he strides1 nor slackens speed1 ,and knows not where his path will lead4 ,a bird's song in the night is heard1 ,ah me1 what hast thou done1 ,o bird1 ,how dost thou grip my sense and feet ,and pourest heart-vexation sweet ,into mine ear--,i must remain1 ,to hearken fain3 ,why lure me with inviting strain8 ,the good bird speaks1 staying his song3 ,i lure not thee1--no1 thou art wrong-- ,with these my trills ,i lure my mate from off the hills-- ,nor heed thy plight4 ,to me alone the night's not fair4 ,what's that to thee8 ,forth must thou fare1 ,on1 onward ever1 resting ne'er4 ,why stand'st thou now8 ,what has my piping done to thee1 ,thou roaming wight8 ,the good bird pondered1 silent quite1 ,why doth my piping change his plight8 ,why stands he now1 ,that luckless1 luckless1 roaming wight8 ,,to ,,the ,,glacier ,at noontide hour1 when first1 ,into the mountains ,summer treads1 ,summer1 the boy with eyes so hot and weary1 ,then too he speaks1 ,yet we can only see his speech4 ,his breath is panting1 like the sick man's breath ,on fevered couch4 ,the glacier and the fir tree and the spring ,answer his call --,yet we their answer only see4 ,for faster from the rock leaps down ,the torrent stream1 as though to greet1 ,and stands1 like a white column trembling1 ,all yearning there4 ,and darker yet and truer looks the fir-tree ,than e'er before4 ,and 'twixt the ice-mass and the cold grey stone ,a sudden light breaks forth-- ,such light ,i once beheld1 and marked the sign4 ,even the dead man's eye ,surely once more grows light1 ,when1 sorrowful1 his child ,gives him embrace and kiss3 ,surely once more the flame of light ,wells out1 and glowing into life ,the dead eye speaks3 ,my child6 ,ah child1 you know ,i love you true6 ,so all things glow and speak--the glacier speaks1 ,the brook1 the fir1 ,speak with their glance the selfsame words3 ,we love you true1 ,ah1 child1 you know we love you1 love you true6 ,and he1 ,summer1 the boy with eyes so hot and weary1 ,woe-worn1 gives kisses ,more ardent ever1 ,and will not go3 ,but like to veils he blows his words ,from out his lips1 ,his cruel words3 ,my greeting's parting1 ,my coming going1 ,in youth ,i die4 ,all round they hearken ,and scarcely breathe 7,no songster sings71 ,and shuddering run ,like gleaming ray ,over the mountain2 ,all round they ponder1-- ,nor speak-- ,twas at the noon1 ,at noontide hour1 when first ,into the mountains ,summer treads1 ,summer1 the boy with eyes so hot and weary4 ,,autumn#d ',tis ,autumn3--,autumn yet shall break thy heart6 ,fly away6 fly away6-- ,the sun creeps 'gainst the hill ,and climbs and climbs ,and rests at every step4 ,how faded grew the world6 ,on weary1 slackened strings the wind ,playeth his tune4 ,fair ,hope fled far-- ,he waileth after4 ',tis ,autumn3--,autumn yet shall break thy heart6 ,fly away6 fly away6 ,o fruit of the tree1 ,thou tremblest1 fallest8 ,what secret whispered unto thee ,the ,night1 ,that icy shudders deck thy cheek1 ,thy cheek of purple hue8 ,silent art thou1 nor dost reply-- ,who speaketh still8-- ',tis ,autumn3--,autumn yet shall break thy heart6 ,fly away6 fly away6-- ,i am not fair1-- ,so speaks the lone star-flower1-- ,yet men ,i love ,and comfort men-- ,many flowers shall they behold1 ,and stoop to me1 ,and break me1 ah6-- ,so that within their eyes shall gleam ,remembrance swift1 ,remembrance of far fairer things than ,i3-- ,i see it--see it--and ,i perish so4 ',tis ,autumn3--,autumn yet shall break thy heart6 ,fly away6 fly away6 ,,campo ,,santo ,,di ,,staglieno#e ,maiden1 in gentle wise ,you stroke your lamb's soft fleece1 ,yet flashing from your eyes ,both light and flame ne'er cease4 ,creature of merry jest ,and favourite near and far1 ,pious with kindness blest1 ,amorosissima6 ,what broke so soon the chain1 ,what does your heart deplore8 ,and who1 pray1 would not fain1 ,if you loved him1 adore8-- ,you're mute1 but from your eye1 ,the tear-drop is not far1 ,you're mute3 you'll yearn and die1 ,amorosissima8 ,,the ,,little ,,brig ,,named ,,little ,,angel#f ,little ,angel call they me6-- ,now a ship1 but once a girl1 ,ah1 and still too much a girl6 ,my steering-wheel1 so bright to see1 ,but for sake of love doth whirl4 ,little ,angel call they me1 ,with hundred flags to ornament1 ,a captain smart1 on glory bent1 ,steers me1 puffed with vanity 7,he himself's an ornament74 ,little ,angel call they me1 ,and where'er a little flame ,gleams for me1 ,i1 like a lamb1 ,go my journey eagerly 7,i was always such a lamb674 ,little ,angel call they me-- ,think you ,i can bark and whine ,like a dog1 this mouth of mine ,throwing smoke and flame full free8 ,ah1 a devil's mouth is mine4 ,little ,angel call they me-- ,once ,i spoke a bitter word1 ,that my lover1 when he heard1 ,fast and far away did flee3 ,yes1 ,i killed him with that word6 ,little ,angel call they me3 ,hardly heard1 ,i sprang so glib ,from the cliff and broke a rib3 ,from my frame my soul went free1 ,yes1 escaped me through that rib4 ,little ,angel call they me-- ,then my soul1 like cat in flight ,straight did on this ship alight ,swiftly bounding--one1 two1 three6 ,yes1 its claws are swift to smite4 ,little ,angel call they me6-- ,now a ship1 but once a girl1 ,ah1 and still too much a girl6 ,my steering-wheel1 so bright to see1 ,for sake of love alone doth whirl4 ,,maiden',s ,,song ,yesterday with seventeen years ,wisdom reached ,i1 a maiden fair1 ,i am grey-haired1 it appears1 ,now in all things--save my hair4 ,yesterday1 ,i had a thought1 ,was't a thought8--you laugh and scorn6 ,did you ever have a thought8 ,rather was a feeling born4 ,dare a woman think8 ,this screed ,wisdom long ago begot3 ,follow woman must1 not lead2 ,if she thinks1 she follows not4 ,wisdom speaks--,i credit naught3 ,rather hops and stings like flea3 ,woman seldom harbours thought2 ,if she thinks1 no good is she6 ,to this wisdom1 old1 renowned1 ,bow ,i in deep reverence3 ,now my wisdom ,i'll expound ,in its very quintessence4 ,a voice spoke in me yesterday ,as ever--listen if you can3 ,woman is more beauteous aye1 ,but more interesting--man6 ,,pia1 ,,caritatevole1 ,,amorosissima#g ,cave where the dead ones rest1 ,o marble falsehood1 thee ,i love3 for easy jest ,my soul thou settest free4 ,to-day1 to-day alone1 ,my soul to tears is stirred1 ,at thee1 the pictured stone1 ,at thee1 the graven word4 ,this picture 7none need wis7 ,i kissed the other day4 ,when there's so much to kiss ,why did ,i kiss the--clay8 ,who knows the reason why8 ,a tombstone fool6 you laugh3 ,i kissed--,i'll not deny-- ,e'en the long epitaph4 ,,to ,,friendship ,hail to thee1 ,friendship6 ,my hope consummate1 ,my first red daybreak6 ,alas1 so endless ,oft path and night seemed1 ,and life's long road ,aimless and hateful6 ,now life ,i'd double ,in thine eyes seeing ,dawn-glory1 triumph1 ,most gracious goddess6 ,,pine ,,tree ,,and ,,lightning ,o'er man and beast ,i grew so high1 ,and speak--but none will give reply4 ,too lone and tall my crest did soar3 ,i wait3 what am ,i waiting for8 ,the clouds are grown too nigh of late1 ',tis the first lightning ,i await4 ,,tree ,,in ,,autumn ,why did ye1 blockheads1 me awaken ,while ,i in blissful blindness stood8 ,ne'er ,i by fear more fell was shaken-- ,vanished my golden dreaming mood4 ,bear-elephants1 with trunks all greedy1 ,knock first6 ,where have your manners fled8 ,i threw--and fear has made me speedy-- ,dishes of ripe fruit--at your head4 ,,among ,,foes 7,,or ,,against ,,critics7 7,after a ,gipsy ,proverb7 ,here the gallows1 there the cord1 ,and the hangman's ruddy beard4 ,round1 the venom-glancing horde3-- ,nothing new to me's appeared4 ,many times ,i've seen the sight1 ,now laughing in your face ,i cry1 ,hanging me is useless quite3 ,die8 ,nay1 nay1 ,i cannot die6 ,beggars all6 ,ye envy me ,winning what ye never won6 ,true1 ,i suffer agony1 ,but for you--your life is done4 ,many times ,i've faced death's plight1 ,yet steam and light and breath am ,i4 ,hanging me is useless quite3 ,die8 ,nay1 nay1 ,i cannot die6 ,,the ,,new ,,columbus#h ,dearest1 said ,columbus1 never ,trust a ,genoese again4 ,at the blue he gazes ever1 ,distance doth his soul enchain4 ,strangeness is to me too dear-- ,genoa has sunk and passed-- ,heart1 be cool6 ,hand1 firmly steer6 ,sea before me3 land--at last8 ,firmly let us plant our feet1 ,ne'er can we give up this game-- ,from the distance what doth greet8 ,one death1 one happiness1 one fame4 ,,in ,,lonesomeness#i ,the cawing crows ,townwards on whirring pinions roam2 ,soon come the snows-- ,thrice happy now who hath a home6 ,fast-rooted there1 ,thou gazest backwards--oh1 how long6 ,thou fool1 why dare ,ere winter come1 this world of wrong8 ,this world--a gate ,to myriad deserts dumb and hoar6 ,who lost through fate ,what thou hast lost1 shall rest no more4 ,now stand'st thou pale1 ,a frozen pilgrimage thy doom1 ,like smoke whose trail ,cold and still colder skies consume4 ,fly1 bird1 and screech1 ,like desert-fowl1 thy song apart6 ,hide out of reach1 ,fool6 in grim ice thy bleeding heart4 ,firmly let us plant our feet1 ,ne'er can we give up this game-- ,from the distance what doth greet8 ,one death1 one happiness1 one fame4 ,the cawing crows ,townwards on whirring pinions roam3 ,soon come the snows-- ,woe unto him who hath no home6 ,my ,answer ,the man presumes-- ,good ,lord6--to think that ,i'd return ,to those warm rooms ,where snug the ,german ovens burn ,my friend1 you see ',tis but thy folly drives me far1-- ,pity for thee ,and all that ,german blockheads are6 ,,venice ,,on the bridge ,i stood1 ,mellow was the night1 ,music came from far-- ,drops of gold outpoured ,on the shimmering waves4 ,song1 gondolas1 light1 ,floated a-twinkling out into the dusk4 ,the chords of my soul1 moved ,by unseen impulse1 throbbed ,secretly into a gondola song1 ,with thrills of bright-hued ecstasy4 ,had ,i a listener there8 ,footnote #a3 ,translated by ,herman ,scheffauer4 ,footnote #b3 ,translated by ,herman ,scheffauer4 ,footnote #c3 ,this poem was written on the betrothal of one of ,nietzsche's ,ble friends4--,,tr4 ,footnote #d3 ,translated by ,herman ,scheffauer4 ,footnote #e3 ,campo ,santo di ,staglieno is the cemetery of ,staglieno1 near ,genoa4 ,the poem was inspired by the sight of a girl with a lamb on the tombstone1 with the words underneath-- ,pia1 caritatevole1 amorosissima4 ,footnote #f3 ,published by ,nietzsche himself4 ,the poem was inspired by a ship that was christened ,angiolina1 in memory of a love-sick girl who leapt into the sea4--,,tr4 ,footnote #g3 ,see above1 p4 #aeg4 ,both poems were inspired by the same tombstone4--,,tr4 ,footnote #h3 ,the ,genoese is ,nietzsche himself1 who lived a great part of his life at ,genoa4--,,tr4 ,footnote #i3 ,translated by ,herman ,scheffauer4 ,,epigrams ,,caution3 ,,poison6#a ,he who cannot laugh at this had better not start reading2 ,for if he read and do not laugh1 physic he'll be needing6 ,,how ,,to ,,find ,,one',s ,,company ,with jesters it is good to jest3 ,who likes to tickle1 is tickled best4 ,,the ,,word ,i dearly love the living word1 ,that flies to you like a merry bird1 ,ready with pleasant nod to greet1 ,e'en in misfortune welcome1 sweet1 ,yet it has blood1 can pant you deep3 ,then to the dove's ear it will creep3 ,and curl itself1 or start for flight-- ,whate'er it does1 it brings delight4 ,yet tender doth the word remain1 ,soon it is ill1 soon well again3 ,so if its little life you'd spare1 ,o grasp it lightly and with care1 ,nor heavy hand upon it lay1 ,for e'en a cruel glance would slay6 ,there it would lie1 unsouled1 poor thing6 ,all stark1 all formless1 and all cold1 ,its little body changed and battered1 ,by death and dying rudely shattered4 ,a dead word is a hateful thing1 ,a barren1 rattling1 ting-ting-ting4 ,a curse on ugly trades ,i cry ,that doom all little words to die6 ,,the ,,wanderer ,,and ,,his ,,shadow ,a ,book ,you'll ne'er go on nor yet go back8 ,is e'en for chamois here no track8 ,so here ,i wait and firmly clasp ,what eye and hand will let me grasp6 ,five-foot-broad ledge1 red morning's breath1 ,and under me--world1 man1 and death6 ,,joyful ,,wisdom ,this is no book--for such1 who looks8 ,coffins and shrouds1 naught else1 are books6 ,what's dead and gone they make their prey1 ,yet in my book lives fresh ,to-day4 ,this is no book--for such1 who looks8 ,who cares for coffins1 shrouds1 and spooks8 ,this is a promise1 an act of will1 ,a last bridge-breaking1 for good or ill2 ,a wind from sea1 an anchor light1 ,a whirr of wheels1 a steering right4 ,the cannon roars1 white smokes its flame1 ,the sea--the monster--laughs and scents its game4 ,,dedication#b ,he who has much to tell1 keeps much ,silent and unavowed4 ,he who with lightning-flash would touch ,must long remain a cloud6 ,,the ,,new ,,testament#c ,is this your ,book of ,sacred ,lore1 ,for blessing1 cursing1 and such uses8-- ,come1 come now3 at the very door ,god some one else's wife seduces8 ,,the ,,true ,,german ,o ,peuple des meillures ,tartuffes1 ,to you ,i'm true1 ,i wis4 ,he spoke1 but in the swiftest skiff ,went to ,cosmopolis4 ,,to ,,the ,,darwinians#d ,a fool this honest ,britisher ,was not 444 ,but a ,philosopher6 ,as that you really rate him8 ,set ,darwin up by ,goethe's side8 ,but majesty you thus deride-- ,genii majestatem6 ,to ,,hafiz 7,toast ,question of a ,water-,drinker7 ,what you have builded1 yonder inn1 ,o'ertops all houses high3 ,the posset you have brewed therein ,the world will ne'er drink dry4 ,the bird that once appeared on earth ,as phnix1 is your1 guest4 ,the mouse that gave a mountain birth ,is you yourself confessed6 ,you're all and naught1 you're inn and wine1 ,you're phnix1 mountain1 mouse4 ,back to yourself to come you pine ,or fly from out your house4 ,downward from every height you've sunk1 ,and in the depths still shine3 ,the drunkenness of all the drunk1 ,why do you ask for--wine8 ,,to ,,spinoza ,of ,all in ,one a fervent devotee ,amore ,dei1 of reasoned piety1 ,doff shoes6 ,a land thrice holy this must be6-- ,yet underneath this love there sate ,a torch of vengeance1 burning secretly ,the ,hebrew ,god was gnawed by ,hebrew hate4 ,hermit6 ,do ,i aright interpret thee8 ,,arthur ,,schopenhauer ,that which he taught1 has had its day1 ,that which he lived1 shall live for aye3 ,look at the man6 ,no bondsman he6 ,nor e'er to mortal bowed his knee6 ,,to ,,richard ,,wagner ,o ,you who chafe at every fetter's link1 ,a restless spirit1 never free3 ,who1 though victorious aye1 in bonds still cowered1 ,disgusted more and more1 and flayed and scoured1 ,till from each cup of balm you poison drink1 ,alas6 and by the ,cross all helpless sink1 ,you too1 you too1 among the overpowered6 ,for long ,i watched this play so weirdly shaped1 ,breathing an air of prison1 vault1 and dread1 ,with churchly fragrance1 clouds of incense spread1 ,and yet ,i found all strange_/in terror gaped4 ,but now ,i throw my fool's cap o'er my head1 ,for ,i escaped6 ,,music ,,of ,,the ,,south#e ,all that my eagle e'er saw clear1 ,i see and feel in heart to-day 7,although my hope was wan and gray7 ,thy song like arrow pierced mine ear1 ,a balm to touch1 a balm to hear1 ,as down from heaven it winged its way4 ,so now for lands of southern fire ,to happy isles where ,grecian nymphs hold sport6 ,thither now turn the ship's desire-- ,no ship e'er sped to fairer port4 ,a ,,riddle ,a riddle here--can you the answer scent8 ,when man discovers1 woman must invent4---- ,,to ,,false ,,friends ,you stole1 your eye's not clear to-day4 ,you only stole a thought1 sir8 nay1 ,why be so rudely modest1 pray8 ,here1 take another handful--stay1 ,take all ,i have1 you swine--you may ,eat till your filth is purged away4 ,,friend ,,yorick ,be of good cheer1 ,friend ,yorick6 ,if this thought gives pain1 ,as now it does1 ,i fear1 ,is it not ,god8 ,and though in error lain1 ',tis but your own dear child1 ,your flesh and blood1 ,that tortures you and gives you pain1 ,your little rogue and do-no-good1 ,see if the rod will change its mood6 ,in brief1 friend ,yorick1 leave that drear ,philosophy--and let me now ,whisper one word as medicine1 ,my own prescription1 in your ear1 ,my remedy against such spleen-- ,who loves his ,god1 chastises him1 ,i ween1 ,,resolution ,i should be wise to suit my mood1 ,not at the beck of other men3 ,god made as stupid as he could ,the world--well1 let me praise him then4 ,and if ,i make not straight my track1 ,but1 far as may be1 wind and bend1 ,that's how the sage begins his tack1 ,and that is how the fool will--end4 99 99 99 99 99 ,the world stands never still1 ,night loves the glowing day-- ,sweet sounds to ear ,i will6 ,and sweeter still ,i may6 ,,the ,,halcyonian#f ,addressing me most bashfully1 ,a woman to-day said this3 ,what would you be like in ecstasy1 ,if sober you feel such bliss8 ,,finale#f ,laughter is a serious art4 ,i would do it better daily4 ,did ,i well to-day or no8 ,came the spark right from the heart8 ,little use though head wag gaily1 ,if the heart contain no glow4 ,footnote #a3 ,translated by ,francis ,bickley4 ,footnote #b3 ,on the title-page of a copy of ,joyful ,wisdom1 dedicated to ,herr ,august ,bungal4--,,tr4 ,footnote #c3 ,translated by ,francis ,bickley4 ,footnote #d3 ,translated by ,francis ,bickley4 ,footnote #e3 ,probably written for ,peter ,gast1 ,nietzsche's faithful friend1 and a musician whose ,southern music ,nietzsche admired4--,,tr4 ,footnote #f3 ,translated by ,francis ,bickley4 ,,dionysus-,,dithyrambs 7#ahhh7 ,these are the songs of ,zarathustra which he sang to himself so as to endure his last solitude4 ,,of ,,the ,,poverty ,,of ,,the ,,richest ,ten years passed by-- ,not a drop reached me1 ,no rain-fraught wind1 no dew of love --,a rainless land4444 ,now entreat ,i my wisdom ,not to become stingy in this drought2 ,overflow thyself1 trickle thy dew1 ,be thyself the rain of the parched wilderness6 ,i once bade the clouds ,depart from my mountains2 ,once ,i said to them1 ,more light1 ye dark ones6 ,to-day ,i entice them to come3 ,make me dark with your udders3 --,i would milk you1 ,ye cows of the heights6 ,milk-warm wisdom1 sweet dew of love ,i pour over the land4 ,away1 away1 ye truths ,that look so gloomy6 ,i will not have on my mountains ,bitter1 impatient truths4 ,may truth approach me to-day ,gilded by smiles1 ,sweetened by the sun1 browned by love1-- ,a ripe truth ,i would fain break off from the tree4 ,to-day ,i stretch my hands ,toward the tresses of chance1 ,wise enough to lead1 ,to outwit chance like a child4 ,to-day ,i will be hospitable ',gainst the unwelcome1 ',gainst destiny itself ,i will not be prickly4444 --,zarathustra is no hedgehog4 ,my soul1 ,insatiable with its tongue1 ,has already tasted of all things good and evil1 ,and has dived into all depths4 ,but ever1 like the cork1 ,it swims to the surface again1 ,and floats like oil upon brown seas3 ,because of this soul men call me fortunate4 ,who are my father and mother8 ,is not my father ,prince ,plenty8 ,and my mother ,silent ,laughter8 ,did not the union of these two ,beget me1 the enigmatic beast-- ,me1 the monster of light-- ,me1 ,zarathustra1 the squanderer of all wisdom8 ,sick to-day from tenderness1 ,a dewy wind1 ,zarathustra sits waiting1 waiting on his mountains-- ,sweet and stewing ,in his own juice1 ,beneath his own summit1 ,beneath his ice1 ,weary and happy1 ,a ,creator on his seventh day4 --,silence6 ,a truth passes over me ,like a cloud1-- ,with invisible lightnings it strikes me1 ,on broad1 slow stairs1 ,its happiness climbs to me3 ,come1 come1 beloved truth6 --,silence6 ',tis my truth6 ,from timid eyes1 ,from velvet shudders1 ,her glance meets mine1 ,sweet and wicked1 a maiden's glance4 ,she has guessed the reason of my happiness1 ,she has guessed me--ha6 what is she thinking8 ,a purple dragon ,lurks in the abyss of her maiden's glance4 --,silence6 ,my truth is speaking6-- ,woe to thee1 ,zarathustra6 ,thou lookest like one ,that hath swallowed gold3 ,they will slit up thy belly yet6 ,thou art too rich1 ,thou corrupter of many6 ,thou makest too many jealous1 ,too many poor4444 ,even on me thy light casts a shadow-- ,i feel chill3 go away1 thou rich one ,go away1 ,zarathustra1 from the path of thy sun ,,between ,,birds ,,of ,,prey ,who would here descend1 ,how soon ,is he swallowed up by the depths6 ,but thou1 ,zarathustra1 ,still lovest the abysses1 ,lovest them as doth the fir tree6 ,the fir flings its roots ,where the rock itself gazes ,shuddering at the depths1-- ,the fir pauses before the abysses ,where all around ,would fain descend3 ,amid the impatience ,of wild1 rolling1 leaping torrents ,it waits so patient1 stern and silent1 ,lonely4444 ,lonely6 ,who would venture ,here to be guest-- ,to be thy guest8 ,a bird of prey1 perchance ,joyous at others' misfortune1 ,will cling persistent ,to the hair of the steadfast watcher1 ,with frenzied laughter1 ,a vulture's laughter4444 ,wherefore so steadfast8 --,mocks he so cruel3 ,he must have wings1 who loves the abyss1 ,he must not stay on the cliff1 ,as thou who hangest there6-- ,o ,zarathustra1 ,cruellest ,nimrod6 ,of late still a hunter of ,god1 ,a spider's web to capture virtue1 ,an arrow of evil6 ,now ,hunted by thyself1 ,thine own prey ,caught in the grip of thine own soul4 ,now ,lonely to me and thee1 ,twofold in thine own knowledge1 ,mid a hundred mirrors ,false to thyself1 ,mid a hundred memories ,uncertain1 ,weary at every wound1 ,shivering at every frost1 ,throttled in thine own noose1 ,self-knower6 ,self-hangman6 ,why didst bind thyself ,with the noose of thy wisdom8 ,why luredst thyself ,into the old serpent's paradise8 ,why stolest into ,thyself1 thyself8444 ,a sick man now1 ,sick of serpent's poison1 ,a captive now ,who hast drawn the hardest lot3 ,in thine own shaft ,bowed as thou workest1 ,in thine own cavern ,digging at thyself1 ,helpless quite1 ,stiff1 ,a cold corse ,overwhelmed with a hundred burdens1 ,overburdened by thyself1 ,a knower6 ,a self-knower6 ,the wise ,zarathustra6444 ,thou soughtest the heaviest burden1 ,so foundest thou thyself1 ,and canst not shake thyself off4444 ,watching1 ,chewing1 ,one that stands upright no more6 ,thou wilt grow deformed even in thy grave1 ,deformed spirit6 ,and of late still so proud ,on all the stilts of thy pride6 ,of late still the godless hermit1 ,the hermit with one comrade--the devil1 ,the scarlet prince of every devilment6444 ,now-- ,between two nothings ,huddled up1 ,a question-mark1 ,a weary riddle1 ,a riddle for vultures4444 ,they will solve thee1 ,they hunger already for thy solution1 ,they flutter already about their riddle1 ,about thee1 the doomed one6 ,o ,zarathustra1 ,self-knower6 ,self-hangman6 ,,the ,,sun ,,sinks ,i ,not much longer thirstest thou1 ,o burnt-up heart6 ,promise is in the air1 ,from unknown mouths ,i feel a breath1 --,the great coolness comes4444 ,my sun stood hot above me at noonday3 ,a greeting to you that are coming1 ,ye sudden winds1 ,ye cool spirits of afternoon6 ,the air is strange and pure4 ,see how the night ,leers at me with eyes askance1 ,like a seducer6444 ,be strong1 my brave heart1 ,and ask not ,why8 #b ,the day of my life6 ,the sun sinks1 ,and the calm flood ,already is gilded4 ,warm breathes the rock3 ,did happiness at noonday ,take its siesta well upon it8 ,in green light ,happiness still glimmers up from the brown abyss ,day of my life6 ,eventide's nigh1 ,thy eye already ,glows half-broken1 ,thy dew already ,pours out its tear-drops1 ,already over the white seas ,walks the purple of thy love1 ,thy last hesitating holiness4444 #c ,golden gaiety1 come6 ,thou1 the sweetest foretaste-- ,foretaste of death6 --,went ,i my way too swiftly8 ,now that the foot grows weary1 ,thine eye still catches me1 ,thy happiness still catches me4 ,around but waves and play4 ,whatever was hard --,sank into blue oblivion4 ,my boat now stands idle4 ,storm and motion--how did it forget them6 ,desire and ,hope are drowned1 ,sea and soul are becalmed4 ,seventh ,solitude6 ,never felt6 ,sweet certainty nearer1 ,or warmer the sun's ray4 --,glows not the ice of my summit yet8 ,silvery1 light1 a fish ,now my vessel swims out4444 ,,the ,,last ,,desire#a ,so would ,i die ,as then ,i saw him die1 ,the friend1 who like a god ,into my darkling youth ,threw lightning's light and fire3 ,buoyant yet deep was he1 ,yea1 in the battle's strife ,with the gay dancer's heart4 ,amid the warriors ,his was the lightest heart1 ,amid the conquerors ,his brow was dark with thought-- ,he was a fate poised on his destiny3 ,unbending1 casting thought into the past ,and future1 such was he4 ,fearful beneath the weight of victory1 ,yet chanting1 as both victory and death ,came hand and hand to him4 ,commanding even as he lay in death1 ,and his command that man annihilate4 ,so would ,i die ,as then ,i saw him die1 ,victorious and destroying4 ,,the ,,beacon ,here1 where the island grew amid the seas1 ,a sacrificial rock high-towering1 ,here under darkling heavens1 ,zarathustra lights his mountain-fires1 ,a beacon for ships that have strayed1 ,a beacon for them that have an answer6444 ,these flames with grey-white belly1 ,in cold distances sparkle their desire1 ,stretches its neck towards ever purer heights-- ,a snake upreared in impatience3 ,this signal ,i set up there before me4 ,this flame is mine own soul1 ,insatiable for new distances1 ,speeding upward1 upward its silent heat4 ,why flew ,zarathustra from beasts and men8 ,why fled he swift from all continents8 ,six solitudes he knows already-- ,but even the sea was not lonely enough for him1 ,on the island he could climb1 on the mount he became flame1 ,at the seventh solitude ,he casts a fishing-rod far o'er his head4 ,storm-tossed seamen6 ,wreckage of ancient stars ,ye seas of the future6 ,uncompassed heavens6 ,at all lonely ones ,i now throw my fishing-rod4 ,give answer to the flame's impatience1 ,let me1 the fisher on high mountains1 ,catch my seventh1 last solitude6---- ,,fame ,,and ,,eternity#b ,i ,speak1 tell me1 how long wilt thou brood ,upon this adverse fate of thine8 ,beware1 lest from thy doleful mood ,a countenance #ij dark is brewed ,that men in seeing thee divine ,a hate more bitter than the brine4 99 99 99 99 ,speak1 why does ,zarathustra roam ,upon the towering mountain-height8 ,distrustful1 cankered1 dour1 his home ,is shut so long from human sight8 99 99 99 99 ,see1 suddenly flames forth a lightning-flash1 ,the pit profound with thunderous challenge fights ,against the heavens1 midst clamorous crack and crash ,of the great mountain6 ,cradled in the heights1 ,born as the fruit of hate and lightning's love1 ,the wrath of ,zarathustra dwells above ,and looms with menace of a thundercloud4 99 99 99 99 ,ye1 who have roofs1 go quickly1 creep and hide6 ,to bed1 ye tenderlings6 ,for thunders loud ,upon the blasts of storm triumphant ride1 ,and bastions and ramparts sway and rock1 ,the lightning sears the dusky face of night1 ,and eerie truths like gleams of ,hades mock ,the sense familiar4 ,so in storm breaks forth ,the flaming curse of ,zarathustra's wrath4 #b ,this fame1 which all the wide world loves1 ,i touch with gloves1 ,and scorning beat ,beneath my feet4 99 99 99 99 ,who hanker after the pay of it8 ,who cast themselves in the way of it8 ,these prostitutes to gold1 ,these merchant folk4 ,they fold ,their unctuous palms over the jingling fame1 ,whose ringing chink wins all the world's acclaim4 99 99 99 99 ,hast thou the lust to buy8 ,it needs no skill4 ,they are all venal4 ,let thy purse be deep1 ,and let their greedy paws unhindered creep ,into its depths4 ,so let them take their fill1 ,for if thou dost not offer them enough1 ,their virtue they'll parade1 to hide their huff4 99 99 99 99 ,they are all virtuous1 yea every one4 ,virtue and fame are ever in accord ,so long as time doth run1 ,the tongues that prate of virtue as reward ,earn fame4 ,for virtue is fame's clever bawd4 99 99 99 99 ,amongst these virtuous1 ,i prefer to be ,one guilty of all vile and horrid sin6 ,and when ,i see fame's importunity ,so advertise her shameless harlotry1 ,ambition turns to gall4 ,amidst such kin ,one place alone1 the lowest1 would ,i win4 99 99 99 99 ,this fame1 which all the wide world loves1 ,i touch with gloves1 ,and scorning beat ,beneath my feet4 #c ,hush6 ,i see vastness6--and of vasty things ,shall man be dumb1 unless he can enshrine ,them with his words8 ,then take the might which brings ,the heart upon thy tongue1 charmed wisdom mine6 99 99 99 99 ,i look above1 there rolls the star-strown sea4 ,o night1 mute silence1 voiceless cry of stars6 ,and lo6 ,a sign6 ,the heaven its verge unbars-- ,a shining constellation falls towards me4 #d ,o loftiest1 star-clustered crown of ,being6 ,o carved tablets of ,eternity6 ,and dost thou truly bend thy way to me8 ,thy loveliness1 to all--obscurity1 ,what8 ,fear'st not to unveil before my seeing8 99 99 99 99 ,o shield of ,destiny6 ,o carven tablets of ,eternity6 ,yea1 verily1 thou knowest--what mankind doth hate1 ,what ,i alone do love3 thou art inviolate ,to strokes of change and time1 of fates the fate6 ',tis only thou1 ,o dire ,necessity1 ,canst kindle everlasting love in me6 99 99 99 99 ,o loftiest crown of ,life6 ,o shield of ,fate6 ,that no desire can reach to invocate1 ,that ne'er defiled or sullied is by ,nay1 ,eternal ,yea of life1 for e'er am ,i thy ,yea3 ,for ,i love thee1 ,eternity6 ,footnote #a3 ,translated by ,dr4 ,g4 ,t4 ,wrench4 ,footnote #b3 ,translated by ,dr4 ,g4 ,t4 ,wrench4 ,,fragments ,,of ,,dionysus-,,dithyrambs 7#ahhb-hh7 ,,speeches1 ,,parables1 ,,and ,,similes #c ,my home's in the highlands1 ,for the highlands ,i yearn not1 ,i raise not mine eyes aloft3 ,i am one that looks downward1 ,one that must bless1--,all blessers look downward4 #aa ,thus ,i began1 ,i unlearned all self-pity6 #ac ,not in shattering idols1 ,but in shattering the idol-worshipper in thee1 ,consisted thy valour4 #ad ,see1 there stand ,those heavy cats of granite1 ,those old1 old ,values4 ,woe is me6 ,how overthrow them8 99 99 99 99 ,scratching cats1 ,with paws that are fettered1 ,there they sit ,and their glance is poison4 #ag ,a lightning-flash became my wisdom3 ,with sword of adamant it clove me every darkness6 #ai ,a thought that still ,flows hot1 like lava3 ,but all streams of lava ,build a fortress around them1 ,and every thought finally ,oppresses itself with laws4 #bj ,such is my will3 ,and since 'tis my will1 ,all goes as ,i wish-- ,that was my final wisdom3 ,i willed what ,i must1 ,and thus ,i forced every must1-- ,since then has been for me no must4 #bc ,deceit ,is war's whole art ,the fox's skin ,is my secret shirt of mail #be ,we of the new underworld ,grub for new treasures4 ,godless it seemed to the ancients ,to disturb the earth's bowels for treasures ,and once more this godlessness revives1 ,hear ye not earth's bowels thunder8 #bh ,looking for love and finding masks1 ,finding accursed masks and having to break them6 #bi ,do ,i love you8 ,yes1 as the rider loves his steed1 ,that carryeth him to his goal4 #cj ,his pity is cruel1 ,his loving hand-clasp bruises1 ,give not a giant your hand6 #ca ,ye fear me8 ,ye fear the taut-strung bow8 ,ye fear a man might set his arrow to the bow8 #cc ,i am naught but a word-maker4 ,what matter words8 ,what matter ,i8 #cd ,ah1 my friends1 ,whither has flown all that is called good8 ,whither all good people8 ,whither the innocence of all these falsehoods8 ,i call all good1 ,leaves and grass1 happiness1 blessing1 and rain4 #ce ,not through his sins and greatest follies4 ,through his perfection ,i suffered1 ,as ,i suffered most from men4#a #cf ,man is evil4 ,so spake the wisest ,for my consolement4 #cg ,and only when ,i to myself am a burden ,do ye fall heavy upon me6 #ch ,too soon1 already ,i laugh again3 ,for a foe 'tis easy ,to make me amends4 #ci ,gentle am ,i towards man and chance2 ,gentle with all men1 and even with grasses3 ,a spot of sunshine on winter curtains1 ,moist with tenderness1 ,a thawing wind to snow-bound souls3 99 99 99 99 ,proud-minded towards trifling ,gains1 where ,i see the huckster's long finger1 ',tis aye my pleasure ,to be bamboozled3 ,such is the bidding of my fastidious taste4 #dj ,a strange breath breathes and spits at me1 ,am ,i a mirror1 that straightway is clouded8 #da ,little people1 ,confiding1 open-hearted1 ,but low-built portals1 ,where only the low of stature can enter4 99 99 99 99 ,how can ,i get through the city-gate ,who had forgotten to live among dwarfs8 #db ,my wisdom was like to the sun1 ,i longed to give them light1 ,but ,i only deceived them4 ,the sun of my wisdom ,blinded the eyes ,of these poor bats4444 #dc ,blacker and eviller things didst thou see than ever a seer did3 ,through the revels of ,hell no sage had ever journeyed4 #dd ,back6 on my heels too closely ye follow6 ,back6 lest my wisdom should tread on you1 crush you6 #de ,he goes to hell who goes thy ways6 ,so be it ,i to my hell ,i'll pave the way myself with well-made maxims4 #df ,your ,god1 you tell me1 ,is a ,god of love8 ,the sting of conscience ,a sting from ,god8 ,a sting of love8 #dh ,they chew gravel1 ,they lie on their bellies ,before little round things1 ,they adore all that falleth not down-- ,these last servants of ,god ,believers 7in reality76 #ej ,they made their ,god out of nothing1 ,what wonder if now he is naught8 #ea ,ye loftier men6 ,there have once been ,more thoughtful times1 more reflective1 ,than is our to-day and to-morrow4 #eb ,our time is like a sick woman-- ,let her but shriek1 rave1 scold1 ,and break the tables and dishes6 #ed ,ye mount8 ,is it true that ye mount1 ,ye loftier men8 ,are ye not1 pray1 ,like to a ball ,sped to the heights ,by the lowest that's in you8 ,do ye not flee from yourselves1 ,o ye climbers8 #ee ,all that you thought ,you had to despise1 ,where you only renounced6 #ef ,all men repeat the refrain6 ,no1 no1 and thrice say ,no6 ,what's all this yap-yap talk of heaven8 ,we would not enter the kingdom of heaven1 ,the kingdom of earth shall be ours8 #eg ,the will redeemeth1 ,he that has nothing to do ,in a ,nothing finds food for trouble4 #eh ,you cannot endure it more1 ,your tyrannous destiny1 ,love it--you're given no choice6 #ei ,these alone free us from woes 7,choose now ,i7 ,sudden death ,or long-drawn-out love4 #fj ,of death we are sure1 ,so why not be merry8 #fa ,the worst of pleas ,i have hidden from you--that life grew tedious6 ,throw it away1 that ye find it again to your taste6 #fb ,lonely days1 ,ye must walk on valorous feet6 #fc ,loneliness ,plants naught1 it ripens4444 ,and even then you must have the sun for your friend4 #fd ,once more must ye plunge in the throng--,in the throng ye grow hard and smooth4 ,solitude withers ,and lastly destroys4-- #fe ,when on the hermit comes the great fear2 ,when he runs and runs ,and knows not whither2 ,when the storms roar behind ,and the lightning bears witness against him1 ,and his cavern breeds spectres ,and fills him with dread4 #fg ,throw thy pain in the depths1 ,man1 forget6 ,man1 forget6 ,divine is the art of forgetting6 ,wouldst fly8 ,wouldst feel at home in the heights8 ,throw thy heaviest load in the sea6 ,here is the sea1 hurl thyself in the sea6 ,divine is the art of forgetting6 #fi ,look forward1 never look back6 ,we sink to the depths ,if we peer ever into the depths4 #gj ,beware1 beware ,of warning the reckless6 ,thy warning will drive them ,to leap into every abyss6 #ga ,why hurled he himself from the heights8 ,what led him astray8 ,his pity for all that is lowly led him astray1 ,and now he lies there1 broken1 useless1 and cold4 #gb ,whither went he8 ,who knows8 ,we only know that he sank4 ,a star went out in the desolate void1 ,and lone was the void4 #gc ,what we have not ,but need1 ,we must take4 ,and so a good conscience ,i took4 #gd ,who is there that could bestow right upon thee8 ,so take thy right6 #ge ,o ye waves1 ,wondrous waves1 are ye wroth with me8 ,do ye raise me your crests in wrath8 ,with my rudder ,i smite ,your folly full square4 ,this bark ye yourselves ,to immortal life will carry along4 #gg ,when no new voice was heard1 ,ye made from old words ,a law3 ,when life grows stark1 there shoots up the law4 #gh ,what none can refute ,ye say must be true8 ,oh1 ye innocents6 #gi ,art thou strong8 ,strong as an ass8 ,strong as ,god8 ,art thou proud8 ,so proud as to flaunt ,unashamed thy conceit8 #hj ,beware1 ,and ne'er beat the drum ,of thy destiny ,i ,go out of the way ,from all pom-pom of fame6 99 99 99 99 ,be not known too soon6 ,be one that has hoarded renown6 #ha ,wilt thou grasp at the thorns8 ,thy fingers must pay4 ,grasp at a poniard4 #he ,be a tablet of gold1 ,they will grave upon thee ,in golden script4 #hf ,upright he stands ,with more sense of justice ,in his outermost toe ,than ,i have in all my head4 ,a virtue-monster ,mantled in white4 #hg ,already he mimics himself1 ,already weary he grows1 ,already he seeks the paths he has trod-- ,who of late still loved all tracks untrodden6 ,secretly burnt-- ,not for his faith1 ,rather because he had lost the heart ,to find new faith4 #hh ,too long he sat in the cage1 ,that runaway6 ,too long he dreaded ,a gaoler6 ,timorous now he goeth his ways1 ,all things make him to stumble-- ,the shadow e'en of a stick makes him to stumble4 #hi ,ye chambers smoky and musty1 ,ye cages and narrow hearts1 ,how could your spirit be free8 #ij ,narrow souls6 ,huckster-souls6 ,when money leaps into the box ,the soul leaps into it too6#b #ib ,are ye women1 ,that ye wish to suffer ,from that which ye love8 #ii ,they are cold1 these men of learning6 ,would that a lightning-flash might strike their food1 ,and their mouths could learn to eat fire6 #aja ,your false love ,for the past1 ,a love for the graves of the dead1 ,is a theft from life ,that steals all the future4 99 99 99 99 ,an antiquary ,is a craftsman of dead things1 ,who lives among coffins and skeletons4 #ajc ,only the poet who can lie ,wilfully1 skilfully1 ,can tell the truth4 #ajd ,our chase after truth1 ,is't a chase after happiness8 #aje ,truth ,is a woman1 no better1 ,cunning in her shame3 ,of what she likes best ,she will know naught1 ,and covers her face4444 ,to what doth she yield ,but to violence8 ,violence she needs4 ,be hard1 ye sages6 ,ye must compel her1 ,that shamefaced ,truth4444 ,for her happiness ,she needs constraint--,she is a woman1 no better4 #ajf ,we thought evil of each other8 ,we were too distant1 ,but now in this tiny hut1 ,pinned to one destiny1 ,how could we still be foes8 ,we must needs love those ,whom we cannot escape4 #ajg ,love thy foe1 ,let the robber rob thee3 ,the woman hears and--does it4 #aaj ,a proud eye ,with silken curtains1 ,seldom clear1 ,honours him that may see it unveiled4 #aaa ,sluggard eyes ,that seldom love-- ,but when they love1 the levin flashes ,as from shafts of gold ,where a dagger keeps guard at the treasure of love4 #aag ,they are crabs1 for whom ,i have no fellow-feeling4 ,grasp them1 they pinch you2 ,leave them alone1 and they walk backward4 #aai ,crooked go great rivers and men1 ,crooked1 but turned to their goal2 ,that is their highest courage1 ,they dreaded not crooked paths4 #aba ,wouldst catch them8 ,then speak to them ,as to stray sheep3 ,your path1 your path ,you have lost6 ,they follow all ,that flatter them so3 ,what8 had we a path8 ,each whispers the other3 ,it really seems that we have a path4 ,the numbering given corresponds to that of the original1 several fragments having been omitted4--,,tr4 ,footnote #a3 ,nietzsche here alludes to ,christian perfection1 which he considers equivalent to harmlessness4--,,tr4 ,footnote #b3 ,alluding to the saying of the ,dominican monk ,tetzel1 who sold indulgences in the time of ,luther3 ,when money leaps into the box1 the soul leaps from hell to heaven6--,,tr4 ,,hymn ,,to ,,life4 ,for ,chorus and ,orchestra4 ,,words ,,by ,,lou ,,salom4 ,,music ,,by ,,friedrich ,,nietzsche4 ,trans4 ,,by ,,herman ,,scheffauer4 ,arr4 for ,piano ,,by ,,adrian ,,collins4 ,m4,a4 ,illustration3 score and lyrics