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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Human, All Too Human, by Friedrich Nietzsche
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Human, All Too Human
+       A Book for Free Spirits
+
+Author: Friedrich Nietzsche
+
+Translator: Alexander Harvey
+
+Release Date: November 26, 2011 [EBook #38145]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HUMAN, ALL TOO HUMAN ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Gary Rees, Matthew Wheaton and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This
+book was produced from scanned images of public domain
+material from the Google Print project.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+    HUMAN, ALL TOO HUMAN
+
+    A BOOK FOR FREE SPIRITS
+
+    BY FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE
+
+
+    TRANSLATED BY ALEXANDER HARVEY
+
+    CHICAGO
+    CHARLES H. KERR & COMPANY
+    1908
+
+
+    Copyright 1908
+    By Charles H. Kerr & Company
+
+
+
+
+    CONTENTS
+
+
+    AUTHOR'S PREFACE
+
+    OF THE FIRST AND LAST THINGS
+
+    HISTORY OF THE MORAL FEELINGS
+
+    THE RELIGIOUS LIFE
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+1
+
+It is often enough, and always with great surprise, intimated to me that
+there is something both ordinary and unusual in all my writings, from
+the "Birth of Tragedy" to the recently published "Prelude to a
+Philosophy of the Future": they all contain, I have been told, snares
+and nets for short sighted birds, and something that is almost a
+constant, subtle, incitement to an overturning of habitual opinions and
+of approved customs. What!? Everything is merely--human--all too human?
+With this exclamation my writings are gone through, not without a
+certain dread and mistrust of ethic itself and not without a disposition
+to ask the exponent of evil things if those things be not simply
+misrepresented. My writings have been termed a school of distrust, still
+more of disdain: also, and more happily, of courage, audacity even. And
+in fact, I myself do not believe that anybody ever looked into the world
+with a distrust as deep as mine, seeming, as I do, not simply the timely
+advocate of the devil, but, to employ theological terms, an enemy and
+challenger of God; and whosoever has experienced any of the consequences
+of such deep distrust, anything of the chills and the agonies of
+isolation to which such an unqualified difference of standpoint condemns
+him endowed with it, will also understand how often I must have sought
+relief and self-forgetfulness from any source--through any object of
+veneration or enmity, of scientific seriousness or wanton lightness;
+also why I, when I could not find what I was in need of, had to fashion
+it for myself, counterfeiting it or imagining it (and what poet or
+writer has ever done anything else, and what other purpose can all the
+art in the world possibly have?) That which I always stood most in need
+of in order to effect my cure and self-recovery was faith, faith enough
+not to be thus isolated, not to look at life from so singular a point of
+view--a magic apprehension (in eye and mind) of relationship and
+equality, a calm confidence in friendship, a blindness, free from
+suspicion and questioning, to two sidedness; a pleasure in externals,
+superficialities, the near, the accessible, in all things possessed of
+color, skin and seeming. Perhaps I could be fairly reproached with much
+"art" in this regard, many fine counterfeitings; for example, that,
+wisely or wilfully, I had shut my eyes to Schopenhauer's blind will
+towards ethic, at a time when I was already clear sighted enough on the
+subject of ethic; likewise that I had deceived myself concerning Richard
+Wagner's incurable romanticism, as if it were a beginning and not an
+end; likewise concerning the Greeks, likewise concerning the Germans and
+their future--and there may be, perhaps, a long list of such likewises.
+Granted, however, that all this were true, and with justice urged
+against me, what does it signify, what can it signify in regard to how
+much of the self-sustaining capacity, how much of reason and higher
+protection are embraced in such self-deception?--and how much more
+falsity is still necessary to me that I may therewith always reassure
+myself regarding the luxury of my truth. Enough, I still live; and life
+is not considered now apart from ethic; it _will_ [have] deception; it
+thrives (lebt) on deception ... but am I not beginning to do all over
+again what I have always done, I, the old immoralist, and bird
+snarer--talk unmorally, ultramorally, "beyond good and evil"?
+
+
+2
+
+Thus, then, have I evolved for myself the "free spirits" to whom this
+discouraging-encouraging work, under the general title "Human, All Too
+Human," is dedicated. Such "free spirits" do not really exist and never
+did exist. But I stood in need of them, as I have pointed out, in order
+that some good might be mixed with my evils (illness, loneliness,
+strangeness, _acedia_, incapacity): to serve as gay spirits and
+comrades, with whom one may talk and laugh when one is disposed to talk
+and laugh, and whom one may send to the devil when they grow wearisome.
+They are some compensation for the lack of friends. That such free
+spirits can possibly exist, that our Europe will yet number among her
+sons of to-morrow or of the day after to-morrow, such a brilliant and
+enthusiastic company, alive and palpable and not merely, as in my case,
+fantasms and imaginary shades, I, myself, can by no means doubt. I see
+them already coming, slowly, slowly. May it not be that I am doing a
+little something to expedite their coming when I describe in advance the
+influences under which I see them evolving and the ways along which they
+travel?
+
+
+3
+
+It may be conjectured that a soul in which the type of "free spirit" can
+attain maturity and completeness had its decisive and deciding event in
+the form of a great emancipation or unbinding, and that prior to that
+event it seemed only the more firmly and forever chained to its place
+and pillar. What binds strongest? What cords seem almost unbreakable? In
+the case of mortals of a choice and lofty nature they will be those of
+duty: that reverence, which in youth is most typical, that timidity and
+tenderness in the presence of the traditionally honored and the worthy,
+that gratitude to the soil from which we sprung, for the hand that
+guided us, for the relic before which we were taught to pray--their
+sublimest moments will themselves bind these souls most strongly. The
+great liberation comes suddenly to such prisoners, like an earthquake:
+the young soul is all at once shaken, torn apart, cast forth--it
+comprehends not itself what is taking place. An involuntary onward
+impulse rules them with the mastery of command; a will, a wish are
+developed to go forward, anywhere, at any price; a strong, dangerous
+curiosity regarding an undiscovered world flames and flashes in all
+their being. "Better to die than live _here_"--so sounds the tempting
+voice: and this "here," this "at home" constitutes all they have
+hitherto loved. A sudden dread and distrust of that which they loved, a
+flash of contempt for that which is called their "duty," a mutinous,
+wilful, volcanic-like longing for a far away journey, strange scenes and
+people, annihilation, petrifaction, a hatred surmounting love, perhaps a
+sacrilegious impulse and look backwards, to where they so long prayed
+and loved, perhaps a flush of shame for what they did and at the same
+time an exultation at having done it, an inner, intoxicating,
+delightful tremor in which is betrayed the sense of victory--a victory?
+over what? over whom? a riddle-like victory, fruitful in questioning and
+well worth questioning, but the _first_ victory, for all--such things of
+pain and ill belong to the history of the great liberation. And it is at
+the same time a malady that can destroy a man, this first outbreak of
+strength and will for self-destination, self-valuation, this will for
+free will: and how much illness is forced to the surface in the frantic
+strivings and singularities with which the freedman, the liberated seeks
+henceforth to attest his mastery over things! He roves fiercely around,
+with an unsatisfied longing and whatever objects he may encounter must
+suffer from the perilous expectancy of his pride; he tears to pieces
+whatever attracts him. With a sardonic laugh he overturns whatever he
+finds veiled or protected by any reverential awe: he would see what
+these things look like when they are overturned. It is wilfulness and
+delight in the wilfulness of it, if he now, perhaps, gives his approval
+to that which has heretofore been in ill repute--if, in curiosity and
+experiment, he penetrates stealthily to the most forbidden things. In
+the background during all his plunging and roaming--for he is as
+restless and aimless in his course as if lost in a wilderness--is the
+interrogation mark of a curiosity growing ever more dangerous. "Can we
+not upset every standard? and is good perhaps evil? and God only an
+invention and a subtlety of the devil? Is everything, in the last
+resort, false? And if we are dupes are we not on that very account
+dupers also? _must_ we not be dupers also?" Such reflections lead and
+mislead him, ever further on, ever further away. Solitude, that dread
+goddess and mater saeva cupidinum, encircles and besets him, ever more
+threatening, more violent, more heart breaking--but who to-day knows
+what solitude is?
+
+
+4
+
+From this morbid solitude, from the deserts of such trial years, the way
+is yet far to that great, overflowing certainty and healthiness which
+cannot dispense even with sickness as a means and a grappling hook of
+knowledge; to that matured freedom of the spirit which is, in an equal
+degree, self mastery and discipline of the heart, and gives access to
+the path of much and various reflection--to that inner comprehensiveness
+and self satisfaction of over-richness which precludes all danger that
+the spirit has gone astray even in its own path and is sitting
+intoxicated in some corner or other; to that overplus of plastic,
+healing, imitative and restorative power which is the very sign of
+vigorous health, that overplus which confers upon the free spirit the
+perilous prerogative of spending a life in experiment and of running
+adventurous risks: the past-master-privilege of the free spirit. In the
+interval there may be long years of convalescence, years filled with
+many hued painfully-bewitching transformations, dominated and led to the
+goal by a tenacious will for health that is often emboldened to assume
+the guise and the disguise of health. There is a middle ground to this,
+which a man of such destiny can not subsequently recall without emotion;
+he basks in a special fine sun of his own, with a feeling of birdlike
+freedom, birdlike visual power, birdlike irrepressibleness, a something
+extraneous (Drittes) in which curiosity and delicate disdain have
+united. A "free spirit"--this refreshing term is grateful in any mood,
+it almost sets one aglow. One lives--no longer in the bonds of love and
+hate, without a yes or no, here or there indifferently, best pleased to
+evade, to avoid, to beat about, neither advancing nor retreating. One is
+habituated to the bad, like a person who all at once sees a fearful
+hurly-burly _beneath_ him--and one was the counterpart of him who
+bothers himself with things that do not concern him. As a matter of fact
+the free spirit is bothered with mere things--and how many
+things--which no longer _concern_ him.
+
+
+5
+
+A step further in recovery: and the free spirit draws near to life
+again, slowly indeed, almost refractorily, almost distrustfully. There
+is again warmth and mellowness: feeling and fellow feeling acquire
+depth, lambent airs stir all about him. He almost feels: it seems as if
+now for the first time his eyes are open to things _near_. He is in
+amaze and sits hushed: for where had he been? These near and immediate
+things: how changed they seem to him! He looks gratefully back--grateful
+for his wandering, his self exile and severity, his lookings afar and
+his bird flights in the cold heights. How fortunate that he has not,
+like a sensitive, dull home body, remained always "in the house" and "at
+home!" He had been beside himself, beyond a doubt. Now for the first
+time he really sees himself--and what surprises in the process. What
+hitherto unfelt tremors! Yet what joy in the exhaustion, the old
+sickness, the relapses of the convalescent! How it delights him,
+suffering, to sit still, to exercise patience, to lie in the sun! Who so
+well as he appreciates the fact that there comes balmy weather even in
+winter, who delights more in the sunshine athwart the wall? They are
+the most appreciative creatures in the world, and also the most humble,
+these convalescents and lizards, crawling back towards life: there are
+some among them who can let no day slip past them without addressing
+some song of praise to its retreating light. And speaking seriously, it
+is a fundamental cure for all pessimism (the cankerous vice, as is well
+known, of all idealists and humbugs), to become ill in the manner of
+these free spirits, to remain ill quite a while and then bit by bit grow
+healthy--I mean healthier. It is wisdom, worldly wisdom, to administer
+even health to oneself for a long time in small doses.
+
+
+6
+
+About this time it becomes at last possible, amid the flash lights of a
+still unestablished, still precarious health, for the free, the ever
+freer spirit to begin to read the riddle of that great liberation, a
+riddle which has hitherto lingered, obscure, well worth questioning,
+almost impalpable, in his memory. If once he hardly dared to ask "why so
+apart? so alone? renouncing all I loved? renouncing respect itself? why
+this coldness, this suspicion, this hate for one's very virtues?"--now
+he dares, and asks it loudly, already hearing the answer, "you had to
+become master over yourself, master of your own good qualities. Formerly
+they were your masters: but they should be merely your tools along with
+other tools. You had to acquire power over your aye and no and learn to
+hold and withhold them in accordance with your higher aims. You had to
+grasp the perspective of every representation (Werthschätzung)--the
+dislocation, distortion and the apparent end or teleology of the
+horizon, besides whatever else appertains to the perspective: also the
+element of demerit in its relation to opposing merit, and the whole
+intellectual cost of every affirmative, every negative. You had to find
+out the _inevitable_ error[1] in every Yes and in every No, error as
+inseparable from life, life itself as conditioned by the perspective and
+its inaccuracy.[1] Above all, you had to see with your own eyes where
+the error[1] is always greatest: there, namely, where life is littlest,
+narrowest, meanest, least developed and yet cannot help looking upon
+itself as the goal and standard of things, and smugly and ignobly and
+incessantly tearing to tatters all that is highest and greatest and
+richest, and putting the shreds into the form of questions from the
+standpoint of its own well being. You had to see with your own eyes the
+problem of classification, (Rangordnung, regulation concerning rank and
+station) and how strength and sweep and reach of perspective wax upward
+together: You had"--enough, the free spirit knows henceforward which
+"you had" it has obeyed and also what it now can do and what it now, for
+the first time, _dare_.
+
+[1] Ungerechtigkeit, literally wrongfulness, injustice, unrighteousness.
+
+
+7
+
+Accordingly, the free spirit works out for itself an answer to that
+riddle of its liberation and concludes by generalizing upon its
+experience in the following fashion: "What I went through everyone must
+go through" in whom any problem is germinated and strives to body itself
+forth. The inner power and inevitability of this problem will assert
+themselves in due course, as in the case of any unsuspected
+pregnancy--long before the spirit has seen this problem in its true
+aspect and learned to call it by its right name. Our destiny exercises
+its influence over us even when, as yet, we have not learned its nature:
+it is our future that lays down the law to our to-day. Granted, that it
+is the problem of classification[2] of which we free spirits may say,
+this is _our_ problem, yet it is only now, in the midday of our life,
+that we fully appreciate what preparations, shifts, trials, ordeals,
+stages, were essential to that problem before it could emerge to our
+view, and why we had to go through the various and contradictory
+longings and satisfactions of body and soul, as circumnavigators and
+adventurers of that inner world called "man"; as surveyors of that
+"higher" and of that "progression"[3] that is also called
+"man"--crowding in everywhere, almost without fear, disdaining nothing,
+missing nothing, testing everything, sifting everything and eliminating
+the chance impurities--until at last we could say, we free spirits:
+"Here--a _new_ problem! Here, a long ladder on the rungs of which we
+ourselves have rested and risen, which we have actually been at times.
+Here is a something higher, a something deeper, a something below us, a
+vastly extensive order, (Ordnung) a comparative classification
+(Rangordnung), that we perceive: here--_our_ problem!"
+
+[2] Rangordnung: the meaning is "the problem of grasping the relative
+importance of things."
+
+[3] Uebereinander: one over another.
+
+
+8
+
+To what stage in the development just outlined the present book belongs
+(or is assigned) is something that will be hidden from no augur or
+psychologist for an instant. But where are there psychologists to-day?
+In France, certainly; in Russia, perhaps; certainly not in Germany.
+Grounds are not wanting, to be sure, upon which the Germans of to-day
+may adduce this fact to their credit: unhappily for one who in this
+matter is fashioned and mentored in an un-German school! This _German_
+book, which has found its readers in a wide circle of lands and
+peoples--it has been some ten years on its rounds--and which must make
+its way by means of any musical art and tune that will captivate the
+foreign ear as well as the native--this book has been read most
+indifferently in Germany itself and little heeded there: to what is that
+due? "It requires too much," I have been told, "it addresses itself to
+men free from the press of petty obligations, it demands fine and
+trained perceptions, it requires a surplus, a surplus of time, of the
+lightness of heaven and of the heart, of otium in the most unrestricted
+sense: mere good things that we Germans of to-day have not got and
+therefore cannot give." After so graceful a retort, my philosophy bids
+me be silent and ask no more questions: at times, as the proverb says,
+one remains a philosopher only because one says--nothing!
+
+Nice, Spring, 1886.
+
+
+
+
+OF THE FIRST AND LAST THINGS.
+
+
+1
+
+=Chemistry of the Notions and the Feelings.=--Philosophical problems, in
+almost all their aspects, present themselves in the same interrogative
+formula now that they did two thousand years ago: how can a thing
+develop out of its antithesis? for example, the reasonable from the
+non-reasonable, the animate from the inanimate, the logical from the
+illogical, altruism from egoism, disinterestedness from greed, truth
+from error? The metaphysical philosophy formerly steered itself clear of
+this difficulty to such extent as to repudiate the evolution of one
+thing from another and to assign a miraculous origin to what it deemed
+highest and best, due to the very nature and being of the
+"thing-in-itself." The historical philosophy, on the other hand, which
+can no longer be viewed apart from physical science, the youngest of all
+philosophical methods, discovered experimentally (and its results will
+probably always be the same) that there is no antithesis whatever,
+except in the usual exaggerations of popular or metaphysical
+comprehension, and that an error of the reason is at the bottom of such
+contradiction. According to its explanation, there is, strictly
+speaking, neither unselfish conduct, nor a wholly disinterested point of
+view. Both are simply sublimations in which the basic element seems
+almost evaporated and betrays its presence only to the keenest
+observation. All that we need and that could possibly be given us in the
+present state of development of the sciences, is a chemistry of the
+moral, religious, aesthetic conceptions and feeling, as well as of those
+emotions which we experience in the affairs, great and small, of society
+and civilization, and which we are sensible of even in solitude. But
+what if this chemistry established the fact that, even in _its_ domain,
+the most magnificent results were attained with the basest and most
+despised ingredients? Would many feel disposed to continue such
+investigations? Mankind loves to put by the questions of its origin and
+beginning: must one not be almost inhuman in order to follow the
+opposite course?
+
+
+2
+
+=The Traditional Error of Philosophers.=--All philosophers make the
+common mistake of taking contemporary man as their starting point and of
+trying, through an analysis of him, to reach a conclusion. "Man"
+involuntarily presents himself to them as an aeterna veritas as a
+passive element in every hurly-burly, as a fixed standard of things. Yet
+everything uttered by the philosopher on the subject of man is, in the
+last resort, nothing more than a piece of testimony concerning man
+during a very limited period of time. Lack of the historical sense is
+the traditional defect in all philosophers. Many innocently take man in
+his most childish state as fashioned through the influence of certain
+religious and even of certain political developments, as the permanent
+form under which man must be viewed. They will not learn that man has
+evolved,[4] that the intellectual faculty itself is an evolution,
+whereas some philosophers make the whole cosmos out of this intellectual
+faculty. But everything essential in human evolution took place aeons
+ago, long before the four thousand years or so of which we know
+anything: during these man may not have changed very much. However, the
+philosopher ascribes "instinct" to contemporary man and assumes that
+this is one of the unalterable facts regarding man himself, and hence
+affords a clue to the understanding of the universe in general. The
+whole teleology is so planned that man during the last four thousand
+years shall be spoken of as a being existing from all eternity, and
+with reference to whom everything in the cosmos from its very inception
+is naturally ordered. Yet everything evolved: there are no eternal facts
+as there are no absolute truths. Accordingly, historical philosophising
+is henceforth indispensable, and with it honesty of judgment.
+
+[4] geworden.
+
+
+3
+
+=Appreciation of Simple Truths.=--It is the characteristic of an
+advanced civilization to set a higher value upon little, simple truths,
+ascertained by scientific method, than upon the pleasing and magnificent
+errors originating in metaphysical and æsthetical epochs and peoples. To
+begin with, the former are spoken of with contempt as if there could be
+no question of comparison respecting them, so rigid, homely, prosaic and
+even discouraging is the aspect of the first, while so beautiful,
+decorative, intoxicating and perhaps beatific appear the last named.
+Nevertheless, the hardwon, the certain, the lasting and, therefore, the
+fertile in new knowledge, is the higher; to hold fast to it is manly and
+evinces courage, directness, endurance. And not only individual men but
+all mankind will by degrees be uplifted to this manliness when they are
+finally habituated to the proper appreciation of tenable, enduring
+knowledge and have lost all faith in inspiration and in the miraculous
+revelation of truth. The reverers of forms, indeed, with their standards
+of beauty and taste, may have good reason to laugh when the appreciation
+of little truths and the scientific spirit begin to prevail, but that
+will be only because their eyes are not yet opened to the charm of the
+utmost simplicity of form or because men though reared in the rightly
+appreciative spirit, will still not be fully permeated by it, so that
+they continue unwittingly imitating ancient forms (and that ill enough,
+as anybody does who no longer feels any interest in a thing). Formerly
+the mind was not brought into play through the medium of exact thought.
+Its serious business lay in the working out of forms and symbols. That
+has now changed. Any seriousness in symbolism is at present the
+indication of a deficient education. As our very acts become more
+intellectual, our tendencies more rational, and our judgment, for
+example, as to what seems reasonable, is very different from what it was
+a hundred years ago: so the forms of our lives grow ever more
+intellectual and, to the old fashioned eye, perhaps, uglier, but only
+because it cannot see that the richness of inner, rational beauty always
+spreads and deepens, and that the inner, rational aspect of all things
+should now be of more consequence to us than the most beautiful
+externality and the most exquisite limning.
+
+
+4
+
+=Astrology and the Like.=--It is presumable that the objects of the
+religious, moral, aesthetic and logical notions pertain simply to the
+superficialities of things, although man flatters himself with the
+thought that here at least he is getting to the heart of the cosmos. He
+deceives himself because these things have power to make him so happy
+and so wretched, and so he evinces, in this respect, the same conceit
+that characterises astrology. Astrology presupposes that the heavenly
+bodies are regulated in their movements in harmony with the destiny of
+mortals: the moral man presupposes that that which concerns himself most
+nearly must also be the heart and soul of things.
+
+
+5
+
+=Misconception of Dreams.=--In the dream, mankind, in epochs of crude
+primitive civilization, thought they were introduced to a second,
+substantial world: here we have the source of all metaphysic. Without
+the dream, men would never have been incited to an analysis of the
+world. Even the distinction between soul and body is wholly due to the
+primitive conception of the dream, as also the hypothesis of the
+embodied soul, whence the development of all superstition, and also,
+probably, the belief in god. "The dead still live: for they appear to
+the living in dreams." So reasoned mankind at one time, and through many
+thousands of years.
+
+
+6
+
+=The Scientific Spirit Prevails only Partially, not Wholly.=--The
+specialized, minutest departments of science are dealt with purely
+objectively. But the general universal sciences, considered as a great,
+basic unity, posit the question--truly a very living question--: to what
+purpose? what is the use? Because of this reference to utility they are,
+as a whole, less impersonal than when looked at in their specialized
+aspects. Now in the case of philosophy, as forming the apex of the
+scientific pyramid, this question of the utility of knowledge is
+necessarily brought very conspicuously forward, so that every philosophy
+has, unconsciously, the air of ascribing the highest utility to itself.
+It is for this reason that all philosophies contain such a great amount
+of high flying metaphysic, and such a shrinking from the seeming
+insignificance of the deliverances of physical science: for the
+significance of knowledge in relation to life must be made to appear as
+great as possible. This constitutes the antagonism between the
+specialties of science and philosophy. The latter aims, as art aims, at
+imparting to life and conduct the utmost depth and significance: in the
+former mere knowledge is sought and nothing else--whatever else be
+incidentally obtained. Heretofore there has never been a philosophical
+system in which philosophy itself was not made the apologist of
+knowledge [in the abstract]. On this point, at least, each is optimistic
+and insists that to knowledge the highest utility must be ascribed. They
+are all under the tyranny of logic, which is, from its very nature,
+optimism.
+
+
+7
+
+=The Discordant Element in Science.=--Philosophy severed itself from
+science when it put the question: what is that knowledge of the world
+and of life through which mankind may be made happiest? This happened
+when the Socratic school arose: with the standpoint of _happiness_ the
+arteries of investigating science were compressed too tightly to permit
+of any circulation of the blood--and are so compressed to-day.
+
+
+8
+
+=Pneumatic Explanation of Nature.=[5]--Metaphysic reads the message of
+nature as if it were written purely pneumatically, as the church and its
+learned ones formerly did where the bible was concerned. It requires a
+great deal of expertness to apply to nature the same strict science of
+interpretation that the philologists have devised for all literature,
+and to apply it for the purpose of a simple, direct interpretation of
+the message, and at the same time, not bring out a double meaning. But,
+as in the case of books and literature, errors of exposition are far
+from being completely eliminated, and vestiges of allegorical and
+mystical interpretations are still to be met with in the most cultivated
+circles, so where nature is concerned the case is--actually much worse.
+
+[5] Pneumatic is here used in the sense of spiritual. Pneuma being the
+Greek word in the New Testament for the Holy Spirit.--Ed.
+
+
+9
+
+=Metaphysical World.=--It is true, there may be a metaphysical world;
+the absolute possibility of it can scarcely be disputed. We see all
+things through the medium of the human head and we cannot well cut off
+this head: although there remains the question what part of the world
+would be left after it had been cut off. But that is a purely abstract
+scientific problem and one not much calculated to give men uneasiness:
+yet everything that has heretofore made metaphysical assumptions
+valuable, fearful or delightful to men, all that gave rise to them is
+passion, error and self deception: the worst systems of knowledge, not
+the best, pin their tenets of belief thereto. When such methods are once
+brought to view as the basis of all existing religions and metaphysics,
+they are already discredited. There always remains, however, the
+possibility already conceded: but nothing at all can be made out of
+that, to say not a word about letting happiness, salvation and life hang
+upon the threads spun from such a possibility. Accordingly, nothing
+could be predicated of the metaphysical world beyond the fact that it is
+an elsewhere,[6] another sphere, inaccessible and incomprehensible to
+us: it would become a thing of negative properties. Even were the
+existence of such a world absolutely established, it would nevertheless
+remain incontrovertible that of all kinds of knowledge, knowledge of
+such a world would be of least consequence--of even less consequence
+than knowledge of the chemical analysis of water would be to a storm
+tossed mariner.
+
+[6] Anderssein.
+
+
+10
+
+=The Harmlessness of Metaphysic in the Future.=--As soon as religion,
+art and ethics are so understood that a full comprehension of them can
+be gained without taking refuge in the postulates of metaphysical
+claptrap at any point in the line of reasoning, there will be a complete
+cessation of interest in the purely theoretical problem of the "thing in
+itself" and the "phenomenon." For here, too, the same truth applies: in
+religion, art and ethics we are not concerned with the "essence of the
+cosmos".[7] We are in the sphere of pure conception. No presentiment [or
+intuition] can carry us any further. With perfect tranquility the
+question of how our conception of the world could differ so sharply from
+the actual world as it is manifest to us, will be relegated to the
+physiological sciences and to the history of the evolution of ideas and
+organisms.
+
+[7] "Wesen der Welt an sich."
+
+
+11
+
+=Language as a Presumptive Science.=--The importance of language in the
+development of civilization consists in the fact that by means of it
+man placed one world, his own, alongside another, a place of leverage
+that he thought so firm as to admit of his turning the rest of the
+cosmos on a pivot that he might master it. In so far as man for ages
+looked upon mere ideas and names of things as upon aeternae veritates,
+he evinced the very pride with which he raised himself above the brute.
+He really supposed that in language he possessed a knowledge of the
+cosmos. The language builder was not so modest as to believe that he was
+only giving names to things. On the contrary he thought he embodied the
+highest wisdom concerning things in [mere] words; and, in truth,
+language is the first movement in all strivings for wisdom. Here, too,
+it is _faith in ascertained truth_[8] from which the mightiest fountains
+of strength have flowed. Very tardily--only now--it dawns upon men that
+they have propagated a monstrous error in their belief in language.
+Fortunately, it is too late now to arrest and turn back the evolutionary
+process of the reason, which had its inception in this belief. Logic
+itself rests upon assumptions to which nothing in the world of reality
+corresponds. For example, the correspondence of certain things to one
+another and the identity of those things at different periods of time
+are assumptions pure and simple, but the science of logic originated in
+the positive belief that they were not assumptions at all but
+established facts. It is the same with the science of mathematics which
+certainly would never have come into existence if mankind had known from
+the beginning that in all nature there is no perfectly straight line, no
+true circle, no standard of measurement.
+
+[8] Glaube an die gefundene Wahrheit, as distinguished from faith in
+what is taken on trust as truth.
+
+
+12
+
+=Dream and Civilization.=--The function of the brain which is most
+encroached upon in slumber is the memory; not that it is wholly
+suspended, but it is reduced to a state of imperfection as, in primitive
+ages of mankind, was probably the case with everyone, whether waking or
+sleeping. Uncontrolled and entangled as it is, it perpetually confuses
+things as a result of the most trifling similarities, yet in the same
+mental confusion and lack of control the nations invented their
+mythologies, while nowadays travelers habitually observe how prone the
+savage is to forgetfulness, how his mind, after the least exertion of
+memory, begins to wander and lose itself until finally he utters
+falsehood and nonsense from sheer exhaustion. Yet, in dreams, we all
+resemble this savage. Inadequacy of distinction and error of comparison
+are the basis of the preposterous things we do and say in dreams, so
+that when we clearly recall a dream we are startled that so much idiocy
+lurks within us. The absolute distinctness of all dream-images, due to
+implicit faith in their substantial reality, recalls the conditions in
+which earlier mankind were placed, for whom hallucinations had
+extraordinary vividness, entire communities and even entire nations
+laboring simultaneously under them. Therefore: in sleep and in dream we
+make the pilgrimage of early mankind over again.
+
+
+13
+
+=Logic of the Dream.=--During sleep the nervous system, through various
+inner provocatives, is in constant agitation. Almost all the organs act
+independently and vigorously. The blood circulates rapidly. The posture
+of the sleeper compresses some portions of the body. The coverlets
+influence the sensations in different ways. The stomach carries on the
+digestive process and acts upon other organs thereby. The intestines are
+in motion. The position of the head induces unaccustomed action. The
+feet, shoeless, no longer pressing the ground, are the occasion of other
+sensations of novelty, as is, indeed, the changed garb of the entire
+body. All these things, following the bustle and change of the day,
+result, through their novelty, in a movement throughout the entire
+system that extends even to the brain functions. Thus there are a
+hundred circumstances to induce perplexity in the mind, a questioning as
+to the cause of this excitation. Now, the dream is a _seeking and
+presenting of reasons_ for these excitations of feeling, of the supposed
+reasons, that is to say. Thus, for example, whoever has his feet bound
+with two threads will probably dream that a pair of serpents are coiled
+about his feet. This is at first a hypothesis, then a belief with an
+accompanying imaginative picture and the argument: "these snakes must be
+the _causa_ of those sensations which I, the sleeper, now have." So
+reasons the mind of the sleeper. The conditions precedent, as thus
+conjectured, become, owing to the excitation of the fancy, present
+realities. Everyone knows from experience how a dreamer will transform
+one piercing sound, for example, that of a bell, into another of quite a
+different nature, say, the report of cannon. In his dream he becomes
+aware first of the effects, which he explains by a subsequent hypothesis
+and becomes persuaded of the purely conjectural nature of the sound. But
+how comes it that the mind of the dreamer goes so far astray when the
+same mind, awake, is habitually cautious, careful, and so conservative
+in its dealings with hypotheses? why does the first plausible
+hypothesis of the cause of a sensation gain credit in the dreaming
+state? (For in a dream we look upon that dream as reality, that is, we
+accept our hypotheses as fully established). I have no doubt that as men
+argue in their dreams to-day, mankind argued, even in their waking
+moments, for thousands of years: the first _causa_, that occurred to the
+mind with reference to anything that stood in need of explanation, was
+accepted as the true explanation and served as such. (Savages show the
+same tendency in operation, as the reports of travelers agree). In the
+dream this atavistic relic of humanity manifests its existence within
+us, for it is the foundation upon which the higher rational faculty
+developed itself and still develops itself in every individual. Dreams
+carry us back to the earlier stages of human culture and afford us a
+means of understanding it more clearly. Dream thought comes so easily to
+us now because we are so thoroughly trained to it through the
+interminable stages of evolution during which this fanciful and facile
+form of theorising has prevailed. To a certain extent the dream is a
+restorative for the brain, which, during the day, is called upon to meet
+the many demands for trained thought made upon it by the conditions of a
+higher civilization.--We may, if we please, become sensible, even in our
+waking moments, of a condition that is as a door and vestibule to
+dreaming. If we close our eyes the brain immediately conjures up a
+medley of impressions of light and color, apparently a sort of imitation
+and echo of the impressions forced in upon the brain during its waking
+moments. And now the mind, in co-operation with the imagination,
+transforms this formless play of light and color into definite figures,
+moving groups, landscapes. What really takes place is a sort of
+reasoning from effect back to cause. As the brain inquires: whence these
+impressions of light and color? it posits as the inducing causes of such
+lights and colors, those shapes and figures. They serve the brain as the
+occasions of those lights and colors because the brain, when the eyes
+are open and the senses awake, is accustomed to perceiving the cause of
+every impression of light and color made upon it. Here again the
+imagination is continually interposing its images inasmuch as it
+participates in the production of the impressions made through the
+senses day by day: and the dream-fancy does exactly the same thing--that
+is, the presumed cause is determined from the effect and _after_ the
+effect: all this, too, with extraordinary rapidity, so that in this
+matter, as in a matter of jugglery or sleight-of-hand, a confusion of
+the mind is produced and an after effect is made to appear a
+simultaneous action, an inverted succession of events, even.--From
+these considerations we can see how _late_ strict, logical thought, the
+true notion of cause and effect must have been in developing, since our
+intellectual and rational faculties to this very day revert to these
+primitive processes of deduction, while practically half our lifetime is
+spent in the super-inducing conditions.--Even the poet, the artist,
+ascribes to his sentimental and emotional states causes which are not
+the true ones. To that extent he is a reminder of early mankind and can
+aid us in its comprehension.
+
+
+14
+
+=Association.=[9]--All strong feelings are associated with a variety of
+allied sentiments and emotions. They stir up the memory at the same
+time. When we are under their influence we are reminded of similar
+states and we feel a renewal of them within us. Thus are formed habitual
+successions of feelings and notions, which, at last, when they follow
+one another with lightning rapidity are no longer felt as complexities
+but as unities. In this sense we hear of moral feelings, of religious
+feelings, as if they were absolute unities. In reality they are streams
+with a hundred sources and tributaries. Here again, the unity of the
+word speaks nothing for the unity of the thing.
+
+[9] Miterklingen: to sound simultaneously with.
+
+
+15
+
+=No Within and Without in the World.=[10]--As Democritus transferred the
+notions above and below to limitless space, where they are destitute of
+meaning, so the philosophers do generally with the idea "within and
+without," as regards the form and substance (Wesen und Erscheinung) of
+the world. What they claim is that through the medium of profound
+feelings one can penetrate deep into the soul of things (Innre), draw
+close to the heart of nature. But these feelings are deep only in so far
+as with them are simultaneously aroused, although almost imperceptibly,
+certain complicated groups of thoughts (Gedankengruppen) which we call
+deep: a feeling is deep because we deem the thoughts accompanying it
+deep. But deep thought can nevertheless be very widely sundered from
+truth, as for instance every metaphysical thought. Take from deep
+feeling the element of thought blended with it and all that remains is
+_strength_ of feeling which is no voucher for the validity of
+knowledge, as intense faith is evidence only of its own intensity and
+not of the truth of that in which the faith is felt.
+
+[10] Kein Innen und Aussen in der Welt: the above translation may seem
+too literal but some dispute has arisen concerning the precise idea the
+author means to convey.
+
+
+16
+
+=Phenomenon and Thing-in-Itself.=--The philosophers are in the habit of
+placing themselves in front of life and experience--that which they call
+the world of phenomena--as if they were standing before a picture that
+is unrolled before them in its final completeness. This panorama, they
+think, must be studied in every detail in order to reach some conclusion
+regarding the object represented by the picture. From effect,
+accordingly is deduced cause and from cause is deduced the
+unconditioned. This process is generally looked upon as affording the
+all sufficient explanation of the world of phenomena. On the other hand
+one must, (while putting the conception of the metaphysical distinctly
+forward as that of the unconditioned, and consequently of the
+unconditioning) absolutely deny any connection between the unconditioned
+(of the metaphysical world) and the world known to us: so that
+throughout phenomena there is no manifestation of the thing-in-itself,
+and getting from one to the other is out of the question. Thus is left
+quite ignored the circumstance that the picture--that which we now call
+life and experience--is a gradual evolution, is, indeed, still in
+process of evolution and for that reason should not be regarded as an
+enduring whole from which any conclusion as to its author (the
+all-sufficient reason) could be arrived at, or even pronounced out of
+the question. It is because we have for thousands of years looked into
+the world with moral, aesthetic, religious predispositions, with blind
+prejudice, passion or fear, and surfeited ourselves with indulgence in
+the follies of illogical thought, that the world has gradually become so
+wondrously motley, frightful, significant, soulful: it has taken on
+tints, but we have been the colorists: the human intellect, upon the
+foundation of human needs, of human passions, has reared all these
+"phenomena" and injected its own erroneous fundamental conceptions into
+things. Late, very late, the human intellect checks itself: and now the
+world of experience and the thing-in-itself seem to it so severed and so
+antithetical that it denies the possibility of one's hinging upon the
+other--or else summons us to surrender our intellect, our personal will,
+to the secret and the awe-inspiring in order that thereby we may attain
+certainty of certainty hereafter. Again, there are those who have
+combined all the characteristic features of our world of
+phenomena--that is, the conception of the world which has been formed
+and inherited through a series of intellectual vagaries--and instead of
+holding the intellect responsible for it all, have pronounced the very
+nature of things accountable for the present very sinister aspect of the
+world, and preached annihilation of existence. Through all these views
+and opinions the toilsome, steady process of science (which now for the
+first time begins to celebrate its greatest triumph in the genesis of
+thought) will definitely work itself out, the result, being, perhaps, to
+the following effect: That which we now call the world is the result of
+a crowd of errors and fancies which gradually developed in the general
+evolution of organic nature, have grown together and been transmitted to
+us as the accumulated treasure of all the past--as the _treasure_, for
+whatever is worth anything in our humanity rests upon it. From this
+world of conception it is in the power of science to release us only to
+a slight extent--and this is all that could be wished--inasmuch as it
+cannot eradicate the influence of hereditary habits of feeling, but it
+can light up by degrees the stages of the development of that world of
+conception, and lift us, at least for a time, above the whole spectacle.
+Perhaps we may then perceive that the thing-in-itself is a meet subject
+for Homeric laughter: that it seemed so much, everything, indeed, and
+is really a void--void, that is to say, of meaning.
+
+
+17
+
+=Metaphysical Explanation.=--Man, when he is young, prizes metaphysical
+explanations, because they make him see matters of the highest import in
+things he found disagreeable or contemptible: and if he is not satisfied
+with himself, this feeling of dissatisfaction is soothed when he sees
+the most hidden world-problem or world-pain in that which he finds so
+displeasing in himself. To feel himself more unresponsible and at the
+same time to find things (Dinge) more interesting--that is to him the
+double benefit he owes to metaphysics. Later, indeed, he acquires
+distrust of the whole metaphysical method of explaining things: he then
+perceives, perhaps, that those effects could have been attained just as
+well and more scientifically by another method: that physical and
+historical explanations would, at least, have given that feeling of
+freedom from personal responsibility just as well, while interest in
+life and its problems would be stimulated, perhaps, even more.
+
+
+18
+
+=The Fundamental Problems of Metaphysics.=--If a history of the
+development of thought is ever written, the following proposition,
+advanced by a distinguished logician, will be illuminated with a new
+light: "The universal, primordial law of the apprehending subject
+consists in the inner necessity of cognizing every object by itself, as
+in its essence a thing unto itself, therefore as self-existing and
+unchanging, in short, as a substance." Even this law, which is here
+called "primordial," is an evolution: it has yet to be shown how
+gradually this evolution takes place in lower organizations: how the
+dim, mole eyes of such organizations see, at first, nothing but a blank
+sameness: how later, when the various excitations of desire and aversion
+manifest themselves, various substances are gradually distinguished, but
+each with an attribute, that is, a special relationship to such an
+organization. The first step towards the logical is judgment, the
+essence of which, according to the best logicians, is belief. At the
+foundation of all beliefs lie sensations of pleasure or pain in relation
+to the apprehending subject. A third feeling, as the result of two
+prior, single, separate feelings, is judgment in its crudest form. We
+organic beings are primordially interested by nothing whatever in any
+thing (Ding) except its relation to ourselves with reference to pleasure
+and pain. Between the moments in which we are conscious of this
+relation, (the states of feeling) lie the moments of rest, of
+not-feeling: then the world and every thing (Ding) have no interest for
+us: we observe no change in them (as at present a person absorbed in
+something does not notice anyone passing by). To plants all things are,
+as a rule, at rest, eternal, every object like itself. From the period
+of lower organisms has been handed down to man the belief that there are
+like things (gleiche Dinge): only the trained experience attained
+through the most advanced science contradicts this postulate. The
+primordial belief of all organisms is, perhaps, that all the rest of the
+world is one thing and motionless.--Furthest away from this first step
+towards the logical is the notion of causation: even to-day we think
+that all our feelings and doings are, at bottom, acts of the free will;
+when the sentient individual contemplates himself he deems every
+feeling, every change, a something isolated, disconnected, that is to
+say, unqualified by any thing; it comes suddenly to the surface,
+independent of anything that went before or came after. We are hungry,
+but originally we do not know that the organism must be nourished: on
+the contrary that feeling seems to manifest itself without reason or
+purpose; it stands out by itself and seems quite independent. Therefore:
+the belief in the freedom of the will is a primordial error of
+everything organic as old as the very earliest inward prompting of the
+logical faculty; belief in unconditioned substances and in like things
+(gleiche Dinge) is also a primordial and equally ancient error of
+everything organic. Inasmuch as all metaphysic has concerned itself
+particularly with substance and with freedom of the will, it should be
+designated as the science that deals with the fundamental errors of
+mankind as if they were fundamental truths.
+
+
+19
+
+=Number.=--The invention of the laws of number has as its basis the
+primordial and prior-prevailing delusion that many like things exist
+(although in point of fact there is no such thing is a duplicate), or
+that, at least, there are things (but there is no "thing"). The
+assumption of plurality always presupposes that _something_ exists which
+manifests itself repeatedly, but just here is where the delusion
+prevails; in this very matter we feign realities, unities, that have no
+existence. Our feelings, notions, of space and time are false for they
+lead, when duly tested, to logical contradictions. In all scientific
+demonstrations we always unavoidably base our calculation upon some
+false standards [of duration or measurement] but as these standards are
+at least _constant_, as, for example, our notions of time and space, the
+results arrived at by science possess absolute accuracy and certainty in
+their relationship to one another: one can keep on building upon
+them--until is reached that final limit at which the erroneous
+fundamental conceptions, (the invariable breakdown) come into conflict
+with the results established--as, for example, in the case of the atomic
+theory. Here we always find ourselves obliged to give credence to a
+"thing" or material "substratum" that is set in motion, although, at the
+same time, the whole scientific programme has had as its aim the
+resolving of everything material into motions [themselves]: here again
+we distinguish with our feeling [that which does the] moving and [that
+which is] moved,[11] and we never get out of this circle, because the
+belief in things[12] has been from time immemorial rooted in our
+nature.--When Kant says "the intellect does not derive its laws from
+nature, but dictates them to her" he states the full truth as regards
+the _idea of nature_ which we form (nature = world, as notion, that is,
+as error) but which is merely the synthesis of a host of errors of the
+intellect. To a world not [the outcome of] our conception, the laws of
+number are wholly inapplicable: such laws are valid only in the world of
+mankind.
+
+[11] Wir scheiden auch hier noch mit unserer Empfindung Bewegendes und
+Bewegtes.
+
+[12] Glaube an Dinge.
+
+
+20
+
+=Some Backward Steps.=--One very forward step in education is taken when
+man emerges from his superstitious and religious ideas and fears and,
+for instance, no longer believes in the dear little angels or in
+original sin, and has stopped talking about the salvation of the soul:
+when he has taken this step to freedom he has, nevertheless, through the
+utmost exertion of his mental power, to overcome metaphysics. Then a
+backward movement is necessary: he must appreciate the historical
+justification, and to an equal extent the psychological considerations,
+in such a movement. He must understand that the greatest advances made
+by mankind have resulted from such a course and that without this very
+backward movement the highest achievements of man hitherto would have
+been impossible.--With regard to philosophical metaphysics I see ever
+more and more who have arrived at the negative goal (that all positive
+metaphysic is a delusion) but as yet very few who go a few steps
+backward: one should look out over the last rungs of the ladder, but not
+try to stand on them, that is to say. The most advanced as yet go only
+far enough to free themselves from metaphysic and look back at it with
+an air of superiority: whereas here, no less than in the hippodrome, it
+is necessary to turn around in order to reach the end of the course.
+
+
+21
+
+=Presumable [Nature of the] Victory of Doubt.=--Let us assume for a
+moment the validity of the skeptical standpoint: granted that there is
+no metaphysical world, and that all the metaphysical explanations of the
+only world we know are useless to us, how would we then contemplate men
+and things? [Menschen und Dinge]. This can be thought out and it is
+worth while doing so, even if the question whether anything metaphysical
+has ever been demonstrated by or through Kant and Schopenhauer, be put
+altogether aside. For it is, to all appearances, highly probable that
+men, on this point, will be, in the mass, skeptical. The question thus
+becomes: what sort of a notion will human society, under the influence
+of such a state of mind, form of itself? Perhaps the _scientific
+demonstration_ of any metaphysical world is now so difficult that
+mankind will never be free from a distrust of it. And when there is
+formed a feeling of distrust of metaphysics, the results are, in the
+mass, the same as if metaphysics were refuted altogether and _could_ no
+longer be believed. In both cases the historical question, with regard
+to an unmetaphysical disposition in mankind, remains the same.
+
+
+22
+
+=Disbelief in the "monumentum aere perennius".=[13]--A decided
+disadvantage, attending the termination of metaphysical modes of
+thought, is that the individual fixes his mind too attentively upon his
+own brief lifetime and feels no strong inducement to aid in the
+foundation of institutions capable of enduring for centuries: he wishes
+himself to gather the fruit from the tree that he plants and
+consequently he no longer plants those trees which require centuries of
+constant cultivation and are destined to afford shade to generation
+after generation in the future. For metaphysical views inspire the
+belief that in them is afforded the final sure foundation upon which
+henceforth the whole future of mankind may rest and be built up: the
+individual promotes his own salvation; when, for example, he builds a
+church or a monastery he is of opinion that he is doing something for
+the salvation of his immortal soul:--Can science, as well, inspire such
+faith in the efficacy of her results? In actual fact, science requires
+doubt and distrust as her surest auxiliaries; nevertheless, the sum of
+the irresistible (that is all the onslaughts of skepticism, all the
+disintegrating effects of surviving truths) can easily become so great
+(as, for instance, in the case of hygienic science) as to inspire the
+determination to build "eternal" works upon it. At present the contrast
+between our excitated ephemeral existence and the tranquil repose of
+metaphysical epochs is too great because both are as yet in too close
+juxtaposition. The individual man himself now goes through too many
+stages of inner and outer evolution for him to venture to make a plan
+even for his life time alone. A perfectly modern man, indeed, who wants
+to build himself a house feels as if he were walling himself up alive in
+a mausoleum.
+
+[13] Monument more enduring than brass: Horace, Odes III:XXX.
+
+
+23
+
+=Age of Comparison.=--The less men are bound by tradition, the greater
+is the inner activity of motives, the greater, correspondingly, the
+outer restlessness, the promiscuous flow of humanity, the polyphony of
+strivings. Who now feels any great impulse to establish himself and his
+posterity in a particular place? For whom, moreover, does there exist,
+at present, any strong tie? As all the methods of the arts were copied
+from one another, so were all the methods and advancements of moral
+codes, of manners, of civilizations.--Such an age derives its
+significance from the fact that in it the various ideas, codes, manners
+and civilizations can be compared and experienced side by side; which
+was impossible at an earlier period in view of the localised nature of
+the rule of every civilization, corresponding to the limitation of all
+artistic effects by time and place. To-day the growth of the aesthetic
+feeling is decided, owing to the great number of [artistic] forms which
+offer themselves for comparison. The majority--those that are condemned
+by the method of comparison--will be allowed to die out. In the same way
+there is to-day taking place a selection of the forms and customs of the
+higher morality which can result only in the extinction of the vulgar
+moralities. This is the age of comparison! That is its glory--but also
+its pain. Let us not, however shrink from this pain. Rather would we
+comprehend the nature of the task imposed upon us by our age as
+adequately as we can: posterity will bless us for doing so--a posterity
+that knows itself to be [developed] through and above the narrow, early
+race-civilizations as well as the culture-civilization of comparison,
+but yet looks gratefully back upon both as venerable monuments of
+antiquity.
+
+
+24
+
+=Possibility of Progress.=--When a master of the old civilization (den
+alten Cultur) vows to hold no more discussion with men who believe in
+progress, he is quite right. For the old civilization[14] has its
+greatness and its advantages behind it, and historic training forces one
+to acknowledge that it can never again acquire vigor: only intolerable
+stupidity or equally intolerable fanaticism could fail to perceive this
+fact. But men may consciously determine to evolve to a new civilization
+where formerly they evolved unconsciously and accidentally. They can now
+devise better conditions for the advancement of mankind, for their
+nourishment, training and education, they can administer the earth as an
+economic power, and, particularly, compare the capacities of men and
+select them accordingly. This new, conscious civilization is killing the
+other which, on the whole, has led but an unreflective animal and plant
+life: it is also destroying the doubt of progress itself--progress is
+possible. I mean: it is hasty and almost unreflective to assume that
+progress must _necessarily_ take place: but how can it be doubted that
+progress is possible? On the other hand, progress in the sense and along
+the lines of the old civilization is not even conceivable. If romantic
+fantasy employs the word progress in connection with certain aims and
+ends identical with those of the circumscribed primitive national
+civilizations, the picture presented of progress is always borrowed from
+the past. The idea and the image of progress thus formed are quite
+without originality.
+
+[14] Cultur, culture, civilisation etc., but there is no exact English
+equivalent.
+
+
+25
+
+=Private Ethics and World Ethics.=--Since the extinction of the belief
+that a god guides the general destiny of the world and, notwithstanding
+all the contortions and windings of the path of mankind, leads it
+gloriously forward, men must shape oecumenical, world-embracing ends for
+themselves. The older ethics, namely Kant's, required of the individual
+such a course of conduct as he wishes all men to follow. This evinces
+much simplicity--as if any individual could determine off hand what
+course of conduct would conduce to the welfare of humanity, and what
+course of conduct is preëminently desirable! This is a theory like that
+of freedom of competition, which takes it for granted that the general
+harmony [of things] _must_ prevail of itself in accordance with some
+inherent law of betterment or amelioration. It may be that a later
+contemplation of the needs of mankind will reveal that it is by no means
+desirable that all men should regulate their conduct according to the
+same principle; it may be best, from the standpoint of certain ends yet
+to be attained, that men, during long periods should regulate their
+conduct with reference to special, and even, in certain circumstances,
+evil, objects. At any rate, if mankind is not to be led astray by such a
+universal rule of conduct, it behooves it to attain a _knowledge of the
+condition of culture_ that will serve as a scientific standard of
+comparison in connection with cosmical ends. Herein is comprised the
+tremendous mission of the great spirits of the next century.
+
+
+26
+
+=Reaction as Progress.=--Occasionally harsh, powerful, impetuous, yet
+nevertheless backward spirits, appear, who try to conjure back some past
+era in the history of mankind: they serve as evidence that the new
+tendencies which they oppose, are not yet potent enough, that there is
+something lacking in them: otherwise they [the tendencies] would better
+withstand the effects of this conjuring back process. Thus Luther's
+reformation shows that in his century all the impulses to freedom of the
+spirit were still uncertain, lacking in vigor, and immature. Science
+could not yet rear her head. Indeed the whole Renaissance appears but as
+an early spring smothered in snow. But even in the present century
+Schopenhauer's metaphysic shows that the scientific spirit is not yet
+powerful enough: for the whole mediaeval Christian world-standpoint
+(Weltbetrachtung) and conception of man (Mensch-Empfindung)[15] once
+again, notwithstanding the slowly wrought destruction of all Christian
+dogma, celebrated a resurrection in Schopenhauer's doctrine. There is
+much science in his teaching although the science does not dominate,
+but, instead of it, the old, trite "metaphysical necessity." It is one
+of the greatest and most priceless advantages of Schopenhauer's teaching
+that by it our feelings are temporarily forced back to those old human
+and cosmical standpoints to which no other path could conduct us so
+easily. The gain for history and justice is very great. I believe that
+without Schopenhauer's aid it would be no easy matter for anyone now to
+do justice to Christianity and its Asiatic relatives--a thing impossible
+as regards the christianity that still survives. After according this
+great triumph to justice, after we have corrected in so essential a
+respect the historical point of view which the age of learning brought
+with it, we may begin to bear still farther onward the banner of
+enlightenment--a banner bearing the three names: Petrarch, Erasmus,
+Voltaire. We have taken a forward step out of reaction.
+
+[15] Literally man-feeling or human outlook.
+
+
+27
+
+=A Substitute for Religion.=--It is supposed to be a recommendation for
+philosophy to say of it that it provides the people with a substitute
+for religion. And in fact, the training of the intellect does
+necessitate the convenient laying out of the track of thought, since the
+transition from religion by way of science entails a powerful, perilous
+leap,--something that should be advised against. With this
+qualification, the recommendation referred to is a just one. At the same
+time, it should be further explained that the needs which religion
+satisfies and which science must now satisfy, are not immutable. Even
+they can be diminished and uprooted. Think, for instance, of the
+christian soul-need, the sighs over one's inner corruption, the anxiety
+regarding salvation--all notions that arise simply out of errors of the
+reason and require no satisfaction at all, but annihilation. A
+philosophy can either so affect these needs as to appease them or else
+put them aside altogether, for they are acquired, circumscribed needs,
+based upon hypotheses which those of science explode. Here, for the
+purpose of affording the means of transition, for the sake of lightening
+the spirit overburdened with feeling, art can be employed to far better
+purpose, as these hypotheses receive far less support from art than from
+a metaphysical philosophy. Then from art it is easier to go over to a
+really emancipating philosophical science.
+
+
+28
+
+=Discredited Words.=--Away with the disgustingly over-used words
+optimism and pessimism! For the occasion for using them grows daily
+less; only drivelers now find them indispensably necessary. What earthly
+reason could anyone have for being an optimist unless he had a god to
+defend who _must_ have created the best of all possible worlds, since he
+is himself all goodness and perfection?--but what thinking man has now
+any need for the hypothesis that there is a god?--There is also no
+occasion whatever for a pessimistic confession of faith, unless one has
+a personal interest in denouncing the advocate of god, the theologian or
+the theological philosopher, and maintaining the counter proposition
+that evil reigns, that wretchedness is more potent than joy, that the
+world is a piece of botch work, that phenomenon (Erscheinung) is but the
+manifestation of some evil spirit. But who bothers his head about the
+theologians any more--except the theologians themselves? Apart from all
+theology and its antagonism, it is manifest that the world is neither
+good nor bad, (to say nothing about its being the best or the worst) and
+that these ideas of "good" and "bad" have significance only in relation
+to men, indeed, are without significance at all, in view of the sense in
+which they are usually employed. The contemptuous and the eulogistic
+point of view must, in every case, be repudiated.
+
+
+29
+
+=Intoxicated by the Perfume of Flowers.=--The ship of humanity, it is
+thought, acquires an ever deeper draught the more it is laden. It is
+believed that the more profoundly man thinks, the more exquisitely he
+feels, the higher the standard he sets for himself, the greater his
+distance from the other animals--the more he appears as a genius
+(Genie) among animals--the nearer he gets to the true nature of the
+world and to comprehension thereof: this, indeed, he really does through
+science, but he thinks he does it far more adequately through his
+religions and arts. These are, certainly, a blossoming of the world, but
+not, therefore, _nearer the roots of the world_ than is the stalk. One
+cannot learn best from it the nature of the world, although nearly
+everyone thinks so. _Error_ has made men so deep, sensitive and
+imaginative in order to bring forth such flowers as religions and arts.
+Pure apprehension would be unable to do that. Whoever should disclose to
+us the essence of the world would be undeceiving us most cruelly. Not
+the world as thing-in-itself but the world as idea[16] (as error) is
+rich in portent, deep, wonderful, carrying happiness and unhappiness in
+its womb. This result leads to a philosophy of world negation: which, at
+any rate, can be as well combined with a practical world affirmation as
+with its opposite.
+
+[16] Vorstellung: this word sometimes corresponds to the English word
+"idea", at others to "conception" or "notion."
+
+
+30
+
+=Evil Habits in Reaching Conclusions.=--The most usual erroneous
+conclusions of men are these: a thing[17] exists, therefore it is right:
+Here from capacity to live is deduced fitness, from fitness, is deduced
+justification. So also: an opinion gives happiness, therefore it is the
+true one, its effect is good, therefore it is itself good and true. Here
+is predicated of the effect that it gives happiness, that it is good in
+the sense of utility, and there is likewise predicated of the cause that
+it is good, but good in the sense of logical validity. Conversely, the
+proposition would run: a thing[17] cannot attain success, cannot
+maintain itself, therefore it is evil: a belief troubles [the believer],
+occasions pain, therefore it is false. The free spirit, who is sensible
+of the defect in this method of reaching conclusions and has had to
+suffer its consequences, often succumbs to the temptation to come to the
+very opposite conclusions (which, in general, are, of course, equally
+erroneous): a thing cannot maintain itself: therefore it is good; a
+belief is troublesome, therefore it is true.
+
+[17] Sache, thing but not in the sense of Ding. Sache is of very
+indefinite application (res).
+
+
+31
+
+=The Illogical is Necessary.=--Among the things which can bring a
+thinker to distraction is the knowledge that the illogical is necessary
+to mankind and that from the illogical springs much that is good. The
+illogical is so imbedded in the passions, in language, in art, in
+religion and, above all, in everything that imparts value to life that
+it cannot be taken away without irreparably injuring those beautiful
+things. Only men of the utmost simplicity can believe that the nature
+man knows can be changed into a purely logical nature. Yet were there
+steps affording approach to this goal, how utterly everything would be
+lost on the way! Even the most rational man needs nature again, from
+time to time, that is, his illogical fundamental relation
+(Grundstellung) to all things.
+
+
+32
+
+=Being Unjust is Essential.=--All judgments of the value of life are
+illogically developed and therefore unjust. The vice of the judgment
+consists, first, in the way in which the subject matter comes under
+observation, that is, very incompletely; secondly in the way in which
+the total is summed up; and, thirdly, in the fact that each single item
+in the totality of the subject matter is itself the result of defective
+perception, and this from absolute necessity. No practical knowledge of
+a man, for example, stood he never so near to us, can be complete--so
+that we could have a logical right to form a total estimate of him; all
+estimates are summary and must be so. Then the standard by which we
+measure, (our being) is not an immutable quantity; we have moods and
+variations, and yet we should know ourselves as an invariable standard
+before we undertake to establish the nature of the relation of any thing
+(Sache) to ourselves. Perhaps it will follow from all this that one
+should form no judgments whatever; if one could but merely _live_
+without having to form estimates, without aversion and without
+partiality!--for everything most abhorred is closely connected with an
+estimate, as well as every strongest partiality. An inclination towards
+a thing, or from a thing, without an accompanying feeling that the
+beneficial is desired and the pernicious contemned, an inclination
+without a sort of experiential estimation of the desirability of an end,
+does not exist in man. We are primordially illogical and hence unjust
+beings _and can recognise this fact_: this is one of the greatest and
+most baffling discords of existence.
+
+
+33
+
+=Error Respecting Living for the Sake of Living Essential.=--Every
+belief in the value and worthiness of life rests upon defective
+thinking; it is for this reason alone possible that sympathy with the
+general life and suffering of mankind is so imperfectly developed in the
+individual. Even exceptional men, who can think beyond their own
+personalities, do not have this general life in view, but isolated
+portions of it. If one is capable of fixing his observation upon
+exceptional cases, I mean upon highly endowed individuals and pure
+souled beings, if their development is taken as the true end of
+world-evolution and if joy be felt in their existence, then it is
+possible to believe in the value of life, because in that case the rest
+of humanity is overlooked: hence we have here defective thinking. So,
+too, it is even if all mankind be taken into consideration, and one
+species only of impulses (the less egoistic) brought under review and
+those, in consideration of the other impulses, exalted: then something
+could still be hoped of mankind in the mass and to that extent there
+could exist belief in the value of life: here, again, as a result of
+defective thinking. Whatever attitude, thus, one may assume, one is, as
+a result of this attitude, an exception among mankind. Now, the great
+majority of mankind endure life without any great protest, and believe,
+to this extent, in the value of existence, but that is because each
+individual decides and determines alone, and never comes out of his own
+personality like these exceptions: everything outside of the personal
+has no existence for them or at the utmost is observed as but a faint
+shadow. Consequently the value of life for the generality of mankind
+consists simply in the fact that the individual attaches more importance
+to himself than he does to the world. The great lack of imagination from
+which he suffers is responsible for his inability to enter into the
+feelings of beings other than himself, and hence his sympathy with their
+fate and suffering is of the slightest possible description. On the
+other hand, whosoever really _could_ sympathise, necessarily doubts the
+value of life; were it possible for him to sum up and to feel in himself
+the total consciousness of mankind, he would collapse with a malediction
+against existence,--for mankind is, in the mass, without a goal, and
+hence man cannot find, in the contemplation of his whole course,
+anything to serve him as a mainstay and a comfort, but rather a reason
+to despair. If he looks beyond the things that immediately engage him to
+the final aimlessness of humanity, his own conduct assumes in his eyes
+the character of a frittering away. To feel oneself, however, as
+humanity (not alone as an individual) frittered away exactly as we see
+the stray leaves frittered away by nature, is a feeling transcending all
+feeling. But who is capable of it? Only a poet, certainly: and poets
+always know how to console themselves.
+
+
+34
+
+=For Tranquility.=--But will not our philosophy become thus a tragedy?
+Will not truth prove the enemy of life, of betterment? A question seems
+to weigh upon our tongue and yet will not put itself into words: whether
+one _can_ knowingly remain in the domain of the untruthful? or, if one
+_must_, whether, then, death would not be preferable? For there is no
+longer any ought (Sollen), morality; so far as it is involved "ought,"
+is, through our point of view, as utterly annihilated as religion. Our
+knowledge can permit only pleasure and pain, benefit and injury, to
+subsist as motives. But how can these motives be distinguished from the
+desire for truth? Even they rest upon error (in so far, as already
+stated, partiality and dislike and their very inaccurate estimates
+palpably modify our pleasure and our pain). The whole of human life is
+deeply involved in _untruth_. The individual cannot extricate it from
+this pit without thereby fundamentally clashing with his whole past,
+without finding his present motives of conduct, (as that of honor)
+illegitimate, and without opposing scorn and contempt to the ambitions
+which prompt one to have regard for the future and for one's happiness
+in the future. Is it true, does there, then, remain but one way of
+thinking, which, as a personal consequence brings in its train despair,
+and as a theoretical [consequence brings in its train] a philosophy of
+decay, disintegration, self annihilation? I believe the deciding
+influence, as regards the after-effect of knowledge, will be the
+_temperament_ of a man; I can, in addition to this after-effect just
+mentioned, suppose another, by means of which a much simpler life, and
+one freer from disturbances than the present, could be lived; so that at
+first the old motives of vehement passion might still have strength,
+owing to hereditary habit, but they would gradually grow weaker under
+the influence of purifying knowledge. A man would live, at last, both
+among men and unto himself, as in the natural state, without praise,
+reproach, competition, feasting one's eyes, as if it were a play, upon
+much that formerly inspired dread. One would be rid of the strenuous
+element, and would no longer feel the goad of the reflection that man is
+not even [as much as] nature, nor more than nature. To be sure, this
+requires, as already stated, a good temperament, a fortified, gentle and
+naturally cheerful soul, a disposition that has no need to be on its
+guard against its own eccentricities and sudden outbreaks and that in
+its utterances manifests neither sullenness nor a snarling tone--those
+familiar, disagreeable characteristics of old dogs and old men that have
+been a long time chained up. Rather must a man, from whom the ordinary
+bondages of life have fallen away to so great an extent, so do that he
+only lives on in order to grow continually in knowledge, and to learn to
+resign, without envy and without disappointment, much, yes nearly
+everything, that has value in the eyes of men. He must be content with
+such a free, fearless soaring above men, manners, laws and traditional
+estimates of things, as the most desirable of all situations. He will
+freely share the joy of being in such a situation, and he has, perhaps,
+nothing else to share--in which renunciation and self-denial really most
+consist. But if more is asked of him, he will, with a benevolent shake
+of the head, refer to his brother, the free man of fact, and will,
+perhaps, not dissemble a little contempt: for, as regards his "freedom,"
+thereby hangs a tale.[18]
+
+[18] den mit dessen "Freiheit" hat es eine eigene Bewandtniss.
+
+
+
+
+HISTORY OF THE MORAL FEELINGS.
+
+
+35
+
+=Advantages of Psychological Observation.=--That reflection regarding
+the human, all-too-human--or as the learned jargon is: psychological
+observation--is among the means whereby the burden of life can be made
+lighter, that practice in this art affords presence of mind in difficult
+situations and entertainment amid a wearisome environment, aye, that
+maxims may be culled in the thorniest and least pleasing paths of life
+and invigoration thereby obtained: this much was believed, was known--in
+former centuries. Why was this forgotten in our own century, during
+which, at least in Germany, yes in Europe, poverty as regards
+psychological observation would have been manifest in many ways had
+there been anyone to whom this poverty could have manifested itself. Not
+only in the novel, in the romance, in philosophical standpoints--these
+are the works of exceptional men; still more in the state of opinion
+regarding public events and personages; above all in general society,
+which says much about men but nothing whatever about man, there is
+totally lacking the art of psychological analysis and synthesis. But why
+is the richest and most harmless source of entertainment thus allowed to
+run to waste? Why is the greatest master of the psychological maxim no
+longer read?--for, with no exaggeration whatever be it said: the
+educated person in Europe who has read La Rochefoucauld and his
+intellectual and artistic affinities is very hard to find; still harder,
+the person who knows them and does not disparage them. Apparently, too,
+this unusual reader takes far less pleasure in them than the form
+adopted by these artists should afford him: for the subtlest mind cannot
+adequately appreciate the art of maxim-making unless it has had training
+in it, unless it has competed in it. Without such practical
+acquaintance, one is apt to look upon this making and forming as a much
+easier thing than it really is; one is not keenly enough alive to the
+felicity and the charm of success. Hence present day readers of maxims
+have but a moderate, tempered pleasure in them, scarcely, indeed, a true
+perception of their merit, so that their experiences are about the same
+as those of the average beholder of cameos: people who praise because
+they cannot appreciate, and are very ready to admire and still readier
+to turn away.
+
+
+36
+
+=Objection.=--Or is there a counter-proposition to the dictum that
+psychological observation is one of the means of consoling, lightening,
+charming existence? Have enough of the unpleasant effects of this art
+been experienced to justify the person striving for culture in turning
+his regard away from it? In all truth, a certain blind faith in the
+goodness of human nature, an implanted distaste for any disparagement of
+human concerns, a sort of shamefacedness at the nakedness of the soul,
+may be far more desirable things in the general happiness of a man, than
+this only occasionally advantageous quality of psychological
+sharpsightedness; and perhaps belief in the good, in virtuous men and
+actions, in a plenitude of disinterested benevolence has been more
+productive of good in the world of men in so far as it has made men less
+distrustful. If Plutarch's heroes are enthusiastically imitated and a
+reluctance is experienced to looking too critically into the motives of
+their actions, not the knowledge but the welfare of human society is
+promoted thereby: psychological error and above all obtuseness in regard
+to it, help human nature forward, whereas knowledge of the truth is more
+promoted by means of the stimulating strength of a hypothesis; as La
+Rochefoucauld in the first edition of his "Sentences and Moral Maxims"
+has expressed it: "What the world calls virtue is ordinarily but a
+phantom created by the passions, and to which we give a good name in
+order to do whatever we please with impunity." La Rochefoucauld and
+those other French masters of soul-searching (to the number of whom has
+lately been added a German, the author of "Psychological Observations")
+are like expert marksmen who again and again hit the black spot--but it
+is the black spot in human nature. Their art inspires amazement, but
+finally some spectator, inspired, not by the scientific spirit but by a
+humanitarian feeling, execrates an art that seems to implant in the soul
+a taste for belittling and impeaching mankind.
+
+
+37
+
+=Nevertheless.=--The matter therefore, as regards pro and con, stands
+thus: in the present state of philosophy an awakening of the moral
+observation is essential. The repulsive aspect of psychological
+dissection, with the knife and tweezers entailed by the process, can no
+longer be spared humanity. Such is the imperative duty of any science
+that investigates the origin and history of the so-called moral feelings
+and which, in its progress, is called upon to posit and to solve
+advanced social problems:--The older philosophy does not recognize the
+newer at all and, through paltry evasions, has always gone astray in the
+investigation of the origin and history of human estimates
+(Werthschätzungen). With what results may now be very clearly perceived,
+since it has been shown by many examples, how the errors of the greatest
+philosophers have their origin in a false explanation of certain human
+actions and feelings; how upon the foundation of an erroneous analysis
+(for example, of the so called disinterested actions), a false ethic is
+reared, to support which religion and like mythological monstrosities
+are called in, until finally the shades of these troubled spirits
+collapse in physics and in the comprehensive world point of view. But if
+it be established that superficiality of psychological observation has
+heretofore set the most dangerous snares for human judgment and
+deduction, and will continue to do so, all the greater need is there of
+that steady continuance of labor that never wearies putting stone upon
+stone, little stone upon little stone; all the greater need is there of
+a courage that is not ashamed of such humble labor and that will oppose
+persistence, to all contempt. It is, finally, also true that countless
+single observations concerning the human, all-too-human, have been
+first made and uttered in circles accustomed, not to furnish matter for
+scientific knowledge, but for intellectual pleasure-seeking; and the
+original home atmosphere--a very seductive atmosphere--of the moral
+maxim has almost inextricably interpenetrated the entire species, so
+that the scientific man involuntarily manifests a sort of mistrust of
+this species and of its seriousness. But it is sufficient to point to
+the consequences: for already it is becoming evident that events of the
+most portentous nature are developing in the domain of psychological
+observation. What is the leading conclusion arrived at by one of the
+subtlest and calmest of thinkers, the author of the work "Concerning the
+Origin of the Moral Feelings", as a result of his thorough and incisive
+analysis of human conduct? "The moral man," he says, "stands no nearer
+the knowable (metaphysical) world than the physical man."[19] This
+dictum, grown hard and cutting beneath the hammer-blow of historical
+knowledge, can some day, perhaps, in some future or other, serve as the
+axe that will be laid to the root of the "metaphysical necessities" of
+men--whether more to the blessing than to the banning of universal well
+being who can say?--but in any event a dictum fraught with the most
+momentous consequences, fruitful and fearful at once, and confronting
+the world in the two faced way characteristic of all great facts.
+
+[19] "Der moralische Mensch, sagt er, steht der intelligiblen
+(metaphysischen) Welt nicht näher, als der physische Mensch."
+
+
+38
+
+=To What Extent Useful.=--Therefore, whether psychological observation
+is more an advantage than a disadvantage to mankind may always remain
+undetermined: but there is no doubt that it is necessary, because
+science can no longer dispense with it. Science, however, recognizes no
+considerations of ultimate goals or ends any more than nature does; but
+as the latter duly matures things of the highest fitness for certain
+ends without any intention of doing it, so will true science, doing with
+ideas what nature does with matter,[20] promote the purposes and the
+welfare of humanity, (as occasion may afford, and in many ways) and
+attain fitness [to ends]--but likewise without having intended it.
+
+[20] als die Nachahmung der Natur in Begriffen, literally: "as the
+counterfeit of nature in (regard to) ideas."
+
+He to whom the atmospheric conditions of such a prospect are too wintry,
+has too little fire in him: let him look about him, and he will become
+sensible of maladies requiring an icy air, and of people who are so
+"kneaded together" out of ardor and intellect that they can scarcely
+find anywhere an atmosphere too cold and cutting for them. Moreover: as
+too serious individuals and nations stand in need of trivial
+relaxations; as others, too volatile and excitable require onerous,
+weighty ordeals to render them entirely healthy: should not we, the more
+intellectual men of this age, which is swept more and more by
+conflagrations, catch up every cooling and extinguishing appliance we
+can find that we may always remain as self contained, steady and calm as
+we are now, and thereby perhaps serve this age as its mirror and self
+reflector, when the occasion arises?
+
+
+39
+
+=The Fable of Discretionary Freedom.=--The history of the feelings, on
+the basis of which we make everyone responsible, hence, the so-called
+moral feelings, is traceable in the following leading phases. At first
+single actions are termed good or bad without any reference to their
+motive, but solely because of the utilitarian or prejudicial
+consequences they have for the community. In time, however, the origin
+of these designations is forgotten [but] it is imagined that action in
+itself, without reference to its consequences, contains the property
+"good" or "bad": with the same error according to which language
+designates the stone itself as hard[ness] the tree itself as
+green[ness]--for the reason, therefore, that what is a consequence is
+comprehended as a cause. Accordingly, the good[ness] or bad[ness] is
+incorporated into the motive and [any] deed by itself is regarded as
+morally ambiguous. A step further is taken, and the predication good or
+bad is no longer made of the particular motives but of the entire nature
+of a man, out of which motive grows as grow the plants out of the soil.
+Thus man is successively made responsible for his [particular] acts,
+then for his [course of] conduct, then for his motives and finally for
+his nature. Now, at last, is it discovered that this nature, even,
+cannot be responsible, inasmuch as it is only and wholly a necessary
+consequence and is synthesised out of the elements and influence of past
+and present things: therefore, that man is to be made responsible for
+nothing, neither for his nature, nor his motives, nor his [course of]
+conduct nor his [particular] acts. By this [process] is gained the
+knowledge that the history of moral estimates is the history of error,
+of the error of responsibility: as is whatever rests upon the error of
+the freedom of the will. Schopenhauer concluded just the other way,
+thus: since certain actions bring depression ("consciousness of guilt")
+in their train, there must, then, exist responsibility, for there would
+be no basis for this depression at hand if all man's affairs did not
+follow their course of necessity--as they do, indeed, according to the
+opinion of this philosopher, follow their course--but man himself,
+subject to the same necessity, would be just the man that he is--which
+Schopenhauer denies. From the fact of such depression Schopenhauer
+believes himself able to prove a freedom which man in some way must have
+had, not indeed in regard to his actions but in regard to his nature:
+freedom, therefore, to be thus and so, not to act thus and so. Out of
+the _esse_, the sphere of freedom and responsibility, follows, according
+to his opinion, the _operari_, the spheres of invariable causation,
+necessity and irresponsibility. This depression, indeed, is due
+apparently to the _operari_--in so far as it be delusive--but in truth
+to whatever _esse_ be the deed of a free will, the basic cause of the
+existence of an individual: [in order to] let man become whatever he
+wills to become, his [to] will (Wollen) must precede his
+existence.--Here, apart from the absurdity of the statement just made,
+there is drawn the wrong inference that the fact of the depression
+explains its character, the rational admissibility of it: from such a
+wrong inference does Schopenhauer first come to his fantastic consequent
+of the so called discretionary freedom (intelligibeln Freiheit). (For
+the origin of this fabulous entity Plato and Kant are equally
+responsible). But depression after the act does not need to be rational:
+indeed, it is certainly not so at all, for it rests upon the erroneous
+assumption that the act need not necessarily have come to pass.
+Therefore: only because man deems himself free, but not because
+he is free, does he experience remorse and the stings of
+conscience.--Moreover, this depression is something that can be grown
+out of; in many men it is not present at all as a consequence of acts
+which inspire it in many other men. It is a very varying thing and one
+closely connected with the development of custom and civilization, and
+perhaps manifest only during a relatively brief period of the world's
+history.--No one is responsible for his acts, no one for his nature; to
+judge is tantamount to being unjust. This applies as well when the
+individual judges himself. The proposition is as clear as sunlight, and
+yet here everyone prefers to go back to darkness and untruth: for fear
+of the consequences.
+
+
+40
+
+=Above Animal.=--The beast in us must be wheedled: ethic is necessary,
+that we may not be torn to pieces. Without the errors involved in the
+assumptions of ethics, man would have remained an animal. Thus has he
+taken himself as something higher and imposed rigid laws upon himself.
+He feels hatred, consequently, for states approximating the animal:
+whence the former contempt for the slave as a not-yet-man, as a thing,
+is to be explained.
+
+
+41
+
+=Unalterable Character.=--That character is unalterable is not, in the
+strict sense, true; rather is this favorite proposition valid only to
+the extent that during the brief life period of a man the potent new
+motives can not, usually, press down hard enough to obliterate the lines
+imprinted by ages. Could we conceive of a man eighty thousand years old,
+we should have in him an absolutely alterable character; so that the
+maturities of successive, varying individuals would develop in him. The
+shortness of human life leads to many erroneous assertions concerning
+the qualities of man.
+
+
+42
+
+=Classification of Enjoyments and Ethic.=--The once accepted comparative
+classification of enjoyments, according to which an inferior, higher,
+highest egoism may crave one or another enjoyment, now decides as to
+ethical status or unethical status. A lower enjoyment (for example,
+sensual pleasure) preferred to a more highly esteemed one (for example,
+health) rates as unethical, as does welfare preferred to freedom. The
+comparative classification of enjoyments is not, however, alike or the
+same at all periods; when anyone demands satisfaction of the law, he is,
+from the point of view of an earlier civilization, moral, from that of
+the present, non-moral. "Unethical" indicates, therefore, that a man is
+not sufficiently sensible to the higher, finer impulses which the
+present civilization has brought with it, or is not sensible to them at
+all; it indicates backwardness, but only from the point of view of the
+contemporary degree of distinction.--The comparative classification of
+enjoyments itself is not determined according to absolute ethics; but
+after each new ethical adjustment, it is then decided whether conduct be
+ethical or the reverse.
+
+
+43
+
+=Inhuman Men as Survivals.=--Men who are now inhuman must serve us as
+surviving specimens of earlier civilizations. The mountain height of
+humanity here reveals its lower formations, which might otherwise remain
+hidden from view. There are surviving specimens of humanity whose brains
+through the vicissitudes of heredity, have escaped proper development.
+They show us what we all were and thus appal us; but they are as little
+responsible on this account as is a piece of granite for being granite.
+In our own brains there must be courses and windings corresponding to
+such characters, just as in the forms of some human organs there survive
+traces of fishhood. But these courses and windings are no longer the bed
+in which flows the stream of our feeling.
+
+
+44
+
+=Gratitude and Revenge.=--The reason the powerful man is grateful is
+this. His benefactor has, through his benefaction, invaded the domain of
+the powerful man and established himself on an equal footing: the
+powerful man in turn invades the domain of the benefactor and gets
+satisfaction through the act of gratitude. It is a mild form of revenge.
+By not obtaining the satisfaction of gratitude the powerful would have
+shown himself powerless and have ranked as such thenceforward. Hence
+every society of the good, that is to say, of the powerful originally,
+places gratitude among the first of duties.--Swift has added the dictum
+that man is grateful in the same degree that he is revengeful.
+
+
+45
+
+=Two-fold Historical Origin of Good and Evil.=--The notion of good and
+bad has a two-fold historical origin: namely, first, in the spirit of
+ruling races and castes. Whoever has power to requite good with good and
+evil with evil and actually brings requital, (that is, is grateful and
+revengeful) acquires the name of being good; whoever is powerless and
+cannot requite is called bad. A man belongs, as a good individual, to
+the "good" of a community, who have a feeling in common, because all the
+individuals are allied with one another through the requiting sentiment.
+A man belongs, as a bad individual, to the "bad," to a mass of
+subjugated, powerless men who have no feeling in common. The good are a
+caste, the bad are a quantity, like dust. Good and bad is, for a
+considerable period, tantamount to noble and servile, master and slave.
+On the other hand an enemy is not looked upon as bad: he can requite.
+The Trojan and the Greek are in Homer both good. Not he, who does no
+harm, but he who is despised, is deemed bad. In the community of the
+good individuals [the quality of] good[ness] is inherited; it is
+impossible for a bad individual to grow from such a rich soil. If,
+notwithstanding, one of the good individuals does something unworthy of
+his goodness, recourse is had to exorcism; thus the guilt is ascribed to
+a deity, the while it is declared that this deity bewitched the good man
+into madness and blindness.--Second, in the spirit of the subjugated,
+the powerless. Here every other man is, to the individual, hostile,
+inconsiderate, greedy, inhuman, avaricious, be he noble or servile; bad
+is the characteristic term for man, for every living being, indeed, that
+is recognized at all, even for a god: human, divine, these notions are
+tantamount to devilish, bad. Manifestations of goodness, sympathy,
+helpfulness, are regarded with anxiety as trickiness, preludes to an
+evil end, deception, subtlety, in short, as refined badness. With such a
+predisposition in individuals, a feeling in common can scarcely arise at
+all, at most only the rudest form of it: so that everywhere that this
+conception of good and evil prevails, the destruction of the
+individuals, their race and nation, is imminent.--Our existing morality
+has developed upon the foundation laid by ruling races and castes.
+
+
+46
+
+=Sympathy Greater than Suffering.=--There are circumstances in which
+sympathy is stronger than the suffering itself. We feel more pain, for
+instance, when one of our friends becomes guilty of a reprehensible
+action than if we had done the deed ourselves. We once, that is, had
+more faith in the purity of his character than he had himself. Hence our
+love for him, (apparently because of this very faith) is stronger than
+is his own love for himself. If, indeed, his egoism really suffers more,
+as a result, than our egoism, inasmuch as he must take the consequences
+of his fault to a greater extent than ourselves, nevertheless, the
+unegoistic--this word is not to be taken too strictly, but simply as a
+modified form of expression--in us is more affected by his guilt than
+the unegoistic in him.
+
+
+47
+
+=Hypochondria.=--There are people who, from sympathy and anxiety for
+others become hypochondriacal. The resulting form of compassion is
+nothing else than sickness. So, also, is there a Christian hypochondria,
+from which those singular, religiously agitated people suffer who place
+always before their eyes the suffering and death of Christ.
+
+
+48
+
+=Economy of Blessings.=--The advantageous and the pleasing, as the
+healthiest growths and powers in the intercourse of men, are such
+precious treasures that it is much to be wished the use made of these
+balsamic means were as economical as possible: but this is impossible.
+Economy in the use of blessings is the dream of the craziest of
+Utopians.
+
+
+49
+
+=Well-Wishing.=--Among the small, but infinitely plentiful and therefore
+very potent things to which science must pay more attention than to the
+great, uncommon things, well-wishing[21] must be reckoned; I mean those
+manifestations of friendly disposition in intercourse, that laughter of
+the eye, every hand pressure, every courtesy from which, in general,
+every human act gets its quality. Every teacher, every functionary adds
+this element as a gratuity to whatever he does as a duty; it is the
+perpetual well spring of humanity, like the waves of light in which
+everything grows; thus, in the narrowest circles, within the family,
+life blooms and flowers only through this kind feeling. The
+cheerfulness, friendliness and kindness of a heart are unfailing
+sources of unegoistic impulse and have made far more for civilization
+than those other more noised manifestations of it that are styled
+sympathy, benevolence and sacrifice. But it is customary to depreciate
+these little tokens of kindly feeling, and, indeed, there is not much of
+the unegoistic in them. The sum of these little doses is very great,
+nevertheless; their combined strength is of the greatest of
+strengths.--Thus, too, much more happiness is to be found in the world
+than gloomy eyes discover: that is, if the calculation be just, and all
+these pleasing moments in which every day, even the meanest human life,
+is rich, be not forgotten.
+
+[21] Wohl-wollen, kind feeling. It stands here for benevolence but not
+benevolence in the restricted sense of the word now prevailing.
+
+
+50
+
+=The Desire to Inspire Compassion.=--La Rochefoucauld, in the most
+notable part of his self portraiture (first printed 1658) reaches the
+vital spot of truth when he warns all those endowed with reason to be on
+their guard against compassion, when he advises that this sentiment be
+left to men of the masses who stand in need of the promptings of the
+emotions (since they are not guided by reason) to induce them to give
+aid to the suffering and to be of service in misfortune: whereas
+compassion, in his (and Plato's) view, deprives the heart of strength.
+To be sure, sympathy should be manifested but men should take care not
+to feel it; for the unfortunate are rendered so dull that the
+manifestation of sympathy affords them the greatest happiness in the
+world.--Perhaps a more effectual warning against this compassion can be
+given if this need of the unfortunate be considered not simply as
+stupidity and intellectual weakness, not as a sort of distraction of the
+spirit entailed by misfortune itself (and thus, indeed, does La
+Rochefoucauld seem to view it) but as something quite different and more
+momentous. Let note be taken of children who cry and scream in order to
+be compassionated and who, therefore, await the moment when their
+condition will be observed; come into contact with the sick and the
+oppressed in spirit and try to ascertain if the wailing and sighing, the
+posturing and posing of misfortune do not have as end and aim the
+causing of pain to the beholder: the sympathy which each beholder
+manifests is a consolation to the weak and suffering only in as much as
+they are made to perceive that at least they have the power,
+notwithstanding all their weakness, to inflict pain. The unfortunate
+experiences a species of joy in the sense of superiority which the
+manifestation of sympathy entails; his imagination is exalted; he is
+always strong enough, then, to cause the world pain. Thus is the thirst
+for sympathy a thirst for self enjoyment and at the expense of one's
+fellow creatures: it shows man in the whole ruthlessness of his own dear
+self: not in his mere "dullness" as La Rochefoucauld thinks.--In social
+conversation three fourths of all the questions are asked, and three
+fourths of all the replies are made in order to inflict some little
+pain; that is why so many people crave social intercourse: it gives them
+a sense of their power. In these countless but very small doses in which
+the quality of badness is administered it proves a potent stimulant of
+life: to the same extent that well wishing--(Wohl-wollen) distributed
+through the world in like manner, is one of the ever ready
+restoratives.--But will many honorable people be found to admit that
+there is any pleasure in administering pain? that entertainment--and
+rare entertainment--is not seldom found in causing others, at least in
+thought, some pain, and in raking them with the small shot of
+wickedness? The majority are too ignoble and a few are too good to know
+anything of this pudendum: the latter may, consequently, be prompt to
+deny that Prosper Mérimée is right when he says: "Know, also, that
+nothing is more common than to do wrong for the pleasure of doing it."
+
+
+51
+
+=How Appearance Becomes Reality.=--The actor cannot, at last, refrain,
+even in moments of the deepest pain, from thinking of the effect
+produced by his deportment and by his surroundings--for example, even at
+the funeral of his own child: he will weep at his own sorrow and its
+manifestations as though he were his own audience. The hypocrite who
+always plays one and the same part, finally ceases to be a hypocrite; as
+in the case of priests who, when young men, are always, either
+consciously or unconsciously, hypocrites, and finally become naturally
+and then really, without affectation, mere priests: or if the father
+does not carry it to this extent, the son, who inherits his father's
+calling and gets the advantage of the paternal progress, does. When
+anyone, during a long period, and persistently, wishes to appear
+something, it will at last prove difficult for him to be anything else.
+The calling of almost every man, even of the artist, begins with
+hypocrisy, with an imitation of deportment, with a copying of the
+effective in manner. He who always wears the mask of a friendly man must
+at last gain a power over friendliness of disposition, without which the
+expression itself of friendliness is not to be gained--and finally
+friendliness of disposition gains the ascendancy over him--he _is_
+benevolent.
+
+
+52
+
+=The Point of Honor in Deception.=--In all great deceivers one
+characteristic is prominent, to which they owe their power. In the very
+act of deception, amid all the accompaniments, the agitation in the
+voice, the expression, the bearing, in the crisis of the scene, there
+comes over them a belief in themselves; this it is that acts so
+effectively and irresistibly upon the beholders. Founders of religions
+differ from such great deceivers in that they never come out of this
+state of self deception, or else they have, very rarely, a few moments
+of enlightenment in which they are overcome by doubt; generally,
+however, they soothe themselves by ascribing such moments of
+enlightenment to the evil adversary. Self deception must exist that both
+classes of deceivers may attain far reaching results. For men believe in
+the truth of all that is manifestly believed with due implicitness by
+others.
+
+
+53
+
+=Presumed Degrees of Truth.=--One of the most usual errors of deduction
+is: because someone truly and openly is against us, therefore he speaks
+the truth. Hence the child has faith in the judgments of its elders, the
+Christian in the assertions of the founder of the church. So, too, it
+will not be admitted that all for which men sacrificed life and
+happiness in former centuries was nothing but delusion: perhaps it is
+alleged these things were degrees of truth. But what is really meant is
+that, if a person sincerely believes a thing and has fought and died for
+his faith, it would be too _unjust_ if only delusion had inspired him.
+Such a state of affairs seems to contradict eternal justice. For that
+reason the heart of a sensitive man pronounces against his head the
+judgment: between moral conduct and intellectual insight there must
+always exist an inherent connection. It is, unfortunately, otherwise:
+for there is no eternal justice.
+
+
+54
+
+=Falsehood.=--Why do men, as a rule, speak the truth in the ordinary
+affairs of life? Certainly not for the reason that a god has forbidden
+lying. But because first: it is more convenient, as falsehood entails
+invention, make-believe and recollection (wherefore Swift says that
+whoever invents a lie seldom realises the heavy burden he takes up: he
+must, namely, for every lie that he tells, insert twenty more).
+Therefore, because in plain ordinary relations of life it is expedient
+to say without circumlocution: I want this, I have done this, and the
+like; therefore, because the way of freedom and certainty is surer than
+that of ruse.--But if it happens that a child is brought up in sinister
+domestic circumstances, it will then indulge in falsehood as matter of
+course, and involuntarily say anything its own interests may prompt: an
+inclination for truth, an aversion to falsehood, is quite foreign and
+uncongenial to it, and hence it lies in all innocence.
+
+
+55
+
+=Ethic Discredited for Faith's Sake.=--No power can sustain itself when
+it is represented by mere humbugs: the Catholic Church may possess ever
+so many "worldly" sources of strength, but its true might is comprised
+in those still numberless priestly natures who make their lives stern
+and strenuous and whose looks and emaciated bodies are eloquent of night
+vigils, fasts, ardent prayer, perhaps even of whip lashes: these things
+make men tremble and cause them anxiety: what, if it be really
+imperative to live thus? This is the dreadful question which their
+aspect occasions. As they spread this doubt, they lay anew the prop of
+their power: even the free thinkers dare not oppose such
+disinterestedness with severe truth and cry: "Thou deceived one,
+deceive not!"--Only the difference of standpoint separates them from
+him: no difference in goodness or badness. But things we cannot
+accomplish ourselves, we are apt to criticise unfairly. Thus we are told
+of the cunning and perverted acts of the Jesuits, but we overlook the
+self mastery that each Jesuit imposes upon himself and also the fact
+that the easy life which the Jesuit manuals advocate is for the benefit,
+not of the Jesuits but the laity. Indeed, it may be questioned whether
+we enlightened ones would become equally competent workers as the result
+of similar tactics and organization, and equally worthy of admiration as
+the result of self mastery, indefatigable industry and devotion.
+
+
+56
+
+=Victory of Knowledge over Radical Evil.=--It proves a material gain to
+him who would attain knowledge to have had during a considerable period
+the idea that mankind is a radically bad and perverted thing: it is a
+false idea, as is its opposite, but it long held sway and its roots have
+reached down even to ourselves and our present world. In order to
+understand _ourselves_ we must understand _it_; but in order to attain a
+loftier height we must step above it. We then perceive that there is no
+such thing as sin in the metaphysical sense: but also, in the same
+sense, no such thing as virtue; that this whole domain of ethical
+notions is one of constant variation; that there are higher and deeper
+conceptions of good and evil, moral and immoral. Whoever desires no more
+of things than knowledge of them attains speedily to peace of mind and
+will at most err through lack of knowledge, but scarcely through
+eagerness for knowledge (or through sin, as the world calls it). He will
+not ask that eagerness for knowledge be interdicted and rooted out; but
+his single, all powerful ambition to _know_ as thoroughly and as fully
+as possible, will soothe him and moderate all that is strenuous in his
+circumstances. Moreover, he is now rid of a number of disturbing
+notions; he is no longer beguiled by such words as hell-pain,
+sinfulness, unworthiness: he sees in them merely the flitting shadow
+pictures of false views of life and of the world.
+
+
+57
+
+=Ethic as Man's Self-Analysis.=--A good author, whose heart is really in
+his work, wishes that someone would arise and wholly refute him if only
+thereby his subject be wholly clarified and made plain. The maid in love
+wishes that she could attest the fidelity of her own passion through
+the faithlessness of her beloved. The soldier wishes to sacrifice his
+life on the field of his fatherland's victory: for in the victory of his
+fatherland his highest end is attained. The mother gives her child what
+she deprives herself of--sleep, the best nourishment and, in certain
+circumstances, her health, her self.--But are all these acts unegoistic?
+Are these moral deeds miracles because they are, in Schopenhauer's
+phrase "impossible and yet accomplished"? Is it not evident that in all
+four cases man loves one part of himself, (a thought, a longing, an
+experience) more than he loves another part of himself? that he thus
+analyses his being and sacrifices one part of it to another part? Is
+this essentially different from the behavior of the obstinate man who
+says "I would rather be shot than go a step out of my way for this
+fellow"?--Preference for something (wish, impulse, longing) is present
+in all four instances: to yield to it, with all its consequences, is not
+"unegoistic."--In the domain of the ethical man conducts himself not as
+individuum but as dividuum.
+
+
+58
+
+=What Can be Promised.=--Actions can be promised, but not feelings, for
+these are involuntary. Whoever promises somebody to love him always, or
+to hate him always, or to be ever true to him, promises something that
+it is out of his power to bestow. But he really can promise such courses
+of conduct as are the ordinary accompaniments of love, of hate, of
+fidelity, but which may also have their source in motives quite
+different: for various ways and motives lead to the same conduct. The
+promise to love someone always, means, consequently: as long as I love
+you, I will manifest the deportment of love; but if I cease to love you
+my deportment, although from some other motive, will be just the same,
+so that to the people about us it will seem as if my love remained
+unchanged.--Hence it is the continuance of the deportment of love that
+is promised in every instance in which eternal love (provided no element
+of self deception be involved) is sworn.
+
+
+59
+
+=Intellect and Ethic.=--One must have a good memory to be able to keep
+the promises one makes. One must have a strong imagination in order to
+feel sympathy. So closely is ethics connected with intellectual
+capacity.
+
+
+60
+
+=Desire for Vengeance and Vengeance Itself.=--To meditate revenge and
+attain it is tantamount to an attack of fever, that passes away: but to
+meditate revenge without possessing the strength or courage to attain it
+is tantamount to suffering from a chronic malady, or poisoning of body
+and soul. Ethics, which takes only the motive into account, rates both
+cases alike: people generally estimate the first case as the worst
+(because of the consequences which the deed of vengeance may entail).
+Both views are short sighted.
+
+
+61
+
+=Ability to Wait.=--Ability to wait is so hard to acquire that great
+poets have not disdained to make inability to wait the central motive of
+their poems. So Shakespeare in Othello, Sophocles in Ajax, whose suicide
+would not have seemed to him so imperative had he only been able to cool
+his ardor for a day, as the oracle foreboded: apparently he would then
+have repulsed somewhat the fearful whispers of distracted thought and
+have said to himself: Who has not already, in my situation, mistaken a
+sheep for a hero? is it so extraordinary a thing? On the contrary it is
+something universally human: Ajax should thus have soothed himself.
+Passion will not wait: the tragic element in the lives of great men does
+not generally consist in their conflict with time and the inferiority
+of their fellowmen but in their inability to put off their work a year
+or two: they cannot wait.--In all duels, the friends who advise have but
+to ascertain if the principals can wait: if this be not possible, a duel
+is rational inasmuch as each of the combatants may say: "either I
+continue to live and the other dies instantly, or vice versa." To wait
+in such circumstances would be equivalent to the frightful martyrdom of
+enduring dishonor in the presence of him responsible for the dishonor:
+and this can easily cost more anguish than life is worth.
+
+
+62
+
+=Glutting Revenge.=--Coarse men, who feel a sense of injury, are in the
+habit of rating the extent of their injury as high as possible and of
+stating the occasion of it in greatly exaggerated language, in order to
+be able to feast themselves on the sentiments of hatred and revenge thus
+aroused.
+
+
+63
+
+=Value of Disparagement.=--Not a few, perhaps the majority of men, find
+it necessary, in order to retain their self esteem and a certain
+uprightness in conduct, to mentally disparage and belittle all the
+people they know. But as the inferior natures are in the majority and as
+a great deal depends upon whether they retain or lose this uprightness,
+so--
+
+
+64
+
+=The Man in a Rage.=--We should be on our guard against the man who is
+enraged against us, as against one who has attempted our life, for the
+fact that we still live consists solely in the inability to kill: were
+looks sufficient, it would have been all up with us long since. To
+reduce anyone to silence by physical manifestations of savagery or by a
+terrorizing process is a relic of under civilization. So, too, that cold
+look which great personages cast upon their servitors is a remnant of
+the caste distinction between man and man; a specimen of rude antiquity:
+women, the conservers of the old, have maintained this survival, too,
+more perfectly than men.
+
+
+65
+
+=Whither Honesty May Lead.=--Someone once had the bad habit of
+expressing himself upon occasion, and with perfect honesty, on the
+subject of the motives of his conduct, which were as good or as bad as
+the motives of all men. He aroused first disfavor, then suspicion,
+became gradually of ill repute and was pronounced a person of whom
+society should beware, until at last the law took note of such a
+perverted being for reasons which usually have no weight with it or to
+which it closes its eyes. Lack of taciturnity concerning what is
+universally held secret, and an irresponsible predisposition to see what
+no one wants to see--oneself--brought him to prison and to early death.
+
+
+66
+
+=Punishable, not Punished.=--Our crime against criminals consists in the
+fact that we treat them as rascals.
+
+
+67
+
+=Sancta simplicitas of Virtue.=--Every virtue has its privilege: for
+example, that of contributing its own little bundle of wood to the
+funeral pyre of one condemned.
+
+
+68
+
+=Morality and Consequence.=--Not alone the beholders of an act generally
+estimate the ethical or unethical element in it by the result: no, the
+one who performed the act does the same. For the motives and the
+intentions are seldom sufficiently apparent, and amid them the memory
+itself seems to become clouded by the results of the act, so that a man
+often ascribes the wrong motives to his acts or regards the remote
+motives as the direct ones. Success often imparts to an action all the
+brilliance and honor of good intention, while failure throws the shadow
+of conscience over the most estimable deeds. Hence arises the familiar
+maxim of the politician: "Give me only success: with it I can win all
+the noble souls over to my side--and make myself noble even in my own
+eyes."--In like manner will success prove an excellent substitute for a
+better argument. To this very day many well educated men think the
+triumph of Christianity over Greek philosophy is a proof of the superior
+truth of the former--although in this case it was simply the coarser and
+more powerful that triumphed over the more delicate and intellectual. As
+regards superiority of truth, it is evident that because of it the
+reviving sciences have connected themselves, point for point, with the
+philosophy of Epicurus, while Christianity has, point for point,
+recoiled from it.
+
+
+69
+
+=Love and Justice.=--Why is love so highly prized at the expense of
+justice and why are such beautiful things spoken of the former as if it
+were a far higher entity than the latter? Is the former not palpably a
+far more stupid thing than the latter?--Certainly, and on that very
+account so much the more agreeable to everybody: it is blind and has a
+rich horn of plenty out of which it distributes its gifts to everyone,
+even when they are unmerited, even when no thanks are returned. It is
+impartial like the rain, which according to the bible and experience,
+wets not alone the unjust but, in certain circumstances, the just as
+well, and to their skins at that.
+
+
+70
+
+=Execution.=--How comes it that every execution causes us more pain than
+a murder? It is the coolness of the executioner, the painful
+preparation, the perception that here a man is being used as an
+instrument for the intimidation of others. For the guilt is not punished
+even if there be any: this is ascribable to the teachers, the parents,
+the environment, in ourselves, not in the murderer--I mean the
+predisposing circumstances.
+
+
+71
+
+=Hope.=--Pandora brought the box containing evils and opened it. It was
+the gift of the gods to men, a gift of most enticing appearance
+externally and called the "box of happiness." Thereupon all the evils,
+(living, moving things) flew out: from that time to the present they fly
+about and do ill to men by day and night. One evil only did not fly out
+of the box: Pandora shut the lid at the behest of Zeus and it remained
+inside. Now man has this box of happiness perpetually in the house and
+congratulates himself upon the treasure inside of it; it is at his
+service: he grasps it whenever he is so disposed, for he knows not that
+the box which Pandora brought was a box of evils. Hence he looks upon
+the one evil still remaining as the greatest source of happiness--it is
+hope.--Zeus intended that man, notwithstanding the evils oppressing him,
+should continue to live and not rid himself of life, but keep on making
+himself miserable. For this purpose he bestowed hope upon man: it is, in
+truth, the greatest of evils for it lengthens the ordeal of man.
+
+
+72
+
+=Degree of Moral Susceptibility Unknown.=--The fact that one has or has
+not had certain profoundly moving impressions and insights into
+things--for example, an unjustly executed, slain or martyred father, a
+faithless wife, a shattering, serious accident,--is the factor upon
+which the excitation of our passions to white heat principally depends,
+as well as the course of our whole lives. No one knows to what lengths
+circumstances (sympathy, emotion) may lead him. He does not know the
+full extent of his own susceptibility. Wretched environment makes him
+wretched. It is as a rule not the quality of our experience but its
+quantity upon which depends the development of our superiority or
+inferiority, from the point of view of good and evil.
+
+
+73
+
+=The Martyr Against His Will.=--In a certain movement there was a man
+who was too cowardly and vacillating ever to contradict his comrades. He
+was made use of in each emergency, every sacrifice was demanded of him
+because he feared the disfavor of his comrades more than he feared
+death: he was a petty, abject spirit. They perceived this and upon the
+foundation of the qualities just mentioned they elevated him to the
+altitude of a hero, and finally even of a martyr. Although the cowardly
+creature always inwardly said No, he always said Yes with his lips, even
+upon the scaffold, where he died for the tenets of his party: for beside
+him stood one of his old associates who so domineered him with look and
+word that he actually went to his death with the utmost fortitude and
+has ever since been celebrated as a martyr and exalted character.
+
+
+74
+
+=General Standard.=--One will rarely err if extreme actions be ascribed
+to vanity, ordinary actions to habit and mean actions to fear.
+
+
+75
+
+=Misunderstanding of Virtue.=--Whoever has obtained his experience of
+vice in connection with pleasure as in the case of one with a youth of
+wild oats behind him, comes to the conclusion that virtue must be
+connected with self denial. Whoever, on the other hand, has been very
+much plagued by his passions and vices, longs to find in virtue the rest
+and peace of the soul. That is why it is possible for two virtuous
+people to misunderstand one another wholly.
+
+
+76
+
+=The Ascetic.=--The ascetic makes out of virtue a slavery.
+
+
+77
+
+=Honor Transferred from Persons to Things.=--Actions prompted by love or
+by the spirit of self sacrifice for others are universally honored
+wherever they are manifest. Hence is magnified the value set upon
+whatever things may be loved or whatever things conduce to self
+sacrifice: although in themselves they may be worth nothing much. A
+valiant army is evidence of the value of the thing it fights for.
+
+
+78
+
+=Ambition a Substitute for Moral Feeling.=--Moral feeling should never
+become extinct in natures that are destitute of ambition. The ambitious
+can get along without moral feeling just as well as with it.--Hence the
+sons of retired, ambitionless families, generally become by a series of
+rapid gradations, when they lose moral feeling, the most absolute
+lunkheads.
+
+
+79
+
+=Vanity Enriches.=--How poor the human mind would be without vanity! As
+it is, it resembles a well stacked and ever renewed ware-emporium that
+attracts buyers of every class: they can find almost everything, have
+almost everything, provided they bring with them the right kind of
+money--admiration.
+
+
+80
+
+=Senility and Death.=--Apart from the demands made by religion, it may
+well be asked why it is more honorable in an aged man, who feels the
+decline of his powers, to await slow extinction than to fix a term to
+his existence himself? Suicide in such a case is a quite natural and due
+proceeding that ought to command respect as a triumph of reason: and did
+in fact command respect during the times of the masters of Greek
+philosophy and the bravest Roman patriots, who usually died by their own
+hand. Eagerness, on the other hand, to keep alive from day to day with
+the anxious counsel of physicians, without capacity to attain any nearer
+to one's ideal of life, is far less worthy of respect.--Religions are
+very rich in refuges from the mandate of suicide: hence they ingratiate
+themselves with those who cling to life.
+
+
+81
+
+=Delusions Regarding Victim and Regarding Evil Doer.=--When the rich man
+takes a possession away from the poor man (for example, a prince who
+deprives a plebeian of his beloved) there arises in the mind of the poor
+man a delusion: he thinks the rich man must be wholly perverted to take
+from him the little that he has. But the rich man appreciates the value
+of a single possession much less because he is accustomed to many
+possessions, so that he cannot put himself in the place of the poor man
+and does not act by any means as ill as the latter supposes. Both have a
+totally false idea of each other. The iniquities of the mighty which
+bulk most largely in history are not nearly so monstrous as they seem.
+The hereditary consciousness of being a superior being with superior
+environment renders one very callous and lulls the conscience to rest.
+We all feel, when the difference between ourselves and some other being
+is exceedingly great, that no element of injustice can be involved, and
+we kill a fly with no qualms of conscience whatever. So, too, it is no
+indication of wickedness in Xerxes (whom even the Greeks represent as
+exceptionally noble) that he deprived a father of his son and had him
+drawn and quartered because the latter had manifested a troublesome,
+ominous distrust of an entire expedition: the individual was in this
+case brushed aside as a pestiferous insect. He was too low and mean to
+justify continued sentiments of compunction in the ruler of the world.
+Indeed no cruel man is ever as cruel, in the main, as his victim thinks.
+The idea of pain is never the same as the sensation. The rule is
+precisely analogous in the case of the unjust judge, and of the
+journalist who by means of devious rhetorical methods, leads public
+opinion astray. Cause and effect are in all these instances entwined
+with totally different series of feeling and thoughts, whereas it is
+unconsciously assumed that principal and victim feel and think exactly
+alike, and because of this assumption the guilt of the one is based upon
+the pain of the other.
+
+
+82
+
+=The Soul's Skin.=--As the bones, flesh, entrails and blood vessels are
+enclosed by a skin that renders the aspect of men endurable, so the
+impulses and passions of the soul are enclosed by vanity: it is the skin
+of the soul.
+
+
+83
+
+=Sleep of Virtue.=--If virtue goes to sleep, it will be more vigorous
+when it awakes.
+
+
+84
+
+=Subtlety of Shame.=--Men are not ashamed of obscene thoughts, but they
+are ashamed when they suspect that obscene thoughts are attributed to
+them.
+
+
+85
+
+=Naughtiness Is Rare.=--Most people are too much absorbed in themselves
+to be bad.
+
+
+86
+
+=The Mite in the Balance.=--We are praised or blamed, as the one or the
+other may be expedient, for displaying to advantage our power of
+discernment.
+
+
+87
+
+=Luke 18:14 Improved.=--He that humbleth himself wisheth to be exalted.
+
+
+88
+
+=Prevention of Suicide.=--There is a justice according to which we may
+deprive a man of life, but none that permits us to deprive him of death:
+this is merely cruelty.
+
+
+89
+
+=Vanity.=--We set store by the good opinion of men, first because it is
+of use to us and next because we wish to give them pleasure (children
+their parents, pupils their teacher, and well disposed persons all
+others generally). Only when the good opinion of men is important to
+somebody, apart from personal advantage or the desire to give pleasure,
+do we speak of vanity. In this last case, a man wants to give himself
+pleasure, but at the expense of his fellow creatures, inasmuch as he
+inspires them with a false opinion of himself or else inspires "good
+opinion" in such a way that it is a source of pain to others (by
+arousing envy). The individual generally seeks, through the opinion of
+others, to attest and fortify the opinion he has of himself; but the
+potent influence of authority--an influence as old as man himself--leads
+many, also, to strengthen their own opinion of themselves by means of
+authority, that is, to borrow from others the expedient of relying more
+upon the judgment of their fellow men than upon their own.--Interest in
+oneself, the wish to please oneself attains, with the vain man, such
+proportions that he first misleads others into a false, unduly exalted
+estimate of himself and then relies upon the authority of others for his
+self estimate; he thus creates the delusion that he pins his faith
+to.--It must, however, be admitted that the vain man does not desire to
+please others so much as himself and he will often go so far, on this
+account, as to overlook his own interests: for he often inspires his
+fellow creatures with malicious envy and renders them ill disposed in
+order that he may thus increase his own delight in himself.
+
+
+90
+
+=Limits of the Love of Mankind.=--Every man who has declared that some
+other man is an ass or a scoundrel, gets angry when the other man
+conclusively shows that the assertion was erroneous.
+
+
+91
+
+=Weeping Morality.=--How much delight morality occasions! Think of the
+ocean of pleasing tears that has flowed from the narration of noble,
+great-hearted deeds!--This charm of life would disappear if the belief
+in complete irresponsibility gained the upper hand.
+
+
+92
+
+=Origin of Justice.=--Justice (reasonableness) has its origin among
+approximate equals in power, as Thucydides (in the dreadful conferences
+of the Athenian and Melian envoys) has rightly conceived. Thus, where
+there exists no demonstrable supremacy and a struggle leads but to
+mutual, useless damage, the reflection arises that an understanding
+would best be arrived at and some compromise entered into. The
+reciprocal nature is hence the first nature of justice. Each party makes
+the other content inasmuch as each receives what it prizes more highly
+than the other. Each surrenders to the other what the other wants and
+receives in return its own desire. Justice is therefore reprisal and
+exchange upon the basis of an approximate equality of power. Thus
+revenge pertains originally to the domain of justice as it is a sort of
+reciprocity. Equally so, gratitude.--Justice reverts naturally to the
+standpoint of self preservation, therefore to the egoism of this
+consideration: "why should I injure myself to no purpose and perhaps
+never attain my end?"--So much for the origin of justice. Only because
+men, through mental habits, have forgotten the original motive of so
+called just and rational acts, and also because for thousands of years
+children have been brought to admire and imitate such acts, have they
+gradually assumed the appearance of being unegotistical. Upon this
+appearance is founded the high estimate of them, which, moreover, like
+all estimates, is continually developing, for whatever is highly
+esteemed is striven for, imitated, made the object of self sacrifice,
+while the merit of the pain and emulation thus expended is, by each
+individual, ascribed to the thing esteemed.--How slightly moral would
+the world appear without forgetfulness! A poet could say that God had
+posted forgetfulness as a sentinel at the portal of the temple of human
+merit!
+
+
+93
+
+=Concerning the Law of the Weaker.=--Whenever any party, for instance, a
+besieged city, yields to a stronger party, under stipulated conditions,
+the counter stipulation is that there be a reduction to insignificance,
+a burning and destruction of the city and thus a great damage inflicted
+upon the stronger party. Thus arises a sort of equalization principle
+upon the basis of which a law can be established. The enemy has an
+advantage to gain by its maintenance.--To this extent there is also a
+law between slaves and masters, limited only by the extent to which the
+slave may be useful to his master. The law goes originally only so far
+as the one party may appear to the other potent, invincible, stable, and
+the like. To such an extent, then, the weaker has rights, but very
+limited ones. Hence the famous dictum that each has as much law on his
+side as his power extends (or more accurately, as his power is believed
+to extend).
+
+
+94
+
+=The Three Phases of Morality Hitherto.=--It is the first evidence that
+the animal has become human when his conduct ceases to be based upon the
+immediately expedient, but upon the permanently useful; when he has,
+therefore, grown utilitarian, capable of purpose. Thus is manifested the
+first rule of reason. A still higher stage is attained when he regulates
+his conduct upon the basis of honor, by means of which he gains mastery
+of himself and surrenders his desires to principles; this lifts him far
+above the phase in which he was actuated only by considerations of
+personal advantage as he understood it. He respects and wishes to be
+respected. This means that he comprehends utility as a thing dependent
+upon what his opinion of others is and their opinion of him. Finally he
+regulates his conduct (the highest phase of morality hitherto attained)
+by his own standard of men and things. He himself decides, for himself
+and for others, what is honorable and what is useful. He has become a
+law giver to opinion, upon the basis of his ever higher developing
+conception of the utilitarian and the honorable. Knowledge makes him
+capable of placing the highest utility, (that is, the universal,
+enduring utility) before merely personal utility,--of placing ennobling
+recognition of the enduring and universal before the merely temporary:
+he lives and acts as a collective individuality.
+
+
+95
+
+=Ethic of the Developed Individual.=--Hitherto the altruistic has been
+looked upon as the distinctive characteristic of moral conduct, and it
+is manifest that it was the consideration of universal utility that
+prompted praise and recognition of altruistic conduct. Must not a
+radical departure from this point of view be imminent, now that it is
+being ever more clearly perceived that in the most personal
+considerations the most general welfare is attained: so that conduct
+inspired by the most personal considerations of advantage is just the
+sort which has its origin in the present conception of morality (as a
+universal utilitarianism)? To contemplate oneself as a complete
+personality and bear the welfare of that personality in mind in all that
+one does--this is productive of better results than any sympathetic
+susceptibility and conduct in behalf of others. Indeed we all suffer
+from such disparagement of our own personalities, which are at present
+made to deteriorate from neglect. Capacity is, in fact, divorced from
+our personality in most cases, and sacrificed to the state, to science,
+to the needy, as if it were the bad which deserved to be made a
+sacrifice. Now, we are willing to labor for our fellowmen but only to
+the extent that we find our own highest advantage in so doing, no more,
+no less. The whole matter depends upon what may be understood as one's
+advantage: the crude, undeveloped, rough individualities will be the
+very ones to estimate it most inadequately.
+
+
+96
+
+=Usage and Ethic.=--To be moral, virtuous, praiseworthy means to yield
+obedience to ancient law and hereditary usage. Whether this obedience be
+rendered readily or with difficulty is long immaterial. Enough that it
+be rendered. "Good" finally comes to mean him who acts in the
+traditional manner, as a result of heredity or natural disposition, that
+is to say does what is customary with scarcely an effort, whatever that
+may be (for example revenges injuries when revenge, as with the ancient
+Greeks, was part of good morals). He is called good because he is good
+"to some purpose," and as benevolence, sympathy, considerateness,
+moderation and the like come, in the general course of conduct, to be
+finally recognized as "good to some purpose" (as utilitarian) the
+benevolent man, the helpful man, is duly styled "good". (At first other
+and more important kinds of utilitarian qualities stand in the
+foreground.) Bad is "not habitual" (unusual), to do things not in
+accordance with usage, to oppose the traditional, however rational or
+the reverse the traditional may be. To do injury to one's social group
+or community (and to one's neighbor as thus understood) is looked upon,
+through all the variations of moral laws, in different ages, as the
+peculiarly "immoral" act, so that to-day we associate the word "bad"
+with deliberate injury to one's neighbor or community. "Egoistic" and
+"non-egoistic" do not constitute the fundamental opposites that have
+brought mankind to make a distinction between moral and immoral, good
+and bad; but adherence to traditional custom, and emancipation from it.
+How the traditional had its origin is quite immaterial; in any event it
+had no reference to good and bad or any categorical imperative but to
+the all important end of maintaining and sustaining the community, the
+race, the confederation, the nation. Every superstitious custom that
+originated in a misinterpreted event or casualty entailed some
+tradition, to adhere to which is moral. To break loose from it is
+dangerous, more prejudicial to the community than to the individual
+(because divinity visits the consequences of impiety and sacrilege upon
+the community rather than upon the individual). Now every tradition
+grows ever more venerable--the more remote is its origin, the more
+confused that origin is. The reverence due to it increases from
+generation to generation. The tradition finally becomes holy and
+inspires awe. Thus it is that the precept of piety is a far loftier
+morality than that inculcated by altruistic conduct.
+
+
+97
+
+=Delight in the Moral.=--A potent species of joy (and thereby the source
+of morality) is custom. The customary is done more easily, better,
+therefore preferably. A pleasure is felt in it and experience thus shows
+that since this practice has held its own it must be good. A manner or
+moral that lives and lets live is thus demonstrated advantageous,
+necessary, in contradistinction to all new and not yet adopted
+practices. The custom is therefore the blending of the agreeable and the
+useful. Moreover it does not require deliberation. As soon as man can
+exercise compulsion, he exercises it to enforce and establish his
+customs, for they are to him attested lifewisdom. So, too, a community
+of individuals constrains each one of their number to adopt the same
+moral or custom. The error herein is this: Because a certain custom has
+been agreeable to the feelings or at least because it proves a means of
+maintenance, this custom must be imperative, for it is regarded as the
+only thing that can possibly be consistent with well being. The well
+being of life seems to spring from it alone. This conception of the
+customary as a condition of existence is carried into the slightest
+detail of morality. Inasmuch as insight into true causation is quite
+restricted in all inferior peoples, a superstitious anxiety is felt that
+everything be done in due routine. Even when a custom is exceedingly
+burdensome it is preserved because of its supposed vital utility. It is
+not known that the same degree of satisfaction can be experienced
+through some other custom and even higher degrees of satisfaction, too.
+But it is fully appreciated that all customs do become more agreeable
+with the lapse of time, no matter how difficult they may have been found
+in the beginning, and that even the severest way of life may be rendered
+a matter of habit and therefore a pleasure.
+
+
+98
+
+=Pleasure and Social Instinct.=--Through his relations with other men,
+man derives a new species of delight in those pleasurable emotions which
+his own personality affords him; whereby the domain of pleasurable
+emotions is made infinitely more comprehensive. No doubt he has
+inherited many of these feelings from the brutes, which palpably feel
+delight when they sport with one another, as mothers with their young.
+So, too, the sexual relations must be taken into account: they make
+every young woman interesting to every young man from the standpoint of
+pleasure, and conversely. The feeling of pleasure originating in human
+relationships makes men in general better. The delight in common, the
+pleasures enjoyed together heighten one another. The individual feels a
+sense of security. He becomes better natured. Distrust and malice
+dissolve. For the man feels the sense of benefit and observes the same
+feeling in others. Mutual manifestations of pleasure inspire mutual
+sympathy, the sentiment of homogeneity. The same effect is felt also at
+mutual sufferings, in a common danger, in stormy weather. Upon such a
+foundation are built the earliest alliances: the object of which is the
+mutual protection and safety from threatening misfortunes, and the
+welfare of each individual. And thus the social instinct develops from
+pleasure.
+
+
+99
+
+=The Guiltless Nature of So-Called Bad Acts.=--All "bad" acts are
+inspired by the impulse to self preservation or, more accurately, by
+the desire for pleasure and for the avoidance of pain in the individual.
+Thus are they occasioned, but they are not, therefore, bad. "Pain self
+prepared" does not exist, except in the brains of the philosophers, any
+more than "pleasure self prepared" (sympathy in the Schopenhauer sense).
+In the condition anterior to the state we kill the creature, be it man
+or ape, that attempts to pluck the fruit of a tree before we pluck it
+ourselves should we happen to be hungry at the time and making for that
+tree: as we would do to-day, so far as the brute is concerned, if we
+were wandering in savage regions.--The bad acts which most disturb us at
+present do so because of the erroneous supposition that the one who is
+guilty of them towards us has a free will in the matter and that it was
+within his discretion not to have done these evil things. This belief in
+discretionary power inspires hate, thirst for revenge, malice, the
+entire perversion of the mental processes, whereas we would feel in no
+way incensed against the brute, as we hold it irresponsible. To inflict
+pain not from the instinct of self preservation but in requital--this is
+the consequence of false judgment and is equally a guiltless course of
+conduct. The individual can, in that condition which is anterior to the
+state, act with fierceness and violence for the intimidation of another
+creature, in order to render his own power more secure as a result of
+such acts of intimidation. Thus acts the powerful, the superior, the
+original state founder, who subjugates the weaker. He has the right to
+do so, as the state nowadays assumes the same right, or, to be more
+accurate, there is no right that can conflict with this. A foundation
+for all morality can first be laid only when a stronger individuality or
+a collective individuality, for example society, the state, subjects the
+single personalities, hence builds upon their unification and
+establishes a bond of union. Morality results from compulsion, it is
+indeed itself one long compulsion to which obedience is rendered in
+order that pain may be avoided. At first it is but custom, later free
+obedience and finally almost instinct. At last it is (like everything
+habitual and natural) associated with pleasure--and is then called
+virtue.
+
+
+100
+
+=Shame.=--Shame exists wherever a "mystery" exists: but this is a
+religious notion which in the earlier period of human civilization had
+great vogue. Everywhere there were circumscribed spots to which access
+was denied on account of some divine law, except in special
+circumstances. At first these spots were quite extensive, inasmuch as
+stipulated areas could not be trod by the uninitiated, who, when near
+them, felt tremors and anxieties. This sentiment was frequently
+transferred to other relationships, for example to sexual relations,
+which, as the privilege and gateway of mature age, must be withdrawn
+from the contemplation of youth for its own advantage: relations which
+many divinities were busy in preserving and sanctifying, images of which
+divinities were duly placed in marital chambers as guardians. (In
+Turkish such an apartment is termed a harem or holy thing, the same word
+also designating the vestibule of a mosque). So, too, Kingship is
+regarded as a centre from which power and brilliance stream forth, as a
+mystery to the subjects, impregnated with secrecy and shame, sentiments
+still quite operative among peoples who in other respects are without
+any shame at all. So, too, is the whole world of inward states, the
+so-called "soul," even now, for all non-philosophical persons, a
+"mystery," and during countless ages it was looked upon as a something
+of divine origin, in direct communion with deity. It is, therefore, an
+adytum and occasions shame.
+
+
+101
+
+=Judge Not.=--Care must be taken, in the contemplation of earlier ages,
+that there be no falling into unjust scornfulness. The injustice in
+slavery, the cruelty in the subjugation of persons and peoples must not
+be estimated by our standard. For in that period the instinct of justice
+was not so highly developed. Who dare reproach the Genoese Calvin for
+burning the physician Servetus at the stake? It was a proceeding growing
+out of his convictions. And the Inquisition, too, had its justification.
+The only thing is that the prevailing views were false and led to those
+proceedings which seem so cruel to us, simply because such views have
+become foreign to us. Besides, what is the burning alive of one
+individual compared with eternal hell pains for everybody else? And yet
+this idea then had hold of all the world without in the least vitiating,
+with its frightfulness, the other idea of a god. Even we nowadays are
+hard and merciless to political revolutionists, but that is because we
+are in the habit of believing the state a necessity, and hence the
+cruelty of the proceeding is not so much understood as in the other
+cases where the points of view are repudiated. The cruelty to animals
+shown by children and Italians is due to the same misunderstanding. The
+animal, owing to the exigencies of the church catechism, is placed too
+far below the level of mankind.--Much, too, that is frightful and
+inhuman in history, and which is almost incredible, is rendered less
+atrocious by the reflection that the one who commands and the one who
+executes are different persons. The former does not witness the
+performance and hence it makes no strong impression on him. The latter
+obeys a superior and hence feels no responsibility. Most princes and
+military chieftains appear, through lack of true perception, cruel and
+hard without really being so.--Egoism is not bad because the idea of the
+"neighbor"--the word is of Christian origin and does not correspond to
+truth--is very weak in us, and we feel ourselves, in regard to him, as
+free from responsibility as if plants and stones were involved. That
+another is in suffering must be learned and it can never be wholly
+learned.
+
+
+102
+
+"=Man Always Does Right.="--We do not blame nature when she sends a
+thunder storm and makes us wet: why then do we term the man who inflicts
+injury immoral? Because in the latter case we assume a voluntary,
+ruling, free will, and in the former necessity. But this distinction is
+a delusion. Moreover, even the intentional infliction of injury is not,
+in all circumstances termed immoral. Thus, we kill a fly intentionally
+without thinking very much about it, simply because its buzzing about is
+disagreeable; and we punish a criminal and inflict pain upon him in
+order to protect ourselves and society. In the first case it is the
+individual who, for the sake of preserving himself or in order to spare
+himself pain, does injury with design: in the second case, it is the
+state. All ethic deems intentional infliction of injury justified by
+necessity; that is when it is a matter of self preservation. But these
+two points of view are sufficient to explain all bad acts done by man to
+men. It is desired to obtain pleasure or avoid pain. In any sense, it is
+a question, always, of self preservation. Socrates and Plato are right:
+whatever man does he always does right: that is, does what seems to him
+good (advantageous) according to the degree of advancement his intellect
+has attained, which is always the measure of his rational capacity.
+
+
+103
+
+=The Inoffensive in Badness.=--Badness has not for its object the
+infliction of pain upon others but simply our own satisfaction as, for
+instance, in the case of thirst for vengeance or of nerve excitation.
+Every act of teasing shows what pleasure is caused by the display of
+our power over others and what feelings of delight are experienced in
+the sense of domination. Is there, then, anything immoral in feeling
+pleasure in the pain of others? Is malicious joy devilish, as
+Schopenhauer says? In the realm of nature we feel joy in breaking
+boughs, shattering rocks, fighting with wild beasts, simply to attest
+our strength thereby. Should not the knowledge that another suffers on
+our account here, in this case, make the same kind of act, (which, by
+the way, arouses no qualms of conscience in us) immoral also? But if we
+had not this knowledge there would be no pleasure in one's own
+superiority or power, for this pleasure is experienced only in the
+suffering of another, as in the case of teasing. All pleasure is, in
+itself, neither good nor bad. Whence comes the conviction that one
+should not cause pain in others in order to feel pleasure oneself?
+Simply from the standpoint of utility, that is, in consideration of the
+consequences, of ultimate pain, since the injured party or state will
+demand satisfaction and revenge. This consideration alone can have led
+to the determination to renounce such pleasure.--Sympathy has the
+satisfaction of others in view no more than, as already stated, badness
+has the pain of others in view. For there are at least two (perhaps many
+more) elementary ingredients in personal gratification which enter
+largely into our self satisfaction: one of them being the pleasure of
+the emotion, of which species is sympathy with tragedy, and another,
+when the impulse is to action, being the pleasure of exercising one's
+power. Should a sufferer be very dear to us, we divest ourselves of pain
+by the performance of acts of sympathy.--With the exception of some few
+philosophers, men have placed sympathy very low in the rank of moral
+feelings: and rightly.
+
+
+104
+
+=Self Defence.=--If self defence is in general held a valid
+justification, then nearly every manifestation of so called immoral
+egoism must be justified, too. Pain is inflicted, robbery or killing
+done in order to maintain life or to protect oneself and ward off harm.
+A man lies when cunning and delusion are valid means of self
+preservation. To injure intentionally when our safety and our existence
+are involved, or the continuance of our well being, is conceded to be
+moral. The state itself injures from this motive when it hangs
+criminals. In unintentional injury the immoral, of course, can not be
+present, as accident alone is involved. But is there any sort of
+intentional injury in which our existence and the maintenance of our
+well being be not involved? Is there such a thing as injuring from
+absolute badness, for example, in the case of cruelty? If a man does not
+know what pain an act occasions, that act is not one of wickedness. Thus
+the child is not bad to the animal, not evil. It disturbs and rends it
+as if it were one of its playthings. Does a man ever fully know how much
+pain an act may cause another? As far as our nervous system extends, we
+shield ourselves from pain. If it extended further, that is, to our
+fellow men, we would never cause anyone else any pain (except in such
+cases as we cause it to ourselves, when we cut ourselves, surgically, to
+heal our ills, or strive and trouble ourselves to gain health). We
+conclude from analogy that something pains somebody and can in
+consequence, through recollection and the power of imagination, feel
+pain also. But what a difference there always is between the tooth ache
+and the pain (sympathy) that the spectacle of tooth ache occasions!
+Therefore when injury is inflicted from so called badness the degree of
+pain thereby experienced is always unknown to us: in so far, however, as
+pleasure is felt in the act (a sense of one's own power, of one's own
+excitation) the act is committed to maintain the well being of the
+individual and hence comes under the purview of self defence and lying
+for self preservation. Without pleasure, there is no life; the struggle
+for pleasure is the struggle for life. Whether the individual shall
+carry on this struggle in such a way that he be called good or in such a
+way that he be called bad is something that the standard and the
+capacity of his own intellect must determine for him.
+
+
+105
+
+=Justice that Rewards.=--Whoever has fully understood the doctrine of
+absolute irresponsibility can no longer include the so called rewarding
+and punishing justice in the idea of justice, if the latter be taken to
+mean that to each be given his due. For he who is punished does not
+deserve the punishment. He is used simply as a means to intimidate
+others from certain acts. Equally, he who is rewarded does not merit the
+reward. He could not act any differently than he did act. Hence the
+reward has only the significance of an encouragement to him and others
+as a motive for subsequent acts. The praise is called out only to him
+who is running in the race and not to him who has arrived at the goal.
+Something that comes to someone as his own is neither a punishment nor a
+reward. It is given to him from utiliarian considerations, without his
+having any claim to it in justice. Hence one must say "the wise man
+praises not because a good act has been done" precisely as was once
+said: "the wise man punishes not because a bad act has been done but in
+order that a bad act may not be done." If punishment and reward ceased,
+there would cease with them the most powerful incentives to certain acts
+and away from other acts. The purposes of men demand their continuance
+[of punishment and reward] and inasmuch as punishment and reward, blame
+and praise operate most potently upon vanity, these same purposes of men
+imperatively require the continuance of vanity.
+
+
+106
+
+=The Water Fall.=--At the sight of a water fall we may opine that in the
+countless curves, spirations and dashes of the waves we behold freedom
+of the will and of the impulses. But everything is compulsory,
+everything can be mathematically calculated. Thus it is, too, with human
+acts. We would be able to calculate in advance every single action if we
+were all knowing, as well as every advance in knowledge, every delusion,
+every bad deed. The acting individual himself is held fast in the
+illusion of volition. If, on a sudden, the entire movement of the world
+stopped short, and an all knowing and reasoning intelligence were there
+to take advantage of this pause, he could foretell the future of every
+being to the remotest ages and indicate the path that would be taken in
+the world's further course. The deception of the acting individual as
+regards himself, the assumption of the freedom of the will, is a part of
+this computable mechanism.
+
+
+107
+
+=Non-Responsibility and Non-Guilt.=--The absolute irresponsibility of
+man for his acts and his nature is the bitterest drop in the cup of him
+who has knowledge, if he be accustomed to behold in responsibility and
+duty the patent of nobility of his human nature. All his estimates,
+preferences, dislikes are thus made worthless and false. His deepest
+sentiment, with which he honored the sufferer, the hero, sprang from an
+error. He may no longer praise, no longer blame, for it is irrational to
+blame and praise nature and necessity. Just as he cherishes the
+beautiful work of art, but does not praise it (as it is incapable of
+doing anything for itself), just as he stands in the presence of plants,
+he must stand in the presence of human conduct, his own included. He may
+admire strength, beauty, capacity, therein, but he can discern no merit.
+The chemical process and the conflict of the elements, the ordeal of
+the invalid who strives for convalescence, are no more merits than the
+soul-struggles and extremities in which one is torn this way and that by
+contending motives until one finally decides in favor of the
+strongest--as the phrase has it, although, in fact, it is the strongest
+motive that decides for us. All these motives, however, whatever fine
+names we may give them, have grown from the same roots in which we
+believe the baneful poisons lurk. Between good and bad actions there is
+no difference in kind but, at most, in degree. Good acts are sublimated
+evil. Bad acts are degraded, imbruted good. The very longing of the
+individual for self gratification (together with the fear of being
+deprived of it) obtains satisfaction in all circumstances, let the
+individual act as he may, that is, as he must: be it in deeds of vanity,
+revenge, pleasure, utility, badness, cunning, be it in deeds of self
+sacrifice, sympathy or knowledge. The degrees of rational capacity
+determine the direction in which this longing impels: every society,
+every individual has constantly present a comparative classification of
+benefits in accordance with which conduct is determined and others are
+judged. But this standard perpetually changes. Many acts are called bad
+that are only stupid, because the degree of intelligence that decided
+for them was low. Indeed, in a certain sense, all acts now are stupid,
+for the highest degree of human intelligence that has yet been attained
+will in time most certainly be surpassed and then, in retrospection, all
+our present conduct and opinion will appear as narrow and petty as we
+now deem the conduct and opinion of savage peoples and ages.--To
+perceive all these things may occasion profound pain but there is,
+nevertheless, a consolation. Such pains are birth pains. The butterfly
+insists upon breaking through the cocoon, he presses through it, tears
+it to pieces, only to be blinded and confused by the strange light, by
+the realm of liberty. By such men as are capable of this sadness--how
+few there are!--will the first attempt be made to see if humanity may
+convert itself from a thing of morality to a thing of wisdom. The sun of
+a new gospel sheds its first ray upon the loftiest height in the souls
+of those few: but the clouds are massed there, too, thicker than ever,
+and not far apart are the brightest sunlight and the deepest gloom.
+Everything is necessity--so says the new knowledge: and this knowledge
+is itself necessity. All is guiltlessness, and knowledge is the way to
+insight into this guiltlessness. If pleasure, egoism, vanity be
+necessary to attest the moral phenomena and their richest blooms, the
+instinct for truth and accuracy of knowledge; if delusion and confusion
+of the imagination were the only means whereby mankind could gradually
+lift itself up to this degree of self enlightenment and self
+emancipation--who would venture to disparage the means? Who would have
+the right to feel sad if made aware of the goal to which those paths
+lead? Everything in the domain of ethic is evolved, changeable,
+tottering; all things flow, it is true--but all things are also in the
+stream: to their goal. Though within us the hereditary habit of
+erroneous judgment, love, hate, may be ever dominant, yet under the
+influence of awaking knowledge it will ever become weaker: a new habit,
+that of understanding, not-loving, not-hating, looking from above, grows
+up within us gradually and in the same soil, and may, perhaps, in
+thousands of years be powerful enough to endow mankind with capacity to
+develop the wise, guiltless man (conscious of guiltlessness) as
+unfailingly as it now developes the unwise, irrational, guilt-conscious
+man--that is to say, the necessary higher step, not the opposite of it.
+
+
+
+
+THE RELIGIOUS LIFE.
+
+
+108
+
+=The Double Contest Against Evil.=--If an evil afflicts us we can either
+so deal with it as to remove its cause or else so deal with it that its
+effect upon our feeling is changed: hence look upon the evil as a
+benefit of which the uses will perhaps first become evident in some
+subsequent period. Religion and art (and also the metaphysical
+philosophy) strive to effect an alteration of the feeling, partly by an
+alteration of our judgment respecting the experience (for example, with
+the aid of the dictum "whom God loves, he chastizes") partly by the
+awakening of a joy in pain, in emotion especially (whence the art of
+tragedy had its origin). The more one is disposed to interpret away and
+justify, the less likely he is to look directly at the causes of evil
+and eliminate them. An instant alleviation and narcotizing of pain, as
+is usual in the case of tooth ache, is sufficient for him even in the
+severest suffering. The more the domination of religions and of all
+narcotic arts declines, the more searchingly do men look to the
+elimination of evil itself, which is a rather bad thing for the tragic
+poets--for there is ever less and less material for tragedy, since the
+domain of unsparing, immutable destiny grows constantly more
+circumscribed--and a still worse thing for the priests, for these last
+have lived heretofore upon the narcoticizing of human ill.
+
+
+109
+
+=Sorrow is Knowledge.=--How willingly would not one exchange the false
+assertions of the homines religiosi that there is a god who commands us
+to be good, who is the sentinel and witness of every act, every moment,
+every thought, who loves us, who plans our welfare in every
+misfortune--how willingly would not one exchange these for truths as
+healing, beneficial and grateful as those delusions! But there are no
+such truths. Philosophy can at most set up in opposition to them other
+metaphysical plausibilities (fundamental untruths as well). The tragedy
+of it all is that, although one cannot believe these dogmas of religion
+and metaphysics if one adopts in heart and head the potent methods of
+truth, one has yet become, through human evolution, so tender,
+susceptible, sensitive, as to stand in need of the most effective means
+of rest and consolation. From this state of things arises the danger
+that, through the perception of truth or, more accurately, seeing
+through delusion, one may bleed to death. Byron has put this into
+deathless verse:
+
+     "Sorrow is knowledge: they who know the most
+     Must mourn the deepest o'er the fatal truth,
+     The tree of knowledge is not that of life."
+
+Against such cares there is no better protective than the light fancy of
+Horace, (at any rate during the darkest hours and sun eclipses of the
+soul) expressed in the words
+
+     "quid aeternis minorem
+     consiliis animum fatigas?
+     cur non sub alta vel platano vel hac
+     pinu jacentes."[22]
+
+[22] Then wherefore should you, who are mortal, outwear
+     Your soul with a profitless burden of care
+     Say, why should we not, flung at ease neath this pine,
+     Or a plane-tree's broad umbrage, quaff gaily our wine?
+                      (Translation of Sir Theodore Martin.)
+
+At any rate, light fancy or heavy heartedness of any degree must be
+better than a romantic retrogression and desertion of one's flag, an
+approach to Christianity in any form: for with it, in the present state
+of knowledge, one can have nothing to do without hopelessly defiling
+one's intellectual integrity and surrendering it unconditionally. These
+woes may be painful enough, but without pain one cannot become a leader
+and guide of humanity: and woe to him who would be such and lacks this
+pure integrity of the intellect!
+
+
+110
+
+=The Truth in Religion.=--In the ages of enlightenment justice was not
+done to the importance of religion, of this there can be no doubt. It is
+also equally certain that in the ensuing reaction of enlightenment, the
+demands of justice were far exceeded inasmuch as religion was treated
+with love, even with infatuation and proclaimed as a profound, indeed
+the most profound knowledge of the world, which science had but to
+divest of its dogmatic garb in order to possess "truth" in its
+unmythical form. Religions must therefore--this was the contention of
+all foes of enlightenment--sensu allegorico, with regard for the
+comprehension of the masses, give expression to that ancient truth which
+is wisdom in itself, inasmuch as all science of modern times has led up
+to it instead of away from it. So that between the most ancient wisdom
+of man and all later wisdom there prevails harmony, even similarity of
+viewpoint; and the advancement of knowledge--if one be disposed to
+concede such a thing--has to do not with its nature but with its
+propagation. This whole conception of religion and science is through
+and through erroneous, and none would to-day be hardy enough to
+countenance it had not Schopenhauer's rhetoric taken it under
+protection, this high sounding rhetoric which now gains auditors after
+the lapse of a generation. Much as may be gained from Schopenhauer's
+religio-ethical human and cosmical oracle as regards the comprehension
+of Christianity and other religions, it is nevertheless certain that he
+erred regarding the value of religion to knowledge. He himself was in
+this but a servile pupil of the scientific teachers of his time who had
+all taken romanticism under their protection and renounced the spirit of
+enlightenment. Had he been born in our own time it would have been
+impossible for him to have spoken of the sensus allegoricus of religion.
+He would instead have done truth the justice to say: never has a
+religion, directly or indirectly, either as dogma or as allegory,
+contained a truth. For all religions grew out of dread or necessity, and
+came into existence through an error of the reason. They have, perhaps,
+in times of danger from science, incorporated some philosophical
+doctrine or other into their systems in order to make it possible to
+continue one's existence within them. But this is but a theological work
+of art dating from the time in which a religion began to doubt of
+itself. These theological feats of art, which are most common in
+Christianity as the religion of a learned age, impregnated with
+philosophy, have led to this superstition of the sensus allegoricus, as
+has, even more, the habit of the philosophers (namely those
+half-natures, the poetical philosophers and the philosophising artists)
+of dealing with their own feelings as if they constituted the
+fundamental nature of humanity and hence of giving their own religious
+feelings a predominant influence over the structure of their systems. As
+the philosophers mostly philosophised under the influence of hereditary
+religious habits, or at least under the traditional influence of this
+"metaphysical necessity," they naturally arrived at conclusions
+closely resembling the Judaic or Christian or Indian religious
+tenets--resembling, in the way that children are apt to look like their
+mothers: only in this case the fathers were not certain as to the
+maternity, as easily happens--but in the innocence of their admiration,
+they fabled regarding the family likeness of all religion and science.
+In reality, there exists between religion and true science neither
+relationship nor friendship, not even enmity: they dwell in different
+spheres. Every philosophy that lets the religious comet gleam through
+the darkness of its last outposts renders everything within it that
+purports to be science, suspicious. It is all probably religion,
+although it may assume the guise of science.--Moreover, though all the
+peoples agree concerning certain religious things, for example, the
+existence of a god (which, by the way, as regards this point, is not
+the case) this fact would constitute an argument against the thing
+agreed upon, for example the very existence of a god. The consensus
+gentium and especially hominum can probably amount only to an absurdity.
+Against it there is no consensus omnium sapientium whatever, on any
+point, with the exception of which Goethe's verse speaks:
+
+     "All greatest sages to all latest ages
+         Will smile, wink and slily agree
+     'Tis folly to wait till a fool's empty pate
+         Has learned to be knowing and free.
+     So children of wisdom must look upon fools
+     As creatures who're never the better for schools."
+
+Stated without rhyme or metre and adapted to our case: the consensus
+sapientium is to the effect that the consensus gentium amounts to an
+absurdity.
+
+
+111
+
+=Origin of Religious Worship.=--Let us transport ourselves back to the
+times in which religious life flourished most vigorously and we will
+find a fundamental conviction prevalent which we no longer share and
+which has resulted in the closing of the door to religious life once for
+all so far as we are concerned: this conviction has to do with nature
+and intercourse with her. In those times nothing is yet known of
+nature's laws. Neither for earth nor for heaven is there a must. A
+season, sunshine, rain can come or stay away as it pleases. There is
+wanting, in particular, all idea of natural causation. If a man rows, it
+is not the oar that moves the boat, but rowing is a magical ceremony
+whereby a demon is constrained to move the boat. All illness, death
+itself, is a consequence of magical influences. In sickness and death
+nothing natural is conceived. The whole idea of "natural course" is
+wanting. The idea dawns first upon the ancient Greeks, that is to say in
+a very late period of humanity, in the conception of a Moira [fate]
+ruling over the gods. If any person shoots off a bow, there is always an
+irrational strength and agency in the act. If the wells suddenly run
+dry, the first thought is of subterranean demons and their pranks. It
+must have been the dart of a god beneath whose invisible influence a
+human being suddenly collapses. In India, the carpenter (according to
+Lubbock) is in the habit of making devout offerings to his hammer and
+hatchet. A Brahmin treats the plume with which he writes, a soldier the
+weapon that he takes into the field, a mason his trowel, a laborer his
+plow, in the same way. All nature is, in the opinion of religious
+people, a sum total of the doings of conscious and willing beings, an
+immense mass of complex volitions. In regard to all that takes place
+outside of us no conclusion is permissible that anything will result
+thus and so, must result thus and so, that we are comparatively
+calculable and certain in our experiences, that man is the rule, nature
+the ruleless. This view forms the fundamental conviction that dominates
+crude, religion-producing, early civilizations. We contemporary men feel
+exactly the opposite: the richer man now feels himself inwardly, the
+more polyphone the music and the sounding of his soul, the more
+powerfully does the uniformity of nature impress him. We all, with
+Goethe, recognize in nature the great means of repose for the soul. We
+listen to the pendulum stroke of this great clock with longing for rest,
+for absolute calm and quiescence, as if we could drink in the uniformity
+of nature and thereby arrive first at an enjoyment of oneself. Formerly
+it was the reverse: if we carry ourselves back to the periods of crude
+civilization, or if we contemplate contemporary savages, we will find
+them most strongly influenced by rule, by tradition. The individual is
+almost automatically bound to rule and tradition and moves with the
+uniformity of a pendulum. To him nature--the uncomprehended, fearful,
+mysterious nature--must seem the domain of freedom, of volition, of
+higher power, indeed as an ultra-human degree of destiny, as god. Every
+individual in such periods and circumstances feels that his existence,
+his happiness, the existence and happiness of the family, the state,
+the success or failure of every undertaking, must depend upon these
+dispositions of nature. Certain natural events must occur at the proper
+time and certain others must not occur. How can influence be exercised
+over this fearful unknown, how can this domain of freedom be brought
+under subjection? thus he asks himself, thus he worries: Is there no
+means to render these powers of nature as subject to rule and tradition
+as you are yourself?--The cogitation of the superstitious and
+magic-deluded man is upon the theme of imposing a law upon nature: and
+to put it briefly, religious worship is the result of such cogitation.
+The problem which is present to every man is closely connected with this
+one: how can the weaker party dictate laws to the stronger, control its
+acts in reference to the weaker? At first the most harmless form of
+influence is recollected, that influence which is acquired when the
+partiality of anyone has been won. Through beseeching and prayer,
+through abject humiliation, through obligations to regular gifts and
+propitiations, through flattering homages, it is possible, therefore, to
+impose some guidance upon the forces of nature, to the extent that their
+partiality be won: love binds and is bound. Then agreements can be
+entered into by means of which certain courses of conduct are mutually
+concluded, vows are made and authorities prescribed. But far more potent
+is that species of power exercised by means of magic and incantation. As
+a man is able to injure a powerful enemy by means of the magician and
+render him helpless with fear, as the love potion operates at a
+distance, so can the mighty forces of nature, in the opinion of weaker
+mankind, be controlled by similar means. The principal means of
+effecting incantations is to acquire control of something belonging to
+the party to be influenced, hair, finger nails, food from his table,
+even his picture or his name. With such apparatus it is possible to act
+by means of magic, for the basic principle is that to everything
+spiritual corresponds something corporeal. With the aid of this
+corporeal element the spirit may be bound, injured or destroyed. The
+corporeal affords the handle by which the spiritual can be laid hold of.
+In the same way that man influences mankind does he influences some
+spirit of nature, for this latter has also its corporeal element that
+can be grasped. The tree, and on the same basis, the seed from which it
+grew: this puzzling sequence seems to demonstrate that in both forms the
+same spirit is embodied, now large, now small. A stone that suddenly
+rolls, is the body in which the spirit works. Does a huge boulder lie in
+a lonely moor? It is impossible to think of mortal power having placed
+it there. The stone must have moved itself there. That is to say some
+spirit must dominate it. Everything that has a body is subject to magic,
+including, therefore, the spirits of nature. If a god is directly
+connected with his portrait, a direct influence (by refraining from
+devout offerings, by whippings, chainings and the like) can be brought
+to bear upon him. The lower classes in China tie cords around the
+picture of their god in order to defy his departing favor, when he has
+left them in the lurch, and tear the picture to pieces, drag it through
+the streets into dung heaps and gutters, crying: "You dog of a spirit,
+we housed you in a beautiful temple, we gilded you prettily, we fed you
+well, we brought you offerings, and yet how ungrateful you are!" Similar
+displays of resentment have been made against pictures of the mother of
+god and pictures of saints in Catholic countries during the present
+century when such pictures would not do their duty during times of
+pestilence and drought.
+
+Through all these magical relationships to nature countless ceremonies
+are occasioned, and finally, when their complexity and confusion grow
+too great, pains are taken to systematize them, to arrange them so that
+the favorable course of nature's progress, namely the great yearly
+circle of the seasons, may be brought about by a corresponding course of
+the ceremonial progress. The aim of religious worship is to influence
+nature to human advantage, and hence to instil a subjection to law into
+her that originally she has not, whereas at present man desires to find
+out the subjection to law of nature in order to guide himself thereby.
+In brief, the system of religious worship rests upon the idea of magic
+between man and man, and the magician is older than the priest. But it
+rests equally upon other and higher ideas. It brings into prominence the
+sympathetic relation of man to man, the existence of benevolence,
+gratitude, prayer, of truces between enemies, of loans upon security, of
+arrangements for the protection of property. Man, even in very inferior
+degrees of civilization, does not stand in the presence of nature as a
+helpless slave, he is not willy-nilly the absolute servant of nature. In
+the Greek development of religion, especially in the relationship to the
+Olympian gods, it becomes possible to entertain the idea of an existence
+side by side of two castes, a higher, more powerful, and a lower, less
+powerful: but both are bound together in some way, on account of their
+origin and are one species. They need not be ashamed of one another.
+This is the element of distinction in Greek religion.
+
+
+112
+
+=At the Contemplation of Certain Ancient Sacrificial Proceedings.=--How
+many sentiments are lost to us is manifest in the union of the farcical,
+even of the obscene, with the religious feeling. The feeling that this
+mixture is possible is becoming extinct. We realize the mixture only
+historically, in the mysteries of Demeter and Dionysos and in the
+Christian Easter festivals and religious mysteries. But we still
+perceive the sublime in connection with the ridiculous, and the like,
+the emotional with the absurd. Perhaps a later age will be unable to
+understand even these combinations.
+
+
+113
+
+=Christianity as Antiquity.=--When on a Sunday morning we hear the old
+bells ringing, we ask ourselves: Is it possible? All this for a Jew
+crucified two thousand years ago who said he was God's son? The proof of
+such an assertion is lacking.--Certainly, the Christian religion
+constitutes in our time a protruding bit of antiquity from very remote
+ages and that its assertions are still generally believed--although men
+have become so keen in the scrutiny of claims--constitutes the oldest
+relic of this inheritance. A god who begets children by a mortal woman;
+a sage who demands that no more work be done, that no more justice be
+administered but that the signs of the approaching end of the world be
+heeded; a system of justice that accepts an innocent as a vicarious
+sacrifice in the place of the guilty; a person who bids his disciples
+drink his blood; prayers for miracles; sins against a god expiated upon
+a god; fear of a hereafter to which death is the portal; the figure of
+the cross as a symbol in an age that no longer knows the purpose and the
+ignominy of the cross--how ghostly all these things flit before us out
+of the grave of their primitive antiquity! Is one to believe that such
+things can still be believed?
+
+
+114
+
+=The Un-Greek in Christianity.=--The Greeks did not look upon the
+Homeric gods above them as lords nor upon themselves beneath as
+servants, after the fashion of the Jews. They saw but the counterpart as
+in a mirror of the most perfect specimens of their own caste, hence an
+ideal, but no contradiction of their own nature. There was a feeling of
+mutual relationship, resulting in a mutual interest, a sort of alliance.
+Man thinks well of himself when he gives himself such gods and places
+himself in a relationship akin to that of the lower nobility with the
+higher; whereas the Italian races have a decidedly vulgar religion,
+involving perpetual anxiety because of bad and mischievous powers and
+soul disturbers. Wherever the Olympian gods receded into the background,
+there even Greek life became gloomier and more perturbed.--Christianity,
+on the other hand, oppressed and degraded humanity completely and sank
+it into deepest mire: into the feeling of utter abasement it suddenly
+flashed the gleam of divine compassion, so that the amazed and
+grace-dazzled stupefied one gave a cry of delight and for a moment
+believed that the whole of heaven was within him. Upon this unhealthy
+excess of feeling, upon the accompanying corruption of heart and head,
+Christianity attains all its psychological effects. It wants to
+annihilate, debase, stupefy, amaze, bedazzle. There is but one thing
+that it does not want: measure, standard (das Maas) and therefore is it
+in the worst sense barbarous, asiatic, vulgar, un-Greek.
+
+
+115
+
+=Being Religious to Some Purpose.=--There are certain insipid,
+traffic-virtuous people to whom religion is pinned like the hem of some
+garb of a higher humanity. These people do well to remain religious: it
+adorns them. All who are not versed in some professional
+weapon--including tongue and pen as weapons--are servile: to all such
+the Christian religion is very useful, for then their servility assumes
+the aspect of Christian virtue and is amazingly adorned.--People whose
+daily lives are empty and colorless are readily religious. This is
+comprehensible and pardonable, but they have no right to demand that
+others, whose daily lives are not empty and colorless, should be
+religious also.
+
+
+116
+
+=The Everyday Christian.=--If Christianity, with its allegations of an
+avenging God, universal sinfulness, choice of grace, and the danger of
+eternal damnation, were true, it would be an indication of weakness of
+mind and character not to be a priest or an apostle or a hermit, and
+toil for one's own salvation. It would be irrational to lose sight of
+one's eternal well being in comparison with temporary advantage:
+Assuming these dogmas to be generally believed, the every day Christian
+is a pitiable figure, a man who really cannot count as far as three, and
+who, for the rest, just because of his intellectual incapacity, does not
+deserve to be as hard punished as Christianity promises he shall be.
+
+
+117
+
+=Concerning the Cleverness of Christianity.=--It is a master stroke of
+Christianity to so emphasize the unworthiness, sinfulness and
+degradation of men in general that contempt of one's fellow creatures
+becomes impossible. "He may sin as much as he pleases, he is not by
+nature different from me. It is I who in every way am unworthy and
+contemptible." So says the Christian to himself. But even this feeling
+has lost its keenest sting for the Christian does not believe in his
+individual degradation. He is bad in his general human capacity and he
+soothes himself a little with the assertion that we are all alike.
+
+
+118
+
+=Personal Change.=--As soon as a religion rules, it has for its
+opponents those who were its first disciples.
+
+
+119
+
+=Fate of Christianity.=--Christianity arose to lighten the heart, but
+now it must first make the heart heavy in order to be able to lighten it
+afterwards. Christianity will consequently go down.
+
+
+120
+
+=The Testimony of Pleasure.=--The agreeable opinion is accepted as true.
+This is the testimony of pleasure (or as the church says, the evidence
+of strength) of which all religions are so proud, although they should
+all be ashamed of it. If a belief did not make blessed it would not be
+believed. How little it would be worth, then!
+
+
+121
+
+=Dangerous Play.=--Whoever gives religious feeling room, must then also
+let it grow. He can do nothing else. Then his being gradually changes.
+The religious element brings with it affinities and kinships. The whole
+circle of his judgment and feeling is clouded and draped in religious
+shadows. Feeling cannot stand still. One should be on one's guard.
+
+
+122
+
+=The Blind Pupil.=--As long as one knows very well the strength and the
+weakness of one's dogma, one's art, one's religion, its strength is
+still low. The pupil and apostle who has no eye for the weaknesses of a
+dogma, a religion and so on, dazzled by the aspect of the master and by
+his own reverence for him, has, on that very account, generally more
+power than the master. Without blind pupils the influence of a man and
+his work has never become great. To give victory to knowledge, often
+amounts to no more than so allying it with stupidity that the brute
+force of the latter forces triumph for the former.
+
+
+123
+
+=The Breaking off of Churches.=--There is not sufficient religion in the
+world merely to put an end to the number of religions.
+
+
+124
+
+=Sinlessness of Men.=--If one have understood how "Sin came into the
+world," namely through errors of the reason, through which men in their
+intercourse with one another and even individual men looked upon
+themselves as much blacker and wickeder than was really the case, one's
+whole feeling is much lightened and man and the world appear together in
+such a halo of harmlessness that a sentiment of well being is instilled
+into one's whole nature. Man in the midst of nature is as a child left
+to its own devices. This child indeed dreams a heavy, anxious dream. But
+when it opens its eyes it finds itself always in paradise.
+
+
+125
+
+=Irreligiousness of Artists.=--Homer is so much at home among his gods
+and is as a poet so good natured to them that he must have been
+profoundly irreligious. That which was brought to him by the popular
+faith--a mean, crude and partially repulsive superstition--he dealt with
+as freely as the Sculptor with his clay, therefore with the same freedom
+that Æschylus and Aristophanes evinced and with which in later times the
+great artists of the renaissance, and also Shakespeare and Goethe, drew
+their pictures.
+
+
+126
+
+=Art and Strength of False Interpretation.=--All the visions, fears,
+exhaustions and delights of the saint are well known symptoms of
+sickness, which in him, owing to deep rooted religious and psychological
+delusions, are explained quite differently, that is not as symptoms of
+sickness.--So, too, perhaps, the demon of Socrates was nothing but a
+malady of the ear that he explained, in view of his predominant moral
+theory, in a manner different from what would be thought rational
+to-day. Nor is the case different with the frenzy and the frenzied
+speeches of the prophets and of the priests of the oracles. It is always
+the degree of wisdom, imagination, capacity and morality in the heart
+and mind of the interpreters that got so much out of them. It is among
+the greatest feats of the men who are called geniuses and saints that
+they made interpreters for themselves who, fortunately for mankind, did
+not understand them.
+
+
+127
+
+=Reverence for Madness.=--Because it was perceived that an excitement of
+some kind often made the head clearer and occasioned fortunate
+inspirations, it was concluded that the utmost excitement would occasion
+the most fortunate inspirations. Hence the frenzied being was revered as
+a sage and an oracle giver. A false conclusion lies at the bottom of all
+this.
+
+
+128
+
+=Promises of Wisdom.=--Modern science has as its object as little pain
+as possible, as long a life as possible--hence a sort of eternal
+blessedness, but of a very limited kind in comparison with the promises
+of religion.
+
+
+129
+
+=Forbidden Generosity.=--There is not enough of love and goodness in the
+world to throw any of it away on conceited people.
+
+
+130
+
+=Survival of Religious Training in the Disposition.=--The Catholic
+Church, and before it all ancient education, controlled the whole domain
+of means through which man was put into certain unordinary moods and
+withdrawn from the cold calculation of personal advantage and from calm,
+rational reflection. A church vibrating with deep tones; gloomy,
+regular, restraining exhortations from a priestly band, who
+involuntarily communicate their own tension to their congregation and
+lead them to listen almost with anxiety as if some miracle were in
+course of preparation; the awesome pile of architecture which, as the
+house of a god, rears itself vastly into the vague and in all its
+shadowy nooks inspires fear of its nerve-exciting power--who would care
+to reduce men to the level of these things if the ideas upon which they
+rest became extinct? But the results of all these things are
+nevertheless not thrown away: the inner world of exalted, emotional,
+prophetic, profoundly repentant, hope-blessed moods has become inborn in
+man largely through cultivation. What still exists in his soul was
+formerly, as he germinated, grew and bloomed, thoroughly disciplined.
+
+
+131
+
+=Religious After-Pains.=--Though one believe oneself absolutely weaned
+away from religion, the process has yet not been so thorough as to make
+impossible a feeling of joy at the presence of religious feelings and
+dispositions without intelligible content, as, for example, in music;
+and if a philosophy alleges to us the validity of metaphysical hopes,
+through the peace of soul therein attainable, and also speaks of "the
+whole true gospel in the look of Raphael's Madonna," we greet such
+declarations and innuendoes with a welcome smile. The philosopher has
+here a matter easy of demonstration. He responds with that which he is
+glad to give, namely a heart that is glad to accept. Hence it is
+observable how the less reflective free spirits collide only with dogmas
+but yield readily to the magic of religious feelings; it is a source of
+pain to them to let the latter go simply on account of the
+former.--Scientific philosophy must be very much on its guard lest on
+account of this necessity--an evolved and hence, also, a transitory
+necessity--delusions are smuggled in. Even logicians speak of
+"presentiments" of truth in ethics and in art (for example of the
+presentiment that the essence of things is unity) a thing which,
+nevertheless, ought to be prohibited. Between carefully deduced truths
+and such "foreboded" things there lies the abysmal distinction that the
+former are products of the intellect and the latter of the necessity.
+Hunger is no evidence that there is food at hand to appease it. Hunger
+merely craves food. "Presentiment" does not denote that the existence of
+a thing is known in any way whatever. It denotes merely that it is
+deemed possible to the extent that it is desired or feared. The
+"presentiment" is not one step forward in the domain of certainty.--It
+is involuntarily believed that the religious tinted sections of a
+philosophy are better attested than the others, but the case is at
+bottom just the opposite: there is simply the inner wish that it may be
+so, that the thing which beautifies may also be true. This wish leads us
+to accept bad grounds as good.
+
+
+132
+
+=Of the Christian Need of Salvation.=--Careful consideration must render
+it possible to propound some explanation of that process in the soul of
+a Christian which is termed need of salvation, and to propound an
+explanation, too, free from mythology: hence one purely psychological.
+Heretofore psychological explanations of religious conditions and
+processes have really been in disrepute, inasmuch as a theology calling
+itself free gave vent to its unprofitable nature in this domain; for its
+principal aim, so far as may be judged from the spirit of its creator,
+Schleier-macher, was the preservation of the Christian religion and the
+maintenance of the Christian theology. It appeared that in the
+psychological analysis of religious "facts" a new anchorage and above
+all a new calling were to be gained. Undisturbed by such predecessors,
+we venture the following exposition of the phenomena alluded to. Man is
+conscious of certain acts which are very firmly implanted in the general
+course of conduct: indeed he discovers in himself a predisposition to
+such acts that seems to him to be as unalterable as his very being. How
+gladly he would essay some other kind of acts which in the general
+estimate of conduct are rated the best and highest, how gladly he would
+welcome the consciousness of well doing which ought to follow unselfish
+motive! Unfortunately, however, it goes no further than this longing:
+the discontent consequent upon being unable to satisfy it is added to
+all other kinds of discontent which result from his life destiny in
+particular or which may be due to so called bad acts; so that a deep
+depression ensues accompanied by a desire for some physician to remove
+it and all its causes.--This condition would not be found so bitter if
+the individual but compared himself freely with other men: for then he
+would have no reason to be discontented with himself in particular as he
+is merely bearing his share of the general burden of human discontent
+and incompleteness. But he compares himself with a being who alone must
+be capable of the conduct that is called unegoistic and of an enduring
+consciousness of unselfish motive, with God. It is because he gazes into
+this clear mirror, that his own self seems so extraordinarily distracted
+and so troubled. Thereupon the thought of that being, in so far as it
+flits before his fancy as retributive justice, occasions him anxiety. In
+every conceivable small and great experience he believes he sees the
+anger of the being, his threats, the very implements and manacles of his
+judge and prison. What succors him in this danger, which, in the
+prospect of an eternal duration of punishment, transcends in hideousness
+all the horrors that can be presented to the imagination?
+
+
+133
+
+Before we consider this condition in its further effects, we would admit
+to ourselves that man is betrayed into this condition not through his
+"fault" and "sin" but through a series of delusions of the reason; that
+it was the fault of the mirror if his own self appeared to him in the
+highest degree dark and hateful, and that that mirror was his own work,
+the very imperfect work of human imagination and judgment. In the first
+place a being capable of absolutely unegoistic conduct is as fabulous as
+the phoenix. Such a being is not even thinkable for the very reason that
+the whole notion of "unegoistic conduct," when closely examined,
+vanishes into air. Never yet has a man done anything solely for others
+and entirely without reference to a personal motive; indeed how could he
+possibly do anything that had no reference to himself, that is without
+inward compulsion (which must always have its basis in a personal need)?
+How could the ego act without ego?--A god, who, on the other hand, is
+all love, as he is usually represented, would not be capable of a
+solitary unegoistic act: whence one is reminded of a reflection of
+Lichtenberg's which is, in truth, taken from a lower sphere: "We cannot
+possibly feel for others, as the expression goes; we feel only for
+ourselves. The assertion sounds hard, but it is not, if rightly
+understood. A man loves neither his father nor his mother nor his wife
+nor his child, but simply the feelings which they inspire." Or, as La
+Rochefoucauld says: "If you think you love your mistress for the mere
+love of her, you are very much mistaken." Why acts of love are more
+highly prized than others, namely not on account of their nature, but on
+account of their utility, has already been explained in the section on
+the origin of moral feelings. But if a man should wish to be all love
+like the god aforesaid, and want to do all things for others and nothing
+for himself, the procedure would be fundamentally impossible because he
+_must_ do a great deal for himself before there would be any possibility
+of doing anything for the love of others. It is also essential that
+others be sufficiently egoistic to accept always and at all times this
+self sacrifice and living for others, so that the men of love and self
+sacrifice have an interest in the survival of unloving and selfish
+egoists, while the highest morality, in order to maintain itself must
+formally enforce the existence of immorality (wherein it would be really
+destroying itself.)--Further: the idea of a god perturbs and discourages
+as long as it is accepted but as to how it originated can no longer, in
+the present state of comparative ethnological science, be a matter of
+doubt, and with the insight into the origin of this belief all faith
+collapses. What happens to the Christian who compares his nature with
+that of God is exactly what happened to Don Quixote, who depreciated his
+own prowess because his head was filled with the wondrous deeds of the
+heroes of chivalrous romance. The standard of measurement which both
+employ belongs to the domain of fable.--But if the idea of God
+collapses, so too, does the feeling of "sin" as a violation of divine
+rescript, as a stain upon a god-like creation. There still apparently
+remains that discouragement which is closely allied with fear of the
+punishment of worldly justice or of the contempt of one's fellow men.
+The keenest thorn in the sentiment of sin is dulled when it is perceived
+that one's acts have contravened human tradition, human rules and human
+laws without having thereby endangered the "eternal salvation of the
+soul" and its relations with deity. If finally men attain to the
+conviction of the absolute necessity of all acts and of their utter
+irresponsibility and then absorb it into their flesh and blood, every
+relic of conscience pangs will disappear.
+
+
+134
+
+If now, as stated, the Christian, through certain delusive feelings, is
+betrayed into self contempt, that is by a false and unscientific view of
+his acts and feelings, he must, nevertheless, perceive with the utmost
+amazement that this state of self contempt, of conscience pangs, of
+despair in particular, does not last, that there are hours during which
+all these things are wafted away from the soul and he feels himself once
+more free and courageous. The truth is that joy in his own being, the
+fulness of his own powers in connection with the inevitable decline of
+his profound excitation with the lapse of time, bore off the palm of
+victory. The man loves himself once more, he feels it--but this very new
+love, this new self esteem seems to him incredible. He can see in it
+only the wholly unmerited stream of the light of grace shed down upon
+him. If he formerly saw in every event merely warnings, threats,
+punishments and every kind of indication of divine anger, he now reads
+into his experiences the grace of god. The latter circumstance seems to
+him full of love, the former as a helpful pointing of the way, and his
+entirely joyful frame of mind now seems to him to be an absolute proof
+of the goodness of God. As formerly in his states of discouragement he
+interpreted his conduct falsely so now he does the same with his
+experiences. His state of consolation is now regarded as the effect
+produced by some external power. The love with which, at bottom, he
+loves himself, seems to be the divine love. That which he calls grace
+and the preliminary of salvation is in reality self-grace,
+self-salvation.
+
+
+135
+
+Therefore a certain false psychology, a certain kind of imaginativeness
+in the interpretation of motives and experiences is the essential
+preliminary to being a Christian and to experiencing the need of
+salvation. Upon gaining an insight into this wandering of the reason and
+the imagination, one ceases to be a Christian.
+
+
+136
+
+=Of Christian Asceticism and Sanctity.=--Much as some thinkers have
+exerted themselves to impart an air of the miraculous to those singular
+phenomena known as asceticism and sanctity, to question which or to
+account for which upon a rational basis would be wickedness and
+sacrilege, the temptation to this wickedness is none the less great. A
+powerful impulse of nature has in every age led to protest against such
+phenomena. At any rate science, inasmuch as it is the imitation of
+nature, permits the casting of doubts upon the inexplicable character
+and the supernal degree of such phenomena. It is true that heretofore
+science has not succeeded in its attempts at explanation. The phenomena
+remain unexplained still, to the great satisfaction of those who revere
+moral miracles. For, speaking generally, the unexplained must rank as
+the inexplicable, the inexplicable as the non-natural, supernatural,
+miraculous--so runs the demand in the souls of all the religious and all
+the metaphysicians (even the artists if they happen to be thinkers),
+whereas the scientific man sees in this demand the "evil
+principle."--The universal, first, apparent truth that is encountered in
+the contemplation of sanctity and asceticism is that their nature is
+complicated; for nearly always, within the physical world as well as in
+the moral, the apparently miraculous may be traced successfully to the
+complex, the obscure, the multi-conditioned. Let us venture then to
+isolate a few impulses in the soul of the saint and the ascetic, to
+consider them separately and then view them as a synthetic development.
+
+
+137
+
+There is an obstinacy against oneself, certain sublimated forms of which
+are included in asceticism. Certain kinds of men are under such a strong
+necessity of exercising their power and dominating impulses that, if
+other objects are lacking or if they have not succeeded with other
+objects they will actually tyrannize over some portions of their own
+nature or over sections and stages of their own personality. Thus do
+many thinkers bring themselves to views which are far from likely to
+increase or improve their fame. Many deliberately bring down the
+contempt of others upon themselves although they could easily have
+retained consideration by silence. Others contradict earlier opinions
+and do not shrink from the ordeal of being deemed inconsistent. On the
+contrary they strive for this and act like eager riders who enjoy
+horseback exercise most when the horse is skittish. Thus will men in
+dangerous paths ascend to the highest steeps in order to laugh to scorn
+their own fear and their own trembling limbs. Thus will the philosopher
+embrace the dogmas of asceticism, humility, sanctity, in the light of
+which his own image appears in its most hideous aspect. This crushing of
+self, this mockery of one's own nature, this spernere se sperni out of
+which religions have made so much is in reality but a very high
+development of vanity. The whole ethic of the sermon on the mount
+belongs in this category: man has a true delight in mastering himself
+through exaggerated pretensions or excessive expedients and later
+deifying this tyrannically exacting something within him. In every
+scheme of ascetic ethics, man prays to one part of himself as if it were
+god and hence it is necessary for him to treat the rest of himself as
+devil.
+
+
+138
+
+=Man is Not at All Hours Equally Moral=; this is established. If one's
+morality be judged according to one's capacity for great, self
+sacrificing resolutions and abnegations (which when continual, and made
+a habit are known as sanctity) one is, in affection, or disposition, the
+most moral: while higher excitement supplies wholly new impulses which,
+were one calm and cool as ordinarily, one would not deem oneself even
+capable of. How comes this? Apparently from the propinquity of all great
+and lofty emotional states. If a man is brought to an extraordinary
+pitch of feeling he can resolve upon a fearful revenge or upon a fearful
+renunciation of his thirst for vengeance indifferently. He craves, under
+the influences of powerful emotion, the great, the powerful, the
+immense, and if he chances to perceive that the sacrifice of himself
+will afford him as much satisfaction as the sacrifice of another, or
+will afford him more, he will choose self sacrifice. What concerns him
+particularly is simply the unloading of his emotion. Hence he readily,
+to relieve his tension, grasps the darts of the enemy and buries them in
+his own breast. That in self abnegation and not in revenge the element
+of greatness consisted must have been brought home to mankind only after
+long habituation. A god who sacrifices himself would be the most
+powerful and most effective symbol of this sort of greatness. As the
+conquest of the most hardly conquered enemy, the sudden mastering of a
+passion--thus does such abnegation _appear_: hence it passes for the
+summit of morality. In reality all that is involved is the exchange of
+one idea for another whilst the temperament remained at a like altitude,
+a like tidal state. Men when coming out of the spell, or resting from
+such passionate excitation, no longer understand the morality of such
+instants, but the admiration of all who participated in the occasion
+sustains them. Pride is their support if the passion and the
+comprehension of their act weaken. Therefore, at bottom even such acts
+of self-abnegation are not moral inasmuch as they are not done with a
+strict regard for others. Rather do others afford the high strung
+temperament an opportunity to lighten itself through such abnegation.
+
+
+139
+
+=Even the Ascetic Seeks to Make Life Easier=, and generally by means of
+absolute subjection to another will or to an all inclusive rule and
+ritual, pretty much as the Brahmin leaves absolutely nothing to his own
+volition but is guided in every moment of his life by some holy
+injunction or other. This subjection is a potent means of acquiring
+dominion over oneself. One is occupied, hence time does not bang heavy
+and there is no incitement of the personal will and of the individual
+passion. The deed once done there is no feeling of responsibility nor
+the sting of regret. One has given up one's own will once for all and
+this is easier than to give it up occasionally, as it is also easier
+wholly to renounce a desire than to yield to it in measured degree. When
+we consider the present relation of man to the state we perceive
+unconditional obedience is easier than conditional. The holy person also
+makes his lot easier through the complete surrender of his life
+personality and it is all delusion to admire such a phenomenon as the
+loftiest heroism of morality. It is always more difficult to assert
+one's personality without shrinking and without hesitation than to give
+it up altogether in the manner indicated, and it requires moreover more
+intellect and thought.
+
+
+140
+
+After having discovered in many of the less comprehensible actions mere
+manifestations of pleasure in emotion for its own sake, I fancy I can
+detect in the self contempt which characterises holy persons, and also
+in their acts of self torture (through hunger and scourgings,
+distortions and chaining of the limbs, acts of madness) simply a means
+whereby such natures may resist the general exhaustion of their will to
+live (their nerves). They employ the most painful expedients to escape
+if only for a time from the heaviness and weariness in which they are
+steeped by their great mental indolence and their subjection to a will
+other than their own.
+
+
+141
+
+=The Most Usual Means= by which the ascetic and the sanctified
+individual seeks to make life more endurable comprises certain combats
+of an inner nature involving alternations of victory and prostration.
+For this purpose an enemy is necessary and he is found in the so called
+"inner enemy." That is, the holy individual makes use of his tendency to
+vanity, domineering and pride, and of his mental longings in order to
+contemplate his life as a sort of continuous battle and himself as a
+battlefield, in which good and evil spirits wage war with varying
+fortune. It is an established fact that the imagination is restrained
+through the regularity and adequacy of sexual intercourse while on the
+other hand abstention from or great irregularity in sexual intercourse
+will cause the imagination to run riot. The imaginations of many of the
+Christian saints were obscene to a degree; and because of the theory
+that sexual desires were in reality demons that raged within them, the
+saints did not feel wholly responsible for them. It is to this
+conviction that we are indebted for the highly instructive sincerity of
+their evidence against themselves. It was to their interest that this
+contest should always be kept up in some fashion because by means of
+this contest, as already stated, their empty lives gained distraction.
+In order that the contest might seem sufficiently great to inspire
+sympathy and admiration in the unsanctified, it was essential that
+sexual capacity be ever more and more damned and denounced. Indeed the
+danger of eternal damnation was so closely allied to this capacity that
+for whole generations Christians showed their children with actual
+conscience pangs. What evil may not have been done to humanity through
+this! And yet here the truth is just upside down: an exceedingly
+unseemly attitude for the truth. Christianity, it is true, had said that
+every man is conceived and born in sin, and in the intolerable and
+excessive Christianity of Calderon this thought is again perverted and
+entangled into the most distorted paradox extant in the well known lines
+
+     The greatest sin of man
+     Is the sin of being born.
+
+In all pessimistic religions the act of procreation is looked upon as
+evil in itself. This is far from being the general human opinion. It is
+not even the opinion of all pessimists. Empedocles, for example, knows
+nothing of anything shameful, devilish and sinful in it. He sees rather
+in the great field of bliss of unholiness simply a healthful and hopeful
+phenomenon, Aphrodite. She is to him an evidence that strife does not
+always rage but that some time a gentle demon is to wield the sceptre.
+The Christian pessimists of practice, had, as stated, a direct interest
+in the prevalence of an opposite belief. They needed in the loneliness
+and the spiritual wilderness of their lives an ever living enemy, and a
+universally known enemy through whose conquest they might appear to the
+unsanctified as utterly incomprehensible and half unnatural beings. When
+this enemy at last, as a result of their mode of life and their
+shattered health, took flight forever, they were able immediately to
+people their inner selves with new demons. The rise and fall of the
+balance of cheerfulness and despair maintained their addled brains in a
+totally new fluctuation of longing and peace of soul. And in that period
+psychology served not only to cast suspicion on everything human but to
+wound and scourge it, to crucify it. Man wanted to find himself as base
+and evil as possible. Man sought to become anxious about the state of
+his soul, he wished to be doubtful of his own capacity. Everything
+natural with which man connects the idea of badness and sinfulness (as,
+for instance, is still customary in regard to the erotic) injures and
+degrades the imagination, occasions a shamed aspect, leads man to war
+upon himself and makes him uncertain, distrustful of himself. Even his
+dreams acquire a tincture of the unclean conscience. And yet this
+suffering because of the natural element in certain things is wholly
+superfluous. It is simply the result of opinions regarding the things.
+It is easy to understand why men become worse than they are if they are
+brought to look upon the unavoidably natural as bad and later to feel it
+as of evil origin. It is the master stroke of religions and metaphysics
+that wish to make man out bad and sinful by nature, to render nature
+suspicious in his eyes and to so make himself evil, for he learns to
+feel himself evil when he cannot divest himself of nature. He gradually
+comes to look upon himself, after a long life lived naturally, so
+oppressed by a weight of sin that supernatural powers become necessary
+to relieve him of the burden; and with this notion comes the so called
+need of salvation, which is the result not of a real but of an imaginary
+sinfulness. Go through the separate moral expositions in the vouchers of
+christianity and it will always be found that the demands are excessive
+in order that it may be impossible for man to satisfy them. The object
+is not that he may become moral but that he may feel as sinful as
+possible. If this feeling had not been rendered agreeable to man--why
+should he have improvised such an ideal and clung to it so long? As in
+the ancient world an incalculable strength of intellect and capacity for
+feeling was squandered in order to increase the joy of living through
+feastful systems of worship, so in the era of christianity an equally
+incalculable quantity of intellectual capacity has been sacrificed in
+another endeavor: that man should in every way feel himself sinful and
+thereby be moved, inspired, inspirited. To move, to inspire, to inspirit
+at any cost--is not this the freedom cry of an exhausted, over-ripe,
+over cultivated age? The circle of all the natural sensations had been
+gone through a hundred times: the soul had grown weary. Then the saints
+and the ascetics found a new order of ecstacies. They set themselves
+before the eyes of all not alone as models for imitation to many, but as
+fearful and yet delightful spectacles on the boundary line between this
+world and the next world, where in that period everyone thought he saw
+at one time rays of heavenly light, at another fearful, threatening
+tongues of flame. The eye of the saint, directed upon the fearful
+significance of the shortness of earthly life, upon the imminence of the
+last judgment, upon eternal life hereafter; this glowering eye in an
+emaciated body caused men, in the old time world, to tremble to the
+depths of their being. To look, to look away and shudder, to feel anew
+the fascination of the spectacle, to yield to it, sate oneself upon it
+until the soul trembled with ardor and fever--that was the last pleasure
+left to classical antiquity when its sensibilities had been blunted by
+the arena and the gladiatorial show.
+
+
+142
+
+=To Sum Up All That Has Been Said=: that condition of soul at which the
+saint or expectant saint is rejoiced is a combination of elements which
+we are all familiar with, except that under other influences than those
+of mere religious ideation they customarily arouse the censure of men in
+the same way that when combined with religion itself and regarded as the
+supreme attainment of sanctity, they are object of admiration and even
+of prayer--at least in more simple times. Very soon the saint turns upon
+himself that severity that is so closely allied to the instinct of
+domination at any price and which inspire even in the most solitary
+individual the sense of power. Soon his swollen sensitiveness of feeling
+breaks forth from the longing to restrain his passions within it and is
+transformed into a longing to master them as if they were wild steeds,
+the master impulse being ever that of a proud spirit; next he craves a
+complete cessation of all perturbing, fascinating feelings, a waking
+sleep, an enduring repose in the lap of a dull, animal, plant-like
+indolence. Next he seeks the battle and extinguishes it within himself
+because weariness and boredom confront him. He binds his
+self-deification with self-contempt. He delights in the wild tumult of
+his desires and the sharp pain of sin, in the very idea of being lost.
+He is able to play his very passions, for instance the desire to
+domineer, a trick so that he goes to the other extreme of abject
+humiliation and subjection, so that his overwrought soul is without any
+restraint through this antithesis. And, finally, when indulgence in
+visions, in talks with the dead or with divine beings overcomes him,
+this is really but a form of gratification that he craves, perhaps a
+form of gratification in which all other gratifications are blended.
+Novalis, one of the authorities in matters of sanctity, because of his
+experience and instinct, betrays the whole secret with the utmost
+simplicity when he says: "It is remarkable that the close connection of
+gratification, religion and cruelty has not long ago made men aware of
+their inner relationship and common tendency."
+
+
+143
+
+=Not What the Saint is but what he was in= the eyes of the
+non-sanctified gives him his historical importance. Because there
+existed a delusion respecting the saint, his soul states being falsely
+viewed and his personality being sundered as much as possible from
+humanity as a something incomparable and supernatural, because of these
+things he attained the extraordinary with which he swayed the
+imaginations of whole nations and whole ages. Even he knew himself not
+for even he regarded his dispositions, passions and actions in
+accordance with a system of interpretation as artificial and exaggerated
+as the pneumatic interpretation of the bible. The distorted and diseased
+in his own nature with its blending of spiritual poverty, defective
+knowledge, ruined health, overwrought nerves, remained as hidden from
+his view as from the view of his beholders. He was neither a
+particularly good man nor a particularly bad man but he stood for
+something that was far above the human standard in wisdom and goodness.
+Faith in him sustained faith in the divine and miraculous, in a
+religious significance of all existence, in an impending day of
+judgment. In the last rays of the setting sun of the ancient world,
+which fell upon the christian peoples, the shadowy form of the saint
+attained enormous proportions--to such enormous proportions, indeed,
+that down even to our own age, which no longer believes in god, there
+are thinkers who believe in the saints.
+
+
+144
+
+It stands to reason that this sketch of the saint, made upon the model
+of the whole species, can be confronted with many opposing sketches that
+would create a more agreeable impression. There are certain exceptions
+among the species who distinguish themselves either by especial
+gentleness or especial humanity, and perhaps by the strength of their
+own personality. Others are in the highest degree fascinating because
+certain of their delusions shed a particular glow over their whole
+being, as is the case with the founder of christianity who took himself
+for the only begotten son of God and hence felt himself sinless; so that
+through his imagination--that should not be too harshly judged since the
+whole of antiquity swarmed with sons of god--he attained the same goal,
+the sense of complete sinlessness, complete irresponsibility, that can
+now be attained by every individual through science.--In the same manner
+I have viewed the saints of India who occupy an intermediate station
+between the christian saints and the Greek philosophers and hence are
+not to be regarded as a pure type. Knowledge and science--as far as they
+existed--and superiority to the rest of mankind by logical discipline
+and training of the intellectual powers were insisted upon by the
+Buddhists as essential to sanctity, just as they were denounced by the
+christian world as the indications of sinfulness.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Human, All Too Human, by Friedrich Nietzsche
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+
+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Human, All Too Human, by Friedrich Nietzsche
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Human, All Too Human
+       A Book for Free Spirits
+
+Author: Friedrich Nietzsche
+
+Translator: Alexander Harvey
+
+Release Date: November 26, 2011 [EBook #38145]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HUMAN, ALL TOO HUMAN ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Gary Rees, Matthew Wheaton and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This
+book was produced from scanned images of public domain
+material from the Google Print project.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<h1 class="booktitle">HUMAN,<br />ALL TOO HUMAN</h1>
+
+<p class="h4"><br /><br />A BOOK FOR FREE SPIRITS</p>
+
+<p class="h5"><br /><br />BY</p>
+
+<p class="h4">FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE</p>
+
+<p class="spacer">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p class="h5">TRANSLATED BY ALEXANDER HARVEY</p>
+
+<p class="spacer">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p class="h6">CHICAGO<br />
+CHARLES H. KERR &amp; COMPANY<br />
+1908</p>
+
+<p class="spacer">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p class="h6">Copyright 1908<br />
+By Charles H. Kerr &amp; Company</p>
+
+<p class="spacer">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h2>CONTENTS</h2>
+
+<div class="center">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="Table of Contents">
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl">&nbsp;</td>
+    <td class="tdrfirst">Page</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl"><a href="#PREFACE">PREFACE.</a></td>
+    <td class="tdr">5</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl"><a href="#OF_THE_FIRST_AND_LAST_THINGS">OF THE FIRST AND LAST THINGS.</a></td>
+    <td class="tdr">19</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl"><a href="#HISTORY_OF_THE_MORAL_FEELINGS">HISTORY OF THE MORAL FEELINGS.</a></td>
+    <td class="tdr">67</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdl"><a href="#THE_RELIGIOUS_LIFE">THE RELIGIOUS LIFE.</a></td>
+    <td class="tdr">136</td>
+  </tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[5]</span></p>
+
+<h2 id="PREFACE">PREFACE.</h2>
+
+<h3>1</h3>
+
+<p>It is often enough, and always with great surprise, intimated to me that
+there is something both ordinary and unusual in all my writings, from
+the "Birth of Tragedy" to the recently published "Prelude to a
+Philosophy of the Future": they all contain, I have been told, snares
+and nets for short sighted birds, and something that is almost a
+constant, subtle, incitement to an overturning of habitual opinions and
+of approved customs. What!? Everything is merely&mdash;human&mdash;all too human?
+With this exclamation my writings are gone through, not without a
+certain dread and mistrust of ethic itself and not without a disposition
+to ask the exponent of evil things if those things be not simply
+misrepresented. My writings have been termed a school of distrust, still
+more of disdain: also, and more happily, of courage, audacity even. And
+in fact, I myself do not believe that anybody ever looked into the world
+with a distrust as deep as mine, seeming, as I do, not simply the timely
+advocate of the devil, but, to employ theological terms, an enemy and
+challenger of God; and whosoever has experienced any of the consequences
+of such deep distrust, anything of the chills<span class="pagenum">[6]</span> and the agonies of
+isolation to which such an unqualified difference of standpoint condemns
+him endowed with it, will also understand how often I must have sought
+relief and self-forgetfulness from any source&mdash;through any object of
+veneration or enmity, of scientific seriousness or wanton lightness;
+also why I, when I could not find what I was in need of, had to fashion
+it for myself, counterfeiting it or imagining it (and what poet or
+writer has ever done anything else, and what other purpose can all the
+art in the world possibly have?) That which I always stood most in need
+of in order to effect my cure and self-recovery was faith, faith enough
+not to be thus isolated, not to look at life from so singular a point of
+view&mdash;a magic apprehension (in eye and mind) of relationship and
+equality, a calm confidence in friendship, a blindness, free from
+suspicion and questioning, to two sidedness; a pleasure in externals,
+superficialities, the near, the accessible, in all things possessed of
+color, skin and seeming. Perhaps I could be fairly reproached with much
+"art" in this regard, many fine counterfeitings; for example, that,
+wisely or wilfully, I had shut my eyes to Schopenhauer's blind will
+towards ethic, at a time when I was already clear sighted enough on the
+subject of ethic; likewise that I had deceived myself concerning Richard
+Wagner's incurable romanticism,<span class="pagenum">[7]</span> as if it were a beginning and not an
+end; likewise concerning the Greeks, likewise concerning the Germans and
+their future&mdash;and there may be, perhaps, a long list of such likewises.
+Granted, however, that all this were true, and with justice urged
+against me, what does it signify, what can it signify in regard to how
+much of the self-sustaining capacity, how much of reason and higher
+protection are embraced in such self-deception?&mdash;and how much more
+falsity is still necessary to me that I may therewith always reassure
+myself regarding the luxury of my truth. Enough, I still live; and life
+is not considered now apart from ethic; it <i>will</i> [have] deception; it
+thrives (lebt) on deception ... but am I not beginning to do all over
+again what I have always done, I, the old immoralist, and bird
+snarer&mdash;talk unmorally, ultramorally, "beyond good and evil"?</p>
+
+<h3>2</h3>
+
+<p>Thus, then, have I evolved for myself the "free spirits" to whom this
+discouraging-encouraging work, under the general title "Human, All Too
+Human," is dedicated. Such "free spirits" do not really exist and never
+did exist. But I stood in need of them, as I have pointed out, in order
+that some good might be mixed with my<span class="pagenum">[8]</span> evils (illness, loneliness,
+strangeness, <i>acedia</i>, incapacity): to serve as gay spirits and
+comrades, with whom one may talk and laugh when one is disposed to talk
+and laugh, and whom one may send to the devil when they grow wearisome.
+They are some compensation for the lack of friends. That such free
+spirits can possibly exist, that our Europe will yet number among her
+sons of to-morrow or of the day after to-morrow, such a brilliant and
+enthusiastic company, alive and palpable and not merely, as in my case,
+fantasms and imaginary shades, I, myself, can by no means doubt. I see
+them already coming, slowly, slowly. May it not be that I am doing a
+little something to expedite their coming when I describe in advance the
+influences under which I see them evolving and the ways along which they
+travel?</p>
+
+<h3>3</h3>
+
+<p>It may be conjectured that a soul in which the type of "free spirit" can
+attain maturity and completeness had its decisive and deciding event in
+the form of a great emancipation or unbinding, and that prior to that
+event it seemed only the more firmly and forever chained to its place
+and pillar. What binds strongest? What cords seem almost unbreakable? In
+the case of mortals<span class="pagenum">[9]</span> of a choice and lofty nature they will be those of
+duty: that reverence, which in youth is most typical, that timidity and
+tenderness in the presence of the traditionally honored and the worthy,
+that gratitude to the soil from which we sprung, for the hand that
+guided us, for the relic before which we were taught to pray&mdash;their
+sublimest moments will themselves bind these souls most strongly. The
+great liberation comes suddenly to such prisoners, like an earthquake:
+the young soul is all at once shaken, torn apart, cast forth&mdash;it
+comprehends not itself what is taking place. An involuntary onward
+impulse rules them with the mastery of command; a will, a wish are
+developed to go forward, anywhere, at any price; a strong, dangerous
+curiosity regarding an undiscovered world flames and flashes in all
+their being. "Better to die than live <i>here</i>"&mdash;so sounds the tempting
+voice: and this "here," this "at home" constitutes all they have
+hitherto loved. A sudden dread and distrust of that which they loved, a
+flash of contempt for that which is called their "duty," a mutinous,
+wilful, volcanic-like longing for a far away journey, strange scenes and
+people, annihilation, petrifaction, a hatred surmounting love, perhaps a
+sacrilegious impulse and look backwards, to where they so long prayed
+and loved, perhaps a flush of shame for what they did and at the same
+time an exultation<span class="pagenum">[10]</span> at having done it, an inner, intoxicating,
+delightful tremor in which is betrayed the sense of victory&mdash;a victory?
+over what? over whom? a riddle-like victory, fruitful in questioning and
+well worth questioning, but the <i>first</i> victory, for all&mdash;such things of
+pain and ill belong to the history of the great liberation. And it is at
+the same time a malady that can destroy a man, this first outbreak of
+strength and will for self-destination, self-valuation, this will for
+free will: and how much illness is forced to the surface in the frantic
+strivings and singularities with which the freedman, the liberated seeks
+henceforth to attest his mastery over things! He roves fiercely around,
+with an unsatisfied longing and whatever objects he may encounter must
+suffer from the perilous expectancy of his pride; he tears to pieces
+whatever attracts him. With a sardonic laugh he overturns whatever he
+finds veiled or protected by any reverential awe: he would see what
+these things look like when they are overturned. It is wilfulness and
+delight in the wilfulness of it, if he now, perhaps, gives his approval
+to that which has heretofore been in ill repute&mdash;if, in curiosity and
+experiment, he penetrates stealthily to the most forbidden things. In
+the background during all his plunging and roaming&mdash;for he is as
+restless and aimless in his course as if lost in a wilderness&mdash;is the
+interrogation<span class="pagenum">[11]</span> mark of a curiosity growing ever more dangerous. "Can we
+not upset every standard? and is good perhaps evil? and God only an
+invention and a subtlety of the devil? Is everything, in the last
+resort, false? And if we are dupes are we not on that very account
+dupers also? <i>must</i> we not be dupers also?" Such reflections lead and
+mislead him, ever further on, ever further away. Solitude, that dread
+goddess and mater saeva cupidinum, encircles and besets him, ever more
+threatening, more violent, more heart breaking&mdash;but who to-day knows
+what solitude is?</p>
+
+<h3>4</h3>
+
+<p>From this morbid solitude, from the deserts of such trial years, the way
+is yet far to that great, overflowing certainty and healthiness which
+cannot dispense even with sickness as a means and a grappling hook of
+knowledge; to that matured freedom of the spirit which is, in an equal
+degree, self mastery and discipline of the heart, and gives access to
+the path of much and various reflection&mdash;to that inner comprehensiveness
+and self satisfaction of over-richness which precludes all danger that
+the spirit has gone astray even in its own path and is sitting
+intoxicated in some corner or other; to that overplus<span class="pagenum">[12]</span> of plastic,
+healing, imitative and restorative power which is the very sign of
+vigorous health, that overplus which confers upon the free spirit the
+perilous prerogative of spending a life in experiment and of running
+adventurous risks: the past-master-privilege of the free spirit. In the
+interval there may be long years of convalescence, years filled with
+many hued painfully-bewitching transformations, dominated and led to the
+goal by a tenacious will for health that is often emboldened to assume
+the guise and the disguise of health. There is a middle ground to this,
+which a man of such destiny can not subsequently recall without emotion;
+he basks in a special fine sun of his own, with a feeling of birdlike
+freedom, birdlike visual power, birdlike irrepressibleness, a something
+extraneous (Drittes) in which curiosity and delicate disdain have
+united. A "free spirit"&mdash;this refreshing term is grateful in any mood,
+it almost sets one aglow. One lives&mdash;no longer in the bonds of love and
+hate, without a yes or no, here or there indifferently, best pleased to
+evade, to avoid, to beat about, neither advancing nor retreating. One is
+habituated to the bad, like a person who all at once sees a fearful
+hurly-burly <i>beneath</i> him&mdash;and one was the counterpart of him who
+bothers himself with things that do not concern him. As a matter of fact
+the free spirit is bothered<span class="pagenum">[13]</span> with mere things&mdash;and how many
+things&mdash;which no longer <i>concern</i> him.</p>
+
+<h3>5</h3>
+
+<p>A step further in recovery: and the free spirit draws near to life
+again, slowly indeed, almost refractorily, almost distrustfully. There
+is again warmth and mellowness: feeling and fellow feeling acquire
+depth, lambent airs stir all about him. He almost feels: it seems as if
+now for the first time his eyes are open to things <i>near</i>. He is in
+amaze and sits hushed: for where had he been? These near and immediate
+things: how changed they seem to him! He looks gratefully back&mdash;grateful
+for his wandering, his self exile and severity, his lookings afar and
+his bird flights in the cold heights. How fortunate that he has not,
+like a sensitive, dull home body, remained always "in the house" and "at
+home!" He had been beside himself, beyond a doubt. Now for the first
+time he really sees himself&mdash;and what surprises in the process. What
+hitherto unfelt tremors! Yet what joy in the exhaustion, the old
+sickness, the relapses of the convalescent! How it delights him,
+suffering, to sit still, to exercise patience, to lie in the sun! Who so
+well as he appreciates the fact that there comes balmy weather even in
+winter, who delights more in the<span class="pagenum">[14]</span> sunshine athwart the wall? They are
+the most appreciative creatures in the world, and also the most humble,
+these convalescents and lizards, crawling back towards life: there are
+some among them who can let no day slip past them without addressing
+some song of praise to its retreating light. And speaking seriously, it
+is a fundamental cure for all pessimism (the cankerous vice, as is well
+known, of all idealists and humbugs), to become ill in the manner of
+these free spirits, to remain ill quite a while and then bit by bit grow
+healthy&mdash;I mean healthier. It is wisdom, worldly wisdom, to administer
+even health to oneself for a long time in small doses.</p>
+
+<h3>6</h3>
+
+<p>About this time it becomes at last possible, amid the flash lights of a
+still unestablished, still precarious health, for the free, the ever
+freer spirit to begin to read the riddle of that great liberation, a
+riddle which has hitherto lingered, obscure, well worth questioning,
+almost impalpable, in his memory. If once he hardly dared to ask "why so
+apart? so alone? renouncing all I loved? renouncing respect itself? why
+this coldness, this suspicion, this hate for one's very virtues?"&mdash;now
+he dares, and asks it loudly, already<span class="pagenum">[15]</span> hearing the answer, "you had to
+become master over yourself, master of your own good qualities. Formerly
+they were your masters: but they should be merely your tools along with
+other tools. You had to acquire power over your aye and no and learn to
+hold and withhold them in accordance with your higher aims. You had to
+grasp the perspective of every representation (Werthsch&auml;tzung)&mdash;the
+dislocation, distortion and the apparent end or teleology of the
+horizon, besides whatever else appertains to the perspective: also the
+element of demerit in its relation to opposing merit, and the whole
+intellectual cost of every affirmative, every negative. You had to find
+out the <i>inevitable</i> error<a  id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">1</a> in every Yes and in every No, error as
+inseparable from life, life itself as conditioned by the perspective and
+its inaccuracy.<a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">1</a> Above all, you had to see with your own eyes where
+the error<a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">1</a> is always greatest: there, namely, where life is littlest,
+narrowest, meanest, least developed and yet cannot help looking upon
+itself as the goal and standard of things, and smugly and ignobly and
+incessantly tearing to tatters all that is highest and greatest and
+richest, and putting the shreds into the form of questions from the
+standpoint of its own well being. You had to see with your own eyes <span class="pagenum">[16]</span>the
+problem of classification, (Rangordnung, regulation concerning rank and
+station) and how strength and sweep and reach of perspective wax upward
+together: You had"&mdash;enough, the free spirit knows henceforward which
+"you had" it has obeyed and also what it now can do and what it now, for
+the first time, <i>dare</i>.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a  id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">1</span></a> Ungerechtigkeit, literally wrongfulness, injustice,
+unrighteousness.</p></div>
+
+<h3>7</h3>
+
+<p>Accordingly, the free spirit works out for itself an answer to that
+riddle of its liberation and concludes by generalizing upon its
+experience in the following fashion: "What I went through everyone must
+go through" in whom any problem is germinated and strives to body itself
+forth. The inner power and inevitability of this problem will assert
+themselves in due course, as in the case of any unsuspected
+pregnancy&mdash;long before the spirit has seen this problem in its true
+aspect and learned to call it by its right name. Our destiny exercises
+its influence over us even when, as yet, we have not learned its nature:
+it is our future that lays down the law to our to-day. Granted, that it
+is the problem of classification<a  id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">2</a> of which we free spirits may say,
+this is <i>our</i> problem, yet it is only now, in the midday <span class="pagenum">[17]</span>of our life,
+that we fully appreciate what preparations, shifts, trials, ordeals,
+stages, were essential to that problem before it could emerge to our
+view, and why we had to go through the various and contradictory
+longings and satisfactions of body and soul, as circumnavigators and
+adventurers of that inner world called "man"; as surveyors of that
+"higher" and of that "progression"<a  id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">3</a> that is also called
+"man"&mdash;crowding in everywhere, almost without fear, disdaining nothing,
+missing nothing, testing everything, sifting everything and eliminating
+the chance impurities&mdash;until at last we could say, we free spirits:
+"Here&mdash;a <i>new</i> problem! Here, a long ladder on the rungs of which we
+ourselves have rested and risen, which we have actually been at times.
+Here is a something higher, a something deeper, a something below us, a
+vastly extensive order, (Ordnung) a comparative classification
+(Rangordnung), that we perceive: here&mdash;<i>our</i> problem!"</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a  id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">2</span></a> Rangordnung: the meaning is "the problem of grasping the
+relative importance of things."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a  id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">3</span></a> Uebereinander: one over another.</p></div>
+
+<h3>8</h3>
+
+<p>To what stage in the development just outlined the present book belongs
+(or is assigned) is something that will be hidden from no augur or
+<span class="pagenum">[18]</span>psychologist for an instant. But where are there psychologists to-day?
+In France, certainly; in Russia, perhaps; certainly not in Germany.
+Grounds are not wanting, to be sure, upon which the Germans of to-day
+may adduce this fact to their credit: unhappily for one who in this
+matter is fashioned and mentored in an un-German school! This <i>German</i>
+book, which has found its readers in a wide circle of lands and
+peoples&mdash;it has been some ten years on its rounds&mdash;and which must make
+its way by means of any musical art and tune that will captivate the
+foreign ear as well as the native&mdash;this book has been read most
+indifferently in Germany itself and little heeded there: to what is that
+due? "It requires too much," I have been told, "it addresses itself to
+men free from the press of petty obligations, it demands fine and
+trained perceptions, it requires a surplus, a surplus of time, of the
+lightness of heaven and of the heart, of otium in the most unrestricted
+sense: mere good things that we Germans of to-day have not got and
+therefore cannot give." After so graceful a retort, my philosophy bids
+me be silent and ask no more questions: at times, as the proverb says,
+one remains a philosopher only because one says&mdash;nothing!</p>
+
+<p>Nice, Spring, 1886.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[19]</span></p>
+
+<h2 id="OF_THE_FIRST_AND_LAST_THINGS">OF THE FIRST AND LAST THINGS.</h2>
+
+<h3>1</h3>
+
+<p><b>Chemistry of the Notions and the Feelings.</b>&mdash;Philosophical problems, in
+almost all their aspects, present themselves in the same interrogative
+formula now that they did two thousand years ago: how can a thing
+develop out of its antithesis? for example, the reasonable from the
+non-reasonable, the animate from the inanimate, the logical from the
+illogical, altruism from egoism, disinterestedness from greed, truth
+from error? The metaphysical philosophy formerly steered itself clear of
+this difficulty to such extent as to repudiate the evolution of one
+thing from another and to assign a miraculous origin to what it deemed
+highest and best, due to the very nature and being of the
+"thing-in-itself." The historical philosophy, on the other hand, which
+can no longer be viewed apart from physical science, the youngest of all
+philosophical methods, discovered experimentally (and its results will
+probably always be the same) that there is no antithesis whatever,
+except in the usual exaggerations of popular or metaphysical
+comprehension,<span class="pagenum">[20]</span> and that an error of the reason is at the bottom of such
+contradiction. According to its explanation, there is, strictly
+speaking, neither unselfish conduct, nor a wholly disinterested point of
+view. Both are simply sublimations in which the basic element seems
+almost evaporated and betrays its presence only to the keenest
+observation. All that we need and that could possibly be given us in the
+present state of development of the sciences, is a chemistry of the
+moral, religious, aesthetic conceptions and feeling, as well as of those
+emotions which we experience in the affairs, great and small, of society
+and civilization, and which we are sensible of even in solitude. But
+what if this chemistry established the fact that, even in <i>its</i> domain,
+the most magnificent results were attained with the basest and most
+despised ingredients? Would many feel disposed to continue such
+investigations? Mankind loves to put by the questions of its origin and
+beginning: must one not be almost inhuman in order to follow the
+opposite course?</p>
+
+<h3>2</h3>
+
+<p><b>The Traditional Error of Philosophers.</b>&mdash;All philosophers make the common
+mistake of taking contemporary man as their starting point and of
+trying, through an analysis of him, to<span class="pagenum">[21]</span> reach a conclusion. "Man"
+involuntarily presents himself to them as an aeterna veritas as a
+passive element in every hurly-burly, as a fixed standard of things. Yet
+everything uttered by the philosopher on the subject of man is, in the
+last resort, nothing more than a piece of testimony concerning man
+during a very limited period of time. Lack of the historical sense is
+the traditional defect in all philosophers. Many innocently take man in
+his most childish state as fashioned through the influence of certain
+religious and even of certain political developments, as the permanent
+form under which man must be viewed. They will not learn that man has
+evolved,<a  id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">4</a> that the intellectual faculty itself is an evolution,
+whereas some philosophers make the whole cosmos out of this intellectual
+faculty. But everything essential in human evolution took place aeons
+ago, long before the four thousand years or so of which we know
+anything: during these man may not have changed very much. However, the
+philosopher ascribes "instinct" to contemporary man and assumes that
+this is one of the unalterable facts regarding man himself, and hence
+affords a clue to the understanding of the universe in general. The
+whole teleology is so planned that man during the last four thousand
+years shall be spoken of as a being existing <span class="pagenum">[22]</span>from all eternity, and
+with reference to whom everything in the cosmos from its very inception
+is naturally ordered. Yet everything evolved: there are no eternal facts
+as there are no absolute truths. Accordingly, historical philosophising
+is henceforth indispensable, and with it honesty of judgment.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a  id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">4</span></a> geworden.</p></div>
+
+<h3>3</h3>
+
+<p><b>Appreciation of Simple Truths.</b>&mdash;It is the characteristic of an advanced
+civilization to set a higher value upon little, simple truths,
+ascertained by scientific method, than upon the pleasing and magnificent
+errors originating in metaphysical and &aelig;sthetical epochs and peoples. To
+begin with, the former are spoken of with contempt as if there could be
+no question of comparison respecting them, so rigid, homely, prosaic and
+even discouraging is the aspect of the first, while so beautiful,
+decorative, intoxicating and perhaps beatific appear the last named.
+Nevertheless, the hardwon, the certain, the lasting and, therefore, the
+fertile in new knowledge, is the higher; to hold fast to it is manly and
+evinces courage, directness, endurance. And not only individual men but
+all mankind will by degrees be uplifted to this manliness when they are
+finally habituated to the proper appreciation of tenable,<span class="pagenum">[23]</span> enduring
+knowledge and have lost all faith in inspiration and in the miraculous
+revelation of truth. The reverers of forms, indeed, with their standards
+of beauty and taste, may have good reason to laugh when the appreciation
+of little truths and the scientific spirit begin to prevail, but that
+will be only because their eyes are not yet opened to the charm of the
+utmost simplicity of form or because men though reared in the rightly
+appreciative spirit, will still not be fully permeated by it, so that
+they continue unwittingly imitating ancient forms (and that ill enough,
+as anybody does who no longer feels any interest in a thing). Formerly
+the mind was not brought into play through the medium of exact thought.
+Its serious business lay in the working out of forms and symbols. That
+has now changed. Any seriousness in symbolism is at present the
+indication of a deficient education. As our very acts become more
+intellectual, our tendencies more rational, and our judgment, for
+example, as to what seems reasonable, is very different from what it was
+a hundred years ago: so the forms of our lives grow ever more
+intellectual and, to the old fashioned eye, perhaps, uglier, but only
+because it cannot see that the richness of inner, rational beauty always
+spreads and deepens, and that the inner, rational aspect of all things
+should now be of more consequence<span class="pagenum">[24]</span> to us than the most beautiful
+externality and the most exquisite limning.</p>
+
+<h3>4</h3>
+
+<p><b>Astrology and the Like.</b>&mdash;It is presumable that the objects of the
+religious, moral, aesthetic and logical notions pertain simply to the
+superficialities of things, although man flatters himself with the
+thought that here at least he is getting to the heart of the cosmos. He
+deceives himself because these things have power to make him so happy
+and so wretched, and so he evinces, in this respect, the same conceit
+that characterises astrology. Astrology presupposes that the heavenly
+bodies are regulated in their movements in harmony with the destiny of
+mortals: the moral man presupposes that that which concerns himself most
+nearly must also be the heart and soul of things.</p>
+
+<h3>5</h3>
+
+<p><b>Misconception of Dreams.</b>&mdash;In the dream, mankind, in epochs of crude
+primitive civilization, thought they were introduced to a second,
+substantial world: here we have the source of all metaphysic. Without
+the dream, men would never have been incited to an analysis of the<span class="pagenum">[25]</span>
+world. Even the distinction between soul and body is wholly due to the
+primitive conception of the dream, as also the hypothesis of the
+embodied soul, whence the development of all superstition, and also,
+probably, the belief in god. "The dead still live: for they appear to
+the living in dreams." So reasoned mankind at one time, and through many
+thousands of years.</p>
+
+<h3>6</h3>
+
+<p><b>The Scientific Spirit Prevails only Partially, not Wholly.</b>&mdash;The
+specialized, minutest departments of science are dealt with purely
+objectively. But the general universal sciences, considered as a great,
+basic unity, posit the question&mdash;truly a very living question&mdash;: to what
+purpose? what is the use? Because of this reference to utility they are,
+as a whole, less impersonal than when looked at in their specialized
+aspects. Now in the case of philosophy, as forming the apex of the
+scientific pyramid, this question of the utility of knowledge is
+necessarily brought very conspicuously forward, so that every philosophy
+has, unconsciously, the air of ascribing the highest utility to itself.
+It is for this reason that all philosophies contain such a great amount
+of high flying metaphysic, and such a shrinking from the seeming
+insignificance of<span class="pagenum">[26]</span> the deliverances of physical science: for the
+significance of knowledge in relation to life must be made to appear as
+great as possible. This constitutes the antagonism between the
+specialties of science and philosophy. The latter aims, as art aims, at
+imparting to life and conduct the utmost depth and significance: in the
+former mere knowledge is sought and nothing else&mdash;whatever else be
+incidentally obtained. Heretofore there has never been a philosophical
+system in which philosophy itself was not made the apologist of
+knowledge [in the abstract]. On this point, at least, each is optimistic
+and insists that to knowledge the highest utility must be ascribed. They
+are all under the tyranny of logic, which is, from its very nature,
+optimism.</p>
+
+<h3>7</h3>
+
+<p><b>The Discordant Element in Science.</b>&mdash;Philosophy severed itself from
+science when it put the question: what is that knowledge of the world
+and of life through which mankind may be made happiest? This happened
+when the Socratic school arose: with the standpoint of <i>happiness</i> the
+arteries of investigating science were compressed too tightly to permit
+of any circulation of the blood&mdash;and are so compressed to-day.</p><p><span class="pagenum">[27]</span></p>
+
+<h3>8</h3>
+
+<p><b>Pneumatic Explanation of Nature.</b><a  id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">5</a>&mdash;Metaphysic reads the message of
+nature as if it were written purely pneumatically, as the church and its
+learned ones formerly did where the bible was concerned. It requires a
+great deal of expertness to apply to nature the same strict science of
+interpretation that the philologists have devised for all literature,
+and to apply it for the purpose of a simple, direct interpretation of
+the message, and at the same time, not bring out a double meaning. But,
+as in the case of books and literature, errors of exposition are far
+from being completely eliminated, and vestiges of allegorical and
+mystical interpretations are still to be met with in the most cultivated
+circles, so where nature is concerned the case is&mdash;actually much worse.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a  id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">5</span></a> Pneumatic is here used in the sense of spiritual. Pneuma
+being the Greek word in the New Testament for the Holy Spirit.&mdash;Ed.</p></div>
+
+<h3>9</h3>
+
+<p><b>Metaphysical World.</b>&mdash;It is true, there may be a metaphysical world; the
+absolute possibility of it can scarcely be disputed. We see all things
+through the medium of the human head and we cannot well cut off this
+head: although there <span class="pagenum">[28]</span>remains the question what part of the world would
+be left after it had been cut off. But that is a purely abstract
+scientific problem and one not much calculated to give men uneasiness:
+yet everything that has heretofore made metaphysical assumptions
+valuable, fearful or delightful to men, all that gave rise to them is
+passion, error and self deception: the worst systems of knowledge, not
+the best, pin their tenets of belief thereto. When such methods are once
+brought to view as the basis of all existing religions and metaphysics,
+they are already discredited. There always remains, however, the
+possibility already conceded: but nothing at all can be made out of
+that, to say not a word about letting happiness, salvation and life hang
+upon the threads spun from such a possibility. Accordingly, nothing
+could be predicated of the metaphysical world beyond the fact that it is
+an elsewhere,<a  id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">6</a> another sphere, inaccessible and incomprehensible to
+us: it would become a thing of negative properties. Even were the
+existence of such a world absolutely established, it would nevertheless
+remain incontrovertible that of all kinds of knowledge, knowledge of
+such a world would be of least consequence&mdash;of even less consequence
+than knowledge of the chemical analysis of water would be to a storm
+tossed mariner.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a  id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">6</span></a> Anderssein.</p><p><span class="pagenum">[29]</span></p></div>
+
+<h3>10</h3>
+
+<p><b>The Harmlessness of Metaphysic in the Future.</b>&mdash;As soon as religion, art
+and ethics are so understood that a full comprehension of them can be
+gained without taking refuge in the postulates of metaphysical claptrap
+at any point in the line of reasoning, there will be a complete
+cessation of interest in the purely theoretical problem of the "thing in
+itself" and the "phenomenon." For here, too, the same truth applies: in
+religion, art and ethics we are not concerned with the "essence of the
+cosmos".<a  id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">7</a> We are in the sphere of pure conception. No presentiment [or
+intuition] can carry us any further. With perfect tranquility the
+question of how our conception of the world could differ so sharply from
+the actual world as it is manifest to us, will be relegated to the
+physiological sciences and to the history of the evolution of ideas and
+organisms.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a  id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">7</span></a> "Wesen der Welt an sich."</p></div>
+
+<h3>11</h3>
+
+<p><b>Language as a Presumptive Science.</b>&mdash;The importance of language in the
+development of civilization consists in the fact that by means of <span class="pagenum">[30]</span>it
+man placed one world, his own, alongside another, a place of leverage
+that he thought so firm as to admit of his turning the rest of the
+cosmos on a pivot that he might master it. In so far as man for ages
+looked upon mere ideas and names of things as upon aeternae veritates,
+he evinced the very pride with which he raised himself above the brute.
+He really supposed that in language he possessed a knowledge of the
+cosmos. The language builder was not so modest as to believe that he was
+only giving names to things. On the contrary he thought he embodied the
+highest wisdom concerning things in [mere] words; and, in truth,
+language is the first movement in all strivings for wisdom. Here, too,
+it is <i>faith in ascertained truth</i><a  id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">8</a> from which the mightiest fountains
+of strength have flowed. Very tardily&mdash;only now&mdash;it dawns upon men that
+they have propagated a monstrous error in their belief in language.
+Fortunately, it is too late now to arrest and turn back the evolutionary
+process of the reason, which had its inception in this belief. Logic
+itself rests upon assumptions to which nothing in the world of reality
+corresponds. For example, the correspondence of certain things to one
+another and the identity of those things at different periods of time
+are assumptions pure <span class="pagenum">[31]</span>and simple, but the science of logic originated in
+the positive belief that they were not assumptions at all but
+established facts. It is the same with the science of mathematics which
+certainly would never have come into existence if mankind had known from
+the beginning that in all nature there is no perfectly straight line, no
+true circle, no standard of measurement.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a  id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">8</span></a> Glaube an die gefundene Wahrheit, as distinguished from
+faith in what is taken on trust as truth.</p></div>
+
+<h3>12</h3>
+
+<p><b>Dream and Civilization.</b>&mdash;The function of the brain which is most
+encroached upon in slumber is the memory; not that it is wholly
+suspended, but it is reduced to a state of imperfection as, in primitive
+ages of mankind, was probably the case with everyone, whether waking or
+sleeping. Uncontrolled and entangled as it is, it perpetually confuses
+things as a result of the most trifling similarities, yet in the same
+mental confusion and lack of control the nations invented their
+mythologies, while nowadays travelers habitually observe how prone the
+savage is to forgetfulness, how his mind, after the least exertion of
+memory, begins to wander and lose itself until finally he utters
+falsehood and nonsense from sheer exhaustion. Yet, in dreams, we all
+resemble this savage. Inadequacy of distinction and error of comparison
+are the basis of<span class="pagenum">[32]</span> the preposterous things we do and say in dreams, so
+that when we clearly recall a dream we are startled that so much idiocy
+lurks within us. The absolute distinctness of all dream-images, due to
+implicit faith in their substantial reality, recalls the conditions in
+which earlier mankind were placed, for whom hallucinations had
+extraordinary vividness, entire communities and even entire nations
+laboring simultaneously under them. Therefore: in sleep and in dream we
+make the pilgrimage of early mankind over again.</p>
+
+<h3>13</h3>
+
+<p><b>Logic of the Dream.</b>&mdash;During sleep the nervous system, through various
+inner provocatives, is in constant agitation. Almost all the organs act
+independently and vigorously. The blood circulates rapidly. The posture
+of the sleeper compresses some portions of the body. The coverlets
+influence the sensations in different ways. The stomach carries on the
+digestive process and acts upon other organs thereby. The intestines are
+in motion. The position of the head induces unaccustomed action. The
+feet, shoeless, no longer pressing the ground, are the occasion of other
+sensations of novelty, as is, indeed, the changed garb of the entire
+body. All these things, following the bustle and change of the<span class="pagenum">[33]</span> day,
+result, through their novelty, in a movement throughout the entire
+system that extends even to the brain functions. Thus there are a
+hundred circumstances to induce perplexity in the mind, a questioning as
+to the cause of this excitation. Now, the dream is a <i>seeking and
+presenting of reasons</i> for these excitations of feeling, of the supposed
+reasons, that is to say. Thus, for example, whoever has his feet bound
+with two threads will probably dream that a pair of serpents are coiled
+about his feet. This is at first a hypothesis, then a belief with an
+accompanying imaginative picture and the argument: "these snakes must be
+the <i>causa</i> of those sensations which I, the sleeper, now have." So
+reasons the mind of the sleeper. The conditions precedent, as thus
+conjectured, become, owing to the excitation of the fancy, present
+realities. Everyone knows from experience how a dreamer will transform
+one piercing sound, for example, that of a bell, into another of quite a
+different nature, say, the report of cannon. In his dream he becomes
+aware first of the effects, which he explains by a subsequent hypothesis
+and becomes persuaded of the purely conjectural nature of the sound. But
+how comes it that the mind of the dreamer goes so far astray when the
+same mind, awake, is habitually cautious, careful, and so conservative
+in its dealings with hypotheses? why<span class="pagenum">[34]</span> does the first plausible
+hypothesis of the cause of a sensation gain credit in the dreaming
+state? (For in a dream we look upon that dream as reality, that is, we
+accept our hypotheses as fully established). I have no doubt that as men
+argue in their dreams to-day, mankind argued, even in their waking
+moments, for thousands of years: the first <i>causa</i>, that occurred to the
+mind with reference to anything that stood in need of explanation, was
+accepted as the true explanation and served as such. (Savages show the
+same tendency in operation, as the reports of travelers agree). In the
+dream this atavistic relic of humanity manifests its existence within
+us, for it is the foundation upon which the higher rational faculty
+developed itself and still develops itself in every individual. Dreams
+carry us back to the earlier stages of human culture and afford us a
+means of understanding it more clearly. Dream thought comes so easily to
+us now because we are so thoroughly trained to it through the
+interminable stages of evolution during which this fanciful and facile
+form of theorising has prevailed. To a certain extent the dream is a
+restorative for the brain, which, during the day, is called upon to meet
+the many demands for trained thought made upon it by the conditions of a
+higher civilization.&mdash;We may, if we please, become sensible, even in our
+waking moments,<span class="pagenum">[35]</span> of a condition that is as a door and vestibule to
+dreaming. If we close our eyes the brain immediately conjures up a
+medley of impressions of light and color, apparently a sort of imitation
+and echo of the impressions forced in upon the brain during its waking
+moments. And now the mind, in co-operation with the imagination,
+transforms this formless play of light and color into definite figures,
+moving groups, landscapes. What really takes place is a sort of
+reasoning from effect back to cause. As the brain inquires: whence these
+impressions of light and color? it posits as the inducing causes of such
+lights and colors, those shapes and figures. They serve the brain as the
+occasions of those lights and colors because the brain, when the eyes
+are open and the senses awake, is accustomed to perceiving the cause of
+every impression of light and color made upon it. Here again the
+imagination is continually interposing its images inasmuch as it
+participates in the production of the impressions made through the
+senses day by day: and the dream-fancy does exactly the same thing&mdash;that
+is, the presumed cause is determined from the effect and <i>after</i> the
+effect: all this, too, with extraordinary rapidity, so that in this
+matter, as in a matter of jugglery or sleight-of-hand, a confusion of
+the mind is produced and an after effect is made to appear a
+simultaneous action, an<span class="pagenum">[36]</span> inverted succession of events, even.&mdash;From
+these considerations we can see how <i>late</i> strict, logical thought, the
+true notion of cause and effect must have been in developing, since our
+intellectual and rational faculties to this very day revert to these
+primitive processes of deduction, while practically half our lifetime is
+spent in the super-inducing conditions.&mdash;Even the poet, the artist,
+ascribes to his sentimental and emotional states causes which are not
+the true ones. To that extent he is a reminder of early mankind and can
+aid us in its comprehension.</p>
+
+<h3>14</h3>
+
+<p><b>Association.</b><a  id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">9</a>&mdash;All strong feelings are associated with a variety of
+allied sentiments and emotions. They stir up the memory at the same
+time. When we are under their influence we are reminded of similar
+states and we feel a renewal of them within us. Thus are formed habitual
+successions of feelings and notions, which, at last, when they follow
+one another with lightning rapidity are no longer felt as complexities
+but as unities. In this sense we hear of moral feelings, of religious
+feelings, as if they were absolute unities. In reality they are streams
+with a hundred sources and tributaries. Here again, <span class="pagenum">[37]</span>the unity of the
+word speaks nothing for the unity of the thing.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a  id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">9</span></a> Miterklingen: to sound simultaneously with.</p></div>
+
+<h3>15</h3>
+
+<p><b>No Within and Without in the World.</b><a  id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">10</a>&mdash;As Democritus transferred the
+notions above and below to limitless space, where they are destitute of
+meaning, so the philosophers do generally with the idea "within and
+without," as regards the form and substance (Wesen und Erscheinung) of
+the world. What they claim is that through the medium of profound
+feelings one can penetrate deep into the soul of things (Innre), draw
+close to the heart of nature. But these feelings are deep only in so far
+as with them are simultaneously aroused, although almost imperceptibly,
+certain complicated groups of thoughts (Gedankengruppen) which we call
+deep: a feeling is deep because we deem the thoughts accompanying it
+deep. But deep thought can nevertheless be very widely sundered from
+truth, as for instance every metaphysical thought. Take from deep
+feeling the element of thought blended with it and all that remains is
+<i>strength</i> of feeling <span class="pagenum">[38]</span>which is no voucher for the validity of
+knowledge, as intense faith is evidence only of its own intensity and
+not of the truth of that in which the faith is felt.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a  id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">10</span></a> Kein Innen und Aussen in der Welt: the above translation
+may seem too literal but some dispute has arisen concerning the precise
+idea the author means to convey.</p></div>
+
+<h3>16</h3>
+
+<p><b>Phenomenon and Thing-in-Itself.</b>&mdash;The philosophers are in the habit of
+placing themselves in front of life and experience&mdash;that which they call
+the world of phenomena&mdash;as if they were standing before a picture that
+is unrolled before them in its final completeness. This panorama, they
+think, must be studied in every detail in order to reach some conclusion
+regarding the object represented by the picture. From effect,
+accordingly is deduced cause and from cause is deduced the
+unconditioned. This process is generally looked upon as affording the
+all sufficient explanation of the world of phenomena. On the other hand
+one must, (while putting the conception of the metaphysical distinctly
+forward as that of the unconditioned, and consequently of the
+unconditioning) absolutely deny any connection between the unconditioned
+(of the metaphysical world) and the world known to us: so that
+throughout phenomena there is no manifestation of the thing-in-itself,
+and getting from one to the other is out of the question. Thus is left
+quite ignored the circumstance that the picture&mdash;that<span class="pagenum">[39]</span> which we now call
+life and experience&mdash;is a gradual evolution, is, indeed, still in
+process of evolution and for that reason should not be regarded as an
+enduring whole from which any conclusion as to its author (the
+all-sufficient reason) could be arrived at, or even pronounced out of
+the question. It is because we have for thousands of years looked into
+the world with moral, aesthetic, religious predispositions, with blind
+prejudice, passion or fear, and surfeited ourselves with indulgence in
+the follies of illogical thought, that the world has gradually become so
+wondrously motley, frightful, significant, soulful: it has taken on
+tints, but we have been the colorists: the human intellect, upon the
+foundation of human needs, of human passions, has reared all these
+"phenomena" and injected its own erroneous fundamental conceptions into
+things. Late, very late, the human intellect checks itself: and now the
+world of experience and the thing-in-itself seem to it so severed and so
+antithetical that it denies the possibility of one's hinging upon the
+other&mdash;or else summons us to surrender our intellect, our personal will,
+to the secret and the awe-inspiring in order that thereby we may attain
+certainty of certainty hereafter. Again, there are those who have
+combined all the characteristic features of our world of
+phenomena&mdash;that<span class="pagenum">[40]</span> is, the conception of the world which has been formed
+and inherited through a series of intellectual vagaries&mdash;and instead of
+holding the intellect responsible for it all, have pronounced the very
+nature of things accountable for the present very sinister aspect of the
+world, and preached annihilation of existence. Through all these views
+and opinions the toilsome, steady process of science (which now for the
+first time begins to celebrate its greatest triumph in the genesis of
+thought) will definitely work itself out, the result, being, perhaps, to
+the following effect: That which we now call the world is the result of
+a crowd of errors and fancies which gradually developed in the general
+evolution of organic nature, have grown together and been transmitted to
+us as the accumulated treasure of all the past&mdash;as the <i>treasure</i>, for
+whatever is worth anything in our humanity rests upon it. From this
+world of conception it is in the power of science to release us only to
+a slight extent&mdash;and this is all that could be wished&mdash;inasmuch as it
+cannot eradicate the influence of hereditary habits of feeling, but it
+can light up by degrees the stages of the development of that world of
+conception, and lift us, at least for a time, above the whole spectacle.
+Perhaps we may then perceive that the thing-in-itself is a meet subject
+for Homeric laughter: that it seemed so much, everything,<span class="pagenum">[41]</span> indeed, and
+is really a void&mdash;void, that is to say, of meaning.</p>
+
+<h3>17</h3>
+
+<p><b>Metaphysical Explanation.</b>&mdash;Man, when he is young, prizes metaphysical
+explanations, because they make him see matters of the highest import in
+things he found disagreeable or contemptible: and if he is not satisfied
+with himself, this feeling of dissatisfaction is soothed when he sees
+the most hidden world-problem or world-pain in that which he finds so
+displeasing in himself. To feel himself more unresponsible and at the
+same time to find things (Dinge) more interesting&mdash;that is to him the
+double benefit he owes to metaphysics. Later, indeed, he acquires
+distrust of the whole metaphysical method of explaining things: he then
+perceives, perhaps, that those effects could have been attained just as
+well and more scientifically by another method: that physical and
+historical explanations would, at least, have given that feeling of
+freedom from personal responsibility just as well, while interest in
+life and its problems would be stimulated, perhaps, even more.</p>
+
+<h3>18</h3>
+
+<p><b>The Fundamental Problems of Metaphysics.</b>&mdash;If a history of the
+development of thought<span class="pagenum">[42]</span> is ever written, the following proposition,
+advanced by a distinguished logician, will be illuminated with a new
+light: "The universal, primordial law of the apprehending subject
+consists in the inner necessity of cognizing every object by itself, as
+in its essence a thing unto itself, therefore as self-existing and
+unchanging, in short, as a substance." Even this law, which is here
+called "primordial," is an evolution: it has yet to be shown how
+gradually this evolution takes place in lower organizations: how the
+dim, mole eyes of such organizations see, at first, nothing but a blank
+sameness: how later, when the various excitations of desire and aversion
+manifest themselves, various substances are gradually distinguished, but
+each with an attribute, that is, a special relationship to such an
+organization. The first step towards the logical is judgment, the
+essence of which, according to the best logicians, is belief. At the
+foundation of all beliefs lie sensations of pleasure or pain in relation
+to the apprehending subject. A third feeling, as the result of two
+prior, single, separate feelings, is judgment in its crudest form. We
+organic beings are primordially interested by nothing whatever in any
+thing (Ding) except its relation to ourselves with reference to pleasure
+and pain. Between the moments in which we are conscious of this
+relation, (the<span class="pagenum">[43]</span> states of feeling) lie the moments of rest, of
+not-feeling: then the world and every thing (Ding) have no interest for
+us: we observe no change in them (as at present a person absorbed in
+something does not notice anyone passing by). To plants all things are,
+as a rule, at rest, eternal, every object like itself. From the period
+of lower organisms has been handed down to man the belief that there are
+like things (gleiche Dinge): only the trained experience attained
+through the most advanced science contradicts this postulate. The
+primordial belief of all organisms is, perhaps, that all the rest of the
+world is one thing and motionless.&mdash;Furthest away from this first step
+towards the logical is the notion of causation: even to-day we think
+that all our feelings and doings are, at bottom, acts of the free will;
+when the sentient individual contemplates himself he deems every
+feeling, every change, a something isolated, disconnected, that is to
+say, unqualified by any thing; it comes suddenly to the surface,
+independent of anything that went before or came after. We are hungry,
+but originally we do not know that the organism must be nourished: on
+the contrary that feeling seems to manifest itself without reason or
+purpose; it stands out by itself and seems quite independent. Therefore:
+the belief in the freedom of the will is a primordial error of
+everything organic<span class="pagenum">[44]</span> as old as the very earliest inward prompting of the
+logical faculty; belief in unconditioned substances and in like things
+(gleiche Dinge) is also a primordial and equally ancient error of
+everything organic. Inasmuch as all metaphysic has concerned itself
+particularly with substance and with freedom of the will, it should be
+designated as the science that deals with the fundamental errors of
+mankind as if they were fundamental truths.</p>
+
+<h3>19</h3>
+
+<p><b>Number.</b>&mdash;The invention of the laws of number has as its basis the
+primordial and prior-prevailing delusion that many like things exist
+(although in point of fact there is no such thing is a duplicate), or
+that, at least, there are things (but there is no "thing"). The
+assumption of plurality always presupposes that <i>something</i> exists which
+manifests itself repeatedly, but just here is where the delusion
+prevails; in this very matter we feign realities, unities, that have no
+existence. Our feelings, notions, of space and time are false for they
+lead, when duly tested, to logical contradictions. In all scientific
+demonstrations we always unavoidably base our calculation upon some
+false standards [of duration or measurement] but as these standards<span class="pagenum">[45]</span> are
+at least <i>constant</i>, as, for example, our notions of time and space, the
+results arrived at by science possess absolute accuracy and certainty in
+their relationship to one another: one can keep on building upon
+them&mdash;until is reached that final limit at which the erroneous
+fundamental conceptions, (the invariable breakdown) come into conflict
+with the results established&mdash;as, for example, in the case of the atomic
+theory. Here we always find ourselves obliged to give credence to a
+"thing" or material "substratum" that is set in motion, although, at the
+same time, the whole scientific programme has had as its aim the
+resolving of everything material into motions [themselves]: here again
+we distinguish with our feeling [that which does the] moving and [that
+which is] moved,<a  id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">11</a> and we never get out of this circle, because the
+belief in things<a  id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">12</a> has been from time immemorial rooted in our
+nature.&mdash;When Kant says "the intellect does not derive its laws from
+nature, but dictates them to her" he states the full truth as regards
+the <i>idea of nature</i> which we form (nature = world, as notion, that is,
+as error) but which is merely the synthesis of a host of errors of the
+intellect. <span class="pagenum">[46]</span>To a world not [the outcome of] our conception, the laws of
+number are wholly inapplicable: such laws are valid only in the world of
+mankind.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a  id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">11</span></a> Wir scheiden auch hier noch mit unserer Empfindung
+Bewegendes und Bewegtes.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a  id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">12</span></a> Glaube an Dinge.</p></div>
+
+<h3>20</h3>
+
+<p><b>Some Backward Steps.</b>&mdash;One very forward step in education is taken when
+man emerges from his superstitious and religious ideas and fears and,
+for instance, no longer believes in the dear little angels or in
+original sin, and has stopped talking about the salvation of the soul:
+when he has taken this step to freedom he has, nevertheless, through the
+utmost exertion of his mental power, to overcome metaphysics. Then a
+backward movement is necessary: he must appreciate the historical
+justification, and to an equal extent the psychological considerations,
+in such a movement. He must understand that the greatest advances made
+by mankind have resulted from such a course and that without this very
+backward movement the highest achievements of man hitherto would have
+been impossible.&mdash;With regard to philosophical metaphysics I see ever
+more and more who have arrived at the negative goal (that all positive
+metaphysic is a delusion) but as yet very few who go a few steps
+backward: one should look out over the last rungs of the ladder, but not
+try to stand on<span class="pagenum">[47]</span> them, that is to say. The most advanced as yet go only
+far enough to free themselves from metaphysic and look back at it with
+an air of superiority: whereas here, no less than in the hippodrome, it
+is necessary to turn around in order to reach the end of the course.</p>
+
+<h3>21</h3>
+
+<p><b>Presumable [Nature of the] Victory of Doubt.</b>&mdash;Let us assume for a moment
+the validity of the skeptical standpoint: granted that there is no
+metaphysical world, and that all the metaphysical explanations of the
+only world we know are useless to us, how would we then contemplate men
+and things? [Menschen und Dinge]. This can be thought out and it is
+worth while doing so, even if the question whether anything metaphysical
+has ever been demonstrated by or through Kant and Schopenhauer, be put
+altogether aside. For it is, to all appearances, highly probable that
+men, on this point, will be, in the mass, skeptical. The question thus
+becomes: what sort of a notion will human society, under the influence
+of such a state of mind, form of itself? Perhaps the <i>scientific
+demonstration</i> of any metaphysical world is now so difficult that
+mankind will never be free from a distrust of it. And when there is
+formed a feeling of distrust<span class="pagenum">[48]</span> of metaphysics, the results are, in the
+mass, the same as if metaphysics were refuted altogether and <i>could</i> no
+longer be believed. In both cases the historical question, with regard
+to an unmetaphysical disposition in mankind, remains the same.</p>
+
+<h3>22</h3>
+
+<p><b>Disbelief in the "monumentum aere perennius".</b><a  id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">13</a>&mdash;A decided
+disadvantage, attending the termination of metaphysical modes of
+thought, is that the individual fixes his mind too attentively upon his
+own brief lifetime and feels no strong inducement to aid in the
+foundation of institutions capable of enduring for centuries: he wishes
+himself to gather the fruit from the tree that he plants and
+consequently he no longer plants those trees which require centuries of
+constant cultivation and are destined to afford shade to generation
+after generation in the future. For metaphysical views inspire the
+belief that in them is afforded the final sure foundation upon which
+henceforth the whole future of mankind may rest and be built up: the
+individual promotes his own salvation; when, <span class="pagenum">[49]</span>for example, he builds a
+church or a monastery he is of opinion that he is doing something for
+the salvation of his immortal soul:&mdash;Can science, as well, inspire such
+faith in the efficacy of her results? In actual fact, science requires
+doubt and distrust as her surest auxiliaries; nevertheless, the sum of
+the irresistible (that is all the onslaughts of skepticism, all the
+disintegrating effects of surviving truths) can easily become so great
+(as, for instance, in the case of hygienic science) as to inspire the
+determination to build "eternal" works upon it. At present the contrast
+between our excitated ephemeral existence and the tranquil repose of
+metaphysical epochs is too great because both are as yet in too close
+juxtaposition. The individual man himself now goes through too many
+stages of inner and outer evolution for him to venture to make a plan
+even for his life time alone. A perfectly modern man, indeed, who wants
+to build himself a house feels as if he were walling himself up alive in
+a mausoleum.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a  id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">13</span></a> Monument more enduring than brass: Horace, Odes III:XXX.</p></div>
+
+<h3>23</h3>
+
+<p><b>Age of Comparison.</b>&mdash;The less men are bound by tradition, the greater is
+the inner activity of motives, the greater, correspondingly, the outer
+restlessness, the promiscuous flow of humanity, the polyphony of
+strivings. Who now feels any<span class="pagenum">[50]</span> great impulse to establish himself and his
+posterity in a particular place? For whom, moreover, does there exist,
+at present, any strong tie? As all the methods of the arts were copied
+from one another, so were all the methods and advancements of moral
+codes, of manners, of civilizations.&mdash;Such an age derives its
+significance from the fact that in it the various ideas, codes, manners
+and civilizations can be compared and experienced side by side; which
+was impossible at an earlier period in view of the localised nature of
+the rule of every civilization, corresponding to the limitation of all
+artistic effects by time and place. To-day the growth of the aesthetic
+feeling is decided, owing to the great number of [artistic] forms which
+offer themselves for comparison. The majority&mdash;those that are condemned
+by the method of comparison&mdash;will be allowed to die out. In the same way
+there is to-day taking place a selection of the forms and customs of the
+higher morality which can result only in the extinction of the vulgar
+moralities. This is the age of comparison! That is its glory&mdash;but also
+its pain. Let us not, however shrink from this pain. Rather would we
+comprehend the nature of the task imposed upon us by our age as
+adequately as we can: posterity will bless us for doing so&mdash;a posterity
+that knows itself to be [developed] through and above the narrow,<span class="pagenum">[51]</span> early
+race-civilizations as well as the culture-civilization of comparison,
+but yet looks gratefully back upon both as venerable monuments of
+antiquity.</p>
+
+<h3>24</h3>
+
+<p><b>Possibility of Progress.</b>&mdash;When a master of the old civilization (den
+alten Cultur) vows to hold no more discussion with men who believe in
+progress, he is quite right. For the old civilization<a  id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">14</a> has its
+greatness and its advantages behind it, and historic training forces one
+to acknowledge that it can never again acquire vigor: only intolerable
+stupidity or equally intolerable fanaticism could fail to perceive this
+fact. But men may consciously determine to evolve to a new civilization
+where formerly they evolved unconsciously and accidentally. They can now
+devise better conditions for the advancement of mankind, for their
+nourishment, training and education, they can administer the earth as an
+economic power, and, particularly, compare the capacities of men and
+select them accordingly. This new, conscious civilization is killing the
+other which, on the whole, has led but an unreflective <span class="pagenum">[52]</span>animal and plant
+life: it is also destroying the doubt of progress itself&mdash;progress is
+possible. I mean: it is hasty and almost unreflective to assume that
+progress must <i>necessarily</i> take place: but how can it be doubted that
+progress is possible? On the other hand, progress in the sense and along
+the lines of the old civilization is not even conceivable. If romantic
+fantasy employs the word progress in connection with certain aims and
+ends identical with those of the circumscribed primitive national
+civilizations, the picture presented of progress is always borrowed from
+the past. The idea and the image of progress thus formed are quite
+without originality.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a  id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">14</span></a> Cultur, culture, civilisation etc., but there is no exact
+English equivalent.</p></div>
+
+<h3>25</h3>
+
+<p><b>Private Ethics and World Ethics.</b>&mdash;Since the extinction of the belief
+that a god guides the general destiny of the world and, notwithstanding
+all the contortions and windings of the path of mankind, leads it
+gloriously forward, men must shape oecumenical, world-embracing ends for
+themselves. The older ethics, namely Kant's, required of the individual
+such a course of conduct as he wishes all men to follow. This evinces
+much simplicity&mdash;as if any individual could determine off hand what
+course of conduct would conduce to the welfare of humanity, and what
+course of conduct is pre&euml;minently desir<span class="pagenum">[53]</span>able! This is a theory like that
+of freedom of competition, which takes it for granted that the general
+harmony [of things] <i>must</i> prevail of itself in accordance with some
+inherent law of betterment or amelioration. It may be that a later
+contemplation of the needs of mankind will reveal that it is by no means
+desirable that all men should regulate their conduct according to the
+same principle; it may be best, from the standpoint of certain ends yet
+to be attained, that men, during long periods should regulate their
+conduct with reference to special, and even, in certain circumstances,
+evil, objects. At any rate, if mankind is not to be led astray by such a
+universal rule of conduct, it behooves it to attain a <i>knowledge of the
+condition of culture</i> that will serve as a scientific standard of
+comparison in connection with cosmical ends. Herein is comprised the
+tremendous mission of the great spirits of the next century.</p>
+
+<h3>26</h3>
+
+<p><b>Reaction as Progress.</b>&mdash;Occasionally harsh, powerful, impetuous, yet
+nevertheless backward spirits, appear, who try to conjure back some past
+era in the history of mankind: they serve as evidence that the new
+tendencies which they oppose, are not yet potent enough, that there<span class="pagenum">[54]</span> is
+something lacking in them: otherwise they [the tendencies] would better
+withstand the effects of this conjuring back process. Thus Luther's
+reformation shows that in his century all the impulses to freedom of the
+spirit were still uncertain, lacking in vigor, and immature. Science
+could not yet rear her head. Indeed the whole Renaissance appears but as
+an early spring smothered in snow. But even in the present century
+Schopenhauer's metaphysic shows that the scientific spirit is not yet
+powerful enough: for the whole mediaeval Christian world-standpoint
+(Weltbetrachtung) and conception of man (Mensch-Empfindung)<a  id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">15</a> once
+again, notwithstanding the slowly wrought destruction of all Christian
+dogma, celebrated a resurrection in Schopenhauer's doctrine. There is
+much science in his teaching although the science does not dominate,
+but, instead of it, the old, trite "metaphysical necessity." It is one
+of the greatest and most priceless advantages of Schopenhauer's teaching
+that by it our feelings are temporarily forced back to those old human
+and cosmical standpoints to which no other path could conduct us so
+easily. The gain for history and justice is very great. I believe that
+without Schopenhauer's aid it would be no easy matter for <span class="pagenum">[55]</span>anyone now to
+do justice to Christianity and its Asiatic relatives&mdash;a thing impossible
+as regards the christianity that still survives. After according this
+great triumph to justice, after we have corrected in so essential a
+respect the historical point of view which the age of learning brought
+with it, we may begin to bear still farther onward the banner of
+enlightenment&mdash;a banner bearing the three names: Petrarch, Erasmus,
+Voltaire. We have taken a forward step out of reaction.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a  id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">15</span></a> Literally man-feeling or human outlook.</p></div>
+
+<h3>27</h3>
+
+<p><b>A Substitute for Religion.</b>&mdash;It is supposed to be a recommendation for
+philosophy to say of it that it provides the people with a substitute
+for religion. And in fact, the training of the intellect does
+necessitate the convenient laying out of the track of thought, since the
+transition from religion by way of science entails a powerful, perilous
+leap,&mdash;something that should be advised against. With this
+qualification, the recommendation referred to is a just one. At the same
+time, it should be further explained that the needs which religion
+satisfies and which science must now satisfy, are not immutable. Even
+they can be diminished and uprooted. Think, for instance, of the
+christian soul-need, the sighs over<span class="pagenum">[56]</span> one's inner corruption, the anxiety
+regarding salvation&mdash;all notions that arise simply out of errors of the
+reason and require no satisfaction at all, but annihilation. A
+philosophy can either so affect these needs as to appease them or else
+put them aside altogether, for they are acquired, circumscribed needs,
+based upon hypotheses which those of science explode. Here, for the
+purpose of affording the means of transition, for the sake of lightening
+the spirit overburdened with feeling, art can be employed to far better
+purpose, as these hypotheses receive far less support from art than from
+a metaphysical philosophy. Then from art it is easier to go over to a
+really emancipating philosophical science.</p>
+
+<h3>28</h3>
+
+<p><b>Discredited Words.</b>&mdash;Away with the disgustingly over-used words optimism
+and pessimism! For the occasion for using them grows daily less; only
+drivelers now find them indispensably necessary. What earthly reason
+could anyone have for being an optimist unless he had a god to defend
+who <i>must</i> have created the best of all possible worlds, since he is
+himself all goodness and perfection?&mdash;but what thinking man has now any
+need for the hypothesis that there is a god?&mdash;There is also no occasion
+whatever for<span class="pagenum">[57]</span> a pessimistic confession of faith, unless one has a
+personal interest in denouncing the advocate of god, the theologian or
+the theological philosopher, and maintaining the counter proposition
+that evil reigns, that wretchedness is more potent than joy, that the
+world is a piece of botch work, that phenomenon (Erscheinung) is but the
+manifestation of some evil spirit. But who bothers his head about the
+theologians any more&mdash;except the theologians themselves? Apart from all
+theology and its antagonism, it is manifest that the world is neither
+good nor bad, (to say nothing about its being the best or the worst) and
+that these ideas of "good" and "bad" have significance only in relation
+to men, indeed, are without significance at all, in view of the sense in
+which they are usually employed. The contemptuous and the eulogistic
+point of view must, in every case, be repudiated.</p>
+
+<h3>29</h3>
+
+<p><b>Intoxicated by the Perfume of Flowers.</b>&mdash;The ship of humanity, it is
+thought, acquires an ever deeper draught the more it is laden. It is
+believed that the more profoundly man thinks, the more exquisitely he
+feels, the higher the standard he sets for himself, the greater his
+distance from the other animals&mdash;the more he<span class="pagenum">[58]</span> appears as a genius
+(Genie) among animals&mdash;the nearer he gets to the true nature of the
+world and to comprehension thereof: this, indeed, he really does through
+science, but he thinks he does it far more adequately through his
+religions and arts. These are, certainly, a blossoming of the world, but
+not, therefore, <i>nearer the roots of the world</i> than is the stalk. One
+cannot learn best from it the nature of the world, although nearly
+everyone thinks so. <i>Error</i> has made men so deep, sensitive and
+imaginative in order to bring forth such flowers as religions and arts.
+Pure apprehension would be unable to do that. Whoever should disclose to
+us the essence of the world would be undeceiving us most cruelly. Not
+the world as thing-in-itself but the world as idea<a  id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">16</a> (as error) is
+rich in portent, deep, wonderful, carrying happiness and unhappiness in
+its womb. This result leads to a philosophy of world negation: which, at
+any rate, can be as well combined with a practical world affirmation as
+with its opposite.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a  id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">16</span></a> Vorstellung: this word sometimes corresponds to the
+English word "idea", at others to "conception" or "notion."</p></div>
+
+<h3>30</h3>
+
+<p><b>Evil Habits in Reaching Conclusions.</b>&mdash;The most usual erroneous
+conclusions of men <span class="pagenum">[59]</span>are these: a thing<a  id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">17</a> exists, therefore it is right:
+Here from capacity to live is deduced fitness, from fitness, is deduced
+justification. So also: an opinion gives happiness, therefore it is the
+true one, its effect is good, therefore it is itself good and true. Here
+is predicated of the effect that it gives happiness, that it is good in
+the sense of utility, and there is likewise predicated of the cause that
+it is good, but good in the sense of logical validity. Conversely, the
+proposition would run: a thing<a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">17</a> cannot attain success, cannot
+maintain itself, therefore it is evil: a belief troubles [the believer],
+occasions pain, therefore it is false. The free spirit, who is sensible
+of the defect in this method of reaching conclusions and has had to
+suffer its consequences, often succumbs to the temptation to come to the
+very opposite conclusions (which, in general, are, of course, equally
+erroneous): a thing cannot maintain itself: therefore it is good; a
+belief is troublesome, therefore it is true.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a  id="Footnote_17_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">17</span></a> Sache, thing but not in the sense of Ding. Sache is of
+very indefinite application (res).</p></div>
+
+<h3>31</h3>
+
+<p><b>The Illogical is Necessary.</b>&mdash;Among the things which can bring a thinker
+to distraction is the knowledge that the illogical is necessary <span class="pagenum">[60]</span>to
+mankind and that from the illogical springs much that is good. The
+illogical is so imbedded in the passions, in language, in art, in
+religion and, above all, in everything that imparts value to life that
+it cannot be taken away without irreparably injuring those beautiful
+things. Only men of the utmost simplicity can believe that the nature
+man knows can be changed into a purely logical nature. Yet were there
+steps affording approach to this goal, how utterly everything would be
+lost on the way! Even the most rational man needs nature again, from
+time to time, that is, his illogical fundamental relation
+(Grundstellung) to all things.</p>
+
+<h3>32</h3>
+
+<p><b>Being Unjust is Essential.</b>&mdash;All judgments of the value of life are
+illogically developed and therefore unjust. The vice of the judgment
+consists, first, in the way in which the subject matter comes under
+observation, that is, very incompletely; secondly in the way in which
+the total is summed up; and, thirdly, in the fact that each single item
+in the totality of the subject matter is itself the result of defective
+perception, and this from absolute necessity. No practical knowledge of
+a man, for example, stood he never so near to us, can be complete&mdash;so
+that<span class="pagenum">[61]</span> we could have a logical right to form a total estimate of him; all
+estimates are summary and must be so. Then the standard by which we
+measure, (our being) is not an immutable quantity; we have moods and
+variations, and yet we should know ourselves as an invariable standard
+before we undertake to establish the nature of the relation of any thing
+(Sache) to ourselves. Perhaps it will follow from all this that one
+should form no judgments whatever; if one could but merely <i>live</i>
+without having to form estimates, without aversion and without
+partiality!&mdash;for everything most abhorred is closely connected with an
+estimate, as well as every strongest partiality. An inclination towards
+a thing, or from a thing, without an accompanying feeling that the
+beneficial is desired and the pernicious contemned, an inclination
+without a sort of experiential estimation of the desirability of an end,
+does not exist in man. We are primordially illogical and hence unjust
+beings <i>and can recognise this fact</i>: this is one of the greatest and
+most baffling discords of existence.</p>
+
+<h3>33</h3>
+
+<p><b>Error Respecting Living for the Sake of Living Essential.</b>&mdash;Every belief
+in the value and worthiness of life rests upon defective thinking;<span class="pagenum">[62]</span> it
+is for this reason alone possible that sympathy with the general life
+and suffering of mankind is so imperfectly developed in the individual.
+Even exceptional men, who can think beyond their own personalities, do
+not have this general life in view, but isolated portions of it. If one
+is capable of fixing his observation upon exceptional cases, I mean upon
+highly endowed individuals and pure souled beings, if their development
+is taken as the true end of world-evolution and if joy be felt in their
+existence, then it is possible to believe in the value of life, because
+in that case the rest of humanity is overlooked: hence we have here
+defective thinking. So, too, it is even if all mankind be taken into
+consideration, and one species only of impulses (the less egoistic)
+brought under review and those, in consideration of the other impulses,
+exalted: then something could still be hoped of mankind in the mass and
+to that extent there could exist belief in the value of life: here,
+again, as a result of defective thinking. Whatever attitude, thus, one
+may assume, one is, as a result of this attitude, an exception among
+mankind. Now, the great majority of mankind endure life without any
+great protest, and believe, to this extent, in the value of existence,
+but that is because each individual decides and determines alone, and
+never comes out of his own personality<span class="pagenum">[63]</span> like these exceptions:
+everything outside of the personal has no existence for them or at the
+utmost is observed as but a faint shadow. Consequently the value of life
+for the generality of mankind consists simply in the fact that the
+individual attaches more importance to himself than he does to the
+world. The great lack of imagination from which he suffers is
+responsible for his inability to enter into the feelings of beings other
+than himself, and hence his sympathy with their fate and suffering is of
+the slightest possible description. On the other hand, whosoever really
+<i>could</i> sympathise, necessarily doubts the value of life; were it
+possible for him to sum up and to feel in himself the total
+consciousness of mankind, he would collapse with a malediction against
+existence,&mdash;for mankind is, in the mass, without a goal, and hence man
+cannot find, in the contemplation of his whole course, anything to serve
+him as a mainstay and a comfort, but rather a reason to despair. If he
+looks beyond the things that immediately engage him to the final
+aimlessness of humanity, his own conduct assumes in his eyes the
+character of a frittering away. To feel oneself, however, as humanity
+(not alone as an individual) frittered away exactly as we see the stray
+leaves frittered away by nature, is a feeling transcending all feeling.
+But who is capable of it? Only<span class="pagenum">[64]</span> a poet, certainly: and poets always know
+how to console themselves.</p>
+
+<h3>34</h3>
+
+<p><b>For Tranquility.</b>&mdash;But will not our philosophy become thus a tragedy?
+Will not truth prove the enemy of life, of betterment? A question seems
+to weigh upon our tongue and yet will not put itself into words: whether
+one <i>can</i> knowingly remain in the domain of the untruthful? or, if one
+<i>must</i>, whether, then, death would not be preferable? For there is no
+longer any ought (Sollen), morality; so far as it is involved "ought,"
+is, through our point of view, as utterly annihilated as religion. Our
+knowledge can permit only pleasure and pain, benefit and injury, to
+subsist as motives. But how can these motives be distinguished from the
+desire for truth? Even they rest upon error (in so far, as already
+stated, partiality and dislike and their very inaccurate estimates
+palpably modify our pleasure and our pain). The whole of human life is
+deeply involved in <i>untruth</i>. The individual cannot extricate it from
+this pit without thereby fundamentally clashing with his whole past,
+without finding his present motives of conduct, (as that of honor)
+illegitimate, and without opposing scorn and contempt to the ambitions<span class="pagenum">[65]</span>
+which prompt one to have regard for the future and for one's happiness
+in the future. Is it true, does there, then, remain but one way of
+thinking, which, as a personal consequence brings in its train despair,
+and as a theoretical [consequence brings in its train] a philosophy of
+decay, disintegration, self annihilation? I believe the deciding
+influence, as regards the after-effect of knowledge, will be the
+<i>temperament</i> of a man; I can, in addition to this after-effect just
+mentioned, suppose another, by means of which a much simpler life, and
+one freer from disturbances than the present, could be lived; so that at
+first the old motives of vehement passion might still have strength,
+owing to hereditary habit, but they would gradually grow weaker under
+the influence of purifying knowledge. A man would live, at last, both
+among men and unto himself, as in the natural state, without praise,
+reproach, competition, feasting one's eyes, as if it were a play, upon
+much that formerly inspired dread. One would be rid of the strenuous
+element, and would no longer feel the goad of the reflection that man is
+not even [as much as] nature, nor more than nature. To be sure, this
+requires, as already stated, a good temperament, a fortified, gentle and
+naturally cheerful soul, a disposition that has no need to be on its
+guard against its own eccentricities and sudden outbreaks<span class="pagenum">[66]</span> and that in
+its utterances manifests neither sullenness nor a snarling tone&mdash;those
+familiar, disagreeable characteristics of old dogs and old men that have
+been a long time chained up. Rather must a man, from whom the ordinary
+bondages of life have fallen away to so great an extent, so do that he
+only lives on in order to grow continually in knowledge, and to learn to
+resign, without envy and without disappointment, much, yes nearly
+everything, that has value in the eyes of men. He must be content with
+such a free, fearless soaring above men, manners, laws and traditional
+estimates of things, as the most desirable of all situations. He will
+freely share the joy of being in such a situation, and he has, perhaps,
+nothing else to share&mdash;in which renunciation and self-denial really most
+consist. But if more is asked of him, he will, with a benevolent shake
+of the head, refer to his brother, the free man of fact, and will,
+perhaps, not dissemble a little contempt: for, as regards his "freedom,"
+thereby hangs a tale.<a  id="FNanchor_18_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">18</a></p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a  id="Footnote_18_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18_18"><span class="label">18</span></a> den mit dessen "Freiheit" hat es eine eigene
+Bewandtniss.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[67]</span></p></div>
+
+<h2 id="HISTORY_OF_THE_MORAL_FEELINGS">HISTORY OF THE MORAL FEELINGS.</h2>
+
+<h3>35</h3>
+
+<p><b>Advantages of Psychological Observation.</b>&mdash;That reflection regarding the
+human, all-too-human&mdash;or as the learned jargon is: psychological
+observation&mdash;is among the means whereby the burden of life can be made
+lighter, that practice in this art affords presence of mind in difficult
+situations and entertainment amid a wearisome environment, aye, that
+maxims may be culled in the thorniest and least pleasing paths of life
+and invigoration thereby obtained: this much was believed, was known&mdash;in
+former centuries. Why was this forgotten in our own century, during
+which, at least in Germany, yes in Europe, poverty as regards
+psychological observation would have been manifest in many ways had
+there been anyone to whom this poverty could have manifested itself. Not
+only in the novel, in the romance, in philosophical standpoints&mdash;these
+are the works of exceptional men; still more in the state of opinion
+regarding public events and personages; above all in general society,
+which says much about men but<span class="pagenum">[68]</span> nothing whatever about man, there is
+totally lacking the art of psychological analysis and synthesis. But why
+is the richest and most harmless source of entertainment thus allowed to
+run to waste? Why is the greatest master of the psychological maxim no
+longer read?&mdash;for, with no exaggeration whatever be it said: the
+educated person in Europe who has read La Rochefoucauld and his
+intellectual and artistic affinities is very hard to find; still harder,
+the person who knows them and does not disparage them. Apparently, too,
+this unusual reader takes far less pleasure in them than the form
+adopted by these artists should afford him: for the subtlest mind cannot
+adequately appreciate the art of maxim-making unless it has had training
+in it, unless it has competed in it. Without such practical
+acquaintance, one is apt to look upon this making and forming as a much
+easier thing than it really is; one is not keenly enough alive to the
+felicity and the charm of success. Hence present day readers of maxims
+have but a moderate, tempered pleasure in them, scarcely, indeed, a true
+perception of their merit, so that their experiences are about the same
+as those of the average beholder of cameos: people who praise because
+they cannot appreciate, and are very ready to admire and still readier
+to turn away.</p><p><span class="pagenum">[69]</span></p>
+
+<h3>36</h3>
+
+<p><b>Objection.</b>&mdash;Or is there a counter-proposition to the dictum that
+psychological observation is one of the means of consoling, lightening,
+charming existence? Have enough of the unpleasant effects of this art
+been experienced to justify the person striving for culture in turning
+his regard away from it? In all truth, a certain blind faith in the
+goodness of human nature, an implanted distaste for any disparagement of
+human concerns, a sort of shamefacedness at the nakedness of the soul,
+may be far more desirable things in the general happiness of a man, than
+this only occasionally advantageous quality of psychological
+sharpsightedness; and perhaps belief in the good, in virtuous men and
+actions, in a plenitude of disinterested benevolence has been more
+productive of good in the world of men in so far as it has made men less
+distrustful. If Plutarch's heroes are enthusiastically imitated and a
+reluctance is experienced to looking too critically into the motives of
+their actions, not the knowledge but the welfare of human society is
+promoted thereby: psychological error and above all obtuseness in regard
+to it, help human nature forward, whereas knowledge of the truth is more
+promoted by means of the stimulating strength of a hypothesis; as La
+Rochefoucauld<span class="pagenum">[70]</span> in the first edition of his "Sentences and Moral Maxims"
+has expressed it: "What the world calls virtue is ordinarily but a
+phantom created by the passions, and to which we give a good name in
+order to do whatever we please with impunity." La Rochefoucauld and
+those other French masters of soul-searching (to the number of whom has
+lately been added a German, the author of "Psychological Observations")
+are like expert marksmen who again and again hit the black spot&mdash;but it
+is the black spot in human nature. Their art inspires amazement, but
+finally some spectator, inspired, not by the scientific spirit but by a
+humanitarian feeling, execrates an art that seems to implant in the soul
+a taste for belittling and impeaching mankind.</p>
+
+<h3>37</h3>
+
+<p><b>Nevertheless.</b>&mdash;The matter therefore, as regards pro and con, stands
+thus: in the present state of philosophy an awakening of the moral
+observation is essential. The repulsive aspect of psychological
+dissection, with the knife and tweezers entailed by the process, can no
+longer be spared humanity. Such is the imperative duty of any science
+that investigates the origin and history of the so-called moral feelings
+and<span class="pagenum">[71]</span> which, in its progress, is called upon to posit and to solve
+advanced social problems:&mdash;The older philosophy does not recognize the
+newer at all and, through paltry evasions, has always gone astray in the
+investigation of the origin and history of human estimates
+(Werthsch&auml;tzungen). With what results may now be very clearly perceived,
+since it has been shown by many examples, how the errors of the greatest
+philosophers have their origin in a false explanation of certain human
+actions and feelings; how upon the foundation of an erroneous analysis
+(for example, of the so called disinterested actions), a false ethic is
+reared, to support which religion and like mythological monstrosities
+are called in, until finally the shades of these troubled spirits
+collapse in physics and in the comprehensive world point of view. But if
+it be established that superficiality of psychological observation has
+heretofore set the most dangerous snares for human judgment and
+deduction, and will continue to do so, all the greater need is there of
+that steady continuance of labor that never wearies putting stone upon
+stone, little stone upon little stone; all the greater need is there of
+a courage that is not ashamed of such humble labor and that will oppose
+persistence, to all contempt. It is, finally, also true that countless
+single observations concerning the human, all-too-human,<span class="pagenum">[72]</span> have been
+first made and uttered in circles accustomed, not to furnish matter for
+scientific knowledge, but for intellectual pleasure-seeking; and the
+original home atmosphere&mdash;a very seductive atmosphere&mdash;of the moral
+maxim has almost inextricably interpenetrated the entire species, so
+that the scientific man involuntarily manifests a sort of mistrust of
+this species and of its seriousness. But it is sufficient to point to
+the consequences: for already it is becoming evident that events of the
+most portentous nature are developing in the domain of psychological
+observation. What is the leading conclusion arrived at by one of the
+subtlest and calmest of thinkers, the author of the work "Concerning the
+Origin of the Moral Feelings", as a result of his thorough and incisive
+analysis of human conduct? "The moral man," he says, "stands no nearer
+the knowable (metaphysical) world than the physical man."<a  id="FNanchor_19_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor">19</a> This
+dictum, grown hard and cutting beneath the hammer-blow of historical
+knowledge, can some day, perhaps, in some future or other, serve as the
+axe that will be laid to the root of the "metaphysical necessities" of
+men&mdash;whether more to the blessing than to the banning of universal well
+<span class="pagenum">[73]</span>being who can say?&mdash;but in any event a dictum fraught with the most
+momentous consequences, fruitful and fearful at once, and confronting
+the world in the two faced way characteristic of all great facts.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a  id="Footnote_19_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19_19"><span class="label">19</span></a> "Der moralische Mensch, sagt er, steht der intelligiblen
+(metaphysischen) Welt nicht n&auml;her, als der physische Mensch."</p></div>
+
+<h3>38</h3>
+
+<p><b>To What Extent Useful.</b>&mdash;Therefore, whether psychological observation is
+more an advantage than a disadvantage to mankind may always remain
+undetermined: but there is no doubt that it is necessary, because
+science can no longer dispense with it. Science, however, recognizes no
+considerations of ultimate goals or ends any more than nature does; but
+as the latter duly matures things of the highest fitness for certain
+ends without any intention of doing it, so will true science, doing with
+ideas what nature does with matter,<a  id="FNanchor_20_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_20" class="fnanchor">20</a> promote the purposes and the
+welfare of humanity, (as occasion may afford, and in many ways) and
+attain fitness [to ends]&mdash;but likewise without having intended it.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a  id="Footnote_20_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20_20"><span class="label">20</span></a> als die Nachahmung der Natur in Begriffen, literally: "as
+the counterfeit of nature in (regard to) ideas."</p></div>
+
+<p>He to whom the atmospheric conditions of such a prospect are too wintry,
+has too little fire in him: let him look about him, and he will <span class="pagenum">[74]</span>become
+sensible of maladies requiring an icy air, and of people who are so
+"kneaded together" out of ardor and intellect that they can scarcely
+find anywhere an atmosphere too cold and cutting for them. Moreover: as
+too serious individuals and nations stand in need of trivial
+relaxations; as others, too volatile and excitable require onerous,
+weighty ordeals to render them entirely healthy: should not we, the more
+intellectual men of this age, which is swept more and more by
+conflagrations, catch up every cooling and extinguishing appliance we
+can find that we may always remain as self contained, steady and calm as
+we are now, and thereby perhaps serve this age as its mirror and self
+reflector, when the occasion arises?</p>
+
+<h3>39</h3>
+
+<p><b>The Fable of Discretionary Freedom.</b>&mdash;The history of the feelings, on the
+basis of which we make everyone responsible, hence, the so-called moral
+feelings, is traceable in the following leading phases. At first single
+actions are termed good or bad without any reference to their motive,
+but solely because of the utilitarian or prejudicial consequences they
+have for the community. In time, however, the origin of these
+designations is forgotten [but] it is imagined<span class="pagenum">[75]</span> that action in itself,
+without reference to its consequences, contains the property "good" or
+"bad": with the same error according to which language designates the
+stone itself as hard[ness] the tree itself as green[ness]&mdash;for the
+reason, therefore, that what is a consequence is comprehended as a
+cause. Accordingly, the good[ness] or bad[ness] is incorporated into the
+motive and [any] deed by itself is regarded as morally ambiguous. A step
+further is taken, and the predication good or bad is no longer made of
+the particular motives but of the entire nature of a man, out of which
+motive grows as grow the plants out of the soil. Thus man is
+successively made responsible for his [particular] acts, then for his
+[course of] conduct, then for his motives and finally for his nature.
+Now, at last, is it discovered that this nature, even, cannot be
+responsible, inasmuch as it is only and wholly a necessary consequence
+and is synthesised out of the elements and influence of past and present
+things: therefore, that man is to be made responsible for nothing,
+neither for his nature, nor his motives, nor his [course of] conduct nor
+his [particular] acts. By this [process] is gained the knowledge that
+the history of moral estimates is the history of error, of the error of
+responsibility: as is whatever rests upon the error of the freedom of
+the will. Schopenhauer<span class="pagenum">[76]</span> concluded just the other way, thus: since
+certain actions bring depression ("consciousness of guilt") in their
+train, there must, then, exist responsibility, for there would be no
+basis for this depression at hand if all man's affairs did not follow
+their course of necessity&mdash;as they do, indeed, according to the opinion
+of this philosopher, follow their course&mdash;but man himself, subject to
+the same necessity, would be just the man that he is&mdash;which Schopenhauer
+denies. From the fact of such depression Schopenhauer believes himself
+able to prove a freedom which man in some way must have had, not indeed
+in regard to his actions but in regard to his nature: freedom,
+therefore, to be thus and so, not to act thus and so. Out of the <i>esse</i>,
+the sphere of freedom and responsibility, follows, according to his
+opinion, the <i>operari</i>, the spheres of invariable causation, necessity
+and irresponsibility. This depression, indeed, is due apparently to the
+<i>operari</i>&mdash;in so far as it be delusive&mdash;but in truth to whatever <i>esse</i>
+be the deed of a free will, the basic cause of the existence of an
+individual: [in order to] let man become whatever he wills to become,
+his [to] will (Wollen) must precede his existence.&mdash;Here, apart from the
+absurdity of the statement just made, there is drawn the wrong inference
+that the fact of the depression explains its character, the rational<span class="pagenum">[77]</span>
+admissibility of it: from such a wrong inference does Schopenhauer first
+come to his fantastic consequent of the so called discretionary freedom
+(intelligibeln Freiheit). (For the origin of this fabulous entity Plato
+and Kant are equally responsible). But depression after the act does not
+need to be rational: indeed, it is certainly not so at all, for it rests
+upon the erroneous assumption that the act need not necessarily have
+come to pass. Therefore: only because man deems himself free, but not
+because he is free, does he experience remorse and the stings of
+conscience.&mdash;Moreover, this depression is something that can be grown
+out of; in many men it is not present at all as a consequence of acts
+which inspire it in many other men. It is a very varying thing and one
+closely connected with the development of custom and civilization, and
+perhaps manifest only during a relatively brief period of the world's
+history.&mdash;No one is responsible for his acts, no one for his nature; to
+judge is tantamount to being unjust. This applies as well when the
+individual judges himself. The proposition is as clear as sunlight, and
+yet here everyone prefers to go back to darkness and untruth: for fear
+of the consequences.</p>
+
+<h3>40</h3>
+
+<p><b>Above Animal.</b>&mdash;The beast in us must be<span class="pagenum">[78]</span> wheedled: ethic is necessary,
+that we may not be torn to pieces. Without the errors involved in the
+assumptions of ethics, man would have remained an animal. Thus has he
+taken himself as something higher and imposed rigid laws upon himself.
+He feels hatred, consequently, for states approximating the animal:
+whence the former contempt for the slave as a not-yet-man, as a thing,
+is to be explained.</p>
+
+<h3>41</h3>
+
+<p><b>Unalterable Character.</b>&mdash;That character is unalterable is not, in the
+strict sense, true; rather is this favorite proposition valid only to
+the extent that during the brief life period of a man the potent new
+motives can not, usually, press down hard enough to obliterate the lines
+imprinted by ages. Could we conceive of a man eighty thousand years old,
+we should have in him an absolutely alterable character; so that the
+maturities of successive, varying individuals would develop in him. The
+shortness of human life leads to many erroneous assertions concerning
+the qualities of man.</p>
+
+<h3>42</h3>
+
+<p><b>Classification of Enjoyments and Ethic.</b>&mdash;The once accepted comparative
+classification<span class="pagenum">[79]</span> of enjoyments, according to which an inferior, higher,
+highest egoism may crave one or another enjoyment, now decides as to
+ethical status or unethical status. A lower enjoyment (for example,
+sensual pleasure) preferred to a more highly esteemed one (for example,
+health) rates as unethical, as does welfare preferred to freedom. The
+comparative classification of enjoyments is not, however, alike or the
+same at all periods; when anyone demands satisfaction of the law, he is,
+from the point of view of an earlier civilization, moral, from that of
+the present, non-moral. "Unethical" indicates, therefore, that a man is
+not sufficiently sensible to the higher, finer impulses which the
+present civilization has brought with it, or is not sensible to them at
+all; it indicates backwardness, but only from the point of view of the
+contemporary degree of distinction.&mdash;The comparative classification of
+enjoyments itself is not determined according to absolute ethics; but
+after each new ethical adjustment, it is then decided whether conduct be
+ethical or the reverse.</p>
+
+<h3>43</h3>
+
+<p><b>Inhuman Men as Survivals.</b>&mdash;Men who are now inhuman must serve us as
+surviving specimens of earlier civilizations. The mountain height<span class="pagenum">[80]</span> of
+humanity here reveals its lower formations, which might otherwise remain
+hidden from view. There are surviving specimens of humanity whose brains
+through the vicissitudes of heredity, have escaped proper development.
+They show us what we all were and thus appal us; but they are as little
+responsible on this account as is a piece of granite for being granite.
+In our own brains there must be courses and windings corresponding to
+such characters, just as in the forms of some human organs there survive
+traces of fishhood. But these courses and windings are no longer the bed
+in which flows the stream of our feeling.</p>
+
+<h3>44</h3>
+
+<p><b>Gratitude and Revenge.</b>&mdash;The reason the powerful man is grateful is this.
+His benefactor has, through his benefaction, invaded the domain of the
+powerful man and established himself on an equal footing: the powerful
+man in turn invades the domain of the benefactor and gets satisfaction
+through the act of gratitude. It is a mild form of revenge. By not
+obtaining the satisfaction of gratitude the powerful would have shown
+himself powerless and have ranked as such thenceforward. Hence every
+society of the good, that is to say, of the powerful originally,<span class="pagenum">[81]</span> places
+gratitude among the first of duties.&mdash;Swift has added the dictum that
+man is grateful in the same degree that he is revengeful.</p>
+
+<h3>45</h3>
+
+<p><b>Two-fold Historical Origin of Good and Evil.</b>&mdash;The notion of good and bad
+has a two-fold historical origin: namely, first, in the spirit of ruling
+races and castes. Whoever has power to requite good with good and evil
+with evil and actually brings requital, (that is, is grateful and
+revengeful) acquires the name of being good; whoever is powerless and
+cannot requite is called bad. A man belongs, as a good individual, to
+the "good" of a community, who have a feeling in common, because all the
+individuals are allied with one another through the requiting sentiment.
+A man belongs, as a bad individual, to the "bad," to a mass of
+subjugated, powerless men who have no feeling in common. The good are a
+caste, the bad are a quantity, like dust. Good and bad is, for a
+considerable period, tantamount to noble and servile, master and slave.
+On the other hand an enemy is not looked upon as bad: he can requite.
+The Trojan and the Greek are in Homer both good. Not he, who does no
+harm, but he who is despised, is deemed bad. In the community of the
+good individuals [the quality of] good[ness] is inherited; it is
+impossible for<span class="pagenum">[82]</span> a bad individual to grow from such a rich soil. If,
+notwithstanding, one of the good individuals does something unworthy of
+his goodness, recourse is had to exorcism; thus the guilt is ascribed to
+a deity, the while it is declared that this deity bewitched the good man
+into madness and blindness.&mdash;Second, in the spirit of the subjugated,
+the powerless. Here every other man is, to the individual, hostile,
+inconsiderate, greedy, inhuman, avaricious, be he noble or servile; bad
+is the characteristic term for man, for every living being, indeed, that
+is recognized at all, even for a god: human, divine, these notions are
+tantamount to devilish, bad. Manifestations of goodness, sympathy,
+helpfulness, are regarded with anxiety as trickiness, preludes to an
+evil end, deception, subtlety, in short, as refined badness. With such a
+predisposition in individuals, a feeling in common can scarcely arise at
+all, at most only the rudest form of it: so that everywhere that this
+conception of good and evil prevails, the destruction of the
+individuals, their race and nation, is imminent.&mdash;Our existing morality
+has developed upon the foundation laid by ruling races and castes.</p>
+
+<h3>46</h3>
+
+<p><b>Sympathy Greater than Suffering.</b>&mdash;There are circumstances in which
+sympathy is stronger<span class="pagenum">[83]</span> than the suffering itself. We feel more pain, for
+instance, when one of our friends becomes guilty of a reprehensible
+action than if we had done the deed ourselves. We once, that is, had
+more faith in the purity of his character than he had himself. Hence our
+love for him, (apparently because of this very faith) is stronger than
+is his own love for himself. If, indeed, his egoism really suffers more,
+as a result, than our egoism, inasmuch as he must take the consequences
+of his fault to a greater extent than ourselves, nevertheless, the
+unegoistic&mdash;this word is not to be taken too strictly, but simply as a
+modified form of expression&mdash;in us is more affected by his guilt than
+the unegoistic in him.</p>
+
+<h3>47</h3>
+
+<p><b>Hypochondria.</b>&mdash;There are people who, from sympathy and anxiety for
+others become hypochondriacal. The resulting form of compassion is
+nothing else than sickness. So, also, is there a Christian hypochondria,
+from which those singular, religiously agitated people suffer who place
+always before their eyes the suffering and death of Christ.</p>
+
+<h3>48</h3>
+
+<p><b>Economy of Blessings.</b>&mdash;The advantageous and the pleasing, as the
+healthiest growths and<span class="pagenum">[84]</span> powers in the intercourse of men, are such
+precious treasures that it is much to be wished the use made of these
+balsamic means were as economical as possible: but this is impossible.
+Economy in the use of blessings is the dream of the craziest of
+Utopians.</p>
+
+<h3>49</h3>
+
+<p><b>Well-Wishing.</b>&mdash;Among the small, but infinitely plentiful and therefore
+very potent things to which science must pay more attention than to the
+great, uncommon things, well-wishing<a  id="FNanchor_21_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21_21" class="fnanchor">21</a> must be reckoned; I mean those
+manifestations of friendly disposition in intercourse, that laughter of
+the eye, every hand pressure, every courtesy from which, in general,
+every human act gets its quality. Every teacher, every functionary adds
+this element as a gratuity to whatever he does as a duty; it is the
+perpetual well spring of humanity, like the waves of light in which
+everything grows; thus, in the narrowest circles, within the family,
+life blooms and flowers only through this kind feeling. The
+cheerfulness, <span class="pagenum">[85]</span>friendliness and kindness of a heart are unfailing
+sources of unegoistic impulse and have made far more for civilization
+than those other more noised manifestations of it that are styled
+sympathy, benevolence and sacrifice. But it is customary to depreciate
+these little tokens of kindly feeling, and, indeed, there is not much of
+the unegoistic in them. The sum of these little doses is very great,
+nevertheless; their combined strength is of the greatest of
+strengths.&mdash;Thus, too, much more happiness is to be found in the world
+than gloomy eyes discover: that is, if the calculation be just, and all
+these pleasing moments in which every day, even the meanest human life,
+is rich, be not forgotten.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a  id="Footnote_21_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21_21"><span class="label">21</span></a> Wohl-wollen, kind feeling. It stands here for benevolence
+but not benevolence in the restricted sense of the word now prevailing.</p></div>
+
+<h3>50</h3>
+
+<p><b>The Desire to Inspire Compassion.</b>&mdash;La Rochefoucauld, in the most notable
+part of his self portraiture (first printed 1658) reaches the vital spot
+of truth when he warns all those endowed with reason to be on their
+guard against compassion, when he advises that this sentiment be left to
+men of the masses who stand in need of the promptings of the emotions
+(since they are not guided by reason) to induce them to give aid to the
+suffering and to be of service in misfortune:<span class="pagenum">[86]</span> whereas compassion, in
+his (and Plato's) view, deprives the heart of strength. To be sure,
+sympathy should be manifested but men should take care not to feel it;
+for the unfortunate are rendered so dull that the manifestation of
+sympathy affords them the greatest happiness in the world.&mdash;Perhaps a
+more effectual warning against this compassion can be given if this need
+of the unfortunate be considered not simply as stupidity and
+intellectual weakness, not as a sort of distraction of the spirit
+entailed by misfortune itself (and thus, indeed, does La Rochefoucauld
+seem to view it) but as something quite different and more momentous.
+Let note be taken of children who cry and scream in order to be
+compassionated and who, therefore, await the moment when their condition
+will be observed; come into contact with the sick and the oppressed in
+spirit and try to ascertain if the wailing and sighing, the posturing
+and posing of misfortune do not have as end and aim the causing of pain
+to the beholder: the sympathy which each beholder manifests is a
+consolation to the weak and suffering only in as much as they are made
+to perceive that at least they have the power, notwithstanding all their
+weakness, to inflict pain. The unfortunate experiences a species of joy
+in the sense of superiority which the manifestation of sympathy entails;
+his imagination<span class="pagenum">[87]</span> is exalted; he is always strong enough, then, to cause
+the world pain. Thus is the thirst for sympathy a thirst for self
+enjoyment and at the expense of one's fellow creatures: it shows man in
+the whole ruthlessness of his own dear self: not in his mere "dullness"
+as La Rochefoucauld thinks.&mdash;In social conversation three fourths of all
+the questions are asked, and three fourths of all the replies are made
+in order to inflict some little pain; that is why so many people crave
+social intercourse: it gives them a sense of their power. In these
+countless but very small doses in which the quality of badness is
+administered it proves a potent stimulant of life: to the same extent
+that well wishing&mdash;(Wohl-wollen) distributed through the world in like
+manner, is one of the ever ready restoratives.&mdash;But will many honorable
+people be found to admit that there is any pleasure in administering
+pain? that entertainment&mdash;and rare entertainment&mdash;is not seldom found in
+causing others, at least in thought, some pain, and in raking them with
+the small shot of wickedness? The majority are too ignoble and a few are
+too good to know anything of this pudendum: the latter may,
+consequently, be prompt to deny that Prosper M&eacute;rim&eacute;e is right when he
+says: "Know, also, that nothing is more common than to do wrong for the
+pleasure of doing it."</p><p><span class="pagenum">[88]</span></p>
+
+<h3>51</h3>
+
+<p><b>How Appearance Becomes Reality.</b>&mdash;The actor cannot, at last, refrain,
+even in moments of the deepest pain, from thinking of the effect
+produced by his deportment and by his surroundings&mdash;for example, even at
+the funeral of his own child: he will weep at his own sorrow and its
+manifestations as though he were his own audience. The hypocrite who
+always plays one and the same part, finally ceases to be a hypocrite; as
+in the case of priests who, when young men, are always, either
+consciously or unconsciously, hypocrites, and finally become naturally
+and then really, without affectation, mere priests: or if the father
+does not carry it to this extent, the son, who inherits his father's
+calling and gets the advantage of the paternal progress, does. When
+anyone, during a long period, and persistently, wishes to appear
+something, it will at last prove difficult for him to be anything else.
+The calling of almost every man, even of the artist, begins with
+hypocrisy, with an imitation of deportment, with a copying of the
+effective in manner. He who always wears the mask of a friendly man must
+at last gain a power over friendliness of disposition, without which the
+expression itself of friendliness is not to be gained&mdash;and finally
+friendliness of disposition gains the ascendancy over him&mdash;he <i>is</i>
+benevolent.</p><p><span class="pagenum">[89]</span></p>
+
+<h3>52</h3>
+
+<p><b>The Point of Honor in Deception.</b>&mdash;In all great deceivers one
+characteristic is prominent, to which they owe their power. In the very
+act of deception, amid all the accompaniments, the agitation in the
+voice, the expression, the bearing, in the crisis of the scene, there
+comes over them a belief in themselves; this it is that acts so
+effectively and irresistibly upon the beholders. Founders of religions
+differ from such great deceivers in that they never come out of this
+state of self deception, or else they have, very rarely, a few moments
+of enlightenment in which they are overcome by doubt; generally,
+however, they soothe themselves by ascribing such moments of
+enlightenment to the evil adversary. Self deception must exist that both
+classes of deceivers may attain far reaching results. For men believe in
+the truth of all that is manifestly believed with due implicitness by
+others.</p>
+
+<h3>53</h3>
+
+<p><b>Presumed Degrees of Truth.</b>&mdash;One of the most usual errors of deduction
+is: because someone truly and openly is against us, therefore he speaks
+the truth. Hence the child has faith in the judgments of its elders, the
+Christian in the<span class="pagenum">[90]</span> assertions of the founder of the church. So, too, it
+will not be admitted that all for which men sacrificed life and
+happiness in former centuries was nothing but delusion: perhaps it is
+alleged these things were degrees of truth. But what is really meant is
+that, if a person sincerely believes a thing and has fought and died for
+his faith, it would be too <i>unjust</i> if only delusion had inspired him.
+Such a state of affairs seems to contradict eternal justice. For that
+reason the heart of a sensitive man pronounces against his head the
+judgment: between moral conduct and intellectual insight there must
+always exist an inherent connection. It is, unfortunately, otherwise:
+for there is no eternal justice.</p>
+
+<h3>54</h3>
+
+<p><b>Falsehood.</b>&mdash;Why do men, as a rule, speak the truth in the ordinary
+affairs of life? Certainly not for the reason that a god has forbidden
+lying. But because first: it is more convenient, as falsehood entails
+invention, make-believe and recollection (wherefore Swift says that
+whoever invents a lie seldom realises the heavy burden he takes up: he
+must, namely, for every lie that he tells, insert twenty more).
+Therefore, because in plain ordinary relations of life it is expedient
+to say without circumlocution: I want<span class="pagenum">[91]</span> this, I have done this, and the
+like; therefore, because the way of freedom and certainty is surer than
+that of ruse.&mdash;But if it happens that a child is brought up in sinister
+domestic circumstances, it will then indulge in falsehood as matter of
+course, and involuntarily say anything its own interests may prompt: an
+inclination for truth, an aversion to falsehood, is quite foreign and
+uncongenial to it, and hence it lies in all innocence.</p>
+
+<h3>55</h3>
+
+<p><b>Ethic Discredited for Faith's Sake.</b>&mdash;No power can sustain itself when it
+is represented by mere humbugs: the Catholic Church may possess ever so
+many "worldly" sources of strength, but its true might is comprised in
+those still numberless priestly natures who make their lives stern and
+strenuous and whose looks and emaciated bodies are eloquent of night
+vigils, fasts, ardent prayer, perhaps even of whip lashes: these things
+make men tremble and cause them anxiety: what, if it be really
+imperative to live thus? This is the dreadful question which their
+aspect occasions. As they spread this doubt, they lay anew the prop of
+their power: even the free thinkers dare not oppose such
+disinterestedness with severe truth and cry: "Thou deceived one,<span class="pagenum">[92]</span>
+deceive not!"&mdash;Only the difference of standpoint separates them from
+him: no difference in goodness or badness. But things we cannot
+accomplish ourselves, we are apt to criticise unfairly. Thus we are told
+of the cunning and perverted acts of the Jesuits, but we overlook the
+self mastery that each Jesuit imposes upon himself and also the fact
+that the easy life which the Jesuit manuals advocate is for the benefit,
+not of the Jesuits but the laity. Indeed, it may be questioned whether
+we enlightened ones would become equally competent workers as the result
+of similar tactics and organization, and equally worthy of admiration as
+the result of self mastery, indefatigable industry and devotion.</p>
+
+<h3>56</h3>
+
+<p><b>Victory of Knowledge over Radical Evil.</b>&mdash;It proves a material gain to
+him who would attain knowledge to have had during a considerable period
+the idea that mankind is a radically bad and perverted thing: it is a
+false idea, as is its opposite, but it long held sway and its roots have
+reached down even to ourselves and our present world. In order to
+understand <i>ourselves</i> we must understand <i>it</i>; but in order to attain a
+loftier height we must step above it. We then perceive that there is no
+such thing as sin in the<span class="pagenum">[93]</span> metaphysical sense: but also, in the same
+sense, no such thing as virtue; that this whole domain of ethical
+notions is one of constant variation; that there are higher and deeper
+conceptions of good and evil, moral and immoral. Whoever desires no more
+of things than knowledge of them attains speedily to peace of mind and
+will at most err through lack of knowledge, but scarcely through
+eagerness for knowledge (or through sin, as the world calls it). He will
+not ask that eagerness for knowledge be interdicted and rooted out; but
+his single, all powerful ambition to <i>know</i> as thoroughly and as fully
+as possible, will soothe him and moderate all that is strenuous in his
+circumstances. Moreover, he is now rid of a number of disturbing
+notions; he is no longer beguiled by such words as hell-pain,
+sinfulness, unworthiness: he sees in them merely the flitting shadow
+pictures of false views of life and of the world.</p>
+
+<h3>57</h3>
+
+<p><b>Ethic as Man's Self-Analysis.</b>&mdash;A good author, whose heart is really in
+his work, wishes that someone would arise and wholly refute him if only
+thereby his subject be wholly clarified and made plain. The maid in love
+wishes that she could attest the fidelity of her own passion<span class="pagenum">[94]</span> through
+the faithlessness of her beloved. The soldier wishes to sacrifice his
+life on the field of his fatherland's victory: for in the victory of his
+fatherland his highest end is attained. The mother gives her child what
+she deprives herself of&mdash;sleep, the best nourishment and, in certain
+circumstances, her health, her self.&mdash;But are all these acts unegoistic?
+Are these moral deeds miracles because they are, in Schopenhauer's
+phrase "impossible and yet accomplished"? Is it not evident that in all
+four cases man loves one part of himself, (a thought, a longing, an
+experience) more than he loves another part of himself? that he thus
+analyses his being and sacrifices one part of it to another part? Is
+this essentially different from the behavior of the obstinate man who
+says "I would rather be shot than go a step out of my way for this
+fellow"?&mdash;Preference for something (wish, impulse, longing) is present
+in all four instances: to yield to it, with all its consequences, is not
+"unegoistic."&mdash;In the domain of the ethical man conducts himself not as
+individuum but as dividuum.</p>
+
+<h3>58</h3>
+
+<p><b>What Can be Promised.</b>&mdash;Actions can be promised, but not feelings, for
+these are involuntary. Whoever promises somebody to love<span class="pagenum">[95]</span> him always, or
+to hate him always, or to be ever true to him, promises something that
+it is out of his power to bestow. But he really can promise such courses
+of conduct as are the ordinary accompaniments of love, of hate, of
+fidelity, but which may also have their source in motives quite
+different: for various ways and motives lead to the same conduct. The
+promise to love someone always, means, consequently: as long as I love
+you, I will manifest the deportment of love; but if I cease to love you
+my deportment, although from some other motive, will be just the same,
+so that to the people about us it will seem as if my love remained
+unchanged.&mdash;Hence it is the continuance of the deportment of love that
+is promised in every instance in which eternal love (provided no element
+of self deception be involved) is sworn.</p>
+
+<h3>59</h3>
+
+<p><b>Intellect and Ethic.</b>&mdash;One must have a good memory to be able to keep the
+promises one makes. One must have a strong imagination in order to feel
+sympathy. So closely is ethics connected with intellectual capacity.</p>
+
+<h3>60</h3>
+
+<p><b>Desire for Vengeance and Vengeance Itself.</b>&mdash;To meditate revenge and
+attain it is tantamount<span class="pagenum">[96]</span> to an attack of fever, that passes away: but to
+meditate revenge without possessing the strength or courage to attain it
+is tantamount to suffering from a chronic malady, or poisoning of body
+and soul. Ethics, which takes only the motive into account, rates both
+cases alike: people generally estimate the first case as the worst
+(because of the consequences which the deed of vengeance may entail).
+Both views are short sighted.</p>
+
+<h3>61</h3>
+
+<p><b>Ability to Wait.</b>&mdash;Ability to wait is so hard to acquire that great poets
+have not disdained to make inability to wait the central motive of their
+poems. So Shakespeare in Othello, Sophocles in Ajax, whose suicide would
+not have seemed to him so imperative had he only been able to cool his
+ardor for a day, as the oracle foreboded: apparently he would then have
+repulsed somewhat the fearful whispers of distracted thought and have
+said to himself: Who has not already, in my situation, mistaken a sheep
+for a hero? is it so extraordinary a thing? On the contrary it is
+something universally human: Ajax should thus have soothed himself.
+Passion will not wait: the tragic element in the lives of great men does
+not generally consist in their<span class="pagenum">[97]</span> conflict with time and the inferiority
+of their fellowmen but in their inability to put off their work a year
+or two: they cannot wait.&mdash;In all duels, the friends who advise have but
+to ascertain if the principals can wait: if this be not possible, a duel
+is rational inasmuch as each of the combatants may say: "either I
+continue to live and the other dies instantly, or vice versa." To wait
+in such circumstances would be equivalent to the frightful martyrdom of
+enduring dishonor in the presence of him responsible for the dishonor:
+and this can easily cost more anguish than life is worth.</p>
+
+<h3>62</h3>
+
+<p><b>Glutting Revenge.</b>&mdash;Coarse men, who feel a sense of injury, are in the
+habit of rating the extent of their injury as high as possible and of
+stating the occasion of it in greatly exaggerated language, in order to
+be able to feast themselves on the sentiments of hatred and revenge thus
+aroused.</p>
+
+<h3>63</h3>
+
+<p><b>Value of Disparagement.</b>&mdash;Not a few, perhaps the majority of men, find it
+necessary, in order to retain their self esteem and a certain<span class="pagenum">[98]</span>
+uprightness in conduct, to mentally disparage and belittle all the
+people they know. But as the inferior natures are in the majority and as
+a great deal depends upon whether they retain or lose this uprightness,
+so&mdash;</p>
+
+<h3>64</h3>
+
+<p><b>The Man in a Rage.</b>&mdash;We should be on our guard against the man who is
+enraged against us, as against one who has attempted our life, for the
+fact that we still live consists solely in the inability to kill: were
+looks sufficient, it would have been all up with us long since. To
+reduce anyone to silence by physical manifestations of savagery or by a
+terrorizing process is a relic of under civilization. So, too, that cold
+look which great personages cast upon their servitors is a remnant of
+the caste distinction between man and man; a specimen of rude antiquity:
+women, the conservers of the old, have maintained this survival, too,
+more perfectly than men.</p>
+
+<h3>65</h3>
+
+<p><b>Whither Honesty May Lead.</b>&mdash;Someone once had the bad habit of expressing
+himself<span class="pagenum">[99]</span> upon occasion, and with perfect honesty, on the subject of the
+motives of his conduct, which were as good or as bad as the motives of
+all men. He aroused first disfavor, then suspicion, became gradually of
+ill repute and was pronounced a person of whom society should beware,
+until at last the law took note of such a perverted being for reasons
+which usually have no weight with it or to which it closes its eyes.
+Lack of taciturnity concerning what is universally held secret, and an
+irresponsible predisposition to see what no one wants to
+see&mdash;oneself&mdash;brought him to prison and to early death.</p>
+
+<h3>66</h3>
+
+<p><b>Punishable, not Punished.</b>&mdash;Our crime against criminals consists in the
+fact that we treat them as rascals.</p>
+
+<h3>67</h3>
+
+<p><b>Sancta simplicitas of Virtue.</b>&mdash;Every virtue has its privilege: for
+example, that of contributing its own little bundle of wood to the
+funeral pyre of one condemned.</p><p><span class="pagenum">[100]</span></p>
+
+<h3>68</h3>
+
+<p><b>Morality and Consequence.</b>&mdash;Not alone the beholders of an act generally
+estimate the ethical or unethical element in it by the result: no, the
+one who performed the act does the same. For the motives and the
+intentions are seldom sufficiently apparent, and amid them the memory
+itself seems to become clouded by the results of the act, so that a man
+often ascribes the wrong motives to his acts or regards the remote
+motives as the direct ones. Success often imparts to an action all the
+brilliance and honor of good intention, while failure throws the shadow
+of conscience over the most estimable deeds. Hence arises the familiar
+maxim of the politician: "Give me only success: with it I can win all
+the noble souls over to my side&mdash;and make myself noble even in my own
+eyes."&mdash;In like manner will success prove an excellent substitute for a
+better argument. To this very day many well educated men think the
+triumph of Christianity over Greek philosophy is a proof of the superior
+truth of the former&mdash;although in this case it was simply the coarser and
+more powerful that triumphed over the more delicate and intellectual. As
+regards superiority of truth, it is evident that because of it the
+reviving sciences have connected themselves, point for point, with the
+philosophy of<span class="pagenum">[101]</span> Epicurus, while Christianity has, point for point,
+recoiled from it.</p>
+
+<h3>69</h3>
+
+<p><b>Love and Justice.</b>&mdash;Why is love so highly prized at the expense of
+justice and why are such beautiful things spoken of the former as if it
+were a far higher entity than the latter? Is the former not palpably a
+far more stupid thing than the latter?&mdash;Certainly, and on that very
+account so much the more agreeable to everybody: it is blind and has a
+rich horn of plenty out of which it distributes its gifts to everyone,
+even when they are unmerited, even when no thanks are returned. It is
+impartial like the rain, which according to the bible and experience,
+wets not alone the unjust but, in certain circumstances, the just as
+well, and to their skins at that.</p>
+
+<h3>70</h3>
+
+<p><b>Execution.</b>&mdash;How comes it that every execution causes us more pain than a
+murder? It is the coolness of the executioner, the painful preparation,
+the perception that here a man is being used as an instrument for the
+intimidation of others. For the guilt is not punished even if there be
+any: this is ascribable to the teachers,<span class="pagenum">[102]</span> the parents, the environment,
+in ourselves, not in the murderer&mdash;I mean the predisposing
+circumstances.</p>
+
+<h3>71</h3>
+
+<p><b>Hope.</b>&mdash;Pandora brought the box containing evils and opened it. It was
+the gift of the gods to men, a gift of most enticing appearance
+externally and called the "box of happiness." Thereupon all the evils,
+(living, moving things) flew out: from that time to the present they fly
+about and do ill to men by day and night. One evil only did not fly out
+of the box: Pandora shut the lid at the behest of Zeus and it remained
+inside. Now man has this box of happiness perpetually in the house and
+congratulates himself upon the treasure inside of it; it is at his
+service: he grasps it whenever he is so disposed, for he knows not that
+the box which Pandora brought was a box of evils. Hence he looks upon
+the one evil still remaining as the greatest source of happiness&mdash;it is
+hope.&mdash;Zeus intended that man, notwithstanding the evils oppressing him,
+should continue to live and not rid himself of life, but keep on making
+himself miserable. For this purpose he bestowed hope upon man: it is, in
+truth, the greatest of evils for it lengthens the ordeal of man.</p><p><span class="pagenum">[103]</span></p>
+
+<h3>72</h3>
+
+<p><b>Degree of Moral Susceptibility Unknown.</b>&mdash;The fact that one has or has
+not had certain profoundly moving impressions and insights into
+things&mdash;for example, an unjustly executed, slain or martyred father, a
+faithless wife, a shattering, serious accident,&mdash;is the factor upon
+which the excitation of our passions to white heat principally depends,
+as well as the course of our whole lives. No one knows to what lengths
+circumstances (sympathy, emotion) may lead him. He does not know the
+full extent of his own susceptibility. Wretched environment makes him
+wretched. It is as a rule not the quality of our experience but its
+quantity upon which depends the development of our superiority or
+inferiority, from the point of view of good and evil.</p>
+
+<h3>73</h3>
+
+<p><b>The Martyr Against His Will.</b>&mdash;In a certain movement there was a man who
+was too cowardly and vacillating ever to contradict his comrades. He was
+made use of in each emergency, every sacrifice was demanded of him
+because he feared the disfavor of his comrades more than he feared
+death: he was a petty, abject spirit. They perceived this and upon the
+foundation of the qualities just mentioned they<span class="pagenum">[104]</span> elevated him to the
+altitude of a hero, and finally even of a martyr. Although the cowardly
+creature always inwardly said No, he always said Yes with his lips, even
+upon the scaffold, where he died for the tenets of his party: for beside
+him stood one of his old associates who so domineered him with look and
+word that he actually went to his death with the utmost fortitude and
+has ever since been celebrated as a martyr and exalted character.</p>
+
+<h3>74</h3>
+
+<p><b>General Standard.</b>&mdash;One will rarely err if extreme actions be ascribed to
+vanity, ordinary actions to habit and mean actions to fear.</p>
+
+<h3>75</h3>
+
+<p><b>Misunderstanding of Virtue.</b>&mdash;Whoever has obtained his experience of vice
+in connection with pleasure as in the case of one with a youth of wild
+oats behind him, comes to the conclusion that virtue must be connected
+with self denial. Whoever, on the other hand, has been very much plagued
+by his passions and vices, longs to find in virtue the rest and peace of
+the soul. That is why it is possible for two virtuous people to
+misunderstand one another wholly.</p><p><span class="pagenum">[105]</span></p>
+
+<h3>76</h3>
+
+<p><b>The Ascetic.</b>&mdash;The ascetic makes out of virtue a slavery.</p>
+
+<h3>77</h3>
+
+<p><b>Honor Transferred from Persons to Things.</b>&mdash;Actions prompted by love or
+by the spirit of self sacrifice for others are universally honored
+wherever they are manifest. Hence is magnified the value set upon
+whatever things may be loved or whatever things conduce to self
+sacrifice: although in themselves they may be worth nothing much. A
+valiant army is evidence of the value of the thing it fights for.</p>
+
+<h3>78</h3>
+
+<p><b>Ambition a Substitute for Moral Feeling.</b>&mdash;Moral feeling should never
+become extinct in natures that are destitute of ambition. The ambitious
+can get along without moral feeling just as well as with it.&mdash;Hence the
+sons of retired, ambitionless families, generally become by a series of
+rapid gradations, when they lose moral feeling, the most absolute
+lunkheads.</p>
+
+<h3>79</h3>
+
+<p><b>Vanity Enriches.</b>&mdash;How poor the human mind would be without vanity! As it
+is, it resembles<span class="pagenum">[106]</span> a well stacked and ever renewed ware-emporium that
+attracts buyers of every class: they can find almost everything, have
+almost everything, provided they bring with them the right kind of
+money&mdash;admiration.</p>
+
+<h3>80</h3>
+
+<p><b>Senility and Death.</b>&mdash;Apart from the demands made by religion, it may
+well be asked why it is more honorable in an aged man, who feels the
+decline of his powers, to await slow extinction than to fix a term to
+his existence himself? Suicide in such a case is a quite natural and due
+proceeding that ought to command respect as a triumph of reason: and did
+in fact command respect during the times of the masters of Greek
+philosophy and the bravest Roman patriots, who usually died by their own
+hand. Eagerness, on the other hand, to keep alive from day to day with
+the anxious counsel of physicians, without capacity to attain any nearer
+to one's ideal of life, is far less worthy of respect.&mdash;Religions are
+very rich in refuges from the mandate of suicide: hence they ingratiate
+themselves with those who cling to life.</p>
+
+<h3>81</h3>
+
+<p><b>Delusions Regarding Victim and Regarding Evil Doer.</b>&mdash;When the rich man
+takes a<span class="pagenum">[107]</span> possession away from the poor man (for example, a prince who
+deprives a plebeian of his beloved) there arises in the mind of the poor
+man a delusion: he thinks the rich man must be wholly perverted to take
+from him the little that he has. But the rich man appreciates the value
+of a single possession much less because he is accustomed to many
+possessions, so that he cannot put himself in the place of the poor man
+and does not act by any means as ill as the latter supposes. Both have a
+totally false idea of each other. The iniquities of the mighty which
+bulk most largely in history are not nearly so monstrous as they seem.
+The hereditary consciousness of being a superior being with superior
+environment renders one very callous and lulls the conscience to rest.
+We all feel, when the difference between ourselves and some other being
+is exceedingly great, that no element of injustice can be involved, and
+we kill a fly with no qualms of conscience whatever. So, too, it is no
+indication of wickedness in Xerxes (whom even the Greeks represent as
+exceptionally noble) that he deprived a father of his son and had him
+drawn and quartered because the latter had manifested a troublesome,
+ominous distrust of an entire expedition: the individual was in this
+case brushed aside as a pestiferous insect. He was too low and mean to
+justify continued sentiments of<span class="pagenum">[108]</span> compunction in the ruler of the world.
+Indeed no cruel man is ever as cruel, in the main, as his victim thinks.
+The idea of pain is never the same as the sensation. The rule is
+precisely analogous in the case of the unjust judge, and of the
+journalist who by means of devious rhetorical methods, leads public
+opinion astray. Cause and effect are in all these instances entwined
+with totally different series of feeling and thoughts, whereas it is
+unconsciously assumed that principal and victim feel and think exactly
+alike, and because of this assumption the guilt of the one is based upon
+the pain of the other.</p>
+
+<h3>82</h3>
+
+<p><b>The Soul's Skin.</b>&mdash;As the bones, flesh, entrails and blood vessels are
+enclosed by a skin that renders the aspect of men endurable, so the
+impulses and passions of the soul are enclosed by vanity: it is the skin
+of the soul.</p>
+
+<h3>83</h3>
+
+<p><b>Sleep of Virtue.</b>&mdash;If virtue goes to sleep, it will be more vigorous when
+it awakes.</p>
+
+<h3>84</h3>
+
+<p><b>Subtlety of Shame.</b>&mdash;Men are not ashamed of obscene thoughts, but they
+are ashamed when<span class="pagenum">[109]</span> they suspect that obscene thoughts are attributed to
+them.</p>
+
+<h3>85</h3>
+
+<p><b>Naughtiness Is Rare.</b>&mdash;Most people are too much absorbed in themselves to
+be bad.</p>
+
+<h3>86</h3>
+
+<p><b>The Mite in the Balance.</b>&mdash;We are praised or blamed, as the one or the
+other may be expedient, for displaying to advantage our power of
+discernment.</p>
+
+<h3>87</h3>
+
+<p><b>Luke 18:14 Improved.</b>&mdash;He that humbleth himself wisheth to be exalted.</p>
+
+<h3>88</h3>
+
+<p><b>Prevention of Suicide.</b>&mdash;There is a justice according to which we may
+deprive a man of life, but none that permits us to deprive him of death:
+this is merely cruelty.</p>
+
+<h3>89</h3>
+
+<p><b>Vanity.</b>&mdash;We set store by the good opinion of men, first because it is of
+use to us and next<span class="pagenum">[110]</span> because we wish to give them pleasure (children
+their parents, pupils their teacher, and well disposed persons all
+others generally). Only when the good opinion of men is important to
+somebody, apart from personal advantage or the desire to give pleasure,
+do we speak of vanity. In this last case, a man wants to give himself
+pleasure, but at the expense of his fellow creatures, inasmuch as he
+inspires them with a false opinion of himself or else inspires "good
+opinion" in such a way that it is a source of pain to others (by
+arousing envy). The individual generally seeks, through the opinion of
+others, to attest and fortify the opinion he has of himself; but the
+potent influence of authority&mdash;an influence as old as man himself&mdash;leads
+many, also, to strengthen their own opinion of themselves by means of
+authority, that is, to borrow from others the expedient of relying more
+upon the judgment of their fellow men than upon their own.&mdash;Interest in
+oneself, the wish to please oneself attains, with the vain man, such
+proportions that he first misleads others into a false, unduly exalted
+estimate of himself and then relies upon the authority of others for his
+self estimate; he thus creates the delusion that he pins his faith
+to.&mdash;It must, however, be admitted that the vain man does not desire to
+please others so much as himself and he will often go so far,<span class="pagenum">[111]</span> on this
+account, as to overlook his own interests: for he often inspires his
+fellow creatures with malicious envy and renders them ill disposed in
+order that he may thus increase his own delight in himself.</p>
+
+<h3>90</h3>
+
+<p><b>Limits of the Love of Mankind.</b>&mdash;Every man who has declared that some
+other man is an ass or a scoundrel, gets angry when the other man
+conclusively shows that the assertion was erroneous.</p>
+
+<h3>91</h3>
+
+<p><b>Weeping Morality.</b>&mdash;How much delight morality occasions! Think of the
+ocean of pleasing tears that has flowed from the narration of noble,
+great-hearted deeds!&mdash;This charm of life would disappear if the belief
+in complete irresponsibility gained the upper hand.</p>
+
+<h3>92</h3>
+
+<p><b>Origin of Justice.</b>&mdash;Justice (reasonableness) has its origin among
+approximate equals in power, as Thucydides (in the dreadful conferences
+of the Athenian and Melian envoys) has<span class="pagenum">[112]</span> rightly conceived. Thus, where
+there exists no demonstrable supremacy and a struggle leads but to
+mutual, useless damage, the reflection arises that an understanding
+would best be arrived at and some compromise entered into. The
+reciprocal nature is hence the first nature of justice. Each party makes
+the other content inasmuch as each receives what it prizes more highly
+than the other. Each surrenders to the other what the other wants and
+receives in return its own desire. Justice is therefore reprisal and
+exchange upon the basis of an approximate equality of power. Thus
+revenge pertains originally to the domain of justice as it is a sort of
+reciprocity. Equally so, gratitude.&mdash;Justice reverts naturally to the
+standpoint of self preservation, therefore to the egoism of this
+consideration: "why should I injure myself to no purpose and perhaps
+never attain my end?"&mdash;So much for the origin of justice. Only because
+men, through mental habits, have forgotten the original motive of so
+called just and rational acts, and also because for thousands of years
+children have been brought to admire and imitate such acts, have they
+gradually assumed the appearance of being unegotistical. Upon this
+appearance is founded the high estimate of them, which, moreover, like
+all estimates, is continually developing, for whatever is highly
+esteemed is striven for, imitated,<span class="pagenum">[113]</span> made the object of self sacrifice,
+while the merit of the pain and emulation thus expended is, by each
+individual, ascribed to the thing esteemed.&mdash;How slightly moral would
+the world appear without forgetfulness! A poet could say that God had
+posted forgetfulness as a sentinel at the portal of the temple of human
+merit!</p>
+
+<h3>93</h3>
+
+<p><b>Concerning the Law of the Weaker.</b>&mdash;Whenever any party, for instance, a
+besieged city, yields to a stronger party, under stipulated conditions,
+the counter stipulation is that there be a reduction to insignificance,
+a burning and destruction of the city and thus a great damage inflicted
+upon the stronger party. Thus arises a sort of equalization principle
+upon the basis of which a law can be established. The enemy has an
+advantage to gain by its maintenance.&mdash;To this extent there is also a
+law between slaves and masters, limited only by the extent to which the
+slave may be useful to his master. The law goes originally only so far
+as the one party may appear to the other potent, invincible, stable, and
+the like. To such an extent, then, the weaker has rights, but very
+limited ones. Hence the famous dictum that each has as much law on his
+side as his power extends (or more accurately, as his power is believed
+to extend).</p><p><span class="pagenum">[114]</span></p>
+
+<h3>94</h3>
+
+<p><b>The Three Phases of Morality Hitherto.</b>&mdash;It is the first evidence that
+the animal has become human when his conduct ceases to be based upon the
+immediately expedient, but upon the permanently useful; when he has,
+therefore, grown utilitarian, capable of purpose. Thus is manifested the
+first rule of reason. A still higher stage is attained when he regulates
+his conduct upon the basis of honor, by means of which he gains mastery
+of himself and surrenders his desires to principles; this lifts him far
+above the phase in which he was actuated only by considerations of
+personal advantage as he understood it. He respects and wishes to be
+respected. This means that he comprehends utility as a thing dependent
+upon what his opinion of others is and their opinion of him. Finally he
+regulates his conduct (the highest phase of morality hitherto attained)
+by his own standard of men and things. He himself decides, for himself
+and for others, what is honorable and what is useful. He has become a
+law giver to opinion, upon the basis of his ever higher developing
+conception of the utilitarian and the honorable. Knowledge makes him
+capable of placing the highest utility, (that is, the universal,
+enduring utility) before merely personal utility,&mdash;of placing ennobling<span class="pagenum">[115]</span>
+recognition of the enduring and universal before the merely temporary:
+he lives and acts as a collective individuality.</p>
+
+<h3>95</h3>
+
+<p><b>Ethic of the Developed Individual.</b>&mdash;Hitherto the altruistic has been
+looked upon as the distinctive characteristic of moral conduct, and it
+is manifest that it was the consideration of universal utility that
+prompted praise and recognition of altruistic conduct. Must not a
+radical departure from this point of view be imminent, now that it is
+being ever more clearly perceived that in the most personal
+considerations the most general welfare is attained: so that conduct
+inspired by the most personal considerations of advantage is just the
+sort which has its origin in the present conception of morality (as a
+universal utilitarianism)? To contemplate oneself as a complete
+personality and bear the welfare of that personality in mind in all that
+one does&mdash;this is productive of better results than any sympathetic
+susceptibility and conduct in behalf of others. Indeed we all suffer
+from such disparagement of our own personalities, which are at present
+made to deteriorate from neglect. Capacity is, in fact, divorced from
+our personality in most cases, and sacrificed to the state, to<span class="pagenum">[116]</span> science,
+to the needy, as if it were the bad which deserved to be made a
+sacrifice. Now, we are willing to labor for our fellowmen but only to
+the extent that we find our own highest advantage in so doing, no more,
+no less. The whole matter depends upon what may be understood as one's
+advantage: the crude, undeveloped, rough individualities will be the
+very ones to estimate it most inadequately.</p>
+
+<h3>96</h3>
+
+<p><b>Usage and Ethic.</b>&mdash;To be moral, virtuous, praiseworthy means to yield
+obedience to ancient law and hereditary usage. Whether this obedience be
+rendered readily or with difficulty is long immaterial. Enough that it
+be rendered. "Good" finally comes to mean him who acts in the
+traditional manner, as a result of heredity or natural disposition, that
+is to say does what is customary with scarcely an effort, whatever that
+may be (for example revenges injuries when revenge, as with the ancient
+Greeks, was part of good morals). He is called good because he is good
+"to some purpose," and as benevolence, sympathy, considerateness,
+moderation and the like come, in the general course of conduct, to be
+finally recognized as "good to some purpose" (as utilitarian) the
+benevolent man, the helpful<span class="pagenum">[117]</span> man, is duly styled "good". (At first other
+and more important kinds of utilitarian qualities stand in the
+foreground.) Bad is "not habitual" (unusual), to do things not in
+accordance with usage, to oppose the traditional, however rational or
+the reverse the traditional may be. To do injury to one's social group
+or community (and to one's neighbor as thus understood) is looked upon,
+through all the variations of moral laws, in different ages, as the
+peculiarly "immoral" act, so that to-day we associate the word "bad"
+with deliberate injury to one's neighbor or community. "Egoistic" and
+"non-egoistic" do not constitute the fundamental opposites that have
+brought mankind to make a distinction between moral and immoral, good
+and bad; but adherence to traditional custom, and emancipation from it.
+How the traditional had its origin is quite immaterial; in any event it
+had no reference to good and bad or any categorical imperative but to
+the all important end of maintaining and sustaining the community, the
+race, the confederation, the nation. Every superstitious custom that
+originated in a misinterpreted event or casualty entailed some
+tradition, to adhere to which is moral. To break loose from it is
+dangerous, more prejudicial to the community than to the individual
+(because divinity visits the consequences of impiety and sacrilege upon
+the community rather<span class="pagenum">[118]</span> than upon the individual). Now every tradition
+grows ever more venerable&mdash;the more remote is its origin, the more
+confused that origin is. The reverence due to it increases from
+generation to generation. The tradition finally becomes holy and
+inspires awe. Thus it is that the precept of piety is a far loftier
+morality than that inculcated by altruistic conduct.</p>
+
+<h3>97</h3>
+
+<p><b>Delight in the Moral.</b>&mdash;A potent species of joy (and thereby the source
+of morality) is custom. The customary is done more easily, better,
+therefore preferably. A pleasure is felt in it and experience thus shows
+that since this practice has held its own it must be good. A manner or
+moral that lives and lets live is thus demonstrated advantageous,
+necessary, in contradistinction to all new and not yet adopted
+practices. The custom is therefore the blending of the agreeable and the
+useful. Moreover it does not require deliberation. As soon as man can
+exercise compulsion, he exercises it to enforce and establish his
+customs, for they are to him attested lifewisdom. So, too, a community
+of individuals constrains each one of their number to adopt the same
+moral or custom. The error herein is this: Because a certain custom<span class="pagenum">[119]</span> has
+been agreeable to the feelings or at least because it proves a means of
+maintenance, this custom must be imperative, for it is regarded as the
+only thing that can possibly be consistent with well being. The well
+being of life seems to spring from it alone. This conception of the
+customary as a condition of existence is carried into the slightest
+detail of morality. Inasmuch as insight into true causation is quite
+restricted in all inferior peoples, a superstitious anxiety is felt that
+everything be done in due routine. Even when a custom is exceedingly
+burdensome it is preserved because of its supposed vital utility. It is
+not known that the same degree of satisfaction can be experienced
+through some other custom and even higher degrees of satisfaction, too.
+But it is fully appreciated that all customs do become more agreeable
+with the lapse of time, no matter how difficult they may have been found
+in the beginning, and that even the severest way of life may be rendered
+a matter of habit and therefore a pleasure.</p>
+
+<h3>98</h3>
+
+<p><b>Pleasure and Social Instinct.</b>&mdash;Through his relations with other men, man
+derives a new species of delight in those pleasurable emotions which his
+own personality affords him; whereby<span class="pagenum">[120]</span> the domain of pleasurable emotions
+is made infinitely more comprehensive. No doubt he has inherited many of
+these feelings from the brutes, which palpably feel delight when they
+sport with one another, as mothers with their young. So, too, the sexual
+relations must be taken into account: they make every young woman
+interesting to every young man from the standpoint of pleasure, and
+conversely. The feeling of pleasure originating in human relationships
+makes men in general better. The delight in common, the pleasures
+enjoyed together heighten one another. The individual feels a sense of
+security. He becomes better natured. Distrust and malice dissolve. For
+the man feels the sense of benefit and observes the same feeling in
+others. Mutual manifestations of pleasure inspire mutual sympathy, the
+sentiment of homogeneity. The same effect is felt also at mutual
+sufferings, in a common danger, in stormy weather. Upon such a
+foundation are built the earliest alliances: the object of which is the
+mutual protection and safety from threatening misfortunes, and the
+welfare of each individual. And thus the social instinct develops from
+pleasure.</p>
+
+<h3>99</h3>
+
+<p><b>The Guiltless Nature of So-Called Bad Acts.</b>&mdash;All "bad" acts are inspired
+by the impulse<span class="pagenum">[121]</span> to self preservation or, more accurately, by the desire
+for pleasure and for the avoidance of pain in the individual. Thus are
+they occasioned, but they are not, therefore, bad. "Pain self prepared"
+does not exist, except in the brains of the philosophers, any more than
+"pleasure self prepared" (sympathy in the Schopenhauer sense). In the
+condition anterior to the state we kill the creature, be it man or ape,
+that attempts to pluck the fruit of a tree before we pluck it ourselves
+should we happen to be hungry at the time and making for that tree: as
+we would do to-day, so far as the brute is concerned, if we were
+wandering in savage regions.&mdash;The bad acts which most disturb us at
+present do so because of the erroneous supposition that the one who is
+guilty of them towards us has a free will in the matter and that it was
+within his discretion not to have done these evil things. This belief in
+discretionary power inspires hate, thirst for revenge, malice, the
+entire perversion of the mental processes, whereas we would feel in no
+way incensed against the brute, as we hold it irresponsible. To inflict
+pain not from the instinct of self preservation but in requital&mdash;this is
+the consequence of false judgment and is equally a guiltless course of
+conduct. The individual can, in that condition which is anterior to the
+state, act with fierceness and violence for the intimidation<span class="pagenum">[122]</span> of another
+creature, in order to render his own power more secure as a result of
+such acts of intimidation. Thus acts the powerful, the superior, the
+original state founder, who subjugates the weaker. He has the right to
+do so, as the state nowadays assumes the same right, or, to be more
+accurate, there is no right that can conflict with this. A foundation
+for all morality can first be laid only when a stronger individuality or
+a collective individuality, for example society, the state, subjects the
+single personalities, hence builds upon their unification and
+establishes a bond of union. Morality results from compulsion, it is
+indeed itself one long compulsion to which obedience is rendered in
+order that pain may be avoided. At first it is but custom, later free
+obedience and finally almost instinct. At last it is (like everything
+habitual and natural) associated with pleasure&mdash;and is then called
+virtue.</p>
+
+<h3>100</h3>
+
+<p><b>Shame.</b>&mdash;Shame exists wherever a "mystery" exists: but this is a
+religious notion which in the earlier period of human civilization had
+great vogue. Everywhere there were circumscribed spots to which access
+was denied on account of some divine law, except in special
+circumstances.<span class="pagenum">[123]</span> At first these spots were quite extensive, inasmuch as
+stipulated areas could not be trod by the uninitiated, who, when near
+them, felt tremors and anxieties. This sentiment was frequently
+transferred to other relationships, for example to sexual relations,
+which, as the privilege and gateway of mature age, must be withdrawn
+from the contemplation of youth for its own advantage: relations which
+many divinities were busy in preserving and sanctifying, images of which
+divinities were duly placed in marital chambers as guardians. (In
+Turkish such an apartment is termed a harem or holy thing, the same word
+also designating the vestibule of a mosque). So, too, Kingship is
+regarded as a centre from which power and brilliance stream forth, as a
+mystery to the subjects, impregnated with secrecy and shame, sentiments
+still quite operative among peoples who in other respects are without
+any shame at all. So, too, is the whole world of inward states, the
+so-called "soul," even now, for all non-philosophical persons, a
+"mystery," and during countless ages it was looked upon as a something
+of divine origin, in direct communion with deity. It is, therefore, an
+adytum and occasions shame.</p>
+
+<h3>101</h3>
+
+<p><b>Judge Not.</b>&mdash;Care must be taken, in the contemplation of earlier ages,
+that there be no falling<span class="pagenum">[124]</span> into unjust scornfulness. The injustice in
+slavery, the cruelty in the subjugation of persons and peoples must not
+be estimated by our standard. For in that period the instinct of justice
+was not so highly developed. Who dare reproach the Genoese Calvin for
+burning the physician Servetus at the stake? It was a proceeding growing
+out of his convictions. And the Inquisition, too, had its justification.
+The only thing is that the prevailing views were false and led to those
+proceedings which seem so cruel to us, simply because such views have
+become foreign to us. Besides, what is the burning alive of one
+individual compared with eternal hell pains for everybody else? And yet
+this idea then had hold of all the world without in the least vitiating,
+with its frightfulness, the other idea of a god. Even we nowadays are
+hard and merciless to political revolutionists, but that is because we
+are in the habit of believing the state a necessity, and hence the
+cruelty of the proceeding is not so much understood as in the other
+cases where the points of view are repudiated. The cruelty to animals
+shown by children and Italians is due to the same misunderstanding. The
+animal, owing to the exigencies of the church catechism, is placed too
+far below the level of mankind.&mdash;Much, too, that is frightful and
+inhuman in history, and which is almost incredible, is rendered<span class="pagenum">[125]</span> less
+atrocious by the reflection that the one who commands and the one who
+executes are different persons. The former does not witness the
+performance and hence it makes no strong impression on him. The latter
+obeys a superior and hence feels no responsibility. Most princes and
+military chieftains appear, through lack of true perception, cruel and
+hard without really being so.&mdash;Egoism is not bad because the idea of the
+"neighbor"&mdash;the word is of Christian origin and does not correspond to
+truth&mdash;is very weak in us, and we feel ourselves, in regard to him, as
+free from responsibility as if plants and stones were involved. That
+another is in suffering must be learned and it can never be wholly
+learned.</p>
+
+<h3>102</h3>
+
+<p>"<b>Man Always Does Right.</b>"&mdash;We do not blame nature when she sends a
+thunder storm and makes us wet: why then do we term the man who inflicts
+injury immoral? Because in the latter case we assume a voluntary,
+ruling, free will, and in the former necessity. But this distinction is
+a delusion. Moreover, even the intentional infliction of injury is not,
+in all circumstances termed immoral. Thus, we kill a fly intentionally<span class="pagenum">[126]</span>
+without thinking very much about it, simply because its buzzing about is
+disagreeable; and we punish a criminal and inflict pain upon him in
+order to protect ourselves and society. In the first case it is the
+individual who, for the sake of preserving himself or in order to spare
+himself pain, does injury with design: in the second case, it is the
+state. All ethic deems intentional infliction of injury justified by
+necessity; that is when it is a matter of self preservation. But these
+two points of view are sufficient to explain all bad acts done by man to
+men. It is desired to obtain pleasure or avoid pain. In any sense, it is
+a question, always, of self preservation. Socrates and Plato are right:
+whatever man does he always does right: that is, does what seems to him
+good (advantageous) according to the degree of advancement his intellect
+has attained, which is always the measure of his rational capacity.</p>
+
+<h3>103</h3>
+
+<p><b>The Inoffensive in Badness.</b>&mdash;Badness has not for its object the
+infliction of pain upon others but simply our own satisfaction as, for
+instance, in the case of thirst for vengeance or of nerve excitation.
+Every act of teasing shows what pleasure is caused by the display of
+our<span class="pagenum">[127]</span> power over others and what feelings of delight are experienced in
+the sense of domination. Is there, then, anything immoral in feeling
+pleasure in the pain of others? Is malicious joy devilish, as
+Schopenhauer says? In the realm of nature we feel joy in breaking
+boughs, shattering rocks, fighting with wild beasts, simply to attest
+our strength thereby. Should not the knowledge that another suffers on
+our account here, in this case, make the same kind of act, (which, by
+the way, arouses no qualms of conscience in us) immoral also? But if we
+had not this knowledge there would be no pleasure in one's own
+superiority or power, for this pleasure is experienced only in the
+suffering of another, as in the case of teasing. All pleasure is, in
+itself, neither good nor bad. Whence comes the conviction that one
+should not cause pain in others in order to feel pleasure oneself?
+Simply from the standpoint of utility, that is, in consideration of the
+consequences, of ultimate pain, since the injured party or state will
+demand satisfaction and revenge. This consideration alone can have led
+to the determination to renounce such pleasure.&mdash;Sympathy has the
+satisfaction of others in view no more than, as already stated, badness
+has the pain of others in view. For there are at least two (perhaps many
+more) elementary ingredients in personal gratification which enter
+largely<span class="pagenum">[128]</span> into our self satisfaction: one of them being the pleasure of
+the emotion, of which species is sympathy with tragedy, and another,
+when the impulse is to action, being the pleasure of exercising one's
+power. Should a sufferer be very dear to us, we divest ourselves of pain
+by the performance of acts of sympathy.&mdash;With the exception of some few
+philosophers, men have placed sympathy very low in the rank of moral
+feelings: and rightly.</p>
+
+<h3>104</h3>
+
+<p><b>Self Defence.</b>&mdash;If self defence is in general held a valid justification,
+then nearly every manifestation of so called immoral egoism must be
+justified, too. Pain is inflicted, robbery or killing done in order to
+maintain life or to protect oneself and ward off harm. A man lies when
+cunning and delusion are valid means of self preservation. To injure
+intentionally when our safety and our existence are involved, or the
+continuance of our well being, is conceded to be moral. The state itself
+injures from this motive when it hangs criminals. In unintentional
+injury the immoral, of course, can not be present, as accident alone is
+involved. But is there any sort of intentional injury in which our
+existence and the maintenance of our well being be not involved?<span class="pagenum">[129]</span> Is
+there such a thing as injuring from absolute badness, for example, in
+the case of cruelty? If a man does not know what pain an act occasions,
+that act is not one of wickedness. Thus the child is not bad to the
+animal, not evil. It disturbs and rends it as if it were one of its
+playthings. Does a man ever fully know how much pain an act may cause
+another? As far as our nervous system extends, we shield ourselves from
+pain. If it extended further, that is, to our fellow men, we would never
+cause anyone else any pain (except in such cases as we cause it to
+ourselves, when we cut ourselves, surgically, to heal our ills, or
+strive and trouble ourselves to gain health). We conclude from analogy
+that something pains somebody and can in consequence, through
+recollection and the power of imagination, feel pain also. But what a
+difference there always is between the tooth ache and the pain
+(sympathy) that the spectacle of tooth ache occasions! Therefore when
+injury is inflicted from so called badness the degree of pain thereby
+experienced is always unknown to us: in so far, however, as pleasure is
+felt in the act (a sense of one's own power, of one's own excitation)
+the act is committed to maintain the well being of the individual and
+hence comes under the purview of self defence and lying for self
+preservation. Without pleasure, there is no<span class="pagenum">[130]</span> life; the struggle for
+pleasure is the struggle for life. Whether the individual shall carry on
+this struggle in such a way that he be called good or in such a way that
+he be called bad is something that the standard and the capacity of his
+own intellect must determine for him.</p>
+
+<h3>105</h3>
+
+<p><b>Justice that Rewards.</b>&mdash;Whoever has fully understood the doctrine of
+absolute irresponsibility can no longer include the so called rewarding
+and punishing justice in the idea of justice, if the latter be taken to
+mean that to each be given his due. For he who is punished does not
+deserve the punishment. He is used simply as a means to intimidate
+others from certain acts. Equally, he who is rewarded does not merit the
+reward. He could not act any differently than he did act. Hence the
+reward has only the significance of an encouragement to him and others
+as a motive for subsequent acts. The praise is called out only to him
+who is running in the race and not to him who has arrived at the goal.
+Something that comes to someone as his own is neither a punishment nor a
+reward. It is given to him from utiliarian considerations, without his
+having any claim to it in justice. Hence one must say "the wise man
+praises not<span class="pagenum">[131]</span> because a good act has been done" precisely as was once
+said: "the wise man punishes not because a bad act has been done but in
+order that a bad act may not be done." If punishment and reward ceased,
+there would cease with them the most powerful incentives to certain acts
+and away from other acts. The purposes of men demand their continuance
+[of punishment and reward] and inasmuch as punishment and reward, blame
+and praise operate most potently upon vanity, these same purposes of men
+imperatively require the continuance of vanity.</p>
+
+<h3>106</h3>
+
+<p><b>The Water Fall.</b>&mdash;At the sight of a water fall we may opine that in the
+countless curves, spirations and dashes of the waves we behold freedom
+of the will and of the impulses. But everything is compulsory,
+everything can be mathematically calculated. Thus it is, too, with human
+acts. We would be able to calculate in advance every single action if we
+were all knowing, as well as every advance in knowledge, every delusion,
+every bad deed. The acting individual himself is held fast in the
+illusion of volition. If, on a sudden, the entire movement of the world
+stopped short, and an all knowing and reasoning intelligence were there
+to take advantage<span class="pagenum">[132]</span> of this pause, he could foretell the future of every
+being to the remotest ages and indicate the path that would be taken in
+the world's further course. The deception of the acting individual as
+regards himself, the assumption of the freedom of the will, is a part of
+this computable mechanism.</p>
+
+<h3>107</h3>
+
+<p><b>Non-Responsibility and Non-Guilt.</b>&mdash;The absolute irresponsibility of man
+for his acts and his nature is the bitterest drop in the cup of him who
+has knowledge, if he be accustomed to behold in responsibility and duty
+the patent of nobility of his human nature. All his estimates,
+preferences, dislikes are thus made worthless and false. His deepest
+sentiment, with which he honored the sufferer, the hero, sprang from an
+error. He may no longer praise, no longer blame, for it is irrational to
+blame and praise nature and necessity. Just as he cherishes the
+beautiful work of art, but does not praise it (as it is incapable of
+doing anything for itself), just as he stands in the presence of plants,
+he must stand in the presence of human conduct, his own included. He may
+admire strength, beauty, capacity, therein, but he can discern no merit.
+The chemical process and the conflict of the elements,<span class="pagenum">[133]</span> the ordeal of
+the invalid who strives for convalescence, are no more merits than the
+soul-struggles and extremities in which one is torn this way and that by
+contending motives until one finally decides in favor of the
+strongest&mdash;as the phrase has it, although, in fact, it is the strongest
+motive that decides for us. All these motives, however, whatever fine
+names we may give them, have grown from the same roots in which we
+believe the baneful poisons lurk. Between good and bad actions there is
+no difference in kind but, at most, in degree. Good acts are sublimated
+evil. Bad acts are degraded, imbruted good. The very longing of the
+individual for self gratification (together with the fear of being
+deprived of it) obtains satisfaction in all circumstances, let the
+individual act as he may, that is, as he must: be it in deeds of vanity,
+revenge, pleasure, utility, badness, cunning, be it in deeds of self
+sacrifice, sympathy or knowledge. The degrees of rational capacity
+determine the direction in which this longing impels: every society,
+every individual has constantly present a comparative classification of
+benefits in accordance with which conduct is determined and others are
+judged. But this standard perpetually changes. Many acts are called bad
+that are only stupid, because the degree of intelligence that decided
+for them was low. Indeed,<span class="pagenum">[134]</span> in a certain sense, all acts now are stupid,
+for the highest degree of human intelligence that has yet been attained
+will in time most certainly be surpassed and then, in retrospection, all
+our present conduct and opinion will appear as narrow and petty as we
+now deem the conduct and opinion of savage peoples and ages.&mdash;To
+perceive all these things may occasion profound pain but there is,
+nevertheless, a consolation. Such pains are birth pains. The butterfly
+insists upon breaking through the cocoon, he presses through it, tears
+it to pieces, only to be blinded and confused by the strange light, by
+the realm of liberty. By such men as are capable of this sadness&mdash;how
+few there are!&mdash;will the first attempt be made to see if humanity may
+convert itself from a thing of morality to a thing of wisdom. The sun of
+a new gospel sheds its first ray upon the loftiest height in the souls
+of those few: but the clouds are massed there, too, thicker than ever,
+and not far apart are the brightest sunlight and the deepest gloom.
+Everything is necessity&mdash;so says the new knowledge: and this knowledge
+is itself necessity. All is guiltlessness, and knowledge is the way to
+insight into this guiltlessness. If pleasure, egoism, vanity be
+necessary to attest the moral phenomena and their richest blooms, the
+instinct for truth and accuracy of knowledge; if delusion<span class="pagenum">[135]</span> and confusion
+of the imagination were the only means whereby mankind could gradually
+lift itself up to this degree of self enlightenment and self
+emancipation&mdash;who would venture to disparage the means? Who would have
+the right to feel sad if made aware of the goal to which those paths
+lead? Everything in the domain of ethic is evolved, changeable,
+tottering; all things flow, it is true&mdash;but all things are also in the
+stream: to their goal. Though within us the hereditary habit of
+erroneous judgment, love, hate, may be ever dominant, yet under the
+influence of awaking knowledge it will ever become weaker: a new habit,
+that of understanding, not-loving, not-hating, looking from above, grows
+up within us gradually and in the same soil, and may, perhaps, in
+thousands of years be powerful enough to endow mankind with capacity to
+develop the wise, guiltless man (conscious of guiltlessness) as
+unfailingly as it now developes the unwise, irrational, guilt-conscious
+man&mdash;that is to say, the necessary higher step, not the opposite of it.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[136]</span></p>
+
+<h2 id="THE_RELIGIOUS_LIFE">THE RELIGIOUS LIFE.</h2>
+
+<h3>108</h3>
+
+<p><b>The Double Contest Against Evil.</b>&mdash;If an evil afflicts us we can either
+so deal with it as to remove its cause or else so deal with it that its
+effect upon our feeling is changed: hence look upon the evil as a
+benefit of which the uses will perhaps first become evident in some
+subsequent period. Religion and art (and also the metaphysical
+philosophy) strive to effect an alteration of the feeling, partly by an
+alteration of our judgment respecting the experience (for example, with
+the aid of the dictum "whom God loves, he chastizes") partly by the
+awakening of a joy in pain, in emotion especially (whence the art of
+tragedy had its origin). The more one is disposed to interpret away and
+justify, the less likely he is to look directly at the causes of evil
+and eliminate them. An instant alleviation and narcotizing of pain, as
+is usual in the case of tooth ache, is sufficient for him even in the
+severest suffering. The more the domination of religions and of all
+narcotic arts declines, the more searchingly do men look to the
+elimination<span class="pagenum">[137]</span> of evil itself, which is a rather bad thing for the tragic
+poets&mdash;for there is ever less and less material for tragedy, since the
+domain of unsparing, immutable destiny grows constantly more
+circumscribed&mdash;and a still worse thing for the priests, for these last
+have lived heretofore upon the narcoticizing of human ill.</p>
+
+<h3>109</h3>
+
+<p><b>Sorrow is Knowledge.</b>&mdash;How willingly would not one exchange the false
+assertions of the homines religiosi that there is a god who commands us
+to be good, who is the sentinel and witness of every act, every moment,
+every thought, who loves us, who plans our welfare in every
+misfortune&mdash;how willingly would not one exchange these for truths as
+healing, beneficial and grateful as those delusions! But there are no
+such truths. Philosophy can at most set up in opposition to them other
+metaphysical plausibilities (fundamental untruths as well). The tragedy
+of it all is that, although one cannot believe these dogmas of religion
+and metaphysics if one adopts in heart and head the potent methods of
+truth, one has yet become, through human evolution, so tender,
+susceptible, sensitive, as to stand in need of the most effective means
+of rest and consolation. From this<span class="pagenum">[138]</span> state of things arises the danger
+that, through the perception of truth or, more accurately, seeing
+through delusion, one may bleed to death. Byron has put this into
+deathless verse:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">"Sorrow is knowledge: they who know the most<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Must mourn the deepest o'er the fatal truth,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">The tree of knowledge is not that of life."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Against such cares there is no better protective than the light fancy of
+Horace, (at any rate during the darkest hours and sun eclipses of the
+soul) expressed in the words</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">"quid aeternis minorem<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">consiliis animum fatigas?<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">cur non sub alta vel platano vel hac<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">pinu jacentes."<a  id="FNanchor_22_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22_22" class="fnanchor">22</a><br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><br /><a  id="Footnote_22_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22_22"><span class="label">22</span></a>
+</p>
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">Then wherefore should you, who are mortal, outwear<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Your soul with a profitless burden of care<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Say, why should we not, flung at ease neath this pine,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Or a plane-tree's broad umbrage, quaff gaily our wine?<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">(Translation of Sir Theodore Martin.)</span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<p>At any rate, light fancy or heavy heartedness of any degree must be
+better than a romantic retrogression and desertion of one's flag, an
+approach to Christianity in any form: for with it, in the present state
+of knowledge, one can have nothing to do without hopelessly defiling
+one's intellectual integrity and surrendering it unconditionally. These
+woes may be painful enough, but without pain one cannot become a leader
+and guide of humanity: and woe to him who would be such and lacks this
+pure integrity of the intellect!</p><p><span class="pagenum">[139]</span></p>
+
+<h3>110</h3>
+
+<p><b>The Truth in Religion.</b>&mdash;In the ages of enlightenment justice was not
+done to the importance of religion, of this there can be no doubt. It is
+also equally certain that in the ensuing reaction of enlightenment, the
+demands of justice were far exceeded inasmuch as religion was treated
+with love, even with infatuation and proclaimed as a profound, indeed
+the most profound knowledge of the world, which science had but to
+divest of its dogmatic garb in order to possess "truth" in its
+unmythical form. Religions must therefore&mdash;this was the contention of
+all foes of enlightenment&mdash;sensu allegorico, with regard for the
+comprehension of the masses, give expression to that ancient truth which
+is wisdom in itself, inasmuch as all science of modern times has led up
+to it instead of away from it. So that between the most ancient wisdom
+of man and all later wisdom there prevails harmony, even similarity of
+viewpoint; and the advancement of knowledge&mdash;if one be disposed to
+concede such a thing&mdash;has to do not with its nature but with its
+propagation. This whole conception of religion and science is through
+and through erroneous, and none would to-day be hardy enough to
+countenance it had not Schopenhauer's rhetoric taken it under
+protection, this high sounding rhetoric which now gains<span class="pagenum">[140]</span> auditors after
+the lapse of a generation. Much as may be gained from Schopenhauer's
+religio-ethical human and cosmical oracle as regards the comprehension
+of Christianity and other religions, it is nevertheless certain that he
+erred regarding the value of religion to knowledge. He himself was in
+this but a servile pupil of the scientific teachers of his time who had
+all taken romanticism under their protection and renounced the spirit of
+enlightenment. Had he been born in our own time it would have been
+impossible for him to have spoken of the sensus allegoricus of religion.
+He would instead have done truth the justice to say: never has a
+religion, directly or indirectly, either as dogma or as allegory,
+contained a truth. For all religions grew out of dread or necessity, and
+came into existence through an error of the reason. They have, perhaps,
+in times of danger from science, incorporated some philosophical
+doctrine or other into their systems in order to make it possible to
+continue one's existence within them. But this is but a theological work
+of art dating from the time in which a religion began to doubt of
+itself. These theological feats of art, which are most common in
+Christianity as the religion of a learned age, impregnated with
+philosophy, have led to this superstition of the sensus allegoricus, as
+has, even more, the habit of the philosophers<span class="pagenum">[141]</span> (namely those
+half-natures, the poetical philosophers and the philosophising artists)
+of dealing with their own feelings as if they constituted the
+fundamental nature of humanity and hence of giving their own religious
+feelings a predominant influence over the structure of their systems. As
+the philosophers mostly philosophised under the influence of hereditary
+religious habits, or at least under the traditional influence of this
+"metaphysical necessity," they naturally arrived at conclusions closely
+resembling the Judaic or Christian or Indian religious
+tenets&mdash;resembling, in the way that children are apt to look like their
+mothers: only in this case the fathers were not certain as to the
+maternity, as easily happens&mdash;but in the innocence of their admiration,
+they fabled regarding the family likeness of all religion and science.
+In reality, there exists between religion and true science neither
+relationship nor friendship, not even enmity: they dwell in different
+spheres. Every philosophy that lets the religious comet gleam through
+the darkness of its last outposts renders everything within it that
+purports to be science, suspicious. It is all probably religion,
+although it may assume the guise of science.&mdash;Moreover, though all the
+peoples agree concerning certain religious things, for example, the
+existence of a god (which, by the way, as regards this point,<span class="pagenum">[142]</span> is not
+the case) this fact would constitute an argument against the thing
+agreed upon, for example the very existence of a god. The consensus
+gentium and especially hominum can probably amount only to an absurdity.
+Against it there is no consensus omnium sapientium whatever, on any
+point, with the exception of which Goethe's verse speaks:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">"All greatest sages to all latest ages<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Will smile, wink and slily agree<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">'Tis folly to wait till a fool's empty pate<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Has learned to be knowing and free.<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">So children of wisdom must look upon fools<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">As creatures who're never the better for schools."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Stated without rhyme or metre and adapted to our case: the consensus
+sapientium is to the effect that the consensus gentium amounts to an
+absurdity.</p>
+
+<h3>111</h3>
+
+<p><b>Origin of Religious Worship.</b>&mdash;Let us transport ourselves back to the
+times in which religious life flourished most vigorously and we will
+find a fundamental conviction prevalent which we no longer share and
+which has resulted in the closing of the door to religious life once for
+all so far as we are concerned: this conviction has to do with nature
+and intercourse with her. In those times nothing is yet known of
+nature's laws. Neither for earth nor for heaven is there<span class="pagenum">[143]</span> a must. A
+season, sunshine, rain can come or stay away as it pleases. There is
+wanting, in particular, all idea of natural causation. If a man rows, it
+is not the oar that moves the boat, but rowing is a magical ceremony
+whereby a demon is constrained to move the boat. All illness, death
+itself, is a consequence of magical influences. In sickness and death
+nothing natural is conceived. The whole idea of "natural course" is
+wanting. The idea dawns first upon the ancient Greeks, that is to say in
+a very late period of humanity, in the conception of a Moira [fate]
+ruling over the gods. If any person shoots off a bow, there is always an
+irrational strength and agency in the act. If the wells suddenly run
+dry, the first thought is of subterranean demons and their pranks. It
+must have been the dart of a god beneath whose invisible influence a
+human being suddenly collapses. In India, the carpenter (according to
+Lubbock) is in the habit of making devout offerings to his hammer and
+hatchet. A Brahmin treats the plume with which he writes, a soldier the
+weapon that he takes into the field, a mason his trowel, a laborer his
+plow, in the same way. All nature is, in the opinion of religious
+people, a sum total of the doings of conscious and willing beings, an
+immense mass of complex volitions. In regard to all that takes place
+outside of us no conclusion is permissible<span class="pagenum">[144]</span> that anything will result
+thus and so, must result thus and so, that we are comparatively
+calculable and certain in our experiences, that man is the rule, nature
+the ruleless. This view forms the fundamental conviction that dominates
+crude, religion-producing, early civilizations. We contemporary men feel
+exactly the opposite: the richer man now feels himself inwardly, the
+more polyphone the music and the sounding of his soul, the more
+powerfully does the uniformity of nature impress him. We all, with
+Goethe, recognize in nature the great means of repose for the soul. We
+listen to the pendulum stroke of this great clock with longing for rest,
+for absolute calm and quiescence, as if we could drink in the uniformity
+of nature and thereby arrive first at an enjoyment of oneself. Formerly
+it was the reverse: if we carry ourselves back to the periods of crude
+civilization, or if we contemplate contemporary savages, we will find
+them most strongly influenced by rule, by tradition. The individual is
+almost automatically bound to rule and tradition and moves with the
+uniformity of a pendulum. To him nature&mdash;the uncomprehended, fearful,
+mysterious nature&mdash;must seem the domain of freedom, of volition, of
+higher power, indeed as an ultra-human degree of destiny, as god. Every
+individual in such periods and circumstances feels that his existence,
+his<span class="pagenum">[145]</span> happiness, the existence and happiness of the family, the state,
+the success or failure of every undertaking, must depend upon these
+dispositions of nature. Certain natural events must occur at the proper
+time and certain others must not occur. How can influence be exercised
+over this fearful unknown, how can this domain of freedom be brought
+under subjection? thus he asks himself, thus he worries: Is there no
+means to render these powers of nature as subject to rule and tradition
+as you are yourself?&mdash;The cogitation of the superstitious and
+magic-deluded man is upon the theme of imposing a law upon nature: and
+to put it briefly, religious worship is the result of such cogitation.
+The problem which is present to every man is closely connected with this
+one: how can the weaker party dictate laws to the stronger, control its
+acts in reference to the weaker? At first the most harmless form of
+influence is recollected, that influence which is acquired when the
+partiality of anyone has been won. Through beseeching and prayer,
+through abject humiliation, through obligations to regular gifts and
+propitiations, through flattering homages, it is possible, therefore, to
+impose some guidance upon the forces of nature, to the extent that their
+partiality be won: love binds and is bound. Then agreements can be
+entered into by means of which certain<span class="pagenum">[146]</span> courses of conduct are mutually
+concluded, vows are made and authorities prescribed. But far more potent
+is that species of power exercised by means of magic and incantation. As
+a man is able to injure a powerful enemy by means of the magician and
+render him helpless with fear, as the love potion operates at a
+distance, so can the mighty forces of nature, in the opinion of weaker
+mankind, be controlled by similar means. The principal means of
+effecting incantations is to acquire control of something belonging to
+the party to be influenced, hair, finger nails, food from his table,
+even his picture or his name. With such apparatus it is possible to act
+by means of magic, for the basic principle is that to everything
+spiritual corresponds something corporeal. With the aid of this
+corporeal element the spirit may be bound, injured or destroyed. The
+corporeal affords the handle by which the spiritual can be laid hold of.
+In the same way that man influences mankind does he influences some
+spirit of nature, for this latter has also its corporeal element that
+can be grasped. The tree, and on the same basis, the seed from which it
+grew: this puzzling sequence seems to demonstrate that in both forms the
+same spirit is embodied, now large, now small. A stone that suddenly
+rolls, is the body in which the spirit works. Does a huge boulder lie in
+a<span class="pagenum">[147]</span> lonely moor? It is impossible to think of mortal power having placed
+it there. The stone must have moved itself there. That is to say some
+spirit must dominate it. Everything that has a body is subject to magic,
+including, therefore, the spirits of nature. If a god is directly
+connected with his portrait, a direct influence (by refraining from
+devout offerings, by whippings, chainings and the like) can be brought
+to bear upon him. The lower classes in China tie cords around the
+picture of their god in order to defy his departing favor, when he has
+left them in the lurch, and tear the picture to pieces, drag it through
+the streets into dung heaps and gutters, crying: "You dog of a spirit,
+we housed you in a beautiful temple, we gilded you prettily, we fed you
+well, we brought you offerings, and yet how ungrateful you are!" Similar
+displays of resentment have been made against pictures of the mother of
+god and pictures of saints in Catholic countries during the present
+century when such pictures would not do their duty during times of
+pestilence and drought.</p>
+
+<p>Through all these magical relationships to nature countless ceremonies
+are occasioned, and finally, when their complexity and confusion grow
+too great, pains are taken to systematize them, to arrange them so that
+the favorable course of nature's progress, namely the great<span class="pagenum">[148]</span> yearly
+circle of the seasons, may be brought about by a corresponding course of
+the ceremonial progress. The aim of religious worship is to influence
+nature to human advantage, and hence to instil a subjection to law into
+her that originally she has not, whereas at present man desires to find
+out the subjection to law of nature in order to guide himself thereby.
+In brief, the system of religious worship rests upon the idea of magic
+between man and man, and the magician is older than the priest. But it
+rests equally upon other and higher ideas. It brings into prominence the
+sympathetic relation of man to man, the existence of benevolence,
+gratitude, prayer, of truces between enemies, of loans upon security, of
+arrangements for the protection of property. Man, even in very inferior
+degrees of civilization, does not stand in the presence of nature as a
+helpless slave, he is not willy-nilly the absolute servant of nature. In
+the Greek development of religion, especially in the relationship to the
+Olympian gods, it becomes possible to entertain the idea of an existence
+side by side of two castes, a higher, more powerful, and a lower, less
+powerful: but both are bound together in some way, on account of their
+origin and are one species. They need not be ashamed of one another.
+This is the element of distinction in Greek religion.</p><p><span class="pagenum">[149]</span></p>
+
+<h3>112</h3>
+
+<p><b>At the Contemplation of Certain Ancient Sacrificial Proceedings.</b>&mdash;How
+many sentiments are lost to us is manifest in the union of the farcical,
+even of the obscene, with the religious feeling. The feeling that this
+mixture is possible is becoming extinct. We realize the mixture only
+historically, in the mysteries of Demeter and Dionysos and in the
+Christian Easter festivals and religious mysteries. But we still
+perceive the sublime in connection with the ridiculous, and the like,
+the emotional with the absurd. Perhaps a later age will be unable to
+understand even these combinations.</p>
+
+<h3>113</h3>
+
+<p><b>Christianity as Antiquity.</b>&mdash;When on a Sunday morning we hear the old
+bells ringing, we ask ourselves: Is it possible? All this for a Jew
+crucified two thousand years ago who said he was God's son? The proof of
+such an assertion is lacking.&mdash;Certainly, the Christian religion
+constitutes in our time a protruding bit of antiquity from very remote
+ages and that its assertions are still generally believed&mdash;although men
+have become so keen in the scrutiny of claims&mdash;constitutes the oldest
+relic of this inheritance. A god who begets children by a mortal<span class="pagenum">[150]</span> woman;
+a sage who demands that no more work be done, that no more justice be
+administered but that the signs of the approaching end of the world be
+heeded; a system of justice that accepts an innocent as a vicarious
+sacrifice in the place of the guilty; a person who bids his disciples
+drink his blood; prayers for miracles; sins against a god expiated upon
+a god; fear of a hereafter to which death is the portal; the figure of
+the cross as a symbol in an age that no longer knows the purpose and the
+ignominy of the cross&mdash;how ghostly all these things flit before us out
+of the grave of their primitive antiquity! Is one to believe that such
+things can still be believed?</p>
+
+<h3>114</h3>
+
+<p><b>The Un-Greek in Christianity.</b>&mdash;The Greeks did not look upon the Homeric
+gods above them as lords nor upon themselves beneath as servants, after
+the fashion of the Jews. They saw but the counterpart as in a mirror of
+the most perfect specimens of their own caste, hence an ideal, but no
+contradiction of their own nature. There was a feeling of mutual
+relationship, resulting in a mutual interest, a sort of alliance. Man
+thinks well of himself when he gives himself such gods and places
+himself in a<span class="pagenum">[151]</span> relationship akin to that of the lower nobility with the
+higher; whereas the Italian races have a decidedly vulgar religion,
+involving perpetual anxiety because of bad and mischievous powers and
+soul disturbers. Wherever the Olympian gods receded into the background,
+there even Greek life became gloomier and more perturbed.&mdash;Christianity,
+on the other hand, oppressed and degraded humanity completely and sank
+it into deepest mire: into the feeling of utter abasement it suddenly
+flashed the gleam of divine compassion, so that the amazed and
+grace-dazzled stupefied one gave a cry of delight and for a moment
+believed that the whole of heaven was within him. Upon this unhealthy
+excess of feeling, upon the accompanying corruption of heart and head,
+Christianity attains all its psychological effects. It wants to
+annihilate, debase, stupefy, amaze, bedazzle. There is but one thing
+that it does not want: measure, standard (das Maas) and therefore is it
+in the worst sense barbarous, asiatic, vulgar, un-Greek.</p>
+
+<h3>115</h3>
+
+<p><b>Being Religious to Some Purpose.</b>&mdash;There are certain insipid,
+traffic-virtuous people to whom religion is pinned like the hem of some
+garb of a higher humanity. These people do<span class="pagenum">[152]</span> well to remain religious: it
+adorns them. All who are not versed in some professional
+weapon&mdash;including tongue and pen as weapons&mdash;are servile: to all such
+the Christian religion is very useful, for then their servility assumes
+the aspect of Christian virtue and is amazingly adorned.&mdash;People whose
+daily lives are empty and colorless are readily religious. This is
+comprehensible and pardonable, but they have no right to demand that
+others, whose daily lives are not empty and colorless, should be
+religious also.</p>
+
+<h3>116</h3>
+
+<p><b>The Everyday Christian.</b>&mdash;If Christianity, with its allegations of an
+avenging God, universal sinfulness, choice of grace, and the danger of
+eternal damnation, were true, it would be an indication of weakness of
+mind and character not to be a priest or an apostle or a hermit, and
+toil for one's own salvation. It would be irrational to lose sight of
+one's eternal well being in comparison with temporary advantage:
+Assuming these dogmas to be generally believed, the every day Christian
+is a pitiable figure, a man who really cannot count as far as three, and
+who, for the rest, just because of his intellectual incapacity, does not
+deserve to be as hard punished as Christianity promises he shall be.</p><p><span class="pagenum">[153]</span></p>
+
+<h3>117</h3>
+
+<p><b>Concerning the Cleverness of Christianity.</b>&mdash;It is a master stroke of
+Christianity to so emphasize the unworthiness, sinfulness and
+degradation of men in general that contempt of one's fellow creatures
+becomes impossible. "He may sin as much as he pleases, he is not by
+nature different from me. It is I who in every way am unworthy and
+contemptible." So says the Christian to himself. But even this feeling
+has lost its keenest sting for the Christian does not believe in his
+individual degradation. He is bad in his general human capacity and he
+soothes himself a little with the assertion that we are all alike.</p>
+
+<h3>118</h3>
+
+<p><b>Personal Change.</b>&mdash;As soon as a religion rules, it has for its opponents
+those who were its first disciples.</p>
+
+<h3>119</h3>
+
+<p><b>Fate of Christianity.</b>&mdash;Christianity arose to lighten the heart, but now
+it must first make the heart heavy in order to be able to lighten it
+afterwards. Christianity will consequently go down.</p><p><span class="pagenum">[154]</span></p>
+
+<h3>120</h3>
+
+<p><b>The Testimony of Pleasure.</b>&mdash;The agreeable opinion is accepted as true.
+This is the testimony of pleasure (or as the church says, the evidence
+of strength) of which all religions are so proud, although they should
+all be ashamed of it. If a belief did not make blessed it would not be
+believed. How little it would be worth, then!</p>
+
+<h3>121</h3>
+
+<p><b>Dangerous Play.</b>&mdash;Whoever gives religious feeling room, must then also
+let it grow. He can do nothing else. Then his being gradually changes.
+The religious element brings with it affinities and kinships. The whole
+circle of his judgment and feeling is clouded and draped in religious
+shadows. Feeling cannot stand still. One should be on one's guard.</p>
+
+<h3>122</h3>
+
+<p><b>The Blind Pupil.</b>&mdash;As long as one knows very well the strength and the
+weakness of one's dogma, one's art, one's religion, its strength is
+still low. The pupil and apostle who has no eye for the weaknesses of a
+dogma, a religion and so on, dazzled by the aspect of the master and by
+his own reverence for him, has, on that very<span class="pagenum">[155]</span> account, generally more
+power than the master. Without blind pupils the influence of a man and
+his work has never become great. To give victory to knowledge, often
+amounts to no more than so allying it with stupidity that the brute
+force of the latter forces triumph for the former.</p>
+
+<h3>123</h3>
+
+<p><b>The Breaking off of Churches.</b>&mdash;There is not sufficient religion in the
+world merely to put an end to the number of religions.</p>
+
+<h3>124</h3>
+
+<p><b>Sinlessness of Men.</b>&mdash;If one have understood how "Sin came into the
+world," namely through errors of the reason, through which men in their
+intercourse with one another and even individual men looked upon
+themselves as much blacker and wickeder than was really the case, one's
+whole feeling is much lightened and man and the world appear together in
+such a halo of harmlessness that a sentiment of well being is instilled
+into one's whole nature. Man in the midst of nature is as a child left
+to its own devices. This child indeed dreams a heavy, anxious dream. But
+when it opens its eyes it finds itself always in paradise.</p><p><span class="pagenum">[156]</span></p>
+
+<h3>125</h3>
+
+<p><b>Irreligiousness of Artists.</b>&mdash;Homer is so much at home among his gods and
+is as a poet so good natured to them that he must have been profoundly
+irreligious. That which was brought to him by the popular faith&mdash;a mean,
+crude and partially repulsive superstition&mdash;he dealt with as freely as
+the Sculptor with his clay, therefore with the same freedom that
+&AElig;schylus and Aristophanes evinced and with which in later times the
+great artists of the renaissance, and also Shakespeare and Goethe, drew
+their pictures.</p>
+
+<h3>126</h3>
+
+<p><b>Art and Strength of False Interpretation.</b>&mdash;All the visions, fears,
+exhaustions and delights of the saint are well known symptoms of
+sickness, which in him, owing to deep rooted religious and psychological
+delusions, are explained quite differently, that is not as symptoms of
+sickness.&mdash;So, too, perhaps, the demon of Socrates was nothing but a
+malady of the ear that he explained, in view of his predominant moral
+theory, in a manner different from what would be thought rational
+to-day. Nor is the case different with the frenzy and the frenzied
+speeches of the prophets and of the priests of the oracles. It is always
+the degree of wisdom, imagination,<span class="pagenum">[157]</span> capacity and morality in the heart
+and mind of the interpreters that got so much out of them. It is among
+the greatest feats of the men who are called geniuses and saints that
+they made interpreters for themselves who, fortunately for mankind, did
+not understand them.</p>
+
+<h3>127</h3>
+
+<p><b>Reverence for Madness.</b>&mdash;Because it was perceived that an excitement of
+some kind often made the head clearer and occasioned fortunate
+inspirations, it was concluded that the utmost excitement would occasion
+the most fortunate inspirations. Hence the frenzied being was revered as
+a sage and an oracle giver. A false conclusion lies at the bottom of all
+this.</p>
+
+<h3>128</h3>
+
+<p><b>Promises of Wisdom.</b>&mdash;Modern science has as its object as little pain as
+possible, as long a life as possible&mdash;hence a sort of eternal
+blessedness, but of a very limited kind in comparison with the promises
+of religion.</p>
+
+<h3>129</h3>
+
+<p><b>Forbidden Generosity.</b>&mdash;There is not enough of love and goodness in the
+world to throw any of it away on conceited people.</p><p><span class="pagenum">[158]</span></p>
+
+<h3>130</h3>
+
+<p><b>Survival of Religious Training in the Disposition.</b>&mdash;The Catholic Church,
+and before it all ancient education, controlled the whole domain of
+means through which man was put into certain unordinary moods and
+withdrawn from the cold calculation of personal advantage and from calm,
+rational reflection. A church vibrating with deep tones; gloomy,
+regular, restraining exhortations from a priestly band, who
+involuntarily communicate their own tension to their congregation and
+lead them to listen almost with anxiety as if some miracle were in
+course of preparation; the awesome pile of architecture which, as the
+house of a god, rears itself vastly into the vague and in all its
+shadowy nooks inspires fear of its nerve-exciting power&mdash;who would care
+to reduce men to the level of these things if the ideas upon which they
+rest became extinct? But the results of all these things are
+nevertheless not thrown away: the inner world of exalted, emotional,
+prophetic, profoundly repentant, hope-blessed moods has become inborn in
+man largely through cultivation. What still exists in his soul was
+formerly, as he germinated, grew and bloomed, thoroughly disciplined.</p>
+
+<h3>131</h3>
+
+<p><b>Religious After-Pains.</b>&mdash;Though one believe<span class="pagenum">[159]</span> oneself absolutely weaned
+away from religion, the process has yet not been so thorough as to make
+impossible a feeling of joy at the presence of religious feelings and
+dispositions without intelligible content, as, for example, in music;
+and if a philosophy alleges to us the validity of metaphysical hopes,
+through the peace of soul therein attainable, and also speaks of "the
+whole true gospel in the look of Raphael's Madonna," we greet such
+declarations and innuendoes with a welcome smile. The philosopher has
+here a matter easy of demonstration. He responds with that which he is
+glad to give, namely a heart that is glad to accept. Hence it is
+observable how the less reflective free spirits collide only with dogmas
+but yield readily to the magic of religious feelings; it is a source of
+pain to them to let the latter go simply on account of the
+former.&mdash;Scientific philosophy must be very much on its guard lest on
+account of this necessity&mdash;an evolved and hence, also, a transitory
+necessity&mdash;delusions are smuggled in. Even logicians speak of
+"presentiments" of truth in ethics and in art (for example of the
+presentiment that the essence of things is unity) a thing which,
+nevertheless, ought to be prohibited. Between carefully deduced truths
+and such "foreboded" things there lies the abysmal distinction that the
+former are products of the intellect and the latter of the necessity.<span class="pagenum">[160]</span>
+Hunger is no evidence that there is food at hand to appease it. Hunger
+merely craves food. "Presentiment" does not denote that the existence of
+a thing is known in any way whatever. It denotes merely that it is
+deemed possible to the extent that it is desired or feared. The
+"presentiment" is not one step forward in the domain of certainty.&mdash;It
+is involuntarily believed that the religious tinted sections of a
+philosophy are better attested than the others, but the case is at
+bottom just the opposite: there is simply the inner wish that it may be
+so, that the thing which beautifies may also be true. This wish leads us
+to accept bad grounds as good.</p>
+
+<h3>132</h3>
+
+<p><b>Of the Christian Need of Salvation.</b>&mdash;Careful consideration must render
+it possible to propound some explanation of that process in the soul of
+a Christian which is termed need of salvation, and to propound an
+explanation, too, free from mythology: hence one purely psychological.
+Heretofore psychological explanations of religious conditions and
+processes have really been in disrepute, inasmuch as a theology calling
+itself free gave vent to its unprofitable nature in this domain; for its
+principal aim, so far as may be judged from the spirit of its creator,
+Schleier-macher,<span class="pagenum">[161]</span> was the preservation of the Christian religion and the
+maintenance of the Christian theology. It appeared that in the
+psychological analysis of religious "facts" a new anchorage and above
+all a new calling were to be gained. Undisturbed by such predecessors,
+we venture the following exposition of the phenomena alluded to. Man is
+conscious of certain acts which are very firmly implanted in the general
+course of conduct: indeed he discovers in himself a predisposition to
+such acts that seems to him to be as unalterable as his very being. How
+gladly he would essay some other kind of acts which in the general
+estimate of conduct are rated the best and highest, how gladly he would
+welcome the consciousness of well doing which ought to follow unselfish
+motive! Unfortunately, however, it goes no further than this longing:
+the discontent consequent upon being unable to satisfy it is added to
+all other kinds of discontent which result from his life destiny in
+particular or which may be due to so called bad acts; so that a deep
+depression ensues accompanied by a desire for some physician to remove
+it and all its causes.&mdash;This condition would not be found so bitter if
+the individual but compared himself freely with other men: for then he
+would have no reason to be discontented with himself in particular as he
+is merely bearing his share of the<span class="pagenum">[162]</span> general burden of human discontent
+and incompleteness. But he compares himself with a being who alone must
+be capable of the conduct that is called unegoistic and of an enduring
+consciousness of unselfish motive, with God. It is because he gazes into
+this clear mirror, that his own self seems so extraordinarily distracted
+and so troubled. Thereupon the thought of that being, in so far as it
+flits before his fancy as retributive justice, occasions him anxiety. In
+every conceivable small and great experience he believes he sees the
+anger of the being, his threats, the very implements and manacles of his
+judge and prison. What succors him in this danger, which, in the
+prospect of an eternal duration of punishment, transcends in hideousness
+all the horrors that can be presented to the imagination?</p>
+
+<h3>133</h3>
+
+<p>Before we consider this condition in its further effects, we would admit
+to ourselves that man is betrayed into this condition not through his
+"fault" and "sin" but through a series of delusions of the reason; that
+it was the fault of the mirror if his own self appeared to him in the
+highest degree dark and hateful, and that that mirror was his own work,
+the very imperfect work of human imagination and judgment. In<span class="pagenum">[163]</span> the first
+place a being capable of absolutely unegoistic conduct is as fabulous as
+the phoenix. Such a being is not even thinkable for the very reason that
+the whole notion of "unegoistic conduct," when closely examined,
+vanishes into air. Never yet has a man done anything solely for others
+and entirely without reference to a personal motive; indeed how could he
+possibly do anything that had no reference to himself, that is without
+inward compulsion (which must always have its basis in a personal need)?
+How could the ego act without ego?&mdash;A god, who, on the other hand, is
+all love, as he is usually represented, would not be capable of a
+solitary unegoistic act: whence one is reminded of a reflection of
+Lichtenberg's which is, in truth, taken from a lower sphere: "We cannot
+possibly feel for others, as the expression goes; we feel only for
+ourselves. The assertion sounds hard, but it is not, if rightly
+understood. A man loves neither his father nor his mother nor his wife
+nor his child, but simply the feelings which they inspire." Or, as La
+Rochefoucauld says: "If you think you love your mistress for the mere
+love of her, you are very much mistaken." Why acts of love are more
+highly prized than others, namely not on account of their nature, but on
+account of their utility, has already been explained in the section on
+the origin of moral feelings. But<span class="pagenum">[164]</span> if a man should wish to be all love
+like the god aforesaid, and want to do all things for others and nothing
+for himself, the procedure would be fundamentally impossible because he
+<i>must</i> do a great deal for himself before there would be any possibility
+of doing anything for the love of others. It is also essential that
+others be sufficiently egoistic to accept always and at all times this
+self sacrifice and living for others, so that the men of love and self
+sacrifice have an interest in the survival of unloving and selfish
+egoists, while the highest morality, in order to maintain itself must
+formally enforce the existence of immorality (wherein it would be really
+destroying itself.)&mdash;Further: the idea of a god perturbs and discourages
+as long as it is accepted but as to how it originated can no longer, in
+the present state of comparative ethnological science, be a matter of
+doubt, and with the insight into the origin of this belief all faith
+collapses. What happens to the Christian who compares his nature with
+that of God is exactly what happened to Don Quixote, who depreciated his
+own prowess because his head was filled with the wondrous deeds of the
+heroes of chivalrous romance. The standard of measurement which both
+employ belongs to the domain of fable.&mdash;But if the idea of God
+collapses, so too, does the feeling of "sin" as a violation of divine
+rescript, as a stain upon a<span class="pagenum">[165]</span> god-like creation. There still apparently
+remains that discouragement which is closely allied with fear of the
+punishment of worldly justice or of the contempt of one's fellow men.
+The keenest thorn in the sentiment of sin is dulled when it is perceived
+that one's acts have contravened human tradition, human rules and human
+laws without having thereby endangered the "eternal salvation of the
+soul" and its relations with deity. If finally men attain to the
+conviction of the absolute necessity of all acts and of their utter
+irresponsibility and then absorb it into their flesh and blood, every
+relic of conscience pangs will disappear.</p>
+
+<h3>134</h3>
+
+<p>If now, as stated, the Christian, through certain delusive feelings, is
+betrayed into self contempt, that is by a false and unscientific view of
+his acts and feelings, he must, nevertheless, perceive with the utmost
+amazement that this state of self contempt, of conscience pangs, of
+despair in particular, does not last, that there are hours during which
+all these things are wafted away from the soul and he feels himself once
+more free and courageous. The truth is that joy in his own being, the
+fulness of his own powers in connection with the inevitable decline of
+his profound<span class="pagenum">[166]</span> excitation with the lapse of time, bore off the palm of
+victory. The man loves himself once more, he feels it&mdash;but this very new
+love, this new self esteem seems to him incredible. He can see in it
+only the wholly unmerited stream of the light of grace shed down upon
+him. If he formerly saw in every event merely warnings, threats,
+punishments and every kind of indication of divine anger, he now reads
+into his experiences the grace of god. The latter circumstance seems to
+him full of love, the former as a helpful pointing of the way, and his
+entirely joyful frame of mind now seems to him to be an absolute proof
+of the goodness of God. As formerly in his states of discouragement he
+interpreted his conduct falsely so now he does the same with his
+experiences. His state of consolation is now regarded as the effect
+produced by some external power. The love with which, at bottom, he
+loves himself, seems to be the divine love. That which he calls grace
+and the preliminary of salvation is in reality self-grace,
+self-salvation.</p>
+
+<h3>135</h3>
+
+<p>Therefore a certain false psychology, a certain kind of imaginativeness
+in the interpretation of motives and experiences is the essential
+preliminary<span class="pagenum">[167]</span> to being a Christian and to experiencing the need of
+salvation. Upon gaining an insight into this wandering of the reason and
+the imagination, one ceases to be a Christian.</p>
+
+<h3>136</h3>
+
+<p><b>Of Christian Asceticism and Sanctity.</b>&mdash;Much as some thinkers have
+exerted themselves to impart an air of the miraculous to those singular
+phenomena known as asceticism and sanctity, to question which or to
+account for which upon a rational basis would be wickedness and
+sacrilege, the temptation to this wickedness is none the less great. A
+powerful impulse of nature has in every age led to protest against such
+phenomena. At any rate science, inasmuch as it is the imitation of
+nature, permits the casting of doubts upon the inexplicable character
+and the supernal degree of such phenomena. It is true that heretofore
+science has not succeeded in its attempts at explanation. The phenomena
+remain unexplained still, to the great satisfaction of those who revere
+moral miracles. For, speaking generally, the unexplained must rank as
+the inexplicable, the inexplicable as the non-natural, supernatural,
+miraculous&mdash;so runs the demand in the souls of all the religious and all
+the metaphysicians (even the artists if they happen to be<span class="pagenum">[168]</span> thinkers),
+whereas the scientific man sees in this demand the "evil
+principle."&mdash;The universal, first, apparent truth that is encountered in
+the contemplation of sanctity and asceticism is that their nature is
+complicated; for nearly always, within the physical world as well as in
+the moral, the apparently miraculous may be traced successfully to the
+complex, the obscure, the multi-conditioned. Let us venture then to
+isolate a few impulses in the soul of the saint and the ascetic, to
+consider them separately and then view them as a synthetic development.</p>
+
+<h3>137</h3>
+
+<p>There is an obstinacy against oneself, certain sublimated forms of which
+are included in asceticism. Certain kinds of men are under such a strong
+necessity of exercising their power and dominating impulses that, if
+other objects are lacking or if they have not succeeded with other
+objects they will actually tyrannize over some portions of their own
+nature or over sections and stages of their own personality. Thus do
+many thinkers bring themselves to views which are far from likely to
+increase or improve their fame. Many deliberately bring down the
+contempt of others upon themselves although they could easily have
+retained consideration by<span class="pagenum">[169]</span> silence. Others contradict earlier opinions
+and do not shrink from the ordeal of being deemed inconsistent. On the
+contrary they strive for this and act like eager riders who enjoy
+horseback exercise most when the horse is skittish. Thus will men in
+dangerous paths ascend to the highest steeps in order to laugh to scorn
+their own fear and their own trembling limbs. Thus will the philosopher
+embrace the dogmas of asceticism, humility, sanctity, in the light of
+which his own image appears in its most hideous aspect. This crushing of
+self, this mockery of one's own nature, this spernere se sperni out of
+which religions have made so much is in reality but a very high
+development of vanity. The whole ethic of the sermon on the mount
+belongs in this category: man has a true delight in mastering himself
+through exaggerated pretensions or excessive expedients and later
+deifying this tyrannically exacting something within him. In every
+scheme of ascetic ethics, man prays to one part of himself as if it were
+god and hence it is necessary for him to treat the rest of himself as
+devil.</p>
+
+<h3>138</h3>
+
+<p><b>Man is Not at All Hours Equally Moral</b>; this is established. If one's
+morality be judged according to one's capacity for great, self
+sacrificing<span class="pagenum">[170]</span> resolutions and abnegations (which when continual, and made
+a habit are known as sanctity) one is, in affection, or disposition, the
+most moral: while higher excitement supplies wholly new impulses which,
+were one calm and cool as ordinarily, one would not deem oneself even
+capable of. How comes this? Apparently from the propinquity of all great
+and lofty emotional states. If a man is brought to an extraordinary
+pitch of feeling he can resolve upon a fearful revenge or upon a fearful
+renunciation of his thirst for vengeance indifferently. He craves, under
+the influences of powerful emotion, the great, the powerful, the
+immense, and if he chances to perceive that the sacrifice of himself
+will afford him as much satisfaction as the sacrifice of another, or
+will afford him more, he will choose self sacrifice. What concerns him
+particularly is simply the unloading of his emotion. Hence he readily,
+to relieve his tension, grasps the darts of the enemy and buries them in
+his own breast. That in self abnegation and not in revenge the element
+of greatness consisted must have been brought home to mankind only after
+long habituation. A god who sacrifices himself would be the most
+powerful and most effective symbol of this sort of greatness. As the
+conquest of the most hardly conquered enemy, the sudden mastering of a
+passion&mdash;thus does<span class="pagenum">[171]</span> such abnegation <i>appear</i>: hence it passes for the
+summit of morality. In reality all that is involved is the exchange of
+one idea for another whilst the temperament remained at a like altitude,
+a like tidal state. Men when coming out of the spell, or resting from
+such passionate excitation, no longer understand the morality of such
+instants, but the admiration of all who participated in the occasion
+sustains them. Pride is their support if the passion and the
+comprehension of their act weaken. Therefore, at bottom even such acts
+of self-abnegation are not moral inasmuch as they are not done with a
+strict regard for others. Rather do others afford the high strung
+temperament an opportunity to lighten itself through such abnegation.</p>
+
+<h3>139</h3>
+
+<p><b>Even the Ascetic Seeks to Make Life Easier</b>, and generally by means of
+absolute subjection to another will or to an all inclusive rule and
+ritual, pretty much as the Brahmin leaves absolutely nothing to his own
+volition but is guided in every moment of his life by some holy
+injunction or other. This subjection is a potent means of acquiring
+dominion over oneself. One is occupied, hence time does not bang heavy
+and there is no incitement of the personal will and of the individual<span class="pagenum">[172]</span>
+passion. The deed once done there is no feeling of responsibility nor
+the sting of regret. One has given up one's own will once for all and
+this is easier than to give it up occasionally, as it is also easier
+wholly to renounce a desire than to yield to it in measured degree. When
+we consider the present relation of man to the state we perceive
+unconditional obedience is easier than conditional. The holy person also
+makes his lot easier through the complete surrender of his life
+personality and it is all delusion to admire such a phenomenon as the
+loftiest heroism of morality. It is always more difficult to assert
+one's personality without shrinking and without hesitation than to give
+it up altogether in the manner indicated, and it requires moreover more
+intellect and thought.</p>
+
+<h3>140</h3>
+
+<p>After having discovered in many of the less comprehensible actions mere
+manifestations of pleasure in emotion for its own sake, I fancy I can
+detect in the self contempt which characterises holy persons, and also
+in their acts of self torture (through hunger and scourgings,
+distortions and chaining of the limbs, acts of madness) simply a means
+whereby such natures may resist the general exhaustion of their will to
+live (their<span class="pagenum">[173]</span> nerves). They employ the most painful expedients to escape
+if only for a time from the heaviness and weariness in which they are
+steeped by their great mental indolence and their subjection to a will
+other than their own.</p>
+
+<h3>141</h3>
+
+<p><b>The Most Usual Means</b> by which the ascetic and the sanctified individual
+seeks to make life more endurable comprises certain combats of an inner
+nature involving alternations of victory and prostration. For this
+purpose an enemy is necessary and he is found in the so called "inner
+enemy." That is, the holy individual makes use of his tendency to
+vanity, domineering and pride, and of his mental longings in order to
+contemplate his life as a sort of continuous battle and himself as a
+battlefield, in which good and evil spirits wage war with varying
+fortune. It is an established fact that the imagination is restrained
+through the regularity and adequacy of sexual intercourse while on the
+other hand abstention from or great irregularity in sexual intercourse
+will cause the imagination to run riot. The imaginations of many of the
+Christian saints were obscene to a degree; and because of the theory
+that sexual desires were in reality demons that raged within them, the
+saints did not feel wholly<span class="pagenum">[174]</span> responsible for them. It is to this
+conviction that we are indebted for the highly instructive sincerity of
+their evidence against themselves. It was to their interest that this
+contest should always be kept up in some fashion because by means of
+this contest, as already stated, their empty lives gained distraction.
+In order that the contest might seem sufficiently great to inspire
+sympathy and admiration in the unsanctified, it was essential that
+sexual capacity be ever more and more damned and denounced. Indeed the
+danger of eternal damnation was so closely allied to this capacity that
+for whole generations Christians showed their children with actual
+conscience pangs. What evil may not have been done to humanity through
+this! And yet here the truth is just upside down: an exceedingly
+unseemly attitude for the truth. Christianity, it is true, had said that
+every man is conceived and born in sin, and in the intolerable and
+excessive Christianity of Calderon this thought is again perverted and
+entangled into the most distorted paradox extant in the well known lines</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">The greatest sin of man<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Is the sin of being born.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>In all pessimistic religions the act of procreation is looked upon as
+evil in itself. This is far from being the general human opinion. It is
+not even the opinion of all pessimists. Empedocles,<span class="pagenum">[175]</span> for example, knows
+nothing of anything shameful, devilish and sinful in it. He sees rather
+in the great field of bliss of unholiness simply a healthful and hopeful
+phenomenon, Aphrodite. She is to him an evidence that strife does not
+always rage but that some time a gentle demon is to wield the sceptre.
+The Christian pessimists of practice, had, as stated, a direct interest
+in the prevalence of an opposite belief. They needed in the loneliness
+and the spiritual wilderness of their lives an ever living enemy, and a
+universally known enemy through whose conquest they might appear to the
+unsanctified as utterly incomprehensible and half unnatural beings. When
+this enemy at last, as a result of their mode of life and their
+shattered health, took flight forever, they were able immediately to
+people their inner selves with new demons. The rise and fall of the
+balance of cheerfulness and despair maintained their addled brains in a
+totally new fluctuation of longing and peace of soul. And in that period
+psychology served not only to cast suspicion on everything human but to
+wound and scourge it, to crucify it. Man wanted to find himself as base
+and evil as possible. Man sought to become anxious about the state of
+his soul, he wished to be doubtful of his own capacity. Everything
+natural with which man connects the idea of badness and sinfulness (as,
+for instance,<span class="pagenum">[176]</span> is still customary in regard to the erotic) injures and
+degrades the imagination, occasions a shamed aspect, leads man to war
+upon himself and makes him uncertain, distrustful of himself. Even his
+dreams acquire a tincture of the unclean conscience. And yet this
+suffering because of the natural element in certain things is wholly
+superfluous. It is simply the result of opinions regarding the things.
+It is easy to understand why men become worse than they are if they are
+brought to look upon the unavoidably natural as bad and later to feel it
+as of evil origin. It is the master stroke of religions and metaphysics
+that wish to make man out bad and sinful by nature, to render nature
+suspicious in his eyes and to so make himself evil, for he learns to
+feel himself evil when he cannot divest himself of nature. He gradually
+comes to look upon himself, after a long life lived naturally, so
+oppressed by a weight of sin that supernatural powers become necessary
+to relieve him of the burden; and with this notion comes the so called
+need of salvation, which is the result not of a real but of an imaginary
+sinfulness. Go through the separate moral expositions in the vouchers of
+christianity and it will always be found that the demands are excessive
+in order that it may be impossible for man to satisfy them. The object
+is not that he may become moral but that he may feel as sinful<span class="pagenum">[177]</span> as
+possible. If this feeling had not been rendered agreeable to man&mdash;why
+should he have improvised such an ideal and clung to it so long? As in
+the ancient world an incalculable strength of intellect and capacity for
+feeling was squandered in order to increase the joy of living through
+feastful systems of worship, so in the era of christianity an equally
+incalculable quantity of intellectual capacity has been sacrificed in
+another endeavor: that man should in every way feel himself sinful and
+thereby be moved, inspired, inspirited. To move, to inspire, to inspirit
+at any cost&mdash;is not this the freedom cry of an exhausted, over-ripe,
+over cultivated age? The circle of all the natural sensations had been
+gone through a hundred times: the soul had grown weary. Then the saints
+and the ascetics found a new order of ecstacies. They set themselves
+before the eyes of all not alone as models for imitation to many, but as
+fearful and yet delightful spectacles on the boundary line between this
+world and the next world, where in that period everyone thought he saw
+at one time rays of heavenly light, at another fearful, threatening
+tongues of flame. The eye of the saint, directed upon the fearful
+significance of the shortness of earthly life, upon the imminence of the
+last judgment, upon eternal life hereafter; this glowering eye in an
+emaciated body caused men, in<span class="pagenum">[178]</span> the old time world, to tremble to the
+depths of their being. To look, to look away and shudder, to feel anew
+the fascination of the spectacle, to yield to it, sate oneself upon it
+until the soul trembled with ardor and fever&mdash;that was the last pleasure
+left to classical antiquity when its sensibilities had been blunted by
+the arena and the gladiatorial show.</p>
+
+<h3>142</h3>
+
+<p><b>To Sum Up All That Has Been Said</b>: that condition of soul at which the
+saint or expectant saint is rejoiced is a combination of elements which
+we are all familiar with, except that under other influences than those
+of mere religious ideation they customarily arouse the censure of men in
+the same way that when combined with religion itself and regarded as the
+supreme attainment of sanctity, they are object of admiration and even
+of prayer&mdash;at least in more simple times. Very soon the saint turns upon
+himself that severity that is so closely allied to the instinct of
+domination at any price and which inspire even in the most solitary
+individual the sense of power. Soon his swollen sensitiveness of feeling
+breaks forth from the longing to restrain his passions within it and is
+transformed<span class="pagenum">[179]</span> into a longing to master them as if they were wild steeds,
+the master impulse being ever that of a proud spirit; next he craves a
+complete cessation of all perturbing, fascinating feelings, a waking
+sleep, an enduring repose in the lap of a dull, animal, plant-like
+indolence. Next he seeks the battle and extinguishes it within himself
+because weariness and boredom confront him. He binds his
+self-deification with self-contempt. He delights in the wild tumult of
+his desires and the sharp pain of sin, in the very idea of being lost.
+He is able to play his very passions, for instance the desire to
+domineer, a trick so that he goes to the other extreme of abject
+humiliation and subjection, so that his overwrought soul is without any
+restraint through this antithesis. And, finally, when indulgence in
+visions, in talks with the dead or with divine beings overcomes him,
+this is really but a form of gratification that he craves, perhaps a
+form of gratification in which all other gratifications are blended.
+Novalis, one of the authorities in matters of sanctity, because of his
+experience and instinct, betrays the whole secret with the utmost
+simplicity when he says: "It is remarkable that the close connection of
+gratification, religion and cruelty has not long ago made men aware of
+their inner relationship and common tendency."</p><p><span class="pagenum">[180]</span></p>
+
+<h3>143</h3>
+
+<p><b>Not What the Saint is but what he was in</b> the eyes of the non-sanctified
+gives him his historical importance. Because there existed a delusion
+respecting the saint, his soul states being falsely viewed and his
+personality being sundered as much as possible from humanity as a
+something incomparable and supernatural, because of these things he
+attained the extraordinary with which he swayed the imaginations of
+whole nations and whole ages. Even he knew himself not for even he
+regarded his dispositions, passions and actions in accordance with a
+system of interpretation as artificial and exaggerated as the pneumatic
+interpretation of the bible. The distorted and diseased in his own
+nature with its blending of spiritual poverty, defective knowledge,
+ruined health, overwrought nerves, remained as hidden from his view as
+from the view of his beholders. He was neither a particularly good man
+nor a particularly bad man but he stood for something that was far above
+the human standard in wisdom and goodness. Faith in him sustained faith
+in the divine and miraculous, in a religious significance of all
+existence, in an impending day of judgment. In the last rays of the
+setting sun of the ancient world, which fell upon the christian peoples,
+the shadowy<span class="pagenum">[181]</span> form of the saint attained enormous proportions&mdash;to such
+enormous proportions, indeed, that down even to our own age, which no
+longer believes in god, there are thinkers who believe in the saints.</p>
+
+<h3>144</h3>
+
+<p>It stands to reason that this sketch of the saint, made upon the model
+of the whole species, can be confronted with many opposing sketches that
+would create a more agreeable impression. There are certain exceptions
+among the species who distinguish themselves either by especial
+gentleness or especial humanity, and perhaps by the strength of their
+own personality. Others are in the highest degree fascinating because
+certain of their delusions shed a particular glow over their whole
+being, as is the case with the founder of christianity who took himself
+for the only begotten son of God and hence felt himself sinless; so that
+through his imagination&mdash;that should not be too harshly judged since the
+whole of antiquity swarmed with sons of god&mdash;he attained the same goal,
+the sense of complete sinlessness, complete irresponsibility, that can
+now be attained by every individual through science.&mdash;In the same manner
+I have viewed the saints of India who occupy an intermediate station
+between<span class="pagenum">[182]</span> the christian saints and the Greek philosophers and hence are
+not to be regarded as a pure type. Knowledge and science&mdash;as far as they
+existed&mdash;and superiority to the rest of mankind by logical discipline
+and training of the intellectual powers were insisted upon by the
+Buddhists as essential to sanctity, just as they were denounced by the
+christian world as the indications of sinfulness.</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Human, All Too Human, by Friedrich Nietzsche
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Human, All Too Human, by Friedrich Nietzsche
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Human, All Too Human
+       A Book for Free Spirits
+
+Author: Friedrich Nietzsche
+
+Translator: Alexander Harvey
+
+Release Date: November 26, 2011 [EBook #38145]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HUMAN, ALL TOO HUMAN ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Gary Rees, Matthew Wheaton and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This
+book was produced from scanned images of public domain
+material from the Google Print project.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+    HUMAN, ALL TOO HUMAN
+
+    A BOOK FOR FREE SPIRITS
+
+    BY FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE
+
+
+    TRANSLATED BY ALEXANDER HARVEY
+
+    CHICAGO
+    CHARLES H. KERR & COMPANY
+    1908
+
+
+    Copyright 1908
+    By Charles H. Kerr & Company
+
+
+
+
+    CONTENTS
+
+
+    AUTHOR'S PREFACE
+
+    OF THE FIRST AND LAST THINGS
+
+    HISTORY OF THE MORAL FEELINGS
+
+    THE RELIGIOUS LIFE
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+1
+
+It is often enough, and always with great surprise, intimated to me that
+there is something both ordinary and unusual in all my writings, from
+the "Birth of Tragedy" to the recently published "Prelude to a
+Philosophy of the Future": they all contain, I have been told, snares
+and nets for short sighted birds, and something that is almost a
+constant, subtle, incitement to an overturning of habitual opinions and
+of approved customs. What!? Everything is merely--human--all too human?
+With this exclamation my writings are gone through, not without a
+certain dread and mistrust of ethic itself and not without a disposition
+to ask the exponent of evil things if those things be not simply
+misrepresented. My writings have been termed a school of distrust, still
+more of disdain: also, and more happily, of courage, audacity even. And
+in fact, I myself do not believe that anybody ever looked into the world
+with a distrust as deep as mine, seeming, as I do, not simply the timely
+advocate of the devil, but, to employ theological terms, an enemy and
+challenger of God; and whosoever has experienced any of the consequences
+of such deep distrust, anything of the chills and the agonies of
+isolation to which such an unqualified difference of standpoint condemns
+him endowed with it, will also understand how often I must have sought
+relief and self-forgetfulness from any source--through any object of
+veneration or enmity, of scientific seriousness or wanton lightness;
+also why I, when I could not find what I was in need of, had to fashion
+it for myself, counterfeiting it or imagining it (and what poet or
+writer has ever done anything else, and what other purpose can all the
+art in the world possibly have?) That which I always stood most in need
+of in order to effect my cure and self-recovery was faith, faith enough
+not to be thus isolated, not to look at life from so singular a point of
+view--a magic apprehension (in eye and mind) of relationship and
+equality, a calm confidence in friendship, a blindness, free from
+suspicion and questioning, to two sidedness; a pleasure in externals,
+superficialities, the near, the accessible, in all things possessed of
+color, skin and seeming. Perhaps I could be fairly reproached with much
+"art" in this regard, many fine counterfeitings; for example, that,
+wisely or wilfully, I had shut my eyes to Schopenhauer's blind will
+towards ethic, at a time when I was already clear sighted enough on the
+subject of ethic; likewise that I had deceived myself concerning Richard
+Wagner's incurable romanticism, as if it were a beginning and not an
+end; likewise concerning the Greeks, likewise concerning the Germans and
+their future--and there may be, perhaps, a long list of such likewises.
+Granted, however, that all this were true, and with justice urged
+against me, what does it signify, what can it signify in regard to how
+much of the self-sustaining capacity, how much of reason and higher
+protection are embraced in such self-deception?--and how much more
+falsity is still necessary to me that I may therewith always reassure
+myself regarding the luxury of my truth. Enough, I still live; and life
+is not considered now apart from ethic; it _will_ [have] deception; it
+thrives (lebt) on deception ... but am I not beginning to do all over
+again what I have always done, I, the old immoralist, and bird
+snarer--talk unmorally, ultramorally, "beyond good and evil"?
+
+
+2
+
+Thus, then, have I evolved for myself the "free spirits" to whom this
+discouraging-encouraging work, under the general title "Human, All Too
+Human," is dedicated. Such "free spirits" do not really exist and never
+did exist. But I stood in need of them, as I have pointed out, in order
+that some good might be mixed with my evils (illness, loneliness,
+strangeness, _acedia_, incapacity): to serve as gay spirits and
+comrades, with whom one may talk and laugh when one is disposed to talk
+and laugh, and whom one may send to the devil when they grow wearisome.
+They are some compensation for the lack of friends. That such free
+spirits can possibly exist, that our Europe will yet number among her
+sons of to-morrow or of the day after to-morrow, such a brilliant and
+enthusiastic company, alive and palpable and not merely, as in my case,
+fantasms and imaginary shades, I, myself, can by no means doubt. I see
+them already coming, slowly, slowly. May it not be that I am doing a
+little something to expedite their coming when I describe in advance the
+influences under which I see them evolving and the ways along which they
+travel?
+
+
+3
+
+It may be conjectured that a soul in which the type of "free spirit" can
+attain maturity and completeness had its decisive and deciding event in
+the form of a great emancipation or unbinding, and that prior to that
+event it seemed only the more firmly and forever chained to its place
+and pillar. What binds strongest? What cords seem almost unbreakable? In
+the case of mortals of a choice and lofty nature they will be those of
+duty: that reverence, which in youth is most typical, that timidity and
+tenderness in the presence of the traditionally honored and the worthy,
+that gratitude to the soil from which we sprung, for the hand that
+guided us, for the relic before which we were taught to pray--their
+sublimest moments will themselves bind these souls most strongly. The
+great liberation comes suddenly to such prisoners, like an earthquake:
+the young soul is all at once shaken, torn apart, cast forth--it
+comprehends not itself what is taking place. An involuntary onward
+impulse rules them with the mastery of command; a will, a wish are
+developed to go forward, anywhere, at any price; a strong, dangerous
+curiosity regarding an undiscovered world flames and flashes in all
+their being. "Better to die than live _here_"--so sounds the tempting
+voice: and this "here," this "at home" constitutes all they have
+hitherto loved. A sudden dread and distrust of that which they loved, a
+flash of contempt for that which is called their "duty," a mutinous,
+wilful, volcanic-like longing for a far away journey, strange scenes and
+people, annihilation, petrifaction, a hatred surmounting love, perhaps a
+sacrilegious impulse and look backwards, to where they so long prayed
+and loved, perhaps a flush of shame for what they did and at the same
+time an exultation at having done it, an inner, intoxicating,
+delightful tremor in which is betrayed the sense of victory--a victory?
+over what? over whom? a riddle-like victory, fruitful in questioning and
+well worth questioning, but the _first_ victory, for all--such things of
+pain and ill belong to the history of the great liberation. And it is at
+the same time a malady that can destroy a man, this first outbreak of
+strength and will for self-destination, self-valuation, this will for
+free will: and how much illness is forced to the surface in the frantic
+strivings and singularities with which the freedman, the liberated seeks
+henceforth to attest his mastery over things! He roves fiercely around,
+with an unsatisfied longing and whatever objects he may encounter must
+suffer from the perilous expectancy of his pride; he tears to pieces
+whatever attracts him. With a sardonic laugh he overturns whatever he
+finds veiled or protected by any reverential awe: he would see what
+these things look like when they are overturned. It is wilfulness and
+delight in the wilfulness of it, if he now, perhaps, gives his approval
+to that which has heretofore been in ill repute--if, in curiosity and
+experiment, he penetrates stealthily to the most forbidden things. In
+the background during all his plunging and roaming--for he is as
+restless and aimless in his course as if lost in a wilderness--is the
+interrogation mark of a curiosity growing ever more dangerous. "Can we
+not upset every standard? and is good perhaps evil? and God only an
+invention and a subtlety of the devil? Is everything, in the last
+resort, false? And if we are dupes are we not on that very account
+dupers also? _must_ we not be dupers also?" Such reflections lead and
+mislead him, ever further on, ever further away. Solitude, that dread
+goddess and mater saeva cupidinum, encircles and besets him, ever more
+threatening, more violent, more heart breaking--but who to-day knows
+what solitude is?
+
+
+4
+
+From this morbid solitude, from the deserts of such trial years, the way
+is yet far to that great, overflowing certainty and healthiness which
+cannot dispense even with sickness as a means and a grappling hook of
+knowledge; to that matured freedom of the spirit which is, in an equal
+degree, self mastery and discipline of the heart, and gives access to
+the path of much and various reflection--to that inner comprehensiveness
+and self satisfaction of over-richness which precludes all danger that
+the spirit has gone astray even in its own path and is sitting
+intoxicated in some corner or other; to that overplus of plastic,
+healing, imitative and restorative power which is the very sign of
+vigorous health, that overplus which confers upon the free spirit the
+perilous prerogative of spending a life in experiment and of running
+adventurous risks: the past-master-privilege of the free spirit. In the
+interval there may be long years of convalescence, years filled with
+many hued painfully-bewitching transformations, dominated and led to the
+goal by a tenacious will for health that is often emboldened to assume
+the guise and the disguise of health. There is a middle ground to this,
+which a man of such destiny can not subsequently recall without emotion;
+he basks in a special fine sun of his own, with a feeling of birdlike
+freedom, birdlike visual power, birdlike irrepressibleness, a something
+extraneous (Drittes) in which curiosity and delicate disdain have
+united. A "free spirit"--this refreshing term is grateful in any mood,
+it almost sets one aglow. One lives--no longer in the bonds of love and
+hate, without a yes or no, here or there indifferently, best pleased to
+evade, to avoid, to beat about, neither advancing nor retreating. One is
+habituated to the bad, like a person who all at once sees a fearful
+hurly-burly _beneath_ him--and one was the counterpart of him who
+bothers himself with things that do not concern him. As a matter of fact
+the free spirit is bothered with mere things--and how many
+things--which no longer _concern_ him.
+
+
+5
+
+A step further in recovery: and the free spirit draws near to life
+again, slowly indeed, almost refractorily, almost distrustfully. There
+is again warmth and mellowness: feeling and fellow feeling acquire
+depth, lambent airs stir all about him. He almost feels: it seems as if
+now for the first time his eyes are open to things _near_. He is in
+amaze and sits hushed: for where had he been? These near and immediate
+things: how changed they seem to him! He looks gratefully back--grateful
+for his wandering, his self exile and severity, his lookings afar and
+his bird flights in the cold heights. How fortunate that he has not,
+like a sensitive, dull home body, remained always "in the house" and "at
+home!" He had been beside himself, beyond a doubt. Now for the first
+time he really sees himself--and what surprises in the process. What
+hitherto unfelt tremors! Yet what joy in the exhaustion, the old
+sickness, the relapses of the convalescent! How it delights him,
+suffering, to sit still, to exercise patience, to lie in the sun! Who so
+well as he appreciates the fact that there comes balmy weather even in
+winter, who delights more in the sunshine athwart the wall? They are
+the most appreciative creatures in the world, and also the most humble,
+these convalescents and lizards, crawling back towards life: there are
+some among them who can let no day slip past them without addressing
+some song of praise to its retreating light. And speaking seriously, it
+is a fundamental cure for all pessimism (the cankerous vice, as is well
+known, of all idealists and humbugs), to become ill in the manner of
+these free spirits, to remain ill quite a while and then bit by bit grow
+healthy--I mean healthier. It is wisdom, worldly wisdom, to administer
+even health to oneself for a long time in small doses.
+
+
+6
+
+About this time it becomes at last possible, amid the flash lights of a
+still unestablished, still precarious health, for the free, the ever
+freer spirit to begin to read the riddle of that great liberation, a
+riddle which has hitherto lingered, obscure, well worth questioning,
+almost impalpable, in his memory. If once he hardly dared to ask "why so
+apart? so alone? renouncing all I loved? renouncing respect itself? why
+this coldness, this suspicion, this hate for one's very virtues?"--now
+he dares, and asks it loudly, already hearing the answer, "you had to
+become master over yourself, master of your own good qualities. Formerly
+they were your masters: but they should be merely your tools along with
+other tools. You had to acquire power over your aye and no and learn to
+hold and withhold them in accordance with your higher aims. You had to
+grasp the perspective of every representation (Werthschaetzung)--the
+dislocation, distortion and the apparent end or teleology of the
+horizon, besides whatever else appertains to the perspective: also the
+element of demerit in its relation to opposing merit, and the whole
+intellectual cost of every affirmative, every negative. You had to find
+out the _inevitable_ error[1] in every Yes and in every No, error as
+inseparable from life, life itself as conditioned by the perspective and
+its inaccuracy.[1] Above all, you had to see with your own eyes where
+the error[1] is always greatest: there, namely, where life is littlest,
+narrowest, meanest, least developed and yet cannot help looking upon
+itself as the goal and standard of things, and smugly and ignobly and
+incessantly tearing to tatters all that is highest and greatest and
+richest, and putting the shreds into the form of questions from the
+standpoint of its own well being. You had to see with your own eyes the
+problem of classification, (Rangordnung, regulation concerning rank and
+station) and how strength and sweep and reach of perspective wax upward
+together: You had"--enough, the free spirit knows henceforward which
+"you had" it has obeyed and also what it now can do and what it now, for
+the first time, _dare_.
+
+[1] Ungerechtigkeit, literally wrongfulness, injustice, unrighteousness.
+
+
+7
+
+Accordingly, the free spirit works out for itself an answer to that
+riddle of its liberation and concludes by generalizing upon its
+experience in the following fashion: "What I went through everyone must
+go through" in whom any problem is germinated and strives to body itself
+forth. The inner power and inevitability of this problem will assert
+themselves in due course, as in the case of any unsuspected
+pregnancy--long before the spirit has seen this problem in its true
+aspect and learned to call it by its right name. Our destiny exercises
+its influence over us even when, as yet, we have not learned its nature:
+it is our future that lays down the law to our to-day. Granted, that it
+is the problem of classification[2] of which we free spirits may say,
+this is _our_ problem, yet it is only now, in the midday of our life,
+that we fully appreciate what preparations, shifts, trials, ordeals,
+stages, were essential to that problem before it could emerge to our
+view, and why we had to go through the various and contradictory
+longings and satisfactions of body and soul, as circumnavigators and
+adventurers of that inner world called "man"; as surveyors of that
+"higher" and of that "progression"[3] that is also called
+"man"--crowding in everywhere, almost without fear, disdaining nothing,
+missing nothing, testing everything, sifting everything and eliminating
+the chance impurities--until at last we could say, we free spirits:
+"Here--a _new_ problem! Here, a long ladder on the rungs of which we
+ourselves have rested and risen, which we have actually been at times.
+Here is a something higher, a something deeper, a something below us, a
+vastly extensive order, (Ordnung) a comparative classification
+(Rangordnung), that we perceive: here--_our_ problem!"
+
+[2] Rangordnung: the meaning is "the problem of grasping the relative
+importance of things."
+
+[3] Uebereinander: one over another.
+
+
+8
+
+To what stage in the development just outlined the present book belongs
+(or is assigned) is something that will be hidden from no augur or
+psychologist for an instant. But where are there psychologists to-day?
+In France, certainly; in Russia, perhaps; certainly not in Germany.
+Grounds are not wanting, to be sure, upon which the Germans of to-day
+may adduce this fact to their credit: unhappily for one who in this
+matter is fashioned and mentored in an un-German school! This _German_
+book, which has found its readers in a wide circle of lands and
+peoples--it has been some ten years on its rounds--and which must make
+its way by means of any musical art and tune that will captivate the
+foreign ear as well as the native--this book has been read most
+indifferently in Germany itself and little heeded there: to what is that
+due? "It requires too much," I have been told, "it addresses itself to
+men free from the press of petty obligations, it demands fine and
+trained perceptions, it requires a surplus, a surplus of time, of the
+lightness of heaven and of the heart, of otium in the most unrestricted
+sense: mere good things that we Germans of to-day have not got and
+therefore cannot give." After so graceful a retort, my philosophy bids
+me be silent and ask no more questions: at times, as the proverb says,
+one remains a philosopher only because one says--nothing!
+
+Nice, Spring, 1886.
+
+
+
+
+OF THE FIRST AND LAST THINGS.
+
+
+1
+
+=Chemistry of the Notions and the Feelings.=--Philosophical problems, in
+almost all their aspects, present themselves in the same interrogative
+formula now that they did two thousand years ago: how can a thing
+develop out of its antithesis? for example, the reasonable from the
+non-reasonable, the animate from the inanimate, the logical from the
+illogical, altruism from egoism, disinterestedness from greed, truth
+from error? The metaphysical philosophy formerly steered itself clear of
+this difficulty to such extent as to repudiate the evolution of one
+thing from another and to assign a miraculous origin to what it deemed
+highest and best, due to the very nature and being of the
+"thing-in-itself." The historical philosophy, on the other hand, which
+can no longer be viewed apart from physical science, the youngest of all
+philosophical methods, discovered experimentally (and its results will
+probably always be the same) that there is no antithesis whatever,
+except in the usual exaggerations of popular or metaphysical
+comprehension, and that an error of the reason is at the bottom of such
+contradiction. According to its explanation, there is, strictly
+speaking, neither unselfish conduct, nor a wholly disinterested point of
+view. Both are simply sublimations in which the basic element seems
+almost evaporated and betrays its presence only to the keenest
+observation. All that we need and that could possibly be given us in the
+present state of development of the sciences, is a chemistry of the
+moral, religious, aesthetic conceptions and feeling, as well as of those
+emotions which we experience in the affairs, great and small, of society
+and civilization, and which we are sensible of even in solitude. But
+what if this chemistry established the fact that, even in _its_ domain,
+the most magnificent results were attained with the basest and most
+despised ingredients? Would many feel disposed to continue such
+investigations? Mankind loves to put by the questions of its origin and
+beginning: must one not be almost inhuman in order to follow the
+opposite course?
+
+
+2
+
+=The Traditional Error of Philosophers.=--All philosophers make the
+common mistake of taking contemporary man as their starting point and of
+trying, through an analysis of him, to reach a conclusion. "Man"
+involuntarily presents himself to them as an aeterna veritas as a
+passive element in every hurly-burly, as a fixed standard of things. Yet
+everything uttered by the philosopher on the subject of man is, in the
+last resort, nothing more than a piece of testimony concerning man
+during a very limited period of time. Lack of the historical sense is
+the traditional defect in all philosophers. Many innocently take man in
+his most childish state as fashioned through the influence of certain
+religious and even of certain political developments, as the permanent
+form under which man must be viewed. They will not learn that man has
+evolved,[4] that the intellectual faculty itself is an evolution,
+whereas some philosophers make the whole cosmos out of this intellectual
+faculty. But everything essential in human evolution took place aeons
+ago, long before the four thousand years or so of which we know
+anything: during these man may not have changed very much. However, the
+philosopher ascribes "instinct" to contemporary man and assumes that
+this is one of the unalterable facts regarding man himself, and hence
+affords a clue to the understanding of the universe in general. The
+whole teleology is so planned that man during the last four thousand
+years shall be spoken of as a being existing from all eternity, and
+with reference to whom everything in the cosmos from its very inception
+is naturally ordered. Yet everything evolved: there are no eternal facts
+as there are no absolute truths. Accordingly, historical philosophising
+is henceforth indispensable, and with it honesty of judgment.
+
+[4] geworden.
+
+
+3
+
+=Appreciation of Simple Truths.=--It is the characteristic of an
+advanced civilization to set a higher value upon little, simple truths,
+ascertained by scientific method, than upon the pleasing and magnificent
+errors originating in metaphysical and aesthetical epochs and peoples. To
+begin with, the former are spoken of with contempt as if there could be
+no question of comparison respecting them, so rigid, homely, prosaic and
+even discouraging is the aspect of the first, while so beautiful,
+decorative, intoxicating and perhaps beatific appear the last named.
+Nevertheless, the hardwon, the certain, the lasting and, therefore, the
+fertile in new knowledge, is the higher; to hold fast to it is manly and
+evinces courage, directness, endurance. And not only individual men but
+all mankind will by degrees be uplifted to this manliness when they are
+finally habituated to the proper appreciation of tenable, enduring
+knowledge and have lost all faith in inspiration and in the miraculous
+revelation of truth. The reverers of forms, indeed, with their standards
+of beauty and taste, may have good reason to laugh when the appreciation
+of little truths and the scientific spirit begin to prevail, but that
+will be only because their eyes are not yet opened to the charm of the
+utmost simplicity of form or because men though reared in the rightly
+appreciative spirit, will still not be fully permeated by it, so that
+they continue unwittingly imitating ancient forms (and that ill enough,
+as anybody does who no longer feels any interest in a thing). Formerly
+the mind was not brought into play through the medium of exact thought.
+Its serious business lay in the working out of forms and symbols. That
+has now changed. Any seriousness in symbolism is at present the
+indication of a deficient education. As our very acts become more
+intellectual, our tendencies more rational, and our judgment, for
+example, as to what seems reasonable, is very different from what it was
+a hundred years ago: so the forms of our lives grow ever more
+intellectual and, to the old fashioned eye, perhaps, uglier, but only
+because it cannot see that the richness of inner, rational beauty always
+spreads and deepens, and that the inner, rational aspect of all things
+should now be of more consequence to us than the most beautiful
+externality and the most exquisite limning.
+
+
+4
+
+=Astrology and the Like.=--It is presumable that the objects of the
+religious, moral, aesthetic and logical notions pertain simply to the
+superficialities of things, although man flatters himself with the
+thought that here at least he is getting to the heart of the cosmos. He
+deceives himself because these things have power to make him so happy
+and so wretched, and so he evinces, in this respect, the same conceit
+that characterises astrology. Astrology presupposes that the heavenly
+bodies are regulated in their movements in harmony with the destiny of
+mortals: the moral man presupposes that that which concerns himself most
+nearly must also be the heart and soul of things.
+
+
+5
+
+=Misconception of Dreams.=--In the dream, mankind, in epochs of crude
+primitive civilization, thought they were introduced to a second,
+substantial world: here we have the source of all metaphysic. Without
+the dream, men would never have been incited to an analysis of the
+world. Even the distinction between soul and body is wholly due to the
+primitive conception of the dream, as also the hypothesis of the
+embodied soul, whence the development of all superstition, and also,
+probably, the belief in god. "The dead still live: for they appear to
+the living in dreams." So reasoned mankind at one time, and through many
+thousands of years.
+
+
+6
+
+=The Scientific Spirit Prevails only Partially, not Wholly.=--The
+specialized, minutest departments of science are dealt with purely
+objectively. But the general universal sciences, considered as a great,
+basic unity, posit the question--truly a very living question--: to what
+purpose? what is the use? Because of this reference to utility they are,
+as a whole, less impersonal than when looked at in their specialized
+aspects. Now in the case of philosophy, as forming the apex of the
+scientific pyramid, this question of the utility of knowledge is
+necessarily brought very conspicuously forward, so that every philosophy
+has, unconsciously, the air of ascribing the highest utility to itself.
+It is for this reason that all philosophies contain such a great amount
+of high flying metaphysic, and such a shrinking from the seeming
+insignificance of the deliverances of physical science: for the
+significance of knowledge in relation to life must be made to appear as
+great as possible. This constitutes the antagonism between the
+specialties of science and philosophy. The latter aims, as art aims, at
+imparting to life and conduct the utmost depth and significance: in the
+former mere knowledge is sought and nothing else--whatever else be
+incidentally obtained. Heretofore there has never been a philosophical
+system in which philosophy itself was not made the apologist of
+knowledge [in the abstract]. On this point, at least, each is optimistic
+and insists that to knowledge the highest utility must be ascribed. They
+are all under the tyranny of logic, which is, from its very nature,
+optimism.
+
+
+7
+
+=The Discordant Element in Science.=--Philosophy severed itself from
+science when it put the question: what is that knowledge of the world
+and of life through which mankind may be made happiest? This happened
+when the Socratic school arose: with the standpoint of _happiness_ the
+arteries of investigating science were compressed too tightly to permit
+of any circulation of the blood--and are so compressed to-day.
+
+
+8
+
+=Pneumatic Explanation of Nature.=[5]--Metaphysic reads the message of
+nature as if it were written purely pneumatically, as the church and its
+learned ones formerly did where the bible was concerned. It requires a
+great deal of expertness to apply to nature the same strict science of
+interpretation that the philologists have devised for all literature,
+and to apply it for the purpose of a simple, direct interpretation of
+the message, and at the same time, not bring out a double meaning. But,
+as in the case of books and literature, errors of exposition are far
+from being completely eliminated, and vestiges of allegorical and
+mystical interpretations are still to be met with in the most cultivated
+circles, so where nature is concerned the case is--actually much worse.
+
+[5] Pneumatic is here used in the sense of spiritual. Pneuma being the
+Greek word in the New Testament for the Holy Spirit.--Ed.
+
+
+9
+
+=Metaphysical World.=--It is true, there may be a metaphysical world;
+the absolute possibility of it can scarcely be disputed. We see all
+things through the medium of the human head and we cannot well cut off
+this head: although there remains the question what part of the world
+would be left after it had been cut off. But that is a purely abstract
+scientific problem and one not much calculated to give men uneasiness:
+yet everything that has heretofore made metaphysical assumptions
+valuable, fearful or delightful to men, all that gave rise to them is
+passion, error and self deception: the worst systems of knowledge, not
+the best, pin their tenets of belief thereto. When such methods are once
+brought to view as the basis of all existing religions and metaphysics,
+they are already discredited. There always remains, however, the
+possibility already conceded: but nothing at all can be made out of
+that, to say not a word about letting happiness, salvation and life hang
+upon the threads spun from such a possibility. Accordingly, nothing
+could be predicated of the metaphysical world beyond the fact that it is
+an elsewhere,[6] another sphere, inaccessible and incomprehensible to
+us: it would become a thing of negative properties. Even were the
+existence of such a world absolutely established, it would nevertheless
+remain incontrovertible that of all kinds of knowledge, knowledge of
+such a world would be of least consequence--of even less consequence
+than knowledge of the chemical analysis of water would be to a storm
+tossed mariner.
+
+[6] Anderssein.
+
+
+10
+
+=The Harmlessness of Metaphysic in the Future.=--As soon as religion,
+art and ethics are so understood that a full comprehension of them can
+be gained without taking refuge in the postulates of metaphysical
+claptrap at any point in the line of reasoning, there will be a complete
+cessation of interest in the purely theoretical problem of the "thing in
+itself" and the "phenomenon." For here, too, the same truth applies: in
+religion, art and ethics we are not concerned with the "essence of the
+cosmos".[7] We are in the sphere of pure conception. No presentiment [or
+intuition] can carry us any further. With perfect tranquility the
+question of how our conception of the world could differ so sharply from
+the actual world as it is manifest to us, will be relegated to the
+physiological sciences and to the history of the evolution of ideas and
+organisms.
+
+[7] "Wesen der Welt an sich."
+
+
+11
+
+=Language as a Presumptive Science.=--The importance of language in the
+development of civilization consists in the fact that by means of it
+man placed one world, his own, alongside another, a place of leverage
+that he thought so firm as to admit of his turning the rest of the
+cosmos on a pivot that he might master it. In so far as man for ages
+looked upon mere ideas and names of things as upon aeternae veritates,
+he evinced the very pride with which he raised himself above the brute.
+He really supposed that in language he possessed a knowledge of the
+cosmos. The language builder was not so modest as to believe that he was
+only giving names to things. On the contrary he thought he embodied the
+highest wisdom concerning things in [mere] words; and, in truth,
+language is the first movement in all strivings for wisdom. Here, too,
+it is _faith in ascertained truth_[8] from which the mightiest fountains
+of strength have flowed. Very tardily--only now--it dawns upon men that
+they have propagated a monstrous error in their belief in language.
+Fortunately, it is too late now to arrest and turn back the evolutionary
+process of the reason, which had its inception in this belief. Logic
+itself rests upon assumptions to which nothing in the world of reality
+corresponds. For example, the correspondence of certain things to one
+another and the identity of those things at different periods of time
+are assumptions pure and simple, but the science of logic originated in
+the positive belief that they were not assumptions at all but
+established facts. It is the same with the science of mathematics which
+certainly would never have come into existence if mankind had known from
+the beginning that in all nature there is no perfectly straight line, no
+true circle, no standard of measurement.
+
+[8] Glaube an die gefundene Wahrheit, as distinguished from faith in
+what is taken on trust as truth.
+
+
+12
+
+=Dream and Civilization.=--The function of the brain which is most
+encroached upon in slumber is the memory; not that it is wholly
+suspended, but it is reduced to a state of imperfection as, in primitive
+ages of mankind, was probably the case with everyone, whether waking or
+sleeping. Uncontrolled and entangled as it is, it perpetually confuses
+things as a result of the most trifling similarities, yet in the same
+mental confusion and lack of control the nations invented their
+mythologies, while nowadays travelers habitually observe how prone the
+savage is to forgetfulness, how his mind, after the least exertion of
+memory, begins to wander and lose itself until finally he utters
+falsehood and nonsense from sheer exhaustion. Yet, in dreams, we all
+resemble this savage. Inadequacy of distinction and error of comparison
+are the basis of the preposterous things we do and say in dreams, so
+that when we clearly recall a dream we are startled that so much idiocy
+lurks within us. The absolute distinctness of all dream-images, due to
+implicit faith in their substantial reality, recalls the conditions in
+which earlier mankind were placed, for whom hallucinations had
+extraordinary vividness, entire communities and even entire nations
+laboring simultaneously under them. Therefore: in sleep and in dream we
+make the pilgrimage of early mankind over again.
+
+
+13
+
+=Logic of the Dream.=--During sleep the nervous system, through various
+inner provocatives, is in constant agitation. Almost all the organs act
+independently and vigorously. The blood circulates rapidly. The posture
+of the sleeper compresses some portions of the body. The coverlets
+influence the sensations in different ways. The stomach carries on the
+digestive process and acts upon other organs thereby. The intestines are
+in motion. The position of the head induces unaccustomed action. The
+feet, shoeless, no longer pressing the ground, are the occasion of other
+sensations of novelty, as is, indeed, the changed garb of the entire
+body. All these things, following the bustle and change of the day,
+result, through their novelty, in a movement throughout the entire
+system that extends even to the brain functions. Thus there are a
+hundred circumstances to induce perplexity in the mind, a questioning as
+to the cause of this excitation. Now, the dream is a _seeking and
+presenting of reasons_ for these excitations of feeling, of the supposed
+reasons, that is to say. Thus, for example, whoever has his feet bound
+with two threads will probably dream that a pair of serpents are coiled
+about his feet. This is at first a hypothesis, then a belief with an
+accompanying imaginative picture and the argument: "these snakes must be
+the _causa_ of those sensations which I, the sleeper, now have." So
+reasons the mind of the sleeper. The conditions precedent, as thus
+conjectured, become, owing to the excitation of the fancy, present
+realities. Everyone knows from experience how a dreamer will transform
+one piercing sound, for example, that of a bell, into another of quite a
+different nature, say, the report of cannon. In his dream he becomes
+aware first of the effects, which he explains by a subsequent hypothesis
+and becomes persuaded of the purely conjectural nature of the sound. But
+how comes it that the mind of the dreamer goes so far astray when the
+same mind, awake, is habitually cautious, careful, and so conservative
+in its dealings with hypotheses? why does the first plausible
+hypothesis of the cause of a sensation gain credit in the dreaming
+state? (For in a dream we look upon that dream as reality, that is, we
+accept our hypotheses as fully established). I have no doubt that as men
+argue in their dreams to-day, mankind argued, even in their waking
+moments, for thousands of years: the first _causa_, that occurred to the
+mind with reference to anything that stood in need of explanation, was
+accepted as the true explanation and served as such. (Savages show the
+same tendency in operation, as the reports of travelers agree). In the
+dream this atavistic relic of humanity manifests its existence within
+us, for it is the foundation upon which the higher rational faculty
+developed itself and still develops itself in every individual. Dreams
+carry us back to the earlier stages of human culture and afford us a
+means of understanding it more clearly. Dream thought comes so easily to
+us now because we are so thoroughly trained to it through the
+interminable stages of evolution during which this fanciful and facile
+form of theorising has prevailed. To a certain extent the dream is a
+restorative for the brain, which, during the day, is called upon to meet
+the many demands for trained thought made upon it by the conditions of a
+higher civilization.--We may, if we please, become sensible, even in our
+waking moments, of a condition that is as a door and vestibule to
+dreaming. If we close our eyes the brain immediately conjures up a
+medley of impressions of light and color, apparently a sort of imitation
+and echo of the impressions forced in upon the brain during its waking
+moments. And now the mind, in co-operation with the imagination,
+transforms this formless play of light and color into definite figures,
+moving groups, landscapes. What really takes place is a sort of
+reasoning from effect back to cause. As the brain inquires: whence these
+impressions of light and color? it posits as the inducing causes of such
+lights and colors, those shapes and figures. They serve the brain as the
+occasions of those lights and colors because the brain, when the eyes
+are open and the senses awake, is accustomed to perceiving the cause of
+every impression of light and color made upon it. Here again the
+imagination is continually interposing its images inasmuch as it
+participates in the production of the impressions made through the
+senses day by day: and the dream-fancy does exactly the same thing--that
+is, the presumed cause is determined from the effect and _after_ the
+effect: all this, too, with extraordinary rapidity, so that in this
+matter, as in a matter of jugglery or sleight-of-hand, a confusion of
+the mind is produced and an after effect is made to appear a
+simultaneous action, an inverted succession of events, even.--From
+these considerations we can see how _late_ strict, logical thought, the
+true notion of cause and effect must have been in developing, since our
+intellectual and rational faculties to this very day revert to these
+primitive processes of deduction, while practically half our lifetime is
+spent in the super-inducing conditions.--Even the poet, the artist,
+ascribes to his sentimental and emotional states causes which are not
+the true ones. To that extent he is a reminder of early mankind and can
+aid us in its comprehension.
+
+
+14
+
+=Association.=[9]--All strong feelings are associated with a variety of
+allied sentiments and emotions. They stir up the memory at the same
+time. When we are under their influence we are reminded of similar
+states and we feel a renewal of them within us. Thus are formed habitual
+successions of feelings and notions, which, at last, when they follow
+one another with lightning rapidity are no longer felt as complexities
+but as unities. In this sense we hear of moral feelings, of religious
+feelings, as if they were absolute unities. In reality they are streams
+with a hundred sources and tributaries. Here again, the unity of the
+word speaks nothing for the unity of the thing.
+
+[9] Miterklingen: to sound simultaneously with.
+
+
+15
+
+=No Within and Without in the World.=[10]--As Democritus transferred the
+notions above and below to limitless space, where they are destitute of
+meaning, so the philosophers do generally with the idea "within and
+without," as regards the form and substance (Wesen und Erscheinung) of
+the world. What they claim is that through the medium of profound
+feelings one can penetrate deep into the soul of things (Innre), draw
+close to the heart of nature. But these feelings are deep only in so far
+as with them are simultaneously aroused, although almost imperceptibly,
+certain complicated groups of thoughts (Gedankengruppen) which we call
+deep: a feeling is deep because we deem the thoughts accompanying it
+deep. But deep thought can nevertheless be very widely sundered from
+truth, as for instance every metaphysical thought. Take from deep
+feeling the element of thought blended with it and all that remains is
+_strength_ of feeling which is no voucher for the validity of
+knowledge, as intense faith is evidence only of its own intensity and
+not of the truth of that in which the faith is felt.
+
+[10] Kein Innen und Aussen in der Welt: the above translation may seem
+too literal but some dispute has arisen concerning the precise idea the
+author means to convey.
+
+
+16
+
+=Phenomenon and Thing-in-Itself.=--The philosophers are in the habit of
+placing themselves in front of life and experience--that which they call
+the world of phenomena--as if they were standing before a picture that
+is unrolled before them in its final completeness. This panorama, they
+think, must be studied in every detail in order to reach some conclusion
+regarding the object represented by the picture. From effect,
+accordingly is deduced cause and from cause is deduced the
+unconditioned. This process is generally looked upon as affording the
+all sufficient explanation of the world of phenomena. On the other hand
+one must, (while putting the conception of the metaphysical distinctly
+forward as that of the unconditioned, and consequently of the
+unconditioning) absolutely deny any connection between the unconditioned
+(of the metaphysical world) and the world known to us: so that
+throughout phenomena there is no manifestation of the thing-in-itself,
+and getting from one to the other is out of the question. Thus is left
+quite ignored the circumstance that the picture--that which we now call
+life and experience--is a gradual evolution, is, indeed, still in
+process of evolution and for that reason should not be regarded as an
+enduring whole from which any conclusion as to its author (the
+all-sufficient reason) could be arrived at, or even pronounced out of
+the question. It is because we have for thousands of years looked into
+the world with moral, aesthetic, religious predispositions, with blind
+prejudice, passion or fear, and surfeited ourselves with indulgence in
+the follies of illogical thought, that the world has gradually become so
+wondrously motley, frightful, significant, soulful: it has taken on
+tints, but we have been the colorists: the human intellect, upon the
+foundation of human needs, of human passions, has reared all these
+"phenomena" and injected its own erroneous fundamental conceptions into
+things. Late, very late, the human intellect checks itself: and now the
+world of experience and the thing-in-itself seem to it so severed and so
+antithetical that it denies the possibility of one's hinging upon the
+other--or else summons us to surrender our intellect, our personal will,
+to the secret and the awe-inspiring in order that thereby we may attain
+certainty of certainty hereafter. Again, there are those who have
+combined all the characteristic features of our world of
+phenomena--that is, the conception of the world which has been formed
+and inherited through a series of intellectual vagaries--and instead of
+holding the intellect responsible for it all, have pronounced the very
+nature of things accountable for the present very sinister aspect of the
+world, and preached annihilation of existence. Through all these views
+and opinions the toilsome, steady process of science (which now for the
+first time begins to celebrate its greatest triumph in the genesis of
+thought) will definitely work itself out, the result, being, perhaps, to
+the following effect: That which we now call the world is the result of
+a crowd of errors and fancies which gradually developed in the general
+evolution of organic nature, have grown together and been transmitted to
+us as the accumulated treasure of all the past--as the _treasure_, for
+whatever is worth anything in our humanity rests upon it. From this
+world of conception it is in the power of science to release us only to
+a slight extent--and this is all that could be wished--inasmuch as it
+cannot eradicate the influence of hereditary habits of feeling, but it
+can light up by degrees the stages of the development of that world of
+conception, and lift us, at least for a time, above the whole spectacle.
+Perhaps we may then perceive that the thing-in-itself is a meet subject
+for Homeric laughter: that it seemed so much, everything, indeed, and
+is really a void--void, that is to say, of meaning.
+
+
+17
+
+=Metaphysical Explanation.=--Man, when he is young, prizes metaphysical
+explanations, because they make him see matters of the highest import in
+things he found disagreeable or contemptible: and if he is not satisfied
+with himself, this feeling of dissatisfaction is soothed when he sees
+the most hidden world-problem or world-pain in that which he finds so
+displeasing in himself. To feel himself more unresponsible and at the
+same time to find things (Dinge) more interesting--that is to him the
+double benefit he owes to metaphysics. Later, indeed, he acquires
+distrust of the whole metaphysical method of explaining things: he then
+perceives, perhaps, that those effects could have been attained just as
+well and more scientifically by another method: that physical and
+historical explanations would, at least, have given that feeling of
+freedom from personal responsibility just as well, while interest in
+life and its problems would be stimulated, perhaps, even more.
+
+
+18
+
+=The Fundamental Problems of Metaphysics.=--If a history of the
+development of thought is ever written, the following proposition,
+advanced by a distinguished logician, will be illuminated with a new
+light: "The universal, primordial law of the apprehending subject
+consists in the inner necessity of cognizing every object by itself, as
+in its essence a thing unto itself, therefore as self-existing and
+unchanging, in short, as a substance." Even this law, which is here
+called "primordial," is an evolution: it has yet to be shown how
+gradually this evolution takes place in lower organizations: how the
+dim, mole eyes of such organizations see, at first, nothing but a blank
+sameness: how later, when the various excitations of desire and aversion
+manifest themselves, various substances are gradually distinguished, but
+each with an attribute, that is, a special relationship to such an
+organization. The first step towards the logical is judgment, the
+essence of which, according to the best logicians, is belief. At the
+foundation of all beliefs lie sensations of pleasure or pain in relation
+to the apprehending subject. A third feeling, as the result of two
+prior, single, separate feelings, is judgment in its crudest form. We
+organic beings are primordially interested by nothing whatever in any
+thing (Ding) except its relation to ourselves with reference to pleasure
+and pain. Between the moments in which we are conscious of this
+relation, (the states of feeling) lie the moments of rest, of
+not-feeling: then the world and every thing (Ding) have no interest for
+us: we observe no change in them (as at present a person absorbed in
+something does not notice anyone passing by). To plants all things are,
+as a rule, at rest, eternal, every object like itself. From the period
+of lower organisms has been handed down to man the belief that there are
+like things (gleiche Dinge): only the trained experience attained
+through the most advanced science contradicts this postulate. The
+primordial belief of all organisms is, perhaps, that all the rest of the
+world is one thing and motionless.--Furthest away from this first step
+towards the logical is the notion of causation: even to-day we think
+that all our feelings and doings are, at bottom, acts of the free will;
+when the sentient individual contemplates himself he deems every
+feeling, every change, a something isolated, disconnected, that is to
+say, unqualified by any thing; it comes suddenly to the surface,
+independent of anything that went before or came after. We are hungry,
+but originally we do not know that the organism must be nourished: on
+the contrary that feeling seems to manifest itself without reason or
+purpose; it stands out by itself and seems quite independent. Therefore:
+the belief in the freedom of the will is a primordial error of
+everything organic as old as the very earliest inward prompting of the
+logical faculty; belief in unconditioned substances and in like things
+(gleiche Dinge) is also a primordial and equally ancient error of
+everything organic. Inasmuch as all metaphysic has concerned itself
+particularly with substance and with freedom of the will, it should be
+designated as the science that deals with the fundamental errors of
+mankind as if they were fundamental truths.
+
+
+19
+
+=Number.=--The invention of the laws of number has as its basis the
+primordial and prior-prevailing delusion that many like things exist
+(although in point of fact there is no such thing is a duplicate), or
+that, at least, there are things (but there is no "thing"). The
+assumption of plurality always presupposes that _something_ exists which
+manifests itself repeatedly, but just here is where the delusion
+prevails; in this very matter we feign realities, unities, that have no
+existence. Our feelings, notions, of space and time are false for they
+lead, when duly tested, to logical contradictions. In all scientific
+demonstrations we always unavoidably base our calculation upon some
+false standards [of duration or measurement] but as these standards are
+at least _constant_, as, for example, our notions of time and space, the
+results arrived at by science possess absolute accuracy and certainty in
+their relationship to one another: one can keep on building upon
+them--until is reached that final limit at which the erroneous
+fundamental conceptions, (the invariable breakdown) come into conflict
+with the results established--as, for example, in the case of the atomic
+theory. Here we always find ourselves obliged to give credence to a
+"thing" or material "substratum" that is set in motion, although, at the
+same time, the whole scientific programme has had as its aim the
+resolving of everything material into motions [themselves]: here again
+we distinguish with our feeling [that which does the] moving and [that
+which is] moved,[11] and we never get out of this circle, because the
+belief in things[12] has been from time immemorial rooted in our
+nature.--When Kant says "the intellect does not derive its laws from
+nature, but dictates them to her" he states the full truth as regards
+the _idea of nature_ which we form (nature = world, as notion, that is,
+as error) but which is merely the synthesis of a host of errors of the
+intellect. To a world not [the outcome of] our conception, the laws of
+number are wholly inapplicable: such laws are valid only in the world of
+mankind.
+
+[11] Wir scheiden auch hier noch mit unserer Empfindung Bewegendes und
+Bewegtes.
+
+[12] Glaube an Dinge.
+
+
+20
+
+=Some Backward Steps.=--One very forward step in education is taken when
+man emerges from his superstitious and religious ideas and fears and,
+for instance, no longer believes in the dear little angels or in
+original sin, and has stopped talking about the salvation of the soul:
+when he has taken this step to freedom he has, nevertheless, through the
+utmost exertion of his mental power, to overcome metaphysics. Then a
+backward movement is necessary: he must appreciate the historical
+justification, and to an equal extent the psychological considerations,
+in such a movement. He must understand that the greatest advances made
+by mankind have resulted from such a course and that without this very
+backward movement the highest achievements of man hitherto would have
+been impossible.--With regard to philosophical metaphysics I see ever
+more and more who have arrived at the negative goal (that all positive
+metaphysic is a delusion) but as yet very few who go a few steps
+backward: one should look out over the last rungs of the ladder, but not
+try to stand on them, that is to say. The most advanced as yet go only
+far enough to free themselves from metaphysic and look back at it with
+an air of superiority: whereas here, no less than in the hippodrome, it
+is necessary to turn around in order to reach the end of the course.
+
+
+21
+
+=Presumable [Nature of the] Victory of Doubt.=--Let us assume for a
+moment the validity of the skeptical standpoint: granted that there is
+no metaphysical world, and that all the metaphysical explanations of the
+only world we know are useless to us, how would we then contemplate men
+and things? [Menschen und Dinge]. This can be thought out and it is
+worth while doing so, even if the question whether anything metaphysical
+has ever been demonstrated by or through Kant and Schopenhauer, be put
+altogether aside. For it is, to all appearances, highly probable that
+men, on this point, will be, in the mass, skeptical. The question thus
+becomes: what sort of a notion will human society, under the influence
+of such a state of mind, form of itself? Perhaps the _scientific
+demonstration_ of any metaphysical world is now so difficult that
+mankind will never be free from a distrust of it. And when there is
+formed a feeling of distrust of metaphysics, the results are, in the
+mass, the same as if metaphysics were refuted altogether and _could_ no
+longer be believed. In both cases the historical question, with regard
+to an unmetaphysical disposition in mankind, remains the same.
+
+
+22
+
+=Disbelief in the "monumentum aere perennius".=[13]--A decided
+disadvantage, attending the termination of metaphysical modes of
+thought, is that the individual fixes his mind too attentively upon his
+own brief lifetime and feels no strong inducement to aid in the
+foundation of institutions capable of enduring for centuries: he wishes
+himself to gather the fruit from the tree that he plants and
+consequently he no longer plants those trees which require centuries of
+constant cultivation and are destined to afford shade to generation
+after generation in the future. For metaphysical views inspire the
+belief that in them is afforded the final sure foundation upon which
+henceforth the whole future of mankind may rest and be built up: the
+individual promotes his own salvation; when, for example, he builds a
+church or a monastery he is of opinion that he is doing something for
+the salvation of his immortal soul:--Can science, as well, inspire such
+faith in the efficacy of her results? In actual fact, science requires
+doubt and distrust as her surest auxiliaries; nevertheless, the sum of
+the irresistible (that is all the onslaughts of skepticism, all the
+disintegrating effects of surviving truths) can easily become so great
+(as, for instance, in the case of hygienic science) as to inspire the
+determination to build "eternal" works upon it. At present the contrast
+between our excitated ephemeral existence and the tranquil repose of
+metaphysical epochs is too great because both are as yet in too close
+juxtaposition. The individual man himself now goes through too many
+stages of inner and outer evolution for him to venture to make a plan
+even for his life time alone. A perfectly modern man, indeed, who wants
+to build himself a house feels as if he were walling himself up alive in
+a mausoleum.
+
+[13] Monument more enduring than brass: Horace, Odes III:XXX.
+
+
+23
+
+=Age of Comparison.=--The less men are bound by tradition, the greater
+is the inner activity of motives, the greater, correspondingly, the
+outer restlessness, the promiscuous flow of humanity, the polyphony of
+strivings. Who now feels any great impulse to establish himself and his
+posterity in a particular place? For whom, moreover, does there exist,
+at present, any strong tie? As all the methods of the arts were copied
+from one another, so were all the methods and advancements of moral
+codes, of manners, of civilizations.--Such an age derives its
+significance from the fact that in it the various ideas, codes, manners
+and civilizations can be compared and experienced side by side; which
+was impossible at an earlier period in view of the localised nature of
+the rule of every civilization, corresponding to the limitation of all
+artistic effects by time and place. To-day the growth of the aesthetic
+feeling is decided, owing to the great number of [artistic] forms which
+offer themselves for comparison. The majority--those that are condemned
+by the method of comparison--will be allowed to die out. In the same way
+there is to-day taking place a selection of the forms and customs of the
+higher morality which can result only in the extinction of the vulgar
+moralities. This is the age of comparison! That is its glory--but also
+its pain. Let us not, however shrink from this pain. Rather would we
+comprehend the nature of the task imposed upon us by our age as
+adequately as we can: posterity will bless us for doing so--a posterity
+that knows itself to be [developed] through and above the narrow, early
+race-civilizations as well as the culture-civilization of comparison,
+but yet looks gratefully back upon both as venerable monuments of
+antiquity.
+
+
+24
+
+=Possibility of Progress.=--When a master of the old civilization (den
+alten Cultur) vows to hold no more discussion with men who believe in
+progress, he is quite right. For the old civilization[14] has its
+greatness and its advantages behind it, and historic training forces one
+to acknowledge that it can never again acquire vigor: only intolerable
+stupidity or equally intolerable fanaticism could fail to perceive this
+fact. But men may consciously determine to evolve to a new civilization
+where formerly they evolved unconsciously and accidentally. They can now
+devise better conditions for the advancement of mankind, for their
+nourishment, training and education, they can administer the earth as an
+economic power, and, particularly, compare the capacities of men and
+select them accordingly. This new, conscious civilization is killing the
+other which, on the whole, has led but an unreflective animal and plant
+life: it is also destroying the doubt of progress itself--progress is
+possible. I mean: it is hasty and almost unreflective to assume that
+progress must _necessarily_ take place: but how can it be doubted that
+progress is possible? On the other hand, progress in the sense and along
+the lines of the old civilization is not even conceivable. If romantic
+fantasy employs the word progress in connection with certain aims and
+ends identical with those of the circumscribed primitive national
+civilizations, the picture presented of progress is always borrowed from
+the past. The idea and the image of progress thus formed are quite
+without originality.
+
+[14] Cultur, culture, civilisation etc., but there is no exact English
+equivalent.
+
+
+25
+
+=Private Ethics and World Ethics.=--Since the extinction of the belief
+that a god guides the general destiny of the world and, notwithstanding
+all the contortions and windings of the path of mankind, leads it
+gloriously forward, men must shape oecumenical, world-embracing ends for
+themselves. The older ethics, namely Kant's, required of the individual
+such a course of conduct as he wishes all men to follow. This evinces
+much simplicity--as if any individual could determine off hand what
+course of conduct would conduce to the welfare of humanity, and what
+course of conduct is preeminently desirable! This is a theory like that
+of freedom of competition, which takes it for granted that the general
+harmony [of things] _must_ prevail of itself in accordance with some
+inherent law of betterment or amelioration. It may be that a later
+contemplation of the needs of mankind will reveal that it is by no means
+desirable that all men should regulate their conduct according to the
+same principle; it may be best, from the standpoint of certain ends yet
+to be attained, that men, during long periods should regulate their
+conduct with reference to special, and even, in certain circumstances,
+evil, objects. At any rate, if mankind is not to be led astray by such a
+universal rule of conduct, it behooves it to attain a _knowledge of the
+condition of culture_ that will serve as a scientific standard of
+comparison in connection with cosmical ends. Herein is comprised the
+tremendous mission of the great spirits of the next century.
+
+
+26
+
+=Reaction as Progress.=--Occasionally harsh, powerful, impetuous, yet
+nevertheless backward spirits, appear, who try to conjure back some past
+era in the history of mankind: they serve as evidence that the new
+tendencies which they oppose, are not yet potent enough, that there is
+something lacking in them: otherwise they [the tendencies] would better
+withstand the effects of this conjuring back process. Thus Luther's
+reformation shows that in his century all the impulses to freedom of the
+spirit were still uncertain, lacking in vigor, and immature. Science
+could not yet rear her head. Indeed the whole Renaissance appears but as
+an early spring smothered in snow. But even in the present century
+Schopenhauer's metaphysic shows that the scientific spirit is not yet
+powerful enough: for the whole mediaeval Christian world-standpoint
+(Weltbetrachtung) and conception of man (Mensch-Empfindung)[15] once
+again, notwithstanding the slowly wrought destruction of all Christian
+dogma, celebrated a resurrection in Schopenhauer's doctrine. There is
+much science in his teaching although the science does not dominate,
+but, instead of it, the old, trite "metaphysical necessity." It is one
+of the greatest and most priceless advantages of Schopenhauer's teaching
+that by it our feelings are temporarily forced back to those old human
+and cosmical standpoints to which no other path could conduct us so
+easily. The gain for history and justice is very great. I believe that
+without Schopenhauer's aid it would be no easy matter for anyone now to
+do justice to Christianity and its Asiatic relatives--a thing impossible
+as regards the christianity that still survives. After according this
+great triumph to justice, after we have corrected in so essential a
+respect the historical point of view which the age of learning brought
+with it, we may begin to bear still farther onward the banner of
+enlightenment--a banner bearing the three names: Petrarch, Erasmus,
+Voltaire. We have taken a forward step out of reaction.
+
+[15] Literally man-feeling or human outlook.
+
+
+27
+
+=A Substitute for Religion.=--It is supposed to be a recommendation for
+philosophy to say of it that it provides the people with a substitute
+for religion. And in fact, the training of the intellect does
+necessitate the convenient laying out of the track of thought, since the
+transition from religion by way of science entails a powerful, perilous
+leap,--something that should be advised against. With this
+qualification, the recommendation referred to is a just one. At the same
+time, it should be further explained that the needs which religion
+satisfies and which science must now satisfy, are not immutable. Even
+they can be diminished and uprooted. Think, for instance, of the
+christian soul-need, the sighs over one's inner corruption, the anxiety
+regarding salvation--all notions that arise simply out of errors of the
+reason and require no satisfaction at all, but annihilation. A
+philosophy can either so affect these needs as to appease them or else
+put them aside altogether, for they are acquired, circumscribed needs,
+based upon hypotheses which those of science explode. Here, for the
+purpose of affording the means of transition, for the sake of lightening
+the spirit overburdened with feeling, art can be employed to far better
+purpose, as these hypotheses receive far less support from art than from
+a metaphysical philosophy. Then from art it is easier to go over to a
+really emancipating philosophical science.
+
+
+28
+
+=Discredited Words.=--Away with the disgustingly over-used words
+optimism and pessimism! For the occasion for using them grows daily
+less; only drivelers now find them indispensably necessary. What earthly
+reason could anyone have for being an optimist unless he had a god to
+defend who _must_ have created the best of all possible worlds, since he
+is himself all goodness and perfection?--but what thinking man has now
+any need for the hypothesis that there is a god?--There is also no
+occasion whatever for a pessimistic confession of faith, unless one has
+a personal interest in denouncing the advocate of god, the theologian or
+the theological philosopher, and maintaining the counter proposition
+that evil reigns, that wretchedness is more potent than joy, that the
+world is a piece of botch work, that phenomenon (Erscheinung) is but the
+manifestation of some evil spirit. But who bothers his head about the
+theologians any more--except the theologians themselves? Apart from all
+theology and its antagonism, it is manifest that the world is neither
+good nor bad, (to say nothing about its being the best or the worst) and
+that these ideas of "good" and "bad" have significance only in relation
+to men, indeed, are without significance at all, in view of the sense in
+which they are usually employed. The contemptuous and the eulogistic
+point of view must, in every case, be repudiated.
+
+
+29
+
+=Intoxicated by the Perfume of Flowers.=--The ship of humanity, it is
+thought, acquires an ever deeper draught the more it is laden. It is
+believed that the more profoundly man thinks, the more exquisitely he
+feels, the higher the standard he sets for himself, the greater his
+distance from the other animals--the more he appears as a genius
+(Genie) among animals--the nearer he gets to the true nature of the
+world and to comprehension thereof: this, indeed, he really does through
+science, but he thinks he does it far more adequately through his
+religions and arts. These are, certainly, a blossoming of the world, but
+not, therefore, _nearer the roots of the world_ than is the stalk. One
+cannot learn best from it the nature of the world, although nearly
+everyone thinks so. _Error_ has made men so deep, sensitive and
+imaginative in order to bring forth such flowers as religions and arts.
+Pure apprehension would be unable to do that. Whoever should disclose to
+us the essence of the world would be undeceiving us most cruelly. Not
+the world as thing-in-itself but the world as idea[16] (as error) is
+rich in portent, deep, wonderful, carrying happiness and unhappiness in
+its womb. This result leads to a philosophy of world negation: which, at
+any rate, can be as well combined with a practical world affirmation as
+with its opposite.
+
+[16] Vorstellung: this word sometimes corresponds to the English word
+"idea", at others to "conception" or "notion."
+
+
+30
+
+=Evil Habits in Reaching Conclusions.=--The most usual erroneous
+conclusions of men are these: a thing[17] exists, therefore it is right:
+Here from capacity to live is deduced fitness, from fitness, is deduced
+justification. So also: an opinion gives happiness, therefore it is the
+true one, its effect is good, therefore it is itself good and true. Here
+is predicated of the effect that it gives happiness, that it is good in
+the sense of utility, and there is likewise predicated of the cause that
+it is good, but good in the sense of logical validity. Conversely, the
+proposition would run: a thing[17] cannot attain success, cannot
+maintain itself, therefore it is evil: a belief troubles [the believer],
+occasions pain, therefore it is false. The free spirit, who is sensible
+of the defect in this method of reaching conclusions and has had to
+suffer its consequences, often succumbs to the temptation to come to the
+very opposite conclusions (which, in general, are, of course, equally
+erroneous): a thing cannot maintain itself: therefore it is good; a
+belief is troublesome, therefore it is true.
+
+[17] Sache, thing but not in the sense of Ding. Sache is of very
+indefinite application (res).
+
+
+31
+
+=The Illogical is Necessary.=--Among the things which can bring a
+thinker to distraction is the knowledge that the illogical is necessary
+to mankind and that from the illogical springs much that is good. The
+illogical is so imbedded in the passions, in language, in art, in
+religion and, above all, in everything that imparts value to life that
+it cannot be taken away without irreparably injuring those beautiful
+things. Only men of the utmost simplicity can believe that the nature
+man knows can be changed into a purely logical nature. Yet were there
+steps affording approach to this goal, how utterly everything would be
+lost on the way! Even the most rational man needs nature again, from
+time to time, that is, his illogical fundamental relation
+(Grundstellung) to all things.
+
+
+32
+
+=Being Unjust is Essential.=--All judgments of the value of life are
+illogically developed and therefore unjust. The vice of the judgment
+consists, first, in the way in which the subject matter comes under
+observation, that is, very incompletely; secondly in the way in which
+the total is summed up; and, thirdly, in the fact that each single item
+in the totality of the subject matter is itself the result of defective
+perception, and this from absolute necessity. No practical knowledge of
+a man, for example, stood he never so near to us, can be complete--so
+that we could have a logical right to form a total estimate of him; all
+estimates are summary and must be so. Then the standard by which we
+measure, (our being) is not an immutable quantity; we have moods and
+variations, and yet we should know ourselves as an invariable standard
+before we undertake to establish the nature of the relation of any thing
+(Sache) to ourselves. Perhaps it will follow from all this that one
+should form no judgments whatever; if one could but merely _live_
+without having to form estimates, without aversion and without
+partiality!--for everything most abhorred is closely connected with an
+estimate, as well as every strongest partiality. An inclination towards
+a thing, or from a thing, without an accompanying feeling that the
+beneficial is desired and the pernicious contemned, an inclination
+without a sort of experiential estimation of the desirability of an end,
+does not exist in man. We are primordially illogical and hence unjust
+beings _and can recognise this fact_: this is one of the greatest and
+most baffling discords of existence.
+
+
+33
+
+=Error Respecting Living for the Sake of Living Essential.=--Every
+belief in the value and worthiness of life rests upon defective
+thinking; it is for this reason alone possible that sympathy with the
+general life and suffering of mankind is so imperfectly developed in the
+individual. Even exceptional men, who can think beyond their own
+personalities, do not have this general life in view, but isolated
+portions of it. If one is capable of fixing his observation upon
+exceptional cases, I mean upon highly endowed individuals and pure
+souled beings, if their development is taken as the true end of
+world-evolution and if joy be felt in their existence, then it is
+possible to believe in the value of life, because in that case the rest
+of humanity is overlooked: hence we have here defective thinking. So,
+too, it is even if all mankind be taken into consideration, and one
+species only of impulses (the less egoistic) brought under review and
+those, in consideration of the other impulses, exalted: then something
+could still be hoped of mankind in the mass and to that extent there
+could exist belief in the value of life: here, again, as a result of
+defective thinking. Whatever attitude, thus, one may assume, one is, as
+a result of this attitude, an exception among mankind. Now, the great
+majority of mankind endure life without any great protest, and believe,
+to this extent, in the value of existence, but that is because each
+individual decides and determines alone, and never comes out of his own
+personality like these exceptions: everything outside of the personal
+has no existence for them or at the utmost is observed as but a faint
+shadow. Consequently the value of life for the generality of mankind
+consists simply in the fact that the individual attaches more importance
+to himself than he does to the world. The great lack of imagination from
+which he suffers is responsible for his inability to enter into the
+feelings of beings other than himself, and hence his sympathy with their
+fate and suffering is of the slightest possible description. On the
+other hand, whosoever really _could_ sympathise, necessarily doubts the
+value of life; were it possible for him to sum up and to feel in himself
+the total consciousness of mankind, he would collapse with a malediction
+against existence,--for mankind is, in the mass, without a goal, and
+hence man cannot find, in the contemplation of his whole course,
+anything to serve him as a mainstay and a comfort, but rather a reason
+to despair. If he looks beyond the things that immediately engage him to
+the final aimlessness of humanity, his own conduct assumes in his eyes
+the character of a frittering away. To feel oneself, however, as
+humanity (not alone as an individual) frittered away exactly as we see
+the stray leaves frittered away by nature, is a feeling transcending all
+feeling. But who is capable of it? Only a poet, certainly: and poets
+always know how to console themselves.
+
+
+34
+
+=For Tranquility.=--But will not our philosophy become thus a tragedy?
+Will not truth prove the enemy of life, of betterment? A question seems
+to weigh upon our tongue and yet will not put itself into words: whether
+one _can_ knowingly remain in the domain of the untruthful? or, if one
+_must_, whether, then, death would not be preferable? For there is no
+longer any ought (Sollen), morality; so far as it is involved "ought,"
+is, through our point of view, as utterly annihilated as religion. Our
+knowledge can permit only pleasure and pain, benefit and injury, to
+subsist as motives. But how can these motives be distinguished from the
+desire for truth? Even they rest upon error (in so far, as already
+stated, partiality and dislike and their very inaccurate estimates
+palpably modify our pleasure and our pain). The whole of human life is
+deeply involved in _untruth_. The individual cannot extricate it from
+this pit without thereby fundamentally clashing with his whole past,
+without finding his present motives of conduct, (as that of honor)
+illegitimate, and without opposing scorn and contempt to the ambitions
+which prompt one to have regard for the future and for one's happiness
+in the future. Is it true, does there, then, remain but one way of
+thinking, which, as a personal consequence brings in its train despair,
+and as a theoretical [consequence brings in its train] a philosophy of
+decay, disintegration, self annihilation? I believe the deciding
+influence, as regards the after-effect of knowledge, will be the
+_temperament_ of a man; I can, in addition to this after-effect just
+mentioned, suppose another, by means of which a much simpler life, and
+one freer from disturbances than the present, could be lived; so that at
+first the old motives of vehement passion might still have strength,
+owing to hereditary habit, but they would gradually grow weaker under
+the influence of purifying knowledge. A man would live, at last, both
+among men and unto himself, as in the natural state, without praise,
+reproach, competition, feasting one's eyes, as if it were a play, upon
+much that formerly inspired dread. One would be rid of the strenuous
+element, and would no longer feel the goad of the reflection that man is
+not even [as much as] nature, nor more than nature. To be sure, this
+requires, as already stated, a good temperament, a fortified, gentle and
+naturally cheerful soul, a disposition that has no need to be on its
+guard against its own eccentricities and sudden outbreaks and that in
+its utterances manifests neither sullenness nor a snarling tone--those
+familiar, disagreeable characteristics of old dogs and old men that have
+been a long time chained up. Rather must a man, from whom the ordinary
+bondages of life have fallen away to so great an extent, so do that he
+only lives on in order to grow continually in knowledge, and to learn to
+resign, without envy and without disappointment, much, yes nearly
+everything, that has value in the eyes of men. He must be content with
+such a free, fearless soaring above men, manners, laws and traditional
+estimates of things, as the most desirable of all situations. He will
+freely share the joy of being in such a situation, and he has, perhaps,
+nothing else to share--in which renunciation and self-denial really most
+consist. But if more is asked of him, he will, with a benevolent shake
+of the head, refer to his brother, the free man of fact, and will,
+perhaps, not dissemble a little contempt: for, as regards his "freedom,"
+thereby hangs a tale.[18]
+
+[18] den mit dessen "Freiheit" hat es eine eigene Bewandtniss.
+
+
+
+
+HISTORY OF THE MORAL FEELINGS.
+
+
+35
+
+=Advantages of Psychological Observation.=--That reflection regarding
+the human, all-too-human--or as the learned jargon is: psychological
+observation--is among the means whereby the burden of life can be made
+lighter, that practice in this art affords presence of mind in difficult
+situations and entertainment amid a wearisome environment, aye, that
+maxims may be culled in the thorniest and least pleasing paths of life
+and invigoration thereby obtained: this much was believed, was known--in
+former centuries. Why was this forgotten in our own century, during
+which, at least in Germany, yes in Europe, poverty as regards
+psychological observation would have been manifest in many ways had
+there been anyone to whom this poverty could have manifested itself. Not
+only in the novel, in the romance, in philosophical standpoints--these
+are the works of exceptional men; still more in the state of opinion
+regarding public events and personages; above all in general society,
+which says much about men but nothing whatever about man, there is
+totally lacking the art of psychological analysis and synthesis. But why
+is the richest and most harmless source of entertainment thus allowed to
+run to waste? Why is the greatest master of the psychological maxim no
+longer read?--for, with no exaggeration whatever be it said: the
+educated person in Europe who has read La Rochefoucauld and his
+intellectual and artistic affinities is very hard to find; still harder,
+the person who knows them and does not disparage them. Apparently, too,
+this unusual reader takes far less pleasure in them than the form
+adopted by these artists should afford him: for the subtlest mind cannot
+adequately appreciate the art of maxim-making unless it has had training
+in it, unless it has competed in it. Without such practical
+acquaintance, one is apt to look upon this making and forming as a much
+easier thing than it really is; one is not keenly enough alive to the
+felicity and the charm of success. Hence present day readers of maxims
+have but a moderate, tempered pleasure in them, scarcely, indeed, a true
+perception of their merit, so that their experiences are about the same
+as those of the average beholder of cameos: people who praise because
+they cannot appreciate, and are very ready to admire and still readier
+to turn away.
+
+
+36
+
+=Objection.=--Or is there a counter-proposition to the dictum that
+psychological observation is one of the means of consoling, lightening,
+charming existence? Have enough of the unpleasant effects of this art
+been experienced to justify the person striving for culture in turning
+his regard away from it? In all truth, a certain blind faith in the
+goodness of human nature, an implanted distaste for any disparagement of
+human concerns, a sort of shamefacedness at the nakedness of the soul,
+may be far more desirable things in the general happiness of a man, than
+this only occasionally advantageous quality of psychological
+sharpsightedness; and perhaps belief in the good, in virtuous men and
+actions, in a plenitude of disinterested benevolence has been more
+productive of good in the world of men in so far as it has made men less
+distrustful. If Plutarch's heroes are enthusiastically imitated and a
+reluctance is experienced to looking too critically into the motives of
+their actions, not the knowledge but the welfare of human society is
+promoted thereby: psychological error and above all obtuseness in regard
+to it, help human nature forward, whereas knowledge of the truth is more
+promoted by means of the stimulating strength of a hypothesis; as La
+Rochefoucauld in the first edition of his "Sentences and Moral Maxims"
+has expressed it: "What the world calls virtue is ordinarily but a
+phantom created by the passions, and to which we give a good name in
+order to do whatever we please with impunity." La Rochefoucauld and
+those other French masters of soul-searching (to the number of whom has
+lately been added a German, the author of "Psychological Observations")
+are like expert marksmen who again and again hit the black spot--but it
+is the black spot in human nature. Their art inspires amazement, but
+finally some spectator, inspired, not by the scientific spirit but by a
+humanitarian feeling, execrates an art that seems to implant in the soul
+a taste for belittling and impeaching mankind.
+
+
+37
+
+=Nevertheless.=--The matter therefore, as regards pro and con, stands
+thus: in the present state of philosophy an awakening of the moral
+observation is essential. The repulsive aspect of psychological
+dissection, with the knife and tweezers entailed by the process, can no
+longer be spared humanity. Such is the imperative duty of any science
+that investigates the origin and history of the so-called moral feelings
+and which, in its progress, is called upon to posit and to solve
+advanced social problems:--The older philosophy does not recognize the
+newer at all and, through paltry evasions, has always gone astray in the
+investigation of the origin and history of human estimates
+(Werthschaetzungen). With what results may now be very clearly perceived,
+since it has been shown by many examples, how the errors of the greatest
+philosophers have their origin in a false explanation of certain human
+actions and feelings; how upon the foundation of an erroneous analysis
+(for example, of the so called disinterested actions), a false ethic is
+reared, to support which religion and like mythological monstrosities
+are called in, until finally the shades of these troubled spirits
+collapse in physics and in the comprehensive world point of view. But if
+it be established that superficiality of psychological observation has
+heretofore set the most dangerous snares for human judgment and
+deduction, and will continue to do so, all the greater need is there of
+that steady continuance of labor that never wearies putting stone upon
+stone, little stone upon little stone; all the greater need is there of
+a courage that is not ashamed of such humble labor and that will oppose
+persistence, to all contempt. It is, finally, also true that countless
+single observations concerning the human, all-too-human, have been
+first made and uttered in circles accustomed, not to furnish matter for
+scientific knowledge, but for intellectual pleasure-seeking; and the
+original home atmosphere--a very seductive atmosphere--of the moral
+maxim has almost inextricably interpenetrated the entire species, so
+that the scientific man involuntarily manifests a sort of mistrust of
+this species and of its seriousness. But it is sufficient to point to
+the consequences: for already it is becoming evident that events of the
+most portentous nature are developing in the domain of psychological
+observation. What is the leading conclusion arrived at by one of the
+subtlest and calmest of thinkers, the author of the work "Concerning the
+Origin of the Moral Feelings", as a result of his thorough and incisive
+analysis of human conduct? "The moral man," he says, "stands no nearer
+the knowable (metaphysical) world than the physical man."[19] This
+dictum, grown hard and cutting beneath the hammer-blow of historical
+knowledge, can some day, perhaps, in some future or other, serve as the
+axe that will be laid to the root of the "metaphysical necessities" of
+men--whether more to the blessing than to the banning of universal well
+being who can say?--but in any event a dictum fraught with the most
+momentous consequences, fruitful and fearful at once, and confronting
+the world in the two faced way characteristic of all great facts.
+
+[19] "Der moralische Mensch, sagt er, steht der intelligiblen
+(metaphysischen) Welt nicht naeher, als der physische Mensch."
+
+
+38
+
+=To What Extent Useful.=--Therefore, whether psychological observation
+is more an advantage than a disadvantage to mankind may always remain
+undetermined: but there is no doubt that it is necessary, because
+science can no longer dispense with it. Science, however, recognizes no
+considerations of ultimate goals or ends any more than nature does; but
+as the latter duly matures things of the highest fitness for certain
+ends without any intention of doing it, so will true science, doing with
+ideas what nature does with matter,[20] promote the purposes and the
+welfare of humanity, (as occasion may afford, and in many ways) and
+attain fitness [to ends]--but likewise without having intended it.
+
+[20] als die Nachahmung der Natur in Begriffen, literally: "as the
+counterfeit of nature in (regard to) ideas."
+
+He to whom the atmospheric conditions of such a prospect are too wintry,
+has too little fire in him: let him look about him, and he will become
+sensible of maladies requiring an icy air, and of people who are so
+"kneaded together" out of ardor and intellect that they can scarcely
+find anywhere an atmosphere too cold and cutting for them. Moreover: as
+too serious individuals and nations stand in need of trivial
+relaxations; as others, too volatile and excitable require onerous,
+weighty ordeals to render them entirely healthy: should not we, the more
+intellectual men of this age, which is swept more and more by
+conflagrations, catch up every cooling and extinguishing appliance we
+can find that we may always remain as self contained, steady and calm as
+we are now, and thereby perhaps serve this age as its mirror and self
+reflector, when the occasion arises?
+
+
+39
+
+=The Fable of Discretionary Freedom.=--The history of the feelings, on
+the basis of which we make everyone responsible, hence, the so-called
+moral feelings, is traceable in the following leading phases. At first
+single actions are termed good or bad without any reference to their
+motive, but solely because of the utilitarian or prejudicial
+consequences they have for the community. In time, however, the origin
+of these designations is forgotten [but] it is imagined that action in
+itself, without reference to its consequences, contains the property
+"good" or "bad": with the same error according to which language
+designates the stone itself as hard[ness] the tree itself as
+green[ness]--for the reason, therefore, that what is a consequence is
+comprehended as a cause. Accordingly, the good[ness] or bad[ness] is
+incorporated into the motive and [any] deed by itself is regarded as
+morally ambiguous. A step further is taken, and the predication good or
+bad is no longer made of the particular motives but of the entire nature
+of a man, out of which motive grows as grow the plants out of the soil.
+Thus man is successively made responsible for his [particular] acts,
+then for his [course of] conduct, then for his motives and finally for
+his nature. Now, at last, is it discovered that this nature, even,
+cannot be responsible, inasmuch as it is only and wholly a necessary
+consequence and is synthesised out of the elements and influence of past
+and present things: therefore, that man is to be made responsible for
+nothing, neither for his nature, nor his motives, nor his [course of]
+conduct nor his [particular] acts. By this [process] is gained the
+knowledge that the history of moral estimates is the history of error,
+of the error of responsibility: as is whatever rests upon the error of
+the freedom of the will. Schopenhauer concluded just the other way,
+thus: since certain actions bring depression ("consciousness of guilt")
+in their train, there must, then, exist responsibility, for there would
+be no basis for this depression at hand if all man's affairs did not
+follow their course of necessity--as they do, indeed, according to the
+opinion of this philosopher, follow their course--but man himself,
+subject to the same necessity, would be just the man that he is--which
+Schopenhauer denies. From the fact of such depression Schopenhauer
+believes himself able to prove a freedom which man in some way must have
+had, not indeed in regard to his actions but in regard to his nature:
+freedom, therefore, to be thus and so, not to act thus and so. Out of
+the _esse_, the sphere of freedom and responsibility, follows, according
+to his opinion, the _operari_, the spheres of invariable causation,
+necessity and irresponsibility. This depression, indeed, is due
+apparently to the _operari_--in so far as it be delusive--but in truth
+to whatever _esse_ be the deed of a free will, the basic cause of the
+existence of an individual: [in order to] let man become whatever he
+wills to become, his [to] will (Wollen) must precede his
+existence.--Here, apart from the absurdity of the statement just made,
+there is drawn the wrong inference that the fact of the depression
+explains its character, the rational admissibility of it: from such a
+wrong inference does Schopenhauer first come to his fantastic consequent
+of the so called discretionary freedom (intelligibeln Freiheit). (For
+the origin of this fabulous entity Plato and Kant are equally
+responsible). But depression after the act does not need to be rational:
+indeed, it is certainly not so at all, for it rests upon the erroneous
+assumption that the act need not necessarily have come to pass.
+Therefore: only because man deems himself free, but not because
+he is free, does he experience remorse and the stings of
+conscience.--Moreover, this depression is something that can be grown
+out of; in many men it is not present at all as a consequence of acts
+which inspire it in many other men. It is a very varying thing and one
+closely connected with the development of custom and civilization, and
+perhaps manifest only during a relatively brief period of the world's
+history.--No one is responsible for his acts, no one for his nature; to
+judge is tantamount to being unjust. This applies as well when the
+individual judges himself. The proposition is as clear as sunlight, and
+yet here everyone prefers to go back to darkness and untruth: for fear
+of the consequences.
+
+
+40
+
+=Above Animal.=--The beast in us must be wheedled: ethic is necessary,
+that we may not be torn to pieces. Without the errors involved in the
+assumptions of ethics, man would have remained an animal. Thus has he
+taken himself as something higher and imposed rigid laws upon himself.
+He feels hatred, consequently, for states approximating the animal:
+whence the former contempt for the slave as a not-yet-man, as a thing,
+is to be explained.
+
+
+41
+
+=Unalterable Character.=--That character is unalterable is not, in the
+strict sense, true; rather is this favorite proposition valid only to
+the extent that during the brief life period of a man the potent new
+motives can not, usually, press down hard enough to obliterate the lines
+imprinted by ages. Could we conceive of a man eighty thousand years old,
+we should have in him an absolutely alterable character; so that the
+maturities of successive, varying individuals would develop in him. The
+shortness of human life leads to many erroneous assertions concerning
+the qualities of man.
+
+
+42
+
+=Classification of Enjoyments and Ethic.=--The once accepted comparative
+classification of enjoyments, according to which an inferior, higher,
+highest egoism may crave one or another enjoyment, now decides as to
+ethical status or unethical status. A lower enjoyment (for example,
+sensual pleasure) preferred to a more highly esteemed one (for example,
+health) rates as unethical, as does welfare preferred to freedom. The
+comparative classification of enjoyments is not, however, alike or the
+same at all periods; when anyone demands satisfaction of the law, he is,
+from the point of view of an earlier civilization, moral, from that of
+the present, non-moral. "Unethical" indicates, therefore, that a man is
+not sufficiently sensible to the higher, finer impulses which the
+present civilization has brought with it, or is not sensible to them at
+all; it indicates backwardness, but only from the point of view of the
+contemporary degree of distinction.--The comparative classification of
+enjoyments itself is not determined according to absolute ethics; but
+after each new ethical adjustment, it is then decided whether conduct be
+ethical or the reverse.
+
+
+43
+
+=Inhuman Men as Survivals.=--Men who are now inhuman must serve us as
+surviving specimens of earlier civilizations. The mountain height of
+humanity here reveals its lower formations, which might otherwise remain
+hidden from view. There are surviving specimens of humanity whose brains
+through the vicissitudes of heredity, have escaped proper development.
+They show us what we all were and thus appal us; but they are as little
+responsible on this account as is a piece of granite for being granite.
+In our own brains there must be courses and windings corresponding to
+such characters, just as in the forms of some human organs there survive
+traces of fishhood. But these courses and windings are no longer the bed
+in which flows the stream of our feeling.
+
+
+44
+
+=Gratitude and Revenge.=--The reason the powerful man is grateful is
+this. His benefactor has, through his benefaction, invaded the domain of
+the powerful man and established himself on an equal footing: the
+powerful man in turn invades the domain of the benefactor and gets
+satisfaction through the act of gratitude. It is a mild form of revenge.
+By not obtaining the satisfaction of gratitude the powerful would have
+shown himself powerless and have ranked as such thenceforward. Hence
+every society of the good, that is to say, of the powerful originally,
+places gratitude among the first of duties.--Swift has added the dictum
+that man is grateful in the same degree that he is revengeful.
+
+
+45
+
+=Two-fold Historical Origin of Good and Evil.=--The notion of good and
+bad has a two-fold historical origin: namely, first, in the spirit of
+ruling races and castes. Whoever has power to requite good with good and
+evil with evil and actually brings requital, (that is, is grateful and
+revengeful) acquires the name of being good; whoever is powerless and
+cannot requite is called bad. A man belongs, as a good individual, to
+the "good" of a community, who have a feeling in common, because all the
+individuals are allied with one another through the requiting sentiment.
+A man belongs, as a bad individual, to the "bad," to a mass of
+subjugated, powerless men who have no feeling in common. The good are a
+caste, the bad are a quantity, like dust. Good and bad is, for a
+considerable period, tantamount to noble and servile, master and slave.
+On the other hand an enemy is not looked upon as bad: he can requite.
+The Trojan and the Greek are in Homer both good. Not he, who does no
+harm, but he who is despised, is deemed bad. In the community of the
+good individuals [the quality of] good[ness] is inherited; it is
+impossible for a bad individual to grow from such a rich soil. If,
+notwithstanding, one of the good individuals does something unworthy of
+his goodness, recourse is had to exorcism; thus the guilt is ascribed to
+a deity, the while it is declared that this deity bewitched the good man
+into madness and blindness.--Second, in the spirit of the subjugated,
+the powerless. Here every other man is, to the individual, hostile,
+inconsiderate, greedy, inhuman, avaricious, be he noble or servile; bad
+is the characteristic term for man, for every living being, indeed, that
+is recognized at all, even for a god: human, divine, these notions are
+tantamount to devilish, bad. Manifestations of goodness, sympathy,
+helpfulness, are regarded with anxiety as trickiness, preludes to an
+evil end, deception, subtlety, in short, as refined badness. With such a
+predisposition in individuals, a feeling in common can scarcely arise at
+all, at most only the rudest form of it: so that everywhere that this
+conception of good and evil prevails, the destruction of the
+individuals, their race and nation, is imminent.--Our existing morality
+has developed upon the foundation laid by ruling races and castes.
+
+
+46
+
+=Sympathy Greater than Suffering.=--There are circumstances in which
+sympathy is stronger than the suffering itself. We feel more pain, for
+instance, when one of our friends becomes guilty of a reprehensible
+action than if we had done the deed ourselves. We once, that is, had
+more faith in the purity of his character than he had himself. Hence our
+love for him, (apparently because of this very faith) is stronger than
+is his own love for himself. If, indeed, his egoism really suffers more,
+as a result, than our egoism, inasmuch as he must take the consequences
+of his fault to a greater extent than ourselves, nevertheless, the
+unegoistic--this word is not to be taken too strictly, but simply as a
+modified form of expression--in us is more affected by his guilt than
+the unegoistic in him.
+
+
+47
+
+=Hypochondria.=--There are people who, from sympathy and anxiety for
+others become hypochondriacal. The resulting form of compassion is
+nothing else than sickness. So, also, is there a Christian hypochondria,
+from which those singular, religiously agitated people suffer who place
+always before their eyes the suffering and death of Christ.
+
+
+48
+
+=Economy of Blessings.=--The advantageous and the pleasing, as the
+healthiest growths and powers in the intercourse of men, are such
+precious treasures that it is much to be wished the use made of these
+balsamic means were as economical as possible: but this is impossible.
+Economy in the use of blessings is the dream of the craziest of
+Utopians.
+
+
+49
+
+=Well-Wishing.=--Among the small, but infinitely plentiful and therefore
+very potent things to which science must pay more attention than to the
+great, uncommon things, well-wishing[21] must be reckoned; I mean those
+manifestations of friendly disposition in intercourse, that laughter of
+the eye, every hand pressure, every courtesy from which, in general,
+every human act gets its quality. Every teacher, every functionary adds
+this element as a gratuity to whatever he does as a duty; it is the
+perpetual well spring of humanity, like the waves of light in which
+everything grows; thus, in the narrowest circles, within the family,
+life blooms and flowers only through this kind feeling. The
+cheerfulness, friendliness and kindness of a heart are unfailing
+sources of unegoistic impulse and have made far more for civilization
+than those other more noised manifestations of it that are styled
+sympathy, benevolence and sacrifice. But it is customary to depreciate
+these little tokens of kindly feeling, and, indeed, there is not much of
+the unegoistic in them. The sum of these little doses is very great,
+nevertheless; their combined strength is of the greatest of
+strengths.--Thus, too, much more happiness is to be found in the world
+than gloomy eyes discover: that is, if the calculation be just, and all
+these pleasing moments in which every day, even the meanest human life,
+is rich, be not forgotten.
+
+[21] Wohl-wollen, kind feeling. It stands here for benevolence but not
+benevolence in the restricted sense of the word now prevailing.
+
+
+50
+
+=The Desire to Inspire Compassion.=--La Rochefoucauld, in the most
+notable part of his self portraiture (first printed 1658) reaches the
+vital spot of truth when he warns all those endowed with reason to be on
+their guard against compassion, when he advises that this sentiment be
+left to men of the masses who stand in need of the promptings of the
+emotions (since they are not guided by reason) to induce them to give
+aid to the suffering and to be of service in misfortune: whereas
+compassion, in his (and Plato's) view, deprives the heart of strength.
+To be sure, sympathy should be manifested but men should take care not
+to feel it; for the unfortunate are rendered so dull that the
+manifestation of sympathy affords them the greatest happiness in the
+world.--Perhaps a more effectual warning against this compassion can be
+given if this need of the unfortunate be considered not simply as
+stupidity and intellectual weakness, not as a sort of distraction of the
+spirit entailed by misfortune itself (and thus, indeed, does La
+Rochefoucauld seem to view it) but as something quite different and more
+momentous. Let note be taken of children who cry and scream in order to
+be compassionated and who, therefore, await the moment when their
+condition will be observed; come into contact with the sick and the
+oppressed in spirit and try to ascertain if the wailing and sighing, the
+posturing and posing of misfortune do not have as end and aim the
+causing of pain to the beholder: the sympathy which each beholder
+manifests is a consolation to the weak and suffering only in as much as
+they are made to perceive that at least they have the power,
+notwithstanding all their weakness, to inflict pain. The unfortunate
+experiences a species of joy in the sense of superiority which the
+manifestation of sympathy entails; his imagination is exalted; he is
+always strong enough, then, to cause the world pain. Thus is the thirst
+for sympathy a thirst for self enjoyment and at the expense of one's
+fellow creatures: it shows man in the whole ruthlessness of his own dear
+self: not in his mere "dullness" as La Rochefoucauld thinks.--In social
+conversation three fourths of all the questions are asked, and three
+fourths of all the replies are made in order to inflict some little
+pain; that is why so many people crave social intercourse: it gives them
+a sense of their power. In these countless but very small doses in which
+the quality of badness is administered it proves a potent stimulant of
+life: to the same extent that well wishing--(Wohl-wollen) distributed
+through the world in like manner, is one of the ever ready
+restoratives.--But will many honorable people be found to admit that
+there is any pleasure in administering pain? that entertainment--and
+rare entertainment--is not seldom found in causing others, at least in
+thought, some pain, and in raking them with the small shot of
+wickedness? The majority are too ignoble and a few are too good to know
+anything of this pudendum: the latter may, consequently, be prompt to
+deny that Prosper Merimee is right when he says: "Know, also, that
+nothing is more common than to do wrong for the pleasure of doing it."
+
+
+51
+
+=How Appearance Becomes Reality.=--The actor cannot, at last, refrain,
+even in moments of the deepest pain, from thinking of the effect
+produced by his deportment and by his surroundings--for example, even at
+the funeral of his own child: he will weep at his own sorrow and its
+manifestations as though he were his own audience. The hypocrite who
+always plays one and the same part, finally ceases to be a hypocrite; as
+in the case of priests who, when young men, are always, either
+consciously or unconsciously, hypocrites, and finally become naturally
+and then really, without affectation, mere priests: or if the father
+does not carry it to this extent, the son, who inherits his father's
+calling and gets the advantage of the paternal progress, does. When
+anyone, during a long period, and persistently, wishes to appear
+something, it will at last prove difficult for him to be anything else.
+The calling of almost every man, even of the artist, begins with
+hypocrisy, with an imitation of deportment, with a copying of the
+effective in manner. He who always wears the mask of a friendly man must
+at last gain a power over friendliness of disposition, without which the
+expression itself of friendliness is not to be gained--and finally
+friendliness of disposition gains the ascendancy over him--he _is_
+benevolent.
+
+
+52
+
+=The Point of Honor in Deception.=--In all great deceivers one
+characteristic is prominent, to which they owe their power. In the very
+act of deception, amid all the accompaniments, the agitation in the
+voice, the expression, the bearing, in the crisis of the scene, there
+comes over them a belief in themselves; this it is that acts so
+effectively and irresistibly upon the beholders. Founders of religions
+differ from such great deceivers in that they never come out of this
+state of self deception, or else they have, very rarely, a few moments
+of enlightenment in which they are overcome by doubt; generally,
+however, they soothe themselves by ascribing such moments of
+enlightenment to the evil adversary. Self deception must exist that both
+classes of deceivers may attain far reaching results. For men believe in
+the truth of all that is manifestly believed with due implicitness by
+others.
+
+
+53
+
+=Presumed Degrees of Truth.=--One of the most usual errors of deduction
+is: because someone truly and openly is against us, therefore he speaks
+the truth. Hence the child has faith in the judgments of its elders, the
+Christian in the assertions of the founder of the church. So, too, it
+will not be admitted that all for which men sacrificed life and
+happiness in former centuries was nothing but delusion: perhaps it is
+alleged these things were degrees of truth. But what is really meant is
+that, if a person sincerely believes a thing and has fought and died for
+his faith, it would be too _unjust_ if only delusion had inspired him.
+Such a state of affairs seems to contradict eternal justice. For that
+reason the heart of a sensitive man pronounces against his head the
+judgment: between moral conduct and intellectual insight there must
+always exist an inherent connection. It is, unfortunately, otherwise:
+for there is no eternal justice.
+
+
+54
+
+=Falsehood.=--Why do men, as a rule, speak the truth in the ordinary
+affairs of life? Certainly not for the reason that a god has forbidden
+lying. But because first: it is more convenient, as falsehood entails
+invention, make-believe and recollection (wherefore Swift says that
+whoever invents a lie seldom realises the heavy burden he takes up: he
+must, namely, for every lie that he tells, insert twenty more).
+Therefore, because in plain ordinary relations of life it is expedient
+to say without circumlocution: I want this, I have done this, and the
+like; therefore, because the way of freedom and certainty is surer than
+that of ruse.--But if it happens that a child is brought up in sinister
+domestic circumstances, it will then indulge in falsehood as matter of
+course, and involuntarily say anything its own interests may prompt: an
+inclination for truth, an aversion to falsehood, is quite foreign and
+uncongenial to it, and hence it lies in all innocence.
+
+
+55
+
+=Ethic Discredited for Faith's Sake.=--No power can sustain itself when
+it is represented by mere humbugs: the Catholic Church may possess ever
+so many "worldly" sources of strength, but its true might is comprised
+in those still numberless priestly natures who make their lives stern
+and strenuous and whose looks and emaciated bodies are eloquent of night
+vigils, fasts, ardent prayer, perhaps even of whip lashes: these things
+make men tremble and cause them anxiety: what, if it be really
+imperative to live thus? This is the dreadful question which their
+aspect occasions. As they spread this doubt, they lay anew the prop of
+their power: even the free thinkers dare not oppose such
+disinterestedness with severe truth and cry: "Thou deceived one,
+deceive not!"--Only the difference of standpoint separates them from
+him: no difference in goodness or badness. But things we cannot
+accomplish ourselves, we are apt to criticise unfairly. Thus we are told
+of the cunning and perverted acts of the Jesuits, but we overlook the
+self mastery that each Jesuit imposes upon himself and also the fact
+that the easy life which the Jesuit manuals advocate is for the benefit,
+not of the Jesuits but the laity. Indeed, it may be questioned whether
+we enlightened ones would become equally competent workers as the result
+of similar tactics and organization, and equally worthy of admiration as
+the result of self mastery, indefatigable industry and devotion.
+
+
+56
+
+=Victory of Knowledge over Radical Evil.=--It proves a material gain to
+him who would attain knowledge to have had during a considerable period
+the idea that mankind is a radically bad and perverted thing: it is a
+false idea, as is its opposite, but it long held sway and its roots have
+reached down even to ourselves and our present world. In order to
+understand _ourselves_ we must understand _it_; but in order to attain a
+loftier height we must step above it. We then perceive that there is no
+such thing as sin in the metaphysical sense: but also, in the same
+sense, no such thing as virtue; that this whole domain of ethical
+notions is one of constant variation; that there are higher and deeper
+conceptions of good and evil, moral and immoral. Whoever desires no more
+of things than knowledge of them attains speedily to peace of mind and
+will at most err through lack of knowledge, but scarcely through
+eagerness for knowledge (or through sin, as the world calls it). He will
+not ask that eagerness for knowledge be interdicted and rooted out; but
+his single, all powerful ambition to _know_ as thoroughly and as fully
+as possible, will soothe him and moderate all that is strenuous in his
+circumstances. Moreover, he is now rid of a number of disturbing
+notions; he is no longer beguiled by such words as hell-pain,
+sinfulness, unworthiness: he sees in them merely the flitting shadow
+pictures of false views of life and of the world.
+
+
+57
+
+=Ethic as Man's Self-Analysis.=--A good author, whose heart is really in
+his work, wishes that someone would arise and wholly refute him if only
+thereby his subject be wholly clarified and made plain. The maid in love
+wishes that she could attest the fidelity of her own passion through
+the faithlessness of her beloved. The soldier wishes to sacrifice his
+life on the field of his fatherland's victory: for in the victory of his
+fatherland his highest end is attained. The mother gives her child what
+she deprives herself of--sleep, the best nourishment and, in certain
+circumstances, her health, her self.--But are all these acts unegoistic?
+Are these moral deeds miracles because they are, in Schopenhauer's
+phrase "impossible and yet accomplished"? Is it not evident that in all
+four cases man loves one part of himself, (a thought, a longing, an
+experience) more than he loves another part of himself? that he thus
+analyses his being and sacrifices one part of it to another part? Is
+this essentially different from the behavior of the obstinate man who
+says "I would rather be shot than go a step out of my way for this
+fellow"?--Preference for something (wish, impulse, longing) is present
+in all four instances: to yield to it, with all its consequences, is not
+"unegoistic."--In the domain of the ethical man conducts himself not as
+individuum but as dividuum.
+
+
+58
+
+=What Can be Promised.=--Actions can be promised, but not feelings, for
+these are involuntary. Whoever promises somebody to love him always, or
+to hate him always, or to be ever true to him, promises something that
+it is out of his power to bestow. But he really can promise such courses
+of conduct as are the ordinary accompaniments of love, of hate, of
+fidelity, but which may also have their source in motives quite
+different: for various ways and motives lead to the same conduct. The
+promise to love someone always, means, consequently: as long as I love
+you, I will manifest the deportment of love; but if I cease to love you
+my deportment, although from some other motive, will be just the same,
+so that to the people about us it will seem as if my love remained
+unchanged.--Hence it is the continuance of the deportment of love that
+is promised in every instance in which eternal love (provided no element
+of self deception be involved) is sworn.
+
+
+59
+
+=Intellect and Ethic.=--One must have a good memory to be able to keep
+the promises one makes. One must have a strong imagination in order to
+feel sympathy. So closely is ethics connected with intellectual
+capacity.
+
+
+60
+
+=Desire for Vengeance and Vengeance Itself.=--To meditate revenge and
+attain it is tantamount to an attack of fever, that passes away: but to
+meditate revenge without possessing the strength or courage to attain it
+is tantamount to suffering from a chronic malady, or poisoning of body
+and soul. Ethics, which takes only the motive into account, rates both
+cases alike: people generally estimate the first case as the worst
+(because of the consequences which the deed of vengeance may entail).
+Both views are short sighted.
+
+
+61
+
+=Ability to Wait.=--Ability to wait is so hard to acquire that great
+poets have not disdained to make inability to wait the central motive of
+their poems. So Shakespeare in Othello, Sophocles in Ajax, whose suicide
+would not have seemed to him so imperative had he only been able to cool
+his ardor for a day, as the oracle foreboded: apparently he would then
+have repulsed somewhat the fearful whispers of distracted thought and
+have said to himself: Who has not already, in my situation, mistaken a
+sheep for a hero? is it so extraordinary a thing? On the contrary it is
+something universally human: Ajax should thus have soothed himself.
+Passion will not wait: the tragic element in the lives of great men does
+not generally consist in their conflict with time and the inferiority
+of their fellowmen but in their inability to put off their work a year
+or two: they cannot wait.--In all duels, the friends who advise have but
+to ascertain if the principals can wait: if this be not possible, a duel
+is rational inasmuch as each of the combatants may say: "either I
+continue to live and the other dies instantly, or vice versa." To wait
+in such circumstances would be equivalent to the frightful martyrdom of
+enduring dishonor in the presence of him responsible for the dishonor:
+and this can easily cost more anguish than life is worth.
+
+
+62
+
+=Glutting Revenge.=--Coarse men, who feel a sense of injury, are in the
+habit of rating the extent of their injury as high as possible and of
+stating the occasion of it in greatly exaggerated language, in order to
+be able to feast themselves on the sentiments of hatred and revenge thus
+aroused.
+
+
+63
+
+=Value of Disparagement.=--Not a few, perhaps the majority of men, find
+it necessary, in order to retain their self esteem and a certain
+uprightness in conduct, to mentally disparage and belittle all the
+people they know. But as the inferior natures are in the majority and as
+a great deal depends upon whether they retain or lose this uprightness,
+so--
+
+
+64
+
+=The Man in a Rage.=--We should be on our guard against the man who is
+enraged against us, as against one who has attempted our life, for the
+fact that we still live consists solely in the inability to kill: were
+looks sufficient, it would have been all up with us long since. To
+reduce anyone to silence by physical manifestations of savagery or by a
+terrorizing process is a relic of under civilization. So, too, that cold
+look which great personages cast upon their servitors is a remnant of
+the caste distinction between man and man; a specimen of rude antiquity:
+women, the conservers of the old, have maintained this survival, too,
+more perfectly than men.
+
+
+65
+
+=Whither Honesty May Lead.=--Someone once had the bad habit of
+expressing himself upon occasion, and with perfect honesty, on the
+subject of the motives of his conduct, which were as good or as bad as
+the motives of all men. He aroused first disfavor, then suspicion,
+became gradually of ill repute and was pronounced a person of whom
+society should beware, until at last the law took note of such a
+perverted being for reasons which usually have no weight with it or to
+which it closes its eyes. Lack of taciturnity concerning what is
+universally held secret, and an irresponsible predisposition to see what
+no one wants to see--oneself--brought him to prison and to early death.
+
+
+66
+
+=Punishable, not Punished.=--Our crime against criminals consists in the
+fact that we treat them as rascals.
+
+
+67
+
+=Sancta simplicitas of Virtue.=--Every virtue has its privilege: for
+example, that of contributing its own little bundle of wood to the
+funeral pyre of one condemned.
+
+
+68
+
+=Morality and Consequence.=--Not alone the beholders of an act generally
+estimate the ethical or unethical element in it by the result: no, the
+one who performed the act does the same. For the motives and the
+intentions are seldom sufficiently apparent, and amid them the memory
+itself seems to become clouded by the results of the act, so that a man
+often ascribes the wrong motives to his acts or regards the remote
+motives as the direct ones. Success often imparts to an action all the
+brilliance and honor of good intention, while failure throws the shadow
+of conscience over the most estimable deeds. Hence arises the familiar
+maxim of the politician: "Give me only success: with it I can win all
+the noble souls over to my side--and make myself noble even in my own
+eyes."--In like manner will success prove an excellent substitute for a
+better argument. To this very day many well educated men think the
+triumph of Christianity over Greek philosophy is a proof of the superior
+truth of the former--although in this case it was simply the coarser and
+more powerful that triumphed over the more delicate and intellectual. As
+regards superiority of truth, it is evident that because of it the
+reviving sciences have connected themselves, point for point, with the
+philosophy of Epicurus, while Christianity has, point for point,
+recoiled from it.
+
+
+69
+
+=Love and Justice.=--Why is love so highly prized at the expense of
+justice and why are such beautiful things spoken of the former as if it
+were a far higher entity than the latter? Is the former not palpably a
+far more stupid thing than the latter?--Certainly, and on that very
+account so much the more agreeable to everybody: it is blind and has a
+rich horn of plenty out of which it distributes its gifts to everyone,
+even when they are unmerited, even when no thanks are returned. It is
+impartial like the rain, which according to the bible and experience,
+wets not alone the unjust but, in certain circumstances, the just as
+well, and to their skins at that.
+
+
+70
+
+=Execution.=--How comes it that every execution causes us more pain than
+a murder? It is the coolness of the executioner, the painful
+preparation, the perception that here a man is being used as an
+instrument for the intimidation of others. For the guilt is not punished
+even if there be any: this is ascribable to the teachers, the parents,
+the environment, in ourselves, not in the murderer--I mean the
+predisposing circumstances.
+
+
+71
+
+=Hope.=--Pandora brought the box containing evils and opened it. It was
+the gift of the gods to men, a gift of most enticing appearance
+externally and called the "box of happiness." Thereupon all the evils,
+(living, moving things) flew out: from that time to the present they fly
+about and do ill to men by day and night. One evil only did not fly out
+of the box: Pandora shut the lid at the behest of Zeus and it remained
+inside. Now man has this box of happiness perpetually in the house and
+congratulates himself upon the treasure inside of it; it is at his
+service: he grasps it whenever he is so disposed, for he knows not that
+the box which Pandora brought was a box of evils. Hence he looks upon
+the one evil still remaining as the greatest source of happiness--it is
+hope.--Zeus intended that man, notwithstanding the evils oppressing him,
+should continue to live and not rid himself of life, but keep on making
+himself miserable. For this purpose he bestowed hope upon man: it is, in
+truth, the greatest of evils for it lengthens the ordeal of man.
+
+
+72
+
+=Degree of Moral Susceptibility Unknown.=--The fact that one has or has
+not had certain profoundly moving impressions and insights into
+things--for example, an unjustly executed, slain or martyred father, a
+faithless wife, a shattering, serious accident,--is the factor upon
+which the excitation of our passions to white heat principally depends,
+as well as the course of our whole lives. No one knows to what lengths
+circumstances (sympathy, emotion) may lead him. He does not know the
+full extent of his own susceptibility. Wretched environment makes him
+wretched. It is as a rule not the quality of our experience but its
+quantity upon which depends the development of our superiority or
+inferiority, from the point of view of good and evil.
+
+
+73
+
+=The Martyr Against His Will.=--In a certain movement there was a man
+who was too cowardly and vacillating ever to contradict his comrades. He
+was made use of in each emergency, every sacrifice was demanded of him
+because he feared the disfavor of his comrades more than he feared
+death: he was a petty, abject spirit. They perceived this and upon the
+foundation of the qualities just mentioned they elevated him to the
+altitude of a hero, and finally even of a martyr. Although the cowardly
+creature always inwardly said No, he always said Yes with his lips, even
+upon the scaffold, where he died for the tenets of his party: for beside
+him stood one of his old associates who so domineered him with look and
+word that he actually went to his death with the utmost fortitude and
+has ever since been celebrated as a martyr and exalted character.
+
+
+74
+
+=General Standard.=--One will rarely err if extreme actions be ascribed
+to vanity, ordinary actions to habit and mean actions to fear.
+
+
+75
+
+=Misunderstanding of Virtue.=--Whoever has obtained his experience of
+vice in connection with pleasure as in the case of one with a youth of
+wild oats behind him, comes to the conclusion that virtue must be
+connected with self denial. Whoever, on the other hand, has been very
+much plagued by his passions and vices, longs to find in virtue the rest
+and peace of the soul. That is why it is possible for two virtuous
+people to misunderstand one another wholly.
+
+
+76
+
+=The Ascetic.=--The ascetic makes out of virtue a slavery.
+
+
+77
+
+=Honor Transferred from Persons to Things.=--Actions prompted by love or
+by the spirit of self sacrifice for others are universally honored
+wherever they are manifest. Hence is magnified the value set upon
+whatever things may be loved or whatever things conduce to self
+sacrifice: although in themselves they may be worth nothing much. A
+valiant army is evidence of the value of the thing it fights for.
+
+
+78
+
+=Ambition a Substitute for Moral Feeling.=--Moral feeling should never
+become extinct in natures that are destitute of ambition. The ambitious
+can get along without moral feeling just as well as with it.--Hence the
+sons of retired, ambitionless families, generally become by a series of
+rapid gradations, when they lose moral feeling, the most absolute
+lunkheads.
+
+
+79
+
+=Vanity Enriches.=--How poor the human mind would be without vanity! As
+it is, it resembles a well stacked and ever renewed ware-emporium that
+attracts buyers of every class: they can find almost everything, have
+almost everything, provided they bring with them the right kind of
+money--admiration.
+
+
+80
+
+=Senility and Death.=--Apart from the demands made by religion, it may
+well be asked why it is more honorable in an aged man, who feels the
+decline of his powers, to await slow extinction than to fix a term to
+his existence himself? Suicide in such a case is a quite natural and due
+proceeding that ought to command respect as a triumph of reason: and did
+in fact command respect during the times of the masters of Greek
+philosophy and the bravest Roman patriots, who usually died by their own
+hand. Eagerness, on the other hand, to keep alive from day to day with
+the anxious counsel of physicians, without capacity to attain any nearer
+to one's ideal of life, is far less worthy of respect.--Religions are
+very rich in refuges from the mandate of suicide: hence they ingratiate
+themselves with those who cling to life.
+
+
+81
+
+=Delusions Regarding Victim and Regarding Evil Doer.=--When the rich man
+takes a possession away from the poor man (for example, a prince who
+deprives a plebeian of his beloved) there arises in the mind of the poor
+man a delusion: he thinks the rich man must be wholly perverted to take
+from him the little that he has. But the rich man appreciates the value
+of a single possession much less because he is accustomed to many
+possessions, so that he cannot put himself in the place of the poor man
+and does not act by any means as ill as the latter supposes. Both have a
+totally false idea of each other. The iniquities of the mighty which
+bulk most largely in history are not nearly so monstrous as they seem.
+The hereditary consciousness of being a superior being with superior
+environment renders one very callous and lulls the conscience to rest.
+We all feel, when the difference between ourselves and some other being
+is exceedingly great, that no element of injustice can be involved, and
+we kill a fly with no qualms of conscience whatever. So, too, it is no
+indication of wickedness in Xerxes (whom even the Greeks represent as
+exceptionally noble) that he deprived a father of his son and had him
+drawn and quartered because the latter had manifested a troublesome,
+ominous distrust of an entire expedition: the individual was in this
+case brushed aside as a pestiferous insect. He was too low and mean to
+justify continued sentiments of compunction in the ruler of the world.
+Indeed no cruel man is ever as cruel, in the main, as his victim thinks.
+The idea of pain is never the same as the sensation. The rule is
+precisely analogous in the case of the unjust judge, and of the
+journalist who by means of devious rhetorical methods, leads public
+opinion astray. Cause and effect are in all these instances entwined
+with totally different series of feeling and thoughts, whereas it is
+unconsciously assumed that principal and victim feel and think exactly
+alike, and because of this assumption the guilt of the one is based upon
+the pain of the other.
+
+
+82
+
+=The Soul's Skin.=--As the bones, flesh, entrails and blood vessels are
+enclosed by a skin that renders the aspect of men endurable, so the
+impulses and passions of the soul are enclosed by vanity: it is the skin
+of the soul.
+
+
+83
+
+=Sleep of Virtue.=--If virtue goes to sleep, it will be more vigorous
+when it awakes.
+
+
+84
+
+=Subtlety of Shame.=--Men are not ashamed of obscene thoughts, but they
+are ashamed when they suspect that obscene thoughts are attributed to
+them.
+
+
+85
+
+=Naughtiness Is Rare.=--Most people are too much absorbed in themselves
+to be bad.
+
+
+86
+
+=The Mite in the Balance.=--We are praised or blamed, as the one or the
+other may be expedient, for displaying to advantage our power of
+discernment.
+
+
+87
+
+=Luke 18:14 Improved.=--He that humbleth himself wisheth to be exalted.
+
+
+88
+
+=Prevention of Suicide.=--There is a justice according to which we may
+deprive a man of life, but none that permits us to deprive him of death:
+this is merely cruelty.
+
+
+89
+
+=Vanity.=--We set store by the good opinion of men, first because it is
+of use to us and next because we wish to give them pleasure (children
+their parents, pupils their teacher, and well disposed persons all
+others generally). Only when the good opinion of men is important to
+somebody, apart from personal advantage or the desire to give pleasure,
+do we speak of vanity. In this last case, a man wants to give himself
+pleasure, but at the expense of his fellow creatures, inasmuch as he
+inspires them with a false opinion of himself or else inspires "good
+opinion" in such a way that it is a source of pain to others (by
+arousing envy). The individual generally seeks, through the opinion of
+others, to attest and fortify the opinion he has of himself; but the
+potent influence of authority--an influence as old as man himself--leads
+many, also, to strengthen their own opinion of themselves by means of
+authority, that is, to borrow from others the expedient of relying more
+upon the judgment of their fellow men than upon their own.--Interest in
+oneself, the wish to please oneself attains, with the vain man, such
+proportions that he first misleads others into a false, unduly exalted
+estimate of himself and then relies upon the authority of others for his
+self estimate; he thus creates the delusion that he pins his faith
+to.--It must, however, be admitted that the vain man does not desire to
+please others so much as himself and he will often go so far, on this
+account, as to overlook his own interests: for he often inspires his
+fellow creatures with malicious envy and renders them ill disposed in
+order that he may thus increase his own delight in himself.
+
+
+90
+
+=Limits of the Love of Mankind.=--Every man who has declared that some
+other man is an ass or a scoundrel, gets angry when the other man
+conclusively shows that the assertion was erroneous.
+
+
+91
+
+=Weeping Morality.=--How much delight morality occasions! Think of the
+ocean of pleasing tears that has flowed from the narration of noble,
+great-hearted deeds!--This charm of life would disappear if the belief
+in complete irresponsibility gained the upper hand.
+
+
+92
+
+=Origin of Justice.=--Justice (reasonableness) has its origin among
+approximate equals in power, as Thucydides (in the dreadful conferences
+of the Athenian and Melian envoys) has rightly conceived. Thus, where
+there exists no demonstrable supremacy and a struggle leads but to
+mutual, useless damage, the reflection arises that an understanding
+would best be arrived at and some compromise entered into. The
+reciprocal nature is hence the first nature of justice. Each party makes
+the other content inasmuch as each receives what it prizes more highly
+than the other. Each surrenders to the other what the other wants and
+receives in return its own desire. Justice is therefore reprisal and
+exchange upon the basis of an approximate equality of power. Thus
+revenge pertains originally to the domain of justice as it is a sort of
+reciprocity. Equally so, gratitude.--Justice reverts naturally to the
+standpoint of self preservation, therefore to the egoism of this
+consideration: "why should I injure myself to no purpose and perhaps
+never attain my end?"--So much for the origin of justice. Only because
+men, through mental habits, have forgotten the original motive of so
+called just and rational acts, and also because for thousands of years
+children have been brought to admire and imitate such acts, have they
+gradually assumed the appearance of being unegotistical. Upon this
+appearance is founded the high estimate of them, which, moreover, like
+all estimates, is continually developing, for whatever is highly
+esteemed is striven for, imitated, made the object of self sacrifice,
+while the merit of the pain and emulation thus expended is, by each
+individual, ascribed to the thing esteemed.--How slightly moral would
+the world appear without forgetfulness! A poet could say that God had
+posted forgetfulness as a sentinel at the portal of the temple of human
+merit!
+
+
+93
+
+=Concerning the Law of the Weaker.=--Whenever any party, for instance, a
+besieged city, yields to a stronger party, under stipulated conditions,
+the counter stipulation is that there be a reduction to insignificance,
+a burning and destruction of the city and thus a great damage inflicted
+upon the stronger party. Thus arises a sort of equalization principle
+upon the basis of which a law can be established. The enemy has an
+advantage to gain by its maintenance.--To this extent there is also a
+law between slaves and masters, limited only by the extent to which the
+slave may be useful to his master. The law goes originally only so far
+as the one party may appear to the other potent, invincible, stable, and
+the like. To such an extent, then, the weaker has rights, but very
+limited ones. Hence the famous dictum that each has as much law on his
+side as his power extends (or more accurately, as his power is believed
+to extend).
+
+
+94
+
+=The Three Phases of Morality Hitherto.=--It is the first evidence that
+the animal has become human when his conduct ceases to be based upon the
+immediately expedient, but upon the permanently useful; when he has,
+therefore, grown utilitarian, capable of purpose. Thus is manifested the
+first rule of reason. A still higher stage is attained when he regulates
+his conduct upon the basis of honor, by means of which he gains mastery
+of himself and surrenders his desires to principles; this lifts him far
+above the phase in which he was actuated only by considerations of
+personal advantage as he understood it. He respects and wishes to be
+respected. This means that he comprehends utility as a thing dependent
+upon what his opinion of others is and their opinion of him. Finally he
+regulates his conduct (the highest phase of morality hitherto attained)
+by his own standard of men and things. He himself decides, for himself
+and for others, what is honorable and what is useful. He has become a
+law giver to opinion, upon the basis of his ever higher developing
+conception of the utilitarian and the honorable. Knowledge makes him
+capable of placing the highest utility, (that is, the universal,
+enduring utility) before merely personal utility,--of placing ennobling
+recognition of the enduring and universal before the merely temporary:
+he lives and acts as a collective individuality.
+
+
+95
+
+=Ethic of the Developed Individual.=--Hitherto the altruistic has been
+looked upon as the distinctive characteristic of moral conduct, and it
+is manifest that it was the consideration of universal utility that
+prompted praise and recognition of altruistic conduct. Must not a
+radical departure from this point of view be imminent, now that it is
+being ever more clearly perceived that in the most personal
+considerations the most general welfare is attained: so that conduct
+inspired by the most personal considerations of advantage is just the
+sort which has its origin in the present conception of morality (as a
+universal utilitarianism)? To contemplate oneself as a complete
+personality and bear the welfare of that personality in mind in all that
+one does--this is productive of better results than any sympathetic
+susceptibility and conduct in behalf of others. Indeed we all suffer
+from such disparagement of our own personalities, which are at present
+made to deteriorate from neglect. Capacity is, in fact, divorced from
+our personality in most cases, and sacrificed to the state, to science,
+to the needy, as if it were the bad which deserved to be made a
+sacrifice. Now, we are willing to labor for our fellowmen but only to
+the extent that we find our own highest advantage in so doing, no more,
+no less. The whole matter depends upon what may be understood as one's
+advantage: the crude, undeveloped, rough individualities will be the
+very ones to estimate it most inadequately.
+
+
+96
+
+=Usage and Ethic.=--To be moral, virtuous, praiseworthy means to yield
+obedience to ancient law and hereditary usage. Whether this obedience be
+rendered readily or with difficulty is long immaterial. Enough that it
+be rendered. "Good" finally comes to mean him who acts in the
+traditional manner, as a result of heredity or natural disposition, that
+is to say does what is customary with scarcely an effort, whatever that
+may be (for example revenges injuries when revenge, as with the ancient
+Greeks, was part of good morals). He is called good because he is good
+"to some purpose," and as benevolence, sympathy, considerateness,
+moderation and the like come, in the general course of conduct, to be
+finally recognized as "good to some purpose" (as utilitarian) the
+benevolent man, the helpful man, is duly styled "good". (At first other
+and more important kinds of utilitarian qualities stand in the
+foreground.) Bad is "not habitual" (unusual), to do things not in
+accordance with usage, to oppose the traditional, however rational or
+the reverse the traditional may be. To do injury to one's social group
+or community (and to one's neighbor as thus understood) is looked upon,
+through all the variations of moral laws, in different ages, as the
+peculiarly "immoral" act, so that to-day we associate the word "bad"
+with deliberate injury to one's neighbor or community. "Egoistic" and
+"non-egoistic" do not constitute the fundamental opposites that have
+brought mankind to make a distinction between moral and immoral, good
+and bad; but adherence to traditional custom, and emancipation from it.
+How the traditional had its origin is quite immaterial; in any event it
+had no reference to good and bad or any categorical imperative but to
+the all important end of maintaining and sustaining the community, the
+race, the confederation, the nation. Every superstitious custom that
+originated in a misinterpreted event or casualty entailed some
+tradition, to adhere to which is moral. To break loose from it is
+dangerous, more prejudicial to the community than to the individual
+(because divinity visits the consequences of impiety and sacrilege upon
+the community rather than upon the individual). Now every tradition
+grows ever more venerable--the more remote is its origin, the more
+confused that origin is. The reverence due to it increases from
+generation to generation. The tradition finally becomes holy and
+inspires awe. Thus it is that the precept of piety is a far loftier
+morality than that inculcated by altruistic conduct.
+
+
+97
+
+=Delight in the Moral.=--A potent species of joy (and thereby the source
+of morality) is custom. The customary is done more easily, better,
+therefore preferably. A pleasure is felt in it and experience thus shows
+that since this practice has held its own it must be good. A manner or
+moral that lives and lets live is thus demonstrated advantageous,
+necessary, in contradistinction to all new and not yet adopted
+practices. The custom is therefore the blending of the agreeable and the
+useful. Moreover it does not require deliberation. As soon as man can
+exercise compulsion, he exercises it to enforce and establish his
+customs, for they are to him attested lifewisdom. So, too, a community
+of individuals constrains each one of their number to adopt the same
+moral or custom. The error herein is this: Because a certain custom has
+been agreeable to the feelings or at least because it proves a means of
+maintenance, this custom must be imperative, for it is regarded as the
+only thing that can possibly be consistent with well being. The well
+being of life seems to spring from it alone. This conception of the
+customary as a condition of existence is carried into the slightest
+detail of morality. Inasmuch as insight into true causation is quite
+restricted in all inferior peoples, a superstitious anxiety is felt that
+everything be done in due routine. Even when a custom is exceedingly
+burdensome it is preserved because of its supposed vital utility. It is
+not known that the same degree of satisfaction can be experienced
+through some other custom and even higher degrees of satisfaction, too.
+But it is fully appreciated that all customs do become more agreeable
+with the lapse of time, no matter how difficult they may have been found
+in the beginning, and that even the severest way of life may be rendered
+a matter of habit and therefore a pleasure.
+
+
+98
+
+=Pleasure and Social Instinct.=--Through his relations with other men,
+man derives a new species of delight in those pleasurable emotions which
+his own personality affords him; whereby the domain of pleasurable
+emotions is made infinitely more comprehensive. No doubt he has
+inherited many of these feelings from the brutes, which palpably feel
+delight when they sport with one another, as mothers with their young.
+So, too, the sexual relations must be taken into account: they make
+every young woman interesting to every young man from the standpoint of
+pleasure, and conversely. The feeling of pleasure originating in human
+relationships makes men in general better. The delight in common, the
+pleasures enjoyed together heighten one another. The individual feels a
+sense of security. He becomes better natured. Distrust and malice
+dissolve. For the man feels the sense of benefit and observes the same
+feeling in others. Mutual manifestations of pleasure inspire mutual
+sympathy, the sentiment of homogeneity. The same effect is felt also at
+mutual sufferings, in a common danger, in stormy weather. Upon such a
+foundation are built the earliest alliances: the object of which is the
+mutual protection and safety from threatening misfortunes, and the
+welfare of each individual. And thus the social instinct develops from
+pleasure.
+
+
+99
+
+=The Guiltless Nature of So-Called Bad Acts.=--All "bad" acts are
+inspired by the impulse to self preservation or, more accurately, by
+the desire for pleasure and for the avoidance of pain in the individual.
+Thus are they occasioned, but they are not, therefore, bad. "Pain self
+prepared" does not exist, except in the brains of the philosophers, any
+more than "pleasure self prepared" (sympathy in the Schopenhauer sense).
+In the condition anterior to the state we kill the creature, be it man
+or ape, that attempts to pluck the fruit of a tree before we pluck it
+ourselves should we happen to be hungry at the time and making for that
+tree: as we would do to-day, so far as the brute is concerned, if we
+were wandering in savage regions.--The bad acts which most disturb us at
+present do so because of the erroneous supposition that the one who is
+guilty of them towards us has a free will in the matter and that it was
+within his discretion not to have done these evil things. This belief in
+discretionary power inspires hate, thirst for revenge, malice, the
+entire perversion of the mental processes, whereas we would feel in no
+way incensed against the brute, as we hold it irresponsible. To inflict
+pain not from the instinct of self preservation but in requital--this is
+the consequence of false judgment and is equally a guiltless course of
+conduct. The individual can, in that condition which is anterior to the
+state, act with fierceness and violence for the intimidation of another
+creature, in order to render his own power more secure as a result of
+such acts of intimidation. Thus acts the powerful, the superior, the
+original state founder, who subjugates the weaker. He has the right to
+do so, as the state nowadays assumes the same right, or, to be more
+accurate, there is no right that can conflict with this. A foundation
+for all morality can first be laid only when a stronger individuality or
+a collective individuality, for example society, the state, subjects the
+single personalities, hence builds upon their unification and
+establishes a bond of union. Morality results from compulsion, it is
+indeed itself one long compulsion to which obedience is rendered in
+order that pain may be avoided. At first it is but custom, later free
+obedience and finally almost instinct. At last it is (like everything
+habitual and natural) associated with pleasure--and is then called
+virtue.
+
+
+100
+
+=Shame.=--Shame exists wherever a "mystery" exists: but this is a
+religious notion which in the earlier period of human civilization had
+great vogue. Everywhere there were circumscribed spots to which access
+was denied on account of some divine law, except in special
+circumstances. At first these spots were quite extensive, inasmuch as
+stipulated areas could not be trod by the uninitiated, who, when near
+them, felt tremors and anxieties. This sentiment was frequently
+transferred to other relationships, for example to sexual relations,
+which, as the privilege and gateway of mature age, must be withdrawn
+from the contemplation of youth for its own advantage: relations which
+many divinities were busy in preserving and sanctifying, images of which
+divinities were duly placed in marital chambers as guardians. (In
+Turkish such an apartment is termed a harem or holy thing, the same word
+also designating the vestibule of a mosque). So, too, Kingship is
+regarded as a centre from which power and brilliance stream forth, as a
+mystery to the subjects, impregnated with secrecy and shame, sentiments
+still quite operative among peoples who in other respects are without
+any shame at all. So, too, is the whole world of inward states, the
+so-called "soul," even now, for all non-philosophical persons, a
+"mystery," and during countless ages it was looked upon as a something
+of divine origin, in direct communion with deity. It is, therefore, an
+adytum and occasions shame.
+
+
+101
+
+=Judge Not.=--Care must be taken, in the contemplation of earlier ages,
+that there be no falling into unjust scornfulness. The injustice in
+slavery, the cruelty in the subjugation of persons and peoples must not
+be estimated by our standard. For in that period the instinct of justice
+was not so highly developed. Who dare reproach the Genoese Calvin for
+burning the physician Servetus at the stake? It was a proceeding growing
+out of his convictions. And the Inquisition, too, had its justification.
+The only thing is that the prevailing views were false and led to those
+proceedings which seem so cruel to us, simply because such views have
+become foreign to us. Besides, what is the burning alive of one
+individual compared with eternal hell pains for everybody else? And yet
+this idea then had hold of all the world without in the least vitiating,
+with its frightfulness, the other idea of a god. Even we nowadays are
+hard and merciless to political revolutionists, but that is because we
+are in the habit of believing the state a necessity, and hence the
+cruelty of the proceeding is not so much understood as in the other
+cases where the points of view are repudiated. The cruelty to animals
+shown by children and Italians is due to the same misunderstanding. The
+animal, owing to the exigencies of the church catechism, is placed too
+far below the level of mankind.--Much, too, that is frightful and
+inhuman in history, and which is almost incredible, is rendered less
+atrocious by the reflection that the one who commands and the one who
+executes are different persons. The former does not witness the
+performance and hence it makes no strong impression on him. The latter
+obeys a superior and hence feels no responsibility. Most princes and
+military chieftains appear, through lack of true perception, cruel and
+hard without really being so.--Egoism is not bad because the idea of the
+"neighbor"--the word is of Christian origin and does not correspond to
+truth--is very weak in us, and we feel ourselves, in regard to him, as
+free from responsibility as if plants and stones were involved. That
+another is in suffering must be learned and it can never be wholly
+learned.
+
+
+102
+
+"=Man Always Does Right.="--We do not blame nature when she sends a
+thunder storm and makes us wet: why then do we term the man who inflicts
+injury immoral? Because in the latter case we assume a voluntary,
+ruling, free will, and in the former necessity. But this distinction is
+a delusion. Moreover, even the intentional infliction of injury is not,
+in all circumstances termed immoral. Thus, we kill a fly intentionally
+without thinking very much about it, simply because its buzzing about is
+disagreeable; and we punish a criminal and inflict pain upon him in
+order to protect ourselves and society. In the first case it is the
+individual who, for the sake of preserving himself or in order to spare
+himself pain, does injury with design: in the second case, it is the
+state. All ethic deems intentional infliction of injury justified by
+necessity; that is when it is a matter of self preservation. But these
+two points of view are sufficient to explain all bad acts done by man to
+men. It is desired to obtain pleasure or avoid pain. In any sense, it is
+a question, always, of self preservation. Socrates and Plato are right:
+whatever man does he always does right: that is, does what seems to him
+good (advantageous) according to the degree of advancement his intellect
+has attained, which is always the measure of his rational capacity.
+
+
+103
+
+=The Inoffensive in Badness.=--Badness has not for its object the
+infliction of pain upon others but simply our own satisfaction as, for
+instance, in the case of thirst for vengeance or of nerve excitation.
+Every act of teasing shows what pleasure is caused by the display of
+our power over others and what feelings of delight are experienced in
+the sense of domination. Is there, then, anything immoral in feeling
+pleasure in the pain of others? Is malicious joy devilish, as
+Schopenhauer says? In the realm of nature we feel joy in breaking
+boughs, shattering rocks, fighting with wild beasts, simply to attest
+our strength thereby. Should not the knowledge that another suffers on
+our account here, in this case, make the same kind of act, (which, by
+the way, arouses no qualms of conscience in us) immoral also? But if we
+had not this knowledge there would be no pleasure in one's own
+superiority or power, for this pleasure is experienced only in the
+suffering of another, as in the case of teasing. All pleasure is, in
+itself, neither good nor bad. Whence comes the conviction that one
+should not cause pain in others in order to feel pleasure oneself?
+Simply from the standpoint of utility, that is, in consideration of the
+consequences, of ultimate pain, since the injured party or state will
+demand satisfaction and revenge. This consideration alone can have led
+to the determination to renounce such pleasure.--Sympathy has the
+satisfaction of others in view no more than, as already stated, badness
+has the pain of others in view. For there are at least two (perhaps many
+more) elementary ingredients in personal gratification which enter
+largely into our self satisfaction: one of them being the pleasure of
+the emotion, of which species is sympathy with tragedy, and another,
+when the impulse is to action, being the pleasure of exercising one's
+power. Should a sufferer be very dear to us, we divest ourselves of pain
+by the performance of acts of sympathy.--With the exception of some few
+philosophers, men have placed sympathy very low in the rank of moral
+feelings: and rightly.
+
+
+104
+
+=Self Defence.=--If self defence is in general held a valid
+justification, then nearly every manifestation of so called immoral
+egoism must be justified, too. Pain is inflicted, robbery or killing
+done in order to maintain life or to protect oneself and ward off harm.
+A man lies when cunning and delusion are valid means of self
+preservation. To injure intentionally when our safety and our existence
+are involved, or the continuance of our well being, is conceded to be
+moral. The state itself injures from this motive when it hangs
+criminals. In unintentional injury the immoral, of course, can not be
+present, as accident alone is involved. But is there any sort of
+intentional injury in which our existence and the maintenance of our
+well being be not involved? Is there such a thing as injuring from
+absolute badness, for example, in the case of cruelty? If a man does not
+know what pain an act occasions, that act is not one of wickedness. Thus
+the child is not bad to the animal, not evil. It disturbs and rends it
+as if it were one of its playthings. Does a man ever fully know how much
+pain an act may cause another? As far as our nervous system extends, we
+shield ourselves from pain. If it extended further, that is, to our
+fellow men, we would never cause anyone else any pain (except in such
+cases as we cause it to ourselves, when we cut ourselves, surgically, to
+heal our ills, or strive and trouble ourselves to gain health). We
+conclude from analogy that something pains somebody and can in
+consequence, through recollection and the power of imagination, feel
+pain also. But what a difference there always is between the tooth ache
+and the pain (sympathy) that the spectacle of tooth ache occasions!
+Therefore when injury is inflicted from so called badness the degree of
+pain thereby experienced is always unknown to us: in so far, however, as
+pleasure is felt in the act (a sense of one's own power, of one's own
+excitation) the act is committed to maintain the well being of the
+individual and hence comes under the purview of self defence and lying
+for self preservation. Without pleasure, there is no life; the struggle
+for pleasure is the struggle for life. Whether the individual shall
+carry on this struggle in such a way that he be called good or in such a
+way that he be called bad is something that the standard and the
+capacity of his own intellect must determine for him.
+
+
+105
+
+=Justice that Rewards.=--Whoever has fully understood the doctrine of
+absolute irresponsibility can no longer include the so called rewarding
+and punishing justice in the idea of justice, if the latter be taken to
+mean that to each be given his due. For he who is punished does not
+deserve the punishment. He is used simply as a means to intimidate
+others from certain acts. Equally, he who is rewarded does not merit the
+reward. He could not act any differently than he did act. Hence the
+reward has only the significance of an encouragement to him and others
+as a motive for subsequent acts. The praise is called out only to him
+who is running in the race and not to him who has arrived at the goal.
+Something that comes to someone as his own is neither a punishment nor a
+reward. It is given to him from utiliarian considerations, without his
+having any claim to it in justice. Hence one must say "the wise man
+praises not because a good act has been done" precisely as was once
+said: "the wise man punishes not because a bad act has been done but in
+order that a bad act may not be done." If punishment and reward ceased,
+there would cease with them the most powerful incentives to certain acts
+and away from other acts. The purposes of men demand their continuance
+[of punishment and reward] and inasmuch as punishment and reward, blame
+and praise operate most potently upon vanity, these same purposes of men
+imperatively require the continuance of vanity.
+
+
+106
+
+=The Water Fall.=--At the sight of a water fall we may opine that in the
+countless curves, spirations and dashes of the waves we behold freedom
+of the will and of the impulses. But everything is compulsory,
+everything can be mathematically calculated. Thus it is, too, with human
+acts. We would be able to calculate in advance every single action if we
+were all knowing, as well as every advance in knowledge, every delusion,
+every bad deed. The acting individual himself is held fast in the
+illusion of volition. If, on a sudden, the entire movement of the world
+stopped short, and an all knowing and reasoning intelligence were there
+to take advantage of this pause, he could foretell the future of every
+being to the remotest ages and indicate the path that would be taken in
+the world's further course. The deception of the acting individual as
+regards himself, the assumption of the freedom of the will, is a part of
+this computable mechanism.
+
+
+107
+
+=Non-Responsibility and Non-Guilt.=--The absolute irresponsibility of
+man for his acts and his nature is the bitterest drop in the cup of him
+who has knowledge, if he be accustomed to behold in responsibility and
+duty the patent of nobility of his human nature. All his estimates,
+preferences, dislikes are thus made worthless and false. His deepest
+sentiment, with which he honored the sufferer, the hero, sprang from an
+error. He may no longer praise, no longer blame, for it is irrational to
+blame and praise nature and necessity. Just as he cherishes the
+beautiful work of art, but does not praise it (as it is incapable of
+doing anything for itself), just as he stands in the presence of plants,
+he must stand in the presence of human conduct, his own included. He may
+admire strength, beauty, capacity, therein, but he can discern no merit.
+The chemical process and the conflict of the elements, the ordeal of
+the invalid who strives for convalescence, are no more merits than the
+soul-struggles and extremities in which one is torn this way and that by
+contending motives until one finally decides in favor of the
+strongest--as the phrase has it, although, in fact, it is the strongest
+motive that decides for us. All these motives, however, whatever fine
+names we may give them, have grown from the same roots in which we
+believe the baneful poisons lurk. Between good and bad actions there is
+no difference in kind but, at most, in degree. Good acts are sublimated
+evil. Bad acts are degraded, imbruted good. The very longing of the
+individual for self gratification (together with the fear of being
+deprived of it) obtains satisfaction in all circumstances, let the
+individual act as he may, that is, as he must: be it in deeds of vanity,
+revenge, pleasure, utility, badness, cunning, be it in deeds of self
+sacrifice, sympathy or knowledge. The degrees of rational capacity
+determine the direction in which this longing impels: every society,
+every individual has constantly present a comparative classification of
+benefits in accordance with which conduct is determined and others are
+judged. But this standard perpetually changes. Many acts are called bad
+that are only stupid, because the degree of intelligence that decided
+for them was low. Indeed, in a certain sense, all acts now are stupid,
+for the highest degree of human intelligence that has yet been attained
+will in time most certainly be surpassed and then, in retrospection, all
+our present conduct and opinion will appear as narrow and petty as we
+now deem the conduct and opinion of savage peoples and ages.--To
+perceive all these things may occasion profound pain but there is,
+nevertheless, a consolation. Such pains are birth pains. The butterfly
+insists upon breaking through the cocoon, he presses through it, tears
+it to pieces, only to be blinded and confused by the strange light, by
+the realm of liberty. By such men as are capable of this sadness--how
+few there are!--will the first attempt be made to see if humanity may
+convert itself from a thing of morality to a thing of wisdom. The sun of
+a new gospel sheds its first ray upon the loftiest height in the souls
+of those few: but the clouds are massed there, too, thicker than ever,
+and not far apart are the brightest sunlight and the deepest gloom.
+Everything is necessity--so says the new knowledge: and this knowledge
+is itself necessity. All is guiltlessness, and knowledge is the way to
+insight into this guiltlessness. If pleasure, egoism, vanity be
+necessary to attest the moral phenomena and their richest blooms, the
+instinct for truth and accuracy of knowledge; if delusion and confusion
+of the imagination were the only means whereby mankind could gradually
+lift itself up to this degree of self enlightenment and self
+emancipation--who would venture to disparage the means? Who would have
+the right to feel sad if made aware of the goal to which those paths
+lead? Everything in the domain of ethic is evolved, changeable,
+tottering; all things flow, it is true--but all things are also in the
+stream: to their goal. Though within us the hereditary habit of
+erroneous judgment, love, hate, may be ever dominant, yet under the
+influence of awaking knowledge it will ever become weaker: a new habit,
+that of understanding, not-loving, not-hating, looking from above, grows
+up within us gradually and in the same soil, and may, perhaps, in
+thousands of years be powerful enough to endow mankind with capacity to
+develop the wise, guiltless man (conscious of guiltlessness) as
+unfailingly as it now developes the unwise, irrational, guilt-conscious
+man--that is to say, the necessary higher step, not the opposite of it.
+
+
+
+
+THE RELIGIOUS LIFE.
+
+
+108
+
+=The Double Contest Against Evil.=--If an evil afflicts us we can either
+so deal with it as to remove its cause or else so deal with it that its
+effect upon our feeling is changed: hence look upon the evil as a
+benefit of which the uses will perhaps first become evident in some
+subsequent period. Religion and art (and also the metaphysical
+philosophy) strive to effect an alteration of the feeling, partly by an
+alteration of our judgment respecting the experience (for example, with
+the aid of the dictum "whom God loves, he chastizes") partly by the
+awakening of a joy in pain, in emotion especially (whence the art of
+tragedy had its origin). The more one is disposed to interpret away and
+justify, the less likely he is to look directly at the causes of evil
+and eliminate them. An instant alleviation and narcotizing of pain, as
+is usual in the case of tooth ache, is sufficient for him even in the
+severest suffering. The more the domination of religions and of all
+narcotic arts declines, the more searchingly do men look to the
+elimination of evil itself, which is a rather bad thing for the tragic
+poets--for there is ever less and less material for tragedy, since the
+domain of unsparing, immutable destiny grows constantly more
+circumscribed--and a still worse thing for the priests, for these last
+have lived heretofore upon the narcoticizing of human ill.
+
+
+109
+
+=Sorrow is Knowledge.=--How willingly would not one exchange the false
+assertions of the homines religiosi that there is a god who commands us
+to be good, who is the sentinel and witness of every act, every moment,
+every thought, who loves us, who plans our welfare in every
+misfortune--how willingly would not one exchange these for truths as
+healing, beneficial and grateful as those delusions! But there are no
+such truths. Philosophy can at most set up in opposition to them other
+metaphysical plausibilities (fundamental untruths as well). The tragedy
+of it all is that, although one cannot believe these dogmas of religion
+and metaphysics if one adopts in heart and head the potent methods of
+truth, one has yet become, through human evolution, so tender,
+susceptible, sensitive, as to stand in need of the most effective means
+of rest and consolation. From this state of things arises the danger
+that, through the perception of truth or, more accurately, seeing
+through delusion, one may bleed to death. Byron has put this into
+deathless verse:
+
+     "Sorrow is knowledge: they who know the most
+     Must mourn the deepest o'er the fatal truth,
+     The tree of knowledge is not that of life."
+
+Against such cares there is no better protective than the light fancy of
+Horace, (at any rate during the darkest hours and sun eclipses of the
+soul) expressed in the words
+
+     "quid aeternis minorem
+     consiliis animum fatigas?
+     cur non sub alta vel platano vel hac
+     pinu jacentes."[22]
+
+[22] Then wherefore should you, who are mortal, outwear
+     Your soul with a profitless burden of care
+     Say, why should we not, flung at ease neath this pine,
+     Or a plane-tree's broad umbrage, quaff gaily our wine?
+                      (Translation of Sir Theodore Martin.)
+
+At any rate, light fancy or heavy heartedness of any degree must be
+better than a romantic retrogression and desertion of one's flag, an
+approach to Christianity in any form: for with it, in the present state
+of knowledge, one can have nothing to do without hopelessly defiling
+one's intellectual integrity and surrendering it unconditionally. These
+woes may be painful enough, but without pain one cannot become a leader
+and guide of humanity: and woe to him who would be such and lacks this
+pure integrity of the intellect!
+
+
+110
+
+=The Truth in Religion.=--In the ages of enlightenment justice was not
+done to the importance of religion, of this there can be no doubt. It is
+also equally certain that in the ensuing reaction of enlightenment, the
+demands of justice were far exceeded inasmuch as religion was treated
+with love, even with infatuation and proclaimed as a profound, indeed
+the most profound knowledge of the world, which science had but to
+divest of its dogmatic garb in order to possess "truth" in its
+unmythical form. Religions must therefore--this was the contention of
+all foes of enlightenment--sensu allegorico, with regard for the
+comprehension of the masses, give expression to that ancient truth which
+is wisdom in itself, inasmuch as all science of modern times has led up
+to it instead of away from it. So that between the most ancient wisdom
+of man and all later wisdom there prevails harmony, even similarity of
+viewpoint; and the advancement of knowledge--if one be disposed to
+concede such a thing--has to do not with its nature but with its
+propagation. This whole conception of religion and science is through
+and through erroneous, and none would to-day be hardy enough to
+countenance it had not Schopenhauer's rhetoric taken it under
+protection, this high sounding rhetoric which now gains auditors after
+the lapse of a generation. Much as may be gained from Schopenhauer's
+religio-ethical human and cosmical oracle as regards the comprehension
+of Christianity and other religions, it is nevertheless certain that he
+erred regarding the value of religion to knowledge. He himself was in
+this but a servile pupil of the scientific teachers of his time who had
+all taken romanticism under their protection and renounced the spirit of
+enlightenment. Had he been born in our own time it would have been
+impossible for him to have spoken of the sensus allegoricus of religion.
+He would instead have done truth the justice to say: never has a
+religion, directly or indirectly, either as dogma or as allegory,
+contained a truth. For all religions grew out of dread or necessity, and
+came into existence through an error of the reason. They have, perhaps,
+in times of danger from science, incorporated some philosophical
+doctrine or other into their systems in order to make it possible to
+continue one's existence within them. But this is but a theological work
+of art dating from the time in which a religion began to doubt of
+itself. These theological feats of art, which are most common in
+Christianity as the religion of a learned age, impregnated with
+philosophy, have led to this superstition of the sensus allegoricus, as
+has, even more, the habit of the philosophers (namely those
+half-natures, the poetical philosophers and the philosophising artists)
+of dealing with their own feelings as if they constituted the
+fundamental nature of humanity and hence of giving their own religious
+feelings a predominant influence over the structure of their systems. As
+the philosophers mostly philosophised under the influence of hereditary
+religious habits, or at least under the traditional influence of this
+"metaphysical necessity," they naturally arrived at conclusions
+closely resembling the Judaic or Christian or Indian religious
+tenets--resembling, in the way that children are apt to look like their
+mothers: only in this case the fathers were not certain as to the
+maternity, as easily happens--but in the innocence of their admiration,
+they fabled regarding the family likeness of all religion and science.
+In reality, there exists between religion and true science neither
+relationship nor friendship, not even enmity: they dwell in different
+spheres. Every philosophy that lets the religious comet gleam through
+the darkness of its last outposts renders everything within it that
+purports to be science, suspicious. It is all probably religion,
+although it may assume the guise of science.--Moreover, though all the
+peoples agree concerning certain religious things, for example, the
+existence of a god (which, by the way, as regards this point, is not
+the case) this fact would constitute an argument against the thing
+agreed upon, for example the very existence of a god. The consensus
+gentium and especially hominum can probably amount only to an absurdity.
+Against it there is no consensus omnium sapientium whatever, on any
+point, with the exception of which Goethe's verse speaks:
+
+     "All greatest sages to all latest ages
+         Will smile, wink and slily agree
+     'Tis folly to wait till a fool's empty pate
+         Has learned to be knowing and free.
+     So children of wisdom must look upon fools
+     As creatures who're never the better for schools."
+
+Stated without rhyme or metre and adapted to our case: the consensus
+sapientium is to the effect that the consensus gentium amounts to an
+absurdity.
+
+
+111
+
+=Origin of Religious Worship.=--Let us transport ourselves back to the
+times in which religious life flourished most vigorously and we will
+find a fundamental conviction prevalent which we no longer share and
+which has resulted in the closing of the door to religious life once for
+all so far as we are concerned: this conviction has to do with nature
+and intercourse with her. In those times nothing is yet known of
+nature's laws. Neither for earth nor for heaven is there a must. A
+season, sunshine, rain can come or stay away as it pleases. There is
+wanting, in particular, all idea of natural causation. If a man rows, it
+is not the oar that moves the boat, but rowing is a magical ceremony
+whereby a demon is constrained to move the boat. All illness, death
+itself, is a consequence of magical influences. In sickness and death
+nothing natural is conceived. The whole idea of "natural course" is
+wanting. The idea dawns first upon the ancient Greeks, that is to say in
+a very late period of humanity, in the conception of a Moira [fate]
+ruling over the gods. If any person shoots off a bow, there is always an
+irrational strength and agency in the act. If the wells suddenly run
+dry, the first thought is of subterranean demons and their pranks. It
+must have been the dart of a god beneath whose invisible influence a
+human being suddenly collapses. In India, the carpenter (according to
+Lubbock) is in the habit of making devout offerings to his hammer and
+hatchet. A Brahmin treats the plume with which he writes, a soldier the
+weapon that he takes into the field, a mason his trowel, a laborer his
+plow, in the same way. All nature is, in the opinion of religious
+people, a sum total of the doings of conscious and willing beings, an
+immense mass of complex volitions. In regard to all that takes place
+outside of us no conclusion is permissible that anything will result
+thus and so, must result thus and so, that we are comparatively
+calculable and certain in our experiences, that man is the rule, nature
+the ruleless. This view forms the fundamental conviction that dominates
+crude, religion-producing, early civilizations. We contemporary men feel
+exactly the opposite: the richer man now feels himself inwardly, the
+more polyphone the music and the sounding of his soul, the more
+powerfully does the uniformity of nature impress him. We all, with
+Goethe, recognize in nature the great means of repose for the soul. We
+listen to the pendulum stroke of this great clock with longing for rest,
+for absolute calm and quiescence, as if we could drink in the uniformity
+of nature and thereby arrive first at an enjoyment of oneself. Formerly
+it was the reverse: if we carry ourselves back to the periods of crude
+civilization, or if we contemplate contemporary savages, we will find
+them most strongly influenced by rule, by tradition. The individual is
+almost automatically bound to rule and tradition and moves with the
+uniformity of a pendulum. To him nature--the uncomprehended, fearful,
+mysterious nature--must seem the domain of freedom, of volition, of
+higher power, indeed as an ultra-human degree of destiny, as god. Every
+individual in such periods and circumstances feels that his existence,
+his happiness, the existence and happiness of the family, the state,
+the success or failure of every undertaking, must depend upon these
+dispositions of nature. Certain natural events must occur at the proper
+time and certain others must not occur. How can influence be exercised
+over this fearful unknown, how can this domain of freedom be brought
+under subjection? thus he asks himself, thus he worries: Is there no
+means to render these powers of nature as subject to rule and tradition
+as you are yourself?--The cogitation of the superstitious and
+magic-deluded man is upon the theme of imposing a law upon nature: and
+to put it briefly, religious worship is the result of such cogitation.
+The problem which is present to every man is closely connected with this
+one: how can the weaker party dictate laws to the stronger, control its
+acts in reference to the weaker? At first the most harmless form of
+influence is recollected, that influence which is acquired when the
+partiality of anyone has been won. Through beseeching and prayer,
+through abject humiliation, through obligations to regular gifts and
+propitiations, through flattering homages, it is possible, therefore, to
+impose some guidance upon the forces of nature, to the extent that their
+partiality be won: love binds and is bound. Then agreements can be
+entered into by means of which certain courses of conduct are mutually
+concluded, vows are made and authorities prescribed. But far more potent
+is that species of power exercised by means of magic and incantation. As
+a man is able to injure a powerful enemy by means of the magician and
+render him helpless with fear, as the love potion operates at a
+distance, so can the mighty forces of nature, in the opinion of weaker
+mankind, be controlled by similar means. The principal means of
+effecting incantations is to acquire control of something belonging to
+the party to be influenced, hair, finger nails, food from his table,
+even his picture or his name. With such apparatus it is possible to act
+by means of magic, for the basic principle is that to everything
+spiritual corresponds something corporeal. With the aid of this
+corporeal element the spirit may be bound, injured or destroyed. The
+corporeal affords the handle by which the spiritual can be laid hold of.
+In the same way that man influences mankind does he influences some
+spirit of nature, for this latter has also its corporeal element that
+can be grasped. The tree, and on the same basis, the seed from which it
+grew: this puzzling sequence seems to demonstrate that in both forms the
+same spirit is embodied, now large, now small. A stone that suddenly
+rolls, is the body in which the spirit works. Does a huge boulder lie in
+a lonely moor? It is impossible to think of mortal power having placed
+it there. The stone must have moved itself there. That is to say some
+spirit must dominate it. Everything that has a body is subject to magic,
+including, therefore, the spirits of nature. If a god is directly
+connected with his portrait, a direct influence (by refraining from
+devout offerings, by whippings, chainings and the like) can be brought
+to bear upon him. The lower classes in China tie cords around the
+picture of their god in order to defy his departing favor, when he has
+left them in the lurch, and tear the picture to pieces, drag it through
+the streets into dung heaps and gutters, crying: "You dog of a spirit,
+we housed you in a beautiful temple, we gilded you prettily, we fed you
+well, we brought you offerings, and yet how ungrateful you are!" Similar
+displays of resentment have been made against pictures of the mother of
+god and pictures of saints in Catholic countries during the present
+century when such pictures would not do their duty during times of
+pestilence and drought.
+
+Through all these magical relationships to nature countless ceremonies
+are occasioned, and finally, when their complexity and confusion grow
+too great, pains are taken to systematize them, to arrange them so that
+the favorable course of nature's progress, namely the great yearly
+circle of the seasons, may be brought about by a corresponding course of
+the ceremonial progress. The aim of religious worship is to influence
+nature to human advantage, and hence to instil a subjection to law into
+her that originally she has not, whereas at present man desires to find
+out the subjection to law of nature in order to guide himself thereby.
+In brief, the system of religious worship rests upon the idea of magic
+between man and man, and the magician is older than the priest. But it
+rests equally upon other and higher ideas. It brings into prominence the
+sympathetic relation of man to man, the existence of benevolence,
+gratitude, prayer, of truces between enemies, of loans upon security, of
+arrangements for the protection of property. Man, even in very inferior
+degrees of civilization, does not stand in the presence of nature as a
+helpless slave, he is not willy-nilly the absolute servant of nature. In
+the Greek development of religion, especially in the relationship to the
+Olympian gods, it becomes possible to entertain the idea of an existence
+side by side of two castes, a higher, more powerful, and a lower, less
+powerful: but both are bound together in some way, on account of their
+origin and are one species. They need not be ashamed of one another.
+This is the element of distinction in Greek religion.
+
+
+112
+
+=At the Contemplation of Certain Ancient Sacrificial Proceedings.=--How
+many sentiments are lost to us is manifest in the union of the farcical,
+even of the obscene, with the religious feeling. The feeling that this
+mixture is possible is becoming extinct. We realize the mixture only
+historically, in the mysteries of Demeter and Dionysos and in the
+Christian Easter festivals and religious mysteries. But we still
+perceive the sublime in connection with the ridiculous, and the like,
+the emotional with the absurd. Perhaps a later age will be unable to
+understand even these combinations.
+
+
+113
+
+=Christianity as Antiquity.=--When on a Sunday morning we hear the old
+bells ringing, we ask ourselves: Is it possible? All this for a Jew
+crucified two thousand years ago who said he was God's son? The proof of
+such an assertion is lacking.--Certainly, the Christian religion
+constitutes in our time a protruding bit of antiquity from very remote
+ages and that its assertions are still generally believed--although men
+have become so keen in the scrutiny of claims--constitutes the oldest
+relic of this inheritance. A god who begets children by a mortal woman;
+a sage who demands that no more work be done, that no more justice be
+administered but that the signs of the approaching end of the world be
+heeded; a system of justice that accepts an innocent as a vicarious
+sacrifice in the place of the guilty; a person who bids his disciples
+drink his blood; prayers for miracles; sins against a god expiated upon
+a god; fear of a hereafter to which death is the portal; the figure of
+the cross as a symbol in an age that no longer knows the purpose and the
+ignominy of the cross--how ghostly all these things flit before us out
+of the grave of their primitive antiquity! Is one to believe that such
+things can still be believed?
+
+
+114
+
+=The Un-Greek in Christianity.=--The Greeks did not look upon the
+Homeric gods above them as lords nor upon themselves beneath as
+servants, after the fashion of the Jews. They saw but the counterpart as
+in a mirror of the most perfect specimens of their own caste, hence an
+ideal, but no contradiction of their own nature. There was a feeling of
+mutual relationship, resulting in a mutual interest, a sort of alliance.
+Man thinks well of himself when he gives himself such gods and places
+himself in a relationship akin to that of the lower nobility with the
+higher; whereas the Italian races have a decidedly vulgar religion,
+involving perpetual anxiety because of bad and mischievous powers and
+soul disturbers. Wherever the Olympian gods receded into the background,
+there even Greek life became gloomier and more perturbed.--Christianity,
+on the other hand, oppressed and degraded humanity completely and sank
+it into deepest mire: into the feeling of utter abasement it suddenly
+flashed the gleam of divine compassion, so that the amazed and
+grace-dazzled stupefied one gave a cry of delight and for a moment
+believed that the whole of heaven was within him. Upon this unhealthy
+excess of feeling, upon the accompanying corruption of heart and head,
+Christianity attains all its psychological effects. It wants to
+annihilate, debase, stupefy, amaze, bedazzle. There is but one thing
+that it does not want: measure, standard (das Maas) and therefore is it
+in the worst sense barbarous, asiatic, vulgar, un-Greek.
+
+
+115
+
+=Being Religious to Some Purpose.=--There are certain insipid,
+traffic-virtuous people to whom religion is pinned like the hem of some
+garb of a higher humanity. These people do well to remain religious: it
+adorns them. All who are not versed in some professional
+weapon--including tongue and pen as weapons--are servile: to all such
+the Christian religion is very useful, for then their servility assumes
+the aspect of Christian virtue and is amazingly adorned.--People whose
+daily lives are empty and colorless are readily religious. This is
+comprehensible and pardonable, but they have no right to demand that
+others, whose daily lives are not empty and colorless, should be
+religious also.
+
+
+116
+
+=The Everyday Christian.=--If Christianity, with its allegations of an
+avenging God, universal sinfulness, choice of grace, and the danger of
+eternal damnation, were true, it would be an indication of weakness of
+mind and character not to be a priest or an apostle or a hermit, and
+toil for one's own salvation. It would be irrational to lose sight of
+one's eternal well being in comparison with temporary advantage:
+Assuming these dogmas to be generally believed, the every day Christian
+is a pitiable figure, a man who really cannot count as far as three, and
+who, for the rest, just because of his intellectual incapacity, does not
+deserve to be as hard punished as Christianity promises he shall be.
+
+
+117
+
+=Concerning the Cleverness of Christianity.=--It is a master stroke of
+Christianity to so emphasize the unworthiness, sinfulness and
+degradation of men in general that contempt of one's fellow creatures
+becomes impossible. "He may sin as much as he pleases, he is not by
+nature different from me. It is I who in every way am unworthy and
+contemptible." So says the Christian to himself. But even this feeling
+has lost its keenest sting for the Christian does not believe in his
+individual degradation. He is bad in his general human capacity and he
+soothes himself a little with the assertion that we are all alike.
+
+
+118
+
+=Personal Change.=--As soon as a religion rules, it has for its
+opponents those who were its first disciples.
+
+
+119
+
+=Fate of Christianity.=--Christianity arose to lighten the heart, but
+now it must first make the heart heavy in order to be able to lighten it
+afterwards. Christianity will consequently go down.
+
+
+120
+
+=The Testimony of Pleasure.=--The agreeable opinion is accepted as true.
+This is the testimony of pleasure (or as the church says, the evidence
+of strength) of which all religions are so proud, although they should
+all be ashamed of it. If a belief did not make blessed it would not be
+believed. How little it would be worth, then!
+
+
+121
+
+=Dangerous Play.=--Whoever gives religious feeling room, must then also
+let it grow. He can do nothing else. Then his being gradually changes.
+The religious element brings with it affinities and kinships. The whole
+circle of his judgment and feeling is clouded and draped in religious
+shadows. Feeling cannot stand still. One should be on one's guard.
+
+
+122
+
+=The Blind Pupil.=--As long as one knows very well the strength and the
+weakness of one's dogma, one's art, one's religion, its strength is
+still low. The pupil and apostle who has no eye for the weaknesses of a
+dogma, a religion and so on, dazzled by the aspect of the master and by
+his own reverence for him, has, on that very account, generally more
+power than the master. Without blind pupils the influence of a man and
+his work has never become great. To give victory to knowledge, often
+amounts to no more than so allying it with stupidity that the brute
+force of the latter forces triumph for the former.
+
+
+123
+
+=The Breaking off of Churches.=--There is not sufficient religion in the
+world merely to put an end to the number of religions.
+
+
+124
+
+=Sinlessness of Men.=--If one have understood how "Sin came into the
+world," namely through errors of the reason, through which men in their
+intercourse with one another and even individual men looked upon
+themselves as much blacker and wickeder than was really the case, one's
+whole feeling is much lightened and man and the world appear together in
+such a halo of harmlessness that a sentiment of well being is instilled
+into one's whole nature. Man in the midst of nature is as a child left
+to its own devices. This child indeed dreams a heavy, anxious dream. But
+when it opens its eyes it finds itself always in paradise.
+
+
+125
+
+=Irreligiousness of Artists.=--Homer is so much at home among his gods
+and is as a poet so good natured to them that he must have been
+profoundly irreligious. That which was brought to him by the popular
+faith--a mean, crude and partially repulsive superstition--he dealt with
+as freely as the Sculptor with his clay, therefore with the same freedom
+that AEschylus and Aristophanes evinced and with which in later times the
+great artists of the renaissance, and also Shakespeare and Goethe, drew
+their pictures.
+
+
+126
+
+=Art and Strength of False Interpretation.=--All the visions, fears,
+exhaustions and delights of the saint are well known symptoms of
+sickness, which in him, owing to deep rooted religious and psychological
+delusions, are explained quite differently, that is not as symptoms of
+sickness.--So, too, perhaps, the demon of Socrates was nothing but a
+malady of the ear that he explained, in view of his predominant moral
+theory, in a manner different from what would be thought rational
+to-day. Nor is the case different with the frenzy and the frenzied
+speeches of the prophets and of the priests of the oracles. It is always
+the degree of wisdom, imagination, capacity and morality in the heart
+and mind of the interpreters that got so much out of them. It is among
+the greatest feats of the men who are called geniuses and saints that
+they made interpreters for themselves who, fortunately for mankind, did
+not understand them.
+
+
+127
+
+=Reverence for Madness.=--Because it was perceived that an excitement of
+some kind often made the head clearer and occasioned fortunate
+inspirations, it was concluded that the utmost excitement would occasion
+the most fortunate inspirations. Hence the frenzied being was revered as
+a sage and an oracle giver. A false conclusion lies at the bottom of all
+this.
+
+
+128
+
+=Promises of Wisdom.=--Modern science has as its object as little pain
+as possible, as long a life as possible--hence a sort of eternal
+blessedness, but of a very limited kind in comparison with the promises
+of religion.
+
+
+129
+
+=Forbidden Generosity.=--There is not enough of love and goodness in the
+world to throw any of it away on conceited people.
+
+
+130
+
+=Survival of Religious Training in the Disposition.=--The Catholic
+Church, and before it all ancient education, controlled the whole domain
+of means through which man was put into certain unordinary moods and
+withdrawn from the cold calculation of personal advantage and from calm,
+rational reflection. A church vibrating with deep tones; gloomy,
+regular, restraining exhortations from a priestly band, who
+involuntarily communicate their own tension to their congregation and
+lead them to listen almost with anxiety as if some miracle were in
+course of preparation; the awesome pile of architecture which, as the
+house of a god, rears itself vastly into the vague and in all its
+shadowy nooks inspires fear of its nerve-exciting power--who would care
+to reduce men to the level of these things if the ideas upon which they
+rest became extinct? But the results of all these things are
+nevertheless not thrown away: the inner world of exalted, emotional,
+prophetic, profoundly repentant, hope-blessed moods has become inborn in
+man largely through cultivation. What still exists in his soul was
+formerly, as he germinated, grew and bloomed, thoroughly disciplined.
+
+
+131
+
+=Religious After-Pains.=--Though one believe oneself absolutely weaned
+away from religion, the process has yet not been so thorough as to make
+impossible a feeling of joy at the presence of religious feelings and
+dispositions without intelligible content, as, for example, in music;
+and if a philosophy alleges to us the validity of metaphysical hopes,
+through the peace of soul therein attainable, and also speaks of "the
+whole true gospel in the look of Raphael's Madonna," we greet such
+declarations and innuendoes with a welcome smile. The philosopher has
+here a matter easy of demonstration. He responds with that which he is
+glad to give, namely a heart that is glad to accept. Hence it is
+observable how the less reflective free spirits collide only with dogmas
+but yield readily to the magic of religious feelings; it is a source of
+pain to them to let the latter go simply on account of the
+former.--Scientific philosophy must be very much on its guard lest on
+account of this necessity--an evolved and hence, also, a transitory
+necessity--delusions are smuggled in. Even logicians speak of
+"presentiments" of truth in ethics and in art (for example of the
+presentiment that the essence of things is unity) a thing which,
+nevertheless, ought to be prohibited. Between carefully deduced truths
+and such "foreboded" things there lies the abysmal distinction that the
+former are products of the intellect and the latter of the necessity.
+Hunger is no evidence that there is food at hand to appease it. Hunger
+merely craves food. "Presentiment" does not denote that the existence of
+a thing is known in any way whatever. It denotes merely that it is
+deemed possible to the extent that it is desired or feared. The
+"presentiment" is not one step forward in the domain of certainty.--It
+is involuntarily believed that the religious tinted sections of a
+philosophy are better attested than the others, but the case is at
+bottom just the opposite: there is simply the inner wish that it may be
+so, that the thing which beautifies may also be true. This wish leads us
+to accept bad grounds as good.
+
+
+132
+
+=Of the Christian Need of Salvation.=--Careful consideration must render
+it possible to propound some explanation of that process in the soul of
+a Christian which is termed need of salvation, and to propound an
+explanation, too, free from mythology: hence one purely psychological.
+Heretofore psychological explanations of religious conditions and
+processes have really been in disrepute, inasmuch as a theology calling
+itself free gave vent to its unprofitable nature in this domain; for its
+principal aim, so far as may be judged from the spirit of its creator,
+Schleier-macher, was the preservation of the Christian religion and the
+maintenance of the Christian theology. It appeared that in the
+psychological analysis of religious "facts" a new anchorage and above
+all a new calling were to be gained. Undisturbed by such predecessors,
+we venture the following exposition of the phenomena alluded to. Man is
+conscious of certain acts which are very firmly implanted in the general
+course of conduct: indeed he discovers in himself a predisposition to
+such acts that seems to him to be as unalterable as his very being. How
+gladly he would essay some other kind of acts which in the general
+estimate of conduct are rated the best and highest, how gladly he would
+welcome the consciousness of well doing which ought to follow unselfish
+motive! Unfortunately, however, it goes no further than this longing:
+the discontent consequent upon being unable to satisfy it is added to
+all other kinds of discontent which result from his life destiny in
+particular or which may be due to so called bad acts; so that a deep
+depression ensues accompanied by a desire for some physician to remove
+it and all its causes.--This condition would not be found so bitter if
+the individual but compared himself freely with other men: for then he
+would have no reason to be discontented with himself in particular as he
+is merely bearing his share of the general burden of human discontent
+and incompleteness. But he compares himself with a being who alone must
+be capable of the conduct that is called unegoistic and of an enduring
+consciousness of unselfish motive, with God. It is because he gazes into
+this clear mirror, that his own self seems so extraordinarily distracted
+and so troubled. Thereupon the thought of that being, in so far as it
+flits before his fancy as retributive justice, occasions him anxiety. In
+every conceivable small and great experience he believes he sees the
+anger of the being, his threats, the very implements and manacles of his
+judge and prison. What succors him in this danger, which, in the
+prospect of an eternal duration of punishment, transcends in hideousness
+all the horrors that can be presented to the imagination?
+
+
+133
+
+Before we consider this condition in its further effects, we would admit
+to ourselves that man is betrayed into this condition not through his
+"fault" and "sin" but through a series of delusions of the reason; that
+it was the fault of the mirror if his own self appeared to him in the
+highest degree dark and hateful, and that that mirror was his own work,
+the very imperfect work of human imagination and judgment. In the first
+place a being capable of absolutely unegoistic conduct is as fabulous as
+the phoenix. Such a being is not even thinkable for the very reason that
+the whole notion of "unegoistic conduct," when closely examined,
+vanishes into air. Never yet has a man done anything solely for others
+and entirely without reference to a personal motive; indeed how could he
+possibly do anything that had no reference to himself, that is without
+inward compulsion (which must always have its basis in a personal need)?
+How could the ego act without ego?--A god, who, on the other hand, is
+all love, as he is usually represented, would not be capable of a
+solitary unegoistic act: whence one is reminded of a reflection of
+Lichtenberg's which is, in truth, taken from a lower sphere: "We cannot
+possibly feel for others, as the expression goes; we feel only for
+ourselves. The assertion sounds hard, but it is not, if rightly
+understood. A man loves neither his father nor his mother nor his wife
+nor his child, but simply the feelings which they inspire." Or, as La
+Rochefoucauld says: "If you think you love your mistress for the mere
+love of her, you are very much mistaken." Why acts of love are more
+highly prized than others, namely not on account of their nature, but on
+account of their utility, has already been explained in the section on
+the origin of moral feelings. But if a man should wish to be all love
+like the god aforesaid, and want to do all things for others and nothing
+for himself, the procedure would be fundamentally impossible because he
+_must_ do a great deal for himself before there would be any possibility
+of doing anything for the love of others. It is also essential that
+others be sufficiently egoistic to accept always and at all times this
+self sacrifice and living for others, so that the men of love and self
+sacrifice have an interest in the survival of unloving and selfish
+egoists, while the highest morality, in order to maintain itself must
+formally enforce the existence of immorality (wherein it would be really
+destroying itself.)--Further: the idea of a god perturbs and discourages
+as long as it is accepted but as to how it originated can no longer, in
+the present state of comparative ethnological science, be a matter of
+doubt, and with the insight into the origin of this belief all faith
+collapses. What happens to the Christian who compares his nature with
+that of God is exactly what happened to Don Quixote, who depreciated his
+own prowess because his head was filled with the wondrous deeds of the
+heroes of chivalrous romance. The standard of measurement which both
+employ belongs to the domain of fable.--But if the idea of God
+collapses, so too, does the feeling of "sin" as a violation of divine
+rescript, as a stain upon a god-like creation. There still apparently
+remains that discouragement which is closely allied with fear of the
+punishment of worldly justice or of the contempt of one's fellow men.
+The keenest thorn in the sentiment of sin is dulled when it is perceived
+that one's acts have contravened human tradition, human rules and human
+laws without having thereby endangered the "eternal salvation of the
+soul" and its relations with deity. If finally men attain to the
+conviction of the absolute necessity of all acts and of their utter
+irresponsibility and then absorb it into their flesh and blood, every
+relic of conscience pangs will disappear.
+
+
+134
+
+If now, as stated, the Christian, through certain delusive feelings, is
+betrayed into self contempt, that is by a false and unscientific view of
+his acts and feelings, he must, nevertheless, perceive with the utmost
+amazement that this state of self contempt, of conscience pangs, of
+despair in particular, does not last, that there are hours during which
+all these things are wafted away from the soul and he feels himself once
+more free and courageous. The truth is that joy in his own being, the
+fulness of his own powers in connection with the inevitable decline of
+his profound excitation with the lapse of time, bore off the palm of
+victory. The man loves himself once more, he feels it--but this very new
+love, this new self esteem seems to him incredible. He can see in it
+only the wholly unmerited stream of the light of grace shed down upon
+him. If he formerly saw in every event merely warnings, threats,
+punishments and every kind of indication of divine anger, he now reads
+into his experiences the grace of god. The latter circumstance seems to
+him full of love, the former as a helpful pointing of the way, and his
+entirely joyful frame of mind now seems to him to be an absolute proof
+of the goodness of God. As formerly in his states of discouragement he
+interpreted his conduct falsely so now he does the same with his
+experiences. His state of consolation is now regarded as the effect
+produced by some external power. The love with which, at bottom, he
+loves himself, seems to be the divine love. That which he calls grace
+and the preliminary of salvation is in reality self-grace,
+self-salvation.
+
+
+135
+
+Therefore a certain false psychology, a certain kind of imaginativeness
+in the interpretation of motives and experiences is the essential
+preliminary to being a Christian and to experiencing the need of
+salvation. Upon gaining an insight into this wandering of the reason and
+the imagination, one ceases to be a Christian.
+
+
+136
+
+=Of Christian Asceticism and Sanctity.=--Much as some thinkers have
+exerted themselves to impart an air of the miraculous to those singular
+phenomena known as asceticism and sanctity, to question which or to
+account for which upon a rational basis would be wickedness and
+sacrilege, the temptation to this wickedness is none the less great. A
+powerful impulse of nature has in every age led to protest against such
+phenomena. At any rate science, inasmuch as it is the imitation of
+nature, permits the casting of doubts upon the inexplicable character
+and the supernal degree of such phenomena. It is true that heretofore
+science has not succeeded in its attempts at explanation. The phenomena
+remain unexplained still, to the great satisfaction of those who revere
+moral miracles. For, speaking generally, the unexplained must rank as
+the inexplicable, the inexplicable as the non-natural, supernatural,
+miraculous--so runs the demand in the souls of all the religious and all
+the metaphysicians (even the artists if they happen to be thinkers),
+whereas the scientific man sees in this demand the "evil
+principle."--The universal, first, apparent truth that is encountered in
+the contemplation of sanctity and asceticism is that their nature is
+complicated; for nearly always, within the physical world as well as in
+the moral, the apparently miraculous may be traced successfully to the
+complex, the obscure, the multi-conditioned. Let us venture then to
+isolate a few impulses in the soul of the saint and the ascetic, to
+consider them separately and then view them as a synthetic development.
+
+
+137
+
+There is an obstinacy against oneself, certain sublimated forms of which
+are included in asceticism. Certain kinds of men are under such a strong
+necessity of exercising their power and dominating impulses that, if
+other objects are lacking or if they have not succeeded with other
+objects they will actually tyrannize over some portions of their own
+nature or over sections and stages of their own personality. Thus do
+many thinkers bring themselves to views which are far from likely to
+increase or improve their fame. Many deliberately bring down the
+contempt of others upon themselves although they could easily have
+retained consideration by silence. Others contradict earlier opinions
+and do not shrink from the ordeal of being deemed inconsistent. On the
+contrary they strive for this and act like eager riders who enjoy
+horseback exercise most when the horse is skittish. Thus will men in
+dangerous paths ascend to the highest steeps in order to laugh to scorn
+their own fear and their own trembling limbs. Thus will the philosopher
+embrace the dogmas of asceticism, humility, sanctity, in the light of
+which his own image appears in its most hideous aspect. This crushing of
+self, this mockery of one's own nature, this spernere se sperni out of
+which religions have made so much is in reality but a very high
+development of vanity. The whole ethic of the sermon on the mount
+belongs in this category: man has a true delight in mastering himself
+through exaggerated pretensions or excessive expedients and later
+deifying this tyrannically exacting something within him. In every
+scheme of ascetic ethics, man prays to one part of himself as if it were
+god and hence it is necessary for him to treat the rest of himself as
+devil.
+
+
+138
+
+=Man is Not at All Hours Equally Moral=; this is established. If one's
+morality be judged according to one's capacity for great, self
+sacrificing resolutions and abnegations (which when continual, and made
+a habit are known as sanctity) one is, in affection, or disposition, the
+most moral: while higher excitement supplies wholly new impulses which,
+were one calm and cool as ordinarily, one would not deem oneself even
+capable of. How comes this? Apparently from the propinquity of all great
+and lofty emotional states. If a man is brought to an extraordinary
+pitch of feeling he can resolve upon a fearful revenge or upon a fearful
+renunciation of his thirst for vengeance indifferently. He craves, under
+the influences of powerful emotion, the great, the powerful, the
+immense, and if he chances to perceive that the sacrifice of himself
+will afford him as much satisfaction as the sacrifice of another, or
+will afford him more, he will choose self sacrifice. What concerns him
+particularly is simply the unloading of his emotion. Hence he readily,
+to relieve his tension, grasps the darts of the enemy and buries them in
+his own breast. That in self abnegation and not in revenge the element
+of greatness consisted must have been brought home to mankind only after
+long habituation. A god who sacrifices himself would be the most
+powerful and most effective symbol of this sort of greatness. As the
+conquest of the most hardly conquered enemy, the sudden mastering of a
+passion--thus does such abnegation _appear_: hence it passes for the
+summit of morality. In reality all that is involved is the exchange of
+one idea for another whilst the temperament remained at a like altitude,
+a like tidal state. Men when coming out of the spell, or resting from
+such passionate excitation, no longer understand the morality of such
+instants, but the admiration of all who participated in the occasion
+sustains them. Pride is their support if the passion and the
+comprehension of their act weaken. Therefore, at bottom even such acts
+of self-abnegation are not moral inasmuch as they are not done with a
+strict regard for others. Rather do others afford the high strung
+temperament an opportunity to lighten itself through such abnegation.
+
+
+139
+
+=Even the Ascetic Seeks to Make Life Easier=, and generally by means of
+absolute subjection to another will or to an all inclusive rule and
+ritual, pretty much as the Brahmin leaves absolutely nothing to his own
+volition but is guided in every moment of his life by some holy
+injunction or other. This subjection is a potent means of acquiring
+dominion over oneself. One is occupied, hence time does not bang heavy
+and there is no incitement of the personal will and of the individual
+passion. The deed once done there is no feeling of responsibility nor
+the sting of regret. One has given up one's own will once for all and
+this is easier than to give it up occasionally, as it is also easier
+wholly to renounce a desire than to yield to it in measured degree. When
+we consider the present relation of man to the state we perceive
+unconditional obedience is easier than conditional. The holy person also
+makes his lot easier through the complete surrender of his life
+personality and it is all delusion to admire such a phenomenon as the
+loftiest heroism of morality. It is always more difficult to assert
+one's personality without shrinking and without hesitation than to give
+it up altogether in the manner indicated, and it requires moreover more
+intellect and thought.
+
+
+140
+
+After having discovered in many of the less comprehensible actions mere
+manifestations of pleasure in emotion for its own sake, I fancy I can
+detect in the self contempt which characterises holy persons, and also
+in their acts of self torture (through hunger and scourgings,
+distortions and chaining of the limbs, acts of madness) simply a means
+whereby such natures may resist the general exhaustion of their will to
+live (their nerves). They employ the most painful expedients to escape
+if only for a time from the heaviness and weariness in which they are
+steeped by their great mental indolence and their subjection to a will
+other than their own.
+
+
+141
+
+=The Most Usual Means= by which the ascetic and the sanctified
+individual seeks to make life more endurable comprises certain combats
+of an inner nature involving alternations of victory and prostration.
+For this purpose an enemy is necessary and he is found in the so called
+"inner enemy." That is, the holy individual makes use of his tendency to
+vanity, domineering and pride, and of his mental longings in order to
+contemplate his life as a sort of continuous battle and himself as a
+battlefield, in which good and evil spirits wage war with varying
+fortune. It is an established fact that the imagination is restrained
+through the regularity and adequacy of sexual intercourse while on the
+other hand abstention from or great irregularity in sexual intercourse
+will cause the imagination to run riot. The imaginations of many of the
+Christian saints were obscene to a degree; and because of the theory
+that sexual desires were in reality demons that raged within them, the
+saints did not feel wholly responsible for them. It is to this
+conviction that we are indebted for the highly instructive sincerity of
+their evidence against themselves. It was to their interest that this
+contest should always be kept up in some fashion because by means of
+this contest, as already stated, their empty lives gained distraction.
+In order that the contest might seem sufficiently great to inspire
+sympathy and admiration in the unsanctified, it was essential that
+sexual capacity be ever more and more damned and denounced. Indeed the
+danger of eternal damnation was so closely allied to this capacity that
+for whole generations Christians showed their children with actual
+conscience pangs. What evil may not have been done to humanity through
+this! And yet here the truth is just upside down: an exceedingly
+unseemly attitude for the truth. Christianity, it is true, had said that
+every man is conceived and born in sin, and in the intolerable and
+excessive Christianity of Calderon this thought is again perverted and
+entangled into the most distorted paradox extant in the well known lines
+
+     The greatest sin of man
+     Is the sin of being born.
+
+In all pessimistic religions the act of procreation is looked upon as
+evil in itself. This is far from being the general human opinion. It is
+not even the opinion of all pessimists. Empedocles, for example, knows
+nothing of anything shameful, devilish and sinful in it. He sees rather
+in the great field of bliss of unholiness simply a healthful and hopeful
+phenomenon, Aphrodite. She is to him an evidence that strife does not
+always rage but that some time a gentle demon is to wield the sceptre.
+The Christian pessimists of practice, had, as stated, a direct interest
+in the prevalence of an opposite belief. They needed in the loneliness
+and the spiritual wilderness of their lives an ever living enemy, and a
+universally known enemy through whose conquest they might appear to the
+unsanctified as utterly incomprehensible and half unnatural beings. When
+this enemy at last, as a result of their mode of life and their
+shattered health, took flight forever, they were able immediately to
+people their inner selves with new demons. The rise and fall of the
+balance of cheerfulness and despair maintained their addled brains in a
+totally new fluctuation of longing and peace of soul. And in that period
+psychology served not only to cast suspicion on everything human but to
+wound and scourge it, to crucify it. Man wanted to find himself as base
+and evil as possible. Man sought to become anxious about the state of
+his soul, he wished to be doubtful of his own capacity. Everything
+natural with which man connects the idea of badness and sinfulness (as,
+for instance, is still customary in regard to the erotic) injures and
+degrades the imagination, occasions a shamed aspect, leads man to war
+upon himself and makes him uncertain, distrustful of himself. Even his
+dreams acquire a tincture of the unclean conscience. And yet this
+suffering because of the natural element in certain things is wholly
+superfluous. It is simply the result of opinions regarding the things.
+It is easy to understand why men become worse than they are if they are
+brought to look upon the unavoidably natural as bad and later to feel it
+as of evil origin. It is the master stroke of religions and metaphysics
+that wish to make man out bad and sinful by nature, to render nature
+suspicious in his eyes and to so make himself evil, for he learns to
+feel himself evil when he cannot divest himself of nature. He gradually
+comes to look upon himself, after a long life lived naturally, so
+oppressed by a weight of sin that supernatural powers become necessary
+to relieve him of the burden; and with this notion comes the so called
+need of salvation, which is the result not of a real but of an imaginary
+sinfulness. Go through the separate moral expositions in the vouchers of
+christianity and it will always be found that the demands are excessive
+in order that it may be impossible for man to satisfy them. The object
+is not that he may become moral but that he may feel as sinful as
+possible. If this feeling had not been rendered agreeable to man--why
+should he have improvised such an ideal and clung to it so long? As in
+the ancient world an incalculable strength of intellect and capacity for
+feeling was squandered in order to increase the joy of living through
+feastful systems of worship, so in the era of christianity an equally
+incalculable quantity of intellectual capacity has been sacrificed in
+another endeavor: that man should in every way feel himself sinful and
+thereby be moved, inspired, inspirited. To move, to inspire, to inspirit
+at any cost--is not this the freedom cry of an exhausted, over-ripe,
+over cultivated age? The circle of all the natural sensations had been
+gone through a hundred times: the soul had grown weary. Then the saints
+and the ascetics found a new order of ecstacies. They set themselves
+before the eyes of all not alone as models for imitation to many, but as
+fearful and yet delightful spectacles on the boundary line between this
+world and the next world, where in that period everyone thought he saw
+at one time rays of heavenly light, at another fearful, threatening
+tongues of flame. The eye of the saint, directed upon the fearful
+significance of the shortness of earthly life, upon the imminence of the
+last judgment, upon eternal life hereafter; this glowering eye in an
+emaciated body caused men, in the old time world, to tremble to the
+depths of their being. To look, to look away and shudder, to feel anew
+the fascination of the spectacle, to yield to it, sate oneself upon it
+until the soul trembled with ardor and fever--that was the last pleasure
+left to classical antiquity when its sensibilities had been blunted by
+the arena and the gladiatorial show.
+
+
+142
+
+=To Sum Up All That Has Been Said=: that condition of soul at which the
+saint or expectant saint is rejoiced is a combination of elements which
+we are all familiar with, except that under other influences than those
+of mere religious ideation they customarily arouse the censure of men in
+the same way that when combined with religion itself and regarded as the
+supreme attainment of sanctity, they are object of admiration and even
+of prayer--at least in more simple times. Very soon the saint turns upon
+himself that severity that is so closely allied to the instinct of
+domination at any price and which inspire even in the most solitary
+individual the sense of power. Soon his swollen sensitiveness of feeling
+breaks forth from the longing to restrain his passions within it and is
+transformed into a longing to master them as if they were wild steeds,
+the master impulse being ever that of a proud spirit; next he craves a
+complete cessation of all perturbing, fascinating feelings, a waking
+sleep, an enduring repose in the lap of a dull, animal, plant-like
+indolence. Next he seeks the battle and extinguishes it within himself
+because weariness and boredom confront him. He binds his
+self-deification with self-contempt. He delights in the wild tumult of
+his desires and the sharp pain of sin, in the very idea of being lost.
+He is able to play his very passions, for instance the desire to
+domineer, a trick so that he goes to the other extreme of abject
+humiliation and subjection, so that his overwrought soul is without any
+restraint through this antithesis. And, finally, when indulgence in
+visions, in talks with the dead or with divine beings overcomes him,
+this is really but a form of gratification that he craves, perhaps a
+form of gratification in which all other gratifications are blended.
+Novalis, one of the authorities in matters of sanctity, because of his
+experience and instinct, betrays the whole secret with the utmost
+simplicity when he says: "It is remarkable that the close connection of
+gratification, religion and cruelty has not long ago made men aware of
+their inner relationship and common tendency."
+
+
+143
+
+=Not What the Saint is but what he was in= the eyes of the
+non-sanctified gives him his historical importance. Because there
+existed a delusion respecting the saint, his soul states being falsely
+viewed and his personality being sundered as much as possible from
+humanity as a something incomparable and supernatural, because of these
+things he attained the extraordinary with which he swayed the
+imaginations of whole nations and whole ages. Even he knew himself not
+for even he regarded his dispositions, passions and actions in
+accordance with a system of interpretation as artificial and exaggerated
+as the pneumatic interpretation of the bible. The distorted and diseased
+in his own nature with its blending of spiritual poverty, defective
+knowledge, ruined health, overwrought nerves, remained as hidden from
+his view as from the view of his beholders. He was neither a
+particularly good man nor a particularly bad man but he stood for
+something that was far above the human standard in wisdom and goodness.
+Faith in him sustained faith in the divine and miraculous, in a
+religious significance of all existence, in an impending day of
+judgment. In the last rays of the setting sun of the ancient world,
+which fell upon the christian peoples, the shadowy form of the saint
+attained enormous proportions--to such enormous proportions, indeed,
+that down even to our own age, which no longer believes in god, there
+are thinkers who believe in the saints.
+
+
+144
+
+It stands to reason that this sketch of the saint, made upon the model
+of the whole species, can be confronted with many opposing sketches that
+would create a more agreeable impression. There are certain exceptions
+among the species who distinguish themselves either by especial
+gentleness or especial humanity, and perhaps by the strength of their
+own personality. Others are in the highest degree fascinating because
+certain of their delusions shed a particular glow over their whole
+being, as is the case with the founder of christianity who took himself
+for the only begotten son of God and hence felt himself sinless; so that
+through his imagination--that should not be too harshly judged since the
+whole of antiquity swarmed with sons of god--he attained the same goal,
+the sense of complete sinlessness, complete irresponsibility, that can
+now be attained by every individual through science.--In the same manner
+I have viewed the saints of India who occupy an intermediate station
+between the christian saints and the Greek philosophers and hence are
+not to be regarded as a pure type. Knowledge and science--as far as they
+existed--and superiority to the rest of mankind by logical discipline
+and training of the intellectual powers were insisted upon by the
+Buddhists as essential to sanctity, just as they were denounced by the
+christian world as the indications of sinfulness.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Human, All Too Human, by Friedrich Nietzsche
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