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diff --git a/39955-8.txt b/39955-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d4c274b --- /dev/null +++ b/39955-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,12886 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Dawn of Day by Friedrich Wilhelm +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 http://www.gutenberg.org/license + + + +Title: The Dawn of Day + +Author: Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche + +Release Date: June 9, 2012 [Ebook #39955] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO 8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DAWN OF DAY*** + + + + + + Friedrich Nietzsche + + The Dawn of Day + + Translated by + + John McFarland Kennedy + +Author of "The Quintessence of Nietzsche", "Religions and Philosophers of + the East" + + There are many dawns which have yet to shed their light.--RIG-VEDA. + + New York + + The MacMillan Company + + 1911 + + + + + +CONTENTS + + +Introduction. +Author's Preface. +Book I. +Book II. +Book III. +Book IV. +Book V. +Footnotes + + + + + + +INTRODUCTION. + + +When Nietzsche called his book _The Dawn of Day_, he was far from giving +it a merely fanciful title to attract the attention of that large section +of the public which judges books by their titles rather than by their +contents. _The Dawn of Day_ represents, figuratively, the dawn of +Nietzsche's own philosophy. Hitherto he had been considerably influenced +in his outlook, if not in his actual thoughts, by Schopenhauer, Wagner, +and perhaps also Comte. _Human, all-too-Human_, belongs to a period of +transition. After his rupture with Bayreuth, Nietzsche is, in both parts +of that work, trying to stand on his own legs, and to regain his spiritual +freedom; he is feeling his way to his own philosophy. _The Dawn of Day_, +written in 1881 under the invigorating influence of a Genoese spring, is +the dawn of this new Nietzsche. "With this book I open my campaign against +morality," he himself said later in his autobiography, the _Ecce Homo_. + +Just as in the case of the books written in his prime--_The Joyful Wisdom_, +_Zarathustra_, _Beyond Good and Evil_, and _The Genealogy of Morals_--we +cannot fail to be impressed in this work by Nietzsche's deep psychological +insight, the insight that showed him to be a powerful judge of men and +things unequalled in the nineteenth or, perhaps, any other century. One +example of this is seen in his searching analysis of the Apostle Paul +(Aphorism 68), in which the soul of the "First Christian" is ruthlessly +and realistically laid bare to us. Nietzsche's summing-up of the Founder +of Christianity--for of course, as is now generally recognised, it was +Paul, and not Christ, who founded the Christian Church--has not yet called +forth those bitter attacks from theologians that might have been expected, +though one reason for this apparent neglect is no doubt that the portrait +is so true, and in these circumstances silence is certainly golden on the +part of defenders of the faith, who are otherwise, as a rule, loquacious +enough. Nor has the taunt in Aphorism 84 elicited an answer from the +quarter whither it was directed; and the "free" (not to say dishonest) +interpretation of the Bible by Christian scholars and theologians, which +is still proceeding merrily, is now being turned to Nietzsche's own +writings. For the philosopher's works are now being "explained away" by +German theologians in a most naďve and daring fashion, and with an ability +which has no doubt been acquired as the result of centuries of skilful +interpretation of the Holy Writ. + +Nor are professional theologians the only ones who have failed to answer +Nietzsche; for in other than religious matters the majority of savants +have not succeeded in plumbing his depths. There is, for example, the +question of race. Ten years ago, twenty years after the publication of +_The Dawn of Day_, Nietzsche's countrymen enthusiastically hailed a book +which has recently been translated into English, Chamberlain's +_Foundations of __ the Nineteenth Century_. In this book the Teutons are +said to be superior to all the other peoples in the world, the reason +given being that they have kept their race pure. It is due to this purity +of race that they have produced so many great men; for every "good" man in +history is a Teuton, and every bad man something else. Considerable skill +is exhibited by the author in filching from his opponents the Latins their +best trump cards, and likewise _the_ trump card, Jesus Christ, from the +Jews; for Jesus Christ, according to Chamberlain's very plausible +argument, was not a Jew but an Aryan, _i.e._ a member of that great family +of which the Teutons are a branch. + +What would Nietzsche have said to this legerdemain? He has constantly +pointed out that the Teutons are so far from being a pure race that they +have, on the contrary, done everything in their power to ruin even the +idea of a pure race for ever. For the Teutons, through their Reformation +and their Puritan revolt in England, and the philosophies developed by the +democracies that necessarily followed, were the spiritual forbears of the +French Revolution and of the Socialistic régime under which we are +beginning to suffer nowadays. Thus this noble race has left nothing undone +to blot out the last remnant of race in Europe, and it even stands in the +way of the creation of a new race. And with such a record in history the +Germans write books, eulogising themselves as the salt of the earth, the +people of peoples, the race of races, while in truth they are nothing else +than _nouveaux-riches_ endeavouring to draw up a decent pedigree for +themselves. We know that honesty is not a prerequisite of such pedigrees, +and that patriotism may be considered as a good excuse even for a wrong +pedigree; but the race-pandemonium that followed the publication of Mr. +Chamberlain's book in Germany was really a very unwise proceeding in view +of the false and misleading document produced. What, it may be asked +again, would Nietzsche have said if he had heard his countrymen screaming +odes to their own glory as the "flower of Europe"? He would assuredly have +dismissed their exalted pretensions with a good-natured smile; for his +study of history had shown him that even slaves must have their saturnalia +now and then. But as to his philosophical answer there can be no doubt; +for in Aphorism 272 of _The Dawn of Day_ there is a single sentence which +completely refutes the view of modern racemongers like Chamberlain and his +followers: "It is probable," we read, "that there are no pure races, but +only races which have become purified, and even these are extremely rare." +There are even stronger expressions to be met with in "Peoples and +Countries" (Aphorism 20; see the _Genealogy of Morals_, p. 226): "What +quagmires and mendacity must there be about if it is possible, in the +modern European hotch-potch, to raise the question of 'race'!" and again, +in Aphorism 21: "Maxim--to associate with no man who takes any part in the +mendacious race-swindle." + +A man like Nietzsche, who makes so little impression upon mankind in +general, is certainly not, as some people have thought and openly said, a +public danger, so the guardians of the State need not be uneasy. There is +little danger of Nietzsche's revolutionising either the masses or the +classes; for, as Goethe used to say, "Seulement celui qui ressemble le +peuple, l'émeut." Nietzsche's voice has as yet hardly been lifted in this +country; and, until it is fully heard, both masses and classes will calmly +proceed on their way to the extremes of democracy and anarchy, as they now +appear to be doing. Anarchy, though, may be too strong a word; for there +is some doubt whether, throughout Europe and America at all events, the +people are not now too weak even for anarchy. A revolt is a sign of +strength in a slave; but our modern slaves have no strength left. + +In the meantime, however, it will have become clear that Nietzsche tried +to stop this threatening degradation of the human race, that he +endeavoured to supplant the morality of altruism--the cause of this +degradation--by another, a super-Christian morality, and that he has +succeeded in this aim, if not where the masses and the classes are +concerned, at any rate in the case of that small minority of thinkers to +which he really wished to appeal. And this minority is naturally grateful +to the philosopher for having supplied them with a morality which enables +them to be "good" without being fools--an unpleasant combination which, +unfortunately, the Nazarene morality is seldom able to avoid. This +Nazarene morality has doubtless its own merits, and its "good" and "evil" +in many cases coincide with ours; but common sense and certain +intellectual qualities are not too highly appreciated in the table of +Christian values (see, for instance, 1 Cor. iii. 19), whence it will be +observed that the enlightenment of a Christian is not always quite equal +to his otherwise excellent intentions. We Nietzschians, however, must show +that patience to them which they always pretend to show to their +opponents. Nietzsche himself, indeed, recommends this in Aphorism 103 of +this book, an aphorism which is almost too well known to need repetition; +for it likewise disproves the grotesque though widely circulated +supposition that all kinds of immorality would be indulged in under the +sway of the "Immoralistic" philosopher: + +"I should not, of course, deny--unless I were a fool--that many actions +which are called immoral should be avoided and resisted; and in the same +way that many which are called moral should be performed and encouraged; +but I hold that in both cases these actions should be performed from +motives other than those which have prevailed up to the present time. We +must learn anew in order that at last, perhaps very late in the day, we +may be able to do something more: feel anew." + +In regard to the translation itself--which owes a good deal to many +excellent suggestions made by Mr. Thomas Common--it adheres, as a rule, +closely to the German text; and in only two or three instances has a +slightly freer rendering been adopted in order to make the sense quite +clear. There are one or two cases in which a punning or double meaning +could not be adequately rendered in English: _e.g._ Aphorism 50, where the +German word "Rausch" means both "intoxication" and also "elation" (_i.e._ +the exalted feelings of the religious fanatic). Again, we have "Einleid," +"Einleidigkeit," in Aphorism 63--words which do not quite correspond to +pity, compassion, or fellow-feeling, and which, indeed, are not yet known +to German lexicographers. A literal translation, "one-feeling," would be +almost meaningless. What is actually signified is that both sufferer and +sympathiser have nerves and feelings in common: an experience which +Schopenhauer, as Nietzsche rightly points out, mistook for compassion or +pity ("Mitleid"), and which lacked a word, even in German, until the later +psychologist coined "Einleid." Again, in Aphorism 554 we have a play upon +the words "Vorschritt" (leading, guidance) and "Fortschritt" (progress). + +All these, however, are trifling matters in comparison with the substance +of the book, and they are of more interest to philologists than to +psychologists. It is for psychologists that this book was written; and +such minds, somewhat rare in our time, may read in it with much profit. + +J. M. Kennedy. + +LONDON, _September_ 1911. + + + + + +AUTHOR'S PREFACE. + + +In this book we find a "subterrestrial" at work, digging, mining, +undermining. You can see him, always provided that you have eyes for such +deep work,--how he makes his way slowly, cautiously, gently but surely, +without showing signs of the weariness that usually accompanies a long +privation of light and air. He might even be called happy, despite his +labours in the dark. Does it not seem as if some faith were leading him +on, some solace recompensing him for his toil? Or that he himself desires +a long period of darkness, an unintelligible, hidden, enigmatic something, +knowing as he does that he will in time have his own morning, his own +redemption, his own rosy dawn?--Yea, verily he will return: ask him not +what he seeketh in the depths; for he himself will tell you, this apparent +Trophonius and subterrestrial, whensoever he once again becomes man. One +easily unlearns how to hold one's tongue when one has for so long been a +mole, and all alone, like him.-- + + + + +2. + + +Indeed, my indulgent friends, I will tell you--here, in this late +preface,(1) which might easily have become an obituary or a funeral +oration--what I sought in the depths below: for I have come back, and--I +have escaped. Think not that I will urge you to run the same perilous +risk! or that I will urge you on even to the same solitude! For whoever +proceeds on his own path meets nobody: this is the feature of one's "own +path." No one comes to help him in his task: he must face everything quite +alone--danger, bad luck, wickedness, foul weather. He goes his own way; +and, as is only right, meets with bitterness and occasional irritation +because he pursues this "own way" of his: for instance, the knowledge that +not even his friends can guess who he is and whither he is going, and that +they ask themselves now and then: "Well? Is he really moving at all? Has +he still ... a path before him?"--At that time I had undertaken something +which could not have been done by everybody: I went down into the deepest +depths; I tunnelled to the very bottom; I started to investigate and +unearth an old _faith_ which for thousands of years we philosophers used +to build on as the safest of all foundations--which we built on again and +again although every previous structure fell in: I began to undermine our +_faith in morals_. But ye do not understand me?-- + + + + +3. + + +So far it is on Good and Evil that we have meditated least profoundly: +this was always too dangerous a subject. Conscience, a good reputation, +hell, and at times even the police, have not allowed and do not allow of +impartiality; in the presence of morality, as before all authority, we +_must_ not even think, much less speak: here we must obey! Ever since the +beginning of the world, no authority has permitted itself to be made the +subject of criticism; and to criticise morals--to look upon morality as a +problem, as problematic--what! was that not--_is_ that not--immoral?--But +morality has at its disposal not only every means of intimidation +wherewith to keep itself free from critical hands and instruments of +torture: its security lies rather in a certain art of enchantment, in +which it is a past master--it knows how to "enrapture." It can often +paralyse the critical will with a single look, or even seduce it to +itself: yea, there are even cases where morality can turn the critical +will against itself; so that then, like the scorpion, it thrusts the sting +into its own body. Morality has for ages been an expert in all kinds of +devilry in the art of convincing: even at the present day there is no +orator who would not turn to it for assistance (only hearken to our +anarchists, for instance: how morally they speak when they would fain +convince! In the end they even call themselves "the good and the just"). +Morality has shown herself to be the greatest mistress of seduction ever +since men began to discourse and persuade on earth--and, what concerns us +philosophers even more, she is the veritable _Circe of philosophers_. For, +to what is it due that, from Plato onwards, all the philosophic architects +in Europe have built in vain? that everything which they themselves +honestly believed to be _aere perennius_ threatens to subside or is +already laid in ruins? Oh, how wrong is the answer which, even in our own +day, rolls glibly off the tongue when this question is asked: "Because +they have all neglected the prerequisite, the examination of the +foundation, a critique of all reason"--that fatal answer made by Kant, who +has certainly not thereby attracted us modern philosophers to firmer and +less treacherous ground! (and, one may ask apropos of this, was it not +rather strange to demand that an instrument should criticise its own value +and effectiveness? that the intellect itself should "recognise" its own +worth, power, and limits? was it not even just a little ridiculous?) The +right answer would rather have been, that all philosophers, including Kant +himself were building under the seductive influence of morality--that they +aimed at certainty and "truth" only in appearance; but that in reality +their attention was directed towards "_majestic moral edifices_," to use +once more Kant's innocent mode of expression, who deems it his "less +brilliant, but not undeserving" task and work "to level the ground and +prepare a solid foundation for the erection of those majestic moral +edifices" (_Critique of Pure Reason_, ii. 257). Alas! He did not succeed +in his aim, quite the contrary--as we must acknowledge to-day. With this +exalted aim, Kant was merely a true son of his century, which more than +any other may justly be called the century of exaltation: and this he +fortunately continued to be in respect to the more valuable side of this +century (with that solid piece of sensuality, for example, which he +introduced into his theory of knowledge). He, too, had been bitten by the +moral tarantula, Rousseau; he, too, felt weighing on his soul that moral +fanaticism of which another disciple of Rousseau's, Robespierre, felt and +proclaimed himself to be the executor: _de fonder sur la terre l'empire de +la sagesse, de la justice, et de la vertu_. (Speech of June 4th, 1794.) On +the other hand, with such a French fanaticism in his heart, no one could +have cultivated it in a less French, more deep, more thorough and more +German manner--if the word German is still permissible in this sense--than +Kant did: in order to make room for _his_ "moral kingdom," he found +himself compelled to add to it an indemonstrable world, a logical +"beyond"--that was why he required his critique of pure reason! In other +words, _he would not have wanted it_, if he had not deemed one thing to be +more important than all the others: to render his moral kingdom +unassailable by--or, better still, invisible to, reason,--for he felt too +strongly the vulnerability of a moral order of things in the face of +reason. For, when confronted with nature and history, when confronted with +the ingrained _immorality_ of nature and history, Kant was, like all good +Germans from the earliest times, a pessimist: he believed in morality, not +because it is demonstrated through nature and history, but despite its +being steadily contradicted by them. To understand this "despite," we +should perhaps recall a somewhat similar trait in Luther, that other great +pessimist, who once urged it upon his friends with true Lutheran audacity: +"If we could conceive by reason alone how that God who shows so much wrath +and malignity could be merciful and just, what use should we have for +faith?" For, from the earliest times, nothing has ever made a deeper +impression upon the German soul, nothing has ever "tempted" it more, than +that deduction, the most dangerous of all, which for every true Latin is a +sin against the intellect: _credo quia absurdum est_.--With it German logic +enters for the first time into the history of Christian dogma; but even +to-day, a thousand years later, we Germans of the present, late Germans in +every way, catch the scent of truth, a _possibility_ of truth, at the back +of the famous fundamental principle of dialectics with which Hegel secured +the victory of the German spirit over Europe--"contradiction moves the +world; all things contradict themselves." We are pessimists--even in logic. + + + + +4. + + +But logical judgments are not the deepest and most fundamental to which +the daring of our suspicion descends: the confidence in reason which is +inseparable from the validity of these judgments, is, as confidence, a +_moral_ phenomenon ... perhaps German pessimism has yet to take its last +step? Perhaps it has once more to draw up its "credo" opposite its +"absurdum" in a terrible manner? And if this book is pessimistic even in +regard to morals, even above the confidence in morals--should it not be a +German book for that very reason? For, in fact, it represents a +contradiction, and one which it does not fear: in it confidence in morals +is retracted--but why? Out of _morality_! Or how shall we call that which +takes place in it--in _us_? for our taste inclines to the employment of +more modest phrases. But there is no doubt that to us likewise there +speaketh a "thou shalt"; we likewise obey a strict law which is set above +us--and this is the last cry of morals which is still audible to us, which +we too must _live_: here, if anywhere, are we still _men of conscience_, +because, to put the matter in plain words, we will not return to that +which we look upon as decayed, outlived, and superseded, we will not +return to something "unworthy of belief," whether it be called God, +virtue, truth, justice, love of one's neighbour, or what not; we will not +permit ourselves to open up a lying path to old ideals; we are thoroughly +and unalterably opposed to anything that would intercede and mingle with +us; opposed to all forms of present-day faith and Christianity; opposed to +the lukewarmness of all romanticism and fatherlandism; opposed also to the +artistic sense of enjoyment and lack of principle which would fain make us +worship where we no longer believe--for we are artists--opposed, in short, +to all this European feminism (or idealism, if this term be thought +preferable) which everlastingly "draws upward," and which in consequence +everlastingly "lowers" and "degrades." Yet, being men of _this_ +conscience, we feel that we are related to that German uprightness and +piety which dates back thousands of years, although we immoralists and +atheists may be the late and uncertain offspring of these virtues--yea, we +even consider ourselves, in a certain respect, as their heirs, the +executors of their inmost will: a pessimistic will, as I have already +pointed out, which is not afraid to deny itself, because it denies itself +with _joy_! In us is consummated, if you desire a formula--_the +autosuppression of morals_. + + + + +5. + + +But, after all, why must we proclaim so loudly and with such intensity +what we are, what we want, and what we do not want? Let us look at this +more calmly and wisely; from a higher and more distant point of view. Let +us proclaim it, as if among ourselves, in so low a tone that all the world +fails to hear it and _us_! Above all, however, let us say it _slowly_.... +This preface comes late, but not too late: what, after all, do five or six +years matter? Such a book, and such a problem, are in no hurry; besides, +we are friends of the _lento_, I and my book. I have not been a +philologist in vain--perhaps I am one yet: a teacher of slow reading. I +even come to write slowly. At present it is not only my habit, but even my +taste--a perverted taste, maybe--to write nothing but what will drive to +despair every one who is "in a hurry." For philology is that venerable art +which exacts from its followers one thing above all--to step to one side, +to leave themselves spare moments, to grow silent, to become slow--the +leisurely art of the goldsmith applied to language: an art which must +carry out slow, fine work, and attains nothing if not _lento_. For this +very reason philology is now more desirable than ever before; for this +very reason it is the highest attraction and incitement in an age of +"work": that is to say, of haste, of unseemly and immoderate hurry-skurry, +which is intent upon "getting things done" at once, even every book, +whether old or new. Philology itself, perhaps, will not "get things done" +so hurriedly: it teaches how to read _well_: _i.e._ slowly, profoundly, +attentively, prudently, with inner thoughts, with the mental doors ajar, +with delicate fingers and eyes ... my patient friends, this book appeals +only to perfect readers and philologists: _learn_ to read me well! + +RUTA, NEAR GENOA, + +_Autumn_, 1886. + + + + + +BOOK I. + + + + +1. + + +SUBSEQUENT JUDGMENT.--All things that endure for a long time are little by +little so greatly permeated by reason that their origin in unreason +becomes improbable. Does not almost every exact statement of an origin +strike us as paradoxical and sacrilegious? Indeed, does not the true +historian constantly contradict? + + + + +2. + + +PREJUDICE OF THE LEARNED.--Savants are quite correct in maintaining the +proposition that men in all ages believed that they _knew_ what was good +and evil, praiseworthy and blamable. But it is a prejudice of the learned +to say _that we now know it better_ than any other age. + + + + +3. + + +A TIME FOR EVERYTHING.--When man assigned a sex to all things, he did not +believe that he was merely playing; but he thought, on the contrary, that +he had acquired a profound insight:--it was only at a much later period, +and then only partly, that he acknowledged the enormity of his error. In +the same way, man has attributed a moral relationship to everything that +exists, throwing the cloak of _ethical significance_ over the world's +shoulders. One day all that will be of just as much value, and no more, as +the amount of belief existing to-day in the masculinity or femininity of +the sun.(2) + + + + +4. + + +AGAINST THE FANCIFUL DISHARMONY OF THE SPHERES.--We must once more sweep +out of the world all this _false_ grandeur, for it is contrary to the +justice that all things about us may claim. And for this reason we must +not see or wish the world to be more disharmonic than it is! + + + + +5. + + +BE THANKFUL!--The most important result of the past efforts of humanity is +that we need no longer go about in continual fear of wild beasts, +barbarians, gods, and our own dreams. + + + + +6. + + +THE JUGGLER AND HIS COUNTERPART.--That which is wonderful in science is +contrary to that which is wonderful in the art of the juggler. For the +latter would wish to make us believe that we see a very simple causality, +where, in reality, an exceedingly complex causality is in operation. +Science, on the other hand, forces us to give up our belief in the simple +causality exactly where everything looks so easily comprehensible and we +are merely the victims of appearances. The simplest things are _very +_"complicated"--we can never be sufficiently astonished at them! + + + + +7. + + +RECONCEIVING OUR FEELING OF SPACE.--Is it real or imaginary things which +have built up the greater proportion of man's happiness? It is certain, at +all events, that the extent of the distance between the highest point of +happiness and the lowest point of unhappiness has been established only +with the help of imaginary things. As a consequence, _this_ kind of a +conception of space is always, under the influence of science, becoming +smaller and smaller: in the same way as science has taught us, and is +still teaching us, to look upon the earth as small--yea, to look upon the +entire solar system as a mere point. + + + + +8. + + +TRANSFIGURATION.--Perplexed sufferers, confused dreamers, the hysterically +ecstatic--here we have the three classes into which Raphael divided +mankind. We no longer consider the world in this light--and Raphael himself +dare not do so: his own eyes would show him a new transfiguration. + + + + +9. + + +CONCEPTION OF THE MORALITY OF CUSTOM.--In comparison with the mode of life +which prevailed among men for thousands of years, we men of the present +day are living in a very immoral age: the power of custom has been +weakened to a remarkable degree, and the sense of morality is so refined +and elevated that we might almost describe it as volatilised. That is why +we late comers experience such difficulty in obtaining a fundamental +conception of the origin of morality: and even if we do obtain it, our +words of explanation stick in our throats, so coarse would they sound if +we uttered them! or to so great an extent would they seem to be a slander +upon morality! Thus, for example, the fundamental clause: morality is +nothing else (and, above all, nothing more) than obedience to customs, of +whatsoever nature they may be. But customs are simply the traditional way +of acting and valuing. Where there is no tradition there is no morality; +and the less life is governed by tradition, the narrower the circle of +morality. The free man is immoral, because it is his _will_ to depend upon +himself and not upon tradition: in all the primitive states of humanity +"evil" is equivalent to "individual," "free," "arbitrary," "unaccustomed," +"unforeseen," "incalculable." In such primitive conditions, always +measured by this standard, any action performed--_not_ because tradition +commands it, but for other reasons (_e.g._ on account of its individual +utility), even for the same reasons as had been formerly established by +custom--is termed immoral, and is felt to be so even by the very man who +performs it, for it has not been done out of obedience to the tradition. + +What is tradition? A higher authority, which is obeyed, not because it +commands what is useful to us, but merely because it commands. And in what +way can this feeling for tradition be distinguished from a general feeling +of fear? It is the fear of a higher intelligence which commands, the fear +of an incomprehensible power, of something that is more than +personal--there is _superstition_ in this fear. In primitive times the +domain of morality included education and hygienics, marriage, medicine, +agriculture, war, speech and silence, the relationship between man and +man, and between man and the gods--morality required that a man should +observe her prescriptions without thinking of _himself_ as individual. +Everything, therefore, was originally custom, and whoever wished to raise +himself above it, had first of all to make himself a kind of lawgiver and +medicine-man, a sort of demi-god--in other words, he had to create customs, +a dangerous and fearful thing to do!--Who is the most moral man? On the one +hand, he who most frequently obeys the law: _e.g._ he who, like the +Brahmins, carries a consciousness of the law about with him wherever he +may go, and introduces it into the smallest divisions of time, continually +exercising his mind in finding opportunities for obeying the law. On the +other hand, he who obeys the law in the most difficult cases. The most +moral man is he who makes the greatest _sacrifices_ to morality; but what +are the greatest sacrifices? In answering this question several different +kinds of morality will be developed: but the distinction between the +morality of the _most frequent obedience_ and the morality of the _most +difficult obedience_ is of the greatest importance. Let us not be deceived +as to the motives of that moral law which requires, as an indication of +morality, obedience to custom in the most difficult cases! Self-conquest +is required, not by reason of its useful consequences for the individual; +but that custom and tradition may appear to be dominant, in spite of all +individual counter desires and advantages. The individual shall sacrifice +himself--so demands the morality of custom. + +On the other hand, those moralists who, like the followers of Socrates, +recommend self-control and sobriety to the _individual_ as his greatest +possible advantage and the key to his greatest personal happiness, are +_exceptions_--and if we ourselves do not think so, this is simply due to +our having been brought up under their influence. They all take a new +path, and thereby bring down upon themselves the utmost disapproval of all +the representatives of the morality of custom. They sever their connection +with the community, as immoralists, and are, in the fullest sense of the +word, evil ones. In the same way, every Christian who "sought, above all +things, his _own_ salvation," must have seemed evil to a virtuous Roman of +the old school. Wherever a community exists, and consequently also a +morality of custom, the feeling prevails that any punishment for the +violation of a custom is inflicted, above all, on the community: this +punishment is a supernatural punishment, the manifestations and limits of +which are so difficult to understand, and are investigated with such +superstitious fear. The community can compel any one member of it to make +good, either to an individual or to the community itself, any ill +consequences which may have followed upon such a member's action. It can +also call down a sort of vengeance upon the head of the individual by +endeavouring to show that, as the result of his action, a storm of divine +anger has burst over the community,--but, above all, it regards the guilt +of the individual more particularly as _its own_ guilt, and bears the +punishment of the isolated individual as its own punishment--"Morals," they +bewail in their innermost heart, "morals have grown lax, if such deeds as +these are possible." And every individual action, every individual mode of +thinking, causes dread. It is impossible to determine how much the more +select, rare, and original minds must have suffered in the course of time +by being considered as evil and dangerous, _yea, because they even looked +upon themselves as such_. Under the dominating influence of the morality +of custom, originality of every kind came to acquire a bad conscience; and +even now the sky of the best minds seems to be more overcast by this +thought than it need be. + + + + +10. + + +COUNTER-MOTION BETWEEN THE SENSE OF MORALITY AND THE SENSE OF +CAUSALITY.--As the sense of causality increases, so does the extent of the +domain of morality decrease: for every time one has been able to grasp the +necessary effects, and to conceive them as distinct from all incidentals +and chance possibilities (_post hoc_), one has, at the same time, +destroyed an enormous number of _imaginary causalities_, which had +hitherto been believed in as the basis of morals--the real world is much +smaller than the world of our imagination--and each time also one casts +away a certain amount of one's anxiousness and coercion, and some of our +reverence for the authority of custom is lost: morality in general +undergoes a diminution. He who, on the other hand, wishes to increase it +must know how to prevent results from becoming controllable. + + + + +11. + + +MORALS AND MEDICINES OF THE PEOPLE.--Every one is continuously occupied in +bringing more or less influence to bear upon the morals which prevail in a +community: most of the people bring forward example after example to show +the _alleged relationship between cause and effect_, guilt and punishment, +thus upholding it as well founded and adding to the belief in it. A few +make new observations upon the actions and their consequences, drawing +conclusions therefrom and laying down laws; a smaller number raise +objections and allow belief in these things to become weakened.--But they +are all alike in the crude and _unscientific_ manner in which they set +about their work: if it is a question of objections to a law, or examples +or observations of it, or of its proof, confirmation, expression or +refutation, we always find the material and method entirely valueless, as +valueless as the material and form of all popular medicine. Popular +medicines and popular morals are closely related, and should not be +considered and valued, as is still customary, in so different a way: both +are most dangerous and make-believe sciences. + + + + +12. + + +CONSEQUENCE AS ADJUVANT CAUSE.--Formerly the consequences of an action were +considered, not as the result of that action, but a voluntary +adjuvant--_i.e._ on the part of God. Can a greater confusion be imagined? +Entirely different practices and means have to be brought into use for +actions and effects! + + + + +13. + + +TOWARDS THE NEW EDUCATION OF MANKIND.--Help us, all ye who are +well-disposed and willing to assist, lend your aid in the endeavour to do +away with that conception of punishment which has swept over the whole +world! No weed more harmful than this! It is not only to the consequences +of our actions that this conception has been applied--and how horrible and +senseless it is to confuse cause and effect with cause and punishment!--but +worse has followed: the pure accidentality of events has been robbed of +its innocence by this execrable manner of interpreting conception of +punishment. Yea, they have even pushed their folly to such extremes that +they would have us look upon existence itself as a punishment--from which +it would appear that the education of mankind had hitherto been confided +to cranky gaolers and hangmen. + + + + +14. + + +THE SIGNIFICATION OF MADNESS IN THE HISTORY OF MORALITY.--If, despite that +formidable pressure of the "morality of custom," under which all human +communities lived--thousands of years before our own era, and during our +own era up to the present day (we ourselves are dwelling in the small +world of exceptions, and, as it were, in an evil zone):--if, I say, in +spite of all this, new and divergent ideas, valuations, and impulses have +made their appearance time after time, this state of things has been +brought about only with the assistance of a dreadful associate: it was +insanity almost everywhere that paved the way for the new thought and cast +off the spell of an old custom and superstition. Do ye understand why this +had to be done through insanity? by something which is in both voice and +appearance as horrifying and incalculable as the demoniac whims of wind +and sea, and consequently calling for like dread and respect? by something +bearing upon it the signs of entire lack of consciousness as clearly as +the convulsions and foam of the epileptic, which appeared to typify the +insane person as the mask and speaking-trumpet of some divine being? by +something that inspired even the bearer of the new thought with awe and +fear of himself, and that, suppressing all remorse, drove him on to become +its prophet and martyr?--Well, in our own time, we continually hear the +statement reiterated that genius is tinctured with madness instead of good +sense. Men of earlier ages were far more inclined to believe that, +wherever traces of insanity showed themselves, a certain proportion of +genius and wisdom was likewise present--something "divine," as they +whispered to one another. More than this, they expressed their opinions on +the point with sufficient emphasis. "All the greatest benefits of Greece +have sprung from madness," said Plato, setting on record the opinion of +the entire ancient world. Let us take a step further: all those superior +men, who felt themselves irresistibly urged on to throw off the yoke of +some morality or other, had no other resource--_if they were not really +mad_--than to feign madness, or actually to become insane. And this holds +good for innovators in every department of life, and not only in religion +and politics. Even the reformer of the poetic metre was forced to justify +himself by means of madness. (Thus even down to gentler ages madness +remained a kind of convention in poets, of which Solon, for instance, took +advantage when urging the Athenians to reconquer Salamis.)--"How can one +make one's self mad when one is not mad and dare not feign to be so?" +Almost all the eminent men of antiquity have given themselves up to this +dreadful mode of reasoning: a secret doctrine of artifices and dietetic +jugglery grew up around this subject and was handed down from generation +to generation, together with the feeling of the innocence, even sanctity, +of such plans and meditations. The means of becoming a medicine-man among +the Indians, a saint among Christians of the Middle Ages, an angecok among +Greenlanders, a Pagee among Brazilians, are the same in essence: senseless +fasting, continual abstention from sexual intercourse, isolation in a +wilderness, ascending a mountain or a pillar, "sitting on an aged willow +that looks out upon a lake," and thinking of absolutely nothing but what +may give rise to ecstasy or mental derangements. + +Who would dare to glance at the desert of the bitterest and most +superfluous agonies of spirit, in which probably the most productive men +of all ages have pined away? Who could listen to the sighs of those lonely +and troubled minds: "O ye heavenly powers, grant me madness! Madness, that +I at length may believe in myself! Vouchsafe delirium and convulsions, +sudden flashes of light and periods of darkness; frighten me with such +shivering and feverishness as no mortal ever experienced before, with +clanging noises and haunting spectres; let me growl and whine and creep +about like a beast, if only I can come to believe in myself! I am devoured +by doubt. I have slain the law, and I now dread the law as a living person +dreads a corpse. If I am not _above_ the law, I am the most abandoned of +wretches. Whence cometh this new spirit that dwelleth within me but from +you? Prove to me, then, that I am one of you--nothing but madness will +prove it to me." And only too often does such a fervour attain its object: +at the very time when Christianity was giving the greatest proof of its +fertility in the production of saints and martyrs, believing that it was +thus proving itself, Jerusalem contained large lunatic asylums for +shipwrecked saints, for those whose last spark of good sense had been +quenched by the floods of insanity. + + + + +15. + + +THE MOST ANCIENT MEANS OF SOLACE.--First stage: In every misfortune or +discomfort man sees something for which he must make somebody else suffer, +no matter who--in this way he finds out the amount of power still remaining +to him; and this consoles him. Second stage: In every misfortune or +discomfort, man sees a punishment, _i.e._ an expiation of guilt and the +means by which he may get rid of the malicious enchantment of a real or +apparent wrong. When he perceives the _advantage_ which misfortune bring +with it, he believes he need no longer make another person suffer for +it--he gives up this kind of satisfaction, because he now has another. + + + + +16. + + +FIRST PRINCIPLE OF CIVILISATION.--Among savage tribes there is a certain +category of customs which appear to aim at nothing but custom. They +therefore lay down strict, and, on the whole, superfluous regulations +(_e.g._ the rules of the Kamchadales, which forbid snow to be scraped off +the boots with a knife, coal to be stuck on the point of a knife, or a +piece of iron to be put into the fire--and death to be the portion of every +one who shall act contrariwise!) Yet these laws serve to keep people +continually reminded of the custom, and the imperative necessity on their +parts to conform to it: and all this in support of the great principle +which stands at the beginning of all civilisation: any custom is better +than none. + + + + +17. + + +GOODNESS AND MALIGNITY.--At first men imposed their own personalities on +Nature: everywhere they saw themselves and their like, _i.e._ their own +evil and capricious temperaments, hidden, as it were, behind clouds, +thunder-storms, wild beasts, trees, and plants: it was then that they +declared Nature was evil. Afterwards there came a time, that of Rousseau, +when they sought to distinguish themselves from Nature: they were so tired +of each other that they wished to have separate little hiding-places where +man and his misery could not penetrate: then they invented "nature is +good." + + + + +18. + + +THE MORALITY OF VOLUNTARY SUFFERING.--What is the highest enjoyment for men +living in a state of war in a small community, the existence of which is +continually threatened, and the morality of which is the strictest +possible? _i.e._ for souls which are vigorous, vindictive, malicious, full +of suspicion, ready to face the direst events, hardened by privation and +morality? The enjoyment of cruelty: just as, in such souls and in such +circumstances, it would be regarded as a virtue to be ingenious and +insatiable in cruelty. Such a community would find its delight in +performing cruel deeds, casting aside, for once, the gloom of constant +anxiety and precaution. Cruelty is one of the most ancient enjoyments at +their festivities. As a consequence it is believed that the gods likewise +are pleased by the sight of cruelty and rejoice at it--and in this way the +belief is spread that _voluntary suffering_, self-chosen martyrdom, has a +high signification and value of its own. In the community custom gradually +brings about a practice in conformity with this belief: henceforward +people become more suspicious of all exuberant well-being, and more +confident as they find themselves in a state of great pain; they think +that the gods may be unfavourable to them on account of happiness, and +favourable on account of pain--not compassionate! For compassion is looked +upon with contempt, and unworthy of a strong and awe-inspiring soul--but +agreeable to them, because the sight of human suffering put these gods +into good humour and makes them feel powerful, and a cruel mind revels in +the sensation of power. It was thus that the "most moral man" of the +community was considered as such by virtue of his frequent suffering, +privation, laborious existence, and cruel mortification--not, to repeat it +again and again, as a means of discipline or self-control or a desire for +individual happiness--but a a virtue which renders the evil gods +well-disposed towards the community, a virtue which continually wafts up +to them the odour of an expiatory sacrifice. All those intellectual +leaders of the nations who reached the point of being able to stir up the +sluggish though prolific mire of their customs had to possess this factor +of voluntary martyrdom as well as insanity in order to obtain +belief--especially, and above all, as is always the case, belief in +themselves! The more their minds followed new paths, and were consequently +tormented by pricks of conscience, the more cruelly they battled against +their own flesh, their own desires, and their own health--as if they were +offering the gods a compensation in pleasure, lest these gods should wax +wroth at the neglect of ancient customs and the setting up of new aims. + +Let no one be too hasty in thinking that we have now entirely freed +ourselves from such a logic of feeling! Let the most heroic souls among us +question themselves on this very point. The least step forward in the +domain of free thought and individual life has been achieved in all ages +to the accompaniment of physical and intellectual tortures: and not only +the mere step forward, no! but every form of movement and change has +rendered necessary innumerable martyrs, throughout the entire course of +thousands of years which sought their paths and laid down their +foundation-stones, years, however, which we do not think of when we speak +about "world-history," that ridiculously small division of mankind's +existence. And even in this so-called world-history, which in the main is +merely a great deal of noise about the latest novelties, there is no more +important theme than the old, old tragedy of the martyrs _who tried to +move the mire_. Nothing has been more dearly bought than the minute +portion of human reason and feeling of liberty upon which we now pride +ourselves. But it is this very pride which makes it almost impossible for +us to-day to be conscious of that enormous lapse of time, preceding the +period of "world-history" when "morality of custom" held the field, and to +consider this lapse of time as _the real and decisive epoch that +established the character of mankind_: an epoch when suffering was +considered as a virtue, cruelty as a virtue, hypocrisy as a virtue, +revenge as a virtue, and the denial of the reason as a virtue, whereas, on +the other hand, well-being was regarded as a danger, longing for knowledge +as a danger, peace as a danger, compassion as a danger: an epoch when +being pitied was looked upon as an insult, work as an insult, madness as a +divine attribute, and every kind of change as immoral and pregnant with +ruin! You imagine that all this has changed, and that humanity must +likewise have changed its character? Oh, ye poor psychologists, learn to +know yourselves better! + + + + +19. + + +MORALITY AND STUPEFACTION.--Custom represents the experiences of men of +earlier times in regard to what they considered as useful and harmful; but +the _feeling of custom_ (morality) does not relate to these feelings as +such, but to the age, the sanctity, and the unquestioned authority of the +custom. Hence this feeling hinders our acquiring new experiences and +amending morals: _i.e._ morality is opposed to the formation of new and +better morals: it stupefies. + + + + +20. + + +FREE-DOERS AND FREE-THINKERS.--Compared with free-thinkers, free-doers are +at a disadvantage, because it is evident that men suffer more from the +consequences of actions than of thoughts. If we remember, however, that +both seek their own satisfaction, and that free-thinkers have already +found their satisfaction in reflection upon and utterance of forbidden +things, there is no difference in the motives; but in respect of the +consequences the issue will be decided against the free-thinker, provided +that it be not judged from the most superficial and vulgar external +appearance, _i.e._ not as every one would judge it. We must make up for a +good deal of the calumny with which men have covered all those who have, +by their actions, broken away from the authority of some custom--they are +generally called criminals. Every one who has hitherto overthrown a law of +established morality has always at first been considered as a _wicked +man_: but when it was afterwards found impossible to re-establish the law, +and people gradually became accustomed to the change, the epithet was +changed by slow degrees. History deals almost exclusively with these +_wicked men_, who later on came to be recognised as _good men_. + + + + +21. + + +"FULFILMENT OF THE LAW."--In cases where the observance of a moral precept +has led to different consequence from that expected and promised, and does +not bestow upon the moral man the happiness he had hoped for, but leads +rather to misfortune and misery, the conscientious and timid man has +always his excuse ready: "Something was lacking in the proper _carrying +out_ of the law." If the worst comes to the worst, a deeply-suffering and +down-trodden humanity will even decree: "It is impossible to carry out the +precept faithfully: we are too weak and sinful, and, in the depths of our +soul, incapable of morality: consequently we have no claim to happiness +and success. Moral precepts and promises have been given for better beings +than ourselves." + + + + +22. + + +WORKS AND FAITH.--Protestant teachers are still spreading the fundamental +error that faith only is of consequence, and that works must follow +naturally upon faith. This doctrine is certainly not true, but it is so +seductive in appearance that it has succeeded in fascinating quite other +intellects than that of Luther (_e.g._ the minds of Socrates and Plato): +though the plain evidence and experience of our daily life prove the +contrary. The most assured knowledge and faith cannot give us either the +strength or the dexterity required for action, or the practice in that +subtle and complicated mechanism which is a prerequisite for anything to +be changed from an idea into action. Then, I say, let us first and +foremost have works! and this means practice! practice! practice! The +necessary faith will come later--be certain of that! + + + + +23. + + +IN WHAT RESPECT WE ARE MOST SUBTLE.--By the fact that, for thousands of +years, _things_ (nature, tools, property of all kinds) were thought to be +alive and to possess souls, and able to hinder and interfere with the +designs of man, the feeling of impotence among men has become greater and +more frequent than it need have been: for one had to secure one's things +like men and beasts, by means of force, compulsion, flattery, treaties, +sacrifices--and it is here that we may find the origin of the greater +number of superstitious customs, _i.e._ of an important, _perhaps +paramount_, and nevertheless wasted and useless division of mankind's +activity!--But since the feeling of impotence and fear was so strong, and +for such a length of time in a state of constant stimulation, the feeling +of _power_ in man has been developed in so subtle a manner that, in this +respect, he can compare favourably with the most delicately-adjusted +balance. This feeling has become his strongest propensity: and the means +he discovered for creating it form almost the entire history of culture. + + + + +24. + + +THE PROOF OF A PRECEPT.--The worth or worthlessness of a recipe--that for +baking bread, for example--is proved, generally speaking, by the result +expected coming to pass or not, provided, of course, that the directions +given have been carefully followed. The case is different, however, when +we come to deal with moral precepts, for here the results cannot be +ascertained, interpreted, and divined. These precepts, indeed, are based +upon hypotheses of but little scientific value, the proof or refutation of +which by means of results is impossible:--but in former ages, when all +science was crude and primitive, and when a matter was _taken for granted_ +on the smallest evidence, then the worth or worthlessness of a moral +recipe was determined as we now determine any other precept: by reference +to the results. If the natives of Alaska believe in a command which says: +"Thou shalt not throw a bone into the fire or give it to a dog," this will +be proved by the warning: "If thou dost thou wilt have no luck when +hunting." Yet, in one sense or another, it almost invariably happens that +one has "no luck when hunting." It is no easy matter to _refute_ the worth +of the precept in this way, the more so as it is the community, and not +the individual, which is regarded as the bearer of the punishment; and, +again, some occurrence is almost certain to happen which seems to prove +the rule. + + + + +25. + + +CUSTOMS AND BEAUTY.--In justice to custom it must not be overlooked that, +in the case of all those who conform to it whole-heartedly from the very +start, the organs of attack and defence, both physical and intellectual, +begin to waste away; _i.e._ these individuals gradually become more +beautiful! For it is the exercise of these organs and their corresponding +feelings that brings about ugliness and helps to preserve it. It is for +this reason that the old baboon is uglier than the young one, and that the +young female baboon most closely resembles man, and is hence the most +handsome.--Let us draw from this our own conclusions as to the origin of +female beauty! + + + + +26. + + +ANIMALS AND MORALS.--The rules insisted upon in polite society, such, for +example, as the avoidance of everything ridiculous, fantastic, +presumptuous; the suppression of one's virtues just as much as of one's +most violent desires, the instant bringing of one's self down to the +general level, submitting one's self to etiquette and self-depreciation: +all this, generally speaking, is to be found, as a social morality, even +in the lowest scale of the animal world--and it is only in this low scale +that we see the innermost plan of all these amiable precautionary +regulations: one wishes to escape from one's pursuers and to be aided in +the search for plunder. Hence animals learn to control and to disguise +themselves to such an extent that some of them can even adapt the colour +of their bodies to that of their surroundings (by means of what is known +as the "chromatic function"). Others can simulate death, or adopt the +forms and colours of other animals, or of sand, leaves, moss, or fungi +(known to English naturalists as "mimicry"). + +It is in this way that an individual conceals himself behind the +universality of the generic term "man" or "society," or adapts and +attaches himself to princes, castes, political parties, current opinions +of the time, or his surroundings: and we may easily find the animal +equivalent of all those subtle means of making ourselves happy, thankful, +powerful, and fascinating. Even that sense of truth, which is at bottom +merely the sense of security, is possessed by man in common with the +animals: we do not wish to be deceived by others or by ourselves; we hear +with some suspicion the promptings of our own passions, we control +ourselves and remain on the watch against ourselves. Now, the animal does +all this as well as man; and in the animal likewise self-control +originates in the sense of reality (prudence). In the same way, the animal +observes the effects it exercises on the imagination of other beasts: it +thus learns to view itself from their position, to consider itself +"objectively"; it has its own degree of self-knowledge. The animal judges +the movements of its friends and foes, it learns their peculiarities by +heart and acts accordingly: it gives up, once and for all, the struggle +against individual animals of certain species, and it likewise recognises, +in the approach of certain varieties, whether their intentions are +agreeable and peaceful. The beginnings of justice, like those of wisdom--in +short, everything which we know as the _Socratic virtues_--are of an +_animal_ nature: a consequence of those instincts which teach us to search +for food and to avoid our enemies. If we remember that the higher man has +merely raised and refined himself in the _quality_ of his food and in the +conception of what is contrary to his nature, it may not be going too far +to describe the entire moral phenomenon as of an animal origin. + + + + +27. + + +THE VALUE OF THE BELIEF IN SUPERHUMAN PASSIONS.--The institution of +marriage stubbornly upholds the belief that love, although a passion, is +nevertheless capable of duration as such, yea, that lasting, lifelong love +may be taken as a general rule. By means of the tenacity of a noble +belief, in spite of such frequent and almost customary refutations--thereby +becoming a _pia fraus_--marriage has elevated love to a higher rank. Every +institution which has conceded to a passion the _belief in the duration of +the latter_, and responsibility for this duration, in spite of the nature +of the passion itself, has raised the passion to a higher level: and he +who is thenceforth seized with such a passion does not, as formerly, think +himself lowered in the estimation of others or brought into danger on that +account, but on the contrary believes himself to be raised, both in the +opinion of himself and of his equals. Let us recall institutions and +customs which, out of the fiery devotion of a moment, have created eternal +fidelity; out of the pleasure of anger, eternal vengeance; out of despair, +eternal mourning; out of a single hasty word, eternal obligation. A great +deal of hypocrisy and falsehood came into the world as the result of such +transformations; but each time, too, at the cost of such disadvantages, a +new and _superhuman_ conception which elevates mankind. + + + + +28. + + +STATE OF MIND AS ARGUMENT.--Whence arises within us a cheerful readiness +for action?--such is the question which has greatly occupied the attention +of men. The most ancient answer, and one which we still hear, is: God is +the cause; in this way He gives us to understand that He approves of our +actions. When, in former ages, people consulted the oracles, they did so +that they might return home strengthened by this cheerful readiness; and +every one answered the doubts which came to him, if alternative actions +suggested themselves, by saying: "I shall do whatever brings about that +feeling." They did not decide, in other words, for what was most +reasonable, but upon some plan the conception of which imbued the soul +with courage and hope. A cheerful outlook was placed in the scales as an +argument and proved to be heavier than reasonableness; for the state of +mind was interpreted in a superstitious manner as the action of a god who +promises success; and who, by this argument, lets his reason speak as the +highest reasonableness. Now, let the consequences of such a prejudice be +considered when shrewd men, thirsting for power, availed themselves of +it--and still do so! "Bring about the right state of mind!"--in this way you +can do without all arguments and overcome every objection! + + + + +29. + + +ACTORS OF VIRTUE AND SIN.--Among the ancients who became celebrated for +their virtue there were many, it would seem, _who acted to themselves_, +especially the Greeks, who, being actors by nature, must have acted quite +unconsciously, seeing no reason why they should not do so. In addition, +every one was striving to outdo some one else's virtue with his own, so +why should they not have made use of every artifice to show off their +virtues, especially among themselves, if only for the sake of practice! Of +what use was a virtue which one could not display, and which did not know +how to display itself!--Christianity put an end to the career of these +actors of virtue; instead it devised the disgusting ostentation and +parading of sins: it brought into the world a state of _mendacious +sinfulness_ (even at the present day this is considered as _bon ton_ among +orthodox Christians). + + + + +30. + + +REFINED CRUELTY AS VIRTUE.--Here we have a morality which is based entirely +upon our thirst for distinction--do not therefore entertain too high an +opinion of it! Indeed, we may well ask what kind of an impulse it is, and +what is its fundamental signification? It is sought, by our appearance, to +grieve our neighbour, to arouse his envy, and to awaken his feelings of +impotence and degradation; we endeavour to make him taste the bitterness +of his fate by dropping a little of _our_ honey on his tongue, and, while +conferring this supposed benefit on him, looking sharply and triumphantly +into his eyes. + +Behold such a man, now become humble, and perfect in his humility--and seek +those for whom, through his humility, he has for a long time been +preparing a torture; for you are sure to find them! Here is another man +who shows mercy towards animals, and is admired for doing so--but there are +certain people on whom he wishes to vent his cruelty by this very means. +Look at that great artist: the pleasure he enjoyed beforehand in +conceiving the envy of the rivals he had outstripped, refused to let his +powers lie dormant until he became a great man--how many bitter moments in +the souls of other men has he asked for as payment for his own greatness! +The nun's chastity: with what threatening eyes she looks into the faces of +other women who live differently from her! what a vindictive joy shines in +those eyes! The theme is short, and its variations, though they might well +be innumerable, could not easily become tiresome--for it is still too +paradoxical a novelty, and almost a painful one, to affirm that the +morality of distinction is nothing, at bottom, but joy in refined cruelty. +When I say "at bottom," I mean here, every time in the first generation. +For, when the habit of some distinguished action becomes _hereditary_, its +root, so to speak, is not transmitted, but only its fruits (for only +feelings, and not thoughts, can become hereditary): and, if we presuppose +that this root is not reintroduced by education, in the second generation +the joy in the cruelty is no longer felt: but only pleasure in the habit +as such. _This_ joy, however, is the first degree of the "good." + + + + +31. + + +PRIDE IN SPIRIT.--The pride of man, which strives to oppose the theory of +our own descent from animals and establishes a wide gulf between nature +and man himself--this pride is founded upon a prejudice as to what the mind +is; and this prejudice is relatively recent. In the long prehistorical +period of humanity it was supposed that the mind was everywhere, and men +did not look upon it as a particular characteristic of their own. Since, +on the contrary, everything spiritual (including all impulses, +maliciousness, and inclinations) was regarded as common property, and +consequently accessible to everybody, primitive mankind was not ashamed of +being descended from animals or trees (the noble races thought themselves +honoured by such legends), and saw in the spiritual that which unites us +with nature, and not that which severs us from her. Thus man was brought +up in modesty--and this likewise was the result of a prejudice. + + + + +32. + + +THE BRAKE.--To suffer morally, and then to learn afterwards that this kind +of suffering was founded upon an error, shocks us. For there is a unique +consolation in acknowledging, by our suffering, a "deeper world of truth" +than any other world, and we would much rather suffer and feel ourselves +above reality by doing so (through the feeling that, in this way, we +approach nearer to that "deeper world of truth"), than live without +suffering and hence without this feeling of the sublime. Thus it is pride, +and the habitual fashion of satisfying it, which opposes this new +interpretation of morality. What power, then, must we bring into operation +to get rid of this brake? Greater pride? A new pride? + + + + +33. + + +THE CONTEMPT OF CAUSES, CONSEQUENCES, AND REALITY.--Those unfortunate +occurrences which take place at times in the community, such as sudden +storms, bad harvests, or plagues, lead members of the community to suspect +that offences against custom have been committed, or that new customs must +be invented to appease a new demoniac power and caprice. Suspicion and +reasoning of this kind, however, evade an inquiry into the real and +natural causes, and take the demoniac cause for granted. This is one +source of the hereditary perversion of the human intellect; and the other +one follows in its train, for, proceeding on the same principle, people +paid much less attention to the real and natural consequences of an action +than to the supernatural consequences (the so-called punishments and +mercies of the Divinity). It is commanded, for instance, that certain +baths are to be taken at certain times: and the baths are taken, not for +the sake of cleanliness, but because the command has been made. We are not +taught to avoid the real consequences of dirt, but merely the supposed +displeasure of the gods because a bath has been omitted. Under the +pressure of superstitious fear, people began to suspect that these +ablutions were of much greater importance than they seemed; they ascribed +inner and supplementary meanings to them, gradually lost their sense of +and pleasure in reality, and finally reality is considered as valuable +_only to the extent that it is a symbol._ Hence a man who is under the +influence of the morality of custom comes to despise causes first of all, +secondly consequences, and thirdly reality, and weaves all his higher +feelings (reverence, sublimity, pride, gratitude, love) _into an imaginary +world_: the so-called higher world. And even to-day we can see the +consequences of this: wherever, and in whatever fashion, man's feelings +are raised, that imaginary world is in evidence. It is sad to have to say +it; but for the time being _all higher sentiments_ must be looked upon +with suspicion by the man of science, to so great an extent are they +intermingled with illusion and extravagance. Not that they need +necessarily be suspected _per se_ and for ever; but there is no doubt +that, of all the gradual _purifications_ which await humanity, the +purification of the higher feelings will be one of the slowest. + + + + +34. + + +MORAL FEELINGS AND CONCEPTIONS.--It is clear that moral feelings are +transmitted in such a way that children perceive in adults violent +predilections and aversions for certain actions, and then, like born apes, +imitate such likes and dislikes. Later on in life, when they are +thoroughly permeated by these acquired and well-practised feelings, they +think it a matter of propriety and decorum to provide a kind of +justification for these predilections and aversions. These +"justifications," however, are in no way connected with the origin or the +degree of the feeling: people simply accommodate themselves to the rule +that, as rational beings, they must give reasons for their pros and cons, +reasons which must be assignable and acceptable into the bargain. Up to +this extent the history of the moral feelings is entirely different from +the history of moral conceptions. The first-mentioned are powerful +_before_ the action, and the latter especially after it, in view of the +necessity for making one's self clear in regard to them. + + + + +35. + + +FEELINGS AND THEIR DESCENT FROM JUDGMENTS.--"Trust in your feelings!" But +feelings comprise nothing final, original; feelings are based upon the +judgments and valuations which are transmitted to us in the shape of +feelings (inclinations, dislikes). The inspiration which springs from a +feeling is the grandchild of a judgment--often an erroneous judgment!--and +certainly not one's own judgment! Trusting in our feelings simply means +obeying our grandfather and grandmother more than the gods within +_ourselves_: our reason and experience. + + + + +36. + + +A FOOLISH PIETY, WITH _ARRIČRE-PENSÉES_.--What! the inventors of ancient +civilisations, the first makers of tools and tape lines, the first +builders of vehicles, ships, and houses, the first observers of the laws +of the heavens and the multiplication tables--is it contended that they +were entirely different from the inventors and observers of our own time, +and superior to them? And that the first slow steps forward were of a +value which has not been equalled by the discoveries we have made with all +our travels and circumnavigations of the earth? It is the voice of +prejudice that speaks thus, and argues in this way to depreciate the +importance of the modern mind. And yet it is plain to be seen that, in +former times, hazard was the greatest of all discoverers and observers and +the benevolent prompter of these ingenious ancients, and that, in the case +of the most insignificant invention now made, a greater intellect, +discipline, and scientific imagination are required than formerly existed +throughout long ages. + + + + +37. + + +WRONG CONCLUSIONS FROM USEFULNESS.--When we have demonstrated the highest +utility of a thing, we have nevertheless made no progress towards an +explanation of its origin; in other words, we can never explain, by mere +utility, the necessity of existence. But precisely the contrary opinion +has been maintained up to the present time, even in the domain of the most +exact science. In astronomy, for example, have we not heard it stated that +the (supposed) usefulness of the system of satellites--(replacing the light +which is diminished in intensity by the greater distance of the sun, in +order that the inhabitants of the various celestial bodies should not want +for light)--was the final object of this system and explained its origin? +Which may remind us of the conclusions of Christopher Columbus The earth +has been created for man, ergo, if there are countries, they must be +inhabited. "Is it probable that the sun would throw his rays on nothing, +and that the nocturnal vigils of the stars should be wasted upon +untravelled seas and unpeopled countries?" + + + + +38. + + +IMPULSES TRANSFORMED BY MORAL JUDGMENTS.--The same impulse, under the +impression of the blame cast upon it by custom, develops into the painful +feeling of cowardice, or else the pleasurable feeling of _humility_, in +case a morality, like that of Christianity, has taken it to its heart and +called it _good_. In other words, this instinct will fall under the +influence of either a good conscience or a bad one! In itself, _like every +instinct_, it does not possess either this or indeed any other moral +character and name, or even a definite accompanying feeling of pleasure or +displeasure; it does not acquire all these qualities as its second nature +until it comes into contact with impulses which have already been baptized +as good and evil, or has been recognised as the attribute of beings +already weighed and valued by the people from a moral point of view. Thus +the ancient conception of envy differed entirely from ours. Hesiod reckons +it among the qualities of the _good_, benevolent Eris, and it was not +considered as offensive to attribute some kind of envy even to the gods. +This is easy to understand in a state of things inspired mainly by +emulation, but emulation was looked upon as good, and valued accordingly. + +The Greeks were likewise different from us in the value they set upon +hope: they conceived it as blind and deceitful. Hesiod in one of his poems +has made a strong reference to it--a reference so strong, indeed, that no +modern commentator has quite understood it; for it runs contrary to the +modern mind, which has learnt from Christianity to look upon hope as a +virtue. Among the Greeks, on the other hand, the portal leading to a +knowledge of the future seemed only partly closed, and, in innumerable +instances, it was impressed upon them as a religious obligation to inquire +into the future, in those cases where we remain satisfied with hope. It +thus came about that the Greeks, thanks to their oracles and seers, held +hope in small esteem, and even lowered it to the level of an evil and a +danger. + +The Jews, again, took a different view of anger from that held by us, and +sanctified it: hence they have placed the sombre majesty of the wrathful +man at an elevation so high that a European cannot conceive it. They +moulded their wrathful and holy Jehovah after the images of their wrathful +and holy prophets. Compared with them, all the Europeans who have +exhibited the greatest wrath are, so to speak, only second-hand creatures. + + + + +39. + + +THE PREJUDICE CONCERNING "PURE SPIRIT."--Wherever the doctrine of _pure +spirituality_ has prevailed, its excesses have resulted in the destruction +of the tone of the nerves: it taught that the body should be despised, +neglected, or tormented, and that, on account of his impulses, man himself +should be tortured and regarded with contempt. It gave rise to gloomy, +strained, and downcast souls--who, besides, thought they knew the reason of +their misery and how it might possibly be relieved! "It _must_ be in the +body! For it still _thrives_ too well!"--such was their conclusion, whilst +the fact was that the body, through its agonies, protested time after time +against this never-ending mockery. Finally, a universal and chronic +hyper-nervousness seized upon those virtuous representatives of the pure +spirit: they learned to recognise joy only in the shape of ecstasies and +other preliminary symptoms of insanity--and their system reached its climax +when it came to look upon ecstasy as the highest aim of life, and as the +standard by which all earthly things must be _condemned_. + + + + +40. + + +MEDITATIONS UPON OBSERVANCES.--Numerous moral precepts, carelessly drawn +from a single event, quickly became incomprehensible; it was as difficult +a matter to deduce their intentions with any degree of certainty as it was +to recognise the punishment which was to follow the breaking of the rule. +Doubts were even held regarding the order of the ceremonies; but, while +people guessed at random about such matters, the object of their +investigations increased in importance, it was precisely the greatest +absurdity of an observance that developed into a holy of holies. Let us +not think too little of the energy wasted by man in this regard throughout +thousands of years, and least of all of the effects of such _meditations +upon observances_! Here we find ourselves on the wide training-ground of +the intellect--not only do religions develop and continue to increase +within its boundaries: but here also is the venerable, though dreadful, +primeval world of science; here grow up the poet, the thinker, the +physician, the lawgiver. The dread of the unintelligible, which, in an +ambiguous fashion, demanded ceremonies from us, gradually assumed the +charm of the intricate, and where man could not unravel he learnt to +create. + + + + +41. + + +TO DETERMINE THE VALUE OF THE _VITA CONTEMPLATIVA_.--Let us not forget, as +men leading a contemplative life, what kind of evil and misfortunes have +overtaken the men of the _vita activa_ as the result of contemplation--in +short, what sort of contra-account the _vita activa_ has to offer _us_, if +we exhibit too much boastfulness before it with respect to our good deeds. +It would show us, in the first place, those so-called religious natures, +who predominate among the lovers of contemplation and consequently +represent their commonest type. They have at all times acted in such a +manner as to render life difficult to practical men, and tried to make +them disgusted with it, if possible: to darken the sky, to obliterate the +sun, to cast suspicion upon joy, to depreciate hope, to paralyse the +active hand--all this they knew how to do, just as, for miserable times and +feelings, they had their consolations, alms, blessings, and benedictions. +In the second place, it can show us the artists, a species of men leading +the _vita contemplativa_, rarer than the religious element, but still +often to be met with. As beings, these people are usually intolerable, +capricious, jealous, violent, quarrelsome: this, however, must be deduced +from the joyous and exalting effects of their works. + +Thirdly, we have the philosophers, men who unite religious and artistic +qualities, combined, however, with a third element, namely, dialectics and +the love of controversy. They are the authors of evil in the same sense as +the religious men and artists, in addition to which they have wearied many +of their fellow-men with their passion for dialectics, though their number +has always been very small. Fourthly, the thinkers and scientific workers. +They but rarely strove after effects, and contented themselves with +silently sticking to their own groove. Thus they brought about little envy +and discomfort, and often, as objects of mockery and derision, they +served, without wishing to do so, to make life easier for the men of the +_vita activa_. Lastly, science ended by becoming of much advantage to all; +and if, _on account of this utility_, many of the men who were destined +for the _vita activa_ are now slowly making their way along the road to +science in the sweat of their brow, and not without brain-racking and +maledictions, this is not the fault of the crowd of thinkers and +scientific workers: it is "self-wrought pain."(3) + + + + +42. + + +ORIGIN OF THE _VITA CONTEMPLATIVA_.--During barbarous ages, when +pessimistic judgments held sway over men and the world, the individual, in +the consciousness of his full power, always endeavoured to act in +conformity with such judgments, that is to say, he put his ideas into +action by means of hunting, robbery, surprise attacks, brutality, and +murder: including the weaker forms of such acts, as far as they are +tolerated within the community. When his strength declines, however, and +he feels tired, ill, melancholy, or satiated--consequently becoming +temporarily void of wishes or desires--he is a relatively better man, that +is to say, less dangerous; and his pessimistic ideas will now discharge +themselves only in words and reflections--upon his companions, for example, +or his wife, his life, his gods,--his judgments will be _evil_ ones. In +this frame of mind he develops into a thinker and prophet, or he adds to +his superstitions and invents new observances, or mocks his enemies. +Whatever he may devise, however, all the productions of his brain will +necessarily reflect his frame of mind, such as the increase of fear and +weariness, and the lower value he attributes to action and enjoyment. The +substance of these productions must correspond to the substance of these +poetic, thoughtful, and priestly moods; the evil judgment must be supreme. + +In later years, all those who acted continuously as this man did in those +special circumstances--_i.e._ those who gave out pessimistic judgments, and +lived a melancholy life, poor in action--were called poets, thinkers, +priests, or "medicine-men." The general body of men would have liked to +disregard such people, because they were not active enough, and to turn +them out of the community; but there was a certain risk in doing so: these +inactive men had found out and were following the tracks of superstition +and divine power, and no one doubted that they had unknown means of power +at their disposal. This was the value which was set upon _the ancient race +of contemplative natures_--despised as they were in just the same degree as +they were not dreaded! In such a masked form, in such an ambiguous aspect, +with an evil heart and often with a troubled head, did Contemplation make +its first appearance on earth: both weak and terrible at the same time, +despised in secret, and covered in public with every mark of superstitious +veneration. Here, as always, we must say: _pudenda origo_! + + + + +43. + + +HOW MANY FORCES MUST NOW BE UNITED IN A THINKER.--To rise superior to +considerations of the senses, to raise one's self to abstract +contemplations: this is what was formerly regarded as _elevation_; but now +it is not practicable for us to share the same feelings. Luxuriating in +the most shadowy images of words and things; playing with those invisible, +inaudible, imperceptible beings, was considered as existence in another +and _higher_ world, a world that sprang from the deep contempt felt for +the world which was perceptible to the senses, this seductive and wicked +world of ours. "These _abstracta_ no longer mislead us, but they may lead +us"--with such words men soared aloft. It was not the _substance_ of these +intellectual sports, but the sports themselves, which was looked upon as +"the higher thing" in the primeval ages of science. Hence we have Plato's +admiration for dialectics, and his enthusiastic belief in the necessary +relationship of dialectics to the good man who has risen superior to the +considerations of his senses. It was not only knowledge that was +discovered little by little, but also the different means of acquiring it, +the conditions and operations which precede knowledge in man. And it +always seemed as if the newly-discovered operation or the +newly-experienced condition were not a means of acquiring knowledge, but +was even the substance, goal, and sum-total of everything that was worth +knowing. What does the thinker require?--imagination, inspiration, +abstraction, spirituality, invention, presentiment, induction, dialectics, +deduction, criticism, ability to collect materials, an impersonal mode of +thinking, contemplation, comprehensiveness, and lastly, but not least, +justice, and love for everything that exists--but each one of these means +was at one time considered, in the history of the _vita contemplativa_, as +a goal and final purpose, and they all secured for their inventors that +perfect happiness which fills the human soul when its final purpose dawns +upon it. + + + + +44. + + +ORIGIN AND MEANING.--Why does this thought come into my mind again and +again, always in more and more vivid colours?--that, in former times, +investigators, in the course of their search for the origin of things, +always thought that they found something which would be of the highest +importance for all kinds of action and judgment: yea, that they even +invariably postulated that the salvation of mankind depended upon _insight +into the origin of things_--whereas now, on the other hand, the more we +examine into origins, the less do they concern our interests: on the +contrary, all the valuations and interestedness which we have placed upon +things begin to lose their meaning, the more we retrogress where knowledge +is concerned and approach the things themselves. _The origin becomes of +less significance in proportion as we acquire insight into it_; whilst +things nearest to ourselves, around and within us, gradually begin to +manifest their wealth of colours, beauties, enigmas, and diversity of +meaning, of which earlier humanity never dreamed. In former ages thinkers +used to move furiously about, like wild animals in cages, steadily glaring +at the bars which hemmed them in, and at times springing up against them +in a vain endeavour to break through them: and happy indeed was he who +could look through a gap to the outer world and could fancy that he saw +something of what lay beyond and afar off. + + + + +45. + + +A TRAGIC TERMINATION TO KNOWLEDGE.--Of all the means of exaltation, human +sacrifices have at times done most to elevate man. And perhaps the one +powerful thought--the idea of _self-sacrificing humanity_--might be made to +prevail over every other aspiration, and thus to prove the victor over +even the most victorious. But to whom should the sacrifice be made? We may +already swear that, if ever the constellation of such an idea appeared on +the horizon, the knowledge of truth would remain the single but enormous +object with which a sacrifice of such a nature would be +commensurate--because no sacrifice is too great for it. In the meantime the +problem has never been expounded as to how far humanity, considered as a +whole, could take steps to encourage the advancement of knowledge; and +even less as to what thirst for knowledge could impel humanity to the +point of sacrificing itself with the light of an anticipated wisdom in its +eyes. When, perhaps, with a view to the advancement of knowledge, we are +able to enter into communication with the inhabitants of other stars, and +when, during thousands of years, wisdom will have been carried from star +to star, the enthusiasm of knowledge may rise to such a dizzy height! + + + + +46. + + +DOUBT IN DOUBT.--"What a good pillow doubt is for a well-balanced head!" +This saying of Montaigne always made Pascal angry, for nobody ever wanted +a good pillow so much as he did. Whatever was the matter with him? + + + + +47. + + +WORDS BLOCK UP OUR PATH.--Wherever primitive men put down a word, they +thought they had made a discovery. How different the case really was!--they +had come upon a problem, and, while they thought they had solved it, they +had in reality placed an obstacle in the way of its solution. Now, with +every new piece of knowledge, we stumble over petrified words and +mummified conceptions, and would rather break a leg than a word in doing +so. + + + + +48. + + +"KNOW THYSELF" IS THE WHOLE OF SCIENCE.--Only when man shall have acquired +a knowledge of all things will he be able to know himself. For things are +but the boundaries of man. + + + + +49. + + +THE NEW FUNDAMENTAL FEELING: OUR FINAL CORRUPTIBILITY.--In former times +people sought to show the feeling of man's greatness by pointing to his +divine descent. This, however, has now become a forbidden path, for the +ape stands at its entrance, and likewise other fearsome animals, showing +their teeth in a knowing fashion, as if to say, No further this way! Hence +people now try the opposite direction: the road along which humanity is +proceeding shall stand as an indication of their greatness and their +relationship to God. But alas! this, too, is useless! At the far end of +this path stands the funeral urn of the last man and grave-digger (with +the inscription, _Nihil humani a me alienum puto_). To whatever height +mankind may have developed--and perhaps in the end it will not be so high +as when they began!--there is as little prospect of their attaining to a +higher order as there is for the ant and the earwig to enter into kinship +with God and eternity at the end of their career on earth. What is to come +will drag behind it that which has passed: why should any little star, or +even any little species on that star, form an exception to that eternal +drama? Away with such sentimentalities! + + + + +50. + + +BELIEF IN INEBRIATION.--Those men who have moments of sublime ecstasy, and +who, on ordinary occasions, on account of the contrast and the excessive +wearing away of their nervous forces, usually feel miserable and desolate, +come to consider such moments as the true manifestation of their real +selves, of their "ego," and their misery and dejection, on the other hand, +as the _effect of the _"non-ego". This is why they think of their +environment, the age in which they live, and the whole world in which they +have their being, with feelings of vindictiveness. This intoxication +appears to them as their true life, their actual ego; and everywhere else +they see only those who strive to oppose and prevent this intoxication, +whether of an intellectual, moral, religious, or artistic nature. + +Humanity owes no small part of its evils to these fantastic enthusiasts; +for they are the insatiable sowers of the weed of discontent with one's +self and one's neighbour, of contempt for the world and the age, and, +above all, of world-lassitude. An entire hell of criminals could not, +perhaps, bring about such unfortunate and far-reaching consequences, such +heavy and disquieting effects that corrupt earth and sky, as are brought +about by that "noble" little community of unbridled, fantastic, half-mad +people--of geniuses, too--who cannot control themselves, or experience any +inward joy, until they have lost themselves completely: while, on the +other hand, the criminal often gives a proof of his admirable +self-control, sacrifice, and wisdom, and thus maintains these qualities in +those who fear him. Through him life's sky may at times seem overcast and +threatening, but the atmosphere ever remains brisk and +vigorous.--Furthermore, these enthusiasts bring their entire strength to +bear on the task of imbuing mankind with belief in inebriation as in life +itself: a dreadful belief! As savages are now quickly corrupted and ruined +by "fire-water," so likewise has mankind in general been slowly though +thoroughly corrupted by these spiritual "fire-waters" of intoxicating +feelings and by those who keep alive the craving for them. It may yet be +ruined thereby. + + + + +51. + + +SUCH AS WE STILL ARE.--"Let us be indulgent to the great one-eyed!" said +Stuart Mill, as if it were necessary to ask for indulgence when we are +willing to believe and almost to worship them. I say: Let us be indulgent +towards the two-eyed, both great and small; for, _such as we are now_, we +shall never rise beyond indulgence! + + + + +52. + + +WHERE ARE THE NEW PHYSICIANS OF THE SOUL?--It is the means of consolation +which have stamped life with that fundamental melancholy character in +which we now believe: the worst disease of mankind has arisen from the +struggle against diseases, and apparent remedies have in the long run +brought about worse conditions than those which it was intended to remove +by their use. Men, in their ignorance, used to believe that the stupefying +and intoxicating means, which appeared to act immediately, the so-called +"consolations," were the true healing powers: they even failed to observe +that they had often to pay for their immediate relief by a general and +profound deterioration in health, that the sick ones had to suffer from +the after-effects of the intoxication, then from the absence of the +intoxication, and, later on, from a feeling of disquietude, depression, +nervous starts, and ill-health. Again, men whose illness had advanced to a +certain extent never recovered from it--those physicians of the soul, +universally believed in and worshipped as they were, took care of that. + +It has been justly said of Schopenhauer that he was one who again took the +sufferings of humanity seriously: where is the man who will at length take +the antidotes against these sufferings seriously, and who will pillory the +unheard-of quackery with which men, even up to our own age, and in the +most sublime nomenclature, have been wont to treat the illnesses of their +souls? + + + + +53. + + +ABUSE OF THE CONSCIENTIOUS ONES.--It is the conscientious, and not the +unscrupulous, who have suffered so greatly from exhortations to penitence +and the fear of hell, especially if they happened to be men of +imagination. In other words, a gloom has been cast over the lives of those +who had the greatest need of cheerfulness and agreeable images--not only +for the sake of their own consolation and recovery from themselves, but +that humanity itself might take delight in them and absorb a ray of their +beauty. Alas, how much superfluous cruelty and torment have been brought +about by those religions which invented sin! and by those men who, by +means of such religions, desired to reach the highest enjoyment of their +power! + + + + +54. + + +THOUGHTS ON DISEASE.--To soothe the imagination of the patient, in order +that he may at least no longer keep on thinking about his illness, and +thus suffer more from such thoughts than from the complaint itself, which +has been the case hitherto--that, it seems to me, is something! and it is +by no means a trifle! And now do ye understand our task? + + + + +55. + + +THE "WAYS."--So-called "short cuts" have always led humanity to run great +risks: on hearing the "glad tidings" that a "short cut" had been found, +they always left the straight path--_and lost their way_. + + + + +56. + + +THE APOSTATE OF THE FREE SPIRIT.--Is there any one, then, who seriously +dislikes pious people who hold formally to their belief? Do we not, on the +contrary, regard them with silent esteem and pleasure, deeply regretting +at the same time that these excellent people do not share our own +feelings? But whence arises that sudden, profound, and unreasonable +dislike for the man who, having at one time possessed freedom of spirit, +finally becomes a "believer"? In thinking of him we involuntarily +experience the sensation of having beheld some loathsome spectacle, which +we must quickly efface from our recollection. Should we not turn our backs +upon even the most venerated man if we entertained the least suspicion of +him in this regard? Not, indeed, from a moral point of view, but because +of sudden disgust and horror! Whence comes this sharpness of feeling? +Perhaps we shall be given to understand that, at bottom, we are not quite +certain of our own selves? Or that, early in life, we build round +ourselves hedges of the most pointed contempt, in order that, when old age +makes us weak and forgetful, we may not feel inclined to brush our own +contempt away from us? + +Now, speaking frankly, this suspicion is quite erroneous, and whoever +forms it knows nothing of what agitates and determines the free spirit: +how little, to him, does the _changing_ of an opinion seem contemptible +_per se_! On the contrary, how highly he prizes the _ability_ to change an +opinion as a rare and valuable distinction, especially if he can retain it +far into old age! And his pride (not his pusillanimity) even reaches so +high as to be able to pluck the fruits of the _spernere se sperni_ and the +_spernere se ipsum_: without his being troubled by the sensation of fear +of vain and easy-going men. Furthermore, the doctrine of the innocence of +all opinions appears to him to be as certain as the doctrine of the +innocence of all actions: how could he act as judge and hangman before the +apostate of intellectual liberty! On the contrary, the sight of such a +person would disgust him as much as the sight of a nauseous illness +disgusts the physician: the physical repulsion caused by everything +spongy, soft, and suppurating momentarily overcomes reason and the desire +to help. Hence our goodwill is overcome by the conception of the monstrous +dishonesty which must have gained the upper hand in the apostate from the +free spirit: by the conception of a general gnawing which is eating its +way down even to the framework of the character. + + + + +57. + + +OTHER FEARS, OTHER SAFETIES.--Christianity overspread life with a new and +unlimited _insecurity_, thereby creating new safeties, enjoyments and +recreations, and new valuations of all things. Our own century denies the +existence of this insecurity, and does so with a good conscience, yet it +clings to the old habit of Christian certainties, enjoyments, recreations, +and valuations!--even in its noblest arts and philosophies. How feeble and +worn out must all this now seem, how imperfect and clumsy, how arbitrarily +fanatical, and, above all, how uncertain: now that its horrible contrast +has been taken away--the ever-present fear of the Christian for his +_eternal_ salvation! + + + + +58. + + +CHRISTIANITY AND THE EMOTIONS.--In Christianity we may see a great popular +protest against philosophy: the reasoning of the sages of antiquity had +withdrawn men from the influence of the emotions, but Christianity would +fain give men their emotions back again. With this aim in view, it denies +any moral value to virtue such as philosophers understood it--as a victory +of the reason over the passions--generally condemns every kind of goodness, +and calls upon the passions to manifest themselves in their full power and +glory: as _love_ of God, _fear_ of God, fanatic _belief_ in God, blind +_hope_ in God. + + + + +59. + + +ERROR AS A CORDIAL.--Let people say what they will, it is nevertheless +certain that it was the aim of Christianity to deliver mankind from the +yoke of moral engagements by indicating what it believed to be the +_shortest way to perfection_: exactly in the same manner as a few +philosophers thought they could dispense with tedious and laborious +dialectics, and the collection of strictly-proved facts, and point out a +royal road to truth. It was an error in both cases, but nevertheless a +great cordial for those who were worn out and despairing in the +wilderness. + + + + +60. + + +ALL SPIRIT FINALLY BECOMES VISIBLE.--Christianity has assimilated the +entire spirituality of an incalculable number of men who were by nature +submissive, all those enthusiasts of humiliation and reverence, both +refined and coarse. It has in this way freed itself from its own original +rustic coarseness--of which we are vividly reminded when we look at the +oldest image of St. Peter the Apostle--and has become a very intellectual +religion, with thousands of wrinkles, _arričre-pensées_, and masks on its +face. It has made European humanity more clever, and not only cunning from +a theological standpoint. By the spirit which it has thus given to +European humanity--in conjunction with the power of abnegation, and very +often in conjunction with the profound conviction and loyalty of that +abnegation--it has perhaps chiselled and shaped the most subtle +individualities which have ever existed in human society: the +individualities of the higher ranks of the Catholic clergy, especially +when these priests have sprung from a noble family, and have brought to +their work, from the very beginning, the innate grace of gesture, the +dominating glance of the eye, and beautiful hands and feet. Here the human +face acquires that spiritualisation brought about by the continual ebb and +flow of two kinds of happiness (the feeling of power and the feeling of +submission) after a carefully-planned manner of living has conquered the +beast in man. Here an activity, which consists in blessing, forgiving +sins, and representing the Almighty, ever keeps alive in the soul, _and +even in the body_, the consciousness of a supreme mission; here we find +that noble contempt concerning the perishable nature of the body, of +well-being, and of happiness, peculiar to born soldiers: their _pride_ +lies in obedience, a distinctly aristocratic trait; their excuse and their +idealism arise from the enormous impossibility of their task. The +surpassing beauty and subtleties of these princes of the Church have +always proved to the people the truth of the Church; a momentary +brutalisation of the clergy (such as came about in Luther's time) always +tended to encourage the contrary belief. And would it be maintained that +this result of beauty and human subtlety, shown in harmony of figure, +intellect, and task, would come to an end with religions? and that nothing +higher could be obtained, or even conceived? + + + + +61. + + +THE NEEDFUL SACRIFICE.--Those earnest, able, and just men of profound +feelings, who are still Christians at heart, owe it to themselves to make +one attempt to live for a certain space of time without Christianity! they +owe it _to their faith_ that they should thus for once take up their abode +"in the wilderness"--if for no other reason than that of being able to +pronounce on the question as to whether Christianity is needful. So far, +however, they have confined themselves to their own narrow domain and +insulted every one who happened to be outside of it: yea, they even become +highly irritated when it is suggested to them that beyond this little +domain of theirs lies the great world, and that Christianity is, after +all, only a corner of it! No; your evidence on the question will be +valueless until you have lived year after year without Christianity, and +with the inmost desire to continue to exist without it: until, indeed, you +have withdrawn far, far away from it. It is not when your nostalgia urges +you back again, but when your judgment, based on a strict comparison, +drives you back, that your homecoming has any significance!--Men of coming +generations will deal in this manner with all the valuations of the past; +they must be voluntarily _lived_ over again, together with their +contraries, in order that such men may finally acquire the right of +shifting them. + + + + +62. + + +ON THE ORIGIN OF RELIGIONS.--How can any one regard his own opinion of +things as a revelation? This is the problem of the formation of religions: +there has always been some man in whom this phenomenon was possible. A +postulate is that such a man already believed in revelations. Suddenly, +however, a new idea occurs to him one day, _his_ idea; and the entire +blessedness of a great personal hypothesis, which embraces all existence +and the whole world, penetrates with such force into his conscience that +he dare not think himself the creator of such blessedness, and he +therefore attributes to his God the cause of this new idea and likewise +the cause of the cause, believing it to be the revelation of his God. How +could a man be the author of so great a happiness? ask his pessimistic +doubts. But other levers are secretly at work: an opinion may be +strengthened by one's self if it be considered as a revelation; and in +this way all its hypothetic nature is removed; the matter is set beyond +criticism and even beyond doubt: it is sanctified. It is true that, in +this way, a man lowers himself to playing the rôle of "mouthpiece," but +his thought will end by being victorious as a divine thought--the feeling +of finally gaining the victory conquers the feeling of degradation. There +is also another feeling in the background: if a man raises his products +above himself, and thus apparently detracts from his own worth, there +nevertheless remains a kind of joyfulness, paternal love, and paternal +pride, which compensates man--more than compensates man--for everything. + + + + +63. + + +HATRED OF ONE'S NEIGHBOUR.--Supposing that we felt towards our neighbour as +he does himself--Schopenhauer calls this compassion, though it would be +more correct to call it auto-passion, fellow-feeling--we should be +compelled to hate him, if, like Pascal, he thought himself hateful. And +this was probably the general feeling of Pascal regarding mankind, and +also that of ancient Christianity, which, under Nero, was "convicted" of +_odium generis humani_, as Tacitus has recorded. + + + + +64. + + +THE BROKEN-HEARTED ONES.--Christianity has the instinct of a hunter for +finding out all those who may by hook or by crook be driven to +despair--only a very small number of men can be brought to this despair. +Christianity lies in wait for such as those, and pursues them. Pascal made +an attempt to find out whether it was not possible, with the help of the +very subtlest knowledge, to drive everybody into despair. He failed: to +his second despair. + + + + +65. + + +BRAHMINISM AND CHRISTIANITY.--There are certain precepts for obtaining a +consciousness of power: on the one hand, for those who already know how to +control themselves, and who are therefore already quite used to the +feeling of power; and, on the other hand, for those who cannot control +themselves. Brahminism has given its care to the former type of man; +Christianity to the latter. + + + + +66. + + +THE FACULTY OF VISION.--During the whole of the Middle Ages it was believed +that the real distinguishing trait of higher men was the faculty of having +visions--that is to say, of having a grave mental trouble. And, in fact, +the rules of life of all the higher natures of the Middle Ages (the +religiosi) were drawn up with the object of making man capable of vision! +Little wonder, then, that the exaggerated esteem for these half-mad +fanatics, so-called men of genius, has continued even to our own days. +"They have seen things that others do not see"--no doubt! and this fact +should inspire us with caution where they are concerned, and not with +belief! + + + + +67. + + +THE PRICE OF BELIEVERS.--He who sets such a value on being believed in has +to promise heaven in recompense for this belief: and every one, even a +thief on the Cross, must have suffered from a terrible doubt and +experienced crucifixion in every form: otherwise he would not buy his +followers so dearly. + + + + +68. + + +THE FIRST CHRISTIAN.--The whole world still believes in the literary career +of the "Holy Ghost," or is still influenced by the effects of this belief: +when we look into our Bibles we do so for the purpose of "edifying +ourselves," to find a few words of comfort for our misery, be it great or +small--in short, we read ourselves into it and out of it. But who--apart +from a few learned men--know that it likewise records the history of one of +the most ambitious and importunate souls that ever existed, of a mind full +of superstition and cunning: the history of the Apostle Paul? +Nevertheless, without this singular history, without the tribulations and +passions of such a mind, and of such a soul, there would have been no +Christian kingdom; we should have scarcely have even heard of a little +Jewish sect, the founder of which died on the Cross. It is true that, if +this history had been understood in time, if we had read, _really read_, +the writings of St. Paul, not as the revelations of the "Holy Ghost," but +with honest and independent minds, oblivious of all our personal +troubles--there were no such readers for fifteen centuries--it would have +been all up with Christianity long ago: so searchingly do these writings +of the Jewish Pascal lay bare the origins of Christianity, just as the +French Pascal let us see its destiny and how it will ultimately perish. +That the ship of Christianity threw overboard no inconsiderable part of +its Jewish ballast, that it was able to sail into the waters of the +heathen and actually did do so: this is due to the history of one single +man, this apostle who was so greatly troubled in mind and so worthy of +pity, but who was also very disagreeable to himself and to others. + +This man suffered from a fixed idea, or rather a fixed question, an +ever-present and ever-burning question: what was the _meaning_ of the +Jewish Law? and, more especially, _the fulfilment of this Law_? In his +youth he had done his best to satisfy it, thirsting as he did for that +highest distinction which the Jews could imagine--this people, which raised +the imagination of moral loftiness to a greater elevation than any other +people, and which alone succeeded in uniting the conception of a holy God +with the idea of sin considered as an offence against this holiness. St. +Paul became at once the fanatic defender and guard-of-honour of this God +and His Law. Ceaselessly battling against and lying in wait for all +transgressors of this Law and those who presumed to doubt it, he was +pitiless and cruel towards all evil-doers, whom he would fain have +punished in the most rigorous fashion possible. + +Now, however, he was aware in his own person of the fact that such a man +as himself--violent, sensual, melancholy, and malicious in his +hatred--_could_ not fulfil the Law; and furthermore, what seemed strangest +of all to him, he saw that his boundless craving for power was continually +provoked to break it, and that he could not help yielding to this impulse. +Was it really "the flesh" which made him a trespasser time and again? Was +it not rather, as it afterwards occurred to him, the Law itself, which +continually showed itself to be impossible to fulfil, and seduced men into +transgression with an irresistible charm? But at that time he had not +thought of this means of escape. As he suggests here and there, he had +many things on his conscience--hatred, murder, sorcery, idolatry, +debauchery, drunkenness, and orgiastic revelry,--and to however great an +extent he tried to soothe his conscience, and, even more, his desire for +power, by the extreme fanaticism of his worship for and defence of the +Law, there were times when the thought struck him: "It is all in vain! The +anguish of the unfulfilled Law cannot be overcome." Luther must have +experienced similar feelings, when, in his cloister, he endeavoured to +become the ideal man of his imagination; and, as Luther one day began to +hate the ecclesiastical ideal, and the Pope, and the saints, and the whole +clergy, with a hatred which was all the more deadly as he could not avow +it even to himself, an analogous feeling took possession of St. Paul. The +Law was the Cross on which he felt himself crucified. How he hated it! +What a grudge he owed it! How he began to look round on all sides to find +a means for its total annihilation, that he might no longer be obliged to +fulfil it himself! And at last a liberating thought, together with a +vision--which was only to be expected in the case of an epileptic like +himself--flashed into his mind: to him, the stern upholder of the Law--who, +in his innermost heart, was tired to death of it--there appeared on the +lonely path that Christ, with the divine effulgence on His countenance, +and Paul heard the words: "Why persecutest thou Me?" + +What actually took place, then, was this: his mind was suddenly +enlightened, and he said to himself: "It is unreasonable to persecute this +Jesus Christ! Here is my means of escape, here is my complete vengeance, +here and nowhere else have I the destroyer of the Law in my hands!" The +sufferer from anguished pride felt himself restored to health all at once, +his moral despair disappeared in the air; for morality itself was blown +away, annihilated--that is to say, _fulfilled_, there on the Cross! Up to +that time that ignominious death had seemed to him to be the principal +argument against the "Messiahship" proclaimed by the followers of the new +doctrine: but what if it were necessary for doing away with the Law? The +enormous consequences of this thought, of this solution of the enigma, +danced before his eyes, and he at once became the happiest of men. The +destiny of the Jews, yea, of all mankind, seemed to him to be intertwined +with this instantaneous flash of enlightenment: he held the thought of +thoughts, the key of keys, the light of lights; history would henceforth +revolve round him! For from that time forward he would be the apostle of +the _annihilation of the Law_! To be dead to sin--that meant to be dead to +the Law also; to be in the flesh--that meant to be under the Law! To be one +with Christ--that meant to have become, like Him, the destroyer of the Law; +to be dead with Him--that meant likewise to be dead to the Law. Even if it +were still possible to sin, it would not at any rate be possible to sin +against the Law: "I am above the Law," thinks Paul; adding, "If I were now +to acknowledge the Law again and to submit to it, I should make Christ an +accomplice in the sin"; for the Law was there for the purpose of producing +sin and setting it in the foreground, as an emetic produces sickness. God +could not have decided upon the death of Christ had it been possible to +fulfil the Law without it; henceforth, not only are all sins expiated, but +sin itself is abolished; henceforth the Law is dead; henceforth "the +flesh" in which it dwelt is dead--or at all events dying, gradually wasting +away. To live for a short time longer amid this decay!--this is the +Christian's fate, until the time when, having become one with Christ, he +arises with Him, sharing with Christ the divine glory, and becoming, like +Christ, a "Son of God." Then Paul's exaltation was at its height, and with +it the importunity of his soul--the thought of union with Christ made him +lose all shame, all submission, all constraint, and his ungovernable +ambition was shown to be revelling in the expectation of divine glories. + +Such was the first Christian, the inventor of Christianity! before him +there were only a few Jewish sectaries. + + + + +69. + + +INIMITABLE.--There is an enormous strain and distance between envy and +friendship, between self-contempt and pride: the Greek lived in the +former, the Christian in the latter. + + + + +70. + + +THE USE OF A COARSE INTELLECT.--The Christian Church is an encyclopćdia of +primitive cults and views of the most varied origin; and is, in +consequence, well adapted to missionary work: in former times she +could--and still does--go wherever she would, and in doing so always found +something resembling herself, to which she could assimilate herself and +gradually substitute her own spirit for it. It is not to what is Christian +in her usages, but to what is universally pagan in them, that we have to +attribute the development of this universal religion. Her thoughts, which +have their origin at once in the Judaic and in the Hellenic spirit, were +able from the very beginning to raise themselves above the exclusiveness +and subtleties of races and nations, as above prejudices. Although we may +admire the power which makes even the most difficult things coalesce, we +must nevertheless not overlook the contemptible qualities of this +power--the astonishing coarseness and narrowness of the Church's intellect +when it was in process of formation, a coarseness which permitted it to +accommodate itself to any diet, and to digest contradictions like pebbles. + + + + +71. + + +THE CHRISTIAN VENGEANCE AGAINST ROME.--Perhaps nothing is more fatiguing +than the sight of a continual conqueror: for more than two hundred years +the world had seen Rome overcoming one nation after another, the circle +was closed, all future seemed to be at an end, everything was done with a +view to its lasting for all time--yea, when the Empire built anything it +was erected with a view to being _aere perennius_. We, who know only the +"melancholy of ruins," can scarcely understand that totally different +_melancholy of eternal buildings_, from which men endeavoured to save +themselves as best they could--with the light-hearted fancy of a Horace, +for example. Others sought different consolations for the weariness which +was closely akin to despair, against the deadening knowledge that from +henceforth all progress of thought and heart would be hopeless, that the +huge spider sat everywhere and mercilessly continued to drink all the +blood within its reach, no matter where it might spring forth. This mute, +century-old hatred of the wearied spectators against Rome, wherever Rome's +domination extended, was at length vented in Christianity, which united +Rome, "the world," and "sin" into a single conception. The Christians took +their revenge on Rome by proclaiming the immediate and sudden destruction +of the world; by once more introducing a future--for Rome had been able to +transform everything into the history of its _own_ past and present--a +future in which Rome was no longer the most important factor; and by +dreaming of the last judgment--while the crucified Jew, as the symbol of +salvation, was the greatest derision on the superb Roman prćtors in the +provinces; for now they seemed to be only the symbols of ruin and a +"world" ready to perish. + + + + +72. + + +THE "LIFE AFTER DEATH."--Christianity found the idea of punishment in hell +in the entire Roman Empire: for the numerous mystic cults have hatched +this idea with particular satisfaction as being the most fecund egg of +their power. Epicurus thought he could do nothing better for his followers +than to tear this belief up by the roots: his triumph found its finest +echo in the mouth of one of his disciples, the Roman Lucretius, a poet of +a gloomy, though afterwards enlightened, temperament. Alas! his triumph +had come too soon: Christianity took under its special protection this +belief in subterranean horrors, which was already beginning to die away in +the minds of men; and that was clever of it. For, without this audacious +leap into the most complete paganism, how could it have proved itself +victorious over the popularity of Mithras and Isis? In this way it managed +to bring timorous folk over to its side--the most enthusiastic adherents of +a new faith! The Jews, being a people which, like the Greeks, and even in +a greater degree than the Greeks, loved and still love life, had not +cultivated that idea to any great extent: the thought of final death as +the punishment of the sinner, death without resurrection as an extreme +menace: this was sufficient to impress these peculiar men, who did not +wish to get rid of their bodies, but hoped, with their refined Egypticism, +to preserve them for ever. (A Jewish martyr, about whom we may read in the +Second Book of the Maccabees, would not think of giving up his intestines, +which had been torn out: he wanted to have them at the resurrection: quite +a Jewish characteristic!) + +Thoughts of eternal damnation were far from the minds of the early +Christians: they thought they were _delivered_ from death, and awaited a +transformation from day to day, but not death. (What a curious effect the +first death must have produced on these expectant people! How many +different feelings must have been mingled together--astonishment, +exultation, doubt, shame, and passion! Verily, a subject worthy of a great +artist!) St. Paul could say nothing better in praise of his Saviour than +that he had opened the gates of immortality to everybody--he did not +believe in the resurrection of those who had not been saved: more than +this, by reason of his doctrine of the impossibility of carrying out the +Law, and of death considered as a consequence of sin, he even suspected +that, up to that time, no one had become immortal (or at all events only a +very few, solely owing to special grace and not to any merits of their +own): it was only in his time that immortality had begun to open its +gates--and only a few of the elect would finally gain admittance, as the +pride of the elect cannot help saying. + +In other places, where the impulse towards life was not so strong as among +the Jews and the Christian Jews, and where the prospect of immortality did +not appear to be more valuable than the prospect of a final death, that +pagan, yet not altogether un-Jewish addition of Hell became a very useful +tool in the hands of the missionaries: then arose the new doctrine that +even the sinners and the unsaved are immortal, the doctrine of eternal +damnation, which was more powerful than the idea of a _final death_, which +thereafter began to fade away. It was science alone which could overcome +this idea, at the same time brushing aside all other ideas about death and +an after-life. We are poorer in one particular: the "life after death" has +no further interest for us! an indescribable blessing, which is as yet too +recent to be considered as such throughout the world. And Epicurus is once +more triumphant. + + + + +73. + + +FOR THE "TRUTH"!--"The truth of Christianity was attested by the virtuous +lives of the Christians, their firmness in suffering, their unshakable +belief and above all by the spread and increase of the faith in spite of +all calamities."--That's how you talk even now. The more's the pity. Learn, +then, that all this proves nothing either in favour of truth or against +it; that truth must be demonstrated differently from conscientiousness, +and that the latter is in no respect whatever an argument in favour of the +former. + + + + +74. + + +A CHRISTIAN _ARRIČRE-PENSÉE_.--Would not this have been a general +reservation among Christians of the first century: "It is better to +persuade ourselves into the belief that we are guilty rather than that we +are innocent; for it is impossible to ascertain the disposition of so +powerful a judge--but it is to be feared that he is looking out only for +those who are conscious of guilt. Bearing in mind his great power, it is +more likely that he will pardon a guilty person than admit that any one is +innocent, in his presence." This was the feeling of poor provincial folk +in the presence of the Roman prćtor: "He is too proud for us to dare to be +innocent." And may not this very sentiment have made its influence felt +when the Christians endeavoured to picture to themselves the aspect of the +Supreme Judge? + + + + +75. + + +NEITHER EUROPEAN NOR NOBLE.--There is something Oriental and feminine in +Christianity, and this is shown in the thought, "Whom the Lord loveth, He +chasteneth"; for women in the Orient consider castigations and the strict +seclusion of their persons from the world as a sign of their husband's +love, and complain if these signs of love cease. + + + + +76. + + +IF YOU THINK IT EVIL, YOU MAKE IT EVIL.--The passions become evil and +malignant when regarded with evil and malignant eyes. It is in this way +that Christianity has succeeded in transforming Eros and Aphrodite--sublime +powers, capable of idealisation--into hellish genii and phantom goblins, by +means of the pangs which every sexual impulse was made to raise in the +conscience of the believers. Is it not a dreadful thing to transform +necessary and regular sensations into a source of inward misery, and thus +arbitrarily to render interior misery necessary and regular _in the case +of every man_! Furthermore, this misery remains secret with the result +that it is all the more deeply rooted, for it is not all men who have the +courage, which Shakespeare shows in his sonnets, of making public their +Christian gloom on this point. + +Must a feeling, then, always be called evil against which we are forced to +struggle, which we must restrain even within certain limits, or, in given +cases, banish entirely from our minds? Is it not the habit of vulgar souls +always to call an _enemy_ evil! and must we call Eros an enemy? The sexual +feelings, like the feelings of pity and adoration, possess the particular +characteristic that, in their case, one being gratifies another by the +pleasure he enjoys--it is but rarely that we meet with such a benevolent +arrangement in nature. And yet we calumniate and corrupt it all by our bad +conscience! We connect the procreation of man with a bad conscience! + +But the outcome of this diabolisation of Eros is a mere farce: the "demon" +Eros becomes an object of greater interest to mankind than all the angels +and saints put together, thanks to the mysterious Mumbo-Jumboism of the +Church in all things erotic: it is due to the Church that love stories, +even in our own time, have become the one common interest which appeals to +all classes of people--with an exaggeration which would be incomprehensible +to antiquity, and which will not fail to provoke roars of laughter in +coming generations. All our poetising and thinking, from the highest to +the lowest, is marked, and more than marked, by the exaggerated importance +bestowed upon the love story as the principal item of our existence. +Posterity may perhaps, on this account, come to the conclusion that its +entire legacy of Christian culture is tainted with narrowness and +insanity. + + + + +77. + + +THE TORTURES OF THE SOUL.--The whole world raises a shout of horror at the +present day if one man presumes to torture the body of another: the +indignation against such a being bursts forth almost spontaneously. Nay; +we tremble even at the very thought of torture being inflicted on a man or +an animal, and we undergo unspeakable misery when we hear of such an act +having been accomplished. But the same feeling is experienced in a very +much lesser degree and extent when it is a question of the tortures of the +soul and the dreadfulness of their infliction. Christianity has introduced +such tortures on an unprecedented scale, and still continues to preach +this kind of martyrdom--yea, it even complains innocently of backsliding +and indifference when it meets with a state of soul which is free from +such agonies. From all this it now results that humanity, in the face of +spiritual racks, tortures of the mind, and instruments of punishment, +behaves even to-day with the same awesome patience and indecision which it +exhibited in former times in the presence of the cruelties practised on +the bodies of men or animals. Hell has certainly not remained merely an +empty sound; and a new kind of pity has been devised to correspond to the +newly-created fears of hell--a horrible and ponderous compassion, hitherto +unknown; with people "irrevocably condemned to hell," as, for example, the +Stony Guest gave Don Juan to understand, and which, during the Christian +era, should often have made the very stones weep. + +Plutarch presents us with a gloomy picture of the state of mind of a +superstitious man in pagan times: but this picture pales when compared +with that of a Christian of the Middle Ages, who _supposes_ that nothing +can save him from "torments everlasting." Dreadful omens appear to him: +perhaps he sees a stork holding a snake in his beak and hesitating to +swallow it. Or all nature suddenly becomes pale; or bright, fiery colours +appear across the surface of the earth. Or the ghosts of his dead +relations approach him, with features showing traces of dreadful +sufferings. Or the dark walls of the room in which the man is sleeping are +suddenly lighted up, and there, amidst a yellow flame, he perceives +instruments of torture and a motley horde of snakes and devils. +Christianity has surely turned this world of ours into a fearful +habitation by raising the crucifix in all parts and thereby proclaiming +the earth to be a place "where the just man is tortured to death!" And +when the ardour of some great preacher for once disclosed to the public +the secret sufferings of the individual, the agonies of the lonely souls, +when, for example, Whitefield preached "like a dying man to the dying," +now bitterly weeping, now violently stamping his feet, speaking +passionately, in abrupt and incisive tones, without fearing to turn the +whole force of his attack upon any one individual present, excluding him +from the assembly with excessive harshness--then indeed did it seem as if +the earth were being transformed into a "field of evil." The huge crowds +were then seen to act as if seized with a sudden attack of madness: many +were in fits of anguish; others lay unconscious and motionless; others, +again, trembled or rent the air with their piercing shrieks. Everywhere +there was a loud breathing, as of half-choked people who were gasping for +the breath of life. "Indeed," said an eye-witness once, "almost all the +noises appeared to come from people who were dying in the bitterest +agony." + +Let us never forget that it was Christianity which first turned the +death-bed into a bed of agony, and that, by the scenes which took place +there, and the terrifying sounds which were made possible there for the +first time, it has poisoned the senses and the blood of innumerable +witnesses and their children. Imagine the ordinary man who can never +efface the recollection of words like these: "Oh, eternity! Would that I +had no soul! Would that I had never been born! My soul is damned, damned; +lost for ever! Six days ago you might have helped me. But now all is over. +I belong to the devil, and with him I will go down to hell. Break, break, +ye poor hearts of stone! Ye will not break? What more can be done for +hearts of stone? I am damned that ye may be saved! There he is! Yea; there +he is! Come, good devil! Come!" + + + + +78. + + +AVENGING JUSTICE.--Misfortune and guilt: these two things have been put on +one scale by Christianity; so that, when the misfortune which follows a +fault is a serious one, this fault is always judged accordingly to be a +very heinous one. But this was not the valuation of antiquity, and that is +why Greek tragedy--in which misfortune and punishment are discussed at +length, and yet in another sense--forms part of the great liberators of the +mind to an extent which even the ancients themselves could not realise. +They remained ingenuous enough not to set up an "adequate relation" +between guilt and misfortune. The guilt of their tragic heroes is, indeed, +the little pebble that makes them stumble, and on which account they +sometimes happen to break an arm or knock out an eye. Upon this the +feeling of antiquity made the comment, "Well, he should have gone his way +with more caution and less pride." It was reserved for Christianity, +however, to say: "Here we have a great misfortune, and behind this great +misfortune there must lie a great fault, an equally _serious fault_, +though we cannot clearly see it! If, wretched man, you do not feel it, it +is because your heart is hardened--and worse than this will happen to you!" + +Besides this, antiquity could point to examples of real misfortunes, +misfortunes that were pure and innocent; it was only with the advent of +Christianity that all punishment became well-merited punishment: in +addition to this it renders the imagination of the sufferer still more +suffering, so that the victim, in the midst of his distress, is seized +with the feeling that he has been morally reproved and cast away. Poor +humanity! The Greeks had a special word to stand for the feeling of +indignation which was experienced at the misfortune of another: among +Christian peoples this feeling was prohibited and was not permitted to +develop; hence the reason why they have no name for this _more virile_ +brother of pity. + + + + +79. + + +A PROPOSAL.--If, according to the arguments of Pascal and Christianity, our +ego is always hateful, how can we permit and suppose other people, whether +God or men, to love it? It would be contrary to all good principles to let +ourselves be loved when we know very well that we deserve nothing but +hatred--not to speak of other repugnant feelings. "But this is the very +Kingdom of Grace." Then you look upon your love for your neighbour as a +grace? Your pity as a grace? Well, then, if you can do all this, there is +no reason why you should not go a step further: love yourselves through +grace, and then you will no longer find your God necessary, and the entire +drama of the Fall and Redemption of mankind will reach its last act in +yourselves! + + + + +80. + + +THE COMPASSIONATE CHRISTIAN.--A Christian's compassion in the presence of +his neighbour's suffering has another side to it: viz. his profound +suspicion of all the joy of his neighbour, of his neighbour's joy in +everything that he wills and is able to do. + + + + +81. + + +THE SAINT'S HUMANITY.--A saint had fallen into the company of believers, +and could no longer stand their continually expressed hatred for sin. At +last he said to them: "God created all things, except sin: therefore it is +no wonder that He does not like it. But man has created sin, and why, +then, should he disown this only child of his merely because it is not +regarded with a friendly eye by God, its grandfather? Is that human? +Honour to whom honour is due--but one's heart and duty must speak, above +all, in favour of the child--and only in the second place for the honour of +the grandfather!" + + + + +82. + + +THE THEOLOGICAL ATTACK.--"You must arrange that with yourself; for your +life is at stake!"--Luther it is who suddenly springs upon us with these +words and imagines that we feel the knife at our throats. But we throw him +off with the words of one higher and more considerate than he: "We need +form no opinion in regard to this or that matter, and thus save our souls +from trouble. For, by their very nature, the things themselves cannot +compel us to express an opinion." + + + + +83. + + +POOR HUMANITY!--A single drop of blood too much or too little in the brain +may render our life unspeakably miserable and difficult, and we may suffer +more from this single drop of blood than Prometheus from his vulture. But +the worst is when we do not know that this drop is causing our +sufferings--and we think it is "the devil!" Or "sin!" + + + + +84. + + +THE PHILOLOGY OF CHRISTIANITY.--How little Christianity cultivates the +sense of honesty can be inferred from the character of the writings of its +learned men. They set out their conjectures as audaciously as if they were +dogmas, and are but seldom at a disadvantage in regard to the +interpretation of Scripture. Their continual cry is: "I am right, for it +is written"--and then follows an explanation so shameless and capricious +that a philologist, when he hears it, must stand stock-still between anger +and laughter, asking himself again and again: Is it possible? Is it +honest? Is it even decent? + +It is only those who never--or always--attend church that underestimate the +dishonesty with which this subject is still dealt in Protestant pulpits; +in what a clumsy fashion the preacher takes advantage of his security from +interruption; how the Bible is pinched and squeezed; and how the people +are made acquainted with every form of _the art of false reading_. + +When all is said and done, however, what can be expected from the effects +of a religion which, during the centuries when it was being firmly +established, enacted that huge philological farce concerning the Old +Testament? I refer to that attempt to tear the Old Testament from the +hands of the Jews under the pretext that it contained only Christian +doctrines and _belonged_ to the Christians as the true people of Israel, +while the Jews had merely arrogated it to themselves without authority. +This was followed by a mania of would-be interpretation and falsification, +which could not under any circumstances have been allied with a good +conscience. However strongly Jewish savants protested, it was everywhere +sedulously asserted that the Old Testament alluded everywhere to Christ, +and nothing but Christ, more especially His Cross, and thus, wherever +reference was made to wood, a rod, a ladder, a twig, a tree, a willow, or +a staff, such a reference could not but be a prophecy relating to the wood +of the Cross: even the setting-up of the Unicorn and the Brazen Serpent, +even Moses stretching forth his hands in prayer--yea, the very spits on +which the Easter lambs were roasted: all these were allusions to the +Cross, and, as it were, preludes to it! Did any one who kept on asserting +these things ever _believe_ in them? Let it not be forgotten that the +Church did not shrink from putting interpolations in the text of the +Septuagint (_e.g._ Ps. xcvi. 10), in order that she might later on make +use of these interpolated passages as Christian prophecies. They were +engaged in a struggle, and thought of their foes rather than of honesty. + + + + +85. + + +SUBTLETY IN PENURY.--Take care not to laugh at the mythology of the Greeks +merely because it so little resembles your own profound metaphysics! You +should admire a people who checked their quick intellect at this point, +and for a long time afterwards had tact enough to avoid the danger of +scholasticism and hair-splitting superstition. + + + + +86. + + +THE CHRISTIAN INTERPRETERS OF THE BODY.--Whatever originates in the +stomach, the intestines, the beating of the heart, the nerves, the bile, +the seed--all those indispositions, debilities, irritations, and the whole +contingency of that machine about which we know so little--a Christian like +Pascal considers it all as a moral and religious phenomenon, asking +himself whether God or the devil, good or evil, salvation or damnation, is +the cause. Alas for the unfortunate interpreter! How he must distort and +worry his system! How he must distort and worry himself in order to gain +his point! + + + + +87. + + +THE MORAL MIRACLE.--In the domain of morality, Christianity knows of +nothing but the miracle; the sudden change in all valuations, the sudden +renouncement of all habits, the sudden and irresistible predilection for +new things and persons. Christianity looks upon this phenomenon as the +work of God, and calls it the act of regeneration, thus giving it a unique +and incomparable value. Everything else which is called morality, and +which bears no relation to this miracle, becomes in consequence a matter +of indifference to the Christian, and indeed, so far as it is a feeling of +well-being and pride, an object of fear. The canon of virtue, of the +fulfilled law, is established in the New Testament, but in such a way as +to be the canon of _impossible virtue_: men who still aspire to moral +perfections must come to understand, in the face of this canon, that they +are further and further _removed_ from their aim; they must _despair_ of +virtue, and end by throwing themselves at the feet of the Merciful One. + +It is only in reaching a conclusion like this that moral efforts on the +part of the Christian can still be regarded as possessing any value: the +condition that these efforts shall always remain sterile, painful, and +melancholy is therefore indispensable; and it is in this way that those +efforts could still avail to bring about that moment of ecstasy when man +experiences the "overflow of grace" and the moral miracle. This struggle +for morality is, however, not _necessary_; for it is by no means uncommon +for this miracle to happen to the sinner at the very moment when he is, so +to speak, wallowing in the mire of sin: yea, the leap from the deepest and +most abandoned sinfulness into its contrary seems easier, and, as a clear +proof of the miracle, even more desirable. + +What, for the rest, may be the signification of such a sudden, +unreasonable, and irresistible revolution, such a change from the depths +of misery into the heights of happiness? (might it be a disguised +epilepsy?) This should at all events be considered by alienists, who have +frequent opportunities of observing similar "miracles"--for example, the +mania of murder or suicide. The relatively "more pleasant consequences" in +the case of the Christian make no important difference. + + + + +88. + + +LUTHER, THE GREAT BENEFACTOR.--Luther's most important result is the +suspicion which he awakened against the saints and the entire Christian +_vita contemplativa_; only since his day has an un-Christian _vita +contemplativa_ again become possible in Europe, only since then has +contempt for laymen and worldly activity ceased. Luther continued to be an +honest miner's son even after he had been shut up in a monastery, and +there, for lack of other depths and "borings," he descended into himself, +and bored terrifying and dark passages through his own depths--finally +coming to recognise that an introspective and saintly life was impossible +to him, and that his innate "activity" in body and soul would end by being +his ruin. For a long time, too long, indeed, he endeavoured to find the +way to holiness through castigations; but at length he made up his mind, +and said to himself: "There is no real _vita contemplativa_! We have been +deceived. The saints were no better than the rest of us." This was truly a +rustic way of gaining one's case; but for the Germans of that period it +was the only proper way. How edified they felt when they could read in +their Lutheran catechism: "Apart from the Ten Commandments there is no +work which could find favour in the eyes of God--these much-boasted +spiritual works of the saints are purely imaginary!" + + + + +89. + + +DOUBT AS SIN.--Christianity has done all it possibly could to draw a circle +round itself, and has even gone so far as to declare doubt itself to be a +sin. We are to be precipitated into faith by a miracle, without the help +of reason, after which we are to float in it as the clearest and least +equivocal of elements--a mere glance at some solid ground, the thought that +we exist for some purpose other than floating, the least movement of our +amphibious nature: all this is a sin! Let it be noted that, following this +decision, the proofs and demonstration of the faith, and all meditations +upon its origin, are prohibited as sinful. Christianity wants blindness +and frenzy and an eternal swan-song above the waves under which reason has +been drowned! + + + + +90. + + +EGOISM _VERSUS_ EGOISM.--How many are there who still come to the +conclusion: "Life would be intolerable were there no God!" Or, as is said +in idealistic circles: "Life would be intolerable if its ethical +signification were lacking." Hence there must be a God--or an ethical +signification of existence! In reality the case stands thus: He who is +accustomed to conceptions of this sort does not desire a life without +them, hence these conceptions are necessary for him and his +preservation--but what a presumption it is to assert that everything +necessary for my preservation must exist _in reality_! As if my +preservation were really necessary! What if others held the contrary +opinion? if they did not care to live under the conditions of these two +articles of faith, and did not regard life as worth living if they were +realised!--And that is the present position of affairs. + + + + +91. + + +THE HONESTY OF GOD.--An omniscient and omnipotent God who does not even +take care that His intentions shall be understood by His creatures--could +He be a God of goodness? A God, who, for thousands of years, has permitted +innumerable doubts and scruples to continue unchecked as if they were of +no importance in the salvation of mankind, and who, nevertheless, +announces the most dreadful consequences for any one who mistakes his +truth? Would he not be a cruel god if, being himself in possession of the +truth, he could calmly contemplate mankind, in a state of miserable +torment, worrying its mind as to what was truth? + +Perhaps, however, he really is a God of goodness, and was unable to +express Himself more clearly? Perhaps he lacked intelligence enough for +this? Or eloquence? All the worse! For in such a case he may have been +deceived himself in regard to what he calls his "truth," and may not be +far from being another "poor, deceived devil!" Must he not therefore +experience all the torments of hell at seeing His creatures suffering so +much here below--and even more, suffering through all eternity--when he +himself can neither advise nor help them, except as a deaf and dumb +person, who makes all kinds of equivocal signs when his child or his dog +is threatened with the most fearful danger? A distressed believer who +argues thus might be pardoned if his pity for the suffering God were +greater than his pity for his "neighbours"; for they are his neighbours no +longer if that most solitary and primeval being is also the greatest +sufferer and stands most in need of consolation. + +Every religion shows some traits of the fact that it owes its origin to a +state of human intellectuality which was as yet too young and immature: +they all make light of the necessity for speaking the truth: as yet they +know nothing of the _duty of God_, the duty of being clear and truthful in +His communications with men. No one was more eloquent than Pascal in +speaking of the "hidden God" and the reasons why He had to keep Himself +hidden, all of which indicates clearly enough that Pascal himself could +never make his mind easy on this point: but he speaks with such confidence +that one is led to imagine that he must have been let into the secret at +some time or other. He seemed to have some idea that the _deus +absconditus_ bore a few slight traces of immorality; and he felt too much +ashamed and afraid of acknowledging this to himself: consequently, like a +man who is afraid, he spoke as loudly as he could. + + + + +92. + + +AT THE DEATH-BED OF CHRISTIANITY.--All truly active men now do without +inward Christianity, and the most moderate and thoughtful men of the +intellectual middle classes possess only a kind of modified Christianity; +that is, a peculiarly simplified Christianity. A God who, in his love, +ordains everything so that it may be best for us, a God who gives us our +virtue and our happiness and then takes them away from us, so that +everything at length goes on smoothly and there is no reason left why we +should take life ill or grumble about it: in short, resignation and +modesty raised to the rank of divinities--that is the best and most +lifelike remnant of Christianity now left to us. It must be remembered, +however, that in this way Christianity has developed into a soft +_moralism_: instead of "God, freedom, and immortality," we have now a kind +of benevolence and honest sentiments, and the belief that, in the entire +universe, benevolence and honest sentiments will finally prevail: this is +the euthanasia of Christianity. + + + + +93. + + +WHAT IS TRUTH?--Who will not be pleased with the conclusions which the +faithful take such delight in coming to?--"Science cannot be true; for it +denies God. Hence it does not come from God; and consequently it cannot be +true--for God is truth." It is not the deduction but the premise which is +fallacious. What if God were not exactly truth, and if this were proved? +And if he were instead the vanity, the desire for power, the ambitions, +the fear, and the enraptured and terrified folly of mankind? + + + + +94. + + +REMEDY FOR THE DISPLEASED.--Even Paul already believed that some sacrifice +was necessary to take away the deep displeasure which God experienced +concerning sin: and ever since then Christians have never ceased to vent +the ill-humour which they felt with themselves upon some victim or +another--whether it was "the world," or "history," or "reason," or joy, or +the tranquillity of other men--something good, no matter what, had to die +for _their_ sins (even if only _in effigie_)! + + + + +95. + + +THE HISTORICAL REFUTATION AS THE DECISIVE ONE.--Formerly it was sought to +prove that there was no God--now it is shown how the belief that a God +existed could have _originated_, and by what means this belief gained +authority and importance: in this way the counterproof that there is no +God becomes unnecessary and superfluous.--In former times, when the +"evidences of the existence of God" which had been brought forward were +refuted, a doubt still remained, viz. whether better proofs could not be +found than those which had just been refuted: at that time the atheists +did not understand the art of making a _tabula rasa_. + + + + +96. + + +"IN HOC SIGNO VINCES."--To whatever degree of progress Europe may have +attained in other respects, where religious affairs are concerned it has +not yet reached the liberal naďveté of the ancient Brahmins, which proves +that, in India, four thousand years ago, people meditated more profoundly +and transmitted to their descendants more pleasure in meditating than is +the case in our own days. For those Brahmins believed in the first place +that the priests were more powerful than the gods, and in the second place +that it was observances which constituted the power of the priests: as a +result of which their poets were never tired of glorifying those +observances (prayers, ceremonies, sacrifices, chants, improvised melodies) +as the real dispensers of all benefits. Although a certain amount of +superstition and poetry was mingled with all this, the principles were +_true_! A step further, and the gods were cast aside--which Europe likewise +will have to do before very long! One more step further, and priests and +intermediaries could also be dispensed with--and then Buddha, the teacher +of the religion of self-redemption, appeared. How far Europe is still +removed from this degree of culture! When at length all the customs and +observances, upon which rests the power of gods, priests, and saviours, +shall have been destroyed, when as a consequence morality, in the old +sense, will be dead, then there will come ... yea, what will come then? +But let us refrain from speculating; let us rather make certain that +Europe will retrieve that which, in India, amidst this people of thinkers, +was carried out thousands of years ago as a commandment of thought! + +Scattered among the different nations of Europe there are now from ten to +twenty millions of men who no longer "believe in God"--is it too much to +ask that they should give each other some indication or password? As soon +as they recognise each other in this way, they will also make themselves +known to each other; and they will immediately become a power in Europe, +and, happily, a power _among_ the nations! among the classes! between rich +and poor! between those who command, and those who obey! between the most +restless and the most tranquil, tranquillising people! + + + + + +BOOK II. + + + + +97. + + +ONE BECOMES MORAL--but not because one is moral! Submission to morals may +be due to slavishness or vanity, egoism or resignation, dismal fanaticism +or thoughtlessness. It may, again, be an act of despair, such as +submission to the authority of a ruler; but there is nothing moral about +it _per se_. + + + + +98. + + +ALTERATIONS IN MORALS.--Morals are constantly undergoing changes and +transformations, occasioned by successful crimes. (To these, for example, +belong all innovations in moral judgments.) + + + + +99. + + +WHEREIN WE ARE ALL IRRATIONAL.--We still continue to draw conclusions from +judgments which we consider as false, or doctrines in which we no longer +believe,--through our feelings. + + + + +100. + + +AWAKING FROM A DREAM.--Noble and wise men once upon a time believed in the +music of the spheres; there are still noble and wise men who believe in +"the moral significance of existence," but there will come a day when this +music of the spheres also will no longer be audible to them. They will +awake and perceive that their ears have been dreaming. + + + + +101. + + +OPEN TO DOUBT.--To accept a belief simply because it is customary implies +that one is dishonest, cowardly, and lazy.--Must dishonesty, cowardice, and +laziness, therefore, be the primary conditions of morality? + + + + +102. + + +THE MOST ANCIENT MORAL JUDGMENTS.--What attitude do we assume towards the +acts of our neighbour?--In the first place, we consider how they may +benefit ourselves--we see them only in this light. It is this effect which +we regard as the intention of the acts,--and in the end we come to look +upon these intentions of our neighbour as permanent qualities in him, and +we call him, for example, "a dangerous man." Triple error! Triple and most +ancient mistake! Perhaps this inheritance comes to us from the animals and +their faculty of judgment! Must not the origin of all morality be sought +in these detestable narrow-minded conclusions: "Whatever injures me is +evil (something injurious in itself), whatever benefits me is good +(beneficial and profitable in itself), whatever injures me once or several +times is hostile _per se_; whatever benefits me once or several times is +friendly _per se_." _O pudenda origo!_ Is not this equivalent to +interpreting the contemptible, occasional, and often merely accidental +relations of another person to us as his primary and most essential +qualities, and affirming that towards himself and every one else he is +only capable of such actions as we ourselves have experienced at his hands +once or several times! And is not this thorough folly based upon the most +immodest of all mental reservations: namely, that we ourselves must be the +standard of what is good, since we determine good and evil? + + + + +103. + + +THERE ARE TWO CLASSES OF PEOPLE WHO DENY MORALITY.--To deny morality may +mean, in the first place, to deny the moral inducements which, men +pretend, have urged them on to their actions,--which is equivalent to +saying that morality merely consists of words and forms, part of that +coarse and subtle deceit (especially self-deceit) which is characteristic +of mankind, and perhaps more especially of those men who are celebrated +for their virtues. In the second place, it may mean our denying that moral +judgments are founded on truths. It is admitted in such a case that these +judgments are, in fact, the motives of the actions, but that in this way +it is really errors as the basis of all moral judgments which urge men on +to their moral actions. This is my point of view; but I should be far from +denying that in very many cases a subtle suspicion in accordance with the +former point of view--_i.e._ in the spirit of La Rochefoucauld--is also +justifiable, and in any case of a high general utility.--Therefore I deny +morality in the same way as I deny alchemy, _i.e._ I deny its hypotheses; +but I do not deny that there have been alchemists who believed in these +hypotheses and based their actions upon them. I also deny immorality--not +that innumerable people feel immoral, but that there is any true reason +why they should feel so. I should not, of course, deny--unless I were a +fool--that many actions which are called immoral should be avoided and +resisted; and in the same way that many which are called moral should be +performed and encouraged; but I hold that in both cases these actions +should be performed from motives other than those which have prevailed up +to the present time. We must learn anew in order that at last, perhaps +very late in the day, we may be able to do something more: feel anew. + + + + +104. + + +OUR VALUATIONS.--All actions may be referred back to valuations, and all +valuations are either one's own or adopted, the latter being by far the +more numerous. Why do we adopt them? Through fear, _i.e._ we think it more +advisable to pretend that they are our own, and so well do we accustom +ourselves to do so that it at last becomes second nature to us. A +valuation of our own, which is the appreciation of a thing in accordance +with the pleasure or displeasure it causes us and no one else, is +something very rare indeed!--But must not our valuation of our +neighbour--which is prompted by the motive that we adopt his valuation in +most cases--proceed from ourselves and by our own decision? Of course, but +then we come to these decisions during our childhood, and seldom change +them. We often remain during our whole lifetime the dupes of our childish +and accustomed judgments in our manner of judging our fellow-men (their +minds, rank, morality, character, and reprehensibility), and we find it +necessary to subscribe to their valuations. + + + + +105. + + +PSEUDO-EGOISM.--The great majority of people, whatever they may think and +say about their "egoism," do nothing for their ego all their life long, +but only for a phantom of this ego which has been formed in regard to them +by their friends and communicated to them. As a consequence, they all live +in a haze of impersonal and half-personal opinions and of arbitrary and, +as it were, poetic valuations: the one always in the head of another, and +this head, again, in the head of somebody else--a queer world of phantoms +which manages to give itself a rational appearance! This haze of opinions +and habits grows in extent and lives almost independently of the people it +surrounds; it is it which gives rise to the immense effect of general +judgments on "man"--all those men, who do not know themselves, believe in a +bloodless abstraction which they call "man," _i.e._ in a fiction; and +every change caused in this abstraction by the judgments of powerful +individualities (such as princes and philosophers) produces an +extraordinary and irrational effect on the great majority,--for the simple +reason that not a single individual in this haze can oppose a real ego, an +ego which is accessible to and fathomed by himself, to the universal pale +fiction, which he could thereby destroy. + + + + +106. + + +AGAINST DEFINITIONS OF MORAL AIMS.--On all sides we now hear the aim of +morals defined as the preservation and advancement of humanity; but this +is merely the expression of a wish to have a formula and nothing more. +Preservation wherein? advancement whither? These are questions which must +at once be asked. Is not the most essential point, the answer to this +_wherein?_ and _whither?_ left out of the formula? What results therefrom, +so far as our own actions and duties are concerned, which is not already +tacitly and instinctively understood? Can we sufficiently understand from +this formula whether we must prolong as far as possible the existence of +the human race, or bring about the greatest possible disanimalisation of +man? How different the means, _i.e._ the practical morals, would have to +be in the two cases! Supposing that the greatest possible rationality were +given to mankind, this certainly would not guarantee the longest possible +existence for them! Or supposing that their "greatest happiness" was +thought to be the answer to the questions put, do we thereby mean the +highest degree of happiness which a few individuals might attain, or an +incalculable, though finally attainable, average state of happiness for +all? And why should morality be the way to it? Has not morality, +considered as a whole, opened up so many sources of displeasure as to lead +us to think that man up to the present, with every new refinement of +morality, has become more and more discontented with himself, with his +neighbour, and with his own lot? Has not the most moral of men hitherto +believed that the only justifiable state of mankind in the face of morals +is that of the deepest misery? + + + + +107. + + +OUR RIGHT TO OUR FOLLY.--How must we act? Why must we act? So far as the +coarse and immediate needs of the individual are concerned, it is easy to +answer these questions, but the more we enter upon the more important and +more subtle domains of action, the more does the problem become uncertain +and the more arbitrary its solution. An arbitrary decision, however, is +the very thing that must be excluded here,--thus commands the authority of +morals: an obscure uneasiness and awe must relentlessly guide man in those +very actions the objects and means of which he cannot at once perceive. +This authority of morals undermines our thinking faculty in regard to +those things concerning which it might be dangerous to think wrongly,--it +is in this way, at all events, that morality usually justifies itself to +its accusers. Wrong in this place means dangerous; but dangerous to whom? +It is not, as a rule, the danger of the doer of the action which the +supporters of authoritative morals have in view, but their own danger; the +loss which their power and influence might undergo if the right to act +according to their own greater or lesser reason, however wilfully and +foolishly, were accorded to all men. They on their part make unhesitating +use of their right to arbitrariness and folly,--they even command in cases +where it is hardly possible, or at all events very difficult, to answer +the questions, "How must they act, why must they act?" And if the reason +of mankind grows with such extraordinary slowness that it was often +possible to deny its growth during the whole course of humanity, what is +more to blame for this than this solemn presence, even omnipresence, of +moral commands, which do not even permit the individual question of how +and why to be asked at all? Have we not been educated precisely in such a +way as to make us feel pathetic, and thus to obscure our vision at the +very time when our reason should be able to see as clearly and calmly as +possible--_i.e._ in all higher and more important circumstances? + + + + +108. + + +SOME THESES.--We should not give the individual, in so far as he desires +his own happiness, any precepts or recommendations as to the road leading +to happiness; for individual happiness arises from particular laws that +are unknown to anybody, and such a man will only be hindered or obstructed +by recommendations which come to him from outside sources. Those precepts +which are called moral are in reality directed against individuals, and do +not by any means make for the happiness of such individuals. The +relationship of these precepts to the "happiness and well-being of +mankind" is equally slight, for it is quite impossible to assign a +definite conception to these words, and still less can they be employed as +guiding stars on the dark sea of moral aspirations. It is a prejudice to +think that morality is more favourable to the development of the reason +than immorality. It is erroneous to suppose that the unconscious aim in +the development of every conscious being (namely, animal, man, humanity, +etc.) is its "greatest happiness": on the contrary, there is a particular +and incomparable happiness to be attained at every stage of our +development, one that is neither high nor low, but quite an individual +happiness. Evolution does not make happiness its goal; it aims merely at +evolution, and nothing else. It is only if humanity had a universally +recognised goal that we could propose to do this or that: for the time +being there is no such goal. It follows that the pretensions of morality +should not be brought into any relationship with mankind: this would be +merely childish and irrational. It is quite another thing to recommend a +goal to mankind: this goal would then be something that would depend upon +our own will and pleasure. Provided that mankind in general agreed to +adopt such a goal, it could then impose a moral law upon itself, a law +which would, at all events, be imposed by their own free will. Up to now, +however, the moral law has had to be placed above our own free will: +strictly speaking, men did not wish to impose this law upon themselves; +they wished to take it from somewhere, to discover it, or to let +themselves be commanded by it from somewhere. + + + + +109. + + +SELF-CONTROL AND MODERATION, AND THEIR FINAL MOTIVE.--I find not more than +six essentially different methods for combating the vehemence of an +impulse. First of all, we may avoid the occasion for satisfying the +impulse, weakening and mortifying it by refraining from satisfying it for +long and ever-lengthening periods. Secondly, we may impose a severe and +regular order upon ourselves in regard to the satisfying of our appetites. +By thus regulating the impulse and limiting its ebb and flow to fixed +periods, we may obtain intervals in which it ceases to disturb us; and by +beginning in this way we may perhaps be able to pass on to the first +method. In the third place, we may deliberately give ourselves over to an +unrestrained and unbounded gratification of the impulse in order that we +may become disgusted with it, and to obtain by means of this very disgust +a command over the impulse: provided, of course, that we do not imitate +the rider who rides his horse to death and breaks his own neck in doing +so. For this, unhappily, is generally the outcome of the application of +this third method. + +In the fourth place, there is an intellectual trick, which consists in +associating the idea of the gratification so firmly with some painful +thought, that after a little practice the thought of gratification is +itself immediately felt as a very painful one. (For example, when the +Christian accustoms himself to think of the presence and scorn of the +devil in the course of sensual enjoyment, or everlasting punishment in +hell for revenge by murder; or even merely of the contempt which he will +meet with from those of his fellow-men whom he most respects, if he steals +a sum of money, or if a man has often checked an intense desire for +suicide by thinking of the grief and self-reproaches of his relations and +friends, and has thus succeeded in balancing himself upon the edge of +life: for, after some practice, these ideas follow one another in his mind +like cause and effect.) Among instances of this kind may be mentioned the +cases of Lord Byron and Napoleon, in whom the pride of man revolted and +took offence at the preponderance of one particular passion over the +collective attitude and order of reason. From this arises the habit and +joy of tyrannising over the craving and making it, as it were, gnash its +teeth. "I will not be a slave of any appetite," wrote Byron in his diary. +In the fifth place, we may bring about a dislocation of our powers by +imposing upon ourselves a particularly difficult and fatiguing task, or by +deliberately submitting to some new charm and pleasure in order thus to +turn our thoughts and physical powers into other channels. It comes to the +same thing if we temporarily favour another impulse by affording it +numerous opportunities of gratification, and thus rendering it the +squanderer of the power which would otherwise be commandeered, so to +speak, by the tyrannical impulse. A few, perhaps, will be able to restrain +the particular passion which aspires to domination by granting their other +known passions a temporary encouragement and license in order that they +may devour the food which the tyrant wishes for himself alone. + +In the sixth and last place, the man who can stand it, and thinks it +reasonable to weaken and subdue his entire physical and psychical +organisation, likewise, of course, attains the goal of weakening a single +violent instinct; as, for example, those who starve their sensuality and +at the same time their vigour, and often destroy their reason into the +bargain, such as the ascetics.--Hence, shunning the opportunities, +regulating the impulse, bringing about satiety and disgust in the impulse, +associating a painful idea (such as that of discredit, disgust, or +offended pride), then the dislocation of one's forces, and finally general +debility and exhaustion: these are the six methods. But the will to combat +the violence of a craving is beyond our power, equally with the method we +adopt and the success we may have in applying it. In all this process our +intellect is rather merely the blind instrument of another rival craving, +whether it be the impulse to repose, or the fear of disgrace and other +evil consequences, or love. While "we" thus imagine that we are +complaining of the violence of an impulse, it is at bottom merely one +impulse which is complaining of another, _i.e._ the perception of the +violent suffering which is being caused us presupposes that there is +another equally or more violent impulse, and that a struggle is impending +in which our intellect must take part. + + + + +110. + + +THAT WHICH OPPOSES.--We may observe the following process in ourselves, and +I should like it to be often observed and confirmed. There arises in us +the scent of a kind of pleasure hitherto unknown to us, and consequently a +new craving. Now, the question is, What opposes itself to this craving? If +it be things and considerations of a common kind, or people whom we hold +in no very high esteem, the aim of the new craving assumes the appearance +of a "noble, good, praiseworthy feeling, and one worthy of sacrifice": all +the moral dispositions which have been inherited will adopt it and will +add it to the number of those aims which we consider as moral--and now we +imagine that we are no longer striving after a pleasure, but after a +morality, which greatly increases our confidence in our aspirations. + + + + +111. + + +TO THE ADMIRERS OF OBJECTIVENESS.--He who, as a child, has observed in his +parents and acquaintances in the midst of whom he has grown up, certain +varied and strong feelings, with but little subtle discernment and +inclination for intellectual justice, and has therefore employed his best +powers and his most precious time in imitating these feelings, will +observe in himself when he arrives at years of discretion that every new +thing or man he meets with excites in him either sympathy or aversion, +envy or contempt. Under the domination of this experience, which he is +powerless to shake off, he admires neutrality of feeling or "objectivity" +as an extraordinary thing, as something connected with genius or a very +rare morality, and he cannot believe that even this neutrality is merely +the product of education and habit. + + + + +112. + + +ON THE NATURAL HISTORY OF DUTY AND RIGHT.--Our duties are the claims which +others have upon us. How did they acquire these claims? By the fact that +they considered us as capable of making and holding agreements and +contracts, by assuming that we were their like and equals, and by +consequently entrusting something to us, bringing us up, educating us, and +supporting us. We do our duty, _i.e._ we justify that conception of our +power for the sake of which all these things were done for us. We return +them in proportion as they were meted out to us. It is thus our pride that +orders us to do our duty--we desire to re-establish our own independence by +opposing to that which others have done for us something that we do for +them, for in that way the others invade our sphere of power, and would for +ever have a hand in it if we did not make reprisals by means of "duty," +and thus encroach upon their power. The rights of others can only have +regard to that which lies within our power; it would be unreasonable on +their part to require something from us which does not belong to us. To +put the matter more accurately, their rights can only relate to what they +imagine to be in our power, provided that it is something that we +ourselves consider as being in our power. The same error may easily occur +on either side. The feeling of duty depends upon our having the same +belief in regard to the extent of our power as other people have, _i.e._ +that we can promise certain things and undertake to do them freely ("free +will"). + +My rights consist of that part of my power which others have not only +conceded to me, but which they wish to maintain for me. Why do they do it? +On the one hand they are actuated by wisdom, fear and prudence: whether +they expect something similar from us (the protection of their rights), +whether they consider a struggle with us as dangerous or inopportune, or +whether they see a disadvantage to themselves in every diminution of our +power, since in that case we should be ill adapted for an alliance with +them against a hostile third power. On the other hand rights are granted +by donations and cessions. In this latter case, the other people have not +only enough power, but more than enough, so that they can give up a +portion and guarantee it to the person to whom they give it: whereby they +presuppose a certain restricted sense of power in the person upon whom +they have bestowed the gift. In this way rights arise: recognised and +guaranteed degrees of power. When the relations of powers to one another +are materially changed, rights disappear and new ones are formed, as is +demonstrated by the constant flux and reflux of the rights of nations. +When our power diminishes to any great extent, the feelings of those who +hitherto guaranteed it undergo some change: they consider whether they +shall once again restore us to our former possession, and if they do not +see their way to do this they deny our "rights" from that time forward. In +the same way, if our power increases to a considerable extent the feelings +of those who previously recognised it, and whose recognition we no longer +require, likewise change: they will then try to reduce our power to its +former dimensions, and they will endeavour to interfere in our affairs, +justifying their interference by an appeal to their "duty." But this is +merely useless word-quibbling. Where right prevails, a certain state and +degree of power is maintained, and all attempts at its augmentation and +diminution are resisted. The right of others is the concession of our +feeling of power to the feeling of power in these others. Whenever our +power shows itself to be thoroughly shattered and broken, our rights +cease: on the other hand, when we have become very much stronger, the +rights of others cease in our minds to be what we have hitherto admitted +them to be. The man who aims at being just, therefore, must keep a +constant lookout for the changes in the indicator of the scales in order +that he may properly estimate the degrees of power and right which, with +the customary transitoriness of human things, retain their equilibrium for +only a short time and in most cases continue to rise and fall. As a +consequence it is thus very difficult to be "just," and requires much +experience, good intentions, and an unusually large amount of good sense. + + + + +113. + + +STRIVING FOR DISTINCTION.--When we strive after distinction we must +ceaselessly keep our eyes fixed on our neighbour and endeavour to +ascertain what his feelings are; but the sympathy and knowledge which are +necessary to satisfy this desire are far from being inspired by +harmlessness, compassion, or kindness. On the contrary, we wish to +perceive or find out in what way our neighbour suffers from us, either +internally or externally, how he loses control over himself and yields to +the impression which our hand or even our mere appearance makes on him. +Even when he who aspires to distinction makes or wishes to make a joyful, +elevating, or cheerful impression, he does not enjoy this success in that +he rejoices, exalts, or cheers his neighbour, but in that he leaves his +impress on the latter's soul, changing its form and dominating it +according to his will. The desire for distinction is the desire to subject +one's neighbour, even if it be merely in an indirect fashion, one only +felt or even only dreamt of. There is a long series of stages in this +secretly-desired will to subdue, and a very complete record of them would +perhaps almost be like an excellent history of culture from the early +distortions of barbarism down to the caricatures of modern over-refinement +and sickly idealism. + +This desire for distinction entails upon our neighbour--to indicate only a +few rungs of the long ladder--torture first of all, followed by blows, then +terror, anxious surprise, wonder, envy, admiration, elevation, pleasure, +joy, laughter, derision, mockery, sneers, scourging and self-inflicted +torture. There at the very top of the ladder stands the ascetic and +martyr, who himself experiences the utmost satisfaction, because he +inflicts on himself, as a result of his desire for distinction, that pain +which his opposite, the barbarian on the first rung of the ladder, +inflicts upon those others, upon whom and before whom he wishes to +distinguish himself. The triumph of the ascetic over himself, his +introspective glance, which beholds a man split up into a sufferer and a +spectator, and which henceforth never looks at the outside world but to +gather from it, as it were, wood for his own funeral pyre: this final +tragedy of the desire for distinction which shows us only one person who, +so to speak, is consumed internally--that is an end worthy of the +beginning: in both cases there is an inexpressible happiness at the sight +of torture; indeed, happiness considered as a feeling of power developed +to the utmost, has perhaps never reached a higher pitch of perfection on +earth than in the souls of superstitious ascetics. This is expressed by +the Brahmins in the story of King Visvamitra, who obtained so much +strength by thousands of years of penance that he undertook to construct a +new heaven. I believe that in the entire category of inward experiences +the people of our time are mere novices and clumsy guessers who "try to +have a shot at it": four thousand years ago much more was known about +these execrable refinements of self-enjoyment. Perhaps at that time the +creation of the world was imagined by some Hindu dreamer to have been an +ascetic operation which a god took upon himself! Perhaps this god may have +wished to join himself to a mobile nature as an instrument of torture in +order thus to feel his happiness and power doubled! And even supposing him +to have been a god of love: what a delight it would have been for him to +create a suffering mankind in order that he himself might suffer divinely +and super-humanly from the sight of the continual torture of his +creatures, and thus to tyrannise over himself! And, again, supposing him +to have been not only a god of love, but also a god of holiness, we can +scarcely conceive the ecstasies of this divine ascetic while creating sins +and sinners and eternal punishment, and an immense place of eternal +torture below his throne where there is a continual weeping and wailing +and gnashing of teeth! + +It is not by any means impossible that the soul of a St. Paul, a Dante, or +a Calvin, and people like them, may once have penetrated into the +terrifying secrets of such voluptuousness of power, and in view of such +souls we may well ask whether the circle of this desire for distinction +has come to a close with the ascetic. Might it not be possible for the +course of this circle to be traversed a second time, by uniting the +fundamental idea of the ascetic, and at the same time that of a +compassionate Deity? In other words, pain would be given to others in +order that pain might be given to one's self, so that in this way one +could triumph over one's self and one's pity to enjoy the extreme +voluptuousness of power.--Forgive me these digressions, which come to my +mind when I think of all the possibilities in the vast domain of psychical +debaucheries to which one may be led by the desire for power! + + + + +114. + + +ON THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE SUFFERER.--The state of sick men who have suffered +long and terribly from the torture inflicted upon them by their illness, +and whose reason has nevertheless not been in any way affected, is not +without a certain amount of value in our search for knowledge--quite apart +from the intellectual benefits which follow upon every profound solitude +and every sudden and justified liberation from duties and habits. The man +who suffers severely looks forth with terrible calmness from his state of +suffering upon outside things: all those little lying enchantments, by +which things are usually surrounded when seen through the eye of a healthy +person, have vanished from the sufferer; his own life even lies there +before him, stripped of all bloom and colour. If by chance it has happened +that up to then he has lived in some kind of dangerous fantasy, this +extreme disenchantment through pain is the means, and possibly the only +means, of extricating him from it. (It is possible that this is what +happened to the Founder of Christianity when suspended from the Cross; for +the bitterest words ever pronounced, "My God, My God, why hast Thou +forsaken Me?" if understood in their deepest sense, as they ought to be +understood, contain the evidence of a complete disillusionment and +enlightenment in regard to the deceptions of life: in that moment of +supreme suffering Christ obtained a clear insight into Himself, just as in +the poet's narrative did the poor dying Don Quixote.) + +The formidable tension of the intellect that wishes to hold its own +against pain shows everything that one now looks upon in a new light, and +the inexpressible charm of this new light is often powerful enough to +withstand all the seductiveness of suicide and to make the continuation of +life seem very desirable to the sufferer. His mind scornfully turns to the +warm and comfortable dream-world in which the healthy man moves about +thoughtlessly, and he thinks with contempt of the noblest and most +cherished illusions in which he formerly indulged. He experiences delight +in conjuring up this contempt as if from the depths of hell, and thus +inflicting the bitterest sufferings upon his soul: it is by this +counterpoise that he bears up against physical suffering--he feels that +such a counterpoise is now essential! In one terrible moment of +clear-sightedness he says to himself, "Be for once thine own accuser and +hangman; for once regard thy suffering as a punishment which thou hast +inflicted on thyself! Enjoy thy superiority as a judge: better still, +enjoy thine own will and pleasure, thy tyrannical arbitrariness! Raise +thyself above thy life as above thy suffering, and look down into the +depth of reason and unreason!" + +Our pride revolts as it never did before, it experiences an incomparable +charm in defending life against such a tyrant as suffering and against all +the insinuations of this tyrant, who would fain urge us to give evidence +against life,--we are taking the part of life in the face of this tyrant. +In this state of mind we take up a bitter stand against all pessimism in +order that it may not appear to be a consequence of our condition, and +thus humiliate us as conquered ones. The charm of being just in our +judgments was also never greater than now; for now this justice is a +triumph over ourselves and over so irritated a state of mind that +unfairness of judgment might be excused,--but we will not be excused, it is +now, if ever, that we wish to show that we need no excuse. We pass through +downright orgies of pride. + +And now appears the first ray of relief, of recovery, and one of its first +effects is that we turn against the preponderance of our pride: we call +ourselves foolish and vain, as if we had undergone some unique experience. +We humiliate ungratefully this all-powerful pride, the aid of which +enabled us to endure the pain we suffered, and we call vehemently for some +antidote for this pride: we wish to become strangers to ourselves and to +be freed from our own person after pain has forcibly made us personal too +long. "Away with this pride," we cry, "it was only another illness and +convulsion!" Once more we look longingly at men and nature and recollect +with a sorrowful smile that now since the veil has fallen we regard many +things concerning them in a new and different light,--but we are refreshed +by once more seeing the softened lights of life, and emerge from that +fearfully dispassionate daylight in which we as sufferers saw things and +through things. We do not get angry when we see the charms of health +resume their play, and we contemplate the sight as if transformed, gently +and still fatigued. In this state we cannot listen to music without +weeping. + + + + +115. + + +THE SO-CALLED "EGO."--Language and the prejudices upon which language is +based very often act as obstacles in our paths when we proceed to explore +internal phenomena and impulses: as one example, we may instance the fact +that there are only words to express the superlative degrees of these +phenomena and impulses. Now, it is our habit no longer to observe +accurately when words fail us, since it is difficult in such cases to +think with precision: in former times, even, people involuntarily came to +the conclusion that where the domain of words ceased, the domain of +existence ceased also. Wrath, hatred, love, pity, desire, recognition, +joy, pain: all these are names indicating extreme conditions; the milder +and middle stages, and even more particularly the ever active lower +stages, escape our attention, and yet it is they which weave the warp and +woof of our character and destiny. It often happens that these extreme +outbursts--and even the most moderate pleasure or displeasure of which we +are actually conscious, whether in partaking of food or listening to a +sound, is possibly, if properly estimated, merely an extreme +outburst,--destroy the texture and are then violent exceptions, in most +cases the consequences of some congestions,--and how easily as such can +they mislead the observer! as indeed they mislead the person acting! We +are all of us not what we appear to be according to the conditions for +which alone we have consciousness and words, and consequently praise and +blame. We fail to recognise ourselves after these coarse outbursts which +are known to ourselves alone, we draw conclusions from data where the +exceptions prove stronger than the rules; we misinterpret ourselves in +reading our own ego's pronouncements, which appeared to be so clear. But +our opinion of ourselves, this so-called ego which we have arrived at by +this wrong method, contributes henceforth to form our character and +destiny. + + + + +116. + + +THE UNKNOWN WORLD OF THE "SUBJECT."--What men have found it so difficult to +understand from the most ancient times down to the present day is their +ignorance in regard to themselves, not merely with respect to good and +evil, but something even more essential. The oldest of illusions lives on, +namely, that we know, and know precisely in each case, how human action is +originated. Not only "God who looks into the heart," not only the man who +acts and reflects upon his action, but everybody does not doubt that he +understands the phenomena of action in every one else. "I know what I want +and what I have done, I am free and responsible for my act, and I make +others responsible for their acts; I can mention by its name every moral +possibility and every internal movement which precedes an act,--ye may act +as ye will, I understand myself and I understand you all!" Such was what +every one thought once upon a time, and almost every one thinks so even +now. Socrates and Plato, who in this matter were great sceptics and +admirable innovators, were nevertheless intensely credulous in regard to +that fatal prejudice, that profound error, which holds that "The right +knowledge must necessarily be followed by the right action." In holding +this principle they were still the heirs of the universal folly and +presumption that knowledge exists concerning the essence of an action. + +"It would indeed be dreadful if the comprehension of the essence of a +right action were not followed by that right action itself"--this was the +only manner in which these great men thought it necessary to demonstrate +this idea, the contrary seemed to them to be inconceivable and mad; and +nevertheless this contrary corresponds to the naked reality which has been +demonstrated daily and hourly from time immemorial. Is it not a "dreadful" +truth that all that we know about an act is never sufficient to accomplish +it, that the bridge connecting the knowledge of the act with the act +itself has never yet been built? Acts are never what they appear to us to +be. We have taken great pains to learn that external things are not as +they appear to us.--Well! It is the same with internal phenomena. All moral +acts are in reality "something different,"--we cannot say anything more +about them, and all acts are essentially unknown to us. The general +belief, however, has been and still is quite the contrary: the most +ancient realism is against us: up to the present humanity has thought, "An +action is what it appears to be." (In re-reading these words a very +expressive passage from Schopenhauer occurs to me, and I will quote it as +a proof that he, too, without the slightest scruple, continued to adhere +to this moral realism: "Each one of us is in reality a competent and +perfect moral judge, knowing exactly good and evil, made holy by loving +good and despising evil,--such is every one of us in so far as the acts of +others and not his own are under consideration, and when he has merely to +approve or disapprove, whilst the burden of the performance of the acts is +borne by other shoulders. Every one is therefore justified in occupying as +confessor the place of God.") + + + + +117. + + +IN PRISON.--My eye, whether it be keen or weak, can only see a certain +distance, and it is within this space that I live and move: this horizon +is my immediate fate, greater or lesser, from which I cannot escape. Thus, +a concentric circle is drawn round every being, which has a centre and is +peculiar to himself. In the same way our ear encloses us in a small space, +and so likewise does our touch. We measure the world by these horizons +within which our senses confine each of us within prison walls. We say +that this is near and that is far distant, that this is large and that is +small, that one thing is hard and another soft; and this appreciation of +things we call sensation--but it is all an error _per se_! According to the +number of events and emotions which it is on an average possible for us to +experience in a given space of time, we measure our lives; we call them +short or long, rich or poor, full or empty; and according to the average +of human life we estimate that of other beings,--and all this is an error +_per se_! + +If we had eyes a hundred times more piercing to examine the things that +surround us, men would seem to us to be enormously tall; we can even +imagine organs by means of which men would appear to us to be of +immeasurable stature. On the other hand, certain organs could be so formed +as to permit us to view entire solar systems as if they were contracted +and brought close together like a single cell: and to beings of an inverse +order a single cell of the human body could be made to appear in its +construction, movement, and harmony as if it were a solar system in +itself. The habits of our senses have wrapped us up in a tissue of lying +sensations which in their turn lie at the base of all our judgments and +our "knowledge,"--there are no means of exit or escape to the real world! +We are like spiders in our own webs, and, whatever we may catch in them, +it will only be something that our web is capable of catching. + + + + +118. + + +WHAT IS OUR NEIGHBOUR?--What do we conceive of our neighbour except his +limits: I mean that whereby he, as it were, engraves and stamps himself in +and upon us? We can understand nothing of him except the changes which +take place upon our own person and of which he is the cause, what we know +of him is like a hollow, modelled space. We impute to him the feelings +which his acts arouse in us, and thus give him a wrong and inverted +positivity. We form him after our knowledge of ourselves into a satellite +of our own system, and if he shines upon us, or grows dark, and we in any +case are the ultimate cause of his doing so, we nevertheless still believe +the contrary! O world of phantoms in which we live! O world so perverted, +topsy-turvy and empty, and yet dreamt of as full and upright! + + + + +119. + + +EXPERIENCE AND INVENTION.--To however high a degree a man can attain to +knowledge of himself, nothing can be more incomplete than the conception +which he forms of the instincts constituting his individuality. He can +scarcely name the more common instincts: their number and force, their +flux and reflux, their action and counteraction, and, above all, the laws +of their nutrition, remain absolutely unknown to him. This nutrition, +therefore, becomes a work of chance: the daily experiences of our lives +throw their prey now to this instinct and now to that, and the instincts +gradually seize upon it; but the ebb and flow of these experiences does +not stand in any rational relationship to the nutritive needs of the total +number of the instincts. Two things, then, must always happen: some +cravings will be neglected and starved to death, while others will be +overfed. Every moment in the life of man causes some polypous arms of his +being to grow and others to wither away, in accordance with the nutriment +which that moment may or may not bring with it. Our experiences, as I have +already said, are all in this sense means of nutriment, but scattered +about with a careless hand and without discrimination between the hungry +and the overfed. As a consequence of this accidental nutrition of each +particular part, the polypus in its complete development will be something +just as fortuitous as its growth. + +To put this more clearly: let us suppose that an instinct or craving has +reached that point when it demands gratification,--either the exercise of +its power or the discharge of it, or the filling up of a vacuum (all this +is metaphorical language),--then it will examine every event that occurs in +the course of the day to ascertain how it can be utilised with the object +of fulfilling its aim: whether the man runs or rests, or is angry, or +reads or speaks or fights or rejoices, the unsatiated instinct watches, as +it were, every condition into which the man enters, and, as a rule, if it +finds nothing for itself it must wait, still unsatisfied. After a little +while it becomes feeble, and at the end of a few days or a few months, if +it has not been satisfied, it will wither away like a plant which has not +been watered. This cruelty of chance would perhaps be more conspicuous if +all the cravings were as vehement in their demands as hunger, which +refuses to be satisfied with imaginary dishes; but the great majority of +our instincts, especially those which are called moral, are thus easily +satisfied,--if it be permitted to suppose that our dreams serve as +compensation to a certain extent for the accidental absence of "nutriment" +during the day. Why was last night's dream full of tenderness and tears, +that of the night before amusing and gay, and the previous one adventurous +and engaged in some continual obscure search? How does it come about that +in this dream I enjoy indescribable beauties of music, and in that one I +soar and fly upwards with the delight of an eagle to the most distant +heights? + +These inventions in which our instincts of tenderness, merriment, or +adventurousness, or our desire for music and mountains, can have free play +and scope--and every one can recall striking instances--are interpretations +of our nervous irritations during sleep, very free and arbitrary +interpretations of the movements of our blood and intestines, and the +pressure of our arm and the bed coverings, or the sound of a church bell, +the weathercocks, the moths, and so on. That this text, which on the whole +is very much the same for one night as another, is so differently +commented upon, that our creative reason imagines such different causes +for the nervous irritations of one day as compared with another, may be +explained by the fact that the prompter of this reason was different +to-day from yesterday--another instinct or craving wished to be satisfied, +to show itself, to exercise itself and be refreshed and discharged: this +particular one being at its height to-day and another one being at its +height last night. Real life has not the freedom of interpretation +possessed by dream life; it is less poetic and less unrestrained--but is it +necessary for me to show that our instincts, when we are awake, likewise +merely interpret our nervous irritations and determine their "causes" in +accordance with their requirements? that there is no really essential +difference between waking and dreaming! that even in comparing different +degrees of culture, the freedom of the conscious interpretation of the one +is not in any way inferior to the freedom in dreams of the other! that our +moral judgments and valuations are only images and fantasies concerning +physiological processes unknown to us, a kind of habitual language to +describe certain nervous irritations? that all our so-called consciousness +is a more or less fantastic commentary of an unknown text, one which is +perhaps unknowable but yet felt? + +Consider some insignificant occurrence. Let us suppose that some day as we +pass along a public street we see some one laughing at us. In accordance +with whatever craving has reached its culminating point within us at that +moment, this incident will have this or that signification for us; and it +will be a very different occurrence in accordance with the class of men to +which we belong. One man will take it like a drop of rain, another will +shake it off like a fly, a third person will try to pick a quarrel on +account of it, a fourth will examine his garments to see if there is +anything about them likely to cause laughter, and a fifth will in +consequence think about what is ridiculous _per se_, a sixth will be +pleased at having involuntarily contributed to add a ray of sunshine and +mirth to the world,--in all these cases some craving is gratified, whether +anger, combativeness, meditation, or benevolence. This instinct, whatever +it may be, has seized upon that incident as its prey: why that particular +one? Because, hungry and thirsty, it was lying in ambush. + +Not long ago at 11 o'clock in the morning a man suddenly collapsed and +fell down in front of me as if struck by lightning. All the women who were +near at once gave utterance to cries of horror, while I set the man on his +feet again and waited until he recovered his speech. During this time no +muscle of my face moved and I experienced no sensation of fear or pity; I +simply did what was most urgent and reasonable and calmly proceeded on my +way. Supposing some one had told me on the previous evening that at 11 +o'clock on the following day a man would fall down in front of me like +this, I should have suffered all kinds of agonies in the interval, lying +awake all night, and at the decisive moment should also perhaps have +fallen down like the man instead of helping him; for in the meantime all +the imaginable cravings within me would have had leisure to conceive and +to comment upon this incident. What are our experiences, then? Much more +what we attribute to them than what they really are. Or should we perhaps +say that nothing is contained in them? that experiences in themselves are +merely works of fancy? + + + + +120. + + +TO TRANQUILLISE THE SCEPTIC.--"I don't know at all what I am doing. I don't +know in the least what I ought to do!"--You are right, but be sure of this: +you are being done at every moment! Mankind has at all times mistaken the +active for the passive: it is its eternal grammatical blunder. + + + + +121. + + +CAUSE AND EFFECT.--On this mirror--and our intellect is a mirror--something +is going on that indicates regularity: a certain thing is each time +followed by another certain thing. When we perceive this and wish to give +it a name, we call it cause and effect,--fools that we are! as if in this +we had understood or could understand anything! For, of course, we have +seen nothing but the images of causes and effects, and it is just this +figurativeness which renders it impossible for us to see a more +substantial relation than that of sequence! + + + + +122. + + +THE PURPOSES IN NATURE.--Any impartial investigator who examines the +history of the eye and its form in the lower creatures, and sees how the +visual organ was slowly developed, cannot help recognising that sight was +not the first purpose of the eye, but probably only asserted itself when +pure hazard had contributed to bring together the apparatus. One single +example of this kind, and the "final purposes" fall from our eyes like +scales. + + + + +123. + + +REASON.--How did reason come into the world? As is only proper, in an +irrational manner; by accident. We shall have to guess at this accident as +a riddle. + + + + +124. + + +WHAT IS VOLITION?--We laugh at a man who, stepping out of his room at the +very minute when the sun is rising, says, "It is my _will_ that the sun +shall rise"; or at him who, unable to stop a wheel, says, "I _wish_ it to +roll"; or, again, at him who, thrown in a wrestling match, says, "Here I +lie, but here I _wish_ to lie." But, joking apart, do we not act like one +of these three persons whenever we use the expression "I wish"? + + + + +125. + + +ON THE DOMAIN OF FREEDOM.--We can _think_ many more things than we can do +and experience--_i.e._ our faculty of thinking is superficial and is +satisfied with what lies on the surface, it does not even perceive this +surface. If our intellect were strictly developed in proportion to our +power, and our exercise of this power, the primary principle of our +thinking would be that we can understand only that which we are able to +do--if, indeed, there is any understanding at all. The thirsty man is +without water, but the creations of his imagination continually bring the +image of water to his sight, as if nothing could be more easily procured. +The superficial and easily satisfied character of the intellect cannot +understand real need, and thus feels itself superior. It is proud of being +able to do more, to run faster, and to reach the goal almost within the +twinkling of an eye: and in this way the domain of thought, when +contrasted with the domain of action, volition, and experience, appears to +be the domain of liberty, while, as I have already stated, it is nothing +but the domain of superficiality and self-sufficiency. + + + + +126. + + +FORGETFULNESS.--It has never yet been proved that there is such a thing as +forgetfulness: all that we know is that we have no power over +recollection. In the meantime we have filled up this gap in our power with +the word "forgetfulness," exactly as if it were another faculty added to +our list. But, after all, what is within our power? If that word fills up +a gap in our power, might not the other words be found capable of filling +up a gap in the knowledge which we possess of our power? + + + + +127. + + +FOR A DEFINITE PURPOSE.--Of all human actions probably the least understood +are those which are carried out for a definite purpose, because they have +always been regarded as the most intelligible and commonplace to our +intellect. The great problems can be picked up in the highways and byways. + + + + +128. + + +DREAMING AND RESPONSIBILITY.--You would wish to be responsible for +everything except your dreams! What miserable weakness, what lack of +logical courage! Nothing contains more of your own work than your dreams! +Nothing belongs to you so much! Substance, form, duration, actor, +spectator--in these comedies you act as your complete selves! And yet it is +just here that you are afraid and ashamed of yourselves, and even Oedipus, +the wise Oedipus, derived consolation from the thought that we cannot be +blamed for what we dream. From this I must conclude that the great +majority of men must have some dreadful dreams to reproach themselves +with. If it were otherwise, to how great an extent would these nocturnal +fictions have been exploited in the interests of man's pride! Need I add +that the wise Oedipus was right, that we are really not responsible for +our dreams any more than for our waking hours, and that the doctrine of +free will has as its parents man's pride and sense of power! Perhaps I say +this too often; but that does not prove that it is not true. + + + + +129. + + +THE ALLEGED COMBAT OF MOTIVES.--People speak of the "combat of motives," +but they designate by this expression that which is not a combat of +motives at all. What I mean is that, in our meditative consciousness, the +consequences of different actions which we think we are able to carry out +present themselves successively, one after the other, and we compare these +consequences in our mind. We think we have come to a decision concerning +an action after we have established to our own satisfaction that the +consequences of this action will be favourable. Before we arrive at this +conclusion, however, we often seriously worry because of the great +difficulties we experience in guessing what the consequences are likely to +be, and in seeing them in their full importance, without exception--and, +after all this, we must reckon up any fortuitous elements that are likely +to arise. Then comes the chief difficulty: all the consequences which we +have with such difficulty determined one by one must be weighed on some +scales against each other; and it only too often comes about that, owing +to the difference in the quality of all the conceivable consequences, both +scales and weights are lacking for this casuistry of advantage. + +Even supposing, however, that in this case we are able to overcome the +difficulty, and that mere hazard has placed in our scales results which +permit of a mutual balance, we have now, in the idea of the consequences +of a particular action, a motive for performing this very action, but only +one motive! When we have finally decided to act, however, we are fairly +often influenced by another order of motives than those of the "image of +the consequences." What brings this about may be the habitual working of +our inner machinery, or some little encouragement on the part of a person +whom we fear or honour or love, or the love of comfort which prefers to do +that which lies nearest; or some stirring of the imagination provoked at +the decisive moment by some event of trifling importance; or some physical +influence which manifests itself quite unexpectedly; a mere whim brings it +about; or the outburst of a passion which, as it accidentally happens, is +ready to burst forth--in a word, motives operate which we do not understand +very well, or which we do not understand at all, and which we can never +balance against one another in advance. + +It is probable that a contest is going on among these motives too, a +driving backwards and forwards, a rising and lowering of the parts, and it +is this which would be the real "contest of motives," something quite +invisible and unknown to us. I have calculated the consequences and the +successes, and in doing so have set a very necessary motive in the line of +combat with the other motives,--but I am as little able to draw up this +battle line as to see it: the battle itself is hidden from my sight, as +likewise is the victory, as victory; for I certainly come to know what I +shall finally do, but I cannot know what motive has in the end proved to +be the victor. Nevertheless, we are decidedly not in the habit of taking +all these unconscious phenomena into account, and we generally conceive of +the preliminary stages of an action only so far as they are conscious: +thus we mistake the combat of the motives for a comparison of the possible +consequences of different actions,--a mistake that brings with it most +important consequences, and consequences that are most fatal to the +development of morals. + + + + +130. + + +AIMS? WILL?--We have accustomed ourselves to believe in two kingdoms, the +domain of purposes and volition, and the domain of chance. In this latter +domain everything is done senselessly, there is a continual going to and +fro without any one being able to say why or wherefore. We stand in awe of +this powerful realm of the great cosmic stupidity, for in most instances +we learn to know it when it falls down upon the other world, that of aims +and intentions, like a slate from a roof, always overwhelming some +beautiful purpose of ours. + +This belief in these two kingdoms arises from ancient romanticism and +legend: we clever dwarfs, with all our will and aims, are interfered with, +knocked down, and very often crushed to death by those ultra-stupid +giants, the accidents,--but in spite of this we should not like to be +deprived of the fearful poetry of their proximity, for these monsters very +often make their appearance when life in the spider's web of definite aims +has become too tiresome or too anxious for us, and they sometimes bring +about a divine diversion when their hands for once tear the whole web in +pieces,--not that these irrational beings ever intend to do what they do, +or even observe it. But their coarse and bony hands rend our web as if it +were thin air. + +Moira was the name given by the Greeks to this realm of the incalculable +and of sublime and eternal limitedness; and they set it round their gods +like a horizon beyond which they could neither see nor act,--with that +secret defiance of the gods which one meets with in different nations; the +gods are worshipped, but a final trump card is held in readiness to play +against them. As instances of this we may recollect that the Indians and +the Persians, who conceived all their gods as having to depend upon the +sacrifices of mortals, so that if it came to the worst the mortals could, +at least, let the gods die of starvation; or the gods of the stubborn and +melancholy Scandinavians, who enjoyed a quiet revenge in the thought that +a twilight of the gods was to come as some compensation for the perpetual +fear which their evil gods caused them. The case of Christianity was very +different, for its essential feelings were not those of the Indians, +Persians, Greeks, or Scandinavians. Christianity commanded its disciples +to worship in the dust the spirit of power, and to kiss the very dust. It +gave the world to understand that this omnipotent "realm of stupidity" was +not so stupid as it seemed, and that we, on the contrary, were stupid when +we could not perceive that behind this realm stood God Himself: He who, +although fond of dark, crooked and wonderful ways, at last brought +everything to a "glorious end." This new myth of God, who had hitherto +been mistaken for a race of giants or Moira, and who was now Himself the +spinner and weaver of webs and purposes even more subtle than those of our +own intellect--so subtle, indeed, that they appear to be incomprehensible +and even unreasonable--this myth was so bold a transformation and so daring +a paradox that the over-refined ancient world could not resist it, however +extravagant and contradictory the thing seemed: for, let it be said in +confidence, there was a contradiction in it,--if our intellect cannot +divine the intellect and aims of God, how did it divine this quality of +its intellect and this quality of God's intellect? + +In more modern times, indeed, the doubt has increased as to whether the +slate that falls from the roof is really thrown by "Divine love," and +mankind again harks back to the old romance of giants and dwarfs. Let us +learn then, for it is time we did so, that even in our supposed separate +domain of aims and reason the giants likewise rule. And our aims and +reason are not dwarfs, but giants. And our own webs are just as often and +as clumsily rent by ourselves as by the slate. And not everything is +purpose that is called purpose, and still less is everything will that is +called will. And if you come to the conclusion, "Then there is only one +domain, that of stupidity and hazard?" it must be added that possibly +there is only one domain, possibly there is neither will nor aim, and we +may only have imagined these things. Those iron hands of necessity that +shake the dice-box of chance continue their game indefinitely: hence, it +must happen that certain throws perfectly resemble every degree of +appropriateness and good sense. It may be that our own voluntary acts and +purposes are merely such throws, and that we are too circumscribed and +vain to conceive our extremely circumscribed state! that we ourselves +shake the dice-box with iron hands, and do nothing in our most deliberate +actions but play the game of necessity. Possibly! To rise beyond this +"possibly" we should indeed have been guests in the Underworld, playing at +dice and betting with Proserpine at the table of the goddess herself. + + + + +131. + + +MORAL FASHIONS.--How moral judgments as a whole have changed! The greatest +marvels of the morality of antiquity, such as Epictetus, knew nothing of +the glorification, now so common, of the spirit of sacrifice, of living +for others: after the fashion of morality now prevailing we should really +call them immoral; for they fought with all their strength for their own +ego and against all sympathy for others, especially for the sufferings and +moral imperfections of others. Perhaps they would reply to us by saying, +"If you feel yourselves to be such dull and ugly people, by all means +think of others more than yourselves. You will be quite right in doing +so!" + + + + +132. + + +THE LAST ECHOES OF CHRISTIANITY IN MORALS.--"On n'est bon que par la pitié: +il faut donc qu'il y ait quelque pitié dans tous nos sentiments"--so says +morality nowadays. And how does this come about? The fact that the man who +performs social, sympathetic, disinterested, and benevolent actions is now +considered as the moral man: this is perhaps the most general effect, the +most complete transformation, that Christianity has produced in Europe; +perhaps in spite of itself, and not by any means because this was part of +its essential doctrine. But this was the residuum of those Christian +feelings that prevailed at the time when the contrary and thoroughly +selfish faith in the "one thing needful," the absolute importance of +eternal and personal salvation, together with the dogmas upon which this +belief had rested, were gradually receding, and when the auxiliary beliefs +in "love" and "love of one's neighbour," harmonising with the +extraordinary practice of charity by the Church, were thereby coming to +the front. The more people gradually became separated from the dogmas, the +more did they seek some sort of justification for this separation in a +cult of the love of humanity: not to fall short in this respect of the +Christian ideal, but to excel it if possible, was the secret stimulus of +all the French free-thinkers from Voltaire to Auguste Comte; and this +latter with his famous moral formula "vivre pour autrui" has indeed +out-christianised even Christianity! + +It was Schopenhauer in Germany and John Stuart Mill in England who were +the means of bringing into the greatest prominence this doctrine of +sympathetic affections and of pity or utility to others as a principle of +action; but these men themselves were only echoes. From about the time of +the French Revolution these doctrines have manifested themselves in +various places with enormous force. Since then they have shown themselves +in their coarsest as well has their most subtle form, and all Socialistic +principles have almost involuntarily taken their stand on the common +ground of this doctrine. At the present time there is perhaps no more +widely spread prejudice than that of thinking that we know what really and +truly constitutes morality. Every one now seems to learn with satisfaction +that society is beginning to adapt the individual to the general needs, +and that it is at the same time the happiness and sacrifice of each one to +consider himself as a useful member and instrument of the whole. They have +still, however, doubts as to the form in which this whole is to be looked +for, whether in a state already existing, or in one which has yet to be +established, or in a nation, or in an international brotherhood, or in new +and small economic communities. On this point there is still much +reflection, doubt, struggling, excitement, and passion; but it is pleasant +and wonderful to observe the unanimity with which the "ego" is called upon +to practice self-denial, until, in the form of adaptation to the whole, it +once again secures its own fixed sphere of rights and duties,--until, +indeed, it has become something quite new and different. Nothing else is +being attempted, whether admitted or not, than the complete +transformation, even the weakening and suppression of the individual: the +supporters of the majority never tire of enumerating and anathematising +all that is bad, hostile, lavish, expensive, and luxurious in the form of +individual existence that has hitherto prevailed; they hope that society +may be administered in a cheaper, less dangerous, more uniform, and more +harmonious way when nothing is left but large corporations and their +members. All that is considered as good which in any way corresponds to +this desire for grouping men into one particular society, and to the minor +cravings which necessarily accompany this desire,--this is the chief moral +current of our time; sympathy and social feelings are working hand in +glove. (Kant is still outside of this movement: he expressly teaches that +we should be insensible to the sufferings of others if our benevolence is +to have any moral value,--a doctrine which Schopenhauer, very angrily, as +may easily be imagined, described as the Kantian absurdity.) + + + + +133. + + +"NO LONGER THINKING OF ONE'S SELF."--Let us seriously consider why we +should jump into the water to rescue some one who has just fallen in +before our eyes, although we may have no particular sympathy for him. We +do it for pity's sake; no one thinks now but of his neighbour,--so says +thoughtlessness. Why do we experience grief and uneasiness when we see +some one spit blood, although we may be really ill-disposed towards him +and wish him no good? Out of pity; we have ceased to think of +ourselves,--so says thoughtlessness again. The truth is that in our pity--I +mean by this what we erroneously call "pity"--we no longer think +consciously of ourselves, but quite unconsciously, exactly as when +slipping we unconsciously make the best counter-motions possible in order +to recover our balance, and in doing so clearly use all our intelligence. +A mishap to another offends us; it would bring our impotence, or perhaps +our cowardice, into strong relief if we could do nothing to help him; or +in itself it would give rise to a diminution of our honour in the eyes of +others and of ourselves. Or again, accidents that happen to others act as +finger-posts to point out our own danger, and even as indications of human +peril and frailty they can produce a painful effect upon us. We shake off +this kind of pain and offence, and balance it by an act of pity behind +which may be hidden a subtle form of self-defence or even revenge. That at +bottom we strongly think of ourselves may easily be divined from the +decision that we arrive at in all cases where we can avoid the sight of +those who are suffering or starving or wailing. We make up our minds not +to avoid such people when we can approach them as powerful and helpful +ones, when we can safely reckon upon their applause, or wish to feel the +contrast of our own happiness, or, again, when we hope to get rid of our +own boredom. It is misleading to call the suffering that we experience at +such a sight, and which may be of a very different kind, commiseration. +For in all cases it is a suffering from which the suffering person before +us is free: it is our own suffering, just as his suffering is his own. It +is thus only this personal feeling of misery that we get rid of by acts of +compassion. Nevertheless, we never act thus from one single motive: as it +is certain that we wish to free ourselves from suffering thereby, it is +also certain that by the same action we yield to an impulse of pleasure. +Pleasure arises at the sight of a contrast to our own condition, at the +knowledge that we should be able to help if only we wished to do so, at +the thought of the praise and gratitude which we should gain if we did +help, at the very act of helping, in so far as this might prove successful +(and because something which is gradually seen to be successful gives +pleasure to the doer); but even more particularly at the feeling that our +intervention brings to an end some deplorable injustice,--even the outburst +of one's indignation is invigorating. + +All this, including even things still more subtle, comprises "pity." How +clumsily with this one word does language fall foul of such a complex and +polyphonous organism! That pity, on the other hand, is identical with the +suffering the sight of which brings it about, or that it has a +particularly subtle and penetrating comprehension of it: this is in +contradiction to experience, and he who has glorified pity under these two +heads lacked sufficient experience in the domain of morals. That is why I +am seized with some doubts when reading of the incredible things +attributed by Schopenhauer to pity. It is obvious that he thereby wished +to make us believe in the great novelty he brought forward, viz., that +pity--the pity which he observed so superficially and described so +badly--was the source of all and every past and future moral action,--and +all this precisely because of those faculties which he had begun by +attributing to it. + +What is it in the end that distinguishes men without pity from men who are +really compassionate? In particular, to give merely an approximate +indication, they have not the sensitive feeling for fear, the subtle +faculty for perceiving danger: nor yet is their vanity so easily wounded +if something happens which they might have been able to prevent,--the +caution of their pride commands them not to interfere uselessly with the +affairs of others; they even act on the belief that every one should help +himself and play his own cards. Again, in most cases they are more +habituated to bearing pain than compassionate men, and it does not seem at +all unjust to them that others should suffer, since they themselves have +suffered. Lastly, the state of soft-heartedness is as painful to them as +is the state of stoical impassability to compassionate men: they have only +disdainful words for sensitive hearts, as they think that such a state of +feeling is dangerous to their own manliness and calm bravery,--they conceal +their tears from others and wipe them off, angry with themselves. They +belong to a different type of egoists from the compassionate men,--but to +call them, in a distinct sense, evil and the compassionate ones good, is +merely a moral fashion which has had its innings, just as the reverse +fashion had also its innings, and a long innings, too. + + + + +134. + + +TO WHAT EXTENT WE MUST BEWARE OF PITY.--Pity, in so far as it actually +gives rise to suffering--and this must be our only point of view here--is a +weakness, like every other indulgence in an injurious emotion. It +increases suffering throughout the world, and although here and there a +certain amount of suffering may be indirectly diminished or removed +altogether as a consequence of pity, we must not bring forward these +occasional consequences, which are on the whole insignificant, to justify +the nature of pity which, as has already been stated, is prejudicial. +Supposing that it prevailed, even if only for one day, it would bring +humanity to utter ruin. In itself the nature of pity is no better than +that of any other craving; it is only where it is called for and +praised--and this happens when people do not understand what is injurious +in it, but find in it a sort of joy--that a good conscience becomes +attached to it; it is only then that we willingly yield to it, and do not +shrink from acknowledging it. In other circumstances where it is +understood to be dangerous, it is looked upon as a weakness; or, as in the +case of the Greeks, as an unhealthy periodical emotion the danger of which +might be removed by temporary and voluntary discharges. If a man were to +undertake the experiment of deliberately devoting his attention to the +opportunities afforded by practical life for the exercise of pity, and +were over and over again to picture in his own mind the misery he might +meet with in his immediate surroundings, he would inevitably become +melancholy and ill. If, however, he wished in any sense of the word to +serve humanity as a physician, he would have to take many precautions with +respect to this feeling, as otherwise it would paralyse him at all +critical moments, undermine the foundations of his knowledge, and unnerve +his helpful and delicate hand. + + + + +135. + + +AROUSING PITY.--Among savages men think with a moral shudder of the +possibility of becoming an object of pity, for such a state they regard as +deprived of all virtue. Pitying is equivalent to despising: they do not +want to see a contemptible being suffer, for this would afford them no +enjoyment. On the other hand, to behold one of their enemies suffering, +some one whom they look upon as their equal in pride, but whom torture +cannot induce to give up his pride, and in general to see some one suffer +who refuses to lower himself by appealing for pity--which would in their +eyes be the most profound and shameful humiliation--this is the very joy of +joys. Such a spectacle excites the deepest admiration in the soul of the +savage, and he ends by killing such a brave man when it is in his power, +afterwards according funeral honours to the unbending one. If he had +groaned, however; if his countenance had lost its expression of calm +disdain; if he had shown himself to be contemptible,--well, in such a case +he might have been allowed to live like a dog: he would no longer have +aroused the pride of the spectator, and pity would have taken the place of +admiration. + + + + +136. + + +HAPPINESS IN PITY.--If, as is the case among the Hindus, we decree the end +and aim of all intellectual activity to be the knowledge of human misery, +and if for generation after generation this dreadful resolution be +steadily adhered to, pity in the eyes of such men of hereditary pessimism +comes to have a new value as a preserver of life, something that helps to +make existence endurable, although it may seem worthy of being rejected +with horror and disgust. Pity becomes an antidote to suicide, a sentiment +which brings pleasure with it and enables us to taste superiority in small +doses. It gives some diversion to our minds, makes our hearts full, +banishes fear and lethargy, and incites us to speak, to complain, or to +act: it is a relative happiness when compared with the misery of the +knowledge that hampers the individual on every side, bewilders him, and +takes away his breath. Happiness, however, no matter of what nature it may +be, gives us air and light and freedom of movement. + + + + +137. + + +WHY DOUBLE THE "EGO"?--To view our own experiences in the same light as we +are in the habit of looking at those of others is very comforting and an +advisable medicine. On the other hand, to look upon the experiences of +others and adopt them as if they were our own--which is called for by the +philosophy of pity--would ruin us in a very short time: let us only make +the experiment without trying to imagine it any longer! The first maxim +is, in addition, undoubtedly more in accordance with reason and goodwill +towards reason; for we estimate more objectively the value and +significance of an event when it happens to others,--the value, for +instance, of a death, loss of money or slander. But pity, taking as its +principle of action the injunction, "Suffer the misfortune of another as +much as he himself," would lead the point of view of the ego with all its +exaggerations and deviations to become the point of view of the other +person, the sympathiser: so that we should have to suffer at the same time +from our own ego and the other's ego. In this way we would voluntarily +overload ourselves with a double irrationality, instead of making the +burden of our own as light as possible. + + + + +138. + + +BECOMING MORE TENDER.--Whenever we love some one and venerate and admire +him, and afterwards come to perceive that he is suffering--which always +causes us the utmost astonishment, since we cannot but feel that the +happiness we derive from him must flow from a superabundant source of +personal happiness--our feelings of love, veneration, and admiration are +essentially changed: they become more tender; that is, the gap that +separates us seems to be bridged over and there appears to be an approach +to equality. It now seems possible to give him something in return, whilst +we had previously imagined him as being altogether above our gratitude. +Our ability to requite him for what we have received from him arouses in +us feelings of much joy and pleasure. We endeavour to ascertain what can +best calm the grief of our friend, and we give it to him; if he wishes for +kind words, looks, attentions, services, or presents, we give them; but, +above all, if he would like to see us suffering from the sight of his +suffering, we pretend to suffer, for all this secures for us the enjoyment +of active gratitude, which is equivalent in a way to good-natured revenge. +If he wants none of these things, and refuses to accept them from us, we +depart from him chilled and sad, almost mortified; it appears to us as if +our gratitude had been declined, and on this point of honour even the best +of men is still somewhat touchy. It results from all this that even in the +best case there is something humiliating in suffering, and something +elevating and superior in sympathy,--a fact which will keep the two +feelings apart for ever and ever. + + + + +139. + + +HIGHER IN NAME ONLY.--You say that the morality of pity is a higher +morality than that of stoicism? Prove it! But take care not to measure the +"higher" and "lower" degrees of morality once more by moral yardsticks; +for there are no absolute morals. So take your yardstick from somewhere +else, and be on your guard! + + + + +140. + + +PRAISE AND BLAME.--When a war has come to an unsuccessful conclusion we try +to find the man who is to blame for the war; when it comes to a successful +conclusion we praise the man who is responsible for it. In all +unsuccessful cases attempts are made to blame somebody, for non-success +gives rise to dejection, against which the single possible remedy is +involuntarily applied; a new incitement of the sense of power; and this +incitement is found in the condemnation of the "guilty" one. This guilty +one is not perhaps the scapegoat of the faults of others; he is merely the +victim of the feeble, humiliated, and depressed people who wish to prove +upon some one that they have not yet lost all their power. Even +self-condemnation after a defeat may be the means of restoring the feeling +of power. + +On the other hand, glorification of the originator is often but an equally +blind result of another instinct that demands its victim,--and in this case +the sacrifice appears to be sweet and attractive even for the victim. This +happens when the feeling of power is satiated in a nation or a society by +so great and fascinating a success that a weariness of victory supervenes +and pride wishes to be discharged: a feeling of self-sacrifice is aroused +and looks for its object. Thus, whether we are blamed or praised we +merely, as a rule, provide opportunities for the gratification of others, +and are only too often caught up and whirled away for our neighbours to +discharge upon us their accumulated feelings of praise or blame. In both +cases we confer a benefit upon them for which we deserve no credit and +they no thanks. + + + + +141. + + +MORE BEAUTIFUL BUT LESS VALUABLE.--Picturesque morality: such is the +morality of those passions characterised by sudden outbursts, abrupt +transitions; pathetic, impressive, dreadful, and solemn attitudes and +gestures. It is the semi-savage stage of morality: never let us be tempted +to set it on a higher plane merely on account of its ćsthetic charms. + + + + +142. + + +SYMPATHY.--In order to understand our neighbour, that is, in order to +reproduce his sentiments in ourselves, we often, no doubt, plumb the cause +of his feelings, as, for example, by asking ourselves, Why is he sad? in +order that we may become sad ourselves for the same reason. But we much +more frequently neglect to act thus, and we produce these feelings in +ourselves in accordance with the _effects_ which they exhibit in the +person we are studying,--by imitating in our own body the expression of his +eyes, his voice, his gait, his attitude (or, at any rate, the likeness of +these things in words, pictures, and music), or we may at least endeavour +to mimic the action of his muscles and nervous system. A like feeling will +then spring up in us as the result of an old association of movements and +sentiments which has been trained to run backwards and forwards. We have +developed to a very high pitch this knack of sounding the feelings of +others, and when we are in the presence of any one else we bring this +faculty of ours into play almost involuntarily,--let the inquirer observe +the animation of a woman's countenance and notice how it vibrates and +quivers with animation as the result of the continual imitation and +reflection of what is going on around her. + +It is music, however, more than anything else that shows us what +past-masters we are in the rapid and subtle divination of feelings and +sympathy; for even if music is only the imitation of an imitation of +feelings, nevertheless, despite its distance and vagueness, it often +enables us to participate in those feelings, so that we become sad without +any reason for feeling so, like the fools that we are, merely because we +hear certain sounds and rhythms that somehow or other remind us of the +intonation and the movements, or perhaps even only of the behaviour, of +sorrowful people. It is related of a certain Danish king that he was +wrought up to such a pitch of warlike enthusiasm by the song of a minstrel +that he sprang to his feet and killed five persons of his assembled court: +there was neither war nor enemy; there was rather the exact opposite; yet +the power of the retrospective inference from a feeling to the cause of it +was sufficiently strong in this king to overpower both his observation and +his reason. Such, however, is almost invariably the effect of music +(provided that it thrills us), and we have no need of such paradoxical +instances to recognise this,--the state of feeling into which music +transports us is almost always in contradiction to the appearance of our +actual state, and of our reasoning power which recognises this actual +state and its causes. + +If we inquire how it happened that this imitation of the feelings of +others has become so common, there will be no doubt as to the answer: man +being the most timid of all beings because of his subtle and delicate +nature has been made familiar through his timidity with this sympathy for, +and rapid comprehension of, the feelings of others, even of animals. For +century after century he saw danger in everything that was unfamiliar to +him, in anything that happened to be alive, and whenever the spectacle of +such things and creatures came before his eyes he imitated their features +and attitude, drawing at the same time his own conclusion as to the nature +of the evil intentions they concealed. This interpretation of all +movements and all facial characteristics in the sense of intentions, man +has even brought to bear on things inanimate,--urged on as he was by the +illusion that there was nothing inanimate. I believe that this is the +origin of everything that we now call a feeling for nature, that sensation +of joy which men experience at the sight of the sky, the fields, the +rocks, the forests, the storms, the stars, the landscapes, and spring: +without our old habits of fear which forced us to suspect behind +everything a kind of second and more recondite sense, we should now +experience no delight in nature, in the same way as men and animals do not +cause us to rejoice if we have not first been deterred by that source of +all understanding, namely, fear. For joy and agreeable surprise, and +finally the feeling of ridicule, are the younger children of sympathy, and +the much younger brothers and sisters of fear. The faculty of rapid +perception, which is based on the faculty of rapid dissimulation, +decreases in proud and autocratic men and nations, as they are less timid; +but, on the other hand, every category of understanding and dissimulation +is well known to timid peoples, and among them is to be found the real +home of imitative arts and superior intelligence. + +When, proceeding from the theory of sympathy such as I have just outlined, +I turn my attention to the theory, now so popular and almost sacrosanct, +of a mystical process by means of which pity blends two beings into one, +and thus permits them immediately to understand one another, when I +recollect that even so clear a brain as Schopenhauer's delighted in such +fantastic nonsense, and that he in his turn transplanted this delight into +other lucid and semi-lucid brains, I feel unlimited astonishment and +compassion. How great must be the pleasure we experience in this senseless +tomfoolery! How near must even a sane man be to insanity as soon as he +listens to his own secret intellectual desires!--Why did Schopenhauer +really feel so grateful, so profoundly indebted to Kant? He revealed on +one occasion the undoubted answer to this question. Some one had spoken of +the way in which the _qualitias occulta_ of Kant's Categorical Imperative +might be got rid of, so that the theory itself might be rendered +intelligible. Whereupon Schopenhauer gave utterance to the following +outburst: "An intelligible Categorical Imperative! Preposterous idea! +Stygian darkness! God forbid that it should ever become intelligible! The +fact that there is actually something unintelligible, that this misery of +the understanding and its conceptions is limited, conditional, final, and +deceptive,--this is beyond question Kant's great gift." Let any one +consider whether a man can be in possession of a desire to gain an insight +into moral things when he feels himself comforted from the start by a +belief in the inconceivableness of these things! one who still honestly +believes in illuminations from above, in magic, in ghostly appearances, +and in the metaphysical ugliness of the toad! + + + + +143. + + +WOE TO US IF THIS IMPULSE SHOULD RAGE!--Supposing that the impulse towards +devotion and care for others ("sympathetic affection") were doubly as +strong as it now is, life on earth could not be endured. Let it only be +considered how many foolish things every one of us does day by day and +hour by hour, merely out of solicitude and devotion for himself, and how +unbearable he seems in doing so: and what then would it be like if we were +to become for other people the object of the stupidities and importunities +with which up to the present they have only tormented themselves! Should +we not then take precipitately to our heels as soon as one of our +neighbours came towards us? And would it not be necessary to overwhelm +this sympathetic affection with the abuse that we now reserve for egoism? + + + + +144. + + +CLOSING OUR EARS TO THE COMPLAINTS OF OTHERS.--When we let our sky be +clouded by the complaints and suffering of other mortals, who must bear +the consequences of such gloom? No doubt those other mortals, in addition +to all their other burdens! If we are merely to be the echoes of their +complaints, we cannot accord them either help or comfort; nor can we do so +if we were continually keeping our ears open to listen to them,--unless we +have learnt the art of the Olympians, who, instead of trying to make +themselves unhappy, endeavoured to feel edified by the misfortunes of +mankind. But this is something too Olympian for us, although, in our +enjoyment of tragedy, we have already taken a step towards this ideal +divine cannibalism. + + + + +145. + + +"UNEGOISTIC."--This man is empty and wishes to be filled, that one is +over-full and wishes to be emptied: both of them feel themselves urged on +to look for an individual who can help them. And this phenomenon, +interpreted in a higher sense, is in both cases known by the same name, +"love." Well? and could this love be something unegoistic? + + + + +146. + + +LOOKING BEYOND OUR NEIGHBOUR.--What? Ought the nature of true morality to +consist for us in fixing our eyes upon the most direct and immediate +consequences of our action for other people, and in our coming to a +decision accordingly? This is only a narrow and bourgeois morality, even +though it may be a morality: but it seems to me that it would be more +superior and liberal to look beyond these immediate consequences for our +neighbour in order to encourage more distant purposes, even at the risk of +making others suffer,--as, for example, by encouraging the spirit of +knowledge in spite of the certainty that our free-thought will have the +instant effect of plunging others into doubt, grief, and even worse +afflictions. Have we not at least the right to treat our neighbour as we +treat ourselves? And if, where we are concerned, we do not think in such a +narrow and bourgeois fashion of immediate consequences and sufferings, why +should we be compelled to act thus in regard to our neighbour? Supposing +that we felt ready to sacrifice ourselves, what is there to prevent us +from sacrificing our neighbour together with ourselves,--just as States and +Sovereigns have hitherto sacrificed one citizen to the others, "for the +sake of the general interest," as they say? + +We too, however, have general interests, perhaps even more general than +theirs: so why may we not sacrifice a few individuals of this generation +for the benefit of generations to come? so that their affliction, anxiety, +despair, blunders, and misery may be deemed essential because a new plough +is to break up the ground and render it fertile for all. Finally, we +communicate the disposition to our neighbour by which he is enabled to +feel himself a victim: we persuade him to carry out the task for which we +employ him. Are we then devoid of all pity? If, however, we wish to +achieve a victory over ourselves beyond our pity, is not this a higher and +more liberal attitude and disposition than that in which we only feel safe +after having ascertained whether an action benefits or harms our +neighbour? On the contrary, it is by means of such sacrifice--including the +sacrifice of ourselves, as well as of our neighbours--that we should +strengthen and elevate the general sense of human power, even supposing +that we attain nothing more than this. But even this itself would be a +positive increase of happiness. Then, if even this ... but not a word +more! You have understood me at a glance. + + + + +147. + + +THE CAUSE OF "ALTRUISM."--Men have on the whole spoken of love with so much +emphasis and adoration because they have hitherto always had so little of +it, and have never yet been satiated with this food: in this way it became +their ambrosia. If a poet wished to show universal benevolence in the +image of a Utopia, he would certainly have to describe an agonising and +ridiculous state of things, the like of which was never seen on +earth,--every one would be surrounded, importuned, and sighed for, not as +at present, by one lover, but by thousands, by everybody indeed, as the +result of an irresistible craving which would then be as vehemently +insulted and cursed as selfishness has been by men of past ages. The poets +of this new condition of things, if they had sufficient leisure to write, +would be dreaming of nothing but the blissful and loveless past, the +divine selfishness of yore, and the wonderful possibilities in former +times of remaining alone, not being run after by one's friends, and of +even being hated and despised--or any other odious expressions which the +beautiful animal world in which we live chooses to coin. + + + + +148. + + +LOOKING FAR AHEAD.--If, in accordance with the present definition, only +those actions are moral which are done for the sake of others, and for +their sake only, then there are no moral actions at all! If, in accordance +with another definition, only those actions are moral which spring from +our own free will, then there are no moral actions in this case either! +What is it, then, that we designate thus, which certainly exists and +wishes as a consequence to be explained? It is the result of a few +intellectual blunders; and supposing that we were able to free ourselves +from these errors, what would then become of "moral actions"? It is due to +these errors that we have up to the present attributed to certain actions +a value superior to what was theirs in reality: we separated them from +"egoistic" and "non-free" actions. When we now set them once more in the +latter categories, as we must do, we certainly reduce their value (their +own estimate of value) even below its reasonable level, because "egoistic" +and "non-free" actions have up to the present been under-valued owing to +that alleged profound and essential difference. + +In future, then, will these very actions be less frequently performed, +since they will be less highly esteemed? Inevitably! Or at all events for +a fairly long time, as long as the scale of valuations remains under the +reacting influence of former mistakes! But we make some return for this by +giving back to men their good courage for the carrying out of actions that +are now reputed to be selfish, and thus restore their value,--we relieve +men's bad consciences! and as up to the present egoistic actions have been +by far the most frequent, and will be so to all eternity, we free the +whole conception of these actions and of life from its evil appearance! +This is a very high and important result. When men no longer believe +themselves to be evil, they cease to be so. + + + + + +BOOK III. + + + + +149. + + +LITTLE UNCONVENTIONAL ACTIONS ARE NECESSARY!--To act occasionally in +matters of custom against our own better judgments; to yield in practice +while reserving our own intellectual liberty; to behave like everybody +else and thus to show ourselves amiable and considerate to all, to +compensate them, as it were, even if only to some extent, for our +unconventional opinions--all this among many tolerably liberal-minded men +is looked upon not only as permissible but even as "honourable," "humane," +"tolerant," and "unpedantic," or whatever fine words may be used to lull +to sleep the intellectual conscience. So, for example, one man, although +he may be an atheist, has his infant baptized in the usual Christian +fashion; another goes through his period of military service, though he +may severely condemn all hatred between nations; and a third runs into the +Church with a girl because she comes from a religious family, and makes +his vows to a priest without feeling ashamed of it. "It is of no +importance if one of us does what every one else does and has done"--so +says ignorant prejudice! What a profound mistake! For nothing is of +greater importance than that a powerful, long-established, and irrational +custom should be once again confirmed by the act of some one who is +recognised as rational. In this way the proceeding is thought to be +sanctioned by reason itself! All honour to your opinions! but little +unconventional actions are of still greater value. + + + + +150. + + +THE HAZARD OF MARRIAGES.--If I were a god, and a benevolent god, the +marriages of men would cause me more displeasure than anything else. An +individual can make very great progress within the seventy years of his +life--yea, even within thirty years: such progress, indeed, as to surprise +even the gods! But when we then see him exposing the inheritance and +legacy of his struggles and victories, the laurel crown of his humanity, +on the first convenient peg where any female may pick it to pieces for +him; when we observe how well he can acquire and how little he is capable +of preserving his acquisitions, and how he does not even dream that by +procreation he might prepare a still more victorious life,--we then, +indeed, become impatient and say, "Nothing can in the end result from +humanity, individuals are wasted, for all rationality of a great advance +of humanity is rendered impossible by the hazard of marriages: let us +cease from being the assiduous spectators and fools of this aimless +drama!" It was in this mood that the gods of Epicurus withdrew long ago to +their divine seclusion and felicity: they were tired of men and their love +affairs. + + + + +151. + + +HERE ARE NEW IDEALS TO INVENT.--At a time when a man is in love he should +not be allowed to come to a decision about his life and to determine once +and for all the character of his society on account of a whim. We ought +publicly to declare invalid the vows of lovers, and to refuse them +permission to marry: and this because we should treat marriage itself much +more seriously, so that in cases where it is now contracted it would not +usually be allowed in future! Are not the majority of marriages such that +we should not care to have them witnessed by a third party? And yet this +third party is scarcely ever lacking--the child--and he is more than a +witness; he is the whipping-boy and scapegoat. + + + + +152. + + +FORMULA OF OATH.--"If I am now telling a lie I am no longer an honourable +man, and every one may say so to my face." I recommend this formula in +place of the present judicial oath and its customary invocation to the +Deity: it is stronger. There is no reason why even religious men should +oppose it; for as soon as the customary oath no longer serves, all the +religious people will have to turn to their catechism, which says, "Thou +shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain." + + + + +153. + + +THE MALCONTENT.--He is one of the brave old warriors: angry with +civilisation because he believes that its object is to make all good +things--honour, rewards, and fair women--accessible even to cowards. + + + + +154. + + +CONSOLATION AMID PERILS.--The Greeks, in the course of a life that was +always surrounded by great dangers and cataclysms, endeavoured to find in +meditation and knowledge a kind of security of feeling, a last _refugium_. +We, who live in a much more secure state, have introduced danger into +meditation and knowledge, and it is in life itself that we endeavour to +find repose, a refuge from danger. + + + + +155. + + +EXTINCT SCEPTICISM.--Hazardous enterprises are rarer in modern times than +in antiquity and in the Middle Ages, probably because modern times have no +more belief in omens, oracles, stars, and soothsayers. In other words, we +have become incapable of believing in a future which is reserved for us, +as the ancients did, who--in contradistinction to ourselves--were much less +sceptical regarding that which is to be than that which is. + + + + +156. + + +EVIL THROUGH EXUBERANCE.--"Oh, that we should not feel too happy!"--such was +the secret fear of the Greeks in their best age. _That_ is why they +preached moderation to themselves. And we? + + + + +157. + + +THE WORSHIP OF NATURAL SOUNDS.--What signification can we find in the fact +that our culture is not only indulgent to the manifestations of grief, +such as tears, complaints, reproaches, and attitudes of rage and humility, +but even approves them and reckons them among the most noble and essential +things?--while, on the other hand, the spirit of ancient philosophy looked +down upon them with contempt, without admitting their necessity in any +way. Let us remember how Plato--who was by no means one of the most inhuman +of the philosophers--speaks of the Philoctetus of the tragic stage. Is it +possible that our modern culture is wanting in "philosophy"? or, in +accordance with the valuations of those old philosophers, do we perhaps +all form part of the "mob"? + + + + +158. + + +THE CLIMATE FOR FLATTERY.--In our day flatterers should no longer be sought +at the courts of kings, since these have all acquired a taste for +militarism, which cannot tolerate flattery. But this flower even now often +grows in abundance in the neighbourhood of bankers and artists. + + + + +159. + + +THE REVIVERS.--Vain men value a fragment of the past more highly from the +moment when they are able to revive it in their imagination (especially if +it is difficult to do so), they would even like if possible to raise it +from the dead. Since, however, the number of vain people is always very +large, the danger presented by historical studies, if an entire epoch +devotes its attention to them, is by no means small: too great an amount +of strength is then wasted on all sorts of imaginable resurrections. The +entire movement of romanticism is perhaps best understood from this point +of view. + + + + +160. + + +VAIN, GREEDY, AND NOT VERY WISE.--Your desires are greater than your +understanding, and your vanity is even greater than your desires,--to +people of your type a great deal of Christian practice and a little +Schopenhauerian theory may be strongly recommended. + + + + +161. + + +BEAUTY CORRESPONDING TO THE AGE.--If our sculptors, painters, and musicians +wish to catch the significance of the age, they should represent beauty as +bloated, gigantic, and nervous: just as the Greeks, under the influence of +their morality of moderation, saw and represented beauty in the Apollo di +Belvedere. We should, indeed, call him ugly! But the pedantic +"classicists" have deprived us of all our honesty! + + + + +162. + + +THE IRONY OF THE PRESENT TIME.--At the present day it is the habit of +Europeans to treat all matters of great importance with irony, because, as +the result of our activity in their service, we have no time to take them +seriously. + + + + +163. + + +AGAINST ROUSSEAU.--If it is true that there is something contemptible about +our civilisation, we have two alternatives: of concluding with Rousseau +that, "This despicable civilisation is to blame for our bad morality," or +to infer, contrary to Rousseau's view, that "Our good morality is to blame +for this contemptible civilisation. Our social conceptions of good and +evil, weak and effeminate as they are, and their enormous influence over +both body and soul, have had the effect of weakening all bodies and souls +and of crushing all unprejudiced, independent, and self-reliant men, the +real pillars of a strong civilisation: wherever we still find the evil +morality to-day, we see the last crumbling ruins of these pillars." Thus +let paradox be opposed by paradox! It is quite impossible for the truth to +lie with both sides: and can we say, indeed, that it lies with either? +Decide for yourself. + + + + +164. + + +PERHAPS PREMATURE.--It would seem at the present time that, under many +different and misleading names, and often with a great want of clearness, +those who do not feel themselves attached to morals and to established +laws are taking the first initial steps to organise themselves, and thus +to create a right for themselves; whilst hitherto, as criminals, +free-thinkers, immoral men and miscreants, they have lived beyond the pale +of the law, under the bane of outlawry and bad conscience, corrupted and +corrupting. On the whole, we should consider this as right and proper, +although it may result in insecurity for the coming century and compel +every one to bear arms.--There is thereby a counterforce which continually +reminds us that there is no exclusively moral-making morality, and that a +morality which asserts itself to the exclusion of all other morality +destroys too much sound strength and is too dearly bought by mankind. The +non-conventional and deviating people, who are so often productive and +inventive, must no longer be sacrificed: it must never again be considered +as a disgrace to depart from morality either in actions or thought; many +new experiments must be made upon life and society, and the world must be +relieved from a huge weight of bad conscience. These general aims must be +recognised and encouraged by all those upright people who are seeking +truth. + + + + +165. + + +A MORALITY WHICH DOES NOT BORE ONE.--The principal moral commandments which +a nation permits its teachers to emphasise again and again stand in +relation to its chief defects, and that is why it does not find them +tiresome. The Greeks, who so often failed to employ moderation, coolness, +fair-mindedness, and rationality in general, turned a willing ear to the +four Socratic virtues,--they stood in such need of them, and yet had so +little talent for them! + + + + +166. + + +AT THE PARTING OF THE WAYS.--Shame! You wish to form part of a system in +which you must be a wheel, fully and completely, or risk being crushed by +wheels! where it is understood that each one will be that which his +superiors make of him! where the seeking for "connections" will form part +of one's natural duties! where no one feels himself offended when he has +his attention drawn to some one with the remark, "He may be useful to you +some time"; where people do not feel ashamed of paying a visit to ask for +somebody's intercession, and where they do not even suspect that by such a +voluntary submission to these morals, they are once and for all stamped as +the common pottery of nature, which others can employ or break up of their +free will without feeling in any way responsible for doing so,--just as if +one were to say, "People of my type will never be lacking, therefore, do +what you will with me! Do not stand on ceremony!" + + + + +167. + + +UNCONDITIONAL HOMAGE.--When I think of the most read German philosopher, +the most popular German musician, and the most distinguished German +statesman, I cannot but acknowledge that life is now rendered unusually +arduous for these Germans, this nation of unconditional sentiments, and +that, too, by their own great men. We see three magnificent spectacles +spread out before us: on each occasion there is a river rushing along in +the bed which it has made for itself, and even so agitated that one thinks +at times it intends to flow uphill. And yet, however we might admire +Schopenhauer, who would not, all things considered, like to have other +opinions than his? Who in all greater and smaller things would now share +the opinions of Richard Wagner, although there may be truth in the view +expressed by some one: viz. that wherever Wagner gave or took offence some +problem lay hidden,--which, however, he did not unearth for us. And, +finally, how many are there who would be willing and eager to agree with +Bismarck, if only he could always agree with himself, or were even to show +some signs of doing so for the future! It is true that it is by no means +astonishing to find statesmen without principles, but with dominant +instincts; a versatile mind, actuated by these dominant and violent +instincts, and hence without principles--these qualities are looked upon as +reasonable and natural in a statesman. But, alas, this has up to the +present been so un-German; as un-German as the fuss made about music and +the discord and bad temper excited around the person of the musician; or +as un-German as the new and extraordinary position taken up by +Schopenhauer: he did not feel himself to be either above things or on his +knees before them--one or other of these alternatives might still have been +German--but he assumed an attitude against things! How incredible and +disagreeable! to range one's self with things and nevertheless be their +adversary, and finally the adversary of one's self,--what can the +unconditional admirer do with such an example? And what, again, can he do +with three such examples who cannot keep the peace towards one another! +Here we see Schopenhauer as the antagonist of Wagner's music, Wagner +attacking Bismarck's politics, and Bismarck attacking Wagnerism and +Schopenhauerism. What remains for us to do? Where shall we flee with our +thirst for wholesale hero-worship! Would it not be possible to choose from +the music of the musician a few hundred bars of good music which appealed +to the heart, and which we should like to take to heart because they are +inspired by the heart,--could we not stand aside with this small piece of +plunder, and forget the rest? And could we not make a similar compromise +as regards the philosopher and the statesman,--select, take to heart, and +in particular forget the rest? + +Yes, if only forgetfulness were not so difficult! There was once a very +proud man who would never on any account accept anything, good or evil, +from others,--from any one, indeed, but himself. When he wanted to forget, +however, he could not bestow this gift upon himself, and was three times +compelled to conjure up the spirits. They came, listened to his desire, +and said at last, "This is the only thing it is not in our power to give!" +Could not the Germans take warning by this experience of Manfred? Why, +then, should the spirits be conjured up? It is useless. We never forget +what we endeavour to forget. And how great would be the "balance" which we +should have to forget if we wished henceforth to continue wholesale +admirers of these three great men! It would therefore be far more +advisable to profit by the excellent opportunity offered us to try +something new, _i.e._ to advance in the spirit of honesty towards +ourselves and become, instead of a nation of credulous repetition and of +bitter and blind animosity, a people of conditional assent and benevolent +opposition. We must come to learn in the first place, however, that +unconditional homage to people is something rather ridiculous, that a +change of view on this point would not discredit even Germans, and that +there is a profound and memorable saying: "Ce qui importe, ce ne sont +point les personnes: mais les choses." This saying is like the man who +uttered it--great, honest, simple, and silent,--just like Carnot, the +soldier and Republican. But may I at the present time speak thus to +Germans of a Frenchman, and a Republican into the bargain? Perhaps not: +perhaps I must not even recall what Niebuhr in his time dared to say to +the Germans: that no one had made such an impression of true greatness +upon him as Carnot. + + + + +168. + + +A MODEL.--What do I like about Thucydides, and how does it come that I +esteem him more highly than Plato? He exhibits the most wide-spread and +artless pleasure in everything typical in men and events, and finds that +each type is possessed of a certain quantity of good sense: it is this +good sense which he seeks to discover. He likewise exhibits a larger +amount of practical justice than Plato; he never reviles or belittles +those men whom he dislikes or who have in any way injured him in the +course of his life. On the contrary: while seeing only types, he +introduces something noble and additional into all things and persons; for +what could posterity, to which he dedicates his work, do with things not +typical! Thus this culture of the disinterested knowledge of the world +attains in him, the poet-thinker, a final marvellous bloom,--this culture +which has its poet in Sophocles, its statesman in Pericles, its doctor in +Hippocrates, and its natural philosopher in Democritus: this culture which +deserves to be called by the name of its teachers, the Sophists, and +which, unhappily, from the moment of its baptism at once begins to grow +pale and incomprehensible to us,--for henceforward we suspect that this +culture, which was combated by Plato and all the Socratic schools, must +have been very immoral! The truth of this matter is so complicated and +entangled that we feel unwilling to unravel it: so let the old error +(_error veritate simplicior_) run its old course. + + + + +169. + + +THE GREEK GENIUS FOREIGN TO US.--Oriental or modern, Asiatic or European: +compared with the ancient Greeks, everything is characterised by enormity +of size and by the revelling in great masses as the expression of the +sublime, whilst in Paestum, Pompeii, and Athens we are astonished, when +contemplating Greek architecture, to see with what small masses the Greeks +were able to express the sublime, and how they loved to express it thus. +In the same way, how simple were the Greeks in the idea which they formed +of themselves! How far we surpass them in the knowledge of man! Again, how +full of labyrinths would our souls and our conceptions of our souls appear +in comparison with theirs! If we had to venture upon an architecture after +the style of our own souls--(we are too cowardly for that!)--a labyrinth +would have to be our model. That music which is peculiar to us, and which +really expresses us, lets this be clearly seen! (for in music men let +themselves go, because they think there is no one who can see them hiding +behind their music). + + + + +170. + + +ANOTHER POINT OF VIEW.--How we babble about the Greeks! What do we +understand of their art, the soul of which was the passion for naked +masculine beauty! It was only by starting therefrom that they appreciated +feminine beauty. For the latter they had thus a perspective quite +different from ours. It was the same in regard to their love for women: +their worship was of a different kind, and so also was their contempt. + + + + +171. + + +THE FOOD OF THE MODERN MAN.--He has learned to digest many things; nay, +almost everything; it is his ambition to do so. He would, however, be +really of a higher order if he did not understand this so well: _homo +pamphagus_ is not the finest type of the human race. We live between a +past which had a more wayward and deranged taste than we, and a future +which will possibly have a more select taste,--we live too much midway. + + + + +172. + + +TRAGEDY AND MUSIC.--Men of essentially warlike disposition, such, for +example, as the ancient Greeks in the time of Ćschylus, are difficult to +rouse, and when pity once triumphs over their hardness they are seized as +by a kind of giddiness or a "demoniacal power,"--they feel themselves +overpowered and thrilled by a religious horror. After this they become +sceptical about their condition; but as long as they are in it they enjoy +the charm of being, as it were, outside themselves, and the delight of the +marvellous mixed with the bitterest gall of suffering: this is the proper +kind of drink for fighting men,--something rare, dangerous, and +bitter-sweet, which does not often fall to one's lot. + +Tragedy appeals to souls who feel pity in this way, to those fierce and +warlike souls which are difficult to overcome, whether by fear or pity, +but which lose nothing by being softened from time to time. Of what use, +however, is tragedy to those who are as open to the "sympathetic +affections" as the sails of a ship to the wind! When at the time of Plato +the Athenians had become more softened and sensitive, oh, how far they +were still removed from the gushing emotions of the inhabitants of our +modern towns and villages! And yet even then the philosophers were +beginning to complain of the injurious nature of tragedy. An epoch full of +danger such as that now beginning, in which bravery and manliness are +rising in value, will perhaps again harden souls to such an extent that +they will once more stand in need of tragic poets: but in the meantime +these are somewhat superfluous, to put it mildly. For music, too, a better +age may be approaching (it will certainly be a more evil age!) when +artists will have to make their music appeal to strongly individual +beings, beings which will have become hard and which will be dominated by +the gloomy earnestness of their own passion; but of what use is music to +the little souls of the present age which is fast passing away, souls that +are too unsteady, ill-developed, half-personal, inquisitive, and covetous +of everything? + + + + +173. + + +THE FLATTERERS OF WORK.--In the glorification of "work" and the +never-ceasing talk about the "blessing of labour," I see the same secret +_arričre-pensée_ as I do in the praise bestowed on impersonal acts of a +general interest, viz. a fear of everything individual. For at the sight +of work--that is to say, severe toil from morning till night--we have the +feeling that it is the best police, viz. that it holds every one in check +and effectively hinders the development of reason, of greed, and of desire +for independence. For work uses up an extraordinary proportion of nervous +force, withdrawing it from reflection, meditation, dreams, cares, love, +and hatred; it dangles unimportant aims before the eyes of the worker and +affords easy and regular gratification. Thus it happens that a society +where work is continually being performed will enjoy greater security, and +it is security which is now venerated as the supreme deity.--And now, +horror of horrors! it is the "workman" himself who has become dangerous; +the whole world is swarming with "dangerous individuals," and behind them +follows the danger of dangers--_the_ individuum! + + + + +174. + + +THE MORAL FASHION OF A COMMERCIAL COMMUNITY.--Behind the principle of the +present moral fashion: "Moral actions are actions performed out of +sympathy for others," I see the social instinct of fear, which thus +assumes an intellectual disguise: this instinct sets forth as its supreme, +most important, and most immediate principle that life shall be relieved +of all the dangerous characteristics which it possessed in former times, +and that every one must help with all his strength towards the attainment +of this end. It is for that reason that only those actions which keep in +view the general security and the feeling of security of society are +called "good." How little joy must men now have in themselves when such a +tyranny of fear prescribes their supreme moral law, if they make no +objection when commanded to turn their eyes from themselves and to look +aside from themselves! And yet at the same time they have lynx eyes for +all distress and suffering elsewhere! Are we not, then, with this gigantic +intention of ours of smoothing down every sharp edge and corner in life, +utilising the best means of turning mankind into sand! Small, soft, round, +infinite sand! Is that your ideal, ye harbingers of the "sympathetic +affections"? In the meantime even the question remains unanswered whether +we are of more use to our neighbour in running immediately and continually +to his help,--which for the most part can only be done in a very +superficial way, as otherwise it would become a tyrannical meddling and +changing,--or by transforming ourselves into something which our neighbour +can look upon with pleasure,--something, for example, which may be compared +to a beautiful, quiet, and secluded garden, protected by high walls +against storms and the dust of the roads, but likewise with a hospitable +gate. + + + + +175. + + +FUNDAMENTAL BASIS OF A CULTURE OF TRADERS.--We have now an opportunity of +watching the manifold growth of the culture of a society of which commerce +is the soul, just as personal rivalry was the soul of culture among the +ancient Greeks, and war, conquest, and law among the ancient Romans. The +tradesman is able to value everything without producing it, and to value +it according to the requirements of the consumer rather than his own +personal needs. "How many and what class of people will consume this?" is +his question of questions. Hence, he instinctively and incessantly employs +this mode of valuation and applies it to everything, including the +productions of art and science, and of thinkers, scholars, artists, +statesmen, nations, political parties, and even entire ages: with respect +to everything produced or created he inquires into the supply and demand +in order to estimate for himself the value of a thing. This, when once it +has been made the principle of an entire culture, worked out to its most +minute and subtle details, and imposed upon every kind of will and +knowledge, this is what you men of the coming century will be proud of,--if +the prophets of the commercial classes are right in putting that century +into your possession! But I have little belief in these prophets. _Credat +Judćus Apella_--to speak with Horace. + + + + +176. + + +THE CRITICISM OF OUR ANCESTORS.--Why should we now endure the truth, even +about the most recent past? Because there is now always a new generation +which feels itself in contradiction to the past and enjoys in this +criticism the first-fruits of its sense of power. In former times the new +generation, on the contrary, wished to base itself on the old and began to +feel conscious of its power, not only in accepting the opinions of its +ancestors but, if possible, taking them even more seriously. To criticise +ancestral authority was in former times a vice; but at the present time +our idealists begin by making it their starting-point. + + + + +177. + + +TO LEARN SOLITUDE.--O ye poor fellows in the great centres of the world's +politics, ye young and talented men, who, urged on by ambition, think it +your duty to propound your opinion of every event of the day,--for +something is always happening,--who, by thus making a noise and raising a +cloud of dust, mistake yourselves for the rolling chariot of history; who, +because ye always listen, always suit the moment when ye can put in your +word or two, thereby lose all real productiveness. Whatever may be your +desire to accomplish great deeds, the deep silence of pregnancy never +comes to you! The event of the day sweeps you along like straws before the +wind whilst ye lie under the illusion that ye are chasing the event,--poor +fellows! If a man wishes to act the hero on the stage he must not think of +forming part of the chorus; he should not even know how the chorus is made +up. + + + + +178. + + +DAILY WEAR AND TEAR.--These young men are lacking neither in character, nor +talent, nor zeal, but they have never had sufficient time to choose their +own path; they have, on the contrary, been habituated from the most tender +age to have their path pointed out to them. At the time when they were +ripe enough to be sent into the "desert," something else was done with +them. They were turned to account, estranged from themselves, and brought +up in such a way that they became accustomed to be worn out by their daily +toil. This was imposed on them as a duty, and now they cannot do without +it; they would not wish it to be otherwise. The only thing that cannot be +refused to these poor beasts of burden is their "holidays"--such is the +name they give to this ideal of leisure in an overworked century; +"holidays," in which they may for once be idle, idiotic, and childish to +their heart's content. + + + + +179. + + +AS LITTLE STATE AS POSSIBLE!--All political and economic matters are not of +such great value that they ought to be dealt with by the most talented +minds: such a waste of intellect is at bottom worse than any state of +distress. These matters are, and ever will be, the province of smaller +minds, and others than the smaller minds should not be at the service of +this workshop: it would be better to let the machinery work itself to +pieces again! But as matters stand at the present time, when not only do +all people believe that they must know all about it day by day, but wish +likewise to be always busy about it, and in so doing neglect their own +work, it is a great and ridiculous mistake. The price that has to be paid +for the "public safety" is far too high, and, what is maddest of all, we +effect the very opposite of "public safety" a fact which our own dear +century has undertaken to prove, as if this had never been proved before! +To make society secure against thieves and fire, and to render it +thoroughly fit for all kinds of trade and traffic, and to transform the +State in a good and evil sense into a kind of Providence--these aims are +low, mediocre, and not by any means indispensable; and we should not seek +to attain them by the aid of the highest means and instruments which +exist--means which we should reserve precisely for our highest and rarest +aims! Our epoch, however much it may babble about economy, is a +spendthrift: it wastes intellect, the most precious thing of all. + + + + +180. + + +WARS.--The great wars of our own day are the outcome of historical study. + + + + +181. + + +GOVERNING.--Some people govern because of their passion for governing; +others in order that they may not be governed,--the latter choose it as the +lesser of two evils. + + + + +182. + + +ROUGH AND READY CONSISTENCY.--People say of a man with great respect, "He +is a character"--that is, when he exhibits a rough and ready consistency, +when it is evident even to the dullest eye. But, whenever a more subtle +and profound intellect sets itself up and shows consistency in a higher +manner, the spectators deny the existence of any character. That is why +cunning statesmen usually act their comedy under the cloak of a kind of +rough and ready consistency. + + + + +183. + + +THE OLD AND THE YOUNG.--"There is something immoral about Parliaments,"--so +many people still think,--"for in them views even against the Government +may be expressed."--"We should always adopt that view of a subject which +our gracious Lord commands,"--this is the eleventh commandment in many an +honest old head, especially in Northern Germany. We laugh at it as an +out-of-date fashion, but in former times it was the moral law itself. +Perhaps we shall again some day laugh at that which is now considered as +moral by a generation brought up under a parliamentary régime, namely, the +policy of placing one's party before one's own wisdom, and of answering +every question concerning the public welfare in such a way as to fill the +sails of the party with a favourable gust of wind. "We must take that view +of a subject which the position of our party calls for"--such would be the +canon. In the service of such morals we may now behold every kind of +sacrifice, even martyrdom and conquest over one's self. + + + + +184. + + +THE STATE AS A PRODUCTION OF ANARCHISTS.--In countries inhabited by +tractable men there are always a few backsliders and intractable people. +For the present the latter have joined the Socialists more than any other +party. If it should happen that these people once come to have the making +of the laws, they may be relied upon to impose iron chains upon +themselves, and to practise a dreadful discipline,--they know themselves! +and they will endure these harsh laws with the knowledge that they +themselves have imposed them--the feeling of power and of this particular +power will be too recent among them and too attractive for them not to +suffer anything for its sake. + + + + +185. + + +BEGGARS.--Beggars ought to be suppressed; because we get angry both when we +help them and when we do not. + + + + +186. + + +BUSINESS MEN.--Your business is your greatest prejudice, it binds you to +your locality, your society and your tastes. Diligent in business but lazy +in thought, satisfied with your paltriness and with the cloak of duty +concealing this contentment: thus you live, and thus you like your +children to be. + + + + +187. + + +A POSSIBLE FUTURE.--Is it impossible for us to imagine a social state in +which the criminal will publicly denounce himself and dictate his own +punishment, in the proud feeling that he is thus honouring the law which +he himself has made, that he is exercising his power, the power of a +lawmaker, in thus punishing himself? He may offend for once, but by his +own voluntary punishment he raises himself above his offence, and not only +expiates it by his frankness, greatness, and calmness, but adds to it a +public benefit.--Such would be the criminal of a possible future, a +criminal who would, it is true, presuppose a future legislation based upon +this fundamental idea: "I yield in great things as well as in small only +to the law which I myself have made." How many experiments must yet be +made! How many futures have yet to dawn upon mankind! + + + + +188. + + +STIMULANTS AND FOOD.--Nations are deceived so often because they are always +looking for a deceiver, _i.e._ a stimulating wine for their senses. When +they can only have this wine they are glad to put up even with inferior +bread. Intoxication is to them more than nutriment--this is the bait with +which they always let themselves be caught! What, to them, are men chosen +from among themselves--although they may be the most expert specialists--as +compared with the brilliant conquerors, or ancient and magnificent +princely houses! In order that he may inspire them with faith, the +demagogue must at least exhibit to them a prospect of conquest and +splendour. People will always obey, and even do more than obey, provided +that they can become intoxicated in doing so. We may not even offer them +repose and pleasure without this laurel crown and its maddening influence. + +This vulgar taste which ascribes greater importance to intoxication than +nutrition did not by any means originate in the lower ranks of the +population: it was, on the contrary, transplanted there, and on this +backward soil it grows in great abundance, whilst its real origin must be +sought amongst the highest intellects, where it flourished for thousands +of years. The people is the last virgin soil upon which this brilliant +weed can grow. Well, then, is it really to the people that we should +entrust politics in order that they may thereby have their daily +intoxication? + + + + +189. + + +HIGH POLITICS.--Whatever may be the influence in high politics of +utilitarianism and the vanity of individuals and nations, the sharpest +spur which urges them onwards is their need for the feeling of power--a +need which rises not only in the souls of princes and rulers, but also +gushes forth from time to time from inexhaustible sources in the people. +The time comes again and again when the masses are ready to stake their +lives and their fortunes, their consciences and their virtue, in order +that they may secure that highest of all enjoyments and rule as a +victorious, tyrannical, and arbitrary nation over other nations (or at all +events think that they do). + +On occasions such as these, feelings of prodigality, sacrifice, hope, +confidence, extraordinary audacity, and enthusiasm will burst forth so +abundantly that a sovereign who is ambitious or far-sighted will be able +to seize the opportunity for making war, counting upon the good conscience +of his people to hide his injustice. Great conquerors have always given +utterance to the pathetic language of virtue; they have always been +surrounded by crowds of people who felt themselves, as it were, in a state +of exaltation and would listen to none but the most elevated oratory. The +strange madness of moral judgments! When man experiences the sensation of +power he feels and calls himself good; and at exactly the same time the +others who have to endure his power call him evil!--Hesiod, in his fable of +the epochs of man, has twice in succession depicted the same epoch, that +of the heroes of Homer, and has thus made two epochs out of one: to those +who lived under the terrible iron heel of those adventurous despots, or +had heard their ancestors speak of them, the epoch appeared to be evil; +but the descendants of those chivalric races worshipped it as the "good +old times," and as an almost ideally blissful age. The poet could thus not +help doing what he did,--his audience probably included the descendants of +both races. + + + + +190. + + +FORMER GERMAN CULTURE.--When the Germans began to interest other European +nations, which is not so very long ago, it was owing to a culture which +they no longer possess to-day, and which they have indeed shaken off with +a blind ardour, as if it had been some disease; and yet they have not been +able to replace it by anything better than political and national lunacy. +They have in this way succeeded in becoming even more interesting to other +nations than they were formerly through their culture: and may that +satisfy them! It is nevertheless undeniable that this German culture has +fooled Europeans, and that it did not deserve the interest shown in it, +and much less the imitation and emulation displayed by other nations in +trying to rival it. + +Let us look back for a moment upon Schiller, Wilhelm von Humboldt, +Schleiermacher, Hegel, and Schelling; let us read their correspondence and +mingle for a time with the large circle of their followers: what have they +in common, what characteristics have they, that fill us, as we are now, +partly with a feeling of nausea and partly with pitiful and touching +emotions? First and foremost, the passion for appearing at all costs to be +morally exalted, and then the desire for giving utterance to brilliant, +feeble, and inconsequential remarks, together with their fixed purpose of +looking upon everything (characters, passions, times, customs) as +beautiful--"beautiful," alas, in accordance with a bad and vague taste, +which nevertheless pretended to be of Hellenic origin. We behold in these +people a weak, good-natured, and glistening idealism, which, above all, +wished to exhibit noble attitudes and noble voices, something at once +presumptuous and inoffensive, and animated by a cordial aversion to "cold" +or "dry" reality--as also to anatomy, complete passions, and every kind of +philosophical continence and scepticism, but especially towards the +knowledge of nature in so far as it was impossible to use it as religious +symbolism. + +Goethe, in his own characteristic fashion, observed from afar these +movements of German culture: placing himself beyond their influence, +gently remonstrating, silent, more and more confirmed in his own better +course. A little later, and Schopenhauer also was an observer of these +movements--a great deal of the world and devilry of the world had again +been revealed to him, and he spoke of it both roughly and +enthusiastically, for there is a certain beauty in this devilry! And what +was it, then, that really seduced the foreigners and prevented them from +viewing this movement as did Goethe and Schopenhauer, or, better, from +ignoring it altogether? It was that faint lustre, that inexplicable +starlight which formed a mysterious halo around this culture. The +foreigners said to themselves: "This is all very very remote from us; our +sight, hearing, understanding, enjoyment, and powers of valuations are +lost here, but in spite of that there may be some stars! There may be +something in it! Is it possible that the Germans have quietly discovered +some corner of heaven and settled there? We must try to come nearer to +these Germans." So they did begin to come nearer to the Germans, while not +so very long afterwards the Germans put themselves to some trouble to get +rid of this starlight halo: they knew only too well that they had not been +in heaven, but only in a cloud! + + + + +191. + + +BETTER MEN.--They tell me that our art is meant for the men of the present +day, these greedy, unsatisfied, undisciplined, disgusted, and harassed +spirits, and that it exhibits to them a picture of happiness, exaltation, +and unworldliness beside that of their own brutality, so that for once +they may forget and breathe freely; nay, perhaps find that they may derive +some encouragement towards flight and conversion from that oblivion. Poor +artists, with such a public as this; half of whose thoughts require the +attention of a priest, and the other half the attention of an alienist! +How much happier was Corneille--"Our great Corneille!" as Madame de Sévigné +exclaimed, with the accent of a woman in the presence of a whole man,--how +far superior was his audience, which he could please with pictures of +chivalric virtues, strict duty, generous devotion, and heroic self-denial! +How differently did he and they love existence, not as coming from blind +and confused "will," which we curse because we cannot destroy it; but +loving existence as a place, so to speak, where greatness joined with +humanity is possible, and where even the greatest restraint of form, such +as submission to the caprice of priests and princes, could not suppress +either the pride, chivalric feeling, the grace or the intellect of +individuals, but could, on the contrary, be felt as a charm and incentive, +as a welcome contrast to innate self-glorification and distinction and the +inherited power of volition and passion. + + + + +192. + + +THE DESIRE FOR PERFECT OPPONENTS.--It cannot be denied that the French have +been the most Christian nation in the world, not because the devotion of +masses in France has been greater than elsewhere, but because those +Christian ideals which are most difficult to realise have become +incarnated here instead of merely remaining fancies, intentions, or +imperfect beginnings. Take Pascal, for example, the greatest of all +Christians in his combination of ardour, intellect, and honesty, and +consider what elements had to be combined in his case! Take Fénelon, the +most perfect and attractive embodiment of ecclesiastical culture in all +its power: a sublime golden mean of whom a historian would be tempted to +prove the impossibility, whilst in reality he was merely the perfection of +something exceedingly difficult and improbable. Take Madame de Guyon among +her companions, the French Quietists: and everything that the eloquence +and ardour of the Apostle Paul has endeavoured to divine with regard to +the Christian's state of semi-divinity, this most sublime, loving, silent, +and ecstatic state is seen verified in her, without, however, that Jewish +obtrusiveness that Paul showed towards God--due in the case of Madame de +Guyon to the real old French artlessness in words and gestures, +artlessness at once womanly, subtle, and distinguished. Consider, again, +the founder of the Trappists--the last person who really took seriously the +ascetic ideal of Christianity, not because he was an exception among +Frenchmen, but because he was a true Frenchman: for up to our own day his +gloomy organisation has not been able to acclimatise itself and to +prosper, except among Frenchmen; and it has followed them into Alsace and +Algeria. + +Let us not forget the Huguenots, either: that combination of a martial and +industrial spirit, refined manners and Christian severity, has never been +more beautifully exhibited. And it was at Port Royal that the great +Christian erudition beheld its last era of prosperity; and in France more +than anywhere else great men know how to prosper. Though not at all +superficial, a great Frenchman has always his apparent superficiality;--he +has, so to speak, a natural skin for his real contents and depth,--while, +on the other hand, the depth of a great German is generally, as it were, +closed up in an ugly-shaped box, like an elixir, which, by means of a hard +and curious covering, endeavours to preserve itself from the light of day +and the touch of thoughtless hands. And now let us endeavour to find out +why a people like the French, so prolific in perfect types of Christians, +likewise necessarily brought forth the perfect contrary types, those of +unchristian free-thought! The French free-thinker, in his own inward +being, had to fight against truly great men, and not, like the +free-thinkers of other nations, merely against dogmas and sublime +abortions. + + + + +193. + + +_ESPRIT_ AND MORALS.--The German, who possesses the secret of knowing how +to be tedious in spite of wit, knowledge, and feeling, and who has +habituated himself to consider tediousness as moral, is in dread in the +presence of French _esprit_ lest it should tear out the eyes of +morality--but a dread mingled with "fascination," like that experienced by +the little bird in the presence of the rattlesnake. Amongst all the +celebrated Germans none possessed more _esprit_ than Hegel, but he also +had that great German dread of it which brought about his peculiar and +defective style. For the nature of this style resembles a kernel, which is +wrapped up so many times in an outer covering that it can scarcely peep +through, now and then glancing forth bashfully and inquisitively, like +"young women peeping through their veils," to use the words of that old +woman-hater, Ćschylus. This kernel, however, is a witty though often +impertinent joke on intellectual subjects, a subtle and daring combination +of words, such as is necessary in a society of thinkers as gilding for a +scientific pill--but, enveloped as it is in an almost impenetrable cover, +it exhibits itself as the most abstruse science, and likewise as the worst +possible moral tediousness. Here the Germans had a permissible form of +_esprit_ and they revelled in it with such boundless delight that even +Schopenhauer's unusually fine understanding could not grasp it--during the +whole of his life he thundered against the spectacle that the Germans +offered to him, but he could never explain it. + + + + +194. + + +VANITY OF THE TEACHERS OF MORALS.--The relatively small success which +teachers of morals have met with may be explained by the fact that they +wanted too much at once, _i.e._ they were too ambitious and too fond of +laying down precepts for everybody. In other words, they were beating the +air and making speeches to animals in order to turn them into men; what +wonder, then, that the animals thought this tedious! We should rather +choose limited circles and endeavour to find and promote morals for them: +for instance, we should make speeches to wolves with the object of turning +them into dogs; but, above all, the greatest success will remain for the +man who does not seek to educate either everybody or certain limited +circles, but only one single individual, and who cannot be turned to the +right or left from his straight purpose. The last century was superior to +ours precisely because it possessed so many individually educated men, as +well as educators in the same proportion, who had made this their life's +task, and who with this task were dignified not only in their own eyes but +in those of all the remaining "good society." + + + + +195. + + +THE SO-CALLED CLASSICAL EDUCATION.--Alas! we discover that our life is +consecrated to knowledge and that we should throw it away, nay, that we +should even have to throw it away if this consecration did not protect us +from ourselves: we repeat this couplet, and not without deep emotion: + + + Thee, Fate, I follow, though I fain would not, + And yet I must, with many a sigh and groan! + + +And then, in looking backwards over the course of our lives, we discover +that there is one thing that cannot be restored to us: the wasted period +of our youth, when our teachers did not utilise these ardent and eager +years to lead us to the knowledge of things, but merely to this so-called +"classical education"! Only think of this wasted youth, when we were +inoculated clumsily and painfully with an imperfect knowledge of the +Greeks and Romans as well as of their languages, contrary to the highest +principle of all culture, which holds that we should not give food except +to those who hunger for it! Think of that period of our lives when we had +mathematics and physics forced down our throats, instead of being first of +all made acquainted with the despair of ignorance, instead of having our +little daily life, our activities, and everything occurring in our houses, +our workshops, in the sky, and in nature, split up into thousands of +problems, painful, humiliating and irritating problems--and thus having our +curiosity made acquainted with the fact that we first of all require a +mathematical and mechanical knowledge before we can be allowed to rejoice +in the absolute logic of this knowledge! If we had only been imbued with +reverence for those branches of science, if we had only been made to +tremble with emotion--were it only for once--at the struggles, the defeats, +and the renewed combats of those great men, of the martyrdom which is the +history of pure science! But, on the contrary, we were allowed to develop +a certain contempt for those sciences in favour of historical training, +formal education(4) and "classicism." + +And we allowed ourselves to be so easily deceived! Formal education! Might +we not have pointed to the best teachers at our high schools and asked +laughingly, "Where then do they keep their formal education? and, if it is +wanting in them, how can they teach it?" And classicism! Did we get any of +that instruction which the ancients used to impart to their youth? Did we +learn to speak or to write like them? Did we ceaselessly exercise +ourselves in that duel of speech, dialectic? Did we learn to move as +beautifully and proudly as they did, and to excel as they did in +wrestling, throwing, and boxing? Did we learn anything of that practical +asceticism of all the Greek philosophers? Did we receive any training in a +single ancient virtue, and in the way in which the ancients were trained +in it? Was not all meditation upon morals wanting in our education?--And +how much more the only possible criticism on the subject of morality, +those courageous and earnest attempts to live according to this or that +morality! Did our teachers ever stir up a feeling in us which the ancients +valued more highly than moderns? Did they in the spirit of the ancients +indicate to us the divisions of the day and of life, and those aims by +which the lives of the ancients were guided? Did we learn the ancient +languages as we now learn the modern ones, viz. that we might speak them +fluently and well? Nowhere can we find a real proficiency or any new +faculty as the result of those toilsome years! only the knowledge of what +men had learnt and were able to do in past ages! + +And what knowledge! Nothing becomes clearer to me year by year than the +fact that the entire Greek and ancient mode of life, however simple and +evident it must seem to our eyes, is in truth very difficult to +understand, and even scarcely accessible, and that the customary ease with +which we babble about the ancients is either giddy levity or the old +hereditary conceit of our thoughtlessness. We are deceived by words and +ideas which appear to resemble our own, but behind them there is always +concealed a feeling which must be strange, incomprehensible, or painful to +our modern conceptions. And these are realms in which boys are allowed to +roam about! Enough: we roamed about them in our childhood, and there we +became seized with an almost ineradicable antipathy for all antiquity, the +antipathy arising from an intimacy which was apparently too great! For so +great is the conceit of our classical teachers, who would almost make it +appear that they had gained full control over the ancients, that they pass +on this conceit to their pupils, together with the suspicion that such a +possession is of little use for making people happy, but is good enough +for honest, foolish old book-worms. "Let them brood over their treasure: +it is well worthy of them!"--It is with this unexpressed thought that we +completed our classical education. It can't be changed now--for us, at all +events! But let us not think of ourselves alone! + + + + +196. + + +THE MOST PERSONAL QUESTIONS OF TRUTH.--What am I really doing, and what do +I mean by doing it? That is the question of truth which is not taught +under our present system of education, and consequently not asked, because +there is no time for it. On the other hand, we have always time and +inclination for talking nonsense with children, rather than telling them +the truth; for flattering women who will later on be mothers, rather than +telling them the truth; and for speaking with young men about their future +and their pleasures, rather than about the truth! + +But what, after all, are seventy years!--Time passes, and they soon come to +an end; it matters as little to us as it does to the wave to know how and +whither it is rolling! No, it might even be wisdom not to know it. + +"Agreed; but it shows a want of pride not even to inquire into the matter; +our culture does not tend to make people proud." + +"So much the better!" + +"Is it really?" + + + + +197. + + +ENMITY OF THE GERMANS TOWARDS ENLIGHTENMENT.--Let us consider the +contributions which in the first half of this century the Germans made to +general culture by their intellectual work. In the first place, let us +take the German philosophers: they went back to the first and oldest stage +of speculation, for they were content with conceptions instead of +explanations, like the thinkers of dreamy epochs--a pre-scientific type of +philosophy was thus revived by them. Secondly, we have the German +historians and romanticists: their efforts on the whole aimed at restoring +to the place of honour certain old and primitive sentiments, especially +Christianity, the "soul of the people," folk-lore, folk-speech, +medićvalism, Oriental asceticism, and Hinduism. In the third place, there +are the natural philosophers who fought against the spirit of Newton and +Voltaire, and, like Goethe and Schopenhauer, endeavoured to re-establish +the idea of a deified or diabolised nature, and of its absolute ethical +and symbolical meaning. The main general tendency of the Germans was +directed against enlightenment and against those social revolutions which +were stupidly mistaken for the consequences of enlightenment: the piety +towards everything that existed tried to become piety towards everything +that had ever existed, only in order that heart and mind might be +permitted to fill themselves and gush forth again, thus leaving no space +for future and novel aims. The cult of feeling took the place of the cult +of reason, and the German musicians, as the best exponents of all that is +invisible, enthusiastic, legendary, and passionate, showed themselves more +successful in building up the new temple than all the other artists in +words and thoughts. + +If, in considering these details, we have taken into account the fact that +many good things were said and investigated, and that many things have +since then been more fairly judged than on any previous occasion, there +yet remains to be said of the whole that it was a general danger, and one +by no means small, to set knowledge altogether below feeling under the +appearance of an entire and definitive acquaintance with the past--and, to +use that expression of Kant, who thus defined his own particular task--"To +make way again for belief by fixing the limits of knowledge." Let us once +more breathe freely, the hour of this danger is past! And yet, strange to +say, the very spirits which these Germans conjured up with such eloquence +have at length become the most dangerous for the intentions of those who +did conjure them up: history, the comprehension of origin and development, +sympathy with the past, the new passion for feeling and knowledge, after +they had been for a long time at the service of this obscure exalted and +retrograde spirit, have once more assumed another nature, and are now +soaring with outstretched wings above the heads of those who once upon a +time conjured them forth, as new and stronger genii of that very +enlightenment to combat which they had been resuscitated. It is this +enlightenment which we have now to carry forward,--caring nothing for the +fact that there has been and still is "a great revolution," and again a +great "reaction" against it: these are but playful crests of foam when +compared with the truly great current on which we float, and want to +float. + + + + +198. + + +ASSIGNING PRESTIGE TO ONE'S COUNTRY.--It is the men of culture who +determine the rank of their country, and they are characterised by an +innumerable number of great inward experiences, which they have digested +and can now value justly. In France and Italy this fell to the lot of the +nobility; in Germany, where up to now the nobility has been, as a rule, +composed of men who had not much intellect to boast about (perhaps this +will soon cease to be the case), it was the task of the priests, the +school teachers and their descendants. + + + + +199. + + +WE ARE NOBLER.--Fidelity, generosity, concern for one's good reputation: +these three qualities, combined in one sentiment, we call noble, +distinguished, aristocratic; and in this respect we excel the Greeks. We +do not wish to give this up at any cost under the pretext that the ancient +objects of these virtues have rightly fallen in esteem, but we wish +cautiously to substitute new objects for these most precious and +hereditary impulses. To understand why the sentiments of the noblest +Greeks must be considered as inferior and scarcely respectable in the +present age, where we are still under the influence of the chivalric and +feudal nobility, we must recall the words of consolation to which Ulysses +gave utterance in the midst of the most humiliating situations, "Bear with +it, my dear heart, bear with it! Thou hast borne with many more swinish +things(5) than these!" As an instance of this mythical example, consider +also the tale of that Athenian officer, who, when threatened with a stick +by another officer in the presence of the entire general staff, shook off +his disgrace with the words, "Strike, but listen to me." (This was +Themistocles, that ingenious Ulysses of the classical epoch, who was just +the man at the moment of disgrace to address to his "dear heart" that +verse of comfort and affliction.) + +The Greeks were far from making light of life and death because of an +insult, as we, influenced by a hereditary spirit of chivalric +adventurousness and self-devotion, are in the habit of doing; or from +looking for opportunities of honourably risking life and death, as in +duels; or from valuing the preservation of an unstained name (honour) more +than the acquirement of an evil reputation, when the latter was compatible +with glory and the feeling of power; or from remaining faithful to the +prejudices and the articles of faith of a caste, when these could prevent +them from becoming tyrants. For this is the ignoble secret of the good +Greek aristocrat: out of sheer jealousy he treats every one of the members +of his caste as being on an equal footing with himself, but he is ready at +every moment to spring like a tiger on his prey--despotism. What matter +lies, murders, treason, or the betrayal of his native city to him! Justice +was an extremely difficult matter for people of this kind to +understand--nay, justice was almost something incredible. "The just man" +was to the Greeks what "the saint" was to the Christians. When Socrates, +however, laid down the axiom, "The most virtuous man is the happiest," +they could not trust their ears; they thought they had heard a madman +speaking. For, as a picture of the happiest man, every nobleman had in his +mind the cheeky audacity and devilry of the tyrant who sacrifices +everything and every one to his own exuberance and pleasure. Among people +whose imagination secretly raved about such happiness, the worship of the +State could not, of course, have been too deeply implanted--but I think +that men whose desire for power does not rage so blindly as that of the +Greek noblemen no longer stand in need of such idolatry of the State, by +means of which, in past ages, such a passion was kept within due bounds. + + + + +200. + + +ENDURANCE OF POVERTY.--There is one great advantage in noble extraction: it +makes us endure poverty better. + + + + +201. + + +THE FUTURE OF THE NOBILITY.--The bearing of the aristocratic classes shows +that, in all the members of their body the consciousness of power is +continually playing its fascinating game. Thus people of aristocratic +habits, men or women, never sink worn out into a chair; when every one +else makes himself comfortable, as in a train, for example, they avoid +reclining at their ease; they do not appear to get tired after standing at +Court for hours at a stretch; they do not furnish their houses in a +comfortable manner, but in such a way as to produce the impression of +something grand and imposing, as if they had to serve as a residence for +greater and taller beings; they reply to a provoking speech with dignity +and clearness of mind, and not as if scandalised, crushed, shamed, or out +of breath in the plebeian fashion. As the aristocrat is able to preserve +the appearance of being possessed of a superior physical force which never +leaves him, he likewise wishes by his aspect of constant serenity and +civility of disposition, even in the most trying circumstances, to convey +the impression that his mind and soul are equal to all dangers and +surprises. A noble culture may resemble, so far as passions are concerned, +either a horseman who takes pleasure in making his proud and fiery animal +trot in the Spanish fashion,--we have only to recollect the age of Louis +XIV.,--or like the rider who feels his horse dart away with him like the +elemental forces, to such a degree that both horse and rider come near +losing their heads, but, owing to the enjoyment of the delight, do keep +very clear heads: in both these cases this aristocratic culture breathes +power, and if very often in its customs only the appearance of the feeling +of power is required, nevertheless the real sense of superiority continues +constantly to increase as the result of the impression which this display +makes upon those who are not aristocrats. + +This indisputable happiness of aristocratic culture, based as it is on the +feeling of superiority, is now beginning to rise to ever higher levels; +for now, thanks to the free spirits, it is henceforth permissible and not +dishonourable for people who have been born and reared in aristocratic +circles to enter the domain of knowledge, where they may secure more +intellectual consecrations and learn chivalric services even higher than +those of former times, and where they may look up to that ideal of +victorious wisdom which as yet no age has been able to set before itself +with so good a conscience as the period which is about to dawn. Lastly, +what is to be the occupation of the nobility in the future if it becomes +more evident from day to day that it is less and less indecorus to take +any part in politics? + + + + +202. + + +THE CARE OF THE HEALTH.--We have scarcely begun to devote any attention to +the physiology of criminals, and yet we have already reached the +inevitable conclusion that between criminals and madmen there is no really +essential difference: _if we suppose that the current moral fashion of +thinking is a healthy way of thinking_. No belief, however, is nowadays +more firmly believed in than this one, so we should not therefore shrink +from drawing the inevitable conclusion and treating the criminal like a +lunatic--above all, not with haughty pitifulness, but with medical skill +and good will. He may perhaps be in need of a change of air, a change of +society, or temporary absence: perhaps of solitude and new +occupations--very well! He may perhaps feel that it would be to his +advantage to live under surveillance for a short time in order thus to +obtain protection from himself and from a troublesome tyrannical +impulse--very well! We should make clear to him the possibility and the +means of curing him (the extermination, transformation, and sublimation of +these impulses), and also, in the worst cases, the improbability of a +cure; and we should offer to the incurable criminal, who has become a +useless burden to himself, the opportunity of committing suicide. While +holding this in reserve as an extreme measure of relief, we should neglect +nothing which would tend above all to restore to the criminal his good +courage and freedom of spirit; we should free his soul from all remorse, +as if it were something unclean, and show him how he may atone for a wrong +which he may have done some one by benefiting some one else, perhaps the +community at large, in such way that he might even do more than balance +his previous offence. + +All this must be done with the greatest tact! The criminal must, above +all, remain anonymous or adopt an assumed name, changing his place of +residence frequently, so that his reputation and future life may suffer as +little as possible. At the present time it is true that the man who has +been injured, apart altogether from the manner in which this injury might +be redressed, wishes for revenge in addition, and applies to the courts +that he may obtain it--and this is why our dreadful penal laws are still in +force: Justice, as it were, holding up a pair of shopkeeper's scales and +endeavouring to balance the guilt by punishment; but can we not take a +step beyond this? Would it not be a great relief to the general sentiment +of life if, while getting rid of our belief in guilt, we could also get +rid of our old craving for vengeance, and gradually come to believe that +it is a refined wisdom for happy men to bless their enemies and to do good +to those who have offended them, exactly in accordance with the spirit of +Christian teaching! Let us free the world from this idea of sin, and take +care to cast out with it the idea of punishment. May these monstrous ideas +henceforth live banished far from the abodes of men--if, indeed, they must +live at all, and do not perish from disgust with themselves. + +Let us not forget also, however, that the injury caused to society and to +the individual by the criminal is of the same species as that caused by +the sick: for the sick spread cares and ill-humour; they are +non-productive, consume the earnings of others, and at the same time +require attendance, doctors, and support, and they really live on the time +and strength of the healthy. In spite of this, however, we should +designate as inhuman any one who, for this reason, would wish to wreak +vengeance on the sick. In past ages, indeed, this was actually done: in +primitive conditions of society, and even now among certain savage +peoples, the sick man is treated as a criminal and as a danger to the +community, and it is believed that he is the resting-place of certain +demoniacal beings who have entered into his body as the result of some +offence he has committed--those ages and peoples hold that the sick are the +guilty! + +And what of ourselves? Are we not yet ripe for the contrary conception? +Shall we not be allowed to say, "The guilty are the sick"? No; the hour +for that has not yet come. We still lack, above all, those physicians who +have learnt something from what we have hitherto called practical morals +and have transformed it into the art and science of healing. We still lack +that intense interest in those things which some day perhaps may seem not +unlike the "storm and stress" of those old religious ecstasies. The +Churches have not yet come into the possession of those who look after our +health; the study of the body and of dietary are not yet amongst the +obligatory subjects taught in our primary and secondary schools; there are +as yet no quiet associations of those people who are pledged to one +another to do without the help of law courts, and who renounce the +punishment and vengeance now meted out to those who have offended against +society. No thinker has as yet been daring enough to determine the health +of society, and of the individuals who compose it, by the number of +parasites which it can support; and no statesman has yet been found to use +the ploughshare in the spirit of that generous and tender saying, "If thou +wilt till the land, till it with the plough; then the bird and the wolf, +walking behind thy plough, will rejoice in thee--all creatures will rejoice +in thee." + + + + +203. + + +AGAINST BAD DIET.--Fie upon the meals which people nowadays eat in hotels +and everywhere else where the well-off classes of society live! Even when +eminent men of science meet together their tables groan under the weight +of the dishes, in accordance with the principle of the bankers: the +principle of too many dishes and too much to eat. The result of this is +that dinners are prepared with a view to their mere appearance rather than +the consequences that may follow from eating them, and that stimulating +drinks are required to help in driving away the heaviness in the stomach +and in the brain. Fie on the dissoluteness and extreme nervousness which +must follow upon all this! Fie upon the dreams that such repasts bring! +Fie upon the arts and books which must be the desert of such meals! +Despite all the efforts of such people their acts will taste of pepper and +ill-temper, or general weariness! (The wealthy classes in England stand in +great need of their Christianity in order to be able to endure their bad +digestions and their headaches.) Finally, to mention not only the +disgusting but also the more pleasant side of the matter, these people are +by no means mere gluttons: our century and its spirit of activity has more +power over the limbs than the belly. What then is the meaning of these +banquets? They represent! What in Heaven's name do they represent? +Rank?--no, money! There is no rank now! We are all "individuals"! but money +now stands for power, glory, pre-eminence, dignity, and influence; money +at the present time acts as a greater or lesser moral prejudice for a man +in proportion to the amount he may possess. Nobody wishes to hide it under +a bushel or display it in heaps on a table: hence money must have some +representative which can be put on the table--so behold our banquets! + + + + +204. + + +DANĆ AND THE GOD OF GOLD.--Whence arises this excessive impatience in our +day which turns men into criminals even in circumstances which would be +more likely to bring about the contrary tendency? What induces one man to +use false weights, another to set his house on fire after having insured +it for more than its value, a third to take part in counterfeiting, while +three-fourths of our upper classes indulge in legalised fraud, and suffer +from the pangs of conscience that follow speculation and dealings on the +Stock Exchange: what gives rise to all this? It is not real want,--for +their existence is by no means precarious; perhaps they have even enough +to eat and drink without worrying,--but they are urged on day and night by +a terrible impatience at seeing their wealth pile up so slowly, and by an +equally terrible longing and love for these heaps of gold. In this +impatience and love, however, we see re-appear once more that fanaticism +of the desire for power which was stimulated in former times by the belief +that we were in the possession of truth, a fanaticism which bore such +beautiful names that we could dare to be inhuman with a good conscience +(burning Jews, heretics, and good books, and exterminating entire cultures +superior to ours, such as those of Peru and Mexico). The means of this +desire for power are changed in our day, but the same volcano is still +smouldering, impatience and intemperate love call for their victims, and +what was once done "for the love of God" is now done for the love of +money, _i.e._ for the love of that which at present affords us the highest +feeling of power and a good conscience. + + + + +205. + + +THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.--One of the spectacles which the next century will +invite us to witness is the decision regarding the fate of the European +Jews. It is quite obvious now that they have cast their die and crossed +their Rubicon: the only thing that remains for them is either to become +masters of Europe or to lose Europe, as they once centuries ago lost +Egypt, where they were confronted with similar alternatives. In Europe, +however, they have gone through a schooling of eighteen centuries such as +no other nation has ever undergone, and the experiences of this dreadful +time of probation have benefited not only the Jewish community but, even +to a greater extent, the individual. As a consequence of this, the +resourcefulness of the modern Jews, both in mind and soul, is +extraordinary. Amongst all the inhabitants of Europe it is the Jews least +of all who try to escape from any deep distress by recourse to drink or to +suicide, as other less gifted people are so prone to do. Every Jew can +find in the history of his own family and of his ancestors a long record +of instances of the greatest coolness and perseverance amid difficulties +and dreadful situations, an artful cunning in fighting with misfortune and +hazard. And above all it is their bravery under the cloak of wretched +submission, their heroic _spernere se sperni_ that surpasses the virtues +of all the saints. + +People wished to make them contemptible by treating them contemptibly for +nearly twenty centuries, and refusing them access to all honourable +positions and dignities, and by pushing them further down into the meaner +trades--and under this process indeed they have not become any cleaner. But +contemptible? They have never ceased for a moment from believing +themselves qualified for the very highest functions, nor have the virtues +of the suffering ever ceased to adorn them. Their manner of honouring +their parents and children, the rationality of their marriages and +marriage customs, distinguishes them amongst all Europeans. Besides this, +they have been able to create for themselves a sense of power and eternal +vengeance from the very trades that were left to them (or to which they +were abandoned). Even in palliation of their usury we cannot help saying +that, without this occasional pleasant and useful torture inflicted on +their scorners, they would have experienced difficulty in preserving their +self-respect for so long. For our self-respect depends upon our ability to +make reprisals in both good and evil things. Nevertheless, their revenge +never urges them on too far, for they all have that liberty of mind, and +even of soul, produced in men by frequent changes of place, climate, and +customs of neighbours and oppressors, they possess by far the greatest +experience in all human intercourse, and even in their passions they +exercise the caution which this experience has developed in them. They are +so certain of their intellectual versatility and shrewdness that they +never, even when reduced to the direst straits, have to earn their bread +by manual labour as common workmen, porters, or farm hands. In their +manners we can still see that they have never been inspired by chivalric +and noble feelings, or that their bodies have ever been girt with fine +weapons: a certain obtrusiveness alternates with a submissiveness which is +often tender and almost always painful. + +Now, however, that they unavoidably inter-marry more and more year after +year with the noblest blood of Europe, they will soon have a considerable +heritage of good intellectual and physical manners, so that in another +hundred years they will have a sufficiently noble aspect not to render +themselves, as masters, ridiculous to those whom they will have subdued. +And this is important! and therefore a settlement of the question is still +premature. They themselves know very well that the conquest of Europe or +any act of violence is not to be thought of; but they also know that some +day or other Europe may, like a ripe fruit, fall into their hands, if they +do not clutch at it too eagerly. In the meantime, it is necessary for them +to distinguish themselves in all departments of European distinction and +to stand in the front rank: until they shall have advanced so far as to +determine themselves what distinction shall mean. Then they will be called +the pioneers and guides of the Europeans whose modesty they will no longer +offend. + +And then where shall an outlet be found for this abundant wealth of great +impressions accumulated during such an extended period and representing +Jewish history for every Jewish family, this wealth of passions, virtues, +resolutions, resignations, struggles, and conquests of all kinds--where can +it find an outlet but in great intellectual men and works! On the day when +the Jews will be able to exhibit to us as their own work such jewels and +golden vessels as no European nation, with its shorter and less profound +experience, can or could produce, when Israel shall have changed its +eternal vengeance into an eternal benediction for Europe: then that +seventh day will once more appear when old Jehovah may rejoice in Himself, +in His creation, in His chosen people--and all, all of us, will rejoice +with Him! + + + + +206. + + +THE IMPOSSIBLE CLASS.--Poverty, cheerfulness, and independence--it is +possible to find these three qualities combined in one individual; +poverty, cheerfulness, and slavery--this is likewise a possible +combination: and I can say nothing better to the workmen who serve as +factory slaves; presuming that it does not appear to them altogether to be +a shameful thing to be utilised as they are, as the screws of a machine +and the stopgaps, as it were, of the human spirit of invention. Fie on the +thought that merely by means of higher wages the essential part of their +misery, _i.e._ their impersonal enslavement, might be removed! Fie, that +we should allow ourselves to be convinced that, by an increase of this +impersonality within the mechanical working of a new society, the disgrace +of slavery could be changed into a virtue! Fie, that there should be a +regular price at which a man should cease to be a personality and become a +screw instead! Are you accomplices in the present madness of nations which +desire above all to produce as much as possible, and to be as rich as +possible? Would it not be your duty to present a counter-claim to them, +and to show them what large sums of internal value are wasted in the +pursuit of such an external object? + +But where is your internal value when you no longer know what it is to +breathe freely; when you have scarcely any command over your own selves, +and often feel disgusted with yourselves as with some stale food; when you +zealously study the newspapers and look enviously at your wealthy +neighbour, made covetous by the rapid rise and fall of power, money, and +opinions; when you no longer believe in a philosophy in rags, or in the +freedom of spirit of a man who has few needs; when a voluntary and idyllic +poverty without profession or marriage, such as should suit the more +intellectual ones among you, has become for you an object of derision? On +the other hand, the piping of the Socialistic rat-catchers who wish to +inspire you with foolish hopes is continually sounding in your ears: they +tell you to be ready and nothing further, ready from this day to the next, +so that you wait and wait for something to come from outside, though +living in all other respects as you lived before--until this waiting is at +length changed into hunger and thirst and fever and madness, and the clay +of the _bestia triumphans_ at last dawns in all its glory. Every one of +you should on the contrary say to himself: "It would be better to emigrate +and endeavour to become a master in new and savage countries, and +especially to become master over myself, changing my place of abode +whenever the least sign of slavery threatens me, endeavouring to avoid +neither adventure nor war, and, if things come to the worst, holding +myself ready to die: anything rather than continuing in this state of +disgraceful thraldom, this bitterness, malice and rebelliousness!" This +would be the proper spirit: the workmen in Europe ought to make it clear +that their position as a class has become a human impossibility, and not +merely, as they at present maintain, the result of some hard and aimless +arrangement of society. They should bring about an age of great swarming +forth from the European beehive such as has never yet been seen, +protesting by this voluntary and huge migration against machines and +capital and the alternatives that now threaten them either of becoming +slaves of the State or slaves of some revolutionary party. + +May Europe be freed from one-fourth of her inhabitants! Both she and they +will experience a sensation of relief. It is only far in the distance, in +the undertaking of vast colonisations, that we shall be able to observe +how much rationality, fairness, and healthy suspicion mother Europe has +incorporated in her sons--these sons who could no longer endure life in the +home of the dull old woman, always running the danger of becoming as +bad-tempered, irritable, and pleasure-seeking as she herself. The European +virtues will travel along with these workmen far beyond the boundaries of +Europe; and those very qualities which on their native soil had begun to +degenerate into a dangerous discontent and criminal inclinations will, +when abroad, be transformed into a beautiful, savage naturalness and will +be called heroism; so that at last a purer air would again be wafted over +this old, over-populated, and brooding Europe of ours. What would it +matter if there was a scarcity of "hands"? Perhaps people would then +recollect that they had accustomed themselves to many wants merely because +it was easy to gratify them--it would be sufficient to unlearn some of +these wants! Perhaps also Chinamen would be called in, and these would +bring with them their modes of living and thinking, which would be found +very suitable for industrious ants. They would also perhaps help to imbue +this fretful and restless Europe with some of their Asiatic calmness and +contemplation, and--what is perhaps most needful of all--their Asiatic +stability. + + + + +207. + + +THE ATTITUDE OF THE GERMANS TO MORALITY.--A German is capable of great +things, but he is unlikely to accomplish them, for he obeys whenever he +can, as suits a naturally lazy intellect. If he is ever in the dangerous +situation of having to stand alone and cast aside his sloth, when he finds +it no longer possible to disappear like a cipher in a number (in which +respect he is far inferior to a Frenchman or an Englishman), he shows his +true strength: then he becomes dangerous, evil, deep, and audacious, and +exhibits to the light of day that wealth of latent energy which he had +previously carried hidden in himself, and in which no one, not even +himself, had ever believed. When in such a case a German obeys himself--it +is very exceptional for him to do so--he does so with the same heaviness, +inflexibility, and endurance with which he obeys his prince and performs +his official duties: so that, as I have said, he is then capable of great +things which bear no relation to the "weak disposition" he attributes to +himself. + +As a rule, however, he is afraid of depending upon himself alone, he is +afraid of taking the initiative: that is why Germany uses up so many +officials and so much ink. Light-heartedness is a stranger to the German; +he is too timid for it: but in entirely new situations which rouse him +from his torpor he exhibits an almost frivolous spirit--he then delights in +the novelty of his new position as if it were some intoxicating drink, and +he is, as we know, quite a connoisseur in intoxication. It thus happens +that the German of the present day is almost always frivolous in politics, +though even here he has the advantage and prejudice of thoroughness and +seriousness; and, although he may take full advantage of these qualities +in negotiations with other political powers, he nevertheless rejoices +inwardly at being able for once in his life to feel enthusiastic and +capricious, to show his fondness for innovations, and to change persons, +parties, and hopes as if they were masks. Those learned German scholars, +who hitherto have been considered as the most German of Germans, were and +perhaps still are as good as the German soldiers on account of their +profound and almost childish inclination to obey in all external things, +and on account of being often compelled to stand alone in science and to +answer for many things: if they can only preserve their proud, simple, and +patient disposition, and their freedom from political madness at those +times when the wind changes, we may yet expect great things from them--such +as they are or such as they were, they are the embryonic stage of +something higher. + +So far the advantages and disadvantages of the Germans, including even +their learned men, have been that they were more given to superstition and +showed greater eagerness to believe than any of the other nations; their +vices are, and always have been, their drunkenness and suicidal +inclinations (the latter a proof of the clumsiness of their intellect, +which is easily tempted to throw away the reins). Their danger is to be +sought in everything that binds down the faculties of reason and unchains +the passions (as, for example, the excessive use of music and spirits), +for the German passion acts contrarily to its own advantage, and is as +self-destructive as the passions of the drunkard. Indeed, German +enthusiasm is worth less than that of other nations, for it is barren. +When a German ever did anything great it was done at a time of danger, or +when his courage was high, with his teeth firmly set and his prudence on +the alert, and often enough in a fit of generosity.--Intercourse with these +Germans is indeed advisable, for almost every one of them has something to +give, if we can only understand how to make him find it, or rather recover +it (for he is very untidy in storing away his knowledge). + +Well: when people of this type occupy themselves with morals, what +precisely will be the morality that will satisfy them? In the first place, +they will wish to see idealised in their morals their sincere instinct for +obedience. "Man must have something which he can implicitly obey"--this is +a German sentiment, a German deduction; it is the basis of all German +moral teaching. How different is the impression, however, when we compare +this with the entire morality of the ancient world! All those Greek +thinkers, however varied they may appear to us, seem to resemble, as +moralists, the gymnastic teacher who encourages his pupils by saying, +"Come, follow me! Submit to my discipline! Then perhaps you may carry off +the prize from all the other Greeks." Personal distinction: such was the +virtue of antiquity. Submission, obedience, whether public or private: +such is German virtue. Long before Kant set forth his doctrine of the +Categorical Imperative, Luther, actuated by the same impulse, said that +there surely must be a being in whom man could trust implicitly--it was his +proof of the existence of God; it was his wish, coarser and more popular +than that of Kant, that people should implicitly obey a person and not an +idea, and Kant also finally took his roundabout route through morals +merely that he might secure obedience for the person. This is indeed the +worship of the German, the more so as there is now less worship left in +his religion. + +The Greeks and Romans had other opinions on these matters, and would have +laughed at such "there must be a being": it is part of the boldness of +their Southern nature to take up a stand against "implicit belief," and to +retain in their inmost heart a trace of scepticism against all and every +one, whether God, man, or idea. The thinker of antiquity went even +further, and said _nil admirari_: in this phrase he saw reflected all +philosophy. A German, Schopenhauer, goes so far in the contrary direction +as to say: _admirari id est philosophari_. But what if, as happens now and +then, the German should attain to that state of mind which would enable +him to perform great things? if the hour of exception comes, the hour of +disobedience? I do not think Schopenhauer is right in saying that the +single advantage the Germans have over other nations is that there are +more atheists among them than elsewhere; but I do know this: whenever the +German reaches the state in which he is capable of great things, he +invariably raises himself above morals! And why should he not? Now he has +something new to do, viz. to command--either himself or others! But this +German morality of his has not taught him how to command! Commanding has +been forgotten in it. + + + + + +BOOK IV. + + + + +208. + + +A QUESTION OF CONSCIENCE.--"Now, _in summa_, tell me what this new thing is +that you want."--"We no longer wish causes to be sinners and effects to be +executioners." + + + + +209. + + +THE UTILITY OF THE STRICTEST THEORIES.--People are indulgent towards a +man's moral weaknesses, and in this connection they use a coarse sieve, +provided that he always professes to hold the most strict moral theories. +On the other hand, the lives of free-thinking moralists have always been +examined closely through a microscope, in the tacit belief that an error +in their lives would be the best argument against their disagreeable +knowledge.(6) + + + + +210. + + +THE "THING IN ITSELF."--We used to ask formerly: What is the ridiculous?--as +if there were something above and beyond ourselves that possessed the +quality of provoking laughter, and we exhausted ourselves in trying to +guess what it was (a theologian even held that it might be "the _naďveté_ +of sin"). At the present time we ask: What is laughter? how does it arise? +We have considered the point, and finally reached the conclusion that +there is nothing which is good, beautiful, sublime, or evil in itself; but +rather that there are conditions of soul which lead us to attribute such +qualities to things outside ourselves and in us. We have taken back their +predicates from things; or we have at all events recollected that we have +merely lent the things these predicates. Let us be careful that this +insight does not cause us to lose the faculty of lending, and that we do +not become at the same time wealthier and more avaricious. + + + + +211. + + +TO THOSE WHO DREAM OF IMMORTALITY.--So you desire the everlasting +perpetuity of this beautiful consciousness of yourselves? Is it not +shameful? Do you forget all those other things which would in their turn +have to support _you_ for all eternity, just as they have borne with you +up to the present with more than Christian patience? Or do you think that +you can inspire them with an eternally pleasant feeling towards yourself? +A single immortal man on earth would imbue everyone around him with such a +disgust for him that a general epidemic of murder and suicide would be +brought about. And yet, ye petty dwellers on earth, with your narrow +conceptions of a few thousand little minutes of time, ye would wish to be +an everlasting burden on this everlasting universal existence! Could +anything be more impertinent? After all, however, let us be indulgent +towards a being of seventy years: he has not been able to exercise his +imagination in conceiving his own "eternal tediousness"--he had not time +enough for that! + + + + +212. + + +WHEREIN WE KNOW OURSELVES.--As soon as one animal sees another it mentally +compares itself with it; and men of uncivilised ages did the same. The +consequence is that almost all men come to know themselves only as regards +their defensive and offensive faculties. + + + + +213. + + +MEN WHOSE LIVES HAVE BEEN FAILURES.--Some men are built of such stuff that +society is at liberty to do what it likes with them--they will do well in +any case, and will not have to complain of having failed in life. Other +men are formed of such peculiar material--it need not be a particularly +noble one, but simply rarer--that they are sure to fare ill except in one +single instance: when they can live according to their own designs,--in all +other cases the injury has to be borne by society. For everything that +seems to the individual to be a wasted or blighted life, his entire burden +of discouragement, powerlessness, sickness, irritation, covetousness, is +attributed by him to society--and thus a heavy, vitiated atmosphere is +gradually formed round society, or, in the most favourable cases, a +thundercloud. + + + + +214. + + +WHAT INDULGENCE!--You suffer, and call upon us to be indulgent towards you, +even when in your suffering you are unjust towards things and men! But +what does our indulgence matter! You, however, should take greater +precautions for your own sake! That's a nice way of compensating yourself +for your sufferings, by imposing still further suffering on your own +judgment! Your own revenge recoils upon yourselves when you start reviling +something: you dim your own eyes in this way, and not the eyes of others; +you accustom yourself to looking at things in the wrong way, and with a +squint. + + + + +215. + + +THE MORALITY OF VICTIMS.--"Enthusiastic sacrifice," "self-immolation"--these +are the catch-words of your morality, and I willingly believe that you, as +you say, "mean it honestly": but I know you better than you know +yourselves, if your "honesty" is capable of going arm in arm with such a +morality. You look down from the heights of this morality upon that other +sober morality which calls for self-control, severity, and obedience; you +even go so far as to call it egoistic--and you are indeed frank towards +yourselves in saying that it displeases you--it must displease you! For, in +sacrificing and immolating yourselves with such enthusiasm, you delight in +the intoxication of the thought that you are now one with the powerful +being, God or man, to whom you are consecrating yourselves: you revel in +the feeling of his power, which is again attested by this sacrifice. + +In reality, however, you only _appear_ to sacrifice yourselves; for your +imagination turns you into gods and you enjoy yourselves as such. Judged +from the point of view of this enjoyment, how poor and feeble must that +other "egoistic" morality of obedience, duty, and reason seem to you: it +is displeasing to you because in this instance true self-sacrifice and +self-surrender are called for, without the victim thinking himself to be +transformed into a god, as you do. In a word, you want intoxication and +excess, and this morality which you despise takes up a stand against +intoxication and excess--no wonder it causes you some displeasure! + + + + +216. + + +EVIL PEOPLE AND MUSIC.--Should the full bliss of love, which consists in +unlimited confidence, ever have fallen to the lot of persons other than +those who are profoundly suspicious, evil, and bitter? For such people +enjoy in this bliss the gigantic, unlooked-for, and incredible _exception_ +of their souls! One day they are seized with that infinite, dreamy +sensation which is entirely opposed to the remainder of their private and +public life, like a delicious enigma, full of golden splendour, and +impossible to be described by mere words or similes. Implicit confidence +makes them speechless--there is even a species of suffering and heaviness +in this blissful silence; and this is why souls that are overcome with +happiness generally feel more grateful to music than others and better +ones do: for they see and hear through music, as through a coloured mist, +their love becoming, as it were, more distant, more touching, and less +heavy. Music is the only means that such people have of observing their +extraordinary condition and of becoming aware of its presence with a +feeling of estrangement and relief. When the sound of music reaches the +ears of every lover he thinks: "It speaks of me, it speaks in my stead; it +knows everything!" + + + + +217. + + +THE ARTIST.--The Germans wish to be transported by the artist into a state +of dreamy passion; by his aid the Italians wish to rest from their real +passions; the French wish him to give them an opportunity of showing their +judgment and of making speeches. So let us be just! + + + + +218. + + +TO DEAL LIKE AN ARTIST WITH ONE'S WEAKNESSES.--If we must positively have +weaknesses and come in the end to look upon them as laws beyond ourselves, +I wish that everybody may be possessed of as much artistic capacity as +will enable him to set off his virtues by means of his weaknesses, and to +make us, through his weaknesses, desirous of acquiring his virtues: a +power which great musicians have possessed in quite an exceptional degree. +How frequently do we notice in Beethoven's music a coarse, dogmatic, and +impatient tone; in Mozart, the joviality of an honest man, whose heart and +mind have not overmuch to give us; in Richard Wagner, an abrupt and +aggressive restlessness, in the midst of which, just as the most patient +listener is on the point of losing his temper, the composer regains his +powers, and likewise the others. Through their very weaknesses, these +musicians have created in us an ardent desire for their virtues, and have +given us a palate which is ten times more sensitive to every note of this +tuneful intellect, tuneful beauty, and tuneful goodness. + + + + +219. + + +DECEIT IN HUMILIATION.--By your foolishness you have done a great wrong to +your neighbour and destroyed his happiness irretrievably--and then, having +overcome your vanity, you humble yourself before him, surrender your +foolishness to his contempt, and fancy that, after this difficult scene, +which is an exceedingly painful one for you, everything has been set +right, that your own voluntary loss of honour compensates your neighbour +for the injury you have done to his happiness. With this feeling you take +your leave comforted, believing that your virtue has been re-established. + +Your neighbour, however, suffers as intensely as before. He finds nothing +to comfort him in the fact that you have been irrational and have told him +so: on the contrary, he remembers the painful appearance you presented to +him when you were disparaging yourself in his presence--it is as if another +wound had been inflicted on him. He does not think of revenging himself, +however; and cannot conceive how a proper balance can be struck between +you and him. In point of fact, you have been acting that scene for +yourself and before yourself: you invited a witness to be present, not on +his account, but on your own--don't deceive yourself! + + + + +220. + + +DIGNITY AND TIMIDITY.--Ceremonies, official robes and court dresses, grave +countenances, solemn aspects, the slow pace, involved speech--everything, +in short, known as dignity--are all pretences adopted by those who are +timid at heart: they wish to make themselves feared (themselves or the +things they represent). The fearless (_i.e._ originally those who +naturally inspire others with awe) have no need of dignity and ceremonies: +they bring into repute--or, still more, into ill-repute--honesty and +straightforward words and bearing, as characteristics of their +self-confident awefulness. + + + + +221. + + +THE MORALITY OF SACRIFICE.--The morality which is measured by the spirit of +sacrifice is that of a semi-civilised state of society. Reason in this +instance gains a hard-fought and bloody victory within the soul; for there +are powerful contrary instincts to be overcome. This cannot be brought +about without the cruelty which the sacrifices to cannibal gods demand. + + + + +222. + + +WHERE FANATICISM IS TO BE DESIRED.--Phlegmatic natures can be rendered +enthusiastic only by being fanaticised. + + + + +223. + + +THE DREADED EYE.--Nothing is dreaded more by artists, poets, and writers +than the eye which sees through their little deceptions and subsequently +notices how often they have stopped at the boundary where the paths branch +off either to innocent delight in themselves or to the straining after +effect; the eye which checks them when they try to sell little things +dear, or when they try to exalt and adorn without being exalted +themselves; the eye which, despite all the artifices of their art, sees +the thought as it first presented itself to them, perhaps as a charming +vision of light, perhaps also, however, as a theft from the whole world, +or as an everyday conception which they had to expand, contract, colour, +wrap up, and spice, in order to make something out of it, instead of the +thought making something out of them.--Oh, this eye, which sees in your +work all your restlessness, inquisitiveness, and covetousness, your +imitation and exaggeration (which is only envious imitation) which knows +both your blush of shame and your skill in concealing it from others and +interpreting it to yourselves! + + + + +224. + + +THE "EDIFYING" ELEMENT IN OUR NEIGHBOUR'S MISFORTUNE.--He is in distress, +and straightway the "compassionate" ones come to him and depict his +misfortune to him. At last they go away again, satisfied and elevated, +after having gloated over the unhappy man's misfortune and their own, and +spent a pleasant Sunday afternoon. + + + + +225. + + +TO BE QUICKLY DESPISED.--A man who speaks a great deal, and speaks quickly, +soon sinks exceedingly low in our estimation, even when he speaks +rationally--not only to the extent that he annoys us personally, but far +lower. For we conjecture how great a burden he has already proved to many +other people, and we thus add to the discomfort which he causes us all the +contempt which we presume he has caused to others. + + + + +226. + + +RELATIONS WITH CELEBRITIES.--_A._ But why do you shun this great man?--_B._ +I should not like to misunderstand him. Our defects are incompatible with +one another: I am short-sighted and suspicious, and he wears his false +diamonds as willingly as his real ones. + + + + +227. + + +THE CHAIN-WEARERS.--Beware of all those intellects which are bound in +chains! clever women, for example, who have been banished by fate to +narrow and dull surroundings, amid which they grow old. True, there they +lie in the sun, apparently lazy and half-blind; but at every unknown step, +at everything unexpected, they start up to bite: they revenge themselves +on everything that has escaped their kennel. + + + + +228. + + +REVENGE IN PRAISE.--Here we have a written page which is covered with +praise, and you call it flat; but when you find out that revenge is +concealed in this praise you will find it almost too subtle, and you will +experience a great deal of pleasure in its numerous delicate and bold +strokes and similes. It is not the man himself, but his revenge, which is +so subtle, rich, and ingenious: he himself is scarcely aware of it. + + + + +229. + + +PRIDE.--Ah, not one of you knows the feeling of the tortured man after he +has been put to the torture, when he is being carried back to his cell, +and his secret with him!--he still holds it in a stubborn and tenacious +grip. What know ye of the exultation of human pride? + + + + +230. + + +"UTILITARIAN."--At the present time men's sentiments on moral things run in +such labyrinthic paths that, while we demonstrate morality to one man by +virtue of its utility, we refute it to another on account of this utility. + + + + +231. + + +ON GERMAN VIRTUE.--How degenerate in its taste, how servile to dignities, +ranks, uniforms, pomp, and splendour must a nation have been, when it +began to consider the simple as the bad, the simple man (_schlicht_) as +the bad man (_schlecht_)! We should always oppose the moral bumptiousness +of the Germans with this one little word "bad," and nothing else. + + + + +232. + + +FROM A DISPUTE.--_A._ Friend, you have talked yourself hoarse.--_B._ Then I +am refuted, so let's drop the subject. + + + + +233. + + +THE "CONSCIENTIOUS" ONES.--Have you noticed the kind of men who attach the +greatest value to the most scrupulous conscientiousness? Those who are +conscious of many mean and petty sentiments, who are anxiously thinking of +and about themselves, are afraid of others, and are desirous of concealing +their inmost feelings as far as possible. They endeavour to impose upon +themselves by means of this strict conscientiousness and rigorousness of +duty, and by the stern and harsh impression which others, especially their +inferiors, cannot fail to receive of them. + + + + +234. + + +DREAD OF FAME.--_A._ The endeavour to avoid one's renown, the intentional +offending of one's panegyrists, the dislike of hearing opinions about +one's self, and all through fear of renown: instances like these are to be +met with; they actually exist--believe it or not!--_B._ They are found, no +doubt! They exist! A little patience, Sir Arrogance! + + + + +235. + + +REFUSING THANKS.--We are perfectly justified in refusing a request, but it +is never right to refuse thanks--or, what comes to the same thing, to +accept them coldly and conventionally. This gives deep offence--and why? + + + + +236. + + +PUNISHMENT.--A strange thing, this punishment of ours! It does not purify +the criminal; it is not a form of expiation; but, on the contrary, it is +even more defiling than the crime itself. + + + + +237. + + +PARTY GRIEVANCES.--In almost every party there is a ridiculous, but +nevertheless somewhat dangerous grievance. The sufferers from it are those +who have long been the faithful and honourable upholders of the doctrine +propagated by the party, and who suddenly remark that one day a much +stronger figure than themselves has got the ear of the public. How can +they bear being reduced to silence? So they raise their voices, sometimes +changing their notes. + + + + +238. + + +STRIVING FOR GENTLENESS.--When a vigorous nature has not an inclination +towards cruelty, and is not always preoccupied with itself; it +involuntarily strives after gentleness--this is its distinctive +characteristic. Weak natures, on the other hand, have a tendency towards +harsh judgments--they associate themselves with the heroes of the contempt +of mankind, the religious or philosophical traducers of existence, or they +take up their position behind strict habits and punctilious "callings": in +this way they seek to give themselves a character and a kind of strength. +This is likewise done quite involuntarily. + + + + +239. + + +A HINT TO MORALISTS.--Our musicians have made a great discovery. They have +found out that interesting ugliness is possible even in their art; this is +why they throw themselves with such enthusiastic intoxication into this +ocean of ugliness, and never before has it been so easy to make music. It +is only now that we have got the general, dark-coloured background, upon +which every luminous ray of fine music, however faint, seems tinged with +golden emerald lustre; it is only now that we dare to inspire our audience +with feelings of impetuosity and indignation, taking away their breath, so +to speak, in order that we may afterwards, in an interval of restful +harmony, inspire them with a feeling of bliss which will be to the general +advantage of a proper appreciation of music. + +We have discovered the contrast: it is only now that the strongest effects +are possible--and cheap. No one bothers any more about good music. But you +must hurry up! When any art has once made this discovery, it has but a +short space of time to live.--Oh, if only our thinkers could probe into the +depths of the souls of our musicians when listening to their music! How +long we must wait until we again have an opportunity of surprising the +inward man in the very act of his evil doing, and his innocence of this +act! For our musicians have not the slightest suspicion that it is their +own history, the history of the disfigurement of the soul, which they are +transposing into music. In former times a good musician was almost forced +by the exigencies of his art to become a good man--and now! + + + + +240. + + +THE MORALITY OF THE STAGE.--The man who imagines that the effect of +Shakespeare's plays is a moral one, and that the sight of Macbeth +irresistibly induces us to shun the evil of ambition, is mistaken, and he +is mistaken once more if he believes that Shakespeare himself thought so. +He who is truly obsessed by an ardent ambition takes delight in beholding +this picture of himself; and when the hero is driven to destruction by his +passion, this is the most pungent spice in the hot drink of this delight. +Did the poet feel this in another way? How royally and with how little of +the knave in him does his ambitious hero run his course from the moment of +his great crime! It is only from this moment that he becomes +"demoniacally" attractive, and that he encourages similar natures to +imitate him.--There is something demoniacal here: something which is in +revolt against advantage and life, in favour of a thought and an impulse. +Do you think that Tristan and Isolde are warnings against adultery, merely +because adultery has resulted in the death of both of them? This would be +turning poets upside down, these poets who, especially Shakespeare, are in +love with the passions in themselves, and not less so with the readiness +for death which they give rise to: this mood in which the heart no more +clings to life than a drop of water does to the glass. It is not the guilt +and its pernicious consequences which interests these poets--Shakespeare as +little as Sophocles (in the _Ajax_, _Philoctetes_, _OEdipus_)--however easy +it might have been in the cases just mentioned to make the guilt the lever +of the play, it was carefully avoided by the poets. + +In the same way the tragic poet by his images of life does not wish to set +us against life. On the contrary, he exclaims; "It is the charm of charms, +this exciting, changing, and dangerous existence of ours, so often gloomy +and so often bathed in sun! Life is an adventure--whichever side you may +take in life it will always retain this character!"--Thus speaks the poet +of a restless and vigorous age, an age which is almost intoxicated and +stupefied by its superabundance of blood and energy, in an age more evil +than our own: and this is why it is necessary for us to adapt and +accommodate ourselves first to the purpose of a Shakespearian play, that +is, by misunderstanding it. + + + + +241. + + +FEAR AND INTELLIGENCE.--If that which is now expressly maintained is true, +viz. that the cause of the black pigment of the skin must not be sought in +light, might this phenomenon perhaps be the ultimate effect of frequent +fits of passion accumulated for century after century (and an afflux of +blood under the skin)? while in other and more intelligent races the +equally frequent spasms of fear and blanching may have resulted in the +white colour of the skin?--For the degree of timidity is the standard by +which the intelligence may be measured; and the fact that men give +themselves up to blind anger is an indication that their animal nature is +still near the surface, and is longing for an opportunity to make its +presence felt once more. Thus a brownish-grey would probably be the +primitive colour of man--something of the ape and the bear, as is only +proper. + + + + +242. + + +INDEPENDENCE.--Independence (which in its weakest form is called "freedom +of thought") is the type of resignation which the tyrannical man ends by +accepting--he who for a long time had been looking for something to govern, +but without finding anything except himself. + + + + +243. + + +THE TWO COURSES.--When we endeavour to examine the mirror in itself we +discover in the end that we can detect nothing there but the things which +it reflects. If we wish to grasp the things reflected we touch nothing in +the end but the mirror.--This is the general history of knowledge. + + + + +244. + + +DELIGHT IN REALITY.--Our present inclination to take delight in reality--for +almost every one of us possesses it--can only be explained by the fact that +we have taken delight in the unreal for such a long time that we have got +tired of it. This inclination in its present form, without choice and +without refinement, is not without danger--its least danger is its want of +taste. + + + + +245. + + +THE SUBTLETY OF THE FEELING OF POWER.--Napoleon was greatly mortified at +the fact that he could not speak well, and he did not deceive himself in +this respect: but his thirst for power, which never despised the slightest +opportunity of showing itself, and which was still more subtle than his +subtle intellect, led him to speak even worse than he might have done. It +was in this way that he revenged himself upon his own mortification (he +was jealous of all his emotions because they possessed power) in order to +enjoy his autocratic pleasure. + +He enjoyed this pleasure a second time in respect to the ears and judgment +of his audience, as if it were good enough for them to be addressed in +this way. He even secretly enjoyed the thought of bewildering their +judgment and good taste by the thunder and lightning of his highest +authority--that authority which lies in the union of power and genius--while +both his judgment and his good taste held fast proudly and indifferently +to the truth that he did not speak well.--Napoleon, as the complete and +fully developed type of a single instinct, belongs to ancient humanity, +whose characteristic--the simple construction and ingenious development and +realisation of a single motive or a small number of motives--may be easily +enough recognised. + + + + +246. + + +ARISTOTLE AND MARRIAGE.--Insanity makes its appearance in the children of +great geniuses, and stupidity in those of the most virtuous--so says +Aristotle. Did he mean by this to invite exceptional men to marry? + + + + +247. + + +THE ORIGIN OF A BAD TEMPERAMENT.--Injustice and instability in the minds of +certain men, their disordered and immoderate manner, are the ultimate +consequences of the innumerable logical inexactitudes, superficialities, +and hasty conclusions of which their ancestors have been guilty. Men of a +good temperament, on the other hand, are descended from solid and +meditative races which have set a high value upon reason--whether for +praiseworthy or evil purposes is of no great importance. + + + + +248. + + +DISSIMULATION AS A DUTY.--Kindness has been best developed by the long +dissimulation which endeavoured to appear as kindness: wherever great +power existed the necessity for dissimulation of this nature was +recognised--it inspires security and confidence, and multiplies the actual +sum of our physical power. Falsehood, if not actually the mother, is at +all events the nurse of kindness. In the same way, honesty has been +brought to maturity by the need for a semblance of honesty and integrity: +in hereditary aristocracies. The persistent exercise of such a +dissimulation ends by bringing about the actual nature of the thing +itself: the dissimulation in the long run suppresses itself, and organs +and instincts are the unexpected fruits in this garden of hypocrisy. + + + + +249. + + +WHO, THEN, IS EVER ALONE.--The faint-hearted wretch does not know what it +means to be lonely. An enemy is always prowling in his tracks. Oh, for the +man who could give us the history of that subtle feeling called +loneliness! + + + + +250. + + +NIGHT AND MUSIC.--It was only at night time, and in the semi-obscurity of +dark forests and caverns, that the ear, the organ of fear, was able to +develop itself so well, in accordance with the mode of living of the +timid--that is, the longest human epoch which has ever yet existed: when it +is clear daylight the ear is less necessary. Hence the character of music, +which is an art of night and twilight. + + + + +251. + + +STOICAL.--The Stoic experiences a certain sense of cheerfulness when he +feels oppressed by the ceremonial which he has prescribed for himself: he +enjoys himself then as a ruler. + + + + +252. + + +CONSIDER.--The man who is being punished is no longer he who has done the +deed. He is always the scapegoat. + + + + +253. + + +APPEARANCE.--Alas! what must be best and most resolutely proved is +appearance itself; for only too many people lack eyes to observe it. But +it is so tiresome! + + + + +254. + + +THOSE WHO ANTICIPATE.--What distinguishes poetic natures, but is also a +danger for them, is their imagination, which exhausts itself in advance: +which anticipates what will happen or what may happen, which enjoys and +suffers in advance, and which at the final moment of the event or the +action is already fatigued. Lord Byron, who was only too familiar with +this, wrote in his diary: "If ever I have a son he shall choose a very +prosaic profession--that of a lawyer or a pirate." + + + + +255. + + +CONVERSATION ON MUSIC.-- + +_A._ What do you say to that music? + +_B._ It has overpowered me, I can say nothing about it. Listen! there it +is beginning again. + +_A._ All the better! This time let us do our best to overpower it. Will +you allow me to add a few words to this music? and also to show you a +drama which perhaps at your first hearing you did not wish to observe? + +_B._ Very well, I have two ears and even more if necessary; move up closer +to me. + +_A._ We have not yet heard what he wishes to say to us, up to the present +he has only promised to say something--something as yet unheard, so he +gives us to understand by his gestures, for they are gestures. How he +beckons! How he raises himself up! How he gesticulates! and now the moment +of supreme tension seems to have come to him: two more fanfares, and he +will present us with his superb and splendidly-adorned theme, rattling, as +it were, with precious stones. + +Is it a handsome woman? or a beautiful horse? Enough, he looks about him +as if enraptured, for he must assemble looks of rapture. It is only now +that his theme quite pleases him: it is only now that he becomes inventive +and risks new and audacious features. How he forces out his theme! Ah, +take care!--he not only understands how to adorn, but also how to gloss it +over! Yes, he knows what the colour of health is, and he knows how to make +it up,--he is more subtle in his self-consciousness than I thought. And now +he is convinced that he has convinced his hearers; he sets off his +impromptus as if they were the most important things under the sun: he +points to his theme with an insolent finger as if it were too good for +this world.--Ah, how distrustful he is! He is afraid we may get tired!--that +is why he buries his melody in sweet notes.--Now he even appeals to our +coarser senses that he may excite us and thus get us once again into his +power. Listen to him as he conjures up the elementary force of tempestuous +and thundering rhythms! + +And now that he sees that these things have captivated our attention, +strangle us, and almost overwhelm us, he once again ventures to introduce +his theme amidst this play of the elements in order to convince us, +confused and agitated as we are, that our confusion and agitation are the +effects of his miraculous theme. And from now onwards his hearers believe +in him: as soon as the theme is heard once more they are reminded of its +thrilling elementary effects. The theme profits by this recollection--now +it has become demoniacal! What a connoisseur of the soul he is! He gains +command over us by all the artifices of the popular orator. But the music +has stopped again. + +_B._ And I am glad of it; for I could no longer bear listening to your +observations! I should prefer ten times over to let myself be deceived to +knowing the truth once after your version. + +_A._ That is just what I wished to hear from you. The best people now are +just like you: you are quite content to let yourselves be deceived. You +come here with coarse, lustful ears, and you do not bring with you your +conscience of the art of listening. On the way here you have cast away +your intellectual honesty, and thus you corrupt both art and artists. +Whenever you applaud and cheer you have in your hands the conscience of +the artists--and woe to art if they get to know that you cannot distinguish +between innocent and guilty music! I do not indeed refer to "good" and +"bad" music--we meet with both in the two kinds of music mentioned! but I +call innocent music that which thinks only of itself and believes only in +itself, and which on account of itself has forgotten the world at +large--this spontaneous expression of the most profound solitude which +speaks of itself and with itself, and has entirely forgotten that there +are listeners, effects, misunderstandings and failures in the world +outside. In short, the music which we have just heard is precisely of this +rare and noble type; and everything I said about it was a fable--pardon my +little trick if you will! + +_B._ Oh, then you like _this_ music, too? In that case many sins shall be +forgiven you! + + + + +256. + + +THE HAPPINESS OF THE EVIL ONES.--These silent, gloomy, and evil men possess +a peculiar something which you cannot dispute with them--an uncommon and +strange enjoyment in the _dolce far niente_; a sunset and evening rest, +such as none can enjoy but a heart which has been too often devoured, +lacerated, and poisoned by the passions. + + + + +257. + + +WORDS PRESENT IN OUR MINDS.--We always express our thoughts with those +words which lie nearest to hand. Or rather, if I may reveal my full +suspicion; at every moment we have only the particular thought for the +words that are present in our minds. + + + + +258. + + +FLATTERING THE DOG.--You have only to stroke this dog's coat once, and he +immediately splutters and gives off sparks like any other flatterer--and he +is witty in his own way. Why should we not endure him thus? + + + + +259. + + +THE QUONDAM PANEGYRIST.--"He has now become silent now in regard to me, +although he knows the truth and could tell it; but it would sound like +vengeance--and he values truth so highly, this honourable man!" + + + + +260. + + +THE AMULET OF DEPENDENT MEN.--He who is unavoidably dependent upon some +master ought to possess something by which he can inspire his master with +fear, and keep him in check: integrity, for example, or probity, or an +evil tongue. + + + + +261. + + +WHY SO SUBLIME!--Oh, I know them well this breed of animals! Certainly it +pleases them better to walk on two legs "like a god"--but it pleases me +better when they fall back on their four feet. This is incomparably more +natural for them! + + + + +262. + + +THE DEMON OF POWER.--Neither necessity nor desire, but the love of power, +is the demon of mankind. You may give men everything possible--health, +food, shelter, enjoyment--but they are and remain unhappy and capricious, +for the demon waits and waits; and must be satisfied. Let everything else +be taken away from men, and let this demon be satisfied, and then they +will nearly be happy--as happy as men and demons can be; but why do I +repeat this? Luther has already said it, and better than I have done, in +the verses: + + + "And though they take our life, + Goods, honour, children, wife, + Yet is their profit small, + These things shall vanish all, + The Kingdom it remaineth." + + +The Kingdom! there it is again!(7) + + + + +263. + + +CONTRADICTION INCARNATE AND ANIMATED.--There is a physiological +contradiction in what is called genius: genius possesses on the one hand a +great deal of savage disorder and involuntary movement, and on the other +hand a great deal of superior activity in this movement. Joined to this a +genius possesses a mirror which reflects the two movements beside one +another, and within one another, but often opposed to one another. Genius +in consequence of this sight is often unhappy, and if it feels its +greatest happiness in creating, it is because it forgets that precisely +then, with the highest determinate activity, it does something fantastic +and irrational (such is all art) and cannot help doing it. + + + + +264. + + +DECEIVING ONE'S SELF.--Envious men with a discriminating intuition +endeavour not to become too closely acquainted with their rivals in order +that they may feel themselves superior to them. + + + + +265. + + +THERE IS A TIME FOR THE THEATRE.--When the imagination of a people begins +to diminish, there arises the desire to have its legends represented on +the stage: it then tolerates the coarse substitutes for imagination. In +the age of the epic rhapsodist, however, the theatre itself, and the actor +dressed up as a hero, form an obstacle in the path of the imagination +instead of acting as wings for it--too near, too definite, too heavy, and +with too little of dreamland and the flights of birds about them. + + + + +266. + + +WITHOUT CHARM.--He lacks charm and knows it. Ah, how skilful he is in +masking this defect! He does it by a strict virtue, gloomy looks, and +acquired distrust of all men, and of existence itself; by coarse jests, by +contempt for a more refined manner of living, by pathos and pretensions, +and by a cynical philosophy--yea, he has even developed into a character +through the continual knowledge of his deficiency. + + + + +267. + + +WHY SO PROUD?--A noble character is distinguished from a vulgar one by the +fact that the latter has not at ready command a certain number of habits +and points of view like the former: fate willed that they should not be +his either by inheritance or by education. + + + + +268. + + +THE ORATOR'S SCYLLA AND CHARYBDIS.--How difficult it was in Athens to speak +in such a way as to win over the hearers to one's cause without repelling +them at the same time by the form in which one's speech was cast, or +withdrawing their attention from the cause itself by this form! How +difficult it still is to write thus in France! + + + + +269. + + +SICK PEOPLE AND ART.--For all kinds of sadness and misery of soul we should +first of all try a change of diet and severe manual labour; but in such +cases men are in the habit of having recourse to mental intoxicants, to +art for example--which is both to their own detriment and that of art! Can +you not see that when you call for art as sick people you make the artists +themselves sick? + + + + +270. + + +APPARENT TOLERATION.--Those are good, benevolent, and rational words on and +in favour of science, but, alas! I see behind these words your toleration +of science. In a corner of your inmost mind you think, in spite of all you +say, that _it is not necessary for you_, that it shows magnanimity on your +part to admit and even to advocate it, more especially as science on its +part does not exhibit this magnanimity in regard to your opinion! Do you +know that you have no right whatever to exercise this toleration? that +this condescension of yours is an even coarser disparagement of science +than any of that open scorn which a presumptuous priest or artist might +allow himself to indulge in towards science? What is lacking in you is a +strong sense for everything that is true and actual, you do not feel +grieved and worried to find that science is in contradiction to your own +sentiments, you are unacquainted with that intense desire for knowledge +ruling over you like a law, you do not feel a duty in the need of being +present with your own eyes wherever knowledge exists, and to let nothing +that is "known" escape you. You do not know that which you are treating +with such toleration! and it is only because you do not know it that you +can succeed in adopting such a gracious attitude towards it. You, +forsooth, would look upon science with hatred and fanaticism if it for +once cast its shining and illuminating glance upon you! What does it +matter to us, then, if you do exhibit toleration--and towards a phantom! +and not even towards us!--and what do we matter! + + + + +271. + + +FESTIVE MOODS.--It is exactly those men who aspire most ardently towards +power who feel it indescribably agreeable to be overpowered! to sink +suddenly and deeply into a feeling as into a whirlpool! To suffer the +reins to be snatched out of their hand, and to watch a movement which +takes them they know not where! Whatever or whoever may be the person or +thing that renders us this service, it is nevertheless a great service: we +are so happy and breathless, and feel around us an exceptional silence, as +if we were in the most central bowels of the earth. To be for once +entirely powerless! the plaything of the elementary forces of nature! +There is a restfulness in this happiness, a casting away of the great +burden, a descent without fatigue, as if one had been given up to the +blind force of gravity. + +This is the dream of the mountain climber, who, although he sees his goal +far above him, nevertheless falls asleep on the way from utter exhaustion, +and dreams of the happiness of the contrast--this effortless rolling down +hill. I describe happiness as I imagine it to be in our present-day +society, the badgered, ambitious society of Europe and America. Now and +then they _wish_ to fall back into impotence--this enjoyment is offered +them by wars, arts, religions, and geniuses. When a man has temporarily +abandoned himself to a momentary impression which devours and crushes +everything--and this is the modern festive mood--he afterwards becomes +freer, colder, more refreshed, and more strict, and again strives +tirelessly after the contrary of all this: power. + + + + +272. + + +THE PURIFICATION OF RACES.--It is probable that there are no pure races, +but only races which have become purified, and even these are extremely +rare.(8) We more often meet with crossed races, among whom, together with +the defects in the harmony of the bodily forms (for example when the eyes +do not accord with the mouth) we necessarily always find defects of +harmony in habits and appreciations. (Livingstone heard some one say, "God +created white and black men, but the devil created the half-castes.") + +Crossed races are always at the same time crossed cultures and crossed +moralities: they are, as a rule, more evil, cruel, and restless. Purity is +the final result of innumerable adjustments, absorptions, and +eliminations; and progress towards purity in a race is shown by the fact +that the latent strength in the race is more and more restricted to a few +special functions, whilst it formerly had to carry out too many and often +contradictory things. Such a restriction will always have the appearance +of an impoverishment, and must be judged with prudence and moderation. In +the long run, however, when the process of purification has come to a +successful termination, all those forces which were formerly wasted in the +struggle between the disharmonious qualities are at the disposal of the +organism as a whole, and this is why purified races have always become +stronger and more beautiful.--The Greeks may serve us as a model of a +purified race and culture!--and it is to be hoped that some day a pure +European race and culture may arise. + + + + +273. + + +PRAISE.--Here is some one who, you perceive, wishes to praise you: you bite +your lips and brace up your heart: Oh, that _that_ cup might go hence! But +it does not, it comes! let us therefore drink the sweet impudence of the +panegyrist, let us overcome the disgust and profound contempt that we feel +for the innermost substance of his praise, let us assume a look of +thankful joy--for he wished to make himself agreeable to us! And now that +it is all over we know that he feels greatly exalted; he has been +victorious over us. Yes, and also over himself, the villain!--for it was no +easy matter for him to wring this praise from himself. + + + + +274. + + +THE RIGHTS AND PRIVILEGES OF MAN.--We human beings are the only creatures +who, when things do not go well with us, can blot ourselves out like a +clumsy sentence,--whether we do so out of honour for humanity or pity for +it, or on account of the aversion we feel towards ourselves. + + + + +275. + + +THE TRANSFORMED BEING.--Now he becomes virtuous; but only for the sake of +hurting others by being so. Don't pay so much attention to him. + + + + +276. + + +HOW OFTEN! HOW UNEXPECTED!--How may married men have some morning awakened +to the fact that their young wife is dull, although she thinks quite the +contrary! not to speak of those wives whose flesh is willing but whose +intellect is weak! + + + + +277. + + +WARM AND COLD VIRTUES.--Courage is sometimes the consequence of cold and +unshaken resolution, and at other times of a fiery and reckless élan. For +these two kinds of courage there is only the one name!--but how different, +nevertheless, are cold virtues and warm virtues! and the man would be a +fool who could suppose that "goodness" could only be brought about by +warmth, and no less a fool he who would only attribute it to cold. The +truth is that mankind has found both warm and cold courage very useful, +yet not often enough to prevent it from setting them both in the category +of precious stones. + + + + +278. + + +THE GRACIOUS MEMORY.--A man of high rank will do well to develop a gracious +memory, that is, to note all the good qualities of people and remember +them particularly; for in this way he holds them in an agreeable +dependence. A man may also act in this way towards himself: whether or not +he has a gracious memory determines in the end the superiority, +gentleness, or distrust with which he observes his own inclinations and +intentions, and finally even the nature of these inclinations and +intentions. + + + + +279. + + +WHEREIN WE BECOME ARTISTS.--He who makes an idol of some one endeavours to +justify himself in his own eyes by idealising this person: in other words, +he becomes an artist that he may have a clear conscience. When he suffers +he does not suffer from his ignorance, but from the lie he has told +himself to make himself ignorant. The inmost misery and desire of such a +man--and all passionate lovers are included in this category--cannot be +exhausted by normal means. + + + + +280. + + +CHILDLIKE.--Those who live like children--those who have not to struggle for +their daily bread, and do not think that their actions have any ultimate +signification--remain childlike. + + + + +281. + + +OUR EGO DESIRES EVERYTHING.--It would seem as if men in general were only +inspired by the desire to possess: languages at least would permit of this +supposition, for they view past actions from the standpoint that we have +been put in possession of something--"I _have_ spoken, struggled, +conquered"--as if to say, I am now in possession of my word, my struggle, +my victory. How greedy man appears in this light! he cannot even let the +past escape him: he even wishes to _have_ it still! + + + + +282. + + +DANGER IN BEAUTY.--This woman is beautiful and intelligent: alas, how much +more intelligent she would have become if she had not been beautiful! + + + + +283. + + +DOMESTIC AND MENTAL PEACE.--Our habitual mood depends upon the mood in +which we maintain our habitual entourage. + + + + +284. + + +NEW THINGS AS OLD ONES.--Many people seem irritated when something new is +told them: they feel the ascendancy which the news has given to the person +who has learnt it first. + + + + +285. + + +WHAT ARE THE LIMITS OF THE EGO.--The majority of people take under their +protection, as it were, something that they know, as if the fact of +knowing it was sufficient in itself to make it their property. The +acquisitiveness of the egoistic feeling has no limits: Great men speak as +if they had behind them the whole of time, and had placed themselves at +the head of this enormous host; and good women boast of the beauty of +their children, their clothes, their dog, their physician, or their native +town, but the only thing they dare not say is, "I am all that." _Chi non +ha non č_--as they say in Italy. + + + + +286. + + +DOMESTIC ANIMALS, PETS AND THE LIKE.--Could there be anything more +repugnant than the sentimentality which is shown to plants and animals--and +this on the part of a creature who from the very beginning has made such +ravages among them as their most ferocious enemy,--and who ends by even +claiming affectionate feelings from his weakened and mutilated victims! +Before this kind of "nature" man must above all be serious, if he is any +sort of a thinking being. + + + + +287. + + +TWO FRIENDS.--They were friends once, but now they have ceased to be so, +and both of them broke off the friendship at the same time, the one +because he believed himself to be too greatly misunderstood, and the other +because he thought he was known too intimately--and both were wrong! For +neither of them knew himself well enough. + + + + +288. + + +THE COMEDY OF THE NOBLE SOULS.--Those who cannot succeed in exhibiting a +noble and cordial familiarity endeavour to let the nobleness of their +nature be seen by their exercise of reserve and strictness, and a certain +contempt for familiarity, as if their strong sense of confidence were +ashamed to show itself. + + + + +289. + + +WHERE WE MAY SAY NOTHING AGAINST VIRTUE.--Among cowards it is thought bad +form to say anything against bravery, for any expression of this kind +would give rise to some contempt; and unfeeling people are irritated when +anything is said against pity.(9) + + + + +290. + + +A WASTE.--We find that with irritable and abrupt people their first words +and actions generally afford no indication of their actual character--they +are prompted by circumstances, and are to some extent simply reproductions +of the spirit of these circumstances. Because, however, as the words have +been uttered and the deeds done, the subsequent words and deeds, +indicating the real nature of such people, have often to be used to +reconcile, amend, or extinguish the former. + + + + +291. + + +ARROGANCE.--Arrogance is an artificial and simulated pride; but it is +precisely the essential nature of pride to be incapable of artifice, +simulation, or hypocrisy--and thus arrogance is the hypocrisy of the +incapacity for hypocrisy, a very difficult thing, and one which is a +failure in most cases. But if we suppose that, as most frequently happens, +the presumptuous person betrays himself, then a treble annoyance falls to +his lot: people are angry with him because he has endeavoured to deceive +them, and because he wished to show himself superior to them, and finally +they laugh at him because he failed in both these endeavours. How +earnestly, therefore, should we dissuade our fellow-men from arrogance! + + + + +292. + + +A SPECIES OF MISCONCEPTION.--When we hear somebody speak it is often +sufficient for his pronunciation of a single consonant (the letter r, for +example) to fill us with doubts as to the honesty of his feelings: we are +not accustomed to this particular pronunciation, and should have to make +it ourselves as it were arbitrarily--it sounds "forced" to us. This is the +domain of the greatest possible misconception: and it is the same with the +style of a writer who has certain habits which are not the habits of +everybody. His "artlessness" is felt as such only by himself, and +precisely in regard to that which he himself feels to be "forced" (because +he has yielded in this matter to the prevailing fashion and to so called +"good taste"), he may perhaps give pleasure and inspire confidence. + + + + +293. + + +THANKFUL.--One superfluous grain of gratitude and piety makes one suffer as +from a vice--in spite of all one's independence and honesty one begins to +have a bad conscience. + + + + +294. + + +SAINTS.--It is the most sensual men who find it necessary to avoid women +and to torture their bodies. + + + + +295. + + +THE SUBTLETY OF SERVING.--One of the most subtle tasks in the great art of +serving is that of serving a more than usually ambitious man, who, indeed, +is excessively egoistic in all things, but is entirely adverse to being +thought so (this is part of his ambition). He requires that everything +shall be according to his own will and humour, yet in such a way as to +give him the appearance of always having sacrificed himself, and of rarely +desiring anything for himself alone. + + + + +296. + + +DUELLING.--I think it a great advantage, said some one, to be able to fight +a duel--if, of course, it is absolutely necessary; for I have at all times +brave companions about me. The duel is the last means of thoroughly +honourable suicide left to us; but it is unfortunately a circuitous means, +and not even a certain one. + + + + +297. + + +PERNICIOUS.--A young man can be most surely corrupted when he is taught to +value the like-minded more highly than the differently minded. + + + + +298. + + +HERO-WORSHIP AND ITS FANATICS.--The fanatic of an ideal that possesses +flesh and blood is right as a rule so long as he assumes a negative +attitude, and he is terrible in his negation: he knows what he denies as +well as he knows himself, for the simple reason that he comes thence, that +he feels at home there, and that he has always the secret fear of being +forced to return there some day. He therefore wishes to make his return +impossible by the manner of his negation. As soon as he begins to affirm, +however, he partly shuts his eyes and begins to idealise (frequently +merely for the sake of annoying those who have stayed at home). We might +say that there was something artistic about this--agreed, but there is also +something dishonest about it. + +The idealist of a person imagines this person to be so far from him that +he can no longer see him distinctly, and then he travesties that which he +can just perceive into something "beautiful"--that is to say, symmetrical, +vaguely outlined, uncertain. Since he wishes to worship from afar that +ideal which floats on high in the distance, he finds it essential to build +a temple for the object of his worship as a protection from the _profanum +vulgus_. He brings into this temple for the object of his worship all the +venerable and sanctified objects which he still possesses, so that his +ideal may benefit by their charm, and that, nourished in this way, it may +grow more and more divine. In the end he really succeeds in forming his +God, but, alas for him! there is some one who knows how all this has been +done, viz. his intellectual conscience; and there is also some one who, +quite unconsciously, begins to protest against these things, viz. the +deified one himself, who, in consequence of all this worship, praise, and +incense, now becomes completely unbearable and shows himself in the most +obvious and dreadful manner to be non-divine, and only too human. + +In a case like this there is only one means of escape left for such a +fanatic; he patiently suffers himself and his fellows to be maltreated, +and interprets all this misery _in maiorem dei gloriam_ by a new kind of +self-deceit and noble falsehood. He takes up a stand against himself, and +in doing so experiences, as an interpreter and ill-treated person, +something like martyrdom--and in this way he climbs to the height of his +conceit. Men of this kind to be found, for example, in the entourage of +Napoleon: indeed, perhaps it may have been he who inspired the soul of his +century with that romantic prostration in the presence of the "genius" and +the "hero," which was so foreign to the spirit of rationalism of the +nineteenth century--a man about whom even Byron was not ashamed to say that +he was a "worm compared with such a being." (The formulć of this +prostration have been discovered by Thomas Carlyle, that arrogant old +muddle-head and grumbler, who spent his long life in trying to romanticise +the common sense of his Englishmen: but in vain!) + + + + +299. + + +THE APPEARANCE OF HEROISM.--Throwing ourselves in the midst of our enemies +may be a sign of cowardice. + + + + +300. + + +CONDESCENDING TOWARDS THE FLATTERER.--It is the ultimate prudence of +insatiably ambitious men not only to conceal their contempt for man which +the sight of flatterers causes them: but also to appear even condescending +to them, like a God who can be nothing if not condescending. + + + + +301. + + +"STRENGTH OF CHARACTER."--"What I have said once I will do"--This manner of +thinking is believed to indicate great strength of character. How many +actions are accomplished, not because they have been selected as being the +most rational, but because at the moment when we thought of them they +influenced our ambition and vanity by some means or another, so that we do +not stop until we have blindly carried them out. Thus they strengthen in +us our belief in our character and our good conscience, in short our +strength; whilst the choice of the most rational acts possible brings +about a certain amount of scepticism towards ourselves, and thus +encourages a sense of weakness in us. + + + + +302. + + +ONCE, TWICE, AND THRICE TRUE.--Men lie unspeakably and often, but they do +not think about it afterwards, and generally do not believe in it. + + + + +303. + + +THE PASTIME OF THE PSYCHOLOGIST.--He thinks he knows me, and fancies +himself to be subtle and important when he has any kind of relations with +me; and I take care not to undeceive him. For in such a case I should +suffer for it, while now he wishes me well because I arouse in him a +feeling of conscious superiority.--There is another, who fears that I think +I know him, and feels a sense of inferiority at this. As a result he +behaves in a timid and vacillating manner, in my presence, and endeavours +to mislead me in regard to himself so that he may regain an ascendancy +over me. + + + + +304. + + +THE DESTROYERS OF THE WORLD.--When some men fail to accomplish what they +desire to do they exclaim angrily, "May the whole world perish!" This +odious feeling is the height of envy which reasons thus: because I cannot +have one thing the whole world in general must have nothing! the whole +world shall not exist! + + + + +305. + + +GREED.--When we set out to buy something our greed increases with the +cheapness of the object--Why? Is it because the small differences in price +make up the little eye of greed? + + + + +306. + + +THE GREEK IDEAL.--What did the Greeks admire in Ulysses? Above all his +capacity for lying and for taking a shrewd and dreadful revenge, his being +equal to circumstances, his appearing to be nobler than the noblest when +necessary, his ability to be everything he desired, his heroic +pertinacity, having all means within his command, possessing genius--the +genius of Ulysses is an object of the admiration of the gods, they smile +when they think of it--all this is the Greek ideal! What is most remarkable +about it is that the contradiction between seeming and being was not felt +in any way, and that as a consequence it could not be morally estimated. +Were there ever such accomplished actors? + + + + +307. + + +FACTA! YES, FACTA FICTA!--The historian need not concern himself with +events which have actually happened, but only those which are supposed to +have happened; for none but the latter have produced an effect. The same +remark applies to the imaginary heroes. His theme--this so-called +world-history--what is it but opinions on imaginary actions and their +imaginary motives, which in their turn give rise to opinions and actions +the reality of which, however, is at once evaporated, and is only +effective as vapour,--a continual generating and impregnating of phantoms +above the dense mists of unfathomable reality. All historians record +things which have never existed, except in imagination. + + + + +308. + + +NOT TO UNDERSTAND TRADE IS NOBLE.--To sell one's virtue only at the highest +price, or even to carry on usury with it as a teacher, a civil servant, or +an artist, for instance, brings genius and talent down to the level of the +common tradesman. We must be careful not to be clever with our wisdom! + + + + +309. + + +FEAR AND LOVE.--The general knowledge of mankind has been furthered to a +greater extent by fear than by love; for fear endeavours to find out who +the other is, what he can do, and what he wants: it would be dangerous and +prejudicial to be deceived on this point. On the other hand, love is +induced by its secret craving to discover as many beautiful qualities as +possible in the loved object, or to raise this loved object as high as +possible: it is a joy and an advantage to love to be deceived in this +way--and this is why it does it. + + + + +310. + + +GOOD-NATURED PEOPLE.--Good-natured people have acquired their character +from the continual fear of foreign attacks in which their ancestors +lived,--these ancestors, who were in the habit of mitigating and +tranquillising, humbling themselves, preventing, distracting, flattering, +and apologising, concealing their grief and anger, and preserving an +unruffled countenance,--and they ultimately bequeathed all this delicate +and well-formed mechanism to their children and grandchildren. These +latter, thanks to their more favourable lot, did not experience this +feeling of dread, but they nevertheless continue in the same groove. + + + + +311. + + +THE SO-CALLED SOUL.--The sum-total of those internal movements which come +naturally to men, and which they can consequently set in motion readily +and gracefully, is called the soul--men are looked upon as void of soul +when they let it be seen that their inward emotions are difficult and +painful to them. + + + + +312. + + +THE FORGETFUL ONES.--In outbursts of passion and the delusions of dreams +and madness, man rediscovers his own primitive history, and that of +humanity: animality and its savage grimaces. For once his memory stretches +back into the past, while his civilised condition is developed from the +forgetfulness of these primitive experiences, that is to say, from the +failing of this memory. He who, as a forgetful man of a higher nature, has +always remained aloof from these things, does not understand men--but it is +an advantage if from time to time there are individuals who do not +understand men, individuals who are, so to speak, created from the divine +seed and born of reason. + + + + +313. + + +THE FRIEND WHOM WE WANT NO LONGER.--That friend whose hopes we cannot +satisfy we should prefer to have as an enemy. + + + + +314. + + +IN THE SOCIETY OF THINKERS.--In the midst of the ocean of becoming we +adventurers and birds of passage wake up on an island no larger than a +small boat, and here we look round us for a moment with as much haste and +curiosity as possible; for how quickly may some gale blow us away or some +wave sweep over the little island and leave nothing of us remaining! Here, +however, upon this little piece of ground we meet with other birds of +passage and hear of still earlier ones,--and thus we live together for one +precious minute of recognition and divining, amid the cheerful fluttering +of wings and joyful chirping, and then adventure in spirit far out on the +ocean, feeling no less proud than the ocean itself. + + + + +315. + + +PARTING WITH SOMETHING.--To give up some of our property, or to waive a +right, gives pleasure when it denotes great wealth. Generosity may be +placed in this category. + + + + +316. + + +WEAK SECTS.--Those sects which feel that they will always remain weak hunt +up a few intelligent individual adherents, wishing to make up in quality +what they lack in quantity. This gives rise to no little danger for +intelligent minds. + + + + +317. + + +THE JUDGMENT OF THE EVENING.--The man who meditates upon his day's and +life's work when he has reached the end of his journey and feels weary, +generally arrives at a melancholy conclusion; but this is not the fault of +the day or his life, but of weariness.--In the midst of creative work we do +not take time, as a rule, to meditate upon life and existence, nor yet in +the midst of our pleasures: but if by a chance this did happen once we +should no longer believe him to be right who waited for the seventh day +and for repose to find everything that exists very beautiful.--He had +missed the right moment. + + + + +318. + + +BEWARE OF SYSTEMISERS!--There is a certain amount of comedy about +systemisers: in trying to complete a system and to round off its horizon +they have to try to let their weaker qualities appear in the same style as +their stronger ones.--They wish to represent complete and uniformly strong +natures. + + + + +319. + + +HOSPITALITY.--The object of hospitality is to paralyse all hostile feeling +in a stranger. When we cease to look upon strangers as enemies, +hospitality diminishes; it flourishes so long as its evil presupposition +does. + + + + +320. + + +THE WEATHER.--An exceptional and uncertain state of the weather makes men +suspicious even of one another: at the same time they come to like +innovations, for they must diverge from their accustomed habits. This is +why despots like those countries where the weather is moral. + + + + +321. + + +DANGER IN INNOCENCE.--Innocent people become easy victims in all +circumstances because their lack of knowledge prevents them from +distinguishing between moderation and excess, and from being betimes on +their guard against themselves. It is as a result of this that innocent, +that is, ignorant young women become accustomed to the frequent enjoyment +of sexual intercourse, and feel the want of it very much in later years +when their husbands fall ill or grow prematurely old. It is on account of +this harmless and orthodox conception, as if frequent sexual intercourse +were right and proper, that they come to experience a need which +afterwards exposes them to the severest tribulations, and even worse. + +Considering the matter, however, from a higher and more general point of +view, whoever loves a man or a thing without knowing him or it, falls a +prey to something which he would not love if he could see it. In all cases +where experience, precautions, and prudent steps are required, it is the +innocent man who will be most thoroughly corrupted, for he has to drink +with closed eyes the dregs and most secret poison of everything put before +him. Let us consider the procedure of all princes, churches, sects, +parties, and corporations: Is not the innocent man always used as the +sweetest bait for the most dangerous and wicked traps?--just as Ulysses +availed himself of the services of the innocent Neoptolemos to cheat the +old and infirm anchorite and ogre of Lemnos out of his bow and arrows. +Christianity, with its contempt for the world, has made ignorance a +virtue--innocence, perhaps because the most frequent result of this +innocence is precisely, as I have indicated above, guilt, the sense of +guilt, and despair: In other words, a virtue which leads to Heaven by the +circuitous route of Hell; for only then can the gloomy propylća of +Christian salvation be thrown open, and only then is the promise of a +posthumous second innocence effective. This is one of the finest +inventions of Christianity! + + + + +322. + + +LIVING WITHOUT A DOCTOR WHEN POSSIBLE.--It seems to me that a sick man +lives more carelessly when he is under medical observation than when he +attends to his own health. In the first case it suffices for him to obey +strictly all his Doctor's prescriptions; but in the second case he gives +more attention to the ultimate object of these prescriptions, namely, his +health; he observes much more, and submits himself to a more severe +discipline than the directions of his physician would compel him to do. + +All rules have this effect: they distract our attention from the +fundamental aim of the rule, and make us more thoughtless. But to what +heights of immoderation and destruction would men have risen if ever they +had completely and honestly left everything to the Godhead as to their +physician, and acted in accordance with the words "as God will"! + + + + +323. + + +THE DARKENING OF THE HEAVENS.--Do you know the vengeance of those timid +people who behave in society just as if they had stolen their limbs? The +vengeance of the humble, Christian-like souls who just manage to slink +quietly through the world? The vengeance of those who always judge +hastily, and are as hastily said to be in the wrong? The vengeance of all +classes of drunkards, for whom the morning is always the most miserable +part of the day? and also of all kinds of invalids and sick and depressed +people who have no longer the courage to become healthy? + +The number of these petty vengeful people, and, even more, the number of +their petty acts of revenge, is incalculable. The air around us is +continually whizzing with the discharged arrows of their malignity, so +that the sun and the sky of their lives become darkened thereby,--and, +alas! not only theirs, but more often ours and other men's: and this is +worse than the frequent wounds which they make on our skins and hearts. Do +we not occasionally deny the existence of the sun and sky merely because +we have not seen them for so long?--Well then, solitude! because of this, +solitude! + + + + +324. + + +THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE ACTOR.--It is the blissful illusion of all great +actors to imagine that the historical personages whom they are +representing were really in the same state of mind as they themselves are +when interpreting them--but in this they are very much mistaken. Their +powers of imitation and divination, which they would fain exhibit as a +clairvoyant faculty, penetrate only far enough to explain gestures, +accent, and looks, and in general anything exterior: that is, they can +grasp the shadow of the soul of a great hero, statesman, or warrior, or of +an ambitious, jealous, or desperate person--they penetrate fairly near to +the soul, but they never reach the inmost spirit of the man they are +imitating. + +It would, indeed, be a fine thing to discover that instead of thinkers, +psychologists, or experts we required nothing but clairvoyant actors to +throw light upon the essence of any condition. Let us never forget, +whenever such pretensions are heard, that the actor is nothing but an +ideal ape--so much of an ape is he, indeed, that he is not capable of +believing in the "essence" or in the "essential": everything becomes for +him merely performance, intonation, attitude, stage, scenery, and public. + + + + +325. + + +LIVING AND BELIEVING APART.--The means of becoming the prophet and +wonder-worker of one's age are the same to-day as in former times: one +must live apart, with little knowledge, some ideas, and a great deal of +presumption--we then finish by believing that mankind cannot do without us, +because it is clear that we can do without it. When we are inspired with +this belief we find faith. Finally, a piece of advice to him who needs it +(it was given to Wesley by Boehler, his spiritual teacher): "Preach faith +until you have it; then you will preach it because you have it!" + + + + +326. + + +KNOWING OUR CIRCUMSTANCES.--We may estimate our powers, but not our power. +Not only do circumstances conceal it from us and show it to us time about, +but they even exaggerate or diminish it. We must consider ourselves as +variable quantities whose productive capacity may in favourable +circumstances reach the greatest possible heights: we must therefore +reflect upon these circumstances, and spare no pains in studying them. + + + + +327. + + +A FABLE.--The Don Juan of knowledge--no philosopher or poet has yet +succeeded in discovering him. He is wanting in love for the things he +recognises, but he possesses wit, a lust for the hunting after knowledge, +and the intrigues in connection with it, and he finds enjoyment in all +these, even up to the highest and most distant stars of knowledge--until at +last there is nothing left for him to pursue but the absolutely injurious +side of knowledge, just as the drunkard who ends by drinking absinthe and +aquafortis. That is why last of all he feels a longing for hell, for this +is the final knowledge which seduces him. Perhaps even this would +disappoint him, as all things do which one knows! and then he would have +to stand still for all eternity, a victim to eternal deception, and +transformed into his enemy, the Stony Guest, who longs for an evening meal +of knowledge which will never more fall to his share! for the whole world +of things will not have another mouthful left to offer to these hungry +men. + + + + +328. + + +WHAT IDEALISTIC THEORIES DISCLOSE.--We are most certain to find idealistic +theories among unscrupulously practical men; for such men stand in need of +the lustre of these theories for the sake of their reputation. They adopt +them instinctively without by any means feeling hypocritical in doing +so--no more hypocritical than Englishmen with their Christianity and their +Sabbath-keeping. On the other hand, contemplative natures who have to keep +themselves on the guard against all kinds of fantasies and who dread to be +reputed as enthusiasts, are only to be satisfied with hard realistic +theories: they take possession of them under the same instinctive +compulsion without thereby losing their honesty. + + + + +329. + + +THE CALUMNIATORS OF CHEERFULNESS.--People who have been deeply wounded by +the disappointments of life look with suspicion upon all cheerfulness as +if it were something childish and puerile, and revealed a lack of common +sense that moves them to pity and tenderness, such as one would experience +when seeing a dying child caressing his toys on his death-bed. Such men +appear to see hidden graves under every rose; rejoicings, tumult, and +cheerful music appear to them to be the voluntary illusions of a man who +is dangerously ill and yet wishes to take a momentary draught from the +intoxicating cup of life. But this judgment about cheerfulness is merely +the reflection of the latter on the dark background of weariness and +ill-health: in itself it is something touching, irrational, and pitiable, +even childlike and puerile, but connected with that second childhood which +follows in the train of old age, and is the harbinger of death. + + + + +330. + + +NOT YET ENOUGH!--It is not sufficient to prove a case, we must also tempt +or raise men to it: hence the wise man must learn to convey his wisdom; +and often in such a manner that it may sound like foolishness! + + + + +331. + + +RIGHT AND LIMITS.--Asceticism is the proper mode of thinking for those who +must extirpate their carnal instincts, because these are ferocious +beasts,--but only for such people! + + + + +332. + + +THE BOMBASTIC STYLE.--An artist who does not wish to put his elevated +feelings into a work and thus unburden himself, but who rather wishes to +impart these feelings of elevation to others, becomes pompous, and his +style becomes the bombastic style. + + + + +333. + + +"HUMANITY."--We do not consider animals as moral beings. But do you think +that animals consider us as moral beings? An animal which had the power of +speech once said: "Humanity is a prejudice from which we animals at least +do not suffer." + + + + +334. + + +THE CHARITABLE MAN.--The charitable man gratifies a need of his own inward +feelings when doing good. The stronger this need is the less does such a +man try to put himself in the place of those who serve the purpose of +gratifying his desire: he becomes indelicate and sometimes even offensive. +(This remark applies to the benevolence and charity of the Jews, which, as +is well known, is somewhat more effusive than that of other peoples.)(10) + + + + +335. + + +THAT LOVE MAY BE FELT AS LOVE.--We must be honest towards ourselves, and +must know ourselves very well indeed, to be able to practise upon others +that humane dissimulation known as love and kindness. + + + + +336. + + +WHAT ARE WE CAPABLE OF?--A man who had been tormented all day by his wicked +and malicious son slew him in the evening, and then with a sigh of relief +said to the other members of his family: "Well now we can sleep in peace." +Who knows what circumstances might drive us to! + + + + +337. + + +"NATURAL."--To be natural, at least in his deficiencies, is perhaps the +last praise that can be bestowed upon an artificial artist, who is in +other respects theatrical and half genuine. Such a man will for this very +reason boldly parade his deficiencies. + + + + +338. + + +CONSCIENCE-SUBSTITUTE.--One man is another's conscience: and this is +especially important when the other has none else. + + + + +339. + + +THE TRANSFORMATION OF DUTIES.--When our duties cease to be difficult of +accomplishment, and after long practice become changed into agreeable +delights and needs, then the rights of others to whom our duties (though +now our inclinations) refer change into something else: that is, they +become the occasion of pleasant feelings for us. Henceforth the "other," +by virtue of his rights, becomes an object of love to us instead of an +object of reverence and awe as formerly. It is our own pleasure we seek +when we recognise and maintain the extent of his power. When the Quietists +no longer felt their Christian faith as a burden, and experienced their +delight only in God, they took the motto: "Do all to the glory of God." +Whatever they performed henceforth in this sense was no longer a +sacrifice, it was as much as to say, "Everything for the sake of our +pleasure." To demand that duty should be always rather burdensome, as Kant +does, is to demand that it shall never develop into a habit or custom. +There is a small residue of ascetic cruelty in this demand. + + + + +340. + + +APPEARANCES ARE AGAINST THE HISTORIAN.--It is a sufficiently demonstrated +fact that human beings come from the womb; nevertheless when children grow +up and stand by the side of their mother this hypothesis appears very +absurd--all appearances are against it. + + + + +341. + + +THE ADVANTAGE OF IGNORANCE.--Some one has said that in his childhood he +experienced such a contempt for the caprices and whims of a melancholy +temperament that, until he had grown up and had become a middle-aged man, +he did not know what his own temperament was like: it was precisely a +melancholy temperament. He declared that this was the best of all possible +kinds of ignorance. + + + + +342. + + +DO NOT BE DECEIVED!--Yes, he examined the matter from every side and you +think him to be a man of profound knowledge. But he only wishes to lower +the price--he wants to buy it! + + + + +343. + + +A MORAL PRETENCE.--You refuse to be dissatisfied with yourselves or to +suffer from yourselves, and this you call your moral tendency! Very well; +another may perhaps call it your cowardice! One thing, however, is +certain, and that is that you will never take a trip round the world (and +you yourselves are this world), and you will always remain in yourselves +an accident and a clod on the face of the earth! Do you fancy that we who +hold different views from you are merely exposing ourselves out of pure +folly to the journey through our own deserts, swamps, and glaciers, and +that we are voluntarily choosing grief and disgust with ourselves, like +the Stylites? + + + + +344. + + +SUBTLETY IN MISTAKES.--If Homer, as they say, sometimes nodded, he was +wiser than all the artists of sleepless ambition. We must allow admirers +to stop for a time and take breath by letting them find fault now and +then; for nobody can bear an uninterruptedly brilliant and untiring +excellence--and instead of doing good such a master would merely become a +taskmaster, whom we hate while he precedes us. + + + + +345. + + +OUR HAPPINESS IS NOT AN ARGUMENT EITHER PRO OR CON.--Many men are only +capable of a small share of happiness: and it is not an argument against +their wisdom if this wisdom is unable to afford them a greater degree of +happiness, any more than it is an argument against medical skill that many +people are incurable, and others always ailing. May every one have the +good fortune to discover the conception of existence which will enable him +to realise _his_ greatest share of happiness! though this will not +necessarily prevent his life from being miserable and not worth envying. + + + + +346. + + +THE ENEMIES OF WOMEN.--"Woman is our enemy"--The man who speaks to men in +this way exhibits an unbridled lust which not only hates itself but also +its means. + + + + +347. + + +THE SCHOOL OF THE ORATOR.--When a man has kept silence for a whole year he +learns to stop chattering, and to discourse instead. The Pythagoreans were +the best statesmen of their age. + + + + +348. + + +THE FEELING OF POWER.--Note the distinction: the man who wishes to acquire +the feeling of power seizes upon any means, and looks upon nothing as too +petty which can foster this feeling. He who already possesses power, +however, has grown fastidious and refined in his tastes; few things can be +found to satisfy him. + + + + +349. + + +NOT SO VERY IMPORTANT.--When we are present at a death-bed there regularly +arises in us a thought that we immediately suppress from a false sense of +propriety: the thought that the act of dying is less important than the +customary veneration of it would wish us to believe, and that the dying +man has probably lost in his life things which were more important than he +is now about to lose by his death. In this case the end is certainly not +the goal. + + + + +350. + + +THE BEST WAY TO PROMISE.--When a man makes a promise it is not merely the +word that promises, but what lies unexpressed behind the word. Words +indeed weaken a promise by discharging and using up a power which forms +part of that power which promises. Therefore shake hands when making a +promise, but put your finger on your lips--in this way you will make the +safest promises. + + + + +351. + + +GENERALLY MISUNDERSTOOD.--In conversation we sometimes observe people +endeavouring to set a trap in which to catch others--not out of +evil-mindedness, as one might suppose, but from delight in their own +shrewdness. Others again prepare a joke so that some one else may utter +it, they tie the knot so that others may undo it: not out of goodwill, as +might be supposed, but from wickedness, and their contempt for coarse +intellects. + + + + +352. + + +CENTRE.--The feeling, "I am the centre of the world," forcibly comes to us +when we are unexpectedly overtaken by disgrace: we then feel as if we were +standing dazed in the midst of a surge, and dazzled by the glance of one +enormous eye which gazes down upon us from all sides and looks us through +and through. + + + + +353. + + +FREEDOM OF SPEECH.--"The truth must be told, even if the world should be +shivered in fragments"--so cries the eminent and grandiloquent Fichte.--Yes, +certainly; but we must have it first.--What he really means, however, is +that each man should speak his mind, even if everything were to be turned +upside down. This point, however, is open to dispute. + + + + +354. + + +THE COURAGE FOR SUFFERING.--Such as we now are, we are capable of bearing a +tolerable amount of displeasure, and our stomach is suited to such +indigestible food. If we were deprived of it, indeed, we should perhaps +think the banquet of life insipid; and if it were not for our willingness +to suffer pain we should have to let too many pleasures escape us! + + + + +355. + + +ADMIRERS.--The man who admires up to the point that he would be ready to +crucify any one who did not admire, must be reckoned among the +executioners of his party--beware of shaking hands with him, even when he +belongs to your own side. + + + + +356. + + +THE EFFECT OF HAPPINESS.--The first effect of happiness is the feeling of +power, and this feeling longs to manifest itself, whether towards +ourselves or other men, or towards ideas and imaginary beings. Its most +common modes of manifestation are making presents, derision, and +destruction--all three being due to a common fundamental instinct. + + + + +357. + + +MORAL MOSQUITOES.--Those moralists who are lacking in the love of +knowledge, and who are only acquainted with the pleasure of giving pain, +have the spirit and tediousness of provincials. Their pastime, as cruel as +it is lamentable, is to observe their neighbour with the greatest possible +closeness, and, unperceived, to place a pin in such position that he +cannot help pricking himself with it. Such men have preserved something of +the wickedness of schoolboys, who cannot amuse themselves without hunting +and torturing either the living or the dead. + + + + +358. + + +REASONS AND THEIR UNREASON.--You feel a dislike for him, and adduce +innumerable reasons for this dislike, but I only believe in your dislike +and not in your reasons! You flatter yourself by adducing as a rational +conclusion, both to yourself and to me, that which happens to be merely a +matter of instinct. + + + + +359. + + +APPROVING OF SOMETHING.--We approve of marriage in the first place because +we are not yet acquainted with it, in the second place because we have +accustomed ourselves to it, and in the third place because we have +contracted it--that is to say, in most cases. And yet nothing has been +proved thereby in favour of the value of marriage in general. + + + + +360. + + +NO UTILITARIANS.--"Power which has greatly suffered both in deed and in +thought is better than powerlessness which only meets with kind +treatment"--such was the Greek way of thinking. In other words, the feeling +of power was prized more highly by them than any mere utility or fair +renown. + + + + +361. + + +UGLY IN APPEARANCE.--Moderation appears to itself to be quite beautiful: it +is unaware of the fact that in the eyes of the immoderate it seems coarse +and insipid, and consequently ugly. + + + + +362. + + +DIFFERENT IN THEIR HATRED.--There are men who do not begin to hate until +they feel weak and tired: in other respects they are fair-minded and +superior. Others only begin to hate when they see an opportunity for +revenge: in other respects they carefully avoid both secret and open +wrath, and overlook it whenever there is any occasion for it. + + + + +363. + + +MEN OF CHANCE.--It is pure hazard which plays the essential part in every +invention, but most men do not meet with this hazard. + + + + +364. + + +CHOICE OF ENVIRONMENT.--We should beware of living in an environment where +we are neither able to maintain a dignified silence nor to express our +loftier thoughts, so that only our complaints and needs and the whole +story of our misery are left to be told. We thus become dissatisfied with +ourselves and with our surroundings, and to the discomfort which brings +about our complaints we add the vexation which we feel at always being in +the position of grumblers. But we should, on the contrary, live in a place +where we should be ashamed to speak of ourselves and where it would not be +necessary to do so.--Who, however, thinks of such things, or of the choice +in such things? We talk about our "fate," brace up our shoulders, and +sigh, "Unfortunate Atlas that I am!" + + + + +365. + + +VANITY.--Vanity is the dread of appearing to be original. Hence it is a +lack of pride, but not necessarily a lack of originality. + + + + +366. + + +THE CRIMINAL'S GRIEF.--The criminal who has been found out does not suffer +because of the crime he has committed, but because of the shame and +annoyance caused him either by some blunder which he has made or by being +deprived of his habitual element; and keen discernment is necessary to +distinguish such cases. Every one who has had much experience of prisons +and reformatories is astonished at the rare instances of really genuine +"remorse," and still more so at the longing shown to return to the old +wicked and beloved crime. + + + + +367. + + +ALWAYS APPEARING HAPPY.--When, in the Greece of the third century, +philosophy had become a matter of public emulation, there were not a few +philosophers who became happy through the thought that others who lived +according to different principles, and suffered from them, could not but +feel envious of their happiness. They thought they could refute these +other people with their happiness better than anything else, and to +achieve this object they were content to appear to be always happy; but, +following this practice, they were obliged to become happy in the long +run! This, for example, was the case of the cynics. + + + + +368. + + +THE CAUSE OF MUCH MISUNDERSTANDING.--The morality of increasing nervous +force is joyful and restless; the morality of diminishing nervous force, +towards evening, or in invalids and old people, is passive, calm, patient, +and melancholy, and not rarely even gloomy. In accordance with what we may +possess of one or other of these moralities, we do not understand that +which we lack, and we often interpret it in others as immorality and +weakness. + + + + +369. + + +RAISING ONE'S SELF ABOVE ONE'S OWN LOWNESS.--"Proud" fellows they are +indeed, those who, in order to establish a sense of their own dignity and +importance, stand in need of other people whom they may tyrannise and +oppress--those whose powerlessness and cowardice permits some one to make +sublime and furious gestures in their presence with impunity, so that they +require the baseness of their surroundings to raise themselves for one +short moment above their own baseness!--For this purpose one man requires a +dog, another a friend, a third a wife, a fourth a party, a fifth, again, +one very rarely to be met with, a whole age. + + + + +370. + + +TO WHAT EXTENT THE THINKER LOVES HIS ENEMY.--Make it a rule never to +withhold or conceal from yourself anything that may be thought against +your own thoughts. Vow it! This is the essential requirement of honest +thinking. You must undertake such a campaign against yourself every day. A +victory and a conquered position are no longer your concern, but that of +truth--and your defeat also is no longer your concern! + + + + +371. + + +THE EVIL OF STRENGTH.--Violence as the outcome of passion, for example, of +rage, must be understood from the physiological point of view as an +attempt to avoid an imminent fit of suffocation. Innumerable acts arising +from animal spirits and vented upon others are simply outlets for getting +rid of sudden congestion by a violent muscular exertion: and perhaps the +entire "evil of strength" must be considered from this point of view. +(This evil of strength wounds others unintentionally--it must find an +outlet somewhere; while the evil of weakness wishes to wound and to see +signs of suffering.) + + + + +372. + + +TO THE CREDIT OF THE CONNOISSEUR.--As soon as some one who is no +connoisseur begins to pose as a judge we should remonstrate, whether it is +a male or female whipper-snapper. Enthusiasm or delight in a thing or a +human being is not an argument; neither is repugnance or hatred. + + + + +373. + + +TREACHEROUS BLAME.--"He has no knowledge of men" means in the mouth of some +"He does not know what baseness is"; and in the mouths of others, "He does +not know the exception and knows only too well what baseness means." + + + + +374. + + +THE VALUE OF SACRIFICE.--The more the rights of states and princes are +questioned as to their right to sacrifice the individual (for example, in +the administration of justice, conscription, etc.), the more will the +value of self-sacrifice rise. + + + + +375. + + +SPEAKING TOO DISTINCTLY.--There are several reasons why we articulate our +words too distinctly: in the first place, from distrust of ourselves when +using a new and unpractised language; secondly, when we distrust others on +account of their stupidity or their slowness of comprehension. The same +remark applies to intellectual matters: our communications are sometimes +too distinct, too painful, because if it were otherwise those to whom we +communicate our ideas would not understand us. Consequently the perfect +and easy style is only permissible when addressing a perfect audience. + + + + +376. + + +PLENTY OF SLEEP.--What can we do to arouse ourselves when we are weary and +tired of our ego? Some recommend the gambling table, others Christianity, +and others again electricity. But the best remedy, my dear hypochondriac, +is, and always will be, plenty of sleep in both the literal and figurative +sense of the word. Thus another morning will at length dawn upon us. The +knack of worldly wisdom is to find the proper time for applying this +remedy in both its forms. + + + + +377. + + +WHAT WE MAY CONCLUDE FROM FANTASTIC IDEALS.--Where our deficiencies are, +there also is our enthusiasm. The enthusiastic principle "love your +enemies" had to be invented by the Jews, the best haters that ever +existed; and the finest glorifications of chastity have been written by +those who in their youth led dissolute and licentious lives. + + + + +378. + + +CLEAN HANDS AND CLEAN WALLS.--Do not paint the picture either of God or the +devil on your walls: for in so doing you will spoil your walls as well as +your surroundings.(11) + + + + +379. + + +PROBABLE AND IMPROBABLE.--A woman secretly loved a man, raised him far +above her, and said to herself hundreds of times in her inmost heart, "If +a man like that were to love me, I should look upon it as a condescension +before which I should have to humble myself in the dust."--And the man +entertained the same feelings towards the woman, and in his inmost heart +he felt the very same thought. When at last both their tongues were +loosened, and they had communicated their most secret thoughts to one +another, a deep and meditative silence ensued. Then the woman said in a +cold voice: "The thing is quite clear! We are neither of us that which we +loved! If you are what you say you are, and nothing more, then I have +humbled myself in vain and loved you; the demon misled me as well as you." +This very probable story never happens--and why doesn't it? + + + + +380. + + +TESTED ADVICE.--Of all the means of consolation there is none so +efficacious for him who has need of it as the declaration that in his case +no consolation can be given. This implies such a distinction that the +afflicted person will at once raise his head again. + + + + +381. + + +KNOWING ONE'S "INDIVIDUALITY".--We too often forget that in the eyes of +strangers who see us for the first time we are quite different beings from +what we consider ourselves to be--in most cases we exhibit nothing more +than one particular characteristic which catches the eye of the stranger, +and determines the impression we make on him. Thus the most peaceful and +fair-minded man, if only he has a big moustache, may, as it were, repose +in the shade of this moustache; for ordinary eyes will merely see in him +the accessory of a big moustache, that is to say, a military, irascible, +and occasionally violent character, and will act accordingly. + + + + +382. + + +GARDENERS AND GARDENS.--Wet dreary days, loneliness, and unkind words give +rise within us to conclusions like fungi; some morning we find that they +have grown up in front of us we know not whence, and there they scowl at +us, sullen and morose. Woe to the thinker who instead of being the +gardener of his plants, is merely the soil from which they spring. + + + + +383. + + +THE COMEDY OF PITY.--However much we may feel for an unhappy friend of +ours, we always act with a certain amount of insincerity in his presence: +we refrain from telling him everything we think, and how we think it, with +all the circumspection of a doctor standing by the bedside of a patient +who is seriously ill. + + + + +384. + + +CURIOUS SAINTS.--There are pusillanimous people who have a bad opinion of +everything that is best in their works, and who at the same time interpret +and comment upon them badly: but also, by a kind of revenge, they +entertain a bad opinion of the sympathy of others, and do not believe in +sympathy at all; they are ashamed to appear to be carried away from +themselves, and feel a defiant comfort in appearing or becoming +ridiculous.--States of soul like these are to be found in melancholy +artists. + + + + +385. + + +VAIN PEOPLE.--We are like shop-windows, where we ourselves are constantly +arranging, concealing, or setting in the foreground those supposed +qualities which others attribute to us--in order to deceive _ourselves_. + + + + +386. + + +PATHETIC AND NAĎVE.--It may be a very vulgar habit to let no opportunity +slip of assuming a pathetic air for the sake of the enjoyment to be +experienced in imagining the spectator striking his breast and feeling +himself to be small and miserable. Consequently it may also be the +indication of a noble mind to make fun of pathetic situations, and to +behave in an undignified manner in them. The old, warlike nobility of +France possessed that kind of distinction and delicacy. + + + + +387. + + +A REFLECTION BEFORE MARRIAGE.--Supposing she loved me, what a burden she +would be to me in the long run! and supposing that she did not love me, +what a much greater burden she would be to me in the long run! We have to +choose between two different kinds of burdens; therefore let us marry. + + + + +388. + + +RASCALITY WITH A GOOD CONSCIENCE.--It is exceedingly annoying to be cheated +in small bargains in certain countries,--in the Tyrol, for +example,--because, in addition to the bad bargain, we are compelled to +accept the evil countenance and coarse greediness of the man who has +cheated us, together with his bad conscience and his hostile feeling +against us. At Venice, on the other hand, the cheater is highly delighted +at his successful fraud, and is not in the least angry with the man he has +cheated--nay, he is even inclined to show him some kindness, and above all +to have a hearty laugh with him if he likes.--In short, one must possess +wit and a good conscience in order to be a knave, and this will almost +reconcile the cheated one with the cheat.(12) + + + + +389. + + +RATHER TOO AWKWARD.--Good people who are too awkward to be polite and +amiable promptly endeavour to return an act of politeness by an important +service, or by a contribution beyond their power. It is touching to see +them timidly producing their gold coins when others have offered them +their gilded coppers! + + + + +390. + + +HIDING ONE'S INTELLIGENCE.--When we surprise some one in the act of hiding +his intelligence from us we call him evil: the more so if we suspect that +it is his civility and benevolence which have induced him to do so. + + + + +391. + + +THE EVIL MOMENT.--Lively dispositions only lie for a moment: after this +they have deceived themselves, and are convinced and honest. + + + + +392. + + +THE CONDITION OF POLITENESS.--Politeness is a very good thing, and really +one of the four chief virtues (although the last), but in order that it +may not result in our becoming tiresome to one another the person with +whom I have to deal must be either one degree more or less polite than +I--otherwise we should never get on, and the ointment would not only anoint +us, but would cement us together. + + + + +393. + + +DANGEROUS VIRTUES.--"He forgets nothing, but forgives everything"--wherefore +he shall be doubly detested, for he causes us double shame by his memory +and his magnanimity. + + + + +394. + + +WITHOUT VANITY.--Passionate people think little of what others may think; +their state of mind raises them above vanity. + + + + +395. + + +CONTEMPLATION.--In some thinkers the contemplative state peculiar to a +thinker is always the consequence of a state of fear, in others always of +desire. In the former, contemplation thus seems allied to the feeling of +security, in the latter to the feeling of surfeit--in other words, the +former are spirited in their mood, the latter over-satiated and neutral. + + + + +396. + + +HUNTING.--The one is hunting for agreeable truths, the other for +disagreeable ones. But even the former takes greater pleasure in the hunt +than in the booty. + + + + +397. + + +EDUCATION.--Education is a continuation of procreation, and very often a +kind of supplementary varnishing of it. + + + + +398. + + +HOW TO RECOGNISE THE CHOLERIC.--Of two persons who are struggling together, +or who love and admire one another, the more choleric will always be at a +disadvantage. The same remark applies to two nations. + + + + +399. + + +SELF-EXCUSE.--Many men have the best possible right to act in this or that +way; but as soon as they begin to excuse their actions we no longer +believe that they are right--and we are mistaken. + + + + +400. + + +MORAL PAMPERING.--There are tender, moral natures who are ashamed of all +their successes and feel remorse after every failure. + + + + +401. + + +DANGEROUS UNLEARNING.--We begin by unlearning to love others, and end by +finding nothing lovable in ourselves. + + + + +402. + + +ANOTHER FORM OF TOLERATION.--"To remain a minute too long on red-hot coals +and to be burnt a little does no harm either to men or to chestnuts. The +slight bitterness and hardness makes the kernel all the sweeter."--Yes, +this is your opinion, you who enjoy the taste! You sublime cannibals! + + + + +403. + + +DIFFERENT PRIDE.--Women turn pale at the thought that their lover may not +be worthy of them; Men turn pale at the thought that they may not be +worthy of the women they love. I speak of perfect women, perfect men. Such +men, who are self-reliant and conscious of power at ordinary times, grow +diffident and doubtful of themselves when under the influence of a strong +passion. Such women, on the other hand, though always looking upon +themselves as the weak and devoted sex, become proud and conscious of +their power in the great exception of passion,--they ask: "Who then is +worthy of me?" + + + + +404. + + +WHEN WE SELDOM DO JUSTICE.--Certain men are unable to feel enthusiasm for a +great and good cause without committing a great injustice in some other +quarter: this is _their_ kind of morality. + + + + +405. + + +LUXURY.--The love of luxury is rooted in the depths of a man's heart: it +shows that the superfluous and immoderate is the sea wherein his soul +prefers to float. + + + + +406. + + +TO IMMORTALISE.--Let him who wishes to kill his opponent first consider +whether by doing so he will not immortalise him in himself. + + + + +407. + + +AGAINST OUR CHARACTER.--If the truth which we have to utter goes against +our character--as very often happens--we behave as if we had uttered a +clumsy falsehood, and thus rouse suspicion. + + + + +408. + + +WHERE A GREAT DEAL OF GENTLENESS IS NEEDED.--Many natures have only the +choice of being either public evil-doers or secret sorrow-bearers. + + + + +409. + + +ILLNESS.--Among illness are to be reckoned the premature approach of old +age, ugliness, and pessimistic opinions--three things that always go +together. + + + + +410. + + +TIMID PEOPLE.--It is the awkward and timid people who easily become +murderers: they do not understand slight but sufficient means of defence +or revenge, and their hatred, owing to their lack of intelligence and +presence of mind, can conceive of no other expedient than destruction. + + + + +411. + + +WITHOUT HATRED.--You wish to bid farewell to your passion? Very well, but +do so without hatred against it! Otherwise you have a second passion.--The +soul of the Christian who has freed himself from sin is generally ruined +afterwards by the hatred for sin. Just look at the faces of the great +Christians! they are the faces of great haters. + + + + +412. + + +INGENIOUS AND NARROW-MINDED.--He can appreciate nothing beyond himself, and +when he wishes to appreciate other people he must always begin by +transforming them into himself. In this, however, he is ingenious. + + + + +413. + + +PRIVATE AND PUBLIC ACCUSERS.--Watch closely the accuser and inquirer,--for +he reveals his true character; and it is not rare for this to be a worse +character than that of the victim whose crime he is investigating. The +accuser believes in all innocence that the opponent of a crime and +criminal must be by nature of good character, or at least must appear as +such--and this is why he lets himself go, that is to say, he drops his +mask. + + + + +414. + + +VOLUNTARY BLINDNESS.--There is a kind of enthusiastic and extreme devotion +to a person or a party which reveals that in our inmost hearts we feel +ourselves superior to this person or party, and for this reason we feel +indignant with ourselves. We blind ourselves, as it were, of our own free +will to punish our eyes for having seen too much. + + + + +415. + + +_REMEDIUM AMORIS._--That old radical remedy for love is now in most cases +as effective as it always was: love in return. + + + + +416. + + +WHERE IS OUR WORST ENEMY?--He who can look after his own affairs well, and +knows that he can do so, is as a rule conciliatory towards his adversary. +But to believe that we have right on our side, and to know that we are +incapable of defending it--this gives rise to a fierce and implacable +hatred against the opponent of our cause. Let every one judge accordingly +where his worst enemies are to be sought. + + + + +417. + + +THE LIMITS OF ALL HUMILITY.--Many men may certainly have attained that +humility which says _credo quia absurdum est_, and sacrifices its reason; +but, so far as I know, not one has attained to that humility which after +all is only one step further, and which says _creda quia absurdus sum_. + + + + +418. + + +ACTING THE TRUTH.--Many a man is truthful, not because he would be ashamed +to exhibit hypocritical feelings, but because he would not succeed very +well in inducing others to believe in his hypocrisy. In a word, he has no +confidence in his talent as an actor, and therefore prefers honestly to +act the truth. + + + + +419. + + +COURAGE IN A PARTY.--The poor sheep say to their bell-wether: "Only lead +us, and we shall never lack courage to follow you." But the poor +bell-wether thinks in his heart: "Only follow me, and I shall never lack +courage to lead you." + + + + +420. + + +CUNNING OF THE VICTIM.--What a sad cunning there is in the wish to deceive +ourselves with respect to the person for whom we have sacrificed +ourselves, when we give him an opportunity in which he must appear to us +as we should wish him to be! + + + + +421. + + +THROUGH OTHERS.--There are men who do not wish to be seen except through +the eyes of others: a wish which implies a great deal of wisdom. + + + + +422. + + +MAKING OTHERS HAPPY.--Why is the fact of our making others happy more +gratifying to us than all other pleasures?--Because in so doing we gratify +fifty cravings at one time. Taken separately they would, perhaps, be very +small pleasures; but when put into one hand, that hand will be fuller than +ever before--and the heart also. + + + + + +BOOK V. + + + + +423. + + +IN THE GREAT SILENCE.--Here is the sea, here may we forget the town. It is +true that its bells are still ringing the Angelus--that solemn and foolish +yet sweet sound at the junction between day and night,--but one moment +more! now all is silent. Yonder lies the ocean, pale and brilliant; it +cannot speak. The sky is glistening with its eternal mute evening hues, +red, yellow, and green: it cannot speak. The small cliffs and rocks which +stretch out into the sea as if each one of them were endeavouring to find +the loneliest spot--they too are dumb. Beautiful and awful indeed is this +vast silence, which so suddenly overcomes us and makes our heart swell. + +Alas! what deceit lies in this dumb beauty! How well could it speak, and +how evilly, too, if it wished! Its tongue, tied up and fastened, and its +face of suffering happiness--all this is but malice, mocking at your +sympathy: be it so! I do not feel ashamed to be the plaything of such +powers! but I pity thee, oh nature, because thou must be silent, even +though it be only malice that binds thy tongue: nay, I pity thee for the +sake of thy malice! + +Alas! the silence deepens, and once again my heart swells within me: it is +startled by a fresh truth--it, too, is dumb; it likewise sneers when the +mouth calls out something to this beauty; it also enjoys the sweet malice +of its silence. I come to hate speaking; yea, even thinking. Behind every +word I utter do I not hear the laughter of error, imagination, and +insanity? Must I not laugh at my pity and mock my own mockery? Oh sea, oh +evening, ye are bad teachers! Ye teach man how to cease to be a man. Is he +to give himself up to you? Shall he become as you now are, pale, +brilliant, dumb, immense, reposing calmly upon himself?--exalted above +himself? + + + + +424. + + +FOR WHOM THE TRUTH EXISTS.--Up to the present time errors have been the +power most fruitful in consolations: we now expect the same effects from +accepted truths, and we have been waiting rather too long for them. What +if these truths could not give us this consolation we are looking for? +Would that be an argument against them? What have these truths in common +with the sick condition of suffering and degenerate men that they should +be useful to them? It is, of course, no proof against the truth of a plant +when it is clearly established that it does not contribute in any way to +the recovery of sick people. Formerly, however, people were so convinced +that man was the ultimate end of nature that they believed that knowledge +could reveal nothing that was not beneficial and useful to man--nay, there +could not, should not be, any other things in existence. + +Perhaps all this leads to the conclusion that truth as an entity and a +coherent whole exists only for those natures who, like Aristotle, are at +once powerful and harmless, joyous and peaceful: just as none but these +would be in a position to seek such truths; for the others seek remedies +for themselves--however proud they may be of their intellect and its +freedom, they do not seek truth. Hence it comes about that these others +take no real joy in science, but reproach it for its coldness, dryness, +and inhumanity. This is the judgment of sick people about the games of the +healthy.--Even the Greek gods were unable to administer consolation; and +when at length the entire Greek world fell ill, this was a reason for the +destruction of such gods. + + + + +425. + + +WE GODS IN EXILE.--Owing to errors regarding their descent, their +uniqueness, their mission, and by claims based upon these errors, men have +again and again "surpassed themselves"; but through these same errors the +world has been filled with unspeakable suffering, mutual persecution, +suspicion, misunderstanding, and an even greater amount of individual +misery. Men have become suffering creatures in consequence of their +morals, and the sum-total of what they have obtained by those morals is +simply the feeling that they are far too good and great for this world, +and that they are enjoying merely a transitory existence on it. As yet the +"proud sufferer" is the highest type of mankind. + + + + +426. + + +THE COLOUR-BLINDNESS OF THINKERS.--How differently from us the Greeks must +have viewed nature, since, as we cannot help admitting, they were quite +colour-blind in regard to blue and green, believing the former to be a +deeper brown, and the latter to be yellow. Thus, for instance, they used +the same word to describe the colour of dark hair, of the corn-flower, and +the southern sea; and again they employed exactly the same expression for +the colour of the greenest herbs, the human skin, honey, and yellow +raisins: whence it follows that their greatest painters reproduced the +world they lived in only in black, white, red, and yellow. How different +and how much nearer to mankind, therefore, must nature have seemed to +them, since in their eyes the tints of mankind predominated also in +nature, and nature was, as it were, floating in the coloured ether of +humanity! (blue and green more than anything else dehumanise nature). It +is this defect which developed the playful facility that characterised the +Greeks of seeing the phenomena of nature as gods and demi-gods--that is to +say, as human forms. + +Let this, however, merely serve as a simile for another supposition. Every +thinker paints his world and the things that surround him in fewer colours +than really exist, and he is blind to individual colours. This is +something more than a mere deficiency. Thanks to this nearer approach and +simplification, he imagines he sees in things those harmonies of colours +which possess a great charm, and may greatly enrich nature. Perhaps, +indeed, it was in this way that men first learnt to take delight in +viewing existence, owing to its being first of all presented to them in +one or two shades, and consequently harmonised. They practised these few +shades, so to speak, before they could pass on to any more. And even now +certain individuals endeavour to get rid of a partial colour-blindness +that they may obtain a richer faculty of sight and discernment, in the +course of which they find that they not only discover new pleasures, but +are also obliged to lose and give up some of their former ones. + + + + +427. + + +THE EMBELLISHMENT OF SCIENCE.--In the same way that the feeling that +"nature is ugly, wild, tedious--we must embellish it (_embellir la +nature_)"--brought about rococo horticulture, so does the view that +"science is ugly, difficult, dry, dreary and weary, we must embellish it," +invariably gives rise to something called philosophy. This philosophy sets +out to do what all art and poetry endeavour to do, viz., giving amusement +above all else; but it wishes to do this, in conformity with its +hereditary pride, in a higher and more sublime fashion before an audience +of superior intellects. It is no small ambition to create for these +intellects a kind of horticulture, the principal charm of which--like that +of the usual gardening--is to bring about an optical illusion (by means of +temples, perspective, grottos, winding walks, and waterfalls, to speak in +similes), exhibiting science in a condensed form and in all kinds of +strange and unexpected illuminations, infusing into it as much indecision, +irrationality, and dreaminess as will enable us to walk about in it "as in +savage nature," but without trouble and boredom. + +Those who are possessed of this ambition even dream of making religion +superfluous--religion, which among men of former times served as the +highest kind of entertainment. All this is now running its course, and +will one day attain its highest tide. Even now hostile voices are being +raised against philosophy, exclaiming: "Return to science, to nature, and +the naturalness of science!" and thus an age may begin which may discover +the most powerful beauty precisely in the "savage and ugly" domains of +science, just as it is only since the time of Rousseau that we have +discovered the sense for the beauty of high mountains and deserts. + + + + +428. + + +TWO KINDS OF MORALISTS.--To see a law of nature for the first time, and to +see it whole (for example, the law of gravity or the reflection of light +and sound), and afterwards to explain such a law, are two different things +and concern different classes of minds. In the same way, those moralists +who observe and exhibit human laws and habits--moralists with +discriminating ears, noses, and eyes--differ entirely from those who +interpret their observations. These latter must above all be inventive, +and must possess an imagination untrammelled by sagacity and knowledge. + + + + +429. + + +THE NEW PASSION.--Why do we fear and dread a possible return to barbarism? +Is it because it would make people less happy than they are now? Certainly +not! the barbarians of all ages possessed more happiness than we do: let +us not deceive ourselves on this point!--but our impulse towards knowledge +is too widely developed to allow us to value happiness without knowledge, +or the happiness of a strong and fixed delusion: it is painful to us even +to imagine such a state of things! Our restless pursuit of discoveries and +divinations has become for us as attractive and indispensable as hapless +love to the lover, which on no account would he exchange for +indifference,--nay, perhaps we, too, are hapless lovers! Knowledge within +us has developed into a passion, which does not shrink from any sacrifice, +and at bottom fears nothing but its own extinction. We sincerely believe +that all humanity, weighed down as it is by the burden of this passion, +are bound to feel more exalted and comforted than formerly, when they had +not yet overcome the longing for the coarser satisfaction which +accompanies barbarism. + +It may be that mankind may perish eventually from this passion for +knowledge!--but even that does not daunt us. Did Christianity ever shrink +from a similar thought? Are not love and death brother and sister? Yes, we +detest barbarism,--we all prefer that humanity should perish rather than +that knowledge should enter into a stage of retrogression. And, finally, +if mankind does not perish through some passion it will perish through +some weakness: which would we prefer? This is the main question. Do we +wish its end to be in fire and light, or in the sands? + + + + +430. + + +LIKEWISE HEROIC.--To do things of the worst possible odour, things of which +we scarcely dare to speak, but which are nevertheless useful and +necessary, is also heroic. The Greeks were not ashamed of numbering even +the cleansing of a stable among the great tasks of Hercules. + + + + +431. + + +THE OPINIONS OF OPPONENTS.--In order to measure the natural subtlety or +weakness of even the cleverest heads, we must consider the manner in which +they take up and reproduce the opinions of their adversaries, for the +natural measure of any intellect is thereby revealed. The perfect sage +involuntarily idealises his opponent and frees his inconsistencies from +all defects and accidentalities: he only takes up arms against him when he +has thus turned his opponent into a god with shining weapons. + + + + +432. + + +INVESTIGATOR AND ATTEMPTER.--There is no exclusive method of knowing in +science. We must deal with things tentatively, treating them by turns +harshly or justly, passionately or coldly. One investigator deals with +things like a policeman, another like a confessor, and yet a third like an +inquisitive traveller. We force something from them now by sympathy and +now by violence: the one is urged onward and led to see clearly by the +veneration which the secrets of the things inspire in him, and the other +again by the indiscretion and malice met with in the explanation of these +secrets. We investigators, like all conquerors, explorers, navigators, and +adventurers, are men of a daring morality, and we must put up with our +liability to be in the main looked upon as evil. + + + + +433. + + +SEEING WITH NEW EYES.--Presuming that by the term "beauty in art" is always +implied the imitation of something that is happy--and this I consider to be +true--according as an age or a people or a great autocratic individuality +represents happiness: what then is disclosed by the so-called realism of +our modern artists in regard to the happiness of our epoch? It is +undoubtedly its type of beauty which we now understand most easily and +enjoy best of any. As a consequence, we are induced to believe that this +happiness which is now peculiar to us is based on realism, on the sharpest +possible senses, and on the true conception of the actual--that is to say, +not upon reality, but upon what we know of reality. The results of science +have already gained so much in depth and extent that the artists of our +century have involuntarily become the glorifiers of scientific "blessings" +_per se_. + + + + +434. + + +INTERCESSION.--Unpretentious regions are subjects for great landscape +painters; remarkable and rare regions for inferior painters: for the great +things of nature and humanity must intercede in favour of their little, +mediocre, and vain admirers--whereas the great man intercedes in favour of +unassuming things. + + + + +435. + + +NOT TO PERISH UNNOTICED.--It is not only once but continuously that our +excellence and greatness are constantly crumbling away; the weeds that +grow among everything and cling to everything ruin all that is great in +us--the wretchedness of our surroundings, which we always try to overlook +and which is before our eyes at every hour of the day, the innumerable +little roots of mean and petty feelings which we allow to grow up all +about us, in our office, among our companions, or our daily labours. If we +permit these small weeds to escape our notice we shall perish through them +unnoticed!--And, if you must perish, then do so immediately and suddenly; +for in that case you will perhaps leave proud ruins behind you! and not, +as is now to be feared, merely molehills, covered with grass and +weeds--these petty and miserable conquerors, as humble as ever, and too +wretched even to triumph. + + + + +436. + + +CASUISTIC.--We are confronted with a very bitter and painful dilemma, for +the solution of which not every one's bravery and character are equal: +when, as passengers on board a steamer, we discover that the captain and +the helmsman are making dangerous mistakes, and that we are their +superiors in nautical science--and then we ask ourselves: "What would +happen if we organised a mutiny against them, and made them both +prisoners? Is it not our duty to do so in view of our superiority? and +would not they in their turn be justified in putting us in irons for +encouraging disobedience?" + +This is a simile for higher and worse situations; and the final question +to be decided is, What guarantees our superiority and our faith in +ourselves in such a case? Success? but in order to do that we must do the +very thing in which all the danger lies--not only dangerous for ourselves, +but also for the ship. + + + + +437. + + +PRIVILEGES.--The man who really owns himself, that is to say, he who has +finally conquered himself, regards it as his own right to punish, to +pardon, or to pity himself: he need not concede this privilege to any one, +though he may freely bestow it upon some one else--a friend, for +example--but he knows that in doing this he is conferring a right, and that +rights can only be conferred by one who is in full possession of power. + + + + +438. + + +MAN AND THINGS.--Why does the man not see the things? He himself is in the +way: he conceals the things. + + + + +439. + + +CHARACTERISTICS OF HAPPINESS.--There are two things common to all +sensations of happiness: a profusion of feelings, accompanied by animal +spirits, so that, like the fishes, we feel ourselves to be in our element +and play about in it. Good Christians will understand what Christian +exuberance means. + + + + +440. + + +NEVER RENOUNCE.--Renouncing the world without knowing it, like a nun, +results in a fruitless and perhaps melancholy solitude. This has nothing +in common with the solitude of the _vita contemplativa_ of the thinker: +when he chooses this form of solitude he wishes to renounce nothing; but +he would on the contrary regard it as a renunciation, a melancholy +destruction of his own self, if he were obliged to continue in the _vita +practica_. He forgoes this latter because he knows it, because he knows +himself. So he jumps into _his_ water, and thus gains _his_ cheerfulness. + + + + +441. + + +WHY THE NEAREST THINGS BECOME EVER MORE DISTANT FOR US.--The more we give +up our minds to all that has been and will be, the paler will become that +which actually is. When we live with the dead and participate in their +death, what are our "neighbours" to us? We grow lonelier simply because +the entire flood of humanity is surging round about us. The fire that +burns within us, and glows for all that is human, is continually +increasing--and hence we look upon everything that surrounds us as if it +had become more indifferent, more shadowy,--but our cold glance is +offensive. + + + + +442. + + +THE RULE.--"The rule always appears to me to be more interesting than the +exception"--whoever thinks thus has made considerable progress in +knowledge, and is one of the initiated. + + + + +443. + + +ON EDUCATION.--I have gradually come to see daylight in regard to the most +general defect in our methods of education and training: nobody learns, +nobody teaches, nobody wishes, to endure solitude. + + + + +444. + + +SURPRISE AT RESISTANCE.--Because we have reached the point of being able to +see through a thing we believe that henceforth it can offer us no further +resistance--and then we are surprised to find that we can see through it +and yet cannot penetrate through it. This is the same kind of foolishness +and surprise as that of the fly on a pane of glass. + + + + +445. + + +WHERE THE NOBLEST ARE MISTAKEN.--We give some one at length our dearest and +most valued possession, and then love has nothing more to give: but the +recipient of the gift will certainly not consider it as his dearest +possession, and will consequently be wanting in that full and complete +gratitude which we expect from him. + + + + +446. + + +HIERARCHY.--First and foremost, there are the superficial thinkers, and +secondly the profound thinkers--such as dive into the depths of a +thing,--thirdly, the thorough thinkers, who get to the bottom of a +thing--which is of much greater importance than merely diving into its +depths,--and, finally, those who leap head foremost into the marsh: though +this must not be looked upon as indicating either depth or thoroughness! +these are the lovers of obscurity.(13) + + + + +447. + + +MASTER AND PUPIL.--By cautioning his pupils against himself the teacher +shows his humanity. + + + + +448. + + +HONOURING REALITY.--How can we look at this exulting multitude without +tears and acquiescence? at one time we thought little of the object of +their exultation, and we should still think so if we ourselves had not +come through a similar experience. And what may these experiences lead us +to! what are our opinions! In order that we may not lose ourselves and our +reason we must fly from experiences. It was thus that Plato fled from +actuality, and wished to contemplate things only in their pale mental +concepts: he was full of sensitiveness, and knew how easily the waves of +this sensitiveness would drown his reason.--Must the sage therefore say, "I +will honour reality, but I will at the same time turn my back to it +because I know and dread it?" Ought he to behave as certain African tribes +do in the presence of their sovereign, whom they approach backwards, thus +showing their reverence at the same time as their dread? + + + + +449. + + +WHERE ARE THE POOR IN SPIRIT?--Oh, how greatly it goes against my grain to +impose my own thoughts upon others! How I rejoice over every mood and +secret change within me as the result of which the thoughts of others are +victorious over my own! but from time to time I enjoy an even greater +satisfaction, when I am allowed to give away my intellectual possessions, +like the confessor sitting in his box and anxiously awaiting the arrival +of some distressed person who stands in need of consolation, and will be +only too glad to relate the full misery of his thoughts so that the +listener's hand and heart will once again be filled, and the troubled soul +eased! Not only has the confessor no desire for renown: he would fain shun +gratitude as well, for it is obtrusive, and does not stand in awe of +solitude or silence. + +But to live without a name, and even to be slightly sneered at; too +obscure to arouse envy or enmity; with a head free from fever, a handful +of knowledge, and a pocketful of experience; a physician, as it were, of +the poor in spirit, helping this one or that one whose head is troubled +with opinions, without the latter perceiving who has actually helped him! +without any desire to appear to be in the right in the presence of his +patient, or to carry off a victory. To speak to him in such a way that, +after a short and almost imperceptible hint or objection, the listener may +find out for himself what is right and proudly walk away! To be like an +obscure and unknown inn which turns no one away who is in need, but which +is afterwards forgotten and laughed at! To be without any advantages over +others--neither possessing better food nor purer air, nor a more cheerful +mind--but always to be giving away, returning, communicating, and becoming +poorer! To know how to be humble in order to be accessible to many people +and humiliating to none! To take a great deal of injustice on his +shoulders and creep through the cracks and crannies of all kinds of +errors, in order that we may reach many obscure souls on their secret +paths! ever in possession of some kind of love, and some kind of egoism +and self-enjoyment! in possession of power, and yet at the same time +hidden and resigned! constantly basking in the sunshine and sweetness of +grace, and yet knowing that quite near to us stands the ladder leading to +the sublime!--that would be life! that would indeed be a reason for a long +life! + + + + +450. + + +THE TEMPTATIONS OF KNOWLEDGE.--A glance through the gate of science acts +upon passionate spirits as the charm of charms: they will probably become +dreamers, or in the most favourable cases poets, so great is their desire +for the happiness of the man who can discern. Does it not enter into all +your senses, this note of sweet temptation by which science has announced +its joyful message in a thousand ways, and in the thousand and first way, +the noblest of all, "Begone, illusion! for then 'Woe is me' also vanished, +and with it woe itself is gone" (Marcus Aurelius). + + + + +451. + + +FOR WHOM A COURT JESTER IS NEEDFUL.--Those who are very beautiful, very +good, and very powerful scarcely ever learn the full and naked truth about +anything,--for in their presence we involuntarily lie a little, because we +feel their influence, and in view of this influence convey a truth in the +form of an adaptation (by falsifying the shades and degrees of facts, by +omitting or adding details, and withholding that which is insusceptible of +adaptation). If, however, in spite of all this, people of this description +insist upon hearing the truth, they must keep a court jester--a being with +the madman's privilege of being unable to adapt himself. + + + + +452. + + +IMPATIENCE.--There is a certain degree of impatience in men of thought and +action, which in cases of failure at once drives them to the opposite +camp, induces them to take a great interest in it, and to give themselves +up to new undertakings--until here again the slowness of their success +drives them away. Thus they rove about, like so many reckless adventurers, +through the practices of many kingdoms and natures; and in the end, as the +result of their wide knowledge of men and things, acquired by their +unheard of travel and practice, and with a certain moderation of their +craving, they become powerful practical men. Hence a defect in character +may become the school of genius. + + + + +453. + + +A MORAL INTERREGNUM.--Who is now in a position to describe that which will +one day supplant moral feelings and judgments!--however certain we may be +that these are founded on error, and that the building erected upon such +foundations cannot be repaired: their obligation must gradually diminish +from day to day, in so far as the obligation of reason does not diminish! +To carry out the task of re-establishing the laws of life and action is +still beyond the power of our sciences of physiology and medicine, society +and solitude: though it is only from them that we can borrow the +foundation-stones of new ideals (but not the ideals themselves). Thus we +live a preliminary or after existence, according to our tastes and +talents, and the best we can do in this interregnum is to be as much as +possible our own "_reges_," and to establish small experimental states. We +are experiments: if we want to be so! + + + + +454. + + +A DIGRESSION.--A book like this is not intended to be read through at once, +or to be read aloud. It is intended more particularly for reference, +especially on our walks and travels: we must take it up and put it down +again after a short reading, and, more especially, we ought not to be +amongst our usual surroundings. + + + + +455. + + +THE PRIMARY NATURE.--As we are now brought up, we begin by acquiring a +secondary nature, and we possess it when the world calls us mature, of +age, efficient. A few have sufficient of the serpent about them to cast +this skin some day, when their primary nature has come to maturity under +it. But in the majority of people the germ of it withers away. + + + + +456. + + +A VIRTUE IN PROCESS OF BECOMING.--Such assertions and promises as those of +the ancient philosophers on the unity of virtue and felicity, or that of +Christianity, "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and +all these things shall be added unto you," have never been made with +absolute sincerity, but always without a bad conscience nevertheless. +People were in the habit of boldly laying down principles--which they +wished to be true--exactly as if they were truth itself, in spite of all +appearances to the contrary, and in doing this they felt neither religious +nor moral compunction; for it was _in honorem maiorem_ of virtue or of God +that one had gone beyond truth, without, however, any selfish intention! + +Many good people still act up to this degree of truthfulness: when they +feel unselfish they think it permissible to treat truth more lightly. Let +it be remembered that the word honesty is neither to be found among the +Socratic nor the Christian virtues: it is one of our most recent virtues, +not yet quite mature, frequently misconstrued and misunderstood, scarcely +conscious of itself--something in embryo, which we may either promote or +check according to our inclination. + + + + +457. + + +FINAL TACITURNITY.--There are some men who fare like the digger after +hidden treasures: they quite accidentally discover the carefully-preserved +secrets of another's soul, and as a result come into the possession of +knowledge which it is often a heavy burden to bear. In certain +circumstances we may know the living and the dead, and sound their inmost +thoughts to such an extent that it becomes painful to us to speak to +others about them: at every word we utter we are afraid of being +indiscreet.--I can easily imagine a sudden silence on the part of the +wisest historian. + + + + +458. + + +THE GREAT PRIZE.--There is a very rare thing, but a very delightful one, +viz. the man with a nobly-formed intellect who possesses at the same time +the character and inclinations, and even meets with the experiences, +suited to such an intellect. + + + + +459. + + +THE MAGNANIMITY OF THE THINKER.--Both Rousseau and Schopenhauer were proud +enough to inscribe upon their lives the motto, _Vitam impendere vero_. And +how they both must have suffered in their pride because they could not +succeed in _verum impendere vitć!_--_verum_, such as each of them +understood it,--when their lives ran side by side with their knowledge like +an uncouth bass which is not in tune with the melody. + +Knowledge, however, would be in a bad way if it were measured out to every +thinker only in proportion as it can be adapted to his own person. And +thinkers would be in a bad way if their vanity were so great that they +could only endure such an adaptation, for the noblest virtue of a great +thinker is his magnanimity, which urges him on in his search for knowledge +to sacrifice himself and his life unshrinkingly, often shamefacedly, and +often with sublime scorn, and smiling. + + + + +460. + + +UTILISING OUR HOURS OF DANGER.--Those men and conditions whose every +movement may mean danger to our possessions, honour, and life or death, +and to those most dear to us, we shall naturally learn to know thoroughly. +Tiberius, for instance, must have meditated much more deeply on the +character and methods of government of the Emperor Augustus, and must have +known far more about them than even the wisest historian. + +At the present day we all live, relatively speaking, in a security which +is much too great to make us true psychologists: some survey their +fellow-men as a hobby, others out of ennui, and others again merely from +habit; but never to the extent they would do if they were told "Discern or +perish!" As long as truths do not cut us to the quick we assume an +attitude of contempt towards them: they still appear to us too much like +the "winged dreams," as if we could or could not have them at our +discretion, as if we could likewise be aroused from these truths as from a +dream! + + + + +461. + + +_HIC RHODUS, HIC SALTA._--Our music, which can and must change into +everything, because like the demon of the sea, it has no character of its +own: this music in former times devoted its attention to the Christian +savant, and transposed his ideals into sounds: why cannot it likewise find +those brighter, more cheerful, and universal sounds which correspond to +the ideal thinker?--a music which could rock itself at ease in the vast +floating vaults of the soul? So far our music has been so great and so +good; nothing seemed impossible to its powers. May it therefore prove +possible to create these three sensations at one time: sublimity, deep and +warm light, and rapture of the greatest possible consistency! + + + + +462. + + +SLOW CURES.--Chronic illnesses of the soul, like those of the body, are +very rarely due to one gross offence against physical and mental reason, +but as a general rule they arise from innumerable and petty negligences of +a minor order.--A man, for example, whose breathing becomes a trifle weaker +every day, and whose lungs, by inhaling too little air, are deprived of +their proper amount of exercise, will end by being struck down by some +chronic disease of the lungs. The only remedy for cases like these is a +countless number of minor exercises of a contrary tendency--making it a +rule, for example, to take a long and deep breath every quarter of an +hour, lying flat on the ground if possible. For this purpose a clock which +strikes the quarters should be chosen as a lifelong companion. + +All these remedies are slow and trifling; but yet the man who wishes to +cure his soul will carefully consider a change, even in his least +important habits. Many a man will utter a cold and angry word to his +surroundings ten times a day without thinking about it, and he will forget +that after a few years it will have become a regular habit with him to put +his surroundings out of temper ten times a day. But he can also acquire +the habit of doing good to them ten times. + + + + +463. + + +ON THE SEVENTH DAY.--"You praise this as my creation? but I have only put +aside what was a burden to me! my soul is above the vanity of +creators.--You praise this as my resignation? but I have only stripped +myself of what had become burdensome! My soul is above the vanity of the +resigned ones!" + + + + +464. + + +THE DONOR'S MODESTY.--There is such a want of generosity in always posing +as the donor and benefactor, and showing one's face when doing so! But to +give and bestow, and at the same time to conceal one's name and favour! or +not to have a name at all, like nature, in whom this fact is more +refreshing to us than anything else--here at last we no more meet with the +giver and bestower, no more with a "gracious countenance."--It is true that +you have now forfeited even this comfort, for you have placed a God in +this nature--and now everything is once again fettered and oppressed! Well? +are we never to have the right of remaining alone with ourselves? are we +always to be watched, guarded, surrounded by leading strings and gifts? If +there is always some one round about us, the best part of courage and +kindness will ever remain impossible of attainment in this world. Are we +not tempted to fly to hell before this continual obtrusiveness of heaven, +this inevitable supernatural neighbour? Never mind, it was only a dream; +let us wake up! + + + + +465. + + +AT A MEETING.-- + +_A._ What are you looking at? you have been standing here for a very long +time. + +_B._ Always the new and the old over again! the helplessness of a thing +urges me on to plunge into it so deeply that I end by penetrating to its +deepest depths, and perceive that in reality it is not worth so very much. +At the end of all experiences of this kind we meet with a kind of sorrow +and stupor. I experience this on a small scale several times a day. + + + + +466. + + +A LOSS OF RENOWN.--What an advantage it is to be able to speak as a +stranger to mankind! When they take away our anonymity, and make us +famous, the gods deprive us of "half our virtue." + + + + +467. + + +DOUBLY PATIENT.--"By doing this you will hurt many people."--I know that, +and I also know that I shall have to suffer for it doubly: in the first +place out of pity for their suffering, and secondly from the revenge they +will take on me. But in spite of this I cannot help doing what I do. + + + + +468. + + +THE KINGDOM OF BEAUTY IS GREATER.--We move about in nature, cunning and +cheerful, in order that we may surprise everything in the beauty peculiar +to it; we make an effort, whether in sunshine or under a stormy sky, to +see a distant part of the coast with its rocks, bays, and olive and pine +trees under an aspect in which it achieves its perfection and +consummation. Thus also we should walk about among men as their +discoverers and explorers, meting out to them good and evil in order that +we may unveil the peculiar beauty which is seen with some in the sunshine, +in others under thunder-clouds, or with others again only in twilight and +under a rainy sky. + +Are we then forbidden to enjoy the evil man like some savage landscape +which possesses its own bold and daring lines and luminous effects, while +this same man, so long as he behaves well, and in conformity with the law, +appears to us to be an error of drawing, and a mere caricature which +offends us like a defect in nature?--Yes, this is forbidden: for as yet we +have only been permitted to seek beauty in anything that is morally +good,--and this is sufficient to explain why we have found so little and +have been compelled to look for beauty without either flesh or bones!--in +the same way as evil men are familiar with innumerable kinds of happiness +which the virtuous never dream of, we may also find among them innumerable +types of beauty, many of them as yet undiscovered. + + + + +469. + + +THE INHUMANITY OF THE SAGE.--The heavy and grinding progress of the sage, +who in the words of the Buddhist song, "Wanders lonely like the +rhinoceros," now and again stands in need of proofs of a conciliatory and +softened humanity, and not only proofs of those accelerated steps, those +polite and sociable witticisms; not only of humour and a certain +self-mockery, but likewise of contradictions and occasional returns to the +predominating inconsistencies. In order that he may not resemble the heavy +roller that rolls along like fate, the sage who wishes to teach must take +advantage of his defects, and utilise them for his own adornment; and when +saying "despise me" he will implore permission to be the advocate of a +presumptuous truth. + +This sage wishes to lead you to the mountains, and he will perhaps +endanger your life: therefore as the price of his enjoyment he willingly +authorises you to take your revenge either before or afterwards on such a +guide. Do you remember what thoughts came into your head when he once led +you to a gloomy cavern over a slippery path? Your distrustful heart beat +rapidly, and said inwardly, "This guide might surely do something better +than crawl about here! he is one of those idle people who are full of +curiosity--is it not doing him too much honour to appear to attach any +value at all to him by following him?" + + + + +470. + + +MANY AT THE BANQUET.--How happy we are when we are fed like the birds by +the hand of some one who throws them their crumbs without examining them +too closely, or inquiring into their worthiness! To live like a bird which +comes and flies away, and does not carry its name on its beak! I take +great pleasure in satisfying my appetite at the banquet of the many. + + + + +471. + + +ANOTHER TYPE OF LOVE FOR ONE'S NEIGHBOUR.--Everything that is agitated, +noisy, fitful, and nervous forms a contrast to the great passion which, +glowing in the heart of man like a quiet and gloomy flame, and gathering +about it all that is flaming and ardent, gives to man the appearance of +coldness and indifference, and stamps a certain impassiveness on his +features. Such men are occasionally capable of showing their love for +their neighbour, but this love is different from that of sociable people +who are anxious to please. It is a mild, contemplative, and calm +amiability: these people, as it were, look out of the windows of the +castle which serves them as a stronghold, and consequently as a prison; +for the outlook into the far distance, the open air, and a different world +is so pleasant for them! + + + + +472. + + +NOT JUSTIFYING ONESELF.-- + +_A._ But why are you not willing to justify yourself? + +_B._ I could do it in this instance, as in dozens of others; but I despise +the pleasure which lies in justification, for all that matters little to +me, and I would rather bear a stained reputation than give those petty +folks the spiteful pleasure of saying, "He takes these things very +seriously." This is not true. Perhaps I ought to have more consideration +for myself, and look upon it as a duty to rectify erroneous opinions about +myself--I am too indifferent and too indolent regarding myself, and +consequently also regarding everything that is brought about through my +agency. + + + + +473. + + +WHERE TO BUILD ONE'S HOUSE.--If you feel great and productive in solitude, +society will belittle and isolate you, and _vice versa_. A powerful +mildness such as that of a father:--wherever this feeling takes possession +of you, _there_ build your house, whether in the midst of the multitude, +or on some silent spot. _Ubi pater sum, ibi patria._(14) + + + + +474. + + +THE ONLY MEANS.--"Dialectic is the only means of reaching the divine +essence, and penetrating behind the veil of appearance." This declaration +of Plato in regard to dialectic is as solemn and passionate as that of +Schopenhauer in regard to the contrary of dialectic--and both are wrong. +For that to which they wish to point out the way to us does not exist.--And +so far have not all the great passions of mankind been passions for +something non-existent?--and all their ceremonies--ceremonies for something +non-existent also? + + + + +475. + + +BECOMING HEAVY.--You know him not; whatever weights he may attach to +himself he will nevertheless be able to raise them all with him. But you, +judging from the weak flapping of your own wings, come to the conclusion +that he wishes to remain below, merely because he does burden himself with +those weights. + + + + +476. + + +AT THE HARVEST THANKSGIVING OF THE INTELLECT.--There is a daily increase +and accumulation of experiences, events, opinions upon these experiences +and events, and dreams upon these opinions--a boundless and delightful +display of wealth! its aspect dazzles the eyes: I can no longer understand +how the poor in spirit can be called blessed! Occasionally, however, I +envy them when I am tired: for the superintendence of such vast wealth is +no easy task, and its weight frequently crushes all happiness.--Alas, if +only the mere sight of it were sufficient! If only we could be misers of +our knowledge! + + + + +477. + + +FREED FROM SCEPTICISM.-- + +_A._ Some men emerge from a general moral scepticism bad-tempered and +feeble, corroded, worm-eaten, and even partly consumed--but I on the other +hand, more courageous and healthier than ever, and with my instincts +conquered once more. Where a strong wind blows, where the waves are +rolling angrily, and where more than usual danger is to be faced, there I +feel happy. I did not become a worm, although I often had to work and dig +like a worm. + +_B._ You have just ceased to be a sceptic; for you deny! + +_A._ And in doing so I have learnt to say yea again. + + + + +478. + + +LET US PASS BY.--Spare him! Leave him in his solitude! Do you wish to crush +him down entirely? He became cracked like a glass into which some hot +liquid was poured suddenly--and he was such a precious glass! + + + + +479. + + +LOVE AND TRUTHFULNESS.--Through our love we have become dire offenders +against truth, and even habitual dissimulators and thieves, who give out +more things as true than seem to us to be true. On this account the +thinker must from time to time drive away those whom he loves (not +necessarily those who love him), so that they may show their sting and +wickedness, and cease to tempt him. Consequently the kindness of the +thinker will have its waning and waxing moon. + + + + +480. + + +INEVITABLE.--No matter what your experience may be, any one who does not +feel well disposed towards you will find in this experience some pretext +for disparaging you! You may undergo the greatest possible revolutions of +mind and knowledge, and at length, with the melancholy smile of the +convalescent, you may be able to step out into freedom and bright +stillness, and yet some one will say: "This fellow looks upon his illness +as an argument, and takes his impotence to be a proof of the impotence of +all others--he is vain enough to fall ill that he may feel the superiority +of the sufferer." And again, if somebody were to break the chains that +bound him down, and wounded himself severely in doing so, some one else +would point at him mockingly and cry: "How awkward he is! there is a man +who had got accustomed to his chains, and yet he is fool enough to burst +them asunder!" + + + + +481. + + +TWO GERMANS.--If we compare Kant and Schopenhauer with Plato, Spinoza, +Pascal, Rousseau, and Goethe, with reference to their souls and not their +intellects, we shall see that the two first-named thinkers are at a +disadvantage: their thoughts do not constitute a passionate history of +their souls--we are not led to expect in them romance, crises, +catastrophies, or death struggles. Their thinking is not at the same time +the involuntary biography of a soul, but in the case of Kant merely of a +head; and in the case of Schopenhauer again merely the description and +reflection of a character ("the invariable") and the pleasure which this +reflection causes, that is to say, the pleasure of meeting with an +intellect of the first order. + +Kant, when he shimmers through his thoughts, appears to us as an honest +and honourable man in the best sense of the words, but likewise as an +insignificant one: he is wanting in breadth and power; he had not come +through many experiences, and his method of working did not allow him +sufficient time to undergo experiences. Of course, in speaking of +experiences, I do not refer to the ordinary external events of life, but +to those fatalities and convulsions which occur in the course of the most +solitary and quiet life which has some leisure and glows with the passion +for thinking. Schopenhauer has at all events one advantage over him; for +he at least was distinguished by a certain fierce ugliness of disposition, +which showed itself in hatred, desire, vanity, and suspicion: he was of a +rather more ferocious disposition, and had both time and leisure to +indulge this ferocity. But he lacked "development," which was also wanting +in his range of thought: he had no "history." + + + + +482. + + +SEEKING ONE'S COMPANY.--Are we then looking for too much when we seek the +company of men who have grown mild, agreeable to the taste, and nutritive, +like chestnuts which have been put into the fire and taken out just at the +right moment? Of men who expect little from life, and prefer to accept +this little as a present rather than as a merit of their own, as if it +were carried to them by birds and bees? Of men who are too proud ever to +feel themselves rewarded, and too serious in their passion for knowledge +and honesty to have time for or pleasure in fame? Such men we should call +philosophers; but they themselves will always find some more modest +designation. + + + + +483. + + +SATIATED WITH MANKIND.-- + +_A._ Seek for knowledge! Yes! but always as a man! What? must I always be +a spectator of the same comedy, and always play a part in the same comedy, +without ever being able to observe things with other eyes than those? and +yet there may be countless types of beings whose organs are better adapted +for knowledge than ours! At the end of all their searching for knowledge +what will men at length come to know? Their organs! which perhaps is as +much as to say: the impossibility of knowledge! misery and disgust! + +_B._ This is a bad attack you have--reason is attacking you! to-morrow, +however, you will again be in the midst of knowledge, and hence of +irrationality--that is to say, delighted about all that is human. Let us go +to the sea! + + + + +484. + + +GOING OUR OWN WAY.--When we take the decisive step, and make up our minds +to follow our own path, a secret is suddenly revealed to us: it is clear +that all those who had hitherto been friendly to us and on intimate terms +with us judged themselves to be superior to us, and are offended now. The +best among them are indulgent, and are content to wait patiently until we +once more find the "right path"--they know it, apparently. Others make fun +of us, and pretend that we have been seized with a temporary attack of +mild insanity, or spitefully point out some seducer. The more malicious +say we are vain fools, and do their best to blacken our motives; while the +worst of all see in us their greatest enemy, some one who is thirsting for +revenge after many years of dependence,--and are afraid of us. What, then, +are we to do? My own opinion is that we should begin our sovereignty by +promising to all our acquaintances in advance a whole year's amnesty for +sins of every kind. + + + + +485. + + +FAR-OFF PERSPECTIVES.-- + +_A._ But why this solitude? + +_B._ I am not angry with anybody. But when I am alone it seems to me that +I can see my friends in a clearer and rosier light than when I am with +them; and when I loved and felt music best I lived far from it. It would +seem that I must have distant perspectives in order that I may think well +of things. + + + + +486. + + +GOLD AND HUNGER.--Here and there we meet with a man who changes into gold +everything that he touches. But some fine evil day he will discover that +he himself must starve through this gift of his. Everything around him is +brilliant, superb, and unapproachable in its ideal beauty, and now he +eagerly longs for things which it is impossible for him to turn into +gold--and how intense is this longing! like that of a starving man for a +meal! Query: What will he seize? + + + + +487. + + +SHAME.--Look at that noble steed pawing the ground, snorting, longing for a +ride, and loving its accustomed rider--but, shameful to relate, the rider +cannot mount to-day, he is tired.--Such is the shame felt by the weary +thinker in the presence of his own philosophy! + + + + +488. + + +AGAINST THE WASTE OF LOVE.--Do we not blush when we surprise ourselves in a +state of violent aversion? Well, then, we should also blush when we find +ourselves possessed of strong affections on account of the injustice +contained in them. More: there are people who feel their hearts weighed +down and oppressed when some one gives them the benefit of his love and +sympathy to the extent that he deprives others of a share. The tone of his +voice reveals to us the fact that we have been specially selected and +preferred! but, alas! I am not thankful for being thus selected: I +experience within myself a certain feeling of resentment against him who +wishes to distinguish me in this way--he shall not love me at the expense +of others! I shall always try to look after myself and to endure myself, +and my heart is often filled to overflowing, and with some reason. To such +a man nothing ought to be given of which others stand so greatly in need. + + + + +489. + + +FRIENDS IN NEED.--We may occasionally remark that one of our friends +sympathises with another more than with us. His delicacy is troubled +thereby, and his selfishness is not equal to the task of breaking down his +feelings of affection: in such a case we should facilitate the separation +for him, and estrange him in some way in order to widen the distance +between us.--This is also necessary when we fall into a habit of thinking +which might be detrimental to him: our affection for him should induce us +to ease his conscience in separating himself from us by means of some +injustice which we voluntarily take upon ourselves. + + + + +490. + + +THOSE PETTY TRUTHS.--"You know all that, but you have never lived through +it--so I will not accept your evidence. Those 'petty truths'--you deem them +petty because you have not paid for them with your blood!"--But are they +really great, simply because they have been bought at so high a price? and +blood is always too high a price!--"Do you really think so? How stingy you +are with your blood!" + + + + +491. + + +SOLITUDE, THEREFORE!-- + +_A._ So you wish to go back to your desert? + +_B._ I am not a quick thinker; I must wait for myself a long time--it is +always later and later before the water from the fountain of my own ego +spurts forth, and I have often to go thirsty longer than suits my +patience. That is why I retire into solitude in order that I may not have +to drink from the common cisterns. When I live in the midst of the +multitude my life is like theirs, and I do not think like myself; but +after some time it always seems to me as if the multitude wished to banish +me from myself and to rob me of my soul. Then I get angry with all these +people, and afraid of them; and I must have the desert to become well +disposed again. + + + + +492. + + +UNDER THE SOUTH WIND.-- + +_A._ I can no longer understand myself! It was only yesterday that I felt +myself so tempestuous and ardent, and at the same time so warm and sunny +and exceptionally bright! but to-day! Now everything is calm, wide, +oppressive, and dark like the lagoon at Venice. I wish for nothing, and +draw a deep breath, and yet I feel inwardly indignant at this "wish for +nothing"--so the waves rise and fall in the ocean of my melancholy. + +_B._ You describe a petty, agreeable illness. The next wind from the +north-east will blow it away. + +_A._ Why so? + + + + +493. + + +ON ONE'S OWN TREE.-- + +_A._ No thinker's thoughts give me so much pleasure as my own: this, of +course, proves nothing in favour of their value; but I should be foolish +to neglect fruits which are tasteful to me only because they happen to +grow on my own tree!--and I was once such a fool. + +_B._ Others have the contrary feeling: which likewise proves nothing in +favour of their thoughts, nor yet is it any argument against their value. + + + + +494. + + +THE LAST ARGUMENT OF THE BRAVE MAN.--There are snakes in this little clump +of trees.--Very well, I will rush into the thicket and kill them.--But by +doing that you will run the risk of falling a victim to them, and not they +to you.--But what do I matter? + + + + +495. + + +OUR TEACHERS.--During our period of youth we select our teachers and guides +from our own times, and from those circles which we happen to meet with: +we have the thoughtless conviction that the present age must have teachers +who will suit us better than any others, and that we are sure to find them +without having to look very far. Later on we find that we have to pay a +heavy penalty for this childishness: we have to expiate our teachers in +ourselves, and then perhaps we begin to look for the proper guides. We +look for them throughout the whole world, including even present and past +ages--but perhaps it may be too late, and at the worst we discover that +they lived when we were young--and that at that time we lost our +opportunity. + + + + +496. + + +THE EVIL PRINCIPLE.--Plato has marvellously described how the philosophic +thinker must necessarily be regarded as the essence of depravity in the +midst of every existing society: for as the critic of all its morals he is +naturally the antagonist of the moral man, and, unless he succeeds in +becoming the legislator of new morals, he lives long in the memory of men +as an instance of the "evil principle." From this we may judge to how +great an extent the city of Athens, although fairly liberal and fond of +innovations, abused the reputation of Plato during his lifetime. What +wonder then that he--who, as he has himself recorded, had the "political +instinct" in his body--made three different attempts in Sicily, where at +that time a united Mediterranean Greek State appeared to be in process of +formation? + +It was in this State, and with its assistance, that Plato thought he could +do for the Greeks what Mohammed did for the Arabs several centuries later: +viz. establishing both minor and more important customs, and especially +regulating the daily life of every man. His ideas were quite practicable +just as certainly as those of Mohammed were practicable; for even much +more incredible ideas, those of Christianity, proved themselves to be +practicable! a few hazards less and a few hazards more--and then the world +would have witnessed the Platonisation of Southern Europe; and, if we +suppose that this state of things had continued to our own days, we should +probably be worshipping Plato now as the "good principle." But he was +unsuccessful, and so his traditional character remains that of a dreamer +and a Utopian--stronger epithets than these passed away with ancient +Athens. + + + + +497. + + +THE PURIFYING EYE.--We have the best reason for speaking of "genius" in +men--for example, Plato, Spinoza, and Goethe--whose minds appear to be but +loosely linked to their character and temperament, like winged beings +which easily separate themselves from them, and then rise far above them. +On the other hand, those who never succeeded in cutting themselves loose +from their temperament, and who knew how to give to it the most +intellectual, lofty, and at times even cosmic expression (Schopenhauer, +for instance) have always been very fond of speaking about their genius. + +These geniuses could not rise above themselves, but they believed that, +fly where they would, they would always find and recover themselves--this +is their "greatness," and this can be greatness!--The others who are +entitled to this name possess the pure and purifying eye which does not +seem to have sprung out of their temperament and character, but separately +from them, and generally in contradiction to them, and looks out upon the +world as on a God whom it loves. But even people like these do not come +into possession of such an eye all at once: they require practice and a +preliminary school of sight, and he who is really fortunate will at the +right moment also fall in with a teacher of pure sight. + + + + +498. + + +NEVER DEMAND!--You do not know him! it is true that he easily and readily +submits both to men and things, and that he is kind to both--his only wish +is to be left in peace--but only in so far as men and things do not +_demand_ his submission. Any demand makes him proud, bashful, and warlike. + + + + +499. + + +THE EVIL ONE.--"Only the solitary are evil!"--thus spake Diderot, and +Rousseau at once felt deeply offended. Thus he proved that Diderot was +right. Indeed, in society, or amid social life, every evil instinct is +compelled to restrain itself, to assume so many masks, and to press itself +so often into the Procrustean bed of virtue, that we are quite justified +in speaking of the martyrdom of the evil man. In solitude, however, all +this disappears. The evil man is still more evil in solitude--and +consequently for him whose eye sees only a drama everywhere he is also +more beautiful. + + + + +500. + + +AGAINST THE GRAIN.--A thinker may for years at a time force himself to +think against the grain: that is, not to pursue the thoughts that spring +up within him, but, instead, those which he is compelled to follow by the +exigencies of his office, an established division of time, or any +arbitrary duty which he may find it necessary to fulfil. In the long run, +however, he will fall ill; for this apparently moral self-command will +destroy his nervous system as thoroughly and completely as regular +debauchery. + + + + +501. + + +MORTAL SOULS.--Where knowledge is concerned perhaps the most useful +conquest that has ever been made is the abandonment of the belief in the +immortality of the soul. Humanity is henceforth at liberty to wait: men +need no longer be in a hurry to swallow badly-tested ideas as they had to +do in former times. For in those times the salvation of this poor +"immortal soul" depended upon the extent of the knowledge which could be +acquired in the course of a short existence: decisions had to be reached +from one day to another, and "knowledge" was a matter of dreadful +importance! + +Now we have acquired good courage for errors, experiments, and the +provisional acceptance of ideas--all this is not so very important!--and for +this very reason individuals and whole races may now face tasks so vast in +extent that in former years they would have looked like madness, and +defiance of heaven and hell. Now we have the right to experiment upon +ourselves! Yes, men have the right to do so! the greatest sacrifices have +not yet been offered up to knowledge--nay, in earlier periods it would have +been sacrilege, and a sacrifice of our eternal salvation, even to surmise +such ideas as now precede our actions. + + + + +502. + + +ONE WORD FOR THREE DIFFERENT CONDITIONS.--When in a state of passion one +man will be forced to let loose the savage, dreadful, unbearable animal. +Another when under the influence of passion will raise himself to a high, +noble, and lofty demeanour, in comparison with which his usual self +appears petty. A third, whose whole person is permeated with nobility of +feeling, has also the most noble storm and stress: and in this state he +represents Nature in her state of savageness and beauty, and stands only +one degree lower than Nature in her periods of greatness and serenity, +which he usually represents. It is while in this state of passion, +however, that men understand him better, and venerate him more highly at +these moments--for then he is one step nearer and more akin to them. They +feel at once delighted and horrified at such a sight and call it--divine. + + + + +503. + + +FRIENDSHIP.--The objection to a philosophic life that it renders us useless +to our friends would never have arisen in a modern mind: it belongs rather +to classical antiquity. Antiquity knew the stronger bonds of friendship, +meditated upon it, and almost took it to the grave with it. This is the +advantage it has over us: we, on the other hand, can point to our +idealisation of sexual love. All the great excellencies of ancient +humanity owed their stability to the fact that man was standing side by +side with man, and that no woman was allowed to put forward the claim of +being the nearest and highest, nay even sole object of his love, as the +feeling of passion would teach. Perhaps our trees do not grow so high now +owing to the ivy and the vines that cling round them. + + + + +504. + + +RECONCILIATION.--Should it then be the task of philosophy to reconcile what +the child has learnt with what the man has come to recognise? Should +philosophy be the task of young men because they stand midway between +child and man and possess intermediate necessities? It would almost appear +to be so if you consider at what ages of their life philosophers are now +in the habit of setting forth their conceptions: at a time when it is too +late for faith and too early for knowledge. + + + + +505. + + +PRACTICAL PEOPLE.--We thinkers have the right of deciding good taste in all +things, and if necessary of decreeing it. The practical people finally +receive it from us: their dependence upon us is incredibly great, and is +one of the most ridiculous spectacles in the world, little though they +themselves know it and however proudly they like to carp at us unpractical +people. Nay, they would even go so far as to belittle their practical life +if we should show a tendency to despise it--whereto at times we might be +urged on by a slightly vindictive feeling. + + + + +506. + + +THE NECESSARY DESICCATION OF EVERYTHING GOOD.--What! must we conceive of a +work exactly in the spirit of the age that has produced it? but we +experience greater delight and surprise, and get more information out of +it when we do not conceive it in this spirit! Have you not remarked that +every new and good work, so long as it is exposed to the damp air of its +own age is least valuable--just because it still has about it all the odour +of the market, of opposition, of modern ideas, and of all that is +transient from day to day? Later on, however, it dries up, its "actuality" +dies away: and then only does it obtain its deep lustre and its +perfume--and also, if it is destined for it, the calm eye of eternity. + + + + +507. + + +AGAINST THE TYRANNY OF TRUTH.--Even if we were mad enough to consider all +our opinions as truth, we should nevertheless not wish them alone to +exist. I cannot see why we should ask for an autocracy and omnipotence of +truth: it is sufficient for me to know that it is a great power. Truth, +however, must meet with opposition and be able to fight, and we must be +able to rest from it at times in falsehood--otherwise truth will grow +tiresome, powerless, and insipid, and will render us equally so. + + + + +508. + + +NOT TO TAKE A THING PATHETICALLY.--What we do to benefit ourselves should +not bring us in any moral praise, either from others or from ourselves, +and the same remark applies to those things which we do to please +ourselves. It is looked upon as _bon ton_ among superior men to refrain +from taking things pathetically in such cases, and to refrain from all +pathetic feelings: the man who has accustomed himself to this has +retrieved his _naďveté_. + + + + +509. + + +THE THIRD EYE.--What! You are still in need of the theatre! are you still +so young? Be wise, and seek tragedy and comedy where they are better +acted, and where the incidents are more interesting, and the actors more +eager. It is indeed by no means easy to be merely a spectator in these +cases--but learn! and then, amid all difficult or painful situations, you +will have a little gate leading to joy and refuge, even when your passions +attack you. Open your stage eye, that big third eye of yours, which looks +out into the world through the other two. + + + + +510. + + +ESCAPING FROM ONE'S VIRTUES.--Of what account is a thinker who does not +know how to escape from his own virtues occasionally! Surely a thinker +should be more than "a moral being"! + + + + +511. + + +THE TEMPTRESS.--Honesty is the great temptress of all fanatics.(15) What +seemed to tempt Luther in the guise of the devil or a beautiful woman, and +from which he defended himself in that uncouth way of his, was probably +nothing but honesty, and perhaps in a few rarer cases even truth. + + + + +512. + + +BOLD TOWARDS THINGS.--The man who, in accordance with his character, is +considerate and timid towards persons, but is courageous and bold towards +things, is afraid of new and closer acquaintances, and limits his old ones +in order that he may thus make his incognito and his inconsiderateness +coincide with truth. + + + + +513. + + +LIMITS AND BEAUTY.--Are you looking for men with a fine culture? Then you +will have to be satisfied with restricted views and sights, exactly as +when you are looking for fine countries.--There are, of course, such +panoramic men: they are like panoramic regions, instructive and +marvellous: but not beautiful. + + + + +514. + + +TO THE STRONGER.--Ye stronger and arrogant intellects, we ask you for only +one thing: throw no further burdens upon our shoulders, but take some of +our burdens upon your own, since ye are stronger! but ye delight in doing +the exact contrary: for ye wish to soar, so that we must carry your burden +in addition to our own--we must crawl! + + + + +515. + + +THE INCREASE OF BEAUTY.--Why has beauty increased by the progress of +civilisation? because the three occasions for ugliness appear ever more +rarely among civilised men: first, the wildest outbursts of ecstasy; +secondly, extreme bodily exertion, and, thirdly, the necessity of inducing +fear by one's very sight and presence--a matter which is so frequent and of +so great importance in the lower and more dangerous stages of culture that +it even lays down the proper gestures and ceremonials and makes ugliness a +duty. + + + + +516. + + +NOT TO IMBUE OUR NEIGHBOURS WITH OUR OWN DEMON.--Let us in our age continue +to hold the belief that benevolence and beneficence are the +characteristics of a good man; but let us not fail to add "provided that +in the first place he exhibits his benevolence and beneficence towards +himself." For if he acts otherwise--that is to say, if he shuns, hates, or +injures himself--he is certainly not a good man. He then merely saves +himself through others: and let these others take care that they do not +come to grief through him, however well disposed he may appear to be to +them!--but to shun and hate one's own ego, and to live in and for others, +this has up to the present, with as much thoughtlessness as conviction, +been looked upon as "unselfish," and consequently as "good." + + + + +517. + + +TEMPTING INTO LOVE.--We ought to fear a man who hates himself; for we are +liable to become the victims of his anger and revenge. Let us therefore +try to tempt him into self-love. + + + + +518. + + +RESIGNATION.--What is resignation? It is the most comfortable position of a +patient, who, after having suffered a long time from tormenting pains in +order to find it, at last became tired--and then found it. + + + + +519. + + +DECEPTION.--When you wish to act you must close the door upon doubt, said a +man of action.--And are you not afraid of being deceived in doing so? +replied the man of a contemplative mind. + + + + +520. + + +ETERNAL OBSEQUIES.--Both within and beyond the confines of history we might +imagine that we were listening to a continual funeral oration: we have +buried, and are still burying, all that we have loved best, our thoughts, +and our hopes, receiving in exchange pride, _gloria mundi_--that is, the +pomp of the graveside speech. It is thus that everything is made good! +Even at the present time the funeral orator remains the greatest public +benefactor. + + + + +521. + + +EXCEPTIONAL VANITY.--Yonder man possesses one great quality which serves as +a consolation for him: his look passes with contempt over the remainder of +his being, and almost his entire character is included in this. But he +recovers from himself when, as it were, he approaches his sanctuary; +already the road leading to it appears to him to be an ascent on broad +soft steps--and yet, ye cruel ones, ye call him vain on this account! + + + + +522. + + +WISDOM WITHOUT EARS.--To hear every day what is said about us, or even to +endeavour to discover what people think of us, will in the end kill even +the strongest man. Our neighbours permit us to live only that they may +exercise a daily claim upon us! They certainly would not tolerate us if we +wished to claim rights over them, and still less if we wished to be right! +In short, let us offer up a sacrifice to the general peace, let us not +listen when they speak of us, when they praise us, blame us, wish for us, +or hope for us--nay, let us not even think of it. + + + + +523. + + +A QUESTION OF PENETRATION.--When we are confronted with any manifestation +which some one has permitted us to see, we may ask: what is it meant to +conceal? What is it meant to draw our attention from? What prejudices does +it seek to raise? and again, how far does the subtlety of the +dissimulation go? and in what respect is the man mistaken? + + + + +524. + + +THE JEALOUSY OF THE LONELY ONES.--This is the difference between sociable +and solitary natures, provided that both possess an intellect: the former +are satisfied, or nearly satisfied, with almost anything whatever; from +the moment that their minds have discovered a communicable and happy +version of it they will be reconciled even with the devil himself! But the +lonely souls have their silent rapture, and their speechless agony about a +thing: they hate the ingenious and brilliant display of their inmost +problems as much as they dislike to see the women they love too loudly +dressed--they watch her mournfully in such a case, as if they were just +beginning to suspect that she was desirous of pleasing others. This is the +jealousy which all lonely thinkers and passionate dreamers exhibit with +regard to the _esprit_. + + + + +525. + + +THE EFFECT OF PRAISE.--Some people become modest when highly praised, +others insolent. + + + + +526. + + +UNWILLING TO BE A SYMBOL.--I sympathise with princes: they are not at +liberty to discard their high rank even for a short time, and thus they +come to know people only from the very uncomfortable position of constant +dissimulation--their continual compulsion to represent something actually +ends by making solemn ciphers of them.--Such is the fate of all those who +deem it their duty to be symbols. + + + + +527. + + +THE HIDDEN MEN.--Have you never come across those people who check and +restrain even their enraptured hearts, and who would rather become mute +than lose the modesty of moderation? and have you never met those +embarrassing, and yet so often good-natured people who do not wish to be +recognised, and who time and again efface the tracks they have made in the +sand? and who even deceive others as well as themselves in order to remain +obscure and hidden? + + + + +528. + + +UNUSUAL FORBEARANCE.--It is often no small indication of kindness to be +unwilling to criticise some one, and even to refuse to think of him. + + + + +529. + + +HOW MEN AND NATIONS GAIN LUSTRE.--How many really individual actions are +left undone merely because before performing them we perceive or suspect +that they will be misunderstood!--those actions, for example, which have +some intrinsic value, both in good and evil. The more highly an age or a +nation values its individuals, therefore, and the more right and +ascendancy we accord them, the more will actions of this kind venture to +make themselves known,--and thus in the long run a lustre of honesty, of +genuineness in good and evil, will spread over entire ages and nations, so +that they--the Greeks, for example--like certain stars, will continue to +shed light for thousands of years after their sinking. + + + + +530. + + +DIGRESSIONS OF THE THINKER.--The course of thought in certain men is strict +and inflexibly bold. At times it is even cruel towards such men, although +considered individually they may be gentle and pliable. With well-meaning +hesitation they will turn the matter ten times over in their heads, but +will at length continue their strict course. They are like streams that +wind their way past solitary hermitages: there are places in their course +where the stream plays hide and seek with itself, and indulges in short +idylls with islets, trees, grottos, and cascades--and then it rushes ahead +once more, passes by the rocks, and forces its way through the hardest +stones. + + + + +531. + + +DIFFERENT FEELINGS TOWARDS ART.--From the time when we begin to live as a +hermit, consuming and consumed, our only company being deep and prolific +thoughts, we expect from art either nothing more, or else something quite +different from what we formerly expected--in a word, we change our taste. +For in former times we wished to penetrate for a moment by means of art +into the element in which we are now living permanently: at that time we +dreamt ourselves into the rapture of a possession which we now actually +possess. Indeed, flinging away from us for the time being what we now +have, and imagining ourselves to be poor, or to be a child, a beggar, or a +fool, may now at times fill us with delight. + + + + +532. + + +"LOVE EQUALISES."--Love wishes to spare the other to whom it devotes itself +any feeling of strangeness: as a consequence it is permeated with disguise +and simulation; it keeps on deceiving continuously, and feigns an equality +which in reality does not exist. And all this is done so instinctively +that women who love deny this simulation and constant tender trickery, and +have even the audacity to assert that love equalises (in other words that +it performs a miracle)! + +This phenomenon is a simple matter if one of the two permits himself or +herself to be loved, and does not deem it necessary to feign, but leaves +this to the other. No drama, however, could offer a more intricate and +confused instance than when both persons are passionately in love with one +another; for in this case both are anxious to surrender and to endeavour +to conform to the other, and finally they are both at a loss to know what +to imitate and what to feign. The beautiful madness of this spectacle is +too good for this world, and too subtle for human eyes. + + + + +533. + + +WE BEGINNERS.--How many things does an actor see and divine when he watches +another on the stage! He notices at once when a muscle fails in some +gesture; he can distinguish those little artificial tricks which are so +calmly practised separately before the mirror, and are not in conformity +with the whole; he feels when the actor is surprised on the stage by his +own invention, and when he spoils it amid this surprise.--How differently, +again, does a painter look at some one who happens to be moving before +him! He will see a great deal that does not actually exist in order to +complete the actual appearance of the person, and to give it its full +effect. In his mind he attempts several different illuminations of the +same object, and divides the whole by an additional contrast.--Oh, that we +now possessed the eyes of such an actor and such a painter for the +province of the human soul! + + + + +534. + + +SMALL DOSES.--If we wish a change to be as deep and radical as possible, we +must apply the remedy in minute doses, but unremittingly for long periods. +What great action can be performed all at once? Let us therefore be +careful not to exchange violently and precipitately the moral conditions +with which we are familiar for a new valuation of things,--nay, we may even +wish to continue living in the old way for a long time to come, until +probably at some very remote period we become aware of the fact that the +new valuation has made itself the predominating power within us, and that +its minute doses to which we must henceforth become accustomed have set up +a new nature within us.--We now also begin to understand that the last +attempt at a great change of valuations--that which concerned itself with +political affairs (the "great revolution")--was nothing more than a +pathetic and sanguinary piece of quackery which, by means of sudden +crises, was able to inspire a credulous Europe with the hope of a sudden +recovery, and has therefore made all political invalids impatient and +dangerous up to this very moment. + + + + +535. + + +TRUTH REQUIRES POWER.--Truth in itself is no power at all, in spite of all +that flattering rationalists are in the habit of saying to the contrary. +Truth must either attract power to its side, or else side with power, for +otherwise it will perish again and again. This has already been +sufficiently demonstrated, and more than sufficiently! + + + + +536. + + +THE THUMBSCREW.--It is disgusting to observe with what cruelty every one +charges his two or three private virtues to the account of others who may +perhaps not possess them, and whom he torments and worries with them. Let +us therefore deal humanely with the "sense of honesty," although we may +possess in it a thumbscrew with which we can worry to death all these +presumptuous egoists who even yet wish to impose their own beliefs upon +the whole world--we have tried this thumbscrew on ourselves! + + + + +537. + + +MASTERY.--We have reached mastery when we neither mistake nor hesitate in +the achievement. + + + + +538. + + +THE MORAL INSANITY OF GENIUS.--In a certain category of great intellects we +may observe a painful and partly horrible spectacle: in their most +productive moments their flights aloft and into the far distance appear to +be out of harmony with their general constitution and to exceed their +power in one way or another, so that each time there remains a deficiency, +and also in the long run a defectiveness in the entire machinery, which +latter is manifested among those highly intellectual natures by various +kinds of moral and intellectual symptoms more regularly than by conditions +of bodily distress. + +Thus those incomprehensible characteristics of their nature--all their +timidity, vanity, hatefulness, envy, their narrow and narrowing +disposition--and that too personal and awkward element in natures like +those of Rousseau and Schopenhauer, may very well be the consequences of a +periodical attack of heart disease; and this in its turn may be the result +of a nervous complaint, and this latter the consequence of ----(16) + +So long as genius dwells within us we are full of audacity, yea, almost +mad, and heedless of health, life, and honour; we fly through the day as +free and swift as an eagle, and in the darkness we feel as confident as an +owl.--But let genius once leave us and we are instantly overcome by a +feeling of the most profound despondency: we can no longer understand +ourselves; we suffer from everything that we experience and do not +experience; we feel as if we were in the midst of shelterless rocks with +the tempest raging round us, and we are at the same time like pitiful +childish souls, afraid of a rustle or a shadow.--Three-fourths of all the +evil committed in the world is due to timidity; and this is above all a +physiological process. + + + + +539. + + +DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU WANT?--Have you never been troubled by the fear that +you might not be at all fitted for recognising what is true? by the fear +that your senses might be too dull, and even your delicacy of sight far +too blunt? If you could only perceive, even once, to what extent your +volition dominates your sight! How, for example, you wished yesterday to +see more than some one else, while to-day you wish to see it differently! +and how from the start you were anxious to see something which would be in +conformity with or in opposition to anything that people thought they had +observed up to the present. Oh, those shameful cravings! How often you +keep your eyes open for what is efficacious, for what is soothing, just +because you happen to be tired at the moment! Always full of secret +predeterminations of what truth should be like, so that you--you, +forsooth!--might accept it! or do you think that to-day, because you are as +frozen and dry as a bright winter morning, and because nothing is weighing +on your mind, you have better eyesight! Are not ardour and enthusiasm +necessary to do justice to the creations of thought?--and this indeed is +what is called sight! as if you could treat matters of thought any +differently from the manner in which you treat men. In all relations with +thought there is the same morality, the same honesty of purpose, the same +_arričre-pensée_, the same slackness, the same faint-heartedness--your +whole lovable and hateful self! Your physical exhaustion will lend the +things pale colours whilst your feverishness will turn them into monsters! +Does not your morning show the things in a different light from the +evening? Are you not afraid of finding in the cave of all knowledge your +own phantom, the veil in which truth is wrapped up and hidden from your +sight? Is it not a dreadful comedy in which you so thoughtlessly wish to +take part? + + + + +540. + + +LEARNING.--Michelangelo considered Raphael's genius as having been acquired +by study, and upon his own as a natural gift: learning as opposed to +talent; though this is mere pedantry, with all due respect to the great +pedant himself. For what is talent but a name for an older piece of +learning, experience, exercise, appropriation, and incorporation, perhaps +as far back as the times of our ancestors, or even earlier! And again: he +who learns forms his own talents, only learning is not such an easy matter +and depends not only upon our willingness, but also upon our being able to +learn at all. + +Jealousy often prevents this in an artist, or that pride which, when it +experiences any strange feeling, at once assumes an attitude of defence +instead of an attitude of scholarly receptiveness. Raphael, like Goethe, +lacked this pride, on which account they were great learners, and not +merely the exploiters of those quarries which had been formed by the +manifold genealogy of their forefathers. Raphael vanishes before our eyes +as a learner in the midst of that assimilation of what his great rival +called _his_ "nature": this noblest of all thieves daily carried off a +portion of it; but before he had appropriated all the genius of +Michelangelo he died--and the final series of his works, because it is the +beginning of a new plan of study, is less perfect and good, for the simple +reason that the great student was interrupted by death in the midst of his +most difficult task, and took away with him that justifying and final goal +which he had in view. + + + + +541. + + +HOW WE SHOULD TURN TO STONE.--By slowly, very, very slowly, becoming hard +like a precious stone, and at last lie still, a joy to all eternity. + + + + +542. + + +THE PHILOSOPHER AND OLD AGE.--It is not wise to permit evening to act as a +judge of the day; for only too often in this case weariness becomes the +judge of success and good will. We should also take the greatest +precautions in regard to everything connected with old age and its +judgment upon life, more especially since old age, like the evening, is +fond of assuming a new and charming morality, and knows well enough how to +humiliate the day by the glow of the evening skies, twilight and a +peaceful and wistful silence. The reverence which we feel for an old man, +especially if he is an old thinker and sage, easily blinds us to the +deterioration of his intellect, and it is always necessary to bring to +light the hidden symptoms of such a deterioration and lassitude, that is +to say, to uncover the physiological phenomenon which is still concealed +behind the old man's moral judgments and prejudices, in case we should be +deceived by our veneration for him, and do something to the disadvantage +of knowledge. For it is not seldom that the illusion of a great moral +renovation and regeneration takes possession of the old man. Basing his +views upon this, he then proceeds to express his opinions on the work and +development of his life as if he had only then for the first time become +clearsighted--and nevertheless it is not wisdom, but fatigue, which prompts +his present state of well-being and his positive judgments. + +The most dangerous indication of this weariness is above all the belief in +genius, which as a rule only arises in great and semi-great men of +intellect at this period of their lives: the belief in an exceptional +position, and exceptional rights. The thinker who thus believes himself to +be inspired by genius henceforth deems it permissible for him to take +things more easily, and takes advantage of his position as a genius to +decree rather than to prove. It is probable, however, that the need felt +by the weary intellect for alleviation is the main source of this +belief--it precedes it in time, though appearances may indicate the +contrary. + +At this time too, as the result of the love which all weary and old people +feel for enjoyment, such men as those I am speaking of wish to enjoy the +results of their thinking instead of again testing them and scattering the +seeds abroad once more. This leads them to make their thoughts palatable +and enjoyable, and to take away their dryness, coldness, and want of +flavour; and thus it comes about that the old thinker apparently raises +himself above his life's work, while in reality he spoils it by infusing +into it a certain amount of fantasy, sweetness, flavour, poetic mists, and +mystic lights. This is how Plato ended, as did also that great and honest +Frenchman, Auguste Comte, who, as a conqueror of the exact sciences, +cannot be matched either among the Germans or the Englishmen of this +century. + +There is a third symptom of fatigue: that ambition which actuated the +great thinker when he was young, and which could not then find anything to +satisfy it, has also grown old, and, like one that has no more time to +lose, it begins to snatch at the coarser and more immediate means of its +gratification, means which are peculiar to active, dominating, violent, +and conquering dispositions. From this time onwards the thinker wishes to +found institutions which shall bear his name, instead of erecting mere +brain-structures. What are now to him the ethereal victories and honours +to be met with in the realm of proofs and refutations, or the perpetuation +of his fame in books, or the thrill of exultation in the soul of the +reader? But the institution, on the other hand, is a temple, as he well +knows--a temple of stone, a durable edifice, which will keep its god alive +with more certainty than the sacrifices of rare and tender souls.(17) + +Perhaps, too, at this period of his life the old thinker will for the +first time meet with that love which is fitted for a god rather than for a +human being, and his whole nature becomes softened and sweetened in the +rays of such a sun, like fruit in autumn. Yes, he grows more divine and +beautiful, this great old man,--and nevertheless it is old age and +weariness which permit him to ripen in this way, to grow more silent, and +to repose in the luminous adulation of a woman. Now it is all up with his +former desire--a desire which was superior even to his own ego--for real +disciples, followers who would carry on his thought, that is, true +opponents. This desire arose from his hitherto undiminished energy, the +conscious pride he felt in being able at any time to become an opponent +himself,--nay, even the deadly enemy of his own doctrine,--but now his +desire is for resolute partisans, unwavering comrades, auxiliary forces, +heralds, a pompous train of followers. He is now no longer able to bear +that dreadful isolation in which every intellect that advances beyond the +others is compelled to live. From this time forward he surrounds himself +with objects of veneration, companionship, tenderness, and love; but he +also wishes to enjoy the privileges of all religious people, and to +worship what he venerates most highly in his little community--he will even +go as far as to invent a religion for the purpose of having a community. + +Thus lives the wise old man, and in living thus he falls almost +imperceptibly into such a deplorable proximity to priestly and poetic +extravagances that it is difficult to recollect all his wise and severe +period of youth, the former rigid morality of his mind, and his truly +virile dread of fancies and misplaced enthusiasm. When he was formerly in +the habit of comparing himself with the older thinkers, he did so merely +that he might measure his weakness against their strength, and that he +might become colder and more audacious towards himself; but now he only +makes this comparison to intoxicate himself with his own delusions. +Formerly he looked forward with confidence to future thinkers, and he even +took a delight in imagining himself to be cast into the shade by their +brighter light. Now, however, he is mortified to think that he cannot be +the last: he endeavours to discover some way of imposing upon mankind, +together with the inheritance which he is leaving to them, a restriction +of sovereign thinking. He fears and reviles the pride and the love of +freedom of individual minds: after him no one must allow his intellect to +govern with absolute unrestriction: he himself wishes to remain for ever +the bulwark on which the waves of ideas may break--these are his secret +wishes, and perhaps, indeed, they are not always secret. + +The hard fact upon which such wishes are based, however, is that he +himself has come to a halt before his teaching, and has set up his +boundary stone, his "thus far and no farther." In canonising himself he +has drawn up his own death warrant: from now on his mind cannot develop +further. His race is run; the hour-hand stops. Whenever a great thinker +tries to make himself a lasting institution for posterity, we may readily +suppose that he has passed the climax of his powers, and is very tired, +very near the setting of his sun. + + + + +543. + + +WE MUST NOT MAKE PASSION AN ARGUMENT FOR TRUTH.--Oh, you kind-hearted and +even noble enthusiasts, I know you! You wish to seem right in our eyes as +well as in your own, but especially in your own!--and an irritable and +subtle evil conscience so often spurs you on against your very enthusiasm! +How ingenious you then become in deceiving your conscience, and lulling it +to sleep! How you hate honest, simple, and clean souls; how you avoid +their innocent glances! That better knowledge whose representatives they +are, and whose voice you hear only too distinctly within yourselves when +it questions your belief,--how you try to cast suspicion upon it as a bad +habit, as a disease of the age, as the neglect and infection of your own +intellectual health! It drives you on to hate even criticism, science, +reason! You must falsify history to make it testify in your favour; you +must deny virtues in case they should obscure those of your own idols and +ideals. + +Coloured images where arguments are needed! Ardour and power of +expression! Silver mists! Ambrosian nights! well do you know how to +enlighten and to darken--to darken by means of light! and indeed when your +passion can no longer be kept within bounds the moment comes when you say +to yourselves, "Now I have won for myself a good conscience, now I am +exalted, courageous, self-denying, magnanimous; now I am honest!" How you +long for these moments when your passion will confer upon you full and +absolute rights, and also, as it were, innocence. How happy you are when +engaged in battle and inspired with ecstasy or courage, when you are +elated beyond yourself, when gnawing doubt has left you, and when you can +even decree: "Any man who is not in ecstasy as we are cannot by any chance +know what or where truth is." How you long to meet with those who share +your belief in this state--which is a state of intellectual depravity--and +to set your own fire alight with their flames! Oh, for your martyrdom, +your victory of the sanctified lie! Must you really inflict so much pain +upon yourselves?--_Must_ you? + + + + +544. + + +HOW PHILOSOPHY IS NOW PRACTISED.--I can see quite well that our +philosophising youths, women, and artists require from philosophy exactly +the opposite of what the Greeks derived from it. What does he who does not +hear the continual exultation that resounds through every speech and +counter-argument in a Platonic dialogue, this exultation over the new +invention of rational thinking, know about Plato or about ancient +philosophy? At that time souls were filled with enthusiasm when they gave +themselves up to the severe and sober sport of ideas, generalisations, +refutations,--that enthusiasm which perhaps those old, great, severe, and +prudent contrapuntists in music have also known. At that time the Greek +palate still possessed that older and formerly omnipotent taste: and by +the side of this taste their new taste appeared to be enveloped in so much +charm that the divine art of dialectic was sung by hesitating voices as if +its followers were intoxicated with the frenzy of love. That old form of +thinking, however, was thought within the bounds of morality, and for it +nothing existed but fixed judgments and established facts, and it had no +reasons but those of authority. Thinking, therefore, was simply a matter +of repetition, and all the enjoyment of speech and dialogue could only lie +in their form. + +Wherever the substance of a thing is looked upon as eternal and +universally approved, there is only one great charm, the charm of variable +forms, that is, of fashion. Even in the poets ever since the time of +Homer, and later on in the case of the sculptors, the Greeks did not enjoy +originality, but its contrary. It was Socrates who discovered another +charm, that of cause and effect, of reason and sequence, and we moderns +have become so used to it, and have been brought up to the necessity of +logic that we look upon it as the normal taste, and as such it cannot but +be repugnant to ardent and presumptuous people. Such people are pleased by +whatever stands out boldly from the normal: their more subtle ambition +leads them to believe only too readily that they are exceptional souls, +not dialectic and rational beings, but, let us say, "intuitive" beings +gifted with an "inner sense," or with a certain "intellectual perception." +Above all, however, they wish to be "artistic natures" with a genius in +their heads, and a demon in their bodies, and consequently with special +rights in this world and in the world to come--especially the divine +privilege of being incomprehensible. + +And people like these are "going in for" philosophy nowadays! I fear they +will discover one day that they have made a mistake--what they are looking +for is religion! + + + + +545. + + +BUT WE DO NOT BELIEVE YOU.--You would fain pass for psychologists, but we +shall not allow it! Are we not to notice that you pretend to be more +experienced, profound, passionate, and perfect than you actually are?--just +as we notice in yonder painter that there is a trifling presumptuousness +in his manner of wielding the brush, and in yonder musician that he brings +forward his theme with the desire to make it appear superior to what it +really is. Have you experienced history within yourselves, commotions, +earthquakes, long and profound sadness, and sudden flashes of happiness? +Have you acted foolishly with great and little fools? Have you really +undergone the delusions and woe of the good people? and also the woe and +the peculiar happiness of the most evil? Then you may speak to me of +morality, but not otherwise! + + + + +546. + + +SLAVE AND IDEALIST.--The followers of Epictetus would doubtless not be to +the taste of those who are now striving after the ideal. The constant +tension of his being, the indefatigable inward glance, the prudent and +reserved incommunicativeness of his eye whenever it happens to gaze upon +the outer world, and above all, his silence or laconic speech: all these +are characteristics of the strictest fortitude,--and what would our +idealists, who above all else are desirous of expansion, care for this? +But in spite of all this the Stoic is not fanatical. He detests the +display and boasting of our idealists: his pride, however great it may be, +is not eager to disturb others. It permits of a certain gentle approach, +and has no desire to spoil anybody's good humour--nay, it can even smile. A +great deal of ancient humanity is to be seen exemplified in this ideal. +The most excellent feature about it, however, is that the thinker is +completely free from the fear of God, strictly believes in reason, and is +no preacher of penitence. + +Epictetus was a slave: his ideal man is without any particular rank, and +may exist in any grade of society, but above all he is to be sought in the +deepest and lowest social classes, as the silent and self-sufficient man +in the midst of a general state of servitude, a man who defends himself +alone against the outer world, and is constantly living in a state of the +highest fortitude. He is distinguished from the Christian especially, +because the latter lives in hope in the promise of "unspeakable glory," +permits presents to be made to him, and expects and accepts the best +things from divine love and grace, and not from himself. Epictetus, on the +other hand, neither hopes nor allows his best treasure to be given him--he +possesses it already, holds it bravely in his hand, and defies the world +to take it away from him. Christianity was devised for another class of +ancient slaves, for those who had a weak will and weak reason--that is to +say, for the majority of slaves. + + + + +547. + + +THE TYRANTS OF THE INTELLECT.--The progress of science is at the present +time no longer hindered by the purely accidental fact that man attains to +about seventy years, which was the case far too long. In former times +people wished to master the entire extent of knowledge within this period, +and all the methods of knowledge were valued according to this general +desire. Minor questions and individual experiments were looked upon as +unworthy of notice: people wanted to take the shortest path under the +impression that, since everything in this world seemed to be arranged with +a view to man's needs, even the acquirement of knowledge was regulated in +view of the limits of human life. + +To solve everything at a single stroke, with one word--this was the secret +desire; and the task was represented in the symbol of the Gordian knot or +the egg of Columbus. No one doubted that it was possible to reach the goal +of knowledge after the manner of Alexander or Columbus, and to settle all +questions with one answer. "There is a mystery to be solved," seemed to be +the aim of life in the eyes of the philosopher: it was necessary in the +first place to find out what this enigma was, and to condense the problem +of the world into the simplest enigmatical formula possible. The boundless +ambition and delight of being the "unraveller of the world" charmed the +dreams of many a thinker: nothing seemed to him worth troubling about in +this world but the means of bringing everything to a satisfactory +conclusion. Philosophy thus became a kind of supreme struggle for the +tyrannical sway over the intellect, and no one doubted that such a +tyrannical domination was reserved for some very happy, subtle, ingenious, +bold, and powerful person--a single individual!--and many (the last was +Schopenhauer) fancied themselves to be this privileged person. + +From this it follows that, on the whole, science has up to the present +remained in a rather backward state owing to the moral narrow-mindedness +of its disciples, and that henceforth it will have to be pursued from a +higher and more generous motive. "What do I matter?" is written over the +door of the thinker of the future. + + + + +548. + + +VICTORY OVER POWER.--If we consider all that has been venerated up to the +present as "superhuman intellect" or "genius," we must come to the sad +conclusion that, considered as a whole, the intellectuality of mankind +must have been extremely low and poor: so little mind has hitherto been +necessary in order to feel at once considerably superior to all this! Alas +for the cheap glory of "genius"! How quickly has it been raised to the +throne, and its worship grown into a custom! We still fall on our knees +before power--according to the old custom of slaves--and nevertheless, when +the degree of venerability comes to be determined, only the degree of +reason in the power will be the deciding factor. We must find out, indeed, +to how great an extent power has been overcome by something higher, which +it now obeys as a tool and instrument. + +As yet, however, there have been too few eyes for such investigations: +even in the majority of cases the mere valuation of genius has almost been +looked upon as blasphemy. And thus perhaps everything that is most +beautiful still takes place in the midst of darkness and vanishes in +endless night almost as soon as it has made its appearance,--I refer to the +spectacle of that power which a genius does not lay out upon works, but +upon himself as a work, that is, his own self-control, the purifying of +his own imagination, the order and selection in his inspirations and +tasks. The great man ever remains invisible in the greatest thing that +claims worship, like some distant star: his victory over power remains +without witnesses, and hence also without songs and singers. The hierarchy +of the great men in all the past history of the human race has not yet +been determined. + + + + +549. + + +FLIGHT FROM ONE'S SELF.--Those sufferers from intellectual spasms who are +impatient towards themselves and look upon themselves with a gloomy +eye--such as Byron or Alfred de Musset--and who, in everything that they do, +resemble runaway horses, and from their own works derive only a transient +joy and an ardent passion which almost bursts their veins, followed by +sterility and disenchantment--how are they able to bear up! They would fain +attain to something "beyond themselves." If we happen to be Christians, +and are seized by such a desire as this, we strive to reach God and to +become one with Him; if we are a Shakespeare we shall be glad to perish in +images of a passionate life; if we are like Byron we long for actions, +because these detach us from ourselves to an even greater extent than +thoughts, feelings, and works. + +And should the desire for performing great deeds really be at bottom +nothing but a flight from our own selves?--as Pascal would ask us. And +indeed this assertion might be proved by considering the most noble +representations of this desire for action: in this respect let us +remember, bringing the knowledge of an alienist to our aid, that four of +the greatest men of all ages who were possessed of this lust for action +were epileptics--Alexander the Great, Cćsar, Mohammed, and Napoleon; and +Byron likewise was subject to the same complaint. + + + + +550. + + +KNOWLEDGE AND BEAUTY.--If men, as they are still in the habit of doing, +reserve their veneration and feelings of happiness for works of fancy and +imagination, we should not be surprised if they feel chilled and +displeased by the contrary of fancy and imagination. The rapture which +arises from even the smallest, sure, and definite step in advance into +insight, and which our present state of science yields to so many in such +abundance--this rapture is in the meantime not believed in by all those who +are in the habit of feeling enraptured only when they leave reality +altogether and plunge into the depths of vague appearance--romanticism. +These people look upon reality as ugly, but they entirely overlook the +fact that the knowledge of even the ugliest reality is beautiful, and that +the man who can discern much and often is in the end very far from +considering as ugly the main items of that reality, the discovery of which +has always inspired him with the feeling of happiness. + +Is there anything "beautiful in itself"? The happiness of those who can +recognise augments the beauty of the world, bathing everything that exists +in a sunnier light: discernment not only envelops all things in its own +beauty, but in the long run permeates the things themselves with its +beauty--may ages to come bear witness to the truth of this statement! In +the meantime let us recall an old experience: two men so thoroughly +different in every respect as Plato and Aristotle were agreed in regard to +what constituted superior happiness--not merely their own and that of men +in general, but happiness in itself, even the happiness of the gods. They +found this happiness to lie in knowledge, in the activity of a well +practised and inventive understanding (not in "intuition" like the German +theologians and semi-theologians; not in visions, like the mystics; and +not in work, like the merely practical men). Similar opinions were +expressed by Descartes and Spinoza. What great delight must all these men +have felt in knowledge! and how great was the danger that their honesty +might give way, and that they themselves might become panegyrists of +things! + + + + +551. + + +FUTURE VIRTUES.--How has it come about that, the more intelligible the +world has become, the more all kinds of ceremonies have diminished? Was +fear so frequently the fundamental basis of that awe which overcame us at +the sight of anything hitherto unknown and mysterious, and which taught us +to fall upon our knees before the unintelligible, and to beg for mercy? +And has the world, perhaps, through the very fact that we have grown less +timid, lost some of the charms it formerly had for us? Is it not possible +that our own dignity and stateliness, our formidable character, has +decreased together with our spirit of dread? Perhaps we value the world +and ourselves less highly since we have begun to think more boldly about +it and ourselves? Perhaps there will come a moment in the future when this +courageous spirit of thinking will have reached such a point that it will +feel itself soaring in supreme pride, far above men and things--when the +wise man, being also the boldest, will see himself and even more +particularly existence, the lowest of all beneath himself? + +This type of courage, which is not far removed from excessive generosity, +has been lacking in humanity up to the present.--Oh, that our poets might +once again become what they once were: seers, telling us something about +what might possibly happen! now that what is real and what is past are +being ever more and more taken from them, and must continue to be taken +from them--for the time of innocent counterfeiting is at an end! Let them +try to enable us to anticipate future virtues, or virtues that will never +be found on earth, although they may exist somewhere in the +world!--purple-glowing constellations and whole Milky Ways of the +beautiful! Where are ye, ye astronomers of the ideal? + + + + +552. + + +IDEAL SELFISHNESS.--Is there a more sacred state than that of pregnancy? To +perform every one of our actions in the silent conviction that in one way +or another it will be to the benefit of that which is being generated +within us--that it must augment its mysterious value, the very thought of +which fills us with rapture? At such a time we refrain from many things +without having to force ourselves to do so: we suppress the angry word, we +grasp the hand forgivingly; our child must be born from all that is best +and gentlest. We shun our own harshness and brusqueness in case it should +instil a drop of unhappiness into the cup of the beloved unknown. +Everything is veiled, ominous; we know nothing about what is going on, but +simply wait and try to be prepared. During this time, too, we experience a +pure and purifying feeling of profound irresponsibility, similar to that +felt by a spectator before a drawn curtain; _it_ is growing, _it_ is +coming to light; we have nothing to do with determining its value, or the +hour of its arrival. We are thrown back altogether upon indirect, +beneficent and defensive influences. "Something greater than we are is +growing here"--such is our most secret hope: we prepare everything with a +view to his birth and prosperity--not merely everything that is useful, but +also the noblest gifts of our souls. + +We should, and can, live under the influence of such a blessed +inspiration! Whether what we are looking forward to is a thought or a +deed, our relationship to every essential achievement is none other than +that of pregnancy, and all our vainglorious boasting about "willing" and +"creating" should be cast to the winds! True and ideal selfishness +consists in always watching over and restraining the soul, so that our +productiveness may come to a beautiful termination. Thus in this indirect +manner we must provide for and watch over the good of all; and the frame +of mind, the mood in which we live, is a kind of soothing oil which +spreads far around us on the restless souls.--Still, these pregnant ones +are funny people! let us therefore dare to be funny also, and not reproach +others if they must be the same. And even when this phenomenon becomes +dangerous and evil we must not show less respect to that which is +generating within us or others than ordinary worldly justice, which does +not allow the judge or the hangman to interfere with a pregnant woman. + + + + +553. + + +CIRCUITOUS ROUTES.--Where does all this philosophy mean to end with its +circuitous routes? Does it do more than transpose into reason, so to +speak, a continuous and strong impulse--a craving for a mild sun, a bright +and bracing atmosphere, southern plants, sea breezes, short meals of meat, +eggs, and fruit, hot water to drink, quiet walks for days at a time, +little talking, rare and cautious reading, living alone, pure, simple, and +almost soldier-like habits--a craving, in short, for all things which are +suited to my own personal taste? a philosophy which is in the main the +instinct for a personal regimen--an instinct that longs for my air, my +height, my temperature, and my kind of health, and takes the circuitous +route of my head to persuade me to it! + +There are many other and certainly more lofty philosophies, and not only +such as are more gloomy and pretentious than mine--and are they perhaps, +taking them as a whole, nothing but intellectual circuitous routes of the +same kind of personal impulses?--In the meantime I look with a new eye upon +the mysterious and solitary flight of a butterfly high on the rocky banks +of the lake where so many plants are growing: there it flies hither and +thither, heedless of the fact that its life will last only one more day, +and that the night will be too cold for its winged fragility. For it, too, +a philosophy might be found, though it might not be my own. + + + + +554. + + +LEADING.(18)--When we praise progress we only praise the movement and those +who do not let us remain on the same spot, and in the circumstances this +is certainly something, especially if we live among Egyptians. In +changeable Europe, however, where movement is "understood," to use their +own expression, "as a matter of course"--alas, if _we_ only understood +something about it too!--I praise leaders and forerunners: that is to say, +those who always leave themselves behind, and do not care in the least +whether any one is following them or not. "Wherever I halt I find myself +alone: why should I halt! the desert is still so wide!"--such is the +sentiment of the true leader. + + + + +555. + + +THE LEAST IMPORTANT ARE SUFFICIENT.--We ought to avoid events when we know +that even the least important of them frequently enough leave a strong +impression upon us--and these we cannot avoid.--The thinker must possess an +approximate canon of all the things he still wishes to experience. + + + + +556. + + +THE FOUR VIRTUES.--Honest towards ourselves, and to all and everything +friendly to us; brave in the face of our enemy; generous towards the +vanquished; polite at all times: such do the four cardinal virtues wish us +to be. + + + + +557. + + +MARCHING AGAINST AN ENEMY.--How pleasant is the sound of even bad music and +bad motives when we are setting out to march against an enemy! + + + + +558. + + +NOT CONCEALING ONE'S VIRTUES.--I love those men who are as transparent as +water, and who, to use Pope's expression, hide not from view the turbid +bottom of their stream. Even they, however, possess a certain vanity, +though of a rare and more sublimated kind: some of them would wish us to +see nothing but the mud, and to take no notice of the clearness of the +water which enables us to look right to the bottom. No less a man than +Gautama Buddha has imagined the vanity of these few in the formula, "Let +your sins appear before men, and conceal your virtues." But this would +exhibit a disagreeable spectacle to the world--it would be a sin against +good taste. + + + + +559. + + +"NOTHING IN EXCESS!"--How often is the individual recommended to set up a +goal which it is beyond his power to reach, in order that he may at least +attain that which lies within the scope of his abilities and most +strenuous efforts! Is it really so desirable, however, that he should do +so? Do not the best men who try to act according to this doctrine, +together with their best deeds, necessarily assume a somewhat exaggerated +and distorted appearance on account of their excessive tension? and in the +future will not a grey mist of failure envelop the world, owing to the +fact that we may see everywhere struggling athletes and tremendous +gestures, but nowhere a conqueror crowned with the laurel, and rejoicing +in his victory? + + + + +560. + + +WHAT WE ARE FREE TO DO.--We can act as the gardeners of our impulses, +and--which few people know--we may cultivate the seeds of anger, pity, +vanity, or excessive brooding, and make these things fecund and +productive, just as we can train a beautiful plant to grow along +trellis-work. We may do this with the good or bad taste of a gardener, and +as it were, in the French, English, Dutch, or Chinese style. We may let +nature take its own course, only trimming and embellishing a little here +and there; and finally, without any knowledge or consideration, we may +even allow the plants to spring up in accordance with their own natural +growth and limitations, and fight out their battle among themselves,--nay, +we can even take delight in such chaos, though we may possibly have a hard +time with it! All this is at our option: but how many know that it is? Do +not the majority of people believe in themselves as complete and perfect +facts? and have not the great philosophers set their seal on this +prejudice through their doctrine of the unchangeability of character? + + + + +561. + + +LETTING OUR HAPPINESS ALSO SHINE.--In the same way as painters are unable +to reproduce the deep brilliant hue of the natural sky, and are compelled +to use all the colours they require for their landscapes a few shades +deeper than nature has made them--just as they, by means of this trick, +succeed in approaching the brilliancy and harmony of nature's own hues, so +also must poets and philosophers, for whom the luminous rays of happiness +are inaccessible, endeavour to find an expedient. By picturing all things +a shade or two darker than they really are, their light, in which they +excel, will produce almost exactly the same effect as the sunlight, and +will resemble the light of true happiness.--The pessimist, on the other +hand, who paints all things in the blackest and most sombre hues, only +makes use of bright flames, lightning, celestial glories, and everything +that possesses a glaring, dazzling power, and bewilders our eyes: to him +light only serves the purpose of increasing the horror, and of making us +look upon things as being more dreadful than they really are. + + + + +562. + + +THE SETTLED AND THE FREE.--It is only in the Underworld that we catch a +glimpse of that gloomy background of all that bliss of adventure which +forms an everlasting halo around Ulysses and his like, rivalling the +eternal phosphorescence of the sea,--that background which we can never +forget: the mother of Ulysses died of grief and yearning for her child. +The one is driven on from place to place, and the heart of the other, the +tender stay-at-home friend, breaks through it--so it always is. Affliction +breaks the hearts of those who live to see that those whom they love best +are deserting their former views and faith,--it is a tragedy brought about +by the free spirits,--a tragedy which, indeed, occasionally comes to their +own knowledge. Then, perhaps, they too, like Ulysses, will be forced to +descend among the dead to get rid of their sorrow and to relieve their +affliction. + + + + +563. + + +THE ILLUSION OF THE MORAL ORDER OF THE UNIVERSE.--There is no "eternal +justice" which requires that every fault shall be atoned and paid for,--the +belief that such a justice existed was a terrible delusion, and useful +only to a limited extent; just as it is also a delusion that everything is +guilt which is felt as such. It is not the things themselves, but the +opinions about things that do not exist, which have been such a source of +trouble to mankind. + + + + +564. + + +BY THE SIDE OF EXPERIENCE.--Even great intellects have only a hand-breadth +experience--in the immediate proximity of this experience their reflection +ceases, and its place is taken by unlimited vacuity and stupidity. + + + + +565. + + +DIGNITY AND IGNORANCE.--Wherever we understand we become amiable, happy, +and ingenious; and when we have learnt enough, and have trained our eyes +and ears, our souls show greater plasticity and charm. We understand so +little, however, and are so insufficiently informed, that it rarely +happens that we seize upon a thing and make ourselves lovable at the same +time,--on the contrary we pass through cities, nature, and history with +stiffness and indifference, at the same time taking a pride in our stiff +and indifferent attitude, as if it were simply due to superiority. Thus +our ignorance and our mediocre desire for knowledge understand quite well +how to assume a mask of dignity and character. + + + + +566. + + +LIVING CHEAPLY.--The cheapest and most innocent mode of life is that of the +thinker; for, to mention at once its most important feature, he has the +greatest need of those very things which others neglect and look upon with +contempt. In the second place he is easily pleased and has no desire for +any expensive pleasures. His task is not difficult, but, so to speak, +southern; his days and nights are not wasted by remorse; he moves, eats, +drinks, and sleeps in a manner suited to his intellect, in order that it +may grow calmer, stronger, and clearer. Again, he takes pleasure in his +body and has no reason to fear it; he does not require society, except +from time to time in order that he may afterwards go back to his solitude +with even greater delight. He seeks and finds in the dead compensation for +the living, and can even replace his friends in this way--viz., by seeking +out among the dead the best who have ever lived.--Let us consider whether +it is not the contrary desires and habits which have made the life of man +expensive, and as a consequence difficult and often unbearable. In another +sense, however, the thinker's life is certainly the most expensive, for +nothing is too good for him; and it would be an intolerable privation for +him to be deprived of the best. + + + + +567. + + +IN THE FIELD.--"We should take things more cheerfully than they deserve; +especially because for a very long time we have taken them more seriously +than they deserved." So speak the brave soldiers of knowledge. + + + + +568. + + +POET AND BIRD.--The bird Phoenix showed the poet a glowing scroll which was +being gradually consumed in the flames. "Be not alarmed," said the bird, +"it is your work! It does not contain the spirit of the age, and to a +still less extent the spirit of those who are against the age: so it must +be burnt. But that is a good sign. There is many a dawn of day." + + + + +569. + + +TO THE LONELY ONES.--If we do not respect the honour of others in our +soliloquies as well as in what we say publicly, we are not gentlemen. + + + + +570. + + +LOSSES.--There are some losses which communicate to the soul a sublimity in +which it ceases from wailing, and wanders about silently, as if in the +shade of some high and dark cypresses. + + + + +571. + + +THE BATTLE-FIELD DISPENSARY OF THE SOUL.--What is the most efficacious +remedy?--Victory. + + + + +572. + + +LIFE SHALL COMFORT US.--If, like the thinker, we live habitually amid the +great current of ideas and feelings, and even our dreams follow this +current, we expect comfort and peacefulness from life, while others wish +to rest from life when they give themselves up to meditation. + + + + +573. + + +CASTING ONE'S SKIN.--The snake that cannot cast its skin perishes. So too +with those minds which are prevented from changing their views: they cease +to be minds. + + + + +574. + + +NEVER FORGET!--The higher we soar the smaller we appear to those who cannot +fly. + + + + +575. + + +WE AERONAUTS OF THE INTELLECT.--All those daring birds that soar far and +ever farther into space, will somewhere or other be certain to find +themselves unable to continue their flight, and they will perch on a mast +or some narrow ledge--and will be grateful even for this miserable +accommodation! But who could conclude from this that there was not an +endless free space stretching far in front of them, and that they had +flown as far as they possibly could? In the end, however, all our great +teachers and predecessors have come to a standstill, and it is by no means +in the noblest or most graceful attitude that their weariness has brought +them to a pause: the same thing will happen to you and me! but what does +this matter to either of us? _Other birds will fly farther!_ Our minds and +hopes vie with them far out and on high; they rise far above our heads and +our failures, and from this height they look far into the distant horizon +and see hundreds of birds much more powerful than we are, striving whither +we ourselves have also striven, and where all is sea, sea, and nothing but +sea! + +And where, then, are we aiming at? Do we wish to cross the sea? whither +does this over-powering passion urge us, this passion which we value more +highly than any other delight? Why do we fly precisely in this direction, +where all the suns of humanity have hitherto set? Is it possible that +people may one day say of us that we also steered westward, hoping to +reach India--but that it was our fate to be wrecked on the infinite? Or, my +brethren? or--? + + + + + + +FOOTNOTES + + + 1 The book was first published in 1881, the preface being added to the + second edition, 1886.--TR. + + 2 This refers, of course, to the different genders of the nouns in + other languages. In German, for example, the sun is feminine, and in + French masculine.--TR. + + 3 M. Henri Albert points out that this refers to a line of Paul + Gerhardt's well-known song: "Befiel du deine Wege." TR. + + 4 "Formal education" is the name given in Germany to those branches of + learning which tend to develop the logical faculties, as opposed to + "material" education which deals with the acquisition of facts and + all kinds of "useful" knowledge.--TR. + + 5 The reference is to the _Odyssey_, XX. 18: "{~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON WITH OXIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMDA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER THETA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER DELTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ETA WITH OXIA~}, {~GREEK SMALL LETTER KAPPA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER RHO~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER DELTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA WITH OXIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ETA~}; {~GREEK SMALL LETTER KAPPA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA WITH VARIA~} + {~GREEK SMALL LETTER KAPPA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER UPSILON WITH OXIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER RHO~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA WITH PSILI AND OXIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMDA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMDA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER PI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK KORONIS~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON WITH PSILI AND OXIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMDA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ETA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA~}..." etc. {~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER KAPPA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER UPSILON WITH OXIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER RHO~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA~}, from {~GREEK SMALL LETTER KAPPA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER UPSILON WITH OXIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMEGA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~}, "a dog," lit. + more dog-like, _i.e._ shameless, horrible, audacious.--TR. + + 6 If this aphorism seems obscure, the reader may take Tolstoi as an + example of the first class and Nietzsche as an example of the + second. Tolstoi's inconsistencies are generally glossed over, + because he professed the customary moral theories of the age, while + Nietzsche has had to endure the most searching criticism because he + did not. In Nietzsche's case, however, the scrutiny has been in + vain; for, having no unworkable Christian theories to uphold, unlike + Tolstoi, Nietzsche's life is not a series of compromises. The career + of the great pagan philosopher was, in essence, much more saintly + than that of the great Christian. How different from Tolstoi, too, + was that noble Christian, Pascal, who, from the inevitable clash of + his creed and his nature, died at thirty-eight, while his weaker + epigone lived in the fulness of his fame until he was over + eighty!--TR. + + 7 A hit at the German Empire, which Nietzsche always despised, since + it led to the utter extinction of the old German spirit. "Kingdom" + (in "Kingdom of God") and "Empire" are both represented by the one + German word _Reich_.--TR. + + 8 This sentence is a complete refutation of a book which caused so + much stir in Germany about a decade ago, and in England quite + recently, Chamberlain's _Nineteenth Century_, in which a purely + imaginary Teutonic race is held up as the Chosen People of the + world. Nietzsche says elsewhere, "Peoples and Countries," aphorism + 21, "Associate with no man who takes part in the mendacious + race-swindle."--TR. + + 9 The fiercest protests against Nietzsche's teaching even now come + from the "unfeeling people." Hence the difficulty--now happily + past--of introducing him into Anglo-Saxon countries.--TR. + + 10 The German Jews are well known for their charity, by means of which + they probably wish to prove that they are not so bad as the + Anti-Semites paint them.--TR. + + 11 That is, do not speak either of God or the devil. The German proverb + runs: "Man soll den Teufel nicht an die Wand malen, sonst kommt + er."--TR. + + 12 The case of that other witty Venetian, Casanova.--TR. + + 13 The play upon the words _gründlich_ (thorough) thinkers, and + _Untergründlichen_ (lit. those underground) cannot be rendered in + English.--TR. + + 14 A variation of the well-known proverb, _Ubi bene, ibi patria_.--TR. + + 15 Hence the violence of all fanatics, who do not wish to shout down + the outer world so much as to shout down their own inner enemy, viz. + truth.--TR. + + 16 This omission is in the original.--TR. + + 17 This, of course, refers to Richard Wagner, as does also the + following paragraph.--TR. + + 18 The play upon the words _Vorschritt_ (leading) and _Fortschritt_ + (progress) cannot be rendered in English.--TR. + + + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DAWN OF DAY*** + + + +CREDITS + + +June 9, 2012 + + Project Gutenberg TEI edition 1 + Produced by Dianna Adair, Joe C, David King, and the Online + Distributed Proofreading Team at <http://www.pgdp.net/>. 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