Reading Help Beyond good and evil
employs speech for silence and concealment, and is inexhaustible `
` in evasion of communication, DESIRES and insists that a mask of `
` himself shall occupy his place in the hearts and heads of his `
` friends; and supposing he does not desire it, his eyes will some `
` day be opened to the fact that there is nevertheless a mask of `
` him there--and that it is well to be so. Every profound spirit `
` needs a mask; nay, more, around every profound spirit there `
` continually grows a mask, owing to the constantly false, that is `
` to say, SUPERFICIAL interpretation of every word he utters, every `
` step he takes, every sign of life he manifests. `
` `
` 41. One must subject oneself to one's own tests that one is `
` destined for independence and command, and do so at the right `
` time. One must not avoid one's tests, although they constitute `
` perhaps the most dangerous game one can play, and are in the end `
` tests made only before ourselves and before no other judge. Not `
` to cleave to any person, be it even the dearest--every person is `
` a prison and also a recess. Not to cleave to a fatherland, be it `
` even the most suffering and necessitous--it is even less `
` difficult to detach one's heart from a victorious fatherland. Not `
` to cleave to a sympathy, be it even for higher men, into whose `
` peculiar torture and helplessness chance has given us an insight. `
` Not to cleave to a science, though it tempt one with the most `
` valuable discoveries, apparently specially reserved for us. Not `
` to cleave to one's own liberation, to the voluptuous distance and `
` remoteness of the bird, which always flies further aloft in order `
` always to see more under it--the danger of the flier. Not to `
` cleave to our own virtues, nor become as a whole a victim to any `
` of our specialties, to our "hospitality" for instance, which is `
` the danger of dangers for highly developed and wealthy souls, who `
` deal prodigally, almost indifferently with themselves, and push `
` the virtue of liberality so far that it becomes a vice. One must `
` know how TO CONSERVE ONESELF--the best test of independence. `
` `
` 42. A new order of philosophers is appearing; I shall venture to `
` baptize them by a name not without danger. As far as I understand `
` them, as far as they allow themselves to be understood--for it is `
` their nature to WISH to remain something of a puzzle--these `
` philosophers of the future might rightly, perhaps also wrongly, `
` claim to be designated as "tempters." This name itself is after `
` all only an attempt, or, if it be preferred, a temptation. `
` `
` 43. Will they be new friends of "truth," these coming `
` philosophers? Very probably, for all philosophers hitherto have `
` loved their truths. But assuredly they will not be dogmatists. It `
` must be contrary to their pride, and also contrary to their `
` taste, that their truth should still be truth for every one--that `
` which has hitherto been the secret wish and ultimate purpose of `
` all dogmatic efforts. "My opinion is MY opinion: another person `
` has not easily a right to it"--such a philosopher of the future `
` will say, perhaps. One must renounce the bad taste of wishing to `
` agree with many people. "Good" is no longer good when one's `
` neighbour takes it into his mouth. And how could there be a `
` "common good"! The expression contradicts itself; that which can `
` be common is always of small value. In the end things must be as `
` they are and have always been--the great things remain for the `
` great, the abysses for the profound, the delicacies and thrills `
` for the refined, and, to sum up shortly, everything rare for the `
` rare. `
` `
` `
` 44. Need I say expressly after all this that they will be free, `
` VERY free spirits, these philosophers of the future--as certainly `
` also they will not be merely free spirits, but something more, `
` higher, greater, and fundamentally different, which does not wish `
` to be misunderstood and mistaken? But while I say this, I feel `
` under OBLIGATION almost as much to them as to ourselves (we free `
` spirits who are their heralds and forerunners), to sweep away `
` from ourselves altogether a stupid old prejudice and `
` misunderstanding, which, like a fog, has too long made the `
` conception of "free spirit" obscure. In every country of Europe, `
` and the same in America, there is at present something which `
` makes an abuse of this name a very narrow, prepossessed, `
` enchained class of spirits, who desire almost the opposite of `
` what our intentions and instincts prompt--not to mention that in `
` respect to the NEW philosophers who are appearing, they must `
` still more be closed windows and bolted doors. Briefly and `
` regrettably, they belong to the LEVELLERS, these wrongly named `
` "free spirits"--as glib-tongued and scribe-fingered slaves of the `
` democratic taste and its "modern ideas" all of them men without `
` solitude, without personal solitude, blunt honest fellows to whom `
` neither courage nor honourable conduct ought to be denied, only, `
` they are not free, and are ludicrously superficial, especially in `
` their innate partiality for seeing the cause of almost ALL human `
` misery and failure in the old forms in which society has hitherto `
` existed--a notion which happily inverts the truth entirely! What `
` they would fain attain with all their strength, is the universal, `
` green-meadow happiness of the herd, together with security, `
` safety, comfort, and alleviation of life for every one, their two `
` most frequently chanted songs and doctrines are called "Equality `
` of Rights" and "Sympathy with All Sufferers"--and suffering `
` itself is looked upon by them as something which must be DONE `
` AWAY WITH. We opposite ones, however, who have opened our eye and `
` conscience to the question how and where the plant "man" has `
` hitherto grown most vigorously, believe that this has always `
` taken place under the opposite conditions, that for this end the `
` dangerousness of his situation had to be increased enormously, `
` his inventive faculty and dissembling power (his "spirit") had to `
` develop into subtlety and daring under long oppression and `
` compulsion, and his Will to Life had to be increased to the `
` unconditioned Will to Power--we believe that severity, violence, `
` slavery, danger in the street and in the heart, secrecy, `
` stoicism, tempter's art and devilry of every kind,--that `
` everything wicked, terrible, tyrannical, predatory, and `
` serpentine in man, serves as well for the elevation of the human `
` species as its opposite--we do not even say enough when we only `
` say THIS MUCH, and in any case we find ourselves here, both with `
` our speech and our silence, at the OTHER extreme of all modern `
` ideology and gregarious desirability, as their anti-podes `
` perhaps? What wonder that we "free spirits" are not exactly the `
` most communicative spirits? that we do not wish to betray in `
` every respect WHAT a spirit can free itself from, and WHERE `
` perhaps it will then be driven? And as to the import of the `
` dangerous formula, "Beyond Good and Evil," with which we at least `
` avoid confusion, we ARE something else than "libres-penseurs," `
` "liben pensatori" "free-thinkers," and whatever these honest `
` advocates of "modern ideas" like to call themselves. Having been `
` at home, or at least guests, in many realms of the spirit, having `
` escaped again and again from the gloomy, agreeable nooks in which `
` preferences and prejudices, youth, origin, the accident of men `
` and books, or even the weariness of travel seemed to confine us, `
` full of malice against the seductions of dependency which he `
` concealed in honours, money, positions, or exaltation of the `
` senses, grateful even for distress and the vicissitudes of `
` illness, because they always free us from some rule, and its `
` "prejudice," grateful to the God, devil, sheep, and worm in us, `
` inquisitive to a fault, investigators to the point of cruelty, `
` with unhesitating fingers for the intangible, with teeth and `
` stomachs for the most indigestible, ready for any business that `
` requires sagacity and acute senses, ready for every adventure, `
` owing to an excess of "free will", with anterior and posterior `
` souls, into the ultimate intentions of which it is difficult to `
` pry, with foregrounds and backgrounds to the end of which no foot `
` may run, hidden ones under the mantles of light, appropriators, `
` although we resemble heirs and spendthrifts, arrangers and `
` collectors from morning till night, misers of our wealth and our `
` full-crammed drawers, economical in learning and forgetting, `
` inventive in scheming, sometimes proud of tables of categories, `
` sometimes pedants, sometimes night-owls of work even in full day, `
` yea, if necessary, even scarecrows--and it is necessary nowadays, `
` that is to say, inasmuch as we are the born, sworn, jealous `
` friends of SOLITUDE, of our own profoundest midnight and midday `
` solitude--such kind of men are we, we free spirits! And perhaps `
` ye are also something of the same kind, ye coming ones? ye NEW `
` philosophers? `
` `
` `
` CHAPTER III `
` `
` THE RELIGIOUS MOOD `
` `
` `
` 45. The human soul and its limits, the range of man's inner `
` experiences hitherto attained, the heights, depths, and distances `
` of these experiences, the entire history of the soul UP TO THE `
` PRESENT TIME, and its still unexhausted possibilities: this is `
` the preordained hunting-domain for a born psychologist and lover `
` of a "big hunt". But how often must he say despairingly to `
` himself: "A single individual! alas, only a single individual! `
` and this great forest, this virgin forest!" So he would like to `
` have some hundreds of hunting assistants, and fine trained `
` hounds, that he could send into the history of the human soul, to `
` drive HIS game together. In vain: again and again he experiences, `
` profoundly and bitterly, how difficult it is to find assistants `
` and dogs for all the things that directly excite his curiosity. `
` The evil of sending scholars into new and dangerous hunting- `
` domains, where courage, sagacity, and subtlety in every sense are `
` required, is that they are no longer serviceable just when the `
` "BIG hunt," and also the great danger commences,--it is precisely `
` then that they lose their keen eye and nose. In order, for `
` instance, to divine and determine what sort of history the `
` problem of KNOWLEDGE AND CONSCIENCE has hitherto had in the souls `
` of homines religiosi, a person would perhaps himself have to `
` possess as profound, as bruised, as immense an experience as the `
` intellectual conscience of Pascal; and then he would still `
` require that wide-spread heaven of clear, wicked spirituality, `
` which, from above, would be able to oversee, arrange, and `
` effectively formulize this mass of dangerous and painful `
` experiences.--But who could do me this service! And who would `
` have time to wait for such servants!--they evidently appear too `
` rarely, they are so improbable at all times! Eventually one must `
` do everything ONESELF in order to know something; which means `
` that one has MUCH to do!--But a curiosity like mine is once for `
` all the most agreeable of vices--pardon me! I mean to say that `
` the love of truth has its reward in heaven, and already upon `
` earth. `
` `
` 46. Faith, such as early Christianity desired, and not `
` infrequently achieved in the midst of a skeptical and southernly `
` free-spirited world, which had centuries of struggle between `
` philosophical schools behind it and in it, counting besides the `
` education in tolerance which the Imperium Romanum gave--this `
` faith is NOT that sincere, austere slave-faith by which perhaps a `
` Luther or a Cromwell, or some other northern barbarian of the `
` spirit remained attached to his God and Christianity, it is much `
` rather the faith of Pascal, which resembles in a terrible manner `
` a continuous suicide of reason--a tough, long-lived, worm-like `
` reason, which is not to be slain at once and with a single blow. `
` The Christian faith from the beginning, is sacrifice the `
` sacrifice of all freedom, all pride, all self-confidence of `
` spirit, it is at the same time subjection, self-derision, and `
`
` in evasion of communication, DESIRES and insists that a mask of `
` himself shall occupy his place in the hearts and heads of his `
` friends; and supposing he does not desire it, his eyes will some `
` day be opened to the fact that there is nevertheless a mask of `
` him there--and that it is well to be so. Every profound spirit `
` needs a mask; nay, more, around every profound spirit there `
` continually grows a mask, owing to the constantly false, that is `
` to say, SUPERFICIAL interpretation of every word he utters, every `
` step he takes, every sign of life he manifests. `
` `
` 41. One must subject oneself to one's own tests that one is `
` destined for independence and command, and do so at the right `
` time. One must not avoid one's tests, although they constitute `
` perhaps the most dangerous game one can play, and are in the end `
` tests made only before ourselves and before no other judge. Not `
` to cleave to any person, be it even the dearest--every person is `
` a prison and also a recess. Not to cleave to a fatherland, be it `
` even the most suffering and necessitous--it is even less `
` difficult to detach one's heart from a victorious fatherland. Not `
` to cleave to a sympathy, be it even for higher men, into whose `
` peculiar torture and helplessness chance has given us an insight. `
` Not to cleave to a science, though it tempt one with the most `
` valuable discoveries, apparently specially reserved for us. Not `
` to cleave to one's own liberation, to the voluptuous distance and `
` remoteness of the bird, which always flies further aloft in order `
` always to see more under it--the danger of the flier. Not to `
` cleave to our own virtues, nor become as a whole a victim to any `
` of our specialties, to our "hospitality" for instance, which is `
` the danger of dangers for highly developed and wealthy souls, who `
` deal prodigally, almost indifferently with themselves, and push `
` the virtue of liberality so far that it becomes a vice. One must `
` know how TO CONSERVE ONESELF--the best test of independence. `
` `
` 42. A new order of philosophers is appearing; I shall venture to `
` baptize them by a name not without danger. As far as I understand `
` them, as far as they allow themselves to be understood--for it is `
` their nature to WISH to remain something of a puzzle--these `
` philosophers of the future might rightly, perhaps also wrongly, `
` claim to be designated as "tempters." This name itself is after `
` all only an attempt, or, if it be preferred, a temptation. `
` `
` 43. Will they be new friends of "truth," these coming `
` philosophers? Very probably, for all philosophers hitherto have `
` loved their truths. But assuredly they will not be dogmatists. It `
` must be contrary to their pride, and also contrary to their `
` taste, that their truth should still be truth for every one--that `
` which has hitherto been the secret wish and ultimate purpose of `
` all dogmatic efforts. "My opinion is MY opinion: another person `
` has not easily a right to it"--such a philosopher of the future `
` will say, perhaps. One must renounce the bad taste of wishing to `
` agree with many people. "Good" is no longer good when one's `
` neighbour takes it into his mouth. And how could there be a `
` "common good"! The expression contradicts itself; that which can `
` be common is always of small value. In the end things must be as `
` they are and have always been--the great things remain for the `
` great, the abysses for the profound, the delicacies and thrills `
` for the refined, and, to sum up shortly, everything rare for the `
` rare. `
` `
` `
` 44. Need I say expressly after all this that they will be free, `
` VERY free spirits, these philosophers of the future--as certainly `
` also they will not be merely free spirits, but something more, `
` higher, greater, and fundamentally different, which does not wish `
` to be misunderstood and mistaken? But while I say this, I feel `
` under OBLIGATION almost as much to them as to ourselves (we free `
` spirits who are their heralds and forerunners), to sweep away `
` from ourselves altogether a stupid old prejudice and `
` misunderstanding, which, like a fog, has too long made the `
` conception of "free spirit" obscure. In every country of Europe, `
` and the same in America, there is at present something which `
` makes an abuse of this name a very narrow, prepossessed, `
` enchained class of spirits, who desire almost the opposite of `
` what our intentions and instincts prompt--not to mention that in `
` respect to the NEW philosophers who are appearing, they must `
` still more be closed windows and bolted doors. Briefly and `
` regrettably, they belong to the LEVELLERS, these wrongly named `
` "free spirits"--as glib-tongued and scribe-fingered slaves of the `
` democratic taste and its "modern ideas" all of them men without `
` solitude, without personal solitude, blunt honest fellows to whom `
` neither courage nor honourable conduct ought to be denied, only, `
` they are not free, and are ludicrously superficial, especially in `
` their innate partiality for seeing the cause of almost ALL human `
` misery and failure in the old forms in which society has hitherto `
` existed--a notion which happily inverts the truth entirely! What `
` they would fain attain with all their strength, is the universal, `
` green-meadow happiness of the herd, together with security, `
` safety, comfort, and alleviation of life for every one, their two `
` most frequently chanted songs and doctrines are called "Equality `
` of Rights" and "Sympathy with All Sufferers"--and suffering `
` itself is looked upon by them as something which must be DONE `
` AWAY WITH. We opposite ones, however, who have opened our eye and `
` conscience to the question how and where the plant "man" has `
` hitherto grown most vigorously, believe that this has always `
` taken place under the opposite conditions, that for this end the `
` dangerousness of his situation had to be increased enormously, `
` his inventive faculty and dissembling power (his "spirit") had to `
` develop into subtlety and daring under long oppression and `
` compulsion, and his Will to Life had to be increased to the `
` unconditioned Will to Power--we believe that severity, violence, `
` slavery, danger in the street and in the heart, secrecy, `
` stoicism, tempter's art and devilry of every kind,--that `
` everything wicked, terrible, tyrannical, predatory, and `
` serpentine in man, serves as well for the elevation of the human `
` species as its opposite--we do not even say enough when we only `
` say THIS MUCH, and in any case we find ourselves here, both with `
` our speech and our silence, at the OTHER extreme of all modern `
` ideology and gregarious desirability, as their anti-podes `
` perhaps? What wonder that we "free spirits" are not exactly the `
` most communicative spirits? that we do not wish to betray in `
` every respect WHAT a spirit can free itself from, and WHERE `
` perhaps it will then be driven? And as to the import of the `
` dangerous formula, "Beyond Good and Evil," with which we at least `
` avoid confusion, we ARE something else than "libres-penseurs," `
` "liben pensatori" "free-thinkers," and whatever these honest `
` advocates of "modern ideas" like to call themselves. Having been `
` at home, or at least guests, in many realms of the spirit, having `
` escaped again and again from the gloomy, agreeable nooks in which `
` preferences and prejudices, youth, origin, the accident of men `
` and books, or even the weariness of travel seemed to confine us, `
` full of malice against the seductions of dependency which he `
` concealed in honours, money, positions, or exaltation of the `
` senses, grateful even for distress and the vicissitudes of `
` illness, because they always free us from some rule, and its `
` "prejudice," grateful to the God, devil, sheep, and worm in us, `
` inquisitive to a fault, investigators to the point of cruelty, `
` with unhesitating fingers for the intangible, with teeth and `
` stomachs for the most indigestible, ready for any business that `
` requires sagacity and acute senses, ready for every adventure, `
` owing to an excess of "free will", with anterior and posterior `
` souls, into the ultimate intentions of which it is difficult to `
` pry, with foregrounds and backgrounds to the end of which no foot `
` may run, hidden ones under the mantles of light, appropriators, `
` although we resemble heirs and spendthrifts, arrangers and `
` collectors from morning till night, misers of our wealth and our `
` full-crammed drawers, economical in learning and forgetting, `
` inventive in scheming, sometimes proud of tables of categories, `
` sometimes pedants, sometimes night-owls of work even in full day, `
` yea, if necessary, even scarecrows--and it is necessary nowadays, `
` that is to say, inasmuch as we are the born, sworn, jealous `
` friends of SOLITUDE, of our own profoundest midnight and midday `
` solitude--such kind of men are we, we free spirits! And perhaps `
` ye are also something of the same kind, ye coming ones? ye NEW `
` philosophers? `
` `
` `
` CHAPTER III `
` `
` THE RELIGIOUS MOOD `
` `
` `
` 45. The human soul and its limits, the range of man's inner `
` experiences hitherto attained, the heights, depths, and distances `
` of these experiences, the entire history of the soul UP TO THE `
` PRESENT TIME, and its still unexhausted possibilities: this is `
` the preordained hunting-domain for a born psychologist and lover `
` of a "big hunt". But how often must he say despairingly to `
` himself: "A single individual! alas, only a single individual! `
` and this great forest, this virgin forest!" So he would like to `
` have some hundreds of hunting assistants, and fine trained `
` hounds, that he could send into the history of the human soul, to `
` drive HIS game together. In vain: again and again he experiences, `
` profoundly and bitterly, how difficult it is to find assistants `
` and dogs for all the things that directly excite his curiosity. `
` The evil of sending scholars into new and dangerous hunting- `
` domains, where courage, sagacity, and subtlety in every sense are `
` required, is that they are no longer serviceable just when the `
` "BIG hunt," and also the great danger commences,--it is precisely `
` then that they lose their keen eye and nose. In order, for `
` instance, to divine and determine what sort of history the `
` problem of KNOWLEDGE AND CONSCIENCE has hitherto had in the souls `
` of homines religiosi, a person would perhaps himself have to `
` possess as profound, as bruised, as immense an experience as the `
` intellectual conscience of Pascal; and then he would still `
` require that wide-spread heaven of clear, wicked spirituality, `
` which, from above, would be able to oversee, arrange, and `
` effectively formulize this mass of dangerous and painful `
` experiences.--But who could do me this service! And who would `
` have time to wait for such servants!--they evidently appear too `
` rarely, they are so improbable at all times! Eventually one must `
` do everything ONESELF in order to know something; which means `
` that one has MUCH to do!--But a curiosity like mine is once for `
` all the most agreeable of vices--pardon me! I mean to say that `
` the love of truth has its reward in heaven, and already upon `
` earth. `
` `
` 46. Faith, such as early Christianity desired, and not `
` infrequently achieved in the midst of a skeptical and southernly `
` free-spirited world, which had centuries of struggle between `
` philosophical schools behind it and in it, counting besides the `
` education in tolerance which the Imperium Romanum gave--this `
` faith is NOT that sincere, austere slave-faith by which perhaps a `
` Luther or a Cromwell, or some other northern barbarian of the `
` spirit remained attached to his God and Christianity, it is much `
` rather the faith of Pascal, which resembles in a terrible manner `
` a continuous suicide of reason--a tough, long-lived, worm-like `
` reason, which is not to be slain at once and with a single blow. `
` The Christian faith from the beginning, is sacrifice the `
` sacrifice of all freedom, all pride, all self-confidence of `
` spirit, it is at the same time subjection, self-derision, and `
`