Reading Help Beyond good and evil
spirit, it is at the same time subjection, self-derision, and `
` self-mutilation. There is cruelty and religious Phoenicianism in `
` this faith, which is adapted to a tender, many-sided, and very `
` fastidious conscience, it takes for granted that the subjection `
` of the spirit is indescribably PAINFUL, that all the past and all `
` the habits of such a spirit resist the absurdissimum, in the form `
` of which "faith" comes to it. Modern men, with their obtuseness `
` as regards all Christian nomenclature, have no longer the sense `
` for the terribly superlative conception which was implied to an `
` antique taste by the paradox of the formula, "God on the Cross". `
` Hitherto there had never and nowhere been such boldness in `
` inversion, nor anything at once so dreadful, questioning, and `
` questionable as this formula: it promised a transvaluation of all `
` ancient values--It was the Orient, the PROFOUND Orient, it was `
` the Oriental slave who thus took revenge on Rome and its noble, `
` light-minded toleration, on the Roman "Catholicism" of non-faith, `
` and it was always not the faith, but the freedom from the faith, `
` the half-stoical and smiling indifference to the seriousness of `
` the faith, which made the slaves indignant at their masters and `
` revolt against them. "Enlightenment" causes revolt, for the slave `
` desires the unconditioned, he understands nothing but the `
` tyrannous, even in morals, he loves as he hates, without NUANCE, `
` to the very depths, to the point of pain, to the point of `
` sickness--his many HIDDEN sufferings make him revolt against the `
` noble taste which seems to DENY suffering. The skepticism with `
` regard to suffering, fundamentally only an attitude of `
` aristocratic morality, was not the least of the causes, also, of `
` the last great slave-insurrection which began with the French `
` Revolution. `
` `
` 47. Wherever the religious neurosis has appeared on the earth so `
` far, we find it connected with three dangerous prescriptions as `
` to regimen: solitude, fasting, and sexual abstinence--but without `
` its being possible to determine with certainty which is cause and `
` which is effect, or IF any relation at all of cause and effect `
` exists there. This latter doubt is justified by the fact that one `
` of the most regular symptoms among savage as well as among `
` civilized peoples is the most sudden and excessive sensuality, `
` which then with equal suddenness transforms into penitential `
` paroxysms, world-renunciation, and will-renunciation, both `
` symptoms perhaps explainable as disguised epilepsy? But nowhere `
` is it MORE obligatory to put aside explanations around no other `
` type has there grown such a mass of absurdity and superstition, `
` no other type seems to have been more interesting to men and even `
` to philosophers--perhaps it is time to become just a little `
` indifferent here, to learn caution, or, better still, to look `
` AWAY, TO GO AWAY--Yet in the background of the most recent `
` philosophy, that of Schopenhauer, we find almost as the problem `
` in itself, this terrible note of interrogation of the religious `
` crisis and awakening. How is the negation of will POSSIBLE? how `
` is the saint possible?--that seems to have been the very question `
` with which Schopenhauer made a start and became a philosopher. `
` And thus it was a genuine Schopenhauerian consequence, that his `
` most convinced adherent (perhaps also his last, as far as Germany `
` is concerned), namely, Richard Wagner, should bring his own life- `
` work to an end just here, and should finally put that terrible `
` and eternal type upon the stage as Kundry, type vecu, and as it `
` loved and lived, at the very time that the mad-doctors in almost `
` all European countries had an opportunity to study the type close `
` at hand, wherever the religious neurosis--or as I call it, "the `
` religious mood"--made its latest epidemical outbreak and display `
` as the "Salvation Army"--If it be a question, however, as to what `
` has been so extremely interesting to men of all sorts in all `
` ages, and even to philosophers, in the whole phenomenon of the `
` saint, it is undoubtedly the appearance of the miraculous `
` therein--namely, the immediate SUCCESSION OF OPPOSITES, of states `
` of the soul regarded as morally antithetical: it was believed `
` here to be self-evident that a "bad man" was all at once turned `
` into a "saint," a good man. The hitherto existing psychology was `
` wrecked at this point, is it not possible it may have happened `
` principally because psychology had placed itself under the `
` dominion of morals, because it BELIEVED in oppositions of moral `
` values, and saw, read, and INTERPRETED these oppositions into the `
` text and facts of the case? What? "Miracle" only an error of `
` interpretation? A lack of philology? `
` `
` 48. It seems that the Latin races are far more deeply attached to `
` their Catholicism than we Northerners are to Christianity `
` generally, and that consequently unbelief in Catholic countries `
` means something quite different from what it does among `
` Protestants--namely, a sort of revolt against the spirit of the `
` race, while with us it is rather a return to the spirit (or non- `
` spirit) of the race. `
` `
` We Northerners undoubtedly derive our origin from barbarous `
` races, even as regards our talents for religion--we have POOR `
` talents for it. One may make an exception in the case of the `
` Celts, who have theretofore furnished also the best soil for `
` Christian infection in the North: the Christian ideal blossomed `
` forth in France as much as ever the pale sun of the north would `
` allow it. How strangely pious for our taste are still these later `
` French skeptics, whenever there is any Celtic blood in their `
` origin! How Catholic, how un-German does Auguste Comte's `
` Sociology seem to us, with the Roman logic of its instincts! How `
` Jesuitical, that amiable and shrewd cicerone of Port Royal, `
` Sainte-Beuve, in spite of all his hostility to Jesuits! And even `
` Ernest Renan: how inaccessible to us Northerners does the `
` language of such a Renan appear, in whom every instant the merest `
` touch of religious thrill throws his refined voluptuous and `
` comfortably couching soul off its balance! Let us repeat after `
` him these fine sentences--and what wickedness and haughtiness is `
` immediately aroused by way of answer in our probably less `
` beautiful but harder souls, that is to say, in our more German `
` souls!--"DISONS DONC HARDIMENT QUE LA RELIGION EST UN PRODUIT DE `
` L'HOMME NORMAL, QUE L'HOMME EST LE PLUS DANS LE VRAI QUANT IL EST `
` LE PLUS RELIGIEUX ET LE PLUS ASSURE D'UNE DESTINEE INFINIE. . . . `
` C'EST QUAND IL EST BON QU'IL VEUT QUE LA VIRTU CORRESPONDE A UN `
` ORDER ETERNAL, C'EST QUAND IL CONTEMPLE LES CHOSES D'UNE MANIERE `
` DESINTERESSEE QU'IL TROUVE LA MORT REVOLTANTE ET ABSURDE. COMMENT `
` NE PAS SUPPOSER QUE C'EST DANS CES MOMENTS-LA, QUE L'HOMME VOIT `
` LE MIEUX?" . . . These sentences are so extremely ANTIPODAL to my `
` ears and habits of thought, that in my first impulse of rage on `
` finding them, I wrote on the margin, "LA NIAISERIE RELIGIEUSE PAR `
` EXCELLENCE!"--until in my later rage I even took a fancy to them, `
` these sentences with their truth absolutely inverted! It is so `
` nice and such a distinction to have one's own antipodes! `
` `
` 49. That which is so astonishing in the religious life of the `
` ancient Greeks is the irrestrainable stream of GRATITUDE which it `
` pours forth--it is a very superior kind of man who takes SUCH an `
` attitude towards nature and life.--Later on, when the populace `
` got the upper hand in Greece, FEAR became rampant also in `
` religion; and Christianity was preparing itself. `
` `
` 50. The passion for God: there are churlish, honest-hearted, and `
` importunate kinds of it, like that of Luther--the whole of `
` Protestantism lacks the southern DELICATEZZA. There is an `
` Oriental exaltation of the mind in it, like that of an `
` undeservedly favoured or elevated slave, as in the case of St. `
` Augustine, for instance, who lacks in an offensive manner, all `
` nobility in bearing and desires. There is a feminine tenderness `
` and sensuality in it, which modestly and unconsciously longs for `
` a UNIO MYSTICA ET PHYSICA, as in the case of Madame de Guyon. In `
` many cases it appears, curiously enough, as the disguise of a `
` girl's or youth's puberty; here and there even as the hysteria of `
` an old maid, also as her last ambition. The Church has frequently `
` canonized the woman in such a case. `
` `
` 51. The mightiest men have hitherto always bowed reverently `
` before the saint, as the enigma of self-subjugation and utter `
` voluntary privation--why did they thus bow? They divined in him-- `
` and as it were behind the questionableness of his frail and `
` wretched appearance--the superior force which wished to test `
` itself by such a subjugation; the strength of will, in which they `
` recognized their own strength and love of power, and knew how to `
` honour it: they honoured something in themselves when they `
` honoured the saint. In addition to this, the contemplation of the `
` saint suggested to them a suspicion: such an enormity of self- `
` negation and anti-naturalness will not have been coveted for `
` nothing--they have said, inquiringly. There is perhaps a reason `
` for it, some very great danger, about which the ascetic might `
` wish to be more accurately informed through his secret `
` interlocutors and visitors? In a word, the mighty ones of the `
` world learned to have a new fear before him, they divined a new `
` power, a strange, still unconquered enemy:--it was the "Will to `
` Power" which obliged them to halt before the saint. They had to `
` question him. `
` `
` 52. In the Jewish "Old Testament," the book of divine justice, `
` there are men, things, and sayings on such an immense scale, that `
` Greek and Indian literature has nothing to compare with it. One `
` stands with fear and reverence before those stupendous remains of `
` what man was formerly, and one has sad thoughts about old Asia `
` and its little out-pushed peninsula Europe, which would like, by `
` all means, to figure before Asia as the "Progress of Mankind." To `
` be sure, he who is himself only a slender, tame house-animal, and `
` knows only the wants of a house-animal (like our cultured people `
` of today, including the Christians of "cultured" Christianity), `
` need neither be amazed nor even sad amid those ruins--the taste `
` for the Old Testament is a touchstone with respect to "great" and `
` "small": perhaps he will find that the New Testament, the book of `
` grace, still appeals more to his heart (there is much of the `
` odour of the genuine, tender, stupid beadsman and petty soul in `
` it). To have bound up this New Testament (a kind of ROCOCO of `
` taste in every respect) along with the Old Testament into one `
` book, as the "Bible," as "The Book in Itself," is perhaps the `
` greatest audacity and "sin against the Spirit" which literary `
` Europe has upon its conscience. `
` `
` 53. Why Atheism nowadays? "The father" in God is thoroughly `
` refuted; equally so "the judge," "the rewarder." Also his "free `
` will": he does not hear--and even if he did, he would not know `
` how to help. The worst is that he seems incapable of `
` communicating himself clearly; is he uncertain?--This is what I `
` have made out (by questioning and listening at a variety of `
` conversations) to be the cause of the decline of European theism; `
` it appears to me that though the religious instinct is in `
` vigorous growth,--it rejects the theistic satisfaction with `
` profound distrust. `
` `
` 54. What does all modern philosophy mainly do? Since Descartes-- `
` and indeed more in defiance of him than on the basis of his `
` procedure--an ATTENTAT has been made on the part of all `
` philosophers on the old conception of the soul, under the guise `
` of a criticism of the subject and predicate conception--that is `
` to say, an ATTENTAT on the fundamental presupposition of `
` Christian doctrine. Modern philosophy, as epistemological `
` skepticism, is secretly or openly ANTI-CHRISTIAN, although (for `
` keener ears, be it said) by no means anti-religious. Formerly, in `
` effect, one believed in "the soul" as one believed in grammar and `
` the grammatical subject: one said, "I" is the condition, "think" `
`
` self-mutilation. There is cruelty and religious Phoenicianism in `
` this faith, which is adapted to a tender, many-sided, and very `
` fastidious conscience, it takes for granted that the subjection `
` of the spirit is indescribably PAINFUL, that all the past and all `
` the habits of such a spirit resist the absurdissimum, in the form `
` of which "faith" comes to it. Modern men, with their obtuseness `
` as regards all Christian nomenclature, have no longer the sense `
` for the terribly superlative conception which was implied to an `
` antique taste by the paradox of the formula, "God on the Cross". `
` Hitherto there had never and nowhere been such boldness in `
` inversion, nor anything at once so dreadful, questioning, and `
` questionable as this formula: it promised a transvaluation of all `
` ancient values--It was the Orient, the PROFOUND Orient, it was `
` the Oriental slave who thus took revenge on Rome and its noble, `
` light-minded toleration, on the Roman "Catholicism" of non-faith, `
` and it was always not the faith, but the freedom from the faith, `
` the half-stoical and smiling indifference to the seriousness of `
` the faith, which made the slaves indignant at their masters and `
` revolt against them. "Enlightenment" causes revolt, for the slave `
` desires the unconditioned, he understands nothing but the `
` tyrannous, even in morals, he loves as he hates, without NUANCE, `
` to the very depths, to the point of pain, to the point of `
` sickness--his many HIDDEN sufferings make him revolt against the `
` noble taste which seems to DENY suffering. The skepticism with `
` regard to suffering, fundamentally only an attitude of `
` aristocratic morality, was not the least of the causes, also, of `
` the last great slave-insurrection which began with the French `
` Revolution. `
` `
` 47. Wherever the religious neurosis has appeared on the earth so `
` far, we find it connected with three dangerous prescriptions as `
` to regimen: solitude, fasting, and sexual abstinence--but without `
` its being possible to determine with certainty which is cause and `
` which is effect, or IF any relation at all of cause and effect `
` exists there. This latter doubt is justified by the fact that one `
` of the most regular symptoms among savage as well as among `
` civilized peoples is the most sudden and excessive sensuality, `
` which then with equal suddenness transforms into penitential `
` paroxysms, world-renunciation, and will-renunciation, both `
` symptoms perhaps explainable as disguised epilepsy? But nowhere `
` is it MORE obligatory to put aside explanations around no other `
` type has there grown such a mass of absurdity and superstition, `
` no other type seems to have been more interesting to men and even `
` to philosophers--perhaps it is time to become just a little `
` indifferent here, to learn caution, or, better still, to look `
` AWAY, TO GO AWAY--Yet in the background of the most recent `
` philosophy, that of Schopenhauer, we find almost as the problem `
` in itself, this terrible note of interrogation of the religious `
` crisis and awakening. How is the negation of will POSSIBLE? how `
` is the saint possible?--that seems to have been the very question `
` with which Schopenhauer made a start and became a philosopher. `
` And thus it was a genuine Schopenhauerian consequence, that his `
` most convinced adherent (perhaps also his last, as far as Germany `
` is concerned), namely, Richard Wagner, should bring his own life- `
` work to an end just here, and should finally put that terrible `
` and eternal type upon the stage as Kundry, type vecu, and as it `
` loved and lived, at the very time that the mad-doctors in almost `
` all European countries had an opportunity to study the type close `
` at hand, wherever the religious neurosis--or as I call it, "the `
` religious mood"--made its latest epidemical outbreak and display `
` as the "Salvation Army"--If it be a question, however, as to what `
` has been so extremely interesting to men of all sorts in all `
` ages, and even to philosophers, in the whole phenomenon of the `
` saint, it is undoubtedly the appearance of the miraculous `
` therein--namely, the immediate SUCCESSION OF OPPOSITES, of states `
` of the soul regarded as morally antithetical: it was believed `
` here to be self-evident that a "bad man" was all at once turned `
` into a "saint," a good man. The hitherto existing psychology was `
` wrecked at this point, is it not possible it may have happened `
` principally because psychology had placed itself under the `
` dominion of morals, because it BELIEVED in oppositions of moral `
` values, and saw, read, and INTERPRETED these oppositions into the `
` text and facts of the case? What? "Miracle" only an error of `
` interpretation? A lack of philology? `
` `
` 48. It seems that the Latin races are far more deeply attached to `
` their Catholicism than we Northerners are to Christianity `
` generally, and that consequently unbelief in Catholic countries `
` means something quite different from what it does among `
` Protestants--namely, a sort of revolt against the spirit of the `
` race, while with us it is rather a return to the spirit (or non- `
` spirit) of the race. `
` `
` We Northerners undoubtedly derive our origin from barbarous `
` races, even as regards our talents for religion--we have POOR `
` talents for it. One may make an exception in the case of the `
` Celts, who have theretofore furnished also the best soil for `
` Christian infection in the North: the Christian ideal blossomed `
` forth in France as much as ever the pale sun of the north would `
` allow it. How strangely pious for our taste are still these later `
` French skeptics, whenever there is any Celtic blood in their `
` origin! How Catholic, how un-German does Auguste Comte's `
` Sociology seem to us, with the Roman logic of its instincts! How `
` Jesuitical, that amiable and shrewd cicerone of Port Royal, `
` Sainte-Beuve, in spite of all his hostility to Jesuits! And even `
` Ernest Renan: how inaccessible to us Northerners does the `
` language of such a Renan appear, in whom every instant the merest `
` touch of religious thrill throws his refined voluptuous and `
` comfortably couching soul off its balance! Let us repeat after `
` him these fine sentences--and what wickedness and haughtiness is `
` immediately aroused by way of answer in our probably less `
` beautiful but harder souls, that is to say, in our more German `
` souls!--"DISONS DONC HARDIMENT QUE LA RELIGION EST UN PRODUIT DE `
` L'HOMME NORMAL, QUE L'HOMME EST LE PLUS DANS LE VRAI QUANT IL EST `
` LE PLUS RELIGIEUX ET LE PLUS ASSURE D'UNE DESTINEE INFINIE. . . . `
` C'EST QUAND IL EST BON QU'IL VEUT QUE LA VIRTU CORRESPONDE A UN `
` ORDER ETERNAL, C'EST QUAND IL CONTEMPLE LES CHOSES D'UNE MANIERE `
` DESINTERESSEE QU'IL TROUVE LA MORT REVOLTANTE ET ABSURDE. COMMENT `
` NE PAS SUPPOSER QUE C'EST DANS CES MOMENTS-LA, QUE L'HOMME VOIT `
` LE MIEUX?" . . . These sentences are so extremely ANTIPODAL to my `
` ears and habits of thought, that in my first impulse of rage on `
` finding them, I wrote on the margin, "LA NIAISERIE RELIGIEUSE PAR `
` EXCELLENCE!"--until in my later rage I even took a fancy to them, `
` these sentences with their truth absolutely inverted! It is so `
` nice and such a distinction to have one's own antipodes! `
` `
` 49. That which is so astonishing in the religious life of the `
` ancient Greeks is the irrestrainable stream of GRATITUDE which it `
` pours forth--it is a very superior kind of man who takes SUCH an `
` attitude towards nature and life.--Later on, when the populace `
` got the upper hand in Greece, FEAR became rampant also in `
` religion; and Christianity was preparing itself. `
` `
` 50. The passion for God: there are churlish, honest-hearted, and `
` importunate kinds of it, like that of Luther--the whole of `
` Protestantism lacks the southern DELICATEZZA. There is an `
` Oriental exaltation of the mind in it, like that of an `
` undeservedly favoured or elevated slave, as in the case of St. `
` Augustine, for instance, who lacks in an offensive manner, all `
` nobility in bearing and desires. There is a feminine tenderness `
` and sensuality in it, which modestly and unconsciously longs for `
` a UNIO MYSTICA ET PHYSICA, as in the case of Madame de Guyon. In `
` many cases it appears, curiously enough, as the disguise of a `
` girl's or youth's puberty; here and there even as the hysteria of `
` an old maid, also as her last ambition. The Church has frequently `
` canonized the woman in such a case. `
` `
` 51. The mightiest men have hitherto always bowed reverently `
` before the saint, as the enigma of self-subjugation and utter `
` voluntary privation--why did they thus bow? They divined in him-- `
` and as it were behind the questionableness of his frail and `
` wretched appearance--the superior force which wished to test `
` itself by such a subjugation; the strength of will, in which they `
` recognized their own strength and love of power, and knew how to `
` honour it: they honoured something in themselves when they `
` honoured the saint. In addition to this, the contemplation of the `
` saint suggested to them a suspicion: such an enormity of self- `
` negation and anti-naturalness will not have been coveted for `
` nothing--they have said, inquiringly. There is perhaps a reason `
` for it, some very great danger, about which the ascetic might `
` wish to be more accurately informed through his secret `
` interlocutors and visitors? In a word, the mighty ones of the `
` world learned to have a new fear before him, they divined a new `
` power, a strange, still unconquered enemy:--it was the "Will to `
` Power" which obliged them to halt before the saint. They had to `
` question him. `
` `
` 52. In the Jewish "Old Testament," the book of divine justice, `
` there are men, things, and sayings on such an immense scale, that `
` Greek and Indian literature has nothing to compare with it. One `
` stands with fear and reverence before those stupendous remains of `
` what man was formerly, and one has sad thoughts about old Asia `
` and its little out-pushed peninsula Europe, which would like, by `
` all means, to figure before Asia as the "Progress of Mankind." To `
` be sure, he who is himself only a slender, tame house-animal, and `
` knows only the wants of a house-animal (like our cultured people `
` of today, including the Christians of "cultured" Christianity), `
` need neither be amazed nor even sad amid those ruins--the taste `
` for the Old Testament is a touchstone with respect to "great" and `
` "small": perhaps he will find that the New Testament, the book of `
` grace, still appeals more to his heart (there is much of the `
` odour of the genuine, tender, stupid beadsman and petty soul in `
` it). To have bound up this New Testament (a kind of ROCOCO of `
` taste in every respect) along with the Old Testament into one `
` book, as the "Bible," as "The Book in Itself," is perhaps the `
` greatest audacity and "sin against the Spirit" which literary `
` Europe has upon its conscience. `
` `
` 53. Why Atheism nowadays? "The father" in God is thoroughly `
` refuted; equally so "the judge," "the rewarder." Also his "free `
` will": he does not hear--and even if he did, he would not know `
` how to help. The worst is that he seems incapable of `
` communicating himself clearly; is he uncertain?--This is what I `
` have made out (by questioning and listening at a variety of `
` conversations) to be the cause of the decline of European theism; `
` it appears to me that though the religious instinct is in `
` vigorous growth,--it rejects the theistic satisfaction with `
` profound distrust. `
` `
` 54. What does all modern philosophy mainly do? Since Descartes-- `
` and indeed more in defiance of him than on the basis of his `
` procedure--an ATTENTAT has been made on the part of all `
` philosophers on the old conception of the soul, under the guise `
` of a criticism of the subject and predicate conception--that is `
` to say, an ATTENTAT on the fundamental presupposition of `
` Christian doctrine. Modern philosophy, as epistemological `
` skepticism, is secretly or openly ANTI-CHRISTIAN, although (for `
` keener ears, be it said) by no means anti-religious. Formerly, in `
` effect, one believed in "the soul" as one believed in grammar and `
` the grammatical subject: one said, "I" is the condition, "think" `
`