No More Learning

—There are some questions
in which it is not given to man to decide between
true and false; all the principal questions, all the
principal problems of value, stand beyond human
reason. . . . To comprehend the limits of reason-
this alone is genuine philosophy. For what purpose
did God give man revelation ? Would God have
done anything superfluous ? Man cannot of his
own accord know what is good and what is evil,
that is why God taught man his will. . . . Moral :
the priest does not lie, such questions as “truth” or
"falseness” have nothing to do with the things
concerning which the priest speaks; such things
do not allow of lying. For, in order to lie, it
would be necessary to know what is true in this
respect. But that is precisely what man cannot
know : hence the priest is only the mouthpiece of
God. —This sort of sacerdotal syllogism is by no
means exclusively Judaic or Christian ; the right


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214
THE ANTICHRIST
1
>
to lie and the prudent measure of “revelation"
belongs to the priestly type, whether of decadent
periods or of Pagan times (Pagans are all those
who say yea to life, and to whom “God” is
the word for the great yea to all things). The
“law," the “will of God," the “holy book," and
inspiration. All these things are merely words for
the conditions under which the priest attains to
power, and with which he maintains his power,-
these concepts are to be found at the base of all
sacerdotal organisations, of all priestly or philo-
sophical and ecclesiastical governments. The “holy
lie," which is common to Confucius, to the law-
book of Manu, to Muhamed, and to the Christian
church, is not even absent in Plato. “Truth is
here"; this phrase means, wherever it is uttered :
the priest lies. . .
56
After all, the question is, to what end are false-
hoods perpetrated? The fact that, in Christianity,
"holy” ends are entirely absent, constitutes my
objection to the means it employs. Its ends are only
bad ends: the poisoning, the calumniation and the
denial of life, the contempt of the body, the degra-
dation and self-pollution of man by virtue of the
concept sin,-consequently its means are bad as
well. —My feelings are quite the reverse when I read
the law-book of Manu, an incomparably superior and
more intellectualwork,which it would be a sin against
the spirit even to mention in the same breath with
the Bible. You will guess immediately why: it has
a genuine philosophy behind it, in it, not merely an
evil-smelling Jewish distillation of Rabbinism and
)
a


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A CRITICISM OF CHRISTIANITY
215
superstition,-it gives something to chew even to the
most fastidious psychologist. And, not to forget
the most important point of all, it is fundamentally
different from every kind of Bible: by means of it
the noble classes, the philosophers and the warriors
guard and guide the masses; it is replete with noble
values, it is filled with a feeling of perfection, with a
saying of yea to life, and a triumphant sense of well-
being in regard to itself and to life,—the sun shines
upon the whole book. — All those things which
Christianity smothers with its bottomless vulgarity:
procreation, woman, marriage, are here treated with
earnestness, with reverence, with love and confidence.
How can one possibly place in the hands of children
and women, a book that contains those vile words:
“to avoid fornication, let every man have his own
wife, and let every woman have her own husband
. . . it is better to marry than to burn. ”* And is
it decent to be a Christian so long as the very origint
of man is Christianised,—that is to say, befouled, by
the idea of the immaculata conceptio ? . . . I know of
no book in which so many delicate and kindly things
are said to woman, as in the Law-Book of Manu;
these old grey-beards and saints have a manner of
being gallant to women which, perhaps, cannot be
surpassed. “The mouth of a woman,” says Manu
on one occasion, “the breast of a maiden, the
prayer
of a child, and the smoke of the sacrifice, are always
pure. " Elsewhere he says: “there is nothing purer
than the light of the sun, the shadow cast by a cow,
air, water, fire and the breath of a maiden. " And
finally-perhaps this is also a holy lie :-“all the
1 Corinthians vịi. 2, 9. -TR,
O


## p. 216 (#236) ############################################

216
THE ANTICHRIST
openings of the body above the navel are pure, all
those below the navel are impure. Only in a maiden is
the whole body pure. ”
57
The unholiness of Christian means is caught in
flagranti, if only the end aspired to by Christianity
be compared with that of the Law-Book of Manu;
if only these two utterly opposed aims be put under
a strong light. The critic of Christianity simply can-
not avoid making Christianity contemptible. —A Law-
Book like that of Manu comes into being like every
good law-book : it epitomises the experience, the
precautionary measures, and the experimental mor-
ality of long ages, it settles things definitely, it no
longer creates. The prerequisite for a codification
of this kind, is the recognition of the fact that the
means which procure authority for a truth to which
it has cost both time and great pains to attain, are
fundamentally different from those with which that
same truth would be proved. A law-book never
relates the utility, the reasons, the preliminary casu-
istry, of a law: for it would be precisely in this way
that it would forfeit its imperative tone, the “thou
shalt,” the first condition of its being obeyed. The
problem lies exactly in this. —At a certain stage in
the development of a people, the most far-seeing
class within it (that is to say, the class that sees
farthest backwards and forwards), declares the ex-
perience of how its fellow-creatures ought to live-
i. e. , can live—to be finally settled. Its object is, to
reap as rich and as complete a harvest as possible,
in return for the ages of experiment and terrible ex-
perience it has traversed. Consequently, that which


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A CRITICISM OF CHRISTIANITY
217
.
has to be avoided, above all, is any further experi-
mentation, the continuation of the state when values
are still fluid, the testing, choosing, and criticising
of values in infinitum. Against all this a double
wall is built up: in the first place, Revelation, which
is the assumption that the rationale of every law is
not human in its origin, that it was not sought and
found after ages of error, but that it is divine in its
origin, completely and utterly without a history, a
gift, a miracle, a mere communication. . . . And
secondly, tradition, which is the assumption that the
law has obtained since the most primeval times, that
it is impious and a crime against one's ancestors to
attempt to doubt it. The authority of law is estab-
lished on the principles: God gave it, the ancestors
lived it. —The superior reason of such a procedure
lies in the intention to draw consciousness off step
by step from that mode of life which has been re-
cognised as correct (i. e. , proved after enormous and
carefully examined experience), so that perfect auto-
matism of the instincts may be attained,—this being
the only possible basis of all mastery of every kind
of perfection in the Art of Life. To draw up a law-
book like Manu's, is tantamount to granting a people
mastership for the future, perfection for the future,
the right to aspire to the highest Art of Life. To
that end it must be made unconscious: this is the
object of every holy lie. —The order of castes, the
highest, the dominating law, is only the sanction
of a natural order, of a natural legislation of the
first rank, over which no arbitrary innovation, no
“modern idea" has any power. Every healthy
society falls into three distinct types, which recipro-


## p. 218 (#238) ############################################

218
THE ANTICHRIST
cally condition one another and which gravitate
differently in the physiological sense; and each of
these has its own hygiene, its own sphere of work,
its own special feeling of perfection, and its own
mastership. It. is Nature, not Manu, that separates
from the rest, those individuals preponderating in
intellectual power, those excelling in muscular
strength and temperament, and the third class which
is distinguished neither in one way nor the other,
the mediocre,—the latter as the greatest number,
the former as the élite. The superior caste—I call
them the fewest,—has, as the perfect caste, the privi-
leges of the fewest : it devolves upon them to repre-
sent happiness, beauty and goodness on earth. Only
the most intellectual men have the right to beauty,
to the beautiful : only in them is goodness not weak-
Pulchrum est paucorum hominum : goodness
is a privilege. On the other hand there is nothing
which they should be more strictly forbidden than
repulsive manners or a pessimistic look, a look that
makes everything seem ugly,—or even indignation
at the general aspect of things. Indignation is
the privilege of the Chandala, and so is pessimism.
“ The world is perfect”—that is what the instinct of
the most intellectual says, the yea-saying instinct;
"imperfection, every kind of inferiority to us, dis-
tance, the pathos of distance, even the Chandala
belongs to this perfection. “ The most intellectual
men, as the strongest find their happiness where
others meet with their ruin: in the labyrinth, in
hardness towards themselves and others, in en-
deavour; their delight is self-mastery: with them
asceticism becomes a second nature, a need, an in-
ness.


## p. 219 (#239) ############################################

A CRITICISM OF CHRISTIANITY
219
stinct. They regard a difficult task as their privi-
lege; to play with burdens which crush their fellows
is to them a recreation. . . . Knowledge, a form of
asceticism. —They are the most honourable kind of
men: but that does not prevent them from being
the most cheerful and most gracious. They rule,
not because they will, but because they are; they
are not at liberty to take a second place. —The
second in rank are the guardians of the law, the
custodians of order and of security, the noble war-
riors, the king, above all, as the highest formula of
the warrior, the judge, and keeper of the law. The
second in rank are the executive of the most in-
tellectual, the nearest to them in duty, relieving them
of all that is coarse in the work of ruling,—their
retinue, their right hand, their best disciples. In
all this, I repeat, there is nothing arbitrary, nothing
artificial,” that which is otherwise is artificial,—by
that which is otherwise, nature is put to shame.
The order of castes, and the order of rank merely
formulates the supreme law of life itself; the differ-
entiation of the three types is necessary for the
maintenance of society, and for enabling higher and
highest types to be reared,—the inequality of rights
is the only condition of there being rights at all. —A
right is a privilege. And in his way, each has his
privilege. Let us not underestimate the privileges
of the mediocre. Life always gets harder towards the
summit,—the cold increases, responsibility increases.
A high civilisation is a pyramid: it can stand only
upon a broad base, its first prerequisite is a strongly
and soundly consolidated mediocrity. Handicraft,
commerce, agriculture, science, the greater part of
-


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220
THE ANTICHRIST
art,—in a word, the whole range of professional and
business callings, is compatible only with mediocre
ability and ambition ; such pursuits would be out
of place among exceptions, the instinct pertaining
thereto would oppose not only aristocracy but an-
archy as well. The fact that one is publicly useful,
a wheel, a function, presupposes a certain natural
destiny: it is not society, but the only kind of happiness
of which the great majority are capable, that makes
them intelligent machines. For the mediocre it is a
joy to be mediocre; in them mastery in one thing,
a speciality, is a natural instinct. It would be abso-
lutely unworthy of a profound thinker to see any
objection in mediocrity per se. For in itself it is the
first essential condition under which exceptions are
possible ; a high culture is determined by it. When
the exceptional man treats the mediocre with more
tender care than he does himself or his equals, this
is not mere courtesy of heart on his part—but
simply his duty. Whom do I hate most among
the rabble of the present day? The socialistic
rabble, the Chandala apostles, who undermine the
working man's instinct, his happiness and his feeling
of contentedness with his insignificant existence,-
who make him envious, and who teach him revenge.
The wrong never lies in unequal rights; it lies
in the claim to equal rights. What is bad? But I
have already replied to this: Everything that pro-
ceeds from weakness, envy and revenge. —The anar-
chist and the Christian are offspring of the same
womb.
58
In point of fact, it matters greatly to what end


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A CRITICISM OF CHRISTIANITY.
221
one lies : whether one preserves or destroys by means
of falsehood. It is quite justifiable to bracket the
Christian and the Anarchist together : their object,
their instinct, is concerned only with destruction.
The proof of this proposition can be read quite
plainly from history : history spells it with appal-
ling distinctness. Whereas we have just seen a
religious legislation, whose object was to render the
highest possible means of making life flourish,
and of making a grand organisation of society,
eternal,—Christianity found its mission in putting
an end to such an organisation, precisely because
life flourishes through it. In the one case, the net
profit to the credit of reason, acquired through long
ages of experiment and of insecurity, is applied use-
fully to the most remote ends, and the harvest,
which is as large, as rich and as complete as pos-
sible, is reaped and garnered: in the other case, on
the contrary, the harvest is blighted in a single night.
That which stood there, ære perennius, the im-
perium Romanum, the most magnificent form of
organisation, under difficult conditions, that has
ver been achieved, and compared with which every-
thing that preceded, and everything which followed
it, is mere patchwork, gimcrackery, and dilettantism,
—those holy anarchists made it their “piety," to
destroy “the world”—that is to say, the imperium
Romanum, until no two stones were left standing
one on the other, until even the Teutons and other
clodhoppers were able to become master of it. The
Christian and the anarchist are both decadents;
they are both incapable of acting in any other way
than disintegratingly, poisonously and witheringly,


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222
THE ANTICHRIST
)
like blood-suckers; they are both actuated by an
instinct of mortal hatred of everything that stands
erect, that is great, that is lasting, and that is a
guarantee of the future. . . . Christianity was the
vampire of the imperium Romanum,-in a night
it_shattered the stupendous achievement of the
Romans, which was to acquire the territory for a
vast civilisation which could bide its time. Does no
one understand this yet? The imperium Romanum
that we know, and which the history of the Roman
province teaches us to know ever more thoroughly,
this most admirable work of art on a grand scale,
was the beginning, its construction was calculated
to prove its worth by millenniums,—unto this day
nothing has ever again been built in this fashion,
nor have men even dreamt since of building on this
scale sub specie æterni ! This organisation was
sufficiently firm to withstand bad emperors : the
accident of personalities must have nothing to do
with such matters — the first principle of all great
architecture. But it was not sufficiently firm to
resist the corruptest form of corruption, to resist the
Christians.
ans. . . . These stealthy canker-worms, which
under the shadow of night, mist and duplicity,
insinuated themselves into the company of every
individual, and proceeded to drain him of all serious-
ness for real things, of all his instinct for realities;
this cowardly, effeminate and sugary gang have step
by step alienated all “souls” from this colossal
edifice,—those valuable, virile and noble natures
who felt that the cause of Rome was their own
personal cause, their own personal seriousness, their
own personal pride. The stealth of the bigot, the
-


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A CRITICISM OF CHRISTIANITY
223
secrecy of the conventicle, concepts as black as hell
such as the sacrifice of the innocent, the unio
mystica in the drinking of blood, above all the
slowly kindled fire of revenge, of Chandala revenge
—such things became master of Rome, the same
kind of religion on the pre-existent form of which
Epicurus had waged war. One has only to read
Lucretius in order to understand what Epicurus
combated, not Paganism, but“ Christianity,” that is
to say the corruption of souls through the concept
of guilt, through the concept of punishment and
immortality. He combated the subterranean cults,
the whole of latent Christianity—to deny immor-
tality was at that time a genuine deliverance. And
Epicurus had triumphed, every respectable thinker
in the Roman Empire was an Epicurean : then St
Paul appeared . . . St Paul, the Chandala hatred
against Rome, against “the world,” the Jew, the
eternal Jew par excellence, become flesh and genius.
What he divined was, how, by the help of the
small sectarian Christian movement, independent of
Judaism, a universal conflagration could be kindled ;
how, with the symbol of the “God on the Cross,”
everything submerged, everything secretly insurrec-
tionary, the whole offspring of anàrchical intrigues
could be gathered together to constitute an enor-
mous power. “For salvation is of the Jews. ”—
“
Christianity is the formula for the supersession, and
epitomising of all kinds of subterranean cults, that
of Osiris, of the Great Mother, of Mithras for
example: St Paul's genius consisted in his discovery
of this. In this matter his instinct was so certain,
that, regardless of doing violence to truth, he laid the
.


## p. 224 (#244) ############################################

224
THE ANTICHRIST
ideas by means of which those Chandala religions
fascinated, upon the very lips of the “ Saviour” he
had invented, and not only upon his lips,—that he
made out of him something which even a Mithras
priest could understand. . .
. . . This was his moment
of Damascus : he saw that he had need of the belief
in immortality in order to depreciate “the world,”
that the notion of “hell ” would become master of
Rome, that with a "Beyond” this life can be killed.
Nihilist and Christian,—they rhyme in German,
and they do not only rhyme.
59
The whole labour of the ancient world in vain :
I am at a loss for a word which could express my
feelings at something so atrocious. —And in view
of the fact that its labour was only preparatory,
that with adamantine self-consciousness it laid the
substructure, alone, to a work which was to last
millenniums, the whole significance of the ancient
world was certainly in vain! . . . What was the use
of the Greeks? what was the use of the Romans ?
-All the prerequisites of a learned culture, all the
scientific methods already existed, the great and
peerless art of reading well had already been
established—that indispensable condition to tradi-
tion, to culture and to scientific unity; natural
science hand in hand with mathematics and
mechanics was on the best possible road,--the
sense for facts, the last and most valuable of all
senses, had its schools, and its tradition was already
centuries old! Is this understood ? Everything
essential had been discovered to make it possible


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A CRITICISM OF CHRISTIANITY
225
for work to be begun :-methods, and this cannot
be said too often, are the essential thing, also the
most difficult thing, while they moreover have to
wage the longest war against custom and indo-
lence. That which to-day we have successfully
reconquered for ourselves, by dint of unspeakable
self-discipline—for in some way or other all of us
still have the bad instincts, the Christian instincts,
in our body,—the impartial eye for reality, the
cautious hand, patience and seriousness in the
smallest details, complete uprightness in know-
ledge,—all this was already there; it had been
there over two thousand years before! And in
addition to this there was also that excellent and
subtle tact and taste! Not in the form of brain
drilling! Not in the form of “German” culture
with the manners of a boor! But incarnate, mani-
festing itself in men's bearing and in their instinct,
-in short constituting reality. . . . All this in
vain! In one night it became merely a memory!
-The Greeks! The Romans! Instinctive nobility,
instinctive taste, methodic research, the genius of
organisation and administration, faith, the w to
the future of mankind, the great yea to all things
materialised in the imperium Romanum, become
visible to all the senses, grand style no longer
manifested in mere art, but in reality, in truth, in
life. —And buried in a night, not by a natural
catastrophe! Not stamped to death by Teutons
and other heavy-footed vandals! But destroyed
by crafty, stealthy, invisible anæmic vampires !
Not conquered, -- but only drained of blood! . . .
The concealed lust of revenge, miserable envy
.
.
-
15


## p. 226 (#246) ############################################

226
THE ANTICHRIST
1
become master! Everything wretched, inwardly
ailing, and full of ignoble feelings, the whole
Ghetto-world of souls, was in a trice uppermost !
-One only needs to read any one of the Christian
agitators-St Augustine, for instance,-in order to
realise, in order to sinell, what filthy fellows came
to the top in this movement. You would deceive
yourselves utterly if you supposed that the leaders
of the Christian agitation showed any lack of under-
standing :-Ah! they were shrewd, shrewd to the
point of holiness were these dear old Fathers of
the Church! What they lack is something quite
different. Nature neglected them,-it forgot to
give them a modest dowry of decent, of respectable
and of cleanly instincts. Between ourselves,
they are not even men. If Islam despises Christi-
anity, it is justified a thousand times over; for
Islam presupposes men.
-
60
Christianity destroyed the harvest we might
have reaped from the culture of antiquity, later it
also destroyed our harvest of the culture of Islam.
The wonderful Moorish world of Spanish culture,
which in its essence is more closely related to us,
and which appeals more to our sense and taste
than Rome and Greece, was trampled to death (-I
do not say by what kind of feet), why? —because it
owed its origin to noble, to manly instincts, because
it said yea to life, even that life so full of the rare
and refined luxuries of the Moors! . . . Later on
the Crusaders waged war upon something before
which it would have been more seemly in them to


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A CRITICISM OF CHRISTIANITY
227
grovel in the dust,-a culture, beside which even
our Nineteenth Century would seem very poor and
very “senile. ”—OL. course they wanted booty: the
Orient was rich. For goodness' sake let us
forget our prejudices ! Crusades—superior piracy,
that is all ! German nobility—that is to say, a
Viking nobility at bottom, was in its element in
such wars: the Church was only too well aware of
how German nobility is to be won.
German
nobility was always the “Swiss Guard” of the
Church, always at the service of all the bad instincts
of the Church ; but it was well paid for it all. . . .
Fancy the Church having waged its deadly war
upon everything noble on earth, precisely with the
help of German swords, German blood and courage !
A host of painful questions might be raised on this
point. German nobility scarcely takes a place in
the history of higher culture: the reason of this
is obvious Christianity, alcohol—the two great
means of corruption. As a matter of fact, choice
ought to be just as much out of the question between
Islam and Christianity, as between an Arab and a
Jew. The decision is already self-evident; nobody
is at liberty to exercise a choice in this matter. A
man is either of the Chandala or he is not.
“War with Rome to the knife! Peace and friend-
ship with Islam”: this is what that great free
spirit, that genius among German emperors,-
Frederick the Second, not only felt but also did.
What? Must a German in the first place be a
?
genius, a free-spirit, in order to have decent feelings?
I cannot understand how a German was ever able
to have Christian feelings.


## p. 228 (#248) ############################################

228
THE ANTICHRIST
61
.
Here it is necessary to revive a memory which
will be a hundred times more painful to Germans.
The Germans have destroyed the last great harvest
of culture which was to be garnered for Europe,
it destroyed the Renaissance. Does anybody at
last understand, will anybody understand what the
Renaissance was? The transvaluation of Christian
values, the attempt undertaken with all means, an
instincts and all genius to make the opposite values,
the noble values triumph. . Hitherto there has
been only this great war : there has never yet been
a more decisive question than the Renaissance,-my
question is the question of the Renaissance :—there
has never been a more fundamental, a more direct
and a more severe attack, delivered with a whole
front upon the centre of the foe. To attack at the
decisive quarter, at the very seat of Christianity,
and there to place noble values on the throne,—that
is to say, to introduce them into the instincts, into
the most fundamental needs and desires of those
sitting there. . . . I see before me a possibility
perfectly magic in its charm and glorious colouring
-it seems to me to scintillate with all the quiver-
ing grandeur of refined beauty, that there is an art
at work within it which is so divine, so infernally
divine, that one might seek through millenniums in
vain for another such possibility; I see a spectacle
so rich in meaning and so wonderfully paradoxical
to boot, that it would be enough to make all the
gods of Olympus rock with immortal laughter,
Cæsar Borgia as Pope. . . . Do you understand me?
O


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A CRITICISM OF CHRISTIANITY
229
Very well then, this would have been the
triumph which I alone am longing for to-day :
this would have swept Christianity away! —What
happened? A German monk, Luther, came to
Rome. This monk, with all the vindictive instincts
of an abortive priest in his body, foamed with rage
over the Renaissance in Rome. . . . Instead of, with
the profoundest gratitude, understanding the vast
miracle that had taken place, the overcoming of
Christianity at its headquarters,—the fire of his hate
knew only how to draw fresh fuel from this spectacle.
A religious man thinks only of himself. —Luther
saw the corruption of the Papacy when the very
reverse stared him in the face: the old corruption,
the peccatum originale, Christianity no longer sat
upon the Papal chair! But Life! The triumph
of Life! The great yea to all lofty, beautiful and
daring things! And Luther reinstated the
Church; he attacked it. The Renaissance thus
became an event without meaning, a great in vain
-Ah these Germans, what have they not cost us
already! In vain—this has always been the achieve-
ment of the Germans. —The Reformation, Leibniz,
Kant and so-called German philosophy, the Wars
of Liberation, the Empire—in each case are in vain
for something which had already existed, for some-
thing which cannot be recovered. . . . I confess it,
these Germans are my enemies : I. despise every
sort of uncleanliness in concepts and valuations in
them, every kind of cowardice in the face of every
honest yea or nay. For almost one thousand years,
now, they have tangled and confused everything
they have laid their hands on; they have on their
.
.


## p. 230 (#250) ############################################

230
THE ANTICHRIST
conscience all the half-measures, all the three-eighth
measures of which Europe is sick ; they also have
the most unclean, the most incurable, and the most
irrefutable kind of Christianity-Protestantism--on
their conscience. . . . If we shall never be able to
get rid of Christianity, the Germans will be to blame.
62
-With this I will now conclude and pronounce
my judgment. I condemn Christianity and confront
it with the most terrible accusation that an accuser
has ever had in his mouth. To my mind it is the
greatest of all conceivable corruptions, it has had
the will to the last imaginable corruption. The
Christian Church allowed nothing to escape from
its corruption; it converted every value into its
opposite, every truth into a lie, and every honest
impulse into an ignominy of the soul. Let anyone
dare to speak to me of its humanitarian blessings !
To abolish any sort of distress was opposed to its
profoundest interests; its very existence depended
on states of distress; it created states of distress in
order to make itself immortal. . . . The cancer germ
of sin, for instance: the Church was the first to en-
rich mankind with this misery! —The “equality of
souls before God,” this falsehood, this pretext for the
rancunes of all the base-minded, this anarchist bomb
of a concept, which has ultimately become the re-
volution, the modern idea, the principle of decay of
the whole of social order,—this is Christian dyna-
mite. . . . The “humanitarian" blessings of Chris-
tianity! To breed a self-contradiction, an art of
self-profanation, a will to lie at any price, an aversion,
-


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A CRITICISM OF CHRISTIANITY
231
1
a contempt of all good and honest instincts out of
humanitas! Is this what you call the blessings of
Christianity ? —Parasitism as the only method of the
Church; sucking all the blood, all the love, all the
hope of life out of mankind with anæmic and sacred
ideals. A “Beyond” as the will to deny all reality;
the cross as the trade-mark of the most subterranean
form of conspiracy that has ever existed,-against
health, beauty, well-constitutedness, bravery, intel-
lect, kindliness of soul, against Life itself. .
This eternal accusation against Christianity I
would fain write on all walls, wherever there are
walls,- I have letters with which I can make even
the blind see. . . . I call Christianity the one great
curse, the one enormous and innermost perversion,
the one great instinct of revenge, for which no means
are too venomous, too underhand, too underground
and too petty,–I call it the one immortal blemish
of mankind.
And time is reckoned from the dies nefastus
upon which this fatality came into being—from the
first day of Christianity ! -why not rather from its
last day? -From to-day? -Transvaluation of all
Values ! . .


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THE ETERNAL RECURRENCE
AND
EXPLANATORY NOTES TO
THUS SPAKE ZARATHUSTRA. ”


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## p. 235 (#255) ############################################

TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE
THE notes concerning the Eternal Recurrence, in
this volume, are said by Mrs Foerster-Nietzsche to
have been the first that Nietzsche ever wrote on the
subject of his great doctrine. This being so, they
must have been composed towards the autumn of
the year 1881.
I have already pointed out elsewhere (Will to
Power, vol. ii. , Translator's Preface) how much im-
portance Nietzsche himself ascribed to this doctrine,
and how, until the end, he regarded it as the inspira-
tion which had led to his chief work, Thus Spake
Zarathustra. For the details relating to its incep-
tion, however, I would refer the reader to Mrs
Foerster-Nietzsche's Introduction to her brother's
chief work, which was translated for the eleventh
volume of this Edition of the Complete Works.
In reading these notes it would be well to refer
to Nietzsche's other utterances on the subject which
are to be found at the end of vol. ii. of the Will to
Power, and also, if possible, to have recourse to the
original German text. Despite the greatest care, I
confess that in some instances, I have felt a little
doubt as to the precise English equivalent for the
thoughts expressed under the heading Eternal Re-
currence; and, though I have attributed this difficulty
to the extreme novelty of the manner in which the
335


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236
THE ETERNAL RECURRENCE
subject is presented, it is well that the reader should
be aware that such doubt has been entertained.
For I disbelieve utterly in mere verbal translation,
however accurate, and would question anybody's
right to convert a German sentence into English-
even though he were so perfect in both languages as
to be almost absolutely bilingual, if he did not
completely grasp the thought behind the sentence.
The writing of the collected Explanatory Notes to
Thus Spake Zarathustra, cannot be given any exact
date. Some of them consist of comments, written
down by Nietzsche after the completion of the book,
and kept as the nucleus of an actual commentary
to Zarathustra, which it seems to have been his in-
tention, one day, to write; while others are merely
memoranda and rough sketches, probably written
before the completion of the work, and which served
the purpose of a draft of his original plan. The
reader who knows Thus Spake Zarathustra will be
able to tell wherein the book ultimately differed
from the plan visible in these preliminary notes.
As an authoritative, though alas! all too frag-
mentary elucidation of a few of the more obscure
passages of Zarathustra, some of these notes are of
the greatest value; and, in paragraph 73, for in-
stance, there is an interpretation of the Fourth and
Last Part, which I myself would have welcomed
with great enthusiasm, at the time when I was
having my first struggles with the spirit of this
great German sage's life work.
ANTHONY M. LUDOVICI.


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I. ETERNAL RECURRENCE
1. THE DOCTRINE EXPOUNDED AND
SUBSTANTIATED.
I
The extent of universal energy is limited; it is not
“infinite”: we should beware of such excesses in
our concepts! Consequently the number of states,
changes, combinations, and evolutions of this energy,
although it may be enormous and practically incal-
culable, is at any rate_definite and not unlimited.
The time, however, in which this universal energy
works its changes is infinite—that is to say, energy
remains eternally the same and is eternally active:-
at this moment an infinity has already elapsed, that
is to say, every possible evolution must already have
taken place. Consequently the present process of
evolution must be a repetition, as was also the one
before it, as will also be the one which will follow.
And so on forwards and backwards! Inasmuch as
the entire state of all forces continually returns,
Xeverything has existed an infinite number of times.
Whether, apart from this, anything exactly like
something that formerly existed has ever appeared,
is completely beyond proof. It would seem that
each complete state of energy forms all qualities
afresh even to the smallest degree, so that two dif-
ferentcompletestates could have nothing in common.
237


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238
THE ETERNAL RECURRENCE
Is it to be supposed that in one and the same com-
plete states two precisely similar things could appear
-for instance two leaves ? I doubt it: it would
take for granted that they had both had an abso-
lutely similar origin, and in that case we should have
to assume that right back in infinity two similar
things had also existed despite all the changes in the
complete states and their creation of new qualities
-an impossible assumption.
2
Formerly it was thought that unlimited energy
was a necessary corollary to unlimited activity in
time, and that this energy could be exhausted by
no form of consumption. Now it is thought that
energy remains constant and does not require to
be infinite. It is eternally active but it is no longer
able eternally to create new forms, it must repeat
itself: that is my conclusion.
3
Anincalculablenumber ofcompletestatesofenergy
have existed, but these have not been infinitely dif-
ferent: for if they had been, unlimited energy would
have been necessary. The energy of the universe
can only have a given number of possible qualities.
4
The endless evolution of new forms is a contra-
diction, for it would implyeternallyincreasing energy.
But whence would it grow? Whence would it de-
rive its nourishment and its surplus of nourishment?


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THE ETERNAL RECURRENCE
239
The assumption that the universe is an organism
contradicts the very essence of the organic.
5
In what principle and belief is that decisive turn-
ing point in philosophical thought best expressed
which has come into being thanks to the preponder-
ance of the scientific spirit over the religious and
God-creating one? We insist upon the fact that
the world as a sum of energy must not be regarded
as unlimited—we forbid ourselves the concept in-
finite energy, because it seems incompatible with
the concept energy.
6
An unlimited number of new changes and states
on the part of limited energy is a contradiction,
however extensive one may imagine it to be, and
however economical the changes may be, provided
it is infinite. We are therefore, forced to conclude:
(1) either that the universe began its activity at a
given moment of time and will end in a similar
fashion,—but the beginning of activity is absurd;
if a state of equilibrium had been reached it would
have persisted to all eternity ;(2) Or there is no such
thing as an endless number of changes, but a circle
consisting of a definite number of them which con-
a
tinually recurs : activity is eternal, the number of
the products and states of energy is limited.
1
7
If all the possible combinations and relations of
forces had not already been exhausted, then an
infinity would not yet lie behind us. Now since


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240
THE ETERNAL RECURRENCE
infinite time must be assumed, no fresh possibility can
exist and everything must have appeared already,
and moreover an infinite number of times.
a
8
The present world of forces leads back to a state
of greatest simplicity in these forces: it likewise
leads forwards to such a state,—cannot and must
not both states be identical? No incalculable
number of states can evolve out of a system of
limited forces, that is to say, out of a given quantity
of energy which may be precisely measured. Only
when we falsely assume that space is unlimited,
and that therefore energy gradually becomes dissi-
pated, can the final state be an unproductive and
lifeless one.
9
First principles. —The last physical state of energy
which we can imagine must necessarily be the first
also. The absorption of energy in latent energy
must be the cause of the production of the most
vital energy
For a highly positive state must
follow a negative state. Space like matter is a
subjective form, time is not. The notion of
space
first arose from the assumption that space could be
empty. But there is no such thing as empty space.
Everything is energy.
We cannot think of that which moves and that
which is moved together, but both these things
constitute matter and space. We isolate.
IO
Concerning the resurrection of the world. -Out


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THE ETERNAL RECURRENCE
241
of two negatives, when they are forces, a positive
arises. (Darkness comes of light opposed to light,
cold arises from warmth opposed to warmth, &c. ,
&c. )
II
An uncertain state of equilibrium occurs just as
seldom in nature as two absolutely equal triangles.
Consequently anything like a static state of energy
in general is impossible. If stability were possible
it would already have been reached.
I2
Either complete equilibrium must in itself be an
impossibility, or the changes of energy introduce
themselves in the circular process before that equi-
librium which is in itself possible has appeared. -
But it would be madness to ascribe a feeling of
self-preservation to existence ! And the same
applies to the conception of a contest of pain and
pleasure among atoms.
13
Physics supposes that energy may be divided
up: but every one of its possibilities must first be
adjusted to reality. There can therefore be no
question of dividing energy into equal parts; in
every one of its states it manifests a certain quality,
and qualities cannot be subdivided : hence a state
of equilibrium in energy is impossible.
14
If energy had ever reached a stage of equilibrium
that stage would have persisted: it has therefore
16


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242
THE ETERNAL RECURRENCE
never reached such a stage. The present condition
of things contradicts this assumption. If we assume
that there has ever been a state absolutely like the
present one this assumption is in no wise refuted
by the present state. For, among all the endless
possibilities, this case must already have occurred,
as an infinity is already behind us. If equilibrium
were possible it would already have been reached. -
And if this momentary state has already existed
then that which bore it and the previous one also
would likewise have existed and so on backwards,
-and from this it follows that it has already existed
not only twice but three times, just as it will exist
again not only twice but three times,-in fact an
infinite number of times backwards and forwards.
That is to say, the whole process of Becoming con-
sists of a repetition of a definite number of precisely
similar states. —Clearly the human brain cannot be
left to imagine the whole series of possibilities: but
in any case, quite apart from our ability to judge or
our inability to conceive the whole range of possi-
bilities, the present state at least is a possible one-
because it is a real one.
We should therefore say:
in the event of the number of possibilities not being
infinite, and assuming that in the course of unlimited
time a limited number of these must appear, all real
states must have been preceded by similar states ?
Because from every given moment a whole infinity is
to be calculated backwards ? The stability of forces
and their equilibrium is a possible alternative: but
it has not been reached ; consequently the number
of possibilities is greater than the number of real
states.