formed by an
excellent
version of the Bible.
Nietzsche - v04 - Untimely Meditations - a
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Title: The complete works of Friedrich Nietzsche. The first complete
and authorized English translation, edited by Dr. Oscar Levy.
Author: Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm, 1844-1900.
Publisher: [Edinburgh and London : T. N. Foulis, 1909-1913. ]
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THE COMPLETE WORKS
OF
FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE
The First Complete and Authorised English Translation
EDITED BY
Dr. OSCAR LEVY
A-
VOLUME-ONE-
THOUGHTS OUT OF SEASON
PART ONE
## p. ii (#12) ##############################################
Of the Second Edition,
making Two Thousand Copies printed,
this is
No.
1343
## p. iii (#13) #############################################
FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE
THOUGHTS
OUT OF SEASON
PART I
DAVID STRAUSS, THE CONFESSOR
AND THE WRITER
RICHARD WAGNER IN BAYREUTH
TRANSLATED BY
ANTHONY M. LUDOVICI
T. N. FOULIS
13 & 15 FREDERICK STREET
EDINBURGH: AND LONDON
1910
## p. iv (#14) ##############################################
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Printed by Morrison & Gibb Limited, Edinburgh
## p. v (#15) ###############################################
u oil
CONTENTS.
PAGE
Editorial Note - - - - - vii
Nietzsche in England (by the Editor) - xi
Translator's Preface to David Strauss and
Richard Wagner in Bayreuth - - xxix
David Strauss, the Confessor and the Writer i
Richard Wagner in Bayreuth - - - 99
## p. vi (#16) ##############################################
## p. vii (#17) #############################################
EDITORIAL NOTE.
THE Editor begs to call attention to some of
the difficulties he had to encounter in preparing
this edition of the complete works of Friedrich
Nietzsche. Not being English himself, he had to
rely upon the help of collaborators, who were
somewhat slow in coming forward. They were
also few in number; for, in addition to an exact
knowledge of the German language, there was
also required sympathy and a certain enthusiasm
for the startling ideas of the original, as well
as a considerable feeling for poetry, and that
highest form of it, religious poetry.
Such a combination—a biblical mind, yet one
open to new thoughts—was not easily found.
And yet it was necessary to find translators with
such a mind, and not be satisfied, as the French
are and must be, with a free though elegant
version of Nietzsche. What is impossible and
unnecessary in French—a faithful and powerful
rendering of the psalmistic grandeur of Nietzsche
—is possible and necessary in English, which is
a rougher tongue of the Teutonic stamp, and
moreover, like German, a tongue influenced and
## p. viii (#18) ############################################
V1I1 EDITORIAL NOTE.
formed by an excellent version of the Bible.
The English would never be satisfied, as Bible-
ignorant France is, with a Nietzsche d VEau de
Cologne—they would require the natural, strong,
real Teacher, and would prefer his outspoken
words to the finely-chiselled sentences of the
raconteur. It may indeed be safely predicted
that once the English people have recovered
from the first shock of Nietzsche's thoughts,
their biblical training will enable them, more
than any other nation, to appreciate the deep
piety underlying Nietzsche's Cause.
As this Cause is a somewhat holy one to the
Editor himself, he is ready to listen to any
suggestions as to improvements of style or sense
coming from qualified sources. The Editor,
during a recent visit to Mrs. Foerster-Nietzsche
at Weimar, acquired the rights of translation by
pointing out to her that in this way her brother's
works would not fall into the hands of an ordinary
publisher and his staff of translators: he has not,
therefore, entered into any engagement with
publishers, not even with the present one, which
could hinder his task, bind him down to any text
found faulty, or make him consent to omissions
or the falsification or "sugaring" of the original
text to further the sale of the books. He
is therefore in a position to give every atten-
tion to a work which he considers as of no less
importance for the country of his residence than
for the country of his birth, as well as for the
rest of Europe.
It is the consciousness of the importance of
*
## p. ix (#19) ##############################################
EDITORIAL NOTE. IX
this work which makes the Editor anxious to
point out several difficulties to the younger
student of Nietzsche. The first is, of course, not
to begin reading Nietzsche at too early an age.
While fully admitting that others may be more
gifted than himself, the Editor begs to state
that he began to study Nietzsche at the age
of twenty-six, and would not have been able
to endure the weight of such teaching before
that time. Secondly, the Editor wishes to
dissuade the student from beginning the study
of Nietzsche by reading first of all his most
complicated works. Not having been properly
prepared for them, he will find the Zarathustra
abstruse, the Ecce Homo conceited, and the
Antichrist violent. He should rather begin with
the little pamphlet on Education, the Thoughts
out of Season, Beyond Good and Evil, or the
Genealogy of Morals. Thirdly, the Editor wishes
to remind students of Nietzsche's own advice to
them, namely: to read him slowly, to think over
what they have read, and not to accept too readily
a teaching which they have only half understood.
By a too ready acceptance of Nietzsche it has
come to pass that his enemies are, as a rule, a
far superior body of men to those who call
themselves his eager and enthusiastic followers.
Surely it is not every one who is chosen to com-
bat a religion or a morality of two thousand
years' standing, first within and then without
himself; and whoever feels inclined to do so
ought at least to allow his attention to be drawn
to the magnitude of his task.
## p. x (#20) ###############################################
## p. xi (#21) ##############################################
NIETZSCHE IN ENGLAND:
AN INTRODUCTORY ESSAY BY THE
EDITOR.
Dear Englishmen,—In one of my former
writings I have made the remark that the world
would have seen neither the great Jewish prophets
nor the great German thinkers, if the people from
among whom these eminent men sprang had
not been on the whole such a misguided, and, in
their misguidedness, such a tough and stubborn
race. The arrow that is to fly far must be dis-
charged from a well distended bow: if, therefore,
anything is necessary for greatness, it is a fierce
and tenacious opposition, an opposition either of
open contempt, or of malicious irony, or of sly
silence, or of gross stupidity, an opposition regard-
less of the wounds it inflicts and of the precious lives
it sacrifices, an opposition that nobody would dare
to attack who was not prepared, like the Spartan
of old, to return either with his shield or on it.
An opposition so devoid of pity is not as a rule
found amongst you, dear and fair-minded English-
men, which may account for the fact that you have
neither produced the greatest prophets nor the
## p. xii (#22) #############################################
xil NIETZSCHE IN ENGLAND.
greatest thinkers in this world. You would never
have crucified Christ, as did the Jews, or driven
Nietzsche into madness, as did the Germans—you
would have made Nietzsche, on account of his
literary faculties, Minister of State in a Whig
Ministry, you would have invited Jesus Christ to
your country houses, where he would have been
worshipped by all the ladies on account of his long
hair and interesting looks, and tolerated by all men
as an amusing, if somewhat romantic, foreigner. I
know that the current opinion is to the contrary,
and that your country is constantly accused, even
by yourselves, of its insularity; but I, for my part,
have found an almost feminine receptivity amongst
you in my endeavour to bring you into contact
with some ideas of my native country—a recep-
tivity which, however, has also this in common
with that of the female mind, that evidently
nothing sticks deeply, but is quickly wiped
out by what any other lecturer, or writer, or
politician has to tell you. I was prepared for
indifference—I was not prepared for receptivity
and that benign lady's smile, behind which ladies,
like all people who are only clever, usually hide
their inward contempt for the foolishness of mere
men! I was prepared for abuse, and even a good
fight—I was not prepared for an extremely faint-
hearted criticism; I did not expect that some of
my opponents would be so utterly inexperienced
in that most necessary work of literary execution.
No, no: give me the Germans or the Jews for
executioners: they can do the hanging properly,
while the English hangman is like the Russian, to
-
## p. xiii (#23) ############################################
AN INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. xiH
whom, when the rope broke, the half-hanged revolu-
tionary said: "What a country, where they cannot
hang a man properly! " What a country, where
they do not hang philosophers properly—which
would be the proper thing to do to them—but smile
at them, drink tea with them, discuss with them,
and ask them to contribute to their newspapers!
To get to the root of the matter: in spite of
many encouraging signs, remarks and criticisms,
adverse or benevolent, I do not think I have been
very successful in my crusade for that European
thought which began with Goethe and has found
so fine a development in Nietzsche. True, I have
made many a convert, but amongst them are very
undesirable ones, as, for instance, some enter-
prising publishers, who used to be the toughest
disbelievers in England, but who have now come
to understand the "value" of the new gospel—but
as neither this gospel is exactly Christian, nor I,
the importer of it, I am not allowed to count my
success by the conversion of publishers and sinners,
but have to judge it by the more spiritual standard of
the quality of the converted. In this respect, I am
sorry to say, my success has been a very poor one.
As an eager missionary, I have naturally asked
myself the reason of my failure. Why is there no
male audience in England willing to listen to a
manly and daring philosophy? Why are there no
eyes to see, no ears to hear, no hearts to feel, no
brains to understand? Why is my trumpet,
which after all I know how to blow pretty well,
unable to shatter the walls of English prejudice
against a teacher whose school cannot possibly be
## p. xiii (#24) ############################################
xii
NIETZSCHE IN ENGLAND.
greatest thinkers in this world. You would never
have crucified Christ, as did the Jews, or driven
Nietzsche into madness, as did the Germans—you
would have made Nietzsche, on account of his
literary faculties, Minister of State in a Whig
Ministry, you would have invited Jesus Christ to
your country houses, where he would have been
worshipped by all the ladies on account of his long
hair and interesting looks, and tolerated by all men
as an amusing, if somewhat romantic, foreigner. I
know that the current opinion is to the contrary,
and that your country is constantly accused, even
by yourselves, of its insularity; but I, for my part,
have found an almost feminine receptivity amongst
you in my endeavour to bring you into contact
with some ideas of my native country—a recep-
tivity which, however, has also this in common
with that of the female mind, that evidently
nothing sticks deeply, but is quickly wiped
out by what any other lecturer, or writer, or
politician has to tell you. I was prepared for
indifference-I was not prepared for receptivity
and that benign lady's smile, behind which ladies,
like all people who are only clever, usually hide
their inward contempt for the foolishness of mere
men! I was prepared for abuse, and even a good
fight-I was not prepared for an extremely faint-
hearted criticism; I did not expect that some of
my opponents would be so utterly inexperienced
in that most necessary work of literary execution.
No, no: give me the Germans or the Jews for
executioners: they can do the hanging properly,
while the English hangman is like the Russian, to
## p. xiii (#25) ############################################
AN INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
xiii
whom, when the rope broke, the half-hanged revolu-
tionary said : " What a country, where they cannot
hang a man properly! ” What a country, where
they do not hang philosophers properly-which
would be the proper thing to do to them—but smile
at them, drink tea with them, discuss with them,
and ask them to contribute to their newspapers !
To get to the root of the matter : in spite of
many encouraging signs, remarks and criticisms,
adverse or benevolent, I do not think I have been
very successful in my crusade for that European
thought which began with Goethe and has found
so fine a development in Nietzsche. True, I have
made many a convert, but amongst them are very
undesirable ones, as, for instance, some enter-
prising publishers, who used to be the toughest
disbelievers in England, but who have now come
to understand the “value ” of the new gospel—but
as neither this gospel is exactly Christian, nor I,
the importer of it, I am not allowed to count my
success by the conversion of publishers and sinners,
but have to judge it by the more spiritual standard of
the quality of the converted. In this respect, I am
sorry to say, my success has been a very poor one.
As an eager missionary, I have naturally asked
myself the reason of my failure. Why is there no
male audience in England willing to listen to a
manly and daring philosophy? Why are there no
eyes to see, no ears to hear, no hearts to feel, no
brains to understand? Why is my trumpet,
which after all I know how to blow pretty well,
unable to shatter the walls of English prejudice
against a teacher whose school cannot possibly be
## p. xiv (#26) #############################################
XIV NIETZSCHE IN ENGLAND.
avoided by any European with a higher purpose in
his breast? • . . There is plenty of time for thought
nowadays for a man who does not allow himself
to be drawn into that aimless bustle of pleasure,
business or politics, which is called modern life,
because outside that life there is—just as outside
those noisy Oriental cities—a desert, a calmness, a
true and almost majestic leisure, a leisure unpre-
cedented in any age, a leisure in which one may
arrive at several conclusions concerning English
indifference towards the new thought.
First of all, of course, there stands in the way
the terrible abuse which Nietzsche has poured
upon the heads of the innocent Britishers. While
France and the Latin countries, while the Orient
and India, are within the range of his sympathies,
this most outspoken of all philosophers, this
prophet and poet-philosopher, cannot find words
enough to express his disgust at the illogical,
plebeian, shallow, utilitarian Englishman. It must
certainly be disagreeable to be treated like this,
especially when one has a fairly good opinion of
one's self; but why do you take it so very, very
seriously? Did Nietzsche, perchance, spare the
Germans? And aren't you accustomed to criti-
cism on the part of German philosophers? Is it
not the ancient and time-honoured privilege of
the whole range of them from Leibnitz to Hegel
—even of German poets, like Goethe and Heine
—to call you bad names and to use unkind
language towards you? Has there not always
been among the few thinking heads in Germany
a silent consent and an open contempt for you
## p. xv (#27) ##############################################
AN INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. XV
and your ways; the sort of contempt you your-
selves have for the even more Anglo-Saxon
culture of the Americans? I candidly confess
that in my more German moments I have felt
and still feel as the German philosophers do; but
I have also my European turns and moods, and
then I try to understand you and even excuse
you, and take your part against earnest and
thinking Germany. Then I feel like telling the
German philosophers that if you, poor fellows, had
practised everything they preached, they would
have had to renounce the pleasure of abusing you
long ago, for there would now be no more English-
men left to abuse! As it is, you have suffered
enough on account of the wild German ideals
you luckily only partly believed in: for what the
German thinker wrote on patient paper in his
study, you always had to write the whole world
over on tender human skins, black and yellow
skins, enveloping ungrateful beings who some-
times had no very high esteem for the depth and
beauty of German philosophy. And you have
never taken revenge upon the inspired masters
of the European thinking-shop, you have never
reabused them, you have never complained of
their want of worldly wisdom: you have invari-
ably suffered in silence and agony, just as brave
and staunch Sancho Panza used to do. For this
is what you are, dear Englishmen, and however
well you brave, practical, materialistic John Bulls
and Sancho Panzas may know this world, however
much better you may be able to perceive, to count,
to judge, and to weigh things than your ideal
b
## p. xvi (#28) #############################################
XVI NIETZSCHE IN ENGLAND.
German Knight: there is an eternal law in this
world that the Sancho Panzas have to follow the
Don Quixotes; for matter has to follow the spirit,
even the poor spirit of a German philosopher!
So it has been in the past, so it is at present, and
so it will be in the future; and you had better pre-
pare yourselves in time for the eventuality. For
if Nietzsche were nothing else but this customary
type of German philosopher, you would again
have to pay the bill largely; and it would be
very wise on your part to study him: Sancho
Panza may escape a good many sad experiences
by knowing his master's weaknesses. But as
Nietzsche no longer belongs to the Quixotic class,
as Germany seems to emerge with him from her
youthful and cranky nebulosity, you will not even
have the pleasure of being thrashed in the com-
pany of your Master: no, you will be thrashed
all alone, which is an abominable thing for any
right-minded human being. "Solamen miseris
socios habuisse malorum. " *
The second reason for the neglect of Nietzsche
in this country is that you do not need him yet.
And you do not need him yet because you have
always possessed the British virtue of not carry-
ing things to extremes, which, according to the
German version, is an euphemism for the British
want of logic and critical capacity. You have,
for instance, never let your religion have any great
influence upon your politics, which is something
quite abhorrent to the moral German, and makes
* It is a comfort to the afflicted to have companions in their
distress.
## p. xvii (#29) ############################################
AN INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. xvii
him so angry about you. For the German sees
you acting as a moral and law-abiding Christian
at home, and as an unscrupulous and Machia-
vellian conqueror abroad; and if he refrains from
the reproach of hypocrisy, with which the more
stupid continentals invariably charge you, he will
certainly call you a " British muddlehead. " Well,
I myself do not take things so seriously as that,
for I know that men of action have seldom time
to think. It is probably for this reason also that
liberty of thought and speech has been granted to
you, the law-giver knowing very well all the time
that you would be much too busy to use and
abuse such extraordinary freedom. Anyhow, it
might now be time to abuse it just a little bit,
and to consider what an extraordinary amalgama-
tion is a Christian Power with imperialistic ideas.
True, there has once before been another Christian
conquering and colonising empire like yours, that
of Venice—but these Venetians were thinkers com-
pared with you, and smuggled their gospel into
the paw of their lion. . . . Why don't you follow
their example, in order not to be unnecessarily
embarrassed by it in your enterprises abroad?
In this manner you could also reconcile the
proper Germans, who invariably act up to their
theories, their Christianity, their democratic prin-
ciples, although, on the other hand, in so doing
you would, I quite agree, be most unfaithful to
your own traditions, which are of a more demo-
cratic character than those of any other European
nation.
For Democracy, as every schoolboy knows, was
## p. xviii (#30) ###########################################
XVU1 NIETZSCHE IN ENGLAND.
born in an English cradle: individual liberty,
parliamentary institutions, the sovereign rights of
the people, are ideas of British origin, and have
been propagated from this island over the whole
of Europe. But as the prophet and his words are
very often not honoured in his own country, those
ideas have been embraced with much more fervour
by other nations than by that in which they
originated. The Continent of Europe has taken
the desire for liberty and equality much more
seriously than their levelling but also level-headed
inventors, and the fervent imagination of France
has tried to put into practice all that was quite
hidden to the more sober English eye. Every one
nowadays knows the good and the evil conse-
quences of the French Revolution, which swept
over the whole of Europe, throwing it into a state
of unrest, shattering thrones and empires, and
everywhere undermining authority and traditional
institutions. While this was going on in Europe,
the originator of the merry game was quietly
sitting upon his island smiling broadly at the
excitable foreigners across the Channel, fishing as
much as he could out of the water he himself had
so cleverly disturbed, and thus in every way reap-
ing the benefit from the mighty fight for the apple
of Eros which he himself had thrown amongst them.
As I have endeavoured above to draw a parallel
between the Germans and the Jews, I may now
be allowed to follow this up with one between the
Jews and the English. It is a striking parallel,
which will specially appeal to those religious souls
amongst you who consider themselves the lost
## p. xix (#31) #############################################
AN INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. XIX
tribes of our race (and who are perhaps even more
lost than they think),—and it is this: Just as the
Jews have brought Christianity into the world,
but never accepted it themselves, just as they, in
spite of their democratic offspring, have always
remained the most conservative, exclusive, aristo-
cratic, and religious people, so have the English
never allowed themselves to be intoxicated by the
strong drink of the natural equality of men, which
they once kindly offered to all Europe to quaff;
but have, on the contrary, remained the most sober,
the most exclusive, the most feudal, the most con-
servative people of our continent
.
But because the ravages of Democracy have
been less felt here than abroad, because there is a
good deal of the mediaeval building left standing
over here, because things have never been carried
to that excess which invariably brings a reaction
with it — this reaction has not set in in this
country, and no strong desire for the necessity of
it, no craving for the counterbalancing influence
of a Nietzsche, has arisen yet in the British mind.
I cannot help pointing out the grave consequences
of this backwardness of England, which has arisen
from the fact that you have never taken any
ideas or theories, not even your own, seriously.
Democracy, dear Englishmen, is like a stream,
which all the peoples of Europe will have to
cross: they will come out of it cleaner, healthier,
and stronger, but while the others are already in
the water, plunging, puffing, paddling, losing their
ground, trying to swim, and even half-drowned,
you are still standing on the other side of it,
## p. xix (#32) #############################################
xii
NIETZSCHE IN ENGLAND.
greatest thinkers in this world. You would never
have crucified Christ, as did the Jews, or driven
Nietzsche into madness, as did the Germans—you
would have made Nietzsche, on account of his
literary faculties, Minister of State in a Whig
Ministry, you would have invited Jesus Christ to
your country houses, where he would have been
worshipped by all the ladies on account of his long
hair and interesting looks, and tolerated by all men
as an amusing, if somewhat romantic, foreigner. I
know that the current opinion is to the contrary,
and that your country is constantly accused, even
by yourselves, of its insularity; but I, for my part,
have found an almost feminine receptivity amongst
you in my endeavour to bring you into contact
with some ideas of my native country—a recep-
tivity which, however, has also this in common
with that of the female mind, that evidently
nothing sticks deeply, but is quickly wiped
out by what any other lecturer, or writer, or
politician has to tell you. I was prepared for
indifference—I was not prepared for receptivity
and that benign lady's smile, behind which ladies,
like all people who are only clever, usually hide
their inward contempt for the foolishness of mere
men! I was prepared for abuse, and even a good
fight-I was not prepared for an extremely faint-
hearted criticism; I did not expect that some of
my opponents would be so utterly inexperienced
in that most necessary work of literary execution.
No, no: give me the Germans or the Jews for
executioners: they can do the hanging properly,
while the English hangman is like the Russian, to
## p. xix (#33) #############################################
AN INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
xiii
whom, when the rope broke, the half-hanged revolu-
tionary said: “What a country, where they cannot
hang a man properly! ” What a country, where
they do not hang philosophers properly—which
would be the proper thing to do to them—but smile
at them, drink tea with them, discuss with them,
and ask them to contribute to their newspapers !
To get to the root of the matter : in spite of
many encouraging signs, remarks and criticisms,
adverse or benevolent, I do not think I have been
very successful in my crusade for that European
thought which began with Goethe and has found
so fine a development in Nietzsche. True, I have
made many a convert, but amongst them are very
undesirable ones, as, for instance, some enter-
prising publishers, who used to be the toughest
disbelievers in England, but who have now come
to understand the “value” of the new gospel—but
as neither this gospel is exactly Christian, nor I,
the importer of it, I am not allowed to count my
success by the conversion of publishers and sinners,
but have to judge it by the more spiritual standard of
the quality of the converted. In this respect, I am
sorry to say, my success has been a very poor one.
As an eager missionary, I have naturally asked
myself the reason of my failure. Why is there no
male audience in England willing to listen to a
manly and daring philosophy? Why are there no
eyes to see, no ears to hear, no hearts to feel, no
brains to understand? Why is my trumpet,
which after all I know how to blow pretty well,
unable to shatter the walls of English prejudice
against a teacher whose school cannot possibly be
## p. xix (#34) #############################################
xiv
NIETZSCHE IN ENGLAND.
avoided by any European with a higher purpose in
his breast? . . . There is plenty of time for thought
nowadays for a man who does not allow himself
to be drawn into that aimless bustle of pleasure,
business or politics, which is called modern life,
because outside that life there is just as outside
those noisy Oriental cities—a desert, a calmness, a
true and almost majestic leisure, a leisure unpre-
cedented in any age, a leisure in which one may
arrive at several conclusions concerning English
indifference towards the new thought.
First of all, of course, there stands in the way
the terrible abuse which Nietzsche has poured
upon the heads of the innocent Britishers.
formed by an excellent version of the Bible.
The English would never be satisfied, as Bible-
ignorant France is, with a Nietzsche d VEau de
Cologne—they would require the natural, strong,
real Teacher, and would prefer his outspoken
words to the finely-chiselled sentences of the
raconteur. It may indeed be safely predicted
that once the English people have recovered
from the first shock of Nietzsche's thoughts,
their biblical training will enable them, more
than any other nation, to appreciate the deep
piety underlying Nietzsche's Cause.
As this Cause is a somewhat holy one to the
Editor himself, he is ready to listen to any
suggestions as to improvements of style or sense
coming from qualified sources. The Editor,
during a recent visit to Mrs. Foerster-Nietzsche
at Weimar, acquired the rights of translation by
pointing out to her that in this way her brother's
works would not fall into the hands of an ordinary
publisher and his staff of translators: he has not,
therefore, entered into any engagement with
publishers, not even with the present one, which
could hinder his task, bind him down to any text
found faulty, or make him consent to omissions
or the falsification or "sugaring" of the original
text to further the sale of the books. He
is therefore in a position to give every atten-
tion to a work which he considers as of no less
importance for the country of his residence than
for the country of his birth, as well as for the
rest of Europe.
It is the consciousness of the importance of
*
## p. ix (#19) ##############################################
EDITORIAL NOTE. IX
this work which makes the Editor anxious to
point out several difficulties to the younger
student of Nietzsche. The first is, of course, not
to begin reading Nietzsche at too early an age.
While fully admitting that others may be more
gifted than himself, the Editor begs to state
that he began to study Nietzsche at the age
of twenty-six, and would not have been able
to endure the weight of such teaching before
that time. Secondly, the Editor wishes to
dissuade the student from beginning the study
of Nietzsche by reading first of all his most
complicated works. Not having been properly
prepared for them, he will find the Zarathustra
abstruse, the Ecce Homo conceited, and the
Antichrist violent. He should rather begin with
the little pamphlet on Education, the Thoughts
out of Season, Beyond Good and Evil, or the
Genealogy of Morals. Thirdly, the Editor wishes
to remind students of Nietzsche's own advice to
them, namely: to read him slowly, to think over
what they have read, and not to accept too readily
a teaching which they have only half understood.
By a too ready acceptance of Nietzsche it has
come to pass that his enemies are, as a rule, a
far superior body of men to those who call
themselves his eager and enthusiastic followers.
Surely it is not every one who is chosen to com-
bat a religion or a morality of two thousand
years' standing, first within and then without
himself; and whoever feels inclined to do so
ought at least to allow his attention to be drawn
to the magnitude of his task.
## p. x (#20) ###############################################
## p. xi (#21) ##############################################
NIETZSCHE IN ENGLAND:
AN INTRODUCTORY ESSAY BY THE
EDITOR.
Dear Englishmen,—In one of my former
writings I have made the remark that the world
would have seen neither the great Jewish prophets
nor the great German thinkers, if the people from
among whom these eminent men sprang had
not been on the whole such a misguided, and, in
their misguidedness, such a tough and stubborn
race. The arrow that is to fly far must be dis-
charged from a well distended bow: if, therefore,
anything is necessary for greatness, it is a fierce
and tenacious opposition, an opposition either of
open contempt, or of malicious irony, or of sly
silence, or of gross stupidity, an opposition regard-
less of the wounds it inflicts and of the precious lives
it sacrifices, an opposition that nobody would dare
to attack who was not prepared, like the Spartan
of old, to return either with his shield or on it.
An opposition so devoid of pity is not as a rule
found amongst you, dear and fair-minded English-
men, which may account for the fact that you have
neither produced the greatest prophets nor the
## p. xii (#22) #############################################
xil NIETZSCHE IN ENGLAND.
greatest thinkers in this world. You would never
have crucified Christ, as did the Jews, or driven
Nietzsche into madness, as did the Germans—you
would have made Nietzsche, on account of his
literary faculties, Minister of State in a Whig
Ministry, you would have invited Jesus Christ to
your country houses, where he would have been
worshipped by all the ladies on account of his long
hair and interesting looks, and tolerated by all men
as an amusing, if somewhat romantic, foreigner. I
know that the current opinion is to the contrary,
and that your country is constantly accused, even
by yourselves, of its insularity; but I, for my part,
have found an almost feminine receptivity amongst
you in my endeavour to bring you into contact
with some ideas of my native country—a recep-
tivity which, however, has also this in common
with that of the female mind, that evidently
nothing sticks deeply, but is quickly wiped
out by what any other lecturer, or writer, or
politician has to tell you. I was prepared for
indifference—I was not prepared for receptivity
and that benign lady's smile, behind which ladies,
like all people who are only clever, usually hide
their inward contempt for the foolishness of mere
men! I was prepared for abuse, and even a good
fight—I was not prepared for an extremely faint-
hearted criticism; I did not expect that some of
my opponents would be so utterly inexperienced
in that most necessary work of literary execution.
No, no: give me the Germans or the Jews for
executioners: they can do the hanging properly,
while the English hangman is like the Russian, to
-
## p. xiii (#23) ############################################
AN INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. xiH
whom, when the rope broke, the half-hanged revolu-
tionary said: "What a country, where they cannot
hang a man properly! " What a country, where
they do not hang philosophers properly—which
would be the proper thing to do to them—but smile
at them, drink tea with them, discuss with them,
and ask them to contribute to their newspapers!
To get to the root of the matter: in spite of
many encouraging signs, remarks and criticisms,
adverse or benevolent, I do not think I have been
very successful in my crusade for that European
thought which began with Goethe and has found
so fine a development in Nietzsche. True, I have
made many a convert, but amongst them are very
undesirable ones, as, for instance, some enter-
prising publishers, who used to be the toughest
disbelievers in England, but who have now come
to understand the "value" of the new gospel—but
as neither this gospel is exactly Christian, nor I,
the importer of it, I am not allowed to count my
success by the conversion of publishers and sinners,
but have to judge it by the more spiritual standard of
the quality of the converted. In this respect, I am
sorry to say, my success has been a very poor one.
As an eager missionary, I have naturally asked
myself the reason of my failure. Why is there no
male audience in England willing to listen to a
manly and daring philosophy? Why are there no
eyes to see, no ears to hear, no hearts to feel, no
brains to understand? Why is my trumpet,
which after all I know how to blow pretty well,
unable to shatter the walls of English prejudice
against a teacher whose school cannot possibly be
## p. xiii (#24) ############################################
xii
NIETZSCHE IN ENGLAND.
greatest thinkers in this world. You would never
have crucified Christ, as did the Jews, or driven
Nietzsche into madness, as did the Germans—you
would have made Nietzsche, on account of his
literary faculties, Minister of State in a Whig
Ministry, you would have invited Jesus Christ to
your country houses, where he would have been
worshipped by all the ladies on account of his long
hair and interesting looks, and tolerated by all men
as an amusing, if somewhat romantic, foreigner. I
know that the current opinion is to the contrary,
and that your country is constantly accused, even
by yourselves, of its insularity; but I, for my part,
have found an almost feminine receptivity amongst
you in my endeavour to bring you into contact
with some ideas of my native country—a recep-
tivity which, however, has also this in common
with that of the female mind, that evidently
nothing sticks deeply, but is quickly wiped
out by what any other lecturer, or writer, or
politician has to tell you. I was prepared for
indifference-I was not prepared for receptivity
and that benign lady's smile, behind which ladies,
like all people who are only clever, usually hide
their inward contempt for the foolishness of mere
men! I was prepared for abuse, and even a good
fight-I was not prepared for an extremely faint-
hearted criticism; I did not expect that some of
my opponents would be so utterly inexperienced
in that most necessary work of literary execution.
No, no: give me the Germans or the Jews for
executioners: they can do the hanging properly,
while the English hangman is like the Russian, to
## p. xiii (#25) ############################################
AN INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
xiii
whom, when the rope broke, the half-hanged revolu-
tionary said : " What a country, where they cannot
hang a man properly! ” What a country, where
they do not hang philosophers properly-which
would be the proper thing to do to them—but smile
at them, drink tea with them, discuss with them,
and ask them to contribute to their newspapers !
To get to the root of the matter : in spite of
many encouraging signs, remarks and criticisms,
adverse or benevolent, I do not think I have been
very successful in my crusade for that European
thought which began with Goethe and has found
so fine a development in Nietzsche. True, I have
made many a convert, but amongst them are very
undesirable ones, as, for instance, some enter-
prising publishers, who used to be the toughest
disbelievers in England, but who have now come
to understand the “value ” of the new gospel—but
as neither this gospel is exactly Christian, nor I,
the importer of it, I am not allowed to count my
success by the conversion of publishers and sinners,
but have to judge it by the more spiritual standard of
the quality of the converted. In this respect, I am
sorry to say, my success has been a very poor one.
As an eager missionary, I have naturally asked
myself the reason of my failure. Why is there no
male audience in England willing to listen to a
manly and daring philosophy? Why are there no
eyes to see, no ears to hear, no hearts to feel, no
brains to understand? Why is my trumpet,
which after all I know how to blow pretty well,
unable to shatter the walls of English prejudice
against a teacher whose school cannot possibly be
## p. xiv (#26) #############################################
XIV NIETZSCHE IN ENGLAND.
avoided by any European with a higher purpose in
his breast? • . . There is plenty of time for thought
nowadays for a man who does not allow himself
to be drawn into that aimless bustle of pleasure,
business or politics, which is called modern life,
because outside that life there is—just as outside
those noisy Oriental cities—a desert, a calmness, a
true and almost majestic leisure, a leisure unpre-
cedented in any age, a leisure in which one may
arrive at several conclusions concerning English
indifference towards the new thought.
First of all, of course, there stands in the way
the terrible abuse which Nietzsche has poured
upon the heads of the innocent Britishers. While
France and the Latin countries, while the Orient
and India, are within the range of his sympathies,
this most outspoken of all philosophers, this
prophet and poet-philosopher, cannot find words
enough to express his disgust at the illogical,
plebeian, shallow, utilitarian Englishman. It must
certainly be disagreeable to be treated like this,
especially when one has a fairly good opinion of
one's self; but why do you take it so very, very
seriously? Did Nietzsche, perchance, spare the
Germans? And aren't you accustomed to criti-
cism on the part of German philosophers? Is it
not the ancient and time-honoured privilege of
the whole range of them from Leibnitz to Hegel
—even of German poets, like Goethe and Heine
—to call you bad names and to use unkind
language towards you? Has there not always
been among the few thinking heads in Germany
a silent consent and an open contempt for you
## p. xv (#27) ##############################################
AN INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. XV
and your ways; the sort of contempt you your-
selves have for the even more Anglo-Saxon
culture of the Americans? I candidly confess
that in my more German moments I have felt
and still feel as the German philosophers do; but
I have also my European turns and moods, and
then I try to understand you and even excuse
you, and take your part against earnest and
thinking Germany. Then I feel like telling the
German philosophers that if you, poor fellows, had
practised everything they preached, they would
have had to renounce the pleasure of abusing you
long ago, for there would now be no more English-
men left to abuse! As it is, you have suffered
enough on account of the wild German ideals
you luckily only partly believed in: for what the
German thinker wrote on patient paper in his
study, you always had to write the whole world
over on tender human skins, black and yellow
skins, enveloping ungrateful beings who some-
times had no very high esteem for the depth and
beauty of German philosophy. And you have
never taken revenge upon the inspired masters
of the European thinking-shop, you have never
reabused them, you have never complained of
their want of worldly wisdom: you have invari-
ably suffered in silence and agony, just as brave
and staunch Sancho Panza used to do. For this
is what you are, dear Englishmen, and however
well you brave, practical, materialistic John Bulls
and Sancho Panzas may know this world, however
much better you may be able to perceive, to count,
to judge, and to weigh things than your ideal
b
## p. xvi (#28) #############################################
XVI NIETZSCHE IN ENGLAND.
German Knight: there is an eternal law in this
world that the Sancho Panzas have to follow the
Don Quixotes; for matter has to follow the spirit,
even the poor spirit of a German philosopher!
So it has been in the past, so it is at present, and
so it will be in the future; and you had better pre-
pare yourselves in time for the eventuality. For
if Nietzsche were nothing else but this customary
type of German philosopher, you would again
have to pay the bill largely; and it would be
very wise on your part to study him: Sancho
Panza may escape a good many sad experiences
by knowing his master's weaknesses. But as
Nietzsche no longer belongs to the Quixotic class,
as Germany seems to emerge with him from her
youthful and cranky nebulosity, you will not even
have the pleasure of being thrashed in the com-
pany of your Master: no, you will be thrashed
all alone, which is an abominable thing for any
right-minded human being. "Solamen miseris
socios habuisse malorum. " *
The second reason for the neglect of Nietzsche
in this country is that you do not need him yet.
And you do not need him yet because you have
always possessed the British virtue of not carry-
ing things to extremes, which, according to the
German version, is an euphemism for the British
want of logic and critical capacity. You have,
for instance, never let your religion have any great
influence upon your politics, which is something
quite abhorrent to the moral German, and makes
* It is a comfort to the afflicted to have companions in their
distress.
## p. xvii (#29) ############################################
AN INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. xvii
him so angry about you. For the German sees
you acting as a moral and law-abiding Christian
at home, and as an unscrupulous and Machia-
vellian conqueror abroad; and if he refrains from
the reproach of hypocrisy, with which the more
stupid continentals invariably charge you, he will
certainly call you a " British muddlehead. " Well,
I myself do not take things so seriously as that,
for I know that men of action have seldom time
to think. It is probably for this reason also that
liberty of thought and speech has been granted to
you, the law-giver knowing very well all the time
that you would be much too busy to use and
abuse such extraordinary freedom. Anyhow, it
might now be time to abuse it just a little bit,
and to consider what an extraordinary amalgama-
tion is a Christian Power with imperialistic ideas.
True, there has once before been another Christian
conquering and colonising empire like yours, that
of Venice—but these Venetians were thinkers com-
pared with you, and smuggled their gospel into
the paw of their lion. . . . Why don't you follow
their example, in order not to be unnecessarily
embarrassed by it in your enterprises abroad?
In this manner you could also reconcile the
proper Germans, who invariably act up to their
theories, their Christianity, their democratic prin-
ciples, although, on the other hand, in so doing
you would, I quite agree, be most unfaithful to
your own traditions, which are of a more demo-
cratic character than those of any other European
nation.
For Democracy, as every schoolboy knows, was
## p. xviii (#30) ###########################################
XVU1 NIETZSCHE IN ENGLAND.
born in an English cradle: individual liberty,
parliamentary institutions, the sovereign rights of
the people, are ideas of British origin, and have
been propagated from this island over the whole
of Europe. But as the prophet and his words are
very often not honoured in his own country, those
ideas have been embraced with much more fervour
by other nations than by that in which they
originated. The Continent of Europe has taken
the desire for liberty and equality much more
seriously than their levelling but also level-headed
inventors, and the fervent imagination of France
has tried to put into practice all that was quite
hidden to the more sober English eye. Every one
nowadays knows the good and the evil conse-
quences of the French Revolution, which swept
over the whole of Europe, throwing it into a state
of unrest, shattering thrones and empires, and
everywhere undermining authority and traditional
institutions. While this was going on in Europe,
the originator of the merry game was quietly
sitting upon his island smiling broadly at the
excitable foreigners across the Channel, fishing as
much as he could out of the water he himself had
so cleverly disturbed, and thus in every way reap-
ing the benefit from the mighty fight for the apple
of Eros which he himself had thrown amongst them.
As I have endeavoured above to draw a parallel
between the Germans and the Jews, I may now
be allowed to follow this up with one between the
Jews and the English. It is a striking parallel,
which will specially appeal to those religious souls
amongst you who consider themselves the lost
## p. xix (#31) #############################################
AN INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. XIX
tribes of our race (and who are perhaps even more
lost than they think),—and it is this: Just as the
Jews have brought Christianity into the world,
but never accepted it themselves, just as they, in
spite of their democratic offspring, have always
remained the most conservative, exclusive, aristo-
cratic, and religious people, so have the English
never allowed themselves to be intoxicated by the
strong drink of the natural equality of men, which
they once kindly offered to all Europe to quaff;
but have, on the contrary, remained the most sober,
the most exclusive, the most feudal, the most con-
servative people of our continent
.
But because the ravages of Democracy have
been less felt here than abroad, because there is a
good deal of the mediaeval building left standing
over here, because things have never been carried
to that excess which invariably brings a reaction
with it — this reaction has not set in in this
country, and no strong desire for the necessity of
it, no craving for the counterbalancing influence
of a Nietzsche, has arisen yet in the British mind.
I cannot help pointing out the grave consequences
of this backwardness of England, which has arisen
from the fact that you have never taken any
ideas or theories, not even your own, seriously.
Democracy, dear Englishmen, is like a stream,
which all the peoples of Europe will have to
cross: they will come out of it cleaner, healthier,
and stronger, but while the others are already in
the water, plunging, puffing, paddling, losing their
ground, trying to swim, and even half-drowned,
you are still standing on the other side of it,
## p. xix (#32) #############################################
xii
NIETZSCHE IN ENGLAND.
greatest thinkers in this world. You would never
have crucified Christ, as did the Jews, or driven
Nietzsche into madness, as did the Germans—you
would have made Nietzsche, on account of his
literary faculties, Minister of State in a Whig
Ministry, you would have invited Jesus Christ to
your country houses, where he would have been
worshipped by all the ladies on account of his long
hair and interesting looks, and tolerated by all men
as an amusing, if somewhat romantic, foreigner. I
know that the current opinion is to the contrary,
and that your country is constantly accused, even
by yourselves, of its insularity; but I, for my part,
have found an almost feminine receptivity amongst
you in my endeavour to bring you into contact
with some ideas of my native country—a recep-
tivity which, however, has also this in common
with that of the female mind, that evidently
nothing sticks deeply, but is quickly wiped
out by what any other lecturer, or writer, or
politician has to tell you. I was prepared for
indifference—I was not prepared for receptivity
and that benign lady's smile, behind which ladies,
like all people who are only clever, usually hide
their inward contempt for the foolishness of mere
men! I was prepared for abuse, and even a good
fight-I was not prepared for an extremely faint-
hearted criticism; I did not expect that some of
my opponents would be so utterly inexperienced
in that most necessary work of literary execution.
No, no: give me the Germans or the Jews for
executioners: they can do the hanging properly,
while the English hangman is like the Russian, to
## p. xix (#33) #############################################
AN INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
xiii
whom, when the rope broke, the half-hanged revolu-
tionary said: “What a country, where they cannot
hang a man properly! ” What a country, where
they do not hang philosophers properly—which
would be the proper thing to do to them—but smile
at them, drink tea with them, discuss with them,
and ask them to contribute to their newspapers !
To get to the root of the matter : in spite of
many encouraging signs, remarks and criticisms,
adverse or benevolent, I do not think I have been
very successful in my crusade for that European
thought which began with Goethe and has found
so fine a development in Nietzsche. True, I have
made many a convert, but amongst them are very
undesirable ones, as, for instance, some enter-
prising publishers, who used to be the toughest
disbelievers in England, but who have now come
to understand the “value” of the new gospel—but
as neither this gospel is exactly Christian, nor I,
the importer of it, I am not allowed to count my
success by the conversion of publishers and sinners,
but have to judge it by the more spiritual standard of
the quality of the converted. In this respect, I am
sorry to say, my success has been a very poor one.
As an eager missionary, I have naturally asked
myself the reason of my failure. Why is there no
male audience in England willing to listen to a
manly and daring philosophy? Why are there no
eyes to see, no ears to hear, no hearts to feel, no
brains to understand? Why is my trumpet,
which after all I know how to blow pretty well,
unable to shatter the walls of English prejudice
against a teacher whose school cannot possibly be
## p. xix (#34) #############################################
xiv
NIETZSCHE IN ENGLAND.
avoided by any European with a higher purpose in
his breast? . . . There is plenty of time for thought
nowadays for a man who does not allow himself
to be drawn into that aimless bustle of pleasure,
business or politics, which is called modern life,
because outside that life there is just as outside
those noisy Oriental cities—a desert, a calmness, a
true and almost majestic leisure, a leisure unpre-
cedented in any age, a leisure in which one may
arrive at several conclusions concerning English
indifference towards the new thought.
First of all, of course, there stands in the way
the terrible abuse which Nietzsche has poured
upon the heads of the innocent Britishers. While
France and the Latin countries, while the Orient
and India, are within the range of his sympathies,
this most outspoken of all philosophers, this
prophet and poet-philosopher, cannot find words
enough to express his disgust at the illogical,
plebeian, shallow, utilitarian Englishman. It must
certainly be disagreeable to be treated like this,
especially when one has a fairly good opinion of
one's self; but why do you take it so very, very
seriously? Did Nietzsche, perchance, spare the
Germans? And aren't you accustomed to criti-
cism on the part of German philosophers? Is it
not the ancient and time-honoured privilege of
the whole range of them from Leibnitz to Hegel
—even of German poets, like Goethe and Heine
—to call you bad names and to use unkind
language towards you? Has there not always
been among the few thinking heads in Germany
a silent consent and an open contempt for you
-
-
-
## p. xix (#35) #############################################
AN INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
XV
and your ways; the sort of contempt you your-
selves have for the even more Anglo-Saxon
culture of the Americans ? I candidly confess
that in my more German moments I have felt
and still feel as the German philosophers do; but
I have also my European turns and moods, and
then I try to understand you and even excuse
you, and take your part against earnest and
thinking Germany. Then I feel like telling the
German philosophers that if you, poor fellows, had
practised everything they preached, they would
have had to renounce the pleasure of abusing you
long ago, for there would now be no more English-
men left to abuse! As it is, you have suffered
enough on account of the wild German ideals
you luckily only partly believed in: for what the
German thinker wrote on patient paper in his
study, you always had to write the whole world
over on tender human skins, black and yellow
skins, enveloping ungrateful beings who some-
times had no very high esteem for the depth and
beauty of German philosophy. And you have
never taken revenge upon the inspired masters
of the European thinking-shop, you have never
reabused them, you have never complained of
their want of worldly wisdom: you have invari-
ably suffered in silence and agony, just as brave
and staunch Sancho Panza used to do. For this
is what you are, dear Englishmen, and however
well you brave, practical, materialistic John Bulls
and Sancho Panzas may know this world, however
much better you may be able to perceive, to count,
to judge, and to weigh things than your ideal
## p. xix (#36) #############################################
xvi
NIETZSCHE IN ENGLAND.
German Knight: there is an eternal law in this
world that the Sancho Panzas have to follow the
Don Quixotes; for matter has to follow the spirit,
even the poor spirit of a German philosopher !
So it has been in the past, so it is at present, and
so it will be in the future; and you had better pre-
pare yourselves in time for the eventuality. For
if Nietzsche were nothing else but this customary
type of German philosopher, you would again
have to pay the bill largely; and it would be
very wise on your part to study him: Sancho
Panza may escape a good many sad experiences
by knowing his master's weaknesses. But as
Nietzsche no longer belongs to the Quixotic class,
as Germany seems to emerge with him from her
youthful and cranky nebulosity, you will not even
have the pleasure of being thrashed in the com-
pany of your Master: no, you will be thrashed
all alone, which is an abominable thing for any
right-minded human being. “Solamen miseris
socios habuisse malorum. "*
The second reason for the neglect of Nietzsche
in this country is that you do not need him yet.
And you do not need him yet because you have
always possessed the British virtue of not carry-
ing things to extremes, which, according to the
German version, is an euphemism for the British
want of logic and critical capacity. You have,
for instance, never let your religion have any great
influence upon your politics, which is something
quite abhorrent to the moral German, and makes
* It is a comfort to the afflicted to have companions in their
distress.
## p. xix (#37) #############################################
AN INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
xvii
him so angry about you. For the German sees
you acting as a moral and law-abiding Christian
at home, and as an unscrupulous and Machia-
vellian conqueror abroad; and if he refrains from
the reproach of hypocrisy, with which the more
stupid continentals invariably charge you, he will
certainly call you a “ British muddlehead. ” Well,
I myself do not take things so seriously as that,
for I know that men of action have seldom time
to think. It is probably for this reason also that
liberty of thought and speech has been granted to
you, the law-giver knowing very well all the time
that you would be much too busy to use and
abuse such extraordinary freedom. Anyhow, it
might now be time to abuse it just a little bit,
and to consider what an extraordinary amalgama-
tion is a Christian Power with imperialistic ideas.
True, there has once before been another Christian
conquering and colonising empire like yours, that
of Venice—but these Venetians were thinkers com-
pared with you, and smuggled their gospel into
the paw of their lion. . . . Why don't you follow
their example, in order not to be unnecessarily
embarrassed by it in your enterprises abroad?
In this manner you could also reconcile the
proper Germans, who invariably act up to their
theories, their Christianity, their democratic prin-
ciples, although, on the other hand, in so doing
you would, I quite agree, be most unfaithful to
your own traditions, which are of a more demo-
cratic character than those of any other European
nation.
For Democracy, as every schoolboy knows, was
## p. xix (#38) #############################################
xviii
NIETZSCHE IN ENGLAND.
born in an English cradle: individual liberty,
parliamentary institutions, the sovereign rights of
the people, are ideas of British origin, and have
been propagated from this island over the whole
of Europe. But as the prophet and his words are
very often not honoured in his own country, those
ideas have been embraced with much more fervour
by other nations than by that in which they
originated. The Continent of Europe has taken
the desire for liberty and equality much more
seriously than their levelling but also level-headed
inventors, and the fervent imagination of France
has tried to put into practice all that was quite
hidden to the more sober English eye. Every one
nowadays knows the good and the evil conse-
quences of the French Revolution, which swept
over the whole of Europe, throwing it into a state
of unrest, shattering thrones and empires, and
everywhere undermining authority and traditional
institutions. While this was going on in Europe,
the originator of the merry game was quietly
sitting upon his island smiling broadly at the
excitable foreigners across the Channel, fishing as
much as he could out of the water he himself had
so cleverly disturbed, and thus in every way reap-
ing the benefit from the mighty fight for the apple
of Eros which he himself had thrown amongst them.
As I have endeavoured above to draw a parallel
between the Germans and the Jews, I may now
be allowed to follow this up with one between the
Jews and the English. It is a striking parallel,
which will specially appeal to those religious souls
amongst you who consider themselves the lost
## p. xix (#39) #############################################
AN INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
xix
tribes of our race (and who are perhaps even more
lost than they think),—and it is this: Just as the
Jews have brought Christianity into the world,
but never accepted it themselves, just as they, in
spite of their democratic offspring, have always
remained the most conservative, exclusive, aristo-
cratic, and religious people, so have the English
never allowed themselves to be intoxicated by the
strong drink of the natural equality of men, which
they once kindly offered to all Europe to quaff;
but have, on the contrary, remained the most sober,
the most exclusive, the most feudal, the most con-
servative people of our continent.
But because the ravages of Democracy have
been less felt here than abroad, because there is a
good deal of the mediæval building left standing
over here, because things have never been carried
to that excess which invariably brings a reaction
with it — this reaction has not set in in this
country, and no strong desire for the necessity of
it, no craving for the counterbalancing influence
of a Nietzsche, has arisen yet in the British mind.
I cannot help pointing out the grave consequences
of this backwardness of England, which has arisen
from the fact that you have never taken any
ideas or theories, not even your own, seriously.
Democracy, dear Englishmen, is like a stream,
which all the peoples of Europe will have to
cross: they will come out of it cleaner, healthier,
and stronger, but while the others are already in
the water, plunging, puffing, paddling, losing their
ground, trying to swim, and even half-drowned,
you are still standing on the other side of it,
## p. xx (#40) ##############################################
XX NIETZSCHE IN ENGLAND.
roaring unmercifully about the poor swimmers,
screamers, and fighters below,—but one day you
will have to cross this same river too, and when
you enter it the others will just be out of it, and
will laugh at the poor English straggler in their
turn!
The third and last reason for the icy silence
which has greeted Nietzsche in this country is due
to the fact that he has—as far as I know—no
literary ancestor over here whose teachings could
have prepared you for him. Germany has had
her Goethe to do this; France her Stendhal; in
Russia we find that fearless curiosity for all
problems, which is the sign of a youthful, perhaps
too youthful nation; while in Spain, on the other
hand, wehave an old and experienced people, with
a long training away from Christianity under the
dominion of the Semitic Arabs, who undoubtedly
left some of their blood behind,—but I find great
difficulty in pointing out any man over here who
could serve as a useful guide to the heights of the
Nietzschean thought, except one, who was not a
Britisher. I am alluding to a man whose politics
you used to consider and whose writings you even
now consider as fantastic, but who, like another
fantast of his race, may possess the wonderful gift
of resurrection, and come again to life amongst
you—to Benjamin Disraeli.
The Disraelian Novels are in my opinion the
best and only preparation for those amongst you
who" wish gradually to become acquainted with
the Nietzschean spirit. There, and nowhere else,
will you find the true heroes of coming times,
## p. xxi (#41) #############################################
AN INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. XXI
men of moral courage, men whose failures and
successes are alike admirable, men whose noble
passions have altogether superseded the ordinary
vulgarities and moralities of lower beings, men
endowed with an extraordinary imagination,
which, however, is balanced by an equal power of
reason, men already anointed with a drop of that
sacred and noble oil, without which the High
Priest-Philosopher of Modern Germany would not
have crowned his Royal Race of the Future.
Both Disraeli and Nietzsche you perceive start-
ing from the same pessimistic diagnosis of the
wild anarchy, the growing melancholy, the threat-
ening Nihilism of Modern Europe, for both
recognised the danger of the age behind its loud
and forced "shipwreck gaiety," behind its big-
mouthed talk about progress and evolution, behind
that veil of business-bustle, which hides its fear
and utter despair—but for all that black outlook
they are not weaklings enough to mourn and let
things go, nor do they belong to that cheap class
of society doctors who mistake the present
wretchedness of Humanity for sinfulness, and
wish to make their patient less sinful and still
more wretched. Both Nietzsche and Disraeli have
clearly recognised that this patient of theirs is
suffering from weakness and not from sinfulness,
for which latter some kind of strength may still be
required; both are therefore entirely opposed to a
further dieting him down to complete moral ema-
ciation, but are, on the contrary, prescribing a
tonic, a roborating, a natural regime for him
—advice for which both doctors have been
## p. xxi (#42) #############################################
XX
NIETZSCHE IN ENGLAND.
roaring unmercifully about the poor swimmers,
screamers, and fighters below,—but one day you
will have to cross this same river too, and when
you enter it the others will just be out of it, and
will laugh at the poor English straggler in their
turn!
The third and last reason for the icy silence
which has greeted Nietzsche in this country is due
to the fact that he has—as far as I know—no
literary ancestor over here whose teachings could
have prepared you for him. Germany has had
her Goethe to do this, France her Stendhal ; in
Russia we find that fearless curiosity for all
problems, which is the sign of a youthful, perhaps
too youthful nation; while in Spain, on the other
hand, we have an old and experienced people, with
a long training away from Christianity under the
dominion of the Semitic Arabs, who undoubtedly
left some of their blood behind,—but I find great
difficulty in pointing out any man over here who
could serve as a useful guide to the heights of the
Nietzschean thought, except one, who was not a
Britisher.
Find more books at https://www. hathitrust. org.
Title: The complete works of Friedrich Nietzsche. The first complete
and authorized English translation, edited by Dr. Oscar Levy.
Author: Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm, 1844-1900.
Publisher: [Edinburgh and London : T. N. Foulis, 1909-1913. ]
Copyright:
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THE COMPLETE WORKS
OF
FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE
The First Complete and Authorised English Translation
EDITED BY
Dr. OSCAR LEVY
A-
VOLUME-ONE-
THOUGHTS OUT OF SEASON
PART ONE
## p. ii (#12) ##############################################
Of the Second Edition,
making Two Thousand Copies printed,
this is
No.
1343
## p. iii (#13) #############################################
FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE
THOUGHTS
OUT OF SEASON
PART I
DAVID STRAUSS, THE CONFESSOR
AND THE WRITER
RICHARD WAGNER IN BAYREUTH
TRANSLATED BY
ANTHONY M. LUDOVICI
T. N. FOULIS
13 & 15 FREDERICK STREET
EDINBURGH: AND LONDON
1910
## p. iv (#14) ##############################################
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Printed by Morrison & Gibb Limited, Edinburgh
## p. v (#15) ###############################################
u oil
CONTENTS.
PAGE
Editorial Note - - - - - vii
Nietzsche in England (by the Editor) - xi
Translator's Preface to David Strauss and
Richard Wagner in Bayreuth - - xxix
David Strauss, the Confessor and the Writer i
Richard Wagner in Bayreuth - - - 99
## p. vi (#16) ##############################################
## p. vii (#17) #############################################
EDITORIAL NOTE.
THE Editor begs to call attention to some of
the difficulties he had to encounter in preparing
this edition of the complete works of Friedrich
Nietzsche. Not being English himself, he had to
rely upon the help of collaborators, who were
somewhat slow in coming forward. They were
also few in number; for, in addition to an exact
knowledge of the German language, there was
also required sympathy and a certain enthusiasm
for the startling ideas of the original, as well
as a considerable feeling for poetry, and that
highest form of it, religious poetry.
Such a combination—a biblical mind, yet one
open to new thoughts—was not easily found.
And yet it was necessary to find translators with
such a mind, and not be satisfied, as the French
are and must be, with a free though elegant
version of Nietzsche. What is impossible and
unnecessary in French—a faithful and powerful
rendering of the psalmistic grandeur of Nietzsche
—is possible and necessary in English, which is
a rougher tongue of the Teutonic stamp, and
moreover, like German, a tongue influenced and
## p. viii (#18) ############################################
V1I1 EDITORIAL NOTE.
formed by an excellent version of the Bible.
The English would never be satisfied, as Bible-
ignorant France is, with a Nietzsche d VEau de
Cologne—they would require the natural, strong,
real Teacher, and would prefer his outspoken
words to the finely-chiselled sentences of the
raconteur. It may indeed be safely predicted
that once the English people have recovered
from the first shock of Nietzsche's thoughts,
their biblical training will enable them, more
than any other nation, to appreciate the deep
piety underlying Nietzsche's Cause.
As this Cause is a somewhat holy one to the
Editor himself, he is ready to listen to any
suggestions as to improvements of style or sense
coming from qualified sources. The Editor,
during a recent visit to Mrs. Foerster-Nietzsche
at Weimar, acquired the rights of translation by
pointing out to her that in this way her brother's
works would not fall into the hands of an ordinary
publisher and his staff of translators: he has not,
therefore, entered into any engagement with
publishers, not even with the present one, which
could hinder his task, bind him down to any text
found faulty, or make him consent to omissions
or the falsification or "sugaring" of the original
text to further the sale of the books. He
is therefore in a position to give every atten-
tion to a work which he considers as of no less
importance for the country of his residence than
for the country of his birth, as well as for the
rest of Europe.
It is the consciousness of the importance of
*
## p. ix (#19) ##############################################
EDITORIAL NOTE. IX
this work which makes the Editor anxious to
point out several difficulties to the younger
student of Nietzsche. The first is, of course, not
to begin reading Nietzsche at too early an age.
While fully admitting that others may be more
gifted than himself, the Editor begs to state
that he began to study Nietzsche at the age
of twenty-six, and would not have been able
to endure the weight of such teaching before
that time. Secondly, the Editor wishes to
dissuade the student from beginning the study
of Nietzsche by reading first of all his most
complicated works. Not having been properly
prepared for them, he will find the Zarathustra
abstruse, the Ecce Homo conceited, and the
Antichrist violent. He should rather begin with
the little pamphlet on Education, the Thoughts
out of Season, Beyond Good and Evil, or the
Genealogy of Morals. Thirdly, the Editor wishes
to remind students of Nietzsche's own advice to
them, namely: to read him slowly, to think over
what they have read, and not to accept too readily
a teaching which they have only half understood.
By a too ready acceptance of Nietzsche it has
come to pass that his enemies are, as a rule, a
far superior body of men to those who call
themselves his eager and enthusiastic followers.
Surely it is not every one who is chosen to com-
bat a religion or a morality of two thousand
years' standing, first within and then without
himself; and whoever feels inclined to do so
ought at least to allow his attention to be drawn
to the magnitude of his task.
## p. x (#20) ###############################################
## p. xi (#21) ##############################################
NIETZSCHE IN ENGLAND:
AN INTRODUCTORY ESSAY BY THE
EDITOR.
Dear Englishmen,—In one of my former
writings I have made the remark that the world
would have seen neither the great Jewish prophets
nor the great German thinkers, if the people from
among whom these eminent men sprang had
not been on the whole such a misguided, and, in
their misguidedness, such a tough and stubborn
race. The arrow that is to fly far must be dis-
charged from a well distended bow: if, therefore,
anything is necessary for greatness, it is a fierce
and tenacious opposition, an opposition either of
open contempt, or of malicious irony, or of sly
silence, or of gross stupidity, an opposition regard-
less of the wounds it inflicts and of the precious lives
it sacrifices, an opposition that nobody would dare
to attack who was not prepared, like the Spartan
of old, to return either with his shield or on it.
An opposition so devoid of pity is not as a rule
found amongst you, dear and fair-minded English-
men, which may account for the fact that you have
neither produced the greatest prophets nor the
## p. xii (#22) #############################################
xil NIETZSCHE IN ENGLAND.
greatest thinkers in this world. You would never
have crucified Christ, as did the Jews, or driven
Nietzsche into madness, as did the Germans—you
would have made Nietzsche, on account of his
literary faculties, Minister of State in a Whig
Ministry, you would have invited Jesus Christ to
your country houses, where he would have been
worshipped by all the ladies on account of his long
hair and interesting looks, and tolerated by all men
as an amusing, if somewhat romantic, foreigner. I
know that the current opinion is to the contrary,
and that your country is constantly accused, even
by yourselves, of its insularity; but I, for my part,
have found an almost feminine receptivity amongst
you in my endeavour to bring you into contact
with some ideas of my native country—a recep-
tivity which, however, has also this in common
with that of the female mind, that evidently
nothing sticks deeply, but is quickly wiped
out by what any other lecturer, or writer, or
politician has to tell you. I was prepared for
indifference—I was not prepared for receptivity
and that benign lady's smile, behind which ladies,
like all people who are only clever, usually hide
their inward contempt for the foolishness of mere
men! I was prepared for abuse, and even a good
fight—I was not prepared for an extremely faint-
hearted criticism; I did not expect that some of
my opponents would be so utterly inexperienced
in that most necessary work of literary execution.
No, no: give me the Germans or the Jews for
executioners: they can do the hanging properly,
while the English hangman is like the Russian, to
-
## p. xiii (#23) ############################################
AN INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. xiH
whom, when the rope broke, the half-hanged revolu-
tionary said: "What a country, where they cannot
hang a man properly! " What a country, where
they do not hang philosophers properly—which
would be the proper thing to do to them—but smile
at them, drink tea with them, discuss with them,
and ask them to contribute to their newspapers!
To get to the root of the matter: in spite of
many encouraging signs, remarks and criticisms,
adverse or benevolent, I do not think I have been
very successful in my crusade for that European
thought which began with Goethe and has found
so fine a development in Nietzsche. True, I have
made many a convert, but amongst them are very
undesirable ones, as, for instance, some enter-
prising publishers, who used to be the toughest
disbelievers in England, but who have now come
to understand the "value" of the new gospel—but
as neither this gospel is exactly Christian, nor I,
the importer of it, I am not allowed to count my
success by the conversion of publishers and sinners,
but have to judge it by the more spiritual standard of
the quality of the converted. In this respect, I am
sorry to say, my success has been a very poor one.
As an eager missionary, I have naturally asked
myself the reason of my failure. Why is there no
male audience in England willing to listen to a
manly and daring philosophy? Why are there no
eyes to see, no ears to hear, no hearts to feel, no
brains to understand? Why is my trumpet,
which after all I know how to blow pretty well,
unable to shatter the walls of English prejudice
against a teacher whose school cannot possibly be
## p. xiii (#24) ############################################
xii
NIETZSCHE IN ENGLAND.
greatest thinkers in this world. You would never
have crucified Christ, as did the Jews, or driven
Nietzsche into madness, as did the Germans—you
would have made Nietzsche, on account of his
literary faculties, Minister of State in a Whig
Ministry, you would have invited Jesus Christ to
your country houses, where he would have been
worshipped by all the ladies on account of his long
hair and interesting looks, and tolerated by all men
as an amusing, if somewhat romantic, foreigner. I
know that the current opinion is to the contrary,
and that your country is constantly accused, even
by yourselves, of its insularity; but I, for my part,
have found an almost feminine receptivity amongst
you in my endeavour to bring you into contact
with some ideas of my native country—a recep-
tivity which, however, has also this in common
with that of the female mind, that evidently
nothing sticks deeply, but is quickly wiped
out by what any other lecturer, or writer, or
politician has to tell you. I was prepared for
indifference-I was not prepared for receptivity
and that benign lady's smile, behind which ladies,
like all people who are only clever, usually hide
their inward contempt for the foolishness of mere
men! I was prepared for abuse, and even a good
fight-I was not prepared for an extremely faint-
hearted criticism; I did not expect that some of
my opponents would be so utterly inexperienced
in that most necessary work of literary execution.
No, no: give me the Germans or the Jews for
executioners: they can do the hanging properly,
while the English hangman is like the Russian, to
## p. xiii (#25) ############################################
AN INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
xiii
whom, when the rope broke, the half-hanged revolu-
tionary said : " What a country, where they cannot
hang a man properly! ” What a country, where
they do not hang philosophers properly-which
would be the proper thing to do to them—but smile
at them, drink tea with them, discuss with them,
and ask them to contribute to their newspapers !
To get to the root of the matter : in spite of
many encouraging signs, remarks and criticisms,
adverse or benevolent, I do not think I have been
very successful in my crusade for that European
thought which began with Goethe and has found
so fine a development in Nietzsche. True, I have
made many a convert, but amongst them are very
undesirable ones, as, for instance, some enter-
prising publishers, who used to be the toughest
disbelievers in England, but who have now come
to understand the “value ” of the new gospel—but
as neither this gospel is exactly Christian, nor I,
the importer of it, I am not allowed to count my
success by the conversion of publishers and sinners,
but have to judge it by the more spiritual standard of
the quality of the converted. In this respect, I am
sorry to say, my success has been a very poor one.
As an eager missionary, I have naturally asked
myself the reason of my failure. Why is there no
male audience in England willing to listen to a
manly and daring philosophy? Why are there no
eyes to see, no ears to hear, no hearts to feel, no
brains to understand? Why is my trumpet,
which after all I know how to blow pretty well,
unable to shatter the walls of English prejudice
against a teacher whose school cannot possibly be
## p. xiv (#26) #############################################
XIV NIETZSCHE IN ENGLAND.
avoided by any European with a higher purpose in
his breast? • . . There is plenty of time for thought
nowadays for a man who does not allow himself
to be drawn into that aimless bustle of pleasure,
business or politics, which is called modern life,
because outside that life there is—just as outside
those noisy Oriental cities—a desert, a calmness, a
true and almost majestic leisure, a leisure unpre-
cedented in any age, a leisure in which one may
arrive at several conclusions concerning English
indifference towards the new thought.
First of all, of course, there stands in the way
the terrible abuse which Nietzsche has poured
upon the heads of the innocent Britishers. While
France and the Latin countries, while the Orient
and India, are within the range of his sympathies,
this most outspoken of all philosophers, this
prophet and poet-philosopher, cannot find words
enough to express his disgust at the illogical,
plebeian, shallow, utilitarian Englishman. It must
certainly be disagreeable to be treated like this,
especially when one has a fairly good opinion of
one's self; but why do you take it so very, very
seriously? Did Nietzsche, perchance, spare the
Germans? And aren't you accustomed to criti-
cism on the part of German philosophers? Is it
not the ancient and time-honoured privilege of
the whole range of them from Leibnitz to Hegel
—even of German poets, like Goethe and Heine
—to call you bad names and to use unkind
language towards you? Has there not always
been among the few thinking heads in Germany
a silent consent and an open contempt for you
## p. xv (#27) ##############################################
AN INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. XV
and your ways; the sort of contempt you your-
selves have for the even more Anglo-Saxon
culture of the Americans? I candidly confess
that in my more German moments I have felt
and still feel as the German philosophers do; but
I have also my European turns and moods, and
then I try to understand you and even excuse
you, and take your part against earnest and
thinking Germany. Then I feel like telling the
German philosophers that if you, poor fellows, had
practised everything they preached, they would
have had to renounce the pleasure of abusing you
long ago, for there would now be no more English-
men left to abuse! As it is, you have suffered
enough on account of the wild German ideals
you luckily only partly believed in: for what the
German thinker wrote on patient paper in his
study, you always had to write the whole world
over on tender human skins, black and yellow
skins, enveloping ungrateful beings who some-
times had no very high esteem for the depth and
beauty of German philosophy. And you have
never taken revenge upon the inspired masters
of the European thinking-shop, you have never
reabused them, you have never complained of
their want of worldly wisdom: you have invari-
ably suffered in silence and agony, just as brave
and staunch Sancho Panza used to do. For this
is what you are, dear Englishmen, and however
well you brave, practical, materialistic John Bulls
and Sancho Panzas may know this world, however
much better you may be able to perceive, to count,
to judge, and to weigh things than your ideal
b
## p. xvi (#28) #############################################
XVI NIETZSCHE IN ENGLAND.
German Knight: there is an eternal law in this
world that the Sancho Panzas have to follow the
Don Quixotes; for matter has to follow the spirit,
even the poor spirit of a German philosopher!
So it has been in the past, so it is at present, and
so it will be in the future; and you had better pre-
pare yourselves in time for the eventuality. For
if Nietzsche were nothing else but this customary
type of German philosopher, you would again
have to pay the bill largely; and it would be
very wise on your part to study him: Sancho
Panza may escape a good many sad experiences
by knowing his master's weaknesses. But as
Nietzsche no longer belongs to the Quixotic class,
as Germany seems to emerge with him from her
youthful and cranky nebulosity, you will not even
have the pleasure of being thrashed in the com-
pany of your Master: no, you will be thrashed
all alone, which is an abominable thing for any
right-minded human being. "Solamen miseris
socios habuisse malorum. " *
The second reason for the neglect of Nietzsche
in this country is that you do not need him yet.
And you do not need him yet because you have
always possessed the British virtue of not carry-
ing things to extremes, which, according to the
German version, is an euphemism for the British
want of logic and critical capacity. You have,
for instance, never let your religion have any great
influence upon your politics, which is something
quite abhorrent to the moral German, and makes
* It is a comfort to the afflicted to have companions in their
distress.
## p. xvii (#29) ############################################
AN INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. xvii
him so angry about you. For the German sees
you acting as a moral and law-abiding Christian
at home, and as an unscrupulous and Machia-
vellian conqueror abroad; and if he refrains from
the reproach of hypocrisy, with which the more
stupid continentals invariably charge you, he will
certainly call you a " British muddlehead. " Well,
I myself do not take things so seriously as that,
for I know that men of action have seldom time
to think. It is probably for this reason also that
liberty of thought and speech has been granted to
you, the law-giver knowing very well all the time
that you would be much too busy to use and
abuse such extraordinary freedom. Anyhow, it
might now be time to abuse it just a little bit,
and to consider what an extraordinary amalgama-
tion is a Christian Power with imperialistic ideas.
True, there has once before been another Christian
conquering and colonising empire like yours, that
of Venice—but these Venetians were thinkers com-
pared with you, and smuggled their gospel into
the paw of their lion. . . . Why don't you follow
their example, in order not to be unnecessarily
embarrassed by it in your enterprises abroad?
In this manner you could also reconcile the
proper Germans, who invariably act up to their
theories, their Christianity, their democratic prin-
ciples, although, on the other hand, in so doing
you would, I quite agree, be most unfaithful to
your own traditions, which are of a more demo-
cratic character than those of any other European
nation.
For Democracy, as every schoolboy knows, was
## p. xviii (#30) ###########################################
XVU1 NIETZSCHE IN ENGLAND.
born in an English cradle: individual liberty,
parliamentary institutions, the sovereign rights of
the people, are ideas of British origin, and have
been propagated from this island over the whole
of Europe. But as the prophet and his words are
very often not honoured in his own country, those
ideas have been embraced with much more fervour
by other nations than by that in which they
originated. The Continent of Europe has taken
the desire for liberty and equality much more
seriously than their levelling but also level-headed
inventors, and the fervent imagination of France
has tried to put into practice all that was quite
hidden to the more sober English eye. Every one
nowadays knows the good and the evil conse-
quences of the French Revolution, which swept
over the whole of Europe, throwing it into a state
of unrest, shattering thrones and empires, and
everywhere undermining authority and traditional
institutions. While this was going on in Europe,
the originator of the merry game was quietly
sitting upon his island smiling broadly at the
excitable foreigners across the Channel, fishing as
much as he could out of the water he himself had
so cleverly disturbed, and thus in every way reap-
ing the benefit from the mighty fight for the apple
of Eros which he himself had thrown amongst them.
As I have endeavoured above to draw a parallel
between the Germans and the Jews, I may now
be allowed to follow this up with one between the
Jews and the English. It is a striking parallel,
which will specially appeal to those religious souls
amongst you who consider themselves the lost
## p. xix (#31) #############################################
AN INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. XIX
tribes of our race (and who are perhaps even more
lost than they think),—and it is this: Just as the
Jews have brought Christianity into the world,
but never accepted it themselves, just as they, in
spite of their democratic offspring, have always
remained the most conservative, exclusive, aristo-
cratic, and religious people, so have the English
never allowed themselves to be intoxicated by the
strong drink of the natural equality of men, which
they once kindly offered to all Europe to quaff;
but have, on the contrary, remained the most sober,
the most exclusive, the most feudal, the most con-
servative people of our continent
.
But because the ravages of Democracy have
been less felt here than abroad, because there is a
good deal of the mediaeval building left standing
over here, because things have never been carried
to that excess which invariably brings a reaction
with it — this reaction has not set in in this
country, and no strong desire for the necessity of
it, no craving for the counterbalancing influence
of a Nietzsche, has arisen yet in the British mind.
I cannot help pointing out the grave consequences
of this backwardness of England, which has arisen
from the fact that you have never taken any
ideas or theories, not even your own, seriously.
Democracy, dear Englishmen, is like a stream,
which all the peoples of Europe will have to
cross: they will come out of it cleaner, healthier,
and stronger, but while the others are already in
the water, plunging, puffing, paddling, losing their
ground, trying to swim, and even half-drowned,
you are still standing on the other side of it,
## p. xix (#32) #############################################
xii
NIETZSCHE IN ENGLAND.
greatest thinkers in this world. You would never
have crucified Christ, as did the Jews, or driven
Nietzsche into madness, as did the Germans—you
would have made Nietzsche, on account of his
literary faculties, Minister of State in a Whig
Ministry, you would have invited Jesus Christ to
your country houses, where he would have been
worshipped by all the ladies on account of his long
hair and interesting looks, and tolerated by all men
as an amusing, if somewhat romantic, foreigner. I
know that the current opinion is to the contrary,
and that your country is constantly accused, even
by yourselves, of its insularity; but I, for my part,
have found an almost feminine receptivity amongst
you in my endeavour to bring you into contact
with some ideas of my native country—a recep-
tivity which, however, has also this in common
with that of the female mind, that evidently
nothing sticks deeply, but is quickly wiped
out by what any other lecturer, or writer, or
politician has to tell you. I was prepared for
indifference—I was not prepared for receptivity
and that benign lady's smile, behind which ladies,
like all people who are only clever, usually hide
their inward contempt for the foolishness of mere
men! I was prepared for abuse, and even a good
fight-I was not prepared for an extremely faint-
hearted criticism; I did not expect that some of
my opponents would be so utterly inexperienced
in that most necessary work of literary execution.
No, no: give me the Germans or the Jews for
executioners: they can do the hanging properly,
while the English hangman is like the Russian, to
## p. xix (#33) #############################################
AN INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
xiii
whom, when the rope broke, the half-hanged revolu-
tionary said: “What a country, where they cannot
hang a man properly! ” What a country, where
they do not hang philosophers properly—which
would be the proper thing to do to them—but smile
at them, drink tea with them, discuss with them,
and ask them to contribute to their newspapers !
To get to the root of the matter : in spite of
many encouraging signs, remarks and criticisms,
adverse or benevolent, I do not think I have been
very successful in my crusade for that European
thought which began with Goethe and has found
so fine a development in Nietzsche. True, I have
made many a convert, but amongst them are very
undesirable ones, as, for instance, some enter-
prising publishers, who used to be the toughest
disbelievers in England, but who have now come
to understand the “value” of the new gospel—but
as neither this gospel is exactly Christian, nor I,
the importer of it, I am not allowed to count my
success by the conversion of publishers and sinners,
but have to judge it by the more spiritual standard of
the quality of the converted. In this respect, I am
sorry to say, my success has been a very poor one.
As an eager missionary, I have naturally asked
myself the reason of my failure. Why is there no
male audience in England willing to listen to a
manly and daring philosophy? Why are there no
eyes to see, no ears to hear, no hearts to feel, no
brains to understand? Why is my trumpet,
which after all I know how to blow pretty well,
unable to shatter the walls of English prejudice
against a teacher whose school cannot possibly be
## p. xix (#34) #############################################
xiv
NIETZSCHE IN ENGLAND.
avoided by any European with a higher purpose in
his breast? . . . There is plenty of time for thought
nowadays for a man who does not allow himself
to be drawn into that aimless bustle of pleasure,
business or politics, which is called modern life,
because outside that life there is just as outside
those noisy Oriental cities—a desert, a calmness, a
true and almost majestic leisure, a leisure unpre-
cedented in any age, a leisure in which one may
arrive at several conclusions concerning English
indifference towards the new thought.
First of all, of course, there stands in the way
the terrible abuse which Nietzsche has poured
upon the heads of the innocent Britishers.
formed by an excellent version of the Bible.
The English would never be satisfied, as Bible-
ignorant France is, with a Nietzsche d VEau de
Cologne—they would require the natural, strong,
real Teacher, and would prefer his outspoken
words to the finely-chiselled sentences of the
raconteur. It may indeed be safely predicted
that once the English people have recovered
from the first shock of Nietzsche's thoughts,
their biblical training will enable them, more
than any other nation, to appreciate the deep
piety underlying Nietzsche's Cause.
As this Cause is a somewhat holy one to the
Editor himself, he is ready to listen to any
suggestions as to improvements of style or sense
coming from qualified sources. The Editor,
during a recent visit to Mrs. Foerster-Nietzsche
at Weimar, acquired the rights of translation by
pointing out to her that in this way her brother's
works would not fall into the hands of an ordinary
publisher and his staff of translators: he has not,
therefore, entered into any engagement with
publishers, not even with the present one, which
could hinder his task, bind him down to any text
found faulty, or make him consent to omissions
or the falsification or "sugaring" of the original
text to further the sale of the books. He
is therefore in a position to give every atten-
tion to a work which he considers as of no less
importance for the country of his residence than
for the country of his birth, as well as for the
rest of Europe.
It is the consciousness of the importance of
*
## p. ix (#19) ##############################################
EDITORIAL NOTE. IX
this work which makes the Editor anxious to
point out several difficulties to the younger
student of Nietzsche. The first is, of course, not
to begin reading Nietzsche at too early an age.
While fully admitting that others may be more
gifted than himself, the Editor begs to state
that he began to study Nietzsche at the age
of twenty-six, and would not have been able
to endure the weight of such teaching before
that time. Secondly, the Editor wishes to
dissuade the student from beginning the study
of Nietzsche by reading first of all his most
complicated works. Not having been properly
prepared for them, he will find the Zarathustra
abstruse, the Ecce Homo conceited, and the
Antichrist violent. He should rather begin with
the little pamphlet on Education, the Thoughts
out of Season, Beyond Good and Evil, or the
Genealogy of Morals. Thirdly, the Editor wishes
to remind students of Nietzsche's own advice to
them, namely: to read him slowly, to think over
what they have read, and not to accept too readily
a teaching which they have only half understood.
By a too ready acceptance of Nietzsche it has
come to pass that his enemies are, as a rule, a
far superior body of men to those who call
themselves his eager and enthusiastic followers.
Surely it is not every one who is chosen to com-
bat a religion or a morality of two thousand
years' standing, first within and then without
himself; and whoever feels inclined to do so
ought at least to allow his attention to be drawn
to the magnitude of his task.
## p. x (#20) ###############################################
## p. xi (#21) ##############################################
NIETZSCHE IN ENGLAND:
AN INTRODUCTORY ESSAY BY THE
EDITOR.
Dear Englishmen,—In one of my former
writings I have made the remark that the world
would have seen neither the great Jewish prophets
nor the great German thinkers, if the people from
among whom these eminent men sprang had
not been on the whole such a misguided, and, in
their misguidedness, such a tough and stubborn
race. The arrow that is to fly far must be dis-
charged from a well distended bow: if, therefore,
anything is necessary for greatness, it is a fierce
and tenacious opposition, an opposition either of
open contempt, or of malicious irony, or of sly
silence, or of gross stupidity, an opposition regard-
less of the wounds it inflicts and of the precious lives
it sacrifices, an opposition that nobody would dare
to attack who was not prepared, like the Spartan
of old, to return either with his shield or on it.
An opposition so devoid of pity is not as a rule
found amongst you, dear and fair-minded English-
men, which may account for the fact that you have
neither produced the greatest prophets nor the
## p. xii (#22) #############################################
xil NIETZSCHE IN ENGLAND.
greatest thinkers in this world. You would never
have crucified Christ, as did the Jews, or driven
Nietzsche into madness, as did the Germans—you
would have made Nietzsche, on account of his
literary faculties, Minister of State in a Whig
Ministry, you would have invited Jesus Christ to
your country houses, where he would have been
worshipped by all the ladies on account of his long
hair and interesting looks, and tolerated by all men
as an amusing, if somewhat romantic, foreigner. I
know that the current opinion is to the contrary,
and that your country is constantly accused, even
by yourselves, of its insularity; but I, for my part,
have found an almost feminine receptivity amongst
you in my endeavour to bring you into contact
with some ideas of my native country—a recep-
tivity which, however, has also this in common
with that of the female mind, that evidently
nothing sticks deeply, but is quickly wiped
out by what any other lecturer, or writer, or
politician has to tell you. I was prepared for
indifference—I was not prepared for receptivity
and that benign lady's smile, behind which ladies,
like all people who are only clever, usually hide
their inward contempt for the foolishness of mere
men! I was prepared for abuse, and even a good
fight—I was not prepared for an extremely faint-
hearted criticism; I did not expect that some of
my opponents would be so utterly inexperienced
in that most necessary work of literary execution.
No, no: give me the Germans or the Jews for
executioners: they can do the hanging properly,
while the English hangman is like the Russian, to
-
## p. xiii (#23) ############################################
AN INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. xiH
whom, when the rope broke, the half-hanged revolu-
tionary said: "What a country, where they cannot
hang a man properly! " What a country, where
they do not hang philosophers properly—which
would be the proper thing to do to them—but smile
at them, drink tea with them, discuss with them,
and ask them to contribute to their newspapers!
To get to the root of the matter: in spite of
many encouraging signs, remarks and criticisms,
adverse or benevolent, I do not think I have been
very successful in my crusade for that European
thought which began with Goethe and has found
so fine a development in Nietzsche. True, I have
made many a convert, but amongst them are very
undesirable ones, as, for instance, some enter-
prising publishers, who used to be the toughest
disbelievers in England, but who have now come
to understand the "value" of the new gospel—but
as neither this gospel is exactly Christian, nor I,
the importer of it, I am not allowed to count my
success by the conversion of publishers and sinners,
but have to judge it by the more spiritual standard of
the quality of the converted. In this respect, I am
sorry to say, my success has been a very poor one.
As an eager missionary, I have naturally asked
myself the reason of my failure. Why is there no
male audience in England willing to listen to a
manly and daring philosophy? Why are there no
eyes to see, no ears to hear, no hearts to feel, no
brains to understand? Why is my trumpet,
which after all I know how to blow pretty well,
unable to shatter the walls of English prejudice
against a teacher whose school cannot possibly be
## p. xiii (#24) ############################################
xii
NIETZSCHE IN ENGLAND.
greatest thinkers in this world. You would never
have crucified Christ, as did the Jews, or driven
Nietzsche into madness, as did the Germans—you
would have made Nietzsche, on account of his
literary faculties, Minister of State in a Whig
Ministry, you would have invited Jesus Christ to
your country houses, where he would have been
worshipped by all the ladies on account of his long
hair and interesting looks, and tolerated by all men
as an amusing, if somewhat romantic, foreigner. I
know that the current opinion is to the contrary,
and that your country is constantly accused, even
by yourselves, of its insularity; but I, for my part,
have found an almost feminine receptivity amongst
you in my endeavour to bring you into contact
with some ideas of my native country—a recep-
tivity which, however, has also this in common
with that of the female mind, that evidently
nothing sticks deeply, but is quickly wiped
out by what any other lecturer, or writer, or
politician has to tell you. I was prepared for
indifference-I was not prepared for receptivity
and that benign lady's smile, behind which ladies,
like all people who are only clever, usually hide
their inward contempt for the foolishness of mere
men! I was prepared for abuse, and even a good
fight-I was not prepared for an extremely faint-
hearted criticism; I did not expect that some of
my opponents would be so utterly inexperienced
in that most necessary work of literary execution.
No, no: give me the Germans or the Jews for
executioners: they can do the hanging properly,
while the English hangman is like the Russian, to
## p. xiii (#25) ############################################
AN INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
xiii
whom, when the rope broke, the half-hanged revolu-
tionary said : " What a country, where they cannot
hang a man properly! ” What a country, where
they do not hang philosophers properly-which
would be the proper thing to do to them—but smile
at them, drink tea with them, discuss with them,
and ask them to contribute to their newspapers !
To get to the root of the matter : in spite of
many encouraging signs, remarks and criticisms,
adverse or benevolent, I do not think I have been
very successful in my crusade for that European
thought which began with Goethe and has found
so fine a development in Nietzsche. True, I have
made many a convert, but amongst them are very
undesirable ones, as, for instance, some enter-
prising publishers, who used to be the toughest
disbelievers in England, but who have now come
to understand the “value ” of the new gospel—but
as neither this gospel is exactly Christian, nor I,
the importer of it, I am not allowed to count my
success by the conversion of publishers and sinners,
but have to judge it by the more spiritual standard of
the quality of the converted. In this respect, I am
sorry to say, my success has been a very poor one.
As an eager missionary, I have naturally asked
myself the reason of my failure. Why is there no
male audience in England willing to listen to a
manly and daring philosophy? Why are there no
eyes to see, no ears to hear, no hearts to feel, no
brains to understand? Why is my trumpet,
which after all I know how to blow pretty well,
unable to shatter the walls of English prejudice
against a teacher whose school cannot possibly be
## p. xiv (#26) #############################################
XIV NIETZSCHE IN ENGLAND.
avoided by any European with a higher purpose in
his breast? • . . There is plenty of time for thought
nowadays for a man who does not allow himself
to be drawn into that aimless bustle of pleasure,
business or politics, which is called modern life,
because outside that life there is—just as outside
those noisy Oriental cities—a desert, a calmness, a
true and almost majestic leisure, a leisure unpre-
cedented in any age, a leisure in which one may
arrive at several conclusions concerning English
indifference towards the new thought.
First of all, of course, there stands in the way
the terrible abuse which Nietzsche has poured
upon the heads of the innocent Britishers. While
France and the Latin countries, while the Orient
and India, are within the range of his sympathies,
this most outspoken of all philosophers, this
prophet and poet-philosopher, cannot find words
enough to express his disgust at the illogical,
plebeian, shallow, utilitarian Englishman. It must
certainly be disagreeable to be treated like this,
especially when one has a fairly good opinion of
one's self; but why do you take it so very, very
seriously? Did Nietzsche, perchance, spare the
Germans? And aren't you accustomed to criti-
cism on the part of German philosophers? Is it
not the ancient and time-honoured privilege of
the whole range of them from Leibnitz to Hegel
—even of German poets, like Goethe and Heine
—to call you bad names and to use unkind
language towards you? Has there not always
been among the few thinking heads in Germany
a silent consent and an open contempt for you
## p. xv (#27) ##############################################
AN INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. XV
and your ways; the sort of contempt you your-
selves have for the even more Anglo-Saxon
culture of the Americans? I candidly confess
that in my more German moments I have felt
and still feel as the German philosophers do; but
I have also my European turns and moods, and
then I try to understand you and even excuse
you, and take your part against earnest and
thinking Germany. Then I feel like telling the
German philosophers that if you, poor fellows, had
practised everything they preached, they would
have had to renounce the pleasure of abusing you
long ago, for there would now be no more English-
men left to abuse! As it is, you have suffered
enough on account of the wild German ideals
you luckily only partly believed in: for what the
German thinker wrote on patient paper in his
study, you always had to write the whole world
over on tender human skins, black and yellow
skins, enveloping ungrateful beings who some-
times had no very high esteem for the depth and
beauty of German philosophy. And you have
never taken revenge upon the inspired masters
of the European thinking-shop, you have never
reabused them, you have never complained of
their want of worldly wisdom: you have invari-
ably suffered in silence and agony, just as brave
and staunch Sancho Panza used to do. For this
is what you are, dear Englishmen, and however
well you brave, practical, materialistic John Bulls
and Sancho Panzas may know this world, however
much better you may be able to perceive, to count,
to judge, and to weigh things than your ideal
b
## p. xvi (#28) #############################################
XVI NIETZSCHE IN ENGLAND.
German Knight: there is an eternal law in this
world that the Sancho Panzas have to follow the
Don Quixotes; for matter has to follow the spirit,
even the poor spirit of a German philosopher!
So it has been in the past, so it is at present, and
so it will be in the future; and you had better pre-
pare yourselves in time for the eventuality. For
if Nietzsche were nothing else but this customary
type of German philosopher, you would again
have to pay the bill largely; and it would be
very wise on your part to study him: Sancho
Panza may escape a good many sad experiences
by knowing his master's weaknesses. But as
Nietzsche no longer belongs to the Quixotic class,
as Germany seems to emerge with him from her
youthful and cranky nebulosity, you will not even
have the pleasure of being thrashed in the com-
pany of your Master: no, you will be thrashed
all alone, which is an abominable thing for any
right-minded human being. "Solamen miseris
socios habuisse malorum. " *
The second reason for the neglect of Nietzsche
in this country is that you do not need him yet.
And you do not need him yet because you have
always possessed the British virtue of not carry-
ing things to extremes, which, according to the
German version, is an euphemism for the British
want of logic and critical capacity. You have,
for instance, never let your religion have any great
influence upon your politics, which is something
quite abhorrent to the moral German, and makes
* It is a comfort to the afflicted to have companions in their
distress.
## p. xvii (#29) ############################################
AN INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. xvii
him so angry about you. For the German sees
you acting as a moral and law-abiding Christian
at home, and as an unscrupulous and Machia-
vellian conqueror abroad; and if he refrains from
the reproach of hypocrisy, with which the more
stupid continentals invariably charge you, he will
certainly call you a " British muddlehead. " Well,
I myself do not take things so seriously as that,
for I know that men of action have seldom time
to think. It is probably for this reason also that
liberty of thought and speech has been granted to
you, the law-giver knowing very well all the time
that you would be much too busy to use and
abuse such extraordinary freedom. Anyhow, it
might now be time to abuse it just a little bit,
and to consider what an extraordinary amalgama-
tion is a Christian Power with imperialistic ideas.
True, there has once before been another Christian
conquering and colonising empire like yours, that
of Venice—but these Venetians were thinkers com-
pared with you, and smuggled their gospel into
the paw of their lion. . . . Why don't you follow
their example, in order not to be unnecessarily
embarrassed by it in your enterprises abroad?
In this manner you could also reconcile the
proper Germans, who invariably act up to their
theories, their Christianity, their democratic prin-
ciples, although, on the other hand, in so doing
you would, I quite agree, be most unfaithful to
your own traditions, which are of a more demo-
cratic character than those of any other European
nation.
For Democracy, as every schoolboy knows, was
## p. xviii (#30) ###########################################
XVU1 NIETZSCHE IN ENGLAND.
born in an English cradle: individual liberty,
parliamentary institutions, the sovereign rights of
the people, are ideas of British origin, and have
been propagated from this island over the whole
of Europe. But as the prophet and his words are
very often not honoured in his own country, those
ideas have been embraced with much more fervour
by other nations than by that in which they
originated. The Continent of Europe has taken
the desire for liberty and equality much more
seriously than their levelling but also level-headed
inventors, and the fervent imagination of France
has tried to put into practice all that was quite
hidden to the more sober English eye. Every one
nowadays knows the good and the evil conse-
quences of the French Revolution, which swept
over the whole of Europe, throwing it into a state
of unrest, shattering thrones and empires, and
everywhere undermining authority and traditional
institutions. While this was going on in Europe,
the originator of the merry game was quietly
sitting upon his island smiling broadly at the
excitable foreigners across the Channel, fishing as
much as he could out of the water he himself had
so cleverly disturbed, and thus in every way reap-
ing the benefit from the mighty fight for the apple
of Eros which he himself had thrown amongst them.
As I have endeavoured above to draw a parallel
between the Germans and the Jews, I may now
be allowed to follow this up with one between the
Jews and the English. It is a striking parallel,
which will specially appeal to those religious souls
amongst you who consider themselves the lost
## p. xix (#31) #############################################
AN INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. XIX
tribes of our race (and who are perhaps even more
lost than they think),—and it is this: Just as the
Jews have brought Christianity into the world,
but never accepted it themselves, just as they, in
spite of their democratic offspring, have always
remained the most conservative, exclusive, aristo-
cratic, and religious people, so have the English
never allowed themselves to be intoxicated by the
strong drink of the natural equality of men, which
they once kindly offered to all Europe to quaff;
but have, on the contrary, remained the most sober,
the most exclusive, the most feudal, the most con-
servative people of our continent
.
But because the ravages of Democracy have
been less felt here than abroad, because there is a
good deal of the mediaeval building left standing
over here, because things have never been carried
to that excess which invariably brings a reaction
with it — this reaction has not set in in this
country, and no strong desire for the necessity of
it, no craving for the counterbalancing influence
of a Nietzsche, has arisen yet in the British mind.
I cannot help pointing out the grave consequences
of this backwardness of England, which has arisen
from the fact that you have never taken any
ideas or theories, not even your own, seriously.
Democracy, dear Englishmen, is like a stream,
which all the peoples of Europe will have to
cross: they will come out of it cleaner, healthier,
and stronger, but while the others are already in
the water, plunging, puffing, paddling, losing their
ground, trying to swim, and even half-drowned,
you are still standing on the other side of it,
## p. xix (#32) #############################################
xii
NIETZSCHE IN ENGLAND.
greatest thinkers in this world. You would never
have crucified Christ, as did the Jews, or driven
Nietzsche into madness, as did the Germans—you
would have made Nietzsche, on account of his
literary faculties, Minister of State in a Whig
Ministry, you would have invited Jesus Christ to
your country houses, where he would have been
worshipped by all the ladies on account of his long
hair and interesting looks, and tolerated by all men
as an amusing, if somewhat romantic, foreigner. I
know that the current opinion is to the contrary,
and that your country is constantly accused, even
by yourselves, of its insularity; but I, for my part,
have found an almost feminine receptivity amongst
you in my endeavour to bring you into contact
with some ideas of my native country—a recep-
tivity which, however, has also this in common
with that of the female mind, that evidently
nothing sticks deeply, but is quickly wiped
out by what any other lecturer, or writer, or
politician has to tell you. I was prepared for
indifference—I was not prepared for receptivity
and that benign lady's smile, behind which ladies,
like all people who are only clever, usually hide
their inward contempt for the foolishness of mere
men! I was prepared for abuse, and even a good
fight-I was not prepared for an extremely faint-
hearted criticism; I did not expect that some of
my opponents would be so utterly inexperienced
in that most necessary work of literary execution.
No, no: give me the Germans or the Jews for
executioners: they can do the hanging properly,
while the English hangman is like the Russian, to
## p. xix (#33) #############################################
AN INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
xiii
whom, when the rope broke, the half-hanged revolu-
tionary said: “What a country, where they cannot
hang a man properly! ” What a country, where
they do not hang philosophers properly—which
would be the proper thing to do to them—but smile
at them, drink tea with them, discuss with them,
and ask them to contribute to their newspapers !
To get to the root of the matter : in spite of
many encouraging signs, remarks and criticisms,
adverse or benevolent, I do not think I have been
very successful in my crusade for that European
thought which began with Goethe and has found
so fine a development in Nietzsche. True, I have
made many a convert, but amongst them are very
undesirable ones, as, for instance, some enter-
prising publishers, who used to be the toughest
disbelievers in England, but who have now come
to understand the “value” of the new gospel—but
as neither this gospel is exactly Christian, nor I,
the importer of it, I am not allowed to count my
success by the conversion of publishers and sinners,
but have to judge it by the more spiritual standard of
the quality of the converted. In this respect, I am
sorry to say, my success has been a very poor one.
As an eager missionary, I have naturally asked
myself the reason of my failure. Why is there no
male audience in England willing to listen to a
manly and daring philosophy? Why are there no
eyes to see, no ears to hear, no hearts to feel, no
brains to understand? Why is my trumpet,
which after all I know how to blow pretty well,
unable to shatter the walls of English prejudice
against a teacher whose school cannot possibly be
## p. xix (#34) #############################################
xiv
NIETZSCHE IN ENGLAND.
avoided by any European with a higher purpose in
his breast? . . . There is plenty of time for thought
nowadays for a man who does not allow himself
to be drawn into that aimless bustle of pleasure,
business or politics, which is called modern life,
because outside that life there is just as outside
those noisy Oriental cities—a desert, a calmness, a
true and almost majestic leisure, a leisure unpre-
cedented in any age, a leisure in which one may
arrive at several conclusions concerning English
indifference towards the new thought.
First of all, of course, there stands in the way
the terrible abuse which Nietzsche has poured
upon the heads of the innocent Britishers. While
France and the Latin countries, while the Orient
and India, are within the range of his sympathies,
this most outspoken of all philosophers, this
prophet and poet-philosopher, cannot find words
enough to express his disgust at the illogical,
plebeian, shallow, utilitarian Englishman. It must
certainly be disagreeable to be treated like this,
especially when one has a fairly good opinion of
one's self; but why do you take it so very, very
seriously? Did Nietzsche, perchance, spare the
Germans? And aren't you accustomed to criti-
cism on the part of German philosophers? Is it
not the ancient and time-honoured privilege of
the whole range of them from Leibnitz to Hegel
—even of German poets, like Goethe and Heine
—to call you bad names and to use unkind
language towards you? Has there not always
been among the few thinking heads in Germany
a silent consent and an open contempt for you
-
-
-
## p. xix (#35) #############################################
AN INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
XV
and your ways; the sort of contempt you your-
selves have for the even more Anglo-Saxon
culture of the Americans ? I candidly confess
that in my more German moments I have felt
and still feel as the German philosophers do; but
I have also my European turns and moods, and
then I try to understand you and even excuse
you, and take your part against earnest and
thinking Germany. Then I feel like telling the
German philosophers that if you, poor fellows, had
practised everything they preached, they would
have had to renounce the pleasure of abusing you
long ago, for there would now be no more English-
men left to abuse! As it is, you have suffered
enough on account of the wild German ideals
you luckily only partly believed in: for what the
German thinker wrote on patient paper in his
study, you always had to write the whole world
over on tender human skins, black and yellow
skins, enveloping ungrateful beings who some-
times had no very high esteem for the depth and
beauty of German philosophy. And you have
never taken revenge upon the inspired masters
of the European thinking-shop, you have never
reabused them, you have never complained of
their want of worldly wisdom: you have invari-
ably suffered in silence and agony, just as brave
and staunch Sancho Panza used to do. For this
is what you are, dear Englishmen, and however
well you brave, practical, materialistic John Bulls
and Sancho Panzas may know this world, however
much better you may be able to perceive, to count,
to judge, and to weigh things than your ideal
## p. xix (#36) #############################################
xvi
NIETZSCHE IN ENGLAND.
German Knight: there is an eternal law in this
world that the Sancho Panzas have to follow the
Don Quixotes; for matter has to follow the spirit,
even the poor spirit of a German philosopher !
So it has been in the past, so it is at present, and
so it will be in the future; and you had better pre-
pare yourselves in time for the eventuality. For
if Nietzsche were nothing else but this customary
type of German philosopher, you would again
have to pay the bill largely; and it would be
very wise on your part to study him: Sancho
Panza may escape a good many sad experiences
by knowing his master's weaknesses. But as
Nietzsche no longer belongs to the Quixotic class,
as Germany seems to emerge with him from her
youthful and cranky nebulosity, you will not even
have the pleasure of being thrashed in the com-
pany of your Master: no, you will be thrashed
all alone, which is an abominable thing for any
right-minded human being. “Solamen miseris
socios habuisse malorum. "*
The second reason for the neglect of Nietzsche
in this country is that you do not need him yet.
And you do not need him yet because you have
always possessed the British virtue of not carry-
ing things to extremes, which, according to the
German version, is an euphemism for the British
want of logic and critical capacity. You have,
for instance, never let your religion have any great
influence upon your politics, which is something
quite abhorrent to the moral German, and makes
* It is a comfort to the afflicted to have companions in their
distress.
## p. xix (#37) #############################################
AN INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
xvii
him so angry about you. For the German sees
you acting as a moral and law-abiding Christian
at home, and as an unscrupulous and Machia-
vellian conqueror abroad; and if he refrains from
the reproach of hypocrisy, with which the more
stupid continentals invariably charge you, he will
certainly call you a “ British muddlehead. ” Well,
I myself do not take things so seriously as that,
for I know that men of action have seldom time
to think. It is probably for this reason also that
liberty of thought and speech has been granted to
you, the law-giver knowing very well all the time
that you would be much too busy to use and
abuse such extraordinary freedom. Anyhow, it
might now be time to abuse it just a little bit,
and to consider what an extraordinary amalgama-
tion is a Christian Power with imperialistic ideas.
True, there has once before been another Christian
conquering and colonising empire like yours, that
of Venice—but these Venetians were thinkers com-
pared with you, and smuggled their gospel into
the paw of their lion. . . . Why don't you follow
their example, in order not to be unnecessarily
embarrassed by it in your enterprises abroad?
In this manner you could also reconcile the
proper Germans, who invariably act up to their
theories, their Christianity, their democratic prin-
ciples, although, on the other hand, in so doing
you would, I quite agree, be most unfaithful to
your own traditions, which are of a more demo-
cratic character than those of any other European
nation.
For Democracy, as every schoolboy knows, was
## p. xix (#38) #############################################
xviii
NIETZSCHE IN ENGLAND.
born in an English cradle: individual liberty,
parliamentary institutions, the sovereign rights of
the people, are ideas of British origin, and have
been propagated from this island over the whole
of Europe. But as the prophet and his words are
very often not honoured in his own country, those
ideas have been embraced with much more fervour
by other nations than by that in which they
originated. The Continent of Europe has taken
the desire for liberty and equality much more
seriously than their levelling but also level-headed
inventors, and the fervent imagination of France
has tried to put into practice all that was quite
hidden to the more sober English eye. Every one
nowadays knows the good and the evil conse-
quences of the French Revolution, which swept
over the whole of Europe, throwing it into a state
of unrest, shattering thrones and empires, and
everywhere undermining authority and traditional
institutions. While this was going on in Europe,
the originator of the merry game was quietly
sitting upon his island smiling broadly at the
excitable foreigners across the Channel, fishing as
much as he could out of the water he himself had
so cleverly disturbed, and thus in every way reap-
ing the benefit from the mighty fight for the apple
of Eros which he himself had thrown amongst them.
As I have endeavoured above to draw a parallel
between the Germans and the Jews, I may now
be allowed to follow this up with one between the
Jews and the English. It is a striking parallel,
which will specially appeal to those religious souls
amongst you who consider themselves the lost
## p. xix (#39) #############################################
AN INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
xix
tribes of our race (and who are perhaps even more
lost than they think),—and it is this: Just as the
Jews have brought Christianity into the world,
but never accepted it themselves, just as they, in
spite of their democratic offspring, have always
remained the most conservative, exclusive, aristo-
cratic, and religious people, so have the English
never allowed themselves to be intoxicated by the
strong drink of the natural equality of men, which
they once kindly offered to all Europe to quaff;
but have, on the contrary, remained the most sober,
the most exclusive, the most feudal, the most con-
servative people of our continent.
But because the ravages of Democracy have
been less felt here than abroad, because there is a
good deal of the mediæval building left standing
over here, because things have never been carried
to that excess which invariably brings a reaction
with it — this reaction has not set in in this
country, and no strong desire for the necessity of
it, no craving for the counterbalancing influence
of a Nietzsche, has arisen yet in the British mind.
I cannot help pointing out the grave consequences
of this backwardness of England, which has arisen
from the fact that you have never taken any
ideas or theories, not even your own, seriously.
Democracy, dear Englishmen, is like a stream,
which all the peoples of Europe will have to
cross: they will come out of it cleaner, healthier,
and stronger, but while the others are already in
the water, plunging, puffing, paddling, losing their
ground, trying to swim, and even half-drowned,
you are still standing on the other side of it,
## p. xx (#40) ##############################################
XX NIETZSCHE IN ENGLAND.
roaring unmercifully about the poor swimmers,
screamers, and fighters below,—but one day you
will have to cross this same river too, and when
you enter it the others will just be out of it, and
will laugh at the poor English straggler in their
turn!
The third and last reason for the icy silence
which has greeted Nietzsche in this country is due
to the fact that he has—as far as I know—no
literary ancestor over here whose teachings could
have prepared you for him. Germany has had
her Goethe to do this; France her Stendhal; in
Russia we find that fearless curiosity for all
problems, which is the sign of a youthful, perhaps
too youthful nation; while in Spain, on the other
hand, wehave an old and experienced people, with
a long training away from Christianity under the
dominion of the Semitic Arabs, who undoubtedly
left some of their blood behind,—but I find great
difficulty in pointing out any man over here who
could serve as a useful guide to the heights of the
Nietzschean thought, except one, who was not a
Britisher. I am alluding to a man whose politics
you used to consider and whose writings you even
now consider as fantastic, but who, like another
fantast of his race, may possess the wonderful gift
of resurrection, and come again to life amongst
you—to Benjamin Disraeli.
The Disraelian Novels are in my opinion the
best and only preparation for those amongst you
who" wish gradually to become acquainted with
the Nietzschean spirit. There, and nowhere else,
will you find the true heroes of coming times,
## p. xxi (#41) #############################################
AN INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. XXI
men of moral courage, men whose failures and
successes are alike admirable, men whose noble
passions have altogether superseded the ordinary
vulgarities and moralities of lower beings, men
endowed with an extraordinary imagination,
which, however, is balanced by an equal power of
reason, men already anointed with a drop of that
sacred and noble oil, without which the High
Priest-Philosopher of Modern Germany would not
have crowned his Royal Race of the Future.
Both Disraeli and Nietzsche you perceive start-
ing from the same pessimistic diagnosis of the
wild anarchy, the growing melancholy, the threat-
ening Nihilism of Modern Europe, for both
recognised the danger of the age behind its loud
and forced "shipwreck gaiety," behind its big-
mouthed talk about progress and evolution, behind
that veil of business-bustle, which hides its fear
and utter despair—but for all that black outlook
they are not weaklings enough to mourn and let
things go, nor do they belong to that cheap class
of society doctors who mistake the present
wretchedness of Humanity for sinfulness, and
wish to make their patient less sinful and still
more wretched. Both Nietzsche and Disraeli have
clearly recognised that this patient of theirs is
suffering from weakness and not from sinfulness,
for which latter some kind of strength may still be
required; both are therefore entirely opposed to a
further dieting him down to complete moral ema-
ciation, but are, on the contrary, prescribing a
tonic, a roborating, a natural regime for him
—advice for which both doctors have been
## p. xxi (#42) #############################################
XX
NIETZSCHE IN ENGLAND.
roaring unmercifully about the poor swimmers,
screamers, and fighters below,—but one day you
will have to cross this same river too, and when
you enter it the others will just be out of it, and
will laugh at the poor English straggler in their
turn!
The third and last reason for the icy silence
which has greeted Nietzsche in this country is due
to the fact that he has—as far as I know—no
literary ancestor over here whose teachings could
have prepared you for him. Germany has had
her Goethe to do this, France her Stendhal ; in
Russia we find that fearless curiosity for all
problems, which is the sign of a youthful, perhaps
too youthful nation; while in Spain, on the other
hand, we have an old and experienced people, with
a long training away from Christianity under the
dominion of the Semitic Arabs, who undoubtedly
left some of their blood behind,—but I find great
difficulty in pointing out any man over here who
could serve as a useful guide to the heights of the
Nietzschean thought, except one, who was not a
Britisher.
